[PittsburghRPGA]

Help me better tune this PC for a new player (never played SR at all) and for a GM who has never run a technomancer. Running in Denver using some of the old Missions along side Emergence, and eventually Ghost Cartels. Standard 400BP. Any other details needed, please ask. I've tried to be thorough.

Player really set on using the Networker Stream and Black Hat Paragon. The reality impaired NQ, combined with a love for the GTA clone game, leads to her incompenent ground vehicle NQ. She doesn't get why so called real world cars don't bounce off walls like in the game. And as a Media Junkie (Moderate), she's got to log into the game and do her dailys. And with the bounty on TMs because of the things in Emergence, she might as well take the Wanted NQ for the extra BPs.

And yes, I also asked about this on Dumpshock's forums too.

Thanks in advance for the help,

Eric


Street Name: w3Bz
Elf female Age 17
Height 6'2" Weight 117, red hair, pale skinned

== Concept ==
Technomancer Hacker/secondary face. Teen aged girl making her way in the big bad world. Using gear to pretend to be a decker. Just pulling herself out of street/squatter level life style, and ready to hit the deeper shadows.

== Notes ==
Stream: Networker
NQ: Wanted: There is currently a 40,000 nuyen bounty on live Technomancers at several corporations.
PQ: Paragon - The Black Hat - +1 die for Cracking Sprites (since as a Networker, she doesn't have fault sprites).
There is a Rigger/wheelman in the group and the player doesn't want to step on his toes, and she likes the idea hacker constantly in a VR world all the time concept a lot better.


== Attributes == 200BP for normal attributes, 60BP for Edge + Resonance
BOD: 3, AGI: 3, REA: 3, STR: 2, CHA: 6, INT: 4, LOG: 5, WIL: 5, EDG: 3, RES: 5

== Active Skills ==
Groups 50BP
Electronics 3, Cracking 1, Stealth 1 (broken out individually below)

Individual Skills 52BP
Compiling : 4 Pool: 9
Computer : 3 Pool: 8
Cybercombat : 1 Pool: 6
Data Search : 3 Pool: 8
Disguise : 1 Pool: 5
Electronic Warfare : 1 Pool: 6
Etiquette : 2 Pool: 8
Hacking : 1 Pool: 6
Hardware : 3 Pool: 8
Infiltration : 1 Pool: 4
Palming : 1 Pool: 4
Pistols : 2 [Semi-Automatics] Pool: 5 (7)
Registering : 4 [Crack Sprite] Pool: 9 (11)
Shadowing : 1 Pool: 5
Software : 3 Pool: 8

== Knowledge Skills ==
Area Knowledge: Denver : 3 Pool: 7
Data Havens : 3 [N. America] Pool: 7 (9)
English : N [l33t speak]
French : 3
Gaming : 2 [Grand Larceny] Pool: 6 (
Gangs : 3 Pool: 7
Security Design : 3 [Matrix] Pool: 8 (10)
Sioux : 3 Pool: 7
Underworld : 2 [Matrix Crime] Pool: 6 (

== Contacts ==
Fixer (2, 1)

== Qualities ==
-35 in NQ, 10 in PQ
Allergy (Uncommon, Mild) (Wool)
Incompetent (Pilot Ground Craft)
Media Junkie (Moderate)
Reality Impaired
Wanted
Paragon (The Black Hat)
Technomancer

== Complex Forms == 23BP
Analyze Rating: 5
Armor Rating: 5
Command Rating: 3
Exploit Rating: 5
Stealth Rating: 5

== Gear == 7BP (not all of it spent so far)
Fake SIN Rating 4
+Fake License (FRFZ Concealed Carry Permit) Rating 4

Chrysler-Nissan Jackrabbit (Subcompact)
+Fuzzy Logic
+Pilot Program Rating 3
+Vehicle Sensor

== Weapons ==
Colt Manhunter
+Laser Sight
DV: 5P AP: -1 RC: 0

== Commlinks ==
Erika Elite (5, 4, 3, 4) (wants it to see believable for a young Hacker to be using this)
+Novatech Navi
+Suite: Pro User [Analyze 4, Browse 4, Command 2, Edit 4]
+Encrypt Rating 3
+Data Bomb Rating 3
+Stealth Rating 3
+Optimization (Analyze)
+Increased Response to 5

Living Persona (4 (5), 5, 5, 3)
+Living Persona
+Biofeedback Filter

[squee_nabob]

I play a charisma elf techno in missions currently (as my credentials and background).

