Difference between revisions of "Thicker Than Blood"

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===Player Characters===
 
===Player Characters===

Revision as of 01:55, 28 October 2009

Sax and Violins

A cool, early October night. Rain like a fine mist falls through the thick fog, making everything dark and damp; staining the rough concrete into black basalt pillars and making every streetlight a yellow beacon that distorts the wet stone with veins of ivory light. The soft patter of water droplets against the deep green foliage and trickle of the runoff into the gutters is like a soft play of symphonic violins and percussion to the build up of some natural opus. Mozart reverberates softly in my skull while I wait against the alley wall and sip my tall soycaf with extra shot. A perfect Seattle night.

When the gun fire begins I hardly notice, playing sweetly against the low bass rumble of the drums during the second movement. Hard Exit and his new elf friend have obviously gone from the quiet way to the loud way coming out of the building; which is my cue, but not before I finish my caf or they signal me. I pull off my hood and roll my neck in the refreshing coolness of the night before switching on my wired reflexes and unbutton my jacket, then watch as the world slows down to a crawl and I turn up the speed of the music playing to keep up with my new perspective.

Exit's hand cannon blares as I hear the front door around the corner wheeze slightly against it's hydrolics. I can hear his heart pounding in my augmented ears between the crack of his gun and casings twinkling on the street, an opera of street chaos mingles with the rain and the music being played directly into my cerebral cortex. The immensity of his troll shadow blots out the streetlight as I take a last sip of my caf and he sprints past ponderously holding the limp body of the daisyeating hacker. I wonder off hand if they managed to get the paydata before she got greased and hear the low, bass rumble of Exit yelling for me to help him as he glides by in slow motion.

The empty soycaf cup drops into the recycling bin next to me as I switch to my jazz station and stroll to the edge of the alley, wild erratic saxophone and drum beats exploding suddenly into my brain. I feel the familiar slide of steel as I unsheath my katana and cross hairs ignite like fire in my vision as my left hand brings my pistol into view. Music throbs and whines as I step smoothly around the corner between Exit and his persuers. Another perfect Seattle night.

Fixed Up

My second foray into a into a Shadowrun chronicle. I intend to keep this in tune with my recent move to the beautiful city of Seattle and hope to enjoy the pleasure of exploring some darker themes with a more mature play group. As Shadowrun does not have an ingrained morals system, and as I am asking my players to develop a more detailed character personality and background, I will be expecting a more complex answer to some of life's more interesting questions; especially as they pertain to a group of people who live on the wrong side of the law.

This is, yet again, an attempt to turn the more "episodic" world of Shadowrun into an on running campaign, and so I will be fudging some of the long term rules such as Karma acquisition and expenditure. I'm also hoping to include a "campaign calender" in order to improve the synchronicity of peoples lives, both PC and NPC, and major campaign world events that don't necessarily include the characters but can affect their lives and the runs they are hired on.

I will also continue to encourage my players to become involved in the wiki and posting their characters by rewarding them with Karma points for their contributions and time taken to expand the game world. This is to include descriptions of many of the NPC's that they encounter, sprawl sights that they visit or include to add further character to the world, and any in character scripting to the weekly sessions to improve the flavor of the world.

Also, I will be applying the house rules posted on my main page, which I will reproduce here.

1. I run Shadowrun 4th Edition. I like 3rd, and I understand that there is a lot more ruled source material, but 4th opens up a lot more options for players and games, in my opinion.

2. Character approval is by Player and GM Committee. Per the game setup of Serenity, where in characters must be a viable "crew" with a useful smattering of skills. I'm going to use this because Shadowrunners are hired for their variable skills and abilities, based on what is useful in their jobs and to create working team that, hopefully, won't get killed. It will, also, help represent the Fixer arranging a team that they think should be able to accomplish the task at hand. The GM and players are allowed to veto another players character no questions asked. If someone says it goes, it goes.

3. If you have the ability to, please pregen a couple of characters. If not, at least have a couple ideas in mind. Making characters for this game can take all night, if not longer. So, if you have a book, please have something to show for it before the game. This also helps me get a sense of your play style, makes rule #2 go more smoothly, and allows you to build a character who lacks any serious holes from last minute builds.

4. You must have at least four points in Contacts. Shadowrunners live by who they know. You'd never get a job if nobody knew who you were, and besides you can't go through life and not meet at least one person.

5. You must have at least 2 Active Skill Points and 4 Knowledge Skill Points allocated to what I shall call "life choices and hobbies". Your life doesn't just revolve on shooting people and running the shadows. Everybodies got a hobby, whether they admit it or not. Some even make for good cover and back stories.

6. I will require a backstory, physical and personality description, and goals for your character. Why exactly did your character start shooting people and running the shadows? How do they feel about it? What is their ultimate goal? Want to be rich, to be famous, or just to get out of the gutter? This, also, applies to rule 2. If you lack character information, you don't play that character, no exceptions.

