Text color: Light green, normal shading (8dc73f)Name: Joe Slayer
Race: Ork
Age: In his twenties.
Gender: Male
Appearance: Like so...
In the Sixth World, you get all kinds. People are now quite literally all shapes and sizes and walks of life. On Goblinization Day, the world got Orks. Joe is one-such a being, Caucasian-skinned with a fairly-robust body. He can move, and relatively fast, but he's better to endure than run. Think of a soldier without the soldier, the man who hunkers down and deals with a situation like a gritty sergeant, only he's a part of no military company. Mercenary? Sure, why not? He's tough and he can carry on at length, through harsh conditions. He's a tough Ork, plenty like him. This one has green eyes and black hair cut relatively short. He might have a mark or a scar, here and there, where he's taken a hit and it didn't heal to perfection. It's the job. It happens. He has the enlarged lower-canines common with his kind and somewhat-pointed ears, naturally.
Though he could have several different colors of clothing, Joe prefers darker ones. They're easy on the eyes, and running the shadows gets alot easier if you start to
look like them. On a lazy non-running day, you'll find him in jeans and a t-shirt or tank-top. Most times, though, because he might be expecting trouble, it's armored clothing. The fixer-provided stuff won't pad against everything, everywhere, or at all times...but it adds up to a solid defense altogether and it's inexpensive. More often than not, this is Joe's day-to-day clothing. He just decided to get use to it and cut out the middle man. This includes something alot of runners like, that being the old classic black duster, well-suited to conceal weapons and other contraband. One article that Joe has that is
not armored is this dark leather cap he has. Fits a bit loose on his head, sometimes at a jaunty angle. Just a bit of personal style.
Archetype: Shark Shaman
Equipment: A fair bit.
Ares Predator (Current Model) - A reliable heavy pistol made by the Ares Corporation that many a runner will swear by. Has recoil reduction and a Smartgun System.
AK-98 Assault Rifle - This was expensive, but not hard to find. Based upon the original Russian weapon, this version was built with an under-the-barrel grenade launcher and a reinforced stock. Additionally modified to reduce recoil and to receive a Smartgun System.
Dragon Katana - Even though he bought this before he became a shaman, this reinforced blade originally from a culture he's not really into would become important to him. A Shark Shaman needs teeth.
Ammo - It's safe to say that Joe carries ammunition for his weapons in a plentiful amount, and that he carries varient rounds. Chiefly, he uses Flechette rounds to handle non-heavily-armored foes, and for the heavies, you say it with sabots, the APDS rounds. The grenades for his launcher are generally frag or explosive.
Armored Clothing - Shirt, vest, pants, and duster. All of these alone have a so-so rating against various forms of harm. Add them up, however, and you're pretty secure while on the cheap.
Grapple Gun - Not a weapon, but a climber's friend. Basically, you Batman your way up to high places.
Minor Items - The usual things. Commlink, credstick, Fake SIN, fake licenses, DocWagon Gold Band, etc.
Cybernetics: Cybernetics dull your magic capabilities at an inverse proportion to the awakened potential you have. The more that you insert, the less powerful your magic will be. (Your totem may or may not have additional grumbles on the matter.)
Smartgun System - A small device which connects the user to the gun he is holding wirelessly, via the small mounted camera device. It is a targeting system that allows for more accurate shots. The essence loss is tiny.
Cyber-Spurs - The infamous Wolverine claws of the Sixth World. They can be mounted in more places than just the hands, but Joe's a bit of a traditionalist. He has three retractible spurs in his right hand. The collective essense loss is small.
Abilities, Spells, Etc.: Potentially, there is not a spell that Joe couldn't research and learn, as long as it wasn't confidential or not on the market, somewhere. So, this will focus on where his strengths mainly lie.
Shark Totem - The mentor spirit of Shark has found its calling in Joe Slayer. He has extra power in combat and detection spells. It is his way to be vicious towards one foes, not usually settling down to one location, like the wandering predator itself. It is also possible that wounding Joe can send him into a frenzy, a bloodthirsty rage that will end with him killing someone nearby. Shark prefers locales in or near the ocean. He holds sway over aquatic predators of his type.
Combat Spells - Joe prefers the fire spells on this, especially the Fireball and Hellblast. (These are medium and large fire-based kabooms.) Straightforward and effective are his strengths, and Shark's strength, as well. He could probably manage mana or power spells, but they wouldn't be as strong. He does like Ram, the ability to smash inanimate objects from afar.
Detection Spells - Shark's other main strength bestowed upon Shamans, the expertise in finding your prey. To sense enemies, to detect life or other things, and to trail them... These are the things that Joe will excel at. This also includes assensing, the general astral sight business.
Other Spells - The rest are somewhere between middling to bad, in terms of his command of them, because he is not particularly patient or not particularly gifted in that area. For instance, Joe will rarely conjure or use illusions. He has a certain affinity for City Spirits, as he has lived in the city all his life. He is...okay...at healing, about as decent as a field kit. He has dabbled in armor casting and tearing, and a ritual that does not put him under pressure could be accomplished, but he does not take an astral form. He isn't keen on leaving his body, so he has not attempted to learn that.
