Day 3: Willow the Fix-It Girl
#CharacterCreationChallenge
Moving on from Adepts, today’s character is a magician, or more specifically a Shaman. Willow is a cheerful, bubbly young woman despite having grown up on the streets. Usually dressed in dirty overalls, she looks more like a mechanic than a Shaman and makes her home in a closed-down garage next to a junkyard in the barrens. The owner, Rico, gave her her street name based on an old flatvid character, another witch that also had bright red hair. She likes to fix and improve things and people and is only running the shadows because money is sometimes tight and magic users are always sought after.
Appearance and first impression
A young dwarf woman, on the small side and with her bright red hair usually tied up in a bun, wearing dirty overalls and - if there is trouble afoot - a heavy, slightly too large armor jacket. She is cheerful and bubbly, and if someone pays a lot of attention, they might notice her tools are often arranged in arcane patterns or have tiny runes etched and painted on them.
Backstory
Growing up on the streets of the Redmond Barrens, Willow has every reason to be cynical, and yet she has somehow kept her cheerful outlook and willingness to help anybody she can. She never knew who her parents were, and the closest she has is Rico, an Elf that owns “Rico’s Junk Palace” where he found her sleeping in a corner of the abandoned garage one day. He sometimes paid her a few Nuyen - or food - for helping out around the place. When she came into her magical abilities, he started calling her “Willow” after another redheaded witch from a flatvid show he remembered from his youth… Even though she is barely 20 herself, she has now “adopted” several other street kids and helps them with some of the money she gets from running the shadows.
Character Creation Overview
I’m back to a standard Priority method for Willow. She was a bit more of a challenge to get right, but in the end it all worked.
Priorities
As a “normal” Magician, Willow pretty much has to have Magic an A, because the number of spells a Mage gets in 6E is strictly limited by the Magic rating from the priority table - 2 spells per point of Magic, and no more can be learned at character creation. She also needs a healthy Attribute spread, so that is B, and there’s a lot of Skill required, too, so that is C. The only way to get Magic all the way up to 6 (which, again, is pretty much required) is with adjustment points and for that to work, Metatype has to be E, and… that puts Resources at E. Several of those are lower than I’d like, but at least there were no hard choices. Our final priority selections are therefore:
A: Magic (4)
B: Attributes (16)
C: Skills (20)
D: Metatype (Dwarf, 4)
E: Resources (8,000)
Attributes
This, on the other hand,had several hard choices. We have 4 adjustment points, 2 of them need to go into Magic, one went into Edge and one into Body, raising those three attributes to 6, 2 and 2 again respectively.
Willpower gets maxed out - as a Dwarf, the maximum is 7, so that costs us 6 of our 16 attribute points. Charisma is also important for a Shaman, so it goes to 5, and that leaves us with just enough to raise Intuition to 3 and all the other attributes to 2. Nothing gets dumped, but I would have liked her to have more in a few of those - alas… Final spread:
Body 2
Agility 2
Reaction 2
Strength 2
Willpower 7
Logic 2
Intuition 3
Charisma 5
Edge 2
Magic 6
As a bit of background for those new to the system, to work Magic there are basically two things you need to roll for - working the magic (casting a spell, conjuring a spirit etc) and resisting drain (to avoid taking damage - there is no limit on “spell slots” or mana or anything like that, but the more powerful the magic in question is, the more damage it can potentially cause). Working the magic is rolled with Magic + a relevant skill (see below), resisting drain is Willpower + Charisma (for Shamans and other faith-based traditions) or Logic (for Hermetic mages and other sciency traditions.
Skills
Again, there were a lot of tough choices here. There are four skills directly related to working magic - Sorcery (casting and countering spells), Conjuring (summoning and banishing spirits), Enchanting (creating magical items) and Astral (reading auras and astral combat). I never really got the hang of Enchanting and pretend it doesn’t exist, but the other three are important - I put 6 into Conjuring, 4 into Sorcery and 3 into Astral, using up 13 of my 20 skill points already.
We also need something for combat, Stealth, Perception, and given her background I really wanted Engineering and Piloting, too. And a bit of Influence because why let all that Charisma go to waste. That’s six skills and only 7 points, though, so something had to give (which means I used Karma later). At this stage, I put 3 points into Engineering, 2 in Athletics (also covers crossbows) and 2 into Stealth, so overall we had
Conjuring 6
Sorcery 4
Astral 3
Engineering 3
Athletics 2
Stealth 2
Qualities
I had already decided that Willow follows a Mentor Spirit, which costs 10 points - in return, the Fire-Bringer reduces the cost of all Edge Boosts for Engineering tests and Manipulation spells by 1. On the other hand, Willow needs to succeed on a Willpower+Charisma(3) roll if she wants to refuse a sincere appeal for help (not that she would usually want to).
Next up is an extremely useful, but expensive quality for mages - Focused Concentration at rank 2, costing 24 Karma. It allows her to sustain up to two spells without penalty - normally, keeping an ongoing spell effect going reduces the dice pool for everything else, which can be an issue when, say, using an illusion spell to impersonate someone or a combat buff or anything along those lines.
Finally, I put another 14 points into the Spirit Affinity quality for Task spirits (a kind of spirit that is most commonly summoned to do some specific work, from fixing an engine to treating a sick person). This gives Willow a bonus point of Edge when summoning one of them.
To get some of these points back, I also took three negative qualities:
Incompetent (Enchanting) means she can never learn enchanting which suits me just fine. Might as well get 10 Karma for not doing it.
Dependents at rank 2 gives her 8 Karma - she has “adopted” a couple of younger street kids she may sometimes need to help, and 10 percent of her income go towards that.
