Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: All4BigGuns on <11-10-15/1518:17>
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Admittedly, I'm not so hot at messing with decking--the high price tag on the equipment has deterred me for the most part--but I decided to try my hand with one now that Hero Lab has one of the alternate generation systems implemented.
Without further ado, here it is.
Anomalous
Meta-type Human
Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 3
Strength 2
Willpower 5
Logic 5(7)
Intuition 4
Charisma 3
Edge 5
Essence 5.0
Condition Monitor (P/S): 10 / 11
Armor: 9
Limits: Physical 4, Mental 8, Social 6
Physical Initiative: 7+1D6
Matrix Initiative: 9+3D6
Active Skills: Cracking Group 6, Electronics Group 5, Etiquette 2, Gymnastics 4, Perception 4, Pistols (Tasers +2) 4, Sneaking 4
Knowledge Skills: Data Havens 4, Law 3, Matrix Architecture 3, Matrix Games 3
Languages: English N, Salish 5
Qualities: Codeslinger: Hack on the Fly, Data Anomaly, Day Job (5,000¥/month, 40 hrs/week), Electronic Witness, Prime Datahaven Membership (JackPoint), SINner (National SIN): UCAS, Trust Fund (Middle & 500¥/month)
Augmentations:
Cerebral Booster (2)
Cyberears (1) w/ Audio Enhancement (3), Damper, Sound Link
Cybereyes (2) w/ Image Link, Low-Light Vision, Smartlink, Vision Enhancement (3)
Datajack
Gear:
FTL Quark w/ Diagnostics, Mapsoft: ????, Mapsoft: Seattle Metroplex, Receiver, Ticker: Law Enforcement Patrols
Lined Coat
Renraku Tsurugi w/ Baby Monitor, Encryption, Exploit, Shell, Sim Module, Modified for Hot Sim, Stealth, Virtual Machine
Tyrone Gibbs w/ Fake License: Electronics (4), Fake SIN (4), (3 months) Low Lifestyle
Weapons:
Yamaha Pulsar [Taser, Acc 7, DV 7S(e), AP -5, SA, 4 (m)] w/ Smartgun System, Internal, (40x) Taser Dart
Contacts:
Blackheart (Connection 3, Loyalty 2)
JackPoint (Connection 5, Loyalty 3)
Mackie (Connection 2, Loyalty 3)
Starting ¥: 605 + (4D6 × 100)¥
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Drop Agility and Reaction each by one and put them into Intuition. Other than that, I think you're pretty solid.
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Drop Agility and Reaction each by one and put them into Intuition. Other than that, I think you're pretty solid.
With the system this was built under, it would cost more to put those points into Intuition than would be saved pulling them out of the two aforementioned attributes--it's at exactly 800 Karma including all Qualities.
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Out of curiosity, which chargen method was used here? I don't have Hero Lab, so I don't know what's been recently added.
Without knowing the method, it's hard for me to say exactly how to better spend resources, but some generic decker advice.
1. I think you're undervaluing Intuition for a decker. My default is generally Int 6, Log 5(7). Chrome Flesh may change this, but I'd look for points from elsewhere to at least get it to a 5.
2. Your taser needs a smartlink.
3. Cracking is where you want your specializations to be. Do you need to have the entire group at 6? If you can shed some EWar to pick up the skills separately and add the Hosts and whatever specialization of Cybercombat you think would be best (it really comes down to how GMs run things, but IC is probably the best choice).
4. Speaking of potential things to buy, get a Rating 2 hard nanohive. You can't get the nanites for it yet (Availabilty 16), but they're cheap so buying extra dice once you're in-play shouldn't be a problem. The initial cost of the nanohive is a little tougher, so it's best left to chargen resources. You'll be buying neocortical and limbic. If you're looking to save money, go with meat eyes and a pair of glasses.
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Out of curiosity, which chargen method was used here? I don't have Hero Lab, so I don't know what's been recently added.
Without knowing the method, it's hard for me to say exactly how to better spend resources, but some generic decker advice.
1. I think you're undervaluing Intuition for a decker. My default is generally Int 6, Log 5(7). Chrome Flesh may change this, but I'd look for points from elsewhere to at least get it to a 5.
2. Your taser needs a smartlink.
3. Cracking is where you want your specializations to be. Do you need to have the entire group at 6? If you can shed some EWar to pick up the skills separately and add the Hosts and whatever specialization of Cybercombat you think would be best (it really comes down to how GMs run things, but IC is probably the best choice).