If you want to tune this character here are some previous links of mine to other TM character assistance, and some current thoughts on this char:


http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=4241.msg59568#msg59568

http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=3839.msg50965#msg50965

http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=3982.msg53690#msg53690

http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=4270.msg60108#msg60108

Networker stream is not as good as technoshamman. Specifically they do not have machine sprites which are very good. Code and Sleuth sprites are nice, but TS also have Sleuth and Machine is better than Code.

Black Hat is an acceptable Paragon, she should have 35 points of Negative qualities, TMs need all the help they can get.

You want to soft-cap your charisma (for an elf this is 7, you can surge to . Hardcapping charisma is not terrible but is slightly inefficient. You do want to hardcap Resonance at 6. Str, Reaction, Agility, Intuition, Willpower, may all need to be cut. I’d suggest Edge 5.

Incompetence: Pilot Ground Vehicle is very harsh for a TM. It keeps you from rigging ground vehicles (except walkers which are anthroforms). You will want to rig ground vehicles, so this is not very good. You can work around it though, by using Lockheed Arachnids, Wuxing Hussars (with Walker Legs mod) and Lonestar Strato-9s.

If you are a hacker, you should also be a rigger. You can VR rig. The problem with just doing hacking, is it leaves you out in the cold whenever a meat world combat breaks out. You should be able to throw down and help your friends, and hacking/spoofing is not fast enough to do that. Get a drone that can fight, then get a rigger cocoon and be inside that drone.

Buy the Electronics group at 4. Computer, Datasearch, Software, and hardware are all good.

Drop Cybercombat, it is for fail and sadness. No one actually fights on the matrix, just jam yourself out.

Buy the whole stealth group at 1 rather than disguise 1, infiltrate 1, palming 1, shadowing 1.

If you are a hacker, you should have Hacking at 6.

Pistols are bad, for a TM get gunnery, you will be rigging. Etiquette may need to be dropped.

Get Resonace 6. It is the single most important thing about being a TM. It costs 6 karma to buy each complex form up to 6 in game, but only 1 BP. Get resonance 6, and CFs at 6. Armor is less good than Shield, but both are not critical. Spoof is critical, so is Command and Disarm. I know she does not want to be a rigger, but you need to be as a TM if you want to do stuff in meat world. If she wants to sit out large portions of the game because she is a new player, that’s acceptable but make sure she knows that.

There are better vehicles, if the Team already has a wheelman, just get drones. I’d start with a Doberman (they are almost as good as Arachnids) and a Strato-9.

The colt Manhutner is subpar, there are better guns, I’d get a taser for carrying around.

The Comlink is throwing away money that will never be used. It is a waste of resources. Get a cheap comlink for your fake SIN and take a decent on off someone you kill.

I have more comments but no time.

[UmaroVI]

Squee's advice is good, I will just add a few comments on the not wanting to rig thing.

Incompetence on Pilot Ground Craft is a pretty character-defining flaw but not hopeless; you can get sprites to pilot ground vehicles for you - but you REALLY should have machine sprites, because they are made of win and awesome. If she really wants the Networker stream for fluff reasons, then she should Submerge for Sprite Link to add on Machine Sprites ASAP. There are plenty of useful not-ground vehicles. I should also point out that part of what makes machine sprites good is that they can help everyone else out too, and this goes a long way towards making up for sucking at meatspace combat. They can also help the rigger out with Diagnostics.

On rigging: Basically, as a technomancer, you can be an acceptable rigger for a tiny amount of investment as a side effect of wanting to hack. It is 6 BP for command, and the rest of it you do by threading, Assist Operation, and getting machine sprites to help you. You can buy a perfectly decent starting drone with a rigger cocoon for under 10000Y. As a technomancer, deciding that you don't want to FOCUS on rigging is a totally reasonable choice, but it isn't a good idea not bothering to spend 10 bp to have something useful to do at times when hacking isn't helpful - and having played S2 Missions, there are significant parts where the ability to hack isn't useful (which nicely coincide with places where rigging is handy).

The other thing is that as a techno, you swiftly run out of things to spend money on that aren't rigging related and there are lots of fun things you can get - but if you don't cough up the 6 bp for command 6 at chargen, it will shaft you later as you have to pay 21 karma for it. Not starting with rigging skills (Gunnery, Infiltration, and Perception, mainly), on the other hand, is totally fine and you can default for now and pick them up with Biowire later.

[UmaroVI]

That reminds me: s2 missions gives you a whoooole pile of low Connection contacts as a side effect of your missions. I probably have 20-30 of them. So it is not a good idea to have a bunch of them at chargen. I would suggest either no starting contacts, and just pick up the ones that appear, or start with 1 connection 6 contact. Since she's supposed to be a Networkomancer, maybe go with a Runner's Companion "Group Contact?"

