[Interest Check] Shadowrun: The Caribbean League (Semi-Freeform)

[Phaia]

I have been going back and forth at times to catch up on things Ciosa has ruled on so Instead I gathered them up!
I hope this helps some and it is not in a great format. I just added what I have went back to check on!

The Matrix is going to be patchwork - some places will be fully AR, some are going to be full VR only, some are going to be near nonexistant.  It's going to be location dependent, as recovery from Hurricane Donald has been haphazard.  I also need a clever name for the League's Shadowland Node.  I'm imagining it as the prototypical skull island filled with booty and undead skeletons running around as bots.  With a bar, of course.

Actually, 'the Locker' jumps out at me - it brings to mind a VR world of sunken underwater ships and shafts of light streaming from a distance surface, and neon jellyfish occasionally swimming through waters.  Outsiders who attack the Locker have had their avatars crushed to a pulp by an enormous Kraken.

Ciosa - You allowing multiple characters?

NPCs, yes, PCs no.  You can only have one PC that grows and accumulates notoriety and xp.

There are plenty of ideas I could work up, I felt the urge to post fast, concerned that the game might fill up as I was filling in details. :) 
That said, I'd like to see what you're doing with the character generation and before committing 100%.  I'm a bit of a traditionalist and like engaging with the system.

There is no player Cap! and this Shadow run is using ShadowrunTCL!

What's your stance on face claims?  Do you prefer art or images?  Or, since there are metahumans, a mixture?

I'm almost always pro images over art, just because I feel like it lends a certain visual element that art doesn't always.  If you absolutely must use art over images, I'd prefer as much realism as possible.  I like hentai and anime, but there's a time and a place for it and this is not it.  And glad to have you aboard!

Oh, that reminds me - everyone is presumed to have a knowledge skill matching an active skill.  If you have Matrix skill 3, you automatically have Matrix (Knowledge) 3.

Do all the attributes start at 0?

All attributes start at 0.

So...uhm, I'm already confused.  We start with 100 points to spend, and since I'm going elf (still deciding whether to try SURGE-affected or not) I'll have 80/70 left over to use on skills and stuff.

I get all that.

My question is how do I do skills?  They start at 0...but, what does x2 mean?  What value are you multiplying?  Where it states no ability over x2 on the B-class blurb, does that include the additional stat boost?  Because, elsewhere I read that those limits only apply to pre-race trait numbers.

Help?

Everyone effectively has every skill at x0, the same with attributes.  Skills range between x0 and x4.  (Note that having a x4 requires the legendary skill merit.)  So buying a skill to x2 costs two of your skill points.  x3 requires 3, etc.  Sorry if the multiplier is confusing.  You can just as easily write it as 'Medical - 3' over 'Medical x3,' I just ran a LARP for a long time and it's how I tend to think of it by default.

Ciosa - I have 4 more flaw points than merit points.  How do those extra flaw points translate to skills and attributes?

I haven't decided.  I was thinking a 1 for 2 conversion into Karma.

Hey Ciaso this being around the water ...a lot.
I have some questions.
Can we use build points to buy merits?
What is swimming based of. I would guess survival since not everyone knows how to swim. DHUH! Athletics! found it!
How about scuba?
My idea is morphing a bit. If I gave my PC Knowledge [seamanship]x3 could she be a liscenced captain. That should give decent knowledge on reading charts, handling, knowing bouys, Port from starboard. How to tie knots or handle sails. Not sure if it would work for piloting boats!

Because it IS a Caribbean based game, I'm going to assume anyone at Athletics x2 or higher is a proficient SCUBA diver.  There's also a Navigation skill, which is an active skill, and very important for sea captains.  Most modern ships don't have a lot of requirements in knot tying, but someone with high piloting can choose to be familiar with older vessels as well.  Piloting is the appropriate skill for an experienced sailor/sea captain. 

I'm interested in bone lacing which is (F). The idea is simply to protect Inéz as heiress to a powerful family. Plastic I suppose is going to be able to evade detection, so that makes the most sense, although better is much more appealing. I'm taking all the pain tolerance merits, I want my girl to be a toughie, and higher bone lacing helps with that. But never being able to go through a security checkpoint is going to hurt her corporate image for sure. Ciosa, do you have any thoughts on this?

Also, is 9500 really the ceiling for cyberdecks? That's like nothing.

That's the ceiling for a commlink, not a cyberdeck.  I dont' have rules up for deck yet.  Decks can range up to a million nuyen.  There's a reason most runners build their own.

There's actually no issue with her getting through a security checkpoint - it sounds like she's going to be maintaining a cover, with identities and the like, and being a rich socialite with protective cyberware isn't even going to raise eyebrows.  Plenty of VPs will have math SPUs, encephalon processors, tailored pheromones, and the like.   The only real backlash in the corporate environment is overt cyberware - since that marks you as a 'commoner' who should be doing security work, and against characters with enough essence loss to have social penalties.

