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Cass100199

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« on: <06-16-12/1046:11> »
I'm about to start playing in a game and this is my character so far. He's a former UCAS SF Soldier who spent several tours advising in South America advising Amazonia. On his last assignment, he was placed on an intel gathering team with the DIA doing recon and HUMINT gathering when his DIA handler burned his team. He hit the ground running  and has spent the last two years on the move as maritime security. He finally got off in port an dis turning to the shadows to make some money and, eventually, find out what happened.

Obviously, I haven't finished fleshing out his background, but that's the framework. The Cyber is based on him being a Soldier. The gear is based on what can I carry and run (and lifted right off Umaro's Spook), hence no rifle or SMG, etc.


== Info ==
Street Name: Franklin Clay
Name: Mark Kovacs
Movement: 10/25, Swim: 5
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 0
Public Awareness: 0
Human Male Age 31
Height 73 in Weight 195
Composure: 8
Judge Intentions: 8
Lift/Carry: 8 (75 kg/50 kg)
Memory: 5
Nuyen: 0

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3
AGI: 5 (7)
REA: 4 (6)
STR: 3 (5)
CHA: 5
INT: 3
LOG: 2
WIL: 3
EDG: 2

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   0.775
Initiative:                7 (9)
IP:                        1 (3)
Matrix Initiative:         7
Matrix IP:                 1
Physical Damage Track:     11
Stun Damage Track:         10

== Active Skills ==
Animal Handling            : 0                      Pool: 2
Animal Training            : 0                      Pool: 2
Archery                    : 0                      Pool: 6
Armorer                    : 0                      Pool: 1
Artisan                    : 0                      Pool: 2
Automatics                 : 3                      Pool: 12
Blades                     : 0                      Pool: 6
Climbing                   : 0                      Pool: 4
Clubs                      : 0                      Pool: 6
Computer                   : 0                      Pool: 1
Con                        : 0                      Pool: 4
Cybercombat                : 0                      Pool: 1
Data Search                : 0                      Pool: 1
Demolitions                : 0                      Pool: 1
Disguise                   : 0                      Pool: 2
Diving                     : 1                      Pool: 4
Dodge                      : 0                      Pool: 5
Escape Artist              : 0                      Pool: 6
Etiquette                  : 2                      Pool: 7
First Aid                  : 3                      Pool: 5
Flight                     : 0                      Pool: 4
Forgery                    : 0                      Pool: 6
Gunnery                    : 0                      Pool: 6
Gymnastics                 : 4                      Pool: 11
Hacking                    : 0                      Pool: 1
Heavy Weapons              : 0                      Pool: 8
Infiltration               : 4                      Pool: 11
Instruction                : 0                      Pool: 4
Intimidation               : 3                      Pool: 9
Leadership                 : 3                      Pool: 8
Locksmith                  : 0                      Pool: 6
Longarms                   : 0                      Pool: 8
Medicine                   : 2                      Pool: 4
Navigation                 : 0                      Pool: 2
Negotiation                : 5                      Pool: 10
Palming                    : 0                      Pool: 6
Parachuting                : 1                      Pool: 4
Perception                 : 4                      Pool: 7
Pilot Ground Craft         : 0                      Pool: 5
Pilot Watercraft           : 0                      Pool: 5
Pistols                    : 4                      Pool: 13
Riding                     : 0                      Pool: 5
Running                    : 0                      Pool: 4
Shadowing                  : 4                      Pool: 7
Survival                   : 1                      Pool: 4
Swimming                   : 0                      Pool: 4
Throwing Weapons           : 0                      Pool: 6
Tracking                   : 0                      Pool: 2
Unarmed Combat             : 4                      Pool: 11

== Knowledge Skills ==
Area Knowledge: Bogota   : 4                      Pool: 7
Combat Tactics             : 5                      Pool: 7
English                    : N                      Pool: 0
Ghost Cartels              : 2                      Pool: 5
Portuguese                 : 4                      Pool: 7

== Contacts ==
Rax (1, 1)

== Qualities ==
Ambidextrous
Day Job (20 hrs/week)
High Pain Tolerance (Rating 1)
Hung Out to Dry
Records on File (UCAS)
SINner (Standard) (UCAS)
Tough as Nails (Rating 1)
Will to Live (Rating 1)

