Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Shrazkil on <10-23-14/2031:33>
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Fleshing out the final build for a street level game, needed a hacker, but couldn't make it work with A priority to buy the cheapest deck, and still have a character i would want to play. So will have to work towards one after creation.
Priorities:
Skills A
Attributes B
Magic C (mysad)
Meta D (human)
Resources E
B 3
A 2
R 4 (6)
S 1
W 5
L 6
I 5
C 2
Edge 2
Magic 6
INIT:
11 + 3d6
Limits:
P 4
M 8
S 5
Qualities and expendatures:
Power points 25K
1 K for 2000 nuyen
Biased, ganger +3K
Moderate Allergy, Gold +10K
Powers:
Improved Reflexes 2
Improved Cybercombat 3
Combat sense 1
Missle parry 1
Attribute boost : Agility 1
Spells:
Physical Barrier
Improve Logic
Heal
Lightning Bolt
Mana Static
Skills:
Cracking group 6
Stealth group 4
First Aid 4 (gunshot)
Counterspelling 6 (combat)
Spellcasting 6 (manipulation)
Con 5 (fast talk)
Perception 5 (hearing)
Computers 6 (matrix perception)
Software 1
Hardware 1
Gear (or lack there of):
rating 3 Medkit
Med supplies
Rating 2 fake sin and license for mysad
armor jacket
helmet with trodes
meta-link commlink
3 standard credsticks
Cramped Squatter lifestyle (will upgrade asap)
Knowledge skills TBD
Contacts:
4/2 Matrix Guru
(free fixer contact from group)
Thoughts or suggestions to optimize?
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since we are in Chicago you may want to look into getting some rad protection for that armor.
Man only having 26 karma to play with stinks for MA there is no way to get that last Power Point :( Maybe poindexter will allow you to buy it post gen with some kind of houserule? You should ask, the worst he can say is no
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since we are in Chicago you may want to look into getting some rad protection for that armor.
Man only having 26 karma to play with stinks for MA there is no way to get that last Power Point :( Maybe poindexter will allow you to buy it post gen with some kind of houserule? You should ask, the worst he can say is no
Yeah, i thought about it, either way, its OK.
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EDIT: Just say you are doing "Street" level, so this wont work but I'll leave it here anyway as an idea.
Magic using character, in Chicago, to create a Decker ?
That seems very......... odd ......... to me.
What about something like this to be more .... traditional
A-Cash-$450K
B-Skills-36/5
C-Attributes-16
D-Human-3
E-Mag/Res
Body-3 Agility-2 Reaction-5 (8 ) Strength-1
Willpower-3 Logic-6 (7) Intuition-4 Charisma-1
Edge-5 Ess-?? Initiative-9(12)+1d(2d)
Group-Hacking-5
Automatics-6
Computer-6
Perception-6
Sneaking-6
Software-6
Unarmed Combat-6 (Possibly changed to Blades)
Karma Spent-50
10-Agility-2
10-Skills-L1 *5 (Hardware, Piloting-Groundcraft, Medicine, Armorer, Running)
10-Cash
20 Remaining to spend
Cash-$450K + 20K
Wired Reflexes-1
Reaction Enhancers-2
CyberArm-Rt-Used (Agility-9, Commlink-Transys Avalon + Armor/Strength/Cyber = 3/8/Shockhand, or 3/7/Holster, or 1/9/Holster)
Cerebral Booster-1
Damage Compensators-3-Alpha
Cybereyes-2 (Lowlight, Smartlink, Thermographic, Flare Compensation)
Datajack-Alpha
Damper
Hermes Chariot Cyberdeck
Remington Supressor w/ External Smartlink & Vision Magnification
AK-97 w/ GasVent-3, Shock Pad, Custom Grip, Fore Grip, External Smartlink, & Vision Magnification
I didn't spreadsheet the math there but at a glance it should all fit in there w/ some programs & lifestyle.
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yeah he wanted a decker, but street level A only gives 75,000 and with 5 karma to cash 85,000. Hardly seems worth wasting an A for that poor a deck. Besides it will be an interesting concept and that's what PbP are for, interesting not optomized!
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EDIT: Just say you are doing "Street" level, so this wont work but I'll leave it here anyway as an idea.
Magic using character, in Chicago, to create a Decker ?
That seems very......... odd ......... to me.
