Aavarius

After many delays, I'm calling this one ready for a review. Let me know what you think. I'm really digging this character.

Never split the party, man! (Except when you do 😆)

How about this: We continue to Pass Without Trace together north towards mephit #1, close enough we can jump him. That puts us close-ish to #2 and #3. Preferably we attack #2 next since he may be in position to flee for help. If #3 spots us on the way, we rush him instead. Either way, focus fire. @bwatfordThe embers on the floor--difficult or dangerous terrain?

Nice work, Cairo!

I...don't know how you did some of that formatting. But it looks nice, Tiff! Are you a wizard?

Re: Spellcaster Edge vs. Cyberware Yeah, that's a balancing act I'm not sure I know what to do with. I'm sort of taking it on the author's word that it's reasonable. I'll need more time to assess it myself.

Since we're only doing a single adventure, is it reasonable to have ready all the bonus programs a hacker can maintain based upon skill/focus? I'm sitting on 5 potential programs. I believe that kind of thing usually takes a week per program just to code it from scratch--which we may not have had time for yet. I don't want to just assume.

@bwatfordI think we have a plan of ingress, if I'm not mistaken. Ready for your reply whenever you are available, good sir.

Landid, I am grateful. Thank you.

Only if you're sure. You're not obligated to change your character just because I got envious. Much as I might like the art, I don't have any right to pilfer your creativity.

Your art for your fence contact is absolutely perfect for my character. I admit, I'm envious! I wants it! 😆

Speaking of which, does the Karma attribute affect the Luck saving throw's value?

Since there's already a Luck saving throw, how about changing the name of luck points to Karma? I know that name's probably better used for XP in Shadowrun, but I was thinking having points, an attribute, and a saving throw called luck might be a source of confusion

Starting Costs: Light pistol (200) + Cyberdeck mod (200) + 2x magaizines (20) + 30x cartridges (30) + Gear harness (25) = 475 nuyen Scrap cyberdeck, cranial jack and reinforced longcoat are freebies. That roll I forgot to name is a 1d8, so it's on the "Learning" background table.

