[SR4] Stainless Steel Hearts [full on up, yo]

Started by Cold Heritage, August 26, 2010, 01:13:32 AM

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Cold Heritage

Okay, so the last time I put up one of these, the game never happened because of a confluence of factors. The main one was that Exalted, once I got to really looking at it, made me want to stab myself in the brain.

Shadowrun 4th has some things that make me want to reach for the knife, but they are not as bad. This is, by the by, a system game for which you need access to books to play. Shadowrun 4th edition, to re-iterate. The 20th Anniversary version of the corebook would probably be best, since that's the one I have.

Anyway, my kvetching aside . . .

I am looking for 3-4 players to go running the shadows, out for fat ¥¥¥ and . . . well, fat ¥¥¥. I will, of course, try to weave a coherent narrative, but that really depends on how well players take bait/hooks and how much you are all like, "no, my precious freedom from negative circumstances!!!!"

Disclaimer: this will be my first time running the game. I am familiar with the basic rules in the corebook, did my best to slog through Street Magic (well, most of it - I didn't read through one chapter and most of the grimoire chapter), and I have Unwired open but my eyes glaze over once I try to convince myself to read it. So, I'm not gonna be super-whiz with the rules. I hope you aren't, or if you do, you can control yourself and not make a 30+ dice monstrosity. It would make me sad, and it would make me flake out and give you a story about how my dog ate my internets. Or how it ate my books (which are all electronic). But basically, yeah. I'm pretty good at softballing for PCs, because I want to see you guys do pretty good and face level-appropriate challenges (giant rat fights for all! I kid).

Perhaps even more importantly, my exposure to the game's flavour is through the SNES Shadowrun video game and half-remembered Shadowrun novels. The 4th edition book, I understand, did away some of the flavour from old editions (the general infrequency of in-game slang is something I love, as well as the wireless Matrix), so I cannot provide a grognard Shadowrun experience.

The game will probably go in NC-Exotic, just because. If you don't want to be NC'd or Exotic'd, that's cool - I won't force those things on you. And if most people who sign up don't want either, we can go Light. That's fine with me. Sex isn't something I see as being terribly big or important to the game - but I won't puritanically purse my lips in disapproval if you ogle some trollboobs.

In terms of tone and such, I cleave more towards an action-adventure style game, so something like the film The Expendables would be a better model than any of the Bourne Trilogy films. That is to say, more of a kick in the door experience than having to spend hours wracking your brain about potential detection methods and poring over the books to squeeze every bit of non-detection you can out of everything. I mean, sure, it's good to try and go in by night, under cover of darkness, and do your best to get to whatever it is you're trying to get without being seen, but eventually something's gonna go wrong and your carefully laid plans will fold like a house of cards and then it is time to rock and/or roll. Spending three weeks in real time of characters going back and forth trying to plan the perfect run will probably have one of two results: 1) I will, in a petty and spiteful manner, make your plans fail deliberately because you put so much effort into them and dilly-dallied making them, or 2) just lose interest and tell you my dog ate my internets.

Consider: you get spotted in some AAA corp's turf. They send guards after you (but they don't scramble the super-hot corp kill team yet), and you take a few offline, get your paydata, and run. On the way out maybe you make a drone crash into something and cause some damage. The corp is now in triage mode, and part of that is doing something to show it isn't going to take your sheenanigans lying down. Yeah, you're gonna get people after you, but that's interesting, isn't it? And you're gonna get people who, at the same time, have agendas that are (at least for now) served by helping you to evade the people who want to put a bullet in your head. Doesn't that sound more interesting than sneaking in, getting what you want, and then getting your ¥¥¥?

I'm really after characters that are rounded mechanically. 4s in core competencies and 2s and 3s (or even 1s in skills so you don't default) are gonna serve you good.

Chargen'll go something like this (but, uh, don't go off making a sheet right away, or anything):

Character Generation:
Build Points:      500
No more than:   90 from negative qualities.
No more than:   80 on positive qualities.
No more than:   250 on Atributes.
No more than:   75 on Resources. 
Charisma x 2 in bonus contact points. 


Are you a bad enough dude to get a call from your fixer to meet Mr. Johnson?




