[Shadowrun] Greetings From Seattle! (OOC and char creation)

TIFunkalicious

New player registration is closed! Sorry but we've reached critical mass

Hi guys!

I am gearing up to run a PbP Shadowrun game here on the forums. A little bit about me: I started playing DnD with my brothers and my dad at a young age. I've played and ran many different kinds of games in the past but this is my first time back in the saddle in almost 2 years. My experience with Shadowrun is limited to about 6 months of Shadowrun Missions, an organized campaign that kept a strict record of your characters/rewards across many officially released modules. My time with online gaming has been limited to a few campaigns over at the Dungeons and Dragons Online Games forum.

In a few words I have lots of experience roleplaying, some experience GMing, a pittance of experience playing Shadowrun, and almost no experience running a PbP game.

What are we doing here?

Posting confirms interest in participating. If we talked about playing earlier and you're not interested after all, don't sweat it. This is not a recruitment thread. Any interest can be PM'd to me but be aware that I have a sizable group of replies from the SE DnD thread. I would love nothing more than to run a game with an arbitrary number of players in a gigantic setting but we are all yolked to the inexorable march of time. This means I'm limiting things to 4-6 players. However, chances of a drop or waning interest are there so don't be afraid to ask.

This thread is to discuss the creation of our game. I decided to run this just last night after enough replies came through. We will need to get anyone new to the game on board with Shadowrun and see if it's a game they really want to play. Our starting point, theme, goals, play style, and posting syntax need to be discussed and ruled on. We also need to decide on any outside software necessary to share character sheets and dice rolls.

A Shadowrun Crash Course

The universe of SR is based on a cycle of about 5000 years referred to as 'worlds'. The characters live in the Sixth World, which began in 2011 and should last until the 7000s. The previous Fifth World began in 3000 BC and lasted until 2011 and the Fourth world ran around 8000BC-3000BC. Every even-numbered cycle the universe goes all DnD on us. Elves, dwarves, orcs, trolls rise among the population. People wake up one day with latent magical powers. Spirits of the Astral Plane become visible to these mages/shamans/whatever they want to be called. Monsters rise up from nature. Dragons return (and usually play major power roles in the world). Shadowrun 4E is set in 2072, almost an entire generation into the chaos of this changing world.

This time around however, monsters and magic are no longer the only big kids on the block. Technology is frighteningly advanced and everywhere. The smartphone has become the commlink, an all-in-one electronic leash for your average Joe. The Matrix 2.0 is a mostly wireless version of the Internet on a whole nother level and everything's connected. The first Matrix from earlier editions crashed and burned, taking a lot of power from certain people/organizations and leaving room for newcomers. Your glasses/contacts/cybereyes display an augmented reality HUD that bombards the average Sixth World citizen with information. Your new messages are displayed in the corner of your vision and are accessed with the right flick of your eyes or a motion of your commlink compatible cybergloves. Or you can dive into a simulated 3D Matrix world like a real l33t blackhat (Think questworld from Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, or Tron)

Augmentation has progressed to cybernetics and beyond. Vets and construction workers often live with a robotic limb or two. Club kids go out with animated tattoos and embedded jewelry. Commandos bodies are armed to the teeth (literally, razor teeth). You can get your nervous system wired up to make the real world look like it's in slow motion, or get your commlink stapled in your head.

Corporations rule the world, and give SR it's cyberpunk flair. World governments generally bend over backwards to the will of Triple-A Megacorps that manufacture everything from snack foods to military hardware, sometimes with the same logo. These corps are only policed by themselves, even the neighborhood police are a for-profit corporation service. The shadowrunner is a freelancer hired by these corps generally to dick over other corps. They live on the underbelly of society, routinely trading for new fake IDs (a big deal in 2072, your identity is on a huge worldwide database and tracked everywhere you go), getting illegal augmentation and medical work, scoring equipment on the black market, and running dirty jobs for big money.

