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"Hello 6th World"

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mderm

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« on: <02-16-16/1544:25> »
Hi folks,

I'm new to Shadowrun. Bought the book last year and finally got round to creating a character (Jean-Erik de Quere (pun intended)).
I've put him in the Big Black Book o' Runners (http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=487.msg434285#msg434285).

I'd greatly appreciate anyone giving it a look over and pointing out any errors.
I built it in Hero Lab, so I'm hoping that the built-in validation rules will have taken care of most stuff.
I haven't proof-read every choice against the 5e source book.
I'm quite keen to just get my guy on the street and start running.

Currently posted interest in the 'Stormy Waters' OOC thread.

Thanks.

Tecumseh

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« Reply #1 on: <02-16-16/1704:01> »
Hoi, welcome to the game.

You'll want to post your sheet a second time here (edit your initial post and paste it there) so that people don't have to flip back and forth to another thread to review it.

It looks like you did this for your priorities:

A - Skills
B - Resources
C - Attributes
D - Race
E - Magic

I would recommend that you swap Skills and Attributes. Right now your attributes are low, which is limiting you in several ways, including your Limits. Your Initiative score is 5, and you only have 5 dice to dodge. This is not a combination tailored to long-term survival. If you took Attributes A, you could do something like this:

B 3, A 5, R 4, S 2, W 5, L 5, I 6, C 2

That gets you much better limits, extra knowledge skills, pretty much guarantees a second initiative pass (unless you're seriously wounded), and makes you much more likely to dodge incoming fire.

Shadowrun favors specialized builds. Currently the character is designed to be an awesome shooter, hacker, athlete, and driver, but unfortunately his low Attributes mean that he's only mediocre at most of those things. In reality, you want to pick one of these things as your primary focus (hacking, perhaps), another as your secondary focus (shooting, perhaps), and leave the rest for the future, when you have some karma to round out your skills.

I'm no expert in building hackers, so I'll leave it to others to provide that feedback. I would suggest that you drop the Rover Model 2072 to free up some cash. Spend said cash on some cyber/bioware that can help raise your attributes, which in turn will help cover for lower skill ratings. The cybereyes are cool but you can get glasses/goggles that do the same thing for a fraction of the cost. For the cost of the Rover, you could get Muscle Toner II (which would make you a better shooter) or Cerebral Boosters II (which would make you a better hacker). You don't have any Essence concerns so you could even consider some more Essence-heavy options, like Muscle Replacement II (or even Used Muscle Replacement III). You could also use a way to improve your Initiative, unless you plan on being in VR all the time. Drugs are an option if you don't want to pony up for 'ware.

Go ahead and post the concept of your character so that others know what to prioritize and what can get postponed for later.

Whiskeyjack

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« Reply #2 on: <02-16-16/1707:18> »
Yeah, that's a Skills A trap right there, if ever there was one. Redundant combat abilities on a decker, no specializations in core archetype skills, and buying high ranks in some low-value skills.
Playability > verisimilitude.

mderm

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« Reply #3 on: <02-17-16/1454:16> »
-------@Tecumseh------------
Hi Tecumseh,

Thanks for your reply. Once I've worked on the suggestions I'll repost in this thread.

You mention several things that were concerns: low attributes; over generalisation; unnecessary purchases.
Getting rid of the Rover is not a problem at all. At that point, I was actually having trouble deciding what to spend all the cred on.
B skills is also not a problem. I mainly wanted A for the skills-group bulk-buy but ended up trying to find things to spend the skills on (hence the social skills).

Once I return the expensive gear and unnecessary skills I'll re-arrange the priorities and boost my attributes.
I might go with priorities: A (attrib), B(skills), C(resources), D(metatype), E(magic).