Author Topic: Of Dice and Men (SR5) (At least NC) (Read 3515 times)

RSGAlex · « **on:** November 18, 2015, 10:02:03 AM »

So, another attempt by me to run a system game. Differerent from my usual ones, but what can I say? I had an idea and a system for it.

Quote from: The Set Up

Most people, whether in or out of the shadows, don’t think much about corporate failures. One way or another, they tend to get buried and the kind of failure determines if it’s buried under media or under dirt.

Rarely, rarely, the failure is of such magnitude that not only does the cover up fail, but everything spirals out of control in ways that were never expected.

It was noon on the twenty-fifth of December, 2075 when one such failure was about to lurch forth into the wider world. A world which was holding its collective breath as the last minute grudges of the dragons started to play out.

In an obscure lab in Germany, even those events were being ignored. The scientists were watching meticulously calculating and adjusting, trying to ensure the success of decades of work. To think, if they’d failed, then things wouldn’t have gotten out of hand.

Copying and cloning the key sequences and markers of genetic engineering projects that they weren't supposed to have was the easy part. The difficult part was managing the mental finishing process; to get the subjects to absorb a shadowrunner-like mindset while not going wholly off the rails by being unable to form a team, or 'escaping the nurturing area', or falling into what they saw as any of a great number of total failure conditions.

Partial failures, the planners said, those would be acceptable. This batch only needed to start one very important run. Finishing was not only optional, but probably some kind of failure, because it’d likely lead to people being found, not bodies.

How funny then, when the 'job' started in the first few hours of March, that a bad automotive accident would lead to the success of the run, and to the group meeting a fast talker, actual last name of Johnson, who decides to direct the gift horse into earning more money.

Everyone gets to take Prototype Transhuman for free and the availability max is 14. Otherwise standard runner creation.

AndyZ · « **Reply #1 on:** November 18, 2015, 10:58:09 AM »

Keeping an eye on this.

Muse · « **Reply #2 on:** November 18, 2015, 11:48:10 AM »

Oh !

This sounds awesome. May I play?

Perhaps a mage? Prottoype transhuman gives mages a nice edge. :)

avorae · « **Reply #3 on:** November 18, 2015, 11:58:00 AM »

Keeping an eye on this...

RSGAlex · « **Reply #4 on:** November 18, 2015, 11:58:41 AM »

Scare up a sheet for me to look at, Muse. I recommend Chummer 5a if you don't already have a chargen program. Get one of the nightly builds if you can. More things work. The other free alternative just doesn't explain enough for me to recommend it to anyone but a programmer or really patient person.

Muse · « **Reply #5 on:** November 18, 2015, 12:23:12 PM »

Ack! Do I have too? I hate character builders. ^_^;;

I'd far rather just use a google drive document.

* * *

Did we have a virtual childhood too work from? simulated experiences that we grew up with?

RSGAlex · « **Reply #6 on:** November 18, 2015, 12:29:00 PM »

You don't have to. I've just found that it's really good for any character with a resources that's not either E or A. In the first case, the basics probably ate up all your 6k + karma expenditures, and in the second you've almost certainly got a few big expenditures that ate up most of your money.

Muse · « **Reply #7 on:** November 18, 2015, 12:34:58 PM »

Quote from: RSGAlex on November 18, 2015, 12:29:00 PM

You don't have to. I've just found that it's really good for any character with a resources that's not either E or A. In the first case, the basics probably ate up all your 6k + karma expenditures, and in the second you've almost certainly got a few big expenditures that ate up most of your money.

*smiles* Thank you.

Let's see... Avialbilty 14+ Will that cover second skin?

* * *

Edit: Ooh! nice, it will.

Muse · « **Reply #8 on:** November 18, 2015, 12:51:05 PM »

Next qusttion:

May we use Sum to Ten generation?

RSGAlex · « **Reply #9 on:** November 18, 2015, 01:05:15 PM »

Yes.

Pretend I made a funny joke here as to pad out the response length.

Muse · « **Reply #10 on:** November 18, 2015, 01:13:07 PM »

*smiles* Excelent. Story and character are building quickly.

Sum to ten will look like this:
Magic (3)      B
Attributes (3)   B
Resources (3)   B
Abilities (1)   D
Metatype (0)   E

Blue Leah · « **Reply #11 on:** November 18, 2015, 03:06:21 PM »

I'd love to write up a Sniper / Scout build for this, if you'd have me.

Ampere · « **Reply #12 on:** November 18, 2015, 04:23:29 PM »

This look interesting - hopefully a phys-ad will help round out the team a little?

Marie Reynolds · « **Reply #13 on:** November 19, 2015, 07:38:25 AM »

Okay i am tentatively interested. So is this going to be a game held in a Megacorps Arcology. Will we have to have Corporate Sins or Limited Corporate Sins? Will be corporate property now on the run?

Muse · « **Reply #14 on:** November 19, 2015, 07:57:14 AM »

I gathered from the backsory that we were allready on the run?

RSG, do you mean for us to pl ay out that initial run you describe in the back story?

RSGAlex · « **Reply #15 on:** November 19, 2015, 10:17:47 AM »

Working my way up; the initial run will be played out. There will be a much accelerated rate of edge recovery (probably a point a scene or so) for the run to represent things going horribly wrong (for the corp that set up the false flag) by things going wonderfully right (for you, the runners). So it will definitely start in Corp Territory.

Any SINs you guys and gals have are likely going to be fake ones, because the idea was to have the operation point definitely point at one corp, but also to fall apart at some point during investigations to either reshift blame, or to present a wounded deer.

And as for a phys-adept, again. Show me a sheet.

Marie Reynolds · « **Reply #16 on:** November 19, 2015, 10:44:01 AM »

Okay so we are an off the books project.

RSGAlex · « **Reply #17 on:** November 19, 2015, 12:05:59 PM »

Yep. This was a project so off the books that they had to find somebody else's books to be off of.

Muse · « **Reply #18 on:** November 19, 2015, 01:18:13 PM »

History at the bottom. Work in progress. Hope you like. :)

Tanoshimi

Muse · « **Reply #19 on:** November 19, 2015, 02:40:09 PM »

I dont need a drone console just to have some fly spies using hteir 'dog brain' fly around for me, do I?

RSGAlex · « **Reply #20 on:** November 19, 2015, 02:57:44 PM »

As I understand it, yes, you can. You don't get the console's Noise Reduction/Sharing, so it's limited to half device rating (IIRC) in active softs and you're missing out on the Rig bonuses and possibly the sim bonuses. I'd need to see if those are only when you're jumped in or using a console.

And as for general advice on what I see on the sheet, you'll want to mark down the Prototype Transhuman's associated negative (Wanted, a common & mild Allergy, Astral Beacon, or the 10 pt Insomnia, no points as it's part of PT) and may want to ditch the second fake SIN for an additional level on the one you've got and a bunch of rating 3 licenses. I'm guessing you're also eventually going to get Boost Str and a sustaining focus to do a quick boost on your damage?

Muse · « **Reply #21 on:** November 19, 2015, 05:51:48 PM »

Quote from: RSGAlex on November 19, 2015, 02:57:44 PM

As I understand it, yes, you can. You don't get the console's Noise Reduction/Sharing, so it's limited to half device rating (IIRC) in active softs and you're missing out on the Rig bonuses and possibly the sim bonuses. I'd need to see if those are only when you're jumped in or using a console.

And as for general advice on what I see on the sheet, you'll want to mark down the Prototype Transhuman's associated negative (Wanted, a common & mild Allergy, Astral Beacon, or the 10 pt Insomnia, no points as it's part of PT) and may want to ditch the second fake SIN for an additional level on the one you've got and a bunch of rating 3 licenses. I'm guessing you're also eventually going to get Boost Str and a sustaining focus to do a quick boost on your damage?

Oh, I wasn't planning on boost strength so much as a sustaining focus for combat senses, but that sounds like good advise.

It sounds like we should all be taking Wanted as our drawback?

I was wondering. Since we're strting with the first run, does that mean that I got this fake SIN from the people who set us on this run, and will have to ditch it when we go rogue?

* * *

Edit: Any more lisences you'd sugest?
Should I have a lifestyle yet? (I think maybe not since we just escaped?)
Is my history good? Is it clear who the 'god' is?

RSGAlex · « **Reply #22 on:** November 19, 2015, 06:58:04 PM »

You can take things other than Wanted, and even if you do, it's probably not the actual people that made you that are the ones after you.

For similar reasons, your SINs and homes won't get burned after the run. Unless you did something really stupid like flash you SIN at a camera or the like.

As for licenses, magic, blades, some business/job for cover (perhaps exorcist), and summoner if you want to keep around a summon. Especially get that last one if it'll be force 4 or higher. Most places don't care too much about lower force summons as long as you're not making a scene with it.

And if nothing else, mark down a street lifestyle and call it "alley by the stuffer shack" or something.

HopeFox · « **Reply #23 on:** November 19, 2015, 07:20:31 PM »

This looks really interesting! It's certainly a novel way to bring the team together. So did we all grow up together within the secret corporate research facility? Not much connection with the outside world?

This might be a great chance to play a technomancer - I've never done that. Or a regular decker, either way.

Can we use Prototype Transhuman to take genetech enhancements like Narco and Increased Myelination without losing Essence? Or is it only for actual bioware? EDIT: Also, what grades can we take our Prototype Transhuman bioware items in? Standard only? Alpha? Omega?

RSGAlex · « **Reply #24 on:** November 19, 2015, 08:38:07 PM »

I intentionally left the exact circumstances vague for the opportunity to give my prospective players a bit more leeway in background making.

I'm not at my books right now, so I'm not certain, but if you can afford it, it's bioware, and all the bits total to 1 essence or less, you can take it under Prototype Transhuman. So you have standard, alpha, omega, and used grades available. Not too sure why you'd take that last grade, though.