== Lifestyles ==
Middle  4 months

== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Adrenal Regulator
Bone Lacing (Kevlar)
MPC Bridge
Muscle Augmentation Rating 2
Muscle Toner Rating 2
Pain Editor
Skillwires Rating 4
Sleep Regulator
Wired Reflexes Rating 2

== Armor ==
Ballistic Mask            2/1
Form-Fitting Full-Body Suit6/2
SecureTech Forearm Guards 0/1
SecureTech Leg and Arm Casings1/1
SecureTech Shin Guards    0/1
SecureTech Vitals Protector1/1

== Weapons ==
Colt Manhunter
   +Advanced Safety System
   +Concealable Holster
   +Smartgun System, Internal
   +Sound Suppressor
   +Spare Clips
   +Spare Clips
   +Spare Clips
   +Spare Clips
   +Chameleon Coating
   +Gas Vent 3
   +Laser Sight
   +Personalized Grip
   +Skinlink
   DV: 5P   AP: -1   RC: 4
Cougar Fineblade Knife, Short
   DV: 4P   AP: -1   RC: 0
Shock Glove
   DV: 5S(e)   AP: -half   RC: 0
Unarmed Attack
   DV: 3S   AP: -   RC: 0
Yamaha Pulsar
   DV: 6S(e)   AP: -half   RC: 0

== Commlink ==
Meta Link (1, 4, 3, 2)
   +Novatech Navi
Sony Emperor (4, 4, 3, 3)
   +Novatech Navi
   +Suite: Pro User [Analyze 4, Browse 4, Command 2, Edit 4]
   +Agent Rating 4 [Copy Protection 4, Registration]

== Gear ==
Activesoft (Survival) Rating 4
   +Copy Protection Rating 2
   +Registration
Activesoft (Perception) Rating 4
   +Copy Protection Rating 2
   +Registration
Activesoft (Navigation) Rating 4
   +Copy Protection Rating 2
   +Registration
Activesoft (Unarmed Combat) Rating 4
   +Copy Protection Rating 4
   +Registration
Activesoft (Gymnastics) Rating 4
   +Copy Protection Rating 4
   +Registration
Ammo: APDS (Heavy Pistols) x110
Ammo: Stick-n-Shock (Heavy Pistols) x110
Ammo: Taser Dart (Tasers) x30
Certified Credstick, Standard Rating 3 x2
Contact Lenses Rating 2
   +Skinlink
   +Smartlink
   +Flare Compensation
DocWagon Paramedic
   +Knowsoft (DocWagon Procedures) Rating 3 [Copy Protection 3; Registration]
   +Activesoft (First Aid) Rating 3 [Copy Protection 3; Registration]
   +Activesoft (Medicine) Rating 2 [Copy Protection 2; Registration]
Earbuds Rating 2
   +Skinlink
   +Audio Enhancement Rating 3
   +Spatial Recognizer
Fake License (Colt Manhunter) Rating 3 x2
Fake License (Wired Reflexes) Rating 3 x2
Fake License (Muscle Toner) Rating 3 x2
Fake License (Muscle Augmentation) Rating 3 x2
Fake SIN (CAS) Rating 3
Fake SIN (PCC) Rating 3
Glasses Rating 3
   +Skinlink
   +Low Light
   +Vision Enhancement Rating 3
   +Image Link
Medkit Rating 6 x2
Micro Sensor
   +Skinlink
   +Radio Signal Scanner Rating 1
Micro Sensor
   +Skinlink
   +Laser Range Finder
Micro Sensor
   +Skinlink
   +Motion Sensor

== Vehicles ==
Indian Pathfinder (Racing Bike)
« Last Edit: <06-16-12/1525:42> by Cass100199 »
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Jackleg Rooster

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« Reply #1 on: <06-16-12/1232:46> »
is there such a thing as second-hand alphaware?

Cass100199

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« Reply #2 on: <06-16-12/1506:50> »
It's an option for some cyber in Chummer and my GM didn't nix it when I gave him the rough draft.
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Glyph

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« Reply #3 on: <06-16-12/1537:24> »
Some GMs don't like it, but it is unambiguously RAW.  Even the example is of someone buying second-hand alphaware.

Why do you have a sound suppressor and a gas vent: 3 for a semi-automatic pistol?  It would use a silencer, not a sound suppressor, and the gas vent: 3 is not needed at all (the personalized grip already takes care of the 1 point of recoil you get for your second shot).


