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I'm trying to find out if there would be much interest on the boards to have a Shadowrun 4e game run here on the boards. I've been a pretty longtime fan of Shadowrun(novels, SNES and Genesis games, lots of 2nd and 3rd edition play), but moved to a new gaming group that was pretty much fully D&D focused around the time that the newest edition of Shadowrun came out. It means that I've only done a handful of Shadowrun 4e games, but know the ruleset pretty well and have a very good knowledge of the world.
Basically, I've been craving Shadowrun more and more recently, and have finally come to the conclusion that a PbP might be the way to go. I know the boards here have a lot of great players on them, but I don't know how many of you are Shadowrun fans.
Ideally I'd like to get together a team of 4-6 runners together for a campaign set primarily in Seattle, though its very likely that you will do some globetrotting in the course of your jobs.
As said above, this is basically just a feeler post to see what interest there is. If people show that they would like to join in then I'll make sure to put up more details on campaign standards and what I'm looking for, though I'm pretty broad minded about the layout of the team.
If any of you are new to the shadowrun universe(or know it but have never played 4e) there is a quick start rules book on the books website Linked to here.
I'm more then willing to help new players to the game.
Thanks,
-Tarlane
played a little shadowrun4 so and love the setting do like the rule set alot as well.
any thought on how your init phases?
Well, since I still have a character from the last Shadowrun pbp that was over here, I'm interested.
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Wow, responses are coming a lot quicker then I would have anticipated, that is great.
I'm not sure what your question is, Seeker. Do you mean how I'll deal with players having various amounts of initiative passes in a PbP?
How I normally deal with Initiative in PbP, is to have my players give me what they are looking to do in combat before their turns come up, and then once I have the next couple of people announcing their actions, I'll put up a fluff post that puts everything in initiative order and makes sure you know how your actions succeeded. This lets combat go pretty smoothly and quickly when things are going as expected and I just need to pause combat to let people adjust actions when something unexpected happens(such as a new enemy arriving, or an ally dropping or just something that changes the battlefield somehow.)
As I said above, I'm not sure just what your question was but hopefully that may have answered it.
Edit: As a note I find it amusing that I am actually in a PbP with both of you at the moment. I'm Narnel in Second Darkness seeker, and Quentin in Lyn's high seas game, Davi.
heh that is funny.
Yeah was wondering if you was thinking of haveing the pc's go ahead and name actions for all their Init phases or just do one at a time.
Doing Init phases one at a time is one thing I think that lead to the last Game I was in dying.
sounds like ya got a good bead on this
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Yeah, because I am able to be on at work, I tend to be around often enough that I can post pretty immediately responses to things as people put up what they are planning for actions. But I also realize that not everyone is able to be around like that, and we certainly won't always be able to post in proper initiative order.
So it seems easiest that you post what you are planning on doing in whatever order you get online, and then I'll sort them into initiative order once the next person who is up posts.
And speaking of online time, I do understand that everyone has their own posting speeds. I hope that most can post at least once a day, but I know that things come up sometimes so if someone is ever going to be gone for a few days or whatever just let me know and we can keep moving with your character under either my or one of the other players control during that period.
Hopefully I'll hear from a couple more people who are interested and we can get something started up.
I was running one on these boards briefly and I was going to play in one, but it died before I could start. I'd be interest, but here's some advice from my own experience.
The amount of die rolling in the combat system is very cumbersome, especially in pbp format. Therefore, if you run a shadowrun pbp I highly recommend trying something that focuses heavily on rp and skill use. A little combat is fine, but it will bog down fast, especially if the fights don't resolve in a couple of rounds.
If you use invisible castle for die ruling use the "hits" options to roll your d6s. You can program in as many die as you need for your roll and it will automatically calculate how many successes you get. This takes some of the pain off the die rolling.
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I appreciate the interest and the suggestions.
