6-9 STR = RC1, 10-12 STR = RC2, IIRC. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

doh! One less. In FoF, I recall....the 5-6 DID get you a recoil. That's what I was getting it from. Ahh well.

I only know because I very recently looked it up.

Arsenal is full of goodies - notably the weapon modification rules. A double clip system will give me a not unreasonable 26 rounds - each clip is 3/4 normal, for a total of 28 rounds.

Remember, the Ruger Thunderbolt has a two points of recoil compensation bone-stock. Combined with electronic firing, I have three points of recoil compensation - enough to completely negate the penalty for firing two short bursts.

I do really like the temporary attribute boost - it's a cheap way to further improve my already ridiculous stats, and I can do exactly the same thing with reaction for yet more fun.

If you're sticking with Ambidexterity, you could also remove the internal gas vent, get a sound supressor instead, come up with 3 points of non-GV recoil reduction and fire one silenced, recoil free short burst with each hand without having to split your pools.

With SMGs, this is even more fun.
Try something like this with an FN P93 Praetor, it's just amazing.
I had the idea for an ork or troll sam with two cyberarms, each with high STR and built-in gyromount, as well as maxed-out AGI, along with two P93s modded to the max, with external sound supressors and all the bells n whistles.
Two recoil-free, silenced wide bursts per turn.
Lovely.

I'm not going to bother with ambidexterity - more trouble than it's worth. I need the Smartlink bonuses too much.

I'd prefer to stick with maxing out my pistols. A tweaked-out heavy pistol is almost identical to a SMG, but will let me use the pistols skill - which is, in turn, very handy when you want to be sneaky.

In that case, i'd recommend considering long, wide bursts from time to time.
Only a minor change to firing selection and against stronger opponents who can jump/fly around like crazy, they're a worthwile option.

Especially spirits.

See, these suckers get hardened armor- if your base DV + net hits isn't higher than twice their Force, your bullets won't do squat against them (and getting up close with a fire spirit can be a real pain in the ass).
So the added DV from burst fire won't do that much.
Which is why you go for decreasing their high Dodge pools with wide bursts, to get in as many net hits as possible.
Along with APDS or AV ammo, a wide burst from you should be able to harm most spirits of the saner levels (4-6).

Just another quick bit of advice. Unless you are attracted to the coolness of not having a trigger, go for personalized grip over electronic firing. It takes one less slot, and is 100 nuyen as opposed to 1000. Does the same thing recoil wise.

Except electronic firing gives an additional -1 to perception tests to notice the firing of the weapon. So it really depends on what you want from the pistol. If it is your sneaky sneaky pistol, electronic firing is a better bet. If you are using it on your "well we're boned on this run, pull out the big guns" weapon, then the grip is probably better.

Considering that the gun will have an extended barrel, double clips, a Smartlink system and some sort of scope, I may as well bolt a silencer on to the end and use electronic firing. If nobody sees you enter, nobody sees the hand-cannon attached to your belt.

One thing I can't figure out is why on earth the pistol-sized mini-grenade launcher uses heavy weapons skill. Anything that weighs less than a breadbox is, by definition, not heavy.

EDIT:

I've been playing around in the character generator, and it seems that cyberware is the way to go. While using the Synaptic Boosters actually costs more build points than the 20BP of magic they replace, it does very conveniently leave me with a magic rating of 3 - much easier to improve than a Magic of 5.

Furthermore, I can upgrade them to Synaptic Boosters 3, and add on a reflex recorder and enhanced articulation - or maybe just some muscle enhancements. Sure, I'll lose a second point of Essence, but I come out way, way ahead.

And this is the major issue I have with the adept creation rules as written: you seem to be better off going down to 1-2 essence from bioware before you actually start getting cost-effective power choices. =/

You're likely right on that one. Beta-grade muscle augmentation is 0.6 essence, and replaces 2 magic worth of attributes...and the absurd cost of improved reflexes just a joke.

Spastic, (Or anyone else that could help)

Would you mind posting an updated version of your build? I'm entirely new to SR, and I've been trying to build a similar character, so I'm interested in how you've tweaked your character because of this thread.

Also, could you explain why it's more beneficial to take the Essence/Magic reducing gear as an Adept? I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.

