New Player Looking For Advice, Character Concept and Rambling Thoughts Options

[CanadianWolverin...]

Hi there shadows. Sure is dark in here - oh drek, something just touched my leg! Sorry if I have placed this thread in the inappropriate place and I hope you will forgive me.

Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a new player to Shadowrun even though I have had the rule book for a few years now, it was only till recently that I found another human being who asked me to make a starting character. I originally picked the book up at comic book store mainly because of various fictional novels I had read in the library that were very fun cyber punk and upon seeing the brand in the role/roll playing section I said to myself I just gotta check that out. It was a gaming birthday present to myself. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif) Back more to the present, upon learning I would use it for more than just the cool little stories at the start of the chapters and admiring the artwork, I have become nervous, paranoid you might say, that I don't have the first clue as to what I am doing - not the least because I discovered this 4th edition I picked up was missing pages 113 to 128, instead pages 129 to 144 repeat themselves.

Did that happen to any of you?

Now I discover that the Fanpro name on the front of the book is defunct as well but the product number of 26000 seems to have stayed the same. Catalyst seem like a cool bunch though, hope that is working out well.

I thought I would mention that just in case you wonder why my character might be so weird (besides being built by a inexperienced player), especially considering that Fanpro ---> Catalyst isn't the only difference these days, what with 4 ---> 4A apparently.

So, on to the meat and potatoes, here is the character I came up with and I was wondering what the shadows might think of it - in other words, my character is going to die a horrible death and soon, eh?

400 BP
Personal Data
Name: Criminal SiN: Logan "" RT / Fake SiN: Jack "" Logan / Nick: "Eagle Eye"
Metatype: Elf (30 BP) Age: 25 Sex: M Nuyen: (Not Rolled Yet) Lifestyle: Low Total Karma:
Current Karma: Street Cred: 0 Notoriety: 4 Public Awareness: 1

Attributes
Physical Attributes Body: 4 (30 BP) Agility: 6 (40 BP) Reaction: 5 (7) (40 BP) Strength: 4 (30 BP)
Mental Attributes Charisma: 3 Intuition: 4 (30 BP) Logic: 2 (10 BP) Willpower: 2 (10 BP) (Total 190 BP)
Special Attributes Edge: 3 (20 BP) Essence: 6 Initiative: 9 (11) Magic: 5 (40 BP)
Special Attributes Current Edge Points: 4 Astral Init: ? Matrix Init: ? Init Passes: 1(3) (Total 250 BP)

Skills
Active Skills
Athletics Skill Group 3 S (30 BP)
Dodge (Ranged) 4 (+2) R (18 BP)
Pistols (Semi-Auto) 7 (10+2) A (34 BP)
Longarms (Sniper) 4 (+2) A (18 BP)
Perception (Visual) 3 (+2) I (14 BP)
Pilot Ground Craft 1 (4 BP)
Armorer 1 (4 BP)
(Total 122 BP)
Knowledge Skills (18 Free BP)
Fire Arms Design 4 L
Fire Arms History 2 L
Action Movies 1 I
Lone Star 3 L
Construction 2 L
Japanese 1
Cantonese 1
Spanish 1
Sperethiel 1
Salish 2
English (Cityspeak) N

Qualities
Adept (-5 BP)
Ambidextrous (-5 BP)
SiNner (Salish Juvie) (+10 BP)
Scorched (+5 BP)
Sensitive System (+15 BP)
Sensitive Neural (+5 BP)
Aptitude (Pistols) (-10 BP)
(Total +15 BP)

Contacts (8 BP)
Fixer (Elf) Loyalty: 4 Connection: 4

[b]Gear[b] (Total 24997 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) / 5 BP)
Ranged Weapons
8 Colt Man 5P/6P/7P -1/-2/-3 SA RC- 16© Smart Linked w/6 Quickdraw Holsters, 2 Concealable Holsters, 2 Silencers
6 Clips of Regular, 16 Clips of Explosive, 8 Clips of Ex-Explosive, 1 Smoke Nade
Other
Contact Lenses w/Smart Link, Image Link, Vision Mag
Earbuds, Subvocal, Skinlink
Fake SiN 4, Fake Detective License 4
Medkit 6, Armorer Kit, Construction Kit
Armor
Lined Coat 6/4 -2 Conceal Mod
Vehicle
Suzuki Handling +2 Accel 20/50 Speed 200 Pilot 1 Body 6 Armor 4 Sensor 1
Commlink
Renraku Sensei Response 2 System 3 Firewall 3 Signal 4 Programs Iris Orb O/S

Adept Powers (5 Power Points)
Improved Ability (Pistols) 3 (1.5 PP)
Improved Reflexes 2 (3 PP)
Improved Sense: Scent, Taste (0.5 PP)

