Hi!
I am looking for 1 to 4 people who are interested in playing
Shadowrun 5 on a (as steady as possible) schedule. Communication
would be text-based (no voice / cam needed) and heavily role-play
based (more Info on that below). I am from Europe (GMT+1) and
must admit that I cannot do the storytelling anymore when it is too late for me
(language + general sleepiness), hence the schedule would be
orientated on European Times.
Interested? Continue reading!
a) 1) What I offer (short version)
- Storytelling of customized scenarios in the Shadowrun-Universe
adjusted to the specific characters in specific groups
- Long-term character-development
- Seattle, NAN, Amazonia, Hong Kong in the Year 2081
- RP-heavy Scenarios
- "flexible scenarios" (a framework which is making it not that big of a deal if we cannot meet up at every appointment)
a) 2) What I offer (long version)
As I stated above I am looking for players, what basically means
that I would take the role as ST (Storyteller). That does not mean
that I am unflexible - actually I would not mind switching positions
and being a player myself. I am just considering my chances higher to
find people by offering myself as ST.
What fascinates me in Shadowrun is the diversity of the whole Cyberpunk
scenario, which never fails to inspire new scenario ideas. I could
imagine Runs in the Jungles of Amazonia, in the Shadows of Hong
Kong, or in the countryside of the NANs - of course it is even
possible to play in Seattle itself. Being convinced that there is a
scenario for every group I'd like to offer a player-friendly
environment in which everybody can create a character they enjoy to
play - as long as it is by the book (aka by the rules).
I am aware of the fact that sometimes it is difficult to join a
game because of RL (real life), hence I am setting up scenes I call
"flexible scenarios". Even if we are only two people
(player + ST) we are able to actually do something. It will have
impact on the story, but it will not put the players which are not
present in any disadvantage.
Additionally I think that there is for every group a purpose. No,
we cannot do an ARES-HQ Run when there are three Muscles and one
Con-Artist, indeed. It would be dishonoring the game if we pretended that
there was no Matrix- and no Magic-Security, and if I had to play a Decker and Shaman for the Team plus the
enemies, then it would be awkward because I had 50% of the playtime. Still it would
be possible to do straight-forward mercenery jobs with as less tech
and magic involved as possible. A group only consistent of Deckers
and Riggers would most likely not survive heavy gun-fire, but hence I
would not send them into the infested Chicago to kill some bugs. In
other words: I am happy to adjust to the players with the story and
would not talk / force anybody into "filling gaps".
b) Requirements
I think this sounds harsher than it is, but I'd like to point out
some general things and some which are personally important to me
since I do not want to waste your time before you continue reading.
1) Time-Zone : As I stated above I am from Europe, hence it
may be difficult to meet up with people from other time-zones. I want
to point out that recently I am unable to adjust my schedule to
other places in the world, and since English is not my native
language I am having at late times a "triple dilemma"
containing a language-, creativity- and flexibility-barrier. I do not
want to exclude anybody by the place they are coming from, but I do
not want the whole scenario to suffer under my sleepiness.
2) "RP-heavy Scenarios": Everybody got a
different image of what is "RP-heavy", hence I decided
to sketch my personal definition as short as possible. The Shadowrun
Rules are direct and explicit - but they do not guarantee that the
game will be fun. The important part are not the dices, but the
reasons why they are put into motion. In the end the conversations
between the players (you) are more important than their interactions
to the environment (me). Hence it is important that you are coming up
with a character which got depth - and I am willing to help there. If your character got depth, it will be easier for you to act them out. If you got no idea what to do with your character after Johnson transfered your cut onto the Credstick, then there are gaps in the background.
3) Language + RP-Style: It is a huge advantage to be fit in
English - but no worries: it is not my native language either. It is
not important to avoid errors, it is rather important that you enjoy
expressing yourself properly. I tend to write paragraphs (5-15
sentences) in third-person. But I will not force that onto you. Still
you should be aware that one post may take up to 5 minutes. With 5
people this means that one turn may take up to 25 minutes. (Sidenote:
only one post per turn. After you pressed "Enter"
you got to wait till your next turn! I am pesky with that!). Keep
that in mind!
