New Character Build 400BP System, Thoughts? Options

[Blackb1rd]

Updated Version below.

[Blackb1rd]

I'm looking for some sort of feedback here.

[Ascalaphus]

If you wanted to describe your character in just a few words, what would they be?

I think your Interrogation seems a bit odd.. your stats look like a sniper - not really a capture specialist, more a killer. But it's hard to guess what a character is meant to be just based on stats. So, what did you want to be?

[Blackb1rd]

The character is a former ares Firewatch operative. He was caught selling secrets to other companies and almost killed for doing so, but Xavier talbot (The Ares representative on the Corporate Court) took an interest in him and now keeps him around as an asset. he recently took to the shadows to gain more money to maintain his high class lifestyle. He is also a former accomplished Art Thief.

I figured interrogation as well as CQC Subdual would fi well considering he is part of a former Sec Companies Special Forces.

[Joe Chummer]

To be honest, I think character concept and backstory are a heck of a lot more important that stats and equipment. Numbers and guns might be fun, but if you as the player have no idea what your character wants to do, nothing will motivate him to get off the couch and USE all those shiny toys and skills.

Try this for an experiment: Re-post your character, but don't mention any stats or skills (Like, have him say he's good at fitting in with unconventional crowds rather than saying he has "Etiquette 5" or whatnot). Have your character introduce himself in-character, using the under-the-hood/character-sheet framework as a jumping off point. Make sense?

[Glyph]

His augmentation seems strangely incomplete, even for a bare bones assortment of 'ware. A combat-oriented character has no business not having some kind of initiative enhancement. And his cybereyes need more features (especially odd since you got cybereyes 4, which have plenty of capacity). Low light vision, flare compensation, and vision magnification are really must-haves.

Skill-wise, he seems fine, but I would get some kind of dodging skill, whether dodge or gymnastics.

[Blackb1rd]

Deleted.

[Blackb1rd]

Low-light is natural for elves, added flare compensation and thermographic vision and vision magnification to cybereyes, sacrificed one point of agility changing it's max to seven for an extra 10BP to spend on gear and purchased the move by wire system rating 1 from augmentation allowing for two initiative passes, a +2 bonus to reaction and a plus 1 bonus to dodge skill.

Also sacrificed some loyalty form a contact to raise the nescessary BP to by one skill point in dodge which is enhanced by move-by-wires to two.

[Blackb1rd]

Updated Below

[Joe Chummer]

Low-light is natural for elves, added flare compensation and thermographic vision and vision magnification to cybereyes

Low-light isn't natural for elves anymore if you've already had your meat eyes scooped out. Thus, unless you opt for a retinal mods instead of full-on cybereyes, any cybereye package you get will remove low-light vision entirely, which means you'll actually have to purchase low-light vision as a cybereye enhancement if you still want it.

[Blackb1rd]

Low-light isn't natural for elves anymore if you've already had your meat eyes scooped out.

Thanks. i wasn't thinking too much when I worte that low-light was natural for elves. It's been a long day, please excuse me.

[blakmetalmedik]

Beat me to it Joe (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

and bird, I hear you lol, it has been a long one

I like the character for the most part, looks like he could do well. I personally think working for a corp is alittle odd balance wise, but thats just me

[Blackb1rd]

I've played company-men for a while now and it really is an incredible benefit for the group even if it does cause the character alot of personal problems now and then. The only thing is you're basically a puppet for the company, you can't turn down a job from them or run against them and have to actively try and stop any potential runs you're parties considering that would harm the company you work for, but at the same tiem you have corporate backing. Money when you need it etcetera....

Also i have 3480 Nuyen left over from CharGen... what should i do with it?

[blakmetalmedik]

Oh I love the story potential, don't get me wrong. I just think its alittle unbalancing, but if its been working for your group, then by all means (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

As for what nuyen you would have left over, I would pick up an agent. those buggers can be horribly useful

[Saint Sithney]

Not to be a downer, but how does a company man, on a corporate payroll fit the bill as a deniable/expendable asset? Especially when his team knows that he's an Ares goon.

Or do you just run it like Deep Cover meets Trust Fund, (which is 30bp in total too.)

If you haven't already, talk to your GM about running the 2x CHA free contacts house rule. It makes as much sense as free knowledge/language skills IMO, and the extra points could be well used in the form of Autosofts to plug into your MBW system. Never know when you're going to need a touch of this and that, skillwise.

[Blackb1rd]

Not to be a downer, but how does a company man, on a corporate payroll fit the bill as a deniable/expendable asset? Especially when his team knows that he's an Ares goon.

Essentially your character is undercover, except it is completely up to the character whether or not to inform their party of their status, for a while i was able to keep it under wraps but then the GM played me into a situation where it was nescessary for me to reveal myself. Also if there are multiple company men on a single team things can get real interesting. Like if you have an old Aztechnology goon and an Ares agent on the same team and Ares assigns you, and your team if you can get them to participate, to some wetwork that involves the Azzies, it is really interesting.

May have to bring up the 2X Charisma for free contacts rule, it makes alot of sense.

[Karoline]

Not to be an ass or anything, but aren't Ares Firewatch teams supposed to be composed of like 500ish BP members? That's always the impression I've gotten from whenever they are mentioned on the forums (Haven't read any campaigns or anything so no real idea stat wise).

