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The Found Arcana Chapter 2

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Tecumseh

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« Reply #30 on: <11-24-18/1148:29> »
@Lorebane
What's Decrease Intuition for?

I might diversify some ammo types, especially for the Lightfire, but that's up to you.

@gilga
I interpret the dice pool modifier for Mato's Essence to be -5 instead of -6 ("rounded up" moving the modifier from -5.96 to -5) but you're in the driver's seat as GM.
« Last Edit: <11-24-18/1153:12> by Tecumseh »

gilga

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« Reply #31 on: <11-24-18/1318:49> »
I read in the wiki that essence loss penalty:

Low-Essence characters are more difficult to affect with some health spells. It’s hard to put the body back into its natural state when that state has been unnaturally altered. In game terms, this means you take a dice pool modifier equal to the target’s actual Essence minus his maximum Essence (which will turn out to be 0 or a negative number), rounded up.

so your actual essence 0.04 - maximum essence  -5.94  rounded up = -5.  I got confused since rounding up a negative number is not what I thought it was.  ;)  so -5 yes you are right.


Lorebane24

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« Reply #32 on: <11-24-18/1513:09> »
I guess one thing I wanted to ask is how "obvious" decrease intuation is.  Ideally, I figured it could make someone easier to lie to if it could be cast discretely.  Otherwise, it's either to lower initiative or to try and temporarily knock someone out reducing their intuition to 0.
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gilga

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« Reply #33 on: <11-24-18/1515:04> »
The treshold to notice spellcraft depends on your skill and the force, so it is pretty easy considering that you'll need reasonable force and only has 5 points of skill. However, it is stealthy in the sense that it does not make a noise, alert security and so forth.

So the person you do it too would likely know about it, but it can disable a person easily. Especially if you get to touch them without them resisting.
« Last Edit: <11-24-18/1523:22> by gilga »

Lorebane24

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« Reply #34 on: <11-25-18/1434:04> »
Just wanted to give a heads up that I have two assignments I have to finish up today, but once those are done then finishing up this character is my next immediate priority, so the finishing touches and backstory should be ready late this evening.
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Tecumseh

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« Reply #35 on: <11-25-18/1806:37> »
@Lorebane
The primary concern around Decrease [Attribute] is that it's a touch spell.

If you're using it offensively, then it means you're in melee range, which probably isn't ideal.

If you're using it covertly, then you can probably only cast at F2 (or F3 at the most) without being noticed. The average defense pool will be ~6 dice, so the defender can average two hits and negate an F2 spell entirely. Similarly, if they roll 2 hits vs. 3 hits on an F3 spell then you've traded a -2 sustaining penalty (although you do have Focused Concentration to sustain it) for a -1 negative modifier to the target. Not the most productive trade. Probably the best way to use it is to break the limit using Edge or reagents, which would allow you to keep as many hits as you roll while making the casting as subtle as possible.

Tecumseh

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« Reply #36 on: <11-25-18/1810:18> »
Separately, none of us seem to have Artisan so Mato is going to buy it at rating 1 so that he can act as director for this promotional video.

Intuition 6 + Artisan 1: 7d6t5 1 hit

It looks like Mato has only a crude artistic vision, but maybe the cinéma vérité will convey some street cred. Or maybe Jawsey can coach him with Leadership?

gilga

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« Reply #37 on: <11-26-18/0006:57> »
Well the maximum dice he can get from leadership is 1, so I say go ahead and roll it.

Are you waiting for me with the video or do you want to make up something?

Beta

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« Reply #38 on: <11-26-18/1015:35> »
Jawsey will buy hits on leadership (only 1 can be used anyway, but hey it ups his limit by 1 too).

Tecumseh

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« Reply #39 on: <11-27-18/1646:08> »
IC is up. FYI, I'm going to have Mato mangling words occasionally to represent his lower Logic.

I'm not really expecting this marketing stuff to go anywhere. I'm just using it as an opportunity to express another side of Mato's personality, namely the high-observant son of corpers who heard a lot at home but maybe didn't understand it all. Beta/Jawsey's response from the first page is the one I was aiming for.

Lorebane24

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« Reply #40 on: <11-27-18/1724:52> »
Alright, I'll take a closer look and see if I can't move a few things around to get it down a few points, but it seems like dealing with aggressive debtors or scrambling to get some scratch together could lead to some fun shenanigans too.  In the mean time here is Takoda Miller, AKA Ginsburg.

