Shadowrun

Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: eMel on <06-20-11/0336:54>

Title: Human Street Samurai
Post by: eMel on <06-20-11/0336:54>

Howdy!

Here is my first character having recently purchased the SR4A core rule book. For simplicity, I used the sample Street Samurai listed and moved points around as I learned how points may be distributed. So my vision is of a migrant shadowrunner from England to the Seattle area with a strong abiding by the rules of Bushido to guide her through the underworld. Since not every contract is going to be wetwork, she has the facilities for courier work for that data which must be delivered in the physical world. Here is her stats for perusal and I look forward to any critique!

Name: Alexandra
Alias: Cleo
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Nationality: British
Lifestyle: Low
Karma Spent: 0
Physical Description: XXXXX
Personality/background XXXXX

Attributes

Body	Agility	Reaction	Strength
5	4	3	3
Charisma	Intuition	Logic	Willpower
4	3	3	3
Edge	Magic/Resonance	Essence	Initiative
2	N/A	6	3.4

Positive Qualities
Blandness
Erased (10-point version)
Negative Qualities
Weak Immune System
Incompetent (Thrown Weapons)
Addiction (Mild, Stimulants)
Allergy (Mild, Silver)

Active Skills

Skill	Rating
Athletic Skill Group	3
Automatics	5
Blades	4
First Aid	1
Infiltration	4
Longarms	3
Negotiations	2
Pilot Ground Craft - Wheeled	1
Pistols	4
Unarmed Combat	5

Knowledge Skills ( [Logic + Intuition] x 3 free points)

Seattle Street Gangs	2
Literature - Japanese +2	1
Zen Meditation	2
Japanese Culture - Bushido +2	2
Art - Japanese Calligraphy +2	1

Language Skills

English - Cityspeak +2	N
Japanese	4
Or'zet	1

Cyber/Bioware

Cyberware

Essence

Cost

Notes

/tr]

Commlink w/Sim Module	0.2	2,300¥	-
Data Jack	0.1	500¥	-
Data Lock	0.1	1,600¥	Encryption Rating: 6
Cybereyes Basic System	0.3	750¥	-
-Eye Recording Unit	0.1	2,300¥	-
Smartgunlink	0.1	2,300¥	-
Vision Magnification	0.1	2,300¥	-
-Flare Compensation	0.1	750¥	-
Bone Lacing	1.5	40,000¥	Titanium

Gear (11,285¥)

Armor Clothing	500¥
Full Body Armor	6,000¥
-Helmet	1,000¥
--Low-Light Vision	100¥
--Thermographic	100¥
--Nonconductivity	1,200¥
--Shock Frills	200¥
-Thermal Damping	3,000¥
Backpack	?¥
-Medikit	600¥
-Survival Kit	100¥
-Gas Mask	200¥
-GPS	200¥
-Thermite Burning Bar	500¥
Miniwelder	250¥
2xConcealble Holsters	150¥
Sidearms - 10 Gel Rounds	30¥
Sidearms - 30 Regular Rounds	60¥
SMG - 30 Ex-Explosive Rounds	300¥
SMG - 90 Regular Rounds	180¥
SMG - 30 Tracer Rounds	225¥
Sniper Rifle - 20 APDS Rounds	140¥
Sniper Rifle - 20 Ex-Explosive Rounds	200¥
Defiance EX Shocker	150¥
2xHammerli 620 S	1,300¥
Walter MA-2100	5,000¥
Katana	1,000¥
Survival Knife	50¥
Ingram Smartgun X	650¥

Vehicles
Toyota Gopher

Handling	Accel	Speed	Pilot	Body	Armor	Sensor	Availability	Cost
0	5/20	100	1	14	8	1	?	35,000¥

Contacts Contact C/L Fixer 3/3 Street Doc 2/3 Fake IDs and SuchRating Fake SIN 6 Fake Concealed Carry License 6 Build Point totals:  400

Leftover Nuyen: 3,015¥

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: anotherJack on <06-20-11/0415:28>

Yay ! a streetsam first character with decent mental attributes ! \o/
Some points :
- No real initiative boost, and 1 IP. You must correct this. At least 2 IPs (without drugs), or you won't live.
- In fight, you'll need upper dice pools, so either take specailisations or boost your attributes (agility).
- I don't think you can aford the titanium bone lacing while character's creation. Or I should have for my Ork destroyer. But I took aluminium, so I think it's the higher lvl available.
- Fake SINs should help your character not be under arrest at the first step into street.
- You'll need a commlink too, and a Lifestyle ; low is the minimum for this kind of character, or it would mean she'd rather buy ammos and chrome than feed and wash herself.