4) IC vs OOC : "IC" means "in-character"
and "OOC" means "out-of-character". If you are
"IC", then you play as your character. If you are "OOC",
then you are yourself; a human, not a fictional figure. It is
important to make this difference. Messages in OOC must be marked
with (( brackets )).
5) Meta- and Power-Gaming : Those are a no-go. Meta-Gaming
means that a character (IC) is aware of information only the player
(OOC) can know. Power-Gaming means that a character is giving
other characters no chance to react to an action. Example: "Bert
punches Ernie into his guts." is a finite action. The punch
happened, and Ernie can only endure it. Better would be: "Bert
attempts to punch Ernie into his guts." In this case
Ernie still got the opportunity to counter with a hitkick.
(There is Godmodding, too, but since we are playing be the Rules this
can be hardly an issue)
6) Commonsense : Yes, Commonsense is what the term says:
"common". Still I'd like to emphasis this little aspect.
Basically if I tell you that an action does not work or that an
aspect of your character concept needs to be revised, then I am not
criticizing you, but an ingame aspect. I am not trying to spoil your
game experience, but instead trying to keep everything as transparent and fair
as possible amongst the other players. Additionally it is better to
discuss the character in detail in beforehand so we do not have to pull out the
Rulebooks during the actual game (which can be pretty much an
avoidable waste of time).
c) A few things about me!
I am 27 years old and am RPing since 3 years already. In the beginning as player, but early I learned to enjoy storytelling. On purpose I do
not call myself Dungeon-/Game- Master because this sounds so
absolute and totalitarian. Instead I rather prefer setting up a
scenario and accompany the players by telling the story. I always set
the focus on the RP and I think that it is possible, that a scene in
which the group eats Pizza can be as interesting as one in which
Lowfyr in all his glory is getting a nailgun up his jolly good
bottom. This RP-spirit I want to convey and I try to be as flexible
as possible. Yes, I will have scenarios planned, but if one
is simply not fitting to the group, or if they decide to go
completely against the planned flow, then... so be it! Even if that
means that they need to flee to the Carib League because Wuxing is
grinding their knifes for the guts of the group.
For me, RP is playing together , not against each other .
I am aware that every player got their own concept and want to
play it out. And as long as this does not let the other players
suffer, I am willing to help everybody there equally.
Still I got to admit that I by far do not know everything about
Shadowrun. I'd say that my knowledge about basic combat and Magic is
suitable, but I never did much with Matrix Combat or Rigging. So if
anybody wants to play in that direction, then I got a lot of stuff to
read up, what I will gladly do. Just keep in mind that I am no ...
Guru... who knows the whole rulebook by heart. Apparently I
mainly focused on all the Trivia and especially Magic. And to be
fair: my favorite playergroup would be a bunch of Magicians.
Additionally I am studying currently. At the moment I got
holidays, but once university starts again I need to cut a little bit
down. Just a little heads-up.
d) "I am interested!"
Are you? Magnificient! Then you should continue to read to make
sure that you got no hesitations in the end. But if you are still
interested, then feel free to leave a comment or write a private
message. If you think that you can come up to the "requirements" and if
I caught your attention, then you should be suitable for the whole
Run.
Got questions? Don't be shy and ask ahead!
As soon as at least one player is interested I will start working
on a scenario with them. I will try to add up as much input as
possible. If we are lucky, then we are already able to play a scene
coming Friday (3rd of August).
I'd like to make a group with a maximum of five people.
Additionally I will ask a few questions in a private message in which
I want to figure out if we got good chances to match up, and if there
are no totally contradicting expectations. No worries, it will be no
interrogation.
e) Details... Details... Details
A few details follow which I want to elaborate on since I think
that there are a few open questions.
1) "What are those 'flexible scenarios'?"
Got question! Imagine a MMORPG, a place, where you can meet a lot
of people. But sometimes there simply are none and you cannot raid
the dungeon alone. But still there are little hotspots around which can be
explored by yourself, little side-quests which are easy enough, or something
else which is worth to kill time with. Exactly this is what I want to
offer.
If we start the game, then you will at some point see a Map with a
lot of hotspots. Those you can explore, either as a team or alone.
They offer opportunities which are sometimes smaller, sometimes
longer - it always depends on your character.
