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Shoes on a desk. By themselves, merely an oddity, but when attached to legs they become an easily recognized sign of authority. Especially when the desk doesn't even belong to the owner of the shoes. When those are the shoes of your immediate superior, you've got a serious problem. And today, Dirk Arpey had a serious problem.

"You said you could have Project Ceres wrapped up by now." The statement of fact was delivered without any inflection, but it cut Arpey's spine cleaner than any monofilament wire ever could have.

"Sir, everything is going according to plan. We've got the assets lined up, we're clear on the books, the funds have already been-"

"Oh yes, I know exactly how the funds have already been appropriated." The iron-cold voice that cut him off lacked any sort of a reprimand in tone, but it hurt more than a punch to the gut, and knocked the breath out of him in much the same way the physical blow would have. "You have been doing a splendid job of setting everything up, and that is the only reason your name plate remains on this desk." The other half of that logic remained unspoken, but it might as well have been a giant red flashing ARO for how clearly it was communicated.

"Yes sir, thank you, sir. The rest of the plan is being put into action, and we're expected to come in ahead of schedule, sir."

"Good, very good." The compliment came without any comfort, and left without any lingering reassurance. "Make sure that you do." The encouragement raised goosebumps on Arpey's arms and neck, far more threatening than any knife or gun in his face could have been.

"Yes sir, absolutely, sir. Thank you for the visit, sir."

And then the meeting ended, his desk and office returned to him. But it would be a long time before he could actually work up the nerve to sit down so he could open his list of less-than-reputable contacts and get to work.

---

This is a game for all the new runners who've been joining the site recently, searching for a game but unable to find one recruiting. If we can't get enough members for a team (six is probably the maximum), then those who are already in another game can join, but please let the new members join in first.


Your character will be hired through one of his or her contacts, so please make sure to include a fixer or other person able to hook you up with the job. To that end, you get a number of free contact points equal to your Charisma * 2. Your character should be made with 400 BP, and there is no limit on Availability for starting gear. Standard Quality limits apply, up to 35 Bonus BP from negative qualities, and 35 BP Cost for positive qualities. Make sure not to go over 200 BP for mental and physical attributes (does not include Edge, or Magic/Resonance if those apply). You can spend a maximum of 50 BP on gear (unless you get the In Debt or Born Rich qualities in Runner's Companion). Each BP buys 5,000¥ (Nuyen) worth of gear, and don't forget to include at least 1 month of a lifestyle in your gear costs.

When you sign up, please post what sort of role you'd like to play, so others can know what composition the team has so far. You can certainly change from your initial post, but please update us if you do. Keep in mind that the group does not need every role possible, and the mission can be completed by a group with any composition. If we get a team full of faces, then you can charm your way through the job. If we get a team full of riggers, then you can drone/vehicle swarm your way to victory, etc. So play what you want to play, not what you think you should or have to play.

Oh, and here's a fun note; I will award up to 2 Karma points for a good background history posted with your character sheet. Yes, I know 'good' is pretty vague, but that's intentional! Good can mean thorough, with plenty of details to create a well-rounded character. Or it can mean interesting, in that it tells a gripping and believable story. Or possibly a creatively written history, like one with a non-traditional format (see Paradox's character). I also award Karma for good roleplaying during the game, meaning longer, well-thought out posts, humorous posts (while remaining in character), dramatic posts (understanding the weight and importance of moments from the character's perspective and putting an appropriate amount of effort into it), creative posts (finding an innovative, clever, or intelligent solution to a problem or difficulty), and more!

And finally, don't forget that this is supposed to be fun! If you've got an idea that you don't know how to work into the mechanics or isn't represented in the books at all, just ask me and I'll be happy to work with you to make your vision a reality*. The rules are there to be a guideline to a destination of fun and creativity, not a set of plasteel walls to keep creativity out.

*Standard rules of physics/feasibility still apply. No anti-gravity guns or Death Stars, sorry.

