Hey folks, I got tired of always getting stuck as the game master with my local circle and figured that I wanted to play so bad that I'd settle for PbP. The idea of playing in Chicago is something of a novelty to me (I hadn't read Feral Cities and always assumed going to Chi-Town was pretty much a death sentence anyway). I've been playing Shadowrun since 2E (the Disco Dwarf thing is a holdover from an old 2nd ed. game) and I love the fourth edition... except, well, I never get to actually PLAY it.
So as I was saying (sorry, I'm a bit verbose, don't expect 2-line posts from me), this game looks pretty neat. I just read through the whole OOC part (I avoided the IC part to prevent metagaming on my part, should I join) and built a character. I have only a few questions, however (I worked as a troubleshooter for video games and as a teacher, so yeah, sorry for the truckload of questioning).
- For Adepts, since I plan on playing one, do you use the optional "Adepts and Geasa" rule (Street Magic, p.31, "Tweaking the rules")?
- Do you use the Advanced Lifestyle system (Runner's Companion, p.145-169)?
- Even though it is availability 9, I would guess that in an area such as CZ the Chemical Protection armor mod should still be fairly common; can it be taken?
- From what I've read, I've been led to believe we receive a free fixer (Mike, I think? read it hours ago and it's now 3:30 am), am I correct and if so what are its ratings?
- How much bookkeeping is required on the players' parts (for example, in games I run, I usually don't bother counting regular ammo, only special ones)?
- How is dice rolling handled (again, I didn't peek at the IC thread)? Do you trust your players to roll and post an action, or must the action be queried and the dices rolled/approved by you before the actual post is made?
- In what year is the game set? I'm not quite yet up to the 2072 timeline, mostly because my games use the Brackhaven/Dzugashvili political race as a backdrop a lot.
- From an OOC point-of-view, what's the expected posting rate and general days/hours when everyone's more active?
Those should pretty much cover everything I can think of. Here's a (not so) brief view of my character's backstory, and incidentally a cue as to my personal writing skills:
Gerhardt was born in a small city in northern Germany some thirty years ago, or as close to it as to matter not. His parents would commute to work in Hannover everyday, leaving their young son to explore on his own: truth be told, he probably missed more days of school than he attended, at least until he joined local sports team to help him channel his extra energy. And energy he had: whether it was his uncanny reflexes to dodge a football tackle or his ability to summon strength for that decisive homerun at the baseball court, Gerhardt began to evidence signs that would ring bells to any parents that bothered checking in on their kids. Since his own didn't, it was a shaman attending a match that finally took note of the budding adept. He was 15, on another continent a dragon was running for presidency, and being "gifted" meant being part of the "cool new kids".
Gunnar, the shaman, approached Gerhardt carefully. Through cautious questioning, he confirmed that the youth was as-of-yet untrained in any way. The old man escorted the teen home that day and tried to explain the situation to his wage slave parents. Most of it barely registered as prejudice-driven fear made them distrustful of both shaman and son, but they eventually conceded that formal training was better than none at all, and Gunnar was offering it freely, after school hours. Hell, who'd refuse such an opportunity?
The "shaman" turned out to be the
gode of small a circle of Ásatru magicians, and Gerhardt's mind was quickly filled with the stories of the heroes of yore: in his head, he had already become the next Sigurd (needless to say, that didn't help his school attendance). The circle exploited the teen's desire to measure himself to mythological "monsters" and quickly took him along on reagent-collecting trips, where his physical skills proved helpful in taking down the paracritters required for the various focus formulae they used. By his 21st birthday, Gerhardt was a fairly accomplished talislegger. He had also caught the eye of Freya, a mage and the daughter of one of the circle's member, with whom he started dating. That was in 2063.
A year later, Crash 2.0 wiped most of their savings, their SINs, and killed Gerhardt's parents (well, they're still hooked up on life support somewhere, but after assensing their soulless husks, Gerhardt knew better). Winternight's apocalyptic gambit damaged the public's view of Ásatru believers at large, and the circle collapsed when old man Gunnar was murdered by grief-stricken haters seeking to lash out at someone for the death of their loved ones, the loss of their identity, or just plain bigotry (frankly, they didn't take the time to explain as they stoned the old mage with bricks and pieces of the pavement). Freya and Gerhardt hid at the edge of Berlin's shadows, taking on a life of shadowrunning. Their talents made them valuable, and the warrior adept's expertise at tackling paranormal threats meant a steady stream of jobs. Things went well for a year or two, but as it turns out, some of the paras that Gerhardt was paid to hunt happened to feel the same way about losing their loved ones as they did. In an act of retaliation, a banshee assaulted Freya, draining her of some of her essence. The Infected's sadistic urge to draw out the act saved the girl's life as a Guardian spirit quickly fetched her lover, then assisted in dispatching the creature, but the damage was done, and Freya had nearly lost all of her magical potential. Worse yet, a few calls and searches uncovered that the Banshee was part of a larger organization of similar night creatures, and it would seem Gerhardt had been marked to suffer for the rest of his life rather than have a quick death.
The only wise move was to move out. Burning out most of their savings and all of their local contacts and favors, they took the bare minimum and shipped out to Chicago, figuring the possibly lingering FAB III bacteria would deter any pursuer. Freya and Gerhardt have been eking out a life of survival ever since. Despite having lost a lot, she remains an accomplished talismonger, and Gerhardt is more than willing to go out and bring back what is needed for her to ply her trade. Of course, given Gerhardt's "social skills", he quickly pissed off some locals when he refused to give ground, and the Destroyers are a bit on the vindicative side so Gerhardt will need to be careful not to allow them to follow him home from now on. They're no banshees, but Freya's no warrior either, and a street gang kicking down the door would be bad news for everyone.
