Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Gnomercy on <11-02-11/2126:05>
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I'm still pretty green at making characters, so if folks could give me some tips/critiques, that would be great! (pardon the copypasta from Chummer...I tried to trim the extraneous)
Street name: Midori (ork street sam)
(character concept is really just a street sam with obvious 'ware...her backstory is still open enough to justify most any mods)
== Attributes ==
BOD: 5 (4)
AGI: 2 (1)
REA: 5 (7)
STR: 4 (3)
CHA: 3
INT: 5
LOG: 2
WIL: 5
EDG: 2
== Derived Attributes ==
Essence: 2.005
Initiative: 10 (12)
IP: 1 (3)
Matrix Initiative: 9
Matrix IP: 1
Physical Damage Track: 12
Stun Damage Track: 11
== Active Skills ==
Automatics : 4 Pool: 5
Climbing : 4 Pool: 7
Con : 1 Pool: 4
Disguise : 3 Pool: 8
Etiquette : 1 Pool: 4
Flight : 4 Pool: 7
Gymnastics : 4 Pool: 6
Infiltration : 3 Pool: 4
Intimidation : 2 Pool: 5
Leadership : 1 Pool: 4
Negotiation : 1 Pool: 4
Palming : 3 Pool: 4
Perception : 2 Pool: 7
Pistols : 4 Pool: 5
Running : 4 Pool: 8
Shadowing : 3 Pool: 8
Swimming : 4 Pool: 7
Tracking : 1 Pool: 6
Unarmed Combat : 4 Pool: 5
== Knowledge Skills ==
Area Knowledge: NeoTokyo : 5 Pool: 10
Area Knowledge: San Francisco : 2 Pool: 7
Bars and Clubs : 3 Pool: 8
English : N Pool: 0
Firearms : 4 Pool: 6
Japanese : N Pool: 0
Or'zet : 2 Pool: 7
Shadow Community : 3 Pool: 8
Trids : 2 Pool: 7
== Contacts ==
Hacker (sister) (4, 4)
Street shaman (2, 2)
Yakuza smuggler (3, 3)
== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Cyberears Rating 1
+Ear Recording Unit
+Sound Link
Obvious Full Arm (BOD 3, AGI 3, STR 3) (Right)
+Hand Blade
Orthoskin Rating 1
Smartlink
Wired Reflexes Rating 2
== Armor ==
Armor Jacket 8/6
Form-Fitting Full-Body Suit6/2
== Weapons ==
Ares Executive Protector w/ Smartlink
+Stock
+Sound Suppressor
DV: 5P AP: - RC: (1)
Ares Predator IV
+Gas-Vent 2 System
+Silencer
+Laser Sight
+Smartgun System
DV: 5P AP: -1 RC: 2
Hand Blade
DV: 4P AP: - RC: 0
Unarmed Attack
DV: 2S AP: - RC: 0
== Commlink ==
Hermes Ikon (4, 0, 0, 3)
Renraku Sensei (2, 0, 0, 4)
== Gear ==
Ammo: Regular Ammo (Heavy Pistols) x100
Ammo: Regular Ammo (Submachine Guns) x100
Emergency Field Dressing
Fake SIN (Miyoko Sato (Japanese Imperial SIN)) Rating 4
Fake SIN (Kristy Yamaguchi (Cal Free SIN)) Rating 3
Gecko Tape Gloves
Grapple Gun
Miniwelder
Plasteel Restraints
Spare Clip x3
Standard Rope (100 m)
Wire Clippers
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Hey there,
You'll want a high Agility, which is key to a street samurai's success. It affects your most important skills, including Automatics, Pistols, Gymnastics, Infiltration, and Unarmed Combat. Even if you intend to boost the agility of your cyberarm for shooting and fighting purposes, you'll still want a high Agility for the full-body tests that involve more than just your arm (like Gymnastics and Infiltration).
Your cyberarm is less powerful than your other arm. Unless (or even if) it's there for roleplaying reasons or backstory, you'll want to increase its attributes so that it's not a liability. Note how you're losing a point in both Body and Strength. That's because your cyberarm is at a lower level than the rest of you.
Your armor encumbrance exceeds your carrying capacity, which is costing you a point of Agility and Reaction. Your encumbrance is 8 from the Armor Jacket plus 3 from the form-fitting body suit, so 11 total, which is more than your Body x 2 = 10 threshold.
Do you have any qualities? It looks like you have Bilingual, since both English and Japanese are listed as N, but there's no qualities section to your sheet. Did you delete them by accident when you were trimming the excess material from the Chummer export?
Your commlinks politely request operating systems.
It looks like you took the Athletics group, which in Chummer includes Flight. That skill is for actually flying, with flapping wings, so unless one of your hidden qualities is Drake then you probably don't need to list it. (Flying planes is the Pilot Aircraft skill.) And, speaking of skills, you're allowed to have one at rating 6 or two at level 5. Unless you're involved in a low-power campaign you might want to move some points around to boost one or two of your fighting skills that are at rating 4.
I'll let the others chime in so that you can get a variety of opinions. I'm sure you'll receive a lot of suggestions about how to make an optimized killing machine built to harvest fields of hapless punks and security guards. Just make sure that you like your character at the end of the day! That's far more important than the opinion of the forums. Take or leave the advice as best suits you and your game. Have fun!
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Skills should be 1, 4 or 6. 2 & 3 are not karma efficient. You have a lot of skills you are not very good at doue to lowish attributes (for example dicepool 5 in intimidation isn't impressive and 5 in automatics is defenitely not enough for a fighter type (shouldn't that 5 be a 6?)). Get one skill at 6 to maximice your potential.
You can't gas-vent a pistol and don't want to. SA is -1 on second shot fired so you don't need a lot of recoil compnesation. I don't think smartlink and lasersight can be combined.
Your cyberarm should be optimized. Right now you would be better of without it. Look at Umaru's archtypes for hints. The Ronin is a fine all-round razorboy that would fit your concept fine.
Cyberears (and cybereyes) are not good. The cost a lot of nuyen and some essence and you can get the same sensory gear as earbuds (and glasses/lenses).
And you need a sensor package for your eyes. Get some glasses so you can use that smartlink in your weapons.
You have more armor than your body allows. Drop the Armor Jacket, get some SecureTech PPP parts and top that of with a smaller armored vest or some Vashon punk outfit. Maybe use softweave from War.
You need a operative system for your commlinks and some basic programs.
Rasmus
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Your cyberarm should be optimized. Right now you would be better of without it. Look at Umaru's archtypes for hints. The Ronin is a fine all-round razorboy that would fit your concept fine.
This is excellent advice ;) This character seems pretty similar to the Ronin.
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Thanks folks. When I looked at her again today, I saw those glaring issues that you all pointed out (funny how hindsight is 20/20). I started using the Ronin as my initial basis, then tried to run on my own....apparently I goofed somewhere along the way. I'll post an update soon.
I did accidentally trim the qualities...
== Qualities ==
Big Regret
Bilingual
Biocompatability (Cyberware)
Hallucinations <this is still up in the air....my friend running the game and I have a weird back & forth with what we call "gm toys">
Natural Athlete
Prejudiced (Specific, Outspoken) (Humanis Policlub)
Tough as Nails (Rating 1)
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Your comlinks need an OS to run. Any would do, but you typically want to match system to response.
You have Pistols and Automatics at 4 each, for 32 points. For 8 points more, you could have Firearms skill group at 4 instead, and get Long arms too.
Agility is the basis for many, many skills, from stealth to combat, that you use. I'd suggest seeing about getting more points there. As a suggestion, free up points elsewhere to get more, possibly by reducing your STR as your build is ranged-centric and you could boost just your cyber-arm STR for damage on your hand blade.
Add to your cyberlimb at least Body, Strength and Agility boost up to your natural level. You can customize it or use Enhancements, the former being more expensive and the latter using up the arm's capacity. I'd suggest customizing the arm to your natural attributes, adding a couple points of Armor and maybe installing your primary comlink inside it where it will be nice and safe.
You have Cyber-Ears with no attachments, at the very least get Audio Enhancement at Rating 3 and Damper so they are giving you a benefit over natural.
You need Image Link before you can get Smart Link. I'd almost suggest just getting cyber-eyes and loading them with all kinds of goodies, but you could also drop this and get a pair of glasses or contacts. I really like cyber-eyes, so I'm not objective.. but they are the only way to get all the visual enhancements you want on a single device.
You are currently over-armored. You have 5 body, but your armor encumbers as 11 because of it's ballistic value. I'd suggest swapping out your form fit full body suit for a partial body suit, something that is easer to conceal and will only have you encumbered as 10.
http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=4923.msg76827#msg76827 Has some suggestions for a street samarui you might want to check out.
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There are good reasons to take cybereyes over glasses/goggles/contacts, but very few to take cyberears over earbuds/headphones, and the cost savings is pretty staggering.
Skill-wise, I don't think taking Automatics and Pistols is that great of an idea; both are generally used for "personal firearm" use. If concealability is important to you, then focus on Pistols and carry a holdout/light for undercover, and a nice big heavy pistol with ex-ex rounds for when you're getting serious. If you don't care about concealability, go with Automatics and go with machine pistols for portability, and a nice SMG/Assault Rifle for when things get real.
If you just want to have two different gun skills, I'd recommend taking Longarms (for sniping) or Heavy Weapons (for machinegun goodness) as your secondary.
Of course, if this is a character thing for you, I totally understand. I spent some points that weren't all that optimized on my last street sam, just because it fit the character.
Armor-wise, I'd look into some of the Securetech PPP items from Arsenal to fill out your impact armor. There are a lot of attack types that go against half-Impact, so pumping that number up isn't wasted money.
I'd also reconsider the social skill group; I'm not sure if a Con or Negotiation pool of 4 dice is going to do you any favors. It might be better to pick one or two social skills to focus on instead.
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Devil's advocate on interaction skill group, but you sometimes don't get a choice about what social skill to use, and 1 point in the skill group can be the difference between 4 dice and a likely hit and 2 dice and almost always failing if you have to default.
As far as cyber-ears, your point is pretty much correct, but I tend to prefer cyber ears despite the cost for two reasons.
1) Damper is flat not available as a non-cyber option, and my characters tend to set off firearms in enclosed spaces. Without some kind of hearing protection the rest of the session should sound like a scene in Saving Private Ryan after doing that once.
2) Rating 1 cyberears can be loaded with damper and max rating audio enhancement, then I can just ignore it for the rest of the game.
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Both points are solid; I tend to think that most situations a non-face is going to be in can be resolved with Etiquette or Con, though. Negotiation is mostly for haggling. Of course, you're only save 2 points per skill rank at that point. :)
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The sources of your problems are:
You have both Automatics and Pistols, and that's kind of redundant. Lose Pistols, take more Palming.
Stealth 3 is bad for karma efficiency; try to get 4.
Perception 1 rather than 2 for karma efficiency.
Cyberears and Orthoskin are both bad. Don't get them. Also, don't implant a smartlink; wear it.
Your cyberarm is not customized properly! This is the source of 80% of the suck. You can't get away with being cheap on the cyberarm.
Hand Blade is Blades, not Unarmed. Luckily Hand Blade is also bad, and you should be using a Shock Hand (or wearing a Shock Glove) instead anyways.
A few people have already pointed out your armor problems; that's easily fixable.
You are using guns that are El Cheapo but not El Goodo. This is in fairness not unreasonable, assuming you know this and plan to get better guns once the game starts.
You're paying for commlinks with no OS and no programs. This is the equivalent of paying for a top-end desktop, not installing an OS, and running Norton Antivirus on it. Either get cheap commlinks, or cough up for programs and an agent to run it for you (see the Spook for an example no-skills-required setup).
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Shock hand makes sense if he wants non-lethal. If he's more interested in blade/lethal damage, he could always go for a spur instead of the hand blade.
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Hand blade is 1 point off a Spur, so it's not as if you can't pick what you like on style and eat a slight loss in damage, especaly when it's a backup weapon for this PC.
Me and UmaroVI have a philosophical difference in optimization. You didn't mention if you wanted advice on maximizing your effectiveness or wanted general suggestions to fix problems. Umaro's suggestions are good ones if you were aiming for the former.
I'd agree that, in most cases, you will want to get armor on your cyberlimb before investing in orthoskin, and for the same enhancement to survivability orthoskin offers at it's cost in essence and cash, you could have other better options. I'm a fan of the platelet factories, but you will hear other opinions.
Shock hand / shock glove is better then a blade in that it ignores half of the Impact armor value and has a chance to incapacitate via the special rules for electricity damage, as well as the rules being somewhat ambiguous but suggesting that you also get a bonus to hit with them as they are a "touch only" attack.. From a pure optimization standpoint, it's better to use a shock hand then a blade even if you want to kill.
I've already said why I like cyberears despite their flaws.
Oh, if you are going for high optimization, you want to stick with full Form Fit body armor, as no other armor in the game encumbers as 3 while offering 6 armor. Instead, find other armor that brings your Ballistic value to 7, then add your Form Fit armor while tweaking with the Piecemeal Personal Protection system to get your Impact value as close to 10 as you can.
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Ok, I've made a lot of the suggestions folks have made. Kept athletics despite flight because it was cheaper. I'm keeping the hand blade, partly for flavor and partly because the friend that's running the game is a newbie GM, so I don't want her to have to deal with the shock glove rules. We should be able to pick up loot, so I'm not too concerned about the "el cheapo" guns (suggestions are welcome though). I have some rooting around in books for more armor options, so I just have the body suit on at the moment. I still have a bit over 6k nuyen to spend, so feel free to help me spend it!
== Info ==
Street Name:
Name: Midori
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 0
Public Awareness: 0
Ork female Age 25
Height 1.8m (5'10") Weight 80 (176lbs)
Composure: 7
Judge Intentions: 7
Lift/Carry: 7 (45 kg/30 kg)
Memory: 7
Nuyen: 0
== Attributes ==
BOD: 5 (4)
AGI: 5
REA: 5 (7)
STR: 3
CHA: 2
INT: 5
LOG: 2
WIL: 5
EDG: 2
== Derived Attributes ==
Essence: 2.31
Initiative: 10 (12)
IP: 1 (3)
Matrix Initiative: 9
Matrix IP: 1
Physical Damage Track: 12
Stun Damage Track: 11
== Active Skills ==
Armorer : 1 Pool: 3
Automatics : 6 Pool: 11
Blades : 1 Pool: 6
Climbing : 4 Pool: 7
Con : 1 Pool: 3
Cybertechnology : 1 Pool: 3
Disguise : 4 Pool: 9
Etiquette : 1 Pool: 3
First Aid : 1 Pool: 3
Flight : 4 Pool: 7
Gymnastics : 4 Pool: 10
Infiltration : 4 Pool: 9
Intimidation : 2 Pool: 4
Palming : 4 Pool: 9
Perception : 1 Pool: 6
Pistols : 1 Pool: 6
Running : 4 Pool: 8
Shadowing : 4 Pool: 9
Swimming : 4 Pool: 7
Tracking : 1 Pool: 6
== Knowledge Skills ==
Area Knowledge: Japanese City! : 5 Pool: 10
Area Knowledge: San Francisco : 2 Pool: 7
Bars and Clubs : 3 Pool: 8
English : N Pool: 0
Firearms : 4 Pool: 6
Japanese : N Pool: 0
Or'zet : 2 Pool: 7
Shadow Community : 3 Pool: 8
Trids : 2 Pool: 7
== Contacts ==
Hacker (sister) (4, 4)
Street shaman (1, 1) <planning to rp to get this higher IG>
Yakuza smuggler (3, 3)
== Qualities ==
Big Regret
Bilingual
Biocompatability (Cyberware)
Hallucinations
Natural Athlete
Prejudiced (Specific, Outspoken) (Humanis Policlub)
Tough as Nails (Rating 1)
== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Obvious Full Arm (BOD 3, AGI 7, STR 7) (Right)
+Hand Blade
+Armor Rating 4
+Enhanced Agility Rating 4
+Enhanced Strength Rating 4
Smartlink
Wired Reflexes Rating 2
== Armor ==
Form-Fitting Full-Body Suit6/2
== Weapons ==
Ares Executive Protector w/ Smartlink
+Stock
+Sound Suppressor
DV: 5P AP: - RC: (1)
Ares Predator IV
+Silencer
+Smartgun System
DV: 5P AP: -1 RC: 0
Hand Blade
DV: 4P AP: - RC: 0
Unarmed Attack
DV: 2S AP: - RC: 0
== Commlink ==
Hermes Ikon (4, 4, 3, 3)
+Novatech Navi
+AR Gloves
+Subvocal Microphone
Renraku Sensei (2, 2, 1, 4)
+Disposable Commlink OS
== Gear ==
Ammo: Regular Ammo (Heavy Pistols) x100
Ammo: Regular Ammo (Submachine Guns) x100
Earbuds Rating 1
+Audio Enhancement Rating 1
+Select Sound Filter Rating 1
Emergency Field Dressing
Fake SIN (Miyoko Sato (Japanese Imperial SIN)) Rating 4
Fake SIN (Kristy Yamaguchi (Cal Free SIN)) Rating 3
Gecko Tape Gloves
Goggles Rating 1
+Smartlink
+Camera Rating 1
Grapple Gun
Miniwelder
Plasteel Restraints
Spare Clip x3
Standard Rope (100 m)
Wire Clippers
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I can't wait to find out what her "Big Regret" is.
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Suggestions for your cash: Customize your cyber limb to Body 5, to avoid any weirdness with averaging it with your body. That will cost 3000, but use no capacity on the limb.
The bad news: Your cyberlimb isn't currently legal
You have 15 capacity to use on an obvious cyberlimb.
Armor cost rating x 2 in capacity, other enhancements have capacity cost equal to their rating. Your hand-blade uses 3 capacity.
So right now you are at 8 capacity for armor, 8 for ability enhancements and 3 for the blade, a total of 19 and 4 over.
Rating 4 cyber-armor is also availability 20, and unavailable to starting characters without the Restricted Gear quality.
You can however get rating 2 cyber armor on your limb and be at 15 capacity, perfectly legal and ready to go. That also saves 600 cash.
A good choice for you might be a Chameleon Suit, giving you 1 less Ballistic armor then you might hope for but offering a stealth advantage and a quite respectable 15 Ballistic and 8 Impact armor with your FF full suit, orthoskin and rating 2 cyber limb.The bad news is that it cost 8000, so you'd need to free up some cash to afford it.
You still need an imaglink to go with your smart link. That's cheap though.
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Sweet....I appreciate it. This is one of those times where I wish I hadn't used a character generator because sometimes it's easy to make things that are illegal and not realize it :-P Hooray for awesome forums though.
Short story on her big regret is that she ran away from home, got caught up in some go-gang activity in her misspent youth, lost an arm (hence the 'ware).
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A big regret isn't merely something the character is sad about. A big regret is something the character is ashamed of, and something that other people would similarly find shameful. The character has a -3 social penalty dealing with people who know about it, can possibly be blackmailed by people who know about it, and can gain a point of notoriety if too many people find out about it.
Maybe the more fleshed-out description has that, but simply "Ran away from home and joined a gang" doesn't sound like something that would get more than a shrug in shadowrunner circles. A big regret would be more along the lines of, say, her convincing her best friend to join the gang, participating in her hazing, and having something go too far and her friend dies. Or maybe she just lost her arm, when the other gangers were killed, because her nerve broke and she ran away. But it needs to be a secret the character genuinely feels remorseful about, and wants to keep buried.
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I always thought it'd be funny to play a street sam with the "big regret" of being a former "blue movie" star.
Johnson: Hmm....you there, behind the Face....you look familiar.
Sam: Uh, what?
Johnson: I've seen your face somewhere. No wait, it wasn't your face....
Sam: You've got the wrong guy/girl.
Johnson: No, I'm pretty sure about this. My memory is impeccable
Sam: I just have one of those faces.
Johnson: It's not your face that looks familiar. I'm pretty sure it was your--
Sam: Please, just drop it and tell us what the job is.
Johnson --I've got it! It was the trid with the midget acrobats, and the donkey, and the peanut butter!
Sam: Just kill me now.
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I always thought it'd be funny to play a street sam with the "big regret" of being a former "blue movie" star.
Johnson: Hmm....you there, behind the Face....you look familiar.
Sam: Uh, what?
Johnson: I've seen your face somewhere. No wait, it wasn't your face....
Sam: You've got the wrong guy/girl.
Johnson: No, I'm pretty sure about this. My memory is impeccable
Sam: I just have one of those faces.
Johnson: It's not your face that looks familiar. I'm pretty sure it was your--
Sam: Please, just drop it and tell us what the job is.
Johnson --I've got it! It was the trid with the midget acrobats, and the donkey, and the peanut butter!
Sam: Just kill me now.
LMFAO!!!
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I always thought it'd be funny to play a street sam with the "big regret" of being a former "blue movie" star.
Johnson: Hmm....you there, behind the Face....you look familiar.
Sam: Uh, what?
Johnson: I've seen your face somewhere. No wait, it wasn't your face....
Sam: You've got the wrong guy/girl.
Johnson: No, I'm pretty sure about this. My memory is impeccable
Sam: I just have one of those faces.
Johnson: It's not your face that looks familiar. I'm pretty sure it was your--
Sam: Please, just drop it and tell us what the job is.
Johnson --I've got it! It was the trid with the midget acrobats, and the donkey, and the peanut butter!
Sam: Just kill me now.
Now you know that the Johnson watches trids involving midget acrobats, donkeys and peanut butter. Use this to you advantage, I'm sure he would want you to keep this a secret.
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Now that's thinking like a
blackmailer 'runner!
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You can't get rating 4 enhancements on a cyberlimb without a cybertorso. Also, you really really want to have a customized cyberlimb. It's not that expensive and I would move a point out of agility and have 50,000Y more to spend.
Here's the limb at mimimum, I'll do for this character:
Body 5 (2 levels customization)
Agility 6 (3 levels customization)
Strength 6 (3 levels customization)
Then with agility 3 and strength 3 that gives an effective 9 agility and 9 strength with the arm. You also have 2 capacity slots left over as well (after lowering the armor to 2 as well). I'll rather use a spur than a hand blade but that's your choice. I also like high body scores on my cyberlimbs due to averaging, but you can't have that and high strength without getting restricted gear (due to availability). You could get a quite badass Body 9, Agility 6, Strength 8 arm (before enchancements) then.
I'm a big fan of the cyberlimb gyromount, but that's forbidden so I'll check with your GM about how bad that is before I tried to figure out how to get the slots for it.
As for armor, you have high enough caps to have some choices. I like armor that provides concealment like lined coats, Synergist jackets, or the Ulysses greatcoat. I would especially consider them if I was going to be an automatics user. If you're cool with helmets, you should get one as it helps keep the ballistic / impact armor values even. The Urban Explorer Jumpsuit is also a nice foundation for your armor as well.
Also, how attached are you to your guns? The executive protector is a very useful if niche gun so I'll keep it. I would drop the Ares Predator and get a taser instead since you're only going to be using pistols when you can't bring in anything heavier due to legality. However, I can see keeping it as a backup piece and it's cheap.
I would however get a "normal" automatics weapon as your main gun. I can give a lot of advise on what guns are useful for that role after a few questions. Is your GM using the Recoil and Strength rule from Arsenal 163? If so, you'll be getting 1 RC from that. If you can get your arm's strength to 10, you can get 2 points which is really nice. Also how does your GM rule cyberlimb averaging? If you use a foregrip, does that count as firing two-handed? What if it's a stock? If you do use a two-handed firearm, are the two arm's agility averaged or do you use the lower? Can you live with a cyberlimb gyromount or will cops aggro on you to death?
Edit- Looking over your skills, you could also just go high base agility and ditch the cyberarm. Then buy muscle toner either now or right away in play (you really want muscle toner 4). You can also buy muscle augmentation to up your strength as well.
Also with athletics 4, I'll instead grab athletics 1 and get a Synthacardium 3 for 30,000Y. Same roll, but you save 24BP.
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Is your GM using the Recoil and Strength rule from Arsenal 163?
Probably not as I'm the only one in the group that owns Arsenal
Also how does your GM rule cyberlimb averaging?
Not sure if she's aware of this. Our other games (that the group has run) have been cyberlimb-less
If you use a foregrip, does that count as firing two-handed? What if it's a stock? If you do use a two-handed firearm, are the two arm's agility averaged or do you use the lower?
I can ask her these when we get to play.
Can you live with a cyberlimb gyromount or will cops aggro on you to death?
I could totally live with it...it jives with the character.
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Then I'll give an overview of the automatics group. Since you had no mention of Stick and Shock (SnS), I'm assuming a SnS free world. Also it sounds like you don't have Gun Heaven.
There's actually only a few points of important difference between a firearms of the same group. Since damage and conceal are more or less fixed within a group, you don't care about that. As long as you keep up fire for 3 passes (27 rounds on FA, 18 on BF, and 3 on SA), clip size is at best a minor beanie. If the other benefits are good enough, 18 round clips can work (2 passes on FA fire). What you really want to look at is innate recoil compensation (not from stuff from gas vents and the like) since you really want to hit RC:8. Built in beanies like smartgun systems or scopes are nice, but you often don't need to worry about them. You should also keep in mind
Common modifications you should get are gas vent 3 (on the barrel), personalized grip, chameleon coating (-4 conceal is really nice), external smartgun system on top (if needed), and gyromount on the arm. That'll give you 3 mod slots left over for other stuff. Shortened Barrel is a nice choice for -1 conceal but reduces ranges. Ideally you'll want a concealable piece and a heavier piece for heavy fighting and mod the weapon accordingly.
I'll drop the handblade and just own a knife or drop a point of armor for the gyromount. If you don't get a gyromount, you'll have to find other sources of RC which would vary (underbarrel weight or foregrip + sling mainly). You'll lose 2 points of RC, a lot of mod slots (auto-adjusting weights), or 1 RC and concealability. Shock pads and the like are good easy to get 1 point of RC but may require two handed use which may lower your effective agility to 7 (average of the two arms) or 4-5 (lower of the two arms due to careful coordination). Personally I don't think they do, but I'm not sure if there is a stock using 1 handed stance you can take in real life and your GM might care about that.
Automatic Pistols are basically light pistols that are bigger and fire faster. Thus, they fill a similar niche to light pistols for the automatics group. They're your light concealable pieces (-2 conceal after chameleon coating). With a coat, shortened barrel, and a concealable holster, you can get up to -6 conceal.
The pistol I like most is the FN 7-C after a small firing selection change. You'll have 8 points of RC after mods. That's enough to have no penalty FA fire. You only have enough for 2 passes though. If you can find 1 more point of RC, the Ares Crusader works after similar mod work (you gotta remove the old Gas Vent 2 though). The MP9 from Gun Heaven is a forbidden 25 clip version of the FN 7-C (remove the foregrip for better conceal).
SMGs are a good compromise between conceal and offensive power. Since you're a cyberlimb user, SMGs have the advantage of being one-handed which is a big deal for you (you'll get to use your agility 9 with them, then either 7 or 4 for heavier guns depending on gm ruling). After chameleon coating, shortened barrel (if desired), and a coat, they're -3 conceal. They're a good option for you to specialize once you earn some karma.
They're 5 SMGs that I'll recommend. The first are the Ingram Smartgun or HK-227. Both have a lot of innate features including restricted sound suppressors. The Ingram Smartgun has slightly bigger clip, but has no SA fire option. With enough RC, you'll want to BF even when you're using the sound suppressor, but some GMs make BF louder than SA. Since they're innate sound suppressors, they're extremely quiet (-6 to hear).
The best full offense regular SMG is the Praetor. With its huge clip and 1 point innate RC, it's quite easy to reach the magic 8 RC threshold. It even comes with cheap electronic firing so you save a mod slot there. It's only flaw is that it's forbidden. It's a good gun for when you don't care about how legal your gun is.
An interesting option is the M4A1 from Gun Heaven. It's a SMG that has 6P base damage, but is vintage (no smartgun or other electronic mods, other mods are x2 price). With a laser sight (or red dot sight from the same book), you're losing a die to hit for +1 DV which is a good deal. You can't get chameleon coating so it's not a particular concealable SMG. But, it's a cool option for when you can have a gun out.
The last SMG worth commenting is the Ingram Supermach 100. With an gyromount, you can hit 11 RC needed. Then means you're hitting for 9P and 9P narrow bursts instead of 10P and 7P which is an arguable tradeoff. The Supermach really shines with SnS rounds.
Assault Rifles were formerly the heaviest of the automatics group. That title now belongs to the Battle Rifles. Without optional rules, you must fire them two-handed. This may or may not be livable depending on averaging. With a coat and coating, you have -0 conceal.
The best AR without question is the Ares Alpha. The 2 innate RC seals that. The grenade launcher is a fun beanie if you ever want to use it. It's forbidden though. After that, it's the AK-147 due to its innate recoil compensation of 1. If you don't have War!, then any other AR will do. They're pretty much the same after the Ares Alpha. The HVAR is fairly meh HV option, but still worth considering.
Battle rifles were introduced in War! and expanded in Gun Heaven. Basically they're AR with LMG ranges and 7P -1AP base damage. I assume you can't coneal them. Since you have a gyromount, the HVBR is the best. Unlike other HV weapons, it loses no DV making it just win. Otherwise, the AVC-7.62 or Sig Sauer 574 are good choices.
I hope that helps!
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Despite the cost, cyber ears can be good because of the Damper (mentioned previously), and having all those enhancements in your body as opposed to in a piece of gear, if something very, very bad happens you'll still have those enhancements. (Same thing goes with cyber eyes)
Strapped for cash? Go ahead and drop 'em. If you can afford 'em keep 'em and maybe get some contact lenses for the visual enhancements you couldn't get in your cyber eyes (if any). Getting the ear buds even with cyber ears and nothing in the buds is still a good idea though. It can really help with receiving calls. :)
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One of the other attractive features of cyberears is that you can turn them off completely - there are sonic attacks, as well as critters with the paralyzing howl power.
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And of course, everything you hear can be recorded to your cyber-gear, allowing you to review what you heard later if you have to.
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Can you not do that with earbuds?
What about a Simrig? I thought that recorded everything?
(as an aside, do I always have to type a Captcha to post/reply on this board or does that go away after a certain number of posts?)
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Can you not do that with earbuds?
What about a Simrig? I thought that recorded everything?
(as an aside, do I always have to type a Captcha to post/reply on this board or does that go away after a certain number of posts?)
Earbuds can be turned off, but you still have your natural hearing to worry about. Whereas, when you turn off cyberears, you're effectively deaf.
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(as an aside, do I always have to type a Captcha to post/reply on this board or does that go away after a certain number of posts?)
I think it is only for the first 10 posts.
Rasmus
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I meant, if you have earbuds/simrig does that record everthing you hear (and see, and smell and feel)?
(sweet, this is post 9, one more to go!)
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To record what you see you need the 'eye recording unit' implant and to record what you hear you need the similar implant for the ears. The cyber replacements for each automatically come with those recording units and image/sound link. You can get those separately, but it's more essence friendly to get the replacement sensory organs.
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One of the other attractive features of cyberears is that you can turn them off completely - there are sonic attacks, as well as critters with the paralyzing howl power.
Wouldn't you be immediately incapaciated anyways when you to lose all orientation and balance when you shut off your inner ear? It's just not the sensation of hearing the loud sound that causes neusea and dizziness. It's how the vibrations affect the fluids of the inner ear. Since cyberears replace that part of the ear anyways, they should just make you immune all the time or the cybernetic equivalents are close enough to normal ears to be affected just the same. There's also non-aural related effects (and I assume the ones that actually cause Stun Damage) such cavitation in human tissue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavitation).
Paralyzing howl however I can't say.
Edit- That said, honestly I'll be fine with dampeners be way more effective or having cyberears provide 2 points of dampening "innately" or the like. The cyber replacements could use all the help they can get.
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Can you not do that with earbuds?
What about a Simrig? I thought that recorded everything?
(as an aside, do I always have to type a Captcha to post/reply on this board or does that go away after a certain number of posts?)
Nope. Earbuds are -not- microphones, they are speakers. A simrig, if you wear one, can record all your sensory input, or you could just get a microphone to wear to record audio information.
Cyber-senses however record inside your head, rather to an external device. Maybe it's paranoid, but I like that level of security. They automatically come with recording units that allow you to keep your information on the devices themselves, and you can set them to only be downloadable via a datajack.
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Except when someone decides they need to get their hands on that data, it's a lot less painful when they steal your simrig than when they cut out your cyber eyes/ears ;)
But, a Simrig will effectively do the same thing for all your senses right? Can you build a simrig into a cyberlimb?
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Nope. The implant simrig doesn't have a capacity cost.
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Nope. The implant simrig doesn't have a capacity cost.
By RAW probably not, but it could be argued to be able to be put into a cyber skull. I know I'd allow it and probably assign it a capacity of 1.