Cass100199

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« Reply #4 on: <06-16-12/1540:02> »
My thoughts for picking it were that the military would want to provide top-grade cyber to it's operators, but is still cheap enough to not buy brand new for every single one. My GM accepted that explanation. :D

Good catch on the weapon. Bought everything I wanted, but hadn't gone back to fine tune. Thank you.
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Yogi

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« Reply #5 on: <06-16-12/1912:21> »
Skillwires 4 requires the restricted gear quality as the availability for that is higher than 12.   I may be wrong but rating 4 Activesofts are 40k each.  If they are having 5 of them almost maxes out your 250k limit.   And looking at your cyberware/gear will put you over that.   
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Jackleg Rooster

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« Reply #6 on: <06-16-12/1931:40> »
K now that I've looked at it, here's what I see:

You are encumbered by your armor when wearing the mask. Lose one ballistic - take arm or leg casings only when wearing mask. Also obvious, which depends on your mission profile.

You are ambidextrous with no weapons to take advantage of it. Unless one hand gun, one knife style but both negate the advantage of the other. Shooting then stabbing is also not as effective as shooting then shooting. Also you have no skill with a knife so this is a Bad Plan.

High pain tolerance does not stack with pain editor. Tough as nails and will to live are extremely iffy qualities if you dump all three you can get body 5 which is much more useful. (another box and 4 points more armor)

6,4,1 advice - Take the most important skill (which should be automatics for a soldier probably) to 6. All other important skills to 4, and secondary skills at 1. This is for karma efficiency later.

Automatics with no gun for it. This is a shame since dual wielding automatics (machine pistols or SMGs) is the best part of ambidextrous.

Why a 5 in negotiation? Are you trying to secondary face?

Your shock gloves are always going to be better than your unarmed attack, so strength is not super important (unless you pick up blades, though this would still make your bone lacing more irrelevant)

Skillwires 4 is over availability cap. Dropping it to 3 means you have too many skillsofts to run at once.

Skillwires 4 requires the restricted gear quality as the availability for that is higher than 12.   I may be wrong but rating 4 Activesofts are 40k each.  If they are having 5 of them almost maxes out your 250k limit.   And looking at your cyberware/gear will put you over that.   

Also this, which I didn't catch. You're way over budget.

Cass100199

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« Reply #7 on: <06-16-12/2048:28> »
K now that I've looked at it, here's what I see:

You are encumbered by your armor when wearing the mask. Lose one ballistic - take arm or leg casings only when wearing mask. Also obvious, which depends on your mission profile.

The armor is mission dependent. He won't be wearing it all, all the time.

Quote
You are ambidextrous with no weapons to take advantage of it. Unless one hand gun, one knife style but both negate the advantage of the other. Shooting then stabbing is also not as effective as shooting then shooting. Also you have no skill with a knife so this is a Bad Plan.

I took ambi because I had 7BP left, so I figured a 5 BP quality and a specialization is better than 1 more skill point and 3 BP left over. But, based on your other recommendations, I'll probably drop it and rework from there.

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High pain tolerance does not stack with pain editor. Tough as nails and will to live are extremely iffy qualities if you dump all three you can get body 5 which is much more useful. (another box and 4 points more armor)

Did not know that. And good idea. Thanks.

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6,4,1 advice - Take the most important skill (which should be automatics for a soldier probably) to 6. All other important skills to 4, and secondary skills at 1. This is for karma efficiency later.

I wasn't going for total efficiency. It's not the type of group I'm playing with. Also, I wanted to have some skills that were there due to background, i.e. parachute and diving. But I'll play with the number some based on this.

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Automatics with no gun for it. This is a shame since dual wielding automatics (machine pistols or SMGs) is the best part of ambidextrous.

This is all fluff. I figured with the background of picking up and running, carrying an assault rifle wouldn't fit into that.

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Why a 5 in negotiation? Are you trying to secondary face?

Yes. He's a SF Officer, so I felt that negotiate, intimidation, etiquette, etc. would fit into that background.

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Your shock gloves are always going to be better than your unarmed attack, so strength is not super important (unless you pick up blades, though this would still make your bone lacing more irrelevant)

This was more fluff. I figured that SF units would have some sort of cyber muscle augmentation.

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Skillwires 4 is over availability cap. Dropping it to 3 means you have too many skillsofts to run at once.

I'll be changing that. Or I might take the restricted gear quality. This was another SF/ history based decision. I liked the idea of SF Soldiers having Skillsifts so they can drop in culture, etiquette, etc. since they're jack of all trades operators.

