NEWS

(Recruitment) Sun and Shade

  • 138 Replies
  • 33556 Views

SeriousOne338

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 636
« on: <03-06-12/1406:15> »
So I've been trying to get in on a game for a week or so, with little success. So instead of just looking from the other side of the glass I decided to run one while I wait, not sure if I need an OK by some higher power (admin).

So let me start here:

    The setting is going to start in Seattle 2072, there has been a marked upswing in some hostilities between UCAS boarder and the Salish over the islands in pugetsound. A call has gone out to UCAS army reserves and the Salish forces have been gather forces as well. Corporate interests in Seattle have been toned down due to the rising hostiles. The now reasonably unemployed runners have begun the usual when there’s not a lot of work drinking, gambling and avoiding the pressgangs from the UCAS army offering free SIN’s for service if hostilities start.
    So in short your runners are out of work and hiding from the pressgangs. Drinking in a little known tavern in the Everett Slums know as the Happy Fat Man. Swilling an ale that’s gone a little flat at the bar, watching the vid traffic on an old screen all that’s on is the news. The bar is manned by an old bartender, a fat elf known as Porter. Being a regular here Porter grunts and nudges your mug flicking his eyes at a back table shaded from view by old patched curtain. “Work” it’s a simple word but porters known for saying little.


So that’s the start, anyone interested please follow the fallowing rules (stolen from Chicago Depths because they make sense)

Characters should be made with 400BP 350 BP with a maximum of 175 of those points spent on regular attributes (magic and edge aren't included in this cap, natch.) Gear will be limited to availability 8 (the restricted gear quality will allow for one item of up to avail 16. As normal, you can take it up to 3 times,) and starting cash will be limited to 200,000 nuyen. All sourcebooks are open for your use (but be ready to answer questions on some rules).  Lifestyle costs will cover most mundane items like flashlights and such.  Most any unrestricted item whose cost is 10% of your lifestyle or less can reasonably be considered to be in your possession as part of your normal living situation.  For instance, you pay 1000 bux a month for rent and such, then common programs costing less than 100 nuyen can just be assumed Sorry Deckers the teahnomancers have spoken.  No sweat.  You need credsicks, RFID tags, zip ties, mapsofts, a bottom-shelf comlink with a garbage OS, whatever.  That's all covered by lifestyle.  Finally, in addition to whatever other contacts you pick up on creation, you'll all start with the same 3/3 bartender/fixer/fence contact, Porter.

Also other notes: These characters need to be ready to move so characters with solid roots in Seattle and can’t move aren’t going to happy with this campaign. Smugglers, Pirates, Spies, Mercs that’s who I’m looking for, throw in mages and adepts to round out the lot.

Personally, I’m not big into the matrix but if you want to run a decker go for it just be ready to answer questions.

PS: Hint: Swimming, and Pilot WaterCraft might be a good Idea.


So who's in?

Current Players:

Sichr - Ramirez (ex-Ganger)
bangbangtequila - JaX@77@X
Kayzie - As a Doc (no name yet)
All4BigGuns Shinobi (mage)
momothefiddler Alonzo Rivera (Adept)

I think I will hold at 5 players for the time being, please finish writing up Character sheets &  backgrounds today or tomorrow. Also if you want to refine your characters at all before we begin. The Campaign will start as an island hoping adventure.
« Last Edit: <03-14-12/1127:54> by SeriousOne338 »
Colors: Speech, Thought, Matrix
Character:
Dos.Boot http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=7368.15

All4BigGuns

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 7531
« Reply #1 on: <03-06-12/2341:10> »
Sorry, but in my opinion, such low build points and the lowering of availability and resource caps don't "make sense" or sound remotely enjoyable to me. Maybe you'll hook a few people, and good luck to you in that, but I need at minimum base core book point values--though the all sourcebooks open is refreshing to see considering the Hater-Ade thrown about by some people on the War! book.
(SR5) Homebrew Archetypes

