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  • aria

    Member
    October 8, 2018 at 8:18 am
  • beta

    Member
    October 8, 2018 at 9:54 am

    Tecumseh: You saw the much more aggressive rewards profile here. Al has been played for what, at least a few years? Which is where we get to the question of using more aggressive character build profiles for the others. Becky and Preston were made under more normal build rules; Preston has accumulated ~100 karma so far, not sure what Becky is at but I’d guess not more than that.

    Even re-building at sum to 14 and re-applying their earned karma would not put them in Al’s league, but as Jack Spade was getting at, it hopefully let’s them “do their thing” without any major compromises. (Preston would have a real deck, instead of hacking off of a link, would have a head full of cognitive boosters of various sorts, may even get around to an initiative booster of some sort). The question is do we bother with the re-build, or just kind of go from where we are at? Probably would be good to have Gilga weigh in with his feelings.

  • aria

    Member
    October 8, 2018 at 10:04 am

    Plus Al isn’t an optimised character from a rules perspective so doesn’t dominate as much as his impressive karma count might suggest!

  • jack_spade

    Moderator
    October 8, 2018 at 3:05 pm

    Yepp, personally I believe that at a certain point it’s no longer the karma and subsequently the abilities you have, but your creativity on how to apply your resources that really decide the power of your character.

    Not that that matters really if you have fun playing your char – which should always be your main goal.

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    October 8, 2018 at 4:41 pm

    My questions were trying to tease out some of the culture of the game around optimization and tone. These responses are helping.

    I looked over the sheets and I agree that Al is not optimized.

    Judging by the sheets I’ve sen, Spellcasting and Summoning appear to be the two primary missing skill sets. I spent the evening going through various possibilities in my head, debating whether to dust off some old concepts or to try something new given the generous nature of chargen and progression rules.

    For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been playing and GMing for 25 years since 2nd Edition. I know that makes me a hopeless rookie in the eyes of many 1st Edition players, but I’m strong on the setting and the progression of rules through the editions. I’ve been aware of Aria’s games for, oh, the last 7 years or so, but never threw my hat in the ring mostly because I was GMing myself. I still am GMing, but one of the games I was playing in just folded last week and another is on pause so Jack’s invitation was well-timed.

  • aria

    Member
    October 8, 2018 at 5:01 pm

    Good to have another ‘old timer’ on board ?

  • adamu

    Member
    October 8, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    Tecumseh – welcome welcome!

  • adamu

    Member
    October 8, 2018 at 8:01 pm

    Jack – okay, so San Angelo, and you said early 2078.

    Works for me, and I think the “early” 2078 may be meaningful, since that would be late winter/early spring (???).

    In fact, I’m eager to see the exact month – can go from freezy snowy on up to 37 or 38-ish over the course of four or five months from January to early summer….

    Will it bear passing resemblance to current San Angelo, or just totally different?

  • jack_spade

    Moderator
    October 9, 2018 at 1:09 am

    Early as in February.
    And yes, I will base it on what little I can remember from my one and only passing through and whatever Wikipedia can give me 😀

    The city will be the staging point. More important is the fact that it’s close to the border and has lots and lots of rural area around it.

  • beta

    Member
    October 9, 2018 at 10:42 am

    Having looked at the options, I’ll do an updated Preston build using the option of 1000 karma + what he earned in-game. It won’t have a very big impact on the character (about an extra 50 karma to spend, because a) sum to 10 creates more efficiencies than karma build, and b) I’d had a math error in the original build and seem to have had 5 more skill points than he should have had–he has five skills with specializations, so I suspect that I’d missed those somehow).

    I’ve never been to any of the CAS territories, so I’ll be going off of what I can find from Wikipedia and google maps. (then again, Preston isn’t exactly a southerner, so maybe this all works out for the consistent)

  • jack_spade

    Moderator
    October 9, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    Cool.

    So, my current timeplan is to start this up next sunday. I hope you can get your chars ready by then. If not, it’s not a big deal, as long as you know who you want to play and are ready for the introduction part.

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    October 9, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    I have two primary concepts that I’ve been tinkering with. Both are mystic adepts but that’s not a final decision.

    The first is an elf shaman who is an old 4E character that I never got to play. He has a strong social component but I know Becky has that role covered so I’m thinking about ways to diversify him. He’s probably the more complete character in my head.

    The second is an dwarf Sioux magician, if Jack won’t disown me for picking a tradition that doesn’t have Spirits of Man. I took her out for a one-shot mission two years ago and found that she needed a power inject, which Sum-to-14 would certainly provide. I swear I did the 20 Questions for her, and I have forum posts strongly suggesting that I did, but I can’t find them.

    Strangely, I hardly ever play elves. I can only think of one that I’ve ever played.

  • beta

    Member
    October 9, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    @Jack_Spade: I’ll make sure to be ready for the weekend. Deadlines are good for me when it comes to characters, so thank you!

