Hey, let’s pretend to make a character!
Fresh Meat This story features the worst exposition so far. “Hi, I’m a shadowrunner. I’m pretty good at and but aren’t great at . I’m good with …” Yeah, fascinating reading. Add in the reality show hook and you’ve got something special.
Creating a Shadowrunner So, we’re finally to character creation. It’s point-buy, which is a change from previous editions.
Talk to Dave. He knows everything.
Welcome to the Hall of Heroes. This is an ongoing collection of my favorite Non-Playing Characters (NPCs) used in my games of Dungeons & Dragons throughout the ages.
Today we look at one of my favorites: Dave the Bartender.
Back in 1989, I was running a hybrid AD&D campaign using an odd combination of 1st edition Shadownrun and AD&D 2E Spelljammer. The campaign was a one-on-one between myself and my best friend Glenn. We played the campaign until roughly 1993. Using Spelljammer allowed me to switch campaign settings back and forth over the years.
One thing we did was make it that Glenn’s character could move from setting to setting easily by use of a device that opened a Dimensional Door. Later on, his character had access to the Dimension Door spell which he often used too. He moved back and forth through the different worlds, including Future Earth (Shadowrun), Krynn (Dragonlance), and Oreth (D&D.)
During this campaign there was one reoccurring character named Dave. He was an average looking bartender as the local tavern. When I say he looked average what I mean is I would describe hm exactly as so: “He is an average looking guy of average height, weight, and build. He is rather plain looking, and this allows him to melt into almost any environment, allowing him to go unnoticed if he wishes to do so.”
Glenn’s character soon found that Dave existed in all three worlds. He was the head bartender at the Purple Haze on Earth, Otik’s assistant in the Inn of the Last Home on Krynn, and owner of the Green Dragon Inn on Oreth. As it turned out this was because Dave was actually the personification of neutral god named Gilean.
Gilean, also known as the Book, the Sage, and the Gray Voyager, represents the godly force of knowledge. He supports the growth of the soul through attaining knowledge and experience. He is the holder of the Tobril, which contains the divine plan of the High God for the world. He is the patron of sages, librarians, and scholars. He is the leader of the Gods of Balance. He supports free will and individual choice for all individuals of Krynn. He is one of the first gods to be called out of the Beyond and is on equal power with Takhisis and Paladine. A legend of him states that the High God commanded Gilean to ensure his own existence by raising the soul of a mortal scholar who would one day become him, in an ontological paradox of sorts. That scholar is most likely Astinus, who watches over the Great Library of Palanthas and scribes all history as it happens until the Chaos War. Gilean is a mediator between the Gods of Good and Evil, siding against the faction that threatens the Balance. All of the Gods of Neutrality look to him for help and advice, and the Gods of Light often do the same in hopes he will side with them. The Gods of Evil manipulate situations to present Gilean with a case where he can only side with them, such as in the Chaos War where Takhisis forces Gilean to side with her Dark Knights, as they are the only chance that mortals can stand against Chaos. His celestial symbol is the constellation Book of Souls
Dave was a constant source of information and adventure hooks. Whenever Glenn (as a player) became frustrated within the campaign, or his character needed to figure out something beyond his wits to do so, Dave was always there.
Dave continues to be my favorite NPC from past campaigns.
So we (Murphy, Bazinga, and Glitch) head off to the Neebo concert with back stage passes. The main idea is to scope the place out and maybe find some information on the data disc we are looking for, and hopefully steal Neebo’s comm-link so we can recover the original email offering it for sale. The concert is packed and full of mainly Orks, Trolls, and Humans. So the three of us being small, well we had to fight our way through the crowd.
We made it backstage and showed our passes to the first security officer. Murphy lied and said he was supposed to meet with Jager, the head of security. Glitch sweetened the deal by flashing his Novacoke collection. The security officer waved us in and Murphy eyed someone who seemed to be Jager right away. However, plans changed slightly when it became obvious that the only place that Neebo’s dressing room might be was up a flight of scaffolding stairs and in a set of offices.
We made our way that direction, and Glitch flashed his Novacoke to the sleepy looking drugged up security officer sitting on the steps. He directed us towards an office were there was a “party” going on. It seemed like this was Neebo’s dressing room and maybe where he would have left his Comm-link while he was on stage.
Long story short, Bazinga and Glitch managed to steal the Comm-Link but only after giving Novacoke to the folks partying in the dressing room. Glitch had to do a hit with the one guy in order to gain his trust, and was tweaking for most of the rest of this part of the Run. We were leaving the room when we heard gunfire, and the concert quickly turned into a riot.
But that is another story …
I started playing Shadowrun again tonight. It’s been a long time, I believe since 1993.
Some things have changed, but the core of the game remains the same. I’m sure I will get up to speed soon.
I am playing a Dwarf Face with a Sneak package. He’s basically a con man and smooth talker. He operates on the fringe between legal and illegal. He goes by many different names, but his main street name is Murphy. I am running him based loosely on Gimli from Lord of the Rings in attitude and mannerisms.
¥¥¥
Tonight our session was simple. Murphy gets a call from a contact named Smiley. He’s told to show up at Club Penumbra at a certain time and place to meet a new crew for a job. Apparently these guys got caught in the middle of a shoot out at a Stuffer Shack and attracted some attention. All Murphy knows is they are a motley bunch that lives in an RV. Not exactly his kind of folk, but if they’re the ones he has to work with … so be it.
The Crew was rough and tumble. There’s The Kid. He owns a RV that could easily pass for a Tank. Just a teenager with an attitude that might not allow him to get past puberty. Then there was the Asian and the Scotsman. They looked like they might have stepped right out of one of those animated action cartoons from the old days. (Samurai Jack, to be exact.) And then there’s the Hacker. He seems pleasant enough but is usually talking about Sprites and Commlinks. Not my thing. But they’ll do for now. Every Face needs a crew, even a motley one like this.
Smiley explains that he’s a retired Shadowrunner and helps the new guys get jobs. Basically he recruits rookies for a finders fee for jobs. He offers 10,000 credits (half up front) to the crew. We are to meet a Mr. Johnson at Infinity at Seattle Center to get the job offer and details.
Getting to Infinity was easy, but getting the crew in was a little work. Getting them outfitted in decent attire was the first step, and convincing the Kid not to show up in his RV at a trendy club was the second. Murphy managed to knock enough dust off the crew to let them pass for the usual clientele.
We made contact with an female Elf bartender who directed us to the Blue Room where we’d meet Mr. Johnson. He was a skinny Troll who had recently lost some property due to a smash-and-grab. The job was simple enough: find an antique music disc and return it to the Johnson.
Done and done. Murphy kicked his feet up and smoked a pipe while the crew did their searching through the Matrix. Found some chatter about the data disc, and apparently linked it all to some up and coming musician named Nebo playing a concert in Redmond at a warehouse. Fine.
One of the crew scored back stage tickets and they made for the concert. The crew had to wait in line forever, and the Kid almost messed things up getting caught with his weapon by the security. I smoothed things out with a like sweet talk, and the kid greased the rent-a-cop’s fingers with some cash. All the fuss allowed me to get in with my Predator stashed in my coat. Almost like we planned it that way.
So now we’re in the concert … now we got to find this Nebo and see about this data disc. Easier said than done.
" I'm fine. That was deliberate! Deliberate!"