Ello ello. I am co-dming this campaign and I look forward to bringing all you new runners into the fold. I am sure Durandana will keep me from killing you off in the first day, so bring your imaginations and a backpack full of ammo.

Also Bear is in charge of all things magica/astral/spiritual/voodoo/psychic/whatever-related.

And I wanted to add that if you have any questions about the rules (both Shadowrun and my game) feel free to post here and someone who knows or can fake an answer will post as soon as possible.

I'm in. Got my contact fleshed out, if you need more info let me know. Time to cock it and rock it

Hey, lookit that! Your sheet is already comin' along nicely!

There's a few changes I've spotted though, that'll need to be made. I don't think you've quite understood how specializations work yet, so here's a little briefing. You can have a level in a skill without any specialization. If you have Climbing 3, it means you are average at climbing... all types of climbing! The Climbing skill covers any instance where you might need to climb, regardless of the situation or setting or circumstance. But maybe you practiced indoor rock climbing, so you're better at that than you are at other types of climbing? In that case, you would add on a specialization for (Indoor Rock Climbing), which gives you a +2 bonus whenever you're doing indoor rock climbing! You don't have to have that specialization, but you can to show practice in just one area.

So when you calculate BP cost, each level in the skill over costs 4 BP. So Climbing 3 would cost you 12 BP. Then, if you wanted to add a specialization on top of that, you'd have to pay another 2 BP. And the way you'd write it would be: "Climbing: 3 (Indoor Rock Climbing +2)"

Make sense?

Some other things to note, you can only have one specialization per skill, and you can't take a skill multiple times to get a different specialization, sorry.

Also (and this is totally not your fault because it's in the book), but I don't think 'semi-automatics' is an acceptable specialization for Pistols... because they're all semi-automatic! :O Otherwise they'd be used with the Automatics skills, like machine pistols are. I don't get why that was included as a possible specialization in the book. Please choose a type of pistol, like light pistols, heavy pistols, hold outs, or tasers, for the specialization.

And then one more thing, Military is a Knowledge Skill, not an Active Skill, so move that down to the lower category and you're good.

I'll go through and add up all the BP and gear costs later, and if everything checks out your character will be approved! Feel free to make changes at any point, though. Just make sure to tell me after you've done so.

I can put a character together later today. so im in probably a technomancer or a kinda utility sf ranged combat guy. not sure which id prefer to do right now ill have to think on it. and thanks for helping out the new guys!!

K, made all the changes to my char. sheet. HOPEFULLY it looks correct now.

DevilDog wrote:

K, made all the changes to my char. sheet. HOPEFULLY it looks correct now.

KK since Duran better be sleeping by now, I will take a look at it, calculate bp, and post and problems.
-edit-
A couple of things before I can do your bp.
Your specializations still don't read write. Just put (+2). I am not sure why some have (3) or (1)
You have the Perceptive quality, but it comes in two ranks. Perceptive 1 is 5 bp, Perceptive 2 is 10 bp
You have the prejudiced quality, but you don't specify the type of prejudice or who it is against.
You have no languages known
You need to specify if your binoculars are optical or electric, and if electric what rating are they
You need to give a rating for your headphones

I'm in. I'll post my character later today, but it's gonna be a full magician.

IF the game doesnt' fill up with new runners, I'll bring Gwydian to this run since I won't be using him for forgotten memories. But, as requested, new guys get first shot.

Looking forward to seeing the sheets, outpost and Vanya's Devil.


DevilDog your sheet is getting better! Just a few more things, like languages go under Knowledge Skills, not Active Skills. A language is something your character knows, not something he does.

Also, I'm wondering if you counted in the bonuses your character receives for being an elf? I ask because elves have racial low-light vision, so you don't need the Night Vision positive quality, and you should know that elves have a raised attribute minimum in Charisma and Agility. That means they get free levels (2 levels in Charisma, 1 level in Agility) and have higher attribute maximums for those two stats. So right now, your character only costs 140 BP for attributes, which is on the low side of the suggested 200 BP amount.