Thanks in advance,
Jonny

Welcome on DS! Be warned, the chargen advice we give is usually very efficiency-minded.

Adepts are given the choice of investing 3 power points into Improved Reflexes 2, or 160k¥ and one point of magic loss (=1 power point) into Synaptic Accelerators 2. You pay more BP for having 3 IPs (32+10=42), but your power point budget takes only 1/3rd of the hit.


Another gunslinger adept build can be found in the Community Projects section: Sample Character Archive

I've been thinking about adept gunslingers too. Reducing Combat Sense by one to add the Agility Boost and natural vision mag seems sensible... until I saw the Nimble Fingers in Street Magic. "Insert Clip" is a free action with that, so it doesn't matter how small your clip is, you can fire non-stop just like Chow-Yun Fat and Jet Li!

Regarding Ambidexterity, you have to split your pool and forego Smartlink bonuses if you fire two guys at once... but ONLY at once, right? If you take one Simple Action to fire your right-hand gun and your next to fire your left-hand gun, both are at full pools and can use the Smartlink bonus, correct? And no recoil modifiers, since it's the first shot from each? Thus on your next Init. Pass, you'd fire another shot from each gun that'd be taken up by the recoil comp (presuming a Colt Government 2066 here).

I rather like the Ruger Super Warhawk on a two gun adept. Modded up with a larger cylinder (8 shot), long barrel, personalized grip, improved range finder, melee hardening (for pistol whipping), and BLING!

There is just something about a character weilding two pistols the size of S&W X-Frame 50 cals with 8" barrels covered with black chrome, custom etchings, real wood grips, etc.

I prefer a polished orichalkum plating and mantid spirit carapace handles, but besides that, i totally agree.

Sorta in the same thought process... what is the accepted way to post characters so people can comment on them. I use Daegaan's character generator and therefore it's just a copy/paste for me to post a character and ALL of his gear. I was thinking to post each part (stats & qualities, 'Ware, software, weapons & armor, and gear) in it's own spoiler tag so it's easier to read. Please tell me if that would be annoying.

That would probably be a bit annoying. It's better to be able to see the whole set of stats. Spoiler tags are most commonly used as a pair of them for the stats/gear, and another pair of them for the description/backstory.

Other tips:

It really helps when you have either a breakdown of the point costs, or at least the point cost listed for each section (like Attributes (180), for example).

Don't use tables unless you know how to use the code tags! I have seen characters for review where the stats were all but unreadable because of misaligned rows of stuff.

Be sure you tell people ahead of time what char-gen limitations or house rules the character was built with.

Some bioware offers abilities that are far more expensive if bought with power points. You can get 2 points of muscle augmentation and 2 points of muscle toner for less than a point of Essense. In other words, they drop your Magic by 1, but you get 2 points to 2 Attributes - much cheaper than the improved attribute power, where you would spend that same point of Magic to raise a single attribute by 1 point. Similarly, synaptic booster: 2 lowers your Magic by 1 point, but buying improved reflexes: 2 (which does the same thing) costs 3 Magic points.

So even though you are losing Magic points, you still come out ahead with 1 or 2 Essense points' worth of bioware.

The drawback, though, is that bioware is very expensive. So in addition to buying up your Magic, you are also spending more points on resources. So an adept with bioware tends to be more effective than an adept without bioware, but be less well-rounded, since the points they spent on resources could have been spent on secondary skills.

Secondary skills are frequently over-rated. You can often get by with a very low secondary skill score, with a wisely-chosen specialization to make up the gap. For example, on a noncombatant, Pistols 1 (Semi Auto) is a good choice. You're seldom going to pick up a pistol that isn't semi-auto, so you've made a good investment. Con (Fast Talk) is another good choice.

It depends on the build. Muscle toner is so cheap, BP-wise, that I would recommend it for nearly any adept build. Synaptic booster: 2, on the other hand, costs 160,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) , or 32 build points. So for that, you are essentially comparing 2 Magic points vs. 8 skill points. Usually, the Magic points are the better deal, but some builds are more skill-intensive than others (gunslinger face with sneaking and driving skills, etc.).

OK, I can see that. Thanks for the advice.

Ah, I see. Thanks Glyph.