[Mercer]

About a year ago my group put together a short SR campaign.  I made a ork street sam I named Loomis who I had a lot of fun with.  I earned 43 karma and managed to upgrade some cyber and purchase some bioware.  Then we had a long break.  Now with a new campaign starting up I'm looking to either keep playing him or rebuilding him at 400BP (the latter if the GM wants new characters). 

Background: Loomis was born to be a runner.  My idea for his childhood is equal parts John Connor from T2, the Winchester boys from Supernatural, and Sam Rockwell's character from Choke.  Loomis's mom was a runner of some repute back in the 40's and 50's.  She was also a paranoid psychotic who had the occasional total break with reality.  That's the world he grew up in.  In his later childhood, early teens he became a ward of the state (or various states, depending on where he was when he got picked up) and he'd live in foster homes or orphanages until his mom would track him down and abduct him, and then he'd live off the grid with her until the next time he was picked up by the authorities. 

So Loomis has some mental problems, either inherited or from his upbringing.  (He also fried his brain on BTL's as a teenager.)  I envision him sort of like a high-functioning autistic; he's not great with human interaction but he knows what he's supposed to do and can go along with it when he needs to, like Abed from Community or Darryl Zero from The Zero Effect.  He also has a series of rituals he learned from his mom that are designed to keep him safe (like Dexter's code, now that I think about it).

Positive Qualities: High Pain Tolerance 2 (10), Magic Resistance 4 (20), Guts (5), First Impression (5). 
First Impression I took because I thought it would be a good way to represent the way he mimics what is expected of him in social interaction, once you spend some time with him you realize what he's doing.  Guts I took for the same reason I took Incompetent- Intimidation below, he has a muted fear response and doesn't really get why threats work.  High Pain Tolerance comes from a hard upbringing and being raised by a mom who was training him to be the savior of the metahuman race.  She was a mage and Loomis grew up being told he would be a powerful mystical adept when his powers expressed (sort of a John Connor thing), but it turned out he had no magical abilities.  I think of his Magic Resistance as a deep subconscious rejection of magic.

Negative Qualities: Bad Luck (20), Simsense Vertigo (10), Incompetent- Intimidation (5), Scorched (5). 
My theory is flaws should matter.  I wouldn't take "Incompetent- Pilot Submarine" in a campaign set in Denver (or if I did, I would expect at least one run to be in the main tank of the Denver Aquarium).  That said, Scorched probably won't come up that much unless his cyberware gets hacked (and if so, gods help him).  Part of the character history is he fried his brain on BTL's so I thought Scorched was a good fit, the way someone who has had heatstroke is more susceptible to it.  Bad Luck I took because I'm something of a gambler.  I actually blew the first Edge roll I ever tried with this character.  Simsense Vertigo I took because I thought it would be neat to have a samurai who couldn't use a smartlink, and I also tied it in to his knowledge skill of 2D Entertainment-- trid shows make him seasick.   

Stats: (200BP)
BOD: 6
AGL: 5/7
REA: 5/7
STR: 5/7
CHA: 1
INT: 5
LOG: 1
WIL: 5
EDG: 1

It was hard starting with a 1 in LOG and CHA, but I chalk it up to residual brain damage.  I wanted a higher Logic, but it's really hard to spend points on something the character will never, ever use.  When I started earning karma with this character I raised CHA up to 2 but that was about it.  Stat-wise he didn't change very much, except for his upgrades.  I managed to pick up Muscle Aug and Toner 4 which raised my STR and AGL to their max of 9, and then got Reaction Enhancer 2 to bump my Reaction to 9 as well.  I wasn't expecting those upgrades so early in the character's life, but I'm not complaining about them.  (One of the reasons I'd like to play the karma'd version of the character is because I don't think I'll be so fortunate to get these upgrades again.) 

