#shadowrun 3e

While as usual, I'll be focusing on the older editions for this-it can easily copy over to the newer(given that the same basic generation systems exist.) I will touch on differences, of course, when applicable. Mostly this is for 'Hey, I hear 3rd is awesome, I wanna play.'

I'll go over the ups and downs of each generation system before moving onto the tips section.

Okay, so first we have Priority. The classic core rulebook method(and the 3rd edition rulebook takes you through it nicely).

Priority can be summed up as:

+Clean and simple

+The fastest method(note: 3e chargen can take awhile anyway but this part will go a bit smoother)

+Fairly generous for the high areas but not completely terrible for the others either

-Sometimes you just can't pick the 'right' priority

-Can be limited if you play a meta/mage due to forced priorities

-If you use Edges and Flaws they have to cancel each other out since there's no points to earn with Flaws and nothing to buy Edges with

Okay, so what do I mean by some of these disadvantages?

My own character-Downfall-is an elven adept. He's made with BeCKs(Karma system, which I'll go over too) since that's what we use now, but his original incarnation was made with Priority.

So how he worked, B and C were taken up. Elves/Trolls have to be taken priority C under the book system(Dwarves and Orks D), and Adepts are priority B Magic. (Full mages/shamans are A.) This left A, D, and E for Attributes, Skills, and Resources. Well, Priority E resources was only 5k; not quite enough(I have made 5k work for a street shaman and a sprawl ganger, but this guy's got a bit more.) 1 million was far too much(his parents were millionaires but he's long been separate from them.) 20k felt right. He REALLY didn't need the 50 skill points offered from A, but the 18 attributes of E were far too little, so it was Attributes A and Skills E. I didn't really need all 30 points, and I'd have liked a few more skill points, but all in all, he worked out. I was happy.

But Karma allowed me to tweak him to drop a couple attribute points, grab those extra skills and even a couple thousand more nuyen, making him more balanced and about perfect.

Now this is just one example; I've built many successful characters using the Priority system, and you can too; but it does have that drawback. One biggie you see is money. Sometimes you need a big chunk(Riggers, Samurai, and especially Deckers), but you blow through like...550k or so. That's more than the 400k, but way less than the million...so you start inventing shit to do with money. (Deckers just take priority A resources 99% of the time anyway. And yes, they blow through it. ;))

It does a good job with Attributes and Skills I feel. Skills to 50/40/34/30/27, and Attributes 30/27/24/20/18. It's a good spread, and you're bound to find something that fits.

Again, simple, but you might find it stifles you in regards to money, forcing you to take too much(or scrap.) The last point with Edges and Flaws, if your table uses them, is minor; you may see your character with a flaw but don't feel the need to take an Edge, or vice versa, but you have to with this method(unless your GM devises a houserule for taking care of this.)

Point-Buy

Featured in the Shadowrun companion, this is where you get around 120 points(3e)-the example in the book gives 123 build points and that's what I personally use-and you purchase your things that way. Metatype has a cost, you pay for skills 1 for 1, Attributes 2 points for 1, and money you buy in chunks(like, 1m for a certain amount, then 650k, 400k, 250k, 90k, 20k on down to 0 points for 5k and you GET 5 points if you take only 500 nuyen-fun fact: this used to be Priority E in 2nd edition.) You do need to pay for having magical ability(depending on full mage, adept, etc.)

There IS a maximum of Attribute and Skill Points you can purchase(30 Attribute points and 60 Skills), but it's pretty generous.

Benefits and downsides are as follows:

+More customization(you can have odd numbers of points and the like)

+Generous maximums(you can really make that skill nut with 60 points!)

+Money has a bigger spread, allowing some of those big gaps to be filled in with more amounts

+Edges and Flaws can be taken independently(Flaws to gain more points, or you can spend points only on Edges, or offset the two either way.)

-Can lead to more number crunching

-Brand new player may find it more overwhelming simply due to more choices

-Some archetypes have a blatantly better time under it

Okay, so its a lengthier list, but I'll go over it. It does open up customization. Basically when you can take numbers like '26 Attributes' and '42 Skills' and such, it allows you to be more freeform with your builds, and it's really welcome to have those 650k and 250k nuyen 'price points' in there for people. It gives a much wider array of money and prevents having to take the million for spending 500k, or to take 400k for wanting to spend 150k and so on. It's also nice to be able to take Edges and Flaws independently(you pay for them on a one-for one basis, so a 3 point Flaw gives you 3 points, and a 2 point Edge costs 2.)

Now it also has some more downsides. Giving more stuff means it's a bit tougher; new players may feel a little overwhelmed with choices, and more experienced ones may take more time to crunch numbers, taking from here, adding to there, and so on. Now I do some number crunching myself, I don't mind it, but it's something you might want to be mindful for if you're the type that does.

There is also that last thing mentioned; some archetypes get noticeably more powerful under it than the Priority system...while others a bit less so. Take a human sam. If I were making one up under Priority, I'd probably take nuyen A, Attributes B, and skills C, for one example, giving me 1m, 27, and 34.

Under the point system? All that just cost me 30(Money), 54(Attributes, 27x2), and 34(Skills), or 118 points total. Even using the 120 Build Point allotment, I have like two more points to spend on more skills. If we use the 123 Build Points used in the example, this un-named sam would have 5 more points to play with beyond Priority(I could use it for Edges if I wanted to as well.)

Meanwhile-take my main dude-my adept. He's already 35 points in the hole with Magic and Race total, and even if I used 27 Attributes(54), and 27 Skill Points with the 20k nuyen(5 points), he's up to 122 already. He could get 28 Skill Points. But he's actually less adept than his Priority build, where he at least got 30 Attribute points to offset the lower skills. Some characters can get even hairier under this system. (an Ork Full Magician who happens to take A Magic, B Resources, C Attributes, D Race and E Skills-a completely legal and non crunched character-would end up having spent a whopping 130 Build Points.)

(In any case, whatever you decide to run at the table, make sure for this reason that characters all use the same system. It ensures they're balanced against each other.)

Sum-to-10

This is an interesting system based on the Priority system, and first popping up in the Shadowrun 2nd Edition Companion(and it was based on the original 1e method of chargen, too.) So what happens is each Priority has a number attached: A is 4, B is 3, C is 2, D is 1, and E is 0. You can pick and choose any of these to add up to 10. It didn't appear in 3e(though folks used it, given a lot of old sourcebooks were interchangable), and returned in 5e again as an option.

A quick rundown:

+Decent customization

+Still fairly fast for new players

-Power levels can vary greatly depending on humans or metahumans

-Still has the edge/flaw issue

So like Priority it allows you to pick and choose, but it has a hair more customizing since you can say, go, 4,4,2, or 3,3,2,2, or 4,3,1,1,1, and so on. Humans cost 0, being mundane is 0, so a mundane human, as you can see, has their pick: a human sam could have A Attributes AND resources, and still get 34 Skills in 3rd edition. Or a human can take Attributes and Skills A and still get 90k. Or they can go with mega nuyen and skills and still have solid attributes(24, which used to actually be priority B in 2e.)

As usual people might end up crunching more with Metahumans and magically active folks. To use again my fellow, he needs Adept and Elf(which is 3 and 2 points respectively.) But it does give me some leeway; I could go 4(Attributes), 1(Resources), and 0(Skills)...and he'd end up exactly how he was over the basic Priority system. Or I could go 3,3,2,2,0, if I wanted a bigger chunk of nuyen; however, if I made him under this system, I'd probably go 3,3,2,1,1. This would give him 3 more skill points above his Priority build to play with, and given his Karma build uses 28 attributes anyway, the 27 + the bonus point Edge would work out just fine.

