Why I don't play sammies., Inspired by lorechaser Options

[LilithTaveril]

Say hello to the next heinous thing to come out of my mind.

[ Spoiler ]

Little Red Riding Hood
Elf Sammie

B 3
A 4 (6)
R 3 (5)
S 3 (5)
C 5
I 3
L 3 (5)
W 3

Edge 3
Innitiative 8 (3 innitiative passes)
Essense 3.6

Qualities:

Ambidextrous
Incompetent (Pilot Watercraft)
Spirit Bane (Beast spirits)
Severe allergy to wolf dander
Scorched

Active Skills:

Firearms Skill Group 4
Influence Skill Group 3
Close Combat Skill Group 3
Stealth Skill Group 3
Athletics Skill Group 2

Knowledge Skills:

Seattle Street Gangs 3
Ares Macrotechnology 3
Lone Star Procedures 3
Security Procedures 3
Safe Houses 3
Wolves 3

Languages:

English N

Cyberwear:

Cybereyes (Rating 4, flare compensation, low-light vision, thermographic vision, protective covers, smartlink)
2 Obvious cyberhands (gyromount)
Wired Reflexes 2

Bioware:

Reflex Recorder (Firearms Skill Group)
Reflex Recorder (Close Combat Skill Group)
Cerebral Booster 2
Enhanced Articulation
Muscle Augmentation 2
Muscle Toner 2

Equipment:

Middle Lifestyle (3 months)
Combat Axe
Ares Alpha (airburst link, gas-vent 3, shock pad, 3 spare clips, 250 regular rounds of ammo, 50 EX-EX, skinlink)
Ares Predator 4 (silencer, concealable holster, 3 spare clips, 100 rounds regular ammo, 30 EX-EX, skinlink)
Remington 990 (internal smartgun, left-mount side-saddle, right-mount side-saddle, 80 rounds regular ammo, 40 rounds EX-EX, skinlink)
1,240 :nuyen: of clothes
Lined Coat
Fairlight Caliban (Vector Xim, Response 5, Firewall 5, System 5)
Honda Subcompact
Fake Sin rating 4 (Vera Thompson)
Earbud (Spatial Recognizer, audio enhancement 3)
4 trauma patches

Contacts:

Sheyra (6/6): A fixer and a long-time friend of Red. Also helps her in her quest to hunt down and exterminate all wolves.
Nobilis (2/2): Lumberjack
Chromius (2/2): Street sam, also does fencing

And that's before I write up a background :D

[emo samurai]

No synaptics? :(

[LilithTaveril]

Couldn't afford them with everything else in there.

[James McMurray]

You definitely want some initiative enhancers, either synaptic boosters or wired 2. Also, I'm not sure you can take incompetent for Pilot. Is pilot something you can default on?

[LilithTaveril]

Some pilots yes, some pilots no. I changed it to one that can.

Edit: Found a way. Nevermind.

[Butterblume]

I like this char, it's almost well rounded.

The negative qualitites are a bit odd, and the char really needs more initiative phases.
Something like perception would be usefull, too.

Sam/Face, good combination to play, since it works both during legwork and the run.

[mfb]

why is this a reason to not play sammies?

[ShadowDragon]

With that title, I was expecting something super min/maxed. No offence, but this sammy is mediocre as far as combat goes. He's more of a face with good combat ability and not many contacts.

[FanGirl]

[LilithTaveril]

Ah, yes, the background:

[ Spoiler ]

Shadowland File: Red-caped girl?

What the hell? Anyone got paydata on this girl? Slitch came outta nowhere and blew away my mage with a 990! Turned an Alpha on the rest of us and nearly wiped us out. I barely got out alive.
-Norga

Ah, yes, you met Little Red Riding Hood. I'm guessing your "mage" was a wolf shaman. She's got a thing about wolfies. Likes to kill them.
-Sheyra

What? You mean like the fairy tale? Please tell me you don't.
-Norga

Yes, I mean like the fairy tale. The girl's glitched. Remember the Crash? Wolves got loose from the Seattle zoo. I dunno what happened, but her family's dead and her hands are chromed. Before that, nice girl. After that, she's been running around, saying she's Little Red Riding Hood. And she really, really hates wolves.
-Sheyra

Heh. Sucks to be her. Want me to kill the slitch? Be nice and quick...
-Bodager

Bodager, why don't you go get slotted by a shotgun?
-Sheyra

Hey, come to my place and I'll show you what it's like to be slotted.
-Bodager

Sheyra, you know this girl? I'm hoping to not be her next victim.
-Norga

Yeah, I know her. Known her for years. I'll try to get her off your back. Not like she can track that well. If you want to dodge her, just get on a boat.
-Sheyra

Sheyra, sure. Maybe I can get her help sometime. Great shooting with the guns.
-Norga

Heh. I taught her a bit. Pretty average, really. Half the sams on my contact list can shoot three times better. She's great at negotiating. Still, she insists she's a sammie, so I don't argue.
-Sheyra

What else is there about her past?
-Manos

I dunno. I have no idea where the hell she got that shotgun. Or how she learned how to shoot. Didn't see her for over a year after the Crash, and when I saw her again, she became this. I dunno where she disappears to sometimes. Still, she's a good friend, even if she's having issues with reality.
-Sheyra

Wait, why are you revealing this?
-Manos

Because all of you suck at searches. I haven't told you anything that's not in a file on here. Now, I'm needed elsewhere. If you want to continue, you have my mail address.
-Sheyra

Her problem? She's nuts.

