We need another mage. Seriously. 1 mage for the two groups is really pushing it.

Especially if we have to engage in any major combat with magical creatures...

So if you know how to play one, you might want to consider a mage or shaman, and otherwise just do whatever as long as it's not an adept.

Name: Paul Grant, AKA: Patch

Race: Human

Sex: Male

Age: 35

Character Class: Um.... Mercenary/Street Sam/Covert Ops/Investigator? (It's kinda hard to actually stick someone in a template, ya know?)

Equipment:

Armor:
Form Fitting Body Armor
Armored vest with plates
Balacalvas (Swat mask)
Kevlar gloves

Weapons:
Colt Manhunter - Heavy Pistol (Smartlinked, concealed, silenced, 5clips [2 APDS, 2 Regular, 1 Gel])
Taurus Multi-6 - Light Pistol (concealed at ankle)
Ares Alpha - Assult rifle (3 clips APDS)
Survival Knife - A Knife...

Cyber:
Smartlink system (Alpha)
Cyber eye (left only) Decked out to the nines with: Low-light vision, Flare Compensation, Thermographics, Electronic Magnification x 3, Ultra-Violet, Ultra Sound (Alpha)

Other Things:
Duct Tape
Leatherman multitool
Cell Phone

Description: Paul is a good looking man who has kept himself fit and trim through nesseciety. He normally wears casual clothing, but on runs he dresses professionally in either black body armor or urban camo. He has short blond hair and stand about 5'11". His nickname derives from the fact that he always wears an eyepatch over his left eye unless using that eyes abilities, at that point he switches the eyepatch to the right side. His natural eye is blue and you can usually find him with a slight smile on his lips.

Bio: Born in seattle Paul was son to two corp workers. At 20 he joined with Lone Star and quickly worked his way up the ranks. After two years he was tranferred to the FRT teams (think swat teams). He lost his left eye in a shoot out and his medical coverage wouldn't pay to replace it with a vat grown one. He quickly found out that it was almost impossible to function with one real eye and one cyber he opted to wear an eyepatch instead of replace his funtioning eye with another cyber one.

He had been leader of his own FRT team for several years, happily putting away the bad guys and working for the path of good when it suddenlly came crashing in around him. He and his team wear called in to take out a warehouse of armed BTL distributers (BTL = Better then Life, a type of virtual reality). The attack on the warehouse went down easily enough and thier were few casualities. two men however attempted to escape and shot a member of Paul's team dead. The men fled from the scene and Paul persued, after a foot chase through the backallies of Seattle Paul cornered the men and killed both in the resulting firefight.

A week later is when the drek hit the fan. It turned out that one of the two men killed was the nephew of a high ranking fuchi executive. Not wishing to have the family name besmirched, or the honor of the company put into question Lone Star was paid of to have someone take the blame. Paul was chosen. In the next few weeks he was subject to suspension and investigation of activities. the men under his command changed thier stories, and falsified evidence was brought forth. Finaly a friend of his informed him that he was to be placed under arrest for the death of both the men he had shot. Paul quickly slunk into the shadows, hoping to find someone or something that could prove his innocence... and not get shot in the process.

Ah, a very smart player. Good.

(Got any more duct tape and super glue?)

Alright, looks good, your in. I'll figure out where to insert you in the RP tomarrow or today, depending on how you look at it time wise.

There is always more duct tape!

Gaffers tape and water proof electrical tape are also incredibly useful items to have. and if you don't haveo ne I suggest you get a survival knife, they have a compartment in the handle that has a large number of useful items: glow stick, micro lighter, trauma patch. or you can empty it and put in whatever you want.

Normally I play this game with a GM who likes to know exactly what you are taking on a run with you. that means if you haven't already listed that you have a light source then you are drek out of luck if your in a dark room. I don't know if that could really work in a game like this, although some way to make sure people don't have a never ending clip (or an endless supply of them) would probably be good.

-Luo out build a nuclear device out of a toothpick, a rubber band, and some chewing gum.

I didn't put this in the my bio (Mainly because I just copied and pasted from some one) but my guy's eyes can do all the things Luo's does (Mainly the zooming in and out)... Even though I have no idea what Ultra-Sound is...