Someone making a human combat mage might be 0(human), 4(Full magician), and maybe opt for the 3/3/0 spread(Attributes, Resources for 3 each, and Skills for 0, opting for someone with decent magical skills, a couple of good combat skills and then a small rounding of others.) It's a neat system that's easy to understand, but again, if you're a table that runs into numbers issues, you might be wary of it, as mundane humans can end up pretty crazy.

Karma(called BeCKs in the older days, you can see the original PDFs here: http://www.nerdprideradio.com/Content/Downloads/BeCKS.pdf )

So Karmagen(which I'll call it now), got its start back in BeCKS, or Bethyaga's Complete Karma System, and it dates back to the 3rd edition. It was a set of houserules that were widely adopted, very well received, and finally moved into the official rules for 4th edition and up(though used in companion books, rather than core rulebooks.)

To give an example of how it works, in 3e, 450 Karma is given. You then proceed to make your character as if you were advancing them with Karma. A Body of 3 costs 10 Karma(1 comes automatic since you have to have a 1, a 2 costs 4, and a 3 costs 6, for 10.) And so on. Skills go by their book costs(again, see the chart.)

Karmagen rundown is as follows:

+Easily the most customization, from start to finish

+The creation method is the same as the advancement method, which cuts down on minmaxing

+Encourages spreading out rather than hyperspecializing

+Edges and Flaws, like the point system, are separate and you can get extra Karma with flaws, spend Karma on edges, or however you want

-Can be lots of number crunching(though not minmaxing, will explain)

-Can be very overwhelming to new players

-Can take awhile

So, going down the line-you can see from the descriptions, and the PDF, that its very number intensive and takes awhile. Simply put, if you want fast generation, you're not going to find it here. But the degree of customization is unmatched(you buy Nuyen by small bits), and a huge thing I like is that the creation method is same as the advancement; so you don't feel it necessary to minmax.

What I mean is this. In Priority, or even point-based systems, its usually cheaper to start with your specialities very high, since they cost more Karma to raise. For example: say you're making merc, for the hell of it. In this case you took Priority B Skills and are filling them out.  You want them to be good at assault rifles and pistols.

You probably eventually want a 6(say you don't want to specialize, you might even want higher, but let's say six for now.) So you have the chargen choice of two 5's, and use those two points to get, say, a Computer skill of 2 to round out the character, or two 6's.

Going from 5 to 6 in game with Karma costs 9 points(its New Skill x 1.5, assuming your attributes check out and aren't too low, remember they're linked.) So raising both of those 5's to 6's would cost you 18 Karma in game. That's...quite a bit.

That computer of 2 though, that only costs 4 Karma. 1 for the first point, and 3 for the 2. HUGE difference. This makes people lean toward more frontloading, since that 14 Karma could easily go somewhere else. Under Karmagen, though, all the costs are the same at the beginning as they are later; you advance the same way. It puts less emphasis on total number squeezing(though it does lend itself to crunching, since it's just a more math intensive system.)

All in all it's why we really favor this system.

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I still live!

So some rundowns!

Okay, as you know, i do have a busy life, so this has gone slower than I’d have liked. I was in the US for five weeks visiting the friends and family, and that was wonderful. I’ve also been working with my Tekken fanfiction, playing said video game and a few other games. I’m getting ready to

Now that being said, I’m trying to keep myself going on this site. I’ve already abandoned it longer than I’d like, and I’m trying to think of ways to keep stuff going. (For one, I’ll need some more followers and such. I’ll pimp this around my Twitter a bit. Getting blogs going is hard.)

I’m going to try to plug a bit of fiction up once in awhile. Mostly dealing with some of the characters I deal with. Also I’ll try to start getting some mechanical stuff up too, like 3e PACKs and the like, for folks who still like to play the old school(and what the hell, I’ll design a few new ones too perhaps.)

I should get some bits on the rest of the crew written, as well!

In any case, don’t fret, I’m going to try to keep this going with something once or twice a week, though that all depends on RL time.

Worst that can happen is that it just doesn’t take off!

I admit, whenever I see extra rules for ‘MORE WAYS TO LOP OFF THE PC’S LIMBS!’ I tend to brush over them.

As a GM, I’m fair, reasonably lenient, but at the same time, not afraid to bring down the rules-hammer or the ‘Player be Good’ hammer if something starts getting out of hand.

Now, let me first say; I’m not against death in a campaign, and players have died in games of mine. I’m not a completely soft GM. But for me, I tend to prefer games where, if death happens, it’s really due to the players messing up big time. I won’t shrink away from killing a PC who really blows it, but nor do I go out of my way to murderate the PCs.

”But don’t you have those two bouncers in Spanky’s bar who can turn the PC’s into strawberry jam?” Well, yeah, but notice how they won’t actually attack to kill unless the PCs do something immensely stupid.  Oh, I have guards who use live ammo(as well as stun, depending on the situation), and if a PC frags up and pisses off a Mafia don, yeah, they may well end up with some C-4 under their bike. I tend to leave a lot of things in the hands of the PCs.

Now, I’ve been known to fudge a die roll here and there. Other times-again, I’m a bit more strict on it, once again if the PCs dig themselves into a huge hole. It’s less ‘punishment’ and more ‘you did X, how did you not expect Y to happen.’ They’ll often have a way out, though, and sometimes those can be adventures in and of themselves.

So what is it about high Lethality games that I’m not big on? I like character and character development. Yes, I’m a numbers optimizer as well-but that doesn’t mean I don’t love character development, watching them grow and change. I do love it. I also hate to see a character with oodles of time put into them ruined with one bad die roll. Others are fine with this-and that’s cool, every table is different. But where some find the constant threat of death looming over them 24/7 while they’re gaming, I just find that not quite as fun. It makes me not want to bother doing really deep character stuff if I know they’re going to possibly buy the farm with every single roll. (When I played the Rules Cyclopedia, my characters were often stuff like ‘James the Fighter, off to find his treasure.’ If James failed his Save vs. Death roll, no biggie. Mugsy the Wizard, off to find Great Magic Power, was right around the corner. Of course they’d have SOME personality and such, but they were much more basic.)

I personally go between Low and Moderate. It’s not QUITE all the way down to Low, but it’s a *bit* more gentle in terms of PC mistreatment than ‘Moderate’. Perhaps, to get a better idea, I’ll list stuff I generally won’t do, and stuff I generally will do.

What I don’t usually do:

-Randomly kill characters due to one poor roll.

-I don’t like Glitches, as I said. If I’m playing a later version of SR, I will use critical glitches, but I don’t make these fatal. Glitches, IMO, just make things annoying, and get in the way. You succeed, you don’t, or you drop your gun and it shoots of a round that makes it skitter across the floor. (Physics, I am your reckoning.) In 3e and such if crap comes up all 1′s yeah, at that point bad stuff might happen, but even then I’m going to base it on the situation.

-Rip out Magic from magic characters, or cyber from Cyber characters, unless, again, they really, really do something that simply makes me bring down the hammer.

-Make a character so useless they’ll wish they were dead anyway.

-Stuff that makes gaming Not Fun for us.

What I will do:

-Lost body parts can happen, but I give a chance, of course, to get replacements/re-attachments. There are tons of ways to do this(a debt, a loan, their own nuyen, trade a job for a new eye, etc.) They ONLY have a chance of happening on a ‘Deadly’ wound(AKA, the person is going into overflow’, or very, very, very rarely before that(and it generally needs to be pretty specific, like a critically glitched monowhip hit might take a hand off if none of the damage is resisted.) I will never purposefully leave a character crippled unless the player themselves chooses to do so(‘Bah, screw it, I wanted a cyberarm all this time anyway, now I have an excuse! I can live one-armed for a week.’)

