[Bushw4cker]

I'm helping a new player build a Technomancer Sniper Paracritter Hunter. 

She is going to playing in new campaign I'm GMing, starting this Tuesday.  The campaign is going to be between Street level and Normal . For the first 6 runs or so, the Runners shouldn't have too hard of a time surviving unless they do something really really stupid.

I'm House Ruling a few Technomancer rules.  I'm allowing her to have a Smartlink Complex Form, and compiled Machine Sprites are going to be able to pilot her Fly-Spy Drones. They get one Autosoft (Rating = Sprite Level), for every 2 Levels.

Character is made with Karma Gen Point Buy (800 Karma)

I know level 15 In Debt is kind of insane, but it was near impossible to make character she wanted without taking it. The Shadowrunners are going to have opportunity to get a lot of Nuyen in the first run, so hopefully if they play well, they can get nice bounty on a Toxic Shaman they are going to be trying to stop from wrecking Havoc in Puyallup, and she will be able to knock big chunk out of her In Debt Quality.

Please check out the Attachment as well, I'm trying to get some feedback on my character sheets.

Any thoughts comments or suggestions are always appreciated

Thanks


Metatype: Elf
Sex: Female
Nationality: Japan

ATTRIBUTES
Body 4
Agility 5
Reaction 4
Strength 4
Charisma 5
Intuition 5
Logic 5
Willpower: 5
Edge 3
Resonance 4

POSITIVE QUALITIES
Prototype Transhuman
Analytical Mind
Quick Healer
Catlike

NEGATIVE QUALITIES
SINner (National)
Emotional Attachment (Sniper Rifle)
Allergy, Wanted or Insomnia (Haven't Decided on that yet)
In Debt 15

ACTIVE SKILLS
Con 1
Perception 3
 (Visual +2)
Sneaking 4
 (Urban +2)
Throwing Weapons 1
Longarms 5
 (Sniper Rifles +2)
Computer 3
Software 1
Compiling 4
Registering 4
 (Machine Sprites +2)
Pilot Ground Craft 1
Pilot Air Craft 1
Gunnery 1
Locksmith 1
First Aid 1
Armorer 1

SKILL GROUPS
Close Combat 1
Cracking 1
Influence 1
Outdoors 1
Athletics 1

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS
Biology 1
Parazoology 2
Geography 1
HMHVV Infected 1
Black Markets 2
 (Tallislegging +2)
Social Networks 1
Current Events 1
Literature 1
History 1
Global Politics 1
Corporate Politics 1
Music 1

LANGUAGE SKILLS
Japanese N
Sperethiel 3
English 1
Mandarin 1

PROTOTYPE TRANSHUMAN BIOWARE
Orthoskin
 Orthoskin Upgraded (Electroshock)
Bio-Weapon (Electrical Discharge)
Platelet Factories

COMPLEX FORM
Smartlink

ARMOR
Lined Coat w/ Electrochromic Modification, Insulation-3, Fire Resistance-3
Armor Clothing (Casual) w/ Concealed Pockets x2, Biofiber Pocket x1, Faraday Pocket x2

WEAPONS
Ares Desert Strike Sniper Rifle w/ Easy Breakdown (Powered), Trigger Removal, External Smarlink, Sling, Silencer
 2 Clips APDS, 1 Clip Gel  .. 40 extra APDS Rounds
Mossberg AM-CMDT w/ Smartlink, Trigger Removal, Silng
 2 Clips Flechette, 1 Clip Explosive
Defiance T-250 (Short) w/ Smartlink, Trigger Removal
 20 Rounds Stick-N-Shock
Cavaler Falchion w Smartlink, Adv. Safety, Trigger Removal, Melee Hardening, Sling
 30 Rounds Regular Ammo
Combat Knife
Survival Knife

GEAR
Goggles w/ Flare Comp, Vision Mag, Thermographic, Vision Enhance-1
Ear Buds w/ Sound Filter-1, Audio Enhance-2
Reactive Myomer Pack
Concealable Holster (T-250)

CONTACTS
Fixer (Con 5, Loy 2)
Talislegger (Con 6, Loy 1)
Border Agent (Con 2, Loy 5)
Parazoologist (Con 1, Loy 3)

VEHICLE
Toyota Gopher

DRONES
4 MCT Fly-Spy's w/ Upgraded Visual Sensors (Rating 6)

[drakir]

Do you and/or the player know that to pay off that debt the money is not enough? It is a negative quality so for every  5000 Nuyen "In Debt" it costs 7500 nuyen and two karma? To get totally rid of "In Debt 15" costs 30 karma and at least 112500 nuyen. (If done in the first month)

All negative qualities cost double to get rid of. (And all positive also costs double after charGen).  In Debt 15 sounds like suicide. Just to pay the monthly cost is ridiculously expensive. And if they are going to get very rich on their first job, why not wait with some investments?

