[Khepera]

I need some help/clarification. In the past I played a variant of the troll. All the same troll stats but a different look. When the Run Faster book came out I figured I could make my variant even better, However I am a little confused and I hope someone can help clear things up for me.

Lets say for example I want to make a character with wolf like traits. Not a shape-snifter.  There are good options for it, claws, fangs, in run faster. Do I need to first select a base variant for doing that, say like select Ork and then add my variants to that race? Or do I create the whole thing from scratch?

If I need to select a base Race like Ork then that's all the info I need.

If I need to create my own for scratch then I am confused as to how I set their base attributes in terms of minimums and maximums.

I hope my attempt to explain myself ins't too confusing and I hope someone can help me.

EDIT: I can even add the variants I create after I am done if anyone has interest.

Any help is appreciated.

[Triskavanski]

You start off with any race you want. So if you wanna make an Ork into a wolfman, you'd start with Ork.

Then since you want to have a specific look, you've got to spend 15 karma just to open up those qualities so you can become a changeling. A changeling is not a shape-shifter, but basically a metavarient with not enough population of his kind to be considered anything else.

So you can select up to 30 points of  positive qualities. Afterwards, you have to roll on the charts of negitive qualities until you get at least 1 less than what you selected in positive qualities.

If you want to select your negative qualities, then you've got to spend 30 karma instead to unlock the ability to choose both your positive and negative qualities.  You still have to match the Positive and negitive changeling qualities up in value, but you can have 1 point less of negative qualities.

If you do have one point less of negative qualities, you've got to pay an extra karma for that difference.

[Khepera]

Good Golly that was quick. Thank you so much.

[Triskavanski]

Changeling is one of my most favorite concepts, and hated mechanics for 5sr. I like 4sr a lot better, as it seemed to be a bit more balanced to me.

[Glyph]

In all honesty, SURGE in SR4 had a few balance issues.  The way it worked, you got double the amount of positive quality points that you spent, balanced by flaws that were often little more than cosmetic in nature (funky eyes, anime-style hair, etc.).  Since some normal qualities could be taken as metagenetic qualities, it was also possible to make a completely normal-looking "changeling".  Glamour and astral hazing were very powerful, and metagenetic improvement: Attribute was mechanically superior to exceptional Attribute.

SR5 took the nerf bat to it far too heavily, though, making it something most people will probably shy away from now.  In addition to it being excessively weakened, trying to roll random qualities for SURGE is a nightmare.  Too many qualities that exclude each other, costs all over the place, and you have to balance the cost of the positive and negative qualities.

[Triskavanski]

Yeah, Surge 4e had a few balance issues, if you were going for broke. (Like power gaming ya dig?) as opposed to often what I'd want to do which would be to make soemthing like OPs character here with the whole wolf like qualities.

One thing that Most people tended to look over, was just simply taking Changeling started you off with a 5 point negative quality - Distinctive Style.  And yes, some of the negatives were special eyes (Locking you out of taking Cyber eyes.)  Unusual hair was one some people would take yeah.

In fifth they added some mechanics to these ones, which was a good step towards balancing stuff out without needing GMs to think about it and get into fights with players and such.. But then they pushed it waaaay too far over onto the other end. Now to make it any good at all, you've got to go for broke.

Almost all the issues of the current system really have to do with the desire to include random dice rolls. Everything from the awkward karma costs, to the values of the qualities, to not including some qualities.

Well, I've been spending some time rewriting the rules for changeling to meet a more happy minimum.
My house rules
You spend 1 karma for 2 positive, 1 negative, just like 4e. The reason  for doing it like this is just how much more of a difference there is in quality costs, when in 4th, it was 5/10/15. You can spend up to 15 points this way.
M. Attribute and Hazing are removed as selectable qualities.
All the current qualities that were in the 4e book as both changeling and normal qualities could be taken again. So making a werewolf changeling for example, you could take one of the negatives as Silver if you wanted to.
And we're also going to be lowering the cost of a lot of qualities, or bumping up what they do, or both. Like Balance receptor vs Balance Tail, both of which are not very balanced to Natural Athlete

[Overbyte]

Almost all the issues of the current system really have to do with the desire to include random dice rolls. Everything from the awkward karma costs, to the values of the qualities, to not including some qualities.

Randomness in chargen is almost always a terrible idea.