[Kat9]

However, a nice simple combat character can blend in with a group and even if its not perfectly played it doesn't get in the way. However if you get a Face that doesn't really....do anything, you end up with a 22 social pool that wanders around talking about escape yachts and their penile implant. Meanwhile the rest of the team is wondering how they could have gotten paid so poorly for the job.


"C'mon guys, I'm part troll, let me in the club."

[Csjarrat]

Mhmm, with a character like a face you generally just declare what you're trying to do and get told a threshold. No mucking about with customizing weapons, figuring out recoil, making an attack roll, special cover rules, special movement rules, called shot rules, or anything.

So what does your face do when the bullets start flying? Talk the enemies to death?
You have to learn the combat rules anyway, so a combat character is a focus purely on those rules. Your face is still gonna want a gun with personalized grip/extended clips/smartgun/scopes, still gonna need armour + mods etc etc, so those are rules you'd need to learn regardless.
Can get fancy with the other stuff later

[Ympulse]

I'd have to disagree with you, Csjarrat, on the fact that a Face with a Pistol and serviceable armor is going to learn the Combat rules just as well as someone playing the hypersam, but with the added benefit of also being able to learn and interact with other rules as well.

What is the Sam's job during the meet with Mr. J? He sits there. What is the Sam's job during legwork? Hit things if they get froggy. What's the Sam's job during anything BUT combat?

If you're trying to learn the game as a whole, playing the Sam is a bad way to go about it.

[Orvich]

And if they are an adept face, yes they can indeed talk the enemies to death. Commanding voice is a wonderful power for any social adept.

[Csjarrat]

i agree, in a way, i see what you mean. at the same time though, there's nothing stopping a street sam from using recon drones for legwork, being stealthy and using tech to listen in on conversations, doing data searches etc.
being THE face of the group is a big responsibility as it determines peoples pay, how successful your social side of the legwork goes and such. its not something i'd want to do on my very first run or until i know how you're actually supposed to play that character.
learning a set of rules in slightly more detail than for other chars is a bit different to learning all of the social rules on top of the combat rules, as well as everything else.
baptism of fire works for some people though :-)

[Kat9]

I have a friend that is not only new to Shadowrun, but new to roleplaying in general. I whipped up a mundane Face character for her last night, she loves it.