And now, the big problem, is that your total BP count is only at 315. You've got another 85 BP to spend! I recommend putting some more in attributes, and there are a few important skills you've left you that you might want to take a look at, namely Perception, Dodge, Etiquette, and Infiltration, possibly Con too. If nothing else at least get Perception.

Umm... I think that's about it. Just some notes that may or may not be helpful, I noticed all of your qualities were from Runner's Companion, so make sure to take a look at the qualities in the core book, as there's some good ones in there you might want. Also (and this applies to everyone), please note that you get a number of free Knowledge Skill points equal to your (Intuition + Logic) x 3. Knowledge Skill specializations count as one point for the purposes of calculating your free Knowledge Skills. Anything beyond that amount you have to pay 2 BP per level or specialization.



And LOL @ Azo.
Let's see if Neurok_Shinobi or SwimmingEagle sign up first but I'm guessing you can probably join in.

Durandana wrote:

Also (and this is totally not your fault because it's in the book), but I don't think 'semi-automatics' is an acceptable specialization for Pistols... because they're all semi-automatic! :O Otherwise they'd be used with the Automatics skills, like machine pistols are. I don't get why that was included as a possible specialization in the book. Please choose a type of pistol, like light pistols, heavy pistols, hold outs, or tasers, for the specialization.

Not all pistols in the book are Semi Automatic.

That said most are, which is why I wouldn't necessarily argue against your version of specialization. I just thoguht I might be able to shed some light behind the thought gone into why the specializations are setup the way they are.

The specialization fields however more or less make sense as it's broken down into Semi-Automatic, Hold-outs, Revolvers and Tasers. This honestly makes a fair bit of sense from a realistic point of view. A taser does not operate like a hold-out, revolver or most handguns. There's a lot of different things to consider including those that trail wires, the generally limited ranges, just how long you should 'tase' some one before you risk giving them a heart attack or something.

With revolvers, while most are double action these days, not all are. They all reload in an identical manner however, tend to be of larger caliber and have at least some other defining characteristics from other types of handguns.

Hold-outs are abit of an odd class since anything small enough would be considered a hold-out. Again however the very short barrels, limited ammo capacities and comparatively high recoil (Due to the lack of a heavier metal body to offset recoil, meaning it's all going into your wrist/arm) would probably warrant there being some sort of techniques to ensure a solid hit, knowing what ranges are actually effective, where is best to aim with said weapons, and in some cases, how to avoid burning your fingers or when discharged.

Semi-automatic handguns are ultimately, pretty god damn generic with each other. The calibers are different, the number of rounds to a magazine etc are different but the basic mechanics behind operation and use are effectively identical. Slap the magazine in, rack the slide, flick the safety off, aim and fire. When aiming don't put your hand under the magazine in the event of a discharge lest the magazine injure your hand in the event of an accident such as rounds in the magazine some how cooking off or a misfire jamming the barrel and thus sending shrapnel down the path of least resistance. It also notably applies only to semi-automatics, and there for does not cover the few single shot handguns (Such as the ones that fire shotgun shells etc), nor for fully automatic or burst fire handguns. It also clearly does not cover anything that falls into it's own category.

Also, I'm pretty sure all automatic pistols fall under the automatics skill, so having a specialization for all light or all heavy pistols is arguably in conflict with the pistols that fall under the aforementioned automatics skill. Indeed the automatics skill lists a specialization for machine pistols. EDIT: Or rather I should specify burst fire pistols, when fired in 'burst' mode at the very least as these guns seem to straddle both worlds due to having multiple firing modes. In counter argument to this however, assault rifles that are fired single shot do not fall under 'long arms'.

I suppose I should also note that I do have some experience with real firearms, though I wouldn't go so far as to call myself an 'expert' on the matter.

Just food for thought on the matter though

Oookay.

I don't claim to have a lot of experience with guns, but my dad did let me shoot his pistols a couple times at the gun range. I did great with the 9mm pistol at the 15-yard line. Then my dad let me try his .45 caliber pistol, and I did terrible. He said he didn't even notice any difference (and he probably didn't, he's a big guy) but I just couldn't shoot it anywhere near as accurately.

