Day 7: Ruth the Chameleon
#CharacterCreationChallenge
The second entry in my “Technical Approach” group is another character focusing on the Social arena, although Ruth is also capable of filling almost any other role in a pinch thanks to his skillwires that basically allow him to “download” almost any kind of ability - with a few restrictions. His street name is a short form of the “Ruthenium polymers” that are used in many of the electrochromic materials that allow clothes and other items to change colour on demand.
Appearance and first impression
“Uh… a guy. Human. Kinda average height. Seemed really nice.”
That’s about all most people remember of Ruth after they encounter him, and it doesn’t help that he can change his appearance easily.
Backstory
Ruthe used to work for one of the Japanocorps, although he refuses to say which. He was a company man, someone who took care of problems for his company in ways they would prefer not become public, but too delicate to be handled by freelance Shadowrunners. His specialty was infiltration and intelligence gathering, often internally - he would use his skillwires to pretend to work in a department, be “one of the team”, and then report on any issues or terminate them directly, sometimes literally. Obviously this line of work created enemies, and when he found himself on the receiving end of a termination order, he narrowly escaped, and with some generous “support” from wealthy contacts managed to change his appearance thoroughly enough to stay under the radar - although these contacts expect to be repaid, of course.
Character Creation Overview
Another straightforward priority system here - I may skip this section for future entries unless I use something else.
Priorities
With skillwires, Ruth does not need a lot of skills himself, although it is normally impossible to use Edge when using skillwires, so there is some benefit to “native” skills - not to mention that cyberware can be hacked or even removed. However, the highest priorities are Attributes (with a balanced spread so almost anything is possible) and Resources because skillwires are expensive. On the other hand, Ruth is mundane and as a human has no use for adjustment points except for Edge, so the final spread is
A: Attributes (24)
B: Resources (275,000)
C: Skills (20)
D: Metatype (Human, 4)
E: Magic/Resonance
Attributes
For a Face, Charisma is the most important, so it gets maxed out at 6. We also want decent Logic and Agility since they are useful for a lot of technical (Logic) and physically active (Agility) skills that we can use through skillwires, so both of those get 5 points. Reaction and Intuition are a bit lower, Willpower, Body and Strength even lower, although we want everything on at least 3 - which will require a little Karma expenditure later. For now, the spread is:
Body 3
Agility 5
Reaction 4
Strength 2
Willpower 3
Logic 5
Intuition 4
Charisma 6
Edge 5
That relatively high Edge is because even a D on metatype gives us 4 adjustment points we can use on nothing else.
Skills
Because of the Skillwires, there’s no point in having low-ranked skills. High-ranked skills have the advantage of being usable with Edge, can have specialisations and more than one at a time can be used (eg. a knowledge skill or language at the same time as an active skill). We want Con as the highest (rating 6) since it covers impersonation, followed by Influence and Athletics at 5, and the remaining 4 go into Perception, for a final spread of
Con 6
Influence 5
Athletics 5
Perception 4
Knowledge Skills
English is Ruth’s native language, but he also knows a little Japanese, and is also knowledgeable about Opera (a personal favourite), Economics, Security procedures and Japanese History, all of which seem fairly self-explanatory with his background.
Qualities
Only three qualities here:
Analytical Mind is again taken because it is so cheap, and Ruth will probably use Logic-linked skills quite a bit, so, hey, why not. Costs 3 Karma.
Blandness is fairly essential for the concept - Ruth is hard to remember. Costs 8 Karma.
In Debt was needed because the cyberware Ruth has is really expensive, and it fits with the backstory of having only escaped with a cash injection from the kind of person who considers kneecaps collateral. There is no Karma cost or benefit, but Ruth owes the Mob 35,000 Nuyen, and they expect 3,500 Nuyen a month interest in addition to any repayments on the principal.
Gear
Weapons
An Ares Viper Slivergun is just the kind of heavy pistol a snoop might have - built-in sound-suppressor, large magazine, and quite deadly when needed. It is also equipped with a Smartgun system, and located in a Concealable holster; and Ruth has a few spare clips and lots of spare ammo just in case.
The Fichetti Tiffani Needler is a tiny holdout-pistol that can be programmed to change colour and looks as fashionable as a weapon can. It also has an internal smartgun system, and is a literal “ace up the sleeve” thanks to a Hidden Arm Slide it is often located on. While holdout pistols aren’t designed for serious firefights, Ruth still has a few spare clips and ammo.
Both of these weapons can only shoot Flechette ammunition, which means Ruth has no less-deadly option, which he should probably look into. On the other hand, nothing stops him from becoming a skilled wrestler at a moment's notice.
Armor
Ruth carries four sets of “armor”, albeit very light ones, for different circumstances, all of them with an electrochromatic modification that allows for quick colour-changes including logos and similar features.
First up are Actioneer Business Clothes, the ubiquitous armed suit.
The rest are different kinds of Armored Clothes designed to look like everyday clothes, a lab coat and the kind of uniform worn at a McHughes fast food outlet (which looks very similar to many other service-job uniforms when you can change colour and logos).
