Day 27: Polly the Parrot Rigger
#CharacterCreationChallenge
Back to Shadowrun for the Home Stretch, the last 5 characters will be freaks - that is not a term found anywhere in the Shadowrun rules, but basically all of them will be something outside the normal metahumanity. Today, we are looking at Polly a shifter - in the world of Shadowrun, shifters are normally animals that have human intelligence and can shapeshift into humans (which also comes with some added boni like really fast healing). However, that only applies as long as they do not reduce their essence through cybernetic enhancements. It is possible to get a very limited level of tolerance, but in general, getting augmented turns off the regeneration and the ability to shapeshift, leaving them locked in animal form. Polly, an African Grey Parrot, is just fine with that… For now, I will assume all my freaks are based in Seattle.
Appearance and first impression
A grey parrot, almost always sitting on the shoulder or head of a human-sized anthrodrone. A closer look will reveal two datajacks (one is part of a Control Rig) in the stomach. Polly can not only talk, she imitates voices and sounds with uncanny accuracy, although she has a notable Russian accent unless she tries to suppress it. She is chatty, curious and sometimes a little naive, but has no problems with using violence when it seems necessary.
Backstory
Polly hatched in a pet shop in Vladivostok, Russia, and was soon sold to Vladimir, a local leader in the Vory v Zakone (the Russian Mafia) as a pet. When she turned out to be a shifter, and have an interest in machines and vehicles of all kinds, he initially tried to put her to use as a spy, and eventually had some cyberware installed that locked her out of her shapeshifting abilities. She was not overly concerned, especially when she realised that her new control rig meant that she could control drones as if they were her own body instead, but she had enough of being a virtual slave. Vladimir was very surprised when his own security drones turned on him, and shortly afterwards, Polly and all the drones and gear she could transport were on a container ship bound for Seattle…
Priorities
For a Rigger, Resources are almost always at the top of the list, followed by Attributes, Skills, Metatype and Magic/Resonance in this order:
A: Resources (450,000)
B: Attributes (16)
C: Skills (20)
D: Metatype (Dwarf, 4)
E: Magic/Resonance (Mundane)
Note that the Metatype in this case is a Dwarf, which is the form she would have if she was still able to shapeshift. It affects attribute maxima and inherent qualities (so she gains the Thermographic Vision and Toxin Resistance).
Attributes
Logic (for Gunnery) and Intuition (for piloting when jumped in) are the most important attributes, followed by Willpower, and we want decent Agility for flying. Charisma at 3 gives us useful contacts, and everything else is less important:
Body 2
Agility 3
Reaction 1
Strength 2
Willpower 4
Logic 6
Intuition 5
Charisma 3
Edge 3
Skills
Engineering and Piloting, as usual for a Rigger, are at the top. Apart from that we want decent Athletics (for Flying), Stealth and Perception, and since we have kinda decent Charisma, a little Influence and Con might also come in handy:
Engineering 6
Piloting 5
Athletics 3
Stealth 2
Influence 1
Con 1
Perception 2
Knowledge Skills
Russian is the Native language, but Polly also speaks English at Expert level (basically, just below Native). She also knows about Drones and Smuggling Routes, and is a big fan of Troll Thrash Metal.
Qualities
The main one here is the Shifter quality - this is a lot more complicated than most. First, one of four base types is applied, in Polly’s case the Feathery type (bird shifters). It has a base cost of 18 Karma, but gets modified with add-ons, in our case Functional Tail (Prehensile), Shifter Reflexes at rating 2, and Shifter Preference (Animal Form). The functional tail is a bit of a misnomer - it can apply to any situation where a shifter has the ability to hold and manipulate items in animal form with their appendages, and parrots are quite good at using their claws and beak for motor skills. The reflexes give us extra Reaction in animal form only, and the Shifter Preference is a bit of a cheat as it reduces the cost in exchange for disadvantages in metahuman form that Polly can no longer take - but it seems only fair to get something for being locked out of shifting and regeneration. Altogether the Shifter quality costs 24 Karma, and despite all the addons only counts as one quality. It also provides a Fly speed, a natural weapon (the beak) and causes Polly to be extremely sensitive to silver.
Gearhead adds bonus edge for repairing vehicles.
Impaired (Body) 2 reduces the Body maximum, in exchange for 16 Karma.
Distinctive Style makes it easier for people to remember her, which seems fair - she’s a freaking talking parrot riding around on an anthrodrone.
She also has Toxin Resistance and Thermographic Vision from being, technically, a dwarf.
Vehicles, Drones and Accessories
We’ll give this a separate section from normal gear so we can split it a little.
The Car
Okay, this is probably the most boring part, but sometimes you have to get from A to B quickly. Very quickly. That’s when the Hyundai Shin-hyung comes in, a fast but relatively affordable sports car. It is equipped with Rigger Adaptation and a protective Rigger cocoon for Polly to hang out in while she is plugged in and drives. No weapons or anything along those lines, we don’t want to be hassled by police every time we buy groceries.
