[ZeroSum]

Again, shoutout to Aria for the awesome character sheet generator. I built this character using SR CG 6.01, which is being continously updated based on feedback.

Street Sams/weapons specialists have been my bread and butter since 1st Edition, and honestly, they haven't changed much mechanically. They need to be able to both deal and take damage, and if they have any wiggleroom after that their natural abilities lend themselves nicely to backup pilot and infiltrator.

With that in mind, I built a character that has likely been some sort of experiment gone wrong (or right, depending on who you ask); cybered to the gills, death incarnate (at least as much as you can out of chargen). I focused heavily on Agility, actually maxing it out, thinking that I could always focus on skills later. Imagine my surprised when I went back and re-read the advancement charts; I get that skills are now much less complex, but if there is no difference between advancing a single skill (group) and an attribute I'm probably picking attribute 9 times out of 10.

In other words, I intentionally chose to go somewhat light on skills and all in on Attributes, and with a lot of Used grade ware this character will need a drekload of nuyen in order to upgrade his existing ware before he can do much more. That being said, it's frightening how easy it is to get to 20 dice in athletics skills, so I've intentionally toned this back to be more along the lines of what other archetypes can more reliably get to (15 or so dice for primary skills).

Priorities
Metatype C Attributes B Skills D Magic E Resources A

Karma Expenditures
Starting Karma   50
Positive Qualities   36
Negative Qualities   24
Attributes   10
Skills   25
Resources   3
Remaining   0

Personal Data
Name/Primary Alias John Smith/'ZeroSum'
Metatype Elf Ethnicity Irish

Age Early 20s Sex Male Height 6' 4"  Weight 240lbs
Reputation 0 Heat 0
Karma 0 Total Karma 0 Misc

Attributes

Attribute Description.....	Value....	Attribute Description.....	Value
Body	4	Essence	0.30
Agility	7 (11)	Magic/Resonance	NA
Reaction	2 (5)	Initiative	11+4d6
Strength	3 (5)	Matrix Initiative	9+2d6
Willpower	4	Astral Initiative	6+2d6
Logic	2	Composure	6
Intuition	6	Judge Intentions	10
Charisma	2	Memory	6
Edge	2	Lift/Carry	250kgs
Surprise	11	Movement	10/+5
Damage Resist	4 (+4)	Defense Rating	8 (+1)

Notes: Adjustment points spent on Agility; Logic, Charisma, and Edge bought to 2 with 10 Karma each.
Adjustment points spent on Charisma and Edge. Logic bought with 10 karma.

Core Combat Info
Primary ArmorArmored Jacket (DR4)
Primary Ranged Weapon: AK-97 (DV 5P, SA/BF/FA, AR 6/13/11/9/3, 38(c))
Primary Melee Weapon Unarmed w/Bone Lacing (DV 5P, AR 14)
Defense Rating: 12 (Body 4, Orthoskin 3, Armored Jacket 4, Helmet 1)
Damage Resist: 4 (+4), reduced by 1 if DV >=2

Condition Monitor
Phys 14 (Platelet Factories reduce DV >=2 by 1)
Stun 10

Skills

Active Skill Name .....	Specialization .....	Rating .....	Dice Pool
Athletics		1	12
Close Combat		1	12
Con		0	1
Electronics		0	1
Engineering		0	1
Firearms		5	16
Influence		0	1
Outdoors		2	8
Perception	Visual	6	12 (+2)
Piloting	Groundcraft	3	8 (+2)
Stealth		1	12

Language and Knowledge Skills: English, Sprawl Life, Street Gangs

Notes: Firearms, Outdoors, Perception, and Piloting purchased with Skill Points. Athletics 1, Close Combat 1, Stealth 1, and 2 specializations purchased with Karma.

