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Message no. 1
From: Rob Kean <rkean@****.net>
Subject: Character creation idea....
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 14:47:34 -0500
To "force" my players to _be_ their characters (and to make the =
characters
realistic, I've got a couple of newbies and a couple of munchkins 8) in =
my game), put some limitations on their initial characters....

I.E.
I made them cut their skill points in half and their resources in half.

"Okay, now before we go any further, let's figure out who you were =
before you
started running the shadows...," I'd say.

"Well, I was a <enter occupation here>"

"Okay, then take the 1st half of your skill points and resources and =
make a
character that does <enter occupation here>." i'd say.

"Okay, now let's figure out what happened to get you into the =
shadows...." Now
here's where I got to have a little fun :-). "Well, you were working =
one day, and such and such happened...blah blah blah... now you're =
running the shadows." This usually takes an hour to a couple of days to =
flesh out.

"Well, now that you're running the shadows, spend the other half of your =
skill points and resources to get the necessary skill and equipment to =
make yourself a decent shadowrunner..."

It makes for a more well rounded character don't you think???

rob
Message no. 2
From: dbuehrer@****.org (David Buehrer)
Subject: Re: Character creation idea....
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 13:41:10 -0700 (MST)
Rob Kean wrote:
|
|To "force" my players to _be_ their characters (and to make the =
|characters
|realistic, I've got a couple of newbies and a couple of munchkins 8) in =
|my game), put some limitations on their initial characters....
|
|I made them cut their skill points in half and their resources in half.
|"Okay, now before we go any further, let's figure out who you were =
|before you
|started running the shadows...," I'd say.
|
|"Well, I was a <enter occupation here>"
|
|"Okay, then take the 1st half of your skill points and resources and =
|make a
|character that does <enter occupation here>." i'd say.
|
|"Okay, now let's figure out what happened to get you into the =
|shadows...." Now
|here's where I got to have a little fun :-). "Well, you were working =
|one day, and such and such happened...blah blah blah... now you're =
|running the shadows." This usually takes an hour to a couple of days to =
|flesh out.
|
|"Well, now that you're running the shadows, spend the other half of your =
|skill points and resources to get the necessary skill and equipment to =
|make yourself a decent shadowrunner..."
|
|It makes for a more well rounded character don't you think???

That is a great idea for introducing newbies to the game, and a pretty
decent character generation philosophy in general. I don't know if
it'll work on munchkins though. They seem to have a knack for finding
the loophole in any system ;)

-David

/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\ dbuehrer@****.org /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\
"Wanted: All Kathey Lee Gifford albums. Including her "Greatest
Hits" album and her Christmas album. Contact the Possum Lodge Skeet
Shooting Club."
~~~~~~~~~~www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.html~~~~~~~~~
Message no. 3
From: TopCat <topcat@******.net>
Subject: Re: Character creation idea....
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 21:16:25 -0600
>That is a great idea for introducing newbies to the game, and a pretty
>decent character generation philosophy in general. I don't know if
>it'll work on munchkins though. They seem to have a knack for finding
>the loophole in any system ;)

I'll save the rest of us some time and go with a military background, or
maybe a hacker background, or how about a student of thaumaturgy at MIT&M?

Heheheh... *munch!*

Seriously, it'd work out pretty well as long as you kept my examples and
their ilk to a minimum. Kudos to ya for trying it out in the first place :)


------------------------------------------------------------
* Bob Ooton -- <topcat@******.net> *
* Golden Tiger Association -- Submission Fighting Team *
------------------------------------------------------------
* With the speed of a striking cobra he pulled his machine *
* pistol and jammed the muzzle against Mozart's nose. "I *
* put my gun on rock and roll, there nothing left of you *
* but ears, man." -- "Mozart in Mirrorshades" *
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 4
From: "Robert H. Kean" <rkean@****.net>
Subject: RE: Character creation idea....
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 23:39:13 -0500
Thanks TopCat. My players grimaced at first, but once they started getting
into their characters background [which some had never done, or made up
after the fact to fit the stats], they seemed to have really gotten into
it....

----------
From: TopCat[SMTP:topcat@******.net]
Sent: Monday, March 25, 1996 10:16 PM
To: shadowrn@********.itribe.net
Subject: Re: Character creation idea....

>That is a great idea for introducing newbies to the game, and a pretty
>decent character generation philosophy in general. I don't know if
>it'll work on munchkins though. They seem to have a knack for finding
>the loophole in any system ;)

I'll save the rest of us some time and go with a military background, or
maybe a hacker background, or how about a student of thaumaturgy at MIT&M?

Heheheh... *munch!*

Seriously, it'd work out pretty well as long as you kept my examples and
their ilk to a minimum. Kudos to ya for trying it out in the first place
:)


------------------------------------------------------------
* Bob Ooton -- <topcat@******.net> *
* Golden Tiger Association -- Submission Fighting Team *
------------------------------------------------------------
* With the speed of a striking cobra he pulled his machine *
* pistol and jammed the muzzle against Mozart's nose. "I *
* put my gun on rock and roll, there nothing left of you *
* but ears, man." -- "Mozart in Mirrorshades" *
------------------------------------------------------------




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Message no. 5
From: Marizhavashti Kali <xenya@********.com>
Subject: Re: Character creation idea....
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 00:14:25 -0800 (PST)
On Mon, 25 Mar 1996, Rob Kean wrote:

> It makes for a more well rounded character don't you think???

Actually, my two coolest SRun characters ever started with *all* of their
skill points from the pre-Runner lifestyle...and neither had resources to
speak of. :-)

Deirdre M. Brooks | xenya@********.com | Marizhavashti Kali
"Whose religion is this?" "It's not a religion, it's a cult."
"Whose cult
is this?" "It's Hubbard's cult, baby." "Who's Hubbard?"
"Hubbard's dead,
baby. Hubbard's dead." -Meme-
Message no. 6
From: Mike Loseke <mike@***.sc.colostate.edu>
Subject: Re: Character creation idea....
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 07:14:21 -0700
Robert H. Kean wrote:
>
> Thanks TopCat. My players grimaced at first, but once they started getting
> into their characters background [which some had never done, or made up
> after the fact to fit the stats], they seemed to have really gotten into
> it....

I've found that the deeper players get into the background of their
characters they tend to play more intelligently, and better as a group.
The character seems like a real person, or a TV character, to them and
they have a vested interest in keeping them alive and prosperous. In a
group, most players will have their idiosynchrasies (sp) which makes
for better roleplaying overall, as well as better interaction within
the group.

In reply to the original topic: we put a limit, during character
generation, of resources no higher than C (90K) and no equipment
with an availability higher than 5, and it has to be legal as well.
It is truthfully the best group of characters we've ever run.

--
Mike Loseke * Webmaster & |
System Administrator | Any sufficiently advanced technology is
mike@***.sc.colostate.edu | indistinguishable from magic.
http://www.sc.colostate.edu | -- Arthur C. Clarke

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