[thinklibertarian]

I admit, prior to this edition, I pretended they did not exist.

But after writing my sample matrix run, I decided to add one to my character folder.

SR5 Sample Matrix Run: "Lets go to the library" http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=12278.0

So here goes...

Concept: When he was still small, around nine years old, his parents were lost in a gang war crossfire. The ork gang leader, Silvertusk, took pity on him and the gang "adopted" him. They called him "Squig". Squig liked hanging out in the gang's garage, and the mechanic began teaching him. Around 13 years old, Squig started displaying knowledge that he wasn't taught. Eventually they figured out that at night he was "asking" the matrix to teach him, and it did! He was a technomancer. It caused a bit of trouble within the gang. They had no way to deal with this. A few wanted to sell him to a corp. After some bashing of heads, Silvertusk laid down the law: the gang helps their own. Through his street connections, another technomancer was found to train Squig. He spent the next couple of years working in the gang's garage during the day and surfing the matrix at night. He found new friends in the Matrix, both real and virtual. As he matured, he became an ork poser as a way to honor his family, and the gang's reaction to his "coming out" ranged from mild annoyance to ROTFLMAO. Even in his makeup, he is a terrible looking ork: short, skinny, and nerdy. But there is no denying his talent, and he soon hired himself out doing shadowruns.

Priorities
A - Resonance 6, 2 skills @ R5, 5 complex forms
B - Attributes (20)
C - Skills (28/2)
D - Human (3)
E - Resources 6000¥

Attributes
Bod 2, Agi 2, Rea 3, Str 2, Wil 5, Log 6, Int 5, Cha 4, Edge 5, Res 6

Active Skills
Compiling 6 - I see him using Sprites a lot.
Registering 6
Software 6
Computer 4
Hacking (Hosts) 6/8 - he loves sneaking in where he doesn't belong
Decompiling 3
Perception 1
Automatics 1 - I bought him a machine pistol. With 3 dice to shoot, the safest place to stand is in front of him...
Electronic Warfare 2
Cybercombat 3
Pilot Ground 2
Engineering Group 2

(Compiling and Registering were "free" at 5 each. He spent two of his 28 points bumping them to 6.)

Knowledge Skills
Redmond Squat Locations 4
Matrix Hacker Hangouts 4
Street Politics 3
Ork Underground 4
Ork Gangs 3

English N
Or'zet 4

Qualities
16: Focused Concentration 4
-12: Bad Luck
-6: Ork Poser

Contacts
Ork Gang Leader C3/L4
Fixer C3/L2

Complex Forms
Static Veil - he likes to surf for hours...
Puppeteer - sounds like fun - see my post on Puppeteer here: http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=12576.0
Resonance Veil - the idea of matrix illusions intrigues me
Stitches - helping out his sprite buddies
Resonance Spike - he is not great at cybercombat, so this is his alternative
Diffusion of Firewall - makes it really hard to keep him out.

Karma (25)
2 - Perception 1
2 - Automatics 1
4 - Pilot Ground -> 2
10 - Agi -> 2
2 - 4000¥
4 - Complex Form
3 - Registered sprite (not sure which type yet) with 3 services.
-2 from qualities

Gear
Nothing special, so I won't list it. He has the basics (gun, armor, fake id, commlink, etc.)

[ZeConster]

• Rather than buying 2 levels in Pilot Groundcraft with Karma, buy Perception 1 and Automatics 1 with Karma, saving 2 Karma.
• Similarly, spend your Karma raising an Attribute from 1 to 2 rather than from 2 to 3, saving 5 Karma.
• Registering is harder than before now because re-registering takes up a task, so you might want to put that at level 6 instead of Compiling (although both at 6 and a Registering specialization would be optimal).
• I've never put much stock in Decompiling, to be honest (it's only useful if you encounter enemy sprites), but that's a personal thing.
• If you're going to be Registering a lot, Bad Luck might not be a very handy Negative Quality, especially considering you have 5 Edge: Combat Paralysis gives the same amount of bonus Karma and is more typical for Technomancers.

[Crunch]

You might consider dropping all the way down to Resonance C and move attributes to A and Skills to B.

Here's my reasoning - do with it what you will.
1)The difference between Res C and Res A is 3 Resonance, 2 Rating 5 Skills and 4 Complex Forms.
--- The change to skills B from C is 8 skill points and 3 group skill points, that's more than enough to make up for the change in skills by moving some other things into groups. You should be able to have better skills and save the 6 Karma you're currently spending on extra skills. Notably I'd look at taking the electronics Group at 5 amd spending the 10 skill points from Computer and Software to improve your Cybercombat, Registering and Electronic Warfare.
2) The 4 extra Attribute points from Att A let you add 3 points to your current spread and save the 15 karma you're spending on Reaction currently.
3) 4 Complex Forms are only 16 Karma, so you're actually at this point 5 Karma ahead.
4) You are now spending your special attribute points on Resonance, so you would have to increase your edge with karma, but at 10 karma to get to edge 2 I think you're getting more than you lose. I'd recommend dropping Focused Concentration as I'm not convinced that focused con is really all it's cracked up to be given the force limitation.

At this point you've gained 3 Attribute points, at least a few extra skills depending on how you shif things, gained 11 extra karma (which could grab you two extra complex forms and a level 1 skill or get saved towards submersion), and given up Focused Concentration and 3 points of edge. The edge loss isn't great, but I think might be worth it for what you gain.