Qualities
Positive:
Built Tough 4
Exceptional Attribute (Intuition)
Quick Healer

Negative:
Honourbound (Black Hat if permitted, otherwise Assassin's Creed)
Uncouth
Weak Immune System

IDs/Lifestyles/Currency
Primary Lifestyle: Squatter
Nuyen: ¥2515
Fake IDs / Related Lifestyles / Funds / Licenses
Fake Sin R3 w/5x Fake License R3 (Permits: Bounty Hunting, Driving; Equipment: Cyberware, Firearms, Explosives)

Contacts
TBD

Weapons
AK-97 (DV 5P, SA/BF/FA, AR 6/13/11/9/3, 38(c)) w/Bipod, Gas-vent System, Shock Pad, and Smartgun System (External)
Defiance Super Shock (DV 6S(e), SS, AR 12/8*/-/-/-, 4(m)) w/Hidden Arm Slide, Smartgun System (External)
Unarmed w/Bone Lacing (DV 5P, AR 14)

Armor
Armored Jacket (DR4) w/Chemical Protection 2, Cold/Fire/Electricity Resistance 2
Helmet (DR+1)

Matrix Stats
Primary Device: Transys Avalon (DR6) w/biometric reader, mapsoft, sim module
Attack 0, Sleaze 0, Data Processing 3 (+1), Firewall 1
Attack Rating: 0 Defense Rating: 5 (+2)
Programs: Signal Scrubber, Toolbox, Virtual Machine (Armor, Biofeedback Filter)
Matrix Condition Monitor: 11

Augmentations
Datajack (Standard)
Flare Compensation (Used)
Smartlink (Standard)
Vision Enhancement (Used)
Vision Magnification (Used)
Audio Enhancement (Used)
Bone Density Augmentation R4 (Used)
Muscle Augmentation R2 (Used)
Muscle Toner R4 (Used)
Platelet Factories (Used)
Synaptic Booster R3

Vehicle

Vehicle Name .....	Handling .....	Acceleration .....	Speed Interval .....	Top Speed .....	Body .....	Armor .....	Pilot .....	Sensor .....	Seat
Peugot 112	3/5	20	15	160	8	4	2	1	3

Gear
Explosive Rounds (Rifle) x150
Gel Rounds (Rifle) x150
Spare Clips (AK-97) x6
Stun Grenades x5
Taser Darts x100

Biomonitor
Chisel bar
Containment Manacles
Credstick (Standard)
Credstick (Silver)
Endoscope
Flashlight (Low-light)
Gecko Tape Gloves
Lockpick Set
Metalink
Micro-transceiver
Myomeric Rope (30m)
Plastic Straps x10
Respirator R6
Survival Kit

Lock R6 (for the case bolted into the back of the car containing everything he's not carrying on him)

Medkit
Medkit Supplies x5
Antidote Patch x2
Chem Patch w/Narcoject x2
Stim Patch R6 x2

EDIT:
Changes v1:
After realizing I was paying too much for used ware (x0.75 instead of 0.5) I made the following changes:
Removed Insomnia (-4 Karma)
Added Weak Immune System (+8 Karma)
Spent 4 net Karma from the above to get more nuyen (+8k)
Removed Sleep Regulator (+0.15 Essence and +12k nuyen)
Removed R3 Orthoskin (+0.83 Essence and 9k nuyen)
Purchased Synaptic Booster R3 up from R2 (-0.5 Essence and -95k nuyen)
Removed 100 rounds each of Explosive and Gel Rounds (+700 nuyen)
Essence now 0.87 (up from 0.4)
Remaining ¥ now 15 (down from 65)
Reaction +1 and one more initiative dice
-3 to Defense Rating
No sleep regulator (not a big loss)

Changes v2:
Swapped Priority C and D (+5 Attribute Points, -4 Skill Points)
Purchased CHA 2 and EDG 5 with Attribute Points (-5 Attribute Points, +20 Karma)
Purchased 4 specializations with Karma (-20 Karma, Skill Points no longer in deficit)
Picked In Depth as 6th Quality (+15k nuyen)
Purchased Damage Compensators R6 (-12k nuyen, -0.6 Essence)
Upgraded Smartlink and Datajack to Standard quality (+.03 Essence, - 3k nuyen)
Essense now at 0.30, remaining nuyen 512

Changes v3:
Lowered Reaction by 2, raised Intuition by 2
Defense pool stays the same, Perception and Outdoors pools increased by 2, Direct Combat and some Illusion spell resist pools are increased by 2, Piloting pool is decreased by 2, certain spell and power resistances are decreased by 2 (Accident (REA+CHA), Petrification (REA+WIL), etc)

Changes v3:
Forgot about attribute maximums; Intuition and Agility were both at max. Lowered Intuition by 1, increased Reaction by 1