-I will, as said, kill a character. If a character is bent on taking part in a series of unfortunate events with absolutely no back up plans or anything, making poor decisions ever single chance, despite several ‘Are you SURE?’…or perhaps they walk up and kick Herr Brackhaus in the balls or something. At that point, there’s nothing more I can do for them; they need to pay the piper. (They can, of course, burn Edge if they wish.)

-I will use things like background count and wireless intrusion, though I will not abuse those things. I’m more likely to use them to add tension. In the latter, now…if someone walks into a highly secure area, with everything on Wireless lighting up like a christmas tree in VR-land without bothering even checking for enemy deckers-welp, again, they sort of need to expect *something* bad to happen, but I’m not likely to abuse these rules.

-Do other things with poor rolls rather than death or dismemberment. Yes, I will fry a piece of gear now and then-it adds tension, but again, I won’t ‘do it just for tension.’ There will be a reason, and it WILL be preventable…and if it does happen, then I’ll make sure to set up an adventure to, for example, get the Decker a new deck or the Rigger a new Steel Lynx that just got scrapped.

-Put the PCs in some tough situations. Sure, I might put them in a ‘you’re captured and need to think your way out and get your gear’, or ‘You need to get out NOW, and you’re limited in what you can take and might need to improvise’ situation or two. Nothing wrong with having to use your brain to puzzle your way out of something or pull some McGyver heroism.

-Say, ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’ a few times.

-Houserule something that I don’t think makes sense, or takes away our table’s fun.

-Work with the PCs with ideas they might have that aren’t in the rules. I am a very, very strong believer in PC-GM communication.

So as you can see, it’s not that I’m against doing harsher things, I just don’t make a habit of them-and when they do come into play, it’s usually something that the PC sort of brings on themselves. I like when things can last awhile, and I’m not against punishment; I like my games to be one part game, one part story, and one part character development and growth-and All Parts Fun for us. I’m sure our table would be too ‘wussy’ for some people, but that’s okay; I am a firm believer that every table is different and that’s cool.

I tend to run, on a scale of Pink Mohawk to Mirrorshades, a game that’s in the middle, or what I like to call ‘Mohawks and Trenchcoats.’ I have a variety of stuff-some loud jobs, some quiet jobs(or they should be), and some in between. I’m a huge fan of Second Edition’s fluff, with everyone from Matador(the posterboy for Professionalism in the shadows), and Wedge(let’s face it, he wore his mohawk loud and proud.) I liked 2e’s mix of dystopia, 1980s cyberpunk, dingy, rainy streets, noodle bars, tall imposing skyscrapers, the Universal Brotherhood-but all of this still had that glimmer of hope, pictures of brightly colored gangers riding cars, chrome cybereyes, big cyberdecks with brightly colored keys, and Spinal Tap ork toxic shaman villains. I like some down to earth stuff, I like some over the top stuff; the adventures back in the day also ran the gamut from ‘Dreamchipper’ to anything with Harlequin.

So yeah, balance is the key for me. I need a little Bladerunner, but also a little ‘over the top bang bang.’

I think there is some merit to a lower-lethality game, though I can respect that it’s not for everyone-some folks find their blood gets pumping more if they’re always afraid for their lives. I guess I’ve mellowed out somewhere. Oddly enough, we don’t use the optional ‘Low Lethality’ rules-since the preference is for something in between Low and Normal, it’s more handwaved stuff.

Generally, my house rules open up the game more. I’ve mentioned around that we never used Availability limits at Chargen. This is something that’s simply been in our games since we started, our first GM didn’t even use them(and he was the type of guy who would play gnome illusionists or chess masters; definitely not a powergamer type.) We usually run on the ‘Pick Stuff that Makes Sense For Your Character” line of thinking, and for us, it works wonderfully. It’s less to worry about, and opens up more things. Even for street level games, we simply work more on the honor system, and it’s never failed.

I also tend to go a little more ‘cinematic.’ Not necessarily ‘Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’ level of over-the-top(okay, for a weekend-shot game, maybe), but a little more on the ‘cool maneuvers, Cool Stuff Happens’ sorta way. (You can actually be cinematic, and still run a more street level game.)

Decided to update with a few descriptions of contacts for my sorta personalized Seattle. Basically I use the sourcebook Seattle and lots of things that entails, but of course, I add some of my own NPCs, companies, diners, bars and the like; yes, Dante's Inferno is there, but so are some other personalized places. Because it's just cool.

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Contacts and Places:

First a word of note: these NPCs are a bit on the ‘Higher’ side in terms of skills. The Talismonger is actually also a highly skilled and Initiated mage in her own right, for example-but that doesn’t mean, of course, that the PCs can just take *advantage* of all of that. It was more things that just sorta happened to their characters(in that case, it was ‘So, what happens when there’s a powerful mage who *doesn’t* get into corps or running? They become a talismonger, why not?’

It’s more to show that even some ‘Regular People’ can be more than what they seem, and that maybe out there, there exists people who haven’t let the dystopia completely get them. Just a little. Their character sheets will follow in another update(hopefully this weekend), along with things their facilities have to offer being listed in game-format.

The rules I list are actually for later(SR5) editions since I know more people are playing that, though I of course include notes for the older editions, being that’s what we use. (Remember back in the day a few things were played faster and looser with sometimes less fiddly stuff, sometimes more.)

Reginald ‘Spanky’ Mcgee:

Spanky is a Fomori in roughly his mid-thirties; he’s not the tallest troll around, but he’s fairly robust, perhaps with a bit of a beer gut, though he’s not particularly overweight. More stocky if anything. His full-blooded Irish ancestry gave him fair skin, plenty of freckles, and flaming red hair which he wears about to his shoulders; his ram’s horns curve around the sides of his head, and he grows no mustache, but a beard underneath his chin. Like many Fomori, he’s even fairly handsome in a cuddly kind of way. He’s got a friendly smile and is very charismatic upon meeting him. It’s kinda hard to dislike him.

Spanky is actually a very well-connected fixer; he has contacts in both the UCAS and Europe. However, he is the type where trust needs to be established before he shows ‘his best stuff’, so to speak.

Spanky deals in a lot of different things; not as much magical(that would be Mama’s domain, which he can put runners in touch with if they don’t know her), but he does have access to several different types of weapons(even some military-grade), and knows people who are involved in Beta-grade cyberclinics(Namely, one Dr. Douglas.) He can get his hands on some light magical equipment, but he’ll even tell them they’re better off going to Mama. He can find them work, but more of a ‘he can connect them to a Johnson’ sort. He himself doesn’t give the jobs-he can put the runners in contact with Johnsons who do have work. Even though he’s only in his mid thirties, he has a lot of connections around in the northwest UCAS, and even a few in the UK area(though he does not have technical ‘worldwide, anywhere’ connections.)

Spanky loves football(soccer) to the point of near obsession. Sparking up a conversation about football with him is a great way to get started chatting. He always wears a jersey of sorts in his bar; under this he usually wears an armor vest, just in case, and sticks to things like jeans and workboots. His pub-a rather large and well-taken care of place, is appropriately named ‘Goal!'(with the exclamation point at the end, of course), and serves many a microbrew that Spanky had designed himself. Spanky does *not* server soy beer in his bar-he finds the stuff vile and insulting. This does help keep some rabble out(as do his bouncers), but he does not overcharge for some of his more standard designs(though his special Coffee-Hazelnut-Chocolate Mega-Stout runs a pretty nuyen and is so thick you reportedly need to chew it.) Indeed, besides football, brewing is one of Spanky’s passions. He has a small brewery in the basement.

Goal! actually has some rather excellent security if nosy runners try to do things. The building is covered in material that is not quite kind to traveling astrally, and he has a very good ‘decker overwatch’ as well as a security system. Meeting at the pub is generally done in three ways; the ‘general’ spot, the ‘secure’ spot, and the ‘Private’ spot.

