Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: CobraCommander on <09-10-11/0442:26>
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Hello, me again. So after some thought I've come to the conclusion that it would be pretty awesome if I made a Sherlock Holmes character type. So here's what I have.
The plan is, he isn't going to be doing too much field work. Mostly a researcher point of view.
BodY:3
Agility: 3
Reaction: 3
Strength: 1
Charisma: 4
Intuition: 5
Logic: 5[8]
Willpower: 4
Skills
Perception (sight) 6[8]
Biotech 2
Electronics 2
Influence 2
Stealth 2
Navigation 2
Tracking 2
Locksmith 2
Dodge 3
Pistols 2
Chemistry 1
Qualities
Perceptive (10)
Analytical Mind (5)
College Education (5)
Linguist (5)
Technical Education (5)
Lost Loved One (5)
Mild Addiction (BTL) (5)
Uncommon Severe Ellergy (Gold) (15)
SINner (5)
Cyber/Biowar
Cyber eyes
Cbyer ears
Alpha Mnomonic Enhancer
Cerebral Booster
Sim Module
Datajack
Again, I'm falling into the same problem I was having with my last thread. I just can't think of what to give him for knowledge skills. I got 30 points worth to choose from. I also have 21 BP left to spend. And since my group is house ruling 10 free BP to spend on contacts max connection 3, I may spend this on lots of contacts. A bunch of 1/1 and 2/2 a few 3/3 4/2 type guys. I just wouldn't know whom to pick for contacts either.
Thanks for any tips
COOOBBBRRRAAA!!!
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Possible knowledge skills (with possible contacts):
-investigation techniques (detective; police or PI)
-forensic science (coroner, crime scene tech)
-criminal psychology (detective, federal agent, criminal profiler, psychologist)
-psychology (duh *grin*)
-sociology (university professor, grad student)
-police procedures (patrol officer, detective)
-criminal law (district attourney, lawyer)
-criminal syndicates/most wanted lists (criminal of choice, federal agent/police from appropriate task force, bounty hunter)
-gangs (police, gang member)
-music (Holmes liked to play the Violin if memory serves)
-illegal substances (gamg member, gang lieutenant, drug dealer, federal agent/police officer)
-black market operations (black market member, federal agent)
Note: federal agent/police can be swaped with corporate counterpart.
Just a few off the top of my head.
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Sherlock Holmes was incredibly skilled in pistols, cane fighting and boxing. You are missing some elements here... I am playing a very Holmes type character right now myself and he is a physical adept with a lot of perception based powers and looking to get a few bits of ware to help out in the goal of discovering everything and anything.
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Has he written a monograph on the identification of the reside of tobacco ashes?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRPpejRHFTQ
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRPpejRHFTQ
Nothing personal, UmaroVI, but I have to kill you now. It's a standing rule of mine that anybody that brings up that horrid cartoon that disparages one of my greatest obsessions must pay dearly.
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Yes, that cartoon was quite, quite horrible! Everything went pear shaped in it in a jiffy!
I'd continue on, but it's tea time.
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Attention Coprocessors seems like a natural fit, just off the top of my head. You might want to addict him to Betel, on top of the BTLs (which I'm assuming are standing in for morphine? You could use Bliss for that instead), especially since it's another +1 to Perception.
But yeah, I'd try to shuffle around a few points and make him a little better in a fight, if you can. For starters, it's just handy to have in a Shadowrun game, but secondarily it's important to remember Sherlock was actually kind of a badass.
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7% solution of heroin to distilled water. Completely legal at the time, BTW. Beyer (Yes, the Aspirin people) has the patent on the name heroin, as well. (EDIT: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was Doctor Arthur Conan Doyle, and possibly figured out the exact dosage as part of his business to make the character more real.).
BTL is a better choice for a Shadowrun Holmes, however, as it'd be something that would totally distract him from the boredom that was his personal demon, the reason for his addiction. Bliss would actually make his boredom worse, and would be a horrible choice for the character concept.
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It wasn't heroin, it was cocaine. And, yes, that was legal then too.
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It wasn't heroin, it was cocaine. And, yes, that was legal then too.
Why so it is. Damn.
...
The sad part is that I wrote a Monograph on the comparison of Holmes in High School... :'(
'Course, my brain isn't in the condition it used to be in. Too many blows to the head over the years.
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Holmes isn't a character that fits inside a 400 pt frame. Also I am more able to see him as aadept than cybered. He was a good boxer and swordsman but his pistols was subpar. His favorite move was clasp a pistol against someones head to make them surrender. His chemistry, charisma, strength, acting ability, disguise, and area knowledge skills are higher to expert. He is a mystery junkie who would drug up when he had no problem to solve. I like the new PBS modern Sherlock take on the character. Espically the episode, A Study In Pink.
Also I would have dropped the Gold Allergy and went with Rival/brother Mycroft or Enemy/Moriority.
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Robert Downey Jr. also made a decent Holmes. The scene where he's completely ignoring Watson while plucking at the violin reminded me of many of the books I've read, picturing the character doing just such weird things.
Ah, youth...
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You're character is awesome. I am a HUGE Sherlock fan and investigation is big in my game. I actually created a Sherlock skill group.
Skill Groups (GM Created)
Sherlock (Intuition)
Perception: the process of using the senses to acquire information about an individual
Specializations:
Lie Detection: By reading facial expressions you can sense lies (Think Lie To Me)
Inference (think of the scene in Young Sherlock Holmes when Holmes meets Watson)
Sense Motive
Scan: the process of using the senses to acquire information about the surrounding environment
Specializations:
Threat assessment (think The Fifth Element when Corbin Dallas assesses the hostage
situation in a couple of seconds)
Noticing Details: Think Monk
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Robert Downey Jr. also made a decent Holmes. The scene where he's completely ignoring Watson while plucking at the violin reminded me of many of the books I've read, picturing the character doing just such weird things.
Ah, youth...
Have you checked out the new BBC Sherlock series starting Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman? If not, get on Netflix and check it out now!
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At the moment, he is more Mycroft Holmes than Sherlock Holmes. His skills (other than perception) seem a bit low for a cerebral character. You might consider focusing more on skills such as data search and chemistry, if you see him as more of a researcher type. His B&E skills don't look that useful - they are only juuust high enough to get him into trouble.
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I can understand if I'm not able to build a Sherlock type character with 400 BP but I think I'm getting there. I'll do a little rundown I suppose.
I didn't want to make him an Adept mainly because... He's not supposed to be magic based. He's just super smart. I mean, I'm not trying to make a carbon copy of Sherlock, but I am greatful at the tips and helping some people nastalgia all over the place.
I figure, even though most of the skills are on the low side, a lot of them are Logic/Intuition based which I have obviously good enough stats in to cut it. I mean, I'm still throwing 10 dice at most things that are related to mental stats (12 at Datasearch and software). I'm also considering tailored pheramones but I need to find the money. Might drop the Alphware status on the Mnomonic Enhancers. Also I saw mention of the Coproccessors and thought "+3 to my Perception? Yes ma'am" so I picked it up. I wasn't quite sure how well of a fighter he was, but since he wasn't that bad after all, I may give him some unarmed skill. I mainly took the "Stealth" group as a discount. I only really wanted everything but infiltrate. It was just cheaper so I picked up the whole group.
About the Qualities. Most of them are just duh reasons why they're their. But I would like to give him a pretty nice character concept. "Lost Loved One" is because his wife has been missing for 5 years now. She was taken from him by some mysterious whatever "GMs choice" so over the past 5 years he's been resorting to BTL moments that he had recorded to spend time with her. Also, as a pretty neat thing my friend suggested. Since he has a sim module, when I walk into a crime scene like enviornment I can start recorded everything I experience so I can look back at it on a later time to try to spot something that I missed.
I mean, really what else is there to say? I figured a character that does most of the leg work before the run should have a diverse collection of skills (and eventually contacts). A lot of them are mental attribute anyways, and he's not going to be the type of character who is going to be at the front lines of the wetwork or what have you so his fighting can be minimal enough for now. Although I'm still thinking I may give him Unarmed. Only that means then I'll have to find out how to bump up his Strength, and blah, blah, blah....I don't plan on making him super cyber/bioware jacked up. I'm even contemplating dropping the cyber eyes/ears but at the same time, they are less obtrucive, then say goggles.
If anyone has any more Knowledge Skill suggestions by all means lay them on me.
COOOBBBRRRAAA!!!
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My suggestions is that Downey sucked and if you want to watch Holmes you really out to be watching Jeremy Brett.
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Maybe I'm going crazy, but I don't really remember Holmes being much of a fighter at all in the books. I always thought that Holmes was a perceptive bastard with excellent deduction abilities that constantly go him in trouble and that Watson was the badass of the stories.
That said, combat skills are generally good in Shadowrun, but if you have enough combat based characters in the group already, you can easily forget about the combat skills and focus on beefing up your legwork skills.
As for your knowledge skills, don't forget all your academic skills for figuring out mysteries. Chemistry, Physics, Biology, ect.
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It rarely happened, but Holmes did fight in the novels, and was quite proficient.
In addition, he was strangely strong, able to bend an iron poker back straight after someone tried to intimidate him by bending it in a curve. (This is based off of something Dr. Doyle could do IRL, IIRC. But we've seen how accurate my memory has been recently.).
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It didn't come up in every case -- because he was a perceptive bastard, not a fighter, first and foremost, after all -- but he was stated to be quite proficient at boxing, stick fighting (gotta love those era-appropriate canes), and bartitsu (misspelled as "baritsu" in Holmes' in-text reference to it), which he called "Japanese wrestling." Watson mentioned that Holmes was an excellent fencer, but I don't think he ever actually got around to any stabby-stabby that I can recall. But, yeah. Boxing in particular is something that's come up pretty often.
Because Holmes is awesome, it was all generally just kind of mentioned in passing. Like oh by the way I'm amazing at that, too.
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Well, he was pretty much the blueprint for the infamous "competent man" cliche.
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
— Lazarus Long
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Just for the record, mind you, I don't mean my continued harping about Holmes' badassery to be seen as criticism of your character. You're (rightfully) focusing on the cerebral aspects of the character, and doing what you can within the constraints of making a rules-legal character that follows the standard creation guidelines. You've got a neat little Holmesian tip of the hat going on, and you've made a pretty cool guy, in that vein. "Cyberlogician" is a popular enough idea in the Sixth World that there's a whole cyberware suite dedicated to making folks smarter, so it's perfectly in keeping with the feel of Shadowrun.
I just want to make sure you know you can make him kind of a badass and not violate the spirit of the character, is all.
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My suggestions is that Downey sucked and if you want to watch Holmes you really out to be watching Jeremy Brett.
You are my new favorite Newb. ;D
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It rarely happened, but Holmes did fight in the novels, and was quite proficient.
In addition, he was strangely strong, able to bend an iron poker back straight after someone tried to intimidate him by bending it in a curve. (This is based off of something Dr. Doyle could do IRL, IIRC. But we've seen how accurate my memory has been recently.).
Again, this one was more due to his mind than actual strength. He knew the right leverage points to get maximum force to bend it back. ;)
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Just for the record, mind you, I don't mean my continued harping about Holmes' badassery to be seen as criticism of your character. You're (rightfully) focusing on the cerebral aspects of the character, and doing what you can within the constraints of making a rules-legal character that follows the standard creation guidelines. You've got a neat little Holmesian tip of the hat going on, and you've made a pretty cool guy, in that vein. "Cyberlogician" is a popular enough idea in the Sixth World that there's a whole cyberware suite dedicated to making folks smarter, so it's perfectly in keeping with the feel of Shadowrun.
I just want to make sure you know you can make him kind of a badass and not violate the spirit of the character, is all.
Agreed.
But, in my own opinion, Holmes would definitely be a Decker/Hacker in the Sixth World. Foremost among all his obsessions is that he is an Information Junkie. (I seem to recall that he would 'devour' the newspapers of the day and memorize even most of the classifieds.)
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It rarely happened, but Holmes did fight in the novels, and was quite proficient.
In addition, he was strangely strong, able to bend an iron poker back straight after someone tried to intimidate him by bending it in a curve. (This is based off of something Dr. Doyle could do IRL, IIRC. But we've seen how accurate my memory has been recently.).
Again, this one was more due to his mind than actual strength. He knew the right leverage points to get maximum force to bend it back. ;)
Excellent! So that is a Logic for Strength swap for that test? :P
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Agreed.
But, in my own opinion, Holmes would definitely be a Decker/Hacker in the Sixth World. Foremost among all his obsessions is that he is an Information Junkie. (I seem to recall that he would 'devour' the newspapers of the day and memorize even most of the classifieds.)
Definitely the Media Junkie Negative Quality. Doesn't even need to be a Hacker for that in 2070s, just a decent CommLink and a quality Data Search skill and Browse Program. Unless he wants the Black BBS stuff, then, yeah, some Hacking skills indeed.
'Course, for some of the sites (ShadowSEA, for example), a Pocket Hacker Agent would work just fine for that. :P Still wondering if I play around with my gear to get that for my Ásatrú Magician.
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One thing to remember about Holmes was that he was an inveterate min-maxer in real life (or, well, fictional life). He could care less whether the earth orbited the sun, or whether the sun orbited the earth. He was solely focused on knowledge that he saw as practical, and didn't want to waste any space in his brain on any clutter.
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Holmes was a Prime Runner.
Building himin 400BP is not gonna pan out so well.
You can (and should!) build Holmesian characters, however.
-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist
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I like the new PBS modern Sherlock take on the character. Espically the episode, A Study In Pink.
It's a BBC show, in reality. Even if PBS did air it. Get it right!
Have you checked out the new BBC Sherlock series starting Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman? If not, get on Netflix and check it out now!
There ya go. :P
I actually created a Wild Sprite based on Holmes once (accidentally compiled by a Wild Technomancer who was a Media Junkie), though sadly that group dissolved before I had a chance to introduce it. It was a fun character to plan for, though. Writing Holmes well is hard to do.
Also, your GM is gonna HATE you. :) Either that or ignore you. If writing Holmes is hard, GMing for him is twice as hard - your GM will have to think of all sorts of tiny clues to leave you and only you, and will have to create (more obvious and less accurate) red herrings to throw off other investigators. For every scene in which you could make a perception check.