I've always seen shadowrun as being very RP heavy anyway, so I don't see that as being as much of a problem. Combat can be very deadly, so if there is any sort of prolonged battle thats trouble and so is probably going to want to be avoided ICly as well.
I normally use invisiblecastle for my D&D games, but I was still considering other die rolling options or even the honor system for this game. I hadn't seen the hits option on invisiblecastle before, thats actually pretty nice and a likely option.
"Finally, another job. Better not be another bioweapons job, though. Not enough nuyen in the world to do that again."
"right ya are chummer, ol' spider likes to get his nuyen and bounce."
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Sounds good so far, guys, I'll go over the characters in more detail tomorrow. I still want at least one more character and will take as many as three, though its probably easier to keep things from slowing down with less people. Its a tossup either way I guess, the intra-group RP is better with a bigger team, but its much slower on combat and such.
Feel free to start to chat and try and sort out your characters in relation to each other that way. If you want to already know each other and be an established group that certainly adds a lot of trust to each other.
Otherwise, its ok, I'm going to give you all a free contact, a fixer, and that will be a mutual connection to get things rolling.
well spider was mostly a moded pregen. I may rework him now that I have read the rules and played a bit.
One quick question: How many free points of Fixer are we getting, because I already have a GM-Hook fixer, and I'm wondering how many points I can give to another contact.
Good! Thanks to that, my contact from the police just got a promotion.
I guess we need some muscle. I'll put together a street samurai type.
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Sounds good to me, that should give a pretty balanced party. I'm having something of a hectic day with work today so I've only been able to sneak up short posts at the moment, but when I get home tonight I'll put up a longer one with some info about basic campaign assumptions as well as posting conventions. That way we should be able to start fleshing out characters better.
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Ok, so I'm going to use this post to try and put up some of the presumptions you might want to take into account when building your characters and trying to flesh out your backgrounds a bit, as well as some info on what I'd like in posts so I'm sorry if this runs a bit long. I'll likely add more to this as well when you guys ask questions or I just think of other things I hadn't considered.
First off, some of the basics for character building. I'm going to go with the default building rules overall, so 400BP, no gear rated over 6 or with an availability higher then 12, no more then 35BP either into positive qualities or gained from negative, ect. If you have any questions on how to do your build or if something is available(I have a number of the sourcebooks, I'd just want to approve anything out of them) feel free to ask.
In addition to your starting build, you each will have a free contact; Roach 'Coach' Roberts. He's a 1/3 Fixer, well connected and known in Seattle. He may once have just been a street BTL dealer, but he has made enough connections in the city that he is known as one of the premier recruiters of low budget talent. Runners look down on him, but most have worked for him at some point early in their careers. In a lot of ways he's like a temp agency, the pay might be lousy but it gives you an in to work with the big boys and its a great way to be noticed. Of course this agency takes a big cut of your pie since he knows no one under him has the rep to argue any income.
With that in mind, whatever your official background may be, I am looking to have each of you be reasonably new to the shadowrunning game. All of you have been scouted in one way or another by roach through one of his many contacts, perhaps he had heard of your talent in a corp before you went rogue, or you made a name for yourself in a go-gang, or even one of your teachers in a magical academy let slip to the fixer that you had the skill needed though your lack of love for the law meant you weren't going to graduate with your class. Somehow all of you have caught his eye and have received a comm message that if you wanted to earn some real cred stay in touch.
For setting I am starting real basic and you will be working around Seattle in 2072. I have a number of future ideas that will take you to different cities, but you'll need to establish yourselves first before you start getting international jobs.
Moving past some of the fluff information to give you a bit better of an idea of what I look for in a game. I have a strong love for RP and I think that the world of shadowrun really lends itself to that. If you try and flesh out your characters for me, you'll find that I'll bring your backgrounds into the world and it will add a great deal. Describe your actions well and I have a tendency to give favorable circumstances. Don't worry about coming up with a plan that I may not have thought of because I want the world to be alive to you so that you can set out in whatever ways you wish.
