[Kaptain O]

I am starting to play with some friends and we are all new to shadowrun, browsing the boards here want to limit the dice pools and ability to hyper-specialise so I came up with some restrictions for character creation.  I wanted to bounce the ideas off of some of the more experienced players out there to see if I made any mistakes.

400bp, SR4A plus qualities/traditions only from Street Magic, Augmentation and Unwired.

No Technomancers

Str reduces recoil special rule, CHAx2 bonus BP for contacts.

Attributes (Including Edge/Magic):
No attribute can be "hardcapped"
Only one can be "softcapped"

Skills:
No 6's
Either 1 5 or 2 4's
The rest 1-3
No specialisations.

Gear:
Max Availability is 10.

I was planning to keep 400BP to cause more "well rounded" characters, I could see kicking it down a bit though if the players will have "too many" BP's to spend with these restrictions.

Do you feel this is too restrictive?  Do you think this will lend itself to creating more balanced, newer runners?  Did I not think of something?

[UmaroVI]

I don't see any major problems you're setting yourself up for. The availability cap I would reconsider, though - it leads to some odd stuff like a lot of character types who want stuff that's not particularly expensive but it higher availability than allowed at chargen (especially Hackers) wanting to start without some key gear and buy it later. I'd suggest something like the regular cap of 12, but limit how much money people can spend to, say, 40 bp rather than the usual 50, which would keep it in line with the restrictions on other things.

You might also consider karmagen, albeit with the errata that makes stats x5 rather than x3 and with race cost karma = bp rather than free metatypes. If you want lower-powered, give out less than 750 karma, though, maybe 600, and keep the restrictions you have.

[Kaptain O]

The drop in Avail was there for a few items, Wired Reflexes 3, a lvl 3 Sustaining Focus (I'm trying to keep the characters to 2 IP at creation).  It also means Synthacardium and Tailored Pheromones can only be taken at level 2 which helps keep CHA skills in check.

Can you give me some examples of some items of key gear that are Avail 12?

I browsed mainly the foci/augmentation section when coming up with that number.

[Mercer]

Sometimes I find the best way to keep characters at something like 2 IP is a "Gentleman's Agreement" rather than a particular restriction.  Player ingenuity will usually end up doing an end run around restrictions, but if everyone agrees to stop at 2 IP you don't have to worry about it.  (That, and a physical or mystic adept could still buy Inc Ref 2 or 3, so the Avail cap would restrict cyber characters less than magical ones.)

[UmaroVI]

Wired 3 is a really shaky purchase, and more than 12 anyways. Did you mean Wired 2?

Some good examples (and keep in mind this is already a problem, it's more that lowering availability further makes it a bigger problem):
It makes purchasing stuff like glasses/goggles/contacts a major pain in the neck - you probably want to start with a cheap pair that just Smartlink you, then take your first paycheck and buy real ones - they aren't expensive, but they have high availability.

Cyberspurs, Cyberarm Gyromounts, Monofilament Whips, etc are all items that are pretty cheap and that a character might not function properly without (ie, a Monofilament Whip user can't start with one - but they can buy one easily enough after gameplay starts).

Synthacardium is a perfect example, actually. It's not very expensive, so you really don't want to start with any synthacardium - if you want it, you should wait to buy rating 3 rather than start with rating 2 and have to trash it, wasting money. Ditto on Tailored Pheremones - it's something every face will want, but they won't want at 2 - so they can either wait to buy it, or waste 30000Y. Cerebral Boosters have a similar issue - nobody is going to want Cerebral Boosters 1 that they then need to throw out a few missions later. Also, that doesn't really do much to keep Charisma skills in check.

If you want to keep Charisma skills in check, I suggest (1) ban Empathy Software and Emotitoys (2) Use the dice pool cap = 2x(unaugmented attribute + unaugmented skill) rule, which is a good one in general.

If you want to stop people from starting with 3 IPs, I would suggest just spot-banning the handful of ways to do it. What about adepts, by the way? Also, keep in mind that there's various ways besides sustaining foci to let magicians get a 3rd IP.

[JustADude]

If you want to stop people from starting with 3 IPs, I would suggest just spot-banning the handful of ways to do it. What about adepts, by the way? Also, keep in mind that there's various ways besides sustaining foci to let magicians get a 3rd IP.

You don't even need a Sustaining Focus if you don't mind that -2 penalty.