[thinklibertarian]

• Rather than buying 2 levels in Pilot Groundcraft with Karma, buy Perception 1 and Automatics 1 with Karma, saving 2 Karma.
• Similarly, spend your Karma raising an Attribute from 1 to 2 rather than from 2 to 3, saving 5 Karma.

These were no-brainers (edited original post).

Now what do I do with the 7 points?

[Crunch]

• Rather than buying 2 levels in Pilot Groundcraft with Karma, buy Perception 1 and Automatics 1 with Karma, saving 2 Karma.
• Similarly, spend your Karma raising an Attribute from 1 to 2 rather than from 2 to 3, saving 5 Karma.

These were no-brainers (edited original post).

Now what do I do with the 7 points?

A specialty for compiling?

[ZeConster]

You can save them for Submersion, if you want.

Now what do I do with the 7 points?

A specialty for compiling?

If he's going to do that, it's better to put a skill point from an R2 skill into the specialization instead and use 4 Karma to raise the skill back to 2.

[thinklibertarian]

• Rather than buying 2 levels in Pilot Groundcraft with Karma, buy Perception 1 and Automatics 1 with Karma, saving 2 Karma.
• Similarly, spend your Karma raising an Attribute from 1 to 2 rather than from 2 to 3, saving 5 Karma.

These were no-brainers (edited original post).

Now what do I do with the 7 points?

A specialty for compiling?

Tempting, but I'm not comfortable enough with sprites to pick one type. I'll think i will save that for later character development.

[thinklibertarian]

For now, I've shifted one skill point from pilot ground to Registering, then bought pilot back to 2 with 4 karma. (Edited original post)

Three karma left...

[Crunch]

You can save them for Submersion, if you want.

Now what do I do with the 7 points?

A specialty for compiling?

If he's going to do that, it's better to put a skill point from an R2 skill into the specialization instead and use 4 Karma to raise the skill back to 2.

Point.

How about an additional Complex form, or a point in the Athletics skill group?

(I take it my argument for dropping resonance to C didn't go over well 

[thinklibertarian]

You might consider dropping all the way down to Resonance C and move attributes to A and Skills to B.

Here's my reasoning - do with it what you will.
1)The difference between Res C and Res A is 3 Resonance, 2 Rating 5 Skills and 4 Complex Forms.
--- The change to skills B from C is 8 skill points and 3 group skill points, that's more than enough to make up for the change in skills by moving some other things into groups. You should be able to have better skills and save the 6 Karma you're currently spending on extra skills. Notably I'd look at taking the electronics Group at 5 amd spending the 10 skill points from Computer and Software to improve your Cybercombat, Registering and Electronic Warfare.
2) The 4 extra Attribute points from Att A let you add 3 points to your current spread and save the 15 karma you're spending on Reaction currently.
3) 4 Complex Forms are only 16 Karma, so you're actually at this point 5 Karma ahead.
4) You are now spending your special attribute points on Resonance, so you would have to increase your edge with karma, but at 10 karma to get to edge 2 I think you're getting more than you lose. I'd recommend dropping Focused Concentration as I'm not convinced that focused con is really all it's cracked up to be given the force limitation.

At this point you've gained 3 Attribute points, at least a few extra skills depending on how you shif things, gained 11 extra karma (which could grab you two extra complex forms and a level 1 skill or get saved towards submersion), and given up Focused Concentration and 3 points of edge. The edge loss isn't great, but I think might be worth it for what you gain.

Well...

Since living personas don't have programs to support them, I like the flexibility of throwing edge at certain key moments.  Of course, Bad Luck will hose me 1/6 of the time, but I think that is part of the fun.

I picked Focused Concentration to support the complex forms I chose (most require sustaining). Especially Static Veil. I like the idea of surfing for hours under the noses of the GODs.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[Crunch]

Understood.

My issue with focused concetration is that it's very expensive to avoid a -2 Penalty on a single rank 4 form.

[thinklibertarian]

True, but there are no sustaining foci for technomancers. Yet.

[grid_roamer]

Cool character. 

I think a couple of codeblock qualities to pay for aptitude might be nice.
It looks like you will need it soon...

and maybe specialize within Cybercombat?

[SoulGambit]

Oh wow I always though Hacking's specialties were for specific actions, not targets, for some reason. Nifty.

Attributes A, Skills B, Magic C, Metatype D, Nuyen E is classic Technomancer. I'm not sure its the best, but it is good.
At the moment I'm toying with Magic A, Attributes B, Metatype C, Skills D, Nuyen E -- Possibly swapping Skills and Metatype. Or something closer to your build.

Question, are you okay on "Hacking" through the use of Sprites and Complex Forms? If so, you can completely nix Hacking, Electronic Warfare, and Cybercombat. Maybe nab a point in each so you can spend Edge in the case of emergencies, but otherwise you can get by with Sprites and Complex Forms. If you want to branch out into Hacking proper later you can do so with Skillwires supported by a Machine Sprite easily enough. If you go this rout, consider swapping Willpower and Logic.

I actually recommend pumping Focused Concentration up even more, then you can use Infusion of Sleaze or infusion of Firewall as needed. That's what makes Focused Concentration worth it, IMO. If you don't pick up Infusion of [Sleaze / Firewall], don't bother with Focused Concentration.

For your Complex Forms, nix Stitches and Diffusion of Firewall. Replace with Editor and Infusion of [Firewall]. I'd just replace Static Veil with Cleaner. Its the same effect, cheaper, more versatile, and you don't have to sustain it very long.

What do you plan on doing when you're not in the Matrix?

[DMK]

You can see my take on a Magic A, Attributes B, Metatype C, Skills D, Nuyen E Technomancer by following the link. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.