Finally, that Impaired Attribute quality at rank 2 (for 16 Karma) again, this time for Logic. She’s not stupid but she’s not bookish, so her Logic will never go above 4. This may actually affect her ability to do Engineering, but that would always be a secondary concern (and it doesn’t affect Task spirits she summoned for Engineering tasks).
As a Dwarf, she also has Thermographic Vision and natural Toxin Resistance.
Spells
Willow knows 8 spells to start with:
Lightning Bolt is a straightforward combat spell to zap people.
Analyze Truth can be cast on a person (herself or someone else) who can then tell truth from lies (but only intentional lies, and only when spoken by someone present in earshot, not via recordings or broadcasts).
Heal is again quite straightforward - mend wounds, stop bleeding and all that.
Resist Pain doesn’t heal wounds but it temporarily reduces the pain (and dice pool penalty) they cause.
Physical Mask lets the target (herself or someone else) appear as somebody else.
Shape Metal allows her to turn a few cubic meters of metal soft and malleable for a while, and it then retains any new form.
Physical Barrier creates just that - an almost impenetrable mystical wall. Good for providing a barrier against bullets but more creative applications are also possible (temporary bridge anyone?)
Animate Stone does exactly what it says on the tin - it animates a chunk of stone and lets it move, slowly and clumsily.
Gear
Weapons
Willow tries to stay out of combat, and uses spells or spirits when she can’t avoid it. But, just in case, she also carries a Collapsible Crossbow with 20 bolts. She also has two Glitter Grenades - they are technically useful for making invisible targets visible (she can see them with her astral vision, but if she wants her teammates to see them, this is easier than counterspelling). They also make targets mad and are hilarious.
Armor
A heavy Armor Jacket is her go-to choice when going on a Shadowrun. It has some built-in protection against Chemicals, Cold, Fire and Electricity (2 ranks each).
Identity and Credit (and Lifestyle)
Being low on cash, Willow has a low-end Fake SIN (rating 3), with an equally fake Mage license and a license for her crossbow attached. It won’t stand up to much scrutiny, though.
She also has a Silver Certified Credstick that can anonymously hold up to 20,000 Nuyen which is about as much money as she can imagine at this point.
Living in a dilapidated garage that was never intended to be inhabited counts as a Squatter lifestyle - uncomfortable and inconvenient, but cheap.
Vehicles
She rides around on a cheap and basic Dodge Scoot scooter. It moves and doesn’t stand out much anywhere.
Magical Gear
It’s not obvious, but the garage is arranged and decorated in a way that actually imbues it with some magical power (which required a number of magical materials to be incorporated into the floor, walls and ceiling) - it works as a Magical Lodge for learning spells, doing rituals and the like.
Other stuff
A cheap Sony Emperor Commlink with a Subvocal Microphone is all she can contribute to silent communication.
The random tools strewn around the garage counts as a Engineering Kit.
She also has a pair of Earbuds for listening to her teammates use their silent communication tools, and they even include an Audio Enhancement to help her hear things.
And for emergencies, she also has a Gas Mask, a Survival Kit and a basic (rating 2) Medkit.
Adding it all up
All in all, this adds up to 24,640 Nuyen. 8,000 of that comes from the priority table, the rest costs 9 Karma, leaving 1,360 Nuyen to start the game with.
Spending our Karma
After Qualities and Gear, there are 27 Karma left. 15 of them go into buying a point each of Influence, Piloting and Perception, and another 10 buy specialisations in Conjuring (Summoning) and Sorcery (Spellcasting). 2 points are left over to start the game with.
Finishing it up
Contacts
With her relatively high Charisma, Willow has a number of contacts; not a huge number but generally fairly high-value:
Jaroon is an Ork Talismonger, running a bustling “magic trinket” shop in the touristy parts of the Redmond Barrens. While the front of his shop is mostly useless drek aimed at tourists, he has some genuinely powerful items in the back for those he trusts, and Willow is among those. Connection 3, Loyalty 3.
Allison is a Dwarf Social Worker employed by the city of Seattle. Overworked and underpaid, she knows how much Willow does to help some of the local street kids, and would be prepared to use what little pull and access to information and resources she has for her. Connection 2, Loyalty 4.
Rico, or Tio Rico, as Willow affectionately calls him (despite otherwise not speaking much of his native Spanish), is the owner of “Rico’s Junk Palace”. He does not speak much of his youth, but his accent betrays his Aztlaner (or Mexican, given he is about 70) background. He sees Willow almost as a daughter, and would help her out if he can. Connection 2, Loyalty 5
Officer Jameson is a beat cop that is technically assigned to one of the less-feral parts of Seattle near the Barrens, but occasionally his job takes him into the lawless Z-Zone. He tries in vain to gain the respect of Willow and her gaggle of street kids, but despite acting tough, he actually has some sympathy for her and them and may turn a blind eye or help out every now and then. Connection 3, Loyalty 2
Lady Jill is a human fixer, with decent connection and the personality of an ice block. She dislikes Willow’s bubbliness, but works with her because capable mages are hard to find. Connection 4, Loyalty 1
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Crossbow: 2/10/4/2/-
Lightning Bolt spell: 11
Astral Combat: 11
Defense Rating
Physical: 6
Astral: 3
Initiative
Physical: 5 + 1D6
Astral: 5 + 2D6
Notable Dice Pools
Summoning Spirits: 14
Other Conjuring (eg Banishing or Binding): 12
Casting Spells: 12
Other Sorcery (Rituals or Counterspelling): 10
Assensing (Aura Reading): 6
Astral Combat Attacks: 10
Resisting Drain: 12
Composure: 12
Judge Intentions: 10
Memory: 5
Condition Monitors
Physical: 9 (+ 4 Overflow)
Stun: 12
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 3 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT