You open up your commlink to find a message waiting for you. Strange. You don't remember hearing it ring. Opening it, you are presented with the grinning orkish maw of Sunshine, an old friend. Or so she likes to say. You haven't worked with her in a while: last you heard, she was done with running the shadows and had set herself up as a fixer in Toronto. She was the only runner you knew who could simultaneously exist in a state of crippling debt and unworldly wealth. Everyone owed her, and she owed everyone.
When she spoke, it was like ice cracking under the weight of a semi. Her vaguely Yankee accent stopped being charming years ago. "Whoa, don't close the 'link just yet, boss!" She called everyone boss, especially those who weren't. "Boy, have I got an offer for you..."
You listen to her pitch. If it wasn't for her begging, you might've dropped the call. But you didn't, and you're glad you didn't.
She talked at length about her situation in Toronto, or "Hog City," as she liked to call it. How she was making it big as a fixer, and how she was almost entirely out of the running business. But she needed help, for one last job. And so, she was calling in old favors, and trying to pay off whatever debts she could with this offer: help her with this run, and walk away rich enough to sit pretty for the rest of your miserable, SINless life. Or go buy some new cyberware and keep on trucking. She had her heart set on the former, but as long as you didn't get her geeked, she wouldn't care what you did with your share.
And all you had to do was meet her in Toronto and help with one job. In and out, no mess, no fuss.
The job? She couldn't get into too much detail over the comm, but the implication was tasty: interrupt a deal between two power players, take the goods, and deliver them to her client. The details would be explained when you arrived in Toronto. Not a promising lead, but the payday was platinum. "At least half a mil each," she beamed through the commlink, "for work you've done for less. And the gold mine don't stop there, compadre!"
"I need the best of the available, chummer, and that's you." With that, she signed off, and moments later you found a couple hundred Nuyen and a ticket to Toronto had been slipped into your accounts. For a moment, you considered pawning the ticket and running with the money. Sunshine might be mad, for all you know. Or maybe she's trying to off you. Couldn't be too sure when you ran shadows for a living.
But her words lingered in your head. A mountain of Nuyen for everyone who took up the job. A hard offer to resist.
Ah, frag it. You've always wanted to see Toronto anyway.
If it wasn't clear by the header, welcome to Shadowrun: Hog City, a story set in 2070 in the Shadowrun universe, a world of cyborg and mage mercenaries who work off the grid both for and against the interests of megacorporations, who dominate the political and economic landscape of the Awakened world.
If you don't know a whole lot about Shadowrun, I recommend you peruse the timeline before applying or thinking of applying, even though in depth knowledge won't be a requirement for joining this RP. I have a decent enough understanding of the world, so feel free to ask if you have any questions.
You will be playing as a shadowrunner, a criminal mercenary operative who uses magic, cybernetics, guile, hacking or sheer brute strength to make ends meet. Somehow, you know this woman, Sunshine, who just called you after years of no contact to offer you the job of a lifetime: one hit on one target in exchange for the biggest payday of your life. So you take off to Toronto to meet her, where our story will begin as you get wrapped up in a mission that might be beyond your skill - or pay - level.
As for me, I will be your DM throughout this journey, playing the NPCs, major enemies, and the like as you make your way through this adventure. I'll try to remain away from the decision making in your party to give you guys free reign, but I will guide you in your direction by offering you the missions you will be doing. How you complete them is up to you.
As a note, I'm not going to be accepting too many people. I want to make sure that everyone is involved in the story, and that means having fewer than a dozen participating. So if you find that this is closed with eight or nine, wait around, see if we might take another. But I do have a cap in mind.
I'm not going to waste any time here flowering anything up, and I think the best way to give information about this world to those who haven't played in it before is through the application, so here we go. Please read all of it, and delete the portions that are italicized.
APPLICATION
Nationstates Name: The name of your nation on NS. For administrative purposes.
