Since we all have a mutual contact in Lou, some or all of us may have met previously. Mick would possibly know Lou from his time as a child working a corporate factory since the letter doesn't make him come off as a monster hunter type (more like one of us as we were just starting to become aware of things hiding in the dark).
For the last year, Mick has been a monster hunter type, or trying to become one at least. This could be a way he met or came into contact with other characters.
Or, if anyone happens to be close to a corporate bigwig, you may have met him when he worked as a bodyguard. It is probably more likely Mick is unknown to others, but it might make things easier to get started if everyone knew at least one other person, IDK.
Qstor: Does it matter where we are before we come to New Orleans?
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Hi there!
This is the avatar I plan on using. The backstory is from an inspired Shadowrun game, but it seems that it could work here, with a bit of tweaking.
Okay, one more thing about skills (I promise I'm not looking for these, they just keep coming up the more I read the d20 modern book about it). There's a Speak Language skill and a Read/Write language skill. I can see what they were going for here, but it looks like Pathfinder compressed these into a Linguistics skill. Might we do the same? =}
Mick, Wraith's background is a bit eclectic, but centers around the criminal greyworld, being all about on doing the job and getting paid. I don't think it would be too big a stretch if we met on one of your bodyguard gigs, or even while you were hunting a monster and our goals aligned for a spell.
I could easily see the two meeting during his stint as a bodyguard. She could have been a contractor hired on for added muscle or even part of a squad that targeted a protectee (for a bit of rival-type flair). Or both at different times, if that particular trope still has tread on the tire.
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Hi there!
This is the avatar I plan on using. The backstory is from an inspired Shadowrun game, but it seems that it could work here, with a bit of tweaking.
Okay, one more thing about skills (I promise I'm not looking for these, they just keep coming up the more I read the d20 modern book about it). There's a Speak Language skill and a Read/Write language skill. I can see what they were going for here, but it looks like Pathfinder compressed these into a Linguistics skill. Might we do the same? =}
Sure.
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I could easily see the two meeting during his stint as a bodyguard. She could have been a contractor hired on for added muscle or even part of a squad that targeted a protectee (for a bit of rival-type flair). Or both at different times, if that particular trope still has tread on the tire.
Excellent!
To solidify the bond do we need a little write up of the thing? Would rather do it or should I? If you feel your muse so moved, I give you full leave in regard to agency for the vignette.
We can just come up with a few bullet points and improv it in-game from there. Make references to that job in Tampete or the time we shot each other, that sort of thing =P
Thanks for pinging me, Wraith! Been slow on the boards over the break.
The languages question was a good one- what are common/useful languages in this setting? I assume there's some kind of urban polyglot language as "Common" but what would be the common "tech" languages- Japanese? German? Would we need to take English as a Linguistics choice if we want to be able to speak/read proper English?
Wraith seems like the right character to hook my Smart into TechMage into. She seems like a continent-trotting merc, so it shouldn't be too hard to say they worked together before. I was thinking my guy would be a local, at least for the first job. Are we still starting out in New Orleans?
My $.02 on languages:
Since we are in the USA English would be the default "common" I took Spanish because it is a pretty common language, though just for going to New Orleans French or Creole could have use. Off the top of my head other useful languages might include Japanese, German, or Korean. Languages can be tough. In terms of ancient lore, Latin might have value, as well as other dead and ancient languages or tribal languages from anywhere. Every culture has supernatural myths, and in Dark Conspiracy those ancient myths are usually reflections of actual monsters (just with varying degrees of accuracy).
Tl;Dr? No idea, anything, lol.
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French since you're in New Orleans?@Anyone, hey can someone give me a heads up on what languages to take?
Excellent!
I'm trying to work in a sideline of linguistics as part of my schtick, so I took 4. I guess I should take Mandarin, French, German, and...Latin? Since you took Spanish I think I should take Latin, because I agree that when I think 'horror' I think "someone or thing is gonna go OFF on me in Latin'. =}
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Yeah let's move from Recruitment to Discussion.Hey Qstor, do you want everyone else to start posting to Discussion too?
Okay, hey, can we spare a quick word about what the party is looking like? So we're all on the same page?
Mick is a Tough. Good.
I'm Fast (and smart. and cute. and awesome. =)
It looks like karlprosek is going full Smart {TechnoMAGE!}
M'meori is doing a dedicated. Nice.
Now that's 4 that are currently posting. That puts us 1-2 short of a full party, and we're kinda short a Face. And since this is looking to have some social elements to it, being sort of low-magic, low-power, modern times, it might be really, really good to have a Charisma Hero.
That guy Therenger says he's in with one. Can we get him over here to bring us to 5 and then we can let fly?
I might be able to double as a pseudo-Face. I was already thinking about having a positive Cha bonus and looking at Occupations, Entrepreneur could work and give me Bluff and Diplomacy and give my guy a fun street hustling, always looking for the next deal kind of vibe.
I was thinking Criminal but tbh you don't get much of anything out of that package.
