Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Longshot23 on <12-30-11/0402:05>
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Notice I said 'Jackpointers', not Jackpoint (which is covered or at least implied, I think).
First off, I'm guessing this might well be a house rule situation, but I thought I'd ask: what would named individuals, like those who regularly post to Jackpoint (or the Nexus), be worth in terms of contact BPs?
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Do you mean in terms of their Connection ratings?
Most should start out around Level 4, though given the international experience many (or at least the most vocal) show, a good number would be at 5 (Picador, Hard Exit, Thorn) or 6 (Kay St. Irregular, Fianchetto, FastJack).
OBTW, since the Group Contacts don't have numbers associated with them, and JackPoint isn't given as an example, let me help you all out there.
JackPoint (Virtual Connection 18/ Loyalty 2-3)
Uses: Shadow news, jobs, fencing
Virtual Connection Rating: 18
Connection Rating: 6
Membership (20-99): +2
Area of Influence (Global): +6
Magical Resources (A minority have significant magical talents): +3
Matrix Resources (Active Matrix Presence): +1
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Well, I was kind of considering Jackpoint itself as not viable, because it's an invite-only VPN. But surely the individual posters would be viable, subject to GM rulings.
I thought the Connection rating related to between a PC and their contacts, not how connected a given Contact is?
I was thinking more somebody's PC maybe having the likes of Slamm-0! or Pistons or (time out to check Street Legends ::) ) Elijah, partially because SR players are likely to have heard of these people. Of course any GM who allows Hestaby or the like as a contact probably deserves what they get, unless their ability is right up there - I can think of a couple who could handle that, but none who would allow it in the first place.
(What is OBTW?)
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One version of Iceblade I played in a game on another site actually did have a dragon as one of his contacts. When I went into describing how he got the dragon as a contact, the DM wanted to confirm I knew what I was doing three times, letting me know that he WOULD be making use of this. That was a fun campaign.
What can I say? I like creating lots of plot hooks for DMs to use.
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Well, I was kind of considering Jackpoint itself as not viable, because it's an invite-only VPN. But surely the individual posters would be viable, subject to GM rulings.
I thought the Connection rating related to between a PC and their contacts, not how connected a given Contact is?
I was thinking more somebody's PC maybe having the likes of Slamm-0! or Pistons or (time out to check Street Legends ::) ) Elijah, partially because SR players are likely to have heard of these people. Of course any GM who allows Hestaby or the like as a contact probably deserves what they get, unless their ability is right up there - I can think of a couple who could handle that, but none who would allow it in the first place.
(What is OBTW?)
Connection is how connected the contact is to everyone else. Loyalty is whether or not they will sell you to the Megas when you slip up.
OBTW = Oh, By The Way.
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Tks FJ. +1 from me.
In your opinion are Jackpointers acceptable as Contacts?
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So, Kane's and Clockwork's loyalty never goes above 1, gotcha. :P
Well, Kane's might, if he likes you. He's probably going to airship bomb the hell out of Clockwork (Ala Red Alert 2 & 3) if he ever catches up with him.
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Well, let's consider Frosty. At the end of the Dawn of the Artifacts quad, IF a PC made it all the way through without screwing up in more than minor ways, couldn't Frosty be considered a contact for such a PC?
Now if that's what it takes to gain a Name as a contact, in her case fair enough, considering what she gets into and who she (in turn) knows. So another Name could be gained for as involved but different reasons - and presumably they would be discriminating about who they let into their circle. Someone like Thorn would have their own qualifying criteria, as would Kellan Colt, Haze, Kane or [insert Name here].
Now I'm wondering what I've started . . .
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Yes, Frosty can be a contact through the team's actions through Dawn of the Artifacts. At the end of Dusk, she is a Loyalty 1, Connection 5 contact. Her loyalty can increase as the adventures go on. By the time of Artifacts Unbound, and the runners play their cards right, I can see her Loyalty being a 3 or even a 4. And, with Ehran being in the mix, you may be able to get a Loyalty 1 contact out of him.