My Expectations

I want to shoot for a healthy 1 post/day rate of play. This will depend on the circumstances, but not every player needs to be posting consistently. Don't take that statement the wrong way. Shadowrun is a game for characters of many specializations and unlike DnD etc. usually does not feature the entire group rolling for initiative at every encounter. Splitting up to accomplish simultaneous goals is common and sometimes an agent on the outside finishes first. Of course, is this is distasteful to enough of you, we can easily play a campaign that allows for a more cohesive group.

Currently Interested Players:

Melding - Elf Battlemage
Gatsby - Dwarf Spy!
Interrobang - Elf Hacker
Vertroue - Human Samurai
Theidar - Stealth/Physical mage
SanderJK - ??
GareWill - ??

The Game so Far!

/Standard 400 BP Character creation

/All 4th edition books are allowed. Some cheesey stuff is subject to veto. This includes but is not limited to: Emotitoys, the Krav Maga martial art, stick and shock ammo, dice pools alarmingly larger than 20.

/We will be located in Seattle!

TIFunkalicious

Here's some nuggets of discussion to decide on:

In the thread we talked about playing multiple characters, and bringing them in any combination on a given mission while still only limiting 1 character to be played at a time. Is this still a favorable idea?

Let's decide on a power level. Standard is 400 BP which can turn out some pretty strong characters. Do we want to keep this standard or perhaps aim for a lower level game (300 BP)? This will give you less options but will make character creation easier for new and old players alike. You can give different answers depending on if we make multiple characters.

SanderJK

I'm very much interested, and don't mind either level of character creation. I only have theoretical knowledge with the system (I own the book and have studied it for quite a bit but never played a game).
I'd also be quite interested in fleshing out the immediate surroundings (Neighbourhood, contacts, local corps, gangs etcet.) around creation.

Dread__Cthulhu

I am interested as well -- have some of the books and have read them, but haven't played the latest edition.

Elldren

I'm not interested in playing PbP, but will be watching!

vertroue

I have I think most of the books sitting in around somewhere, I have a 400 bp street sammy made from a past 4th ed SR. The big thing is base settings for you game. Is it going to be traditional Seattle settings or else where?

SanderJK

Yeah, I don't know enough generally about each specific setting (I spent a lot of time on the history of various countries but didn't do much specific locale reading), but it definitely has some influence.

I was also looking around for a character generator and came across http://www.chummergen.com/downloadchummer.aspx which seems really neat, I downloaded it and it seems really well done, and exports a pretty nice sheet. Which is nice because there's a ton of administration in char creation.

interrobang

if we're gonna be doing the thing where we make a cadre of characters i'd likely need some help with the process

like i said in the SE thread, i've never played shadowrun before : x

Theidar

I think the stable of characters idea has merit, but you may want to limit it to one character per player per mission to minimize to much craziness.

I think standard 400 pt builds sound reasonable.

Elldren

I can help people with character creation

chummer is a good tool for it, too

TIFunkalicious

Sorry it's not your style Elldren. Thanks much for offering to help out though!

Theidar wrote: »

I think the stable of characters idea has merit, but you may want to limit it to one character per player per mission to minimize to much craziness.

This was the plan.

Another alternate idea:
1 'action' character that can be expected to walk into a hostile area, do work, and generally be expected to survive
1 'support' character that generally doesn't get in the mix of things but has useful skills.

If enough people are playing though, that will be way too frantic. We may just have to make 1 player / 1 character the standard which isn't really that bad. The character stable idea was mostly meant for scheduled in person play. Some of the problems I'm trying to address with it (mismatched characters for certain missions, hackers/mages stealing all the play time, combat machines sitting in the back twiddling their thumbs) are helped out by PbP format

A Dabble Of Thelonius

interrobang wrote: »

if we're gonna be doing the thing where we make a cadre of characters i'd likely need some help with the process

like i said in the SE thread, i've never played shadowrun before : x

Here is what you need to know about creating a shadowrun character. You have a billion options. All of the are right and all of them are wrong.

Proceed.


I kid. Kinda. I love SR.


Also I'm not a player, but I'm willing to help out. Sorry, saw the whole "posting means you want in" thing a bit too late.