Active Skills: (152 BP)
Pistols (Semi-Auto): 3/5
Unarmed (Defense): 5/7
Perception (Visual): 4/6
Infiltration: 5
Shadowing (Tailing): 4/6
Climbing (Freehand): 3/5
Running (Sprinting): 1/3
Throwing (Grenades): 2/4
Dodge (Ranged): 3/5
First Aid (Combat Wounds): 1/3
Automatics (AR's): 2/4

The first SR4 character I made was heavily invested in skill groups and I wasn't wild about how that turned out, so with Loomis I decided I was going to go with individual skills and specializations.  (Infiltration- Urban was the first two points of karma I spent with this character.)  My group houseruled Unarmed Combat to simply Attack or Defense specializations, originally I think it was Parrying.  I could have gone higher with his Automatics skill but I figured he was good with a pistol and when using an assault rifle he made up for it in volume.  I really kicked around the second firearms skill in my head-- Longarms is a strong contender-- but I thought Automatics fit the child soldier theme better. 

Knowledge Skills:
Security Procedures: 3
Graffiti Tags: 3
Conspiracy Theories: 3
2D Movies: 3
Cybertechnology: 3
Magical Theory: 3
English: N/N

I wanted more languages to fit the idea he grew up all over the world, but I got to the end and had no points left.  I'd probably add a few more in if I remade the character, or buy them up with karma as he relearned languages he knew as a child.  I took Graffiti Tags as a street knowledge because I thought it fit to give the character a street knowledge that didn't involve dealing with people.  Magical Theory and Cybertechnology came from the background of being raised by runners, but also because I've played SR for awhile and it's hard not to factor things like magic into your thinking.  I took Conspiracy Theories because being raised by a paranoid psychotic, I thought the character should have that in is head-- it turned out to be an oddly useful skill.  You throw out enough wild ass theories, one of them is bound to be true. 

Contacts: (2BP)
Street Doc; Dr. "Slicin" Dyson. 1/1

I have a confession to make.  I rarely spend a lot of points on Contacts.  My theory going back three editions is you don't have to take a Fixer contact, because you will end up with one by the end of the first game.  But also I like picking up Contacts in play.  You meet someone in play, you do them a solid, you write their name down, you call them up for something, throw a little nuyen their way; pretty soon boom, you have a Contact.  I took a street doc because I figured someone had to put his cyberware in him and someone was going to have to put more in him.  And the idea was that Dyson was someone who knew Loomis's mom and had a different perspective on her than Loomis would. 

'ware: (16BP and change)
Muscle Replacement 2 Alpha
Wired Reflexes 2
Plastic Bonelacing Alpha
Dermal Plating 2 Alpha

This is pretty similar to my basic street sam cyber package going back a few editions.  I figured once Loomis decided he was going to be a runner, street sam was the only thing he knew he could do.  (Family business, after all.)  By the time we wrapped up the mini-campaign the Muscle Replacement would be replaced by Muscle Aug and Toner 4, the Reaction Enhancer 2 and Platelet Factories.  It's not a terribly sexy 'ware package, but there's not much I would change.  If I remade the character and didn't get the Aug and Toner 4 (which was a bit of luck), I'd still replace the Muscle Replacement with bioware at the earliest opportunity (hopefully upgrading to rating 3) and going with the Reaction Enhancer and Platelet Factories again. 

Gear: (2BP)
Earbuds and shades with all the usual tricks (vision and aural enhancements, etc), some basic armor, a few pistols, an AK-97, ammo (gel, regular and some ExEx), an assortment of grenades, and the usual accessories.  I think I put 10k into gear plus whatever was left over from the cyber, so it was pretty barebones.  He also started with a Low Lifestyle.  If I was remaking the character, I might shave that down on the theory that he's just coming off a Heat moment and has abandoned everything in his old life.  Maybe throw a few more BP into Dr. Dyson's Loyalty to reflect their long history together. 

Other Notes:
Loomis presented himself as standard sort of street rat, not a pink mohawk runner but certainly leaning in that direction.  He had green streaks in his hair, his gas mask was built into a hockey mask-- things like that.  I didn't play the character long enough but the idea was this was a persona he adopted and when he needed to he'd change it, leaving everything behind.  Next was going to be a neo-hippie or an urban hipster, I hadn't decided.  He'd change his look and his lifestyle every few months, mainly out of habit. 

