Character Creation Thread

Jul 24, 2015 2:40 pm
This thread is for everyone to converse about their ideas for characters. I will also help with any questions anyone has. Have fun!

Create characters using the Sum-to-10 system in Run Faster. If you don't have Run Faster, it works just like the Priority system in the Core rulebook, except you can have multiple categories at the same priority. Priority A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, E=0, add up to 10. It's pretty simple.

The game will take place primarily in Tacoma (unless the group decides to go on a road trip or something) so everyone should live in or around that area. Feel free to be from anywhere, however.

Please build hooks into your character backstories. It may take a little bit for me to hook into them, but it will make the experience more engaging for everyone.

All metatypes and metavariants from the core rulebook and from Run Faster are permitted, but bear in mind that there are social (and sometimes mechanical) ramifications of being certain metavariants. No AI or infected characters are permitted at this time (mostly because I haven't read the rules yet).

Please limit starting equipment to the Core Rulebook and the standard limit of Availability 12.

We will be using the Lifestyle rules from Run Faster. If you don't have access to a copy of that book, just pick a standard lifestyle and I'll walk you through the rest.

I am willing to consider Small Unit Tactics and Martial Arts skills from Run and Gun, but talk to me first.
Feb 4, 2016 11:57 pm
That response was FAST. Thank you all for being so interested in playing my game. Fair warning that this is my first PbP game, so there are still some logistics that I'm not familiar with. But we're all here to have fun, so let's do that!
Feb 5, 2016 12:12 am
I am interested in playing a magic user who focuses on gathering information, reading and manipulating minds, creating hallucinations… ect. This character would be all about gathering information and then using that information to control the situation, specifically focusing on controlling other people’s thoughts.
Last edited February 5, 2016 8:15 am
Feb 5, 2016 12:31 am
I've been looking forward to trying this system, thanks for running the show! I'll be hitting the rulebook hard tomorrow and see if I can get a character going sometime this weekend.
Feb 5, 2016 2:31 am
I'm interested in playing a human Rigger, who started life as a mechanic and worked in a shop/garage, with side jobs building and repairing drones and rigs.

I realized that the quickstart PDFs I have don't actually have character generation rules in them, so I'm channeling my inner Decker and looking up the appropriate info online. Apologies if I get some of this wrong, but I'm building my Rigger as we speak.
Feb 5, 2016 2:38 am
I've got a character already made and ready to customize for this campaign. I highly recommend using a program to make your character, like HeroLab or Chummer. It's not a necessity but it makes tracking everything a lot easier.

My character is a combat-medic who used to work for the Seattle branch of DocWagon. His childhood friend mysterious left the company (while also stealing a bunch of tech), so he became a shadow runner to track her down in order to find out what happened.

The story is simple, so I can alter it to match whatever you guys come up with!

Here's a link to a PDF of my sheet.


Edit: Scrapped the character!

//Handle
Last edited February 5, 2016 11:39 pm
Feb 5, 2016 3:43 am
I looked at Chummer, but I don't think it runs on a Mac. And I cannot justify the cost for Hero Labs.
Feb 5, 2016 8:33 pm
Here is my Rigger, Andrea "Andy" Nerisei. Hopefully I crunched the numbers correctly!

Lifestyle: Middle to Low. Owns and lives in an automotive repair shop, which could serve as the team's base of operations.
Quote:
Andrea's childhood was bathed in oil and grease. The pneumatic drives of her parents' automotive shop were her lullabies, and her very first rattle was a socket wrench. She took apart her toys to see how they worked and eventually started to juryrig new toys that, in her mind, worked better.

Her parents sent her to school to learn her letters and numbers, and she received a scholarship to attend the University of Washington and pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering. While her parents may have had high hopes for her, Andy's primary love was the machine itself rather than any theoretical application. Her knowledge did enable her to find side work modifying vehicles for street racers and enthusiasts, and while she never participated in any events, she became known in some underground circles as a person to get a little more horsepower than was legally allowed. Since much of what she worked on had Rigger Interfaces, she got herself implanted with a Control Rig, which allowed her a better grasp of the vehicles and their requirements and limitations.

After she graduated, Andrea returned to her parents' shop to help business. The nuyen was steady, though her father secretly did not approve of certain clients that she seemed to attract. He never questioned Andrea about her work orders, nor the transient stock that would mysteriously arrive and just as suddenly disappear, and decided to trust his daughter to not mire the family's business in shadier affairs. Andrea, for her part, did her best to do so, even after her parents both recently passed away.