4. Speaking of potential things to buy, get a Rating 2 hard nanohive. You can't get the nanites for it yet (Availabilty 16), but they're cheap so buying extra dice once you're in-play shouldn't be a problem. The initial cost of the nanohive is a little tougher, so it's best left to chargen resources. You'll be buying neocortical and limbic. If you're looking to save money, go with meat eyes and a pair of glasses.
I used the Karma Generation for it (the reason behind my response to falar).
1) Unfortunately, I'd have to give up quite a bit to get Intuition up to that point.
2) It has one, that's how he has the mediocre 11 dice he has with it. I just can't bring myself to drop the weapon skill completely...
3) === Edit: See alteration further down ===
4) I don't have the data file to use any of that stuff unlocked on my copy. I have the cyber eyes and ears to go with that Electronic Witness quality.
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Hmmm
It looks a little short to me, cash wise.
Perhaps a cyberarm could be helpful?
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A bit of tweaking here.
Anomalous
Meta-type: Human
Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 3
Strength 2
Willpower 5
Logic 5(7)
Intuition 5
Charisma 3
Edge 4
Essence 5.0
Condition Monitor (P/S): 10 / 11
Armor: 9
Limits: Physical 4, Mental 8, Social 6
Physical Initiative: 8+1D6
Matrix Initiative: 10+3D6
Active Skills: Computer (Matrix Perception +2) 6, Cybercombat (vs. IC +2) 5, Electronic Warfare 3, Etiquette 1, Gymnastics 2, Hacking (vs. Hosts +2) 6, Hardware 3 (Cyberdecks +2), Perception 4, Pistols (Tasers +2) 3, Sneaking 4, Software (Data Bombs +2) 5
Knowledge Skills: Data Havens 4, Law 3, Matrix Architecture 3, Matrix Games 3, Shadow Community 2
Languages: English N, Salish 5
Qualities: Codeslinger: Hack on the Fly, Data Anomaly, Day Job (5,000¥/month, 40 hrs/week), Electronic Witness, Prime Datahaven Membership (JackPoint), SINner (National SIN): UCAS, Trust Fund (Middle & 500¥/month)
Augmentations:
Cerebral Booster (2)
Cyberears (1) w/ Audio Enhancement (3), Damper, Sound Link
Cybereyes (2) w/ Image Link, Low-Light Vision, Smartlink, Vision Enhancement (3)
Datajack
Gear:
FTL Quark w/ Diagnostics, Mapsoft: ????, Mapsoft: Seattle Metroplex, Receiver, Ticker: Law Enforcement Patrols
Lined Coat
Renraku Tsurugi w/ Baby Monitor, Encryption, Exploit, Shell, Sim Module, Modified for Hot Sim, Stealth, Virtual Machine
Tyrone Gibbs w/ Fake License: Electronics (4), Fake SIN (4), (3 months) Low Lifestyle
Weapons:
Yamaha Pulsar [Taser, Acc 7, DV 7S(e), AP -5, SA, 4 (m)] w/ Smartgun System, Internal, (40x) Taser Dart
Contacts:
Blackheart (Connection 4, Loyalty 3)
JackPoint (Connection 5, Loyalty 3)
Mackie (Connection 2, Loyalty 3)
Starting ¥: 605 + (4D6 × 100)¥
Edit: Another tweak, reducing Pistols to 3 and adding Cyberdecks specialization to Hardware (figured that 11 dice and 10 dice isn't much difference in capability).
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I like this version much more. It's competent at its role out of the gate and has some obvious avenues of advancement once you're in play.
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Trying to figure out now if I should leave the Electronic Witness or if that's something 'good in theory, but suicidal in practice'.
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I'm assuming (and really, that all it is--no inside track) that EWar will get some love in Rigger 5.
Unfortunately, I can't read.
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I'm assuming (and really, that all it is--no inside track) that EWar will get some love in Rigger 5.
??? Huh? I was talking about the Electronic Witness quality, and you go back to the Electronic Warfare skill?
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Trying to figure out now if I should leave the Electronic Witness or if that's something 'good in theory, but suicidal in practice'.
It's fine. I think it says a lot about a character and, as long as you don't combine it with Day Job, you're totally fine. Even if you do, you're probably mostly fine because you're not an idiot.
I'm considering a character who spends most of his time in the CZ and has Electronic Witness and Day Job level 1 that basically sells slice of life stuff to some subscribers. He has a fake David Attenborough voiceover with it.
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I blame my lack of coffee.
Personally, I think Electronic Witness is suicidal but I figured it was central to the concept. If it's just there to generate points, I'd swap it for something else, which would allow you to save some nuyen as well.