[PittsburghRPGA]

I do honestly appreciate any help she and I can get. I know that with the webz, sometimes tone of voice isn't properly passed on.  The tone I want to convey is one of calm matter-of-fact explanation.  If I fail in that in any way, I apologize now ahead of time.

The young woman playing this teen age elf is completely new to the setting and mechanics of shadowrun.  She is concentrating on figuring out how the whole threading thing works, and how the matrix stuff works.  She has no interest at this time in learning how rigging works too. I get that from a pure combat optimization point, rigging is "teh winz" for TMs.  But she's no more interested in rigging than I am in potato salad.  (I fragging hate potato salad, but damned if I'm at picnic and someone hears that, they just have to try and make me taste their potato salad. Take your cold potatoes and mayonnaise and go away. Potatoes should be served hot - whether they're french fried, boiled, mashed, or baked. Just accept that there are some people who are not going to like potato salad and move on.)

She'd like to make sure she's good at doing "the Matrix stuff".  She likes the kid on Alphas who can just see the internet.  She finds it amusing to be reality impaired, ducking under AR signs, and trying to bring up menus on meat people. She plays the GTA series of games on the xbox, and finds it quite amusing to have a PC that just doesn't get the differences between driving in the game and in the real world. It makes her giggle. 

Plus, with the fluff of being a 17 year old street rat, neither of us think she'd have learned a military skill like gunnery.  Pistols? Sure, she's a hot red headed female elf, of course all the boyz in the gang wanted to let her handle their pistols and teach her how to shoot. 

There were two streams that appealed to her: Networkers and E-scapists (neither have machine sprites. Me personally, I like the Paladin sprites).  She did not care for technoshaman. She choose Networkers simply because as a hot sexy elf with a high Charisma, it'd fit in well with her concept.

The other side of coin here is that in this group is that the guy who is playing the rigger wheelman/drone rigger doesn't want to learn how to do the matrix stuff and wants to concentrate on learning the rigging stuff. He has also never played SR, and doesn't want to get overwhelmed with learning lots of rules at once.

I've done what I can with her concept, and posted it here. She's got 200 BP in attributes, has the 35 BP in Negative Qualities for the most amount of extra points, and has skill groups where I could make them fit.  I ignored Decompiling completely.  I suppose she could take the bus instead of her self driving car, but it doesn't seem very runner-like to have to be standing on the corner checking bus schedules hoping one will come along in time for you to get to the meet with the Johnson.

I'd like to get her Electronics group up from 3 to 4, but where am I going to get those 10 BPs?   If I ditch the cracking group at level 1, are there any must have skills from that group?  Should I keep the Stealth group at 1, or just get the individual infiltration skill?

To get Resonance 6, what am I giving up to get those 25 BPs?  Do I tank her Body and Agility?

Is there a more fitting 5-BP NQ than Allergy, Mild, Uncommon (wool) that you can recommend? 

Is there something I can shave the 4 points off of to get her some Perception?

Is it too cheesy to give her the 10 BP Wanted NQ since during the Emergence campaign there's a huge bounty on TMs, and she's trying to keep it secret that she's a TM from the rest of the group?

And there is almost always something to hack, even if it's just the traffic light control systems, the opponents wireless smart link to eject his gun's clip, or into the opposing team's commlinks so you can prevent them from using their coded subvocal microphones thus screwing their coordination. You just gotta be creative about it.

I am begging you, please, help me make this young woman an effective TM who does not rig. Please.

Thank you,

Eric

[UmaroVI]

OK. With that in mind, I just want to make sure you understand that "effective TM who doesn't rig" means "useless outside the matrix." There are actually missions in S2 where she will have nothing of any use to do, but so long as you are both OK with that you can make a TM who is hacking-only. To extend your metaphor, you should get fair warning that some picnics are designed so that the only food you can eat is potato salad and if you don't bring potato salad you might be very hungry.

The first thing you need to do is accept that she is going to be absolutely useless in meatspace combat, and not blow a bunch of points going from "don't bother" to "just enough dice to glitch and shoot yourself in the foot," and instead just hide and maybe Spoof people (or thread a Tacnet).

Things to cut:
do NOT cut body, that will get you killed. Instead raise it to 5.
cut Agility to 2 (only affect Infiltration)
cut Reaction to 1 <- rolling 3 dice for Defense checks just raises your odds of critical glitching. She's better off having a high Body score and enough armor to not die when she gets shot; people will be hitting her anyways if they aim at her.
Cut Strength to 1 (doesn't do anything useful for her)
You can cut Intuition to 3. It sets your matrix initiative which is only ehhhh useful for hacking and is more important for rigging, which you don't want to do. It does do a decent amount of useful stuff so it isn't exactly useless.
Cut Logic to 3. You don't care about it except for getting enough CFs.
Cut Willpower to 3. You don't care about it at all, really, I just doubt Willpower 1 is a good plan and you might as well get the extra stun box.
Raise Charisma to 7. Not doing this is a really bad idea.
Raise Resonance to 6. Same.

