My Character: RC, this is third char to SR4 Options

[marghos]

This is my third character in world of SR4... and this time it's street level campaign so to we have to start low budget... But this is it what I came up. He's school drop out (used to be good at sports [runner and all]) and car mechanics, but he also liked to party too and then happened something (injury > pain) and he had more time to party... then he needed painkillers and get involved with darker sides of parties one thing leads to an another and finally he got drugs... nowadays he is proud member of South Side Punks gang. They are car gang, they steal, fix and pimp cars. And being pretty decent driver and mechanic RC fits in pretty good. RC is fast talkin' and slick gangmember, with decent physical build.

RC
"The barren's hard cold rain teaches us to survive"

Nick: RC
Name: Richardo Cerrano
Metatype: Human, latino

Age: 19
Sex: Male
Height: 1m 80cm
Weight: 85kg

Eyes: dark
Hair: Straight, short & black (or bald)

Lifestyle: Street (South Side Punks gang)

"Guns, gangs, girls and gasoline's juice,
suck at the bittersweet taste"


Body 3
Agility 4
Reaction 3
Strength 3
Charisma 3
Intuition 4
Logic 3
Willpower 3


Edge 4
Essence 6
Initiative 7
Init Passes 1

Skillgroups
Close combat 1 (blades, clubs & unarmed)
Athletics 3 (climbing, gymnastic, running & swimming)

Skills:
Dodge 2 [melee +2]
Pistol 2 [revolvers +2]
Perception 2 [Visual +2]
Survival 2 [urban +2]
Con 2 [fast talk +2]
Etiquette 1 [street gang +2]
First aid 1 [sport injuries +2]
Groundgraft mechanic 2 [wheeled +2]
Pilot groundgraft 3 [wheeled +2]

knowledges:
Art 2 [wheeled paint & tuning +2]
Mechanics 3 [wheeled tuning +2]
Sports 2 [strecth & relax +2]
Seattle Street Gangs 2 [South Side Punks +2]
Local Area 3 [South Side Punks turf +2]
LoneStar procedures 1
Car repair shopa 1 [Tuning shops +2]


English N
Spanish 4

"Don't worry I've done this before.
It'll hurt like hell and leave you sore"


Addiction, mild (novacoke)



Equipment:
Survival knife
Ruger Super Warhawk +20 regular ammo
Clothing (cheap)
Leather Jacket with gang
Sunglasses (mirror)
Medkit (rtg 1)
Flashlight
2xLight stick

Allies:
South Side Punks

Enemies: some other gangs

Yeah, and I don't know why to post it here. Maybe to offer you something to laugh at or maybe I was just giving something to spare. ;)


edit. Done some modifications aften Fortunes posting, thaks for advice :D

[Fortune]

A small note ...

Specializations do not add to the actual Skill Rating, as you have listed, but are rather provide a +2 a Dice Pool modifier. This might seem like nitpicking, but it becomes important when considering the cap of 1.5 x skill level on actual Skill Additives (like Reflex Recorders and Adept Improved Ability), but Specializations do not fall under that ruling.

Instead of listing the skill as ...

Dodge /melee 2/4

You might consider jotting it down as

Dodge 2 [melee +2]

[Cardul]

Smartlink: cheap, common, low essence cost. No reason to ever NOT get one. Even if it is just in glasses/goggles with an image/display link, again, no reason to not get one.

[Abbandon]

I'd like him to have -1 intuition and +1 logic since he is a mechanic. Also specializing in sports injuries is just wrong, your NEVER going to use it in a SR game even though it helps flesh the guy out in your mind. Not unless one of the guys in your gang pulls a groeing muscle running away lol.

Oh yeah wheres his expensive toolkit/shop?

[Jhaiisiin]

Runnin' from the 'Star results in a lot of shin splints for those morons who never learned to run properly. ;)

[Ryu]

And marathon-runner policemen live by the motto of "stop running, you´ll only die tired".

[Stahlseele]

and here i thought that'd go more like this:
*bang bang* STOP! *bang bang bang* LONESTAR! *bang bang bang bang*

[Kyoto Kid]

...I'd definitely give him a bit more than a rating 1 medikit (maybe 3) as he will only be able to fix up 1 box of damage max. Once he's done that you can't use first aid the subject again and if a mage ain't around, not much more can be done. At least being able to heal 3 boxes can reduce a wound modifier.

As much As I personally prefer revolvers, he would be better off with Semi Automatics. as a specilisation. For one he will be able to get more than only one shot off per IP. Next, should he come across another semi auto pistol, (which tend to be more common than revolvers from my experience) he can use it with his full pool. Finally, he pretty much will not have to worry at all about reloading during a combat.

A Predator IV is so ubiquitous that even in a low budget campaign it wouldn't unrealistic for the character to have one. And yes a Smartlink/Imagelink on his sunglasses (with a Skinlink as he apparently does not own a commlink) is a worthwhile investment.

If he's Latino I would switch his Language skills around and take English at 3 with the specialisation of Cityspeak.

