Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Ravensong on <01-13-16/1908:18>
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Code Name: Lola
Race: Pantherine Shapeshifter - Nocturna
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Up until recently, Lola was a prized corporate espionage agent for a branch executive of EVO Corp. She has been raised, from a cub, to be an ideal, and most loyal servant. Her talents were discovered early on, and harnessed in every way to produce a true social predator in the grand battle between AAA's. Her so called master took possession of Lola when his predecessor was suddenly, and quite violently, extracted by a rival corporation. While not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, Lola none the less possesses a primordal cunning, and truly stunning proportions. Her exotic beauty has the tendency of making her stand out in a crowd, a dark, luxurious fur covered female elf. She uses what ever tools at her disposal to assist her rising to ever greater heights of power and freedom. After 23 years, Lola is ready to strike out on her own, and explore the world beyond the confines of EVO's gilded cage.
[Still working on the back story on how/why Lola runs the shadows.]
Attributes: Panther | Nocturna
Body 5 | 4
Agility 7 | 8
Reaction 5 | 4
Strength 3 | 4
Will 3 | 4
Logic 2 | 2
Intuition 5 | 3
Charisma 7 | 6
Edge 4 | 4
Positive Qualities:
Agile Defender
Friends in high places
Trust fund
Revels in Murder
Negative Qualities:
SINner (Corp Limited - EVO)
Distinct style
Prejudiced: (Biased - Wage Slaves)
a stats
b race - Panthera (3 points)
c skills
d resources
e mundane
Not sure of the skills yet.
Definitely want to be solid in:
Active Skills:
Stealth
Con (Seduction)
Unarmed (Bite)
Gymnastics
Palming
Automatics/Pistols
Knowledge Skills:
Corporate Culture
Toxicology (Non lethal)
Karma Sutra
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Seems pretty solid. I like how she is more charismatic as a panther than in elf form.
If she is AWOL, can she still collect the trust fund on her Corporate SIN?
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Cheers. One of her friends in high places set it up. But good point. May want to clean that up. Although...
Gives me the idea that perhaps Lola still works for EVO... Will check with GM, he tends to enjoy twists like this.
I love this game.
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Karma Sutra
Is there an in-joke here? It's usually 'Kama Sutra'.
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Yes, our GM is ruthless about players abusing all tease and no tickle on NPC's.
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Don't you automatically have a MAG rating as a shapeshifter? I forget how that works.
I would maybe try to be an adept because shifters can't really do ware, so ally our stat boosting stuff will need to be magic or drugs. I like the build overall but you could definitely benefit from some stat boosting stuff especially initiative.
If you're actively working with and good standing with EVO I wouldn't consider that a negative. Why are you running if you have such a sweet setup?
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Ah. Shapeshifters do start with a magic rating, though I forget if that matters so much when doing priority character generation vs. karma buy. Whiskey's right - Magic/Resources/skills are you lowest priorities, so it's going to be tough to get boosted pools where you want them, even if you Edge them. I did just check - I think Panthers at B priority only get 2 special points not 3.
How about an priority, though I'm not 100% about it:
A Attributes
B Adept (Magic 6, 4 skills)
C Meta (no points)
D Skills
E: Resources
This will start you off with less Edge/Resources, though those are easier to raise in game, but give you a lot of adept powers points to work with. While Skills D is my least favorite priority allocation, with adept B you are getting 26 skill points vs the 28 and 2 group at priority C.
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Mets C is painful here and probably why people often say shifters are borked.
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Meta/Magic can switch for increased edge. Also, they probably should switch because checking again, Shifter Magic rating is capped at 5.
I would allow shifters to add magic rating to their initial rating: so a B/C Meta/Adept would have and Edge of 3 and Magic of 5.
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Oh that's fair!
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I gotta say, there are things that I like about Priority (fairly intuitive, straightforward, simple) and then there are things that I hate about Priority. The biggest thing that I hate about priority is how it ranks "being something other than a human/elf" as as big of a jump in power as getting 4 more attribute points or tens to hundreds of thousands more in nuyen.
The differentiation between human, elf, dwarf, troll, ork, shifter, SURGEling is not as stark as Priority would have you believe. Heck, I don't think it's even as stark as KarmaGen would have you believe. If anything, if human is free, dwarf should be +10 karma (not +50), ork should be (+10), elf should be +20 and Troll should be +30. That's about as big of a swing as I actually think there is. Centaurs would then be like 25, Cyclops would be 35, shapeshifters would be from 35 to 60ish.
