[Shadowstarr]

Offering work (long term pbp campaign)

I been running a pbp game on another forum for near 3 months now and a need some new blood that is really interested in the long term aspect and are commitment to posting at lest once a day but would prefer you post more often then that as I try to move things along quickly.  The game is set in Denver and I intend to use the majority of the 2nd season of missions mixed in with my own subplots and runs, might even bring on some of the other published adventures, we'll see.  400 bp for creation and generally I'm open to all 4e source books and optional rules.  However being this is a long term game I really don't want super razor sharp characters all min maxed out at creation. If your committed your have plenty of room to grow into the uber badass you may want to be.  The game is a mature one,  foul language, both old school shadow'ese and regualar swaring, adult
situations, and violence.
 
Be mindful of the restrictions put on missions characters.  No possession traditions, mental controlling spells, ect.

Other stuff I don't really like, but allow within a reasonable use.
*stick and shock ammo: if used for a nonlethal alternative that is fine,  but not as your everyday, go too, ammo.
*martial arts/ maneuver based characters: Want to use a few of them,  I don't mind but it should make sense for the character to know the art.  I don't want a toon that picks a number of arts that aren't generally available to anyone all stacked together for max effect.  Especially in the case of two weapon melee monsters doing the attack w/ full defense bulldrek.  here is an example of what i DON'T want: http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=4078.0
*emote-a-toys / empathic software: they can be used but with some limits. (all dice rolls are considered maxed with 20 dice or double the total of skill+attribute which ever is smaller). (excluding vehicle combat, and certain situations)
*foki whores: I may allow you to bound some foki at creation  it'll be a character by character bases,  so tired of the typical increased reflexes w/ sustaining foki as a mage standard.

Want I feel the group needs most:
*Lost a good samurai recently so  would like a replacement.
*Rigger, don't have one, drone master and/or vehicle pilot would be great.

What I got:
*Good hacker w/ some samurai combat skills and augs.
*General mage
*super face w/ decent shooting abilities.
*semi specialized mage,  has some legacy mental spells but hasn't made it an issue yet. w/ some unique rule bending I've allow cause i think the concept is interesting.
*Bio Samurai with a little face.

In closing I'm very open to some unique ideas and strange stuff while keeping in mind that characters should be useful in more then just combat.  I'll work with you. Don't feel restricted by the "what I want bit".  Characters die so I may call up whatever character I think we need to join the group.  Its harder to find good players then characters.  The character should be Denver newbs and not have a ton of Denver based contacts. The mission content  offers a ton of good contacts anyways.  I'm sure many potential players may have dm and run through the Season 2 missions so don't metagame on me and we won't have any problems.   I change stuff to suit the group anyway.  The game is being played on a different forum. http://www.thetangledweb.net/forums/content.php   So joining there would  also be necessary.  Send me an e-mail  @ eashadowstar@hotmail.com  or a PM here with your interest, character concept and even sheets.  Thanks for reading.
 
-SS

[Chrona]

so tired of the typical increased reflexes w/ sustaining foki as a mage standard.

This is fine if your opinion extends to all INI&IP boosts being the standard for maybe 75% of characters? Otherwise that's just limiting mages in combat

[Shadowstarr]

If you don't like it that is cool don't apply.  Just from GM'ing the game so far a well designed mage with 3 passes in a focus, tossing stunballs every pass tend to lead to a lot of 1 round fights. And the rest of the group standing around wondering why they brought their guns. I can't go placing a ton of countermages with every gang or ghoul pack to try and counter it.   I like mages and if you want increased reflexes spell, that's fine.  You want to put it in a focus thats fine too just not at creation for my game. Spend some karma and your set.    I stand by my opinion,  mages can be the some of the most flexible players in a game.  I can argue mages are limiting themselves by going a near standardized route of increased reflexes, sustaining focus, and direct mana combat spells when there are tons of other options to be effective.  Ultimately its my game and I'll run as I see fit. 

-SS

[Redwulfe]

Very interested in playing a rigger. if you have room I will work on the sheet and apply.

Red

[Chrona]

If you don't like it that is cool don't apply.  Just from GM'ing the game so far a well designed mage with 3 passes in a focus, tossing stunballs every pass tend to lead to a lot of 1 round fights. And the rest of the group standing around wondering why they brought their guns. I can't go placing a ton of countermages with every gang or ghoul pack to try and counter it.   I like mages and if you want increased reflexes spell, that's fine.  You want to put it in a focus thats fine too just not at creation for my game. Spend some karma and your set.    I stand by my opinion,  mages can be the some of the most flexible players in a game.  I can argue mages are limiting themselves by going a near standardized route of increased reflexes, sustaining focus, and direct mana combat spells when there are tons of other options to be effective.  Ultimately its my game and I'll run as I see fit. 

-SS

I didn't mean to rile you up, I was just asking and giving my opinion. You've got a couple mages anyway so it's moot. Hope the game goes well.