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I'll be honest, I took both it and Day Job after reading the quality and seeing that it would count toward the Day Job's workload.
Kinda wondering if it would be cheese to put the pixelation used in modern day to censor nudity on television over teammates' faces if recordings the team were in were among those sold to cover their identities. Personally, I do feel it would be the genius level intellect that a 5 (7) Logic represents, but I'm just trying to figure out if it were cheesing the quality.
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I would doubt you'd have to sell all of your recordings to meet the requirements of your Day Job. If anything, you'd record everything and sell Day Job's number of hours in footage a week. For my character who lives in the CZ, just having live footage of what's going on in the CZ from day to day would be pretty valuable, even if it's not happening during a run.
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Hmm...there's a thought. Selling the recordings made during daylight hours and keeping recorded runs in a personal archive--never know when you'll need blackmail material to use on someone.
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Non-rhetorical question: why do you think fighting IC is worth spending a specialty on? Why do you think fighting IC is ever worth it?
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Kincaid made a good point about it probably being the best choice of specialty for that skill, and I agreed since it does seem that it would help take the things down quicker.
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I still don't get why. I've always seen fighting IC as a waste of time, since destroying one doesn't actually do anything - a new iteration will just get activated. If you get caught, run and try again.
I like Cybercombat specced vs Devices, it gives you more dice to brick a gun or whatnot. Just personal preference.
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Well, the reason I think it's a good idea is to be well-prepared for that flubbed roll to get in without being noticed since the IC will still be there waiting in ambush when you try to get back in. Set up to get in quietly, but be ready to blast the system security when needed.
As to the device specialization, I disagree with the entirety of it being possible to assault someone's implants or weapons in meat combat. Deckers are hackers, not meat combatants. For this reason, on top of the fact that I don't want those shenanigans used on my characters, I pretend the possibility doesn't exist.
What little Pistols skill I have is what is there for those occasions when I need to engage in combat.
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The reason I generally go for IC is because its stats key off of Host Rating, which is generally pretty high. A spider's stats are roughly comparable to the decker's (probably a little lower) and device stats (say, Willpower + Firewall rolls) are typically pretty low. If you're bricking guns, you've probably had a few pre-combat rounds to mark things, making your shots essentially auto-kills. If you didn't get the pre-combat prep time, you probably have better things to do than brick guns. While IC can respawn, it doesn't happen instantly. Given how fast a decker moves in hot-sim, this can mean the difference of a few IPs to crack and copy a file.
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You probably already know this, but I'll just say it anyways. If you're using Points Buy and buying all the skills in a group, definitely buy the group up instead of individually. So your 3, 5, and 6 would cost 84 Karma individually, or 78 Karma if you bought the group up to 3, then broke it from there. You probably already did this, but wanted to mention it just in case. That'd give you an extra 12 Karma to mess around with. Another option if you didn't do it this way would be to buy the groups to 4 and still save 4 Karma total left over.
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I did do that at first, but I switched away from it for the specializations Kincaid brought up, and because some of the skills that are in groups ended up with differing ratings.
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I did do that at first, but I switched away from it for the specializations Kincaid brought up, and because some of the skills that are in groups ended up with differing ratings.
You still get to buy the specializations and the different ratings. You just save Karma getting the whole group to the lowest rating of the three, then you buy the others individually from there.
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You still get to buy the specializations and the different ratings. You just save Karma getting the whole group to the lowest rating of the three, then you buy the others individually from there.
Building with Hero Lab, I had to choose between the specializations and buying the groups because the builder doesn't appear to support buying a group and then breaking it later during generation. I ended up choosing the former.
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So then just count yourself as having 12 more Karma to spend, or get Electronic Warfare and Hardware to 4 and have 4 left over. Just because a program doesn't support it, doesn't mean it's not supported and the way the rules work.
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Yeah, it's fair to say that in-combat hacking isn't viable due to the mark requirements to do anything truly useful. In my game the decker has just had fun ejecting clips right as an ambush starts, or to make a point in a confrontation.
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Now ejecting clips is something I can get behind. Technically only a mild nuisance, but it isn't something that strays into the realm of doing something you don't want done to you, and it's kinda funny.
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Garbage in/Garbage out - remap trigger pull to "safety on". No shooting for you.
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Garbage in/Garbage out - remap trigger pull to "safety on". No shooting for you.
Exactly. One of the ideas behind GIGO was to give deckers a way of locking a gun that can't be solved by spending a Simple Action to reload.
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Can't claim credit for the trigger pull = safety idea, but danged if I can recall who posted it and where. The other fun thing to do is add you and your team to their Advanced Safety System. Good clean fun that.