Low-Light Vision - Common to all Orks, Joe can see better in the dark than human beings.
Unique Skill: These ones.
The Best of Both Worlds - It could be said that it was a bit unusual for someone like him to possess the benefit of both mundane and magical power in effective proportions. Often, a runner with this kind of choice either pursues magic or he does not, and that attribute either suffers or flourishes. Joe started out on the path to being mainly a gunner with a cyberware, or an outright Street Samurai. Could've happened, but didn't. He didn't know why until later, after he'd sampled the bullet-ridden world, when he came to know magic. And for the record, though Totems disapprove of cyberware about as much as magic hates essence loss, Shark forgave the transgression this time, for being ultimately made deadlier by the fact. He is not QUITE as powerful as a truly-dedicated practicioner of the magical arts, and there are those who carry better guns, armor, and more cybernetics. Joe walks around, well-rounded, with a foot in either area. It makes him versatile in a dangerous way.
Vasquez - This refers to the skill of handling this beast, one that he claims ownership of under some unusual circumstances. Vasquez is a monster. Rather, she is an awakened animal, a Fenrir Wolf. Actually, she is a hybrid wolf, whose father was illegally sold as a pup on the black market, when there is a kill order on Fenrirs in Germany with a bounty. It was one of those Shadowrunning adventures with very strange things going on. A contact of his had taken the wolf and its hybrid spawn and essentially trained them from young to old, the ONLY way you could ever possibly get one to respond in kind...when drugs, chipping, and magic had all failed in others of the same ilk when taken by corporations. Vasquez, Hudson, and Hicks were each given to different owners. Joe received Vasquez and adapted his understanding of Shark to keep a handle on this land predator. She is big, standing at head-height with your average human. Her strength and speed is a yikes, there is a natural aura of Fear around her, and she has enhanced senses that include Low-Light Vision. She IS large and hairy, though, so not exactly suitable for small and/or hot places.
Personality: And thusly...
You have, at times, those people who were born into a hard life and - rather than spending their time complaining all the damn day -
become the hard life and roll with it. They don't let it steamroll them, they shoulder its weight and push on until finally something gives. The kind of man that will endure, never breaking under pressure, is essentially what Joe is. He recognizes that he isn't going to be glamorous, popular, rich, or powerful by any traditional means. He's an Ork and he's not particularly special. The beauty of it, though, is that by looking like he's only a tough born of Seattle, he can surprise people. Because he doesn't go out of his way to celebrate himself or brag that much (save the occasional drinking story), anything he achieves that nobody would expect of him looks all the more extravagant. Basically, if he doesn't treat things like a big deal and just sets out to deal with 'em like any crisis, they will just BE another tick off the list for him, while others can stare with their jaws hanging open. People like it when you can take a hit.
This is how he came to see himself as sort of the best representative of the working class, the average Joe, the heart and the soul of the Shadowrunner. He does the job, and he gets paid. He gets his life moving and he takes care of whatever life throws at him. Because if you treat yourself and life like you're just a normal guy doing a normal thing, only the greatest of circumstances will really weird you out. There is ALOT to be shocked by in the Sixth World, and you can either
keep getting shocked by it, or you can put on a good game face and act like it shouldn't surprise you. And really, if you're getting surprised every day, then the surprise should lose its luster, after some point. Joe isn't overly-cynical, but a sarcastic quip WILL find its way fired squarely from between his fangs at the nearest idiot, should the opportunity present itself, and it will be lethal damage if he can help it. Yes, we know that Shark thinks that talk is cheap, but if you're planning to kill a guy, make him make the first mistake.
Bio: Even in a world where large chunks of the population have been cut down by VITAS, magical creatures, gun battles, or corporate nonsense...you have guys that are fairly-average in themselves.
Someone has to be born out of no place special and have no grand designs on life, per se. You get people who are not especially talented, but are generally reliable, and that's what you call decent, if nothing else. That's Joe. He chose the name, Joe Slayer, on the idea that he's just a decent runner. He's not fancy, he's just practical, durable, and more than likely sensible, like some enlisted man from a small town that keeps on keeping on. Is that a bit too Sergeant Murphy for you? It might feel like that, a little. Joe sees himself as what any basic Shadowrunner should be, the Average Joe Slayer. It makes sense in context.
He was born in Seattle, Redmond, and he pretty much stayed in Redmond during the younger years of his life, doing what people in the Barrens DO, which is surviving. Things get rough in places like that. Maybe not so bad as Puyallup, but damn... Street battles with or even without gangs, corporate plants polluting the area, critters hanging out in alleys or the sewers, corporate bullshit all over the place - All this and we haven't covered the runners. Lots of runners come out of areas like these, areas that don't have as many thorough checks because they're basically made of shit. It's also a good place for them to crash, because alot of the SINless just live here. Joe might've had a SIN when he was younger, but prospects are low in the Barrens, lower if you're an Ork and people are racist bastards, which some are. He decided to make his own way.
