Wow. That is a lot to grok through. I’m percolating everything in my brain, but it’s going to take me more time to crank out a finished product. I’m leaning towards a smuggler/thief type at the moment…
Magic:
Magic skills include the following
-Spellcasting
-Ritual Spellcasting
-Counterspelling, passive defense against spells
-Summoning, summoning spirits
-Banishing, banishing spirits
-Binding, compelling spirits to serve you long-term
Pick your tradition
Shamans see magic as a connection to nature - beasts and the elements. Charisma and Willpower are a shaman’s favored attributes. They can be quite striking or intimidating people.
Mages see magic as a complex force which can be understood through intense study and research. Mages favor the attributes of Logic and Willpower. They are primarily scholars.
Your Mentor Spirit
Your character feels attached to a particular animal or concept. This can be seen as an extension of the magician, something that exemplifies what the magician considers the most ideal qualities. I will roleplay a spirit that represents this ideal, and guides your character. Your mentor spirit gives bonuses and disadvantages based on their personality (which is really just your own personality). Some examples of mentor spirits are the following:
-Bear. Slow moving, calm and collected, slow to anger, but terrifying in battle.
-Cat. Clever, sneaky, sly, confident, arrogant.
-Dog. Loyal, ferocious and tenacious, stubborn and single minded.
-Dragon. Powerful in combat, oath keeper, charismatic
-Mountain. Enduring, indomitable, unflinching, unyielding
-Rat. Survivor, stealthy, shy
-Raven. Trickster, manipulator, exploiter
-Seductress. Whimsical, mysterious, exploitative
-Shark. Relentless, hunter, merciless, powerful, fearsome
-Snake. Cunning, wise, obsessed with learning secrets
-Thunderbird. Intimidating, primal, savage, quick to anger
-Trickster. Prankster, clever, fun-loving, quick-witted
-Warrior. Noble, honorable, wise, strong
-Wolf. Devoted, eager to battle, unflinching
Spells
Combat spells
-Punch, impact damage on touch
-Clout, impact damage at range
-Blast, area-effect impact damage
-Death Touch, lethal damage on touch (living target)
-Manabolt, lethal damage at range (living target)
-Manaball, lethal area-effect damage at range (living target)
-Flame, fire damage at range
-Fireball, area-effect fire damage at range
-Lightning Bolt, electricity damage
-Ball Lightning, area-effect electricity damage
-Shatter, single target damage on touch
-Powerbolt, single target damage at range
-Powerball, area-effect damage at range
-Knockout, “sleep” spell on touch
-Stunbolt, “sleep” spell at range
-Stunball, “sleep” spell at range, area-effect
Detection spells
-Analyze Device, determine the purpose of a device, how it functions, and improves magician’s ability to use the device
-Analyze Truth, detects lies
-Clairaudience, hear distant sounds
-Clairvoyance, see great distances
-Combat sense, makes the wizard faster in combat
-Detect enemies, discover nearby people with hostile intent
-Detect individual, find a specific nearby person
-Detect life, find all living things nearby (but not identify them)
-Detect (life form), detect the specific life form named in the spell.
-Detect Magic
-Detect (object), examples are detect guns, detect computers, detect explosives.
-Mindlink, psychic communication with voluntary subject
-Mind Probe, read mind of unwilling target
Health spells
-Antidote
-Cure Disease
-Decrease (attribute)
-Heal
-Hibernate, “sleep” spell on voluntary subject. Suspended animation.
-Increase (attribute)
-Increase Reflexes, GREATLY increases combat power of target by allowing them to take more actions in combat
-Oxygenate, resists suffocation/drowning
-Resist pain, target ignores injury penalties
-Stabilize, prevents a near-death character from dying.