Skillwires 4 requires the restricted gear quality as the availability for that is higher than 12.   I may be wrong but rating 4 Activesofts are 40k each.  If they are having 5 of them almost maxes out your 250k limit.   And looking at your cyberware/gear will put you over that.   

Quote
Also this, which I didn't catch. You're way over budget.

I used Chummer and had it set up for standard chargen, so I'm not sure where that came in.
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Cass100199

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« Reply #8 on: <06-16-12/2101:40> »
Under further investigation, I must have set 10K as the default per build point, so I'm gonna have to redo the whole damn thing. Not sure how I did it, but *%^#!
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Dragoon

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« Reply #9 on: <06-16-12/2238:14> »
I don't claim to be an expert character builder, but I'll offer a few suggestions I see based on my experience.

With your current attribute point load out, you're better off taking an Ork as your metatype rather than human, unless you specifically don't want to play an ork.  You spend 20 points, and will end up saving quite a bit on the build.  Your base body is higher than it is with the points you put into it, and your strength will be equal to the rating with the points you've put into it.  I'd drop the ambidextrous for two levels in restricted gear, to allow you to get some better ware.  I understand that a basic soldier isn't going to be worth incorporating high dollar ware, but a special forces character (Like you want) would actually have the better grade ware on them.  Use those points to increase your intuition to a 5.  Soldiers should follow their gut.  I'd also drop your Charisma to a 4.  Unless you're planning on your character being the next UCAS president (or a face first soldier second) you shouldn't need it that high.  For your qualities I would suggest dropping Will to live, High Pain Tolerance, and Tough as nails.  Your cyberware choices already overshadow the tolerance and will to live, and tough as nails you'd be better off spending those 10 points on body than on that quality.

As for the ware, I'd drop the skillwires and the wired reflexes for Move-by-Wire from Augmentation.  That gives you reaction enhancers, wired reflexes, and skill wires in a neat little 3 essence package (the same as just the reflexes).  I'd suggest dropping the Muscle Augmentation, Skill Wires, Bone lacing, Wired Reflexes and Muscle Toner.  With the money you save I'd nab the Move-by-Wire rating 2.  Then (when the skill suggestions are taken into account and you have the extra money mind you) grab muscle Toner 4 since you would have the restricted gear quality to get it.  My other suggestion is to switch out the pain editor for a trauma damper.  Pain editors are nice, but with the amount of money spent on training and equipping special forces, they typically aren't going to want to lose their soldiers due to them not paying attention to their monitor.  Let the damage modifiers be mitigated by some rating 6 stimulant slap patches, they work wonders for those wound modifiers.   The other thing about the pain editor, it's 18F for availability, you have to spend more BP to get the quality.   I would also add an attention coprocessor since it's one of those wares to me that seems specifically made for soldiers, cheap perception increase.  You might be wondering why I had you drop the muscle Augmentation, the reason for that is that soldiers don't need to be any stronger than average people, but they do need a better body score then average people for all the calisthenics they do.  Remember, (in my opinion anyways) soldiers that rely on strength 5+ in shadowrun are typically heavy weapons troopers.

Skills are an area we can hopefully trim some fat for the build.  You've spent (by my math) 192 points on skills alone, which is almost as much as  you've spent on attributes.  A rule of thumb I use is 130 points spent on skills max, that gives enough BP left over for nuyen and tweaking at the end.  I'm breaking that for you so we can try to keep the fluff background intact.  Negotiation is a nice skill, but the problem is with the military is they get an order and pass the order on, little room to negotiate.  I'd cap that at 4, since that puts you on par with most diplomats for negotiation purposes.  On second thought looking at it, I would drop negotiation, etiquette, and leadership in favor of taking the skill group at level 3 which drops negotiation by one, but raises etiquette by two, and you save BP on doing it..  Next, special forces are trained to use their pistols as a last resort, and to rely more on their SMG/Assault Rifle/Carbine so I would move that up to a 5 or 6 since special forces are going to want to get a real gun in their hands ASAP when their on the run.  Plus you're more dangerous at mid to long ranges which when pinned down soldiers need to be, and you are better for room clearance which is another specialty of special forces.  Medicine doesn't really fit to me.  Special forces are certainly trained in first aid, but only the corpsmen will be trained in long term medical care.  I would suggest dropping that.  I would drop shadowing and infiltration in favor of the stealth group at 2.  With the changes in the muscle toner you're infiltration will be the same, and with the intuition boost your  shadowing will be better.  Additionally you'll be gaining the use of palming (soldiers like to hide knives behind their forearm for wetwork) and disguise (a useful talent for special forces that operate behind enemy lines).