The ‘General’ spot is well in the back of the place, in the booth area. His bouncers will ensure basic privacy, but it’s still open for ordering things like dinner and the like, and isn’t 100% private, as there could be other meets and stuff there, and you will be seen.

The ‘Secure’ spot is in the ‘upstairs dining room’, and is more secure both magically and technically. The door is locked, and the crew will ensure it stays decent. However, it’s not ‘Private’ in the sense that other meets can be going on at the same time(in different parts of the room.) You do need to go through the bar to get here though, so you will be seen as well, though no one ‘unauthorized’ can get back there.

The ‘Private’ spot is reached from a different part of the entrance, and is in a specially made basement room. It actually costs considerable nuyen to ‘rent’ this, but it’s extremely secure. Spanky himself uses this for some more of his delicate deals. One of his bouncers will personally escort people down and wait for the meet to get done.

The bar is actually two levels high. The second floor is open to the public(just not the ‘secure dining room’ which needs a heads up from Spanky.) There is plenty of room to drink and enjoy what is most likely a football game playing on one of the many monitors. The bar itself is in a fairly ‘high lifestyle’ part of Seattle, though not quite that of the really high rollers. It does not look terribly out of place, but nor does it look too posh; it looks like a nice, clean, very well maintained sports bar.

Spanky’s bouncers have been mentioned. While he has some generic, ‘ordinary’ bouncers milling around, his two ‘primary’ ones are old friends of his-Huginn and Munin, a pair of seven foot tall elven twin brothers. Powerful looking, with long white hair, violet eyes and no beard-growth whatsoever, they almost even dress similar; black cargos and combat boots, with tank tops-though Huginn favors a lined leather longcoat, while Munin favors an armored leather jacket. They are roughly around thirty years old, and are extremely good at what they do, being highly experienced near street legends over in Europe(they are apparently mixed Scandinavian, though Icelandic seems to be their primary lineage, given that they sometimes speak it to one another in lieu of English or Sperethiel.)

Spanky’s cook is a firecracker; a tough, no-nonsense British human woman in her late 40s known simply as ‘Maude'(who may resemble Dame Judy Dench a bit, only younger and less refined.) Maude is completely mundane and with no cyber(some say she may also be without humor, but not in her earshot)hates nutrisoy and refuses to cook with it. She’s foul-mouthed and generally grumpy, but good hearted all the same, and is an *excellent* cook. She carries a tazer that she’s not afraid to use, though she is not a combatant. She comes from Spanky’s past, and apparently came over from the UK when he came to the UCAS. It’s rumored she was a cook for a prestigious British boarding school which got bought out and closed. (And yes, Spanky’s pub also only serves real food, but he actually has some reasonably priced burgers on his menu. The steaks will cost you, though.)

Using Spanky:

Under the rules, if he is used in your game and you're playing a later edition that uses Connection and Loyalty ratings, his Connection rating should never be more than 1 point higher than his Loyalty. So a runner can have him at C2/L1, but will have to earn more trust before Spanky shows his more ‘C3’ side, and so on. Spanky’s Connection rating has a Maximum of 7(which the player will need to get to ‘Friend for Life’ level with him to get.)

If you're playing older school, it's a bit looser, but better friends get better deals and better crap from him(going with Lv. 1, 2, and 3 contacts.)

To gain Spanky’s trust, they have to remember he’s more of a ‘Neutral with Good, if Pragmatic Tendencies’ type. He has some friends who have been known to be a bit on the ‘crazy’ side, but at the end of the day, out and out rotten actions are something that he does not like to be a part of. Wetwork is fine, and he’s got a fair limit to how far he’ll accept going, but there are lines.

A good rule of thumb, if the PC’s ‘earn’ Spanky as a contact, he is gotten at C2, L1. (He will give folks he’s dealt with from time to time a *small* discount on food and beer. ;)) It’s then, of course, up to the PCs if they wish to foster a relationship with him to get access to his better goodies. (For a GM note, you could also limit the Availability of gear that he will procure. C2 will be limited to Availability of 12, and then add 2-3 availability, as you feel appropriate, per Connection rating after that.) He will begin introducing his other friends to the PC’s at Loyalty 2(or, well, giving them word where to find them.) Likewise, in regards to the jobs that he can find for him-the higher his Connection rating, the better-paying Johnsons can be procured for the runners. (As usual with the 1e-3e days of Level 1/2/3 contacts, things should be played a bit faster and looser there, just using the general criteria for what those contacts have access to. His access is fairly good, as said, so long as he trusts the runners.)

Note that a character can have a higher Loyalty rating with one of his friends than Spanky himself, should they choose to do so.

Given Spanky’s high Connection rating, screwing him over would be a bad, bad move. Huginn and Munin are more than his bouncers, they are two of his best friends-and he has friends with several other prime runners and more than one street legend at his physical-and magical, or Matrix based-request.

As for his, bar, Goal!, Huginn and Munin are particularly skilled and geared; each one alone would be a match for an entire team of runners. They are extremely good bouncers, in other words. Huginn(the Samurai) is loaded for bear with bioware and Beta-grade cyberware, with Munin a four-times initiated Adept(with some light bioware). Both brothers have Exceptional Attribute: Body and Strength, have max Body, Agility, and Strength base, 5’s in their other stats save Logic(which are 3 each), and have 8-10 in their primary skills, 5-6 in secondary, and 3-4 in their tertiary. (I’ll probably get their sheets into the same section I do Spanky by the numbers.)

However-given that Spanky does not like blood all over his floor(he has a few stories about that-two of the more famous involves Huginn’s decapitating of a would-be assailant with his katana and Munin discovering someone trying to poison one of the taps and curb-stomping him in the corner for his trouble), any of his bouncers, including Huginn and Munin, will generally just strike to knock out and disable people, unless an actual attempt is made on Spanky’s life. In that case, the twins tend to show their lineage’s ‘berserker’ tendencies and turn the would-be assassin into a red pastey substance on the floor. (If attempts are made on the lives of the other bouncers, they also are more willing to strike to kill, but if lethal force is attempted to be used on *them*, they are more amused if anything and just perform a good lesson-teaching before depositing the runner onto the concrete outside in a ballistic fashion.)

It should also be said that Maude also helps clean the place and it’s rumored that Huginn and Munin are more wary of her yelling at them about the blood than they are what any general runner can do to them physically.

Huginn and Munin may become contacts, but use them carefully. It can be assured that they just won’t come kill stuff for a phone call. They’re very powerful, so use discretion on what you allow them to do. It’s possible to become better friends with them, but they have a personal code that they just don’t go using their heavy abilities for low reasons-these guys hit AAA-style stuff on the odd time they do it(and then would require a credstick so fat players are likely not able to pay it anyway.) These are the type of runners that *turn down* AA work as being dull, and they also always work together-so they have to be hired by the pair. Basically, GMs shouldn’t use them as ‘spot runners.’ These are elite NPCs in terms of ability.

Spanky’s other bouncers are more basic. His generic bouncers are(depending on edition) the equivalent of Professional Rating 4 with roughly similar stats, wear Armored Jackets, and have either Shock Gloves or Stun Batons and are often armed with an Ares Predator with either Stick n Shock or Gel ammo(depending on the GM’s mood.) They never strike to kill, only disable or knock out.(They have high Non Conductivity ratings on their armor. For a rule of thumb, they probably throw around 6-8 dice for stuff, and have only minor implants to GM discretion; smartlinks, maybe some dermal plating. They do have earbuds/contacts or glasses with audio/visual rating 3, to better see and hear troublemakers, and at least a good Perception score.)

He has two mages who swap shifts; a dwarf and an ork. They are more geared toward Counterspelling and Astral activities, though do have guns(with SnS/Gel rounds), stun batons, and access to Stun Bolt and Stunball spells if necessary. They are often not seen in the primary areas(and are generally made with roughly the same power as starting PCs, if GMs want a rule of thumb. Spanky’s decker friends are never seen, and are likely made with similar stat and skill levels with starting PCs, but they have excellent decks.)