Illusion spells
-Confusion, distracts living target
-Mass Confusion, distracts living targets in an area
-Chaos, distracts target
-Chaotic World, area-effect version of chaos
-Entertainment, creates obvious illusions
-Invisibility, affects living subjects attempt to perceive target
-Improved Invisibility, also works against nonliving surveillance
-Mask, change appearance of target
-Mask, change appearance, effective against nonliving surveillance
-Phantasm, convincing illusions, living subjects
-Trid Phantasm, illusion also convinces nonliving subjects
-Hush, silence on living target
-Silence, affects nonliving targets
-Stealth
Manipulation spells
-Armor
-Control, can force target to take specific actions
-Mob Control, area-effect control spell
-Control Emotions
-Mob Mood, area-effect control emotions
-Ice sheet, creates a slippery sheet of ice on the ground
-Levitate, telekinesis spell
-Light
-Mana Barrier, stops spirits/magic items/spells
-Petrify, turns target to stone while sustained
-Physical Barrier, stops physical objects
-Shadow, creates an area which light can’t penetrate
-Shapechange, turns voluntary subject into a critter
Foci
Foci assist with magical tasks. They are specific magic items your character carries. Foci cost BP equal to their Force (power) rating, and also have a monetary cost. Check your lifestyle/gear selection to see how many foci you may have. Each focus works with a specific type of spell or spirit.
-Spellcasting focus, improves Spellcasting and Ritual Spellcasting for specific spell categories (eg. combat/health/illusion)
-Counterspelling focus, improves counterspelling against a specific spell category
-Sustaining focus, helps wizard to sustain long-term spells from a specific spell category
-Summoning focus, improves summoning specific spirit type (spirits associated with a particular spell category)
-Banishing focus, improves banishing for specific spirit type
-Binding focus, improves binding for specific spirit type
-Weapon focus, enchants a specific weapon to increase its effectiveness for you.
If you need any further clarification for creating your mage, don’t hesitate to ask. There’s a lot of information here!
Let me know if you need any clarification. Lots of the info, like the technomancer abilities or the magic section, you can safely ignore.
An edit to the Magic section: Astral Combat is also a skill associated with Magicians or Adepts. It has no associated skill group. Adepts may only take this skill if they have the Adept quality.
No players have confirmed yet that they want to create an Adept character. If any players wish to play as an Adept, please send me a PM so I can give you the (thankfully brief) list of Adept powers which you’ll use when creating your character.
You know, what the heck. Although contrary to the impression I gave off in my previous post, what with being overwhelmed by new stuff and all, I think it’d be fun to give the adept a whirl. I have an idea how I could make it fit in with my character.
Wait, what’s wrong with an Insect totem? Oh, that’s right, horrible death. 
Adept Powers
Adept powers are available to any character who has taken the “Adept” quality. A physical adept may take as many powers as he chooses with a combined cost no greater than his Magic attribute. Adept powers do not cost any BP. Keep in mind that the Magic attribute suffers from losses to Essence. It is in an Adept’s best interest not to take any cybernetics, or their power as an Adept will be weakened.
-Astral Perception - cost 1, Allows the Adept to percieve astral forms. Grants access to the assensing skill (which must be taken separately). The Adept may not “astral project” in the way a mage does, leaving their body behind and travelling around on the astral plane, but must physically move his body to the location he wants to perceive with this power.
-Attribute Boost - cost 0.25 per level, when activated grants a temporary bonus to a single physical attribute. This can allow you to go above your racial maximum. Physical attributes are STR, AGI, BOD, REA. When the boost is over, the Adept suffers “drain” similar to wizard spellcasting.
-Combat Sense - cost 0.5 per level, grants extra dice for defending against ranged and melee attacks, and has greater success defending against surprise attacks.
-Critical Strike - cost 0.25 per level, increases the damage value of your UNARMED attacks.
-Enhanced Perception - cost 0.25 per level, provides additional dice for perception tests.
-Great Leap - cost 0.25 per level, adds +1 dice for jumping tests per level, allowing the Adept to make incredible jumps over long distances.
-Improved Ability - cost 0.5 per level for a combat skill or 0.25 per level for other skills, increases the rating of a skill known by the Adept by +1 per level. This allows the adept to possess a skill with a rating higher than it’s natural maximum.
-Improved Physical Attribute - cost 1 per level, grants a passive permanent bonus to a physical attribute.
-Improved Reflexes - cost 2/3/5 based on level, greatly increases the Adept’s combat ability by giving them more actions in combat. Cost is based on the level of the Improved Reflexes, up to level 3.
-Improved Sense - cost 0.25 per improvement, increases one of the following senses; direction, scent, taste, sight, hearing.
-Killing Hands - cost 0.5, unarmed attacks can do physical (lethal) damage instead of stun (non-lethal) damage. Can be taken along with critical strike, for very effective unarmed attacks.
-Kinesics - cost 0.5 per level, gives the Adept more dice when performing tests to resist social skills. The Adept can lie more effectively, and hide her intention more easily even from assensing mages.
-Missile Parry - cost 0.25 per level, allows the Adept to snatch slow-moving missiles (like arrows, darts, shurikens, or grenades) out of the air. Each level makes the Adept more effective and likely to succeed.
-Mystic Armor - cost 0.5 per level, grants +1 armor per level cumulative with worn armor, and also effective against damage done while in Astral combal
-Natural Immunity - cost 0.25 per level, resist toxins and disease more easily
-Pain Resistance - cost 0.5 per level, allows the Adept to ignore dice penalties for injury. Higher levels are more effective.
-Rapid Healing - cost 0.25 per level, increases your natural healing power, and shortens the length of injury
-Spell Resistance - 0.5 per level, adds extra dice to resist spells. You may choose not to use this ability, allowing beneficial spells to affect you without resistance.
-Voice Control - cost 0.5, the Adept has an amazing control over his voice, allowing him to change pitch, modulation, tone, and volume at will. This allows the Adept to mask his voice, or even impersonate someone. It also allows the Adept to “throw” his voice.
Weapon Focus
An adept can start the game with a number of foci indicated by their lifestyle/gear choice. Adepts may only bind to weapon foci. A focus’ power is indicated by its Rating. The combined total Rating of all a character’s foci can not exceed the character’s Magic x5.
Weapon focus - BP cost = rating, the Adept chooses a particular weapon to enchant and “bind” to. The bound weapon focus adds its Rating to the dice rolled when attacking with that weapon. This is a very powerful bonus! Adepts will carefully guard their weapon focus, and will never willingly separate from it. Players with Adept characters are encouraged to name their weapon foci, and describe the weapon in detail. An Adept may carry more than one weapon focus, for example a katana and a pistol. Beware a combat-specialized Adept with a powerful weapon focus, as they are some of the most dangerous fighters in the New World.
If players have any further questions about how to create their Adept, don’t hesitate to ask!
Quick question- as a technomancer (whoo-ee is it pricey!) will I need ‘Cracking’ and / or ‘Electronics’, or will those jobs be handled by the technomancy abilities?
You will want to take all of the computer and electronic type skills. When performing a task, you’ll use a dice pool equal to the skill value (like electronic warfare) plus the value of the related complex form (like Black Hammer). Each of the technomancer complex forms has an associated skill.
If you want to save BP, it’s preferable to skimp a bit on the complex forms, than on the skills. A lot of the complex forms you will require can be approximated crudely by sprites.
Yes, technomancers are quite expensive. I promise it’ll be worth your while. 
Crack will be useful whenever you’re trying to gain unauthorized access to a computer system or file. Electronics will be useful whenever you’re trying to control a device or interfere with a device’s signal.
Just for clarification, “electronics” refers to “electronic warfare.” If there’s anywhere that I typed electronics, it was actually referring to electronic warfare. There isn’t a skill that’s just called “electronics”
Are you allowing customized cyberlimbs?
(I.e. the ones that can be customized to the physical attributes of the character rather than the default attributes of 3 before any accessories/enhancments are added.)
I’m encouraging players to be creative with their cyberlimb options. The general rules you should follow while developing your cyberlimb are the following:
-Obvious cyberlimbs are more powerful than synthetic cyberlimbs which look like “normal” limbs
-You can stack roughly twice as many options on to an obvious cyberlimb than a synthetic one.
