NEWS

Need help with a character idea

  • 8 Replies
  • 2772 Views

Jay_Dako

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 12
« on: <12-21-12/0558:37> »
So I am still pretty new to Shadowrun and only played a hacker so far in a game that does not allow Unwired.  Anyways, I want to have a second character on backup and I have had a desire for being a mad doctor.  Is that even possible in Shadowrun?  If so, how would I do that?  And yes, I have chummer.

Shadowjack

  • *
  • Errata Team
  • Ace Runner
  • ***
  • Posts: 1061
« Reply #1 on: <12-21-12/0826:32> »
Definitely take the Biotech skill group. Maybe your character was fired due to illegal practices, such as tricking people onto the table for ware installments and robbing them+removing any ware they already had and getting it installed into your body. If you want something like that, take Con with a specialization in Fast Talk. After that it's just a matter of fleshing out your story and deciding which areas you want to specialize in. I think it would be cool if you had a Street Samurai approach mixed in with some mental aiding ware such as Cerebral Boosters so your First Aid rolls would be really powerful. A high logic would seem suitable too.
Show me your wallet and I'll show you a man with 20 fingers.

Caradoc

  • *
  • Chummer
  • **
  • Posts: 103
« Reply #2 on: <12-21-12/0909:55> »
Yes, I can see you in an isolated mansion with a deformed Ork or Troll assistant named Igor. Finally, your latest, brilliant experiment is over after Igor stole many augmented bodies and you transplanted the ware to your subject. Finally complete, the cyberzombie rises from the slab and you cry..."It lives!"

Well, maybe not what you had in mind...

You could have fun with a doctor, though there may be a lot of downtime between missions when you need to work on stuff. Getting an income wouldn't be a problem, but you will need some capital to set up a decent facility. Along with taking Medicine and Cybertechnology, take Chemistry because you can make designer drugs pretty easily and, if you have the right contacts, have a ready market to sell them and get some money quickly to put towards your facility.

Having talents like this can attract all sorts of attention though, so have a backup plan. I suggest designing some subtle drugs and poisons with your Chemistry skill that can take out people who want to monopolise your skills. Some runners don't want to have witnesses that know their secrets like what 'ware they have installed, so be prepared for those who might want to erase you after getting the latest item installed. Having an override on the software controlling their gear might help, though if discovered, is going to annoy your patients.

emsquared

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 1029
  • Super Perfundo
« Reply #3 on: <12-21-12/1103:36> »
The GM in our group has a character (for another campaign) that he thinks of as a mad-doctor type. Focuses on Chemical Weapons (everything from Laes cigs, Tranq Patches and syringes to super squirt and gas grenades, etc.) and Face skills (as well as First Aid, Biotech, stuff of course...), with a dash of Infiltration in there. Seemed pretty cool thematically and mechanically.

RHat

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 6317
« Reply #4 on: <12-24-12/0342:20> »
So I am still pretty new to Shadowrun and only played a hacker so far in a game that does not allow Unwired.  Anyways, I want to have a second character on backup and I have had a desire for being a mad doctor.  Is that even possible in Shadowrun?  If so, how would I do that?  And yes, I have chummer.

Highly, highly, highly possible.

Make this the guy that wants to do... hands on research into bio-drones, cyber-zombies, experimental gene- and bioware, Emerged physiology (especially in comparison to reports on otaku physiology and Awakened physiology)...  There's a lot of stuff that a mad doctor could be into in Shadowrun, particularly if you're not strictly looking to make a moralistic/ethical character.
"Speech"
Thoughts
Matrix <<Text>> "Speech"
Spirits and Sprites

Mirikon

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 8986
  • "Everybody lies." --House
« Reply #5 on: <12-28-12/0500:25> »
If you want to reach back a ways for some of the reasons for his being a 'mad' doctor, he could always have been one of Deus's Greens...

In general, a mad doctor could do very well in a runner group.
Greataxe - Apply directly to source of problem, repeat as needed.

My Characters

SkullLord

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 6
« Reply #6 on: <01-01-13/1206:57> »
You were kind of vague with mad doctor, so here is a barrage of ideas I had.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General tips for character creation
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spend 160BP-200BP on physical and mental attributes [200BP is the maximum]. 