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Well, let's consider Frosty. At the end of the Dawn of the Artifacts quad, IF a PC made it all the way through without screwing up in more than minor ways, couldn't Frosty be considered a contact for such a PC?
Now if that's what it takes to gain a Name as a contact, in her case fair enough, considering what she gets into and who she (in turn) knows. So another Name could be gained for as involved but different reasons - and presumably they would be discriminating about who they let into their circle. Someone like Thorn would have their own qualifying criteria, as would Kellan Colt, Haze, Kane or [insert Name here].
Now I'm wondering what I've started . . .
I'd imagine that Kellan would probably be the easiest named character that's been mentioned so far to get as a contact (and would be very hard to lose with how loyal she is once she considers someone a friend).
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Well, I was kind of considering Jackpoint itself as not viable, because it's an invite-only VPN. But surely the individual posters would be viable, subject to GM rulings.
Of course, but I'm not going to deprive other people of the opportunity. That's a 20 BP contact, minimum, at chargen. But the benefit is that the PCs would "know" everything in the sourcebooks, especially stuff that wouldn't make it into ShadowSea or the Puzzle Palace, e.g. that Evan Corcoran is a master shedim and the feds know, or that Daviar owns Reality Inc.
(What is OBTW?)
Now I feel like Old Man Meiers.
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Now I feel like Old Man Meiers.
Come up to the porch with Bull and me, there's a Rocking Chair and a shotgun waiting.
The Eternal September, we remember it well, for we meet it every day.
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Now I feel like Old Man Meiers.
Come up to the porch with Bull and me, there's a Rocking Chair and a shotgun waiting.
The Eternal September, we remember it well, for we meet it every day.
I even made lemonade. And not that sugared-down crap them kids is drinking, neither. This stuff's got some lightnin' in it!
As for JackPointers as contacts, the team in my game is working towards that after taking on a run to track down an old deck that used to belong to a certain Cap'n...
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Now I feel like Old Man Meiers.
Come up to the porch with Bull and me, there's a Rocking Chair and a shotgun waiting.
The Eternal September, we remember it well, for we meet it every day.
I even made lemonade. And not that sugared-down crap them kids is drinking, neither. This stuff's got some lightnin' in it!
As for JackPointers as contacts, the team in my game is working towards that after taking on a run to track down an old deck that used to belong to a certain Cap'n...
Is it white lightnin'? I do enjoy me some white lightnin' lemonade. You old timers mind another on the porch?
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Why do I get the image of whatever character I ever make, talking smack on the Matrix, and ends up getting Slamm-0! as a contact out of respect? ;D
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Now I feel like Old Man Meiers.
Come up to the porch with Bull and me, there's a Rocking Chair and a shotgun waiting.
The Eternal September, we remember it well, for we meet it every day.
Fuck.
That.
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Now I feel like Old Man Meiers.
Come up to the porch with Bull and me, there's a Rocking Chair and a shotgun waiting.
The Eternal September, we remember it well, for we meet it every day.
Pfft. UseNet? You kids today! Back when I was on XYZZY and DARPAnet...
Well, let's just say that I was precocious.
(Still weirds me out that my neices have never known a world without an Internet, let alone non-graphical browssers. Or the idea that computers were only for rare engineering types, not average people. SO. STRANGE.)
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You're welcome on the porch as well.
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I still remember when I was happy to get my hands on a 486 computer with a 100 MB hard drive and 1 MB of RAM. Pretty bad now, but I was glad to have it when I did.
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I still remember when I was happy to get my hands on a 486 computer with a 100 MB hard drive and 1 MB of RAM. Pretty bad now, but I was glad to have it when I did.
Agreed. I remember when I got my first Gigabyte sized HDD. I was all "Wow, this is a CAVERN. There's no WAY I could fill this thing up!"
Now I'm about to have to put in my third 2TB drive because I need the room.
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Well, I was kind of considering Jackpoint itself as not viable, because it's an invite-only VPN. But surely the individual posters would be viable, subject to GM rulings.