SURGElings ... are weird. All classes should be player choice. Random rolling is not really the Shadowrun way. Class I, II, III should all be about how powerful they are. I would probably go with Class I costs 5 karma and you get a perfect balance (+/- 1 karma). Class II costs 10 karma, and you get a +5 karma balance (+/- 1). Class III costs 15 karma and you get a +10 karma balance (+/-1). All require at least one negative SURGE quality.
* All number subject to intense playtesting and character creation burns.
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shapeshifters would be from 35 to 60ish.
Unless they're adding regen back to shifters they're pretty much a break even prospect. Uneducated is brutal, Magic cap of 5 is rough for someone that can't have bioware/cyberware. Mechanically a shifter is a human with a lower Edge, Magic, Uneducated, a couple enhanced senses and the ability to cast a single spell (shapechange) without drain, and have very conditional access to bioware/cyberware.
Seriously, build a regular adept. Then tack on "Shifter" for free. Tell me it was an improvement. Just sayin'.
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Honestly, I was just going from the costs in charGen. I'm not really experienced in making characters outside of the basic five metatypes. I am most likely wrong. :)
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Shapeshifter table is off one column. The 4 and 5 rating caps are for Edge (although the writeup says all of them top at 4) and the 1 that all of them have is for starting Magic if not Awakened. I'm pretty sure it can go to 6+ Initiate Grade.
As an aside, I don't think there are separate mental attributes either. Only mentions you do the Physical ones separate (by building it off the shifter side, use that many points for the metahuman, and track separately after play).
As to augmentations... It was mentioned by Patrick (HMHVV guru) that because they had it in previous editions, Infected could still get augmentations. Going with this logic, in previous editions it said shifters could accept delta (because Regeneration) but they were suppressed in animal form. I would assume that if shifters are no longer the werecreatures (no silver Allergy, no Regeneration, just magical animals) of legend, that rule would extend to all implants.
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+1 to PJ for the clarification. That makes that table make more sense.
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I've seen Magic/Edge max ruled either way. It needs to be corrected and re-printed in a bad way.
I'm away from books but I'm 99% sure the mental stats change between animal and meta human form just like the physical ones do. They certainly have different numbers in the stat line. Otherwise you could exceed the racial max or go below a racial min for the Metahuman form. Not that going outside of racial mins and maxes would be particularly broken, but its unlikely intended.
tl;dr mental stats change too.
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in previous editions it said shifters could accept delta (because Regeneration) but they were suppressed in animal form.
Other way around.
Most enhancement technologies available to metahumans are also available to animals at similar Essence and nuyen costs.
In practice, this means that shapeshifters can only accept deltaware implants, and only in their natural animal forms.
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Build outline looks reasonable to me though I haven't done the math, and there are no skill values obviously.
Did you choose Evo for some particular reason?
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Does Evo issue SINs to shifters? They seem like they might.
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Oh! This would be a great character for Prototype Transhuman. No issue with the shifter side because the ware is your DNA!
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Does Evo issue SINs to shifters? They seem like they might.
I was trying to figure this out earlier, and couldn't find anything that says they do.
The NAN states, Amazonia, Azania, and Aztlan recognize shapeshifter sapience and issue them SINs when they come in from the wild.
Oh! This would be a great character for Prototype Transhuman. No issue with the shifter side because the ware is your DNA!
"Modified before birth", imo, isn't the same as saying it's part of you. Non-delta is still non-delta.
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"Modified before birth", imo, isn't the same as saying it's part of you. Non-delta is still non-delta.
Heartily disagree.
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You're welcome to believe whatever. Fact is, for a shapeshifter runner in 2075, you're talking about experimental prototype genecrafting techniques from the 50s or 60s (at least) - imperfect techniques on a poorly understood subject to create untested augmentations. That's enough for me to say that it's not perfect fluff side.
Then on the mechanics side you have shift's delta requirement versus the standard or alpha prototype reality.
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Does Evo issue SINs to shifters? They seem like they might.
I was trying to figure this out earlier, and couldn't find anything that says they do.
The NAN states, Amazonia, Azania, and Aztlan recognize shapeshifter sapience and issue them SINs when they come in from the wild.
Evo has a Freespirt on the board of directors. Strongly implies they grant SINs to non-metahumans, at least sometimes.
Oh! This would be a great character for Prototype Transhuman. No issue with the shifter side because the ware is your DNA!
"Modified before birth", imo, isn't the same as saying it's part of you. Non-delta is still non-delta.
Rule of cool. And its not like a shifter is ever going to be OP without a lot of houseruling. I'd let it fly, but I'm pretty biased.
http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=21252.msg382167#msg382167