[Looking for Players] Ace in the Hole (SR3) [Closed]

[Charybdis Richelle]

I don't mind seeing party funds focused on getting certain players to get their 'must-have' gear first to make their role playable. We can always adjust the nuyen difference later, once they are good to go. I've settled on a physical adept. The concept will probably revolve around being an orc who is a graffiti artist. Lean on infiltration so I can paint at places I am not allowed to. I am still fleshing out the details.

Sounds good. It is up to you as players to decide whether or not your characters know each other before the start of the game. I did not design this game to have to be accomplished by a pre-established team. If two (or more) characters write into their backstories how they know each other, then yes, you may share money from Resources. If you are meeting for the first time at the meet with the Johnson, then the only funds you may share are those from your starting nuyen rolls -- or any down payment you manage to negotiate from the J.

I like the graffiti artist idea. You might spend some of your Hobby Points on Art or even Specialize in Graffiti Art.

[Charybdis Richelle]

I'm thinking my character's family have had a mechanics business in the area for generations.

Gives him a reason not to cause too much trouble.

Sounds good. You should think about what sort of reputation the business has. Are they holding their heads over water? Or do they owe regular payments to Bill Sikes? Are they wholly legit? Or do they do shadow work like repainting hot cars? Do they pay protection money to Sikes? Etc.

[archolewa]

Sounds good. It is up to you as players to decide whether or not your characters know each other before the start of the game. I did not design this game to have to be accomplished by a pre-established team. If two (or more) characters write into their backstories how they know each other, then yes, you may share money from Resources. If you are meeting for the first time at the meet with the Johnson, then the only funds you may share are those from your starting nuyen rolls -- or any down payment you manage to negotiate from the J.

Personally, I'm leaning towards us already knowing each other. I'm not big on the whole "paranoid, backstabby PC's" kind of thing. Us having a shared backstory would allow us to exhibit levels of trust and cooperation that otherwise wouldn't make much sense in the fiction.

Mayhaps Juramenta's and my character ran together in the same gang as kids? It's pretty common I think for street gangs to have an artist for tagging. And being a short little Asian girl, I can see her befriending a big, scary orc. She might be tough as nails and not afraid to put the hurt on someone, but she doesn't necessarily cut the most threatening profile. Being friends with the biggest guy around can really cut down on the trouble.

Not quite sure how we would know shaidar's character in this setup. Sort of depends on the answers to Charbydis' questions, I suppose.

[Charybdis Richelle]

Ace in the Hole [AIH] FAQ

Ace in the Hole Specific Game Information

Ace in the Hole is a low-powered Shadowrun (3rd edition) campaign setting. The player characters are not full-fledged Shadowrunners yet. They are wannabes and newbies who are just breaking out onto the shadow scene. But, they do seem to have potential. Moreover, these PCs are those who have a reputation for restraint, for knowing when to use diplomacy and when to use force. These are not the types who go off half-cocked or who kill for sport. Or at least that's what their street reps say. If they are more violent or impulsive, they have somehow managed to conceal it from the fixers and Johnsons they have dealt with.

All of the player characters live and operate out of Tukwila, a small lower-class neighborhood in the southern part of Downtown Seattle. While they may not all know each other at the outset of the game, they know many of the same people and places and thus should feel a sense of connection to one another. To aid in this sense of connectivity, all of the player characters will receive an additional two contacts for free.

The first of these free contacts is Bill Sikes. Sikes more or less runs most of the seedy operations in the Tukwila area. He is primarily a loan shark, but he also runs the local protection racket. Sikes also charges the local street kids, joy girls, and boy toys a registration fee to do any business in his domain. Sikes himself is a swarthy Caucasian human who more or less epitomizes the image of white trash. He has beady dark eyes and dirty blond hair which he generally wears in a short ponytail. He nearly always wears faded denim jeans. His bodyware ranges from various colored wife-beater shirts in the summer, flannel vests made from cut-off flannel shirts in the fall, and long-sleeved plaid flannel in the winter. Sikes is short of stature and of patience, often resorting to violent means of resolution. When such measures are called for, Sikes usually sends 14 Week Freddy, his preferred leg breaker, out to handle matters for him.

The second bonus contact is Falstaff. Falstaff is a low-end fixer who operates in Tukwila. He is basically reliable, if not truly "trustworthy". He stays bought and offers fair goods at only slightly outrageous prices; he fences hot goods without pointing any fingers. Falstaff is also extremely paranoid. He rarely meets with anyone face to face, preferring to conduct business over the phone (with the vid off) or through intermediaries. Therefore, almost no one – the PCs are no exception – knows what Falstaff looks like.

For those who keep track of politics, history, and current events, the game will start on June 7, 2059. Dunklezahn was assassinated roughly two years ago. Tensions are heating up on the Corporate Council. Last night’s headlines read, “Fuchi Industrial Electronics sues Renraku Computer Systems in the Corporate Court.” Those who bothered to read the ezine or watch the trideo broadcast know Fuchi claims that Renraku is illegally using former Fuchi employee Miles Lanier’s trade secrets. Not that this matters much to you on the gritty streets of Tukwila.

Ace in the Hole Character Creation Rules

Create your characters using the optional point-based system presented in the third edition Shadowrun Companion. As this is a low-powered, newbie campaign, create your characters using only 80 build points. You may, however, choose Flaws to gain extra build points. No more than 10 points may be taken in Flaws. You may take Edges if you wish, provided you can afford their point-buy cost.

Because I am intentionally keeping the power and prowess of your characters low, your unmodified starting Attributes are limited to 4 + Racial Modifiers. And, yes, that means if your chosen metatype has negative modifiers, then your max starting Attribute will be less than 4. Magic, cyberware, or bioware may be used to enhance your Attributes above this base if you can afford it with your limited starting Resources.

In addition, your starting Skills (both Active and Knowledge) are limited to a rating of 4, though you may Specialize them to a base Skill of 3 and a Specialization of 5 if you so desire. I am looking for depth of character here, not a one-skill wonder.

To aid in characterization, and to partially compensate for the strict limitations on Attributes, Skills, and gear, characters in the Ace in the Hole campaign are also entitled to 6 points to spend on Hobby Skills. These points may be Specialized if you wish. These points must be used for real hobbies (chess, painting, trideo trivia, etc.) – no combat skills. If in doubt, ask the GM.

The character's starting gear will be very limited due to the low-powered nature of the setting. For the Ace in the Hole campaign, no starting character may begin with Resources higher than 90,000 nuyen. In addition, you may not choose any gear with an Availability higher than 4 or a Street Index higher than 2. Beginning characters may not start with gear rated higher than rating level 4.

I would also like to limit the number of casters in this game. Casters are rare. I know it’s less than 1% of the metahuman population has the gift. That’s the number who have the innate ability, not the number who are trained to use it. So, I would really like only one caster. If the party size goes to the full eight, I might consider two, but that is pushing the limit of credulity.

When creating your characters, you may use material from the following books:

The Shadowrun Core Rulebook
Cannon Companion
Corporate Download
Magic in the Shadows
Man and Machine
Matrix
Rigger 3
Shadowrun Companion

If there is something from another book that you really want, you may ask, and I will look at it on a case-by-case basis,

Game Material Restrictions

No security or military-grade gear may be purchased without prior approval of the GM. Prior approval is highly unlikely given the nature of the game setting and will require a good reason for you to have the gear based on your history and current situation. It will also require the appropriate contacts.

Characters may have EITHER bioware or cyberware at the start of the game, but NOT both. No PCs can have nanotech.

No alpha, beta, or higher grade 'ware is permitted at the start of the game.

Magicians may buy any magic items they can afford and bond. A caveat – glowing like a Christmas tree in Astral Space is bound to attract unwanted attention. I WILL require you to roll to see that any bonding attempts are successful.

Magicians may NOT initiate as starting characters. You have not progressed far enough along to even be considering initiation.

Ghoul and Shapeshifter characters are off-limits. The other metavariants may be chosen at the point cost on the chart.

Other Notes and Details

I require all players to submit a background for their characters. This background must include whether the character is a SINner or one of the great unwashed hordes of SINless. Fake SINs may be purchased for beginning characters; the costs are listed at the end of this FAQ. If your character is not a native of the Tukwila area, please explain how you have come to be a part of the Tukwila neighborhood. Your PC must have lived and worked in the Seattle shadows for at least 6 months at the start of the adventure.

Please give any Contacts you choose a name, a brief description, and an indication of how your character knows them. I don’t just want to see Demolitions Expert. I want to see “Pebbles – a 15-year-old former street rat who counts herself as a professional. We met on a common job, and we have kept in touch.” Or maybe “Bob Henderson – a veteran Lone Star bomb squad member. We went to high school together.” It doesn’t have to be much longer than that, just something for me to go on RP-wise. It also helps to make sure your Contacts fit your idea of who they are. If you are struggling with ideas, feel free to ask me about a Contact type. I may already have one in the neighborhood or at least in greater Seattle. You are not limited to the Contact types listed in the sourcebooks. If you have an idea not listed there, just describe it in the same way.

Please also include a short description of your character. It doesn’t have to be horribly detailed, but I would like to have something to use to describe each PC to the others when they first meet.

As far as character growth, characters may only improve their Attributes with karma to a maximum of 2 higher than their starting attribute. This does not, however, prevent them from using cyberware, bioware, or magic to improve their Attributes. Skill growth is limited only by karma cost.

