The End of Every Road: What I learned from Shivani Sedana

 "Cable... Shivani had to have died. Right? She couldn't have survived a rocket strike. If she's dead, then what am I?"

I loved my most recent character. Shivani Sedana is a cybernetically enhanced soldier, a monster with a golden machine gun, and a natural leader. She was also mentally ill, a sickness called cyberpsychosis bubbling just under the surface. She's a lesson in the dangers of ignoring your problems: it doesn't make them go away. 

I loved her, but my interpretation of her mental condition is born from dysphoria, depression and disassociation. She was originally designed in 2017 and... I think it's fair to say I wasn't doing well. It's 2023 and I'm doing better, better enough that I'm making the decision to put her away. We had to skip a session this month, so I made a deal with the GM to get the game back on track and avoid having to think about Shivani for another thirty days. I can shelf her for a while, and write some long form content dealing with her condition. I can put her character finale to paper with some nice, rich description. Maybe even portray her improving. What a wild concept: a pen and paper character ever getting better.

I think playing her was pretty enlightening for a number of reasons, and I thought I'd go through them in no order. Some of these deal with building and playing characters, and some of these are specific to Shadowrun 3rd Edition. 

Mental Illness is rewarding but draining to portray. Shivani only suffered a break for one session, showing extremely obvious signs and symptoms. However, her mental health issues were present the entire time I played her. Habits like her direct(to a fault) thinking, lack of backup plans and callousness were all informed by her condition. Her persistent delusions came up every single session: I just didn't say it out loud. For a long time it felt great to play her. It was an outlet for a lot of various feelings I had when I started playing her. Ones you can guess if you know me, and wonder at if you don't. 

One of our players, the man behind the surveillance-drone rigger Director noted that he could tell something was wrong with Shivani from day one. I don't have a lesson to go along with that. It just made me feel really good.  

But as those feelings and thoughts started to go away, she became a drain. It's tough to know what would help your character's mental health and know they won't do it. One of Shivani's unhealthy coping mechanisms was routine, and one of those routines was Shadowrunning. Running puts her into contact with a lot more stressors than her rigid adherence to routine was ever going to alleviate. So, playing her still felt good, but became emotionally taxing. It's probably just me, but watching a character make choices that will ultimately harm them is frustrating, even though those are the choices that remain true to their personality. It's even worse when those choices are done in-part or solely to keep them playable.

Be wary of characters you conceptualized a long time ago. I don't think this is a mistake on my part. Far from it, Shivani helped me a lot! But I should have expected playing her to become more difficult the better I felt about myself. Everything about Shivani's mental health was defined a long time ago, before I started medication and therapy for my own. I really should have seen this coming, but I guess nobody expects their mental health improvement to cause something like this. 

I(Me, Mouse) Might be a Leader. I don't know what to say about this one except that I feel like I lean toward this role in games now, and I might be reasonably good at it. I guess you never stop learning things about yourself, right?

Homage Characters are Awesome! Most of the Time. Shivani was inspired by a friend's character from 20 years ago named Bob Collins. He also had Cyberpsychosis and heavily personal themes. Some of them are quite similar to Shivani's themes. Doing an homage to Bob without understanding those themes completely would have been catastrophic or even insulting. It's a good thing I didn't do that. Everyone should feel free to homage an existing character with their own... just be sure to know what you're doing and put in a little work.

Hobbies and Friends are Key to Building a Rich Character. So, I've started to see a lack of hobbies, activities, casual interests or friends as indicators of illness. That's an important tool, but I can't help but think that not including those things is simply a common mistake. I think it's especially true of fantasy games, where travel is overwhelmingly common. You sort of have to carry your interests on your back and count the PCs as your only friends. 

But in a modern game, you really have no excuse. You definitely have a house. It's definitely full of stuff. Like, things. Things mean you have interests, and hobbies, and personality. The other PCs can't possibly be your only friends. Lacking some or all of these things would be a major red flag. Including a major red flag should be deliberate. 

I probably have more to say on this later, so I'll save some for next time. In Shadowrun it's easy to focus on only taking the knowledge skills you think will definitely come up, like Chemistry or Security Design, or Gang Identification. I think that's a big mistake.  If Shivani didn't have her skills on the bass or her love of tailoring, she'd be a poorer character. Did I ever roll Bass? Of course not. That's not why I took it. 

I did roll Tailoring, though. Several times. So maybe it's just a question of what skills you're able to finesse into a situation.

Heavy Weapons Really Aren't as Great as they Seem. I enjoyed the hell out of Shivani and her gold-plated light machine gun, Golden Mandala. A Mandala can be described as a spiritual road map, and Golden Mandala is a map that helps you meet God. I noticed a few things about heavy weapons while I was using it. 

* It's a pretty narrow skill. Realistically, it covers light machine guns, and assault cannons. That isn't as flexible as other skills. Other guns can be quiet, apply chemtech or cover funky utility weapons. Cannons and LMGs are quite nice weapons, but they really only do the one thing.

* The damage boost is slight. An assault rifle is 8M, and a light machine gun is 7S. You get a damage level bump in exchange for a reduction of power, and I'm convinced that ends in a very slight boost, especially if you're optimized for the skill you're rolling. It means that machine guns are better at suppressive fire, but... I'm tempted to say "so what?". 

* They're big. So this isn't a concealable weapon in the slightest. I definitely couldn't carry or use it on every job. I can't say the same about shotguns, rifles, or even assault rifles. In a world where a sawn-off SPAS-22 is 9S, can burst and has a conceal of 6, I don't know how much I can justify carrying an LMG for any reason.  The weight even became a factor: the GM can attest that I sanity-checked Shivani's loadouts for weight, and that's not something I ever had to worry about with other SR characters.  

* They require resources to optimize. If you don't put forth resources toward lowering recoil, I don't know if LMGs turn out better than assault rifles at all. Mandala had a custom 2 pts of recoil compensation and Shivani had a cyberarm gyromount, both of which were integral to this weapon being a good one. That isn't a cheap piece of 'ware. If all you did was pick up an LMG off the shelf, I don't know if it's a great choice.

My GM was Right and Skill Groups are the Way to Go. I just wanted to say here that slightly improving the amount of skills someone can take via skill group discounts is a good thing, and there's very little downside. The bonus isn't that pronounced: I definitely didn't even roll every firearms skill. Even more of them I only rolled once or twice. They soften the blow of "required" skills and lets characters branch out and be useful in other situations. Seeing as how this is a game where you're sitting on your thumbs by design sometimes, that's good. 

SR 3 Sure Has Weird, Draconian Armor Rules. I think it's weird that basically everyone layers form-fit with something else. If I had my way, I'd bump most sets of armor by 1/1 or 2/1 and just remove form-fit entirely. Just make the decision for you and let you wear one piece of armor. I understand the aesthetics don't necessarily matter, but having relatively little freedom in dressing your character and imagining their outfits sucks. 

In addition, the penalties for having too much armor rating compared to your QCK is a pretty bad system. There should absolutely be a penalty here! It's just that trading points of combat pool for armor is a mathy decision and I don't like it. For as crunchy as people think this system is, it has very few of these decisions. I can see why future editions do away with pools entirely. 

You Don't Know What You've Got 'Till It's Gone. I'll make this short. This is my first character with a low combat pool, and you really don't understand how nice it is to have a large pool until you don't any more. It's a good thing that Shivani was built to let things hit her. Because they often did. 

That's it for today. Thank you for this weird potpourri of lessons that I don't think I could spin into whole posts on their own. If you're sad that Shivani is gone, don't worry: The next part of her story is coming soon. That, and I don't think the other characters are entirely finished feeling her impact. 

Roasting Myself Again: Girl Edition

 "Don't name your children after fictional characters. 

If they're transgender enough, they'll do it themselves."

Hi. I feel like being a little mean to myself today. That's not true, I'm just interested in an answer. Today I'm going through all of my old characters to see how many of them have very particular themes of identity. If you know me, you probably know what theme I'm talking about. If you don't? You'll probably figure it out by the end of the list. Consider this a companion piece to the other two posts I did about my characters. Don't know how interesting those posts are, but memory lane is fun and the blog is for me, not you. Well, it's a little bit for you. 

Criteria is a simple zero to five rating, zero meaning none at all, and five meaning the theme is basically central to their character. 

To speed things up, here are all the zeros: Thorgg, Autonicus Jamble, Chief Tumbling-Dice, Callisto, Mister Smiley, Levistus, Skag, Cipher, Cpl, Ramirez, Blind Mary, Icke, Vaux, Arkham Pawn, Elle Arcineau, Tatters, Riyo'to, Seong, James March, Trixie Glimmerskull, Cardinal Seras Hearstring, Cable's Daughter, Celine LaRoque. 

All of these characters either have no strong personal themes or very different ones from what I'm looking for. Most of these are great characters that I'd play again some day! Let's call them The Control Group. Following are every character who scored above a zero and a few comments on each. 

William Loman. Themes of being happy with what you've got are central to Loman's story thanks to his tie to Death of a Salesman. It's not an identity-centric story by any means, and "being happy with what I've got" turned out to be impossible. Still, it's somewhat adjacent, so Loman scores a 1/5.

Akuma. Akuma was rejected by society for his appearance and, as such, hated himself for it. I still think he's a shitty character. 4/5. 

Anna Lacroix. Anna's a character with pretty dense themes, but has some themes of second chances and body modification among them. Outside of the obvious stuff that comes with every cybernetically enhanced character, she enjoyed body mods like heavy tattooing and piercing. 2/5.

Lenore. Shapeshifter. Listen, shapeshifter nets you at least 2 points just on its own. While not every female character I played had an appearance I strongly would've liked for myself, Lenore(and a few others) did. 3/5.

Zero. Was literally transgender. Also had themes of "new life" or "second chances" thanks to being a CIA agent on the lam. Girl this was like 2006 why didn't you get it yet? 5/5.

The Medusa Socialite. She bears mentioning because she was a result of a human mother being cursed in a social power play and decided to just rock it instead of falling to despair. 1/5.

Sianalayn Vyanathen. At some point in the campaign Sia undergoes a transformation to change herself. This was to rid her of the Warlock class which I was very unsatisfied with, but like... she didn't need to come back as a Tiefling. It didn't need to be a physical transformation at all. 2/5. 

Miyako Summerfield. Transformed against her will. Basically the same theme as the socialite. 1/5.

Inkless. Shapeshifter. Also, another "new life" or "second chance" theme because she ran away from Heaven. Honestly I think "second chance" is a great, solid theme for a character so I'm on the fence of saying it doesn't count, but...to prove a point I'm saying it does. 3/5. 

Viktoria Wakefield. Only mentioned because "Slutty carnival folk with a huge rack" is probably wishful thinking on my part. 1/5.

Aikiyo the Mockery. Aikiyo is a robot, but her story centered strongly around purpose and living for yourself as opposed to others. 2/5. 

Pink Annis. Shapeshifter. Pink also had issues with her perception of self and society, seeing human society as something that isn't "for" her, and something she shouldn't be interacting with. 4/5. 

Lace Weaver. Transformed against her will but glad for it. (again). Another theme of second chances as well. 3/5. 

Shivani Sedana. Practically an avatar of dysphoria. Dysphoric and delusional because the UCAS Military ruined her life, meddled with her health and caused her to develop cyberpsychosis. 5/5.

A little math later and I can tell you that 14 out of 36 characters scored above a zero, or about 39%. In addition, only two scored a "perfect" five: Shivani and Zero. The two who have literally felt dysphoria in some way.  This whole time I was scoring my characters I was practically pleading for me to be below 50% and thank god I made it. 

It's also 24 out of 36(2/3rds or 66%) girls, with one being genderfluid(Seras) and one being a robot(Aikiyo) who counts as girl because that's how she sees herself.

But really, I'm just being playfully mean. I just like data. Without these characters, I might not know who I am today. I might never have known. For that, I'll always be grateful.

Cyberlimbs in SR3

"This is it. It’s the end of the line for me. But not for you. Fast is what you do best, ain’t it? Just keep running."

I fucking love Shadowrun. I've played 3e extensively and 5e a short amount. Both are good games, but it's become increasingly clear to me that both have their own mess of problems. 5e fixes some but breaks others, and I got to thinking about what things it got right. This time, I'm talking about cyberlimbs and presenting house rules to lift them out of the gutter hell of "flavor" purchases. 

In 3e, cyberlimbs are a niche purchase. They have their gimmicks, like Kid Stealth legs, hydraulic jacks, or the cyberarm gyromount. They're also prohibitively expensive due to a variety of factors(that I'll go over later) and Cyberskulls in specific are virtually worthless. Its "best use" is to protect your headware from stress, but even that is laughably pointless: It isn't as though headware is harder to repair or more prone to damage than anything else. 

5e simplifies limbs and adds options as well as adding a large variety of limb gadgets. Those are the easy part: I've already adapted several of those and it wouldn't be hard to adapt more. 5e also accidentally turns cyberlimbs into a dominant strategy, but I promise that fact is irrelevant to our discussion today. 

Simplification is on the menu to make limbs easier to use, less math-crunchy, and easier to justify purchasing. SR3 designs with realism in mind but as you'll find out, some of the issues with cyberlimbs already don't make any fucking sense. 

Ability Scores. This is the major financial albatross around your neck if you're buying cyberlimbs. They start at STR and QCK of 4 and must be bought up and balanced with your natural ability scores, or else you take penalties. What's worse is that raising these scores gets harder and more expensive after three points, which can easily push you into taking a lot of extra essence and nuyen penalties. Let me go over a simple, basic example. Keep in mind this is all STANDARD grade 'ware. Alphaware will be even higher.

>--<

A character with a QCK of 4 and two cyberlegs has paid 150k nuyen and 2 essence. This is our baseline for a "fair" price: they're expensive, but do come with baked-in benefits in addition to being a framework upon which to hang extras. 

The same character with a QCK of 7 pays 330k nuyen and 2 essence. They get no additional benefit other than simply being able to actually use their QCK of 7 when running. 

If they have a QCK of 8, they're paying 420k and 2.6 essence. Again, there is no additional benefit. 

>--<

Blowing money just to match the stats you've already got quickly gets fucking ridiculous. The character in question might have cyberlegs primarily for hydraulic jacks, and ironically might consider just installing those in his meat legs for 2 essence and a mere 25k nuyen. He loses out on the ECU of the legs and the 2 points of body, but he gets to start with hydraulic jacks without having to refinance his fucking home. 

My suggestion: Remove limb stat balancing. Cyberlimbs should reflect your stats naturally, like a lower limb already does. Additional stat boosts beyond that can be handled by the system in their normal way: they can still cost the same and still apply to tests "using primarily that limb", just like the book says. 

Edit: Another way to handle stat boosts would be to allow someone with 3 or more cyberlimbs to buy stat boosts for a flat nuyen and ECU cost and allow them to affect stats normally like muscle replacement or muscle augmentation/toner. This would allow a cybernetic character a "replacement" for those pieces of 'ware, which they are not able to use. Be careful allowing this with two limbs, however: it would mean the character can benefit from muscle aug/toner as well as this boost. 

ECU. So, the values for ECU are okay. I think arms should have a bit more and legs should have a bit less, but that's a nitpick. Synthetic cyberlimbs also feel as though they're punished too harshly in this aspect. Our main issue is the fact that you lose ECU for higher grade limbs "because the implants are more streamlined and ergonomic and therefore smaller and have less space available."

This does not and has never made sense to me. The most charitable explanation I have is that standard grade limbs are much larger than a limb ought to be(which is reflected in a few pieces of artwork in the book) and the limb gets progressively smaller until a Delta limb is exactly the size a limb ought to be. This whole interpretation rapidly falls apart because a synthetic cyberlimb, which is intended to appear normal, has a concealability of 8 at standard grade. If it's already basically the size of a normal limb, what's happening as it goes up in grade? Premium, more ergonomic parts sure don't sound like they'd be larger then standard ones.

I also want to point out here that SR5 lets you buy additional ECU via an option called Bulk Modification. You can get up to 6 more ECU for the torso or 4 more for a limb, for example. I think porting this wholesale would be fine so long as we remind players of the "cyberware and social interaction" rules. I always suggest going soft on these to begin with but it's not my fault if you look like a Sherman tank.

My suggestion: remove the loss of ECU for higher grade limbs. Asking the player to balance ECU considerations with their essence is pointless bookkeeping. Making a sammy is crunchy enough. Consider adding Bulk Modification to your games. 

Limb Extras and Gadgets. Part of the problem with limbs is a lack of standardized gadgets and limb extras. That's not a huge problem considering the rules allow you to use your own ingenuity. However, porting some stuff from 5e or coming up with your own is a good idea. I particularly like the idea of a limb holding a tool or biotech kit, it feels like exactly something someone would do with their cyberlimb. Synthlinks for musicians and better rules for modular connectors are perfect stuff. 

I also want to point out the concept of limb DNI. In SR3, you have to pay for direct neural interfacing for any limb gadgets, as in it's not controlled directly by your brain until you do. This rule is extremely poorly conveyed and practically vestigial. Trying to follow it closely raises more questions than it solves: sure, I'd have to plug into my cyberdeck even though it's in my arm, but what's the difference between a DNI cybergun and a non-DNI one? What about cyber-implant weaponry? Would lack of DNI imply that I'm pulling blades out of my hand like I'm opening a utility knife? This rule only makes sense to me for things that you want to put on your headware network. Even then, "DNI Adaptation" isn't the same as a router and RAW, you have to do both. To put a finer point on it: this only makes sense to me for cyberdecks and electronic devices. Even then, this is just yet another tax. Your brain is already controlling the limb and cyber-implant weaponry is already described as something like a new muscle in other areas of the book. I see no reason why ANY gadget would be different. 

My Suggestion: Remove "DNI Adaptation" and just assume limb gadgets are DNI by default. Adapt some gadgets, either from 5e or your own ideas. Or just wait for me to do it.

Concealability. Man, this pisses me off. I barely talk about Synthetic cyberlimbs because they get hit with huge penalties on top of all of the downsides they share with obvious limbs. They have half the ECU of their counterparts, but also have to worry about their concealability going down. What's worse is that basically, everything you'd think to put in the fucking thing lowers concealability. The only reason you'd have a synthetic limb is to sneak your capabilities and gadgets past a MAD, and your conceal rating is the thing you're using to get PAST that MAD, so it creates this awful situation where you already lost half your ECU and you feel like you can't even fill what's left for fear of impacting your limb's usefulness. 

My suggestion. Remove. Entirely. 

Cyberskulls. I just wanted to make a note here because there's basically no fixing this piece of 'ware. It's not too expensive, the essence cost isn't too out of line... it just doesn't really do anything. Fluffing its ECU would be okay, a measly 2 ECU isn't much. However, even then I'm just not sure of how many pieces of equipment could go in your HEAD. It already fits a cybersquirt, can you do that? I say yes, but a lot of reasonable people I know would laugh. It's the world's best protection against a head shot, but if there's a sniper and you've got an obvious cyberskull, they're going to know. In addition to its lack of benefits, it comes with enormous social penalties which are intended to stack on top of the normal cyberware and social interactions penalties. I dunno I just don't think an obvious cyberskull would cause such a severe reaction, especially considering what media exposure must be like by 2065. 

My Suggestion: go soft on the social penalties. Cutting the base essence cost from 0.75 to 0.50 might be warranted. Consider eliminating it from "counting" as a limb for purposes of 'ware benefit reduction.

I love cyberlimbs.  I like the cool aesthetic, the self-expression in their design, and having a lot of extras, gadgets and answers. I find a reason to fit them into a lot of builds. They're just frustrating to work with: I want characters with varied options and I feel like paying a premium for that is counter-intuitive. After all, the "power" options are cheaper and less impactful on essence. If I wanted to build the overall most effective murder machine I could, they wouldn't have any cyberlimbs, I can promise you that.

Research: Abusability and Unique Options of SR3 Gun Creation Rules

 "I would like to see every woman know how to handle firearms As naturally as they know how to handle babies."

Hi, more grunt work research today, so if my hyper-specific interests bother you today, sorry. I'm going over what you can do with the gun creation rules, specifically how bad you can abuse them and everything unique it can create. We've long called them balanced. I want to make sure. 

Some notes. Unique means something that can't be attained from just buying a stock firearm. This means that something like a 7M full-auto SMG isn't notable despite being powerful: there's two of those already. Also, if I left a category of gun out, it means there's nothing notable about it. I just can't imagine even these rules can create a hold-out pistol that's worth looking at. Finally, if something is unique across every frame universally, I only mentioned it when it sticks out. I did a post on that, anyway.

Oh, and abuse score is from 1 to 10, 1 meaning not abusable at all, and 10 meaning extremely abusable, worthy of a house rule or denial.

Heavy Pistol

10M semi-auto damage. Every other 10M pistol is single-shot only. I don't think this is gonna break the bank, but high powered weapons are what wins you fights in SR. Something to keep an eye on. 4/10.

Burst Fire as a simple action. Not technically unique, but bears mentioning. The only other two heavy pistols that can burst are one that does it as a complex action and one that Lone Star hunts down and punishes the users of, respectively. 7/10.

Worst Case Scenario: A 10M SA/BF pistol with a conceal of 7. 

SMG

Recoil Compensation. Heavy Barrel and Integrated Recoil Compensation means 3 extra points. This can compensate for having to use a silencer over a gas vent. 2/10

High Velocity Capability. The only HV SMG in the book has a piddly 6L damage code. an HV SMG is already of limited use compared to larger HV firearms, but a created HV SMG would be a gun you'd actually want to buy, unlike the Ingram Supermach 100. 3/10.

Worst Case Scenario: You make an SMG worth using.

Taser

12S Stun Damage. The two tasers in the game are 10S Stun and 8D Stun. Power wins fights, doubly so when it's something like a taser which is already not hitting on your full impact armor. 6/10.

Ceramic Components. Like most weapons, unavailable at stock. Unlike most weapons, uniquely suited for its use seeing as how a taser is an easy lights-out button. 5/10. 

Worst Case Scenario: a 12S Stun taser with 3 ammo and a conceal of 7, or a 10S taser with a conceal of 6 and Ceramic Components 3. 

Sport Rifle

Burst Fire. Unavailable outside of the weird, stinky combination rifles. 2/10.

Concealability. Bullpup Configuration and Barrel Reduction stack, meaning you can get a rifle up to a conceal of 6. 8/10.

Worst Case Scenario: a 9S SA/BF rifle with a concealability of 6 and 4 extra points of recoil compensation.

Assault Rifle

9M Damage. Power wins fights and this rivals MMGs for stopping power combined with full-auto capability. 9/10. 

Concealability. See Sport Rifle. AR gets both of those as well, netting you a conceal of 7. 9/10.

Recoil Compensation. AR is the best candidate for a silenced gun that still does burst fire or full auto, and the 4 recoil compensation you can easily reach helps compensate for the loss of the gas vent. 

Worst Case Scenario: a 9M SA/BF/FA weapon with a concealability of 7 and 4 extra points of recoil compensation. Yikes. 

Sniper Rifle. 

16M Damage. The other book-listed sniper rifles are 14M and 14D. The one that's 14D also comes with a lot of baggage, see previous weapon discussions for more info. 7/10

Worst Case Scenario: That. 

Machine Guns

All three of these frames can get 1pt of power higher than the best book-standard guns in their category. They also benefit from the 3 easy points of recoil comp available to them. Finally, this is the only source of a high-velocity MMG or HMG. 5/10.

Assault Cannon

20D damage. The other two assault cannons are 18D. 5/10. 

Worst Case Scenario: IDK man it's still only single shot, power wins fights(like I keep saying) but I doubt the difference between 18 and 20 is gonna matter much. 

Parting Shots Thoughts

So, the only gun frame that's crunched for FCU is SMG. I wouldn't be surprised if the SMG frame was supposed to have 2 or 2.5 and the change got lost in the shuffle. Every other gun frame has ample FCU to fit whatever you'd like to put in it: SMG is the only one that has to make hard choices. 