What about something like this to be more .... traditional
A-Cash-$450K
B-Skills-36/5
C-Attributes-16
D-Human-3
E-Mag/Res
Body-3 Agility-2 Reaction-5 (8 ) Strength-1
Willpower-3 Logic-6 (7) Intuition-4 Charisma-1
Edge-5 Ess-?? Initiative-9(12)+1d(2d)
Group-Hacking-5
Automatics-6
Computer-6
Perception-6
Sneaking-6
Software-6
Unarmed Combat-6 (Possibly changed to Blades)
Karma Spent-50
10-Agility-2
10-Skills-L1 *5 (Hardware, Piloting-Groundcraft, Medicine, Armorer, Running)
10-Cash
20 Remaining to spend
Cash-$450K + 20K
Wired Reflexes-1
Reaction Enhancers-2
CyberArm-Rt-Used (Agility-9, Commlink-Transys Avalon + Armor/Strength/Cyber = 3/8/Shockhand, or 3/7/Holster, or 1/9/Holster)
Cerebral Booster-1
Damage Compensators-3-Alpha
Cybereyes-2 (Lowlight, Smartlink, Thermographic, Flare Compensation)
Datajack-Alpha
Damper
Hermes Chariot Cyberdeck
Remington Supressor w/ External Smartlink & Vision Magnification
AK-97 w/ GasVent-3, Shock Pad, Custom Grip, Fore Grip, External Smartlink, & Vision Magnification
I didn't spreadsheet the math there but at a glance it should all fit in there w/ some programs & lifestyle.
Yeah i have a few adept based decker concepts too, but at street level, its just not worth it.
The interesting thing about the Mysad version, is the ability to have 10 Logic pretty early in, and eventually 9 intuition and willpower, should be a very hard to hit/damage cybercombatent, once a deck is gotten.
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Magic using character, in Chicago, to create a Decker ?
That seems very......... odd ......... to me.
you do still need to take Tarislars words to heart though Shrazkil. If you are using magic to improve decking activities you will be hit with both noise and background count penalties on the same roll. Look into signal scrub when the time comes to deck. Sadly not a lot can be done about those background counts :(
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Magic using character, in Chicago, to create a Decker ?
That seems very......... odd ......... to me.
you do still need to take Tarislars words to heart though Shrazkil. If you are using magic to improve decking activities you will be hit with both noise and background count penalties on the same roll. Look into signal scrub when the time comes to deck. Sadly not a lot can be done about those background counts :(
That would be if i am hacking amidst an area with background count right? Or is there something i am not getting?
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Background counts as a negative dice pool modifier to anything magic related. Since your Cybercombat skill is being magically augmented, you take a penalty to that skill = to the background count. Noise is also a negative dice pool modifier. They will both stack. That's what they are trying to get at. Especially in Chicago, where the background count is usually at least 2, and the noise penalties can range from none to enormous.
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Background counts as a negative dice pool modifier to anything magic related. Since your Cybercombat skill is being magically augmented, you take a penalty to that skill = to the background count. Noise is also a negative dice pool modifier. They will both stack. That's what they are trying to get at. Especially in Chicago, where the background count is usually at least 2, and the noise penalties can range from none to enormous.
Oh, i figured background counts were very limited in space, so we will be facing them almost always?
Hacking will be fine, since it is unmodified, and at a 2 background count, logic 10 would be logic 8 correct?
So i am obviously not going to be cracking a corp anytime soon :) , but should suffice for street level activities i am assuming?
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They are limited; except Chicago was kind of the place where a Nuclear Bomb exploded. That kind of thing creates a huge background count.
Background counts are stirred up by Emotions, Death, and other things (usually traumatic) that happen to metahumans. Chicagoans have been living in fear of their lives from Insect Spirits, Gang Wars, Toxic Mages, etc. for a good 20 years. Usually the count is pretty low, like 2 or so. Some areas it gets a lot higher.
Here is an excerpt from the Season 5 Missions Files, which is currently set in Chicago.