TIFunkalicious

Don't get overwhelmed with making characters yet. Feel free to toss out a few quick concepts though if you're set on something so others can have a heads up. We still need to decide on a setting and what kind of group you guys actually are. For that I'm going to wait for confirmation from the likes of @Melding @Gatsby @Straightzi

So Currently Interested Players:
Interrobang
Dread_Cthulu
Vertroue
Theidar
SanderJK

SanderJK

*waves*

TIFunkalicious

And it's okay to just post about Shadowrun in here if you're not playing, all I wanted was to read less replies :P

TIFunkalicious

interrobang wrote: »

if we're gonna be doing the thing where we make a cadre of characters i'd likely need some help with the process

like i said in the SE thread, i've never played shadowrun before : x

When it gets down to it I can do a voip call or private chat with anyone during character creation and walk down the steps and offer guidance.

Anyone else can help too

Melding

Sorry i was out most of the day and i was having internet issues the rest, but i'm here now. and as the person who kinda got the train started i'm insulted i wasn't inherently included.

TIFunkalicious

But...you were!

Melding

i saw the list before i posted.

I know your secrets.

TIFunkalicious

That leaves @Gatsby, @Straightzi, and a friend of mine from SR Missions that has yet to register

10 people. That's a damn mercenary company. I am reconsidering the need for multi-characters
thoughts?

Gatsby

Melding told me to confirm myself so here I am

SanderJK

Well there's usually a pretty big gap between who signs up and who ends up posting more than 2 weeks into the start of a PbP, but who knows how it turns out. For sanity purposes so many people should never be in a room together where there's more than a slight chance of a shootout though. In general there's a bit of a challenge in encounters because of every test being opposed (Which means that it'll be Player Turn > GM Response > Next Player > GM Response, aka a whole lot of administrative load on the GM, and then you have to whip people into posting at times too)

interrobang

@Elldren

thank you for directing me towards Chummer

this is gonna make my life much easier

A Dabble Of Thelonius

chummer is pretty great. I adore hero lab as well. If I had some more cash laying about I'd buy hero lab kits like mad.

interrobang

now i just gotta figure out what i wanna make!

Quetzi

I am not certain I'll be playing, mostly because I haven't played Shadowrun in forever and have no idea what I would want to play. So if there are other people more into it, it's all theirs.

Melding

i'm likely going to do that battle mage i always talk about wanting to do and then never actually do.

is likely to be charisma based.

interrobang

i'm thinking a hacker-type or somethin'

i don't really wanna shoot folks

Gatsby

Dwarf spy is my goal.

TIFunkalicious

Alright guys, let's cement some things, I'll also put this as a running list in the OP

Due to player count, we'll be making one character each. This may be subject to change due to drops later on.
Character Creation will be standard 400 BP

Let's truck on to source material. What source books should be allowed? Between me and another player that will be registering to join the game I have access to every relevant 4E book. However, this covers a ton of crap that is either very powerful or adds further complexity to the game.

In the past my compromise has been this: character creation will be done using the core rulebook, and gear from the other books can be rolled out later in the campaign as new/special inventories. I'd accept plenty of exceptions especially for magic users because the traditions/spells out of street magic apply to character creation.

NotoriusBEN

just putting in my 2 creds, you can ask and encourage people to be well rounded.

have a combat skill, whether your a brawler, pistoleer, or rifleman, etc
but also have a few support skills. like hacker, wheelman, demolitions, face man, B&E guy, rigger, etc.
and even a tertiary skill somewhere else, so that in a pinch, you can help assist someone who does that skill better or have another option.

I cant tell you how frustrating and boring it is to play with people that are straight up combat engines. everything about them is solve it by killing it or smashing it.

anyways, good luck to you all.

Melding

i'm currently pulling stuff from the main book, street magic, arsenal, and attitude?

I think that's everything?