Mick, Qstor, anybody with setting knowledge- I've been looking for something that discusses the setting but can't find anything online. Is there a general primer or North American atlas or something like that so I'm not referring to stuff out of William Gibson or Shadowrun that's not in the Dark Conspiracy setting?
@karlprosek: If it pleases you, I already got a vignette whirling in my head about you, me, and Mick doing a little job to make the world a better place. As soon as I see a name and some numbers Imma maybe type it up. =}
Cool! I've been working on putting the sheet together, should be done today.
OK, here's my Smart hero, ready to level into Techno Mage once we hit 4th. This is just the generated sheet; I still need to do Wealth and equipment and fluff like appearance/personality/background.
Basic concept is that he's a gifted hacker/inventor who's always looking out for the next business opportunity/get rich quick scheme, and has contracted out to do hacking/electronic warfare type merc work to make money to fund his business ventures.
No one really worked on a wikia in much detail, which is weird because there has been an active cult following as long as the game has existed, lol. Broad strokes of North America:
Class issues are common. The middle class barely exists, and most are wage slaves. The poor often sell their voting rights to corporate interests in exchange for food, a place to stay, and cable TV.
OK, thanks, Mick. I can work with the mental headcanon of Gibson and Judge Dredd. Looks a lot like Escape from New York, now that I'm trying to picture it. :)
Yup, EfNY too, for sure. A little Blade Runner, and more than a touch of Max Headroom as well. It has been a while since I saw Max Headroom, but IIRC, it lines up really well in a lot of ways.
Some useful slang: Mikes are wage slaves. Nomes are the super rich. Minion Hunters are ordinary people fighting back against monsters. Igors are human henchmen of the Dark Ones.
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Good to know. Is there a glossary online like Shadowrun has?
No it's not as detailed as Shadowrun. I'll try and post a "primer"
Therenger's character here - Thanks for the add. I need to make some final adjustments, cleanup the sheet, and align my backstory with the conversation, but will be ready over the weekend.
She will be a heck of a solid face-woman. It looks like we have a doc, a shooter, and my meatshield too. Imma plan my first post while working today =P
Is anyone native to New Orleans? If Wraith ends up being my only direct contact I am thinking Mick will try giving her a call before he heads down I95 under the assumption someone with a steady hand and a keen eye would be useful in spotting Lou's stalkers.
I'm thinking that Julian would be coming from one of the more populated areas— it would justify the profession. OR, he could be from one of the places bordering Demongrounds. A first responder out there would see a whole lot more things than perhaps in the center of a city-state. Whether it was short-straw or "managerial recommendation", it was somewhere that he could thrive, learn all he could, and maybe not get his face bitten off or worse.
+2 Creative, +2 from GM per Recruitment thread
After batting around several backstory ideas I've settled on Stacey being a New Orleans native. Basically, her parents died during the hurricane when she was a toddler, and she was taken in by a matriarch from a different Ward. She began singing the local haunts when she was nine and earned a following for her surprisingly soulful approach to the old American songbook. When Mama died, things started to go south for Stacey in a hurry. She grabbed Mama's shotgun and every penny she'd been careful to save, wrapped herself in an oversized hooded sweatshirt and ventured into the streets, hoping to find anyone she could trust in this godforsaken world.
It's likely that any local would know about the pretty white girl who sings like Billie Holiday and was raised in the hood by the voodoo queen.
As a hook for this character, Lou Rogers would have written a letter to Mama Davis, knowing that she was a leader in the community but also had an eye for the strange. When Mama died, seemingly of a heart attack, Stacey/Pearl finds the letter. She's met Mick and knows by reputation that he's a serious mothaf#+$a - one of those guys who's ready for the end of the world - and figures he'll be as good as anyone to put her trust in.
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@ GM. Hey, if I pay for a Masterwork Photojournalist Vest can it be a -fancy- vest? Like, it looks more like a breif denim shrug than a tell-tale vest.
Also, and this is just an RP thing for me, but I'm willing to put another +1 to the buy DC of the thing because it would be awesome, can it also be a very teeny tiny amount armored so it also counts as a Light Undercover Shirt?
That way I can just walk around looking like this all the time. ^_^ (I actually imagine it slightly longer, freeing up the ability to stealth things in the small of the back, but you get the idea.)
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@ GM. Hey, if I pay for a Masterwork Photojournalist Vest can it be a -fancy- vest? Like, it looks more like a breif denim shrug than a tell-tale vest.
Also, and this is just an RP thing for me, but I'm willing to put another +1 to the buy DC of the thing because it would be awesome, can it also be a very teeny tiny amount armored so it also counts as a Light Undercover Shirt?
Sure!
@Mick, would you mind if I setup a short scene with you and Pearl discussing this letter over coffee? It would give me a chance to build Pearl's backstory organically and introduce our gameplay relationships.