[Sichr]

If you don't like it that is cool don't apply.  Just from GM'ing the game so far a well designed mage with 3 passes in a focus, tossing stunballs every pass tend to lead to a lot of 1 round fights. And the rest of the group standing around wondering why they brought their guns. I can't go placing a ton of countermages with every gang or ghoul pack to try and counter it.   I like mages and if you want increased reflexes spell, that's fine.  You want to put it in a focus thats fine too just not at creation for my game. Spend some karma and your set.    I stand by my opinion,  mages can be the some of the most flexible players in a game.  I can argue mages are limiting themselves by going a near standardized route of increased reflexes, sustaining focus, and direct mana combat spells when there are tons of other options to be effective.  Ultimately its my game and I'll run as I see fit. 

-SS

-SSDD

[Onion Man]

If you don't like it that is cool don't apply.  Just from GM'ing the game so far a well designed mage with 3 passes in a focus, tossing stunballs every pass tend to lead to a lot of 1 round fights. And the rest of the group standing around wondering why they brought their guns. I can't go placing a ton of countermages with every gang or ghoul pack to try and counter it.   I like mages and if you want increased reflexes spell, that's fine.  You want to put it in a focus thats fine too just not at creation for my game. Spend some karma and your set.    I stand by my opinion,  mages can be the some of the most flexible players in a game.  I can argue mages are limiting themselves by going a near standardized route of increased reflexes, sustaining focus, and direct mana combat spells when there are tons of other options to be effective.  Ultimately its my game and I'll run as I see fit. 

-SS

1) All missions events are full of 1 round combats, no matter what crew is sent in there.

2) Ultimately, it's Shadowrun 4E.  More specifically, it's a missions season of SR4.  If you can't handle the system, maybe you should be playing something that isn't Shadowrun and is designed to cater to primadonna GMs, like an incredibly restricted version of GURPS.

[Kontact]

Really, if you look at the rules on background count, pretty much everywhere should have a BC of 1 or more.  You kill someone, background count.  You go into a sterile corp lab or a barrens environment, background count.

That's how mages get theirs.  It's just a pain in the ass.

[Pyromaster13]

1) All missions events are full of 1 round combats, no matter what crew is sent in there.

2) Ultimately, it's Shadowrun 4E.  More specifically, it's a missions season of SR4.  If you can't handle the system, maybe you should be playing something that isn't Shadowrun and is designed to cater to primadonna GMs, like an incredibly restricted version of GURPS.

Pretty harsh remarks for one of his few posts on the forums,  I haven't been here long either but most (if not all) of this forums talks about several different ways to expand more unbalanced uses for existing rules and skill uses, and it's easy to see that the more experienced players seem to get in any roleplaying game you can easily start focusing on how to make the most powerful character possible that the rules will allow you, and always forget that a roleplaying game is supposed to be played as though your character was a real person.
Just because it's an obvious choice to give yourself additional Initiative Passes doesn't mean you always have to take it.  Do all your characters really want to move super fast launching stunballs? Or did you just want to be the best combat machine for your group.  Even when I GM, I always avoid any razor sharp character that is submitted, because I want character, not a cybered up war-machine who can shoot with an 18 dice pool and whose only storyline is "She was a former assassin for the government"  I want to see real thought in their characters, "Do they have any fears?"  "What kind of personality quirks does she have?"  "Why does she like to go astral all the time? Is she afraid of being shot or just hate being grounded?".  In addition, you can't honestly tell me when you GM or even play as a player that you have fun taking down all your enemies in one round, where's the challenge? Oh wait, I know, it's the friggen water, because since you spent all your BP on shooting, you don't even know how to run, swim, or climb.  And since when do any pro military guys not know how to do those things huh?  I'm thinking instead of bashing on how other people like to run their games, you should have a second look over on all the games you play or GM and think for 2 seconds asking yourself, "Is this even realisitic?".

If all players on this forum are like you, I'm thinking I should go recruiting elsewhere.

[Onion Man]

Clearly not everyone on these forums is like me.  Houserules have their place.  That place is not in Missions.

Just my $2.22

[Kontact]

Meh, dudes don't like to be told how to play is all.  I certainly don't agree with the criticism of martial arts, for instance.  As far as I'm concerned, close combat is little more than a distraction unless you can stack your base damage really high.  If you're spending a complex action to do base 5P -1AP with a roll of att + skill vs. att +skill, then what is the point?  You're over twice as effective with just a heavy pistol.

If you can dump 21bp into MA qualities and maneuvers to make that 7P -1AP while not only keeping your defense up but hurting aggressors with a combo of the disarm maneuver and damaging disarm, then you're almost going to be effective.  I mean, you'll still be shot to death, but you're great in a bar brawl.

[Sichr]

+1 to Onion Man

and since I dont smite, +0 to all nazi GMs who think that forbiding players to create character RAW make them better in roleplaying. Such restrictions are stupid and proposes nothing. GM should be able to work with the player on the backgroung, even give him some additional contacts/qualities if the background is good, and work with the player on fitting the character to the setting. Everything else is up to player.

