[groduick]

Hello,

I'm joining a game with a 300BP limit (street level young gangers), and I'm wondering what kind of character to build.

I love magic, but I'm afraid to create a gimpy character with such a tight budget; same thing for Technomancers.

Do you have any advice on the creation of such characters? Is there a thread somewhere to help me build something a little bit optimized?

Thanks.

[I_V_Saur]

You'll want to either veer towards Cyber, (Cheap rewards, scales later) or have a dump stat. As a Mage, go for maybe two spells,  and presume that you'll be eating the drain nine times out of ten. You'll want to have solid Attribute bases, but Skills are expensive, so honestly, skimp 'em for now, have a few at 1 so you aren't defaulting. At that level of campaign, your main goal will be a solid base to build off - if you want to go Mage, down the road, but would also like some skills shooting, then take the Latent Quality.

In a low-BP game, you want to prioritize Metatype, Attributes, special Qualities, then Gear. Skills and Contacts should be an afterthought.

[Wildcard]

Adept.

You can make a *crazy* gun adept for 300bp.

[Csjarrat]

Adept.

You can make a *crazy* gun adept for 300bp.

seconded. nice cheap positive BP on that adept quality, and can get some nice powers for that kind of work.
other than that, you can make a pretty decent street sam on a budget just by using cyber. things like muscle toner, and wired reflexes dont cost a lot and give decent starting pool when added to smartguns and specializations.
if you're gang level runs, there'll be plenty need for getting violent too so whatever you build, make sure you can swing a club pull a trigger reasonably competently. it wont be all about the boardroom politics for quite a while!

[Wildcard]

20 dice to automatics, 3 passes, shooting invisible guys behind walls with only a -2 modifier, 2 adept points and 100 bp left over, and enough nuyen to buy a decent set of armor and main weapon.

Adepts.

[UmaroVI]

Technomancer is a bad idea but mage isn't. You'll have to be very focused on magic, but magic is also full of win. Summoning in particular.

[Thrass]

hackers don't suffer much from 300bp, it's the second and third area of expertise that dosn'T fit into 300bp

question is if the availability limit is lowered though

[Glyph]

To expand on what I_V_Saur said, metatype is important because of the 150 (half of 300) cap on Attributes - this really screws over humans.  You are best off playing an ork, since they not only let you go over 150 in Attributes, but give you an overall net gain (ork: lose 20 to be an ork, lose 10 for not having the human edge bonus, but gain 50 points in Attribute bonuses - you gain 20 points).  Trolls are an even better deal, but are useful for a narrower range of roles.  They are good tanks and close combat types if you go adept, but make poor mages because all of their mental Attributes have lower maximums.

[Kiirnodel]

Personally, for a scaled down game, I would suggest using the Karma-gen system from Runner's Companion. Using maybe 500-600 Karma (instead of 750) would give you reasonably balanced characters with nothing too outrageous.

In general, Karma-gen seems to reward making more "average" well-balanced characters rather than focusing on just a few things. I'm not saying one method is better than the other, just that they lean toward different character balance types and might serve better for different players and/or game types/themes.

A bit off-topic, I know, so I won't say anything more...

[Lacynth40]

Make whatever you want, because it seems like the GM is going for a low-powered campaign. Now, if he has you at 300 BP, and then throws big bads at you, go ahead and beat him over the head. Street urchins aren't gonna have a lot of access to good quality cyber, so if you go for cyber, go ahead and grab some disads from the runner's companion book, including buggy ware. Maybe the second hand rules would help flesh it out, too. Yeah, it may suck, but every little bit helps, and adds a bit of tension and personality to the character. If you want to go magic, don't try to be everything, just pick a couple of spells that would be helpful, and pack a pistol for when drain starts knocking you on your butt. The ability to go astral is never a bad thing, and a mentor spirit gives low levels a bit of a help if you need it. Really, just play something you will like to play.

[groduick]

Thanks for all the good advice, I really appreciate that.

I think that I'm going to try the mage way; I've got a concept of some kind of Rat Shaman, living in the sewers, perhaps with a bit of mystic adept so that he can be some kind of ratmaster.

I think that I need to go Chummering, to pack everything in those 300BP....