Phantom Runner Level: 1st (0 XP) Hit Points: 6/6 Damage Soak: 5/5 System Strain: 0/9.75   ABILITIES, SAVES, & COMBAT Strength: 7 (-1) Physical: 15 Attack Bonus: +0 Dexterity: 11   Evasion: 13 AC - Ranged: 15 Constitution: 10   Mental: 15 AC - Melee: 13 Intelligence: 18 (+2) Luck: 15 Trauma Target: 7 Wisdom: 12       Charisma: 11       Karma: 15 (5/5)       SKILLS Administer -1 Heal -1 Program +1 Survive -1 Connect -1 Know +0 Punch -1 Talk -1 Drive -1 Lead -1 Shoot +0 Trade -1 Exert -1 Notice +0 Sneak -1 Work -1 Fix +1 Perform -1 Stab -1           Skill Points: 0   BACKGROUND, EDGES, & FOCI Background Coder (Freelance): Know, Program, Shoot, +2 Intelligence; Fix as a hobby skill. Edges Focused: You have an extra Focus pick (Unregistered). Hacker: Program as a bonus skill; Begin play w/ a Cranial Jack, a scrap deck, and 8 program elements; 1/round gain a bonus Main Action for hacking-only mental actions. Foci Expert Programmer (1): Fix as a bonus skill (exchanged from Program due to starting skill limits); Create and maintain bonus program elements = level + 2, hot swap these choices with a week's work; 1/day (On Turn Action) permanently change a Subject element on-the-fly. Unregistered (1): There are no gov't or corpo records of you, and newly created records only last a week; You probably cannot engage in banking or formal property ownership.   CYBERWARE Head Cranial Jack (0.25, Touch): A discreetly-placed plug socket in the user’s head or neck allows interfacing with cyberdecks and gear equipped with a jack line. [$1000] Maintenance: $50/month   EQUIPMENT <Readied: 2/3> Light Pistol: +0 ranged (1d6, Trauma 1d8/x2) 10m/80m; Mag 15/15 <1> Reinforced Longcoat: Ranged AC 15/Melee AC 13 (Damage Soak 5) +1 Trauma Target; Subtle <1> Gear harness <1~> <Stowed: 3/7> 2x Magazines, light pistol (30 cartridges) <1 each> Scrap cyberdeck <1> Nuyen: 25   DECKING Avatar The Red Wraith: A pale, partially skeletal woman with an emotionless visage in a red dress and accompanied by spectral lights and ghostly servitors. Scrap Cyberdeck Access: 4/4 Shielding: 5/5 CPU: 0/2   Bonus Access: +1 Memory (8/12): Ghost, Glitch, Stun, Unlock // Avatar, Barrier, Camera, Door // Unallocated-4 Memory Expansion (Fix-1): +4 Memory, +20% cost Programs Program Maintenance: 0/5 Verbs: Ghost +0 (1 Access - Avatar): Renders the targeted friendly avatar or Demon “invisible” until they take some cyberspace action other than Move Nodes. Observers in a node get an automatic opposed Int/Program check to detect a ghosted avatar’s presence, ending the program. [Hacker Edge] Glitch +2 (0 Access - Device/Cyber): Temporarily deactivate a device or cyberware system while the program remains running, for no more than one round per Program skill level plus two. A device can be targeted by a particular hacker’s Glitch only once a day, successful or not. [Hacker Edge] Stun +1 (0* Access - Avatar): Disrupt an avatar or Demon with sensory glitching, non-lethal current surges, and code corruption. Make an Int/Program skill check; beat an opposed Int/Program check for a human target, or a static 8+skill bonus target for a Demon. The target takes 1d10 non-lethal damage per Program level, to a minimum of 1d10. [Hacker Edge] Unlock +1 (1* Access - Device/Data): Unlock a physical device with an electronic lock or a network’s cyberspace node barrier. [Hacker Edge] Subjects: Avatar (Avatar): A cyberspace avatar, whether one adopted by a hacker who’s jacked into the network or a Demon program standing guard there. [Hacker Edge] Barrier (Data): A network node barrier that blocks avatars from passing through a network connection. [Hacker Edge] Camera (Device): Any device that transmits audiovisual information. Some defensive hardware has its own onboard camera, which is susceptible to this target, while others rely on a separate device’s input. [Hacker Edge] Door (Device): A physical door, shutter, hatch, or other barrier with an electronic lock or opening mechanism. [Hacker Edge]   CONTACTS Grayson (not his real name, of course) Type: Acquaintance Benefit: A reliable criminal fixer, can help you find profitable operator jobs Social Circles: Docs, techs, hackers, or other skilled pros--usually less-than-on-the-level. Description: A dwarf in his late eighties, Grayson has been a fixer for Shadowrunner crews for decades after his stint in corporate life went sour. He's reliable, meticulous, and uncomfortably blunt with people. Much as he tries to hide it, he's gotten sentimental in his old age and some of these young runners end up being like kids to him. He's worried that the day is coming soon when being a fixer isn't going to be just business any more. Shared History: Grayson was frequently Phantom's parents' fixer, whose name she dug out of old data drives they thought were erased. Nobody's dummy, he has a strong theory about who Phantom's parents are. After all, he was the one that set up the mission that supposedly got them killed. He's carried a heap of guilt over that for years. Phantom isn't sure if or when she should confide in him about where she came from. Miss Marjolene Type: Acquaintance Benefit: Owner of the Electric Love, a popular night club; Able to get information or put you in contact with the upper crust of society Social Circles: Party-goer civvies, celebrities, and aristocrats Description: Miss Marjolene, Jo only to her friends, is perhaps the most famous person nobody's ever heard of. Her club is a dizzying palace of cardiac imagery studded with Tesla coils, pulse pounding synthwave, free flowing alcohol, and seizure-inducing lights. The BTL booths outside the dance floor always have a line at least twenty people deep. Everyone who is anyone wants to be seen there, but few people get an audience with the enigmatic troll woman who rules over the cacophony. At forty-five years old and still a bombshell, she's built a little empire of entertainment for herself out of nothing. The crisscrossed scars across her back and throat tell the story of a much darker past she doesn't bring up. Shared History: Phantom has been an on-and-off again employee doing legitimate tech work since she was eleven. Her first job was programming lights. Later she graduated up to cyber security.   BACKGROUND VITALS Age: 20 Sex: Female Metatype: Human Ethnic Origin: Hispanic-Anglo American (...probably?) Height: 5'3" Weight: 120 lbs   DESCRIPTION Alias: Real names were a liability when growing up hiding in plain sight, so she never shares that the name her parents gave her is Alice. Her parents' actual names are likewise a closely guarded secret. Personal Style: Biker leathers, blue jeans, graphic tee, a couple of kickass Día de Muertos tattoos, and the brightest hair color she can afford. Traits: Frighteningly Intelligent, Pugnacious, and Impulsive Principle motivations: Avenge her parents, Burn corpo drek, Find out her real history--all in no particular order Person most values: Besides her parents, she idolizes the shadowruner greats Most valued possession: A traditional brass key, found on a string around her neck when she was rescued Feel about most people: Persons are cool, people suck Favorite Music: Any rock or synth heavy enough to break glass Favorite Food: She'll murder a man for good noodles Favorite Color: Yes Languages: English. Her Spanish and Japanese are atrocious sounding, but she's at least conversational in those languages. Occupation: Long as she can remember, Phantom has been a code monkey. For the last four years she has keept a roof over her head as a freelance coder supporting legitimate small businesses and the shadowrunner community in Seattle. It's not glamorous. It doesn't even pay well--but she's damn good at it, and she's scraped enough nuyen together to think about serious shadorunning herself. It's time to start improving her quality of life. It's time to find some answers. Jack and Skye wouldn't approve--but they would understand.   FAMILY Parentage: Unknown Siblings: Unknown (though it's possible they were also in the test group) History: The only family Phantom has any memory of are a Seattle-based Shadowrunner couple who are known by the handles Jack o' Knives and Neon Skye. They uncovered a secretive Aztechnology program--Project Daedalus--that was about unethical intelligence augmentation. The corp had more than a hundred people who had been "volunteered" to trial gene therapy. Most of the unfortunate souls had become cancer-ridden, drooling savants that couldn't tie their shoes anymore, but could recite the first fifteen thousand prime numbers from memory. There were at least two children kept in the program. Jack and Skye were only able to deal enough damage to setback the program for a few years, and they only ever got the opportunity to save one victim: Asset 104, an 6-year-old girl. After that, the pair managed what few shadowrunners ever achieve: actual retirement. They took the girl, who had never had a SIN or any record of having ever existed--a ghost kid--and raised her as their own. They had no business parenting, but they did the best they could with what natural instincts they had. They trained their adoptive daughter to do the only thing they were good at: running--and all the skills therein. It was an extremely non-traditional childhood, but it was a loving one. Phantom ended up being frighteningly intelligent, a real headache to keep sufficiently challenged. She took to computers as an outlet for her impulses, which proved to be intricate and engaging enough to keep her out of too much trouble. Rumor on the runner message boards all those years ago was that Jack and Skye died in that original Aztechnology raid, but it turns out they had managed to hide their little family off the grid and off anyone's radar for about a decade. The couple were well liked among Seattle's runners, and their assumed death was mourned by many. In reality, the corp finally found them and got their revenge four years ago, but they were unable to recover Asset 104, who escaped into the Seattle area.