[Novocrane]

After not quite finishing in time for Scarecrow's game, I'd like to put Matthias "Rand" Eiseman on the list of potentials. As far as hiring details go, he's a technomancer, with a few choice bits of 'ware. Much beyond that I'll leave between Thvor, myself and the game.

Rumours in the shadows would have it that Rand was just starting to rise in the ranks of corporate Europort when he found himself forcefully ejected into the shadows. Not that there's anything to back that up beyond his accent, a nasty facial scar and a replacement cyberarm. Asking rarely helps, as the answer is often just an excuse for him to flex creatively, if not simply give a runner a hard stare for not knowing better than to ask about someone's past. Even so, the topic washes up like trash in a city port - a bit dirtier each time, and the whispers of 'burnout' linger just as long, whether in truth or gossip.

Also; does the following mean I could take 'ware during chargen and keep my Priority-based Resonance? 

Whenever you lose Essence (after character generation), you lose an equal amount of Resonance, rounded up.

[Thvor]

Also; does the following mean I could take 'ware during chargen and keep my Priority-based Resonance? 

Whenever you lose Essence (after character generation), you lose an equal amount of Resonance, rounded up.

I'm going to have to say no. Page 95, in the character generation process itself, specifically discusses lowering magic or resonance when you add 'ware:

Cyberware and bioware augmentations are not for everyone. The physiologies for magic users and technomancers respond poorly to the loss of Essence that accompanies these augmentations. In game terms, this means that any fraction of Essence loss reduces a Magic or Resonance attribute rating by 1. This means that if a magician with Magic 5 decides to buy and install some cybereyes (Rating 4), their Essence will go from 6 to 5.5 due to the Essence cost of the cybereyes, and the magician will also lose a full point of Magic, leaving them with a Magic attribute rating of 4. The character can then lose another half a point of Essence, taking him down to 5.0, without a penalty to Magic, but if he drops below 5.0, his Magic rating is going to lose another point.

So, since step six explicitly talks about lowering your resonance, that supersedes the parenthetical comment from elsewhere in the book. Sorry. (The difference, of course, is that during character generation you can get several pieces of 'ware at once, and lower your magic/resonance for the entire batch; after chargen, getting your essence lowered by .5 results in a loss of 1 resonance--even if your total essence loss at that point is still less than 1.)

Edit to provide an Example: For whatever reason, you want a taste booster (essence cost: 0.2) and plastic bone lacing (essence cost: 0.5). If you take them together at chargen, your essence drops to 5.3, and your resonance drops by one. If instead you wait and take them both after chargen, you take the resonance hit for each one (since you can only get one augmentation at a time), so your resonance afterwards would be down 2, instead of just the one, even though your essence is still 5.3.

[obidancer]

Here my shot at it. Short man with a short temper and no fear bullets with a laced skeleton and nasty claws.


Logan is a very tall Dwarf new to the Seattle scene. Some incidents back in Denver gave him a bad rep and he's having a hard time finding work with his notoriety. Rumor has it whoever works with him never makes it out alive, whether it is his teammate or the fixer that got him the job. That doesn't help being picked for runs. That and his never ending streak of bad luck that makes him to most an unreliable partner. Ironically, he's a very competent bodyguard who has no issue taking a bullet for whoever he's protecting. He was built for it; he could take a beating and still manage to live to tell the story. He dished out military service for his lack of respect for the authority and joined a private mercenary team where he was encouraged to spend his money on enhancements. He soon became a ferocious soldier with no fear for his own safety. Upon the loss of the team, he turned to the shadow.

[Crunch]

Rabbit's parents were Texas patriots who died of plague when he was a little kid. Growing up on the streets of Austin fell in with the Bowie Boys, one of the gangs that roves the streets of the divided city. The Bowie Boys routinely did small jobs for one of the smaller smuggling crews.  On one of these jobs he attracted the attention of Hare, a decker that worked with the gang. Hare was impressesd by young Rabbit and brought him on as an apprentice. The first year was a combination of gofer work and catching up on years of missed schooling. After that Hare taught Rabbit the is and outs of the matrix.

