[redTroll]

This article helped enormously with my character generation and gave me ideas for other characters although it would be a stretch to improve on these. It needs a sticky!!

[Jackleg Rooster]

quick question...looking through the Trog build, I noticed a 4 in palming. what would he be using this for ideally?

[UmaroVI]

Hiding the grenade-launcher pistol in his pants.

[CanRay]

Hiding the grenade-launcher pistol in his pants.

Troll Pornomancer?

[UmaroVI]

No, he's just happy to see you.

[Deliverator]

He is a troll, he could palm a volkswagen...

[UmaroVI]

He could also stick a long, thick, vibrating ... sword down his pants.

[eshoup1]

No joke, that happened at my game the other day. The troll at the table hid a vibrosword in his pants. And with a crappy roll by the GM was not harassed by Kight Errant for it.

[Kontact]

Lots of excellent builds Umaro.

Something you might want to consider is putting aside knowledge points for language skills on account of this oft-overlooked rule.

Charisma-linked Skills and Language
When a character attempts to influence someone using another lan-
guage, her persuasive ability is limited by her ability to convey ideas
and concepts in that language. To reflect this, whenever a character
uses a Charisma-linked Social skill to interact with another character
in a non-native tongue, the Social skill dice used may not exceed the
character’s Language skill rating.

So, depending on where the game is taking place, characters might want different language skills to assist with their lying and whatnot.

[UmaroVI]

The points set aside for hobbies and such can also be used for languages, but it might be a good idea to mention something about changing the languages under the "mission-specific" thing. At least in missions, people who are all "English? Pffft, we negotiate in my native tongue" tend to be speaking Sperethiel, Or'zet, or (rarely) Japanese, which is why those are pretty common.

[UmaroVI]

I recently learned that a Cyber Holdout Pistol is not a Pistol, but rather an Exotic Range Weapon. I fixed all the archetypes who used cyber-implant guns to either keep it with less dice, replace it with something else, or have the right skill. I also included more Blade weapons under the Bad Enough Trog's suggested purchases.

[PittsburghRPGA]

I'm really liking these as sample PCs.

Any chance of getting them in chummer format?

Thanks,

Eric

[Captain Karzak]

These archetypes have been a brilliant aid to me. I recently GMed Shadowrun for the first time ever, and it was such a relief to have a group of PC's who were all quite capable, and credible in the areas that their character concept implied. This is as opposed to the game where I am a player, where there are RIFTS(TM) style levels of divergence in character capabilities.

These archetypes are soooooo much better than the book-stated sample characters.

Thanks for making these.

The advice sections are also really excellent - no surprise, considering who wrote them.

[wylie]

The first three of those are unfortunately not supported characters in SR4A. I might include a more rigging-focused technomancer at some point.

Unaugmented mundanes just don't work, especially not people like the Weapon Specialist who try to be good at meatspace combat. If you want the appeal of "looks like a normal dude, not like a killer cyborg," try the Spook.

Crafting is banned in Missions.

Debuffs unfortunately just don't work. It's just as hard to debuff someone as it is to KO them.

I disagree, on a small point. if the unaugmented mundane specializes, he can survive. I know this as I have run a PI/ martial artist with no cyber or magic. if skills are all over the place(2 & 3s), with nothing to back them up, then yes there will be a problem. focus on a few skills and the character should do fine

[All4BigGuns]

On the issue of contacts-

I've always found the contact list to be the most frustrating thing of making the character.  "Realistically" (snicker) unless each character grew up in a cave she should have dozens if not hundreds of 2 to 3 BP contacts. Every skill had to be learned, and many came from teachers (whether literal or just folk she hung around with). She learned a language or two? From whom - family? and family and the friends of family aren't contacts?

gah.

I've made comments of a couple of house rules for my table, but this is the one I'd change the most. You get 1 contact point per BP. At least half must be in 4 point or lower contacts. And at least two must be family (or foster family).  But that's just me.

I think the theory is yes you might know 50 people to some degree, but contacts are the people you know who can be useful in your chosen profession of being a shadowrunner.  I could call my childhood friend right now, and he'd be willing to help me any way he could.  The thing is unless I was asking him about a TV show he liked, how to overcome addiction, or the shipping policies of the company he works for he wouldn't be a help.  And for the latter part that is just the GM writing something into the adventure it wouldn't be an official contact.

That childhood friend just might work for the Corp that you're running against. He could get you inside the building, especially if he's willing to pretend to be a 'hostage'.