-Your cyberlimb will start at base physical stats of 3, but these values can be increased much further with upgrades than what your character’s normal maximum is. An obvious cyber arm can be upgraded to strength 10, for example, and still have about half its capacity remaining for other upgrades.
I am not sticking strictly to the core rules regarding cybernetic upgrades. There is just too much information in the sourcebook to translate every bit of it into a play-by-post game. That’s why I’m encouraging players to be creative and discuss with me what they want their cyberware to do, and I’ll create stats representing what the player wants.
Oh, FYI for my fellow runners, I’ll be providing a Connection 5 fixer for the group as a contact of mine.
Fixer, n.
Well-connected hooligan, who “has a guy” for just about anything you can want. He revels in matching Runner teams to jobs, but he 'aint cheap. If he likes you well enough, you might just get a discount, for old time’s sake.
The party will benefit from having multiple fixers in their list of contacts. Hoopy Frood’s fixer represents a character who has a world-class reputation, and might just be the best at what he does. But sometimes, you don’t need the best - you need cheap.
Other examples of contacts are crime bosses, beat cops, private detectives, bartenders, politicians, doctors who work under the table, black market dealers, or almost anyone you can think of! Your character’s contacts will be the one of the primary engine parts we use to drive the story.
Should we alternates be making characters, or should we hold off unless and until we’re actually needed?
If you’d like to be able to jump right in if called, go ahead and create your alternate now! One alternate has already been called, due to ArrMatey being unable to participate. There’s a good chance alternates will be able to jump in the campaign before too long, especially if it goes well enough for me to feel comfortable with more players.
I’ve actually been making mine already, just for kicks. If anyone wants to brainstorm, I’m happy to help (and vice versa). I’m trying to currently figure out if a troll would be more of a hinderance on a run than a help.
OK, here is my character intro, in character:
"I am called Seneth Keluszon. Many call me Master Keluszon and you may also do so if you wish; However, I’ve long grown past the time of caring about such trifling things as courtesies or respect.
I am a mage as you expected me to be and I do have powers at my disposal that you will definitely find helpful. I won’t bother explaining all the things I can do(that would take too long), but I think you will find that I can be rather useful in many situations.
I hope you do not mind my dress, as over the years I have found it adequate to wear merely black. There was a time, long ago, that I cared for the fashions of this world, but that time is over and black fits me well. I also quit bothering to cut my hair years ago and have grown accustomed to its length, long as it is.
Do not bother to inquire about any cybernetic enhancements. The very thought disgusts me and I will have nothing to do with these so called “modern day enhancements”. I am not offended by those who have these themselves, but do not ask me for advice on them or to repair them. I know nothing about them and will have nothing to do with them personally. In my life, I have encountered a wide array of machinery and am willing to look at something, though I will not commit to being an expert in repairs.
I expect to be included in all decisions we make as a party. Many have observed that I am wise and learned and that my advice is worthy to be listened to. As long as our purposes continue to go along the same course, I will be a great aid to all of you. I can be a great ally, have experienced more in my life than all of you combined, and have a great deal to say about our plans and workings."