Hare was flamboyant and didn't adapt well to the tightening nature of the grid. Last year he got a bit to cocky and GOD backtracked HARE to his safe house near Lake Austin. Hare didn't run fast enough. An Aztlan army strike team vectored by GOD took out Hare and barely missed Rabbit who had gone out for pizza. On his own now Rabbit hit the streets, dodging check points and hitchhiking his way across the country. He's nomadic, a little paranoid and still trying to figure out his place in the shadows, but he's a graduate of a tough school and knows his business.

[Panzergeist]

Also; does the following mean I could take 'ware during chargen and keep my Priority-based Resonance? 

Whenever you lose Essence (after character generation), you lose an equal amount of Resonance, rounded up.

I'm going to have to say no. Page 95, in the character generation process itself, specifically discusses lowering magic or resonance when you add 'ware:

Cyberware and bioware augmentations are not for everyone. The physiologies for magic users and technomancers respond poorly to the loss of Essence that accompanies these augmentations. In game terms, this means that any fraction of Essence loss reduces a Magic or Resonance attribute rating by 1. This means that if a magician with Magic 5 decides to buy and install some cybereyes (Rating 4), their Essence will go from 6 to 5.5 due to the Essence cost of the cybereyes, and the magician will also lose a full point of Magic, leaving them with a Magic attribute rating of 4. The character can then lose another half a point of Essence, taking him down to 5.0, without a penalty to Magic, but if he drops below 5.0, his Magic rating is going to lose another point.

So, since step six explicitly talks about lowering your resonance, that supersedes the parenthetical comment from elsewhere in the book. Sorry. (The difference, of course, is that during character generation you can get several pieces of 'ware at once, and lower your magic/resonance for the entire batch; after chargen, getting your essence lowered by .5 results in a loss of 1 resonance--even if your total essence loss at that point is still less than 1.)

Edit to provide an Example: For whatever reason, you want a taste booster (essence cost: 0.2) and plastic bone lacing (essence cost: 0.5). If you take them together at chargen, your essence drops to 5.3, and your resonance drops by one. If instead you wait and take them both after chargen, you take the resonance hit for each one (since you can only get one augmentation at a time), so your resonance afterwards would be down 2, instead of just the one, even though your essence is still 5.3.

The example you just provided there directly contradicts the example you posted from the book.  You're right about the penalty still applying at chargen though. 

[Thvor]

Cyberware and bioware augmentations are not for everyone. The physiologies for magic users and technomancers respond poorly to the loss of Essence that accompanies these augmentations. In game terms, this means that any fraction of Essence loss reduces a Magic or Resonance attribute rating by 1. This means that if a magician with Magic 5 decides to buy and install some cybereyes (Rating 4), their Essence will go from 6 to 5.5 due to the Essence cost of the cybereyes, and the magician will also lose a full point of Magic, leaving them with a Magic attribute rating of 4. The character can then lose another half a point of Essence, taking him down to 5.0, without a penalty to Magic, but if he drops below 5.0, his Magic rating is going to lose another point.

...

Edit to provide an Example: For whatever reason, you want a taste booster (essence cost: 0.2) and plastic bone lacing (essence cost: 0.5). If you take them together at chargen, your essence drops to 5.3, and your resonance drops by one. If instead you wait and take them both after chargen, you take the resonance hit for each one (since you can only get one augmentation at a time), so your resonance afterwards would be down 2, instead of just the one, even though your essence is still 5.3.

The example you just provided there directly contradicts the example you posted from the book.  You're right about the penalty still applying at chargen though.

No contradiction. During chargen, taking cybereyes results in a 0.5 essence drop, and thus a 1 magic drop; if they add more 'ware during chargen that doesn't drop their essence more than another 0.5, they don't take another hit to their magic. That's the example from the book. The section Novocrane quoted says that adding any 'ware after chargen--even a 0.1 essence hit--would lower resonance by a full point, which is my example.

That said, I just checked the RAW for magic:

Anything that reduces your Essence also reduces your Magic rating. For every point (or fraction thereof) of Essence lost, both your current Magic Attribute and your maximum Magic Rating are reduced by one.