Takoda Miller was born in Cheyenne in 2028, when the Sioux Nation was relatively young and finding its feet.  From a young age, he had a fiercely independent streak, and despite it being all around him, he didn't mesh particularly well with traditional Sioux Culture.  The East might be the enemies, but they wrote better shows, produced better music, and, at the time, were miles ahead on tech.  He made friends quickly and lost them just as fast when you couldn't stop himself from playing them to one end or another.  When he awakened as a teenager, none of the local shamans wanted to take him under their tutelage, save one.  Ehawee, an aging coyote shaman, saw potential in his propensity for mischief and his willingness to defy established norms.  She started teaching him the basics, and Takoda grudgingly complied, because hey, magic is wiz.

But it didn't come easily.  It was years before he could channel even the most basic of spells.  Spirits did not speak to him, and on his vision quest all he did was get high.  Coyote proved to be an elusive mentor.  His frustration growing and the pool of people he hadn't conned, lied to, or taken advantage of shrinking, he decided that his path must lay elsewhere.  Maybe the hermitic tradition would make more sense.  He just barely managed to get himself admitted to a college in Denver, but that came with fresh distractions and new frustrations.  While the shamanic tradition made little sense to him, the hermetic one was horribly rigid, and he grew bored quickly, finding thrills on the streets.  Shadowrunners had been coming into vogue, and he was captivated by their portrayal in the trids.  He'd always kept at least a toe or two outside of the law, and started putting out feelers, getting his name out, and eventually was able to hook up with some rookie teams and pull of some minor scores in Denver.  It was then that everything started to click for him.

He had never felt in tune with nature, but here, in Denver, he could feel the heartbeat of the city.  He had no mentor totem because he connected most closely with the works of his fellow man.  The structures and strictures of the Sixth World began to fascinate him.  He saw the city as a new and unexplored ecosystem, filled with moving parts, complexities, and hierarchies, and no one saw the whole picture - the city was the next great wilderness to explore.  He changed the focus of his studies, diving into human psychology and sociology, and started picking up tips and tricks from other mages during his occasional moonlighting as a rookie runner.  To him, this is what made the most sense - take the best of every tradition - use what makes sense to you, because that blend is what makes the civilized world so interesting.

The search for meaning and truth on the streets became his greatest drive.  He was already struggling in his courses - not the brightest student, but perhaps not the dumbest.  He learned best by watching and by doing, not through rigorous study, and when he decided he'd learned what he could, he moved again, this time to Seattle - an island of a civilization, cut off from its parent country, this was the new Wild West.  He took the street name Ginsburg, after his favorite poet, and began working the Seattle shadows, taking the jobs he could, learning what he could, and trying to find ways to connect everything.

This kept up for several years, but then in 69 he was unfortunate enough to be on a run during the Crash.  Things went south - badly.  He was picked up and tossed in a cell, where he spent the last 12 years.  He tried to escape twice, but both attempts ended in failure, and he knew a third try would likely mean his death unless it was perfectly executed.  He waited, he watched, and he looked for his opportunity, but it never came.

But them something better happened.  A couple weeks ago, someone slipped a note under his cell.  "Start a fight" was all it said.  Though suspicious, he had a feeling about this, and decided to trust his gut.  The next day in the cantina, he sucker punched someone in the line over some fabricated bullshit and the guards quickly intervened.  They beat him to within an inch of his life.  But there as that inch left.  The warden came to see him in the infirmary the following week and sent the medical staff away.  "Someone likes you," he said as he presented him with a death certificate bearing his name.
"Legally, you're dead.  So tomorrow you shuffle your corpse out of here, get yourself to Puyallup.  There's a squat waiting for you with some things that will be to your liking, but it ain't free.  Someone will be in touch with you soon about paying off your blank slate."

Does that work?
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Tecumseh

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« Reply #41 on: <11-27-18/1733:01> »
Looks pretty solid to me. I like the explanation around his magical tradition.

What year are we playing in? I'm just wondering about the 2069 + 12 years in prison. I looked through the old threads but couldn't find anything that said one way or another. Lorebane made an off-hand mention of 2080 at one point, but that was referring to a product rather than a specific event or timeline.

I'm not sure if there's something specific about Puyallup, but the Hollywood Correctional Facility is in Redmond. If Ginsburg gets discharged from there, it would be relatively easy (geographically, at least) for him to cross paths with the rest of the team.