With that said, I tend to view combat in shadowrun as being fast and deadly and I try and run it that way. Battles are a big part of the setting, but prolonged combat with security forces or gangs mean casualties so I certainly encourage hit and move tactics.
When actually playing out combat, post your intentions for your next action and try and give me as many alternatives as possible. I will sort through the posts and put up summary/results posts as soon as the next person in order has posted(so if person 2 and 3 posts before person 1 does, thats fine. I'll put up a post as soon as 1 does and put them all in order so we are ready for 4). This means that the more options you give me in your post the more likely we will be able to keep up the flow. For example, rather then simply saying 'I shoot the leader', if you tell me 'I shoot the leader, but if he is down I shoot ganger 1 unless they surrender' then I can adjust and keep things flowing smoothly.
However, keep in mind that I will pause the action if something unexpected happens so that everyone can re-adjust. For the example above, if you are planning to shoot one of the gangers and before your turn comes up an ally is dropped or a group of lone star turn the corner, I will give everyone a chance to re-assess their actions.
I have found it makes reading posts much easier if you use standard text to post your actions and then make your characters speech bold. It lets others read the dialogue easily and separate internal monologue with external. On the same token, please put any posts that are only directed to some characters(or just to the DM) in spoiler tags. This might come up with the comm system, and I will likely use it for some skill tests so it will be based on the honor system, that way it cuts back on some of the back and forth when I am giving out information, based on your success you can find out what you learn or accomplish immediately and post based on that.
For example:
Assensing + Intuition[1]
Assensing + Intuition[3]
If you rolled Assensing + Intuition and got one hit you could just look at the top spoiler, with 3 hits you could look at both.
Finally, I think I am going to be going with the invisible castle die roller as our primary roller. It can be found here: Invisible Castle They have an example that shows how to have your roll measure hits. If you aren't sure how to do it, I'll be happy to explain.
That was a whole lot of information, but I'm sure there are still a handful of things to cover as well as details for your individual backgrounds as well. But for right now, hopefully thats a good start.
As I said above, feel free to ask questions, and if any of you have a need to, you can also contact me by email. Felixcosima at gmail dot com
Thanks and I look forward to gaming with you all.
-Tarlane
I had originally been thinking about doing up an old verteran troll street sam, who's been around the block a few times, but has fallen behind the SOTA, and is trying to make a "comeback" after going into semi retirement. I don't know if that would fit since you wanted rookie runners.
I have other ideas, like Doc Jetson- an HRT Doc Wagon paramedic recently laid off (or maybe his hours have been cut back a lot). He's a family man with bills to pay, and he's decided to look into shadowrunning as a means to that end.
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Someone who has been out of the game enough that they have to start at the bottom works well too, if Roach heard that you were needing cash again he would very likely send out the same invite to you as to the others and use you as a good way to make sure the newbies got the job done.
HoustonDerek, I know that RL comes first over the boards so I understand that things come up. If there are no hard feelings with the others then you are more then welcome to join in. I was hoping for 4-6 players and I have 3 so far, so there are some slots available.
As I had mentioned above, if you can't post for a couple days I'd rather be given some warning(either here or by email) so I can keep things flowing smoothly, but emergencies come up as well so if someone disappears after a few days I will likely take over their character as an NPC until they get back. Since runs in this format take quite a while to do, that will give the person some time to get back. If they aren't back when the next mission starts I'll probably just sideline them then.
In that case I'll probably do up the troll.
Have gotten busy, but will try and have spider worked up by Monday. Weekends are often my low post zone. I will keep him as a hacker of some type as we need that area covered
Winston is actually fairly slight for a troll, and brighter than most. He does have a bit of code of sorts that he tries to live by, but it's not exactly like the bushido code, and he's compromised it in the past. He has enough cyber to get by, but he hasn't gone overboard with it, and he relies on his wits and brains more than his muscle.
