[Reid]

Hi, forums. This is a character I've been working on for a play-by-post, thought I'd run him by you. He started life as a troll with a machine gun before I was gently reminded by the GM that this is supposed to be a gritty, realistic game. So now he's an elf with an assault rifle, which of course is much more subtle. Ork would have been mechanically a better choice, but I don't get the urge to play elves often, so I thought I'd run with it. He's not the fastest thing on the streets and he's certainly not the prettiest, but for a character whose purpose is to get between the bad guys and the rest of our terrifyingly squishy team I think he'll do alright.

I absolutely stole this format from someone on this forum, but now I can't remember who that was. Thank you, internet stranger! You taught me a lot about tables.

Brick
PRIORITIES

• Metatype D (Elf)
• Attributes C
• Magic E
• Skills B
• Resources A

ATTRIBUTES

Body:

4

|

Willpower:

3

|

Edge:

2

|

Physical Limit:

5

|

Physical Condition Monitor:

13

Agility:

2

|

Logic:

1

|

Essence:

0.15

|

Mental Limit:

4

|

Stun Condition Monitor:

10

Reaction:

6 (7)

|

Intuition:

5

|

Karma:

0

|

Social Limit:

4

|

Overflow:

7

Strength:

3

|

Charisma:

3

|

|

|

Initiative:

11(12) + 2D6

QUALITIES/KARMA: Ambidextrous Criminal SIN Weakened Immune System Prejudiced (the Infected) Edge 1 -> 2 Throwing Weapons 1 Etiquette 1 Survival 1 Firearms 5 -> 6	SKILLS: Firearms 6 Automatics Longarms Pistols Heavy Weapons 5 [Grenade Launchers] Unarmed Combat 6 [Cyber Implants] Palming 5 [Pickpocket] Intimidation 4 Perception 6 [visual] Gymnastics 3 Pilot Ground Vehicle 3 [Wheeled] Survival 1 Etiquette 1 Throwing Weapons 1	CYBERWARE & BIOWARE: Obvious Right Arm Customized: Strength 3 Customized: Agility 4 Strength 2 Agility 3 Armor 2 Cyber machine pistol Laser sight Used Obvious Left Arm Customized: Strength 3 Customized: Agility 4 Strength 3 Agility 3 Armor 3 Cyberspurs Cyberarm slide	Obvious Left Leg Customized: Strength 3 Customized: Agility 4 Strength 3 Agility 3 Armor 2 Smuggling compartment Olfactory scanner 5 MAD scanner 5 Cyberware scanner 5 Synaptic Boosters 1 Alpha orthoskin 2 Aluminum bone lacing Damage compensators 4 Datajack Cybereyes 1 Smartlink
GUNS Ares Crusader (Integral gas-vent 2 and smartgun system) Quick-draw holster Spare clip x4 Silencer Enfield AS-7 Gas vent 3 Spare clip x4 External smartgun system Shock pad Ingram Smartgun (Integral gas vent 2, smartgun system, suppressor) Spare clip x4	Ares Alpha (Integral recount comp. 2, grenade launcher) Gyro mount Gas vent 3 Imagine scope Spare clip x4 Airburst link Ares Light Fire 75 (Integral silencer, smartgun system) Gas vent 3	Ruger 100 (Integral imagine scope, shock pad) Gas vent 3 External smartgun system Tripod Spare clip x4

[/list]

And then a bunch of gear and ammunition I won't bore you with. Any glaring mistakes?

[firebug]

For one, Incompetence in 5th edition is now a whole skill group, so you'd need to change that.  Also it's my personal opinion that Platelet Factories is a trap.  One big flaw with it is that as a tank you'll be taking Stun damage all the time, as anything doing Physical is doing like 22DV and at that point the factories won't help you because you're just kinda boned and should be running away from whatever is doing that much damage to you.

[jim1701]

I'm counting an essence loss of 6.05 which could be construed as a problem.   

Right Arm 1.0
Used Left Arm 1.25
Left Leg 1.0
Synaptic Booster .5
Platelet Factories .2
Alpha Orthoskin (2) .4
Aluminum bone lacing 1.0
Damage Compensators (4) .4
Datajack .1
Cybereyes (1) .2

[Reid]

@firebug: Ah, so it is. Thanks for the catch! I'm not sure I want him to be incompetent at running, that seems like it could get messy. That's a good point about the platelet factories as well. If I did a little rearranging I could get a reflex recorder or something to replace it. Or a skin pocket and another gun! I'm not sure he has enough guns.