*Welcome Ms. Johnson. Please come in. I’m Goethe, but you probably already knew that. Here, let me take your coat. No? Eh, suit yourself. Make yourself comfortable on the couch and I’ll get you a drink. What’s your poison? I pretty much have anything you’re looking for. The real stuff, too, none of that synthahol junk. McManus gets it for me. Resourceful guy, that McManus. I’m partial to a good whisky served neat myself. Just water for you? Whatever floats your boat. Get it? Water? Boat? Geez, tough crowd. I hope you don’t mind my having a couple fingers of Scotch. It’s not very often I conduct an intro meeting with a potential client on my own turf, but McManus vouched for you, and since you were willing to make the trek out here I figured ‘Why not?’ It saves me the time and hassle of breaking out the ol’ Mirage and coming to you. Anyway, I hear you have a job for me. Oh, you want to know about me first since you don’t do business with someone you know nothing about. Well, obviously McManus must have told you a few things otherwise you wouldn’t be here, so I wouldn’t say you know nothing about me. Oh, you want to know things about me he didn’t tell you. Okay, fire away. Not literally, though, particularly not with the Hammerli you have concealed under your coat. I really need to talk to Bartholemew the front desk guard about what he allows people to walk into thie place with. How did I know? I’m pretty observant. Besides, you don’t think I wear glasses because I actually need them to see, did you? It’s amazing what kind of tech they put in these things these days. Contacts lenses, too. Why bother with cybereyes when I can get the same affects for cheaper by just buying the gear. Plus, I get to keep my natural low-light vision in the process and don’t freak people out at parties, well, at least not any more than the typical Ork. Some of my shadowrunning kin are more than happy to mod their bodies to the point they’re practically more machine than human, but I don’t go for that. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve gone through my share of modifications, but I believe in quality over quantity. I could afford it after all. I actually feel sorry for the vatjobs that had to go with the more intrusive stuff due to prohibitive cost. Losing ones humanity isn’t generally a good thing, and we’ve already sacrificed a large piece of it just by being in this line of work, as you are no doubt well aware. But enough philosophy for now. Besides, all this introspective shit is not really my thing. Don’t worry, though, I won’t hold the fact you’re packing heat against you. But you should understand, that had I wanted to kill you, that slug thrower would not have saved you anyway, particularly since you’re on my turf. Just because you can’t see the protections I have, doesn’t mean they aren’t there. By the way, how’s Mr. Johnson? How did I know? It’s pretty obvious. No magic, tech, or even much skill required. Next time, you might want to remember to leave your rings at home.
Nice view outside, eh? How do I afford a place like this? Well, I’d like to say I got where I did all on my own, but that’d be only a partial truth. I mean, I got to where I am now largely on my own merits, but I didn’t exactly start from nothing. I had a pretty privileged upbringing. My parents are both Orks, and my father is some midlevel exec at one of those corps that is pretty much a carbon-copy of any other vanilla corp out there where they seem to have their hands in a little bit of everything. My mother had a lot of complications with her pregnancy, and I was the only one of my litter to survive. Due to the severity of the complications, she almost died after all, my parents elected to not have any more children, making us a very small family by Ork standards. And being the only child of parents who were loaded, I got a lot of attention and stuff lavished on me. And I was naturally too immature to truly appreciate it. So I floated through life doing the bare minimum I had to do. I met enough expectations and avoided enough trouble that I pretty much skated through my youth. For example, I got decent, if not impressive grades in school. That way none of the faculty or staff expected me to be a shining pupil, but neither did they reprimand me for being a bad one. My whole purpose was to avoid notice, something rather difficult for an Ork who finds himself a member of the upper-class. When I got older, my father pulled some strings to get me into college. He apparently wanted me to follow in his footsteps. Armed with not much more than an impressive trust fund large enough to pay for the classes and upscale living expenses, I approached it the same way I had approached the rest of my life: I did enough but not too much in order to avoid anyone’s notice. And then sometime in the spring of my Freshman year irony struck me…in the chest…in the form of an errant bullet fired from an SM-4. Apparently I had perfected not being noticed so well that a shot meant for someone else got taken by me instead. I got lucky, though. A few inches the other way and I wouldn’t be here today talking to you. Of course, at the time I wasn’t thinking about luck but more about the intense pain and large amount of blood. That and someone dragging me into an alley. ‘How are you?’ he asked. ‘How do you think?’ I wheezed out, blood spattering out of my mouth. ‘I mean, can you walk?’ he clarified. ‘I think so. Why?’ I responded. ‘Because I can get us both out of this alive, but we need to leave now. I know this area like I know my own neighborhood. I can get us to a safe location and get you healed before you pass out. But we need to move now. Here, this patch should at least stop you from bleeding to death.’ He slapped a patch on me and grabbed my arm, helping me to my feet. He then led me through the back alleys. We made pretty good time, especially considering I was hacking up blood every 20 meters or so. He led me through a door into a building pretty much like every other building out there. But on the other side of the door existed a world I had only heard about in stories and conversations eavesdropped on my father. Apparently I was in a hideout owned by some runners. I don’t remember much about them, every runner you meet when you’ve done this as long as I have for the most part just blends in your memory of every other runner you’ve ever met. But back then, it was as if I had just taken a journey into Bizarroland. They moved me onto a cot where a mage, medtech, and autodoc drone stitched me up quite impressively. I was going to be sore for a while, but I was going to live. ‘Allow me to introduce myself,’ my mysterious benefactor said. ‘The name’s McManus. You saved my life, so the least I could do was save yours in exchange, even if it was just dumb luck that you did so. That bullet was meant for me–long story, you don’t need to know. If you hadn’t have been there, I wouldn’t have been here. As far as everyone else, well, it’s probably better off for everyone if we skip those introductions. And don’t tell me your name either, I don’t want to know, and it’s better for you if I don’t. I will say, though, it’s not often you see someone take a shot like that and live, much less be able to walk it off. I know people that could use someone of your talents, if you’re interested. It doesn’t pay all that well, at least in the beginning, since you won’t last long without some real training, and something’s gotta pay for that, but if you prove yourself, you’ll soon find that the only limits that exist are the ones you impose on yourself. Here’s my card; give me a call if you’re interested. Oh, and think of a new name before you call.’
