[Michael Chandra]

I expect the same. Otherwise we are bound to get a 4-Charisma player who takes Lofwyr as their contact at 12/4 and ends up being able to get anything below 32 Availability without extra costs. Also gets eaten if he ever does not yield to Simon.

[Marcus]

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.

Yeah but it was solid. I haven't picked up Run faster yet, (to much Christmas shopping to do), but I look forward to reading this one.

[iForkyou]

Could you give some extra input or examples on why Sum-to-10 is so broken? And is it only broken for non-awakened characters?

[8-bit]

Could you give some extra input or examples on why Sum-to-10 is so broken? And is it only broken for non-awakened characters?

I wouldn't say it's broken, just strong. Mundanes can go E Metatype (aka Human), and E Magic (Mundane). That means they can then go (A, A, C); (A, B, B), which is pretty powerful.

[Malevolence]

I prefer a sum to 20 system with A=10, B=6, C=3, D=1, and of course E=0. It better reflects the karma equivalency (average) between tiers.

[Lusis]

Could you give some extra input or examples on why Sum-to-10 is so broken? And is it only broken for non-awakened characters?

I wouldn't say it's broken, just strong. Mundanes can go E Metatype (aka Human), and E Magic (Mundane). That means they can then go (A, A, C); (A, B, B), which is pretty powerful.

Eh, makes up for the relative lack of Edge.

You can be skilled or lucky, but not both.

[8-bit]

Could you give some extra input or examples on why Sum-to-10 is so broken? And is it only broken for non-awakened characters?

I wouldn't say it's broken, just strong. Mundanes can go E Metatype (aka Human), and E Magic (Mundane). That means they can then go (A, A, C); (A, B, B), which is pretty powerful.

Eh, makes up for the relative lack of Edge.

You can be skilled or lucky, but not both.

Skill > Luck pretty much any day. You still have 3 Edge, which is better than pretty much any other metatype (unless you go a higher priority, but then you give up even more "skill"). I don't know, B Attributes, B Skills, and A Resources with a lot of stat boosting augmentations makes for some ridiculousness.

It's still not broken, by any sense of the word, but it is decently powerful.

[Glyph]

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.

SR3 basic priority character creation had one flaw; mundane dwarves and orks who took metatype at D, and magic at E, essentially got their metatype for "free".  By letting a human take E for metatype and magic, it re-balanced it.

The main difference between SR3 and SR5 priority character creation is that in SR5, metatypes come with special attribute points attached.  So if that same mundane human takes E for metatype and magic, he will have an Edge of 3, while the mundane human who takes D for metatype and E for magic will have an Edge of 5.

I still agree that it can make more powerful characters.  The difference between D and E is typically a lot less than the difference between A and B.  So I would typically expect to see lots of characters with two priority A's, one priority C, and two priority E's.

[All4BigGuns]

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.

SR3 basic priority character creation had one flaw; mundane dwarves and orks who took metatype at D, and magic at E, essentially got their metatype for "free".  By letting a human take E for metatype and magic, it re-balanced it.

The main difference between SR3 and SR5 priority character creation is that in SR5, metatypes come with special attribute points attached.  So if that same mundane human takes E for metatype and magic, he will have an Edge of 3, while the mundane human who takes D for metatype and E for magic will have an Edge of 5.

I still agree that it can make more powerful characters.  The difference between D and E is typically a lot less than the difference between A and B.  So I would typically expect to see lots of characters with two priority A's, one priority C, and two priority E's.

Or this:
Attributes - A (24)
Skills - A (46 / 10)
Meta-type - D (Human - 3)
Resources - D
Magic - E

[Tarislar]

SR3 basic priority character creation had one flaw; mundane dwarves and orks who took metatype at D, and magic at E, essentially got their metatype for "free".  By letting a human take E for metatype and magic, it re-balanced it.

The main difference between SR3 and SR5 priority character creation is that in SR5, metatypes come with special attribute points attached.  So if that same mundane human takes E for metatype and magic, he will have an Edge of 3, while the mundane human who takes D for metatype and E for magic will have an Edge of 5.

I still agree that it can make more powerful characters.  The difference between D and E is typically a lot less than the difference between A and B.  So I would typically expect to see lots of characters with two priority A's, one priority C, and two priority E's. 

I prefer a sum to 20 system with A=10, B=6, C=3, D=1, and of course E=0. It better reflects the karma equivalency (average) between tiers.

I like that at first glance.
I don't feel the concept of "Sum to 10" is broken.  Especially not in SR3 v/s SR1 where they lowered Meta Priorities.
But I can see an issue because the priority system levels are not tiered equally which does make for a problem.
I came up with different tiers that altered them a bit based on karma so that the "jumps" between tiers were more equal specifically so that the jumps from E to D to C were on the same level as C to B to A which is really the only problem I have wth Priority.

For example:
One of the things I did was change the Attr levels from 12-14-16-20-24 to be 12-16-20-24-28  (Equal boost at each level)
Most the metas got more SP except Trolls who got less.  Humans got quite a few more but started at 1 instead of 2, yet still capped at 7.
Got rid of Group Skills at Chargen and as a whole had much higher skill levels.  You can still make a "group" but were not forced into one.  IIRC it was something like 40-50-60-70-80 for equal amounts at each level of change.

[Tarislar]

Resources - D
Magic - E

No Magic, Minimal Cyber.  Not sure how long that guy lasts in combat.  But he is healthy & skilled.  Solid Detective/Face type.

[All4BigGuns]

Resources - D
Magic - E

No Magic, Minimal Cyber.  Not sure how long that guy lasts in combat.  But he is healthy & skilled.  Solid Detective/Face type.

You don't necessarily need Magic or Implants. They're definitely nice, but an Unaugmented Mundane ain't that bad. Granted it would be better if they'd gone back to the old Adrenaline Surge instead of what they did (the really old one that just made 6s explode on Initiative, as that coupled with the new Lightning Reflexes would be awesome-sauce).

[Glyph]

Looking at the core archetypes, it looks like they are really pushing non-or lightly augmented characters as a viable option, so I don't see anything wrong with encouraging skill monkeys with high Attributes.  Plus, depending on the cash flow of the game, starting out without augmentations and picking (better) ones up later can be a viable tactic in some games.  Still, until then, you are playing Rick Deckard in a world where everyone else is Roy Batty.

[Csjarrat]

Tbh, 20 karma for wired reflexes equivalent isn't too bad, certainly makes them more doable for an all-rounder

[Lusis]

Looking at the core archetypes, it looks like they are really pushing non-or lightly augmented characters as a viable option, so I don't see anything wrong with encouraging skill monkeys with high Attributes.  Plus, depending on the cash flow of the game, starting out without augmentations and picking (better) ones up later can be a viable tactic in some games.  Still, until then, you are playing Rick Deckard in a world where everyone else is Roy Batty.

Hmm...are they setting it up for the eventual cyberware book?

Mundanes do make sense in a Black Trench kind of way. No 'ware or magic to detect.