Shadowrun: Freeport

[TFcommando]

One thing that comes to mind is "Why an arcology?"  There aren't a ton in Shadowrun, the Renraku shutdown didn't help with their public image and there's not the overpopulation or land shortages that would immediately justify one on an island.  What's the official line about what it's for and the rumors about the "real story?" :)

[Pretty in Pink]

Let's go with she's there doing a show.  I think that might be much more fun!

[HopeFox]

The setting looks great! It really makes the island feel like a microcosm of the entire Sixth World.

I think Tlazohtzin is there to collaborate with either SunBank or Maritech on host sculpting. She's a Matrix artist as well as a technician, so host aesthetics are a specialty of hers. Here's what I have so far for her background:

Tlazohtzin Amoztli

Tlazohtzin Amoxtli was born to a large farming family in rural Aztlan. Her family's farm was ultimately owned by Aztechnology, of course, and mostly grew coffee beans for export. Her family was of mixed Spanish and Nahuatl descent, like most Mexicans, and lived within the Nahuatl culture that had existed in the rural parts of Mexico even before it became more widespread with the Awakening. Her village and family had followed its own form of the Aztec religion since before the fall of Tenochtitlan, albeit with strong syncretic influences from Catholicism.

Tlazohtzin came into the world with a birth defect that rendered her voicebox entirely non-functional, and therefore she is completely mute. As an adult she would have the ability to use electrodes or direct neural interface to generate speech, but these techniques are far too dangerous for a baby, and as a result she grew up without learning how to speak at all.

In spite of this, Tlazohtzin led a happy childhood. Her village was on the edge of urbanization and technological and social progress, and so hers was the first generation in her family to enjoy the benefits of modern technology and education (sponsored by Aztechnology, of course). She split her time between farm work and her education, and developed a keen interest in electronics and computing. She did not socialize very well outside her family, hindered by her inability to talk, and so was a bit of a lonely child at school. On the Matrix, however, she could be herself, making many friends and developing a reputation as a highly social animal - Hummingbird.

When she finished high school, Tlazohtzin attended university in Tenochtitlan on an Aztechnology scholarship, to study programming and host design. This led her directly into working for one of Aztechnology's more mundane subsidiaries as a database technician and Matrix host sculptor. In her spare time, she is a moderator and designer for an "explicit simsense peer-to-peer interface host" (i.e. a cybersex chatroom host).

In the flesh, Tlazohtzin is a rather shy, unassuming woman, of clear Mexican descent. She doesn't precisely avoid human interaction, but is quiet and doesn't put herself forward very much. She communicates using a speech synthesis program linked to her neural interface, which produces speech which sounds perfectly human, not a creepy monotone. She can instruct it to mimic an emotion, but it does not properly reflect her actual emotional state, and thus does not sound quite natural. She prefers to communicate through text messages.

In the Matrix, Hummingbird is a beautiful Aztec priestess with colourful hummingbird feathers along her arms and shoulders. She is extremely social and helpful, and tolerates n00bs gladly.

I will hopefully have a sheet ready soon.

Admiral J, I'm not going to argue about your interpretation of the setting, other than to say that I disagree with it completely. I also think that it is very bad form to threaten another player's character before the game has even started, and I hope that you will extend to me the same presumption of good faith that I am extending to you and all other players and the GM.

[Muse]

Work in progress, I hope you like: 

Jessica Heartwell "Heartrazor"

[Admiral J]

I may have worded my initial response poorly.  Any PvP will require consent between the players and even then I want it rare if not non-existent.  That is not to say that there won't be distrust and non-violent conflict, but depending on player attrition not everyone may be in the same scene at the same time constantly.  Also the first portion of the game will be very focused on survival.  The characters may not trust each other, but they may not have a choice but to cooperate to avoid death.  Also the local Aztechnology presence is softer than it may be in other areas.  Banking and Aquaculture. 

If someone decides that their character exists solely to cause issues I will deal with it at the time.  But I don't want to impose the restriction that everyone has to be best buddies.