And I forgot what movie it was in (An Arnold movie I think), that had a shotgun which was cocked (I really hope that is the right word...) by flicking the barrel, as opposed to pulling back the handle thingy... (I know none of the names of parts on guns). That really work/exist?

Yes. It's a lever-action shotgun.

Well, that's the shotgun Drek uses, since that can be used with one hand

Actually He may be thinking of your everyday combat shotgun, which can hold up to 8 shells instead of a normal shotguns 2. It has a magazine and is normally pump action instead of break action. There are also fully automatic combat shotguns (Rolling thunder), but that just means you can always upgrade later on.

speaking of upgrade, when you said that your eyes have what mine do, does thatm ean everything or are you simply talking about the magnification. If you mean everything understand that the body can only take so many cyber modifications before it ceases to function. I don't know everything you have, but my eye (even alphawared) costs nearly a full point of essence due to all the modifications. I don't know how intricat we are getting when it comes to essence and cyberwear, but I just thought I would worn you.

-Luo out to be a dork

I had most of the stuff you mentioned, expect for the Ultra-sound and Ultra-voilet (I don't know what those do, so I don't think it really matters...) I just forgot to mention about the magnification thing, which I was planning on doing anyway...

My guy's essence is about .5... (Cyber arms, semi-cyber legs, implanted body armor, cyber eyes, smart link in everything). He is 'borged' as you would say in the SR world (Been reading the Shadowrun Street talk thing)

I don't have my sourcebook with me right this second, but I think all your stuff, at Alphaware level, leaves you with about 2.5-2 essence, and at non-alphaware level, with about 1-.5 essence, although that is a rough guess.

Also Luocorn, are you using 2nd or 3rd edition of the shadowrun sourcebook, because I'm using 3rd edition just to note any rules I may quote or comment on, and some people said thy have 2nd edition.

Man, IHMN is two steps from beciming a cyberzombie...

Unless we happen to come across a Betaware facility at some point in our epic quest of bravery, adventure, and the desire to make more Nuyen...

What's betaware? (I forgot the levels of cyber ware qualities...)

Honestly I don't think I mentioned them, and I only know some because Dante told me. They are in a supplement I need to look for and get a copy of called Man and Machine.

The levels are normal Standard cyberware. Normal essence cost and normal monetary cost.

The next is Alphaware. It takes 20% off the essence cost, but doubles the price in Nuyen. Alphaware is the best you can start with normally.

Next is Betaware. I don't know the exact costs, but it probably costs less essence and more money then Alphaware, and can only be installed at Betaware facilities, which exist on the street but are rare becuase of the high tech they need to install and purchase Betaware. We won't find one for a while, if we find one.

The last level is Deltaware. Deltaware is military grade, most likely is cheapest in essence, and I don't know if you can buy it on the street. You would probably have to make a run just around stealing some Deltaware from a military base if you want it, but a Betaware facility can install it when you get it.

More precisely, around four to six times as much as standard cyberware. Not many black clinics can install betaware either. On the plus side, betaware is quite Essence friendly.

I don't know about the betaware facility thing, but you are right in that deltaware is bleeding edge tech. I think it's 50% Essence reduction, around eight times the price absolute minimum (if you can even get it at all).

There's also Bioware, which isn't a game company, but instead a form of organic body augmentation. Doesn't cost Essence, but can do horrible horrible things to you if it gets damaged. Not for the Sam who likes to take a beating.
There's more I can say about bioware, but that might just muddy the issue even more.

Finally, I think there's nanotech augmentations, combining the best of both worlds - no Essence cost (or at least a very very low one) plus no damage failure. On the downside, it is even harder to get than deltaware (or it could be deltaware) and I think its applications aren't very broad, mostly blood-borne nanomachine suspensions.

I misinterpreted something I saw on the Shadowrun site. Since I lack the book, I checked it's errata for corrections and saw "Cultured bioware can only be obtained from beta-level or higher clinics." Now I don't know what Cultured Bioware is, but I assume it is high level and can be obtained from "beta-level or higher" clinics, so I assumed that Deltaware can be installed at Beta-level clinics. Yes, I assumed a lot, but there's not a lot I can do wtihout the book. Stupid city, not a single gaming store to be found for RPG Sourcebooks and additions anywhere...

