Rather than just go completely radio-silent while I'm tinkering with things, I figured I'd keep you appraised of the basic decisions.

So first off, priorities.

A: Resources (500,000 nuyen)
B: Skills (36/5)
C: Attributes (16 pts)
D: Metatype (Human, 3 Edge)
E: Magic (Mundane)

Another small update. I've actually finished pretty much everything aside from shopping, but that would take a long time to type out, so I'm not going to until I'm ready to submit for approval.

Anyway, for now, Bishop's Qualities:

Positive Qualities - 24 Karma

• College Education; 4 Karma (Run Faster 145)
• Friends in High Places; 8 Karma (Run Faster 147)
• Legendary Rep - Mafia; 4 Karma (Run Faster 149)
• Made Man - Mafia; 5 Karma (Run Faster 148)
• Watch the Suit; 3 Karma (Cutting Aces 151)

Negative Qualities - 34 Karma

• Addiction - Morphine, Mild; 4 Karma (Core 77)
• Code of Honor - Omerta; 15 Karma (Core 79, Run Faster 25)
• Creature of Comfort - Middle; 10 Karma (Run Faster 153)
• SINner - National: British; 5 Karma (Core 84)

This message was last edited by the player at 08:58, Thu 24 June 2021.

Sounds good so far :-)

Something occurred to me while looking through the Lifestyle options. In addition to normal lifestyle things, I'd like to rent a storage unit to stow gear somewhere, but there's really no great way of reflecting that using the options available. I'd think it'd probably just be a flat monthly fee, but it'd be up to you to ballpark the costs for such a thing.

Around 200 NY a month in a run down area, with some gang security. double that with someone who specifically rents out high security vaults in the same area without anyone knowing there is storage. If you go to a better,corporate area with storage, you can expect to pay around 500 a month with security and about 200 without. However, it would be much easier for anyone to find out about it.

Sounds fair. I'll include whatever decisions I go with in my final gear list. Spending 500,000 nuyen takes a while.

While I'm at it, what/how much information do you want on Bishop's background?

As much as you are willing to write :-)

You shouldn't say things like that. I set up wikis for fun. :)
This message was lightly edited by the player at 13:11, Fri 25 June 2021.

So do a lot of my players :-)

Do you know of an equivalent commlink program to the Weapon Personality weapon mod? I'd like to be a bit literal with my pocket secretary.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:12, Fri 25 June 2021.

My real time players just made them up - much like Siri or Alexa but with some more spunk. Technically most halfway skilled programmers could likely adapt them to be remarkably different from another.

Seems reasonable. The tech's already there, so it'd just be a program cost, which would likely be negligible.

On another note, I had an idea related to the storage unit thing. I think I'm going to deck it out a bit more and treat it as a Bolt Hole. May end up not being worth it, but want to math it out and see.

Do you have a particular club that I'll be likely to visit frequently? Gonna grab the Patron of the Arts lifestyle option.

The Golden Swan.

It's a high society place of the type you need a membership card for - they come in rainbow colors, starting at indigo for regular guests for the nominal fee of ¥1 and going to blue for public figures not needing to pay, which would include the president for example. The closer you go to blue the more money you pay (and the more help you'll get from the club members - everyone orange-red and above is in some way involved in power plays of one sort or the other,while at orange you'll find a lot of high class runners and hitmen and the like). There are a lot of rumors about the amount of money needed to buy a violet card.

The Golden Swan picks members above yellow-green level carefully. Simple starlets or net personalities rarely advance beyond unless they are really really rich and stop the shenanigans. Generally, the members of this club prefer privacy over publicity.

The Golden Swan is notorious for getting almost any band - lots of them jazz groups or modern classics - to play at their locations and they also host a number of artistic variétés (don't ever say variety here!), poetry slams and readings of famous authors. The artwork keeps changing irregularly, because the artists exhibiting here do so to sell - for exorbitant prices, but then, they also have to pay the club a fee unless they are members. A year ago, the World Championship in conservative dance were held in the Golden Swan in Washington. It will probably not happen ever again because one of the commentators had referred to the club manager as "slightly on the fat side."

There are 9 Golden Swans throughout the world. The owner, a female mountain dragon named Tazia, supposedly claimed that having lots of clubs was a fine thing, but having 10 would be just too excessive.

There is no matrix access in the club's main halls for security reasons. Drone cameras are used, and they are all kept off the matrix until their memory is read and do not have remote access at all - they follow pre-programmed flight paths or hover in place. This makes for a better security in some way, but to have a quick response for problems, the Golden Swan relies on magic. There are as many rumors about at least half the security staff being dragons. It is yet another rumor that Lofwyr was asked about this once, and almost could not stop laughing. Of course this only meant that there are now theories about him laughing not at a ridiculous idea, but being amused that no one has found out yet that they are all dragons.

The club encourages all the rumors.

To begin with, the card color would probably be normal orange.

Sounds great! And a lot more my speed than Dante's. On that note, though, I might have to invest a bit in a club of my own on down the line.

Speaking of lifestyle options, I spent a whole bunch of time waffling about how to spend my allotted points before I discovered the rules update in Hard Targets that allows you to buy options even if you're out of points. That was a good, but incredibly frustrating discovery.

Anyway, about Bishop. I'll try to put together a nice, concise writeup for you at some point soon, but I need to do some setting research first. He's something like my "flagship" character, the one I'm known for in tabletop circles. I've been playing him more or less consistently since 2005, originally as a D&D character, and I like applying his basic personality to different worlds and backgrounds and seeing how he adapts.  I've also played several members of his extended family, including his grandfather and his cousin, and both he and his daughter (a very complicated situation there, since Bishop is largely asexual) are relatively important NPCs in a setting I run.

So I'm not the only one having a main character basically the same in several settings. :-)

Actually just finished a session with him in his most "accurate" form, the one where I get the most creative freedom. High-powered modern setting incorporating a lot of comics/anime, so lots of possibilities.

Still shopping, though I've gotten the essentials. If Shadowrun didn't have a use-it-or-lose-it rule, I'd basically be done, but as it is I'm still filling out the 500k. Should have it finished by the end of the day, though.

I tend to ignore that rule. I know the reasons behind it but it never mattered in my groups.

Oh, well, in that case, yeah, I'm pretty much done. Just need to polish it up into something that makes sense to anyone other than me.

Alright, so here's my plan:

I'm going to dump an annotated gear list in here so that you can get an idea of where I'm at, and I'd appreciate your input if you spot any glaring issues.

Alright!

Gonna start with weapons and armor because... Well, it's Shadowrun, so you start with weapons and armor.

Knife - More tool than weapon, but you never know.

Yamaha Pulsar - Nothing much to say, just a taser.

Ruger Super Warhawk with internal smartgun system - Primary firearm. Sadly the only real option in the "bigass revolver" category.

Colt Agent Special with internal smartgun system - Primary concealed carry. Light on capacity, but the hefty damage and shared ammo are nice.

Colt Government 2066 with internal smartgun system - Alternate primary firearm. Can't suppress a revolver.

Fichetti Security 600 - High-capacity light pistol, mostly a backup weapon, selected for its popularity with security forces.

Terracotta Arms Pup - Extra-concealed carry. Only plan on using it when I need to smuggle in something small.

Yamaha Raiden - SHTF assault rifle. Expensive for something I don't plan on using, but you never know when you'll need a really nice rifle.

Springfield M1A with external smartgun system - So what if it's an antique? A good all-around rifle for mid-range sniping duties, and a legal one at that.

---

Mortimer of London Berwick Suit with built-in AR gloves - Everyone loves the classics, and Mortimer is definitely Bishop's style. AR functionality in a pair of elegant leather gloves for a little added utility.

Mortimer of London Argentum Coat with chemical protection 5 and concealed holster - Completes the Mortimer look, plus protection from acid rain and a little home for Bishop's Colt Agent Special tucked away inside.

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Edit: I'll probably throw a little recoil compensation on some of the weapons, but hadn't messed with it yet.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:38, Sun 27 June 2021.

As for weapons, eventually we can add custom weapons because yeah,some options are limited and if you look at our world, there soooo many types of manufacturers and guns it is hard to keep an overview (I used to read a lot of gun magazines but nowadays I'm out of the loop). So what's official in SR can only cover the basics.

I've been converting the weapons from my cyberpunk setting to Shadowrun for a game I'm about to run, so I know it's not a huge deal to make new ones. The main thing is pricing, because there's not a huge amount of consistency. Realistic, but a pain in the tuchus for game designers.

---

Anyway, cyberware doesn't require a lot of annotation, but here goes.

Implanted Commlink - A Fairlight Caliban, because if you're going to have a cranial link, it better be a good one.

Datajack - Who doesn't have a datajack?

Skilljack R2 - Mostly for linguasofts, honestly, but since I'm kinda going for a jack-of-all-trades type (sans magic and decking, because the only thing worse than no decker is a bad decker), it'll help even out my weak spots.

Cybereyes R2 - Has low-light, a smartlink, flare compensation, and vision magnification.

Cyberears R1 - Basic system with a damper and R3 select sound filter.

Not a lot of chrome, but Bishop's hardly a kill-by-wire cybertank. Might pick up some toys later on, should I find something useful.

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Edit: Here's a fun question: What Connections rating would Dona Rowena O'Malley be? I've gotta spend those Friends in High Places points.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:13, Tue 29 June 2021.

As for the rest of my contacts, here's my rough:

Arms Dealer - 4/3 - Waffling on the details here, but will be decided pretty soon.

Fixer - 4/2 - Every GM has their favorite fixer, so I plan on leaving this one open for you to decide the details.

Smuggler - 2/4 - "Desu", Yak-connected smuggler pilot. Specializes in AVs. Not too popular with the more traditional Yakuza, being of Japanese/Korean extraction.

Street Doc - 2/3 - "Pavarotti", street doc preferred by the Mafia. Big on doctor/patient confidentiality, stubbornly refuses to hear even the slightest details on how his patients end up at his door. This is reflected in his low Connections rating.

Need to know the Connections rating of Dona O'Malley before I can finish the Friends in High Places contact.