[Big_Pete]

I am wondering if I can get some ideas for a new Dawn of the Artifacts campaign. I am relatively inexperienced as a GM.

I have 3 players who are all new to shadowrun

i am wondering what kind of characters would be a good fit? (I am looking at basing the characters off the archetypes)

The idea I have so far is a paranormal detective, a muscle PC (of some kind) but otherwse pretty open to suggestions

Also looking to have hacking done by an NPC at least initially.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

[Necrogigas]

The basic archetypes any team needs are Weapon Specialist, Magic User, Hacker, and  its usually a good idea to have a Face.

Since you're running Dawn of the Artifacts you're really, really gong to need a magic user of some kind. Failing that the team is going to need heavy ordnance to deal with some of the magical threats they'll have to face.

[Big_Pete]

Thanks for the heads up.

Any specific skills/gear/contacts that might be of particular use in this series?

[Necrogigas]

Quit honestly, the Dawn adventure series is all over the place in both the challenges the team will face and locations they'll have to travel to that anything and everything will probably be useful at some point over the course of the four adventures. Something you should keep in mind though is that the Dawn series is not meant for 400 BP characters, so you'll either have to bump the BP or nerf the encounters.

[Mirikon]

I'll be honest, and say that if your players are still new to the system, and you're a rookie GM, then the Artifacts campaign might be shooting a little high. That is a complex piece of work, and there are pitfalls where everything can go horribly wrong if they aren't handled just right every few pages or so, it seems. My advice? Hold on to the Artifacts books, and run some Missions to start off. They're easier on both GM and players, and they'll also help your players get used to the system and advance their characters a bit before getting faced with things like swarms of feral ghouls in the middle of a place that can only be charitably called 'Hell on Earth', or the fun and games of bringing high level magic things through Chicago. Just sayin'.

[Charasanya]

Contacts: Take high connection contacts preferably (5-6), as they have some international pull.

Gear: Try for characters that are relatively gear independent, as you can't always bring all you have. Smugglers with expensive cars or drone riggers can be highly problematic, as are snipers.

Skills: The often underused survival and language skills can become quite important here. Face skills are quite important as well. Counterspelling and things like astral/mana barriers are often critical.

All in all: the dawn chronicle is a very complex campaign, that is prone to doom quite often. Experience (GM, players, characters) is key here, as Mirikon said.

[RHat]

Dawn of the Artifacts basically comes with a big flashing warning sign that says "PC KIller!".  I would heartily recommend starting off more gently - run some of the Denver missions or something to get everyone used to the system, than run Dusk once they've got some Karma under their belt - in addition to being difficult for more than just numerical reasons (making the wrong decisions can make later parts of a given module far, far, far more difficult), it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense that the characters involved would be hiring neophyte runners for the job - especially given the contacts that a certain Ms. Foster has to call upon.

Your choice, but it would probably be more satisfying if you hold off on Dawn for a bit.