It is not 3IP that makes game unbalanced. It is incompetent GM.

[Shadowstarr]

Thank you to the folks whom have submitted characters. I have what i need for the time being.  Please don't send me any more unless you don't mind being in an Alt pool. 

I agree with a lot of what you guys write.  I am an incompetent GM.  I screw up rolls, I misinterpret / misapply rules. I miss details, I fail to adequately plan opposition for the PC's, among many, many other faults.  I GM like a newb and that is because I am a newb.  I've not really GM'ed a pen and paper game in like 15 years.  Despite of being a fan of Shadowrun since 1st edition and having played a long time ago, 4e rules are fairly new to me.  I've only gotten back into it a couple of weeks before starting my game which is about 3 months old now.  I'm not writing this to take pride in my mistakes or to make excuses its just being honest.    My GM experience is all on 5 runs and each has been very educational.  I do listen to the players.  A lot of the nazi restrictions I put up are a results of their feedback.. I try to make the game fun for the players while trying to make it fun for me to GM.  If I ever start a new game there is a great deal I'd do differently

I wanted a game that would be long term.  I wanted player characters that were low end,  that would have a ton of room to grow.  I went about that wrong and I see that  in hindsight.  So now I'm just trying to keep things moving and fun while I am at it.  So yeah call me what you wish,  come down on me, smite me, is all good and it really doesn't matter.  The only feedback that is really matters to me it that of the players who are in the game. They are the ones who've invested their time and efforts into making our game what it is. 

This forum is a great resource for newbs like me.  In time, I feel this forum will help me overcome my lack of experience.  While I appreciate being told what i am doing wrong, it'd be a bit more helpful to learn how to do it right. 

Thanks again.
-SS

[Sichr]

then again...good luck.
There is never enought runs in progress...
Maybe sometimes in the future you will find out that some of those restrictions are useless...even contraproductive. And you will adapt...

Have fun

[Kontact]

Pretty harsh remarks for one of his few posts on the forums,  I haven't been here long either but most (if not all) of this forums talks about several different ways to expand more unbalanced uses for existing rules and skill uses, and it's easy to see that the more experienced players seem to get in any roleplaying game you can easily start focusing on how to make the most powerful character possible that the rules will allow you, and always forget that a roleplaying game is supposed to be played as though your character was a real person.
Just because it's an obvious choice to give yourself additional Initiative Passes doesn't mean you always have to take it.  Do all your characters really want to move super fast launching stunballs? Or did you just want to be the best combat machine for your group.  Even when I GM, I always avoid any razor sharp character that is submitted, because I want character, not a cybered up war-machine who can shoot with an 18 dice pool and whose only storyline is "She was a former assassin for the government"  I want to see real thought in their characters, "Do they have any fears?"  "What kind of personality quirks does she have?"  "Why does she like to go astral all the time? Is she afraid of being shot or just hate being grounded?".  In addition, you can't honestly tell me when you GM or even play as a player that you have fun taking down all your enemies in one round, where's the challenge? Oh wait, I know, it's the friggen water, because since you spent all your BP on shooting, you don't even know how to run, swim, or climb.  And since when do any pro military guys not know how to do those things huh?  I'm thinking instead of bashing on how other people like to run their games, you should have a second look over on all the games you play or GM and think for 2 seconds asking yourself, "Is this even realisitic?".

If all players on this forum are like you, I'm thinking I should go recruiting elsewhere.

Well, I don't want to keep an argument going, but I do think that you're working with some false assumptions.

First off, backstory is great, but I often times don't really understand a character until I start to play them.  It's like breaking in a pair of shoes.  The takeaway is that, the less backstory you put forward, the more room you have to fill it in.

As to characters being hyper-specialized at the cost of being unrealistic, the cost of skills is just too prohibitive.  The kind of skill layout that would constitute a basic Marine, is something like 228 BP.  Average stats costs 160 BP.  There's not really much room to wiggle around there, and that marine is still going to be unable to find a damn thing on the matrix.  Oh and friends or knowledge skills?  He's got no points for that at all.  Can you imagine the cost of knowledge skills for a real person?

[spoiler]Athletics group of 3, Firearms group of 4, Close Combat group of 3, Outdoors group of 2, Infiltration 3, Perception 2, Heavy Weapons 2,  Dodge (ranged) 2 Disguise (camouflage) 2, Leadership 2, Etiquette (military) 2, Con 1, Computer 1, Demolitions (plastic explosive) 1, First Aid (combat wounds) 1, Armorer 1, Pilot ground Craft (4-wheeled craft) 1, Thrown Weapons (grenade) 1, Gunnery (ballistic) 1.[/spoiler]

Anyway, there's always room for a character to grow, but they usually grow out rather than up.  If your character wasn't good at what they did, they wouldn't be a shadowrunner, they would be a bloodstain.