He's not an uber-deadly sam; his dice pools don't break the bank.  He was good at making Perception rolls and really good at seeing through illusions, but his deadliness in combat had a lot more to do with stealthing up into good ambush spots and picking his shots.  Most of my karma went into improving my skills.  I picked up Influence and raised my CHA to 2 so that with First Impression I could roll 5 dice on any social tests I got cornered on, then picked up a few more sneaky skills (Palming and Lockpicking) as well as some vehicle skills.  By then I had a REA 9, so even 1 rank meant I could do okay if I had to.

He was also pretty good at leaning into the strike zone and taking one for the team.  There was one time we realized the people we were following were being shadowed by someone else in a black van, and Loomis walked in front of it (it wasn't going very fast, and it had been circling the block where I targets were dining) which caused a commotion and got the van to stop.  In another run when we were investigating a mysterious semi that was driving into the barrens and shanghaing ghouls, Loomis stripped down and got shanghai'd as well, which meant he was stuck in a trailer with a bunch of ghouls for a couple of hours until we figured out where they were taking them and the rest of the group was able to break me out.  (Luckily most of the ghouls were unconscious from the kidnapping, otherwise that could have gotten pretty bleak.) 

The character didn't really click for me until I thought about despite being an ork and being physically capable and pretty good at violence, mechanically he was the least intimidating person you could imagine.  With a CHA of 1 and no skill, he just wasn't going to be good at scaring people.  So I took Incompetent- Intimidation and went from there.  I also liked the idea of a character who is good at what he does, but he's also kind of a lost child.  He's not Lenny from Of Mice and Men, but he is someone who never had a childhood and at the same time never really grew up. 

As for Loomis's mom, I always left it vague in my mind who she was precisely.  On the one hand she could be a prime runner who had a hand in every major coup and plot from Amazonia to Zimbabwe and hit every corp from Ares to Wuxing.  Or she was just completely batpoop crazy.  I figure the truth was somewhere in between but it wasn't something I needed to define one way or the other. 

[Joush]

It's a fun concept, it's a interesting idea that works well. You seem aware of the weakness and cost of the abilities he has taken at the rating he has. If you'd like some advice for optimization, there is the standard to, at creation, buy skills at 1 or 4. Skills at 1 representing things secondary to the concept where you simply want basic ability and to not be defaulting and skills at 4 representing things core to the concept. This is because Build Point cost are linear, while Karma cost are quadratic.

For your 'ware, I'd generally suggest to pick up Muscle Toner rather then Muscle replacement when you take Reflex Wiring. Muscle Replacement stacked with Wiring has a very high essence cost, while if you can get away with a lower strength score Muscle Toner is cheaper and much, much lighter on essence. Adding Muscle Enhancement (Augmentation? Whatever the bioware +STR enhancement is) means your cost rises, but it's still lighter on essence.

Simsense Vertigo is cool, and I like your reasoning, but it makes Automatics 2 with specialty seem a little weak, putting unarmed or Pistols as your primary offensive skill. For a solider, I'd almost suggest going Longarms and Automatics together, with him packing a machine pistol as his carry gun and having a collection of shotguns, assault and semi automatic rifles. Otherwise, I'd suggest Heavy Weapons instead of Automatics, and having his big STR getting him tapped to serve as an automatic riflemen / grenadier for the squad.

Edge 1 is painful, I'd gently suggest trying to get it higher as it's quite easy to need at least a second point for life or death rolls.

Specialties are fun, but are cheap to buy with Karma. you may want to save them for later if you choose to rebuild.

[UmaroVI]

Sadly, Incompetence: Intimidation doesn't work like that. You not only use Intimidation to intimidate people, you use it to defend against intimidation. So your character is a spineless wimp who will give in to anyone who gets a single hit on an Intimidation attempt.

If you want general optimization ideas, take a look at the link in my sig and the various street samurai there.

