Chapter 1: Chargen
Welcome to Shadowmen!
The year is 2070, chummer, and things have gone about as well as you might expect. Corps went and got themselves declared as people back in the early days after the big rollover from dates with a 19 to ones with a 20. Then, they went and got themselves named countries, because countries could still tell people what to do, and the corps weren’t going to let that happen to them.
Needless to say, nothing good came of that. Corps were unchecked, but had lots of money to buy lots of guns, so they used those guns to try and trim the fat on their competition in what became known as the First Corp War. It ended about like you would expect. Some winners, some losers, but the little guy getting shit on by everyone. Anyways, that’s how the Corporate Court came to be, so that corps could rule over corps, and they all rule over us while the nations gnash their teeth.
And then shit got strange.
2012 was the end of the Mayan calendar. End of one cycle, and start of the next, or something like that. No one really believed in it, not really. Not until a bunch of pissed off Native Americans blew up half the volcanoes in North and South America all at once, perfectly normal humans got a cold and then woke up the next day as an elf, orc, and so on, and, oh yeah, a FRAKKING DRAGON landed in Warsaw and said, “THIS IS MY LAND, NOW!”
Politely put, the world lost its collective shit, and there was a solid couple decades where things were utterly mad. Borders were redrawn all over the place, some countries ceased to exist, others clawed their way into being, and the superpowers of old got kicked square in the nuts as they found out that the world didn’t play by their rules anymore. Fast forward to 2070, and things have more or less stabilized.
In North America, the Unified North American States (UNAS) makes up a solid part of what used to be the United States and Canada. The other nations on the continent are the NCSA, or the New Confederate States of America (yeah, they tried to make that work again), the Free American Nations (basically making up tribal lands that those pissed off Native Americans made Uncle Sam give up), the Free Republic of California (CalFree to their buddies), the Elf country of Ola Serin in what used to be Oregon, Mixsate (totally not a subsidiary of Mixsanto Applied Technologies) occupying Mexico all the way to Panama and parts of South America, and the Treaty City of Denver, where countries like to pretend the resident dragon doesn’t rule over them, but everyone knows the chip truth.
Down South in the NCSA, Atlanta is riding high. Capital of the nation, and all that. There’s a couple home-grown megacorps, as well. None in the AAAs, but several AAs call the region home. And unlike many sprawls, Atlanta never contracted out police duties to corporations like the Red Knights or Lone Star. No, they kept that in house, with the Atlanta Police Department (APD) still operating, after all these years.
Of course, southern hospitality doesn’t mean that the sprawl is hospitable. Well, that ain’t entirely true. The city is plenty hospitable if you are human, or male, or melanin-deficient. Preferably, all of the above. For the rest? The old prejudices didn’t die out, they just moved aside to squeeze in some new ones as metahumans, paracritters, wizards, and tech-freaks popped up.
As for who actually runs the Atlanta Sprawl? Despite what the President, the Governor, and the Mayor might tell you, that’s the corps. All the Big 10 megacorps (those with the badass AAA rating), have operations in the city, and more than a few of the AAs do, too. But they don’t matter to you, except as who’s likely to pay your fee when you do a job. You’re a Shadowman (gender neutral, despite what some will tell ya), and since you’re usually up to less-than-legal fun and games, that means the people you gotta pay most attention to are APD, because they definitely don’t extend the southern hospitality to criminals like you.
Now, let’s get you into Shadowmen.
Notice:
Due to the nature of the full immersion experience, MetaTech recommends your character sex and gender reflects your real life (RL) ones, at least for your initial character, to prevent Immersion-Based Cognitive Dissonance Disorder. There are means in game to experience other sexes and genders either through simulation, or through temporary or permanent changes to your character. MetaTech denies any responsibility for harm suffered due to IBCDD for those who ignore this warning.
Character Limit and Permadeath
To increase the sense of immersion and stakes in Shadowmen, all accounts may have only a single character at any one time. When a character dies permanently in game (beyond clinical death), they are dead, and are deleted from your account, though tales of their deeds may live on in game. When creating a new character, you may carry forward a portion of the Karma (experience) and NuCred (money) your old character earned, and use it to enhance your new character, so death does not put you entirely back to the beginning.
That much was familiar. I’d seen it plenty of times before in the beta, and again when I first started up the release version. Which was comforting, if only in letting me know nothing too major had changed.
A New Story Begins.
Your last character died. Fortunately for you, while death is the end of that character, you are not being sent back to square one. In recognition of your past life’s actions, you gain the following resources, which will be added after normal character creation:
24 Karma
125,000 Nucred
One Connection 2/Loyalty 2 contact
Beta Test Account
Thank you for your help in Beta-testing Shadowmen! As a reward, all characters on your account will be given Prime Runner status, starting with 500 Build Points, instead of the normal 400.
Pre-Order Account
Thank you for your pre-order of Shadowmen! As a reward, all characters on your account will be given the following rewards:
Access to certain player-created spells, items, and abilities for purchase in character creation
NuCred limit for purchases in character creation is removed (all other limits remain in place)
OK, that was good. Not quite as good as getting a bunch of extra BP in character creation would be, but I could deal with post-chargen (character generation) resources to spend. The BP would have gone further, but this was probably fairer to the other players.
Starting up character creation, I set my Street Name as Pussycat, and set my ‘government name’ as Casey Rhodes. I knew how deep the different prejudices ran in different parts of Atlanta, so I picked a white girl, human, with long black hair. I didn’t really want to go playing with different metatypes right now. I flipped over to Qualities, since those would set up everything else.
