Day 21: Stark the Air Pirate
#CharacterCreationChallenge
The last entry in my metavariant series - a Minotaur Hacker/Rigger hybrid - was a challenge. Not for lack of ideas, mind you - it’s just that I had so many cool ideas that my first build ended up with Gear worth almost double the available amount, and that was despite putting Resources on A. I then had a choice between making him a pretty decent Hacker and Rigger but based in a van instead of an airship, or turning him into a fairly mediocre Hacker and fairly mediocre Rigger but he remains an airship pirate, and if that isn’t a worthwhile tradeoff, I don’t know what is.
Appearance and first impression
A small and lightly built Minotaur, although that has to be seen in relative terms - at close to 2.4 metres tall and weighing in at 230kg, Stark is still an imposing figure, especially since the armor jacket styled after a British WWII bomber jacket adds to his bulk. The aviators goggles that are almost always strapped to his head, the shotgun with bayonet that is slung over his shoulders, the large and forward-swept horns and, oh yeah, the fragging Zeppelin he rides around in round out the picture.
Backstory
Stark is not a Berlin native - he was born in the free city of Hamburg and his accent occasionally gives it away. Like many minotaurs, he tried his hand at working on ships for a while - mostly pirate ships - but quickly realised that he foudn himself drawn to a higher calling as he sometimes likes to put it... his passion was for aircraft of any kind. When he got his hands on a refurbished commuter airship that had been... liberated, he decided to start his own kind of piracy... but he also had to leave Hamburg in a hurry because the previous owner was not as out of the picture as he thought...
Priorities
Another Sum-To-Ten approach/
Resources had to be A, and even that was barely enough. Attributes and Skills are also important and end up on B, Metatype and Magic/Resonance could be down at E, so our final spread is:
A: Resources (450,000)
B: Skills (24)
B: Attributes (16)
E: Metatype (Minotaur, 1) -5
E: Magic/Resonance (Mundane)
The cost for the Minotaur metavariant is 5 Karma again.
Attributes
The priorities are Logic (for Hacking and Gunnery) and Intuition (for piloting while jumped in). Willpower is a little more important than everything else, but none of the rest really matters:
Body 2
Agility 2
Reaction 2
Strength 2
Willpower 3
Logic 6
Intuition 5
Charisma 2
Edge 2
Skills
We need Cracking, Electronics, Piloting and Engineering as high as possible, and with one of them at 6 and the rest at 5, we have 3 points left. Those go into Influence. There’s a lot more I would like to get, but we will get skillwires (though not the high-end version Ruth had) to cover the basics for everything else. For now, our spread is:
Cracking 6
Electronics 5
Piloting 5
Engineering 5
Influence 3
Knowledge Skills
Aside from German as his Native language, Stark knows about a variety of things that are relevant to being a pirate, and is a fan of 20th century Flatvids.
Qualities
We will need a lot of Karma for Gear, so some negative qualities will help. There is a maximum +20 Net Karma that can be gained through qualities, but first, let’s start on the positive side:
Guts gives Stark extra Karma to resist intimidation. He’s not easily cowed…
And on the negative side…
Honorbound (Pirate Code): Basically means never abandoning the crew, always being honest with them and everyone gets an equal share of the loot and equal voice.
Impaired (Body, 2) because we were never going to max that one out anyways.
Combat Junkie makes Stark easier to goad into a fight.
All in all, that’s the net +20 we needed.
As a Minotaur he also has the usual Troll qualities (Built Tough and Thermographic Vision) as well as Goring Horns that can be used as weapons.
Gear
On the worksheet, several categories have two numbers separated by a hyphen - in that case, the second number has the 10% Troll adjustment added in. Some items, like the Airship and the jetpack, are already adjusted for metahumans or have a separate modification for that.
Weapons
A Franchi SPAS-25 is a basic but useful shotgun. A Smartgun system for use at distance and a Bayonet for close combat make it rather versatile.
Armor
An Armor Jacket is big, bulky and ugly, so… just right.