Paracritter hunter and Technomancer are two roles VERY hard to combine. The player should choose one or the other. This PC is medioker/bad at both instead of great at one.

[FST_Gemstar]

Its a lot of debt... remember you also need the requisite karma to buy off the quality, not just nuyen....

It seems like the character could be a bit more straight forward.

Combat technos that arent into rigging/hacking only need a dew things...
Highish agility
Highish reac/int
Max weapon/spec
Max compiling/registering (machine)
Decent edge

This will allow you to get 20+ dice in shooting (agi + weapon skill + spec + smartlink + diagnostics), and have edge to push that farther and to help with registering rolls.

Everything else is gravy / gimmicky. 
Drugs! Even combat technos love them.
Ware options: Narco (for drugs). Muscle toner. Implanted smartlink. Something with a lot of capacity to fit in more 'ware (ex, partial cyberleg or cyberskull). Fill it with cheap helpful 'ware: attention coprocessor, the navigation booster, math cpu, radar sensors, etc. 

You dont need high logic. As a combat character, its prime value to a combat techno is a registered sprite limit. You really only need one for your gun, others are bonus. 

Your house rules... sustaining a smartlink as a cf seems counterintuitive (+2 dice, but -2 dice to sustain... unless you thread it and it just lasts for hits x minutes?)... just buy an external smartlink.  Flyspies can fly themselves with autosofts just fine.... in karmabuild, buying an rcc ans softs is cheaper than investing in logic for the sprite capacity.   

Do you make your karma builds spend karma for knowledge/contacts, or do you get free points like in priority/sum2ten? 


Edit: 
Quick mockup... 
No contacts/knowledge/gear/CFs.  Still has 32 karma to allocate. Currently has 35.5k nuyen to spend on gear.  Could afford to drop Reaction/Intuition and even Logic down if you wanted for more karma. Still room in positive/negative qualities if desired. gave the character automatics (assault rifles) just because they have long range too and automatics is just generally more useful to a street level campaign (IMO). 

== Info ==
Name: Unnamed Character           Alias:
Human                             Movement: 16/32, 2m/ hit, Swim: 9, 1m/ hit
                                  Composure: 6
Street Cred: 0                    Judge Intentions: 8
Notoriety: 0                      Lift/Carry: 5 (30 kg/20 kg)
Public Awareness: 0               Memory: 6
Karma: 0                          Nuyen: 35680
Age:                              Skin:
Eyes:                             Hair:

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3                            CHA: 3
AGI: 6 (                        INT: 5
REA: 5                            LOG: 3
STR: 2                            WIL: 3
EDG: 3                            RES: 4

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence: 5.0                      Initiative:           10 + 1d6
Physical Damage Track: 10         Rigger Init:          10 + 1d6
Stun Damage Track: 10             Astral Init:         
Physical: 4                       Matrix AR Init:       10 + 1d6
Mental: 5                         Matrix VR Cold Init:  5 + DP + 3d6
   Attention Coprocessor [+1] (Only for Perception)
   Math SPU [+1] (Only for Scientific or Technical Knowledge Skills)
   Orientation System [+2] (Only for Navigation)
Social: 5                         Matrix VR Hot Init:   5 + DP + 4d6
Astral: 5

== Active Skills ==
Automatics (Assault Rifles)       Base: 0  + Karma: 6  = 6   Pool: 14 (16)
Compiling (Machine)               Base: 0  + Karma: 6  = 6   Pool: 10 (12)
Computer (Matrix Perception)      Base: 0  + Karma: 1  = 1   Pool: 4 (6)
Con (Fast Talk)                   Base: 0  + Karma: 1  = 1   Pool: 4 (6)
Electronic Warfare (Sensor Operations) Base: 0  + Karma: 1  = 1   Pool: 4 (6)
Navigation                        Base: 0  + Karma: 1  = 1   Pool: 6
Perception (Visual)               Base: 0  + Karma: 6  = 6   Pool: 11 (13)
Registering (Machine)             Base: 0  + Karma: 6  = 6   Pool: 10 (12)
Sneaking (Urban)                  Base: 0  + Karma: 4  = 4   Pool: 12 (14)
Survival                          Base: 0  + Karma: 1  = 1   Pool: 4
Tracking                          Base: 0  + Karma: 1  = 1   Pool: 6

== Knowledge Skills ==

== Qualities ==
Addiction (Mild) (Psyche)
Addiction (Mild) (Cram)
Agile Defender
Drug Tolerant
Jack of All Trades Master of None
Technomancer

== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Muscle Toner Rating 2
Narco
Partial Cyberskull (AGI 3, STR 3, Physical 5)
   +Attention Coprocessor
   +Orientation System
   +Math SPU
   +Fiberoptic Hair Rating 4

== Weapons ==
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 7        Accuracy: 4     DV: 2S       AP: -     RC: 2

== Commlink ==
Living Persona (ATT: 3, SLZ: 5, DP: 3, FWL: 3)

I would focus knowledge/contacts on paracritters, magical goods dealers, outdoorsy things, specialized datahavens, the like....  I think it would be cool if they used magical compounds/drugs/poisons on themselves and their targets... 



I would love to learn more about why this character is paracritter hunter. Both naratively and mechanically.  A Techno-sniper-rigger already seems like a lot... and adding a paracritter focus (hard to demonstrate mechanically on a technomancer without pulling from essential areas), seems like a lot more... And you make it even harder on yourself in karma build.

[Kuirem]

I'm not really surprised you can't build the character without In Debt XV, those starting attributes are extremely high. The first thing you could do is lower STR to 2 (you don't use it much anyway) and BOD to 3 (difference between 3 and 4 is negligible), that's 55 Karma saved, or 110 000¥ if you invest it in Nuyen, more than what In Debt XV gave you.

Then the Technomancer part of the character seems under used. No Hacking (1 Cracking is nothing), no Rigging, only 1 Complex Form, lowish Resonance. Why not just build a sniper and add a RCC with good Softs for the Fly-Spy? The result will be pretty much the same.

Finally, since you are the GM you decide how you rule it but Emotional Attachment is a tricky Negative. The character will have a hard time  to let go of her sniper rifle even when she has to walk down the street but worst she will only use it in combat except in the most dire situations (like melee), see the description in Run Faster : 'The character will always use this item, even if presented with a “better” option'. So the other guns you take are technically dead weight until she buy off the quality.

[Bushw4cker]

Thanks for the Replies!

Player is really set on playing a Technomancer. They are probably going to have dedicated Decker.

I made some changes based on your Feedback...

Lowered Strength and Body to 3

Gave her a SVD Sniper Rifle, 16K less than Desert Strike. Surprisingly, it's only Restricted..

Got rid of Emotional Attachment.

Lowered In Debt Quality to Rating 5

Raised Sneaking and Registering Skills to Rating 5.

[drakir]

You say the player is set on technomancer. As she, and I'm guessing the rest of the group also, are new to SR, how much of the lore/setting do they know? Does she really undestand what a technomancer is? Shaman+hunter would fit so much better. A technomancer is urban and a paracritter hunter, at least to me, sounds more rural. To me, those roles simply do not fit together, mechanically and/or lore-wise.

[Bushw4cker]

You say the player is set on technomancer. As she, and I'm guessing the rest of the group also, are new to SR, how much of the lore/setting do they know? Does she really undestand what a technomancer is? Shaman+hunter would fit so much better. A technomancer is urban and a paracritter hunter, at least to me, sounds more rural. To me, those roles simply do not fit together, mechanically and/or lore-wise.

Yeah, she has read quite a bit of the book. I am massaging the rules a bit for her in regards to using Machine Sprites.  The most important thing for me when I GM is that my players have fun.

3 of the Players are new to Shadowrun, 1 has played quite a bit.

The most experienced of the group is playing a Human Face.

Group also has a Gunslinger Adept and a Mage who specializes in Astral Combat.

I made her character in fast drying clay, attached is pic. The mini figures I made are about half the size of a pinkie finger (except the Trolls). I made all the Npcs out of of clay as well and use a dry erase mat.

[Novocrane]

paracritter hunter, at least to me, sounds more rural

Paracritters can make lairs in cities, too. Devil rats are the first to come to mind, but even the ones you wouldn't expect will occasionally make their way where they're not welcome.