It's the Little Things that Matter Most...

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I don't suppose I'll live long enough for anybody to listen to this... but you never know. Maybe we'll get lucky... maybe they've stopped prowling this street, and we're safe here... maybe we can hide long enough for them all to die off or leave... but I doubt it. I suppose that, whoever you are, you might not have a clue what I'm talking about... maybe this is all over and the truth got covered up, or forgotten, or something. So here we are... It all started three weeks ago... although nobody thought much of it at the time. Just some random news story about a town in Amazonia where everybody turned into ghouls overnight. Big deal, we thought, safe and sound up here in the UCAS. We had no idea how wrong we were.

There was nothing new on the story for almost a week, but then we heard that the ghouls had spread - it wasn't just a small town in Amazonia any more... if the reports that were filing in could be believed - and even then, most people didn't - fully half of South America and the southern portion of Aztlan were crawling with Infected... Ludicrous, of course. Ghouls are dangerous, and many are Feral, but they have to bite people to transmit the disease, and even then it can take weeks for somebody to change... entire countries in days? Impossible. Or so we thought.

12 days ago, Tenochtitlan went silent. That was when we all started paying attention - AZT's world headquarters, overrun? Some people still thought it was a hoax, but the pictures, the video footage, the recordings... it was all to real. The Pueblos and the CAS fortified their southern borders against whatever it was... but I don't know that it helped. 9 days ago we heard that Ghoul outbreaks had started happening in California, Denver, and across the entire southwestern CAS. That was when the people who could started fleeing. Those with the connections or the money hitched rides up into orbit, or out to one of the habitats on the moon, or somewhere else. Anywhere off-planet. If they couldn't afford to get out there, they took to the boats, and pulled out into deep ocean, hoping the water would stop the horde. Most of them will probably survive... unless they run out of food, I suppose.

Leaving us. The poor, the slow, and the desperate. I don't know if I'll change or not... probably will. 6 days ago I got a call from my mom - she and dad had been vacationing in Georgia, and she called to say goodbye... dad had turned, and was breaking down the bathroom door in their hotel to try to get to her. It really sunk in then... this was really happening. Oh, I remember all the times my friends and I talked about it as kids - the Zombie Apocalypse, how we were so much better than any monster, how we'd never get caught when it all went down... But now it has, and we did, and we're paying the price.

I don't know if anyone will hear this. God, I don't even know if there's anyone out there listening. But if you are listening... god help us all.

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Charlie sets the audio player down, and looks around the table at the group of you with a sigh. "Yeah, we already knew half of that... I wish these people could give us some useful information for once... like where they are, or something. So... here we are in Seattle, and so are the ghouls. Or whatever they are. And here's what we know: We know that we're safe from infection... the one thing that all the powers-as-was could figure out before they got swarmed was that whatever these things are, they can't infect changelings like us. Something about the metagenes screws up the virus... which just makes us food, instead of another member of the horde. And we know there's no help coming - before we lost contact, there had been outbreak confirmations in Japan, China, Britain, Germany, Azania, and Egypt... so we're on our own. But I don't plan to end my life as some freak's lunch, so I'm gonna survive as long as I can, even if that means shooting down them as was my neighbors last week."

Even as he finishes speaking, you hear a scream from the street outside the 4th story apartment you're all huddled in, followed by the shrieks and howls of the Infected as the descended to feed on another unfortunate. Looking around at each other, you wonder just what will happen next.

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Yes, it's the Zombie Apocalypse. Or Ghoul Apocalypse, as the case may be. A mutated strain of HMHVV has broken loose, and infected most of the world in barely three weeks. The few remaining survivors are those who were immune to the new virus - mostly changelings. You are a member of that select group, and have banded together with several others, to survive and escape the horde, however you can.

Character creation info: Characters for this game are not going to be well equipped powerhouses of destruction. We aren't going to be hitting the ghoul-infested streets of Seattle as omnipotent street samurai and magicians... those of you with military or 'runner training are little better than trainees or recruits, and you probably aren't even that.

300 BP, max 160 for attributes, and 30 for gear. Max 25 BP worth of qualities, for both Positive and Negative.

Skills are limited to max rating 4, and skill groups are limited to max rating 3.

Gear is limited to Availability rating 9, and no F items are allowed. You are allowed to take the Restricted Gear quality ONCE, for a single item of up to availability 15, though it still cannot be F.

As a house rule on item availability: Any enhancements or modifications that increase a base item's availability (like vision enhancements to glasses or goggles) are modified - the highest availability increase is unchanged, but all other availability increases to the same item are decreased to 50 percent. For example: A pair of glasses with Thermographic vision (+6), Low-light vision (+4), and flare compensation (+2) would have an availability of 9 (6+2+1), rather than 12 (6+4+2).