One day while browsing the warehouse of her supplier, Andrea found two cast-off Roto-Drones. Fascinated by its technology, Andy dedicated much of her time to studying drones and their controls. She invested some of her savings into purchasing the drones and outfitting them as she saw fit, occasionally taking them outside whenever she had free time.
Feb 5, 2016 9:10 pm
Everything that I'm seeing so far looks great!

I'd love it if you guys could come up with a reason that you all know each other and would work together. I'm giving you all a free contact at Loyalty 1/Connection 2 named Vinyl. He's an Orc fixer whom you have all worked with at least once in the past.

Like I said, I intend to have the game take place mainly in Tacoma, so plan accordingly.

Also, if everyone could give me just a little bit of intel on your experience with Shadowrun, I'd really appreciate it.
Feb 5, 2016 9:14 pm
PaladinRevenant says:
Also, if everyone could give me just a little bit of intel on your experience with Shadowrun, I'd really appreciate it.
First timer here.
Feb 5, 2016 9:32 pm
I have played some of the new Shadowrun video games, I find the world and mythos extremely interesting. I have never played the tabletop game before. I got a pdf of the rule book and I am reading through it. My character is mostly finished, I will post character details and personality later tonight.
Last edited February 5, 2016 11:17 pm
Feb 5, 2016 11:45 pm
I've never played, but I know the basics on how to rolls work and stuff. It might be a little confusing for me at first, but actually playing will be the best way for me to learn.

I decided to scrap my combat-medic so I can make a character that fits the team better.

So we are going to be a new team, so what do you guys want your roles to be? Fennec's character seems like the team face/spellcaster, and Andrea looks like the rigger/driver. We'll still need someone specialized in killing things, as well as a decker,

//Handle
Feb 6, 2016 12:55 am
handle says:
I've never played, but I know the basics on how to rolls work and stuff. It might be a little confusing for me at first, but actually playing will be the best way for me to learn.

I decided to scrap my combat-medic so I can make a character that fits the team better.

So we are going to be a new team, so what do you guys want your roles to be? Fennec's character seems like the team face/spellcaster, and Andrea looks like the rigger/driver. We'll still need someone specialized in killing things, as well as a decker,

//Handle
darthoingoboingo Started the The original thread about starting a Shadowrun Campaign, and he was interested in playing a decker. I did not take any any healing spells so we still need a healer. We also are probably going to want a street samurai and someone to lead the team. My character is not really the face of the team, she is more the quiet antisocial puppet-master.
Feb 6, 2016 2:28 am
Played the tabletop version a long long time ago (don't know which edition; it was back in the late 80s), so I'm familiar with the world, just not the mechanics, especially with 5th edition. I've seen and played the Shadowrun games produced by Harebrained Schemes, which I thought captured the world perfectly.

As for connections, I figure my character's shop could be situated somewhere in Tacoma. Not sure how the demographics work in the Shadowrun years, but an ideal spot would be the suburbs near the former Univ of Puget Sound, where everyone would have a car. Perhaps located in the business district near Hilltop, which if things remain consistent should have a criminal element allowing Andrea access to hard-to-find parts and supplies.

Any other character could either be a frequent customer, or someone on the shadier side of things looking for vehicular modifications. My character could serve as a minor source for fenced goods, or a mover of fenced goods if the price were right.

Another option is the old college-buddy or acquaintance. Andrea would have had to take a number of courses and would also join one or two clubs. Connections don't even have to be specifically from UW; she could know someone who attended WSU, UPS, Pacific, or even TacComm.
Feb 6, 2016 2:31 am
I'm thinking of Human Street Samurai for my character, if that will work for the group, still need to work through the creation steps.
Feb 6, 2016 2:43 am
I got a little carried away and wrote a lot of info, sorry about that. Here is some information about my character Vision, an elf Magician. The back story gets pretty dark but I promise Vision is not super Emo, just a little distant.

