[JakeConhale]

EDIT - new stats posted, on page 2 as reply #20.


After having my 3rd character pretty much dismantled (got knocked out by an earth spirit chucking a boulder at my head, leading to the loss of every valuable asset I had during the extraction including a 60,000+ nuyen APC.... no, I'm not still bitter, why do you ask?) I came up with this new guy. Hoping for a sanity check before I get another character shot out from under me.

This guy is meant to be in the midst of the action. I think that's what's called a tank. Backstory is he's an out of luck UCAS citizen who enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. Now he's living in DeeCee after mustering out. The GM said I could have 39 additional post-creation karma to help catch up to the other runners. He's a front-line character, relying on the armor and Common Sense quality along with armor enhancements like orthoskin to save his hoop. One of my next planned purchases will be the camera grenade mentioned in Run & Gun to help prevent me from charging into the local "RPG Enthusiast!" fan club meeting.

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Attributes (A):
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Body   5+2 (Bone lacing)
Agility   6
React   5+2 (Synaptic Booster)
Strength   3
Willpow   4
Logic   3
Intuit   3
Char   3
Edge (Human - D)   5

Initiative: 10 +3D6 (2 from Synaptic Booster)
Mental - 5
Physical - 7
Social - 5

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Qualities (Negative):
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Addition (mild) - Kamikaze
Day Job (10 hours)
Dependents (slacker sister - "Caroline")
Driven
National SIN (France)
National SIN (UCAS)
On File

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Qualities (positive)
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Bilingual (French)
Common Sense
Jack of All Trades
Perceptive I
Restricted Gear (light mil-spec armor)

Post-character creation:
Firefight - Close quarters defense against firearms
Quick healer

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Contacts:
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Bounty Hunter - "Electra Coyote"   2   3 (Can act as a fixer and knowledge resource on the criminal underworld)
France Embassy Official - "Mathis"   3   1 (is blackmailing my char as an intelligence asset, but occasionally provides support to engender some goodwill)

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Skills (C):
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(5) Long arms
(6) Automatics - Spec: Assault rifle
(5) Heavy weapons
(5) Pistols
(5) Perception - Spec: Visual
(1) outdoors (group) - survival(W), navigation(I), tracking(I)
(1) Athletics (group) - gymnastics(A), running(S), swimming(S)

Post creation skills:
(1) Blades
(3) Unarmed
(3) Armorer - used to repair armor

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Items (B)
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(1) Light Hardened Mil-spec Battle Armor
[1 - armor] Chemical seal
[1 - armor] AR gloves
[1 - armor] Shock weave
(1) Hardened Mil-spec helmet
[1 - helmet] Vision: Low-light
[1 - helmet] Headphones
(1) Contacts
[1 - Contacts] Vision: Flare
[1 - Contacts] Vision: image
[1 - Contacts] Vision: Smart
(1) Lined coat
(1) Earbuds
(1) Ballistic Mask
            
(1) Bone Lacing (Standard)   Aluminum
(1) Lvl2 Synaptic Booster (Used)
(1) Lvl 3 Orthoskin (Standard)
(1) Lvl 4 Damage compensator (2&2) (Standard)
            
(5) Credstick (standard)
(1) subvocal microphone
(1) Hermes Ikon commlink

(1) Ares Alpha Assault rifle
(1) Savalette Guardian Heavy pistol
(1) sling (assault rifle)
(1) Quickdraw holster
(1) Weapon personality (C-3PO)
(1) bayonet (assault rifle)
            
(12) Regular (Heavy) x10
(100) Regular (assault) x10
(12) APDS (Heavy) x10
(3) Flash-pak
(12) GL: HE grenades
         
(1) Survival knife
(1) Combat knife
(1) knucks

(1) shop [armorer]
            
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (Savalette Guardian)
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (knucks)   
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (Synaptic Booster)
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (Bone Lacing)
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (driver's license)
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (Orthoskin)
(1) Lvl 4 Fake sin ("Pierre Devereaux")
(4) Restraints   Metal
(1) survival kit
(1) medkit
(1) Biomonitor
(1) Flashlight (standard)

(4) Drug: Kamikaze
(1) lifestyle (low)      -   2200 per month
(1) Spoof chip + Morph plate
(1) Honda Citizen (Ford Americar - gunmetal gray)

Starting nuyen - 1410

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Knowledge skills   
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(4) Military Procedures (Foreign Legion)
(2) Sports - Cricket
(2) DeeCee Arms Dealers
(2) DeeCee Drug Dealers
(2) DeeCee Money Launderers

[Reaver]

You do realize that by having 2 national SINs, it means that ALL your biometrics are in the system not once, but twice?