Good move not taking Longarms, because Longarms is the worst weapon skill.

[Xzylvador]

I have a confession to make.  I rarely spend a lot of points on Contacts.  My theory going back three editions is you don't have to take a Fixer contact, because you will end up with one by the end of the first game

Lol. I know GM's who'd say "Fine, go home and play your character there. He's not going to get any job offers, so you might want to get a day job to pay the rent. Have fun selling McSoy's." Not spending points on something because that way the GM will be forced to just give it for free anyway? Man, he'd make you suffer for that.
Roleplay wise: His mom was a 'runner who was apparently teaching him about the job, but never told him contacts were important? That would be like Sarah Connor never teaching her son anything about resistance groups or robots.

Skills: You've got a melee skill and got Running, Climbing and Dodge? Lose those 3 and get the Athletic Skill group instead. Overall, too many and too high.

'Ware: All that alpha stuff is really expensive you know.

Gear: Not even a fake SIN? And with 1 Log,1 Cha and no social skills you're too dumb and asocial to possibly convince any security check to let you pass instead of locking you up immediately. (You'd roll two dice thanks to the +2 First Impression. Chances of (critical) glitching with two dice are actually larger than with a single die.) Those "vision and aural enhancements" you buy as gear will also give you a -2 thanks to Vertigo, so if you're dead set on spending that little on gear, you might not want to waste money on a net +1 perception. But even with that money saved you just can't afford the gear I'd consider a minimum for a runner. Your armor will be really low, your weapons unmodified, no other gear that might come in handy (not even B&E gear, which is really odd for an infiltration char), your commlink a security risk...

Sorry, but I don't think this char works well at all.
My advice: Drop some skills and improve them while playing. Losing the specs is a good way to free up BP's too. It's actually a bit cost-ineffective to buy specs at creation because it costs twice as much as what it will cost later. (2 Karma = 1BP for most things, but specs cost 2BP at creation and only 2 karma during play.) Spend those BP's on better/more 'ware, gear & contacts.
The edge thing is painful too and will get you into trouble, but if that's the char you want, *shrug*.

[Tsuzua]

I have a confession to make.  I rarely spend a lot of points on Contacts.  My theory going back three editions is you don't have to take a Fixer contact, because you will end up with one by the end of the first game

Lol. I know GM's who'd say "Fine, go home and play your character there. He's not going to get any job offers, so you might want to get a day job to pay the rent. Have fun selling McSoy's." Not spending points on something because that way the GM will be forced to just give it for free anyway? Man, he'd make you suffer for that.
Roleplay wise: His mom was a 'runner who was apparently teaching him about the job, but never told him contacts were important? That would be like Sarah Connor never teaching her son anything about resistance groups or robots.

Really the problem is that SR doesn't do a good job with contacts.  Having a decent number of contacts that won't immediately sell you out and have any use is way overpriced (5 3/3 contacts costs 30BP).  That is assuming you don't allow stuff like Lowfyr Connection 6 / Loyalty 6 style contacts.  Then the problem is the other way.

A lot of what contacts do is easily and sometimes better replaced by a runner's team skills (legwork and getting gear especially).  The only thing fellow PCs can't do is give you plot hooks, but should you spend points for the right to have plot hooks?  Also there's no mechanism to gain and advance contacts during play so if you don't use contacts at start, you're never really going to use them at all.

As for the character, here are my suggestions assuming you're remaking him at 400BP:

I'll drop all the specializations.  They're 2 karma each and BP are worth more than karma.  With 20 BP saved that way, I'll buy up your other skills to 4 if I can (especially pistols and automatics).  You may want to go just automatics or pistols/heavy weapons.  I would also drop Climbing and Running and buy athletics 1 with synthacardium 3.  I'll drop throwing myself since thrown grenades are merely okay at best.

As for ware, I'll drop dermal plating and plastic bone lacing and buy up your body.  I can also seeing getting restricted gear and Superthyroid Gland.  The increase in body lets you wear more armor (making up that lost by dermal plating and plastic bone lacing) and gives you +1 agility, str, and reaction.  You can drop your agility by 1 as well with this method.  Then you can get regular muscle replacements.  You're trashing the muscle replacements anyways once you can afford their bioware replacements so you should cut costs with them.