Of course, but I'm not going to deprive other people of the opportunity. That's a 20 BP contact, minimum, at chargen. But the benefit is that the PCs would "know" everything in the sourcebooks, especially stuff that wouldn't make it into ShadowSea or the Puzzle Palace, e.g. that Evan Corcoran is a master shedim and the feds know, or that Daviar owns Reality Inc.
(What is OBTW?)
Now I feel like Old Man Meiers.
Oops. This is me being contrite after displaying lack of acronym knowledge. Does it help if you consider yourself 18 or 21 with X years of experience?
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I still remember when I was happy to get my hands on a 486 computer with a 100 MB hard drive and 1 MB of RAM. Pretty bad now, but I was glad to have it when I did.
I still remember a 'computer' at my father's work place. A hermes 200: no screen, just two printers (one was the printer, one was the 'screen'), a 4 digit display to show error codes (which you had to look up in a 1000 page manual), 3 disk drives (the ones before the 5.25" ones), no hard drive and 8K (yes indeed, K) RAM. It ran the complete financial service of a 15.000 people village.
Now we are annoyed if it takes more than 2 seconds to download a full movie.
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One of the gamers I was with back home was put into the computer department because he got high marks in Math and sounded highly educated. He was a Brit in a Northern Ontarian town, he could be speaking Cockney and have still sounded "Educated". That's it.
It was an old workhorse of a Punchcard Machine. He knew it from the day it was uncrated until some idiot who got his job by nepotism destroyed the Master Cards used to make the standard use cards, thus rendering the machine a paperweight. A very, very large paperweight. Luckily, it had paid for itself a decade earlier.
When he left the company, he was able to monitor anything he'd ever care to know about the system by VPN.
*Sighs, and pours a 40 on the curb*
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Yes, Frosty can be a contact through the team's actions through Dawn of the Artifacts. At the end of Dusk, she is a Loyalty 1, Connection 5 contact. Her loyalty can increase as the adventures go on. By the time of Artifacts Unbound, and the runners play their cards right, I can see her Loyalty being a 3 or even a 4. And, with Ehran being in the mix, you may be able to get a Loyalty 1 contact out of him.
My GM made Frosty one of my contacts back from the Harlequin adventure. (Man oh man that was a looooong time ago.) That certainly made it easy to transition to the beginning of Dawn of the Artifacts for her reasons to contact our particular team.
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Why do I get the image of whatever character I ever make, talking smack on the Matrix, and ends up getting Slamm-0! as a contact out of respect? ;D
Because you identify with him.
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Why do I get the image of whatever character I ever make, talking smack on the Matrix, and ends up getting Slamm-0! as a contact out of respect? ;D
Because you identify with him.
Him and Plan 9.
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Why do I get the image of whatever character I ever make, talking smack on the Matrix, and ends up getting Slamm-0! as a contact out of respect? ;D
Because you identify with him.
Him and Plan 9.
Slamm-0! is the natural runner in you.
Plan 9 is the Canadian. :D
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Slamm-0! is the natural runner in you.
Plan 9 is the Canadian. :D
I'd like to think I was a more serious person if I was a 'Runner. Of course, that's not likely to happen anytime soon. :P
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Slamm-0! is the natural runner in you.
Plan 9 is the Canadian. :D
I'd like to think I was a more serious person if I was a 'Runner. Of course, that's not likely to happen anytime soon. :P
So you say right now... ;)
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I would see no issue in player characters having Jackpointers has contacts providing it makes sense in-character.
I've had runners use Jane-in-the-box as a contact and hire runners from fiction as back-up for a mission. (the mage and samuria from the first 'never deal with a dragon' novel).
Its all good and creates closer linkages to the game fiction.
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I don't see any problem in having a jackpointer as a connection or contact.
It is really up to the GM to decide if that is fine for his campaign.
Know that Street legends introduce a lot of them and presents how they may need some assistance from other runner, it is even easier to use them as contacts.