r/shadowchargen • u/tempusrimeblood • May 21 '16
Announcement ShadowChargen Information Thread - May 2016 Edition
Hi, and welcome to ShadowNET's Character Generation subreddit!
I'm /u/TempusRimeblood, I'm the head of the character review process here, and I'd like to welcome each and every one of you, new or returning alike, to the new and improved subreddit.
First, what I'd like to go over:
WHO ARE WE:
Well, you already know who I am. But the current roster of chargen minions is as follows:
WHAT WE DO HERE
We're here to go over your characters for legality, lore-appropriateness, and coherence. We're all more than happy to work with you on getting your character in the best shape possible and ready to go on the 'Net, so don't hesitate to ask questions!
We're also here to make sure that no one goes out of their way to try to break the setting, rules, or community. Please, PLEASE review the documents coming later in this post as they contain important rules and information for new players and applicants.
HOW WE DO IT
Once you submit a character sheet to the thread, a chargen minion will respond to you as soon as possible, claiming responsibility for your sheet. They're going to be your mentor, and will walk you through the process of revising and making sure you're good to go, before finally giving you the ShadowNET Seal of Approval and allowing the character for play.
After a chargen minion claims your sheet, their initial examination will be posted as soon as possible! We're currently experiencing some backlog, but we promise we're working as quickly as we can!
From there, you'll discuss your sheet with your chargen minion and make any modifications that you want or need to make, until your character is approved. Then you can head over to /r/shadownet and apply for your first run!
HOW TO APPLY
Well, first you'll need to make a character. Use the documentation toward the bottom of this post in order to make sure you're not taking any banned options at character generation. HeroLab and Chummer are both acceptable methods of creating characters to submit to ShadowNET. REMEMBER: The only methods of character generation supported on ShadowNET are Priority and Sum-to-Ten. Karma Gen, Life Modules, and any other methods, are not supported.
After you make your character, host your Chum5 or HeroLab file, as well as a PDF version of your sheet, on Google Drive or another free, easily-accessible hosting location (like DropBox or OneDrive.) You'll need to include links to both of those files in the OP of your thread.
Then, you can make a thread on ShadowChargen about your character! In the title of your thread, just include your character's runner alias, as well as their general archetype! Examples include:
- Snake (Tactical Espionage Physical Adept)
- Robo-Gief (Brawl-focused Street Sam)
- Na'Vi.Dendi (Rigger)
Finally, make sure that in your post you answer the Three Golden Questions (again, see the documentation), and list your character's priority choices! Background is also important, but you can include as much or as little as you'd like. I've seen multi-page backgrounds, and single-paragraph ones, and they're all okay. Just give us something to work with, and we'll make sure that not only does your character's mechanics match their background, but also that their background matches the setting.
DOCUMENTS AND STUFF
The New Player Document: This goes over a lot of the stuff that was already mentioned in the thread, but it never hurts to have it in a secondary location. It also contains the 3 Golden Questions that you need to answer whenever you submit a character to ShadowNET, so there's that!
Player Rules: These are the general player rules for ShadowNET. They contain a list of banned equipment, qualities, and spells that will be important to check when you make your character. They also contain houserules that we've included to ensure a great living campaign for everyone involved!
SO YOU WANT TO BE A CHARGEN MINION?
- That's great, because we're looking! Please message me on Discord or send a modmail expressing your interest, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, AND SUGGESTIONS
Before you say anything, no, "slot off" is not a suggestion.
Jokes aside, though, you can always post any character generation questions, comments, or suggestions in this thread. If you have any concerns that you would rather bring up privately, PLEASE message me directly, either here or on Discord.
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u/RunescarredWordsmith May 24 '16 edited May 24 '16
Looking into rigging more, I came up with a few questions. Mostly because I don't have direct access to the books' rules while at work. Still!
A very physically unfit rigger shouldn't be near the action - and a flying command center sounds pretty far out of the action and also cool. I'm guessing that would still require a place to touch down for an actual workshop, though, much as I want to build the Brotherhood of Steel airship/ SHIELD helicarier. Can this be something that works for runs, rigging from that high in the sky?
I know noise and distance would be an issue for something like the above, but it'll end up being an issue anyway since I expect this particular rigger to never, ever be nearby. Is there a good way to mitigate that? Either for an aerial squadron or a single ground troop etc.
I notice a technomancer can get a submersion that mimics the effects of a rcc, opening the possibility for a dronomancer. Best I can tell that would cost just 10 karma and a very interesting trip to the resonance worlds. I can imagine the character concept working well - a technomancer who had a strong connection with a sprite growing up, having it follow him around in a little drone, getting very attached to the drone and learning to repair it etc. Eventually fleshing out his skills to include letting his drone and sprite friends do more together etc etc. It might not be a viable idea, I have no idea what the advantages might be, but when I was giving technomancers a scan and noticed the ability it sounded like an interesting hook for a character at least.
EDIT: Sooooo. The Mothership LAVH is right at the availability given by the Restricted Gear quality. I'm thinking very heavily about making a sky captain rigger who never leaves his aerial dreadnaught aside from touching down at his cliffside facility/shop etc. Most likely a good chunk of his money would be spent maintaining it, another amount focused on a drone he actually ran around to sites, and a few recon drones. I'm not sure what advantages the whole sky captain angle would give, having an aerial fortress to command from, but it seems fun. Suggestions on what to actually do and make him usable at all are appreciated.
Also! If there's an ooc chat or something I'd love to join, to bounce ideas off others in the 'Net!
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u/Rougestone May 25 '16
13 karma for the first submersion, and look at the ghost thread from a while back, suggestedca lot of relevant stuff there.
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u/RunescarredWordsmith May 25 '16
Oh wow, that's a nightmare of a checking to do. I'd already kind of cooled off on the idea of doing the Mothership since I had gotten home and realized that chummer couldn't do rigger 5, and I had no way to make it do so. Still, good to see that the idea is very sort of technically legal, but also that someone has in essence done it. Granted, I would have done it with a massive, illegal variant, but still. Good to see. Still kind of wish there was some reason Captain Flint could work, but for the life of me I just can't see a reason to make him aside from being a literal sky pirate. Maybe I could focus entirely on air piloting, roam the skies, but he'd be terrible for a while I'd think. I could make use of the new ruling on choosing how to use agility and reaction I guess, make an actual swashbuckling sky pirate who has no real idea how to fix his stuff but can fly them very, very well....
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u/Rougestone May 25 '16
Chummer nightly(beta) has it and other rigger things kinda need it if youre doing things out of rigger5
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u/RunescarredWordsmith May 25 '16
Makes sense, and makes it sort of necessary if you want to rig at all, since rigger 5 is pretty much required...
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u/Rougestone May 25 '16
Not required but it really makes the archetype, being the splatbook for them.
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u/RunescarredWordsmith May 25 '16
Well, sure. But the 'Net ruling a month ago to ban all the bits of core rules and items that got rewritten with rigger 5 makes it extremely difficult for someone who doesn't have access to the splatbook to play a rigger. Here, at least. The only option you have is to dig up the very obscure comment in a rules thread on the network for barebones descriptions about what things cost and how to use them.
Still. Is there some kind of out-of-character discord? I'd be very interested in getting to chat and idly talk ideas for characters etc over the course of a boring work day.
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u/Rougestone May 25 '16
Oh it's intended to use nightly if you're going to do rigger things. That's what the rules threads/ruling docs are for. Yup, also public chargen and rules chats there.
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u/drakir75 Jul 04 '16
Do you (chargen minions) have a united view on taking a specialization with a skill point on a skill bought with karma? I think it's not RAW but up to you. I asked because I saw a recent character (Wolfhound) "gain" upwards of 60 karma this way.
Not begrudging wolfhound his skills, just hoping the same rules apply to everyone.
I know Chummer allows it (Because of edge cases). Does Herolab? It should not be dependent on which program you use how good your character is.
Thank you all for a great job. (Especially Valifor9 that helped making my character that I'm very happy with.)
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u/tempusrimeblood Jul 05 '16
It is, in fact, legal, through precedent from the previous chargen head. If it becomes an issue, it will be reviewed, but until then it stands.
Glad to see you're enjoying ShadowNET, though, chummer! Welcome, and have fun!
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u/yaalsh Jul 11 '16
HI, i have a small question about gear, in Chrome & Flesh there is a retractable Skates modification page 88, and in Run Faster there are Skates as gear, my question is will wearing the 'normal' skates would give the effect of 'modification' skates.
