[Snack Happy]

Figured I would see if you guys could make a 400BP character that is completely mundane with no cyber or augments just plain skills and stats just curios also want to know how viable the option would be.

[Glyph]

Shadowrun is, by design, a world where magic is feared and envied, and where technology is an ubiquitous presense that constantly tempts people with the promise of becoming more than human.  Therefore, magic and augmentation can both augment a character's ability to superhuman levels at a comparatively cheap cost.

Mundanes are playable.  But they are far, far from optimal.  Be aware of that before you make one.  They are more of an advanced roleplayer's choice, a decision to deliberately gimp your character to make the experience more challenging.  The one tangible advantage that an unaugmented mundane has is the ability to pass through any magical or cybernetic scanner without breaking a sweat.  They will also usually have more skills, but between skillwires, and all of the skill and Attribute boosts that are available, the augmented character with three initiative passes and several Attributes boosted up to 9 might actually have more skills/higher dice pools than his unaugmented counterpart, too.

An unaugmented mundane will be second-best at anything he does, but can still do a decent job at some specialties.  Generally, a mundane character will depend on stealth, cunning, and setting the terms of the confrontation to survive.  They can be acceptable snipers, hackers, faces, detectives, and techies.

Here's one quick example:

Face
Race: Elven

BREAKDOWN (400 Points)
Core Attributes: 200
Special Attributes: 40
Race: 30
Active Skills: 140
Qualities: +30
Contacts: 10
Resources: 10

=Attributes=
Body: 3
Agility: 4
Reaction: 3
Strength: 2
Charisma: 7
Intuition: 4
Logic: 3
Willpower: 5
Edge: 5

Essence: 6.0

=Qualities=
First Impression
---------------
Allergy/Silver, Moderate
Low Pain Tolerance
Sensitive System

=Active Skills=
Gymnastics/Dance: 4/+2
Influence Group: 4
Intimidation: 4
Perception/Visual: 4/+2
Pistols/Semi-Automatic: 4/+2
Stealth Skill Group: 3

=Knowledge Skills=
English: N
Japanese: 4
Sperethiel: 4
--------------
Local Area Knowledge: 4
Psychology: 3
Seattle Night Spots: 3
Street crime/Vice: 2/+2

=Contacts=
Fixer (4 Connection/2 Loyalty)
Hacker (2 Connection/2 Loyalty)

=Lifestyle and Gear=
50,000 Nuyen to spend on Lifestyles and Gear.

[Longshot23]

In the majority of times I played SR, my character was mundane - no magic, no cyber.  He survived mainly because the GM liked him (there, I said it) and because he was with powered-up characters.

I got a bit of a rep as a mago-phobe in those years though.

[Snack Happy]

Not really going to play it just curious what one would look like or what build ideas you guys would use.

[Glyph]

I would probably usually go with high Edge, good mix of skills, and mainly non-combat skills, where having a high dice pool and multiple initiative passes is not as important.  Sniping is kind of the exception, since you will both have time to aim and (usually) have an unaware target.  Being a metatype such as an elf or troll can be an advantage (a troll can soak lots of damage, an elf can be a good face or have an Agility close to that of an augmented human, etc.), and with the points you save on resources and/or Magic, you can afford it.  Non-cyber tech such as medkits, ruthenium sneak suits, and MagLock passkeys can give you an edge.

The effectiveness of a mundane character also depends a lot on the challenges that a GM throws at the group, and how the other characters are put together.  A well-crafted mundane won't stand up to a well-crafted adept or augmented character, but not every character will be min-maxed to the same effectiveness.  And if the rest of the group consists of two street samurai and a combat mage focused solely on combat, then the mundane guy with first aid, a van the group can use, some social skills, some sneaking ability, and a MagLock passkey might very well get lots of opportunities to shine.  Mundane characters are less effective with everything else being equal, but that isn't always the case.

[Nomad Zophiel]

With a 400 point mundane, I'd probably take some really odd approaches.

First off, combat's out. Enough armor, weapons and skills to defeat the average mugger only.

Similarly for being a wheelman, drone runner or hacker.