Sure, I was thinking he would have come to Mama's when he got to town, not knowing about her recent death but thinking she might know about the bigger problems Lou mentioned going on in the city. It would also be a good spot to tell Wraith to meet up. I have the tail-end of an answering machine message for her in my notes saying as much.
I am totally bucking in the saddle, lol.
Qstor are we clear to post a simple intro/reaction to the letter in GP? Just a little introspection, leaving Wraith a message, and description of a ride with no story impact sort of deal? For Pearl's piece I'd end with entering Mama's.
Give me an hour to post, Mick. I think you'll like what I have.
I hope that works, GM, and I'm not stepping on anything you have.
Yeah, come join the party, lol! I'm sure Wraith will show up soon. It might be good to just have some folks show up at Lou's because frankly, he is which will want to see first thing in the AM.
About done. Had to locate the SRD when I couldn't remember where my books might be. Currently debating the fluff behind the crunch, as all I have are some vague tropes and I'm not quite comfortable with that.
So, I've got something like an Edge City EMT, sees weird, starts looking into the weird, and there's the Rabbit Hole, because the more he starts to track, the more he begins to see. Resource hunting likely links him with Lou, and things proceed from there. Maybe a couple of points in survival, to represent the wandering and not-really Hunting?
There's an angle I'm missing, but I'm not sure what it is.
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Ooo I like it! That's how many of the classic investigators get their start. Everything's normal, except for one thing, BUT the more you look into that one weird thing, the more you find out that EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG!
Also, it'll work better if you already know Allie. The email from Lou is a fine starting off point, but it's easiest to get all of us into the same room if at least one of us knows at least one other of us.
I'm guessing you two could've met when you were fixing Wraith of some "totally accidental" gun shot wound and you realized with your new and exciting and very, very dangerous new hobby, it might be good to share phone numbers with an "independent security consultant".
Sound good?
Missing an angle on the build or the backstory? If the backstory my only suggestion is figure out a good detail to make it really matter to your character. In Mick's case, it wasn't just the weirdness of his client being killed by what he thought was some kind of ghost, but the company sweeping it under the rug. It told him that someone in his company knew about the supernatural and never informed/prepared him. He knew they couldn't be trusted to tell him the truth. He had to find it for himself.
Most EMTs would likely be private contractors, by the way. So feel free to borrow from Mick's thing. It is fairly common that a minion hunter is born not just from the "dark" but also from the "conspiracy" part. When literal monsters from somewhere not of this Earth have infiltrated governments and corporations, cover-ups abound.
Also, I want to say The American Midwest is your best for finding a large city that's adjacent to demongrounds. I keep meaning to dig out my copy of the original rulebook (or at least my backup drive with the pdf) but still dealing with new work schedule and aftermath of holidays and weather so I've been lazy about going through my files, but I feel like Ohio might be a good general area.
Sorry everyone, I've been late on the boards since the break and kept missing posts here since it's not in my active campaigns yet. I still need to finish my sheet with gear but the numbers are all in place.
Stringer's a New Orleans native- good chance he and Pearl know each other if they're both runners in the same plex.
As a hook for this character, Lou Rogers would have written a letter to Mama Davis, knowing that she was a leader in the community but also had an eye for the strange. When Mama died, seemingly of a heart attack, Stacey/Pearl finds the letter. She's met Mick and knows by reputation that he's a serious mothaf*#&a - one of those guys who's ready for the end of the world - and figures he'll be as good as anyone to put her trust in.
Posted. @Pearl, Stringer's from the Fischer Dev neighborhood in Algiers/15th Ward, across the river. It's a bad neighborhood but he's got a rep as a fast talker who's good with tech and finding stuff out. He's young and always looking for the next score but is generally regarded as a straight shooter.
@Wraith, I figure Stringer worked at least 1 merc gig with her doing tech support/hacking. He likes drones and computers- sort of the classic 'man in the truck' kind of guy.
Posted. @Pearl, Stringer's from the Fischer Dev neighborhood in Algiers/15th Ward, across the river. It's a bad neighborhood but he's got a rep as a fast talker who's good with tech and finding stuff out. He's young and always looking for the next score but is generally regarded as a straight shooter.
I took "straight shooter" as a double entendre. If that's awkward, back out of it, by all means. This is Pearl being Pearl.
Mick seems to be developing a little noir detective thing (and why not? He sure seems like the broke detective type hanging his shingle because he got burned. Just missing the half empty whiskey bottle). I didn't really have that in mind at first, but with Pearl as a vulnerable femme fatale it just sort of unfolded that way. I love how early interactions can surprise me with how characters and the way they feel go.
So, FYI to folks that haven't bought gear yet...I totally forgot any kind of flashlight, lol. Glowsticks would be helpful too, considering we have a potential sewer lead and may want to mark turns in tunnels. I did buy an audio recorder, but decided Mick wasn't much into the photography angle since he has to always keep his eyes moving, so cameras or video cameras could be useful when scoping places out. Chemistry "tools" which I would guess would be test strips and tubes maybe. I went broke buying a car, hehe.