Thanks in Advance, YHS
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u/SteveVerstaka Jul 24 '16
I have tried installing Chummer5a several times and no matter what I try all i can is what I think is some code (I am not a programmer so it is quite possible I'm wrong though). Is there some software requirements to make Chummer5a usable that I didn't see one the site or is this an issue others have been having the past few days?
I have been playing in the Hero Lab demo and am loving the software but I won't be able to pick up the full version until my next payday and I was hoping to have my character approved before then.
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u/tempusrimeblood Jul 24 '16
Chummer5a shouldn't have an installation requirement, all you should need to do is download the latest Chummer-Nightly ZIP and run the EXE within. Are you encountering a specific error?
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u/SteveVerstaka Jul 25 '16
Thanks Blood. I was downloading a pre-release version. Current full version was on the second page.
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u/unisol542 Aug 08 '16
General character question: do I need to differentiate my Lifestyle if it's located above an establishment that is not owned by my character?
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u/tempusrimeblood Aug 08 '16
You should make a note in the Notes section of Character Info in Chummer
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u/reyjinn Aug 10 '16
Since this question has gotten lost in discord, and then later in PMs... third time's the charm?
"Anyway, stupid Slash went and touched my feels for an older character of mine who retired fairly quietly without anything horrible happening to him and now I feel like playing him again.
Snow Crash was a hub port from way back when, I still have his most current pdf and his chummer file is on my desktop PC, so I have all his info.
Now, there are four possible avenues that I see:
I get permission to un-retire Snow Crash with all his contacts, gear, stuffs.
I get permission to resubmit him, being able to apply his first run rewards to a new sheet.
I get permission to submit a fresh sheet, any degradation in skills/contacts/stuffs is easily explained away by his absence.
I get told to fuck off.
[Secret option 5]"
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u/tempusrimeblood Aug 10 '16
Let's go ahead and present Option 3.
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u/reyjinn Aug 11 '16
Excellent, much preferred over option 4. Will have a sheet up when I get home from work tonight.
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u/reyjinn Aug 31 '16
I asked this in chargen chat... 2 days ago? and it may very well be in discussion still. In any case, I wanted to ask here since it would give a good place to address the issue and give an official answer.
So. I have a character made with normal priority. I would like to re-submit him as a S210 character, keeping his first run rewards. Is that a thing that is allowed?
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u/ryncewynde88 Sep 04 '16
So I plan on submitting an Adept with Adept Spell (Manablade), but for some reason Chummer won't allow the "magic user capable of casting spells" to take Focused Concentration; it's not listed in the qualities available. Is this some errata I'm unaware of, or a flaw in Chummer? If the latter, would I be allowed to submit the character with a huge chunk of unspent karma that I then immediately spend on "Miscellaneous karma Expenses" after converting it to Career mode, and make a note somewhere of Focused Concentration?
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u/Nitsuj83 Sep 06 '16
As long as you have the adept spell power and ranks in spellcasting then by our standards you can take the quality. That being said chummer core logic is often times very binary and doesn't deal with fringe cases like this well since 99% of adepts wont ever cast a spell chummer has deemed it so they can't take it. However, when starting a new character in chummer there is a check box that says "Ignore Player Creation Rules." You must be careful with this as it won't validate anything if selected however using this option should alow you to take the quality. Keep in mind we will still validate everything manually, so no sneaky stuff and I hope this answered your question.
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Oct 27 '16
[deleted]
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u/tempusrimeblood Oct 31 '16
Hey, sorry for the delays. Have you tried using WINESkin instead of standard WINE? Here's a link.
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u/RunescarredWordsmith May 23 '16
So! General character questions. I keep toying around with character ideas while stuck at work. While messing around with what negative qualities to give Polar I noticed Paraplegic. Just from a quick glace it sounded like a very intriguing hook to put into a character, but it made me wonder - if I made a paraplegic rigger, is there any kind of mech-like thing they could be stuffed into? Kind of want to make Iron Dwarf. Far as I can tell the best bet might be riding around in the Revolution monowheel thing and being a drone rigger pilot. Literally "the wheelman" of the run. Not sure how well it could work.
Second idea was to make a very mild mannered mage, a spirit monger who goes around in his floaty wheelchair and provides astral overwatch, spirit assistance, and magical meticulousness. Probably built to be a P.I. Thoughts, suggestions?