I don't see any corp contacts, so consider my five points yours to play with.

Heck maybe Ciaso will allow more one group contact!?

On another note - if multiple people buy the same contact - like, say Dhi and Crash and Phaia all buy an 'Infantry Grunt' or a 'Bartender', their points will combine on that contact and increase their effective value.  So a one point contact effectively becomes a three point contact, even if they still fulfill the same basic function.  That infantry grunt?  He probably now is in charge of the armory on his base.  Or works as personal security for a colonel.  And the bartender suddenly owns and operates one of the most popular bars on the Libertalia.

The given list is just a guideline.  A Mr. Johnson usually ranges from x2 to x4, and I'd assume other people within a corporation have a similar range.  They can either be powerful within a smaller mom and pop corp, or mid level management in a big corp.  (x2)  A VP in one of the big ten is a x4, easily.

More than one is acceptable.

Equipment
Custom equipment:  I'm not willing to do a full merit for this.  There's already a 'signature xxx' which is available.  High value customizations on pistols, swords and the like should be permissable.  If you double the base price of any piece of equipment, it will have +1 to its value.  x5, it will be +2, and x10, it will be +3. 

How much weight does each bone lacing add to a character?

5kg for plastic, 10kg for aluminum, 15kg for titanium.  For a human.  Multiply by the difference in average weight for another metatype.  (Trolls got more bone to lace.)

I'm very interested in the various chemical analysis cyberware, but it's going to depend on what I need to spend on that cyberdeck. 100k, 175k, 250k?

Actually, in laying out the rules above for the 'upgraded gear,' I'll say that a 'Deck' which provides a basic +2 bonus to Matrix tests is 20k.  Having one which gives a +3 bonus will be 10x the normal price, so we'll call it 200k for the best money can buy and skill can build.  It's not the million nuyen Excalibur 3.0 deck, it provides a similar bonus.

Can you use points from flaws to improve something in the build area... ie 5 points of flaws to go from 0 in contacts to 5 points in contacts!

Yes, you may.  You may also save points from your build to buy merits without paying for them with flaws, but not to exceed ten points.

Some mage questions...

How does Mentor Spirit work?  I presume it'd be a 1 point merit, giving you a sorcery bonus to one type of spell and a bonus to one skill, going by the examples in the SR5 book, with a behavior flaw as well (though that could be gamed out without rules).

Is it still 6 spells to start with?  Pick any spell from the rules?  Or, ways to consolidate...

Have the single target and area versions both available for that spell pick? 

Have just two combat spells, one for mana spells and one for elemental/physical ones?  Or each of those has both a single target and an area option, so 4 combat spell options total?

Mentor spirit is a three point merit.  The effects are listed - but the player selects a skill, a spirit type, and a specific spell they get a +1 bonus too. 

Pick any of the spells listed under the magic section for now.  (There should be a link; this will require overhaul in the future as well.  I didn't do everything up front because I find when I set out to write all the wiki pages before a game has even started, I burn out or set myself up for disaster.) 

I normally run spellcraft slightly differently - doing an AOE version is always just a much higher degree of drain, etc, but that the basic principle of casting a bolt of fire vs a ball of fire was just a matter of degree.  The same is true of the range limiter - if you learn 'manabolt,' you also pick up death touch (which is just a zero-range manabolt, which saves on drain) and manaball.  The Grimoire has a larger list of spells.

So, wait, all our attributes start at 0, not 1?  'Cause, I'm looking at the 4th edition book and it shows all the attributes starting at 1/6.  If the characters start at 0, then how does that affect the bonuses from race?

Edit:  Also, on the equipment, I assume that one has to buy the corresponding 'ware to suit the rating of the enhancement they're purchasing?

For example, if I wanted to buy Morgan Vision Enhancement x3, I'd have to spend the initial cost of 750 for Eyeware x3.  Also, I assume that Vision Enhancement x3 is at the Rating x 1500 cost, not the 300 shown earlier in the equipment list?

Edit Again: Would it be possible to just see a sample sheet, just the numbers and equipment bits?  I can parse most of my questions for myself if I can see an example of the sheet.

The attribute and skill system has nothing in common with any edition.  All attributes and skills start at 0.

The new equipment has yet to be added so I would hold off on buying to much stuff just yet.  Ciosa has been sick and hasn’t had a chance to okay or ask for edits yet.

Though for a cyber eye with only vision enhancement you would only need a rating 1 cyber eye since it can hold .2 essence loss in enhancements and vision enhancement is a .1 in essence loss.

All attributes start at zero.  A 'zero' in this case just means 'average.'  You're not particularly strong, but you're not a weakling, either.  On the normal game, having a x2 strength is the equivalent of six points of strength - a serious body builder. 

