[Leevizer]

So yeah. From what I have seen you guys say, Uncouth and Charisma 1 isn't something that would work out in a roleplay, so what are the alternatives?

 I'm thinking of giving her the quality incompetent (Etiquette) but giving her a level or two at Intimidation since it might be needed in her line of work, but still keep the charisma at 1? Would that work out better?

[Mirikon]

The problem with antisocial characters isn't with the character themselves, but with trying to rationalize why the other people would choose to deal with the bastard at all? They would have to be the absolute best you could find or you'd go with someone else who actually fit the team dynamic. Characters that are antisocial just to be different cause drama. Drama should be left on the stage, not brought on a run with you.

[Captain Karzak]

I don't agree with what Mirikon says in his first two sentences (I totally agree with his last two).

Other shadowrunners might tolerate the antisocial individual even if their skills aren't best-in-the world because they know from prior experience that this anti-social person is reliable and loyal in difficult situations. These qualities are rare and valuable when groups choose to live on the wrong side of the law.

Also, if the anti-social character is a good and trusted friend or family member of another person in the party, then they might come as a package deal and that's another reason why an anti-social shadowrunner can still find a group.

So if you are going to play an anti-social character, I'd suggest that you play your character in a way that highlights not only the Charisma 1, but also some important positive characteristics such as trustworthiness, loyalty, reliability, bravery, forthrightness in a way that your party will appreciate.

As a separate note, You could probably keep the Charisma 1 + with 2 ranks in intimidate + specialization in physical intimidation. You'd have to make sure your character is really physically imposing (so not a STR 1 elf with max agi and ref) for this to work reliably and you'd want to threaten people while obviously wielding a weapon. Basically with low skill and attribute, you'll probably have to work had to rack up as many of those bonuses listed on the Social Modifiers table (SR-4a p. 131) as possible. Remember that you can't rack up a positive modifier from that table that is higher than you CHA + skill rating, and many of those modifiers will favor the defender.

[Mercer]

The problem with antisocial characters isn't with the character themselves, but with trying to rationalize why the other people would choose to deal with the bastard at all? They would have to be the absolute best you could find or you'd go with someone else who actually fit the team dynamic.

This assumes a pretty big talent pool.  From a game perspective it makes sense; if a player makes a poor character that player can simply make another character.  But it seems like competent people are always in short supply.  Having someone who is good at their job, who is willing to risk their life and back you up in a tense situation and who will shut up about it later may well outweigh them having the social graces of a wet glob of phlegm.  (Admittedly, my metaphors need work.) 

I don't think any character is necessarily unplayable.  They may be a hard fit-- an Uncouth CHA 1 character is a lot like a character with 0 Stealth skills, it seems like you're cutting yourself out of a lot of the game-- but as long as the player's motives are pure I'm more than willing to cut them a little slack at the table. 

[rasmusnicolaj]

Remember you can modify weapons to give a bonus to intimidation.
Level 2 Custom Look give +2 and cost 1.000 nuyen.

Rasmus

[Makki]

by RAW, Incompetence (Etiquette) gives you +1 Intimidation. Hey, so does Incompetence (Pilot Spacecraft).

[Mercer]

As Makki is pointing out, f you have a low Charisma, Notoriety can also help you with Intimidation (while hurting your other social skills).  This requires that people know of your reputation, which may not be ideal when you're trying to intimidate a security guard since you have to tell him who you are, but then again it worked out okay for Clint Eastwood in "Unforgiven":

Little Bill Daggett: You'd be William Munny out of Missouri. Killer of women and children.
Will Munny: That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned.

[Sichr]

The problem with antisocial characters isn't with the character themselves, but with trying to rationalize why the other people would choose to deal with the bastard at all? They would have to be the absolute best you could find or you'd go with someone else who actually fit the team dynamic. Characters that are antisocial just to be different cause drama. Drama should be left on the stage, not brought on a run with you.

Disagree.
Anyone seen Leon, the movie?
Anticharismatic Uncouth as hell. But absolutely incredible. People dont hire him to talk with people. And also some runners are not hired to talk to people. Just to deliver the message. So some smugglers (those who dont plan to deal with metahuman patrols), couriers, asassins.
Also note that Uncouth characters are unable to actaccording to ettiquete, they are not able to lie, they are not able to negotiate better price and they can be easily manipulated and threatened (since Intimidation is oposed by Intimidation). This kind of runners will work cheap, dont pose stupid or clever questions and would not care about their reputation...and also they will do almost anything for johnson. Now tell me why wont you hire such kind of man, especialy when you know that even if he mess up something, he wont be able to lie to you about what really happened on site..so you always know if that guy stole something from your package...