Meaning, you leave a drop of blood, or hair, or even a finger print at a crime scene, you have doubled the chance of getting linked, and thus charged with the crime....

[JakeConhale]

Hadn't thought about that to quite that degree, however police investigations are almost never involved in our runs, for some reason. I'll talk to the GM, see how likely that is of happening. The base plan, however, is that the armor would hold everything.

As for the France SIN, Mathis may be able to run interference on that point, or even hold it over the character's head as blackmail "you know that shootout three weeks back? Well, do this favor for me and I'll make sure any inquiries dont find anything...."

[ZeldaBravo]

1. Synaptic Boosters are cultured bioware, which means they were created specifically for you by cloning and bioengineering your own cells. You just cannot have Used (or any) grade cultured bioware, 'cultured' is it's own grade.
2. There is no 'Heavy pistols' skill in the game.
3. IMO wasting restricted gear for a piece of armor is quite suboptimal. If you're a frontliner get yourself a Pain Editor and laugh at damage penalties.
4. You don't need that much licences. You'll be fine with 'Restricted cyberware', 'Restricted bioware', 'Firearms', 'Concealed carry'. And 'Restricted Armor'.
5. No social or stealth skills is a poor idea.
6. A flying Microdrone > Grenade camera.

[JakeConhale]

1. I asked the GM specifically about it. His response: "I don't think there's any rule against it".
2. No, but there is a "Pistols" skill, which is explicitly stated on Page 133 of the 5th Edition rulebook that it "includes all types of handheld pistols". I'm not sure what your point is here.
3. Perhaps, but a pain editor only protects against unconsciousness while armor protects against death.
4. The thinking for the licenses is that if I help Carmen Electra with some bounty hunting, that would involve at least interacting with the police, so I'd better have anything prominent that's restricted as licensed. I misread the book as that each individual thing needed a license, I'll consolidate. Still, the armor is explicitly 16F, can't get a license for that.
5. Got a point there, perhaps sneaking? Leadership would be a easy choice for anyone with military experience, along with intimidation. However, the focus on weapons is to give my character a higher chance of surviving at least the first run, where i can then use Jack of All Trades to accelerate skill acquisition. I'll look it over.
6. Good point. The Fly-Spy would seem cost effective, I'll put that on my wish list.

[Novocrane]

You do realize that by having 2 national SINs, it means that ALL your biometrics are in the system not once, but twice?

It's not quite as bad as you paint it. The GSR is pretty far from being a perfect system, and errors aren't unheard of.

[ZeldaBravo]

1. It isn't outright stated, but it shouldn't have to be. Cultured Bioware is created specifically for your genetic makeup. Unless you have a genetically identical twin/clone you can harvest bioware from, you can't have Used Cultured Bioware. But whatever, it's your table and your rules.
2. Uh, sorry. I wasn't totally awake when I wrote that. Heavy weapons and Pistols got merged together in my mind lol.
3. Armor 18 is easy to get without restricted gear. The "Hardened armor" quality lets you to shrug off some small arms fire but you shrug it off anyway. APDS ammo, SnS ammo, and sniper rifles will punch through that no problem. Mana spells outright ignore your armor. Milspec armor doesn't prevent death, it provokes the opposition to bring bigger guns or to drop lightly armored teammates first.
4. You really don't need that much licences because the law enforcement doesn't force you to have them.
5. Sneaking and Intimidate sounds fine!

[Top Dog]

On the numbered points:

1) The text states that "Cultured Bioware must be tailor-made for the body in which it will eventually find a home" (emphasis mine). Not "usually is"; it's quite a strong rule (even if spelling it out might have been better). Semi-official answer: http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=12106.0 reply #4.
2) You're not the only one that read that wrong, Zelda...`
3) Besides the relative waste of a PQ, running around in Milspec... attracts attention. Not that it's not good to have, but like Zelda says, there are better ways. (If you do, eventually, buy Milspec, might as well go for Heavy - despite the name, Heavy is not any more cumbersome, and they're both very unsubtle).
4) ZeldaBravo's consolidation would be all you need indeed. Note that you don't need a Driver's Licence - that's not a restricted activity or item (as far as the game is concerned, anyway). Although you're right about the armor.
5) Sneaking is really the only one you need from stealth. (Not that the rest can't be useful). Social skills are more diverse. If anything, Leadership is one you don't really need - that only really becomes useful when you're an actual face, and a dice pool of 4 isn't really going to help anyone. Intimidation is good, and at least some Etiquette, Con and Negotiation usually comes in nicely.

On SINs, I don't think you can actually get 2 SIN's. Well, you can, but not as a Negative Quality. I disagree with Reaver - it doesn't give you twice the chance to get caught. Nationalities and corporations don't all share biometics freely, only in special circumstances, so it's not like everything will be checked twice. It does mean your records are on file in two places when people do start digging wide, but that's not that much worse than having them out there once. Certainly not "Have another 5 karma"-worse.

Small point on Bone Lacing - it increases your Body by 2 only for the purpose for damage reduction. Granted, that's one of the main things, but listing it as 5 (7) implies it counts for everything, which it doesn't.

What rating is your Medkit? It should be 6 (any less is kind of meh), and it should be listed.

If you have nuyen and essence left, you might consider a Datajack and an implanted Smartlink. The first gives DNI (useful for all sorts of things), the second gives a +2 instead of +1 dice pool as wireless bonus. They're both not that expensive.

Armorer isn't just armor btw - it's weapon care and modifications too. So that would indeed be good to get soonish. (Basic weapon care is also a part of the firearms skills though).

[Whiskeyjack]

WIL 4 isn't doing much. I'd take a point out to bump up INT. I'd also steal a point from LOG for INT as well.

Frankly you have a ton of redundant combat skills. I get playing to a concept but this needs to be pointed out when people build every soldier as if they must have 5+ in every firearm. You will use one per turn. You are incredibly over invested to your detriment. Post chargen you have 6 fighting skills and you frankly do nothing else well. I suggest you remedy this. I think you would be just fine with Unarmed (especially with Bone Lacing or Aug). Your STR is too low for Blades to be useful at any rate. This is really just one of those things but it is a lot of over investment that could be spent better elsewhere (like in Gymnastics or Sneaking or Tracking).

Armorer is not very useful especially with LOG 3. Find a contact to do this. It's never come up in a game I've ever seen.

Wait so you're a former soldier with a billion weapon skills and no Small Group Tactics? Hahaha. Fix that now.

I wouldn't expect to go running around in MilSpec outside of the Barrens. Get a good SMG, best general carry gun you'll find. Probably the Ares Sigma from GH3.

[Kincaid]

Armorer isn't always terribly useful, but it's pretty flavorful.  My soldier character has a tiny bit as well.  I'd take 1, which allows you to buy one hit.  That essentially covers the very basic stuff.  It's not your MOS, but you can do a few things.

You absolutely need Small Unit Tactics.  I wrote a mini-adventure for Bloody Business with the intent of making mooks deadly.  SUT is a big part of this.

Buying skills, especially non-specialized skills, with chargen karma is pretty inefficient.  I'm not as solidly in the "only automatics" camp as some, but you can save some skill points by dropping Longarms and switch them over to the one melee skill.

[Whiskeyjack]

I think taking both Longarms and Automatics is fine. Pistols is the overkill. You get what you need with MPs in Automatics. But having the option to spray fire with an SMG, snipe, or use wide choke buckshot isn't bad. 2 skills is much more reasonable at any rate.

You also don't need much heavy weapons if you just plan to use grenades. Aim for a spot and it'll hit that spot. The ground doesn't dodge.

[Top Dog]

I think taking both Longarms and Automatics is fine. Pistols is the overkill. You get what you need with MPs in Automatics. But having the option to spray fire with an SMG, snipe, or use wide choke buckshot isn't bad. 2 skills is much more reasonable at any rate.

You also don't need much heavy weapons if you just plan to use grenades. Aim for a spot and it'll hit that spot. The ground doesn't dodge.

You do need some, because with no hits, the ground will be dodging your grenade after all.

Also, higher dice pools allow you to attack people directly (as an opposed test), which means they can't simply run away from your grenade with an immediate action.

[Whiskeyjack]

Sure. I just think high AGI, smartlink, a specialty and a point or two of skills should cover it.

That's what this character really needs is AGI boosting. Synaptic Boosters are nice and all but affording them means forgoing some pretty important and useful ware.

[JakeConhale]

Regarding cultured Bioware not being available as used - that was my initial concern specifically due to the whole cultured aspect. I asked the GM, he didn't disallow it, and I'm not above using something like that in my favor. Worked better than having Lvl2 Wired Reflexes (less essence, about the same price, never need to "activate"...)

I don't believe I can use Small Unit Tactics, though I will inquire. The GM posted some custom rules, here's what he said:

Use Your Own Damn Tactics: You cannot use the team tactics rules from Run & Gun to get the bonuses described in the book. However, these are generally good tactics so feel free to actually implement them, just don’t expect to get random bonuses other than what naturally occurs from acting upon a good idea.

I'll reconsider the longarms, that was a sticking point for me as well. I don't have a sniper rifle or such, as far as I know only one of our group does but no one knows how to use it. We don't have much in the way of straight combat personnel, just one street samurai after my last character got nerfed, so I expect to be pulling a lot of that weight while the mages and hacker hang back and do whatever it is they do. Getting a MP would help as well, I wouldn't scrap the pistols skill but would shrink it to 1 or 2 or something. The Ares Crusader II is almost equivalent to the Savalette Guardian anyways (just lacking 1 DV and 1 point of armor piercing) so that would handily fill the holster while consolidating skills.

My medkit is level 3, isn't that as powerful as it can get while still being something you can store rather than having to lug around?

I was thinkiing about the datajack. Smartlink sounds good too, though'd id have to massage some numbers. Remove it from the contacts, transfer low-light from Helmet to contacts, then perhaps later on I can add Thermographic to the helmet. Can't add it to the contacts (at least not at chargen) without taking out Flare and IMO, I might as well just hand my enemies weapons and say "go ahead, kill me".


For the record, using the previously posted configuration, my essence is 2.6

My plan for using the light armor is so that, on runs, I may be able to wear the armor beneath the lined coat to disguise it. No helmet, of course, but it'd be one heck of a surprise to anyone trying to take a shot at me or throwing a punch to my midsection. *CLANG* GM said Medium and Heavy would definitely not be concealable in such a fashion, though the additional Hardened Armor makes me salivate.

[Whiskeyjack]

Don't buy skills at ranks 1-2 with skill points, it's incredibly inefficient. If you want Pistols 1 buy it with karma. I wanted to point out the huge over investment because practically you will use one skill a turn and will rarely swap weapons during combat time.

You want a retinal smartlink implant for the wireless bonus. They're pretty cheap. A datajack is good to give DNI between your gun and retinal smartlink and is also cheap.

Hm. Well. Does that house rule mean you can't use the skill at all or you can't use it basically as a group? If the latter it's still useful to a degree. But maybe not. If you get the bonuses solely through role playing I'd read up on the section and implement it. You're a military guy; you should be thinking that way anyway.

I wouldn't allow wearing MilSpec armor under a jacket. That goes on your hands and feet and probably has a gorget. It appears to be designed to be sealed. No way.

R3 medkits fit in a pocket. R6 would need a backpack. Hardly the end of the world for a lot of runs.

Sniping as a role is of limited use in SR since most fights occur up close and/or in buildings with poor long range LOS. But sniper rifles do huge damage with big -AP whether you're at 2 meters or 200. The big issue close in is the lack of auto fire or suppression options. But there's no penalty to using them so close in aside from concealing them to get there in the first place.

I dunno I think Wired 2 + enough money to buy Muscle Toner is better than Synaptic Booster 2. Wired turns on as a Free or it's always on. Functionally it doesn't make a difference.