Character's Real Name: In Shadowrun, shadowrunners tend to have a name they were born with, and a street handle, which they use when dealing with clients and coworkers. This is the former. If your character has completely abandoned any trace of their former identity or has never had one, leave this blank.
Character's Street Name: What people call your character when they are 'at work,' dealing with other runners, criminals and those who could make use of your real identity. If your character does not use a street name, please leave this blank.
Character's Metatype: Metatypes are the different 'races' of Shadowrun, namely human, elf, dwarf, ork, and troll. Each has its own benefits and detractors - humans are the baseline, elves are long lived and seen as the 'fortunate species,' dwarves are resistant to most diseases and have good low light vision, orks are generally stronger but have a slower wit and are short lived, while trolls are gargantuan and have tusks and horns and physical resistance at the cost of their mental capacity. Choose one. Half breeds cannot exist.
Appearance: What your character looks like. Please use a detailed description or a picture. If using a picture try to keep roughly in line with the Shadowrun depiction of the metatypes. Otherwise go nuts.
Awakened?: Yes or no. Being 'Awakened' means having an affinity for magic, either as a mage (using spells learned from tomes and such), a shaman (using magic tied to spirits and the natural world) or as a physical adept (using Chi to enhance your physical prowess.) All people have Essence, which is your magical tether to reality, and Essence is lost through the purchase of Cyberware. Once lost, Essence CANNOT be regained, so if you're a mage, choose your cyber-enhancements wisely...
Character's Class: The classes, and what they can do, are as follows. They are not set I'm stone and may be customized or altered as you see fit to make a character, use these as the building blocks.
- Street Samurai - a warrior who uses guns and sometimes swords to either clean the streets or sells them to the highest bidder;
- Mage - a student of magic in the classical sense, pouring over tomes and ancient knowledge to better his spellcraft;
- Shaman - a magic user who is found by a totem and taught by it to use magic and summon spirits;
- Adept - magic users who channel their chi to gain physical powers;
- Decker - a hacker who uses the Wireless Matrix to hack;
- Rigger - the controller of one or more drones who he uses to do combat or for espionage.
If you do not like any listed, feel free to be original or to cross-class.
Strengths: Tell me what your character is good at. This can be something simple like a physical trait, ie has two cybernetic arms that increase his strength, or a more elaborate, hidden strength, ie contacts within several major megacorporations. Remember, you are a run-of-the-mill runner: you can be unique and interesting WITHOUT going crazy.
Weaknesses: Tell me what your character sucks at. It could be something physical, ie being so cybered out that he no longer can cast magic or keep real emotions, or something a bit more nuanced, ie being hunted by cultists from Europe. Once again, make things interesting without going too overboard, but you've got a lot more wiggle room here than with strengths if you want to get wacky.
Relationship with Sunshine: Describe how you and Sunshine know each other. It could be that you two used to run together in the past. Or maybe she fixed you up with your first gig as a runner, even though you two never worked together yourself. Perhaps she screwed you on a deal and left only an "IOU" sticker taped to your apartment door. Make it interesting, and make it characterize both you and Sunshine - I will be using this field to fill out her character and guide the RP, so have fun!
Biography: Finally, tell me your character's story up until this point. What got them into running the shadows? Has this life been kind to them? What do their parents think of this? Ask yourself questions, answer them, and give me your character's life on a silver platter. Ideally look up some things about Shadowrun on their wikia if you want to impress me with specifics on where your character is from and what they've been doing up to this point.
- Current Cast of Characters:
- Ceannairceach - All NPCs
- Holy Lykos - Patrick "Squirrel" Branagan, The Best App Ever and Co-OP
- Reverend Norv - Brandon "Prof" Jones
- Neo Arcad - Elizabeth Xavier "Hex" Hirondelle
- Nalaya - Emily "Whisper" Stone
- Penguinia-Tempor- "Twitch"
- Shark Isle - Mario "Houdini" Gomez
