NEWS

[SR5] Beyond character creation - Karma and Nuyen advancement tips by role?

  • 1 Replies
  • 2175 Views

Vaneheart

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 15
« on: <10-25-20/0551:13> »
One of the many things I appreciated about UmaroVI's Sample Archetype Characters is that they showed a list of recommendations on what to pick up with Karma and Nuyen as the character progressed.  He generally covered a lot of the main roles too, which was pretty handy and adaptable.  I learned a lot from it, at least I thought I did, within the framework of SR4A.

Shadowrun, to me, seemed like it has a certain level of "paralysis of choice" via having so many options for advancement (especially when compared to SR2 and SR3), that I would sometimes overlook key options and combinations that I hadn't previously thought of due to just the sheer weight and number of options and possibilities, especially with the pressure of carefully allocating what precious little Nuyen and Karma characters received over even a long period of time.  UmaroVI's sample builds really helped with that, especially for newbies.  To this day the "Neo Primitive Throw Anything Adept" build he did makes me laugh.  I don't think I would have ever thought of that on my own.

I was wondering if there are any similar resources or guides out there for SR5 that help with advancing Shadowrun characters over the long term in a campaign setting?  Bonus points if it covers the various archetypes/roles in a Shadowrun group.
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."

-Jeff Cooper

Glyph

  • *
  • Ace Runner
  • ****
  • Posts: 1661
« Reply #1 on: <10-25-20/1019:30> »
It depends a lot on how you want to advance - whether you want to hyper-specialize in your main areas or branch out more,  Or whether to continue on as a Jack of all trades or get better at certain roles.  For campaigns that last a while, where characters don't have to be optimized to survive, things like skills: A become much better choices.

Skills are not the only area to examine.  A mage can become more versatile by learning extra spells, while a street sam can get better at shooting things by getting some muscle toner.

One key question to ask is whether you want to improve your main specialty even as you diversify. or whether you want to be good at two or more roles that use different Attributes and skills.  A sniper who improves his armorer. sneaking, tracking, and gymnastics skills will be a better sniper.  A sniper who raises his Charisma and improves his con, etiquette and negotiation skills is branching out to be a face as well as a sniper.

Obviously the latter is going to be less effective purely from a number-crunching perspective, but the ability to combine two skill sets such as mage and decker can offer unique advantages.

With an open build system, you can get that paralysis of choices - like UmaroVI did, it is best to sit down an plan your advancement strategy for each individual character.  Keep in mind that with increasing costs for incremental increases, players reach a point of diminishing returns, where improving other areas becomes more tempting.  Do you raise pistols from 9 to 10, or get sneaking: 4?