The idea behind this construct is - as I stated above - that not
all players can make all appointments. What is sad, but I know
perfectly well how the wish to RP feels. Hence I am offering such
"flexible scenarios" for everybody who got more time to play so we can even have some action even if only two people
(player + ST) are present.
2) "Do we use the Character Sheets in Roll20?"
No. Simply, because I do not have a paid account (yet). I am not
sure if it is worth it to pay for it currently, hence I did not make
the investment so far. This basically means we will use the
Roll20-Interface and the normal xD6-Rolls, but all characters will be
in the Chummer. This may change at some point, but for now I'd like
to keep it that way.
3) "How do we create characters?"
We are using Chummer Nightly . I can provide it if
necessary. Settings are: Priority, Street Level. Like that the
players start pretty low, but this offers more possibilities to
develop.
Additionally I am eager to help with your character-creation. I
will give advice and if necessary we can look through the rulebooks
together. Important to me, though, is the background of the
character. It is not enough to have a Troll with 8AGI, 9STR, an AK-98
with a Dicepool of 17, Smartlink, Recoil-Reduction and Gecko-Grip
combined with some Rocket-Launcher with Fart-Enhancer (just a joke to
prove that I can have humor).
4) "How long does it take to progress?"
This is a really important question , hence I highlighted
it. As I said before I am really interested in RP and not
really keen on looking into character-sheets which are mostly
optimized to the maximum of damage-output at character-creation.
Sure, this is all by the rules, but in the end I think that the fun
is lost. Especially guns can be optimized a lot to a degree
where you simply got nothing really to advance. And it kind of breaks
the purpose of character-development if you still got the same
equipment after ten runs.
Hence I am offering a different hook, hoping that this would
motivate to cut down on "over-equipping" in the beginning,
but instead focusing on a plausible Roleplay-Background.
First of all I will be lax with the Karma-Distribution. This means
that you are getting Karma frequently even for little things - and
for bigger ones a little more. This means that you can develop your
character even one "side skills" without having to fear that you
will never reach the Dicepool of a Master on your main skills. Additionally: everybody
will gain Karma equally, even if they were unable to participate
in something due to RL-Aspects (there are exceptions, though. If you
would gain 1 Karma for trying out this awesome drug and one character
denies to do that ICly, then they will not gain this 1 Karma,
naturally).
Furthermore weapon-rules will be a little bit enhanced. First of
all this means that the more you upgrade the weapon your character
start with, the more it is "used". Basically: it was
invested a lot of time in that weapon and fired a lot of rounds, but
now it had seen better days. Furthermore every weapon will loose each month -1 of
one single Output (Damage, Precision, Dice-Pool, Recoil-Reduction).
To make up for that, one needs to buy spare-parts.
To balance this out, though, it is possible to tweak the
damage-output, the precision, piercing, etc. with inofficial
upgrades. Those are more effective, but limited. Additionally all
extra-upgrades (gas-combustion, grip, etc.) must be customized, too.
This means, that your weapon may be better, but for a higher price -
and this is combined with a little plot-hook. I am still working on the overall balancing there, just wanted to give you a "first peek".
5) "Why only text-based?"
Out of several reasons.
a) I can imagine that not only English native-speakers may join
the jolly good round, and for many it is easier to express themselves
with written language. Especially for shy people this is more
interesting and will take away a lot of tension.
b) It is difficult for me to switch between Storyteller and
different characters - especially in English. Some people told me my
accent is awkward. Then they notice that it is just my gooberism, which is much more awkward.
c) The most important aspect: Focus! If you write something, then
you think about it longer. You are not babbling
freely and avoid "Wait! Wait! I did not say that, instead
[...]"-situations mostly. Furthermore: everything that was said
is in the Chat and everybody can read it up. And lastly nobody
is getting skipped because we got a fixed post-order, which is not
given with voice-chat.
Yes, I do understand that text-based is "indirect" and
"unpersonal", additionally consumes more time and
misunderstandings may happen easily. Still I am convinced out of
several voice-based attempts that Text works - at least for me - much
better. I tend to be flexible, but coming to the communication I go the "text only"-premise.
6) "What are the ingame cirucmstances?"