The Perch
A roughly human-sized and -shaped Nissan Samurai. It has fully functional arms and legs, and one of the arms has a built-in medkit and a built-in vehicle repair kit, basically a swiss-army-arm that can fix cars AND people (and parrots). There’s also a rigger-command-console and a commlink duct-taped to the chest and a perch attached to the shoulder for Polly to ride on.
The Henchmen
Three more Nissan Samurai, these ones are armed, however - each arm has an Ingram Smartgun XI submachine gun attached, with 250 explosive rounds in the ones on the right and 250 gel rounds in the one on the left (depending on whether the target should end up dead or just stunned). The arms also have an Agility increase up to 6, and each of them carries a Katana for close combat.
The Bruisers
Two Nissan Oni are quite similar to the Samurai, but bigger, about Troll-sized. They have an Ares Alpha assault rifle attached to each arm, with 500 regular rounds on the right and 500 gel rounds on the ride, same basic principle. Because the Alpha has a built-in grande launcher, each of them also has 6 High-Explosive Grenades on the left and 6 Stun Grenades on the right (that way even if an arm is completely destroyed, there is still some flexibility). They also have the Agility Increase and the Katana that the Samurai have.
Air Support
Two MCT-Nissan Rotodrones, each with a Standard Weapon Mount, an Ares Alpha, 500 regular rounds and 6 grenades - one has HE-Grenades, the other has smoke grenades.
Oversight
Two MCT Hornets are good for being an eye in the sky, decent flyers and easy to mistake for a large insect. Each also has an injector with a single dose of Narcojet (a fast-acting tranquilizer) on board, and Polly keeps a few extra doses around.
The Swarm
Each of the “two” MCT Gnats is actually a pack of 10. They are slow and useless for anything except recon, but they also can’t be distinguished from a small insect with a naked eye and fit through just about any gap.
The Command Gear
A Proteus Poseidon Rigger Command Console can control up to 15 drones at a time (i.e. all of them except for the Gnats)and share out up to five of the Autosofts.
And Engineering Shop has all the necessary equipment to repair and modify any of the vehicles.
Rating 6 Clearsight and Evasion autosofts can be shared out to all the drones. In addition, there are Maneuvering autosofts for the Hornets, Rotodrones, Samurai and Oni (the Gnats and the car will have to do without for now), Stealth autosofts for the Hornet and the Gnats, Targeting autosofts for the Ingram Smartguns, the Ares Alphas and the Ares Alpha grenade launchers, as well as autosoft versions of the Close Combat and Biotech skills.
Other Gear
Polly has neither personal weapons nor armor - they just get in the way for a bird.
Augmentations
A rating 3 Control Rig is of course the most important augmentation for a Rigger.
A separate Datajack means Polly can also connect to her regular commlink.
A Voice Modulator enhances her natural ability to mimic voices and sounds, and also lets her talk without any issues as a parrot.
A Simsense Interface Overdrive adds two points of Intuition when in VR (where it is most needed).
Finally, her eyes have implanted Smartlink and Low-Light Vision enhancements.
Other stuff
Some of the usual gear, fake SIN, lifestyle, mapsoft etc.,
Adding it all up
Altogether, the Gear costs 480,325 Nuyen, a bit over 30k more than what the priority table gave us. Topping it up costs 16 Karma, but leaves 1,675 to start the game with.
Spending our Karma
After qualities and gear, we have 22 Karma left. 20 of those go into specialisations in Engineering (Gunnery), Piloting (Ground Craft, Athletics 9Flying) and Con (Impersonation). Obviously impersonating someone will only work as long as they can’t see her (unless she is trying to impersonate another parrot, maybe).
Polly starts the game with 2 Karma.
Finishing it up
Contacts
Three contacts, all with Connection and Loyalty set to 3:
Thoran Aldis is an Elf of indeterminate origin, and a fixer. He likes to act all mysterious and aloof but is quite approachable when he likes someone, like Polly.
Pietrov is a human arms smuggler from Vladivostok.
Sprocket is a young Gnome who owns and runs a junkyard, and loves to talk about drones and fixing cars - she will not shut up if one lets her talk.
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Beak: 4
Oni/Samurai Katana: 12
Ingram Smartgun XI: 13/11/8/-/-
Ares Alpha: 6/12/11/9/4
Ares Alpha Grenade Launcher: 6/12/8/4/-
Defense Rating
Physical: 3
Shin-Hyung: 8
Samurai: 13
Oni: 17
Rotodrone: 11
Hornet: 5
Gnat: 5
Initiative
Physical: 6 + 1D6
Jumped-in VR: 12 + 3D6
Notable Dice Pools
Pilot (jumped-in): 17/15 (Ground/Other)
Shoot vehicle-mounted weapon: 17
Fly: 8
Condition Monitors
Physical: 9
Stun: 10
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 27 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT