Every other Saturday I play Shadowrun. When I first created this character, I had rudimentary knowledge about how the game worked, absolutely no idea how to play a caster, and pretty much relied on the GM and one of my gaming buddies for help with the basic creation. So, here I am, half a year later without much clue who this gal is and why she does what she does.
As I did for my D&D character, I am doing an introduction diary entry. Well, that's the plan. After I work through my thoughts on Whisper's stats and creation and stuff, it will probably be me freestyle writing as I figure out her motivations and back story.
Here's what I'm working with:
She's an Elf; a Hermetic Mage who specializes in summoning/banishing. Her primary function is healer/protector/utility. At first, she was also the face for the group, but our group dynamics changed a few months later when we got a new player. When that happened I had a much better handle on what skills I needed, what I didn't, and things I'd do to personalize her a bit. The GM told me go ahead and re-create her from scratch.
So. Whisper is a full-blooded elf who's a hermetic mage, extremely well educated, and she's a runner. Why?? She has degrees in anatomy & physiology, quantum mechanics, astral theory, magical theory, arcane history, and photography. This build I bought her an astral camera in addition to a regular one just to give her some kind of hobby for personality quirks.
sidenote: Another quirk: While hermatic, she talks to and treats her summoned spirits well. Um. Or tries to. Sure she considers them a creation born from her magical manipulation of matter, but they each have personalities. So she reacts to them accordingly because she's curious. Several of them state quite loudly that they want to go back where they came from. So she's not entirely convinced anymore that she "creates" them. Anyway, she's a unique hermatic chica who is not a shaman. For reals. Not even kidding.
I also gave her a British accent when I re-did her. Because elf. This totally threw off one of my party members, and I've been a little embarrassed to do the accent since then. I'll get over it. I like the Mary Poppins voice.
Negative Qualities:
* don't ask her to hold/use a firearm. As smart as she is, those things confuse the hell out of her and she'd end up trying to take it apart or do something even more stupid with it.
* Low pain tolerance. -- see that big air elemental who follows her around everywhere? Yeah, he's there as a bodyguard because she's *really* squishy.
* Weak Immune System. -- Again, see that Force 6 elemental bodyguard? She's a delicate flower.
Yeah... At two physical or stun damage, she's got negatives.
Basic Stats:
Body: 3, Agility: 3, Reaction: 3, Str: 3, Willpower: 5, Logic: 5, Intuition: 3, Cha: 6, Essence: 6,
Edge: 2, Magic: 6.
Contacts:
She has a beat-cop friend with a loyalty of 5 but contact rating of 2. Apparently His mom is a detective, higher up in the Lone Star police force and she's sort of adopted me and wants me to check in once in a while. My buddy, though, sometimes he's cool and capable. Sometimes he gets mom in on whatever it is I need help with. I need to flesh this out.
There's a Mr. Johnson, contact of 5, loyalty of 2. Victor Vallejo. All I really know about him is he contacts our team lead or our new face w/ jobs. How did I even get to know him??
There's a Talismonger, connection 4, loyalty 2. NO clue about this guy. I've had to bother them once; it was during the current module we're running and this one is a "play the module, reset to normal when it's done" adventure. So I'm not really counting the one meeting with him/her as in-game fact. That being said, I could probably use that info to build on.
I know Whisper loves clothes. Especially the floaty whispy kind that are more translucent in nature. Her body armor? Well, she wears it when she must, but she kinda hates that jumpsuit. She prefers skirts and loose shirts/scarves that get picked up by the small breeze her elemental creates. I kinda think she wants to fly like the wind herself. Huh. Noted. Anyway, She has a low lifestyle, so she's super great at the bargain shopping. (Negotiation skill of 8, so she does okay.) She collects glass figurines of dragonflies, butterflies, and other pretty flying things. (Another girly addition I gave her on this rebuild.)
She's also not shy about her thoughts/feelings. I discovered on my first attempt at Shadowrun that I am incapable of playing a character who is shy and doesn't want to be noticed. Ever. One of my gaming buddies had to keep telling me my character didn't say that. No, she wouldn't have said that, either. No, shut up and let the other kids do the talking.
*cough*
Lesson learned. THIS character *would* say that. In fact, this character isn't shy at all. One of the first runs we did, she helped "distract" some guards we took to a night club so our pick-pocket could lift the mark's security badge. The guys still tease me endlessly about that particular session.
So. How did a well-educated mage drop down to a low lifestyle, Running for her money, using a fake SIN to stay off the radar of the corporations in Seattle? Does her family know? Do they care? What the heck was her family life even like?
Something happen at university? Something happen with her parents? Did she learn/ see something she shouldn't have and got framed? Maybe running was the best way to put her knowledge of healing and magic to use without having to be a doctor? aaaand, if that's the case, why would that be worth getting bullets/magic shot back at her? um. The money's good? not that good. Well, okay, yes, sometimes it really is. She could upgrade her lifestyle now if she wanted to. But that's now. Not when she started.
Someone would have needed a healer. Or a spirit to do something. Someone she knew, or kind of knew on campus. Ever curious, she was a bit egotistical about her abilities? Because she's so well educated and all that. Maybe she went on the run for a simple pop & swap and things went really bad. Maybe she learned she could use her skills on the run/under pressure/while bullets were flying.
oooh, what if whatever she did with that group was noticed by someone else? . her face/name associated with...something that is obviously not anything her beat-cop friend would want to lock her up for. hmmm. Maybe it was an internal thing at the university? She had to leave the school, but whatever it was for would be an embarassment to the deans/etc, so they're not actively hunting her, but they'd prefer she not be around?
that's kind of too easy. Not really requiring a second identity. Something going wrong on a "we just need you this one time and it'll be fast"
Maybe it didn't happen in Seattle. That could be a thing. Maybe she came to seattle because it wasn't safe to go home but seattle was close enough?
Dad wanted her to be a professor, mom wanted her to be whatever she wanted. Now she's shunned from the school, dad is extremely displeased. She can't go home because ... because Dad would give her back to university? No. No, he's an elf. He's almost anti-human. He'd never let her leave the elf country again. He'd be impossible to live with, though. Mom, well, she's loving and supportive, but doesn't understand how her little girl could get into such trouble. It would be best if Whisper would just listen to her father. He knows best.
I just channeled my mother there. Um. Sure, let's roll with it. Mom loves her, but follows dad's lead. ok then. I'll buy that for a dollar.
So to avoid dad and to avoid being linked to whatever it was, she's hiding out in Seattle. Fake SIN achieved with the help of the guy who got her in trouble in the first place. Hook-up with the Mr. Johnson also happened through the same guy. Maybe she dated him? Met him in one of her math classes or something? And he's a human so dad really disapproved. I like that. But then shit hit the fan and so she had to leave... um... wherever has a super amazing university. Had to leave there and head somewhere waaaay opposite. So... let's say she was in London. Seattle is not only across the ocean, but also across the continent. Cool. Works for me.
Got a few small jobs. Picked up as a healer for odd jobs, but didn't think about becoming a member of a team until she was offered this one when contacted about a team being put together. I don't like that sentence, but I know what I meant.
K.
Family girl: 1950's mom and dad. Goes off to college and dates the "enemy." Not only that, but additionally said enemy introduces her to the underground illegal life of shadowrunning. It'll just be this one time, sweety. We really just need you to bring an earth spirit so we can blah blah, and it'll be super quick. no one will see you or know it was you.
except no, it wasn't simple. Yes, she was seen. She lost everything in that life and had to start another one.
I can run with that. tomorrow I'll come up with names and details and get an actual journal introduction written. Yay brainstorming!
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