"Saw a twenty-cent trid the other day." A man says. His voice is coarse, no doubt from heavy smoking. You can see the orange, ember glow of a cig in the shadows that cover the upper half of his body. "Restored stuff. Set in 2099, and, if you can believe it, it had the world as some kind of feel-good commune where everyone holds hands and gets along." The man makes a sound. You know it is laughter, because of your association with him - anyone else would think he was doing his level best to cough out his rotted, poisoned lungs.

"Wouldn't that be something, chummer? A world where everyone got along?" The smug smirk on his lips seeps into his tone, and there is a hint of bitterness. As an ork, the man has not been well-treated or well-served by the world at large. "But you don't give a frag about all that, do you? You're just here because you need to get the digits in your bank account up." There comes a sniff, and the man reaches into his jacket. This is always a tense moment, because there are any number of incredibly lethal things he could withdraw. Even with the best planning, the best recon, and everything you know applied to figuring out what cards the opposition's holding, there will always be an ace in their hole. If your luck's bad, chummer, they will have a whole hand deck of aces waiting for you.

But instead of pulling a piece of miniaturized murder designed to cause a very gory and gruesome end, the ork pulls out a manilla folder. This is extremely, extremely old school. Inside are papers. They are ultimately meaningless, however. Within there is a small datachip covered in AR resistant coating to prevent its incredibly weak signal from escaping. This must be something pretty top shelf if this degree of caution is employed. "Here's the intel. Give it a go - after I'm gone - and then ring me up once you've made the run . . ." The ork says, inhaling on his cheap cigarette and making his way down the alley.

It is just another night in Seattle, and just another conversation that did not happen in the shadows.
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

Muse

*Smiles*  Please collor me intrested. 
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

Kunoichi

#2
Sign me up. ^^ I've even got a street sam already written up and waiting to be used, though she uses items from Arsenal and some character options from Runner's Companion...

Edit: Although, she was built with the standard 400 BP allocation, so I suppose I'd have to spend the extra 100...

Edit2: Not that I'm doing so yet, or anything. ^^;

meikle

I would love to play some Shadowrun -- even better if I could put together a mage of some sort.

On the other hand, I'm not really looking for any kind of smut -- although I can just AFK, so to speak, while that sort of thing is happening, I guess.

Would that be ok?
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Cold Heritage

Quote from: Kunoichi on August 26, 2010, 01:47:28 AM
Sign me up. ^^ I've even got a street sam already written up and waiting to be used, though she uses items from Arsenal and some character options from Runner's Companion...

Edit: Although, she was built with the standard 400 BP allocation, so I suppose I'd have to spend the extra 100...

Edit2: Not that I'm doing so yet, or anything. ^^;

Probably would not be hard to spend 100 extra points.

I guess it depends on what you took from Arsenal and Runner's Companion. Nothing in the former struck me as particularly egregious, although some of the options in the latter seemed rather beyond the pale. Adding modifications and accessories to firearms seemed quite alright, for example, while the various HMHVV stuff seemed like too much headache, trouble, and borkery.

My illiteracy is also hardcore. I dunno if it's something you can handle.

Quote from: meikle on August 26, 2010, 03:03:03 AM
I would love to play some Shadowrun -- even better if I could put together a mage of some sort.

On the other hand, I'm not really looking for any kind of smut -- although I can just AFK, so to speak, while that sort of thing is happening, I guess.

Would that be ok?

That would be fine.
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

Kunoichi

Quote from: Cold Heritage on August 26, 2010, 09:10:39 PM
Probably would not be hard to spend 100 extra points.

I guess it depends on what you took from Arsenal and Runner's Companion. Nothing in the former struck me as particularly egregious, although some of the options in the latter seemed rather beyond the pale. Adding modifications and accessories to firearms seemed quite alright, for example, while the various HMHVV stuff seemed like too much headache, trouble, and borkery.

>>; Well, that might be a bit of a problem, then.  She's a ghoul...

You won't have to deal with the mechanics of the HMHVV virus, though.  I took the 5 point non-contagious negative flaw.

Quote from: Cold Heritage on August 26, 2010, 09:10:39 PM
My illiteracy is also hardcore. I dunno if it's something you can handle.

Eh, I'm a surprisingly patient person.  I think I'll be able to handle it just fine.

ReijiTabibito

*raises hand*  I have a pair of characters that I've been dying to get in on a game...I even got to playtest one at a convention a little over a month ago, and he worked out great!

Cold Heritage

Yeah, gonna pass on a ghoul.