Balance isn't done in a vacuum. Remember that before you start trying to hand-edit these rules. It's okay for a gun to be notably more powerful than others of its kind if it was expensive or hard to get. Remember, the GM basically decides the availability of these weapons by themselves. Don't be afraid to say yes, then put an extra-high availability on it. 

Watch out for people trying to sneak that godlike pistol-sized assault rifle past you, though. I wouldn't be shocked if a GM made the ruling that Bullpup and Short Barrel don't stack. 

The Neon Casket: Charlie's Last Dance

-by Fragile Faithe

Fancy meeting you here. Welcome to the Neon Casket, a repository for unexplained video, lost media, mystery and intrigue, and arguing in the comments over whether the Patterson film is real or not. I'm your host and sysadmin Faithe, and I thought we'd start off the new, revamped servers with a classic: Charlie's Last Dance. This is a pretty popular request, so I'm getting ahead of this one to save my poor, poor inbox. 

While it was still active, Fuchi developed a line of flatscreen recordings intended to offer positive, calming visuals and sounds for people who live deep in the inner city. Fuchi advertised more than a dozen similar product lines as a substitute for a real window, since each recording lasts sixteen hours before looping. 

>>>>>[Fuchi was already on its last legs at this point. Their film division's future was left uncertain, and they likely used this as a last-ditch effort to massage their profit margins before the merger hit.]<<<<<

- Dr. Gatter

>>>>>[It makes sense: bizarrely cheap recordings done with extremely expensive technology.]<<<<<

- Mr. Director

>>>>>[When a content creator is completely out of ideas, they do ASMR. Even Megacorps, apparently.]<<<<<

- Lazarus

Officially, the track in question is titled "Seascape Adventures Track #29: Santa Monica Nights". The recording features a static shot of a beach in Santa Monica with view of the distant pier. The beach is closed despite being in-season, so the view is peaceful, serene, and completely absent of people. The soundscape is filled with surf, seagulls, and the distant hustle and bustle of the pier.

Nothing happens for the first seven hours of the recording. At 7:05:05, the sun begins to set and the lights of the pier start to come alive. Shortly after, a man in a neutral gray suit wanders onto the beach from Camera Right, the footpath. He's disheveled, and removing his tie as he walks. He's carrying a bottle in his other hand. The man wanders the beach dejectedly until answering a phone call at 7:48:46. The audible portions of the call are as follows. 

Charlie Nelson, senior risk analysist. Yes sir, I know. I know, sir. Tomorrow I'll- (Charlie is silent for approximately four minutes) I get it. No, just mail my stuff to my house.

>>>>>[Aww. Hey Charlie, how's corpo life treating you? Lol. ]<<<<<

- Lazarus

>>>>>[Is anyone able to pick up the other half of the conversation here?]<<<<<
- Placeholder Jones

>>>>>[I've got nothing. Fuchi used bleeding-edge microphones for these, but they're omni-directional and too far away. Whatever he got fired for, it's being drowned out by seagulls.]<<<<<

- Mr. Director

At this point, Charlie sits down in the sand, pinching the bridge of his nose. He begins to drink from his bottle, presumed to be whisky or rum.

>>>>>[It's ARES Revelry Black Label. Expensive whisky, not the kind of thing you find in a stuffer shack.]<<<<<

- &T885K90M1

 He takes his jacket off at 8:10:56 and discards it in the sand next to him. He wanders around the beach, drinking, until 9:15:40 when he makes a phone call of his own to leave a voice-mail message, judging by the sharp beep his pocket secretary makes. A transcript is as follows. 

Hey, Barb. I-I just wanted to say I'm sorry for all the fighting lately. Work's been stressful, but I talked to Mr. Collin and I think everything's gonna be okay. I'm working late tonight, but tomorrow we can talk about those papers. If you still want to. Tell Angie I love her.

At this point, Charlie's bottle is 1/4th full. He drops his pocket secretary onto the sand and starts to dance. 

>>>>>[So someone RECOVERED the POCKET SECRETARY, Right?]<<<<<

- Clank

>>>>>[Renraku seized all Fuchi property after the merger. If the recording team picked it up, it's sitting in some Renraku storehouse somewhere, collecting dust.]<<<<<

- Dr. Gatter

>>>>>[That's usually a crowded beach. Someone, somewhere had to have grabbed it. Whether it was a Fuchi employee or some beach bum the next day, someone's got it.]<<<<<

- Vacancy

He performs a slow, ballroom-style dance by himself, arms held out for an invisible partner, for several minutes. At 9:31:05, Charlie drinks the remainder of the bottle in one motion, drops it onto the beach, and walks into the ocean to the camera's left. Nothing unusual happens for the remainder of the recording's sixteen hour runtime. 

>>>>>[What are the chances our boy Charlie just wandered off and passed out off-camera?]<<<<<

- Andrew Jackson

>>>>>[There's nothing but ocean in the direction he walked. Even if he just felt like taking a swim? With a whole bottle of The Good Stuff in him, he's fish food.]<<<<<

- Grinder

"Seascape Adventures Track #29: Santa Monica Nights" was available for sale for eighteen hours before it was pulled down due to "video corruption errors" and replaced with six-hour recordings of "Santa Monica Mornings" and "Santa Monica: After Dark". The Fuchi Home Services application also attempted to auto-delete the file from Fuchi branded telecoms.

>>>>>[If you haven't jailbroken your home telecom by now, you only have yourself to blame.]<<<<<

- Ingress

>>>>>[Seascape Adventures and the billion other 'virtual window' recordings they did are bottom-barrel drek, I'm surprised they scrambled to fix it so quickly.]<<<<<

- Mr. Director

>>>>>[Remember the one from that carnival in Miami that has two women making out in full view of the camera for like thirty minutes?]<<<<<

- Lazarus

>>>>>[It's still up in the Renraku App Store. #4 Best Seller.]<<<<<

- Fuse

The video still exists, notably a version cut solely to Charlie's portion. It's frequently traded and analyzed by "Lost Media" enthusiasts and experts, who usually find their way to our site sooner or later. Even cursory research into the event raises several questions. First, Fuchi's recording team uses a high-powered drone which notes any suspicious heat signatures present in the video, which would have made it obvious that Charlie had ruined their recording. 