Here's what I've got along the lines in Chummer;

Attributes (190 points spent total)
Body 5
Agility 5 (9)
Reaction 4 (8)
Strength 3
Charisma 4
Intuition 5
Logic 2
Willpower 3
Edge 2

Qualities total of 25 BP gained
Restricted gear x2 10 BP
Day Job (20 hrs/week) +10
Hung Out to Dry +10
Records on File (UCAS) +10
SINner (Standard) (UCAS) +5

Skills (160 total BP spent on skills)
Automatics  6
Diving 1
First Aid 3
Gymnastics 4
Intimidation 3
Parachuting 1
Perception 4
Pistols 4
Unarmed Combat 4
Skill Groups
Stealth 2
Influence 2

That leaves you 50 bp for nuyen (250k for gear) and 5 bp for contacts

Of that 250k my suggestions for Ware are
Move by Wire System rating 2
Attention Coprocessor rating 3
MPC Bridge
Muscle toner 4
Sleep Regulator
Trauma Damper

That would leave you with 60000 left to buy some gear, you may not get your activesofts right away, but if you save your nuyen you can get them down the road.  The reason I made most of these changes is either they didn't fit the character idea, or they will give you room to grow down the road.  Couple of notes on your gear choices other than what's been pointed out.  Cougar fineblades are nice, but I find a survival knife at 50 nuyen is infinitely better than the cougar fine blade.  It costs 500 less, and it has a bunch of useful gear included that any soldier would find useful, and it has the same in game stats.  Sharpening it is as easy as asking the GM the price for a whetstone.  If you want a ranged stun weapon I'd drop the pulsar and just buy some stick n shock ammo.  Better range, same damage and no need to draw another weapon.  Plus you can get a silencer for the pistol and be set for being quiet.  Unless you have some computer skills I would suggest ignoring the programs for the commlinks, and if you're going to get an agent just go with rating 2 since rating 4 and higher tend to be better for hackers since yours is just a search bot.  The last one is to ask your GM if he plays it that you specifically need a license for each piece of gear that's restricted, or if a general license will cover them all.  Such as Augmentation taking over for the Move by Wire and Muscle toner.  It's a 50/50 shot, and I find that most GMs play that a general license is going to cover most things.
« Last Edit: <06-16-12/2257:52> by Dragoon »

Cass100199

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« Reply #10 on: <06-17-12/0128:01> »
Wow. Thanks. I think you just saved me a couple of hours redoing things. I like what you came up with. As I said, I have to start over and I'm going to heavily incorporate what you've got.

As for negotiation, he is a SF Officer. He wouldn't be hyper-specialized in a skillset, but instead, he's the guy who talks to the village elder, etc. so I am going to keep some negotiation in there, but I think you're group suggestion will work.

Edit: And to reiterate the lack of anything more than  a pistol is fluff. I just don't see how a guy goes on the run, but carries an assault or battle rifle with him.
« Last Edit: <06-17-12/0146:49> by Cass100199 »
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Dragoon

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« Reply #11 on: <06-17-12/0221:26> »
I'd look at it as, he doesn't have it when he goes on the lam.  Instead he clears out the "slush fund" account that the corp had for him, and gets his hands on an automatic weapon ASAP.   So long as it's a legal weapon to own, most people that hire him won't say a word about it.  Something along the lines of an Ingram Smartgun or similar since that stuff is really easy to get your hands on.

Cass100199

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« Reply #12 on: <06-17-12/0245:27> »
Definitely. But, I'm using starting lifestyle cash. First point of business is getting my hands on an assault or battle rifle.
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Cass100199

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« Reply #13 on: <06-17-12/1342:28> »
So I retooled him. I incorporated most of the ideas and kept some inefficient fluff. I told my GM about the money screw up and he said it makes sense to have high end ware with the background, so don't sweat it. He's big on RPing more than guns blazing. He also kind of smirked and said I wouldn't be the only one running around with military grade ware, so I could be hosed. Thank you everyone for your suggestions and helping me build smarter.
You can't tell me what toys I can play with.