Would you care to elaborate in general terms what they are, Reiji?
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

Kunoichi

Aww.  Oh well.  I guess I'd have to make some other character, then.

Can I ask why no Ghouls allowed, though?  Is it all the stat increases, or the cannibalism, or...?

meikle

#9
Quote from: Kunoichi on August 26, 2010, 11:57:40 PM
Aww.  Oh well.  I guess I'd have to make some other character, then.

Can I ask why no Ghouls allowed, though?  Is it all the stat increases, or the cannibalism, or...?

ghouls are treated more like wild animals than like meta-human beings pretty much everywhere

the percentage of them that are even self-aware anymore is tiny and pretty much ignored ... it's the kind of thing that is just really difficult to accommodate, i think.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

ReijiTabibito

The first one - my playtested one - is William 'Ghost' Hotchner, ex-UCAS Special Forces Weapons Specialist.  He's something of, in terms of the pregenned characters in 20th anniversary ed, a cross between the Weapons Specialist and the Gunslinger Adept, mixing both high weapons skills and Adept magic.  His role within the group would be threefold. 

One: he'd be the group's heavy close range hitter - he's got two levels of the Krav Maga Martial Arts Quality, a few Maneuvers, and enough skill levels to automatically buy 2 hits on any sort of close range combat. 

Two: he'd be the group's weapons modification specialist - he has Armorer 4, with a Firearms Specialty, plus a Shop set aside for the Armorer Skill.

Three: the group's version of the A-Team's Mad Dog Murdock - able to pilot almost anything.


The second one is a Technomancer that I drew up a while back when I was first getting interested in T-mancers and what they could do.  The character concept name is Techno-Infiltrator.  Think Sam Fisher meets Anna Grimsdottir, both from Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.

Getting him to work at 400 BP was a bit tricky, but with your special guidelines, I can easily turn him into a hacking badass.  Y'know, if I don't have to abide by the whole 'limit of Logic*2 Complex Forms at the start' thing.

Kunoichi

#11
Quote from: meikle on August 27, 2010, 12:03:57 AM
ghouls are treated more like wild animals than like meta-human beings pretty much everywhere

the percentage of them that are even self-aware anymore is tiny and pretty much ignored ... it's the kind of thing that is just really difficult to accommodate, i think.

It's actually not that difficult, from what I can tell.  There's an optional rule to have your dietary needs covered by an increase in lifestyle costs, there's a quality that will keep you from becoming a walking biohazard, there are a number of pieces of fluff suggesting that the local ghoul population in Seattle has made some headway in integrating into society in a few places, (one of the little pieces of chapter-intro fiction in Runner's Companion has ghoul runner Hannibelle meeting a ghoul Johnson at an upscale restaurant that also caters to ghouls on the side, for example, and there's a piece of fiction in Seattle 2072 about a cop disposing of a body by taking it to some ghouls hiding out right in Downtown Seattle,) and the guy responsible for writting the stats for HMHVV Strain III has admitted that he didn't have a clear grasp of the disease rules at the time, and didn't intend for it to be some sort of unstoppable, touch-transmitted super-virus...

...

*wonders if the case she's making looks as good onscreen as it originally sounded in her head*

...Anyway, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that ghoul runners tend to be a lot like other runners.  They just try to avoid having people come into contact with their various bodily fluids, sweat, saliva, blood, and so on, and are a little tougher and stronger, at the cost of being a little less sharp.  Sort of like trolls, except that they can also be any metatype they choose.  And roughly once a week, they have it arranged so that they get a package from a special refrigerated delivery truck that they tell any nosy neighbors is a special shipment of real meat from their uncle's cattle ranch down in Cal-Free, or whatever other cover story they use.

And then, perhaps, depending on their sense of humor and whether or not they have the right implants, they might invite said neighbors over to their house every once in a while for hamburgers... >:)

meikle

Apologies again for coming off so snarky, Kunoichi!  It wasn't my intention. -_-  I edited the post, but I wasn't quick enough on the draw!


Anyway, I was thinking about a mage.  Probably an elven mage, because why not; I have to bone up a little bit more on my Shadowrun lore (it's been awhile), but I'm picturing someone born and raised in one of the Elven nations (Tir na nOg?) and pretty stuck up.  I'm picturing her as having been raised by a rich, well-off elven family.  Very posh, really stuck up, pretty racist and so on -- until it's discovered that her parents were embezzling money, ripping off their company/selling trade secrets, etc, and more or less sued into bankruptcy.  She would have been working as a corporate mage when this happened, and discover that working as a wage mage just wasn't enough income to support her lifestyle without the backing of her parents affluence.