>>>>>[Assuming the editor even bothered to look at the error list. Fuchi's recorder drones were touchy, and those lists usually filled up with trash and false positives. When you have a dozen other sixteen hour recordings to edit and five pages of bullshit each, you learn not to bother.]<<<<<

- Mr. Director

>>>>>[The theory that Charlie was a spirit or ghost is pretty popular.]<<<<<

- Placeholder Jones

>>>>>[Lots of things are popular with idiots.]<<<<<

- Mr. Director

Second, Fuchi uses armed guards to ensure their recording sessions go smoothly. It's unknown how Charlie got past them, especially since he enters the beach from a well-used and paved footpath.

>>>>>[Charlie shows up at 7:05. Minimum wage, bored, and seven hours into your shift? Charlie probably strolled right by.]<<<<<

- Vacancy

Third and most concerning: No death was reported, and no body was found.

>>>>>[This is where it gets interesting: Charlie doesn't exist. There's no record anywhere of a Charlie Nelson that fits the description. Barbara Nelson and Angela Nelson turn up too many hits to be useful, even restricting the search to Cali. ]<<<<<

- Ingress

>>>>>[Corps don't hire the sinless for jobs like risk analysis. It's possible Charlie was a runner. He calls his 'boss' Sir and mentions a job title, but plenty of top-tier teams talk in code. He tells his wife 'work' sucks, but it could've been a cover story.]<<<<<

- Shredder

>>>>>[Or his history was erased after the fact to cover something up.]<<<<<

- Ingress

>>>>>[Oh Oh, me next: OR he BECAME a runner BECAUSE he was fired. He narrowly survived killing himself and turned to a life of crime the next morning.]<<<<<

- Lazarus

>>>>>[Missed opportunity to claim he had a secret underwater supervillain base just off the coast.]<<<<<

- &T885K90M1

Until next time, all you ghouls, ghosts and exhausted archivists of lost media. As always, if you come across any information about the video, don't be a stranger. And Charlie, if you're still out there? Sorry about your job. Life's rough, eh?

Character Theme Music

 I solve this puzzle, but tumble through Hell

These words are fractions when I needed primes

Curses, these verses are my prison cell

I try to pick a theme song for every character. A lot of people do this, apparently, some even putting together entire playlists.  It isn't always easy. Music conveys emotion, tone and feel in a way nothing else can. I don't consider this a vital part of creating a character, but you can get a ton of information across in a very short amount of time with music. It's not as though you're making a permanent choice, either: If the song no longer fits...just pick a new one. Do a new theme for every era of your character. That's the beauty of a purely aesthetic choice. 

There's something to be said of picking a direct analogy in lyrics or song meaning. Being blunt is especially fun for characters who are supposed to be direct, blunt, or easy to read. You can choose a song for a lot of other reasons, though. Maybe you want the song to hint at their true nature, something they hide from everyone else. Maybe you have a feel for the genre of the character and want to pick the best candidate for conveying that. 

Really, the only solid advice I can give you is that this is a powerful tool. You can use this to convey your character's tone, or some kind of aesthetic. Or, you can reverse this and just pick off vibes then think about the exact reasons of why you think it fits. Maybe you'll learn something about your character. I know it's helped me. 

This whole post was probably just a preface to going over my own characters and talking about their themes. It's fine, it's my blog and I really wanted to do that. I should note that some of these characters have had different themes in the past, and that's okay. Characters change over time, just like people do. 

Oh, and in the spirit of keeping this post from being a dead link nightmare, I'm relying on you to just search the songs I'm talking about. It can't be that hard. 

Inkless

They Might be Giants - Road Movie to Berlin

Time won't find the lost, it'll sweep up our skeleton bones

Inkless had an entire soundtrack at one point, full of 80s pop and punk music. That music still definitely fits her: it's in her nature to be anti-establishment, even rowdy. Since the soundtrack is gone, I thought I'd be extra unhelpful and choose a song that wasn't even on it to convey something a bit different about her. 

So this song is explicitly about the Berlin wall, written during a time that it was "obvious" that the wall would be there forever. It's also sort of about the cold war and the looming threat of nuclear destruction, at least in feel. That's not how I always saw the song, though. 

It's a bar song that never really starts or ends. It's always felt to me like yet another stop on an endless road trip: a long, solemn drive home that never really ends. In a way, that matches Inkless's life. Never literally alone, but neither having anyone she can relate to. Leaving "home", but not feeling like she found a new one yet. Spiritually (and sometimes literally), always on the road.

Pink Annis

The Crane Wives - Tongues and Teeth

I've grown a mouth so sharp and cruel, it's all that I can give to you, my dear

Tongues and Teeth is a song about resenting your partner for staying with you and wanting to help(or 'fix') you. It has themes of feeling that you're is too toxic, mean or even broken to help. They're telling their lover to quit before it escalates: because it will escalate. For Pink, the song is about her and humanity: the unshakeable notion that she's too strange and monstrous to fit in, even if she has no problem looking the part. She doesn't think human society is something meant for her, or even something she could fit into if she tried. 

Pink would probably tell you she's a punk. However, the Crane Wives playing with acoustic instruments and even a banjo on this track probably fits her better than she'd admit. She's not (exactly) an anachronism, but definitely something older than she appears, or even older than she thinks she is. The song's mixture of anger and passion with smooth, acoustic music fits her well.

Shivani Sedana

Ghost - Spillways

You keep a casket, deep within

You try to mask it, but fall back in sin

Spillways is about bottling up your pain ultimately just making your problems worse. The song presents the idea that the only way you're going to feel(or be) better is pulling your darkness up to the surface and embracing it. 

A gothic sound that isn't especially sad or gloomy is perfect for Shivani, so Ghost's cool, smooth goth metal fits particularly well. In addition to that, the song's message about true nature might be something she needs to hear. In a lot of ways, Shivani is hanging on to the past and even an identity that no longer fits her. She'll probably always struggle with cyberpsychosis, but pushing her feelings aside and trying to ignore the problem is never going to help.