Vehicles
The Ford Americar is by far the most common car in the world of Shadowrun, and with electrochromatic paint, it is even less recognizable.
Augmentations
Just as with El Verde yesterday, this is where it gets interesting::
A Datajack allows devices to be accessed mentally.
A used Skilljack and accompanying Skillwires of the highest available rating (6) are the centrepiece of the character concept. The skilljack alone would allow up to 6 knowledge or language skills to be run simultaneously (they are basically “brain only”), while the skillwires extend this to active skills by extending throughout the nervous system - active skills can go up to a rating of 6 with it, in other words about as good as a human can be. Skillsofts that can run on it can be purchased, but they are expensive (knowsofts for knowledge skills and linguasofts for languages are cheaper), so Ruth does not own any, he just has a subscription (see below). This is basically the “I know Kung Fu” cyberware.
A rating 3 Voice Modulator can make Ruth's voice sound like anyone else's (or a made-up voice). Useful for an infiltrator…
As are the False Face and Skin Toner implants that allow him to change facial features and skin colour to anything within normal human range.
And of course, Electrochromatic Hair lets him do almost the same with his hair.
Finally, some powerful albeit cheaply produced (which is also what “used” can mean in terms of Augmentations - it just increases the Essence cost) Tailored Pheromones increase his effective Charisma by 4 when he interacts with someone who may be able to smell them (i.e. in person and with a human or other living being).
Other stuff
A number of Fake SINs are always useful for a social chamaeleon - the highest-rated one (at 6) has [n]Fake Licenses for guns, concealed carry and augmentations attached. One Gold Certified Credstick and two Silver ones cover the need for anonymous financial transactions, and one month of a Medium lifestyle is the lowest Ruth has brought himself to accept so far.
Finally, there is a “VIP” Skillsoft Subscription this allows Ruth to use any one Knowsoft, Linguasoft or Activesoft (up to rating 6) at a time and switch them as a Minor Action. This allows him to have a conversation about theoretical physics or in ancient Aramaic (but not both at the same time unless he buys one of the ‘softs), then become a skilled gunslinger, and then patch up the wounded like a trained surgeon before piloting a helicopter home. The downside is only one can be active at a time, and he needs to have a wireless connection running when changing between softs. Once he pays the mob back or otherwise deals with that issue, he might start buying a few of his own to cover often-needed fields.
A Hermes Ikon commlink is one of the better and more secure models of commlink available. It also has a Sim Module for direct mental control, a Mapsoft of Seattle and a Shopsoft that makes it easier to find and purchase skillsofts of all kind, in case one needs to be bought on the fly.
Contact Lenses with a built-in Smartlink and Low-Light Vision are almost impossible to spot (but need to be controlled wirelessly).
20 Plastic Straps can be used to secure prisoners, an Autopicker is useful for picking locks, the by now well-known Respirator, Survival Kit, Biomonitor and Medkit can’t miss, and 4 Stimpatches help with staying awake and resisting stun damage for a while.
Adding it all up
Altogether, the gear costs 305,840 Nuyen - quite a bit more then the 275,000 that the priority table gave us, so even with the “In Debt” quality this costs 7 Karma. On the upside, we start the game with 4,160 Nuyen which, worst case, covers the first month of interest we have to pay…
Spending our Karma
After gear and qualities, we have 32 Karma left.
15 of those go into specialisations in Con (Impersonation), Influence (Etiquette) and Perception (Visual). The other 15 go into increasing Strength from 2 to 3.
This leaves us with 2 Karma to start the game with.
Finishing it up
Contacts
Honest Ape is a Sasquatch fixer with a twisted sense of humour including a strange appreciation for groan-worthy puns (like his street name) despite all this he is extremely well connected. Connection 6, Loyalty 3.
Lily of “Lily’s Software Emporium” deals in (mostly) legal software of any kind, including Skillsofts. She sold Ruth his skillsoft subscription and would be thrilled to upsell a bit. Connection 5, Loyalty 3.
Aidan Twofeathers is a Salish street doctor - despite playing on “mystic Native American” stereotypes, he is entirely mundane and uses mostly western medicine. He has sources that can get their hands on all sorts of cyberware. Connection 5, Loyalty 3.
Carla Espinoza is a popular opera singer originally from Spain. She may provide some access to polite society. Connection 4, Loyalty 2.
Salvatore is a Mafia Capo. He is the source of the loan Ruth paid for his escape with and mostly expects to be repaid - but he is open to further business. Connection 4, Loyalty 1.
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Ares Viper Slivergun: 14/10/8/-/-
Fichetti Tiffani Needler: 12/8/4/-/-
Defense Rating
6
Initiative
8 + 1D6
Notable Dice Pools
Impersonation, in person: 18
Other Con, in person: 16
Etiquette, in person: 17
Other influence, in person: 15
With rating 6 skillsofts active:
Firearms or other attacks: 11 (12 if a wireless smartlink is used)
Engineering or Biotech/Medicine: 11
Piloting any vehicle: 10
Condition Monitors
Physical: 10
Stun: 10
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