This frees up 35 bps.

Raise Electronics to 4. Ditch the Cracking and Stealth skill groups (we'll buy some skills individually). Now at +45 bps.

Lose Etiquette and Pistols. Now at +61 bps [Influence, on the other hand, IS worth buying in a clump].

Buy Hacking 6, Infiltration 4, Influence 1, Electronic Warfare 1. Now at 7 bps.

Drop the Contact (I will get back to that one). Now at 10 bps.

Replace your current complex forms with Analyze 6, Exploit 6 with Mute, Spoof 6, Stealth 6, Disarm 6. That leaves 2 bps.

Okay, now at this point things get less clear, because it depends on some stuff.

First, do you allow Empathy software? Right now she is a backup face. With Empathy Software she could easily be the team's primary face, but she needs to free up a few points from somewhere for it. I would probably cut Intuition from 3 to 2; this character really does not strike me as street-smart anyways, and it isn't really helping that much. Then get Empathy Software 6; that leaves 6 bps. Spend them to specialize Hacking and Infiltration in Exploit and Urban, respectively. Spend the last 2 points to buy her some proper armor: Urban Explorer Jumpsuit, FFBA, PPP leg and arm casings, shin guards, and forearm guards. Optionally, go down to 1 intuition, cut some of the more silly gear like that commlink, and put it into a GOOD group contact.

No empathy software: I would see if you can free up 10000Y plus enough for armor by cutting silly gear, and then specialize Hacking and Infiltration in Exploit and Urban. If not just specialize Hacking. Again, optionally cut some Intuition for a good group contact.

A quick note about cybercombat: cybercombat is silly, generally useless, plays AGAINST the strengths of a technomancer, and is also super expensive for technos to be any good at. The way she should cybercombat is in general not to - the idea is to use Assist Operation + Threading to get huge Stealth and Exploit ratings, and go in, Disarm the Analyze program if necessary, and then get whatever she wants. She can also do the unsubtle kick down the door with Exploit, grab what she wants, and leave before the alarm sounds (because of Mute). In the unlikely event that she really needs to cybercombat, the way to win is use Paladin sprites to soak attacks directed at her and then summon a pile of Registered sprites to mob whatever you're fighting. Note that she can Jam on the Fly herself out of the matrix if she gets Blackout/Blackhammered; this is the way to skip cybercombats.


 

[UmaroVI]

Oops, forgot about the Wool thing. I too hate the silly allergies and I would recommend Mild Addiction (Betel), which is the equivalent of being addicted to bubblegum. It is cheap and legal, seems kinda appropriate, and you get +1 Perception while chewing it so whee. May give you cancer or something, I dunno.

[kirk]

UmaroIV, I know you mean well and in fact you give great advice.  But this:

With that in mind, I just want to make sure you understand that "effective TM who doesn't rig" means "useless outside the matrix." . There are actually missions in S2 where she will have nothing of any use to do, but so long as you are both OK with that you can make a TM who is hacking-only.

grates.  You're not the only one I've seen do it, but you're the target of opportunity. (Sorry 'bout that, but the checkfire seems broken.)

Neither she nor the OP are doing missions. They're roleplaying, for fun.

She's not going to be "useless outside the matrix." She's almost never going to be active in combat -- if there are no matrix links she can declare she's hiding and go get a sandwich or something while everyone argues about IPs.  But she's a backup face and may be a physical distraction (cute girl at 2 o'clock {oops, troll at 8 o'clock}). She has even less need to be inside than most riggers - just find her a gap and leave her in the van or even the apartment (hey, old-school), and if the situation goes completely bad she can hire a cab and come post bail -- or play the crap out of it (and bring tons of laughter) crashing driving to the rescue. (My car... my car... look what you did to my CAR! Hey, didja wanna rescue or not?)

I know you know that, but it didn't come off that way.

[kirk]

And with that shot off and while ducking for cover (grin), a quick reply to PittsburghRPGA.

What I said to UmaroVI does not change the fact it's great advice. I've taken notes, just as I always do when he or squee post.

I'd add one small thing - a gearing issue, mainly.  Sometimes the rest of the team is going to be out of touch unless she goes along. One of the things you and she should consider are ways to deal with it.