And now, she is a criminal.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Kunoichi

Quote from: meikle on August 27, 2010, 01:58:54 AM
Apologies again for coming off so snarky, Kunoichi!  It wasn't my intention. -_-  I edited the post, but I wasn't quick enough on the draw!

Eh, that's alright.  I don't think you came off as snarky at all. ^^ I was just about to edit my own post to better reflect your edit, and to talk less about the character I want to play and more about ghoul characters in general, though.

Quote from: meikle on August 27, 2010, 01:58:54 AM
Anyway, I was thinking about a mage.  Probably an elven mage, because why not; I have to bone up a little bit more on my Shadowrun lore (it's been awhile), but I'm picturing someone born and raised in one of the Elven nations (Tir na nOg?) and pretty stuck up.  I'm picturing her as having been raised by a rich, well-off elven family.  Very posh, really stuck up, pretty racist and so on -- until it's discovered that her parents were embezzling money, ripping off their company/selling trade secrets, etc, and more or less sued into bankruptcy.  She would have been working as a corporate mage when this happened, and discover that working as a wage mage just wasn't enough income to support her lifestyle without the backing of her parents affluence.

And now, she is a criminal.

Tir na nOg is (or used to be; I'm not that up on my own lore, to be honest,) somewhere up in the UK.  You'd probably do better with Tir Tairngire, located much, much closer to good old Seattle.  Of course, that country was much bigger on nobility than corporations, so you'd probably be better off as some noble, fancy-schmancy elven duchess type who fell straight into the shadows when the nobility were kicked out of power in the Tir by Hestaby...

meikle

Tir Tairngire was probably what I was thinking of, yeah, although she could have left Tir na nOg for Seattle after her family's falling out and have a horrible, horrible Elven-British accent.

It's something to think on when it's not 2 AM, I suppose.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Kunoichi

Probably. ^^;

Either way, I finished editing my own post.  Hopefully I was able to get across some of the fun sides of playing a ghoul. :P

ReijiTabibito

Well, from the discussion here...it's starting to sound more like I'll be going with Character B instead of Character A...not that I mind.  I've been dying to try out a Technomancer!

meikle

Well I got no intention of stepping into shooting things territory beyond having my character carry around a gun.

I'm imagining her as a mage with a strong focus on 'killing things' magic though and a bit of Conjuration for good mileage.

...

Furthermore, I definitely don't think ghouls make bad characters -- I've barked up that tree so many times -- but I can understand why GMs wouldn't want to handle them.  There's always going to be a social stigma around cannibals that some GMs might not want to handle, and dual-natured can create some weird situations as well.

I'm more familiar with the 3E rules, also, but as I recall they suck at magic (as a result of being infected) and lose double Essence on Cybernetics, which means they tend to end up with the often undesirable "social reject not-magician without cybernetics" role.  D:

On the other hand, they're just neat.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Kunoichi

Well, in 4th, that bit about cyberware costing double essence is gone.  Presumably, technology advanced far enough that it's just not a problem any longer.  As for sucking at magic, starting out with 5 essence is a bit more difficult, true, but that just means that your average magical ghoul character will want to start out with a Magic stat of 4, which is still completely workable. (Note that in 4th, being a magical character starts your Magic at 1, and you then have to raise it by spending points on it.  That last bump up costs extra, so most awakened characters start out with a Magic stat 1 under their Essence, then buy it up with karma later.)

The stat increases for being a ghoul are really good for their cost, though, which I think would be the main reason why Cold Heritage would want to disallow them as an option. ^^; Which I'm perfectly fine with, really.  I just tend to feel better when I know the logic behind why a given option is being disallowed.  It helps me know what sorts of things I might want to avoid when creating my character.

