Day 6: El Verde the Street Cowboy
#CharacterCreationChallenge
To start off the “Technical Approach” series, I am once again looking at the combat role first. The classic here is the “Street Samurai” that uses cybernetic augmentation to enhance their physical abilities in a way that is (loosely) inspired by ancient Samurai, or at least the popular image of them. To put a twist on this, El Verde is a “Street Cowboy” - the same idea but Old West gunslinger instead of honourable Japanese swordsman.
Appearance and first impression
The first thing anyone notices about El Verde is that he is green all over. Not his skin (yet), but his clothes, his hair, his bike, just about every bit of gear he has that can be coloured in is green. Oh, and he’s an Elf, has two oversized revolvers on his hips and moves with an almost supernatural speed and grace, a sign of cybernetic augmentation to those in the know.
Backstory
Growing up as a poor Elf is always a two-edged sword: on the one hand, one can usually avoid the worst excesses of police brutality and universal suspicions that Orks and Trolls have to deal with, and sometimes doors open to an Elf that would remain closed to others. On the other hand, everyone expects Elves to have it easy and if you are a poor Elf, what kind of loser do you have to be? In a way, it's worse for those who are merely poor, not dirt poor. El Verde had a home even if it didn't even meet minimum standards for rental housing, he had parents even if he barely saw them because both juggled multiple jobs to make ends meet, he went to school even if he did poorly because home life got in the way of studying… you get the idea. He also had a trid unit that was his main companion throughout his childhood, and action trids were his favourite. For a while, he wanted to become a trid star himself, but like most, he failed… but he did get the attention of a producer with a side business running illegal cage fights, and in those he did well. It was where he started the “Green Cowboy” theme, and where he got the money for his first few augmentations, and he was eventually recruiting for an even more dangerous but also much more lucrative career in the shadows.
Character Creation Overview
Classic priority system here, nothing special. As a mundane character there is an automatic “dump category” for Magic/Resonance which makes everything else easier.
Priorities
A heavily augmented combat character needs high Resources (because cyberwar is expensive) and Attributes, with Skills and Metatype (which really should be called “Adjustment points” since almost every Metatype can be almost every priority) secondary. Final spread was therefore
A: Resources (450,000)
B: Attributes (16)
C: Skills (20)
D: Metatype (Elf, 4)
E: Magic/Resonance
Attributes
For El Verde, I had the goal of speed above everything else, which meant Agility, Reaction and Intuition at the top, with Reaction maxed out and Agility one point below the elven maximum of 7:
Body 2
Agility 6
Reaction 6
Strength 2
Willpower 1
Logic 3
Intuition 5
Charisma 1
Edge 3
That Willpower and Charisma will need some topping up later.
Skills
The highest priority here are of course combat skills. El Verde will have two main types of weapons, heavy revolvers (dual wielded and twirled, of course) and a whip - but not just any whip, a monofilament whip. This cyberpunk classic is made of a wire so thin it slices through just about anything, including the wielder if they are unlucky or not as good as they think they are. So he needs to be as good as possible. Firearms are next, and then things like Athletics and Stealth. Final spread for now:
Exotic Weapons 6 (Monofilament Whip +2)
Firearms 5
Athletics 3
Stealth 3
Piloting 2
That'll also need some buffing up later.
Knowledge Skills
Aside from English as the native language, El Verde knows about Action Trids, Pistols and Cybernetics. Makes sense, right?
Qualities
El Verde is a lot less quality -heavy than many of my other characters - at three, he only has half of what is allowed.
Ambidextrous: Given the whole “dual pistols” schtick, this one is a given. At 4 Karma it's also not super expensive.
High Pain Tolerance is just generally useful for a combat character because getting hurt is part of the job and being able to remain functional is useful. It costs 7 Karma and is worth every one of them.
Distinctive Style: With a very peculiar appearance being part of his image, it is easier for people to remember and track him, which is a negative quality worth 6 Karma. It is actually possible for him to change his appearance quite quickly (more on this in the “Gear” section), but then he can't gain or spend edge.
All in all, he has a net -5 Karma from qualities.
Gear
Weapons
The Monofilament Whip is fairly straightforward - it is very well concealed in a fingertip compartment (see augmentations). It’s extremely deadly, with a base damage on par with heavy machine guns or high-end sniper rifles - having appendages sliced off clean will do that…
The dual Ruger Super Warhawk revolvers are big and heavy out of the box. El Verde has them upgraded with a Smartgun System for enhanced accuracy, and keeps them in Quick-Draw Holsters for those high-noon standoffs. There’s also some speed-loaders that makes reloading faster, and a variety of more and less deadly ammunition - most of the time, the two guns will be loaded with different kinds to allow for more options.