[Irian]

Leon is, imho, neither Charisma 1 nor uncouth.

[UmaroVI]

Part of the problem is that uncouth is Incompetence (Etiquette) or possibly just Compulsion: Be A Jackass, whereas Uncouth is high-functioning autism, so we're not all actually talking about the same thing.

[Mercer]

That's a separate discussion, and could easily devolve into some approximation of "Is Batman Lawful Good?" 

The point is, I think someone could make a character very much like Leon and take a low CHA and Uncouth.  (Also, on the subject, really what's it matter what the CHA score is with Uncouth, since you can't default on those tests you don't have the skills for?  A CHA 8 elf shaman who takes Uncouth is just as bad socially as a CHA 1 sam, except on the skills he actually pays double for, which probably won't be that many because he'll spend more points buying a few skills at 1 than he's getting for the 20pt flaw.) 

If I had to pick and Uncouth character, I guess I'd pick Sheldon from Big Bang Theory.  He's not the dictionary definition of "uncouth" (in fact, he's reasonably well-mannered), but he pretty much misunderstands all social conventions.  Basically every episode is him either him glitching or crit glitching a social test so that hilarity can ensue.

Edit: Aha, I see that UmaroVI said much the same thing, but more succinctly.

[Sichr]

Part of the problem is that uncouth is Incompetence (Etiquette) or possibly just Compulsion: Be A Jackass, whereas Uncouth is high-functioning autism, so we're not all actually talking about the same thing.

This may come with my need to translate Uncouth into my language...and it seems that something like "Socialy unwise" is the word I got, not "Socialy Offensive". Maybe one of those lost-in-translation case

[Leevizer]

The problem with antisocial characters isn't with the character themselves, but with trying to rationalize why the other people would choose to deal with the bastard at all? They would have to be the absolute best you could find or you'd go with someone else who actually fit the team dynamic. Characters that are antisocial just to be different cause drama. Drama should be left on the stage, not brought on a run with you.

Disagree.
Anyone seen Leon, the movie?
Anticharismatic Uncouth as hell. But absolutely incredible. People dont hire him to talk with people. And also some runners are not hired to talk to people. Just to deliver the message. So some smugglers (those who dont plan to deal with metahuman patrols), couriers, asassins.
Also note that Uncouth characters are unable to actaccording to ettiquete, they are not able to lie, they are not able to negotiate better price and they can be easily manipulated and threatened (since Intimidation is oposed by Intimidation). This kind of runners will work cheap, dont pose stupid or clever questions and would not care about their reputation...and also they will do almost anything for johnson. Now tell me why wont you hire such kind of man, especialy when you know that even if he mess up something, he wont be able to lie to you about what really happened on site..so you always know if that guy stole something from your package...

And this is PRECISELY what I have been going for. A street samurai who does what she is told, no questions asked. If the job needs talking done or conning, then why the hell would you hire her, anyway? Kinda like sneaking a Troll to do some sneaking around in air vents.

Also, the other point someone made is good too. You don't have quality shadowrunners available at all times.. And even if you did have one available, why would HE work with your group? Or what if there are family ties/friendship issues/pure luck involved in the character group meeting each other?

And from my point of view, Shadowrun is a team-based game. You have the face do the talking and the hacker do the hacking. If you have a character who is good at pointing guns and doing what she is told, then why the hell would she be asked to smooth-talk the guard?

Some gamemasters here have said that they fail at being a gamemaster unless they force the uncouth character into some social modifiers. Doesn't this mean that you should force a group of players into a boat with nobody unable to drive, due to nobody having the skill? Or if you haven't bought a skill at all, you will force the player to do stuff with that skill, for instance, force the team Face into some hacking, and have the mage try to repair a car?

[Sichr]

ehm...I forced team mage to build geothermal surveillance station from prepared parts. Nobody has Electronics skills or knowledge needed to assembly the hardware parts together, well he was at least the smartest and was able to make it operational with some AR guidance

[UmaroVI]

Part of the problem is that uncouth is Incompetence (Etiquette) or possibly just Compulsion: Be A Jackass, whereas Uncouth is high-functioning autism, so we're not all actually talking about the same thing.

This may come with my need to translate Uncouth into my language...and it seems that something like "Socialy unwise" is the word I got, not "Socialy Offensive". Maybe one of those lost-in-translation case

Uncouth refers either to someone who is lacking good manners, or who is lacking refined manners. Depending on context, it can either mean that someone is rude in the sense of lacking basic manners, or it can mean that someone has lower-class manners.