@jim: I mean, don't we all have days where we accidentally kill our characters before ever playing them? Looks like I had a decimal point wrong. Even with excel I can't do math correctly, embarrassingly. Solves that, then! I'll ditch the platelet factories, that should put it right. Thanks, I appreciate it.

[jim1701]

P.S.  A Troll WITHOUT a machine gun.  That's unrealistic.  Tsk. 

[Kanly]

Phys Cond Mon is 14, not 15. Did you count the body from the bone lacing as well?

Something seems off with your stats as well. I think I counted 18 spent? Instead of 16.

[Niladen]

Bone lacing doesn't give a bonus to body, it only gives a bonus to body for damage resistance tests, essentially just giving you a point of armour that doesn't get reduced by armour piercing but also doesn't help bump physical damage into stun damage. It won't give you another point on your physical track.

[Reid]

Bah, I can't do anything right today. On the bright side, I just realized I forgot to price all the stuff in the used arm as used also, so suddenly money. Thanks, all, I appreciate the double-check.

@Niladen - I... think I understand the distinction there? So it's still Body 5, just when resisting damage you pretend it's 7?

[Kanly]

It's 2 extra soak dice which are immune to AP. It doesn't even help against direct spells.

[Niladen]

Bah, I can't do anything right today. On the bright side, I just realized I forgot to price all the stuff in the used arm as used also, so suddenly money. Thanks, all, I appreciate the double-check.

@Niladen - I... think I understand the distinction there? So it's still Body 5, just when resisting damage you pretend it's 7?

That's correct. It doesn't give a bonus to body linked skills, to physical limit, or anything. Just counts as extra dice when soaking damage. On the plus side it can't be reduced by armour piercing. On the negative side it doesn't help reduce physical damage into stun.

[Reid]

Oh, good to know. If I had the money for another cyberleg instead... but I don't think I do. It should be all fixed now, anyway. Thanks again, everyone!

[jim1701]

Bah, I can't do anything right today. On the bright side, I just realized I forgot to price all the stuff in the used arm as used also, so suddenly money. Thanks, all, I appreciate the double-check.

@Niladen - I... think I understand the distinction there? So it's still Body 5, just when resisting damage you pretend it's 7?

I don't think the stuff IN the limb is affected by the price modifiers.  Only the part that costs essence.  On the upside it doesn't cost extra when you upgrade to a higher grade limb either.  At least that is my understanding on the subject. 

[Reid]

No, I'm pretty sure it is. Page 451, "All accessories and add-ons must be of the same grade as the implant to which they are added."

[Bewilderbeast]

Reid is right. If the limb is alphaware, everything in the limb needs to be alpha. If it's used, then you get a discount on all of the bells and whistles.

One thing I'll point out is that I've never been fond a Criminal SIN. If you actually read the description, it sounds pretty terrible. Like, actually sounds like more of a significant hazard to a Shadowrunner's well-being than either of the Corporate SINs. Expect law enforcement to be constantly checking up on you, if not outright framing you for crimes you didn't commit.

I would usually warn people away from the Firearms skillgroup (how many ways do you need to shoot things?) but since combat is your guy's main shtick I can see the appeal. It also looks like you have a good range of equipment, too. Make sure you buy a vehicle of some type to lug all those guns around in, though.

I always recommend keeping Body at an odd number, because that's where the extra hit box happens.

I'm not sure what your nuyen and essence situation looks like (probably pretty grim, to be honest, with all that 'ware), but Enhanced Articulation might be a good idea. In general, 5 is a little low on the Physical limit for a street sam. Not a huge deal since you're gun-centric, but you'll be limited to 5 hits with your cyber-spurs, which could potentially suck.

[Tecumseh]

Did you give any thought to swapping your Attribute and Metatype priorities? Moving Metatype to C and Attribute down to D would earn you 3 Edge for the cost of 2 Attribute points. I did that on an elf I put together last night.

Not to get too min-maxey, but if you drop Strength to 1 you're still largely covered by your cyberlimbs. And if you feel guilty about it, you can take the karma you used to buy Edge up to 2 and buy Strength up to 2 instead. Voilà, you've picked up 2 points of Edge in exchange for 1 point of Strength that you'll rarely use unless you're running and you need to average your limbs. Good trade. You'll need that Edge to roll Con against your GM to convince him that this is a gritty, realistic cyberzombie.

The table format is slick. I will second your thanks to internet stranger.