“Then he shoved his pistol into the fucking thing’s mouth and pulled the trigger. You should have seen it. Damn vampire’s head evaporated. Made my whole week.” -Rachel Harlan, Ex Vampire Hunter
Kyler Beckstead
No man chooses his purpose. A young Mister Beckstead discovered this one October night: His shadowrunner team got mauled by Fucking Vampires. His lover got turned into a Banshee and made a solid run at taking over all the Vampirics in Seattle.
Kyler, barely surviving the experience, fled town and country for a stretch of near-empty desert in the Pueblo Corporate Council. He spent months healing, making new contacts, and learning everything he could find about, as it was called in those days, the Human-Metahuman Vampiric Virus. That was 2058.
On March 3rd, 2059 Kyler returned to Seattle with vengeance in his heart. a plan in mind, a small army of Vampire Hunters, and a sufficient number of guns. His ex-lover, Cassandra, had spent the months between making allies and thralls using her magic to addict other vampiric leaders to her power. She was raising an army. Over three days and three nights the vampire hunters, shadowrunners they hired, and Kyler coordinated and targeted as many of the vampiric encampments as they could find.
The final battle between Cassandra’s vampires and Kyler’s hunters took place after midnight of the third day of the skirmishes. When the dust from the mortars Beckstead had set up cleared, over 80 vampires and nearly 40 hunters were dead. The two dozen surviving wounded were kept on homicide watch to see if they’d been infected.
It was a good day for Seattle. Of course, it would have consequences. Kyler’s Hunters got so many runners killed he was blacklisted almost everywhere. The next few years weren’t kind him. Unable to get ilegitimate work, Kyler was forced to be proactive and mobile. He’d rip off gangs, syndicates, and the occasional corp.
But Beckstead always was smart. He made friends, cultivated allies, and made damn sure if he couldn’t save some taken loved one, at the very least the scales were balanced before he left. Flash forward to 2074. Kyler hit 50. His edge had dulled over the past few years and he wasn’t a young man anymore. More and more often luck kept him alive over skill.
The Security Corporation he’d formed 4 years earlier with a few vampire hunter friends had taken a major hit, with more than half their field personnel dead. New options made themselves known when Martin De Vries, noted speaker and author, was revealed to be himself a vampire. His public career sunk, De Vries knew he’d need to find some new way to influence popular culture with vampires. What happened next is only known to very few.
Beckstead and De Vries had been long acquaintances and one night they got together to commiserate over their situations. They hatched a new plan, one so ludacris and large it would force every power-building vampire on the planet to target their new effort. It would be a trap, of sorts. Left to their own devices, vampires could easily camouflage their activities and go unnoticed, save for their victims. But in the modern world, who even notices a few million going missing?
The trap would take total commitment. Every dirty secret, every piece of hidden knowledge tucked away, every dollar either of them could scrape together. If it failed, both men would be behind the 8-ball. But if it worked… well, then we might move beyond this business of picking at the scabs and target the infection itself.
And so, strings were pulled. De Vries had spent the better part of 30 years building influence. Not so much friends, but people who knew when he spoke they ought to listen. Martin himself would have no visible part of the operation. He’d offer funding and Beckstead would allow himself to be the target. That was the day they founded Lifeshield Arms, the Vampire hunting corp. For all your vampire hunting needs.
Worried about being attacked by a vampire? Get some vampire mace. In a handy spray bottle. In the year and a half since, backed by the Corporate Court, LSA is ready to take its place as a true A-megacorporation. Their niche funds many interesting side projects. And done so while enshrouding most of the logistics and infrastructure in red tape so convoluted only a handful of people know what’s going on in the corp at any one time.
Their agreement with the Court gave them a monopoly on anti-vamp tech so they could freely publish instructions for how to make their gear online. They’re covered by the Court’s lawyers, and the DemiGODs themselves handle the LSA’s matrix security. It’s not all sunshine and roses, since they’re saddled with a Board of Directors to make sure the details iron out.
So, Kyler is CEO and founder. His work is making the world a more dangerous place for goddamn vampires. He’s wearing a giant target on his back. What could be better?
Using Kyler Beckstead
Kyler’s most obvious use is as an employer. He has contacts at many levels and often spends personal and corporate resources to hire people to slap down vampire-infestations he hears about.
Beckstead, perhaps understandably, has a serious hatred of Vampirics. He wants to wipe the virus out. He’s quite adept at hiding just how much he hates them, as long experience has taught him people tend to be put off by Ahabesque behavior. While, technically, Kyler still makes a competent physical threat, his age has gotten to him and his body isn’t nearly as capable as it was when he was younger. His low physical limit makes it difficult for him to maneuver into position as well as he used to.
Naturally, he hasn’t accepted this reality and continues to push himself when it seems appropriate. On the other side, Kyler loathes metahumans who help vampirics. He actively, if subtly, opposes MHVV rights groups and more openly their radical fringe. If runners are working with these groups, it’s possible Beckstead will move to cripple, disperse, or kill them.
Because of the paranoid manner Lifeshield Arms operates, they have no set physical locations, enabling him to show up nearly anywhere. Their manufacturing takes place using rented factory-time, Tractor-trailers outfitted with nanotechnology-based factories, and “Pop up” style facilities.
Beckstead rarely sleeps in the same place twice, regularly changing his vehicles and plans. He moves with the paranoid awareness of how dangerous his enemies are. Occasionally he uses body doubles. His primary entourage is two grade 2 initiate adepts and his secretary who happens to be a Bear shaman. All three are vampire hunters with little patience for fucking around. They frequently hire additional security if they think there’s reason to need it.
As implied above, they hire unevenly from shadowrunners and security corps. Note: His cyber-arm means he’s world class with pistols but only exceptional with shotguns.
Creation/Advancement notes
Kyler Beckstead was one of my first shadowrun characters back in SR3 for a game I never got to be a player in. I figured it might be fun to bring him into SR5 as an aging runner well past his prime.
His stats here represent his personal arms and resources. As CEO of Lifeshield Arms, he has the full power of an A-rating megacorp to throw around. He does so often, but he has to restrain himself from giving every conflict or situation a scorched earth response, which is both unnecessarily damaging to the metahumans around him and expensive to the company.
His preference is for Big Damn Guns. If you can shoot something once and have it be dead, there’s little reason to try shooting it a bunch of times. Thus, in fights with vampires he often Pushes The Limit and attempts a Called Shot(Vitals). Metahumans he’s much more likely to try to wound, even if they’re attacking him. Unless he believes they’re thralls, of course. Then it’s open season.
If you want to give him more karma to spend there are two solid routes: Give him more martial arts that let him fight with guns more melee or have him raise his attributes.
Chances are he won’t get much more regular grade cyber without another level or two in tailored pheromones, as his social limit has already taken enough of a beating.
This next part is my first experiment in putting together an easy to use template for character sheets. It didn’t go well. He also has an additional point of edge I forgot to give him.
This is one of those things I’m glad I tried to rule it out.
It did kinda work. But not really.
Kyler Beckstead: Lifeshield Arms CEO
and Vampire Hunter. Prime Runner
Priorities:
- A: Skills 46/10
- B: Money 325,000
- C: Attributes 16
- D: Human 3
- E: Magic –
Attributes:
- B 2 (3)
- A 2 (3) [9]
- R 2 (3)
- S 1 (2) [6]
- C 4
- I 6
- L 4 (6)
- W 3
- EDG 5
- ESS .9
- Initiative: 9+2d6
- Defense: 9
- Damage Resistance: 23
- Armor: 3 body + 1 bone lacing + 3 cyberarm +2 Dermal plating +12 Executive suite + 2 Form fitting body armor: 23
Karma: 35
- 7 Natural Athlete
- 3 Brand Loyalty (Product, Remington Roomsweeper)
- 5 Analytical Mind
- 8 Indomitable R1 (Physical)
- 6 Magic Resistant R1
- 6 Photographic Memory
- +10 Insomnia
- +15 Corporate SIN (Lifeshield Arms)
- +5 Distinctive Style(Sash with dangling vampire teeth around some part of his body to remind people he isn’t just a suit, but an accomplished vampire hunter)
- +7 Radical Prejudice(Uncommon, MHVV victims)
- -25 for 50k
- -7 Martial Art Gun Kata(Close Quarters Firearms (Pistols))
- -3 Contacts
Skills: 46/10
- Influence 6
- Etiquette 6
- Leadership 6
- Negotiation 6
- Athletics 2
- Gymnastics 2
- Running 2
- Swimming 2
- Outdoors 2
- Tracking 2
- Survival 2
- Navigation 2
- Archery 5
- Con 5
- Armorer 6
- Pistols (Heavy) 6(+2)
- Longarms (Shotguns) 4(+2)
- Perception 5
- Unarmed(Cyber-implanted) 4(+2)
- Pilot ground 3
- First aid 2
- Sneaking 3
Knowledge Skills: 36 Note: Built with 3x knowledge skill houserule
- Engineering(Weapons) 3(+2)
- Small Unit Tactics 3
- Magical Threats (MHVV) 6 (+2)
- Business 4
- Security Procedures (Personal) 6 (+2)
- Carib 6
- English N
- Japanese 3
- Russian 2
Gear: 375,000
- Datajack 1k .1
- R4 Cybereyes .4 10k
- Flare comp [1] 1000
- Low light vision [2] 1500
- Smart Link [3] 4k
- Therm vison [2] 1500
- R2 Vision Enhancement [2] 8000
- Vision mag [2] 2000
- R1 Muscle Replacement 25k, 1
- R1 Synaptic Booster 95k .5
- R2 Cerebral Booster 94500 .4
- R1 Tailored Pheromones 31000 .2
- R2 Mnemonic Enhancer 18,000 .2
- Plastic bone lacing 8k .5
- R2 alphaware Dermal Plating 7200 .8
- Obvious Cyberarm 1 15k
- Cyberholster 2000 [5]
- STR custom 3 15k
- AGI custom 3 15k
- Agi enhancement 3 19500 [3]
- Retractable Spurs 5000 [3]
- Armor 3 [3] 9000
- Remington Roomsweeper 250
- Smart link 500
- APDS Rounds 30x 360
- Improved Range Finder 2000
- Gecko Grip 100
- Executive suite 2000
- Shock Weave [3] 1000
- Micro-transceiver [1] 100
- Form Fitting Body armor 1300
- YNS softweave 2600
- R5 Non-conductivity 1250
- Mossberg AM-CMDT 1400 (Effective Agility 6)
- Gecko Grip 100
- Sling 15
- Underbarrel Weight
- Extra clips 5 60
- 50x Rounds of APDS ammo 600
- Hermes Ikon 3000
1765 leftover
Contacts 24 +3
- Martin De Vries, Vampire vampire hunter 3/4
- Rachel Harlan, human Ex Vampire hunter 5/2
- Wayne Jacobi, Adept LSA Board of Directors 1/6
- Kimmy Anders, Dwarven Mage Secretary 4.2
Power Walking In The Darkness: The Unofficial Shadowrun Blog 