Spanky himself isn’t really much of a fighter. He has some basic self-defense skills, but really, his thing ‘being a fixer.’ He keeps a shotgun loaded with gel or SnS behind the bar, along with a baseball bat, if he really needs them, but he generally dislikes fighting, and isn’t particularly good at it past ‘Can defend himself if necessary.’ He’s a Fomori, so he’s naturally a big tough and strong fellow, but he’s fairly average in terms of his race’s physical stats.

Goal’s! security is fairly tight, as said. In terms of ‘Raw’ security, assume the Maglocks are all Rating 8, with a variety of keycard or keypad readers(the tightest stuff has a Biometric lock that only Spanky, Huginn, or Munin can activate.)

Flora Hernandez, ‘Mama’

Mama is a human woman, in her middle fifties. She’s short, heavyset, and has long, slightly curly black hair worn down, streaked with gray. She wears little makeup, but tends toward big dresses(sometimes with a floral print), which gives her a slightly ‘matronly grandmother’ look. She’s tanned, and talks with a noticeable Spanish accent, though her English is fluent. She seems to like jewelry; taking to rings, necklaces, and earrings-these may or may not be foci. Mama walks with a stick at times; her age is starting to somewhat get to her, though she reacts surprisingly quickly for a woman her age. She has been practicing magic since she Awakened before a lot of runners were even born.

Mama is a talismonger, and a powerful mage in her own right, practicing Santeria, whose Patron is Legba. She has much knowledge on magic and everything therein; magical threats, groups, and she is very adept at creating talismans and foci. If she cannot create them, she knows those who can. She is also a skilled herbalist, and is a good magical healer, as well.

Her shop, ‘Elekes’, is located in a more low-key part of town; one needs to go through a few alleys to find it, and then end up going down some seedy looking stairs. It’s well protected though-she is a powerful mage, as is her son, and they can well ward the place. People popping to the Astral may see some rather scary looking spirits hanging out, looking disapprovingly at them.

Mama has a younger brother, Joshua, a guy in his late thirties who is also a practitioner of Santeria, and who follows Ghede. Joshua is an undertaker, and is a strange man for all of that; he can be a contact in his own right. He’s usually seen in black slacks that seem a bit too short, boots, a collared shirt, a jacket, and often does have a serving of of Rum on him, making him fairly obvious, if one finds out what he practices, who his patron is.

Elekes has a smell that is a mix of herbs, burnt woods, smoke(Mama has a penchant for cigarettes), and tea(which she pours and usually spikes with some rather strong liquor, but the woman can hold her drink.) It rather chaotic looking; it almost looks like a bomb hit some parts of it, but Mama can pick out what people need. The shelves are mainly full of low-level stuff like herbs and reagents, giving the shop it’s telltale smell(which isn’t all unpleasant, just a bit reminiscent of an herb attic or something.) There are some shelves full of books; actual paper ones, pharmacopoeias and the like can be found here.

Mama herself can be a bit cranky and sarcastic, but not unfriendly. She more or less has a dry way of speaking and talking, almost nonchalant. If the PC’s behave, she may even offer them some tea. If they really behave, she may offer them some of her ‘special tea.’ Which may be pretty stiff stuff for those unprepared.

Using Mama:

Mama isn’t as strict with Spanky in terms of the whole ‘Connection/Loyalty’ thing; Mama has a Connection rating of 6, but she won’t require the PCs to be super-friends with her to have access. She will, however, demand higher payments the lower Loyalty. This can range from extra nuyen(for more moderate stuff, she’ll sell off the shelf stuff for regular prices, as well as fence magical gear), to flat-out exchange of goods for the best stuff; this could mean her sending the runners out on some rather exciting material gathering adventures.(As said above, adjust rules if you’re old school like us to follow the 3e contact setup.)

GMs can roll as they think appropriate if she has(or they want their PCs to have access to) whatever spell formula and foci they deem appropriate on hand, or if it’ll take her a bit to find some.

Joshua’s specialty has more to do with ‘Undertaker Stuff.’ Remembering that he does practice Santeria, the GM is free to be creative with what sorts of services he can provide. (Note: Gaining Mama as a contact does not make her brother automatic, though gaining one or the other as a contact will, of course, make it easier to at least get in on the ground floor. Joshua is the more minor of the two; he has a Connection rating of 3 for his appropriate line of work, and is created by standard PC rules.)

As for the shop’s protections, Mama has some high level spirits on hand, bound, and ready to wreak havoc. Mama is Initiated three times, and she’s got rather high magical skills, making her a more uncommon type of talismonger. She does not like to flaunt this power though, and has no interest in shadowrunning itself; which is why she chose the job that she did. However, crossing a woman who is initiated, practices a type of voodoo and is very good at Ritual Sorcery…I’ll just say the GM should have fun with this one. Mama is very smart, and isn’t going to let herself be robbed or gunned down. She has a lot of contingency plans; one does not run a talismonger shop without them, especially with Foci valued as they are. Her Force 8 Spirits(usually several of them) will pop out and give direct attackers a very hard time, but Mama herself-while she has a couple of combat spells-is more the patient type. Again, be creative.😉

The shop’s basic protections are high-level Maglocks and the like. Her most valuable stuff is kept in the back, under lock.

Dr. Marshall Douglas

Dr. Douglas is an ex-corporate cybersurgeon, and a very good one, who now runs a shadow clinic in one of the more middle-class parts of Seattle. Of course, the shadow part is sorta hidden; it’s a fairly ordinary clinic from the outside, and you need to know what to ask for and whom. Douglas is a black man of middling height and build, and probably in his fifties; he might just resemble Morgan Freeman a little bit, with short-cropped gray hair and a bit of a beard. He often wears glasses(which are modified.) Despite being a cybersurgeon, the only ware he has himself is a single datajack.

Dr. Douglas had actually worked for an AAA at one point in his life, ‘long ago,’ though he refuses to say who it was, for safety’s sake. He had a different name then(which he also isn’t telling-though he had gotten it legally changed.) Dr. Douglas was involved in the research and creation of some new, very secret pieces of cyber and bioware before(though he also won’t tell if any of it actually made it to the market.)

Douglas is actually a fairly kindly man, occasionally known to lecture those who come in consistently for ‘repairs'(IE, people who don’t take care of themselves particularly well.) While he wishes the world were a better place, having been through some of the ‘high end’ part of it, he realizes the importance of shadowrunners and how some of them at least manage to pick away at the corps enough that they don’t get even more of a foothold than they already do(and ruling almost everything, he figures, is enough of one.) Dr. Douglas, given his time in the field, knows other doctors and cyberware dealers, and can find a lot of things for people who need it. He actually has some Beta grade connections, and it has been rumored once or twice that he can find Delta grade stuff, though whether he doesn’t choose to, or just if it’s quite hard to find, no one knows. He is excellent at installing cyber and bioware, his facility is very clean and ideal to heal up in, and he is good at repairing ware as well.

Dr. Douglas does not deal much in used cyberware. It bothers him; people guess it’s again from his past, though he *will* fence it for others, he will not actually sell it. He also will not fence organs himself…though if pressed, and if in good standing, he is willing to point a runner in the general direction of where one might do that, though he tries to stay as ‘clean’ as a shadow doc can. He actually charges reasonable prices for things like healing and medicine(along with a lecture for ‘regulars’), but fairly standard for the ‘usual’ stuff.