Tangled Currents (Persistent): 33 Karma, 60,000 nuyen

Sichr

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 7202
  • TOTÁLNÍ FAŠÍRKA ZMRDI !!!
« Reply #2 on: <03-07-12/0042:32> »
I have this chararacter built once for street gangs level game, I cosider him retired, but IMO i can improve/downgrade it a bit and make it work. What do you think?
http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=2772.msg24765#msg24765

bangbangtequila

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 442
« Reply #3 on: <03-07-12/0100:25> »
I would love to play this as a technomancer mainline Rigger/back-up hacker (I won't be hacking everyone's smartgun system as my main offence, but I will thread a lot and use the Matrix as a secondary offensive technique). Ideally, however, you'd at least through some Karma in on top of the 350 BP to help us out. Even as little as 20 would give the extra plus needed to make BP heavy builds like Combat Mages and Technomancers the Initiation/Submersion they need to be viable.

I'll drop my background, and see what you think. Bear in mind I'm modifying a hacker character I wrote up not too long ago that I've wanted to use for a bit now.

JaX@77@X
Male
Elf
Hacker, Back-Up Rigger

[SPOILER]JaX is neither big nor small, sitting at 5'10" and 158 lbs, but he stands out as a pasty caucasian in the middle of Hong kong. What noteworthiness he loses in stature, he makes up for in pale, gaunt, unhealthy pallor. He doesn't sleep much, and when he does it's sitting in a chair auto-logged from fatigue, surrounded by empty soy-caf cups and takeout wrappers. This lifestyle based around the latest in health and nutrition studies shows, as his muscles are wirey, his ribs poke at his skin, and his skin carries the lovely shade of pearls. That said, he still has the natural looks and swagger of an Elf, and while fairly distracted and meek in the real world, he always gets a little bit more confident when he has a buzzing auto-drones loaded with exploding rounds hovering behind him.

The fairly young elf wears a leather trenchcoat and red-tinted goggles, with greasy black hair that stays out of his eyes seemingly of its own accord. His hands are gloved, and a weightey revolver graces his hip, styled after none other then Guts Gardener, Alien Menace's own sub-ether blaster. Despite this semi-steampunk retro-look, he's more prone to drop smoke and bolt then he is to stick up for himself in a fight, and despite being none too shabby with a gun, he knows he's got neither the skill, the 'ware, nor the balls to be a street-sam.

Jax loves cracking. Plain and simple, he lives for what he does, and no matter how much it hurts or how close to a BlackHammer wipeout he comes, he'll always come back for more. He cracks nodes for money, he cracks them for new programs to drop on the market early, the latest games and trid flicks to leak for higher 'trix-cred, and sometimes, just to prove he can. He doesn't much like real people, with only a few friends he's met face to face, but he maintains a network of contacts via the Matrix that are as close as family. Jax is not an overly vengeful person, but people who take advantage of him or his friends tend to find bad things happen. Spammers get a hold of their 'Link digits, Taxi companies block their calls, their SIN can never get approved for a loan, etc. He never says no to a showdown of skill in VR sims, or even better a display of whose the better hacker, but he's not so dumb as to advertise what he does unless there's a damned fine getaway trail of trick-filled nodes awaiting his hasty exit.[/SPOILER]

[spoiler]Jack Sperethiel was born in the UCAS, 2050, to the troubled and turbulent city of San Fran Cisco, right smack-dab in the middle of the reign of General Saito, back in the good old days when he answered to the JIS, to a pair of Elves who found comfort and love in each other in the middle of a xenophobic and hateful city, run by worse then exploiting militant rulers. Of course, come 2061 and Saito's seizure of the JIS forces running San Fran as his own personal troops, the inevitable furthering of metahuman restrictions and abuse drove the Sythriel line out of CalFree, and straight over the ocean into Europe. Of course, with all the destabilization and militant tensions rocking that part of the world in the wake of the Eurowars and Nightwraith's definitive but certainly unpleasant resolution, they kept on the move, and eventually wound up in Tír Tairngire, where the Elven superiority had been deeply ingrained in everything from politics to the private sector, and the hardworking and long abused and neglected pair of parents found the whole thing a glorious relief from the stress and fear of humanity. Jack, however, did not. The racially segregated lifestyle of the elven nation was stifling, and his voraciously technological appetites were hard to satiate in a land where spirituality and newly formed "ancient" traditions took precedence. Jack went underground, to the black market tech-world, and picked up the best hot-sim jailbroken module he could find, and delved the worlds of the Matrix with a vigour and recklessness managed only by the arrogance of youth.he discovered BTLs, and his already reclusive life became one devoted to the electrodrug and finding better ways of running them, granted with little success - despite his fervent desire, he would never be more then a sub-par slicer. His parents despised the habits they saw forming, and through punishment, confiscation, and finally a complete severing of ties, they tried to drive him off his drug of choice. They failed, and he left, cursing the glitched bastards as he wandered the less repressive parts of western Europe, trying more BTLs then his brain would have liked.