When you submit your character, please list the point costs for your Attributes, Skills, Race, etc. near the top of the sheet. I want to know how you arrived at the numbers you used. It makes it much easier to tell if you did it correctly.

Costs for Fake SINs

Stick Rating............Cost..........................Availability..............Street Index
1-4......................Rating X 2000 ¥.............Rating/12 hours.......1
5-8......................Rating X 10,000 ¥..........Rating/72 hours.......1
9-12....................Rating X 50,000 ¥...........Rating/14 days........1
13+.....................Rating X 250,000 ¥.........Rating/30 days.........1

[Charybdis Richelle]

Personally, I'm leaning towards us already knowing each other. I'm not big on the whole "paranoid, backstabby PC's" kind of thing. Us having a shared backstory would allow us to exhibit levels of trust and cooperation that otherwise wouldn't make much sense in the fiction.

Mayhaps Juramenta's and my character ran together in the same gang as kids? It's pretty common I think for street gangs to have an artist for tagging. And being a short little Asian girl, I can see her befriending a big, scary orc. She might be tough as nails and not afraid to put the hurt on someone, but she doesn't necessarily cut the most threatening profile. Being friends with the biggest guy around can really cut down on the trouble.

Not quite sure how we would know shaidar's character in this setup. Sort of depends on the answers to Charbydis' questions, I suppose.

It really wouldn't be hard for you all to know each other. You all live in the same neighborhood in Downtown, Seattle. How you first met can be something simple: You grew up in the same apartment building... You lived on the same block... You were waiting in the same laundromat for your clothes to finish... You got busted around the same time and did time together in juvie... You worked for the same Johnson one time and decided you worked well as a team and so stuck together. Once you meet, however coincidentally, it's easy to say you developed a friendship or at least mutual respect and eventually decided to work as a team.

[Charybdis Richelle]

Okay, just to be sure I have my ducks in a row... or at least that my thoughts aren't getting away from me like a chaos of ferrets... Our current roster looks like this:

1. Juramenta: PhysAd...
2. Shaidar: Rigger or Techie
3. Areolewa: Street Sam
4. Gremlin: Street Shaman

That gives us enough to play. I will wait a few more days to see if I get any more nibbles before I ask the admins to set up a game forum.

For subforums besides the main game forum and a private subforum for each player, I am currently thinking we need ones for OOC, character sheets, NPCs, images, absences, and maps. Do we want one for die rolls (assuming I can figure out how to do the macro to roll SR3 dice), or do we want to do die rolls in the OOC forum? Am I missing anything? Thoughts?

[shaidar]

I'm thinking that up to 10 years ago the family business was completely legit, then they had a bad patch and were forced to take on some shadow jobs, chop-shop, repaints, and 'custom' improvements for example, which is where my character has learned some of his skills. They do pay Mr Sikes protection money, and he is aware of their shadowy endeavours...in fact it was Sikes who suggested some shadow work to help them get over their bad patch and made the connections. (Was the 'bad patch' just bad luck or did Sikes help things along?)

I've just picked up a PDF of the 3e rules and should have some time to read them properly tomorrow afternoon.

[shaidar]

Some games put the dice rolls into the IC thread, but hide them with the spoiler tag. It means they are recorded alongside where they are used, but don't disrupt the flow of the posts.

[Charybdis Richelle]

I'm thinking that up to 10 years ago the family business was completely legit, then they had a bad patch and were forced to take on some shadow jobs, chop-shop, repaints, and 'custom' improvements for example, which is where my character has learned some of his skills. They do pay Mr Sikes protection money, and he is aware of their shadowy endeavours...in fact it was Sikes who suggested some shadow work to help them get over their bad patch and made the connections. (Was the 'bad patch' just bad luck or did Sikes help things along?)

I've just picked up a PDF of the 3e rules and should have some time to read them properly tomorrow afternoon.

I like the idea for the family business and their relationship with Sikes. And whether or not Sikes helped arrange the bad luck? Who knows? Anyone really want to ask him?

Cool. No pressure. I want to give a little time to see if we get any other takers.

[Charybdis Richelle]

Some games put the dice rolls into the IC thread, but hide them with the spoiler tag. It means they are recorded alongside where they are used, but don't disrupt the flow of the posts.

I'll have to think about that -- after I figure out the die roller... if I can...

[rredmond]

I noticed that somehow all of the links in my GM section are borked... I don't think I highlighted the wrong information, but maybe I did. Anyway, if anyone wants one or more of those links, let me know, and I will report them here.

That's not your mistake, it's a copy and paste error, so sorry!!! Can you send me the actual links and I'll fix them no problem.
Thanks CR and glad you are here!!