    @Tecumseh: My elf characters almost always started out in my mind a dwarf, but didn’t really care about strength and body much and just wouldn’t come together mechanically and flavour-wise until I made the switch to elf :-/ Part of why I wanted to play Preston again, I knew he has safely rounded ears (except when in disguise, of course).

  • jack_spade

    Moderator
    October 9, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    There is nothing wrong with taking Sioux Tradition (after all there are ways to get more spirits added to your repertoire), but don’t feel pressured to avoid being a second face. Having more people able to actually talk with NPCs seldomly hurts the story 😉

  • adamu

    Member
    October 9, 2018 at 6:12 pm

    Hey, Al can talk to people!

    But seriously….

    Do you need us to write ourselves to San Angelo on our own and happen to be there when this kicks off?
    Or will you be bringing/calling/sending us there somehow?

    If the former, I’ll start working on something.
    If the latter, happily standing by.

    Either way, what Al knows and how/why he gets there will affect my specific gear loadout for this run, so I’ll quickly work that up once I know more.

    Also Jack – do you still have the link I sent you to my full sheet on Google docs? As GM, let me know if you need it.

  • aria

    Member
    October 9, 2018 at 6:13 pm

    Making my first 5e TM is proving a challenge and I’ll probably run it past the rules lawyers on SG to check I haven’t missed anything obvious… please weigh in Jack ?

    One question, ruling on the machinist bio control rig… do I need the quality that allows the bio persona to be a PAN master too? Seems daft to me, particularly as the wording says it can’t be a WAN…?!?

  • aria

    Member
    October 9, 2018 at 6:28 pm

    Toying with her being so far from home as she’s on a submersion deed, helping TMs escape Aztlan on the Underground Railroad…would that work??

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    October 9, 2018 at 7:43 pm

    Much to the detriment of my work, I’ve been penciling out ideas out all day. The Sioux mystic adept is currently in the lead. The elf shaman just had too much overlap with Becky in terms of skills and competencies.

    You’ll all be excited to hear that my highest dice pool is Artisan.

    Similar to adamu’s questions, is the expectation that we’re just visiting San Angelo? Should my gear and/or lifestyle reflect a different environment? Is there a home base of sorts as far as where the team usually operates? Is the idea that I meet up with the team there or have I accompanied them from a different location?

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    October 9, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    @Aria
    I created an Obsidian Portal link under this same user name. Please invite me to the Stormy Waters campaign when you have a chance.

    @All
    Here’s my current draft. The biggest decision right now is whether to go Mystic Adept or Magician. Mystic Adept creates some interesting possibilities that I haven’t explored before, like Enthralling Performance, while Magician offers more spells and probably requires outsourcing more of combat to spirits. The skills, qualities, and spells change slightly based on which approach I take. Here’s the “core” of the character, which doesn’t include some of the elements still in flux.

    == Priorities ==
    Metatype: B,3 (Dwarf)
    Attributes: B,3
    Special: A,4
    Skills: A,4
    Resources: E,0

    == Attributes ==
    BOD: 4
    AGI: 5
    REA: 4
    STR: 3
    CHA: 3
    INT: 6
    LOG: 2
    WIL: 6
    EDG: 4
    MAG: 7 (via Exceptional Attribute)

    == Skill Groups ==
    Stealth 6
    Influence 3
    Athletics 1

    == Individual Skills ==
    Arcana 4
    Artisan (Fashion) 6 (+2)
    Assensing (Aura Reading) 6 (+2)
    Automatics (Submachine Guns) 3 (+2)
    Counterspelling 6 (+2)
    Perception (Visual) 6 (+2)
    Spellcasting (Combat) 6 (+2)
    Summoning (Guardian Spirit) 6 (+2)

    == Positive Qualities ==
    Exceptional Attribute (MAG)
    Mentor Spirit (Fire-Bringer)

    == Negative Qualities ==
    Addiction (Mild) (Psyche)
    Creature of Comfort (Middle)
    Phobia (Uncommon, Mild) (Large bodies of water)
    Records on File (Shiawase)
    SINner (National) (Sioux Nation)
    Social Appearance Anxiety
    Spirit Bane (Water)

    == Tradition ==
    Sioux, Resist Drain with: 12

    == Spells ==
    Fashion
    Heal
    Ice Storm
    Levitate
    Lightning Bolt
    Opium Den
    Petrify
    Physical Mask
    Stunbolt
    Trid Phantasm

  • jack_spade

    Moderator
    October 10, 2018 at 12:09 am

    @adamu
    It hasn’t to be San Antonio specifically, but it would help if Al was somewhere in the CAS Area anyway
    As for the link, yeah I don’t think I have that one anymore

    @aria
    Underground railroad to Atzlan is perfect
    You don’t need the quality if you have the Echo – but the quality is actually better than what you’d get from the Echo – especially the ability to slave your persona to another device.

    @Tecumseh
    It’s certainly a good idea if your character happens to be in the general CAS area – mainly so I don’t have to add smuggling you and your gear across borders to the start of the game 😀

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