[rodiwa]

Ok so first off im an experienced rpg guy. Mostly dnd 3.5 and dark heresy. My group has decided we are switching to shadowrun 5th ed. Ive never played any form of shadowrun. No vid games no rpg no nada. I just started reading lore today. So im in need of serious help. My group has told me some of it but no were near enough. I was thinking it would be easiest st stick to what i know. My idea is based of off Mkoll (gaunts ghosts 40k) and i was thinking of getting some form of illusion type magic to suppliment my stealth. Obviously combat orientated. What should i try? (Like i said i have no grasp of char gen or what options there are so the more detail the better)

HELP ME PLEASE!!!

[Csjarrat]

hoo boy,
magic has quite a bit of depth to it when you get into the nitty gritty.
essentially shadowrun works on rolling your attribute + your skill and counts the hits (5+ on a d6) versus a threshold, an opponent's roll or a limit (depending on test).
To that end, you want to make sure you've got enough dice between attributes and skills that you can reliably get 3-4 hits on your important skills as a starting level for most tables. its very possible to get vastly more but it tends to skew the power balance of a table if you turn up with 22dice in your main skills and your team turn up with 10.

i'd honestly sit down and read the quick start rules if you've got them and have a chat with your GM as he/she will be able to give you specific help tailoring your backstory + character to his/her game-world.

I've put down a character template from an old sheet I had on my pc; it probably won't make much sense right now, but if you go over the rules you'll start to see how a char sheet works

Priorities:

A-Mage (magic 6, 10 spells, x2 R5 skills)
B-Skills (36/5)
C-Attribs (16)
D-Meta (human, 3)
E-Resources (6k)

Attribs:
BOD 2 (+1)
STR 2 (+10 karma)
AGI 2 (+1)       16/16
REA 2 (+1)
CHA 3 (+2)
INT 5 (+4)
LOG 4 (+3)
WIL 5 (+4)

EDG 4 (+2)
ESS 6
MAG 7 (+1)

Karma:
+25 Starting
-14 Exceptional Attribute (MAG)
-10 Gear
-05 Mentor Spirit {Eagle}
+05 SiNner (National)
+07 Aged (58 years of age)
+09 Moderate Addiction (Deepweed)
+04 (5) Distinctive Style
-10 STR->2
-10 x2 spells
Mild allergy, pollutants {free, mentor}
-01 contact improvement
=00 Net
______________________________________________
Skills:

Groups:
Conjuring 5/5 {Air +2 Mentor}

Free:
Alchemy 5
Ritual Spellcasting 5

Individual:
Perception 3
Assensing 6                         36/36
Spellcasting 6 (Combat +2) {Detection +2 Mentor}
Pistols 4 (Semi Auto +2)
Counterspelling 3 (Combat +2)
Computer 1 (Data search +2)             
Con 3 (fast talk +2)
Arcana 3
Disguise 1 (Costume +2)

Knowledge: 18(+5)= 23

Magical Threats 2
Parazoology 2
Parageology 2
Chemistry 2
Magical Traditions 2
Foci Design 2
Local Gangs 2 (Wiz-gangs +2)
English N
Spanish 2
Or'Zet 2
Local Dealers 2
Magical Security 2
_______________________________________________________
Spells + Rituals: 12 total

Tradition: Druid
Drain: WIL+INT
//Combat,Beast //Detection,Water //Health,Plant //Illusion,Air //Manipulation,Earth

Combat:
Lightning Bolt
Manabolt

Manipulation:
Influence
Shapechange

Detection:
Detect Life, Extended
Spatial Sense, Extended

Health:
Heal
Increase Reflexes

Illusion:
Hot Potato
Physical Mask

Rituals:
Watcher
Ally Conjuration
________________________________________________________
Gear: 26k

Armour + Weapons:

Ares Viper Silvergun 380                   705
{integral suppressor}
 -Laser Sight (top) 125
 -Concealable Holster 150
 -Flashlight (Side) 50

Cavalier Safeguard taser 275               425
 -Concealable Holster 150

Ace of Cups (ARM9) 1600
 {+1 Social limit, +1 Social DP}

Ares Rapid Transit (ARM9) 400

Casual Clothing 40
3120 spent
_______________________________________________________
Electronics, Lifestyle + ID:

Renraku Sensei Commlink (DR3) 1,000          1420
 -Trodes 70
 -Hot-Sim mod 350

MetaLink Commlink (DR1) 100

Fake SiN R3 7500                             8720
 -Fake Magic License R3 600
 -Fake Weapon License R3 600
 -Credstick 20

Earbuds R1 50
 -Audio Enhance 500                           550

Contacts R3 600
 -Image Link 25
 -Flare Comp 250
 -Image Enhance R1 500                       1375

Binoculars (optical) 50

Low Lifestyle 2,000 (2nd floor apt)          2350
Squatter Lifestyle 350 (Wilderness hut)
 -Cramped
 -Dangerous
14,415 spent                                   
________________________________________________________
Magical Eqpt, Tools + Misc:

F6 Lodge (Druid) 3,000
x8 drams reagents

Disguise Kit 500
Dodge scoot 3,000

Respirator R6 300
Forearm guards (ARM +1) 300

Deepweed x2 doses 800
Psyche x1 doses 200

x60 Flechette ammo (HP) 200
+extra clip

Taser darts (10)

26k total
_________________________________________________________
Contacts: 9(10) points

3,2 Ancients Dealer. Lil' Mik. Pushes the 'weed and some other shit.
                     Has the local ancients' network to call on for gear and
                     has been selling to Feathers for a while, having built up a bit of trust.

3,2 Talismonger. Nbungu. Nigerian born mage, he fled due to islamic persecution of his awakened
                         abilities. Runs a talismongery in the old industrial district

[rodiwa]

Lol you were right. Almost all of that went straight over my head. I guess for starters im just going to need to sit down and read the book. Thanks for the reply though. Ill take another look when i have a better idea. So before i do any pointers on what to look at for a heavy stealth (semi auto-sniping oriented ) shooty tracking type? The illusion stuff would be nice but maybe ill forego that for simplicity at first.

[Whiskeyjack]

My suggestion as a total newb: start as a street samurai and avoid the magic and hacking subsystems. Easiest way to learn the core rules. Still somewhat complicated but much less so than dealing with those subsystems.

[zarzak]

My suggestion as a total newb: start as a street samurai and avoid the magic and hacking subsystems. Easiest way to learn the core rules. Still somewhat complicated but much less so than dealing with those subsystems.

This is good advice.  You'll want to make a character who can do three things:

1) Shoot things (have a gun skill, and have a good agility attribute)
2) Sneak around (have the stealth skill, and have a good agility attribute)
3) Perceive things (listen/spot skill equivalent of 3.5 DnD, tied with the intuition attribute)

A few overall pointers when you get to making a character:

1) Keep it simple - you want to be a sneaky shooty guy, so focus on those two things.  Anything else is icing on the cake (though, like DnD, you still need good perception).
2) The build system rewards focus.  Details aside, you'll end up with a certain amount of points to put to your skills, attributes, etc.  The cost of raising these things in game is exponential, so it benefits you to start as high as possible in a few things, instead of middling scores in lots of things.  A subset of advice here: make sure you start with attribute scores of at least 3 willpower, and at least 3 body.
3) Don't do magic or hacking if you're new - they add complexity and its best to start simple.

Shadowrun is a very crunchy game (lots and lots of rules), so the simpler the character you start with the better.  The setting itself is pretty fun, so read up on that to get an idea of the flavor.

[Poindexter]

download a copy of chummer and read through a lot of threads on this page.

Once you've got you a character you're happy with, post it here, so the regulars (whiskeyjack) can tell you how to improve it.

[Whiskeyjack]

Once you've got you a character you're happy with, post it here, so the regulars (whiskeyjack) can tell you how to improve it.

Haha do I really carry that kind of notoriety on this board?

The things being bored at work will get you...

[Poindexter]

Once you've got you a character you're happy with, post it here, so the regulars (whiskeyjack) can tell you how to improve it.

Haha do I really carry that kind of notoriety on this board?

The things being bored at work will get you...

I don't know if I'd call it notoriety exactly, although a few people do seem to take your advice in the wrong way and get defensive about stuff.
Most of us can tell you're trying to help.

[rodiwa]

thanks for the pointers. I just got my hands on the rule book so I'll be going through it. I like the idea of keeping it simple for now. If I want to leave the option to add the magic later what should I do? Also which races lend themselves to shooting and stealth?

[zarzak]

thanks for the pointers. I just got my hands on the rule book so I'll be going through it. I like the idea of keeping it simple for now. If I want to leave the option to add the magic later what should I do? Also which races lend themselves to shooting and stealth?