This is a lot more forgiving than the section Novocrane quoted, and also matches with what happens in chargen. So I'm going to make an Official GM Ruling^(tm): the section on page 250 is to be ignored; technomancers will lose resonance the same as magic users lose magic--if your essence is 5.5 and you get a minor bit of 'ware that drops it to 5.3, your resonance will not change. Dropping it to below 5.0, however, would incur a penalty.

[Panzergeist]

I think that's actually the way it's intended; this whole issue seems like a matter of poor wording by the writers. 

I'm still working on my viking berserker mystic adept- trying to figure out how the Asatru tradition should work, which mentor spirit to take, how to ration karma as a mystic adept, writing a bio, etc.  But now that Scarecrow has picked runners for the other game, I can submit my technomancer character.  With this guy I'm trying to play up the loner, persecuted outsider angle- kinda like Rogue from the X-Men movies in his outlook.  The character will hide his nature from everyone other than one of his contacts, and even tell his teammates he's a decker.   

"Static", Human Male Technomancer

Biography

Eric Cardova was born with a SIN in the Pueblo Corporate Council.  He was a quiet, bookish kid who got along alright with his peers, but was physically clumsy, and always more interested in the matrix than in real life.  In his teens, he started to develop techomantic abilities.  He didn’t realize what he was doing for a long time, and once he did, he kept it secret from everyone he knew. 

At the age of 17, Eric finally came out to his parents.  They were shocked- his father reacted as if he was some kind of criminal, while his mother seemed to think he was sick.  They both told him he should register as a technomancer with the government, as required by law.  His father largely stopped talking to him, while his mother kept suggesting that he seek “treatment,” whatever that meant. 

Eric finally went to a government registration office.  Instead of registering as a technomancer as his parents expected though, he submitted false biometric data, ensuring that it would be almost impossible to match him to his SIN unless someone he knew identified him.  He then bought a plane ticket to Seattle and went off the grid for a while.  Once the new biometric data was processed into the system, he was effectively SINless. 

For almost 2 years, Eric has just barely scraped by as a freelance hacker and computer programmer, and has only recently upgraded from a dingy squat to a real apartment.  He spends most of his time in the matrix or watching sports, and is a big Mariners fan.  He recently made the reluctant decision to try shadowrunning, knowing it was likely to involve more physical and outdoor activity than he is used to, but also represented his best shot at escaping poverty.   

[Chrona]

I meant to post this at the time but i PMd two character concepts

[lonewolf1210]

Im interested.

One question though:
Any chance you can allow the 4E positive quality restriced gear?
Cause I´d like to get a cerebral booster(3).

[Redwulfe]

I don't have my books with me but a player in one of my games has done this before so i thought i would see if it applies to your situation. If you take it as used gear will its availability be reduced enough to be legal?

Red

[lonewolf1210]

I don't have my books with me but a player in one of my games has done this before so i thought i would see if it applies to your situation. If you take it as used gear will its availability be reduced enough to be legal?

Red

No it wouldnt. (Availability 18 -4 = 14 which is still too much)
but even if it would, there is no way in hell this character would put used ware in his body. Also its cultured bioware, so while I dont see a definite rule anywhere, I think its highly unlikely that such a thing as "used cultured bioware" can work

[Redwulfe]

Yep, I didn't have my book and didn't remember it was bio ware. Not something you could get used.

Sorry just trying to help,
Red

[Crossbow]

Putting a post in the thread so I get updates.  I submitted a concept to Thvor by PM.

[Panzergeist]

Just realized I TOTALLY missed the rule about only maxing one stat at chargen.  Reworking both my technomancer and mystic adept now.

[Thvor]

Ok, everyone, thanks for all of the character submissions. I had 12 players submit a total of 19 characters. Selection was tough; many of you could have made it, but I'm not going to even consider attempting a 12-player game, sorry.

I've sent PM's to all of the accepted players, and posted their names and character names on the first page of this thread. My plan is to work through everyone's chargen processes this week, and start up IC and OOC threads once we're all ready.

Thanks again!