[PbtA] [Urban Shadows] Dreams of a Neon Sky

[Ermine]

Okay, think I'm done with edits. Hopefully. Maybe. Probably.

Edit: Where could I find all the advanced moves?
Edit 2: Nevermind, found it.

[Ysolde]

• Your Name : Valeria Seiglende
• Choose an Archetype The Sworn
• Your Look Feminine and tall over 6'. Long black hair, blue eyes, she wears leather and ripped jeans with tattoos of numerous Norse runes and a pair of beautiful wings that nearly seem to move on her back. She looks every inch of what one might imagine a modern Valkyrie might look. Even without any implants or cybernetics she looks deadly.
• Your Demeanor Emotional - You can almost hear passion in the words she speaks. Be it anger, happiness, sadness, grief, she speaks and it fills the room. She's prone to act out on any powerful emotion with some form of physicality whether it be a hug when happy or violence when angry.
• Intro Questions
  • Why did you swear your oath? My mother served the Covenant of Valkyries before me and I have sworn the same oath as she hoping to find her.
  • How long have you been in the city? Four months have I sought my mother. I know not who keeps her nor has any information come to light.
  • Who trained you in the ways of your order? My Mother blessed by Freya and member of the Covenant of Valkyries. She alone taught me my duties and how I must serve.
  • What marks you as different from the masters you serve? My raven black hair sets me apart, my mothers was blonde but mine is as dark as sable.
  • Whose disappearance are you investigating? As I have said, I seek my mother. She has been lost to the covenant and so I swore my oath and perform my duties while desperately trying to find her.
    
  • Other Information The Covenant of The Valkyrie an ancient group of earthbound deities, the choosers of the slain, the guardians of life, defenders of fairness, protectors of the light. The Covenant works in secret assassinating some and protecting others. They are dedicated to making the world a more fair place and the ends justify the means.
    
    The Sworn - Sworn to The Covenant of The Valkyrie and charged with investigating threats and problems, as well as, destroying those who would thwart them.
    The Vows are: Never lie about your identity or purpose. Never reveal the secrets of the Covenant of The Valkyrie. Always protect members of power from harm. Always thwart the enemies of the Covenant of The Valkyrie. Always seize that which the Covenant of The Valkyrie desires.
    
    Her weapon is simply named dreppaøkse it's edge is red with the blood the gods.
    
    
  • How familiar are you with Urban Shadows (or PbtA games) in general? Never played Urban Shadows but very willing to learn. I've played Werewolf, Vampire, but those were some time ago.

[Ermine]

Ooh, yay, I have a protector!

[FraterChad]

I do believe my application for Solomon Wesson is now complete!

Let me know if you'd like to see any other bits of information on him. I'm happy to make changes to better suit the party and/or plot.

[Silent Rain]

Apps are looking great. I will definitely have questions for everyone once the party is selected.

Also, don't worry so much about fitting into the setting or plot. I have a framework of the city, but much of what is going on will be determined by what is provided to me by the players. US is designed to run in that way.

[Effete]

I don't think I can commit to another game at this time (or try to stuff another set of game rules into my head). I need to unplug.

Good luck, folks!

[crowmadillo]

Howdy Silent Rain, have a question for you. Is your idea that Arcon exists in a 2096 Earth based off reality up until our current era? Basically, would the mundane history of the 20th and early 21st century be more or less the same?

[Silent Rain]

Yes, same history up to current time. Of course, you can tweak history as needed to suit the needs of your char's background.

[crowmadillo]

Updated appearance description with link to reference images; I believe I’m all set.