I imagine a mage must spend most of their time in a mage mask and mage cuffs. That must make prison even worse. Or maybe they don't use those due to budget constraints, so you're free to astrally project as long as you're comfortable leaving your body defenseless. Hmm, interesting story ideas there.

Maybe Poetry as a knowledge skill?

Lorebane24

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« Reply #42 on: <11-27-18/1735:33> »
Yeah, I'm tinkering with him now and I plan to move some of the points in his knowledge skill to get 1 or 2 ranks with a specialization in American poetry.

I guess my count was a little off, as far is his prison term, but I like the idea of having an older guy who was recently released and is trying to adapt to how the shadows have changed since he was last active.
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Lorebane24

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« Reply #43 on: <11-27-18/2029:55> »
Aight, moved some shiz around, and I THINK this is his finished incarnation.

Ginsburg
Human Male
Karma: 5
Phys: 10, Stun: 10
Armor: 0, Evasion: 9
Initiative: 9+1d6, Astral Init: 12+2d6, Essence: 6
B: 3, S: 2, A: 4, R: 3
L: 3, W: 4, I: 6, C: 4
Phys: 4, Ment: 6, Soc: 6
Edge: 3, Essence: 6
Magic: 6, Initiation Grade: 1
Positive Qualities (23): Mage(Chaos Tradition), Focused Concentration 3, First Impression
Negative Qualities (25): In Debt (9), Mild Addiction (Novacoke), Spirit Bane (Beast), Did You Just Call Me Dumb?
Skills: Assensing 5,* Summoning 5,* Con (Fast Talk) 5(+2 ), Small Arms (Pistols) 3(+2), Negotiation (Bargaining) 5(+2), Perception 4, Sneaking 4, Palming 4, Locksmith 4, Etiquette 4, Computers 2, Survival 2
Skill Groups: Sorcery 5
Languages: Lakota N, English 4, Japanese 3
Knowledge Skills: Arcana 5, Psychology 4, Sociology 3, Chaos Theory 3, Seattle Area Knowledge 3, Poetry (American Poetry) 1(+2)
Spells: Chaotic World, Silence, Trid Phantasm, Physical Mask, Clairvoyance, Area Thought Recognition, Influence, Lightning Bolt
Spirits: Water (Manipulation), Man (Illussion)
Rituals: Watcher, Curse
Metamagics: Psychometry
Weapons: Remington Roomsweeper (Smartlinked), Ares Lightfire 75, Defiance EX Shocker (Smartlinked)
Ammo & Accessories: Quick-Draw Holster, Concealable Holster, Hidden Arm Slide, Shotgun Shells x80, Explosive Slugs x40, Standard Light Pistol Rounds x80, Taser Darts x20
Armor: Lined Coat (Thermal Dampening 3, Fire Resistant 3, Insulated 3), Armor Vest, Actioneer Business Cloths
Other Gear: Erika Elite Commlink (R4), AR Gloves, Glasses (Image Link, Smartlink, Low-Light Vision, Image Link), Earbuds (Spatial Recognizer, Select Sound Filter 2, Fake SIN (R4) x2, Fake SIN (R2) x2, Stealth Tags x10, Micro-Transceiver, Tag Eraser, White-Noise Generator, Sequencer (R4), Autopicker (R6), DocWagon Basic (1 Year), Stim Patch (R6) x10
Contacts (C/L)
Five-Fingers Gao (3/2)
Lysander (3/2)
Officer Keeler – Beat Cop (2/2)
Uyghur T – Drug Dealer (2/2)
Dana Hsung – Freelance Journalist (2/2)
Lifestyle: Low (3 months)
Nuyen: 1,710

Moved some knowledge skills around to get some poetry knowledge in there.  Knocked off his extra R2 fake SINs and 5k leftoever cash to get his debt rating down to 9, and instead picked up Spirit Bane (Beast), which also gives him a net gain of 5 unspent karma.  He assumes he cheeses off beast spirits because he rejected a tradition that deals with them in favor of one that does not, but that's just him speculating.
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Tecumseh

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« Reply #44 on: <11-28-18/1642:53> »
Corrected my last IC post. I wrote "are" when I meant "aren't", which of course changes the entire meaning of the sentence. Hopefully that fixes any confusion.

Anyway, sounds like we're ready to write Ginsburg into the story.