Sounds good to me. Its hard to say no to having a troll bruiser on your side. Are you thinking of being a true street sam and following a code of that sort, or are you more just the heavy hitter, muscle type?
He's still under construction, but this is what I have so far
Winston (troll, street samurai)
Body 7
Agility 4 (5)
Reaction 4
Strength 5 (6)
Charisma 3
Intuition 4
Logic 3
Will 3
Edge 3
Essence 2.6
Initiative 8
Skills
Pistols 4
Automatics 4
Unarmed 3
Blades 3 (swords +2)
Dodge 3
Pilot Groundcraft 3
Infiltration 3 (urban +2)
Con 1 (fast talk +2)
Perception 2 (visual +2)
Etiquette 3 (street +2)
Intimidation 3 (physical +2)
Negotiation 3 (bargaining +2)
Cyberware:
Wired Reflexes II
Muscle Replacement I
Cybereyes (image link, image recorder, lowlight, flare comp, thermographic, smartlink, vision magnification, protective covers)
Natural dermal plating I
Gear:
Notes to other players:
Seeker: Since we're back to having no running experience, want to figure out some other previous interaction, or should we just stay not knowing each other?
houstonderek: It looks like you're character is an ex-Lone Star detective (or at least beat cop). Coincidentally, my character is also an ex-Lone Star detective. Assuming your character worked there pre-Crash, they may know each-other.
Davi, we can I will work out a good background for spider, behind on a few things right now so may not get to work on him b4 monday
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Notes to other players:
Seeker: Since we're back to having no running experience, want to figure out some other previous interaction, or should we just stay not knowing each other?
houstonderek: It looks like you're character is an ex-Lone Star detective (or at least beat cop). Coincidentally, my character is also an ex-Lone Star detective. Assuming your character worked there pre-Crash, they may know each-other.
Well, he's over 40, so he had time in before the Crash.
@Tarlane: We used a 350 point buy for our characters in P.H.'s PbP, so let me know if he's ok, or if I need to spend more on contacts and gear and skills and stuff. If you're doing a 400 pt buy, that is.
He's in my profile under "Rick Roe".
We are doing a 400 point buy, so you'll likely want to upgrade him a little.
Notes to other players:
Seeker: Since we're back to having no running experience, want to figure out some other previous interaction, or should we just stay not knowing each other?
houstonderek: It looks like you're character is an ex-Lone Star detective (or at least beat cop). Coincidentally, my character is also an ex-Lone Star detective. Assuming your character worked there pre-Crash, they may know each-other.
Well, he's over 40, so he had time in before the Crash.
@Tarlane: We used a 350 point buy for our characters in P.H.'s PbP, so let me know if he's ok, or if I need to spend more on contacts and gear and skills and stuff. If you're doing a 400 pt buy, that is.
He's in my profile under "Rick Roe".
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Houston,
Looking over your character, I don't have any problem with you spreading out the BP wherever you want for your character. If you want to drop a little more to boost your attributes or up your skills that would be fine. I know you dropped a fair amount on your wired reflexes, but if you want to pick up some more equipment, that is fine as well, just stay in the availability requirements.
Also, looking over your characters, I have a few questions for each of you to flesh out your characters some and to try and get a bit more info on your backgrounds.(I really love the details on your contacts, Thomas).
Thomas
You keep in touch with your partner, but did you leave the force on good terms? Where you fired for drinking?
Elizabeth disappeared during the crash, was she at one of the stock markets? Did she get swept up in one of the following riots? Thought to have run away or maybe been taken?
NeonSpider
Does the fixer have any special focus in his work; gear, runs, information, ect? Also, if you wish to change this contact to a different one, because I am giving the free fixer contact, you can.
How old is your character?
How did you discover your powers?
Winston
Any famous runs from your old days?
Are your Arms Dealer/Street Doc contacts left over from the old days? Current friends? Well known but out of touch?
Why did you get out of the game?
Why are you getting back in?
