[Tanker]

Hi there.

I'm a relatively new player and i post here to expose my caracter concept to have some advises.

I have the idea to create a caracter specialized in electronic warfare to intercept and give falls informations and with a good lvl in facing to do the same but in physic world.
The purpose of this caracter is to forced somebody to be where i want when i want etc...
And because i like awaken caracters, i would like him to be an adept (kinesics, improved ability...)

So, is this sort of caracter is viable?

I already have some ideas like:

Positives qualities: adept / codeslinger / analytic mind /

Skills group : influence 4
Skills group electronics 4
Hacking 5
Electronic warfare 5

cyber/ bioware:
Math SPU
Encephalon 1
Cerebral booster 2

And is it better to create it in 400 BP or 750 karma points?

[Scarecrow71]

The concept is a good one, so I say go for it.

But now here is where I am going to differ from everyone else that will weigh on on the topic:  I personally will never mix awakened characters with cyber/bio, so I won't recommend you to use them both on the same character.  But that's just me.

You have a decent start.  As for 400 BP vs 750 karma...I am not sure.  I suggest building him both ways and see which one you like more.

[Devil]

Alot of people don't like Karma Gen. It's overpowered and does away with things like free knowledge skills. I always go with BP. Really it comes down to your GM though. Most GMs use standard BP creation, but you should talk to the GM who you are playing with (if you know who that is yet) if you intend to use Karma. Really though, the game was designed for BP.

[Netzgeist]

Karmagen is really better to do more well-rounded characters, but even when you do a highly specialized one, you will usually end up with something better than done with BP.

[Henzington]

My issue is with karmagen is that it lumps edge, magic, and resonance with the other attributes this gives mundane/augumented characters considerably higher attributes then adepts, mages, and technomancers.

[Netzgeist]

What Henzington said is true; I usually neglect this issue since I don't play a lot of awakened/emerged characters, but this is a really annoying aspect of karmagen.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Or rather, that it makes the Awakened / Emerged as rare as they're supposed to be.

And yes, supposed to be.  Used to be, a competent, sane mage was a one-in-ten-thousand strike - which is why they were (and, if you pay attention to the game, still are) so damn valuable.

[Netzgeist]

Or rather, that it makes the Awakened / Emerged as rare as they're supposed to be.

And yes, supposed to be.  Used to be, a competent, sane mage was a one-in-ten-thousand strike - which is why they were (and, if you pay attention to the game, still are) so damn valuable.

As much as I like that Awakened and Emerged to be rare in the scenario, I don't think that the system should hurt so much the player who attempts to create an Awakened/Emerged character.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

And yet the mage is still one of the top-played characters out there - and has been since first edition.

Ideally, the mage and/or adept gives up some insta-power for long-term growth, growth which the cybermonster can approximate for only a limited time.  The street samurai gets to kick ass early and often, but eventually becomes outclassed by the adept.  Same with the technomancer / hacker (or otaku / decker), or at least that's the way it was all the way up until 4e - you sacrificed 1,000,000¥, 6 points in skills and 4 in attributes for the ability to pull down spirits and blow up a Mitsubishi Nightsky with the power of your will - or to make computers do things you wanted them to in ways that the corporations Just Couldn't Cope With.  To be something that was odd, different, and though not better right now, in 50 or 100 karma down the road, hoo buddy watch this boy fly.

If that's changed - and I haven't built enough characters in 4E to really know - then Shadowrun has lost a small (but in my mind critical) bit of flavor.

[All4BigGuns]

Or rather, that it makes the Awakened / Emerged as rare as they're supposed to be.

And yes, supposed to be.  Used to be, a competent, sane mage was a one-in-ten-thousand strike - which is why they were (and, if you pay attention to the game, still are) so damn valuable.

IMO, "rarity" shouldn't be enforced mechanically.

[Henzington]

As a runner, you are an expectional individual and so judging society at large by what shadowruns are would give you a distorted view.  As augmentation is fairly common like cybereyes but the having all your limbs replaced would be exceedly rare.

[JustADude]

As a runner, you are an expectional individual and so judging society at large by what shadowruns are would give you a distorted view.  As augmentation is fairly common like cybereyes but the having all your limbs replaced would be exceedly rare.

And, even more basic than that... just the Availability on stuff like The Trifecta (aka Suprathyroid, Muscle Toner, Muscle Augmentation) puts it in a category where it would be extremely rare in normal circumstances.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Seriously?  Because mechanically is almost the only way rarity is ever enforced.  Even in pure point-based systems - HERO, I'm lookin' at you - something that's extremely rare and efficient is penalized - rarity that is enforced via mechanics - by having a high point cost.  In Shadowrun, rarity in gear is enforced mechanically; rarity and power in characters is likewise relatively enforced mechanically.

GMs tend to go by the Rule of Cool; others, by the rules as written.  If a GM desires to make it incredibly easy for everyone and his third cousin to be a combat mage, then the cost of magic will be lessened - but the in-game rarity of the race or route-to-power is, and IMO should be, codified in the game system itself.

[Csjarrat]

Well "power" is something that is easy to deal with, you get a big group of OP combat mages? Have em go on some meta planar quest against some serious opposition. Have em fight a dragon, or survive against waves of controlled critters belonging to a really uber mage.
I figure a good gm should be adding in something really challenging in that only the mage can deal with, some tricksy astral puzzle/combat, wards to overcome etc.
In teaching you have to differentiate the work to challenge everyone in the group, a good gm should do the same.
This should stop the mage one shotting the troll as he'll be deep in astral combat making sure the team doesnt get fried.

[All4BigGuns]

Did I say that it isn't? No, I said that IMO, rarity shouldn't be enforced mechanically. Case in point for the arbitrary extra costs for the metavariants (most of which aren't really any better than the base version of their respective metatypes). If you think it'd be a "balance" issue, then have this food for thought, really "balance" should not be worried about all that much in the base rules, but rather only on a table-by-table basis, as what could be considered "unbalanced"--I really hate that term, as it's far too often over-used, even abused--for one table is not for another. I mean, look at what 'a certain other game' has become because of its designers being overly concerned with the whole "balance" thing, it lost all flavor and fun.