Cold Heritage

The ghoul being, as I understand it, exceptionally good in terms of cost/reward terms is one of the reasons I do not want them in my game. The part about them being cannibalistic monsters that are acceptable targets for violent elimination is another. In the SNES video game, ghouls were just monsters you could grind for karma, and there's biasing me, along with their role in every other rpg I've been exposed to where they are cannon fodder barely above the common zombie. I've seen some pretty sick builds that rely on ghoul being an option to make them work - though you could of course make the argument that there are a lot of sick builds out there that require other stuff, but it's my game and ghouls don't interest me and I don't wany any part of what they bring to the game with a PC at the helm of one.

AFAIK, Tir na nOg has nobility and corporations. They just did not have as much nobility going on as Tir Tairngire (which, AFAIK, had a plebian revolution that ousted the nobility because their rule made no sense in the hyper-capitalist world of 2072), but you could probably swing everything you wanted out of being from there.

Sounds good, Reiji. You mentioned wanting more complex forms to start - can you run down for me why you want that, what it does for you, etc? My command of technomancy isn't terribly firm.
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

Kunoichi

I can definitely understand, then.  Though, I have to admit, I am a little curious about these 'sick builds' you've seen... ^^;

Either way, once we're free to start working on character sheets, I'll just go with a different character concept.  I've been thinking about a troll smuggler/rigger already.

ReijiTabibito

Quote from: Cold Heritage on August 27, 2010, 06:27:13 PM
Sounds good, Reiji. You mentioned wanting more complex forms to start - can you run down for me why you want that, what it does for you, etc? My command of technomancy isn't terribly firm.

Okay.  In order to do what they do, hackers need programs.  Want to find a piece of information?  Browse.  Find someone online?  Trace.  Keep from being found?  Stealth, or Spoof depending on the situation.

However, Technomancers are capable of manipulating the Matrix using nothing but their own minds.  In order to do this, however, they need a series of complex mental algorithms that function in a way similar-yet-not to a hacker's programs.  These are Complex Forms.

If you want to know more, read pages 239-240 in the 20th ed book.

Now, reason I want it is because the fact that I was limited to my Logic*2 Complex Forms kept me from being able to do as a Technomancer what I could do as a Hacker.  As a Hacker, all I needed was enough nuyen to buy the program, and I could have any program I wanted.  And, as a matter of fact, a Hacker character I'm running right now has almost all of the programs listed in both the core and in Unwired.  But as a Technomancer, the limit cap on Complex Forms meant that if I wanted to do as much as my Hacker, I had to work both as a Technomancer and as a Hacker, causing penalties to both of my actions.

I guess what I'm saying is this.  The appeal of a Technomancer is to be able to do things that a Hacker can't normally do, since they work the Matrix in a different way.  And that's cool and everything, but if it comes down to being able to do cool stuff as a Technomancer, but have to wait to be able to do everything a Hacker can do from the get-go...I'd personally rather be able to do everything from the get-go.

Also, random question regarding Mages & Technomancers.  Are you allowing people to buy Initiation or Submersion (the Techno version of Initiation) from the very beginning?

Kunoichi

Actually, Threading and Sprites both let a Technomancer be even more versatile in the matrix than a hacker...

ReijiTabibito

Yeah, but threading is only really worth it if you've got A: a low program that needs to temporarily work better, or B: an insanely high pool to resist Fading (the Techno version of Drain), because Threading a program to be higher than your resonance causes Physical damage, if you can't succeed.

And yes, Sprites are useful, too, but the lengths you have to go through in order to get them ensure that you're not going to use a Sprite Service just for them to say, find a single piece of data with Browse, or something.

Kunoichi

But since Registering a Sprite (Technomancer version of Binding a Spirit) is free, it actually is possible to do just that...  And having a Data Sprite do Browsing for you during legwork actually frees you up to do other things during that time, so in a way it's really more of a time-saver than anything.

Kolbrandr

Just expressing some interest. As a question, given the higher point total, is gear still limited to 50 BP spent on? (or 60 with the born rich quality)

Kunoichi

*points up to where it says 75 BP for resources*

ReijiTabibito

#27
Registering isn't really free...granted, you don't have to resist Fading in the same way that Magicians have to resist Drain, but they still have to beat the Sprites' rating to register it.

EDIT:  Actually, Kuno, Resources refers to Spells, Foci, Complex Forms, Sprites, Spirits, stuff like that.

Kolbrandr

Quote from: Kunoichi on August 27, 2010, 09:03:07 PM
*points up to where it says 75 BP for resources*

I saw, but, resources are a bunch of things (Gear, forms, etc. Gear is just one subset of and usually limited to 50 out of it), so, asking.

