[ZeldaBravo]

...and it brings new stuff to the table! Direct spells are back in business with the new Feel My Hatred quality, changelings, metasapients, infected and metavariant characters have rules AT LAST. And we also got ourselves some new character generation options.
So the question is: which character generation option do you like the most and why? I don't want this topic to become a battleground between them, I just want to hear the opinions of fellow players and game masters, pros and cons. I'm still fairly new with Shadowrun in general (a very limited expirience in 4EAE, ongoing game in 5E, ongoing GMing a 5E game) and so I'm curious about this whole new (for me) options that the new book brought.
Please, share your thoughts.

[Whiskeyjack]

I dunno about +2 DV for +2 Drain making direct spells "back in business." 

If you want to build for it sure, but indirects are still top dog in combat spells.

[ZeldaBravo]

Well, at least the direct spells now hurt. That quality makes them cost about the same as AoE spells drainwise but you don't always want to cast a lighting ball in any given room. I guess...

[Kincaid]

I love the modular character building system.  I'm wildly Type-A when it comes to chargen, so it's possible that I'll never even use it for a character of my own, but it's absolute gold for GMs when new-ish players have great concepts but are unsure as to how to translate them to game mechanics.

[Csjarrat]

Sum to ten is my fave, looks really good!!

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

I am going to try sum of 10 tonight since my normal game is on hold for the holidays and what not.

[UnLimiTeD]

Sum to 10 is great because that's what a lot of people, me included, have been expecting for a while. 
It's a really simple change that allows a lot more options.
The other methods have their pros and cons - Life modules make creating a background for a char a bit easier to some, and both that and pure Karma allow more rounded characters with a wider variety of (knowledge)skills.
The variety is the best part of it, everyone can now choose the creation method that best allows him/her to create the character they want.

[coljrigg]

Out of curiosity on the Sum to 10, is it any different than the previous Sum to 10 methods?

[8-bit]

Out of curiosity on the Sum to 10, is it any different than the previous Sum to 10 methods?

Could you clarify? I have no idea what other "previous Sum to 10" methods are.

Basically, what it does, is let you design your own Priorities. For example, you could have 2 Es, which would allow you to have multiple C's, B's, or A's.


As for what I like; personally I like Sum to 10 the most. I love, absolutely love the idea of the point buy system, but it is so incredibly difficult to build anything other than a human with it. At least, not as well as Priorities. It is something I would have no problem playing with, but it is definitely more spread out and less min/max than Priorities (or Sum to 10).

[jim1701]

Out of curiosity on the Sum to 10, is it any different than the previous Sum to 10 methods?

It is the priority system except A = 4, B = 3, etc. and you assign priorities so that they add up to 10.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Yeah.  Sum-to-10 used to be how you got mundane humans that Will Fuck Everything Up (and to an extent probably still is), and is far and away the most unbalanced character creation method there is.  Fun, though.

[coljrigg]

Out of curiosity on the Sum to 10, is it any different than the previous Sum to 10 methods?

Could you clarify? I have no idea what other "previous Sum to 10" methods are.

Basically, what it does, is let you design your own Priorities. For example, you could have 2 Es, which would allow you to have multiple C's, B's, or A's.

Yeah, that's how the old versions were as well, and you could make some really silly characters with it.

I thought they might make some changes to values of the different priorities or some other rules to keep from grabbing two E's

[Tarislar]

Yeah.  Sum-to-10 used to be how you got mundane humans that Will Fuck Everything Up (and to an extent probably still is), and is far and away the most unbalanced character creation method there is.  Fun, though.

Not sure I'd say that. 
It gave Human + Mundane an edge but lets face it, with Trolls being only Priority-C & Orks/Dwarfs being D in 3rd Edition that was a HUGE amount of Str/Bod for a minimal loss of other Attr/Stats.

We used it even on the non-humans because it allowed you to have a pair of 4's or 3's at the expense of a pair of 1's, etc.
In SR1 sum-to-10 made it possible to start out as a Troll & have the Cash to buy a lot of Cyber/Bio something that otherwise was just not an option.



Question though.  Will this book ever be Missions legal?  Or is it pretty much a home campaign only kind of thing?

[jim1701]

Yeah.  Sum-to-10 used to be how you got mundane humans that Will Fuck Everything Up (and to an extent probably still is), and is far and away the most unbalanced character creation method there is.  Fun, though.

Not sure I'd say that. 
It gave Human + Mundane an edge but lets face it, with Trolls being only Priority-C & Orks/Dwarfs being D in 3rd Edition that was a HUGE amount of Str/Bod for a minimal loss of other Attr/Stats.

We used it even on the non-humans because it allowed you to have a pair of 4's or 3's at the expense of a pair of 1's, etc.
In SR1 sum-to-10 made it possible to start out as a Troll & have the Cash to buy a lot of Cyber/Bio something that otherwise was just not an option.



Question though.  Will this book ever be Missions legal?  Or is it pretty much a home campaign only kind of thing?

It is listed as a  core rulebook so unless they make an exception it will be missions legal eventually.

[Kincaid]

This is complete conjecture, but I imagine there will be things in it that will be specifically disallowed for Missions.  Some of the qualities (Friends in High Places, for example) run counter to the relatively low power level that Missions tries to maintain.