Changes in v4:
Getting rid of In Debt:
Removed In Debt (+5 karma, -25k nuyen, 5/6 qualities used)
Removed Damage Compensator R6 (+0.6 Essence, +12k nuyen)
Removed Hyundai Shin-hyung (+20k nuyen)
Added Chrysler-Nissan Jackrabbit (-11k nuyen, and functionally identical; same seats and handling, better pilot, body, and armor, worse accel and speed interval)
Spent 2 Karma on resources (+4000 nuyen; balance now 515 nuyen)

Optimizing skills:
Added Exceptional Attribute (Intuition) quality (-12 Karma, 6/6 qualities used, -9 Karma balance)
Reduced Reaction by 1 (+1 Attribute Point)
Increased Intuition by 1 (-1 Attribute Point)

Removed Athletics, Close Combat, Firearms, Outdoors, and Stealth specializations (+25 Karma)
Purchased Athletics, Close Combat, and Stealth 1 with karma (-15 Karma)

Removed Skill Points spent on Athletics, Close Combat, and Stealth (+5 Skill Points)
Purchased Outdoors 2, and increased Firearms to 5 and Piloting to 3 with Skill Points (-5 Skill Points)

Spent 1 additional karma on resources; may or may not alter starting equipment.

Result: minor variances in dice pools, Karma efficiency increased dramatically, rules legal as far as I can tell.

[CigarSmoker]

-are the vision and audio enhancements not cheaper in a package ?

-Orthoskin is an underperformer this edition. In my opinion. Or why do you think its worth the investment?

-if you use "used" ware and a bit different choices can take A on Attributes. More Body, more Willpower(helps against Knockout Edge action !)
Theres always the choice to take a few indebt karma to push the B ressources

edit: i see no benefit in implanting a smartlink. When it gets hacked the hacker has access to the image link (but you have non yet without cyberware package which problaby saves essence)
When you use external smartlink in goggles you can just remove them manually in case you get hacked and switch weapon

[ZeroSum]

-are the vision and audio enhancements not cheaper in a package ?

Most definitely; this is definitely not a min/max build, or I would have picked up some contacts and glasses. I wanted this guy to be reliant on as few factors as possible, and losing their contacts mid-battle would be one eventually I'd throw at a player if they glitched, for example. "No! My contacts! Everyone stop!"

-Orthoskin is an underperformer this edition. In my opinion. Or why do you think its worth the investment?

All things considered, I think it's a relatively minor investment for the +3 to Defense Rating. With a total rating of 12 with the helmet on, an opponent would need an Attack Rating of 14 to gain edge on me, or on my group if they target us with an area attack. While it doesn't provide much else I think the ability to influence who gains edge can have anywhere from minor to major impact.

I did consider swapping Orthoskin 3 for Damage Compensators 6, as this would allow me to ignore two levels of injury modifiers. This would mean that any attacker with an AR of 11 would gain edge on me, and more importantly, the group if using AoE attacks. So I think this comes down to playstyle.

-if you use "used" ware and a bit different choices can take A on Attributes. More Body, more Willpower(helps against Knockout Edge action !)

Hah, no way. All of the ware is already used where possible; I forgot to mention that the only ware that is not "used" is the cultured bioware (so sleep regulator and synaptic booster). While Attributes A would help in some ways, that extra 175000 nuyen is what allows me to get +2 Reaction and Initiative Dice, +4 Agility, +2 Strength, +4 Body for the purposes of resisting damage, as well as things like the sleep regular and bone density augmentation and all the other stuff.

Theres always the choice to take a few indebt karma to push the B ressources

With the change to In Dept in the Errata (500 nuyen interest per month per rating point) I would be extremely cautious about taking more than a few ratings of this.

edit: i see no benefit in implanting a smartlink. When it gets hacked the hacker has access to the image link (but you have non yet without cyberware package which problaby saves essence)
When you use external smartlink in goggles you can just remove them manually in case you get hacked and switch weapon

You don't need an image link when you have DNI. The other comments are fair; implanting a smartlink is a cost/benefit calculation, and I agree that the balance is skewed towards cons. That being said, again, the concept is for the character to be stuffed as full of ware as possible, effectively having been turned into a living weapon. I wanted to rely on as few external factors as possible, and between the Rating 6 Commlink with Armor and Biofeedback Filter I can resist Matrix damage with a higher dicepool.

