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The Character Workshop

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Thu, 2011-06-02 12:38

Jame Rowe

The Character Workshop

Umayan al-Zubra Hypercorp-faction Fall Evacuee from Venus [collapse]Ego: Female; Morph Sex Female; Exalt Morph; Age 33. 1.55 Meters tall, 50 Kg, brown eyes, black hair, tan skin. Pierced navel and ears, 5 nanotats which move occasionally. Moxie 3 Trauma Threshold 10 Lucidity 20 Insanity Rating 40 Wound Threshold 17 Durability 35 DR 52 Initiative 90 Speed 1 DB 10 Aptitude Max 30 Motivations: + Personal Career, + Scientific Discovery, +Quality Biomorphs for All COG 25+5=30 (morph bonus), COO 20+5=25, INT 15+5=20, REF 10+5=15, SAV 15, SOM 15, WIL 10 Armor: Light bioweave armor 2 energy; 3 kinetic Skills: (all skills are totals and include morph bonus) Academics: Neogenetics 65; Academics: Biology 55; Academics: Biochemistry 55 Art: Paint 55; Free Fall 50; Freerunning 40; Hardware: Implants 65; Infosec 65 Interests: Art History 65; Interests: Exoplanets 65; Interests: Morph Designs 65 Interfacing 65; Kinesics 35 Language: Native Arabic 90; Language: English 60 Medicine: General Practice 60; Medicine: Gene Therapy 60; Medicine: Nanosurgery 60 Networking: Hypercorps 45; Networking: Scientists 45 Perception 35; Pilot: Groundcraft 30 Profession: Bioengineer 65; Profession: Lab Tech 65; Profession: Medical Care 55 Programming 55; Protocol 45; Psychosurgery 55; Research 55 C-Rep 40; R-Rep 40 Positive Traits: Adaptability 1; Improved Immune System Negative Traits: Combat Paralysis; Mental Disorder: Avoidance (Violence) Implants: Basic biomods and mesh inserts, cortical stack, standard muse (stats separate), temperature tolerance, grip pads, direction sense, enhanced vision, clean metabolism, toxin filters, access jacks, enhanced respiration, light bioweave armor, medichines, skinlink Muse, named Fitzgerald: Cog 20 Coo 15 Int 20 Ref 15 Sav 15 Som 15 Wil 15; TT6, Luc 30, IR 60 Accounting 60 Psychology 60 Electronics 30 Infosec 30 Interface 40 Programming 20 Research 30 Perception 30; Academics: Neogenetics 40; Academics: Nanomedicine 40; Academics: Nanotech 40 Gear: Firewall program, 3 XPs, Medical Tool Shop, Fabber with medical and bioengineer specifications, 2 utilitools, electropes, standard vacsuit, radio booster, portable solarchive, microgravity shoes, infra-scanner, 4 doses drive, 3 doses klaar, 2 doses frequency, 10 doses Gravy Backup Notes: 2 months insurance, using Exalt morphs of her own genetics and design[/collapse] Umayan is a Fall evacuee who swung a rescue from a Venusian corporation just as the TITANs were closing in, having tried to stay and treat wounded. Until the Fall she had been a medical student in Egypt at Al-Azhar University, and completed her training at a university on Venus. Although she is a supporter of the Morningstar Coalition, she is quite interested in gate-crashing, and paid off her rescue indenture by alternating as a doctor on newly-built habitats and as a medic on gate-crashing teams. She hasn’t told anyone about her combat paralysis, as she feels shame over it; this and her avoidance of violence stem from her experiences during the Fall, where she saw people getting slaughtered and being unable to fight back against it, even as this caused her to subconsciously flee from it.

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A neoethical noninterference precautionist who knows that Eli\vis Lives only because of the anagram!

Sat, 2011-06-04 00:54

ssfsx17

Re: The Character Workshop

What is the "workshop" part? Do you desire comments on anything?