I'm not saying they don't operate the same way, yes they have the same parts and everything. But the reloading and operating part isn't the majority of what the weapon skill covers. It covers putting rounds on a target accurately. And in that area I don't think heavy pistols and light pistols are similar enough to be the same specialization.

In the same way, yes operating a revolver is different, how you hold it and reload it are different. But when you actually aim and pull the trigger it works just like a heavy or light pistol, depending on the caliber.


And Automatics covers machine pistols, submachine guns, and assault rifles. It doesn't cover heavy or light pistols that can fire in burst fire mode. I'm just extending the same logic that is applied in the Automatics skill to the Pistols skill. Specializations for Automatics are the categories of weapons, not based on design type, like Bullpup or...... Non-bullpup.


Sorry if I'm completely wrong, or whatever, but that's how I see it, and I don't think it breaks the system to change it (unless it does in which case please point it out to me!).

Well as long as you stick to Holdouts Tasers, Light and heavy pistols it should work, with single shot guns and revolvers falling into what ever category the weapon itself is in (usually heavy).

Don't see why it wouldn't.

Was just trying to flesh out possibly why they were thinking they way they did with the weapon specializations.


On a side note, the caliber of the gun doesn't necessarily have much to do with the recoil. Try firing a 9mm luger sometime. Those things dont weigh a thing, are 9mm and have more kick than a .45.

Oh. Huh. Why is that? I guess it has to do with muzzle velocity too?

Oh well, I get what you're saying, and it does make sense, just not the way I'd rather do it.

Durandana wrote:

Oh. Huh. Why is that? I guess it has to do with muzzle velocity too?

Oh well, I get what you're saying, and it does make sense, just not the way I'd rather do it.

Yeah, again that's fine. Just thought I'd try and explain the logic behind the book rules. I find that when house ruling something it's important to keep the various factors going into the intent in mind at least. (And trust me I house rule quite a bit of stuff, less so SR, much more other, far more dated systems like Palladium)

In the case of the old Lugers I think it has more to do with the weight of the materials used (the damn loaded magazine is about the same weight, if not more than the gun itself) and the design. Their the only gun I've ever fired that ejects the shells straight up. Fired it at an indoor range with a ceiling height of about 10ft or so and it was pinging the casings off the sound absorbing ceiling panels hard enough to dent them. The light weight, and I think part of the design just made the recoil that much worse, where as all the .45's I've fired tend to be relatively heavy to begin with.

Given that SR uses fairly advanced recoil reduction (you can build a gun with a gas vent 3 that's self sealing for when you want to use a silencer for example) I would gather recoil is a bit less of an issue. But that's pure conjecture on my part.

I'll do the stats later. Here's a quick story that pretty much sums up my character.

*Crunch*
At 15 psi, a human skull will fracture.
*Crunch*
Other bones in the human body are tougher, usually requiring 160 psi before they break.
*Crunch*
At 1000 psi, the bite strength of a tiger far exceeds both.
*Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*
Swallowed.
A satisfied sleek silhouette slinks silently hence. Sheeting raincurtains sweep away dust and red ink.
A low purr. Time for a drink.

Darren pulled his coat tight around him as he stepped out into the rain. Taptaptaptaptap he heard the water pattering against his wide-brimmed hat. His thoughts turned towards his destination. Anna would be home from school by now; he had got off late. Hope she hadn’t started to make dinner. Not that she was a bad cook; she was just new to food that wasn’t made from soy. It made her overeager in her experimentation. He sped up.

An empty saucer. An open door. A small, black tail, slipping away.

Darren caught his breath in the doorway of a nightclub. Around him, the rain robed the world in grey. The street, deserted, would come alive in a few hours. For now, it slumbered, and he was alone with his thoughts. Being human, this was not good company.

Golden eyes blinked at the grey sky. The black tail flicks twice and is gone. A rustle of rust wings.