FZ: I'm using third edition. I actually have almost all the sourcebooks sitting next to me. the only one I can think of off hand that I don't have is "Year of the Comet" which I have read through but doesn't really matter since it is based in 2062 and we are suppose to be way back in 2050 (right?).

IHMN: Ultrasound uses a three part device, the emmiter, the reciever, and the processor. Usually the emmiter is placed in one eye and emmits pulses of sound at the ultra sonic level (most things can't even here it). The reciever is in the other eye and picks up the sound and it is bounced off of objects. And the processor is in either of the eyes and converts the sounds into images. The images aren't precise at all and you can only see outlines but it means that you have some sight in total darkness, and invisible enemies can be detected. this information is in the Man & Machine source book.

My character has his emmiter placed in his hand since he doesn't have two cyber eyes. the emmiter and the reciever can't be in the same eye, otherwise you don't get the triangulation needed for 3-D.

Ultraviolet is just at the other end of the spectrum from infrared, which is used to see thermographics. It's not actually included in any source book, and applications aren't numerous but if they can do infrared there is positivily no reason they can't do Ultraviolet.

D: don't knock bioware and nanotech, they are some great stuff... regretably they aren't introduced until later in the timeline so nobody should have them without one hell of a good story.

-Luo out to get his geek on.

It would seem resonable for my guy to have ultravoilet put in if he had infrared put in...

But, isn't Ultra-sound (Which sounds like Sonar) a sound thing... That really doesn't fit in with eyes...

All the sourcebooks? Nice.

Yes, this RP is taking place in about 2050-2055 or so, when Chicago had the containment zone and had to worry about attacks from bug spirits and desperate citizens in the containment zone. I have somewhat altered it and may be straying from actual events, but it doesn't really matter as long as the RP is fun in my opinion.

And I don't think Dante was knocking them, I think Dante was just saying that while they have no essence cost and are more somewhat more advanced then average cyberware, they have their downsides too.

Last comment, Luocorn, do you have any opinions on where/how you want to be inserted into the story? I don't see you joining the Run Group right this second since that would involve an odd scene where while they are in the apartment, you would knock and say you want to join or try to join in some other way that would be suspicious. PM me or post ideas here for how you want to join/get into the story.

IHMN: Like I said earlier Ultrasound converts the sounds into usable images so that you can see without light... or even opening your eyes if you don't want to. It's straight out of a shadowrun source book and it's not far fetch or out there. It's a true application of technology (simply put into a cybernetic eye). but if you don't want it you don't have to have it... we do have two seperate characters ^_^.

DZ: Well If you wanted to place me into this run there are a few ways that I can see to do so. You can either have the fixer or Johnson say "hey I'm not sure I trust you to do this on your own" and has me go in. I could fumble may way in, accedently getting caught up in the run when I didn't have to or want to (gun fire is a good motivation to take action). Or, and this is my personal favorite, Have me hired by a third group, such as the yakuza, or a rival gang, to go on the same run they are doing. Nothing gums up the works in stranger and unexpected ways then Runners having to figure out what to do when they find out they are on the same run.

D: Um... nothing really, just didn't want to leave you out...

-Luo out to party like it's 2050

Heh. I think nanoware has really nasty applications, but without Man and Machine I don't know.

Hell yeah Nanotech can be horribly dangerous. For example there are cutters. this wonderful little peice of nanotechnology is basically a death sentence if ever there was one. It takes two minutes for the nanites to get into place once you have been injected, once they are they begin to cut and tear at all your vital organs. In game terms it means you take 9M physical for 1D6 + 3 consecutive combat turns. now if you can soak that and survive... my hates off to you.

another thing we hadn't mentioned was better living through chemistry. There are various drugs and stimulants that are used to temporarily increase your stats. you can become faster, smarter, or stronger... of course once you come down from whatever you take your usually not a happy chummer... but what can you do.

-Luo out to get the chips truth

Apparently in the Renraku arcology there was a kind of microbot that injected this shit into you. The size of a mosquito and very, very dangerous.