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@-rep: 2 | x-rep: 1 | y-rep: 1

Sat, 2011-06-04 05:42

The Demon Code The Demon Code's picture

Re: The Character Workshop

Well since you posted a character, I'm going to assume you want feedback and give you my 3 cents. If you don't want it, feel free to ignore. And since it's late at night here, I'm going to do it in a poorly written stream of consciousness style :) First of all, I have trouble reading big blocks of text and white space between the sections would make it easier to read. Starting with the background... reading... fine... fine... Rescue indenture, huh? That's kind of a dick move on the corporations part. I know corporations are [b]EVIL![/b], but damn. How did that work anyways, since as a Venusian corporation it wouldn't have a lot of assets in Earth Orbit, especially those that could affect a rescue from earths gravity well? Also, why didn't she just hock her very nice morph to get out of debt? My advice (take it or leave it) would be to get rid of the rescue indenture and switch to, say, a scum barge where she worked to ease the suffering of the refugees. The conditions on the barge were nightmarish due to overcrowding and she still suffers mental stress from it. After arriving at Venus, she left the barge to finish her studies at a Venusian university which she paid for by taking out a loan with a hyper-corporation (let's say Terragenesis, since they are friendly with Venus) so that she would work for them after med-school on one of their exoplanet colonies (sort of like Joel in Northern Exposure). Next, stats: Just glancing at it the initiative looks like it's using the old system. Nothing wrong with that, just letting you know the initiative has been changed in the errata. The aptitudes seem fine. The motivations are fine, though they don't seem to fit someone who stayed behind to help those who were suffering (though it has been ten years, perhaps her motivations have changed). Skills: Her skills also seem fine but I notice the lack of Medicine: Trauma Surgery or Medicine: Paramedic which would have been really useful for staying behind and treating the wounded, but this may be why the experience was so horrible for her, lacking the skills that would save their lives but trying anyways because she was medical student and the best they had. Rep: if you are using X-Rep and she has been working with gate-crashers you may want to buy some and the networking: Explorenet/Gatecrashers skill to go with it. The Traits: Avoidance is listed as a trauma not a mental disorder. It should probably be switched to PTSD, which seems to be the closest disorder listed. Implants: Looks fine except for one nitpick: standard muse is not an implant, it is a program that runs on the mesh inserts implant. Muse Stats: The aptitudes for the muse are way off. The standard muse has all aptitudes at 10 except for INT which is 20 (ep, pp. 331-332). Gear: The firewall program comes standard with equipment, you don't need to purchase it separately. Also, the Standard vacsuit also comes with a radio booster so you may not want to by a second one (on the other hand you may, just letting you know you already have one from the vacsuit). The solarchive needs to specify what skill it is used for. And wow that is a lot of Gravy. Especially since she has a medical fabber and can make it at will. My advice: buy the blueprint for Gravy (moderate cost) and spend the savings on something else (like some nanobandages or maybe even get rid of some other stuff and get a healing vat or Dr. Bot) Well that's my opinion on Umayan al-Zubra, I hope it was usefull.