Back Story
Born and raised in Vancouver, Salish-Shidhe Council (Present day it would be Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) by his Ucluelet First Nation mother and Elf father. At age 10 he was Scorched while playing a Virtual Reality (PC/Console) First Person Shooter MMO when the game was hacked and the IC got a little too aggressive - not a problem for most playing but he was unfortunately sensitive and incompetent in "real" cybercombat. While recovering physically from that ordeal and a bit pissed off at no longer being able to play with his online and IRL friends in their favorite FPS games, he decided to take the game into meatspace aka the real world. Armed with his trusty semi-auto B-B gun pistols he used Holiday (Xmas?) lights as his "virtual" enemies - too bad for him though, the corp who owned those Holiday lights didn't see it as a game and threw "the book" at him. They would have sentenced him to the adult prison system if his parents hadn't intervened and pleaded for leniency, so instead they sent him to a maximum level Juvenile Detention center for 5 years instead and his folks had to sign over legal custody to the Salish state. That was the last he ever saw of his parents, by their choice and his own. They worked him hard in Juvie, where a Shaman doing social work saw potential in him to reform him, thus making him aware of his strength as a Adept. Juvie was also where he met his best and only friend - an Elf who had been visiting the facility for his own private reasons to meet with the warden and guards was made aware by them of the potential in the little inmate, especially of the story of how he earned his bunk their in the first place. Somehow, the mysterious stranger arranged a meeting with Logan to show him how well he could shoot, who even remarked "You have an eagle's eye, kid", even though he had never touched an actual fire arm in his life other than his parent's hunting rifle many years ago he managed to impress enough that he started receiving "care packages" from the Elf, who asked Logan to just call him Fixer for now, because he was "fixing" him. The packages contained e-books on fire arms design and history, which he studied for those long, lonely years - even having starkly vivid dream about shooting his B-B guns in ways to have avoided capture by the corp sec in the first place or how he would set himself free from Juvie with them. The social working Shaman said he noticed a difference in his aura after that, like it had begun to burn more brightly. Fixer even managed some how to get him early release, though the Shaman seemed displeased at that for some reason, a single tear on the Shaman's face was what Logan saw briefly when Fixer calmly walked him out of Juvie and into his new life at 14. Life with Fixer was both the most exhilarating and hardest thing he had ever known, the training was brutal, with success met with abundant rewards and failures met with brutal punishments. "Better I fix you now kid than the drek of the world fixing you for good," he would say with a sad look in his eyes. The years spent at Fixer's remote and very private acres in the wilderness were some of the best in his life, where he flew through the obstacle course firing ranges with the exuberance of youth, even constructing new obstacles of his own to show off for Fixer. But all good things must come to an end and when he was 17 Fixer gave him a gift for his birthday of a scooter and took him back to Vancouver to begin working for him doing small "jobs", which were as mysterious as they were bizarre - sometimes he was told to go stand on a street corner for a day and others to go to the library and find obscure old books on firearms and memorize them. During the times when Fixer wasn't giving him the odd jobs, he would carefully clean and maintain the gear Fixer had given him as rewards for jobs well done, exercise, watch his favorite action movies, and go to work on construction sites - especially the older home renovations were interesting. Construction sites were a great place to learn from all different types of people, especially a few basic swear words in other languages. It was when Logan turned 20 though that Fixer gave him a smile and told him to hand over everything he owned. Perplexed but trusting his friend, he did as was told and was rewarded with a new identity, a new ride, and pistols with accessories then given what he would learn was his first real job - to kill another metahuman. To that end, Fixer "lent" him the same type of sniper rifle he had practiced with in the wilderness camp and was told to go wait a particular address for further instructions to his new identities comm. Upon arriving at what turned out to be a empty construction sight with minimal security, "Eagle Eye" set up his roost like he was at the range and waited. He didn't have to wait long and the instructions were brief, a image of the target and its direction from his location. Just like the obstacle course, he turned in the direction, acquired the target and put a Ex-Ex round through the back of his head's silhouette, packed up the rifle and left the construction site just like he would run and climb through the obstacle courses. Jack "Eagle Eye" Logan has been taking similar jobs from his friend Fixer ever since and that is how he came to be in the shadows.
So, I hope that wasn't too boring of a read. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Any suggestions, advice, or comments for this poor drek?

Edit: Reduced Negative Qualities, dropped Body and Edge by 1 point to be within the Quality limits. Thanks!

Edit2: As requested to be in the OP, here is my take on what the character would try to do with some nuyen he earned by nearly dying, as told later in this thread about this newbie's first game.