I'm still unclear on whether or not a hacker can attack my smartlink directly if it is slaved to my commlink, or if they have to go after my commlink first, but bricking is definitely a risk. Worst case the character has enough actions that they can switch the device mode on their internal smartlink if it does get attacked, hopefully before it gets bricked. As a hacker I would much rather go after the weapon itself (and honestly, forcing opponents to spend their action economy reloading their weapons with a Forked Eject Magazine action is a much better action economy than spending 1-3 turns bricking a single weapon, in my opinion).

[CigarSmoker]

Then my gut says something is not right, did you see in the other thread that the char generator has the formular mixed up for used ? im on my mobile i will check later if i can get something equal with less nuyen. ^^

[ZeroSum]

Then my gut says something is not right, did you see in the other thread that the char generator has the formular mixed up for used ? im on my mobile i will check later if i can get something equal with less nuyen. ^^

Yep, just noticed. And yeah, that definitely changes things.

That means I can actually get Synaptic Booster 3! If I drop Insomnia and replace it with Weak Immune System (either could be an effect from having too much ware in your body), then ditch the Sleep Regulator and the Orthoskin, I'm just a mere 700 nuyen in the red. I can easily drop a few pieces of gear to make that happen for another initiative die and higher reaction.

Thanks!

EDIT:
Yep, just double checked, and most of the above is true. Updated the sheet to reflect this. Now I have to go back and review the rigger and decker I built!

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Hacking the Smartlink:

A hacker can go right after it. If it's protected as part of your PAN, at least you get to defend.  That being said, it makes precious little difference whether your smartlink is implanted or worn externally in goggles.  In my view, implanting it gives a net benefit over worn in that it's A) always there and B) not necessarily obvious it's there.  Plus, even if it's not part of your PAN, you can have it run silent.  That gives you a whole minute of protection, at least, while a hacker spots it. 1 minute is 20 combat rounds.  If you can't resolve a fight in 20 rounds, you don't deserve to win it anyway.

Also note that, beyond simply bricking the device, there's not a whole lot that can be done to a smartlink.  Yeah, a hacker can feed phony data into a smartlink and in effect give you a dice pool penalty, but it's not like being able to hack your smartlink means anything is happening to your gun.  Those are two different devices.

[CigarSmoker]

Spotting the Running Silent Device is not 1 minute its 1 minor Action for Hackers:

p.178
Running Silent
Sometimes, a user will cut off all publicly available
information and only respond to specific queries,
rendering them largely invisible to the Matrix.
Their wireless signal and PAN still exist—they just
have to be found. A user can run silent by simply
switching modes on their commlink or deck. They
can be detected by an Opposed Matrix Perception
test as described above. Making a Matrix Perception
test to find someone running silent is a typically
a Major Action, but if performed by a runner
with a cyberdeck, cyberjack, or a Resonance attribute,
it is a Minor Action.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Yep, I stand corrected on that part.

Still, unless you want to go luddite and not have a smartlink entirely, from a hacking point of view it doesn't matter if it's external or implanted. If anything, there's an advantage to implanted smartlinks in that (presumably) cyberware grades are supposed to have Device Ratings commensurate to their grades.

[CigarSmoker]

Yep, I stand corrected on that part.

Still, unless you want to go luddite and not have a smartlink entirely, from a hacking point of view it doesn't matter if it's external or implanted. If anything, there's an advantage to implanted smartlinks in that (presumably) cyberware grades are supposed to have Device Ratings commensurate to their grades.

You right are if the smartlink is implanted directly, the packages all come with an image link by default.

p.285
"Cybereyes
The basic cybereyes system features 20/20 vision
for both eyes, an image link, and a built-in camera,
as well as Capacity for vision enhancements."

so its a very good idea to use the Smartlink without the Cybereyes packages or dont bother with the packages at all if you cant remove the Image Link.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Well, yes hacking cybereyes is a different animal from hacking a smartlink.  Moot point though, as this character doesn't HAVE cybereyes.

Besides, either way, if your point is "you can just take off hacked goggles", then by doing so you're still denying yourself the augmentation.  Same thing via turning wireless off for smartlink (or cybereyes).

[CigarSmoker]

No you are right the internal Smartlink is superior to Goggles, i am convinced and i know he doesnt have Cybereyes i just (re)learned that thats possible when i saw the char.

[ZeroSum]

This does bring up an interesting point. How do you fix broken electronics when they are implanted? Previous editions had mentions of things like slots, so you effectively just slid the circuitboard out of your body, fixed the broken components, and slid it back in.

