Hey guys, I'm still recruiting players, walking people through character creation.

Okay, We've got 4 players done, possibly 1 or 2 more in the works but we'll get started this week.

As far as equipment goes: Don't sweat it. TL 9 starting wealth is 30k. 80% of that is in your clothes, furnishing, home equity, lifestyle accountraments, etc. Background stuff that doesn't matter much. We'll define it as it becomes necessary, using your Status level as a guide.

The other 20% is liquid funds, your bank account, and any equipment you might have that would be *useful* during an adventure. In general we can define this as it becomes important as well - if you need, say, a set of lockpicks or a hunting rifle, then if it fits your character concept to own this, you do. Just add it to your sheet and subtract the $ from your liquid funds. If not, well, you'll have to go buy it.

So for now feel free to keep this vague and undefined.

Your competition gaming rigs will be provided to you by Disney, but you can certainly say that you have home VR/AR gear of whatever quality you can afford as part of your 80% background lifestyle gear.

You are all members of the same professional gaming team... and for some of you, this may be your first pro team. Maybe you've played together before, maybe you haven't - the specifics of your interpersonal relationships are up to you to decide.

Let's start, though, with introductions - tell us what the other players know about you. Feel free to lie, to hide things, to exaggerate. Maybe all they know is your tag and your social media "face." Maybe you talk on and on about uncomfortably personal issues. Up to you. You have met in person at least once, so definitely include any obvious physical traits (appearance, etc) or reaction modifiers they'd be affected by.

After that you can use these introductions to decide what your character thinks about each of your teammates.

James Covington is most often identified with his relatively short career as a child actor. His mother pushed him into the entertainment industry at a young age, where he started with advertisement, but gradually worked his way into a popular sitcom series. He was most often cast in roles as the obligatory "All American white kid"

One of the hundreds of young actors and actresses' that Disney employed at the time, his career faltered and stalled out when he hit puberty. One of the many the Mouse essentially chewed up and spit out.

James struggled with his mixed notoriety, and is still sensitive to it to this day, but he has not given up on a career in the public eye. At the urging of his family and his Agent, he is trying hard to break out of his typecast and to remold his public image into one of an AR gamer.

Disenchanted with the industry, he has spent a lot of time soul searching and trying to pursue what he calls "authentic" experiences.

His conventional handsome looks, dynamic personality and experience in front of a camera are his obvious strengths, but he was never well conditioned to the athleticism of the competition in earnest, and is still trying to catch up in that respect.

He has spent far more time learning to look good while pretending to compete, than competing in earnest, and he knows it.

Known only by her name used in any game she plays Mystic Seas will also accept being called Mystic but nobody knows her real name, assuming she hasn't had it legally changed or something like that.

While still young she already has a long history of being visible in multi player game circles, she is generally inclined to be a team player but never has any success at running one, so if she can't find one to join she just does it the hard way on her own anyways and usually succeeds eventually.

Meeting her in person for the first time is some kind of shock to almost everyone.  It is no longer rare for girls, or young women, to be gamers but it is still uncommon enough for them to be in the upper range of skilled solo players.  None of that measures up to how rare it is to find someone under four and a half feet tall and realize they have kicked your ass dozens of times in a wide range of games and AR training situations with 'full sized' avatars as required by the games.

Although very short Mystic is proportioned much more normally than the more common stubby arms and legs one expects to see in the little people, and doesn't suffer from any kind of lack of coordination, although she has specialized control interface tools to fit her smaller frame and hands.  More cute than pretty she is none the less attractive (+1) when she is inclined to at least smile.

George Lambert, better known to his friends by his handle of Agent G, is virtually unknown in the professional gaming field. He would likely have remained this way, if not for his reputation as a strong supporting players, and a far cry from the aggressive or insulting personality many gamers seem to have.

With little attachment back in Canada, and with his work as an independent programmer, he had no trouble accepting an invitation to help round out a professional gaming team.

He was surprised to learn that he would team up with an actor, but took it as a good news. That meant he could fade in the background, where he's most comfortable, while James draws the spotlight and public attention.

    Anna Darlington is a new member of the team, recommended due to her strong support and healing skills. You notice she is older than the usual sort of person who does this, and probably secretly hope she is up to the challenge that professional gaming brings. One thing is for sure though, she is certainly easy on the eyes.

   Anna has a friendly, outgoing personality. She is not afraid to talk about herself, giving her real name and some of her background as a housewife and mother, as well as a former nurse. You have seen her healing and support skills in action, and see why people gave her the moniker 'Mother'. Anna goes all out to protect her teammates and care for them, just like a mother. She sometimes will give a bit of 'motherly' advice to those younger than her, if it is wanted or not.

   She recognized James due to his fame and her son sometimes talking about him. There had been some things said about his troubles in the media, but Anna is willing to overlook that. Let the man prove himself to be better than what people say about him.

