Balance Issues, SR3 & Firearms vs. Sorcery Options

[Nevermind]

[The Cheshire Pen...]

Anyone who has problems meshing mages and norms should go back to GM school. Both have a lot going for them, and both have a lot against them. The mage in my group has horribly powerful spells, but has to deal with the fact that most people shoot the mage first, and shoot him in his sleep if they can help it. Mages are karma sinks. Mages need space and time to learn spells; they need karma to learn spells; they need :nuyen: to get any kind of magical item, unless they intend to build it entirely from scratch themselves, in which case they need a lot of time; etc etc etc. I could rant about the minuses of being a sammy for an hour or so too. The point isn't that mages or sammies are better than one another; they point is how well you as a GM can work a story around them. Any GM worth their salt can come up with plots and subplots ad-infinitum regardless of the power of the players, because that's what being a GM is all about. Game ballance issues aren't character issues; they're player/GM issues IMHO.

[Cain]

A resources-C rigger is possible, but only just-- the cost of a level 2 VCR alone would eat up most of your starting cash. You could get away with a level 1 VCR if you're going drone rigger, but you don't have much to buy drones with. Resources A is really the way to go when creating a rigger.

For deckers, resources A or B will work fine; if you want a flexible character (a decker/techie, a decker/face, etc.) or if you want a dedicated decker who builds all his own toys, Skills A may be a better investment.

For sams, all you really need is reflex augmentation of some stripe, a smartlink, and generally some vision mods. You can pull that off easily with Resources B, and it's possible to make it work with resources C.