Edit: there it is in all its glory. By the way, we're limited to 4 in our skills. I've 5000 nuyens left to buy some basic stuff

Code: [Select]

== Info ==
Street Name: Pied Piper
Name: Unnamed Character
Movement: 8/20, Swim: 4
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 2
Public Awareness: 0
Dwarf
Composure: 7
Judge Intentions: 6
Lift/Carry: 6 (45 kg/30 kg)
Memory: 8
Nuyen: 0

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3
AGI: 4
REA: 3
STR: 3
CHA: 1
INT: 5
LOG: 2
WIL: 6
EDG: 1
MAG: 5

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   6
Initiative:                8
IP:                        1
Astral Initiative:         10
Astral IP:                 3
Matrix Initiative:         5
Matrix IP:                 1
Physical Damage Track:     10
Stun Damage Track:         11

== Active Skills ==
Animal Handling            : 1                      Pool: 10
Animal Training            : 1                      Pool: 10
Archery                    : 0                      Pool: 3
Armorer                    : 0                      Pool: 1
Artisan                    : 0                      Pool: 4
Automatics                 : 0                      Pool: 3
Blades                     : 0                      Pool: 3
Climbing                   : 1                      Pool: 4
Clubs                      : 0                      Pool: 3
Computer                   : 0                      Pool: 1
Cybercombat                : 0                      Pool: 1
Data Search                : 0                      Pool: 1
Demolitions                : 0                      Pool: 1
Disguise                   : 0                      Pool: 4
Diving                     : 0                      Pool: 2
Dodge                      : 0                      Pool: 2
Escape Artist              : 1                      Pool: 7
First Aid                  : 0                      Pool: 1
Flight                     : 1                      Pool: 4
Forgery                    : 0                      Pool: 3
Gunnery                    : 0                      Pool: 3
Gymnastics                 : 1                      Pool: 5
Hacking                    : 0                      Pool: 1
Heavy Weapons              : 0                      Pool: 3
Infiltration               : 1                      Pool: 7
Locksmith                  : 0                      Pool: 3
Longarms                   : 0                      Pool: 3
Navigation                 : 0                      Pool: 4
Palming                    : 0                      Pool: 3
Parachuting                : 0                      Pool: 2
Perception                 : 1                      Pool: 8
Pilot Ground Craft         : 0                      Pool: 2
Pilot Watercraft           : 0                      Pool: 2
Pistols                    : 0                      Pool: 3
Riding                     : 0                      Pool: 2
Running                    : 1                      Pool: 4
Shadowing                  : 0                      Pool: 4
Spellcasting               : 4                      Pool: 9
Summoning                  : 4                      Pool: 9
Survival                   : 1 [Urban]              Pool: 7 (9)
Swimming                   : 1                      Pool: 4
Throwing Weapons           : 0                      Pool: 3
Tracking                   : 0                      Pool: 4
Unarmed Combat             : 0                      Pool: 3

== Knowledge Skills ==

== Qualities ==
Addiction (Mild) (Bethel)
Focus Addiction (Mild)
Gremlins (Rating 1)
Mentor Spirit (Rat)
Mystic Adept
Paranoia
Poor Self Control (Vindictive)
Thermographic Vision

== Spells ==
(Tradition: Witchcraft, Resist Drain with WIL + INT (11))
Acid Stream                DV: (F÷2)+3
Bugs                       DV: (F÷2)
Control Pack               DV: (F÷2)+3
Detect Enemies, Extended   DV: (F÷2)+3
Eyes of the Pack           DV: (F÷2)+1
Heal                       DV: (Damage Value)-2
Shapechange                DV: (F÷2)+2
Stench                     DV: (F÷2)

== Powers ==
Animal Empathy Rating: 4
Enhanced Perception Rating: 2
Flexibility Rating: 2

== Armor ==
Lined Coat                6/4

== Weapons ==
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 3   DV: 2S   AP: -   RC: 0

== Gear ==
Power Focus (Bonded Foci) Rating 2


[Lacynth40]

Um... Isn't Charisma used for some astral stuff?

[All4BigGuns]

Um... Isn't Charisma used for some astral stuff?

He said Shaman, and that would be the Drain attribute for a shaman (unless I missed something about Rat Shamans), not to mention the maximum number of bound spirits.

[Lacynth40]

He's got Witchcraft for tradition. So not sure about drain on that. But, yeah, maximum bound spirits... Hrm... Might wanna make strength yer dump stat...

[All4BigGuns]

He's got Witchcraft for tradition. So not sure about drain on that. But, yeah, maximum bound spirits... Hrm... Might wanna make strength yer dump stat...

That seems...off to me. A rat shaman that isn't a part of the shamanic tradition...