On the day of The Crash 2.0, things changed, as a Hot-Simmed Jack frantically scanning the frequently illegal nodes he always searched for a fix got abruptly cut off from his mind. He woke up a three days later in a beeping, sterile white room filled with computers and monitors displaying the fact that he was alive. They couldn't show the doctors the extent of the rift that had seemingly opened up his brain to the fires of hell, as the most intense, vision-blurring headache of his 16 years of life wracked him. He was practically thrown out after he woke up, however, with a bottle of percocets for the pain, to open the bed up for another Crash-victim. He wrote it off as the migraine, but the whole cab ride back to his ruddy little apartment, he swore he heard voices. Jack got home and plugged in his emergency chip - to drown out the pain - and passed out. He woke up six hours later, with dried blood running from his nose to the caked on patty of it covering the right side of his face. Looking in that mirror, at the pale, wasted frame, ribs poking out, lips cracked and red-rimmed eyes framed by the sort of bags he might have packed for a two week trip, he realized what he was, why his parents had bailed. He was a junkie. more then that, he was the worst kind of junkie - one who did it out of pure mental weakness. A drug addict can tell you, it isn't just the mind that needs the hit, in fact that desire is put there and reinforced biochemically by a physical need for his drug, and driven too deep to ignore by the wracking effects of withdrawal. BTLs, however, just let you be what you wished you were. He was done. No more of this drivelling, beggar of a weakling, sucking the world of it's generosity and burdening it with a useless waste.[/SPOILER]
« Last Edit: <03-07-12/0107:15> by bangbangtequila »

Sichr

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 7202
  • TOTÁLNÍ FAŠÍRKA ZMRDI !!!
« Reply #4 on: <03-07-12/0106:40> »
And...of course, would it be possible to use Karmagen for character creation? if yoes, what would be the karma limit (AFB now so i cannot check RC for the math)

SeriousOne338

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 636
« Reply #5 on: <03-07-12/1107:02> »
And...of course, would it be possible to use Karmagen for character creation? if yoes, what would be the karma limit (AFB now so i cannot check RC for the math)

Sorry but its the BP method I'm not too big on the karma creation route.
Colors: Speech, Thought, Matrix
Character:
Dos.Boot http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=7368.15

SeriousOne338

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 636
« Reply #6 on: <03-07-12/1140:41> »
I would love to play this as a technomancer mainline Rigger/back-up hacker (I won't be hacking everyone's smartgun system as my main offence, but I will thread a lot and use the Matrix as a secondary offensive technique). Ideally, however, you'd at least through some Karma in on top of the 350 BP to help us out. Even as little as 20 would give the extra plus needed to make BP heavy builds like Combat Mages and Technomancers the Initiation/Submersion they need to be viable.

I'll drop my background, and see what you think. Bear in mind I'm modifying a hacker character I wrote up not too long ago that I've wanted to use for a bit now.

JaX@77@X
Male
Elf
Hacker, Back-Up Rigger


Interesting, I'd need to see the sheet. But the karma will be given in game the lower point set up makes you really look into what your making.
Colors: Speech, Thought, Matrix
Character:
Dos.Boot http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=7368.15

bangbangtequila

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 442
« Reply #7 on: <03-07-12/1313:58> »
The only thing is, as a Technomancer "programs" cost BP, instead of Nuyen. So while a Hacker would get Browse for what, 100 x rating if not free with his lifestyle, a technomancer would need to spend 1 x Rating BP to learn a complex form. At rating 6, that makes 6 bp for the Technomancer vs 0.12 bp for the hacker...

