Character Generation!

[eurydicebound]

It's been a long time since my last chargen episode. This has to do first with graduating, then with moving, then with grad school, and then with combining RPG collections, so that I no longer have any idea, really, whether I'm making characters off my list or his list or both or what. Today, however, innocent_man is home on a snow day, and so we're making Cybergeneration 2nd edition characters together.

I've played Cybergeneration before, but it's been... a long time, and it was only a one-shot even then. Like, "years before my children were born" long time ago, so what I remember is a bit sketchy. The book tells me we're playing the kids of Shadowru--, er, sorry, Edgerunners, who are part of a "yogang." Theirs is a dark future, left by their parents, who rebelled and got squished by the man. They're post-cyberpunk, which should mean postmodern but instead means "oh god this is so 80s." Seriously. "Kids in America" is playing in my head as we speak.

Character! Onward!

Game: Cybergeneration
Publisher: R. Talsorian Games
Familiarity: Might as well not be at this point.
Books Needed: Just the core.

Step One: Choose a Yogang type.
It's like every kids show from the 80s just stood up and waved. I can name the movies as I go down the list. When I get to BoardPunk, I have to stop. I'm having Solarbabies flashbacks. I think this is the one. My yogang skill is "Thrash," which lets me ride my board and do crazy shit. 100% for Aero, 50% for smart, and 25% for skate and hydro.

Step Two: Name, Age, and Sex, Appearance, and 3 things you're carrying, plus my board.
I'm going to be 13. Her name is Jami (I know, I know) and her "tag" is Arial (aerial -- get it, get it?). She's a girl. She's skinny, but just starting to develop. She's got curly dark hair tied back in a ponytail most of the time and big dark eyes. From her list of available items as a boardpunk, she's got in her pocketes: a roadrasher protective body suit with purple/green/black body and yellow joint pads/helmet., a "Splatman" airpistol, and a Nylon Carrybag. She's also got an aeroboard, purple with green and yellow stripes.

Step Three: Stats.
You get 50 points. Thrash is based on Reflexes, so that'll be high. The stats are Intelligence, Reflexes, Cool, Tech, Luck, Attractiveness, Move, Empathy, and Body. Nothing can be less than 2 or more than 8.

So.. with that in mind: Reflexes is an 8. Body should be high too, because eventually every boarder falls on their ass. Empathy can be low. Luck... well, that'd be handy. Cool... it'd be nice, but not necessary. Tech... moderate. She has to fix her board, after all. Intelligence... gah. Undecided. Attractiveness -- well, if she's a skateboarding teen girl in an 80s flick, she's gotta be cute at least.

5 Int
8 Ref
4 Cool
5 Tech
6 Luck
5 ATT
5 Move
4 Empathy
8 Body

Okay, I think I'm happy with that. I could dump another point of Cool and put it into something else, like Move, but that's why she's got a board, right?

Skills: You get 40 pts, this time between 1 and 8. The skills are Streetfighting, JockStuff, Blend, StreetSmarts, Schoolin', Little Angel, ThiefStuff, Get A Clue, GenSpeak, Fearless Leader, and GoGo. Oh, and Thrash.

JockStuff should be high, given her hobbies. Streetfighting... maybe? A bit, anyway. ThiefStuff too a little. Schoolin' should be low. StreetSmarts could be a little higher. Maybe a little GoGo, maybe a little Blend. And Thrash has got to be high.

8 JockStuff
6 Streetfighting
4 ThiefStuff
6 Blend
5 GoGo
4 Schoolin'
8 Thrash

So, Jami's got a decent bit of rough and tumble to her, and she can hold her own. She's a natural gymnast, which is what makes her so sweet on her aeroboard. It's just like breathing. She's mastered the usual street teen tricks of disappearing into a corner and grabbing stuff when no one's looking, and she's got enough schooling to make change and read books when she has to. Her attention isn't there, though -- it's always on the next cut.

Step Four: Equipment. I'm just so not even going to spend the time it takes to spend the $1000 bucks at the Mall. Just... no.

Step Five. CyberGen type. We roll randomly for what the Plague did to us and determine who gets what, and amend characters accordingly. The plague is the reason we fight, right? It's the black shakes... NAS. No, wait... sorry, wrong bad 90s movie based on an 80s story. I rolled an 87 and got a "Wizard." What does that mean? Well, let's see....

It means I don't need a cyberdeck and can pick up any kind of communication transmission, I can speak binary, and I can turn simple computer-activated devices on and off... with my mind! So much for needing a Clapper. My Reflexes are fast and I have to eat a lot to stay charged -- so yay for high electrical-based metabolism.

I get the Arcane skill at 1. It covers Counterparting (talking to Machines) and Familiar, which lets me make little thought programs who act as my buddies, tools, and minions (and probably pit crew). I can have up to two of them at one time (Int/2, round down). I'm not going to go through and do all the design for them, but she's going to have a hawk and a ghost -- the hawk attacks,the ghost is for stealth. The base range for my Arcane ability is 1 mile, both read and transmit, and I can have a +4 to my Reflexes any time I want.

So that's "Arial." She's kinda cool, for a pre-teen menace to public safety who's never unplugged from the Net. She makes a good match for Copper, Matt's character. Go look at him over there, if you're interested.

Comments

[tfbretz.livejournal.com]

Between the FASA Shadowrun promotional video that cropped up online recently and stuff like this, I'm suddenly in a mood to play something cyberpunk-ish again.

But not Cybergeneration. Terrible setting.