[archolewa]

I don't think we should do the dice rolls in the OOC thread. Based on my experience here, that tends to fill up pretty quickly with other game related chatter.

I'd vote for either putting the dice rolls in Spoilers within the IC thread (that's what I do for my Dark Dungeons X game, and I think it works well), or as a completely separate just-dice-rolls thread. If we do a separate thread, I'd encourage us to quote whatever post we're rolling the dice for, just so that we can all easily keep track of what dice are being thrown around and why.

[shaidar]

I've had a quick skim of the character creation section of the game book and apologies for a potentially stupid question...

So rather than using the priority system we have 80 points to spend on attributes/skills/contacts and up to 90,000Y?

[Juramenta]

Personally, I'm leaning towards us already knowing each other. I'm not big on the whole "paranoid, backstabby PC's" kind of thing. Us having a shared backstory would allow us to exhibit levels of trust and cooperation that otherwise wouldn't make much sense in the fiction.

Mayhaps Juramenta's and my character ran together in the same gang as kids? It's pretty common I think for street gangs to have an artist for tagging. And being a short little Asian girl, I can see her befriending a big, scary orc. She might be tough as nails and not afraid to put the hurt on someone, but she doesn't necessarily cut the most threatening profile. Being friends with the biggest guy around can really cut down on the trouble.

Not quite sure how we would know shaidar's character in this setup. Sort of depends on the answers to Charbydis' questions, I suppose.

Guess it's time to come up with a streetgang backstory.
We'll have to send some funds your way as well. Went through the rules the last few days. Streetsams feel a bity tougher and stronger than a adept with full funds, but with 90k it is going to be a lot harder to build it. Not undoable, just that the "fancy" cyberware will have to wait until you can afford it. Your essence that you are bound to burn won't go anywhere until you do. Maybe I can use some of my funds to pay for the lifestyle costs and the like. So you can fully focus on your cyberware and gear. Not sure how sharing of lifestyle works, I'll go through those rules later. I'll buy an extra helmet to go with the bike I'm planning to buy .

[Charybdis Richelle]

I noticed that somehow all of the links in my GM section are borked... I don't think I highlighted the wrong information, but maybe I did. Anyway, if anyone wants one or more of those links, let me know, and I will report them here.

That's not your mistake, it's a copy and paste error, so sorry!!! Can you send me the actual links and I'll fix them no problem.
Thanks CR and glad you are here!!

I am not sure if you just want the links or the whole section, but I am giving the whole section so at least it's obvious which link goes where.

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1. At Any Price – This Fate Core game is set in the world of the novel series I am writing, but it is similar enough to the SR universe to give a feel for how I would run that system. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rjd ... sp=sharing)

2. Just for Fun – This is a completely freeform game with no set universe. My friend and I are making it up as we go along. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hKE ... sp=sharing)

3.Tea for Two – This is a short Shadowrun one-on-one scene between a PC from one of the many PBeM games I ran twenty years ago and an NPC from the same game. The PC’s original player and I wrapped up some unfinished business. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Hk ... sp=sharing)

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Thank you very much.

[Charybdis Richelle]

Okay, that turned out all hinky, too.

Here are just the links:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rjd ... sp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hKE ... sp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Hk ... sp=sharing

[Charybdis Richelle]

Okay... I figured it out. I accidentally hit the Code icon instead of the URL one. Weasel! I had forgotten how much I hate formatting using HTML.

[Charybdis Richelle]

I don't think we should do the dice rolls in the OOC thread. Based on my experience here, that tends to fill up pretty quickly with other game related chatter.

I'd vote for either putting the dice rolls in Spoilers within the IC thread (that's what I do for my Dark Dungeons X game, and I think it works well), or as a completely separate just-dice-rolls thread. If we do a separate thread, I'd encourage us to quote whatever post we're rolling the dice for, just so that we can all easily keep track of what dice are being thrown around and why.

I think I'd rather use a separate thread myself, but I will go with what the majority would prefer.

Honestly, it may be a moot point if I can't figure out the macro, and I am not very good with even that minimal code.

[Charybdis Richelle]

I've had a quick skim of the character creation section of the game book and apologies for a potentially stupid question...

So rather than using the priority system we have 80 points to spend on attributes/skills/contacts and up to 90,000Y?

No, you use the Point Buy system. The costs for everything including Race, Magic, etc. are in the SR 3 Shadowrun Companion book. It's on page 13.

I can summarize the chart this evening if you (or anyone else) doesn't have the Shadowrun Companion.

[Juramenta]

I'm good with however we roll or what channel is used.
Whatever works for you is fine by me. You can even roll your dice at home and let me know the result, but I know not all players like that very much.
So whatever the group decides is okay by me.

The macro would probably be easiest to simply place every d6 in a separate [d6]. That way you get every dice result separate.