Rick
What brought you into the shadows?
Your mob contact is very loyal, was he someone you knew through working as a lonestar, or a personal friend?
Was Savanah someone you arrested in the past or someone you are/were intimate with?
You are heavy into your drinking and have a knowledge of types, will you down synthahol swill, or do you go for the real stuff?
Also, I know a couple of you apparently have known each other before in a previous incarnation of the characters. Are you still thinking of going that route again? Either just as friends or perhaps having done some small jobs together, maybe even managed a small run as a team? If any of you have any previous connections it always makes it easier to trust one another as a team.
Also, looking over your characters, I have a few questions for each of you to flesh out your characters some and to try and get a bit more info on your backgrounds.(I really love the details on your contacts, Thomas).
Thomas
** spoiler omitted **
I'll be honest, a good deal of the detail for the bartender was thanks to my previous DM. As for the other questions,
As to why he no longer works for Lone Star, let's just say when I say he has Bad Luck, I mean it. Some people woke up one morning without a SIN, and a few people woke up and realized there was no longer any record of their existence. When you go to work and your ID no longer works, and when you call in to get re-authorized to get in they say you never worked for them ever, you would probably take it a bit hard. (Note: The drinking is because he had no job and his girl disappeared, not the other way around.)
To tell the truth, he still has no idea what happened to Elizabeth. It's the opposite of what happened to him. Instead of all official records that he existed being wiped but he was still around doing things and leaving physical evidence he exists and such, she just disappeared. Maybe she died in the riots, maybe she met a few organ-leggers in a dark alley, maybe she just wanted to not be found and used the chaos caused by the Crash to do it.
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I'll be honest, a good deal of the detail for the bartender was thanks to my previous DM. As for the other questions, ** spoiler omitted **Also, looking over your characters, I have a few questions for each of you to flesh out your characters some and to try and get a bit more info on your backgrounds.(I really love the details on your contacts, Thomas).
Thomas
** spoiler omitted **
Sounds good to me. Do you prefer to keep the Elizabeth things as purely background reasons for him to be in the shadows? Or is it alright if I bring up those things in the game? I've got something that I think could be interesting to play off that backstory, without leaving him at that point where he would be leaving the shadows to try and rebuild his old life.
Oh, feel free to mention it in-game.
really all the stuff in the spoiler is in flux and will prob change
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Alright, Seeker. Let me know as you start to codify that sort of info. I have been trying to fill in some of the details on the adventure outline I have in my head, and using that sort of information lets me form things so they fit your characters better, maybe drawing on their backgrounds or simply having hooks that your chars are more likely to go for. Maybe even adding in bits that might make you wary of the runs or more cautious because of your characters histories. I can use mechanical stats for that(two of your characters are allergic to sea-water, so it would be silly of me not to at least roll around the idea of something taking place on a boat), but the fluff details add a lot to the RP and seem to tie the characters more into the world.
Also, with a note on the above: I was going to use the first run I have set up as a way to draw all your characters together, and with your characters either trying to make their start in the shadows or return to them after a lapse, it would make sense for you to want to take it to try and build your reputation some. After that, however, if you guys are offered a run and decide to turn it down, you don't have to worry about wrecking my story or anything. I figure thats part of the shadows after all, sometimes you get that vibe you can't trust the johnson, sometimes you realize that the sea could be too big a detriment to your characters, maybe you just realize that a job that is going to leave Rick and Thomas staking out a bar isn't going to work so well. I know this is a ways down the line with the speed that PbP's go, but beyond maybe having a fixer or johnson who is a bit unhappy at being told 'no', you have freedom in that regard without 'going off the rails'.
Your character was a past runner, how old is he? I think around 38-40. He was grew up in the redmond barrens and moved into the world of shadowrunning from being part of a street gang. He doesn't know when his birthday and he doesn't know exactly how old he is.
Any famous runs from your old days? I'll think on that.