[Kaptain O]

-2 penalty seems like it sucks pretty hard though.

Yes Umaro, I did mean WR 2, not 3.

RE: lower level tailored p'mones and synthacardium et al, I was planning on allowing players to "upgrade" their cybernetics for a small additional cost rather than rebuying the same stuff again at full cost for the higher grade.

I'll have to take a look at the various glasses/goggles/contacts and see what I am ruling out.

Adepts I was on the fence about either not allowing them to take the power that gets them to 3 IP or have that be the benefit of going adept...

I was going to cap dice pools like you said and no emotoys or software.

I also had a question, can you break apart a skill group during character creation?  Like by raising "Firearms Group" to 1 then raising pistols separately to 4 (total 22BP)? Chummer doesnt seem to let me so I assume you can't.

[Crash_00]

What type of campaign are you wanting to run? I find that restrictions like this are good for ground up beginning runner style campaigns, but not that great if you're running a normal or high powered campaign.

[Kaptain O]

Yeah was thinking novice runners, we are all new to the system/setting so this would give us a chance to grow with our characters.

[Xzylvador]

Most "novice runner" games I've seen here were availability 8 max, and it seemed to work.
"Growing characters" can be quite difficult though.
Street Sams, for example, need their 'ware and IPs. While I understand that at start only one extra IP is enough for the ganger runner-wannabe, they'll want to get more later. But RAW doesn't allow 'ware upgrades, so he'll have to save a lot of money to buy his new Wired Reflexes II. But they're expensive + high availability, so the low-on-social-skills sam will have to spend quite some time trying to find it after he saves all that money. And then he needs surgery and will be down for healing quite a while too.
And that's just for one upgrade. He'll want -and NEED if he wants to stay up to par with the magic users- a lot more 'ware, all of it with the same problems.
So as a GM, be prepared to add some more flexible house rules on how to get 'ware, maybe allow upgrades, have the street doc have it in stock, allow the downtime for all of it or find a quicker healing way etc etc.
Not saying it can't all be done, it can and it can be a lot of fun.
But the rules are all connected in some way, small changes now can mean having to make more and bigger changes along the way. By no means is that impossible, just be aware of it. If you're new to the system, sticking to the rules might be easier than changing them so they seem easier but actually become more complicated in the long run.

[Katrex]

No technomancers is odd, though then again who'd play a technomancer if you can't hard cap resonance.

As for the hard caping stuff, its seems a little pointless, the hard cap is there specificaly to discourage min maxing, if people want to spend 25 bp putting something to max let them, they are losing out in the long run.

On the initiative passes, i think you're going a little to far, its not like more initiative pases lets you go more times before your enemies do. EVERYBODY fights on the first round, which is the most deadly. My gunslinger adept killed the force 7 spirit that suprised us in one shot, Or the hellhound that ambushed our party only lasted a round also. The only time initiative passes REALLY matter is when you are fighting lots of enemies, and you shouldnt be attacking your pc's heavily outnumbered unless they do that those extra Ip's, And so that they can dodge, remember if a Pc chooses to dodge he loses his next IP.
Its for these kind of resons you shouldn't be too harsh against IP's you just need to know how to work with them.

As for the skills bit, my honest oppinion is meh, after you get through your atributes magic resonance qualities gear and contacts spending 3 or four in a skill doesn't matter.

[Kaptain O]

Oh also, another house rule that isn't strictly character creation (but will affect it) is that cyberlimbs can only be customized up to your current stat (although a base cyberlimb still comes with 3's even if you have a 1 or a 2).  They can be enhanced further as normal.

[Tsuzua]

Oh also, another house rule that isn't strictly character creation (but will affect it) is that cyberlimbs can only be customized up to your current stat (although a base cyberlimb still comes with 3's even if you have a 1 or a 2).  They can be enhanced further as normal.

I take this is an anti-cyberlimb of awesome measure?  If so, I'll suggest just removing customized cyberlimbs and making it so that your cyberlimb stat = your meat stat or 3 whatever is higher and you can buy enhancements.  That way a troll can have a cyberlimb that doesn't make him weaker (especially with lower avail cap).  That's how they should have done it in the first place.

You may also want to nerf cyberlimb armor, though you should buff the other defensive ware options if you do that. 

[Sipowitz]

I see no issues with your restrictions. 

System mastery will come with time.  No sense of having a group looking for awesome builds and not having a remote clue on how the build works or even got that way.