Ah well. I'll do what I can, but I may ask for some free non-restricted complex forms to round out my repertoire, if you don't mind.

bangbangtequila

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 442
« Reply #8 on: <03-08-12/1519:29> »
I've decided to not, simply because I don't much like such a restrictive creation process. All the best, and happy gaming.

Kontact

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3147
  • You called?
« Reply #9 on: <03-08-12/2252:43> »
I honestly wouldn't recommend GMing a 350 bp "mercenary level" game if you're just doing it to kill time.

Lowered starts are about longer games.  Also about keeping people from killing their way through every problem, but that's not likely to be too much of an issue when the setup involves two military factions on high alert.  ;)

Sichr

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 7202
  • TOTÁLNÍ FAŠÍRKA ZMRDI !!!
« Reply #10 on: <03-09-12/0028:36> »
Even this kind of Low powered run can be fu, if you dont mind playing sewer rats, wel I have to say my interrest in this is also on decline

SeriousOne338

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 636
« Reply #11 on: <03-12-12/1033:15> »
Ok after some consideration and people complaining I've changed the rules to match more of a standard character construction. The gear is still limited because I don't want people packing enough explosives to start a war. 

So far what I can tell I might have: A ganger, hacker/rigger and Technomancer. I want to at least 4 runners or more before I start.
« Last Edit: <03-12-12/1034:52> by SeriousOne338 »
Colors: Speech, Thought, Matrix
Character:
Dos.Boot http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=7368.15

All4BigGuns

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 7531
« Reply #12 on: <03-12-12/1043:53> »
The gear restriction is still too restrictive in my opinion, as to me it simply isn't fun for any restriction that is worse than base character creation rules in the core rulebook. The fun of different restriction levels comes in when what can be acquired and the number of BP is increased rather than decreased (at least fun for anyone other than the GM).
(SR5) Homebrew Archetypes

Tangled Currents (Persistent): 33 Karma, 60,000 nuyen

SeriousOne338

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 636
« Reply #13 on: <03-12-12/1053:50> »
The gear restriction is still too restrictive in my opinion, as to me it simply isn't fun for any restriction that is worse than base character creation rules in the core rulebook. The fun of different restriction levels comes in when what can be acquired and the number of BP is increased rather than decreased (at least fun for anyone other than the GM).

Well in order to get a game started I throw the gear rule as well now its basic character creation.
Colors: Speech, Thought, Matrix
Character:
Dos.Boot http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=7368.15

Crash_00

  • *
  • Guest
« Reply #14 on: <03-12-12/1108:23> »
8 is fairly standard for lower power campaigns. You can still get the gear you need to get by, but most ware and foci will be at a point lower than normal. In the long run (which is what a low starting game is designed for), one point is not a big deal. It's one die or 1/3 of a hit.

A slightly different approach is 9. It lets characters get some rating 2 gear (muscle toners for instance) if they get it second hand. Depending on how you play second hand ware, there may be no drawback in getting second hand alphaware and calling it a day in which case there is no real point in the limitation.

The real issue here is: Why are you limiting the availability?

If it's only to restrict player access, then it really just shows that you're not a very experienced GM. You'd probably be better off running a normal game and vetoing any items that you don't feel fit in your game (or at least having a serious discussion with the player).

That said, there are times when it works out well. The main reason I often use it are for:
A.) Beginning players. So many options to choose from, restricting it can really help them focus on their character and cut out the clutter. It also gives them a better feel for the edge that different levels of ware provide. Rolling 4(5) agility + 5 Pistols skill is only ten dice (12 with smartlink) and one comes from their ware. Starting in a normal game they can easily be throwing 17 to 18 dice and pulling out what comes from ware can be disorienting in the least. Especially so for players that have only played simpler systems before or never RPed at all.

B.) Beginning runners. The standard rules assume that the characters are green around the gills but have at least been in the biz a bit. If the goal is to actually simulate the run being the first time they're going out in the shadows, restricting access can give a better beginner feel and helps scale things down for beginner level runs as well. This of course assumes that the GM is good enough to scale down encounters to a proper level so that they aren't one sided PC death trains.

Some players won't like playing with less points. It doesn't mean that your concept is wrong/bad, just that it doesn't suit them. Usually these people just aren't interested in growing from sewer rats and want to start out as movers and shakers.