Douglas looks tired sometimes; like his past manages to wear on him, and occasionally likes to take a shot of strong scotch, though he’s never seemed to have a problem with the stuff. Even though he seems skilled enough to be able to perhaps disappear to another country, he seems rooted here for reasons that stay unknown. In reality, he wants to sort of ‘repay’ the ‘little guy’ for the stuff he did/sold his soul out for the twenty or so years he worked for a corporation, doing some pretty nasty testing stuff.

The clinic is known simply as the One Visit Clinic, and it needs a little bit of legwork to discover the shadow side of it. Dr. Douglas does actually work there as a regular doctor as well. The receptionist knows what to listen for. The true nature of the place can be found through Spanky, or by asking around other avenues, as it’s not a Super Secret Shadow Clinic. While your general non gangers or whatnot won’t know, the ‘shadow community’ probably heard of the place.

Using Dr. Douglas:

Dr. Douglas works a little more like Spanky in terms of his ‘connection/loyalty’, though not as extreme: he is actually Connection 7 maximum, but will have a potential connection rating of 2 higher than Loyalty. (So at Loyalty 1, it’s 3, at 2 it can go up to 4, and so on.) He can get ahold of Standard grade, Alpha grade, and Regular/Cultured Bioware as anyone else can. He generally needs Connection of around 6 to net the Beta Grade, and for the people who manage to get him as a very close contact, he can point them in the direction of Delta Grade, and he’ll install it for them(if they get it, of course.) And as per usual, adjust for Level 1/2/3 contacts for older editions.

As said, he won’t fence organs, but at Loyalty 4+ he’ll nonchalantly point runners in a direction where to unload that type of stuff.

WELL it’s certainly been a hot minute since I’ve written here. Stuff has been busy the past months. I’ve been writing a lot of my Tekken fanworks, been busy with real life, been training in my fighting games trying to get to a point where I won’t make an ass out of myself if I have to play on camera next month during a Tekken 7 test(it’s not a tournament, but it’s a location test/tour for the game and they may want to record shit so I don’t want to look like a noob since I’m still competitively rusty), and just this past month the minion had a bit of an injury(he’s fine, toddler stuff, he’s more than fine now actually but we still did of course have to care for him), and then I’ve been trying to shake a plague that decided to hit about 11 days ago. Finally we’re visiting the US in less than a month now, and we had to get that trip settled(and there are still aspects to the trip I need to hammer out!)

Soooo yeah.

I’m going to try to get back into this blog, even if I’m not doing creative writing with the characters/NPCs at the moment, I will of course do mechanical/game talk or even like world talk, or character talk from a mechanical, game standpoint! (Basically, more gamey stuff rather than fiction oriented stuff for now.)

Figured I’d open with a little chat about why we actually DO play in the old days!

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Like any good RPG person I get involved in discussions of why I picked the edition(s) I do for Shadowrun. In my case as most know it's 2e/3e, sort of a mash-up(hell, I use 1e sourcebooks too. By the by, I found our copy of Virtual Realities the other day, an original, very good copy as well. That made me happy.)

What is it I like about these more than the newer editions? I like 5e more than I do 4e, but I think it's a mix of mechanics, setting, and tone. Really though it's mechanics, since setting and tone I can always borrow; I mean, if I wanted to, I could use 4e or 5e's mechanics with the old setting/tone. It's easy. But 3e's mechanics even stick out more to me.

For one, I like pools. Combat pool, spell pool, etc. Sure, they're fiddly, but I like how they give you a strategic choice. Occasionally you get the 'Obvious All In' situations, but in my experience, there is some nice strategy here. Go all in? Go 'tanky' and go all defensive? Half/half? It's worth thinking about. I also like how skills and attributes are alloted, how in 3e your skills aren't completely based off of attributes, but the latter do matter somewhat in terms of cost. Where in a skill + attribute sort of setting it seems more ideal to just pump the latter, in 3e's case I always felt like when I'm dealing with priorities that I always had a real choice to make.

That and while decking and rigging were a bit messy to say the least, for me, they had some fun to them. And I love the old way Magic worked overall(though it could get particularly powerful.) I mean my dislike of how expensive cyberlimbs were back then is no secret, but those were easily houseruled to be cheaper-since for me, as I've mentioned before, cyberlimbs are like, THE cyberpunk item to me along with datajacks and cybereyes; IMO, they shouldn't be like the most expensive thing to get, but actually one of the cheaper ones, even if they are unfriendly toward Essence.

My PoV was always, for body augmenting-Muscle Augmentation/Toner-friendly but expensive, Muscle Replacement=Middle priced, Essence heavy but at least economical in the way that it affects your whole body, and Cyberlimbs should be fairly inexpensive but also very Essence unfriendly and not very economical as you have to get stuff limb by limb. But prices are easily adjusted, as said.

 Also, the ST/GM continues to tell me that my character isn't cool enough, and wants me to make them more interesting. So far we have two characters who I don't know much about, and someone who's effectively every Australian stereotype ever. I don't know what to do in this situation, since I wanted my character to be mostly normal until they started Running (grew up in Toronto, normal boring life, then someone in the family (likely uncle, who is a Mr. Johnson and wants a pawn in the family, or something similar) convinced them to take a job in Hong Kong, which went disastrously wrong and left them effectively stuck there SINless.

Turned out the Fixer hired many groups and pit them against each other, killing the losers. I want to make them more interesting, but I don't really know how to without hamfisting in some weird quirk or something like that. They collect late 20th/early 21st century music, and really enjoy that authentic 2010 experience (iPods, blu-rays, etc), and adding anything else onto that I worry makes them too... different. It's my first time playing this and I don't really want to make someone who stands out too much, but I'm not sure how to explain that or what to do if he doesn't accept that..

Details:

Exceptional Attribute allows his Strength to raise beyond the racial modified limit by 1.

Mild allergy to Sun means he recieves a +1 to all TNs if in it and unprotected.

Bravery gives a -1 to all TNs to resist intimidation, and similar spells/powers

Sensitive System doubles all Essences losses from cyber

Distinctive Style grants opponents a -1 TN to remember/track him

Equipment and stats will be detailed on a character sheet when I get it up.

Appearance and Personality: Downfall is an elf of massive proportions; standing fully seven foot seven without his boots and weighing in at about three hundred and eighty pounds, he is one of the larger elves one would have probably looked at. Looking trolls in the eye is something that is not uncommon for him. (Elves average about six-four, so he is sort of an exceptionally tall version, much like how some athletes nowadays might stand about seven-foot-plus compared to an average-height human.) He's not overly bulky, though he is  quite large; to say he fills in as the team's primary muscle along with Talon is putting it lightly. He is highly agile given his size, though, throwing people off.  He wears his straight black hair to his shoulders(he has an undershave) and his eyes are icy blue. He's rather pale-he is sensitive to sunlight-metahumans can develop allergies to various things, and tends to be nocturnal due to this, vitamin D makes up for the loss of it so his health is robust), and his voice is a bit on the deeper side. He seems to have some northern European in him, but besides that and Irish he's not sure where else his family is from besides Tir. (He actually had dyed his hair silver before, and was told he looked pretty good with it. It's currently black, but he would go light again.)

He's perhaps a little creepy looking to some corporate types, looking like he may have popped out of an industrial-goth club, but he's also exceptionally handsome, even pretty. He occasionally has a bit of goatee on his chin, though keeps the rest of his face clean shaven. One of his ears has a bit of a ragged look, having gotten it half sliced off in combat, though he does put rings in them from time to time.

Due to his fairly large build and huge limbs-he's quite long-limbed and his legs are longer than most average humans are tall-he can make himself look incredibly intimidating if need be. He generally doesn't try to scare the populace though; that's used more for situations where he needs to turn on the scary. If the job says for someone to be taken alive, he can usually scare them into submission with his natural intimidation skills, as well as his parlor trick of kicking a holes in hard objects like concrete and car doors.

A habit of his, when chilling more, is to flip a coin over his knuckles; he is surprisingly adept at it, his huge hands rather dexterous.