Never purchase the last maximum point for an attribute or a skill.  Having a few dice missing from a maximum dice pool won't hurt you in the short term.  The extra fifteen build points you spend on that last point could be spent on a lot of other things.  Remember that an active skill specialization is only 2BP and gives a +2 dice pool modifier.
1BP = $5K -> 15BP * $5K = $75K -> Drones, Guns, Armor, Vehicle + Guns, Fake IDs, Software, Kits/Shops.  12BP is a contact with connection 6 and loyalty 6.

Chemistry is good for drugs and poisons, but it's also great for explosives.  For $100K you can buy a chemistry facility and make huge batches of explosives at once.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meta Type:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyber Zombie:  Normally players can't go below 0 essence.  Cyber zombies can go to -6 essence.  They all have extreme psychosis and need freak science and magic to hold their bodies together.

Cyborg:  A rigger's brain inside housed inside of a drone permanently.  They all development mental disorders without therapy.

Ghoul:  Eats human flesh.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Magic
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adept:  Take the ability that raises your non combat active skills for cheap [cybertech, medicine, chemistry, and finally demolitions which is a technical skill].  Make extremely high grade equipment and bank role your team.

Magician: Invest in detection spells like mind probe, mind link, detect lies, and detect truth.  Play the role of creepy stalker/therapist/investigator/sociopath who forces people to (re)analyse their lives.  Play a ghoul as your race and you have Hannibal Lecter.

Mystic-Adept:  Combine both from above.

All the above could also be a toxic shaman/magician on top of this.  A toxic shaman being someone who thinks the world is too crowded/polluted/evil/good/sane/insane/weak/powerful/blah/blah, and wants to hit the reset button on humanity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matrix
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right now corps are raping technomancers to find out about their condition.  You could be a psychotic technomancer that relies on Dissonance instead of Resonance.   Dissonance is pure chaos and noise.  This is the techno version of being a toxic shaman/magician.

Ultra violet servers:  By designing and building both a high grade server and sophisticated software you would have a node that was hyper realistic.  Seconds in meat time could be decades in node time or vice versa.  Become the Architect  of your own Utopia/Dystopia/Delusion, Muwhahahaa!

Crash 3.0 virus:  Ask your GM if you can make a Software + Logic (16-160, 1 month) extended test.  That could probably build you something that could take down the global matrix.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meat
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skill wires:  Invent a really popular skill wire system.  Hard wire all the skill wires together through some sort of bot net.  Execute order 666.  Watch everyone who has the system installed take over the globe with your programmed instructions.

Nano robots:  Grey goo.

Meat Virus :  As above, ask your GM if you could make a Biology + Logic (16-160, 1 month) extended test.

emsquared

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 1029
  • Super Perfundo
« Reply #7 on: <01-01-13/1406:30> »
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General tips for character creation
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Never purchase the last maximum point for an attribute or a skill.  Having a few dice missing from a maximum dice pool won't hurt you in the short term.  The extra fifteen build points you spend on that last point could be spent on a lot of other things.  Remember that an active skill specialization is only 2BP and gives a +2 dice pool modifier.
Just wanted to point out that some of your General Tips are dead wrong when considering future Karma efficiency.

Never hard-max an attribute is good advice, but you should always do the 6/4 split on skills, i.e. you should - from a future Karma efficiency standpoint - always hard-max 1 of your skills. Why? Because - assuming 1 BP = 2 Karma - raising a 4 skill to a 6 costs 22 Karma (10+12), raising 2, 5 skills to 2, 6s costs 24 Karma (12 & 12).

Also you really never should buy specializations at chargen, a specialization at chargen costs 2 BP = 4 Karma. A specialization post chargen costs 2 Karma.

I also always spend the max BP on attributes. The karma efficiency math doesn't favor this (as you have to be buying a stat at 4 or above before the BP>Karma efficiency is there), but if you tightly align your skill-set to your best attributes, you can potentially be buying a lot of dice in your central skill pools for what becomes pretty cheap, and with this approach spending all 200 is ideal because now you're buying pools not future Karma.

If you're going strictly for Karma efficiency with attributes (which I wouldn't recommend, but the math is there) you "should" be min-maxing attributes, leaving "inessential" stats at minimum and soft-maxing the four or five "important" ones... but you're probably gonna end up with a one trick pony doing this, and/or have some glaring weakness(es), which is why it's inadvisable...

Whiskeyjack

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 3328
« Reply #8 on: <01-01-13/1541:36> »
I wouldn't advise people to build a character assuming they could play a cyberzombie, dissonant technomancer, or toxic shaman. Completely ignoring the idiocy of "megacorps are vivisecting technomancers."
Playability > verisimilitude.

 

Register