Shadowrun

Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Forged on <11-30-11/0130:33>

Title: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: Forged on <11-30-11/0130:33>

Name: Walter Donavan Turner
Alias: Torrent
Race: Troll
Sex: Male
Nationality: UCAS
Karma Spent: None
Physical Description: Torrent is fairly scrawny for a Troll, he stands a bit over six feet, with dark hair covering his ram style horns. He is caucasian, and dresses like a wageslave that hasn't been home in two days, complete with stubble. His identifying features include pierced ears and eyebrows, as well as a large scar along his left calf.
Persona Description: Torrent appears as a vaguely humanoid whirlwind with pixels getting whipped around inside of him. His eyes and mouth appear as a wireframe to make it easier for people to talk to him.
History: Walter Turner was born a human to two Neonet Wageslaves. He was gifted with electronics and his parents quickly clued in that he could be a Technomancer, but helped Walter hide it due to the amount of fear and suspicion at the time. A few years later during the return of Halleys Comet, Walter underwent SURGE and became a troll. Walter's parents became hard pressed to protect their son and his secret. They decided it was not safe to live with them and sent him to live in Seattle. Corporate shenanigans, that Walter still believes are the result of the Humanis Policlub, meant that when he arrived, he had no school or job waiting for him. He didn't fall into the shadows right away, but he had to make a living, and there were many that were willing to take advantage of his skill set.
Lifestyle: Torrent is legitimately employed at a library in XX Seattle. His employment is mostly due to "equal opportunity" hiring practices, although his ability to keep the library's system running has helped keep him employed even after rumours of what he does in his off time started. He is constantly hooking up with girls he meets on dating sites and spends as much time as possible crashing at other peoples houses. His home is an empty and dirty flat in a new Neonet neighbourhood. He has a small cache built into a wall that he uses to hide his weapons and armour, the cache is hidden by a blanket that he passes off as a "unique art piece". The neighbourhood is safe and patrolled, and thus stiflingly corporate. He uses the empty house to meditate and practice his skills alone.
Beliefs Being a technomancer has always been like a superpower to Torrent. He hates having to hide it but really believes in a separation between his secret identity and his shadow running. When with runners he likes to show off when he can, but tends to differ to others for leadership. He believes that his powers are caused from the crash, that they showed him the path to enlightenment. He see's sprites as other creatures that hold court in the depths of the matrix. He was born human and still sees himself as a human, his self loathing most apparent when amongst other orcs and trolls. He has made attempts to learn Or'zet and orc and troll culture, but tends to always find himself the token troll, amongst elves dwarves and humans.


Attributes

Body	Agility	Reaction	Strength
6	3	4	5
Charisma	Intuition	Logic	Willpower
3	4	4	3
Edge	Resonance	Essence	Initiative
5	4	6	8

Positive Qualities
Technomancer
Negative Qualities
SINner
Day Job

Active Skills

Athletics Skill Group	1
Cracking Skill Group	4
Influence Skill Group	1
Dodge	1
Computer	1
Data Search	1
Pistols	3
Compiling	4
Registering	4
Decompiling	1
Unarmed(subdual combat)	1(3)
Disguise	1
Shadowing	1

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

Goblin Rock	3
Matrix Games	2
NeoNet	4
Literature	3
Megacorp Economics	2

Language Skills

English	N
German	2
Japanese	2
Or'zet	4
Spanish	2

Complex Forms

Form Name	Level
Analyze	4
Armor	4
Attack	4
Command	4
Exploit	4
Scan	4
Spoof	4
Stealth	4

Custom Stream
Intuition for Fading
Sprites:
Code, Courier, Crack, Machine, Paladin

Living Persona

Firewall	3
Response	4(5)
Signal	2
System	4
Biofeedback	3
VR Initiative	9
VR Passes	3

Registered Sprites

Name	Type	Strength	Tasks Owed
Baroque	Crack	4	1
Ozzo	Code	4	1
Tagger	Machine	4	1

Gear

Ares Predator IV	350¥
3x Spare Clips	12¥
60 Basic Rounds	120¥
30 EX explosive rounds	300¥
Quick draw holster	100¥
Silencer	200¥
Fake Firearms licence (rank 3)	300¥
2x Flash Bang	60¥
Ballistic Shield	1500¥
Lined Coat	700¥
Actioneer Business Clothes	1500¥
Novatech Airwave Commlink w/ Iris Orb OS	2250¥
Meta Link Commlink w/ Vector Xim OS	200¥
Fake SIN (rating 3)	3000¥
Glasses w/ Flare compensation, image link, smartlink, low-light vision, vision enhancement rank 3	1050¥
Grapple Gun	500¥
Rappelling Gloves	70¥
Flashlight	25¥
2x Stim Patch (rating 3)	150¥

Contacts

Contact	Job	C/L
Docker	Fence	3/2

Lifestyle

Comforts	1
Entertainment	2
Necessities	2
Neighbourhood	3
Security	2

1 Month paid


Loadout

Civilian

Bad commlink, glasses

Low Key

Bad commlink, glasses, lined jacket, pistol in holster, flashlight on hip, stim patches in jacket

On a Run

Good commlink, glasses, lined jacket, grapple gun slung on back with shield overtop, pistol in holster, spare clips on belt. flashlight on belt. spare clips, silencer, stim patches and flash bangs in jacket wearing rappelling glves

Nice look

Actioneer business clothes, pistol in built in concealed holster silencer in clothes, good commlink, glasses
[/spoiler]

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: rasmusnicolaj on <11-30-11/0300:50>

I'm not sure it is worth the points to be a troll. You pay a lot for high maximum strength and body and don't use it. Personally I would be an ork instead.
Also Reasonance 6 would be really nice or at least 5 if you can't find the points to hardcap it.

Skill Groups are expensive and you don't get one of your primary skills at 6 (or two at 5). Personally I would drop most of them and live with the fact that some things I would have to learn with Karma. Do you need Electronics that much?
Specializations are super cheap for karma so you could drop those to gain som BP. And skills should be at 1 or 4 for the highest karma efficiency.
I would drop a lot of skills and then just focus on being a hacker you don't have very large dicepools for a lot of your skills anyway.

I would go for more armor. Form Fitting Body Armor is great as is the SecureTech stuff.

If you can find the nuyen maybe a drone would be cool. A small drone for spying or a bigger one with a weapon.

Personally i would het more sensor equipment. Contact lenses and earbuds and maybe some microsensors.

Rasmus

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: Forged on <11-30-11/0435:39>

Thanks for the feedback. Changing to an ork is not in the cards, being a troll technomancer was the point of this character. As for electronics, I know I need Computer and Data search, and I thought hardware and software were still pertinent to a technomancer. If not I have 4 more bp to play with. I don't think it's worth it to max just one or two skills off the bat. I think the character would be to rigid and not flexible enough to be able to change plans. I want this guy to go charging in with his team, acting as backup both in meatspace and the matrix. I'll look into getting better tech, as for armour, I wanted to get stuff that wasn't too out of place for random people to wear (minus the shield)

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: rasmusnicolaj on <11-30-11/0500:09>

Aren't you going to need hacking as opposed to computer? The other two skills are linked to Logic (if I remember correctly) giving you a dicepool at 6. That not much... And remember you can use Sprites to make Data Search for you (and lots of other stuff).
Maybe, but better be good at a few things than mediocre at more. You would probably die in a charge and you only has 6 dices to attack with your sword and your pistol. Drop sword & pistols and get automatics. A modified SMG with FA is better. You can wear FFBA under other cloth so it isn't obvious.
Technomancers are hacking specialists. If you want a more broad character make a cybered combat hacker  ;)

All things said I still respect your choice to make your character based on your roleplaying concept instead of the chance to be the best possible character (convince your GM to give you some bonus karma for that  ;D)

Maybe look at the Archtype thread. Umaro has some good examples you could use for inspiration.

Rasmus

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: UmaroVI on <11-30-11/0704:31>

This guy's basic problem is that he's trying to be good at 3 things (melee combat, ranged combat, hacking) and wound up sucking pretty badly at all 3. It's possible to make some tweaks to make things less bad but really you need to grab a chainsaw and start cutting crap in order to afford enough to be good at things. You have 3 basic problems:

Melee combat is bad unless you either (a) only care about it for melee defense or (b) invest extremely heavily in it.

Technomancers are really really bad at being combat/hacking hybrids, unless "combat" means "rigging."

Trolls are bad at being technomancers.

I think you should take a step or six back. What parts are the core concept that you really want? What can go? Is it just "troll technomancer who can fight in RL?" That is doable.

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: Forged on <11-30-11/1111:02>

Allright, so I need to re-evaluate him, Iwould like to know, what kind of dice pools I should shoot for.

the "categories" I'm thinking of is

	Ranged	Melee	Hacking	Social	Physical
Great at that skill	X	X	X	X	X
Competent	X	X	X	X	X
helpful	X	X	X	X	X
why bother	X	X	X	X	X

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: FastJack on <11-30-11/1154:44>

	Ranged	Melee	Hacking	Social	Physical
Great at that skill			X
Competent	X
helpful				X	X
why bother		X

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: baronspam on <11-30-11/1158:26>

Quote from: Forged on <11-30-11/1111:02>

Allright, so I need to re-evaluate him, Iwould like to know, what kind of dice pools I should shoot for.

the "categories" I'm thinking of is

	Ranged	Melee	Hacking	Social	Physical
Great at that skill	X	X	X	X	X
Competent	X	X	X	X	X
helpful	X	X	X	X	X
why bother	X	X	X	X	X

That is a question that you really need to ask your GM.  One of the issues/quirks/pain in the ass things about shadowrun is that there is very little "forced' game balance in character creation.  It really depends on how much you want to optimize.  You can build two 400 build point characters and one can have literally twice the mechanical effectiveness of the other.  In some games 10 dice is considered professional skill, in others you need to be in the mid teens to be competent and 20 to be "best of the best". 

Take a look at the sample characters in the book, but keep in mind that most people consider these to be of a low power level for a casual game.  Some are fair, others are outright bad (weapon specialist, I'm looking at you here.)  For a look at the other end of the scale, UmaroVI has a link in his sig that goes to a bunch of sample characters he made that are excellent examples of mechanically effective character design. (Although I will say with love that some have some one-armed-wonder cyberarm cheese going on.  But as I said, excellent MECHANICAL effectiveness and at the other end of the scale.)

In general when building Shadowrun characters, keep in mind that the rules favor specialist.  Pick a role, and be very good at it.  Pick on or two other things, and be fairly good at that.  This is a game where Jack of all trades tend to be bad at everything.

Technomancers in general have some quirks to keep in mind.  They can do some neat things.  They are very versatile(with online tasks), very stealthy online with their ability to thread,and with some karma they can become the undisputed King of the Matrix. (ultimately getting 5 IP when in full VR mode, something no one else can do.)  Right out of character creation they can feel a bit weak, however.  They literally live and die by their mental stats (which is why trolls make suboptimal (ok, probably bad) technomancers, they have no good way to increase their meat world IP at creation, and properly kitted for online activity don't have much skills left for non-matrix abilities.  The traditional way for a technomancer to engage in physical combat is with drones or vehicles.  If you want a combat/matrix guy you probably want to go ork, and go hacker rather than techomancer.  You can make a solid hacker and have enough left over for some basic, if not amazing, combat skills.  Ork gets you a jumpstart on some useful physical stats and unlike technomancer you can thown in some cyber/bio ware to help there without goofing up resonance.

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: All4BigGuns on <11-30-11/1216:39>

I know I prefer the idea of a hacker over a technomancer. I have toyed around with technomancer builds a couple times, but always felt unsatisfied before getting done with it. Probably because the technomancer can become better, but the hacker is straight up better right out of the box. "Just add Matrix."  8)

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: Forged on <11-30-11/1620:36>

Thanks for all the responses! I knew I wasnt making the most efficient guy, and I'm glad to see that I've gotten constructive feedback instead of people just saying he sucks. I'm at work right now so I can't fix him up yet, but I'll probably take the advice and drop the sword. Otherwise I am wondering if people on this forum usually expect fairly optimized pcs or if there are some more forgiving games out there.

I'll try to get backstory up soon.

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: Katrex on <12-02-11/0948:45>

I've been thinking on this a lot. It's quite complex, One thing I wondered is... could an AI make a technomancer its home node. HEhehehe. Or could you run programs (not forms) by having programs on a comlink leting you hack youself and then runing progroms using your response rating. I dont know. Anyway without further adu. The claymore wielding swiftest troll you ever saw, Who the fuck would expect this to be a technomancer.

Metatype 45BP
Formori
Stats    160BP
Body       6
Agility       5(9)
Reactions    1
Strength    5
Charisma    1
Intuition            6
Logic       4(6)
Willpower    6

Other stats 40bp
Edge       1
Resonance    6(5)
Qualities 0BP
Positive 35Bp
Genecraft, genetic heritage, surge 15 (bio compat + metagenetic improvement) technomancer.
Negative -35Bp
Indebt 35BP (its not like you’ll ever need money again)

Complex forms
Exploit 5
Stealth 5
Analyse 5
Armor 5
Skills 100Bp
Computer 4
Hacking 6(exploit)
Blades 4
Infiltrate 1
Dodge 4 (ranged)

Knowledge
30 ranks of whatever you like
Gear 175k -35k 30BP

Weapons
Claymore + personalised grip 1k
Crap comlink 1k
Fake sin (rating 4) 4k
Good armor 20k
2months low lifestyle 4k
2k of drugs
5k more random stuff you want.

40k Alpha Cerebral booster .28
27k Genetic optimisation .18
27k Genetic optimisation .18
27k Genetic optimisation .18
27k Genetic optimisation .18
Muscle toner 4 Free


Lets talk dicepools, 14 dice in combat 16 later when you specialise and a couple more when you get tac net. Doing 7p ap-1 + net hits damage. I know I know , no reactions. Here's what you do. You hide/ infiltrate  get a bunch of them in to combat with you (you're reach 2 heheh) and then attack of opportunity them when they try and shoot, Oh and hack their smartguns the turn before you do.

Drugs Cram jazz snuff, betameth  will be used to pump up your reactions and passes, Make sure you have someone who can heal you, An adept with Pain releif and a med kit would be excellent. Phyche is something you'll be taking often 1 intuition 1 logic, no real side effect.

If you want to play around with stats you can, You might like for example to permanently give your charecter blue blood for +1 agi, and you might intend on using kamikaze for another +1 agi, you could in that case take 2 points out of agility and put them in to reactions giveing 8 ractions 9 agi buffed up.
Your hacking is limited but you are a monster in combat. You have the essentials and, the only thing you really lack is data search for legwork.

I did my best.

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: Forged on <12-04-11/0121:04>

Wow that is quite the build Katrex. I need to look through the other sourcebooks again, just to see what some of that stuff does. I think I have a much better idea on how to build characters mechanically now. It turns out the mechanics of Shadowrun are not what I was hoping for. I still love the setting to death though and will continue to churn out low powered characters!

I'm giving up trying to optimize this character. He is dear to me, but the way the mechanics just don't support him. Of course that means if somebody is planning to run a less mechanics focused game I'll be putting him back up on the auction block. but for now I'm going to finish fleshing him out, then work on creating a more viable character for these forums.

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: rasmusnicolaj on <12-05-11/0557:55>

Quote from: Katrex on <12-02-11/0948:45>

genetic heritage ... Muscle toner 4 Free

Genetic Heritage gives you a free genetic modification. Muscler toner is bioware, so that won't work.

And it can be argued that free means no nuyen cost but you still pay the essence cost because the discount on further transgenetic enhancements is reduced by 20 % but that explecit mentions nuyen.
It should be free in essence and nuyen - it is inheritet but that isn't especially clear and what about availability - do you still need restricted gear for stuff over 12?

Rasmus

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: Katrex on <12-05-11/0610:06>

Um read the animal features part of augmentation. Then i'll give you a proper response.

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: rasmusnicolaj on <12-05-11/0639:51>

Ah, yes then you just have to argue, that it is "cats grace" or "bull strenght" you want to get  :)

Rasmus

Title: Re: Torrent the Troll Technomancer
Post by: baronspam on <12-06-11/1847:56>

Quote from: Forged on <11-30-11/1620:36>

Thanks for all the responses! I knew I wasnt making the most efficient guy, and I'm glad to see that I've gotten constructive feedback instead of people just saying he sucks. I'm at work right now so I can't fix him up yet, but I'll probably take the advice and drop the sword. Otherwise I am wondering if people on this forum usually expect fairly optimized pcs or if there are some more forgiving games out there.

I'll try to get backstory up soon.

Again, the best thing to do is sit down with the GM and get his input.  What one table considers standard another considers insanely min/maxed, and vise-versa.  And bringing a hyper-optimized character to a table where everyone else has casual/role play builds can be just as disruptive as the other way around.  As for guidance, with hard numbers.  If your GM is any good and is experienced at all with the system he should be ready for the question.