He dresses in the same sort of 'goth-rivethead' style, favoring loose cargos(black or camo), tight tank tops or sleeveless shirts, an armored leather longcoat and huge, steel-covered black buckled boots; given his specialty in Tae Kwan Do, these, along with his brute strength and killing hands power, cause immense and nasty damage to their targets. He can swap to a hoodie and jeans if he needs to dress a little less 'club-like', and can even swap to nice clothing if pressed, even grudgingly dropping the eyeliner or nail polish, both of which he tends to wear.  He's been known to occasionally wear leather bracelets or chokers that incorporate nails, cogs, and other industrial bits. The team has been known to joke he and Talon look like they fell off the same truck, though Talon has a bit more of a 'glam-goth/VK' look to him.

Downfall is a fairly bold individual; he can be quick to speak, though he's far from stupid-he has a couple of years of education post-high school, and is naturally smart on top of it, both in book and in street. He's usually not going to insult anyone he's trying to deal with(unless by 'dealing with' one means 'kicking them really hard.') He isn't the team's face, though he is charismatic enough and fairly adept at dealing with a variety of types; he's spent enough time on the streets to know the ins and outs, and enough time with Elven high society to understand that as well, though corporate types elude him.

He has a particular talent with languages; he's fluent in Sperethiel as well as English, speaks Russian to a conversational level and even a little Korean and Japanese on top of it, though he's not particularly good at the latter two yet(Talon enjoys picking on his rough Japanese in his moments of humor.) Despite being completely brutal muscle, he has a scattering of other skills which makes him still valuable to a team(in the shadows, it does not pay to be a one-trick-pony. Those types don't last long.)

He is passionate about things he likes; be it good alcohol and coffee, his drivingly hard industrial-metal/aggrotech soundtracks, his martial arts, and even his teammates. He is a 'gentle giant' to Ortega's charge since he's even bigger than Spanky, and was the person responsible for bringing the traumatized and mentally scarred Talon out of his shell and back into humanity(they seem to have more than just a working relationship...but given how the shadows are, they leave it at physical.) He'll eat anything he can get his hands on; not a vegetarian like some elves, he likes everything from meat to fish; sushi and bibimbap(the latter introduced to him by his old trainer, a kind Korean elf who lived in Tir and worked as a bodyguard; he has sadly not seen him in years and wonders how he is)are two huge favorites of his and he'll be seen eating either of them more than once a week. The local Korean restaurant in Tacoma loves when he comes in, given his ginormous appetite; they even keep one of their Troll-sized tables ready for him. (They usually throw in a free gimbap if he buys a quadruple order that day.)

Like Talon, the two detest soykaf, choosing to spend their last nuyen on real coffee and fighting in a pit for more before they'd drink the other foul swill. At the end of the day, he'll stuff himself with McHugh's, Bucket-Burgers or stuffers if he's on the run.

When in combat, he much prefers fighting unarmed; given his skill in different martial arts, he doesn't need a weapon. He shares this with Talon and they spar; the two of them are able to actually withstand each others blows(though he naturally does not use his lethal force in sparring matches.) He will kill with little hesitation if lethal force is used against him; he can get quite brutal and vindictive if people close to him are messed with, and things can get messy with him quickly due to his massive strength; 'colorful head wounds' have been mentioned when he's finished. He doesn't mind fighting in underground bloodsport pits against people who he knows are dirty, and he's done it long enough he can tell the desperate from the vicious. He has taken wetwork before as well. His mindset is that the shadows are sometimes kill-or-be-killed; while he does not seek out death-dealing, he will not shy away from it. He won't mess up a job though; if the request are no bodies, then he will load gel rounds in his handgun(which he only uses if necessary, he's not a huge firearms fan though he respects their versatility), and strike with non-lethal force(though he can't promise bones won't break.) He messes around with edged weapons for fun, and Talon has been showing him some tricks with them, though he prefers to simply fight with martial arts.

He utilizes all of his known styles-Tae Kwon Do, Carromeleg, Karate and kickboxing-well together, but Tae Kwon Do is his favorite, and quite a sight when dealt out by a gothic-rivethead that stands over seven and a half feet tall. His overall style is brutal, aggressive, and overwhelming; he uses his huge size and reach well to his advantage.

Relaxing to him is music, videogames, possibly books, or just sleeping in with a bit of trid; he also has taken a liking to the flatvid movies that go around his current team. He does not look for a serious relationship, though he has shared more than one intimate moment with Talon; right now, being on the same team they're keeping it 'friends with benefits', and aren't looking to push it further. It's not a constant thing, more like 'if they feel like it.' Even going to a club with driving music and some drinks is 'relaxing' to him, as he sits in the back somewhere.

He has quite an interest in the workings of magic and the occult; being a trained adept, he knows there is further his abilities can go. He's been known to talk to Silver about magical things, though her specialty is more with the hermetic, scholastic side of magic and spellcasting, she's an expert on the subject and finds his insight into some of the occult studies interesting. Politically he's bored of most of what goes on and tends to go for 'the least evil' in these days, and he runs agnostic-in his opinion, with all of the planes and things out there, just trying to say there is or isn't 'one main thing' is short-sighted. His adept powers are geared more toward the 'mundane' rather than the outlandish; he funnels it to increase his already insane strength, to allow him to smash objects and enemies better, to increase his reflexes and better protect himself. (He would love to further develop his astral sight; he's seen it before, thanks to deepweed from a talismonger to find out some information, but he cannot do it himself yet.)

He doesn't have too much on him that he would be completely lost without; he would not like to lose his geas, given the trouble he would have getting it back(and he's a little attached to that particular collar), and he happens to like his massive boots, but besides that he has a soft spot for the heavy silver and steel ring given to him by Talon the night he went 'home' from Dr. Douglas' clinic, since Downfall had helped him through everything and he insisted he take it.

Quotes:

"I'd rethink your current situation. You're just about small enough for me to step on." "'The bigger they are, the harder they fall' is only relevant if you can knock them down.'' "You bleed too much, chummer." "If the gods do exist, I'm pretty sure they'd ask for bibimbap instead of ambrosia."

History: Downfall was born Gaelorite Tiergnach(a name he considers one of the snootiest in the world, though certain people are allowed to call him Gael...VERY few) to an upper-class Tir Tairngire family in October of 2028. They worked with nobles, were one step below nobles themselves and Gael was set toward big things. As he grew rather immensely, there was talk about getting him toward the more elite guard later in life; when he expressed magically as an adept, many people took a great interest in their potentially new and deadly person; there was talk of Tir Paladins in his future if he proved loyal and all went right. Besides being schooled well, he was sent toward training with some of the best Tir warriors-he trained mainly in Tae Kwon Do which he took a major liking in(and it fit his long-legged and massive physique and strength), but he also trained some in the traditional elven martial art of Carromeleg, and even some kickboxing for clinching and traditional Karate to round him out. He was trained in the use of handguns, simply for versatility.

Along with his great strength and developing skill, however, came a bit of a temper. He would get into scraps now and then; usually with the sons of other nobles. The thing was, his family was sort of 'almost-noble'; they had plenty of money, but were sort of just under the status, and some of the nobles' kids were a little jealous of his special treatment due to his ability. Still, he held back fairly nicely, only smacking them around a bit. He had a few friends, mostly enjoying training, testing his limits, but also reading, games and music. He would frequent Tir clubs as a teenager, though the more underground ones.

It was his 20th year that would mark the big change; a particularly nasty son of one of the noble families decided to ambush him one night with his friends, hoping to injure him enough that he would fail the tests he would have to take later that week. Gael, in a rage of getting attacked with lethal weapons(they had knives), fought them off pretty badly; he did not kill any of them, but the noble's son was left very badly beaten within a few inches of his life. Naturally, the parents were not too pleased with this...that being said, they were not evil people(snooty and elitist, yes, but they recognized that the wounds on Downfall-he had a few-were caused by knives wielded by the others), and so no charges were pressed.