This all started with him just being a guy with a gun. He actually managed to NOT gain the ire of gangers with his attitude, since the only gangers he might've ended up killing were blessed idiots who got this far only though the grace of god, some would say. Joe would just say he got lucky, and then he didn't. He'd also say to the gangers that confronted him in these situations "It ain't
about you. It's what he was doin' to
me. You're better off without that guy.". This didn't always work, but usually the friend of some idiot was also some asshole the others didn't like. The point was that Joe wasn't even dissing gangs, so he got along with them long enough to get into deeper matters, proper Shadowrunning with better guns and equipment. He started riding out of his district and into all the greater Seattle locations, even outside of it. He liked to get around, though there's always that place he pays upkeep for. Even if you don't treat it like home, you've always got that one place you come back to, every now and then, familiar and friendly.
It all began to shift in a weird way once he became friends with a Dog Shaman, name of Jonesy. Yeah, it was another one of those average-guy sounding names. Yeah, it sounded like he was actually calling himself after Ripley's cat from
Aliens, but so what? He liked it. Thing is, Jonesy had had a look at Joe's spirit, aaand well, he kinda' noticed he was active, awakened, and that something hung over him that he could not see. It happens all the time. People go through the shit of their lives, sometimes not aware they had a gift because either nobody noticed or they just never told 'em. It kinda' made sense in Redmond. How many people would tell you ways to be more dangerous when they'd like to
live tomorrow? In Jonesy's case, it came at a hard decision. He consulted both the man who set HIM on the path - an AmerIndian called Shows-The-Way - and Dog, his spirit guide. With their help, he discovered what responded to Joe. It wasn't horrible, like a Bug Spirit or the Horned God or something, but it WAS dangerous. It was Shark, the roaming predator, and it would seem wise NOT to show Joe his own teeth, lest he bite the one to inform him. However, as a follower of Dog, Jonesy had a focus on loyalty, and Joe was a friend, so he told 'im.
The reason, of course, that Shark didn't send him many signs was because although Joe was relatively close to the coast, he wasn't often in boats or in wharfs. Once he was shown the path, he became more curious. This was a new thing. After years of just being the guy who shoots stuff, someone handed him a whole new set of equipment to play with, and
you know how much runners like gear. Maybe this was more the astral form of gear, with books and spells to look into, but it was something to take in. Once he started taking trips closer to the sea, he started hearing the Totem - his Mentor Spirit - more regularly. Being a vicious fighter as a matter of course, treating it as normal or even
preferrable in day-to-day life, appealed to Shark, and from there a working relationship began. Joe stepped into the magic circle, surprising mages and the like with capabilities and knowledge they didn't know he had. He was as he always was, the unexpectedly tough guy.
Being the reliable hammer to bring to a nail party got Joe into situations that could be considered stranger and stranger. One particular day, he got into busting an awakened animal trafficking ring. You know how it is. People capture these beasts for study, for attempted use in corporate strongholds, for magic components... Shamans don't appreciate that in general, and neither do runners, since they'll probably be faced with 'em at some point. One particular crackdown that involved a wolf shaman in the lead saw themselves discovering a creature whose death would make Germany very happy, a Fenrir Wolf pup. Fenrir are vicious creatures, monstrous killers. The wolf shaman couldn't bear to kill it, though. She worked to train it from the ground up with her skill to be her companion. And when it mated with another hound, so that she had three pups of her own...well...she had to get rid of them. Thor, the wolf, was an alpha male, and their instinct is to drive away their young after they grow up a little, or kill them. They had to go. Joe, whose background was with a vicious Totem, received the female of the three, calling her Vasquez after the soldier chick from
Aliens.
Thing is, though, this wasn't an easy thing to manage. You could keep such a creature in sectors they don't patrol very much, but what about areas they do? Or when you're on the move? Joe DID move around alot. His home was little more to him than a safehouse, a storage bay. Sometimes, he had to get out. And then, it hit him, and in
a flash of insight.Notes: Just little things aside here.
I went out of my way to be detailed about very Shadowrun-y things because I like the series, and more recent works on the whole RPG have been perfectly fine for use, while still retaining some of the classic info that I think could be very useful.
I didn't list things like contacts and vehicles because here he is neither the contact man or the wheel man. He's an out-of-towner whose friends are all overseas and it's hard enough transporting a large animal quietly without also taking a truck or a motorcycle, as well.
I didn't mention magical equipment because whatever small amount of actual items Joe has to use with magic is small stuff covered under 'ETC' in Minor Items. He doesn't ritual very much, if at all, and that is mainly what spell components are for, when fighting, tracking, assensing, and so on are done on the fly.
Vasquez (the Fenrir Wolf) is something I worked on not in any of the games, but in an actual Shadowrun freeform kind of like this. While it is unlikely that ANY Fenrir should be domestic enough for a man to keep, the fact of the matter is that it doesn't normally work because the upkeep is often too great for those that want it, or they're the wrong people, or it's the wrong approach. The way we did it makes it just about possible, enough to make things interesting, though these things are true beasts.
The current Joe is kind of a celebration of all the RPing I've done, all the writing I've done with people or for my own fun, because Shadowrun was the RPG that got me into roleplay. He was my first character and I liked him enough to give him a rebirth. Here's hoping he does well for you.