*******************************

Vision (real name Samantha Kerns) was born in Tacoma. Both her human parents spent most of their lives being mindless worker bees for a large corporation. Samantha had a human older brother named Alex and an elven older sister named Jennifer. Samantha’s father always resented his two daughters for goblinizing, he always loved His oldest son Alex more than his daughters. Samantha learned to read at a young age and always had her nose in a book, she never felt comfortable around large groups of people. When Samantha was 12 years old her brother Alex got caught in the crossfire of a gang war and was killed in the street by a stray bullet. Samantha’s parents took this especially hard, her Dad never stopped drinking after Alex’s death and became abusive, both to his wife and his two daughters.

(PS. I realize this is a dark subject not everybody is comfortable with and I don’t want to make abuse a common subject in this campaign, I don’t intend for it to be mentioned much if at all. When deciding on Vision’s personality I had the idea of her struggling with trust issues because of abuse as a child. That is why I added this to her back story, I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable)

The next two years where really hard on Samantha, she became more antisocial and became ashamed to be an elf, but a few good things happened. She developed a love for music, as it was the only thing to help her block out the rest of the world, and she developed a really close relationship with her sister Jennifer. Jennifer was always strong and outgoing, she always tried to protect Samantha from their father and anyone else who tried to mess with them. All that time Samantha had her nose in a book started to pay off, she started to realize she had an affinity for magic. Samantha spent most of her time finding any thing she could about magic, it gave her a sense of strength she had never felt before.

One day Jennifer was gone along with all of her stuff, she had run away and left Samantha behind. Samantha has not heard from her sister since that day. After that things only got worse for Samantha. In order to protect herself she started using magic she had learned to manipulate her parent’s minds. But her magic was undisciplined and messy, it started to permanently affect her parent’s mental state. After two years of regular exposure to mind altering magic her parent’s mental health had corroded. Her father committed suicide and her mother ended up in a mental institution, her mother is still there to this day. Samantha was now a 16 year old orphan on the street.

Samantha took on the name Vision and started a life of crime. Vision was a loner, never getting too involved with any one gang, but she worked for gangs whenever it was convenient. Vision could not match most people in strength, so instead she learned to run. If her magic failed her she could always outrun her pursuers and hop a fence or jump from building to building. 8 years later Vision is now 24 and looking to join the big leagues.

*******************************

Vision is 5’ 11" pale elf with a medium build. She keeps her head completely shaved and blue eyes. She normally wares cargo pants, a baggy sweatshirt with a large hood, a single strap backpack, and an armored vest hidden underneath her sweatshirt. Vision tends to be quiet, distant, and fairly agreeable. But she won’t think twice about using violence or forcing her will upon someone’s mind if she needs to. If I had to sum up her abilities I would probably describe her as a "parkour psychic." She is very athletic and is in her element when sneaking around and gathering information. In combat she is a support character, providing covering fire, throwing grenades, taking control of the enemy’s mind… ect

I am not much of a power gamer and I have never played Shadowrun before, so I can’t promise Vision will be super mechanically effective. But I am really excited about her strange collection of abilities and think it will be a lot of fun.
Feb 6, 2016 3:10 am
Minor note, Fennec: transforming into an Elf or Dwarf is not typically referred to as "goblinizing". Even back before people knew what was going on (early 2020s I think) kids being born as Elf or Dwarf was called "Unexplained Genetic Expression". Goblinization is typically used to refer to the process of transforming into an Orc or a Troll.

Also, while not unheard of, in the '50s (when Vision would have been born) children were rarely born a different metatype than their parents. Just a note.

That having been said, it is certainly possible for Samantha and her sister to have been Elves born to Human parents. And to someone who is prejudiced against non-human metatypes, referring to all transformations as "goblinization" isn't that big a stretch.
Feb 6, 2016 3:15 am
As far as character archetypes go, if it turns out that we can't get someone to play a decker, I can alter the game content to work around that. I recommend that everybody have at least SOME form of combat ability (trust me, in my last group fewer than half the PCs were worth anything at all in a firefight)

Also, we don't need to have a dedicated face, but it will probably be good to have somebody that can talk to people without the use of a gun. ;-)
Feb 6, 2016 3:18 am
So we have:

Rigger - Andrea
Spellcaster/Support - Vision
Street Sam - (Szemely)
Decker - (Darth)
Face - (Handle!! :D:D:D)

So, I'll make a social character. I'm thinkin maybe a shaman or smart person or something, I'll post whatever I come up with.

//Handle
Feb 6, 2016 3:23 am
Just approved DarthOingoBoingo to join the game, so yes the decker is covered
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