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: eMel on <06-20-11/0548:45>

Quote from: anotherJack on <06-20-11/0415:28>

Yay ! a streetsam first character with decent mental attributes ! \o/
Some points :
- No real initiative boost, and 1 IP. You must correct this. At least 2 IPs (without drugs), or you won't live.
- In fight, you'll need upper dice pools, so either take specailisations or boost your attributes (agility).
- I don't think you can aford the titanium bone lacing while character's creation. Or I should have for my Ork destroyer. But I took aluminium, so I think it's the higher lvl available.
- Fake SINs should help your character not be under arrest at the first step into street.
- You'll need a commlink too, and a Lifestyle ; low is the minimum for this kind of character, or it would mean she'd rather buy ammos and chrome than feed and wash herself.

Rubbish! I knew there were things I had forgotten!

I had actually had her Intuition and Logic both at 4 when I discovered the penalties for having armor levels exceeding Body, so I leeched a few points from those, figuring 3 each would suffice.

I was, and still am, iffy as to the Bone Lace. I really would have liked to have taken the Wired Reflexes at Rating 2. While Bone Lace would be awesome for supplementing her Unarmed, I'm starting to lean more towards the ability to shoot first.

I have the Commlink as an implant under the Cyberware. I took the minimum link and OS, seeing it as little more than a super nice smartphone... in her head.

I'll go ahead and add the licenses to the sheet as well as add the little bit of Nuyen that is left over.

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: snowcrash on <06-20-11/0554:24>

You'll definately need the extra IPs so fork out for some Wired Reflexes, also you have loads of rounds but no clips to put them in, bear in mind you'll need to match the clips to the weapons, so your character sheet could get a little crowded :).
I notice that your only means of non-lethal takedown is a clip of gel rounds. Get yourself some stick-n-shock and maybe a taser (or shock-glove, which might be better).
As has already been mentioned, load up on a commlink (make sure your firewall is decent, you don't want someone hacking your eyes / smartlink), some R4 SINs and licenses to go with them.
I think that having the two pistols is a little pointless without the ambidexterity quality (or you'll be on crazy penalties for using both).
I've not got the book on hand but you might want to check the availability rating of your armour and the ADPS rounds 12 is the max you can use at character creation. Also investing a point or two in Dodge might be an idea, your Edge is a bit low as well.
Looking at the armour (again not got the book on me so definately check this one) but I think you can only take 2x strength in either Impact or Ballistic armour before you start accumulating encumberance penalties.

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: eMel on <06-20-11/0606:39>

Quote from: snowcrash on <06-20-11/0554:24>

You'll definately need the extra IPs so fork out for some Wired Reflexes, also you have loads of rounds but no clips to put them in, bear in mind you'll need to match the clips to the weapons, so your character sheet could get a little crowded :).
I notice that your only means of non-lethal takedown is a clip of gel rounds. Get yourself some stick-n-shock and maybe a taser (or shock-glove, which might be better).
As has already been mentioned, load up on a commlink (make sure your firewall is decent, you don't want someone hacking your eyes / smartlink), some R4 SINs and licenses to go with them.
I think that having the two pistols is a little pointless without the ambidexterity quality (or you'll be on crazy penalties for using both).
I've not got the book on hand but you might want to check the availability rating of your armour and the ADPS rounds 12 is the max you can use at character creation. Also investing a point or two in Dodge might be an idea, your Edge is a bit low as well.
Looking at the armour (again not got the book on me so definately check this one) but I think you can only take 2x strength in either Impact or Ballistic armour before you start accumulating encumberance penalties.

Rubbish! More things I had overlooked... magazines! lol

There is a taser in that jumbled mess of weaponry: the Defiance EX Shocker. Interestingly enough, it was the first weapon I selected for her, imagining that not every situation calls for blood on the walls... or the floor... or the ceiling... I was going to load up on gel rounds for her SMG, but figured if things went that far, pulling the SMG out would definitely make for a situation gel rounds would not calm.

As for her two pistols, I actually intended for one to be a backup, with the primary being in a shoulder rig while the other would be small oft the back. I looked at the backup pistols, but figured something a lil more weighty would be called for.

And you are correct on the armor. The Full Body Armor is meant to be hidden away and reserved for mission running while her Armor Clothing and Lined Coat is for street wear. Even then, I did find it necessary to adjust her stats to eliminate the penalty from bother the Armor Clothing and Lined Coat.

And you are absolutely correct as to the availability rating for beginning characters. I completely overlooked that fine point. Thank you very very much for pointing that out!

Thank you to you, Snowcrash, and anotherJack, for looking my sheet over and pinpointing areas for improvement. I will get right on those issues!

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: baronspam on <06-20-11/0928:42>

Although several other people said it already, I will throw in my vote for some wired reflexes.  the extra init. passes are really what seperates the men from the boys in this game.  For a tanky, hard hitting sort of character you still want at least level one and if your concept is the fast cyberninja sort of guy level 2 is better.  Level two is quite expensive in both cash and essence, however, so plan carefully, but the extra pass(es) are invaluable.  It lets you take more full defence actions and still get your attacks in.

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: JoeNapalm on <06-20-11/1052:43>

You can do Titanium Bone Lacing with the Restricted Gear Quality. Bone Density bioware works in a similar fashion...it is legal, but quite expensive.

I did something similar with my Street Merc (would NOT get along with your Street Samurai - Mercenary Creedo vs Bushido) and decided, as much as it pained me, to drop my melee weapons skill. With Titanium Bone Lace, your Unarmed attacks are like hitting someone with a sword, almost.

If you are going to keep both, consider the Close Combat Skill Group, or if you're sticking with Blades and Melee consider Specializing...Martial Arts is effectively a +2 for 2BP, and fairly unrestrictive (what are you going to do in H2H that ISN'T arguably covered by Martial Arts?).

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: baronspam on <06-20-11/1301:59>

Quote from: JoeNapalm on <06-20-11/1052:43>

 I did something similar with my Street Merc (would NOT get along with your Street Samurai - Mercenary Creedo vs Bushido) and decided, as much as it pained me, to drop my melee weapons skill. With Titanium Bone Lace, your Unarmed attacks are like hitting someone with a sword, almost.

 -Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

I agree.  A bone lace character (was looking at one the other day that was going with ceramic from the Augmentation book) does physical instead of stun with unarmed attacks and the higher end ones get competive with weapons.  Ceramic isn't quite as good as a katana or combat axe, but I decided that I could live with one lower base DV and have the extra skill points to spend elsewhere.  If I really, really wanted to max out close combat damage I would have kept the blade, but the character was more of a generalist, he was almost as good with an SMG as he was with his fists and had a variety of secondary skills as well, so he wasn't really trying to be a vat grown twitch job in the first place. 

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: anotherJack on <06-20-11/1315:00>

Quote from: baronspam on <06-20-11/1301:59>

I agree.  A bone lace character (was looking at one the other day that was going with ceramic from the Augmentation book) does physical instead of stun with unarmed attacks and the higher end ones get competive with weapons.  Ceramic isn't quite as good as a katana or combat axe, but I decided that I could live with one lower base DV and have the extra skill points to spend elsewhere.

Actually, according to RAW, I'm not sure you can make much as much damages so easily with a sword than with bare fist and the good options ; a martial art well chosen, it's +2DV, bone lacing goes up to +3 DV, critical strike is only caped to your magic attribute, so…

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: Operator on <06-20-11/1614:47>

In addition to shock frills, you may wish to invest in shock gloves for those situations where you can't be wearing obvious armor.  At 200 nuyen, they're practically a steal.

First Aid's healing is limited by your skill rank in RAW, so rather than spend BP on it you might want to acquire the skill with Karma later.

Have a look at my take on a street sam (http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=3431.0) for some other skill/equipment ideas. No one has commented on it yet, so I would assume it's fine. ;)

EDIT: Same guy, running on Karma generation (http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=3584.msg44258#msg44258).

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: eshoup1 on <06-20-11/1623:55>

How attached are you to the rating 5 in automatics? Or rather how attached are you to the long arm skill? You have taken all three weapon groups of the firearms skill group. A 5 in automatics costs 20 BP, a 4 in pistols costs 16, and a 3 in long arms costs 12 for a total of 48 BP. A rating 4 in the firearms group costs only 40 BP. So you could lower your automatics by 1 and raise your long arms by 1 to gain 8 BP back. If you are looking to do a little min/maxing think about either dropping your long arms and add a specialization for your automatics. If you are looking to be very well rounded with all firearms, consider just grabbing the skill group.

Now, if you wanted to really drop the hammer... consider switching out the long arms skill for heavy weapons, decrease your skill in heavy weapons from 3 to 2. Use the extra 4 BP to gain a specialization in heavy weapons (grenade launchers) and a specialization in Automatics (assault rifles), find some cash to grab an Ares Alpha and go to town.  Be sure to purchase some CS/Tear gas greandes or Nausea gas grenades when you need to clear a room but don't want to kill everyone. And you can always carry some HE grenades as your long range lock-picking tool. Oh, and be sure to get a respirator so you don't gas yourself.

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: eMel on <06-22-11/1523:16>

Quote from: Operator on <06-20-11/1614:47>

In addition to shock frills, you may wish to invest in shock gloves for those situations where you can't be wearing obvious armor.  At 200 nuyen, they're practically a steal.

First Aid's healing is limited by your skill rank in RAW, so rather than spend BP on it you might want to acquire the skill with Karma later.

Have a look at my take on a street sam (http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=3431.0) for some other skill/equipment ideas. No one has commented on it yet, so I would assume it's fine. ;)

EDIT: Same guy, running on Karma generation (http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=3584.msg44258#msg44258).

I indeed decided to invest in shockgloves as you suggested on my revised sheet, which will be posted in a few days. That will go excellently with the Unarmed skill.

I'm actually planning on buffing her First Aid skill with some surplus BPs I found when I audited her Knowledge Skills.

Thanks for the feedback!

Quote from: eshoup1 on <06-20-11/1623:55>

How attached are you to the rating 5 in automatics? Or rather how attached are you to the long arm skill? You have taken all three weapon groups of the firearms skill group. A 5 in automatics costs 20 BP, a 4 in pistols costs 16, and a 3 in long arms costs 12 for a total of 48 BP. A rating 4 in the firearms group costs only 40 BP. So you could lower your automatics by 1 and raise your long arms by 1 to gain 8 BP back. If you are looking to do a little min/maxing think about either dropping your long arms and add a specialization for your automatics. If you are looking to be very well rounded with all firearms, consider just grabbing the skill group.

Now, if you wanted to really drop the hammer... consider switching out the long arms skill for heavy weapons, decrease your skill in heavy weapons from 3 to 2. Use the extra 4 BP to gain a specialization in heavy weapons (grenade launchers) and a specialization in Automatics (assault rifles), find some cash to grab an Ares Alpha and go to town.  Be sure to purchase some CS/Tear gas greandes or Nausea gas grenades when you need to clear a room but don't want to kill everyone. And you can always carry some HE grenades as your long range lock-picking tool. Oh, and be sure to get a respirator so you don't gas yourself.

That is most excellent advice! I went ahead and took the Firearms Skill Group and invested the 8 BPs into the Heavy Weapons Skill. While 2 points isn't a lot, the wicked buff I'm giving to her Agility will more than make up for it as a starting PC. :)

Thank you for pointing that out!

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: eshoup1 on <06-23-11/1616:52>

I am glad I can help.

Just remember that heavy weapons are by nature a little on the indirect fire side of the equation. And with a semi-automatic grenade launcher you don't need much accuracy. 2 HE grenades per round will put out a lot of hurt in a fairly large area. And on the non-leathal side of things... tear gas greandes cover a good sized area. Again, putting off two per turn can gas a lot of baddies.

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: eMel on <06-26-11/0258:53>

Alright, here is my newly revised sheet, having gone over the advice given by various posters. I decided Muscle Toner would be the best fit having seen the Essence cost of Wired Reflexes. One may also note that I took the Spirit Affinity quality. I basically saw that as a sort of role-playing opportunity. The monocle was one item I really liked, seeing as it is far more convenient to tote around than a pair of goggles or even contact lenses.


Name: Alexandra
Alias: Cleo
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Nationality: British
Lifestyle: Low (5,000¥)
Karma Spent: 0
Physical Description: XXXXX
Personality/background XXXXX

Attributes

Body	Agility	Reaction	Strength
5	4(6)	3	3
Charisma	Intuition	Logic	Willpower
4	3	3	3
Edge	Magic/Resonance	Essence	Initiative
2	N/A	6	6 - 1.5 = 4.5

Positive Qualities
Blandness
Erased (10-point version)
Ambidexterous
Spirit Affinity
Negative Qualities
Weak Immune System
Incompetent (Thrown Weapons)
Addiction (Mild, Stimulants)
Allergy (Mild, Silver)

Active Skills

Skill	Rating
Athletic Skill Group	3
Fire Arms Skill Group	4
Blades	4
First Aid	3
Heavy Weapons	2
Infiltration	4
Negotiations	2
Pilot Ground Craft - Wheeled	1
Unarmed Combat	5

Knowledge Skills ( [Logic + Intuition] x 3 free points) = 18 Points

Seattle Street Gangs	2
Literature - Japanese +2	1
Zen Meditation	2
Japanese Culture - Bushido +2	2
Art - Japanese Calligraphy +2	2

Language Skills

English	N
Japanese	4
Or'zet	1

Cyber/Bioware

Cyberware	Essence	Cost	Notes
Commlink w/Sim Module	0.2	2,300¥	-
Data Jack	0.1	500¥	-
Data Lock	0.1	1,600¥	Encryption Rating: 6
Cybereyes Basic System	0.3	750¥	-
-Eye Recording Unit	0.1	2,300¥	-
Smartgunlink	0.1	2,300¥	-
Vision Magnification	0.1	2,300¥	-
-Flare Compensation	0.1	750¥	-
-Image Link	0.1	-	-
Wired Reflexes	3	32,000¥	-

Gear (18,930¥)

Armor Clothing	500¥
Lined Coat	700¥
Monocle	100¥
-Lowlight	100¥
-Thermographic	100¥
-Ultrasound	1,000¥
Backpack	?¥
-Medikit	600¥
-Survival Kit	100¥
-Gas Mask	200¥
-GPS	200¥
-Thermite Burning Bar	500¥
Miniwelder	250¥
2xConcealble Holsters	150¥
Certified Cred Stick	25¥
Sidearms - 10 Gel Rounds	30¥
Sidearms - 30 Regular Rounds	60¥
SMG - 30 Ex-Explosive Rounds	300¥
SMG - 90 Regular Rounds	180¥
SMG - 30 Tracer Rounds	225¥
GL -  12 CS/Teargas Rounds	480¥
Sniper Rifle - 20 Ex-Explosive Rounds	200¥
Defiance EX Shocker	150¥
2xHammerli 620 S	1,300¥
Walter MA-2100	5,000¥
Katana	1,000¥
Survival Knife	50¥
Ingram Smartgun X	650¥
ArmTech MGL-12	2,000¥

Vehicles
Mercury Comet

Handling	Accel	Speed	Pilot	Body	Armor	Sensor	Availability	Cost
0	15/30	110	2	10	6	1	-	14,000¥

Contacts Contact C/L Fixer 3/3 Street Doc 2/3 IDs and Such Rating       Cost      Fake SIN 6 6,000¥ Fake Concealed Carry License 6 600¥ Fake Drivers License 6 600¥ Fake Passport 6 600¥ Fake Green Card 6 600¥ Build Point totals:  400 = (Attributes (200)) + (Skills (156)) + (Contacts (11)) + (Nuyen for Gear (18)) + (Extra Qualities((15)) Remaining Nuyen: 6,445¥

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: eshoup1 on <06-26-11/0906:23>

Very nice character sheet.

I understand that wired reflexes eat up a lot of cash and essence... but they are so worth it. Right now, you only have a single full auto blast per round. Any bad guys with initiative enhancers will have 2 or even 3 full auto blasts. In addition, the extra initiative pass can allow you to go full defense to start a fight and then still shoot once the baddies have used all of their passes. If you do not want wired reflexes and you don't mind walking on the dark side, consider grabbing an auto-injector cyberware mod and loading it up with Jazz or Kamikaze. Both of these street drugs provide an extra initiative pass. But you will have to deal with crashing after the drug wears off and you must walk a fine line with addiction. But it provides a cheap way to add an extra initiative pass. In addition, the wired reflexes up your initiative helping you act before the bad guys act. The best fight is the one you win before the baddies can act.

One other thing, I don't think you need to spendyour free knowledge skill points on a specialization for your native language. I didn't crunch the numbers to see if you spent any points. But I do not think you need to.

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: Operator on <06-26-11/1402:03>

Nearly all incidents of language tests are called in situations where a character is either trying to communicate in or understand a non-native language. Specializing in one's native language is unnecessary. While we're in knowledge/language skills, you have spent 16 of your 18 freebie points after throwing out the native language specialization.

Track Essence cost totals for cyberware and bioware separately. If a character has both types of augmentations, the one which has the least amount of unmodified Essence cost will be halved. If for example Operator had 1 point of bioware and 0.9 points of cyberware, his Essence would be 4.55.

Cybereye replacements should have a Capacity value, which act in a similar fashion to eyewear for non-cybered characters. Take advantage of this with your rating 2 cybereyes [capacity 8] and shift some of your Essence burden onto the eyes. Your flare compensation (1), smartlink (3), and vision magnification (2) can take up Capacity in the eyes instead of Essence. That leaves 2 capacity worth of elbow room for further modifications.

You need an image link to properly utilize the smartlink. That unfortunately will cost you Essence, unless you decide to use glasses - but that defeats the purpose of cybereyes, right? ::)

Title: Re: Human Street Samurai
Post by: eMel on <06-26-11/1646:02>

Quote from: Operator on <06-26-11/1402:03>

Nearly all incidents of language tests are called in situations where a character is either trying to communicate in or understand a non-native language. Specializing in one's native language is unnecessary. While we're in knowledge/language skills, you have spent 16 of your 18 freebie points after throwing out the native language specialization.

Track Essence cost totals for cyberware and bioware separately. If a character has both types of augmentations, the one which has the least amount of unmodified Essence cost will be halved. If for example Operator had 1 point of bioware and 0.9 points of cyberware, his Essence would be 4.55.

Cybereye replacements should have a Capacity value, which act in a similar fashion to eyewear for non-cybered characters. Take advantage of this with your rating 2 cybereyes [capacity 8] and shift some of your Essence burden onto the eyes. Your flare compensation (1), smartlink (3), and vision magnification (2) can take up Capacity in the eyes instead of Essence. That leaves 2 capacity worth of elbow room for further modifications.

You need an image link to properly utilize the smartlink. That unfortunately will cost you Essence, unless you decide to use glasses - but that defeats the purpose of cybereyes, right? ::)

Thank you for the feedback, Operator and eshoup1! I finally broke down and went with the Wired Reflexes (Rating: 2). Given the little extra Essence regained from revising her cybereyes, I decided it was affordable, not to mention worth it for the extra passes. You also made me  notice that Image Link comes as part of the cybereyes package along with the Eye Recording Unit, so thank you for that as well. Clearly, I need to read more carefully. With this latest revision, I think she is shaping up to be a potent PC!