Mfb- Because I suck at making sammies?

[Teulisch]

well, theres one thing about making a sam in shadowrun- you can make them effective, or you can make them to an odd theme... but both is a bit difficult to do.

do you really need all the skill groups? i would think you could do better with your points by grabbing more stuff outside of groups at various levels. depends on the end result you want.

you could have higher attributes. i see you took dead average stats before modifiers. you could add 4 more points in there somewhere. easy enough to do if you take away a little from non-essential skills.

i would seriously advise some ear modification, even if its just a dampner. using guns that much, you will need ear protection. maybe drop enhanced articulation for other ware.

your 6/6 contact looks too high... at that rank, they will have almost no time to help you. you may want to drop it to 4, so that its more reliable.

[fool]

actually, this is a pretty sick character as far as combat abilities go. Maybe he could get 2-3 more dice without totally minmaxing but she's gonna take down virtually any other character pretty quickly. A good example of why sammies are so dangerous.

[LilithTaveril]

I took dead average stats for an elf to reflect the theme of her. She's not someone who is above average for her kind. She's just a normal girl who went insane and has spent six years believing she's Little Red Riding Hood. All of her traits that are above normal are because of augmentation, not because of any increased ability on her part.

Her history I left a bit vague for a reason. The only person who truly knows where she got some of her equipment some of her training is her. And, taking one look at what's said about her, you can immediately tell she's not going to reveal that information. Every choice for equipment was made to fit the theme of someone who is primarily hunting wolves. She's not going to have a lot of cyber simply because she doesn't need it to be effective.

That said, she lacks skills in the area she needs most for her expertise, which is another reflection of her insanity. The lack of ability to drive boats is from simple unfamiliarity with them (if you're hunting wolves, what need do you have to know anything about boats?), and her allergy is nothing important other than being a danger to her when hunting her chosen prey.

Now, I'll admit she doesn't stack up well compared to some sams that are specialized in hunting metahumans. But, that's because she's not specialized in that area. She hunts wolves. That means that some of the cyber choices that are obvious for normal sams (like cyberears) won't be for her.

At the end of the day, this is just a themed character. Yes, she can be very effective against metahumans. But, she's not the be-all end-all that some sammies are in combat. She doesn't need to be.

[Akimbo]

This reminds me too much of B.B. Hood/Bulleta from Darkstalkers...

[Oracle]

As a GM I would not like the combination of flaws. To much gain for the losses.

And I would not like the 6/6 fixer contact. No normal fixer should have a connection rating similar to that of a certain Mr. Knight.

[Grinder]

I wouldn't allow the allergy as it is. Not a big chance that it will affect the char during play.

[Cabral]

I have to agree about flaws. In particular with Incompetence (Watercraft). Unless the campaign has a good deal of seafaring in it, it's pretty much a freebie 5 pts. Same thing with Scorched: When is a Samie going to be dealing with Black IC?

I do like the concept though. :)

- Pixel

[Oracle]

Am I missing something or does that character only have 2 dice for most perception tests?

And some other possible problems:

Can gyromounts be added to cyberhands or do they need a full arm replacement? Don't have my book with me.

Doesn't the character suffer from unbalanced attribute ratings because the attributes of the cyberhands aren't enhanced to those of the rest of the body?

[Cabral]

Yup Perception Dice Pool of 2
While called a cyberarm gyromount, the weights extend from the wrists and no restrictions are mentioned. The 4 capacity provided by the hand is sufficient to contain the gyromount.

I believe he strength and agility of the cyberhand are not a serious factor in most of Red's gun bunny activities, thus averging the strength and agility is not necessary. If she tries to cling to a ledge with just her fingertips, she'll use the cyberhand's strength. Pulling herself up should use an average of her strength and the cyberhand's strength of 3.

All IMO. :D

[Oracle]

The agility of her hands should be at least of some importance when shooting. As a GM I would average the agility of her arm with that of her hand, just becauese shooting involves usage of that hand.

[cx2]

I fail to see how scorched is a major issue. If I recall the bp bonus for hackers is increased compared to non-hackers. And incompetence watercraft isn't that unreasonable since the GM could intentionally bring it up fairly easily, no more of an issue than incompetence in something like heavy weapons or longarms for a character that doesn't use them

[Chrome Shadow]

Flaws aside, I like this character a lot.

But i my opinion, and as others have said, a hunter needs very good perception, and very good hearing. And everybody should protect his ears.

[lorechaser]

Random question:

Where is Skinlink? And what is it? I'm thinking it's a non-cyber version of a smartlink, but I want to be sure.

[LilithTaveril]

Scorched also affects interactions with BTLs. Those are something a sammy could concievably deal with quite a bit.

Skinlinks are mentioned on page 318 of SR4.

Oh, and I am taking notes for this one. For improvements.

[Mr. Unpronouncea...]

Skinlink replaces wired/wireless connections for 50:nuyen: per device.

Basically it piggybacks the device signal on the electrical flux already present on your body.

Odd as it sounds - this is actually tech currently being developed.