7. Everyone must own a commlink! Yet another piece of equipment that EVERY shadowrunner must have to make his job worthwhile. "You'll never get a wiz job if your fixer can't reach you, omae."

8. I will be enforcing the starting rule for equipment aquisition. I.e. You may only have items with an aquisition rating max of 12.

On the Run

I am including a weekly session report; pioneered by Bill, a fellow gamer from Reno, for mine and the players benefit. Every week after the game I will be posting a brief rundown of the previous session for reference sake and to allow the players to add their own comments and in character rundown/conversations for the sake of character development.

Chapter I

Episode 1 Episode 4 Episode 7
Episode 2 Episode 5 Episode 8
Episode 3 Episode 6 Evaluation

The Usual Suspects

Player Characters

Character Name Brief Description

Sprawl Sites

With a bit of time and a little help from some of my old source materials I will be including a number of locations in and around the Seattle area, as well as a number of original locations. Yet again, players are encouraged to add in the fun.

Sight Name Brief Description

Friends of Friends

This section is reserved for the wide array of NPC's the characters will meet, as well as their contacts and other major personalities of Shadowrun.

An Shou Tian Red Pole of the Wo Shing Wo Triad. Professional Chef and foodie. Owner of the Glass Tortoise, a Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese restaurant in Queen Anne.
"Aunty Kasau" Tosashi Oni immigrant who grew up on Yumi island. Stay at home mother of eight, barrens baby-sitter, and wife of Osaku Tosashi.
Elkhorn Salish Raven Shaman and avid comic book collector.
Blythe Waters Elf Ghoul and vocal political activist for the Ghoul Liberation League in Seattle. Licensed Surveyor and Civil Engineer in the UCAS.
Bolin King Yee of the local Sun Yee On Triad.
Buttons Ork Lonestar Veteran Beat Cop. He's been around the block a couple of times and has a good ear for what's happening in the 'hoods and the Ork Underground. Though he's got a good heart, he isn't above a little "Street Justice" and "Urban Renewal", and stays happy as long as his beat just stays quiet.
Cap Cortez Ork Lieutenant of the Redmond gang the Rusted Stilettos. Gun runner, drug dealer, and area enforcer.
Charity v6.8 Self-proclaimed "High Priestess of the Airwaves". Charity claims to be an "Alternate Intelligence" AI. Public whistle blower, blogger, and pirate Trid broadcaster. Loud, abrasive, and angry with a penchant for Max Headroom antics, speech hacking, and the sign off "We'll meet again...when you're ready to travel the most secret path of all."
Dirdrik Vladnikov Vory v Zakone information broker. Runs an small entertainment insurance business in Capital Hill.
Gruff Head of the local troll and orc gang, the Trogs, Gruff is untrustworthy and underhanded, but happy to deal with anyone if the Yen is right and they aren't daisy-eaters. Gruff's pride and joy is his wide array of elf skulls taken from other gangers and elfs who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wring time.
John Silverston An Aboriginal Kuradji; owner and proprietor of Numereji, a small talisman shop in First Hill.
Jimmy The Saint Dwarf Street Doc and cyber/body-mod specialist. Probably better with nano-tattooing, piercing, and blowtorch than actual medical care, but he can keep his mouth shut and doesn't ask questions for the right price. Jimmy operates his own shop out of his apartment in Lower Queen Anne.
KitKat Boom A changeling "catgirl" who lucked out on the cute side of SURGE. Also, an accomplished "seamstress", sticky fingered shopgirl, and an avid clubgoer.
"Krissy" Gajra Samanthi Kishen Bartender at The Rendezvous and lead singer for the Indian Neo-PRock Trip Hop group "Plasma Burn Sarangi".
Mr. Matz Enigmatic Johnson of South American descent and a particular taste in Mayan and Aztec art and artifacts; and, one might say, an unhealthy fascination with Aztechnology.
Oma Endofski Russian Troll neo-agriculturalist. The gun toting Trog ex-ganger and vigilant defender of her squat/garden in Puyallup.
Osaku Tosashi Oni immigrant born on Yumi island. Auto mechanic at Ares Auto Supply and Repair in Burien.
Paku Ikibaku Fixer of multiple mixed backgrounds who normally resides in the International District and is fluent in a wide number of languages.
Red Rastafari Dwarf hacker who has been in the shadows since before Crash 2.0, and claims to be one of the few who survived being jacked in during the crash.
Slider Information broker, organlegger, and seller of second hand cyberware. Rumored to have connections to Tamanous.
Sensei Frank Master of mixed martial arts and street fighting tactics. An active pacifist and Zen buddhist, Frank teaches his students everyday survival in in the city. Rumors have it that Frank is a retired Street Samurai, and despite his calm demeanor, is heavily cybered.
Finger Devilishly fast elf changeling with an itchy trigger finger.
Walter "Wrecker" Jones Hailing originally from Tennesse, Wrecker is an impressively large troll and, despite his size, is quite an effective mechanic. An Ex-Trog gangmember, Wrecker has many contacts with the local gangs and can lay his hands on all kinds of interesting things.