I got no issue with any book, because in a lot of cases, the stuff in the core book is on par or actually better than all the accessory books. with the exception of maybe battle rifles? battle rifles are pretty boss.

interrobang

i'm just gonna stick to the stuff that's in the core book

i don't wanna get too crazy and overwhelm myself

Melding

core book has pretty much anything you'd ever need honestly. most of the stuff i am grabbing is like per-designed outfits, a different magic tradition and mentor spirit, some other side stuff like a car and mods.

Stuff i could honestly live without, but don't want to and i will huff if you try, but really nothing huge.

I;m not even sure what other books might have for hackers, because i have never once looked at the hacking stuff. seems like every basic thing you'd want is in the core book, and the othe rbooks would have mostly brand name items and what not.

that's a thign that comes up actually. brand named cyberware suites

TIFunkalicious

I can point to the one thing that made me hesitant about other books and that's the emotitoy. A new item that provides a flat bonus to social rolls that stacks linearly with every other flat bonus to social rolls in the game? You either have to ban the item or everyone involved in a social roll has to have one. It's just something that I didn't want to have to screen characters for

Btw, emotitoys do not exist in this campaign

I'll defer to your experience for the other books though, and won't stand in the way of anyone using them for non-cheesey character creation. I swear my definition of cheesey is benign and I don't really want to enforce all that much.

TIFunkalicious

I talked with my buddy and he is down to play, it'll be nice having a real life connection to the game so we can bother each other about posting.

He is interested in playing a Pilot/Driver
I also put up tentative character ideas next to player names in the OP

Melding

oh yeah, i forgot about the emotitoy. yeah fair call on that.

interrobang

if i put up a character sheet you guys will look over it to make sure it's not totally awful right

TIFunkalicious

Absolutely. Hacker, right? I'll have to break out the books and google searches

interrobang

TIFunkalicious wrote: »

Absolutely. Hacker, right? I'll have to break out the books and google searches

yeah, hacker/supporty/non-combat, like you listed in the OP

i picked up two points in Pistols but otherwise nothin'

TIFunkalicious

Let's talk about location! It can be important to character creation (contacts and knowledge skills, mostly) to know where you are, what's what, who's who and all that entails. They come in a few different flavors

The Big One!

Seattle. It's the go-to setting for Shadowrun campaigns and assumed by most groups to be where things are going to start. It has a good mix of everything the game is all about. North America has split into many smaller nations, with the United Canadian and American States (UCAS) having the most focus in the books. UCAS is mostly on the east coast but Seattle remains a part of it. It's a bustling 3 million+ population hub easily accessible by air/sea/land and presents the faces of many of the games major corporations.

More importantly to us, it has a ton of source material. Not only does just about every book reference it but there's a 200 page document dedicated to fleshing out the city. Lots of famous locations and celebrity NPCs.

Standard Cyberpunk Fare

Los Angeles is still the home of the entertainer and the king of media. It's under the control of media/corp interests but has some syndicate (mafia) and gang activity on the lower level.

Neotokyo is a hotbed of nationalist and corp interests and generally unkind to foreigners. Very Ghost in the Shell

The Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone belongs to no nation and is governed directly by corporations in the form of a board of directors. It runs the spectrum of modern supercity to areas that look like they haven't moved in two hundred years where you'll see traditional architecture, straw hats, and fishing nets.

Holy Hellholes

Not everywhere is a typical urban cyberpunk zone. Some places, like Chicago, took the effects and aftermath of the Awakening a bit harder than most. Semi-developed areas are surrounded by destruction, floating viruses, infected monstrous humanoids, evil spirits (insect spirits in particular), and general Mad Maxitude

Lower Profile

Or maybe we can fill in most of the gaps ourselves?

The last California Free State fluff book I have is from 1996. It's surrounded by hostile nations and has small scale wars over water and land. Big pay for big risk kind of area. There's a dragon! Lots of hostility! Fun in the sun!

Korea is united and under military rule. One of a handful of viable runner locations that isn't waived as "ruled by megacorps". They have a major presence, but real political parties still have their say.

Anywhere else?

If you've played before and have some cool fluff sources for locations you want to be considered send them my way!