Re: Shooting+Stealth - Races differ in three aspects: 1) What their attribute maximums and minimums are (the DnD equivalent is some races getting a +1 or +2 to a stat), 2) What 'extras' they get, like low-life vision (again, this translates directly to DnD), and 3) What their 'cost' is (you can't be a troll without taking a high priority in your race, for example).  On the surface, shooting and stealth rely on agility, so the race with the highest agility stat is 'best' - that would be elf.  However, they only get 1 more agility than most other races, so its not a huge discrepancy.  You should go with whatever race you think is the most interesting ... even troll, which has a maximum agility of only 5, can be more than sneaky/shooty enough.

Re: Magic - If you don't start with a magic score, you can't ever learn magic.  And if you do start with a magic score, you'd need to start with doing the 'right' kind of magic (for you that'd be either mystic adept, magician, or aspected ... normal adepts can't cast spells).  This is already a lot of choices, for something you won't be good at unless you devote significant resources to it.   Honestly I'd just scrap the magic idea for now - building something that can do a little magic is even harder than building a full magician, and you debatably need a better grasp of the magic rules to know what won't suck.

If you've played DnD 3.5 for any length of time you're well aware that is a very crunchy system with lots of trap options . For example - normal fighter sucks unless you just take a level or two for the feats, most feats are garbage, etc. etc. etc.  Shadowrun is like that as well: its very crunchy with lots of trap options.  In shadowrun, the 'trap' options generally come from trying to do too much with a character.  Shooty+sneaky = easy to make.  Shooty+sneaky+some magic is also 'easy', but there are now trap options introduced and you need some system mastery (due to how magic interacts with taking cyberware and such).  Etc.

[zarzak]

Offhand, for an 'easy' build, I'd recommend one of the following priority distributions:

Human - You get a lot of money for cyberware/bioware (equivalent of 'magical' gear in DnD 3.5, in that it boosts your stats/skills), and guns/toys.  You'll get lots of 'edge' to start, and have a nice rounded skillset and stats.  No magic.
Priority A - Resources
Priority B - Attributes
Priority C - Skills
Priority D - Metatype (Human)
Priority E - Magic

Elf - You get a lot of money for cyberware/bioware (equivalent of 'magical' gear in DnD 3.5, in that it boosts your stats/skills), and guns/toys.  You'll get lots of 'edge' to start, and have good stats.  You sacrifice some skills in order to be an elf, but you'll still be able to get all essential skills.
Priority A - Resources
Priority B - Attributes
Priority C - Metatype (Elf)
Priority D - Skills
Priority E - Magic

Orc or Dwarf or Troll- You get a lot of money for cyberware/bioware (equivalent of 'magical' gear in DnD 3.5, in that it boosts your stats/skills), and guns/toys.  You'll get lots of 'edge' to start if you're an orc or dwarf, and have good stats.  You sacrifice some skills in order to be one of these races, but you'll still be able to get all essential skills.  If you choose to be a troll, be sure to buy a point or two of edge with karma at the appropriate character building step.
Priority A - Resources
Priority B - Metatype
Priority C - Stats
Priority D - Skills
Priority E - Magic

Regardless of your race you'll want the following gear:
Either 'Wired Reflexes (Level 2)' or 'Synaptic Booster (Level 2)'  <--- this is the most important gear for a street samurai, and also the most expensive.  It will eat up roughly half of your nuyen, even though you're starting with a huge pile of it.  This is why you generally want to start with priority A nuyen when doing a build like this.
Either 'Bone Lacing (Aluminum)'
Some level of Orthoskin
Either 'Muscle Replacement (Level 2)' or 'Muscle Toner (Level 2)' and 'Muscle Augmentation (Level 1 or 2)'
Implanted Smartlink
Implanted Datajack
Fake SIN (Level 4)
Fake licenses (Level 4)
Lifestyle (not to important at what level)
Commlink (not too important which one, I'd do at minimum a middle-tier one)
Contacts or glasses or similar with visual enhancements
Earbuds or headphones or similar with audio enhancements
Guns (you'll want at least two: something street legal, and something for when the things get really bad)
Ammunition
Some sort of backup melee option

I would not get any sort of cyberlimb on your first character.  They're actually fairly complex, and you should keep it simple for now.


Regardless of your race you'll want the following skills:
Sneaking - 6 points, with a specialization in Urban (or whatever environment you'll be in)
Some sort of gun skills at 6 points, with a specialization - Automatics are generally regarded to be the 'best' gun skill, and you would take a specialization in whichever type of automatic is your favorite.  However, you said you were interested in sniper rifles, and Longarms is the 'second best' gun skill.  So you could take 6 points in Longarms, with a specialization in Sniper Rifles, for example.
Some sort of close combat skill, and a specialization.  So blades, specialized in swords, for example.  Anywhere from 3-6 points plus your specializaiton is appropriate.
Perception - Dump your remaining points here; you don't really need this maxed out, as its easy to get bonuses to perception via your equipment.
Etiquette - You generally want at least a point to start, and you should 'buy' that point for 2 karma at the appropriate stage of character generation (step 7, I think?)
If you have some points left, which you can use for tracking, or whatever.

So, if you start with skills 'D', for example:
Longarms (Sniper Rifles) - 6
Sneaking (Urban) - 6
Blades (Swords) - 4  (you can adjust this up if you take away from perception, but its not strictly necessary - I'd only do it on a troll or orc or such)
Perception - 3
Etiquette - 1 <-- bought with karma

So, if you start with skills 'C', for example:
Longarms (Sniper Rifles) - 6
Sneaking (Urban) - 6
Blades (Swords) - 6
Perception - 4
Tracking - 3
Etiquette - 1 <-- bought with karma
Athletics Skill Group - 2


Regardless of your race, you'll want the following stats:

You'll want to start with at least a body and will of 3.  Some races (like troll) start with a higher body.  Whatever the case, make sure you have an odd score for body and will.
You'll want to max out your agility stat.  You can only start the game with 1 maxed stat, so that should be it.
You'll want to have at least 3 intuition.
If you're a race with a high natural attribute (charisma for an elf, body/strength for a troll, etc), it benefits you to boost it as high as you can at character creation
Logic is not an important stat for you. 
Charisma generally isn't an important stat either, but if you're an elf you might want to consider boosting it and later in your career taking some social skills.
Strength isn't overly important unless you start with a very high strength, in which case you'll want to have a bit more focus on the melee weapon side of things.


Have fun.

[Medicineman]

thanks for the pointers. I just got my hands on the rule book so I'll be going through it. I like the idea of keeping it simple for now. If I want to leave the option to add the magic later what should I do? Also which races lend themselves to shooting and stealth?

one possible Way is to play an Adept.
ImO pure physical Adepts are easier to create than cybered Streetsams
and they have ...."time to Grow" because they can use their Karma (XP) to raise their Magic and their Adept Powers.
a Streetsam has only a limited amount of Essence he can use for Cyber / Bioware to improve him.
once the Essence is used up he can't improve any more.
AND Cyberware is fucking Expensive !! 
An Elf is quite good at shooting and Stealth
a Human is also good because he can have lots of Edge ( a Kind of Luck Attribute )
Orks and Trolls are good if you want to make a Melee Char but since You want a "Shooty Guy" I'd advice you to take an Elf and maximise his AGI or use a Human and maximise his Edge

HokaHey
Medicineman

[Whiskeyjack]

Just FYI it's not like D&D where you can level up and decide "oh I'll just be a Cleric now." Basically anything you need to do to improve yourself as a non-mage will hurt your ability to do magic in the future. It's an intentional trade-off.

Frankly adepts are tricky and have a lot of trash powers. A big thing with them is how much better ware is than some of their options. I would say the best adepts blend magic and ware, which is a hard balance to find sometimes and makes priority allocation harder.

[Moonshine Fox]

I'll throw in my two nuyen on this. You got the main book and I recommend reading it for a while and don't hesitate to ask questions. Run Faster also has a number of things that build up more detail on various parts of the sixth world.

There really isn't a way to Awaken to magic later in game short of GM plot, but as others have said, magic adds a whole new set of rules to learn and use, and probably isn't the best for your first character (though if you want to, go ahead and have fun!). If you really want magic, I recommend playing a Physical Adept as they have the easiest of the magic rules to learn, being more innate augmentative then outside use.

You said you wanted a Mkoll type character, so I'll make (or echo) a few pointers. You'll want the longarm sklll for the use of sniper rifles, Perception for your ability to notice all the details of what's around you, and the stealth skill. Automatics, pistols, and heavy weapons will cover the rest of ranged weapons with throwing dealing with throwing knives and grenades. Blades will cover your skill with knives in melee.  For stats, Agility will help you ranged combat and stealth abilities, Intuition for your Perception, and Body and Will for resistance. Elves will give you a boost to Agility, Dwarves are stout and stable, while orks and trolls have strength and physical resistance. Humans have a general stat-line and have the least problem with racism in the Sixth world. Don't get hung up on metatype though, there are so many ways to augment yourself as to make metatype a more roleplay choice then a mechanics choice (at least to me).

Take the time to read over equipment fully as you'll probably end up making a lot of use of the various devices in there.