However, he could really shine as an infiltrator. Follow the logic here:

At the highest levels of security having a tone of cyberware or being Awakened is a detriment. Why? Everyone who has access and either of the above is under increased scrutiny. Furthermore they don't have the astral/cyber signature that you the infiltrator do. When you're being scanned to within an inch of your life, sometimes it pays to be clean. Our "super normal" would need a lot of disguise skill, a lot of social skill, some good gear and contacts. The upside is that he has 400 points to spend on attributes (Charisma, Intuition and Edge), skills (Social and some technical and Disguise) and gear gear gear.

So as a simple breakdown figure 200 points on stats
50 on gear
150 on skills and contacts
Balance positive and negative qualities

Best of all there's nothing to stop you from adding magic and/or cyberwear later. Since this is a starting character it could be fun to have him start as a particularly talented corp kid who's living out his slumming fantasies by trying to be a Runner. As time goes on he'll actually grow into the role. Gives an excuse to take all sorts of cool things like a SIN, the Born Rich quality etc.

[Snack Happy]

I like the infiltrator idea it seems it would be interesting. At that point something along the lines of latent awakening would be interesting thrown in for some more RPing.

[bedlam]

I didn't think the Weapon Specialist (Sample Char) was bad as a Mundane.  I viewed it as a great growth based character.  One good fight, and the sudden temptation of Cybering is apparent.  One bad fight, and the Character must accept some cyber to survive.  Fun stuffs.

JMO

[Mäx]

If the ware and being awekened/TM was out i might go with somethink like this:
Combat face
Dryad
Body 3
Agility 7
Reaction 4
Strength 2
Charisma 8
Intuition 3
Logic 3
Willpower 3

Edge 4

Positive qualities:
Surge level 2
Metegenetic Improvement (Charisma)
Metegenetic Improvement (Agility)

Negative qualities:
In Debt (30000)
Unusual Hair(Blue)
Extravagant Eyes(silver) }these 2 can be changed to any metagenetic negative quality/qualities worth -10BP
Addiction (Mild) [Galak]

Skills:
Athletics (Group) 2
Pistols(semiautomatics) 4(+2)
Automatics(Assault rifles) 4(+2)
Con 5
Etiquette 3
Negotiation 5

What ever you want as free knowledge skills

Gear:
40k nuyen(2BP spend for money) to spend on comlink, contact lenses with smartlink, couple of pimped out guns and other essentials.

20BP left to buy a couple contacts with or someting else

She has 15 dice to shoot smatlinked semi-automatic pistols and Assault rifles.
16 dice for Con and Negotiation
15 dice for etiquette
Social pools are one higher if she's taken a dose of Galak.

Should probaply also buy a few doses of IP enchanting drugs for those fights where 1IP just isn't enough.         

[Nomad Zophiel]

The only problem with that is that Metavariants are automatically maxed out on distinctive qualities for no BP bonus. If you're a dryad, people notice.

[Mäx]

The only problem with that is that Metavariants are automatically maxed out on distinctive qualities for no BP bonus. If you're a dryad, people notice.

She's a face, people are supposed to notice when she makes an entry

[esprism]

I'm currently building a character that could match your proposition (but ...)

My first idea was to make a simile "face" nuyen/contact oriented (he is runner because he want to, for revenge or something else, but not for money).

Erased 10 BP
Fame 20 BP
Astral Sight 5 BP

SINner 5 BP
Day job 15 BP
Vendetta 5 BP
Lost Loved One 5 BP
Compulsive 5BP

And :
 - a lot of contacts (my current build have around 40 BP contacts)
 - a lot of knowledge and language skills (22 skills in current build)
 - a lot of fake sins

lifestyle "high" level (I play advanced lifestyle so it's a bit more than 10 000)

Like that, if you managed to keep your day work while running you win 50 000 nuyens per month minus your lifestyle cost.

The problem is the character is really hard to play without a sleep regulator.

The conclusion is this character will use money for augmentations...

My last build is "augmented" with nanoware (priceless combo with knowledge skills) and bioware and it is a really interesting solution but I think you can still play without.

[Bradd]

You could also make a decent hacker using only non-invasive tech. You wouldn't be very fast (unless you used stimulants), but lots of matrix stuff is independent of speed, especially if you're very stealthy.

[Glyph]

There's nothing explicitly in the rules about incompatible flaws, but I have a hard time reconciling a SINner with a day job, and the erased quality.

[The Doomed One]

There's nothing explicitly in the rules about incompatible flaws, but I have a hard time reconciling a SINner with a day job, and the erased quality.

You tell whatever is doing the erasing to leave the job, and most of the connected SIN alone?