[Mercer]

Try as I might, I couldn't find a reference to visual and aural enhancements affecting simsense vertigo (which doesn't mean no such reference exists, only that I couldn't find it).  The GM's ruling was the SV was from what was explicitly mentioned, either in the equipment or SV description.  Tactical overlays would qualify (at +1 to +3, the best I could hope for is a net +1 die) but most of the other things I used-- optical vision mag and so on-- didn't.  I wouldn't have had a problem if the GM had ruled that the enhancements were simsense, but that wasn't the interpretation he went with. 

There's no mechanism for gaining or advancing Contacts in play (meaning you can't spend karma or cash, or anything else to up their ratings), but in my group that's always been within the purview of the GM.  By the end of the campaign (43 karma, covering maybe a month or two of game time), Loomis had a fixer, a scientist and a street boss from the local crime family with Loyalties between 1-3.  Gaining contacts and improving their loyalty (and sometimes their connection) is something my group has always used as a roleplaying reward.  If we didn't, then I'd probably be more inclined to spend BP on them.

As for stats, I could raise and drop some things, but I can't put any more BP into them.  (If I could, believe me, I would.)   I didn't start with form fit-- the character creation rules from the GM were BBB only-- but I picked it up in play and my damage resistance pool was 23/19 ballistic and impact, so I never felt starved for dice on that.  If I was going to drop anything, it would probably be STR by 1 or 2. 

Incompetent- Intimidation is an interesting point, although I'm trying to think back on a time when it's come up where an NPC has tried to intimidate a PC and I'm drawing a blank.  (That seems kind of suicidal on the part of a given NPC.)  Looking at the archetypes in the BBB, only three have Intimidation-- the Enforcer, Face and Sprawl Ganger.  Looking at the Contacts, a Beat Cop has 4 dice to roll on Intimidation (CHA 1, Intim 2) where the Street Samurai has 2 dice to resist (defaulting on a WILL 3).  Assuming the beat cop is a good example of an experienced corp sec guard, his best bet upon being confronted by shadowrunners would be to simply order them off the premises.  I don't see that working to well for him in the game (although admittedly, it would be hilarious).

I can see the argument for dropping the specializations at chargen and picking them up in play.  It's tough to do because I like skills, but I could streamline them.  Sadly, I'd probably just end up bumping my starting languages. 
     

[Xzylvador]

I said that assuming that the enhancements are a kind or AR. They alter what you perceive in realtime to give you an augmented version of reality. Not simsense, but I do think it's AR. No problem if your GM says it isn't, all the better for you

Contacts: Of course gaining contacts depends on the GM and how the characters treat the people they meet and of course you'll gain a lot during play. But you kind of came across like you were saying "Hey, it's the GM's job to make sure my char gets a job, so I'll end up with a fixer anyway, why pay for it.", which imo is metagaming and a bad mentality if you're roleplaying a character who wants to find work. My GM's (and my own) response would be: Nobody connected to the shadows knows who your char is, so he can't get a job. Come back when he's spent some effort to get to know the right people (read: spent at least some BP's on it.). But again, if your GM's more generous then by all means, continue.

But all that and the rest: *shrug* You ask advice, I give it. It's yours to do with as you please.

[Mason]

My thing with the Contacts is that all shadowrunners are gonna know SOMEBODY, but paying for it is annoying. I give the players a few points to spend on contacts free.

However, my only requirement is that one PC has a fixer and the PCs all know each other or have a fixer who sets them up with a team. See, people don't think of it this way often, but the PCs are ALSO all Contacts themselves, for each other. Any contact a PC has, he can put people in touch with. The PC can vouch for the team to the fixer, allowing out of town characters just arriving to have no contacts except the party. If the character starts out not knowing the party, then runners can ALSO be picked up in runner bars, and still have few contacts.