Chicago, The CZ, Noise, and Background Counts
While for many the Chicago and the Bug City Containment Zone are synonymous, the CZ comprises less than 1/3 of the total landmass of the city of Chicago proper, not counting suburban areas and farmlands connected to the city. But the CZ is still big, and it is the rotted, gutted, feral heart of the Windy City. It starts at 115th Street to the south and runs nearly 30 km North way to Belmont Avenue to the north, and reaches from the Lake Michigan an average of 15 km to Harlem Avenue to the west. A mass of torn down buildings and hastily-erected barricades were added to and reinforced over the three-year period that the Containment Zone was in effect, and even now nearly 20 years later this barrier stands as an imposing divide between the Zone and the outside world. Anyone can supposedly freely travel between the zone and Chicago proper, but Lone Star watches those coming out and the gangs and warlords watch those going in very closely.
Between the Cermak Blast, the bugs, the debilitating effects of FAB III, and years of death and metahuman misery, astral space in and around the Zone is horrible. Unless otherwise noted in the scene, assume a default background count of 2 anytime characters are within the Containment Zone. The count will fluxuate wildly at times, so players should expect to encounter everything from high background counts and mana voids to various aspected backgrounds and mana warps. (See Background Count sidebar for full rules. Future Shadowrun, Fifth Edition rulebooks may supersede these rules). Areas of Chicago outside the CZ may also suffer background count bleed from the Zone.
Besides the background count, the CZ is a virtual nightmare for deckers and technomancers. The persistent low-level background radiation coupled with a distinct lack of modern matrix broadcasting equipment through the area results in a high level of constant background Noise that makes even basic matrix communication difficult. Noise levels will vary from area to area, but unless otherwise specified in the scene, assume a default Noise level of 2 anytime the characters are within the Containment Zone.
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They are limited; except Chicago was kind of the place where a Nuclear Bomb exploded. That kind of thing creates a huge background count.
Background counts are stirred up by Emotions, Death, and other things (usually traumatic) that happen to metahumans. Chicagoans have been living in fear of their lives from Insect Spirits, Gang Wars, Toxic Mages, etc. for a good 20 years. Usually the count is pretty low, like 2 or so. Some areas it gets a lot higher.
Here is an excerpt from the Season 5 Missions Files, which is currently set in Chicago.
Chicago, The CZ, Noise, and Background Counts
While for many the Chicago and the Bug City Containment Zone are synonymous, the CZ comprises less than 1/3 of the total landmass of the city of Chicago proper, not counting suburban areas and farmlands connected to the city. But the CZ is still big, and it is the rotted, gutted, feral heart of the Windy City. It starts at 115th Street to the south and runs nearly 30 km North way to Belmont Avenue to the north, and reaches from the Lake Michigan an average of 15 km to Harlem Avenue to the west. A mass of torn down buildings and hastily-erected barricades were added to and reinforced over the three-year period that the Containment Zone was in effect, and even now nearly 20 years later this barrier stands as an imposing divide between the Zone and the outside world. Anyone can supposedly freely travel between the zone and Chicago proper, but Lone Star watches those coming out and the gangs and warlords watch those going in very closely.
Between the Cermak Blast, the bugs, the debilitating effects of FAB III, and years of death and metahuman misery, astral space in and around the Zone is horrible. Unless otherwise noted in the scene, assume a default background count of 2 anytime characters are within the Containment Zone. The count will fluxuate wildly at times, so players should expect to encounter everything from high background counts and mana voids to various aspected backgrounds and mana warps. (See Background Count sidebar for full rules. Future Shadowrun, Fifth Edition rulebooks may supersede these rules). Areas of Chicago outside the CZ may also suffer background count bleed from the Zone.
Besides the background count, the CZ is a virtual nightmare for deckers and technomancers. The persistent low-level background radiation coupled with a distinct lack of modern matrix broadcasting equipment through the area results in a high level of constant background Noise that makes even basic matrix communication difficult. Noise levels will vary from area to area, but unless otherwise specified in the scene, assume a default Noise level of 2 anytime the characters are within the Containment Zone.
Wow, that is big pile of Ughh. Not much i can do about that though. Technomancers would get the same double whammy right?
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No, but Adepts would.
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No, but Adepts would.
Background counts don't affect resonance?
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Just noise. Background Count is solely an Astral thing that affects Magic users.
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The background count is only that much of a pain inside the CCZ, but chances are you'll go there frequently. However, that's what you'll eventually get Adept Centering for anyway.
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The background count is only that much of a pain inside the CCZ, but chances are you'll go there frequently. However, that's what you'll eventually get Adept Centering for anyway.
Absolutely, looking like quickening, then adept centering as first 2 initiations (practically first 2 expendatures karma wise, aside from a level of arcana.)