Kunoichi

No, starting resources and gear are pretty much synonymous in 4th edition. ^^; So, you can spend up to 75 BP on gear and other starting resources, with no specific cap for gear itself.

Kolbrandr

They might have changed that up in the 4th ed anniversary edition that has the slight rules changes in it then, I'm looking at resources and it notes gear as just one of the types of.

"Resources cover
all the tools of your character’s trade, including gear, cyberware, magic
spells, and technomancer complex forms."

And so forth.


Cold Heritage

Sorry, Kolbrandr. With muse, miekle, kunoichi, and reiji, that's four - I am not taking on anymore.

To clarify, when I say 75 points for resources, I mean you can spend 75 points for money. So you can spend like 75 points and get like 375,000 nuyen without dipping into qualities positive or negative that give you more cold, insubstantial wireless dollars. How you spend that money is subject to varying limitation (e.g. the availability rating is capped at 12, iirc). Other things, like spirits, foci, etc., follow their own particular limitations.

I guess go ahead and make a sheet, kuno. Just, uh, don't go too crazy. Same goes for you, miekle.

Beyond not requiring physical materials that could conceivably stolen (which seems fairly well mitigated by needing to buy the technomancer quality, the resonance trait, and costs for complex forms seems generally unfavourable in bp costs to nuyen costs for programs), reiji, help me to understand the advantage a technomancer possesses. And, specifically, what are you asking for with regards to complex form limitation? Are you asking for the number of forms to be increased, or for the limit to be waived entirely (bearing in mind that this, to my mind, also means that I need, to be fair, to modify limitations on starting spells)?

I will not allow initiation or submersion at character generation.
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

Kolbrandr


meikle

Shiny shiny shiny

I'll try to get a sheet up for you in the next couple of days -- I'm moving tomorrow, but I'm moving to a city that is basically a massive wireless hot spot so I should be around regardless.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

ReijiTabibito

Quote from: Cold Heritage on August 27, 2010, 09:46:08 PM
Beyond not requiring physical materials that could conceivably stolen (which seems fairly well mitigated by needing to buy the technomancer quality, the resonance trait, and costs for complex forms seems generally unfavourable in bp costs to nuyen costs for programs), reiji, help me to understand the advantage a technomancer possesses. And, specifically, what are you asking for with regards to complex form limitation? Are you asking for the number of forms to be increased, or for the limit to be waived entirely (bearing in mind that this, to my mind, also means that I need, to be fair, to modify limitations on starting spells)?

Okay.  Technomancers have a few primary advantages compared to mundane Hackers.  First, Complex Forms cannot be affected like normal programs.  Any action that targets a program - such as Crash Program - cannot affect a Complex Form.  In furtherance of this, certain softwares are useless against Technomancers - primarily the Nuke and Disarm softwares.  (These are in Unwired, so you don't need to worry about them necessarily.)

Second, because of the nature of a Technomancer's Organic Commlink (the term used for what enables Technomancers to do their thing), their location cannot be pinpointed by a Track program.  Anyone attempting to use anything other than a Track Complex Form to find a technomancer can only fix the technomancer's position to within 50 meters of a node he is actively connected to. 

Third, a Technomancer's Organic Commlink cannot be hacked by anyone other than a Sprite of another Technomancer.  They are essentially immune to 'mundane' hackers.


What I'm asking for...basically, I need to have the starting cap of Complex Forms increased to 12.  This isn't too much, since I can buy my Logic up to 5, and thus increase my 'normal' cap to 10 Complex Forms.

ReijiTabibito

Cold?  Something else I thought of (hate to double post, though).  For Gear (weapons and armor and vehicles and such), are we still going with 12 as the Availability Cap unless you take the Restricted Gear Quality?  Or are we putting it up a little higher?

Cold Heritage

You can modify your posts; that brings up the new indicator too, iirc.

Thank you for the information. Increasing the number of complex forms seems reasonable. How about to Logic*3 (and the same for spells)? Would that work for you?

Still going with 12 as the availability cap unless you take the restricted gear quality.
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

ReijiTabibito

Logic*3 works for me.  And for spells, it'd be Spellcasting or Ritual Spellcasting (whichever is higher) *3.  But yes, that works quite well for me, thanks.  ^_^

And okay on the gear availability cap.