If you're buying an upgraded cyberlimb, or cyber eyes, then any modification inside it has to be similarly upgraded, yes.  I'll put up a sample character soon.

A sample character with knowledges and languages would be helpful to me too. I think I have it all figured out, but a couple of things have thrown me. Like, Ciosa, you said earlier here that characters get knowledge skills associated with active skills for free- but the wiki doesn't mention this and instead gives a number of freebie points (and is the average of Logic and Intuition rounded up or down?). I'm also just learning that Language is 2 for fluency. Does that mean without perks a person can only be bilingual (2 ranks), or is each language counted separately? I want to know English, French Creole, Portuguese and Spanish, just wondering if I can.

Sorry, I think my post was clear.  The starting knowledge points is equal (and in addition) to your starting number of skills.  I.e, 11 active skill points, 11 knowledge points.  The Logic + Intuition/2 (rounded down) is a bonus atop that.  So knowing 4 languages at fluency (rank 2) would count as 8 points.  That's full fluency - as gifted as a native speaker - where one point is enough to communicate and occasionally search for a word, as well as have a clear accent to a native speaker.

One thing that caught my eye... there's only one social skill on the skill list, Negotiation.  Perhaps adding Con and Intimidate as the other forks of social interaction?  Maybe Leadership too, since there are people with crews.

Nah, let's keep it simple.

[Callie Del Noire]

https://goo.gl/images/7wyDAE

‘Stella Corvus’, “Tink”
Race: Giant (Troll subspecies) Sex: Female
Height: 3.2
Hair: Silver blonde Eyes: Light Blue Age: 18

Background: still working on but a few facts I got, she’s a Giant, she’s built like the classic beach bunny just at a bit over 10 and change. She had either a nasty head injury or BTL brain burn wiping her past memories away. Car and bike racing fanatic, maybe Urban Brawl. Likes working on cars, wishes she could ride one of the sleek high speed bikes. Street name is short for ‘Tinker Bell’ due someone thinks she was a small petite girl looking for work as a mechanic..

[Crash]

Are shapeshifters an option?  It would be fine if they weren't.  Just curious.

I don’t believe so but you might be able to get something close with Surge.

[Re Z L]

I don’t believe so but you might be able to get something close with Surge.

From the wiki under the races section:

A-Class: Awakened creatures of any kind. Shapeshifters, drakes, HMHVV victims.

[Crash]

From the wiki under the races section:

Ahh cool.

[LunarSage]

I do need to know what the racial stats are for shapeshifters.

I'm making a tiger shapeshifter adept.

[LunarSage]

Has Jessie Pavelka been claimed as a face claim in this game by the way?

[Crash]

Until we hear from Ciosa I am going to consider this on hold for now.

[Phaia]

Until we hear from Ciosa I am going to consider this on hold for now.

Agreed. Ciosa has not been around for more then a week. Kinda concerned myself!

[Callie Del Noire]

Pout.

[Phaia]

 

I know callie. Hopefully it is just work for Ciosa!

[Callie Del Noire]

I know callie. Hopefully it is just work for Ciosa!

It’s expected holidays and years wnd

[Dhi]

The holidays get busy and exhausting. Taking a week or two off Elliquiy, that doesn't shock me.

[Callie Del Noire]

I would like some input on the idea of a Giant Beach bunny Mechanic/Smisher

[Dhi]

Mechanic is a good niche. I don't think high society decker Izzie Money has personal need for one, but many of the other characters have boats.

[Crash]

Mechanic should be good.  Lots of people with boats.

[Callie Del Noire]

Mechanic should be good.  Lots of people with boats.

Have this image of someone demanding why a mechanic folks call’Tink’ need expensive torque wrenches and human sized arm Waldo’s..then she walks in..

[Josietta]

I'll be playing a Katana using stealthy-investigative Japanese Elven Adept.  Juuuuust as soon as the holidays pass so i can find time to do the character sheet and such.

[Crash]

I'll be playing a Katana using stealthy-investigative Japanese Elven Adept.  Juuuuust as soon as the holidays pass so i can find time to do the character sheet and such.

Yep.  I have my environmentalist shaman spirit specialist smuggler type waiting in the wings. Just need a final decision on resources and I can finish working her up.

[Callie Del Noire]

Trying to find a good image.. don’t suppose Scarlett Johansson is available?

[Dhi]

I think so. There aren't actually that many characters.

She was mesmerizing in Under The Skin.

[Callie Del Noire]

Now the image of her as a 10 ft tall beach bunny is stuck in my head.

[LunarSage]

Is Jessie Pavelka taken as a faceclaim?

[Crash]

Is Jessie Pavelka taken as a faceclaim?

I don’t think so.

[LunarSage]

I don’t think so.

I'll claim him then.  Thanks.