One favorite in my bag of tricks is based on the microtap bug (UN-198). She'll need two, and she'll need either a third or a retrans box. Bugs one and two are connected by optical link, one on each side of whatever's stopping the signal. If the inside bug is tapped into the internal matrix she's golden as a hacker. If it can't, it connects to the third via directional antenna or laserlink or optical link, whatever works best, to let her connect.

It's not the only solution, and there are situations where it's not the solution at all. But she should probably think about those in advance even if she can't get the solution now. (A nexis will help in wilderness, for example.)

[UmaroVI]

I understand what you're getting at, Kirk. What I really mean to say is:

You're not going to be good at any meatspace combat skills other than rigging as a Technomancer, and it's not worth being terrible rather than useless at them, as compared to just giving up on meatspace combat and focusing on other things, like being an effective Face. Be aware that there are some Denver missions that do NOT permit you to stay in the van without sitting out the mission and that there are some missions that don't have any matrix elements at all.

[squee_nabob]

Hey, I want to agree with everything UmaroVI said and post some of my own thoughts:

(also, this is meant dispassionately in an effort to help optimize the character)

In SR3, Rigging and Hacking were two distinct roles. In SR4, Rigging became something that TMs do to play in meatworld and some hackers do with Command 10. The days of a non-TM who specializes in Rigging are basically dead. No one jumps in anymore, so that whole archtype really got cut away.

You mentioned running in Denver, using some of the old missions. This to me says season 2. As someone who has played season 2, I can promise you there are some missions (not many but some) that literally stick you in a hole with no matrix, no devices, and nothing to interact with the entire mission. If you have drones, you can hide behind them while you earn your daily bread. If you do not, then you can basically sit on the side lines and hope you are not killed by a magical crocodile.

I agree on potatoes salad (potatoes should be hot).

Remember there are totally legal street vehicles that have weapon mounts, and vehicles have no recoil. This is one explanation for gunnery. Same if she was in a Go-Gang. There is a group of VR Go-Gangers in Denver (Aurora Angels) who have an excuse for buying gunnery. It’s not a strictly military skill. I also wanted to point that out.  Gunnery isn’t required for this character, but I meant it would be better than pistols (which will not help at all). Because she is steadfastly against rigging, she doesn’t need either.

It is lamentable that the cool streams have bad sprites, and if Networkers is unchangeable that we’ll go with that.

200 BP in attributes is unnecessary, I’d drop intuition to 1 and pick up edge 5 personally.

10 free points is totally reasonable in an Emergence campaign. The fact that she could be lynched in the street for being suspected of a TM is pretty harsh.

Traffic Light Control systems: spoof
Eject Gun clip: Spoof
Comlinks to prevent communications: Exploits.

This girl needs some Spoof. Command will also help because even if she doesn’t want to rig, you can do some damage by causing cars to spin out of control, or slam into walls. I think it makes sense to spoof 1 car into hitting another if you think the world has GTA physics. It’s also worth having Command in case she ever wants to do something like that.

I’d also get a Retransmitter Drone, (Unwired) so she can fly it onto wired systems and make them wireless (see kirk’s post).

[kirk]

Worth remembering is that she can hack commlinks. She can also make a handful of micro-retrans bugs that enter the room before the team and attach to bad guys (especially cybers). Nothing like signal 1 (or less) smartguns and limbs suddenly being part of the Matrix.  Spoof a few shutdown or reboot commands before your team goes through the door and bask in the glow of admiration.

There will still be times she's not going to play, but with a careful eye opportunities can be squeezed out of more than you'd think.

[UmaroVI]

Spoilers for a S2 mission follow.

Tunnel Vision is "you go into a hole and fight paracritters/spirits." They don't have commlinks or cyberware or anything. And the tunnels block wireless.

I wouldn't design missions like that, and I wouldn't be bringing it up if PittsburghRPGA hadn't mentioned that he was running the s2 missions. Otherwise, I'd assume he wouldn't be designing "suck it, hackers" missions like that if he was asking for a non-rigging technomancer.

[squee_nabob]

Remember retrans drones are not very stealthy. They have -4 to be spotted, but no covert ops autosoft, and a low pilot. You can mod them to be good, especially with chameleon coating, but otherwise you need to worry about giving away surprise with your retrans swam.

[UmaroVI]

That is also true. Machine Sprites can help with that; they can pilot retrans drones pretty well. You can also mod them to have Chameleon Coating.

However, the other issue with using retrans drones like that is that it is rigging - you use the same set of rules/skills to do that as you would for other rigging, so I'm not sure it makes sense to recommend them as an alternative to being a rigger.