Kunoichi

#38
Hmm.  This troll smuggler I'm making, Moonbay, is looking less like a dedicated rigger, and more like someone who uses drones for utility and occasionally backup in a fight...

Edit: Question.

Can I use the weapon modification rules to add an Integral Smartgun System to a Bow? ^^;

ReijiTabibito

#39
Cold, question I have.  Are we still sticking to the rule of having no Skill Group being higher than 4 at creation?

EDIT:  Also, just something I noticed.  Kol has, to my own perception, expressed a bit more interest in this game than Muse has, in terms of posts and such.  Nothing against Muse, but he hasn't posted in this thread since his initial post.  Plus, I know that there's a tendency for people to volunteer interest in games they don't end up playing in - I know, because I'm guilty of it.  You might be better off with the four people who express definite and sustained interest in this game, rather than just the first four.

Kunoichi

Quote from: Cold Heritage on August 26, 2010, 01:13:32 AM
It would make me sad, and it would make me flake out and give you a story about how my dog ate my internets. Or how it ate my books (which are all electronic).

*hopes she didn't wind up scaring Cold off somehow*

Cold Heritage

If you're not interest anymore, Reiji, that's cool. No worries.

Quote from: Kunoichi on August 28, 2010, 09:22:45 PM
Can I use the weapon modification rules to add an Integral Smartgun System to a Bow? ^^;

I guess. The only functionality you get out of that is the +2 dice to hit, isn't it? Since your bow wouldn't have a clip to eject, or a firing mode you could change, and all that, right?

Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

Kunoichi

Pretty much, yes.

...That said, Reiji and I were talking about our characters a couple of days ago, after we asked those questions a few posts up, and apparently the only reason he's working on his Technomancer character is because he feels compelled to have someone covering the Matrix angle on the team.  He's actually got this Adept character that he'd strongly prefer to play, instead, and so I figured I'd see if I could cover that role instead, so that he can play what he wants to play.

I already have this 400 BP AI character worked up who's strong, but not overpowered, and would do an excellent job as a hacker and rigger for the team. ^^; It's a fully-realized character, with a backstory and everything...

Kolbrandr

#43
Quote from: ReijiTabibito on August 28, 2010, 10:51:23 PM
Cold, question I have.  Are we still sticking to the rule of having no Skill Group being higher than 4 at creation?

EDIT:  Also, just something I noticed.  Kol has, to my own perception, expressed a bit more interest in this game than Muse has, in terms of posts and such.  Nothing against Muse, but he hasn't posted in this thread since his initial post.  Plus, I know that there's a tendency for people to volunteer interest in games they don't end up playing in - I know, because I'm guilty of it.  You might be better off with the four people who express definite and sustained interest in this game, rather than just the first four.

The fellow might be busy with life things in the interim or something like that, I wouldn't want to claim a spot from the guy that he was given, I'd feel badly about that. Appreciate the sentiment though.

Besides, the most coherent concept I had was for a blade using/close combat focused adept with some bioware ;p

ReijiTabibito

#44
Whoa, I never said that I wasn't interested anymore.  I'm still in, I'm just saying that you might not want to close applications after the first four people say they want to participate.


EDIT: Also, Cold, there's a set of Advanced Rules for Technomancers in Unwired.  Can we use them, as long as I decide not to munchkin my character in favor of those rules?

Muse

*Waves* 

My charecter's well underway.  I just haven't felt the need to clutter the thread up when I didn't have any questions that weren't already covered. 

So, to check something though, is the roll of heavy hitter more or less the one that needs  filling? 
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

ReijiTabibito

That depends on your definition of heavy hitter.  Kuno's building a troll who is part combatant part wheelman/rigger, and one of my possible characters is a former UCAS Spec Forces operative who knows Martial Arts, has the Firearms skill group, and a crazy amount of weaponry. 

Muse

Quote from: ReijiTabibito on August 31, 2010, 01:48:21 AM
That depends on your definition of heavy hitter.  Kuno's building a troll who is part combatant part wheelman/rigger, and one of my possible characters is a former UCAS Spec Forces operative who knows Martial Arts, has the Firearms skill group, and a crazy amount of weaponry.

Ah, perhaps i haven't heard perfectly then. 

Fang is a mystic adept, and I'll be focusing her on being able to be able to move around as inconcspiciously as possible and still be able to unleash hell. 

I also have her with some Face type abilities.  I can play them up. 
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

ReijiTabibito

#48
Cold, I think the question got obscured by the misunderstanding, but I was wondering if you were still capping the Skill Groups at 4 to start?  I ask b/c if I end up playing my Techno, it may affect how I distribute my BP.

EDIT: Other questions I had.

1 - The Spirit Bane Negative Quality sounds like it could be adapted for Sprites, as well.  Would you allow me to take Spirit Bane, and specify a type of Sprite?  It would make more sense for a Technomancer to have angered a Sprite type than a Spirit type.

2 - For Contacts, would you allow me to take a Free Sprite as a contact?  There are sample ones listed somewhere, if memory serves...

3 - Distinctive Style.  What would you consider as 'Distinctive Style' for this game?

4 - I am trying to think of a Negative Quality that is a sort of trademark, a unique way of hacking that identifies my Techno character.  Now, it's not Distinctive Style, since that's a physical thing...any thoughts on your end?

meikle

Hey people

Just got my internet back, I hope you have not dumped me!
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Kunoichi


meikle

I had forgotten how much effort Shadowrun characters are to build.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

ReijiTabibito

You're playing...an Elf Mage, right Meikle?  Charisma-based Tradition, I'm guessing?

meikle

Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

ReijiTabibito

Actually, it depends on the Tradition you use.  Some use Logic - these are Hermetics, for the most part; others use Intuition - these are more ecstatic traditions; and yet others use Charisma - these are more Shamanistic types of Traditions.  Have a look in Street Magic. 

meikle

when i'm saying i'm making a mage

i am referring to the tradition that is referred to as 'mage' in the Shadowrun texts, as opposed to like, shamans or voudouns or whatever else
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

ReijiTabibito

Oh.  You're making a Hermetic.  Okay.  The misunderstanding could have been avoided if I'd understood that that was what you were saying.

meikle

Yes.  A hermetic mage.  :P  Sorry, that's a habit; I'm used to just the differentiation between mages as opposed to shamans.  Regardless, she's the brainy wizard type.

I have 14 BP left, and then I need to spend my 10 free contact points.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Muse

A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

meikle

Thanks, Muse!

I have a sheet just about ready and a bunch of background to go with it I think but now I'm like second guessing my memory and going through the book etc

Trying to remember if I have to buy a special set-up for spirit-summoning and binding in my house, etc (I know you had to in 3e for example)
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Kunoichi

You don't need it, you can summon anything anywhere and just need Binding Materials to bind a spirit.

Cold Heritage

Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

Kunoichi

*guesses that's a no to her request to make an AI character*

Oh well.  Guess I'll work on a regular human hacker, then. ^^;

Muse

But a lodge is needed to study for advance in magic. 

And an aspect ed domain can help. 
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

meikle

Hum.

I recall me 3e mage summoning a water elemental from her bathtub. :p

Anyway, I think my sheet is done.  What should I do with it?
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Cold Heritage

What usually happens when people're done sheets?
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

meikle

Usually I ask "what do you want me to do with my sheet" and then, if we were, for example, doing a play by post kind of game, the ST would tell me "post it here in the thread" or "PM it to me"

Overall, I've never gotten the 'don't provide an answer, but instead be inexplicably rude' answer to that question.
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Cold Heritage

So, if me asking how things are usually done is gonna be taken as rude, we should probably call it quits because, like I mentioned in the first post, this's my first time running Shadowrun and I'd be asking more often what the usual way of doing things is.
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

meikle

I definitely read it as being snarky or sarcastic -- I will apologize if that wasn't the intent!

I am not having a great day and that might be the reason I took it that way D:
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Kunoichi

*is almost done with that human hacker character she mentioned*

As meikle mentioned, the usual procedure is to either PM the character sheet to the GM, or post it in an appropriate thread on the forums (this one, for example).  So, when I finalize the details on this hacker girl, should I PM her to you, or...?

ReijiTabibito

So, um, we are moving forward with this, right?  I've been agonizing over upgrading my character, and I've finally finished him...

Hello?

Anyone?

Kunoichi

*hopes once again that we haven't scared Cold off*

ReijiTabibito

Cold, no one is trying to be mean or think that what you're asking is rude.  People just are kinda used to having the GM tell them what to do when their character is ready.

Come back, Cold...we still want to play.