Vehicles
Let’s start with the best part: a Goodyear Commuter-47 Airship is Starks home and base of operations. It has the kind of adjustments needed for a Minotaur rigger pilot, a turreted AK-97 for defense and drone racks for the Hornets (see below), alongside some extra exit points for jumping. The moment Stark has the Nuyen, he should also invest in some proper drone racks for the Rotodrones and Smuggling compartments. On the upside, the airship can seat 20 people, so there’s enough space for the entire crew and then some.
The Krime Karrier is a jetpack specifically designed for Trolls and Troll-sized metahumans. Perfect for jumping right into action.
2 MCT-Nissan Rotodrones with an AK-97 each can be thrown out a hatch if extra flying firepower is needed, or taken along on a Shadowrun.
4 MCT-Hornets are eyes in the sky. They have a “stinger” that can be used to inject drugs into a target as well, but right now, those are not loaded up.
Originally I was going to give him four Rotodrones and another group of ground-based Nissan Samurai, but alas, not enough Nuyen…
Augmentations
All of the following are used and rating 2 - nothing super powerful, but they’ll do the job.
A Cyberjack is for hacking.
A Control Rig is for rigging.
And the Skilljack and Skillwires are for basic competence in whatever is required, be it specialised knowledges, languages or active skills. He also has a monthly subscription that allows him to use any one skill at rating 2 at a time.
Rigging and Matrix Gear
For hacking, we have a basic (but still very expensive) Spinrad Falcon cyberdeck, along with a selection of useful Cyberprograms. Between this and the fairly weak Cyberjack, Stark is not much of a hacker - he’ll be able to handle individual devices and small-scale Matrix opposition, but large corporate hosts and government systems are well beyond him for now.
For rigging, there is a similarly basic but functional Essy Motors DroneMaster Rigger Command Console, enough to keep the Rotodrones and Hornets and occasionally the Airship itself linked up. There’s also some of the essential Autosofts.
Other stuff
Mostly just the usual, but the visual enhancements are in a pair of aviator-style Goggles, and the airship is equipped with what amounts to an Engineering Shop worth of tools. The low lifestyle I interpret as being in the airship.
Adding it all up
Altogether, this gear costs 537,303. More than half of that is the airship, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of not having it… It costs a whopping 44 Karma to get that all sorted, and Stark starts the game with 1,697 Nuyen.
Spending our Karma
After the gear, the Qualities and the Metatype, there are 21 points of Karma left. Those go into specialisations in Cracking (Electronic Warfare), Piloting (Aircraft), Engineering (Gunnery) and Influence (Intimidation). 1 point is left over to start the game with.
Finishing it up
Contacts
All Contacts have Connection and Loyalty at 2.
One-Tusk is an Ork and member of the Horde Gang (as well as a part-time fence).
Der Junkmeister aka Anton Meister is a Dwarf and owner of several small junkyards throughout Berlin.
Klara Bauernfeind is the proprietor of the basement bar Der Einkeller in Kreuzbasar.
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Franchi SPAS-25: 6/13/8/-/-
Bayonet: 7 Note that the “Firing Squad” book mentions a maximum range of 25 meters and a “Near” AR, but that makes no sense to me so i ignore it
Horns: 9 Another oddity: normally melee weapons add Strength to AR, and I have done so - the description of the Goring Horns mentions a higher AR for Strength above 6, which I assume is in addition to that)
Vehicle-Mounted AK-97: 6/13/11/9/3
Defense Rating
Physical: 6
Initiative
Physical: 7 + 1D6
Notable Dice Pools
Electronic Warfare: 14
Other Hacking: 12
Piloting Aircraft (jumped-in): 14
Firing Vehicle-Mounted Gun: 15
Intimidation: 7
With rating 2 Autosofts:
Personal Combat: 4
Biotech/Medicine: 8
Athletics: 4
Perception: 7
Stealth: 4
Condition Monitors
Physical: 11
Stun: 10
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 21 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge and the five Metavariants - tomorrow I will return to the world of Werewolf: the Apocalypse, but with a twist…
Published at NZDT