Aikiyo the Mockery

Wagakki Band - Ikusa

I never lost a beat

since that windswept day

Wagakki Band mixes traditional Japanese instruments with modern ones, so immediately I knew that's what I wanted for Aikiyo. What stands out to me is the music combining the sounds of electric guitar and heavy metal drums with shakuhashi (bamboo flute) and koto (plucked zither). This perfectly describes Aikiyo, because she's a mechanical martial artist, a construct who studies swordplay exclusively. She lives in two different worlds simply by existing.

I'm not gonna go on and on about the lyrics or the meaning, because I could be pretty far off from what it actually means. Real Japanese to English lyric translations are very hard to find. I will say the lyrics I did find reminded me strongly of a duel, of two people meeting on a battlefield. They remind me of the kind of battlefield honor that Aikiyo feels is important, but tries to hide. 

[~=~=~]

I could be wrong on what all these songs mean, so cut me some slack. Of course, it doesn't even matter that much if I am. We're doing this to convey vibes, ultimately. I'm sure I've made it inside the ballpark, and nitpicking specific meanings or themes would probably be disingenuous. I might do another one of these where I pick themes for characters who never had them, or even themes for other people's characters. That might be nice, and even slightly less indulgent than this was. 

Shadowrun(3e) Weapon Showdown pt. 2: Meta Firearms Mambo

 John, I've been bad,

and they're coming after me

Done someone wrong,

and I fear that it was me...

I could use a bit of comfort content so we're still doing the near-neurodivergence level of hyperfocused SR3 infodump. I wanted to sort of write a guide on firearms in SR3. They're pretty easy to interpret on their own, but there's a lot of them and I wanted to showcase how many different use cases there can be in Shadowrun. Of course this only applies to SR3, though: I've got limited play experience with the others and anyway, both 5e and 6e collapse the range of your options a bit, for the better. 

Before I begin I wanted to say that I'm not weighing the accessories the guns are packaged with very highly. Unless it's something that's unique, the extra cost and impact on conceal(if any) is somewhat trivial. What I'll do instead is give generalized suggestions on accessories each category should be using. 

Finally, a note on targeting systems: Obviously a cybernetic Smartlink-2 and Rangefinder system is best, but not all of us are chromed. Without 'ware you can use smart goggles, or you also have the option to use an extended range laser sight and a mag-3 scope. This is the only time I'm gonna mention this, so just keep it in mind if you're gearing up a physad, mage, or just someone who doesn't have the room for a smartlink-2. 

Loadout Philosophy

Put simply, every character who uses firearms ought to have three of them. The first should be a gun focused on carrying it all the time, something that's decent in a fight but has an eye on concealability. Your GM may vary, but even attempting to conceal a weapon goes a long way with cops. The second is a gun for stealth missions: something that has a silencer and/or something extremely concealable that can be smuggled into a building past guards and MADs. Your choice depends on your methods. The third is a weapon purely built for killing, to be pulled out only when you don't care who sees you. Frequently, these categories can mix: if all you use are pistols, your EDC and your "loud" gun are probably going to be the same one. Regardless of your skills, you should keep these three roles in mind. 

Ammo types are mostly easy to interpret, but I'm putting some notes here for you. First, the difference between capsule and gel rounds is that delivering a chemical means your successes on the attack go toward scaling the chemical, not the stun damage. You can not choose otherwise. Capsule rounds are powerful and interesting, but gimmicky. 

Next, a note on EX Explosive ammo vs. APDS. You may think that APDS is universally better than ex-ex because of the cost and availability, but consider this: APDS only pulls ahead if the target's ballistic armor rating is 6 or more. Underneath that, it's only reducing armor by 2 points...the same(essentially) as EX Explosive. Those APDS bullets are expensive, so consider your loadout carefully. If you're dealing with ganger punks in armor jackets...save your nuyen.

Finally, there are a lot of ammo types that are resisted with double armor in some way, either double impact or ballistic plus impact, or what have you. These ammo types have limited usefulness in general, usually only for moments when you're taking called shots to unarmored portions of the body. In these instances, Glazer rounds are best...but honestly, I think you should see this as an extreme niche and not something every character should be buying. Form-fit armor is decently popular, and can ruin your plans even with its 4/1 armor rating. 

Heavy Pistols

I want to note here that hold-out, light and machine pistols are generally not worth using. Their downsides and lack of damage don't make up for the few extra points of concealability you get. If you're concerned with hiding a weapon, a Morrisey Elite inside a concealable holster and underneath a Long Coat is a concealability of 12. That's a lot. 

Accessories: Smartlink, Rangefinder, Personalized Grip, Concealable Quick-draw Holster. First off, the only recoil you need to worry about is the +1 for your second shot in the round(but see below), so your personalized grip will take care of it.  This also means you're free to put a silencer on these guns if you want. After all, these are the most common silenced firearms in the game for a reason. Pistols are also one of the few categories of weapon you're able to use a concealed holster with, as well as quick draw. You should take advantage of that functionality every time you're able. 

Every-Day Carry: You really can't go wrong here. For every day use in a wide range of situations, most heavy pistols are okay. The Morrissey Elite trades clip size for an amazing conceal of 7, but the Browning Ultra-Power or Morrissey Ultra are decent concealable guns as well. If you don't care about concealability that much, there's always the old standard, the Predator III. 

Quiet Time: The WW Infiltrator isn't available at chargen, but fools MADs and disassembles into items which look like luggage accessories. For a concealed weapon with a huge punch, the Eichiro Hatamoto II chambers a single shotgun round, and has the stopping power you'd expect from that. Finally, for simple infiltration, you really can't go wrong with slapping a silencer on your EDC gun just before your run starts. Pistols generally don't need barrel mounted accessories, so even characters with no stealth skills at all should carry around a silencer to mount on their pistol. 

Loud Crowd: Boringly, your core damage option is going to be firing twice with a 9M pistol. Any one of them. You really may as well make purchases based on the Quiet Time section above, even if you're the party's Plan B. A few other weapons bear mentioning, however. We spent years thinking the Savalette Guardian and its ability to fire a burst as a complex action was the king of weapons, but I don't believe that any more. Blowing a complex action for a burst seems worthwhile only if your regular shots are flattening against someone, because of armor or body attribute(or both). For high armor targets or called shots, though, I guess it's handy to have the option. The game's big-time revolver, the Ruger Super Warhawk, can also be seen in a similar light to the Guardian. It can't be silenced and it's single-shot only, but...who knows, maybe you have something to do with that other simple action. Careful Aim comes to mind: a Ruger loaded with ex-ex or APDS and used for called shots after a careful aim action could be a valid option. 

