[Tonatiuh]

So, I'm in a lower-powered game, and we're playing a group that has been involved in the "Neo-Communist" movement in Cuba (this is paraphrasing of what my GM says, and I know very little at this point). Our characters are very limited as to resources, so I'm playing a mechanic with a gun. Just a basic pistol. Not sure yet. Probably not an adept, just a strong, quick guy that's good with a gun.

A little back story on Jose, he's 24 years old, and has been a mechanic since he was 14, because he dropped right after the eighth grade. He's a mechanic because, after his dad died in a factory accident when he was 12, he became friends with the son of the other guy that died. This other kid - Manuel Mancheca - his uncle owned a shop, and they were given jobs. Things went smoothly for a while, and they were okay kids, minus a few petty thefts on their records.

But shortly after Jose and Manuel turned 18, they were recruited to a Communist rebel group. The rest is pretty much history. Jose learned how to shoot a gun really well, and I'm not too sure about Manuel (he's not in our group). Maybe he died, maybe he's in a different sub-group -- not quite sure.

So guys, do you like? What else do I need to add? Some ideas are already bubbling in my mind, but I'm leaving it on the table for now. I'm open to suggestions!

[Tonatiuh]

By the way, I've decided he's an ork, and involved in the drug trade.

[SirDelta]

So he's just a plain old ork then?  Is he cybered at all?  I feel you could flesh out a bit more.  How did the Commies find him and get him to go along with them?  Can he drive as well as repair?  What kind of vehicles does he repair?
Just add some stuff like that.

[Tonatiuh]

Not cybered at all. Not sure how the Communists found him, but I'll think it over.

He can drive well, and fight pretty well too. He's dumb though haha.

Pretty much lower-tech stuff is what he works with. I mean, he's not working with the latest stuff, but he knows about hybrid cars.

[baronspam]

I know you said this was a lower powered campaign.  How many build points do you get to start with.?

The reason I ask is that shadowrun is a game with heavy transhuman themes.  Most characters are either Awakened or augmented with cyberware and bioware.  Someone trying to run purely on stats and skills with neither of those options will very likely have a serious disadvantage.  In a lower powered game, this may not be as pronounced, but even still it takes all of about two build points to come up with a level of wired reflexes, and even a single extra initiative pass can be a huge edge. 

[Tonatiuh]

Thanks, I'll be sure to think about that. I'm not sure how many points we're going with. Maybe I'll add some sort of adept powers or magic, but I'm thinking that wired reflexes is a good place to start, because I want this character to be pretty far from fancy. He may have some improved finger type things, if I can get my hands on it and justify it to my GM, because, I think good fingers could help with both firing and fixing/driving cars, and of course fighting. Got any ideas? I'm talkin cyberware or anything else. I'm new to the game, and am not aware of all the resources around.

[Onion Man]

Get cyberhands (or cyber arm or lower arms) with the snake fingers mod.  +1000 nuyen per hand for a bonus to any fine motor skills, like some potential mechanic checks.

[Tonatiuh]

Cool, I like that. Maybe on just one hand, but who knows. And again, I'm not at all sure how limited my GM is making my resource pool. I was limited to this choice of guns: Basic pistol (can't remember which one precisely, but probably the most standard), or an AK-97 if I could really justify it. Just to give you perspective.

So would such a person, living in the middle of the slums, be able to get cyberhands with snake fingers?

[Onion Man]

Your GM should be setting a max availability rate for your character creation.  Odds are very good that snake fingers and at least obvious cyberhands are low enough availability to be found in even the worst slums, from Kowloon to the steaming bug-crater where the Green used to be.

[Tonatiuh]

Awesome, thanks.

I love the Internet.

[Charybdis]

A few things to work out what this power level is (probably on advice from your GM), then we can all comment on valid suggestions

A) How many BP for initial character creation?  (Default is 400BP)
B) Any Limit on starting money/resources? (Default is 50BP or 250,00 nuyen)
C) Any Availability rating issue? (Default availability rating is 12 or less)
D) Any limit on Races?  (Any metahumans? Variants? Vampires etc)
E) Any limits on technology  (Nanites, Geneware, Bioware, Cyberware etc?)
F) Any sourcebooks or anything that are out of bounds?  (WAR!, Running Wild etc)

From there, there aer a bunch of experts on this form who can give you great character-building advice.
Note: I don't count myself as one of these experts  

[Tonatiuh]

Well, I'm trying to extract information before we actually sit down and hash the whole thing out, which is a no-no.

So far, I know that we get 300 BP,
It's gonna be less than 50BP,
AR probably won't be a consideration, because we simply tell him what kind of stuff we want, and he tells us what we have access to.
I'm assuming we can only be standard metahumans.
I doubt anything higher than cyberware would be allowed, if that.
We're only running from the Core Rulebook.

He wants it to be realistic to what most people would ACTUALLY be like. Our characters are just getting into 'running, and probably won't have any connections outside of our rebel group, and me with my drug circle (which will probably be limited).

[Onion Man]

It's starting to sound more like your GM wants to tell you a story about revolutionary Cuba than to play an RPG.  (Lots of good Cuban revolution stories, lots of good Cuban revolutions).

I'd be confrontational about it already, but I always am with "Rule 0" type stuff.  Segue to/from another thread we've been chatting on... "Rule 0" is the biggest reason I left D&D behind.  A rule that says the GM can and should ignore all the rules on any whimsy is the same as having a rule that says "Leave your dice at home and forget all the stuff you read, your GM is making it up as we go along".

/grumble

[baronspam]

It's starting to sound more like your GM wants to tell you a story about revolutionary Cuba than to play an RPG.  (Lots of good Cuban revolution stories, lots of good Cuban revolutions).

 

Well, 300 BP is very low powered.  Characters will be competent, but not outstanding compaired to the normal populace.  It is doable, but it requires a particular style of game and a particular style of player.  To work this will likely be very story and character driven, and less dependant on action.  If that is the type of game you want to play sounds good to me. 

Shadowrun does seem like a odd choice for it, however.  Like I said above, shadowrun is largely about transhuman potential.  Characters are taking the next step of human development, be it magical, intergration with the machine world, or enhancing their biology beyond the normal range of "possible".  Shadowrun is also a game where this transhuman potential is sorely tested by the restraints of society- big business, big government, the erosion of privacy and personal freedom.  To just be a guy with a gun and a toolbox in this world might be pretty daunting.  The allure of the shadowrunner is that they take on these restraining forces and win.  The 300 bp "normal" is going to be far less equiped to defy normal society and slip between the cracks and survive in the shadows.

Anyway, I am kind of dithering.   I don't think this is the kind of shadowrun game I would be looking for, but as in all things your milage may vary.  If you really want to focus on character interaction and story elements any power level can work.  You just arn't going to be cracking an arcology anytime soon.

[theKernel]

I'm in this game and the limits on our characters are exaggerated, the whole idea is that we start out limited and become transendant yada yada, its not what it sounds like and itll be fun lol