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Ugh i do not think Adept centering is going to help afterall. Seems it only works on physical or combat skills, unless decking skills could be considered combat, i would be hosed.
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Fleshing out the final build for a street level game, needed a hacker, but couldn't make it work with A priority to buy the cheapest deck, and still have a character i would want to play. So will have to work towards one after creation.
Priorities:
Skills A
Attributes B
Magic C (mysad)
Meta D (human)
Resources E
B 3
A 2
R 4 (6)
S 1
W 5
L 6
I 5
C 2
Edge 2
Magic 6
INIT:
11 + 3d6
Limits:
P 4
M 8
S 5
Qualities and expendatures:
Power points 25K
1 K for 2000 nuyen
Biased, ganger +3K
Moderate Allergy, Gold +10K
Powers:
Improved Reflexes 2
Improved Cybercombat 3
Combat sense 1
Missle parry 1
Attribute boost : Agility 1
Spells:
Physical Barrier
Improve Logic
Heal
Lightning Bolt
Mana Static
Skills:
Cracking group 6
Stealth group 4
First Aid 4 (gunshot)
Counterspelling 6 (combat)
Spellcasting 6 (manipulation)
Con 5 (fast talk)
Perception 5 (hearing)
Computers 6 (matrix perception)
Software 1
Hardware 1
Gear (or lack there of):
rating 3 Medkit
Med supplies
Rating 2 fake sin and license for mysad
armor jacket
helmet with trodes
meta-link commlink
3 standard credsticks
Cramped Squatter lifestyle (will upgrade asap)
Knowledge skills TBD
Contacts:
4/2 Matrix Guru
(free fixer contact from group)
Thoughts or suggestions to optimize?
I would not suggest having priority E for resources unless you are willing to spend 10 karma on funds and even then you won't be able to get even an Erika MCD-1/
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Street level works off of a different money scale Fenrir, Priority A is only 75k nuyen. Plus at maximim you can only trade in 5 karma to 10k nuyen.
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Street level works off of a different money scale Fenrir, Priority A is only 75k nuyen. Plus at maximim you can only trade in 5 karma to 10k nuyen.
Okay but still you don't have enough nuyen to by a deck, unless you are planning to use your commlink instead
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Street level works off of a different money scale Fenrir, Priority A is only 75k nuyen. Plus at maximim you can only trade in 5 karma to 10k nuyen.
Okay but still you don't have enough nuyen to by a deck, unless you are planning to use your commlink instead
I'm pretty sure he/she plans on obtaining a deck during play.
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Wouldn't a Technomancer be a better option for a Street Level + Chicago campaign ?
I've never played them so I don't know their rules well, but it seems like that would be the perfect solution for cash strapped in a Background count area.
Some Mix of Attributes, Resonance, & Skills at A/B/C with Human-D & Cash-E?
Seems like it would be a workable alternative to the very long development your looking into now & all w/o having a Cyberdeck.
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I dont know how you have ruled it at your table, but an alternative to a real deck could be an RCC.
We play it as having attack 0 sleaze 0 DP X and firewall X
Then by using programs you could buff the attack and sleaze rating from zero to bad :)
scratchbuild junk is only 1400 nuyen, it can hold 1 program. With virtual machine you could run exploit and stealth for a whooping 3 sleaze rating when hacking on the fly- enough to hack cheap ass gear on lousy gangers.
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I think commlinks and RCCs have effectively Attack/Sleaze N/A, not zero (there is a difference). Commlinks/RCCs don't even have the stats that would allow a Limit, thus I read it as N/A not "0 but can be raised." Hence you cannot attempt the test at all, not that you could attempt it but can keep no more than 0 hits (again, an important distinction.
Unless the GM says you can use Edge to remove the non-applicable Limit for one test, you probably shouldn't be allowed to roll. My GM doesn't like the idea of ever being able to hack via a commlink with the 5e rules and fluff for the Matrix, hence that'd be a no-go for me. YMMV; even a shitty deck can do pretty well if you focus on AR hacking and plugging directly into cameras to backdoor into a host instead of going into VR.
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Aaron stated that you can use Edge to remove the limit, but while I will follow his statements for Missions, I disagree with enough of a significant amount of them that I cannot in good conscience suggest to blindly follow what he says.
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Wouldn't a Technomancer be a better option for a Street Level + Chicago campaign ?