We play in the Year 2081. Simply, because there are no rulebooks
for that time yet. I can make up new names and characters; and if we are not talking
about the past then chances are low that the information of a
player-character is not matching with those the ST is giving. No, I
am no Lore-Guru, but yes, I love if players are involving Lore into
the game - but in the end I want to avoid contradicting infos. This
is why we are making this little time-skip. If the ingame
circumstances force us to stray aside from the Canon-Lore, then this
will be not that much of a difference.
Other than that... the circumstances depend pretty much on the
group and where we start at. As I mentioned earlier: a scenario in
Amazonia could be really interesting, especially if the friction with
Aztlan got worse and an open war is breaking out.
7) "Do you play as a character, too?"
Perhaps - perhaps not. This depends on how many people we are. If
only one person is interested in playing SR with me, then I would
definitely play a character. If we got a group of four, then
definitely not (except of the NPCs, of course).
And yeah, I am not only a ST, I love playing in other groups, too.
So far I unfortunately did not find any.
8) "Can we kill a dragon?"
Well.... can you?
Perhaps you can already guess about my background-thoughts on this question... and well, yes... I dislike pompous hero-scenarios. In so many
computer games you end up fighting the ultimate-evil, the Destroyer
of the Worlds, and everybody looks up to the magnificient, (almost) flawless idol. This,
out of my perspective, is not the core of RP. I am rather focused on
offering an environment where the players end up being proud of their
character just because they just came out of the sewers and killed a
bunch of rats. And honestly: there cannot be four heroes in one Team which just crawled out of the Barrens.
I am not saying that no big things may happen - but for that you
need to build yourself a street name and do a lot of
character-development. I am eager to keep the really hot potatoes for
the end, and probably I will never touch the really big Lore (so no,
sorry, you will most likely not be able to whoop Lofyrs butt with a
rail gun).
9) "Sex?"
I mean... may happen or may not happen. Totally depends on the
group, if everybody is over 18 and if all are feeling comfortable
with it... sure? Otherwise it will just play a sideroll and I will cut down
any too sexual actions OOCly.
10) "What if I meta-/power-game?" Shame on
you! 50 sit-ups and 50 push-ups, now! But well, it happens. Sometimes one does not even realize that
it actually happened. If I notice it, then I will point that out in
OOC. There will be no sanction, except if I got the feeling
after several repetitions that somebody is violating basic
RP-Ettiquette on purpose.
11) "Are you a RP-Snob?"
I think so. I like structure in RP and am keen on working on
details. It may happen that I end up developing Magical Rituals with
you in every detail, work on Matrix-Schemes or a well-structured plan
to break into a high-security facility to a degree which is sligthly ridiculous that I even forget parts of it myself. But if that works... depends on the Team! If I notice that the Intel I give is too much, then I will cut it down.
Additionally I really enjoy it if everybody is able to keep up
with the RP-Flow. Sometimes... one simply got nothing to contribute.
It is fine to keep it short then. But in the end I prefer a
well-thought reaction over a "/me smiles". But no: I am not judging anybody for their RP-Skills, nor I am
telling anybody how to RP, nor do I mind if somebody fights with
hurdles like dyslexia. Instead:
Remember, that a hero is not defined by their demeanor but how
they are perceived. Respect all players and do only to them what you
would want them to happen to you. Use commonsense.
If that is given... then my inner RP-Snob is pleased.
12) What if my character dies? I'd like to point out again that I intend to assist you, not fight against you. Character death is unlikely as long as the player does not intend to do it or is purposely acting stupid. There will be always a way out, be it in a better or a worse way - but losses will be always compensated. If you furthermore got problems with your character you set up in the beginning and are not happy with them anymore, then I allow a reroll. All Karma that was achieved till then will be added to your new character (not the Nuyen, neither the equipment!), who will then replace your former one in the group.
f) Summary
Congratulations, you made it till the end. I hope you got a good
image of what I expect and what I intend to do now. If you are
interested, then I am glad to hear from you.
Oh, and if you got a group and still need one player and think
that I fit in - feel free to hit me up, especially if you notice that
nobody answered to this thread yet! Retrospectively I am aware that this is a quite long LFP-Thread. It is indeed not a perfect pitch, but I decided to keep it that long so every potential player is getting a hang of my worst vice: If I start writing, then I write too much! In that sense, Tally-hooo! Hope to hear from yooo!
*cough*