Armor
The classic Lined Coat again, with Fire, Chemical and Electricity Resistance built in. It, alongside a nice, non-armored suit, have electrochromatic features. Most of the time they are bright green, but in a pinch, that can change at the press of a button (or with a thought thanks to the datajack).
Vehicles
A Suzuki Mirage racing bike, obviously in green, but with electrochromatic paint that can be changed quickly.
Augmentations
Here’s where the Street Samurai - pardon, the Street Cowboy - really shines:
A Datajack allows devices - in particular, the commlink, see below - to be accessed mentally. It’s pretty much a USB port for the brain.
Cybereyes with Flare Compensation, Low-Light Vision, a Smartlink and Thermographic Vision built in. They are, of course, green.
Cyberears with a Damper to avoid being affected by sudden loud noises, a rating 2 Select Sound Filter to allow focusing on specific sounds, a Spatial Recognizer to help pinpoint the source of a sound, and a standard Audio Enhancement to make improve hearing.
A Fingertip Compartment is hidden in the hollowed-out last digit of the left-hand index finger. Inside it, spooled up, is the monofilament whip, with the fingertip itself acting as a counterweight, making it extremely well-concealed.
Wired Reflexes at rating 3 increase Reaction by 3 and also add 3 initiative dice (and 3 minor actions, for a total of 4, which can be converted to a second Major Action if needed).
Muscle Replacements at rating 3 increase both Strength and Agility by 3. We don’t care too much about Strength, but it doesn’t exactly hurt, and Agility is great.
And finally, Electrochromatic Hair is the source of the green hair, and it, too, can change colour (and style and to a degree length) with a thought. So in an emergency, clothing, bike and hair can all be changed, which should help with getting away from people who remember “the green guy”.
Other stuff
With high resources, there was a bit more money to work with, so El Verde has not just one, but two Fake SINs, one at rating 6 and one at rating 4. The rating 6 one also comes with fake licences for guns, concealed carry (not that he usually conceals them), the muscle replacements and the smartgun system. The Monofilament Whip and the Wired Reflexes are, unfortunately, highly illegal with no licences available - but neither are easy to notice.
In addition, he has two Gold Certified Credsticks for those larger amounts that may be needed and one month of a Middle Lifestyle.
A Transys Avalon commlink with a Sim Module is about as good as it gets for a non-hacker, but given that some of his gear works best with wireless functionality enabled, and, well, a better commlink is (a little) harder to hack.
To round it up, there’s also a Bug Scanner, a Tag Eraser, 5 Metal Restraints and 20 Plastic Straps (the latter two for keeping people contained / tied up if needed), a rating 6 Respirator, a Survival Kit, a Biomonitor and a state-of-the-art rating 6 Medkit, just in case.
Adding it all up
Altogether, the gear costs 446,920 Nuyen. Which is less than the 450,000 from the priority table, so no Karma cost! Wohoo!
Spending our Karma
After the 5 Karma cost of the Qualities, we have 45 left.
First, we want to shore up our Skills. We get specialisations in Firearms (Heavy Pistols), Stealth (Sneaking) and Piloting (Ground Craft), and a point each in Electronics and Perception, which costs 25 Karma in total, leaving us with 20.
Those go into increasing Willpower and Charisma both from 1 to 2, at 10 Karma each,
Finishing it up
Contacts
Ruby, a young fixer just making her way into the shadows. She recruited El Verde from the show fights he did. Connection 2, Loyalty 2.
Doc Ariel, a back-alley, unlicensed doctor who patches up (and implants augmentations in) criminals to keep her clinic for the poor and SINless financed. Connection 2, Loyalty 2.
Victor, no last name given, is a former mercenary with a heavy Russian accent (that may be fake) who can get his hands on all sorts of weapons that “fell off the back of a drone”. Connection 2, Loyalty 2.
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Monofilament Whip: 23
Ruger Super Warhawk: 10/13/10
Defense Rating
Physical: 5
Initiative
Physical: 14 + 4D6
Notable Dice Pools
Attacking with Monofilament whip: 17
Attacking with Ruger Super Warhawk: 16 (17 with wireless smartlink enabled)
Sneaking: 14
Riding Motorbike (or other ground vehicles): 13
Condition Monitors
Physical: 9
Stun: 9
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 4 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT