[baronspam]

This thread isn't so much about how to build a particular character, but rather how to put together a tight group.  These are some of my thoughts on what every group needs to cover to be successful at running the shadows.

1- A matrix specialist.  Absolutly mandatory.  Technology is everywhere.  You might get by without a magician, or a drone expert, but the net touches aboslutly everything.  You need a top line hacker, somone to spoof the security systems, to open the maglocks, to gather (and plant) info.  The web is just so ubiquitious that it would be hard to get buy without someone watching the matrix for you.

2-Some basic social skills.  Every group may not need a full blown "Face", but someone should have at least a moderate charisma, some etiquette, and some negotiation.  If everyone is an uncouth cyber-muderer with a charisma of 1 and no social skills you can't even get through the meeting with Mr. Johnson, let alone handle situations where you can't just shoot everyone in the room.

3- The ability to do legwork.  You can't lay it all on the hacker.  Everyone should have several contacts, and several knowledge skills that are potentially usefull for background, investigation, and general information gathering.  Coordinate and diversity.  The group should cover as many areas of knowledge and as diverse a group of contacts as possible.

4- Solid combat bonifides.  While some groups end up all gun bunnies and vat grown ninjas, the opposite can happen as well.  If you sit down at the table to find out that you have a street doc, an hacker with combat paralysis, a shaman with no combat spells, and a non-magical, non-agumented detective with no combat skills above 3 you are going to have a bad time once the lead starts flying.

[Triggvi]

It really depends on the type of game you are playing. Every character should be able to take on multiple roles in the group.

If you are playing combat intensive game you need people with above average combat skills.

A less combat intensive game you need more social skills and information gather skills.

[CanRay]

Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief.  Mastermind is Mr. Johnson. 

[Glyph]

There are numerous ways to get there, but I think shadowrunning can be broken down to: negotiation, information gathering, stealthy infiltration, and violent exfiltration.

Even though it is a game of specialists, it is usually a good idea to make a character with at least some ability in two or three of these areas - maybe your guy is the ork merc who shoots things dead, but he could have a decent intimidation skill, some contacts in the ork underground and among the Cascade Ork, and some infiltration skill, an urban camo suit, and a lockpick gun.

[CanRay]

"I got a lockpick gun."  "That's a Masterkey system, not a lockpick gun."  "Difference is?"  "Noise."  "Oh."

[Valashar]

Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief.  Mastermind is Mr. Johnson. 

"Here's your problem: You each know what you can do. I know what all of you can do. So that gives me the edge, that give me the plan."

I'd make him more a micromanaging fixer than a Mr. J.

[CanRay]

Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief.  Mastermind is Mr. Johnson. 

"Here's your problem: You each know what you can do. I know what all of you can do. So that gives me the edge, that give me the plan."

I'd make him more a micromanaging fixer than a Mr. J.

Or, worse, a member of the team that has a perfect reason for wanting more than an even share. 

[Cass100199]

As a player, I've always played the fighter. Always a variation, but I've never been interested in the magic user or the thief. I played a memorable rigger once, but that was personality more than anything else.

But here's my problem as a GM. Everyone picks their niche and then sticks to it. You can always count on the same guys in your group to play the same thing, regardless of game. for me that gets boring. It's anecdotal, but eventually every group I've gamed with gets to this point.

[John Shull]

I get the players to try out a different character type each time we reboot.  It keeps things fresh and makes the game dynamics different every change up.  The only real trick is getting the player a character that still fits a facet of their personality.  Everyone has different sides to themselves and it gets interesting when players bring something different on other characters.  Some learning curves are steep but they will always surprise you with fresh takes on themes.

[Triggvi]

The essence of a team is working together. The rest is numbers and attitude. A good team dynamic is not just the characters but the players as well. You have a good dynamic and you will almost always have a great team no matter what the characters that players play.

[Exodus]

I wish my players had thought of that before making their characters. What I'm working with now is crap.

1x close combat (facepunch) adept with no contacts, minimal gear, no socials, and uncouth
1x cybered sword specialist with some guns skills, 1 contact, moderate-low gear and minimal social skills
2x close-combat (clubs) experts, 1 that can fly a helicopter and has enough reaction to dodge just about any grunt-level attack and the other has the body to soak the same attack

They have zero magical backup (except an adept that could punch a spirit away I suppose), zero matrix backup, and amongst the group of 4 they have 2 contacts.... and the 2 clubbers share their contact. Their table talk smacks of feelings of superiority. I don't think they realize that they would be killed ruthlessly by anything other than the low-tier gang members they're fighting. I guess they'll have to start burning edge or making new character sheets by the end of the week.

Did I mention that they're all human and have been doing jobs for Humanis unwittingly while their contacts are metas? Yeah, it pays to have a hacker that can beat the easy threshold to do a background check on their "Johnson".

[John Shull]

Having a group that is overspecialized is issue for the GM.  Unless you just love the gritty fight club vibe campaign your painted into a corner storywise.  Getting guest star NPC's into the game will open it up.  Elven Hacker hires out the team for protection in a run, you can funnel a matrix inspired in.  I had such a NPC work with team once because no one on team really liked to hack.  She would just spill the techno portion of the run to the team and give them tech support.  Her name was VooDoo and she worked great for me.  I recommend the use of the Mission Specialists like this to give extra options to your group.

[baronspam]

I wish my players had thought of that before making their characters. What I'm working with now is crap.

1x close combat (facepunch) adept with no contacts, minimal gear, no socials, and uncouth
1x cybered sword specialist with some guns skills, 1 contact, moderate-low gear and minimal social skills
2x close-combat (clubs) experts, 1 that can fly a helicopter and has enough reaction to dodge just about any grunt-level attack and the other has the body to soak the same attack

They have zero magical backup (except an adept that could punch a spirit away I suppose), zero matrix backup, and amongst the group of 4 they have 2 contacts.... and the 2 clubbers share their contact. Their table talk smacks of feelings of superiority. I don't think they realize that they would be killed ruthlessly by anything other than the low-tier gang members they're fighting. I guess they'll have to start burning edge or making new character sheets by the end of the week.

Did I mention that they're all human and have been doing jobs for Humanis unwittingly while their contacts are metas? Yeah, it pays to have a hacker that can beat the easy threshold to do a background check on their "Johnson".

Wow, not only do you have the classic "all combat" group, you have an all close combat group.  The would work for enforcer/strongarm kind of stuff, but there is just so much stuff that they can't do as a group I would have been really tempted to tell them to try again at character creation.  If you can do that without pissing them off to much, you might still do that.  Otherwise you are going to just run an endless series of "go here, beat these people up" adventures.  A group does need a member or two that can really bring the pain, but a wider range of skills gives you many more options for creating missions for them.

[Rockopolis]

Sounds like an Urban Brawl team.  Got a campaign picked out for them?
Maybe they start as an Urban Brawl team, shooting for the championships, until they stumble upon the truth about last season's winners.
"No.  Last season's losers."

[Glyph]

If they make a bunch of dumb muscle, treat them like dumb muscle.  Have them get hired for muscle work, stuff like breaking a deadbeat's kneecaps or bodyguarding a suit at a meet with some underworld types.  Have them get subcontracted by other runners, making it clear that they are not getting paid nearly as much as the other runners, since all they can do is close-up violence.  And demonstrate the weaknesses of their builds by having most enemies use distance attacks.  Even punk gangers can be a problem, if four of them are shooting cheapass Sandler TMPs at the party from three stories up on the fire escape.

The good thing, for them, is that most character problems can be fixed with the expedient of spending karma to shore up that character's weak areas.  If they pick up some ranged skills, and gain a bit of social or sneaking ability, people might start taking them more seriously.  But make it clear that they need to so so, both by how the in-game world logically reacts to their limitations, and some out-of-game talk, too.