So, the "grocery" list, for your viewing pleasure. Eagle Eye called up his Elf Fixer (Loyalty 4 Connection 4) and ordered these fine products after he had a Standard Doc Wagon Contract ordered:

For the Commlink:
- Datasoft 6
- Mapsoft 6
For the Ruger 100 he looted he wanted to trade it in and get a Ruger 100 with:
- 5 reg ammo
- Silencer
- Smart Gun/Smartlink: Improved Camera: Vision 3, Flare, Thermo, Low, Mag
- Carry Case, Sling
He had looted the Camo Suit off the headless sniper and wanted to sew some stuff onto it and fill the pockets:
- Tag Eraser (Just in case any of his fellow runners decided to tag his person or suzuki motorcycle)
- Holo Projector (Duke Nukem 3D, hehe...)
- Survival Kit (Heh, the character was going to leave town, this team rolls like a bunch of Orc Gangers!)
- Biomonitor (His health is a bit more of a concern now, dodging isn't enough - can't spend the nuyen if you are dead)
- Sensor Package: Helmet/Armor:
-- Radio Signal Scanner 6 (No point in tag erasing if I am unaware of the tags)
-- MAD Scanner 3
-- Cyberware Scanner 6
-- Atmosphere Sensor 3
-- Geiger Counter
Additional Armor concerns given the whole Sniper incident:
- Helmet (Motorcross like, to function as a anti-face recognition mask as well, with this addition)
-- Gas Mask
- Ballistic Shield
- Long Duster "Cowboy" Jacket to replace the now pawned/traded/sold Lined Coat conceal modifier
Trade/Sell the Contact Lenses for an improved set of sensor, even if some of it ends up on some of the helmet's protective face shield:
- Improved Contact Lenses:
-- Smart & Image Link, Vision 3, Ultra, Mag, Flare, Thermo
Trade/Sell the Earbuds same reasons as above:
- Improved Earbuds:
-- Audio Enhance 3
-- Spatial
-- Select Sound Filter 3
Trade/Sell the Colt Manchester Smartguns, better understanding of the limits of dual pistols has the character going single pistol for his Gunslinging needs but wants improvements:
- Improved Colt Man: Smartgun/Smartlink Camera Improved:
-- Vision 3, Vision Mag, Ultra, Flare, Thermo, Low

Note: Better understanding of the use of a Smartgun/Smartlink/Imagelink in the other thread in which I asked about Shooting Around Corners in SR 2070, I want the characters equipment to be in sync, especially with his beloved semi auto pistol.

Thanks for taking a look at the list, I wouldn't be surprised if I misunderstood some of equipment modification stuff making some of this impossible, which would be a shame, or if the equipment is so custom that the estimated "Grocery" list total of 9479 nuyen.gif (sold/traded equipment not factored in) is not enough for its street value but I would hope my good friend the Elf Fixer who got Eagle Eye into the shadows in the first place would be able to help out, though it would still take some time to put the whole list together.

Other items not on the list but desired in the future would be:
- a better commlink with better programs for helping with personal security and intel acquisition in the field (something called an Agent, right?) with Satellite Link, White Noise Generator, and Micro-Transciever mod as well.
- B&E equipment
- Improved Custom Camo Suit Armor
- Improved Survival Kit
- Improvised Explosives: High Octane Fuel + Metal Gas Can + Clip of Ex-Ex + Ball Bearings/Caltrops/Roofing Nails + Packing Styrofoam + Contact Cement + Remote Detonator Cap + Birthday Present Bow + Birthday Box full of Flash-Bang Grenades that "accidentally" was stuck to the Metal Gas Can ... other uses would be to shut off the power to a building and fire bombing but the original idea was born of being anti-personel/runner.
- Improved Custom Suzuki Motorbike: Anti Chase Weapon Mount (Hehe, Spy Chaser/Catcher, old arcade game...), Sensor/Anti-Sensor Package, Additional Storage, Off Road Mods
- Very Strong Area Jammer
- Diving Gear
- Modified Custom Off Road Van to accommodate sleeping quarters, gear storage, suzuki bike storage, and ...
- Modified Custom Stealth Submersible Jet-ski
- Modified Custom Stealth Long Distance HALO Hang Glider/Parachute
- Modified Transport Air Craft to transport the above
- Tons of fake SINs and Licenses
- Tons of safe houses
- A more healthy living standard (Low Lifestyle and below sucks! Hehe...)

Hope you've enjoyed my silly list, if you look you can see the progression of where I had hoped the character could go in the "grocery" list. Its stuff I think a SR 2070 Gunslinger trying to upgrade to Respected Hitman and then High Profile Assassin status would try for. Obviously none of this will happen in this particular gaming group now, hehe, still fun to imagine though.