Positive Qualities
Name
Description
Cost
Biocompatibility (Cyberware)
Essence cost for Cyberware reduced by 10%
10
Changeling (Class II SURGE)
20 BP of Positive Metagenetic Qualities and 10 BP of Negative Metagenetic Qualities for free
10
Fame (National)
+4 to relative Social tests, multiply Day Job income by 5
10
Restricted Gear
Gain one piece of gear above availability 12 at chargen
5
Total
35 BP
Negative Qualities
Name
Description
Cost
Addiction
Moderate Sex Addiction
0
Allergy, Uncommon
Moderate Silver Allergy, -4 to all tests while touching silver, silver weapons get +2 DV against her
-10
Day Job
20 hours/week, 12500 nuyen/month
-10
Mysterious Implant
Gain a permanent Genetic Infusion, gain Moderate Sex Addiction
-10
SINner
Legit SIN from NCSA
-5
Total
-35 BP
Positive Metagenetic Qualities
Name
Description
Cost
Celerity
Increase walking and land movement rates by 50% (Round down)
5
Glamour
+3 Dice to all Social tests except Intimidation
15
Total
20 BP
Negative Metagenetic Qualities
Name
Description
Cost
Astral Hazing
Center of a Rating 4 Background Count (1.05m from body)
-10
Total
-10 BP
I sighed in relief as that random addiction roll for the Mysterious Implant quality settled on sex. It would have been a pain to be addicted to something like combat stims. Anyways, I was satisfied with my choices, so I flipped back to the ‘Basics’ tab. Didn’t touch Edge, since it started at 2 for humans, and that was fine. Going down the line, I put my other attributes at Body 4, Agility 5, Reaction 5, Strength 4, Charisma 5, Intuition 3, Logic 3, Willpower 3. I’d boost some of those later, with ware.
I moved to the Augments section. Time to play around. There was a new cyberware suite that had come out a month or so ago, in game, and would be perfect for this. That was the reason I picked up the Restricted Gear quality, after all. The New Horizons Kitten Suite would give me cybereyes, cyberears, a balance tail, hand razors (claws, basically) on both hands, a simrig, and boosters to smell and taste, with a further discount on the Essence cost, for being a suite, and I splurged for Alphaware, which reduced it further.
For the Genetic Infusion I’d picked up in the Qualities, I grabbed the Sideways infusion. +2 to defensive Reaction tests (like not getting shot), +1 to Perception, and +1 to all combat tests. In return, I didn’t feel pain, so no matter how badly I got hurt, it wouldn’t impede my shooting.
Then, back to cyberware for some Alphaware Rating 2 Wired Reflexes (+2 Reaction, +2 Initiative passes), and Alphaware Rating 2 Dermal Sheath (+2 Ballistic Armor/+3 Impact Armor). Hop to bioware for Alphaware Rating 2 Muscle Augmentation and Muscle Toner (+2 to STR and AGI), Rating 3 Tailored Pheromones (+3 to all Social tests but Intimidation), and Vocal Range Enhancer (+1 to social tests involving speaking, +2 to Singing tests). Perfect for a rock star.
Cyberware
Essence
Ware
Cost
0.72
Dermal Sheath R2 (Alphaware): +2B/+3I Armor
40000
1.19
New Horizons Kitten Suite (Alphaware)
72000
Balance Tail: +2 on all balance-related tests, +1 to Body to resist knockdown
Cyberears R3: Audio Enhancement 3, Balance Augmenter, Damper, Ear Recording Unit, Increased Sensitivity, Select Sound Filter 1, Sound Link, Spatial Recognizer
Cybereyes R4: Eye Laser System, Eye Recording Unit, Eyemod, Flare Compensation, Image Link, Low-Light Vision, Smartlink, Thermographic Vision, Vision Enhancement 3, Vision Magnification
Hand Razors (Left Hand)
Hand Razors (Right Hand)
Olfactory Booster R3: +3 to Scent perception
Simrig: Record Simsense
Taste Booster R3: +3 to Taste perception
2.16
Wired Reflexes R2 (Alphaware): +2 Reaction, +2 Initiative Passes
64000
Bioware
Essence
Ware
Cost
0.32
Muscle Augmentation R2 (Alphaware): +2 STR
28000
0.32
Muscle Toner R2 (Alphaware): +2 AGI
32000
0.4
Sideways Permanent Infusion: +2 on defensive Reaction tests, +1 on Perception tests, +1 on all combat tests. Suffers no wound penalties
0.6
Tailored Pheromones R3: +3 to all Charisma and Social tests
45000
0.1
Vocal Range Enhancer: +1 to social tests involving speaking, +2 to tests involving singing.
12000
Skipping back to skills, now. Made sure to pick Artisan 6, with a specialization giving +2 to Singing. Most of my other active skills were at 3s and 4s, a couple 2s for things I didn’t need to focus on. For knowledge/language skills, I picked up knowledge of Atlanta Gangs, Entertainment Business, Music Theory, and Nightclubs, as well as proficiency in Japanese and Spanish.
Active Skills
Dice
Skill
Cost
9
Artisan 6 (Singing +2)
26
Athletics Group 3
30
9
Climbing
9
Flight
10
Gymnastics
9
Running
9
Swimming
12
Automatics 4 (Assault Rifles +2)
18
12
Blades 4
16
Influence Group 3
30
14
Con
14
Etiquette
14
Leadership
14
Negotiation
6
Perception 2
8
9
Pilot Ground Craft 2
8
12
Pistols 4 (Semi-Automatic +2)
18
11
Throwing Weapons 3
12
11
Unarmed Combat 3
12
Total
178 BP
Knowledge/Language Skills (18 Free Points)
Dice
Skill
Cost
6
Atlanta Gangs 3
0
6
Entertainment Business 3
0
6
Music Theory 3
0
6
Nightclubs 3
0
None
Language (English) Native
0
6
Language (Japanese) 3
0
6
Language (Spanish) 3
0
So far, so good. Next, I needed gear.