    She is pleased to see Misty in the group, but the 'motherly' part of her can't help be worried about Misty due to her small size even though the woman obviously has gaming experience.

    G though she had no opinion on yet. He looked older than the regular sort of player, but still, not as old as her.  The man did not seem to seek or want attention, which was fine with Anna. Maybe he would open up later when they got more acquainted.

Okay, great.

First choice I'll need you guys to make:

1. Is this a new team that's come together specifically for the Tournament?

or

2. Have you guys been playing together for at least a season prior?

If the latter, you're a relatively minor league team - not the worst, but lacking in the history, reputation, and sponsorships to really be a household name. Not that you can't personally be well known - that's a factor of the Reputation advantage - but the team itself wasn't very big.

Feel free to discuss this as a group.

  I personally am good with either.

Established team might be good to know of each others quirks and be comfortable as a team, we know how to work together.

Newly formed we are getting a 'feel' for one another and have to get used to how we play.

I could go either way as well, or indeed a combination of both.  Have a small longer term team that recently picked up one or two new capable players to the team to bring it up to a higher competitive level, or to replace people who have decided they aren't good enough to be professional in the AR circuit.

Welcome to our last players, Tansom and TheLastScion. You two are free to post what hte others would know about you, and then join into the discussion on the nature of the team.

I pretty much view my character as a newbie in the professional circuit. I could see him getting picked up by a small team needing an extra sniper.

 What you all know about me. In the more shooter aspects he excels. He is a student at a university and is studying computer programming. He is quiet and laid back outside of the game, but once you get him into the AR sims. He acts more brash more cocky. Not like two different people just trying to give a good show. His online following is newer as he realized that is how you get to be a pro at least as far as money goes.

 As far as the guild itself I think a mix is more apt to work. Just because while we might have run into each other and even played with each other we the players don't know each other well.

  That does make a good point, how often we really are together to 'practice'. After all, we DO have lives outside of the gaming even if it is kind of sort of a job per say.

 How often to pro gamers in real life train in those E-sports?

In reply to Anna Darlington (msg # 14):

Depends on the game. Fortnite players can train for 15 hours a day 7 days a week for 3 weeks out of the month or more. So having a life and being a pro sometimes are exclusive. I know pro Summoners War players play 12 to 18 hours a day almost everyday of the year.

I see Mystic more as the Twitch streamer version of low tier 'professional' gaming, making the money to keep herself going, based on a fairly expensive rig that also works for playing games for personal entertainment and is fully capable of higher tier training for the future she is looking for.

The current group can be either a recent and part time thing she has been training with recently, or a longer term group evolving out of humble beginnings with her.

Wow, and they may not even win anything after all that time when competing. I think I will keep my lowly 40 hour a week job. LOL

 Yeah, I think Anna is probably more recent and part time, or casual group slowly going pro.  Don't know if she will ever get to 15 hour a week craziness. After all, she IS married. ;p

Of course, we still don't know what's really going to happen with this.

In reply to Anna Darlington (msg # 17):

Well it is a give and take thing. An average Fortnite tourney can net you 10k for top spot or more. More often than not you just need to place like 10th to make a little money. That being said the folks who pour 10k a month into the act of being a pro and losing a tourney well those are the ones that you should be like dude what.

  The last years prize for Fortnite was 4 million. Summoner's War Champion this year stands to make 2 million. So it can be worth the time, but you gotta be good.

Henlo. I was going to be the low-key supporter type but it seems that role's taken, so I'll have to go for something else...

A mix sounds good to me.

Shall we say that we have all been playing together for at least the last six months?

Sounds good to me. Also, I gather from the conversation before that we're pretty much going to be a fully pro gaming crew? The original concept for my chap was a part-timer with a day job, but I don't mind if he was laid off and turned to pro gaming instead.

Eh, there is all kinds of 'support' In Final fantasy 14 there is a direct reactive healer and a proactive shield healer. In groups of 8, you have both types. There is also crowd control and buffing/debuffing to do.

There is also the 'Tank' role, keeping all the enemies focused on you and of course, all types of DPS jobs, melee, ranged, support DPS.


And that much money? wow. I guess just win once and retire! LOL

I would be fine with part time gaming if that is what others want. That would really work for Anna.

Oh you'll definitely be making "side gig" money to start. You'll all need a source of income or a partner that supports your ambitions. Or personal sponsors via Patron/independent income/etc that covers your cost of living.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:55, Mon 09 Nov 2020.

Got that covered! LOL

Yeah, I'll have to rely on freelance programing to cover the bills...

And I imagine that could be how Scion noticed my character. G joined him in a game, and mentioned an exploit he knew in the bots AI, revealing that he was involved in programing them. It lead to a lot of talking, and when his team needed an extra member, he thought of bringing in G.

In reply to Agent G (msg # 25):

 Works for me.

Okay, I need the original members to come up with a team name. Later joins just have to deal with it, though of course you can all vote to change it at some point.