Characters with the Technomancer or Magician (or Mystic Adept), or any similar qualities receive only 75% (rounded down) of the normal starting spells/complex forms/whatever.

In addition, you all receive the SURGE II quality for free, and can choose your own metagenic traits. Upgrading to SURGE III is optional, and only costs 5 BP.

Finally, any "social" negative qualities must be cleared with me before you take them, and will not be worth nearly as many BP as normal - during the zombie apocalypse, the fact that that you're a SINner or have records on file with Ares, or are gruff and impolite, doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that you're NOT A ZOMBIE.

Good luck - you're going to need it.

I vote we also say no mages. The second you have a halfway competent mage on your side, ghouls stop being nearly so scary.

Hey, Jon, can we have the Attribute BP cap raised to 180? 150 is really low, especially since 3 is the population average...

I'll raise the BP cap for attributes to 160, which allows a human to get 3s in all 8 stats. If you want something higher than that, you're going to have to sacrifice something else.

EDIT: as for the magician question... I will allow magicians, but since this is a mutated strain of HMHVV, it's not producing regular old ghouls... I'm working things out so that a magician won't simply be able to blast their way through the horde without breaking a sweat.

Huh, this actually sounds rather fun.

Radek is up:
http://www.shadowrunonlinepbp.com/characters-f10/vanya-s-devil-s-characters-t311.htm#9402

http://www.shadowrunonlinepbp.com/characters-f10/outpost_2-characters-t323.htm#9405 here is michael who has all but his equipment picked out.

Added establishing character story for Radek.

My character, she eez ahp!

https://shadowrunonline.rpg-board.net/characters-f10/durandana-s-characters-t273-15.htm#9572

If you're still taking players, I humbly submit Cleveland.

I suppose it's high time someone mentioned it here, considering it's only been said in chat...

But the people who expressed interest in playing this game (namely me, Vanya, outpost, and Book) all agreed to make versions of our real life selves for our characters. That's obviously not a requirement, but it does mean that if you make your character designed to be badass, you're going to stand out as a bit incredible in comparison.

Just figured I'd point it out for those anyone interested in joining who isn't in chat with us daily. Just so you know why our characters are a bit tamer than they might otherwise be, designed to be realistic as opposed to especially effective.

Paradox, your character has to have SURGE II at least, or you'll just get infected and zombify within a few days. It's free, though; no BP cost.

Vanya's Devil wrote:

Paradox, your character has to have SURGE II at least, or you'll just get infected and zombify within a few days. It's free, though; no BP cost.

I don't have Runner's Companion, so I'm completely unfamiliar with the rules for SURGE. I'll take it without any additional mods. Oh, and I like the idea of a reality-based character. Though except for zombie and apocalypse trivia, I fear my real-life self isn't THAT prepared for the zombacalypse...

Paradox wrote:

Though except for zombie and apocalypse trivia, I fear my real-life self isn't THAT prepared for the zombacalypse...

But that's the FUN of it.


The way SURGE works is that you get 20 free positive qualities and 10 required free negative qualities. There's a list of new metagenetic qualities in Runner's Companion along with a short list of normal qualities that can be used.

And finally... you don't have Runner's Companion?!?!

Check your inbox.

Neither are we. We've mostly just created characters that have attributes, skills, and qualities that match ourselves in real life, then did whatever we wanted when it came to stuff like magic, gear, cyber, etc.

Regarding SURGE, you're supposed to take a certain number of points of metagenetic qualities, depending upon your SURGE level. Unfortunately, the metagenetic qualities are in the Runner's Companion.... -_-;;
So, yeah, I'm gonna wait to see what Jon has to say about it. Maybe you could take latent metagenetics? Like you're a changeling but you haven't expressed yet? Then Jon be the one who picks the qualities when you suddenly have a painful transformation while running from zombies. Won't that be Fun?

EDIT: Whoops. Ninja'd by Dura.

Vanya's Devil wrote:

Whoops. Ninja'd by Dura.

Sha-pow!

Yours was more in detail though. I sent him some download links. There's really no excuse for not having Runner's Companion, it's a very important book.

If you are still accepting submissions, I have Andrea West:
https://shadowrunonline.rpg-board.net/characters-f10/arion-wind-s-characters-t388.htm#9793

The TBA stuff will be added after I get back from my finals tomorrow.

That's a pretty... varied skillset there. Lookin' forward to see the backstory that goes with it.

I just followed the "thinly veiled caricature of yourself" character theme everyone had going, and that's what came out.

BTW, Background is up, and appearance will likely go up tomorrow.

Whoa, you know how to use explosives? Awesome.

I'm glad you're on our side.

Is this ad closed?

Newp. We're waitin' for you.

Dura is correct. I've been holding it open, since you said you were interested.

Appearance is up. Sorry for the delay, a friend came in to town, and she kind of distracted me.

Tsotsoe's up.