And so I started down the path that got me here, talking to you. McManus hooked me up with some jobs that pretty much needed someone to act as the pin cushion and bullet magnet, at least in the beginning. In exchange, McManus found people to train me in the finer points of running. I tried to juggle school and running for the first couple of semesters or so, but eventually I found that running held much more interest for me than school. For the first time in my life, I actually felt as if I was useful to someone, even if that someone was a nameless corporate drone who didn’t give two shits if I lived or died as long as I got the job done. So I dropped out, but McManus made sure that my parents got regular report cards and that if anyone checked I was still actively enrolled. Heck, he even got me a forged certificate and diploma on the day I would have graduated just in case. Coincidentally enough, about the same time I would have graduated college I had pretty much trained as much as I could in running. It was time to fully break out as an independent runner, and about time, since the trust fund was on it’s last legs. As a “graduation” gift, McManus was able to procure me Alpha-grade cyber wired reflexes at a considerable discount. He told me to consider it the final payment on the debt he owed me for saving my life. My parents, on the other hand, gave me a significant down payment on this place. Enough that my mortgage is surprisingly not as high as one would expect.
So that’s pretty much how I got into this line of work. Like all runners, I started out taking any contract I could get but as my reputation, skills, and the amount of money I could command for a job all increased, I was able to be a bit pickier. I was also able to afford better gear since I was no longer plugging almost every nuyen I had into this place. I even have a couple of other runners that I frequently work with. Often we’re procuring our own contracts for the small jobs, but for the bigger jobs, we work together, and make a rather effective team if I might brag. To this day, I don’t know if my father suspects the truth about what I do and that I never graduated. The official story is that I do freelance contracting work for corporations. Which actually is the truth. But my father’s not naïve. Part of me thinks he knows the truth. It’s amusing to me that in spite of spending most of my life growing up trying not to turn out like him, in my own way, I ended up following in his footsteps anyway. It’s just the nature of the job that’s different.
So all that being said, can we finally get down to business? What do you need me to do?*
Very good character intros so far! I’m excited to get started. I’ll add my own descriptions of some of the NPCs you’ll be meeting.
Mr. Johnson is an alias for the man behind Synthcorp LLC. Synthcorp is a subsidiary of one of the “big ten” corps - AAA rated agencies with power each equivalent to superpower governments in earlier times - but it’s not public knowledge just which of the major players is pulling Synthcorp’s strings. Due to Synthcorp’s reputation for developing cutting-edge robotics, military hardware, and cyberware, speculation is that Synthcorp is actually a division of Ares Industries. One thing’s for sure, though. If it’s not Ares running Synthcorp, it’s someone ready to make a major play for Ares’ market share. Any runner taking a job on behalf of Synthcorp (or their enemies!) is taking a major risk.
Not much is known of Mr. Johnson, but you can be sure this won’t be the last time you hear his name.