Income

You don't get paid by winning games. Well, sometimes tournaments or competitions will have a prize, but most money comes from sponsorships, endorsements, and donations.

Sponsorships are just what it sounds like - a business or wealthy patron gives you gear or funding in exchange for promotional consideration. You wear their logo on your t-shirts. Maybe they provide you with exclusive training facilities, pay for your travel and lodging... depends on the deal you get. As a minor league team, maybe you can score a local hardware store in exchange for free pizza after a game and gas money to the AR facility.

Donations are one off payments from fans to reward you for being entertaining. Winning is good, being awesome is better. This is where the Performance skill and reaction modifiers come in handy. Propaganda is handy for keeping your fans "warmed up" between matches.

Expenses

In addition to equipment (uniforms, pro-quality AR/VR rigs) you'll need to pay for transit, lodging and food on the road, yearly league registration, training facilities (renting AR arenas, pro-quality VR servers to train in), marketing and promotion, and - if you're smart - a team manager to handle the logistics. Most of the team income goes into the treasury, from which you also draw a salary.

In play we're going to *highly* abstract this; the better you do and the more popular you get, the better your gear, facilities, and income will be.

Your manager is Henry. Henry is a good guy, used to be a pro back in the 2050s and 60s, until a brain injury forced him into retirement. He's still good, he just can't interface with the technology on a competition level anymore. He's solid and capable, but there are better managers if and when you feel like cutting him loose.

You have a small and mostly positive fanbase.

You do not currently have a sponsor. Most of your budget has been out of pocket, but Henry has been working on setting something up for the tournament.

In reply to GM (msg # 27):

 What about an acronym for our online handles.

For instance T.M.A. Guild

 T for me
 M for Mystic Seas
 A for Agent G

Just an idea.

I would much rather have a name than an acronym

If we must use the word Guild to define it then something like "Guild of Calamitous Intent" seems best.

 As a later member, I am at the mercy of whatever the original members suggest for a name. ;p

I had to look up Calamitous. Is that a good thing? It could describe how we play. LOL

In reply to Mystic Seas (msg # 29):

It was just a thought. And I wasn't saying we had to use guild in the name. For all I care it could be T1GwasTHEplacetoBe or The Master Blaster Caster Association. The Arkwright's Factors. HaDrI0NC0LiDeRs, AceGamersrus, The Shadowrunners, The Gulid Formerly known as UCAS, Lightning in a Bottle. I'm just throwing stuff at the wall at this point.

From what little I know, most top gamer crews have short and punchy names. SO soemthing like Team Electron?

Team Electron could work. Of course, all the nerds will say we're negative, but I'm sure we can live with that.

In reply to Agent G (msg # 33):

Not always, but usually. Team Electron works for me.

Incidentally, Team Electron was just an example... please don't think I was trying to dictate stuff.

 Why not Team Proton, that way we are positive! LOL

If you are having trouble, there are many websites which suggest team names and even some generators. Go to town and pick us a catchy name! ;p

Positron Punishers.

Double nerd reference, punchy, and some illiteration for fun.

Fine, Positron Punishers.

Now, everybody has personal threads. Use those to spend earned character points, and also as you want to define equipment. Basically any changes to your sheets, log them there.

We'll also track your liquid funds and unspent CP totals there.

In reply to GM (msg # 38):

Woot we have 8 fans.

Yeah but they're just everybody's mom.

Okay, guys, your sheets should be unlocked under character details - go ahead and copy those over when you have the time (if you haven't already).

My husband and son are probably mine. lol

  So I take it we are all getting our character's daily lives finalized? When do you think we will start?

Soon-ish.

I'm writing up the first in-game post but it won't go up until I have the first response from the "where you live" question I've asked everyone. If we hit Monday without that response, I'll start cutting people for inactivity.

In reply to GM (msg # 44):

When did you ask that? Must have missed it. Before the tourney Dallas,Texas. During the tourney I would figure Orlando, FL.

Everyone has a solo thread. Yours is in Group 6, titled "TheLastScion's thread."

Agent G - your basic equipment... the visor, gloves, and bodysuit... you already have. They were supplied to you by the tournament, and you can make minor cosmetic alterations, but they're regularly examined to make sure no cheating occurs. Operations will be giving the coach any instructions or extra equipment, as well as your "class" choices.

You are free to accompany him, but you can also stay by the van to gear up or stretch/warm up before the game, or do some quick vlogging to get your fans ready for the upcoming livestream (if you're planning to stream your performance).

Note that there's an embargo on Tournament matches until after all teams have participated, so your stream will be delayed by a few hours.

As far as your eyesight goes, you can wear contacts or glasses under the visor just fine.

Very much still here, just a busy couple of days.

Current plan is to get rolling in my morning.

Sure, thanks for checking in.

So what is going on with this, it's been a week now since the last post.

In reply to Anna Darlington (msg # 50):

My guess is that it is dead. Been 2 months and no response or update.