Sat, 2011-06-04 10:06

Jame Rowe

Re: The Character Workshop

I think in this case my question is as much "how can I modify the backstory to fit the skills?" 'cause it sounds like she wasn't an indenture after all. Which, after actually [i]reading[/i] your advice, can be done now. (Thanks, by the way, this will be helpful if I actually pay attention to it.) Initiative and such, well, I have the erratta now and can print it and update. The equipment ... well, I wasn't sure what to buy. It's kinda new to me (I'm used to Traveller and Shadowrun equipment lists, which are different). For the Muse, well, the first printing only has the skills for the standard one. No other stats were available in my printing but I can change that. Edit: The muse has been changed (the stats for muses should be in the book; gotta look at the errata), and Hardware: Implants and Medicine: Nanosurgery have been changed to Medicine: Paramedic and Trauma Surgery at the same rating. Edit: How is this for a backstory (with thanks for the advice again)? Umayan is a Fall evacuee who had been a medical student in Egypt at Al-Azhar University until the Fall, when she finagled her way onto a scum barge named “Stormchaser’s Eaters,” which while grateful for her assistance was horribly overcrowded and desperate from refugees, and violence broke out almost constantly. While she would gladly treat the victims of this, these victims were often victimized right in front of her, which caused her to start searching for ways to get away from it. Eventually, the barge wandered its way to Venus orbit (they were originally going for Jupiter but things happened), where she contacted Terragenesis, which she took out a loan and completed her training at a university on Venus. She is a supporter of the Morningstar Coalition and is quite interested in gate-crashing, and paid off her student loans by alternating as a doctor on newly-built aerostats and as a doctor on one of Terragenesis’s extrasolar colonies, overseeing the resleeving of colonists in biomorphs. Her exalt morph is fairly new; after building it as a personal project using her own genes, she resleeved as a move to work with her personal career.

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A neoethical noninterference precautionist who knows that Eli\vis Lives only because of the anagram!

Sat, 2011-06-04 07:03

Jame Rowe

Re: The Character Workshop

ssfsx17 wrote:
What is the "workshop" part? Do you desire comments on anything?

Yes, but I also put this up so other people could post their characters and ask for help. (So far I think this is helpful for me, for backstory if nothing else.)

—

A neoethical noninterference precautionist who knows that Eli\vis Lives only because of the anagram!

Sun, 2011-06-05 00:45

The Demon Code The Demon Code's picture

Re: The Character Workshop

Jame Rowe wrote:
The equipment ... well, I wasn't sure what to buy. It's kinda new to me (I'm used to Traveller and Shadowrun equipment lists, which are different).

Equipment in Eclipse Phase is tricky because of Egocasting and the differences in legality between various parts of the system. My extremely general advice is that if you are in a game with a lot of egocasting, then you want to concentrate less on gear and more on skills and aptitudes, and spend your resource points mostly on money and software/skillsofts. If you are operating outside the PC then you may also want to add blueprints for your favorite items. Correspondingly, if you are running a game where egocasting is less frequent or non-existent (such as a game focused on Venus or a gate-crashing campaign) then spending more on morphs and gear is better.

Jame Rowe wrote:
Edit: How is this for a backstory (with thanks for the advice again)? Umayan is a Fall evacuee who had been a medical student in Egypt at Al-Azhar University until the Fall, when she finagled her way onto a scum barge named “Stormchaser’s Eaters,” which while grateful for her assistance was horribly overcrowded and desperate from refugees, and violence broke out almost constantly. While she would gladly treat the victims of this, these victims were often victimized right in front of her, which caused her to start searching for ways to get away from it. Eventually, the barge wandered its way to Venus orbit (they were originally going for Jupiter but things happened), where she contacted Terragenesis, which she took out a loan and completed her training at a university on Venus. She is a supporter of the Morningstar Coalition and is quite interested in gate-crashing, and paid off her student loans by alternating as a doctor on newly-built aerostats and as a doctor on one of Terragenesis’s extrasolar colonies, overseeing the resleeving of colonists in biomorphs. Her exalt morph is fairly new; after building it as a personal project using her own genes, she resleeved as a move to work with her personal career.

I like it :) The only thing I would change would be that she was shoved onto the scum barge with the rest of the refugees they couldn't cram into Luna instead of deliberately seeking it out just to make the whole situation seem more rushed and desperate.

Sun, 2011-06-05 00:47

The Demon Code The Demon Code's picture

Re: The Character Workshop

Double Post

Sun, 2011-06-05 01:34

Yerameyahu Yerameyahu's picture

Re: The Character Workshop

The 'problem' is that money (CP) spent on morphs, implants, and gear is so incredibly efficient. For about 50CP of implants (a mere 50 skill points worth, or 5 Apt points), you can get truly massive bonuses to a very wide array of stats and tests. Armor and gadgets are similarly costs effective. So you really have to weigh that tradeoff.