However, the situation made the others who would have possibly taken Gael on as looking over him again; his temper proved to be fearsome if pressed, and they wondered. On top of that, while the parents of the son(hospitalized-he would live but it's said he does not have particularly good sight in his right eye nor use of his left arm these days even now) were somewhat understanding, though a bit fearful now, other family members were a bit more hostile to the Tiergnach family as it was. Gael did care for his family, and he could see by being there he was not helping them press forward in anything, as his reputation was that of somewhere between 'scary' and 'a threat.' No one would take the family higher, as they feared the huge elf's reprisal.

He decided to cut the losses of his family a few months later, and disappear into the night, heading toward Seattle. Thanks to his family's general wealth, he had a decent nest egg; with that, a large pack filled with some of his favored possessions(music chips, his pocket secratary, some of his favorite rivethead clothing, a ring he received for winning a martial arts tournament and his choker which acted as a geas for the adept powers he had developed; the choker was linked to his reflexes) he headed out. Getting to Seattle was no issue; with a real SIN and everything he was able to travel easily, though he chose to lay low in the new city, getting an out-of-the-way place in the Tacoma area and tried to find work that would suit someone like him. He thought a bouncer might be the best bet, and was able to get some part-time work in a bit of a lower-end place, often frequented by organized crime folks, the Vory would pop up there not uncommonly. When asked his name, he simply went by 'Downfall', having felt it fitting-he did not fancy letting too many people know his real name, as he was trying to lay low.

His switch to the shadows happened one night when enemies of some men who were at a table(Vory, unbeknownst to him) attacked; being a bouncer, he had to protect anyone else in the club, of course, so he did just that, and since these men were fighting for keeps, so did he. By the time Downfall was finished, he had taken a few wounds, but no patrons were hurt and three men were in various states of dead on the floor, their heads basically kicked in. (The proprietor of the bar claimed they never did get all of the blood out of the wood, and there's a carpet there now.) Having not killed before, his instinct told him organized crime folks like this would not have taken it lightly if they had roughed him up; given the weapons they had on them, he would have been right.

His boss did NOT turn him in, as he did sort of save the lives of everyone there, though he regretted that, due to possible revenge, he would have to let him go(he slipped a paper with a number on it in his pocket before he left; the name was 'Spanky'), and it turned out the Vory he ended up saving liked what he did...and thus, he ended up doing a few odd jobs for them over the next year or so; they also introduced him to the world of underground bloodsport rings. Given his highly brutal way of fighting, he became a favorite as the rings were usually left a mess afterward. For awhile, his life was running odd jobs of random violence and fighting; he was suriving, though. He was even starting to do wetwork, which was able to complete rather effectively, though he was not used for quiet jobs...more ones that there was meant to be a severe message sent to whoever found the remains.

He had to pull back to think when he became so damned comfortable with beating people to death; it sort of alarmed him, but looking at the growing number of scars on his body, and seeing just how foul some of the people were in the underground-taking part in organlegging and human trafficking and other sorts of human misery, he began to see himself as sort of doing his part to clean up; the people he killed in the ring were people who were fairly foul as well; the lowest of the low. He didn't see himself as a vigilante, but more of someone who didn't mind doing what he did. The shadows can do weird things to one's morals. Meeting Spanky, the proprietor of Goal!, the craft beer and sports bar, helped give him more of a choice of work; Spanky was a skilled fixer, and he even hired him on when his own bouncers-also Tir expatriates and twin brothers-were off. The way he met him was a rather unforgettable experience; a man tried to kill Spanky for some reason; his usual bouncers were not there. Since Downfall was at the bar, he had the shotgun pointed at him, as well.

Downfall, in the way, did not appreciate the threat to his own life and moved quicker than the man expected; he then subsequently kicked the man’s head off in a single blow, between his natural strength and adept powers. Spanky coughed, called for a mop and cleanup, and hired him on the spot as a part-time security enforcer of sorts. Downfall joked that this was the first time he had ever done that that did not result in someone wanting him dead(his previous job as 'underground pit fighter' had gone bad after his 'manager' tried to fix his loss for extra money. It didn't work out well for him either, though Downfall still has the scars from that.)

He was pulled into a job from a team who needed muscle and who lost theirs; they were going to deal with raiding a bunraku parlor. He knew how nasty these places could be. They were mostly going for the goods, though after they saw some of the people, they rescued them, as well. One of them was a heavily cybered elf-a big fellow in and of himself-that Downfall unplugged and let loose; he ended up killing the rest of their opposition before collapsing in a pile. The team, having some scruples about them, funneled everyone out and most of them went off on their own; the rest-including the black-haired elf-were taken to Dr. Douglas, a friend of Spanky. Most of them were fixed up and chose to go off; the nameless elf was nearly catatonic. Dr. Douglas had a soft spot for the more broken types, and so set him up in a back room to stay...though he was regretful there wasn't much he could do for him.

For two days Downfall went back to his routine, but he was bothered by that one. He wasn't sure why. He decided to go check up on him one day while he was there; Dr. Douglas had said he had eaten, but was not particularly responsive. He had interest in one of Downfall's cigarettes, which he gave him. From there, he brought him coffee, would bring him music(once they discovered one of the genres they shared was that hard industrial-aggrotech), and every day try to get him to sort of come out of his shell. He didn't know if he had been broken by the memories, if it was the BTL, or a little of both; Douglas had thought it was the BTL which had driven him into the near catatonic state.

It took awhile, but eventually Talon started to speak; Dr. Douglas thought this wonderful. He was able to do some things on his end, as well-some brain scans said that Talon could recover, though he would be sensitive to flashbacks if overwhelmed by simsense stimuli. The two became better friends...and then friends with benefits, once they discovered they had that in common, as well.(This took a few months).

By the time the two were about twenty four, they were hooked up with their current team(Jolt came later, given his age-he's the youngest), and they had run together now for three years. Occasionally gaining or losing another member one way or another, they've been fairly successful, despite them being a rather different bunch put together. Downfall has not really found a spot that he can leave the shadows at this point-he's too far in. He simply takes it as it comes and wonders what the future will hold.

Adept Powers:

Improved Strength(2) Improved Reflexes(1) Killing Hands(M) Mystic Armor(1) Smashing Blow

Contacts:

Besides the ones the group shares(Spanky, Dr. Douglas, Mama, Pedro, Killswitch, Huginn&Muninn):

'Mr. Steve': A dwarf club owner of a place called 'The Black Machine' in downtown Seattle. An industrial-gothic deal, it's color scheme seems to be black, gray, red, and camouflage, it's open from 6pm to 6 am, plays stuff like Grendel most of the time, if you held a magnet up to the place a lot of people would come flying out due to the amount of chains and industrial equipment they're wearing, and the drinks all glow interesting colors. Downfall has worked the door of this place before, and it has a couple of underground meeting rooms for more 'street types' who are useful for getting bits of info on the down-low. If Downfall wants to unwind, this is probably the place you'll find him. Oddly, 'Mr. Steve' does not look like someone who would frequent his own club-he looks like an 'Everyday Guy'; he knew there was a lot of request for a place like this about a decade ago, so he opened one, and is rather well liked besides not being 'one of them.'  Mr. Steve also happens to be a Johnson, so there's that.

Future Plans:

-Initiate to at least Grade 3 or 4

-Develop Astral Perception

-Increase his already impressive Strength score to the Attribute Maximum(which may take a lot of Karma but would be incredibly fitting to his character, the sheet shown is his starting sheet and not the developed one with some Karma)

-Increase his Unarmed Combat and Athletics