I've never played them so I don't know their rules well, but it seems like that would be the perfect solution for cash strapped in a Background count area.
Some Mix of Attributes, Resonance, & Skills at A/B/C with Human-D & Cash-E?
Seems like it would be a workable alternative to the very long development your looking into now & all w/o having a Cyberdeck.
I looked at building one, i just couldn't handle being near worthless in combat, and i don't do the drug thing. It would be the easier answer, but i'll roll my dice.
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Wouldn't a Technomancer be a better option for a Street Level + Chicago campaign ?
I've never played them so I don't know their rules well, but it seems like that would be the perfect solution for cash strapped in a Background count area.
Some Mix of Attributes, Resonance, & Skills at A/B/C with Human-D & Cash-E?
Seems like it would be a workable alternative to the very long development your looking into now & all w/o having a Cyberdeck.
I looked at building one, i just couldn't handle being near worthless in combat, and i don't do the drug thing. It would be the easier answer, but i'll roll my dice.
How about using some drones for combat?
EDIT: Forget about what I said, too expensive for the street level.
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I looked at building one, i just couldn't handle being near worthless in combat, and i don't do the drug thing. It would be the easier answer, but i'll roll my dice.
Meh, using 6-7 skill points for Automatics means your really never useless in combat.
Most anyone can be hit when you toss a burst of 6 bullets at them.
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I looked at building one, i just couldn't handle being near worthless in combat, and i don't do the drug thing. It would be the easier answer, but i'll roll my dice.
Meh, using 6-7 skill points for Automatics means your really never useless in combat.
Most anyone can be hit when you toss a burst of 6 bullets at them.
but without drugs there is really no way of reliably upping initiative as a techno. All of the reaction enhancements are all magic, technical, or pharmaceutical. I guess you could always blitz, but that's a lame way out. You need that edge for sprite making
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I looked at building one, i just couldn't handle being near worthless in combat, and i don't do the drug thing. It would be the easier answer, but i'll roll my dice.
Meh, using 6-7 skill points for Automatics means your really never useless in combat.
Most anyone can be hit when you toss a burst of 6 bullets at them.
but without drugs there is really no way of reliably upping initiative as a techno. All of the reaction enhancements are all magic, technical, or pharmaceutical. I guess you could always blitz, but that's a lame way out. You need that edge for sprite making
Not to mention that gets expensive on your Edge pool very quickly.
The main problem with Technomancers is that you have to lose somewhere. You need A, B, or C for Technomancer itself; likely A or B for Attributes so that you can be useful in some manner; while you still need the skills of a decker which is normally allocated to B, but that's likely not available to you at that point. You lose either on Resonance/Complex Forms, Attributes to make you viable, or Skills to really make you a worthwile hacker. Then again, I have yet to create an adept decker using the Priority system that I like, let alone a mystic adept, so I just think that mundane decker is impossible to compete with under the Priority System.
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This will not be the sort of game where 6-7 dice is "useless"
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This will not be the sort of game where 6-7 dice is "useless"
Oh, that's good to know. Still, in general Technomancers have so much trouble with priority juggling it's a little insane.
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I looked at building one, i just couldn't handle being near worthless in combat, and i don't do the drug thing. It would be the easier answer, but i'll roll my dice.
Meh, using 6-7 skill points for Automatics means your really never useless in combat.
Most anyone can be hit when you toss a burst of 6 bullets at them.
but without drugs there is really no way of reliably upping initiative as a techno. All of the reaction enhancements are all magic, technical, or pharmaceutical. I guess you could always blitz, but that's a lame way out. You need that edge for sprite making
Depends on how the GM lets you do your downtime and if Edge refreshes daily in downtime. It should be doable to build a Sprite Army that way, over a lengthy amount of time.
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Depends on how the GM lets you do your downtime and if Edge refreshes daily in downtime. It should be doable to build a Sprite Army that way, over a lengthy amount of time.
Agreed, as long as this isn't a Missions campaign he would have quite a bit of time to "prep".
Not to mention that gets expensive on your Edge pool very quickly.
Meh, 5 Edge is quite a bit. You don't have to do it every turn, or even every combat.
There are bound to be times when Hacking will be needed during the combat.
But even if he's shooting. Most fights are over in 2 rounds. If he Blitzes the 1st round and the Combat types are doing their jobs, then there shouldn't be much left that he needs to Blitz a 2nd time.