SMGs

Accessories: Smartlink, Rangefinder, Personalized Grip, Folding Stock, Underbarrel Weight, Gas Vent IV. As you can see, we're trying to get your recoil compensation up to ten for maximizing Full Auto fire. You won't get there with a stock firearm without some external factors like a cyberarm gyromount or foot anchors, but we can get you to 7 easily. This is also a category that can use concealable quick-draw holsters, so long as your SMG has a conceal of 4 or above.

Every-Day Carry: The Heckler & Koch HK227, HK227-S, and MP-5 TX all combine a 7M damage code with full-auto fire and respectable conceal ratings. The HK227-S has a sound suppressor, however, so see notes on that below. Outside of that, most of the options here are good if you don't mind accepting a 6M damage code, with the Colt Cobra series and AK-97 Carbine both having all three fire modes. The Ingram Warrior bears mentioning for having a 7M damage code, but no full-auto mode.

Notes On Fire Modes: Full Auto is a benefit to you even if you can't effectively use it in a straightforward manner. It allows Cover Fire and Searching Fire as options, both of which have plenty of uses in combat outside of "kill the mans as fast as possible". Therefore, having full auto capability on your weapon is a benefit even if you can't use it as well.

Quiet Time: You give up your gas vent for a sound suppressor, meaning the most recoil comp we can squeeze into the gun is 3 without some external factor. It means you'll be using full-auto solely for cover or searching fire and otherwise attacking with bursts. SMGs aren't great for quiet infiltration, but you could do worse. 

Loud Crowd: I'm only putting this section here to say that it really isn't necessary. Having an easily concealed but powerful firearm is literally the point of SMGs, so there isn't a need to have a "Plan B" SMG...it simply wouldn't be very different from your every-day SMG.

Shotguns

Wow, so there aren't special sections with funny names here, are there? That's because we've landed on our first uniquely powerful weapon, the SPAS-22. It has a folding stock(something not technically allowed for custom firearms), burst fire capability, and can be sawn off. It lowers the damage code by 1, but with a 9S weapon the size of a pistol with a conceal of 6? You'll manage. You need six points of recoil compensation, which you can accomplish via personalized grip, the SPAS's stock, and gas vent IV. Make sure to cover your ass here, because shotguns double uncompensated recoil modifiers. 

Every other shotgun is worse than the SPAS-22. It isn't by a lot in most cases, but they're all worse. 

Rifles

I'm not gonna insult you by laboriously going over your choice of six guns. You can tell the difference. However, I did want to bring up the Barrett 121. It has a higher damage level than the other sniper rifles, but has special +2 per shot recoil and can only fire its own special ammunition. These drawbacks ensure that it isn't worth it to use this gun over the other two sniper rifles. Firstly, the recoil may come up: with a personalized grip, shock pads and its bipod you're able to mitigate two shots worth of recoil...until you're not able to use that bipod. It can't mount a gas vent, either. Second(and more important), its 14-availability ammunition means you'll either struggle to find it, or pay through the nose. In a pinch, the Ranger Arms SM-3 and Walther MA-2100 can both fire the regular rounds that you bought at Dick's. If you're wondering why Dick's Sporting Goods is carrying .50 caliber sniper rifle rounds, well...welcome to 2065. 

Assault Rifles

First off, let's not imply that an assault rifle is part of anyone's EDC. Don't be that guy. 

Accessories: Smartlink, Range Finder, Personalized Grip, Gas Vent IV, Shock Pads, Underbarrel Weight(see below). Just like SMGs above, we're maximizing your recoil compensation. This is another weapon type that benefits a lot from being able to use full auto, but AT MINIMUM you want six points so you can fire two bursts in a round and still hit whatever you're aiming the gun at. This weapon type more than any others has loads of underbarrel accessory options, so weigh those against the simple +1 RC from the underbarrel weight or foregrip. 

Loud Crowd: People buy assault rifles because you can put underbarrel grenade launchers on them, so the Ares Alpha Combat Gun stands out. In addition to having one of those, it's also got a "special chamber design" that's worth 2 points of recoil compensation. Other assault rifles come close, but none of the other ones have that special chamber. It can't mount an underbarrel weight, but you're still a full point above other options, even if they choose not to mount a grenade launcher.

Quiet Time: I'm just gonna reiterate here that silencing a weapon means giving up your gas vent system. In this case, it puts the Alpha even further ahead the other guns: with its special chamber, personalized grip, and shock pads, you can get to 4 RC and still keep your grenades. You want to get up to 6 RC so you can fire two bursts, and a -1 from a STR of 6 is a pretty easy start. 

Custom Firearms

I'm not gonna give a rote explanation of the custom firearm rules, because I think they're pretty simple. However, I should point out what this system is good at creating. I'm leaving out one or two arguably-shouldn't-be-allowed options like the assault rifle with a conceal of 7, because that build's not even that hard to find. 

Unique Options. Barrel Extension, Selectable Clip, and Ceramic Components are all things that don't show up in book standard firearms. I personally find Selectable Clip handy as hell.

Concealability. With stuff like bullpup design and barrel reduction, it's pretty easy to get a weapon's conceal rating up, even with shotguns or assault rifles. While this can go overboard with the larger weapons, it's still important to note.

Recoil Compensation. Thanks to Heavy Barrel, Bullpup Configuration, and integral recoil compensation, custom large weapons can be up to 4 RC above stock weapons. This is particularly helpful if you're set on a silenced assault rifle. 

@}-,-'--

Thank you for putting up with all this content written on an arguably-busted niche edition of a game. I love SR3 and, as the years go by, I'm starting to think that my posts are all the love it's going to get. If nothing else, I'm having a lot of fun revisiting a game from my childhood with much more expertise and knowledge under my belt. 

Oh, and one final word: if the FBI or police are reading this post, please google "Shadowrun" before kicking my door down and scaring my Mom. Thanks. <3