Understood, and thank you for the clarification, Cleric.  I'm going to bow out, but I wish you and your players good fortune.

Admiral J, I'm not going to argue about your interpretation of the setting, other than to say that I disagree with it completely. I also think that it is very bad form to threaten another player's character before the game has even started, and I hope that you will extend to me the same presumption of good faith that I am extending to you and all other players and the GM.

Good faith!  Yes, we /definitely/ play very different versions of Shadowrun.  :)  My sincerest apologies, HopeFox, it was always my intention to give you (as a /player/) the benefit of the doubt, not cast aspersions -- in my experience of Shadowrun, backstabbing, threats, and Aztechnology betrayal are important parts of mature Shadowrun play, not counter to it.  I beg forgiveness if my words in this thread were ill chosen -- I was obviously operating from a perspective you do not share.

I recognize I wouldn't be a good fit here, and I respectfully remove myself.  Have a great game!

[PixelatedPixie]

TFCommando

The official story was land-useage.  Out of character, modern Freeport looked like it took up a good chunk of the island already so when I increased the population I wanted a reason not for it to cover too much of the island.  Then I got into thinking about skyscrapers versus larger structures.  In character.  It was to avoid expanding into areas dedicated to resorts.  Semi-officially it was so they could quarantine a large part of the population in the event of another VITA plague.  Unofficially.  There are rumours about where the money came from, who bank-rolled it when the Caribbean League is hardly well-off, and why Aztechnology has an aquafarming operation there.  The usual answer is that it has to do with the Atlantean Foundation and Bimini Road. 

Hopefully all of that sounds reasonable.  I will work on expanding and cleaning that up though and adding it to the setting thread.

Pretty in Pink

I will work up something when I know more about your character!

HopeFox

I like the background!

Muse

She looks interesting so far.

Admiral J

Sorry.  I hope I haven't caused tension or issues through my response.  I am going in somewhat blind on things so can't promise that it will all work out how I have said. 

[Pretty in Pink]

And like Muse and Hope, she's just a WIP.  But I think that's most of her backstory!

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Trinity Matson was born a nobody in NAN territory.  Her parents were corporate wageslaves, who doted on their only child.  Complications in childbirth meant that she would be their only child, so anything she wanted, she got.  When she was seven, and wanted to be a superstar, her parents saved up and managed to get her a voice coach and a tutor, beginning what they couldn't know at the time was a meteoric rise to fame.

At fifteen, she performed in a talent show, where a scout for Horizon's Pathfinder Multimedia heard her sing and immediately approached her parents, offering her the deal of a lifetime (literally): As long as she put out at least one record every two years, every expense she and her parents could dream of would be covered by the corporation, but it would mean she became the newest rising star, and the new face of Pathfinder.

Two weeks later, the family finally had an answer for them.  Her parents had been wary at first, and what parents wouldn't be, but Trinity's enthusiasm would not relent.  So the contract was signed, and Trinity became the newest face backed by Pathfinder's substantial budgets.

Now, Trinity's look changes on almost a weekly basis.  When she first started with Pathfinder, NAN citizens were enamored and adoring of the cherubic redhead with the voice of an angel.  As she grew and matured, however, her look changed, going from the everywoman next door to a pseudo-goth look, until today, where Trinity is known as the most glamorous punk rocker on the scene.  Granted, it hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows for her.

A bout with BTLs left her in rehab when her mother died four years ago.  A year and a half gap took place while she was getting clean, where no music came out from her, and the media networks began to wonder what had happened with Pathfinder's newest rising star.  When she came back, it was in her current mode, with hair colored every outlandish color you could think of, and some you couldn't, and clothes that looked patched, ratty, ripped, and worn, but as a fashion statement.  Her latest concert tour has led her through most of what was once Europe, all of what was once North America, and even parts of Aztlan.  Now, though... now she's in Freeport.

[PixelatedPixie]

I like her!

I will probably have her show being the result of a favour to some local bigwig.  The crowd isn't expected to be large but the top of the Arcology has been rented out regardless.  Any thoughts towards her show?

Would anyone else's character be interested in being at her show?  That could be a simple way to get a few people in the same location.

[Muse]

  Numbers crunched, now just to flesh out a background. 

  And maybe I need two more spells? 

  Jessica is an ares citzent and security mage.  (She never did have much of a knack for guns, but I didn't go so far as to give her incompetent because I allready had way more than 25 flaws.)

  Until recently, she was posted in Baltimore, right hand to the head security mage in an important facility. 

  In her four years in that position, her facility has been raided by shadowrunners three times.  The first time, she opened with deadly force, using ice spears.  She injured an orc, then was shot a few times.  She woke up the next day to discover that the Runners had been using gel rounds. 

   It shook up Jessi's view of heroes and villains, and she made a point of learning a stun bolt to go with her ice spears and her signature spell—a radiant blade of mana. 

   Her facility was raided on her watch twice since then, and both times, her team managed to repel the runners.   In both cases, there was an occasion for Jessi to melee one of them with her blade, which was why they began calling her Heartrazor. 

   A few months ago, Jessi gained a new junior co worker, an ambitious young woman from an important family—Natalie.  Jessi found the girl to be spoiled, her laziness a security risk.  After getting Natalie reprimanded by their superior, Jessi found herself being transferred far from home to do security at a minor facility on a distant island. 

   Along with fencing, Jessi likes to go dancing or motorcycling with her friends after work.  She also has enough skill with an electric guitar to participate in a jam session without being embarrassed. 

(Quick question.  How much for a guitar with built in sampler?)

*  *  *

  Jessi would love to go to the concert!   

[Pretty in Pink]

So in going through stuff to try and find her style examples, she's evolved somewhat.  She's slightly bitter when it comes to the corporations.  But she signed a contract, so she keeps performing.  But she works her bitterness into her lyrics, subtle jabs at the various corporations, and especially at the one that swore they'd take care of her parents for everything, and then couldn't cure her mother when she got sick.

For something like this, since I'm going to go Fame 4, it's being done more as a 'getting back in touch with her roots' show, she'd prefer it small, and almost entirely unplugged.  But I'm working up a list of songs via a YouTube playlist to give an idea of her normal style of music, including the slight evolution it underwent after her mother's death and her stint in rehab.  XD

[HopeFox]

Tlazohtzin will be in Freeport for work, but she would definitely take the chance to check out a live show while she was there!

[TFcommando]

*Tomb Raider Mage to be Named Later* will be on a working vacation, checking something out at one of the open sites with regard to Atlantis as well as taking the chance to lay naked on the beach.

At last, a chance to use the Distinctive Style: Exhibitionist drawback. :)

[PixelatedPixie]

Muse

For the guitar any price you think is reasonable is fine. 

TFcommando

I will try to come up with an interesting site that she might be interested in.

Everyone
We can move to the OOC thread to stop bumping this one.  I will go over the backgrounds to try and come up with some details for each character related to the island.

[Marie Reynolds]

Hey Sorry to post here if you wanted this to not be used or active. I was wondering  since I saw some drop outs if there was an opening?

[MisoThe Mouse]

Interested! But I am unfamiliar with Shadowrun, and have only played like two table top games.

But I am an avid Wiki reader lol  ;D

[PixelatedPixie]

I don't want to add anyone else until I have started things up.  Sorry.

[Ravenhawk]

TFCommando

The Reraku Arcology may be the big one mentioned in the major sourcebooks, but my impression from the novels is that there are several around the world. Aztechnology is big on them, and there's at least on in Germany.


As you can guess, I'm interested. I have several of the 3rd/4th/&5th ed books as pdf. Thinking of a Combat Biker (read Dead Air), either on vacation or disgraced.

That's if you have room for another of course

[Marie Reynolds]

Okay well if any openings do come please keep  me in the loop!