Build Point Allocation, CharGen design theories? Options

[Azralon]

We're starting up a game with a group that consists of half experienced SR3 players and half not. Since the player roster numbers no less than 9 people (eep), two of us are sharing GM duties. That is to say, I'll run one adventure then tag out and be a PC for the next adventure. It keeps things dynamic and prevents a lone GM's brain from exploding.

Part of our arrangement with the players is that we'll be creating their characters ourselves (with gamerole and personality input from the players). The functions that serves are: making sure that at least one GM is very familiar with any given PC, insuring party balance & diversity, and helping the SR newbies from making design mistakes.

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So, anyway, it falls upon me to make up 4 runners over the next fortnight. I've done initial passes on the first two guys, and I've started to notice some things:

1 ) 200 BPs for Attributes means you can have four sets of 3 & 4, or you can swap out those for a set of 2 & 5 (before applying racial mods). Or you can have all 3's except for one 6 and one 2. This makes your starting-level PC's attributes firmly in the range of "very slightly above average" for your race.... and that's only IF you decide to spend the full 200 BPs.

2 ) Since people generally imagine their heroes to be exceptional people, I find myself allocating the full 200 BPs to Attributes every time.

3 ) Skills are a pretty major part of any character, and I've found that I should budget a minimum of 100 BPs to go towards skills. This lets a person have a primary skillset (probably a skill group) at around 4, a secondary skillset around 3, and then a smattering of peripheral skills to flesh them out. Everyone "needs" some degree of Infiltration, too, what with this being Shadowrun and all.

4 ) Since 300 out of the 400 BPs are already allocated from that, this leaves 100 left over to go towards whatever is supposed to make that PC special. Those final 100 go towards five broad categories (usually focused on one or two): Contacts, Implants, Magic/Resonance, Gear/Lifestyle, and Edge.

5 ) Contacts can get friggin' expensive in SR4. The book recommends you start with at least 2, which means that's a minimum of 4 BPs for a pair of unreliable and non-useful acquaintances. If you were to step them up to adequate levels with all 3's, you're looking at 12 BPs spent. If you're playing a "face," then you're probably going to be investing pretty heavily in a solid stable of contacts and that can blow through BPs extremely quickly.

6 ) Money for implants is capped at 50 BPs (technically less than that if you feel like owning non-surgical items or living with a roof over your head). It'd seem like that means you'd have at least 50 BPs left over, using my budgeting guidelines; however if you're big into implants that probably means you're big into skill and gear use. You'll probably divert the remainder over to supplement your skills or to secure a few more contacts. Maybe you'll buy up your Edge some.

7 ) Magic or Resonance be a massive drain on BPs because it's a whole other attribute to feed that normal people don't have. Spellcasters can burn through a big chunk of BPs just buying up their spells, and technomancers trying to load up on complex forms can potentially expend even more. Pure adepts, fortunately, don't need to spend too much but will likely be wanting allocate some on a focus or two; the rest can be dumped back into the skill bucket. Mystic adepts have the familiar multiclassing woes and the associated expenses. Heaven help you if you try to go the cyber-mage, cyber-adept, or cyber-technomancer routes.

8 ) Gear and Lifestyle also include the usually-necessary multiple commlinks, fake SINs, fake licenses, vehicles (what, you were going to take the bus everywhere?), armor, weapons, DocWagon contract.... the list goes on, which means that unless you're Mr. Self-Contained Zen Monk you simply must cough up some dough on financial assets. I'm trying to compile a list of "runner staples" that pretty much everyone should think about having, and I'll teach myself to put aside that many BPs as already pre-spent for most characters.

9 ) Edge. I always forget about Edge. It's one of those luxury attributes that you can theoretically ignore until you suddenly need it in desperate quantities. I like its inclusion in SR4 and I like how it gives non-magic non-implant skillmonkeys something of a unique equalizer. I just keep sacrificing it down to bare minimums in order to support all of the other functions of the characters. :(

10) I'm cool with 400 BPs for starting characters, but it's seeming more and more like the 500 BPs used for "experienced" runners would be a lot easier to build with. It could just be that I haven't gotten used to the SR4 scale as opposed to the SR3 cyberdeathmachines that came straight out of chargen.

And no, if you're in my group and reading this, you can't have 500 BPs. :)