[Teknodragon]

Missions seem to reward a certain amount of breadth of character ability, so I figured I'd start a thread of suggestions by those who've observed what works well, and what folks should remember to add to their characters, in Missions play.

First off, do not assume a rigger (or that the rigger is willing to haul your hoop all over the place). Your character should be able to proved her own transport, better if there's room for a passenger or two. Or cargo.

Second, a little bit in the way of social skills is always good to have. If there's someone at the table better than your character at Face-work, you could always chip in with an assist.

Third, and especially at cons, _know what your character can do_. Know her gear, know her abilities. Not all GMs are a walking encyclopedia of gaming knowledge. A personalized cheat-sheet of things you tend to need to look up for your character is _very_ useful, in any game.

Y'all have anything to add to this list?

[Wasabi]

If you can include three elements you'll always have a way to be useful:

1. Be able to fight
2. Be able to investigate
3. Be able to make others better somehow

For a mage this could be spells/spirits to fight, assensing and projection to investigate and detection spells cast on the infiltrator and face to make others better.
For a technomancer this could be a combat drone, data search, and multiprocessing echo so you can plot enemy positions on a tacsoft.
For a sammie this could be swords/guns, the etiquette skill and contacts to investigate, and spiked negotiation to give lots of assist dice to the teams face.

If these three elements are present in useful quantities you'll not feel like a one trick pony and your team will be more rounded for it. The methods themselves have a lot of leeway. For instance my hacker is a mystic adept with a lot of counterspelling so when its not time for investigation (matrix-y) then he can provide counterspelling or pull a trigger.

[UmaroVI]

Don't be able to only do one thing, when that one thing doesn't stack well. For example, being a dude who is only able to hack and can't do anything else isn't a good idea because if there's another hacker who is even slightly better than you, you're useless because hackers can't work together in any meaningful way.

Be good at infiltration. The weakest link is what hurts here - don't be the weakest link. This is doubly true if you are combat-focused.

[Bull]

Contacts are your friend, despite what some folks may claim ("Don't take contacts, since Missions hands your Contacts left and right").   Legwork can be a big, and important part of Missions, and the core NPCs in Missions tend to be from a fairly narrow field of business.  Service Workers (Cabbies, Bartenders, Bellhops, Desk Clerks, Secretaries) are often better sources of information than bigwig fancy fixers and corporate mages.

Ultra Specializing in any field is a problem.  Combat is the least problematic, but even then, what happens when you're on a team of faces, sneaks, and non-combative characters who want to try and sleaze their way through the adventure?  If all you can do is one single thing, you can easily find yourself kinda bored during an adventure if that thing doesn't come up for whatever reason, or if there's multiple people at the table filling that same role.

Bull

[Teknodragon]

Good one, Bull-- I think too many players (this one, at least) tend to use contacts as a 'dump stat'. Yet, they can't easily be improved just by throwing karma or cash at them (well, maybe the latter, to a point).

I'm starting to find that just being 'OK' in combat is plenty good-- for one, there's _plenty_ of players that bring an ace gunner of one flavor or another to the table. Never hurts to have a good comm and a tacsoft to bring along, though--makes the mid-combat strategizing more believable (when the opposition lasts more than two passes).

Speaking of comlinks-- investing in a decent Response and a good Browse program can help with legwork.

Oh-- and being capable of getting through maglock, keypad, and old-style key locks is _very_ useful.

[squee_nabob]

1. Know what to do in a fight. If you only have 1 IP and have to run for cover, at least be able to survive the first shot directed at you (before they realize you are harmless).
2. Be able to participate in a fight on your own terms: this may be rigging, stunbolting, shooting etc.
3. Be able to infiltrate. Wear appropriate camo/ruthenium cloathing.
4. Carry a non-lethal option. Not every fight requires ADPS ammo.
5. Have 8+ sensor channels for tacnet.

*Important!*
Don’t be a silent loner who refuses to trust or work with anyone. If you cannot play well with others, then you should not be a shadowrunner. This is a game about day laborers who meet in themed bars to do black ops for pocket change with people they trust implicitly.

[Tsuzua]

1.) Be ready for a fight.  Mission adventures often have at least 1 fight that comes to you.  Thankfully it's easy to be an okay combat character in SR.  You should also be take attacks as well.  If you're the sit in the van type, a drone is a respectable proxy for your meat.

2.)  Have 8+ sensor channels for a tacnet.  It's not hard to do, but you have to prepare.

3.) Be at least capable of sneaking.  If everyone is at least passable at sneaking, it opens up a lot of options.  Passable is 6+ dice sneaking and a ruthenium outfit/poncho. 

4.) A good rule of thumb is a 10 dice pool is passable. 15 is good, and 20 is excellent.  The exception to this is hacking.  Use this to figure out what you're good at.

5.) Spirits are more useful for their utility powers / fighting other spirits.  Your GM will thank you for not summoning godzilla. 

6.) Edge is really good.  The power to turn a bad roll into a good one should not be ignored.  If you can afford it, buy it

7.) You'll make on average 10000Y and 6-8 karma a mission.  Use this to plan character advancement.