Darren wondered if he had done the right thing. Oh, sure, he held up his part of the deal. It was so simple. Leave out a saucer of milk, a piece of bread, and a dab of honey every evening. In return, he gets the life he always wanted. A good house, a good job, and enough money invested that his daughter won’t need to worry about working until after college. Who wouldn’t take that kind of deal? The food was a little expensive, but it became a non-issue so fast it was really no cost at all.
Doubts nagged at him. His promotion was fast. A little too fast, really, and they never really found out what happened to his old boss. It was all so easy, too easy. Plus, the milk, honey, and bread stopped being eaten about month ago. Yesterday, he didn’t even bother putting the stuff out; it wasn’t being collected anyhow.
Some deals are too good to be true. Darren hoped this wasn’t one of them.

Water drips off a cornice. On a dry ledge, spotted brown fur, damp with skywater. Thunder, rolling, oozing like black molasses. Stillness.

Darren started. Before him, a ghostly cat, large and feral, glimmers into view. Two round green eyes blink at him. He tries to speak but, in his terror, no words come.
A heart beats. Fire erupts, draped in a cloak of steam. Water crushes with the weight of the sky. The Earth, ravenous, opens its maw and swallows its offering. Silence.

A block away, on a dry ledge, two golden eyes flicker open. A soft purr. A heart beats. A rustle of rust wings.

Say, GM, is it okay if I specialize in Unarmed Combat (Natural Weapons)? Or does it need to be (Claws)?

I would be ok with it. I am guessing you are playing a tiger shifter from your fluff post. As long as you don't try to argue that your fists are natural weapons when you are in human form we won't have a problem.

Yeah, I agree, considering you can specialize in 'cyber-implants' which could be anything from cyber-spurs to that weird under-the-tongue blade thing.

Can't wait to see the sheet that accompanies that backstory. Definitely good for +2 Karma*!

*Can't be spent in character creation.

Awesome.

Okay, I've got my character's stats up. Say, GM, if I cast Increase Body and increase my body to 7 (4 hits), can I then proceed to turn myself into a Grizzly Bear? (Grizzlys have 9 Body)

Vanya's Devil wrote:

Awesome.

Okay, I've got my character's stats up. Say, GM, if I cast Increase Body and increase my body to 7 (4 hits), can I then proceed to turn myself into a Grizzly Bear? (Grizzlys have 9 Body)

Yes, you can.
On to the sheet.
Agility: 1
Reaction: 1
Strength: 1
^If you want that to fly you will need a damn good reason to explain it other than the fact that you plan to just shapechange to get past it.
You have no metatype listed
You don't have your Tradition listed
You can only purchase spellcasting skill * 2 spells during char gen, so you have 4 too many.
What are Blood Fetish, Spirit Strength, Immortal Flower? I am guessing spell fetishes?
Rating 5 sustaining focuses are availability 20. Starting characters have can only have 12 availability or lower items.

Bear wrote:

Rating 5 sustaining focuses are availability 20. Starting characters have can only have 12 availability or lower items.

From the first post:

Durandana wrote:

...there is no limit on Availability for starting gear.

The attributes do have an explanation. Blood Fetish is from Digital Grimoire. It adds four dice to my drain tests for a specific spell in exchange for a point of physical damage that can't be removed while it's bound. Binding takes ten minutes and can be done by any mage. Spirit strength and immortal flower are magical drugs that grant critter powers. Spirit strength grants Hardness (5 armor & 5 mystical armor) for essence+1d6 hours, but you take a hit to physical attributes when it wears off. Immortal flower grants regeneration, but I lose -0.1 Essence every 20 boxes of damage that I take when under its effects. They're both in Arsenal (I think).

Thanks for catching this stuff, by the way. This is my first time playing 4th, so I'm bound to miss stuff like that.

My apologies on the availability. Didn't see that caveat. Could you please note how many doses of each drug you have, and what spell your fetish is for. Anything else I am sure Duran can bring up.

Okay, I think that's everything. Please let me know if there's any other issues.