Character Application - Pythagora Your Name Vidya Ambroży Mehta-Brożek is my given name, but mostly I go by Pythagora. Choose an Archetype Oracle Your Look Conforming (female), South Asian, Revealing Clothing (NeoPunker Luxe.) I’m new to RPGX and the ability to post a picture (my old pbp site doesn’t have this option.) I couldn’t find a good composite image nor was I able to finish a reasonable sketch. Instead please check out my inspiration board on pinterest to get a feel for what I’m going for: link to image board. The link should work without needing to log in to pinterest or anything. If chosen I do plan to complete a decent sketch of her to use. A tall, full-figured, dark skinned woman with her hair styled in a long ‘side hawk’ wearing high-end revealing streetwear. Her skin doubles as a display screen (subdermal LED matrices or somesuch) allowing her to display colors, patterns, etc, when she so desires. When prognosticating she displays either ever-changing numbers or hexagrams, depending on the method she’s using. Never without her AR glasses & earbuds to receive messages and stream her favorite music and serials. Your Demeanor Distant. A body usually thinks I’m not paying attention, my head in the cloud. Sometimes it’s true - I’m vibing tunes, or swimming Windmills of Your Soul. If not, though, I’m doing figures. Words, characters, syllables, broken down into numbers, cross-referenced with birth dates, idents, addresses, times, dates, prices, account numbers - you get the notion. Can’t help it. It takes premier effort for me to focus and unpack chatter dumped on me real-time. Most of what a body says is tos anyways. You want confab? Tweext me. Intro Questions • How old were you when your visions began? Numbers have always spoken to me, but I throbbed years before I could unpack them. The corpoteach maths did nothing for me - it’s not the real way numbers talk - so they dx’ed me dyscalculic and cycled me to the slow track. Eventually some drone tried fupdating me with geometry and suddenly I was nextgen, but by then I didn’t care. I’d factored what my numbers were saying, and school wasn’t going to be my frequency. • How long have you been in the city? My whole life. Dropped in High Tides Arcology, but in my tweens we had to shake after mom was abandoned by the Big Three like last month’s OS. Then we just sort of sunk down through Transistor Terrace and settled in the Shopping District like the last dim pearl in backwash boba. • How did you originally convince your benefactor to trust you and your visions? For years I gigged numerology services on the net. My patron hired me a lot, always for different subjects, before offering me an exclusive contract. I knew they had what I needed, so it’s been mewch, more or less. • Who seeks to sway you from your service? This past year the Big Three have contacted me several times with unsolicited employment opportunities, referencing my “unique skillset.” Not sure if this is my mom pulling old strings, something my patron’s involved in, or just a new corpo recruitment drive. • What signs hint your prophecy grows near? Next year ends a personal and global cycle, the year after marks a new one. My hexagrams prog I’ll break through to revelation of a universal truth within this time. AND they just announced Windmills of Your Soul will end its 11 year run over the ’97/’98 season! Revelations guaranteed. Other Information - The Oracle - Provide details about your Benefactor • Name: k4rm4b1tch • Circle: Mortalis • My Prophecy: I was net diving a few years back and unpacked how for ages a sampler of sumheads have been trying to make an equation of everything, like one maths sentence that explains all that was and will ever be. And I thought ‘Wow sumheads are stupid.’ And then I thought, ‘If I had trenta bytes I could probably prog everything though.’ And then I realized: if I had trenta bytes I could probably prog everything. Like RR prog everything; minways everything in Arcon. And the exact same nano I realize this? My episode 1 gig from k4rm4b1tch inboxes, offering payment in bytes, stamped 33 secs past midnight 17 Feb 2093. Just DeathLine me already! (They alone can guide me to the mystical answers I seek.) • Benefactor Strengths: k4rm4b1tch’s bytes are always 100% certified organic, raw and unsweetened. They only run with the T&T, too, so we’re max chaste. (They speak truthfully and honor their word; their minions are disciplined and loyal.) • Benefactor Flaws: All I know about k4rm4b1tch is from tweext and secmail. They could be anybody. Anybody I don’t have bytes on anyway. And without any bytes I can’t prog them, not proper. What I do know is more often than not the big subjects they’ve had me prog usually come to trouble. Punker trouble. Corpo addresses get hit, arcologies hacked, execs scandalized - all when I’ve progged they’re at their weakest and most vulnerable. (They have defenses against my sight; they are at war with powerful enemies.) How familiar are you with Urban Shadows (or PbtA games) in general? I’ve got no experience with Urban Shadows. I’ve MCed Apocalypse World 2e and played Voidheart Symphony.   I hope I made most of these understandable through context, but as hope often proves false, here's some definitions A body - the general populace. AR - augmented reality. Backwash Boba - the questionable and unpleasant end of a cheap boba drink (usually one obtained from an automatic dispenser.) For some reason I find few real things more evocative of cyberpunk than bubble tea. Except in the future the tapioca balls glow, of course. Bytes - information. DeathLine - to make something extremely obvious, referencing being struck by a LifeLine car; Arcon update of the “hit someone over the head” idiom. Dx - to diagnose, or a diagnosis. Episode 1 - the start of what proves to be an ongoing experience or relationship of some duration. Fupdating - required new information, rule, or action that is supposedly for one’s benefit, but in reality is detrimental. Max chaste - never f***ed. Mewch - mutually beneficial. Nextgen - breakthrough ability or performance, next level. Prog - prognosticate; this is what Pythagora calls her prophetic abilities. RR - “real reality,” aka the real world; also used to mean authentic, 'for real.' Secmail - secure email. Swimming - engrossed in content streamed through the net. T&T - tried and true. Throbbing - thinking on an issue, figuring something out; from ’throbber’ loading/processing graphics. Tos - largely meaningless filler information or conversation; from TOS (terms of service.) Tweext - some future text/tweet hybrid, which I imagine having a low character limit. Unpack - understand, learn.

[Ermine]

I hope we get conflicting visions sometime. ^~^ It would be a good competition between our characters as to whose visions came true.

But I can easily change Saira to a wizard if two oracles is going to be a problem. (I'd PREFER oracle, obviously).

[Silent Rain]

Having as many archetypes represented is great, as it brings more things to the table, but at the end of the day, I prefer players playing the character they want to play.

We still have a couple of days for any last minute applications.

[Ermine]

Just wanna make it easier on you, if you don't feel like coming up with two clearly differently-presented visions.

Edit: Just looked at wizard starting gear and it's FUNNY, so I may switch. Plus it'd be more useful to the party to only have one oracle.

Edit 2: Change to Wizard completed. Kept Oberan in there as the one who gave me my sanctum.

[crowmadillo]

Ermine I think it’s feasible we can get along without too much overlap. My current plan if chosen is to take Dual Loyalty and Soothsayer, then start branching out into Aware moves. Pythagora is a very intentional oracle - she has to work her process in order to produce any results. You’d expressed interest in Foresight, and Saira seems much more a spontaneous empath-style psychic.

I’d also worked on a wizard, but just couldn’t come up with a ward concept I was happy with.

At the end of the day, a 4-5 character party chosen from 6 playbooks has a fair chance of duplicating playbooks.

[Ermine]

I did switch to Wizard. I have ideas for a ward.

[crowmadillo]

Yeah you me there