Are your Arms Dealer/Street Doc contacts left over from the old days? Current friends? Well known but out of touch? His arms dealer and street doc contact are from the old days. I'll detail the contacts more fully later, but the street doc operates out of the barrens (maybe Dr. Bob's Quickstich) and was the one who implanted his first cybermods. He's also gone to him several times for some emergency fix ups after firefights. The arms dealer is a contact in the Ork underground. He's an orc named Tucan who is a mercenary. He's good at getting guns, but Winston's not particularly tight with him. His bartender contact operates a bar in the barrens that is friendly to trolls. He has put Winston in touch with a Mr. Johnson now and again, and Winston works at the bar part time as a bouncer (as a way of making money since he hasn't been running much). Winston spends quite a bit of time at the bar, and the two are pretty close. His bouncer contact is from Club Penumbra and Winston used to frequent the club back in the day when it was a top place to find work as a runner.
Why did you get out of the game? Before the second crash Winston was hired to do an extraction run on the Renrakru arcology when it was shutdown. The run went really bad and he was pretty scarred by the horrors he witnessed (both physical and mental). He had the jitters after that and couldn't go back into running for a long time.
Why are you getting back in? He needs the cash.
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Spoiler #1 is my background from the other game:
Quitting his job and spiraling into the bottle cost him his marriage, but he still loves his ex wife, and rarely notices other women.
He trudges through routine cases (insurance fraud, peeping tom work for disgruntled spouses) relying on his experience and talent, his heart just isn't in it...
Most times, Rick is sloppy, and still finds himself wondering how closing time came so fast and how his cred got so low.
However, a spark of the crusader still shines in his heart, and when a job that presents the opportunity to protect the innocent and bring a sense of justice to the world arises, Rick focuses all of his energy and talent into the case, the bottle forgotten, and his pain suppressed...
Spoiler #2 answers your questions:
Is alcohol the reason you are no longer a lonestar? Was there some other reason you quit, or were you fired?
What brought you into the shadows?
Your mob contact is very loyal, was he someone you knew through working as a lonestar, or a personal friend?
Was Savanah someone you arrested in the past or someone you are/were intimate with?
You are heavy into your drinking and have a knowledge of types, will you down synthahol swill, or do you go for the real stuff?
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Sounds like there could be a good connection between Thomas and Winston, whether they really know each other or just have seen each other in the past. Winston spends a fair amount of time at a Troll friendly bar in the barrens and Thomas has a contact who is a Troll bartender. Could very well be the same place.
Winston you mentioned growing up as part of a gang that lead into your shadow-work. Maybe instead of a true 'gang' you could have been part of ORC or the like? That could give you some good tie-ins later for the story.
In connection with that, how Thomas made his contact with the bartender was protecting the bar from a humanis attack. If you were aware of that(or perhaps participated in the defense), Winston and Thomas may already have a bond that way. Maybe Winston's talk of the past is even what gave Thomas the idea that running is where the money is.
Just tossing out ideas there, and if you both have a different view on the start or your backgrounds, go with what works best for you, but hopefully some ideas can sprout from all this.
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Very good, Houston. I definitely like the knight in grey armor type of vibe with the character.
And its good that all the characters don't seem to be just mercenaries, perhaps willing to break their morals in some ways, but you each seem to have something that you would go out on a limb for or at the very least might take jobs at discount for.
I was going to keep things floating for another day or two in order to make sure that no one else is looking to join, but if you think you will all have your characters finalized by then, I will put up a new thread with a post for each of you to kick things off in just a couple days.
Ok stats should be done now, let me know If I goofed. Will get background up soon
still got room for one more?
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I do, I was looking between 4-6, and right now we have 4, so there is a little space left.
I was going to try and kick things off tomorrow at some point, but if you need a little time to get your character together then I don't think anyone is going to have any problems with that.
When you have a chance, can you give me an idea on what you think you would want to be playing and maybe some real basic info on him so that I can try and work it into my plotline?