Considering how easy it is to fixed bricked devices, I think this is a minor inconvenience at best (losing 2 AR and 1 die).

[Tecumseh]

I think you can achieve a superior result by swapping Skills and Metatype.

Current: Skills C, Metatype D, +10 karma to Charisma, +10 karma to Edge
Future: Skills D, Metatype C, +20 karma to skills

Step 1: Take the 5 extra adjustment points, put 1 in Charisma and 4 in Edge. You've now saved 20 karma.

Step 2: To make this work, you need to subtract 4 skill points. Drop Athletics (Throwing) and Close Combat (Unarmed). Now, buy them back with the 20 karma you saved in Step 1.

Voilà, you now have the same skills you did before, but with Edge 5 instead of Edge 2. If you're not worried about Edge, then do Charisma 5 and Edge 2 instead and you have the makings of a secondary Face, which presents some longer-term growth opportunities in the form of purchasing Con and Influence.

As a general rule, I would recommend against spending Skill priority points on specializations. Mundanes need something to spend their karma on once gameplay starts, and specializations are excellent candidates. There's always a balance of how effective do you want to be during your first session vs. long term, but skill points are just too valuable to spend on 5-karma specializations. A table to illustrate:

Skill Ranking	Karma Cost	Cumulative Karma Cost	Karma Value of Each Skill Point
1	5	5	5.0
2	10	15	7.5
3	15	30	10.0
4	20	50	12.5
5	25	75	15.0
6	30	105	17.5

The moral of the story is don't spend skill points on specializations that are only worth 5 karma, when you can get 2x or 3x that value pretty easily by investing those same points into the base skills instead.

[ZeroSum]

I think you can achieve a superior result by swapping Skills and Metatype.

Current: Skills C, Metatype D, +10 karma to Charisma, +10 karma to Edge
Future: Skills D, Metatype C, +20 karma to skills

Step 1: Take the 5 extra adjustment points, put 1 in Charisma and 4 in Edge. You've now saved 20 karma.

Step 2: To make this work, you need to subtract 4 skill points. Drop Athletics (Throwing) and Close Combat (Unarmed). Now, buy them back with the 20 karma you saved in Step 1.

Voilà, you now have the same skills you did before, but with Edge 5 instead of Edge 2. If you're not worried about Edge, then do Charisma 5 and Edge 2 instead and you have the makings of a secondary Face, which presents some longer-term growth opportunities in the form of purchasing Con and Influence.

As a general rule, I would recommend against spending Skill priority points on specializations. Mundanes need something to spend their karma on once gameplay starts, and specializations are excellent candidates. There's always a balance of how effective do you want to be during your first session vs. long term, but skill points are just too valuable to spend on 5-karma specializations. A table to illustrate:

Skill Ranking	Karma Cost	Cumulative Karma Cost	Karma Value of Each Skill Point
1	5	5	5.0
2	10	15	7.5
3	15	30	10.0
4	20	50	12.5
5	25	75	15.0
6	30	105	17.5

The moral of the story is don't spend skill points on specializations that are only worth 5 karma, when you can get 2x or 3x that value pretty easily by investing those same points into the base skills instead.

Those are all excellent suggestions, thank you! You're right, more edge is just straight up more mechanically sound; I could go charisma, and that's a fantastic suggestion, but I have a rough concept in mind where you don't want this guy doing much talking (Uncouth is an example of this).

And good point about specializations; I had originally paid karma for these until I realized I could drop a negative quality and just use some skill points instead, but I agree on the cost ineffectiveness of this. The biggest challenge when just building characters for fun is deciding what power level to land at; this guy can easily get to 20 dice on firearms tests, for instance, but that obviously sacrifices something.

[ZeroSum]

Changes in v2 (thanks Tecumseh!)
Swapped Priority C and D (+5 Attribute Points, -4 Skill Points)
Purchased CHA 2 and EDG 5 with Attribute Points (-5 Attribute Points, +20 Karma)
Purchased 4 specializations with Karma (-20 Karma, Skill Points no longer in deficit)
Picked In Depth as 6th Quality (+15k nuyen)
Purchased Damage Compensators R6 (-12k nuyen, -0.6 Essence)
Upgraded Smartlink and Datajack to Standard quality (+.03 Essence, - 3k nuyen)
Essense now at 0.30, remaining nuyen 512