[Whipstitch]

I like how you've kept the character's skills, attributes and gear within the spirit of a lower powered campaign, but yeah, I agree with KK's general sentiment that you can afford to move up just a pinch more upscale without really breaking anything. The difference in firepower and equipment between runners and gutter punks comes down to 'ware and attitude more than anything. Just about every ganger can afford to get a hold of a colt manhunter, rating 2 or 3 medkit and some armored clothing if they set their mind to it, but they know just how many meals they had to skip to do so, and will often be willing to take harrowing risks to protect the investment. At the street level you can rest assured that blood will be spilled and feuds will be sparked over the theft of a dirt bike and monogrammed jacket while at the established runner level you're dealing with guys that think little of tossing the Predator they just used to murder a VIP into the Sound as a standard precaution. Also, the Gymnastic skill can be used for Full Defense, so I'd consider dropping Dodge and the Close Combat group and concentrating a little more on a single melee skill instead; maybe your character's picked up a li'l knife fighting or was on the junior varsity wrestling team. You don't have to go spending these freed up points on being more powerful or anything either, since there's always contacts to blow points on; rare is the GM that really begrudges their PCs knowing people.

[marghos]

Thanks to all of you, those are great advices and fixin' proposals for RC lets see what gm says when I try to change RC...

About equipment, thats all we got, we did not have too much money to spend, so we must survive now with it what we got. No-one got even commlink, but thats fine for now. Maybe later we got those... so thats for medkit/smartlink and others ...

Contacts was something we also dumped, or gm did that. Maybe we get those contacts running along our shadowruns, one of us even got himself fixer contact last game... :D

language and other skills:
Ill change language like KK succested if gm allows it.
and droppin' dodge or even close combat group sounds good...

I have to negotiate with my gm and lets see will I succeed to change RC.. ;)

[Fortune]

[Abbandon]

Wouldnt dodge also help him evade some things while driving? pedestrians? bullets? other vehichles attempting to ram him ?

[Ryu]

Yes, there is no athletics dodge for vehicles. Speaking of athletics, thats a major investment of points you make there, esp. on a char with focus on vehicles. I think you would profit from deciding on a role for your character. Right now you are spreading your points pretty far. I like that, but in a street campaign you will suffer for that because you can´t shore up weaknesses with ware.

Also, skills within groups may be specialised, even if the whole group can´t (thanks again Frank!).

Modified List (based on what others said before me)
Automatics 2 [automatic pistols +2]
Blades 1 [knifes +2]
Unarmed 1
Dodge 3 [ranged +2]
Not much left so save on. Dodging bullets is the prime directive for non-combat vehicles. I always wanted to base a char on automatic pistols, choose whatever you like. Are you limited to 500 bucks ? :eek:

Athletics 1 [Climbing: Free +2, Running: Sprinting +2]
Stealth 1 [Infiltration: Urban +2]
Free-Climbing is for fences and stuff, Sprinting reflects your chars past. He would not need higher skill for that because endurance skills are a bitch once you stopped training. I made him a sprinter because thats more useful ingame. Sue me. No stealth + low combat ability = not good.

Influence 1 [Con: Fast Talk +2; Negotiation: Barter +2]
Perception 3
First aid 2 [Combat Injuries +2]
Survival 1 [Urban +2]
Gangers will have more combat than sports injuries. Runners more so. You can use all skills from Influence, Negotiation helps keeping costs down, Leadership is used for resisting people ordering you around.

Groundcraft mechanic 2 [wheeled +2]
Pilot Groundcraft 3 [wheeled +2]


On attributes, I´ll say you could accept a few 2´s, especially in a street campaign. The argument for higher logic was already given. Take it from strength, close combat damage is no priority. I´d also want a higher reaction, and seeing that CHA is not exactly this chars speciality... this helps with both driving and surviving combat.

Body 3
Agility 4
Reaction 4
Strength 2
Charisma 2
Intuition 4
Logic 4
Willpower 3

Initiative of 8, Ranged 8, Close Combat 7, Dodge of 7, Pilot of 9, Perception 7, Infiltration(Urban) 7.

Neither social char nor combat monster, and will need to develop Electronics, Cracking, Stealth and other vehicle skills. Still street enough IMO.

[Cthulhudreams]

Isn't your vehicle skill used in place of dodge when driving as your defensive pool, which would mitigate the need for dodge again.

[Ryu]

If you are merely driving, the vehicle skill applies.

If you are jumped in, you use Response+Dodge (+/- Handling) for full defense.

That makes Dodge vital for drones users, especially in an environment where every smallish repair hurts the budget. And this char should try to aquire drones, information is king if everyone else can beat the snot out of you.

[Karaden]

[Ryu]

The first one is in the combat chapter, last section on vehicle combat/Evasion. (German pg. 161)

The second is in the wireless chapter, section about Jumping In, as detailed by the official FAQ and reproduced for Cyborgs. (German pg. 239)

The third, why, that is just my opinion ;)