Right now I'm actually running a character who has a backstory as being exceedingly more powerful, but had to go into hiding, and so had her memory erased, thus granting me the amnesia quality, dropping her skills, and reducing some of her stats (Bad reaction to the chemicals, lots of bed rest after, whatever). Works well for explaining why she used to be a total badass but is now 'only' a 400BP character. She also lost a bunch of equipment of course, and even had cyber/bio replaced to make her fake corpse more convincing.

Like I said, don't want to be an ass, but I think there might be some IC disconnect if your 'average' character is revealed to be part of this ultra elite group and the skills don't match up properly, even more so if you were hand picked by the big man (Presumably because of a high level of skill).

Oh, and something that most people forget for an infiltration specialist: Hardware skill to bypass maglock.

[Blackb1rd]

Not to be an ass or anything, but aren't Ares Firewatch teams supposed to be composed of like 500ish BP members? That's always the impression I've gotten from whenever they are mentioned on the forums

Oh, and something that most people forget for an infiltration specialist: Hardware skill to bypass maglock.

That's part of the challenge of making this particular character, i'm only allowed to use the 400BP System so i have to work as hard as possible to make him the best that i can.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

As for the hardware skill, thanks for the suggestion.

[Sixgun_Sage]

You know, the changing power levels from edition to edition has always bugged me a bit, the starting 3rd edition character has just more everything than the starting 4th edition character, even after conversions. I house rule 450 bp in my games and no limit on qualities.

[Ol' Scratch]

That's because they were trying desperately to actually make "4" a high stat for a skilled individual. Rather than, you know, just redefining the system in other ways.

[Sixgun_Sage]

That's because they were trying desperately to actually make "4" a high stat for a skilled individual. Rather than, you know, just redefining the system in other ways.

I can see that, but moving between the systems just felt like too drastic a change for me, despite the many things I like about 4th edition, and I don't think 50 bp is too big a bump all things considered, especially with the lethality of shadowrun.

[Ol' Scratch]

Preaching to the choir. I was just pointing that little tidbit out.

[Sixgun_Sage]

Preaching to the choir. I was just pointing that little tidbit out.

Noted man, the thing is I also run the elite security teams as prime runner groups to keep my players moderately honest...

[Blackb1rd]

Negative Qualities:
Signature: +10BP (Leaves behind a small onyx fox)
Records on File: +10BP Ares Macrotechnology/Knight Errant Security Services
SINner: +5BP
Vindictive: +10BP
435BP
Metatype: Elf (30BP)
Positive Qualities:
Bilingual: 5BP English/German
Company Man 30BP (Ares Macro/Knight Errant, provides 5,000¥/month and corporate backing but also ties the character to the company making them a puppet for chosen company. This is a GM House rule.)

2 Initiative Passes (1 Natural, 1 Move-by-wire)

Attributes:
Body 3 (20BP)
Agility 5 (7) (30BP)
Reaction 4 (6) (30BP)
Strength 3 (5) (20BP)
Charisma 4 (10BP)
Intuition 4 (30BP)
Logic 3 (20BP)
Willpower 3 (20BP)
Edge 3 (20BP)

Skills:
Automatics 4 18BP Specialization: Assault Rifles
Stealth Skill Set 4 40BP
Longarms 4 18BP Specialization: Sniper Rifles
Perception 3 14BP Specialization: Visual
Intimidation 3 14BP Specialization: Interrogation
Unarmed Combat 4 18BP Specialization: Subdual Combat
Etiquette 3 14BP Specialization: High Society
Dodge (3) 0BP
Hardware 1 (3) 6BP Specialization: Maglocks

Knowledge Skills (21 Free Points):
Street Knowledge:
Security Companies 3 Specialization: Knight Errant 1BP
Professional Knowledge:
Security Procedures (Corporations) 3 Specialization: Ares 1BP
Special Forces 4 Specialization: Ares Firewatch 1BP
Interests:
Rare Art 3
Wine 3
Language:
Russian 5

42 BP for Gear (250,000 Nuyen):
Form Fitting Body Armor 1600 Nuyen
Thermal Damping 6 3000 Nuyen
Chameleon Suit 8000 Nuyen
Jet Black Suit from the Berwick Line W/ Red Silk Tie 3100 Nuyen
Ares Alpha 1700 Nuyen
Sound Suppressor 300 Nuyen
2 Spare Clips 10 Nuyen
Advanced Safety System 600 Nuyen
Chameleon Coating 1000 Nuyen
Ares Desert Strike 3350 Nuyen
Sound Suppressor 300 Nuyen
2 Spare Clips 10 Nuyen
Advanced Safety System 600 Nuyen
Internal Smartgun System 3350 Nuyen
Chameleon Coating 1000 Nuyen
Fairlight Caliban Commlink 8000 Nuyen
Novatech Navi OS 1500 Nuyen
Agent 4 5,500 Nuyen
Subvocal Microphone 50 Nuyen
Virtual Surround Music 50 Nuyen
Autopicker 6 1200 Nuyen
Cybereyes 3 1000 Nuyen
Smartlink 1000 Nuyen
Vision Enhancement 3 4500 Nuyen
Thermographic Vision 1000 Nuyen
Flare Compensation 1000 Nuyen
Vision Magnification 1000 Nuyen
Low-light Vision 1000 Nuyen
Muscle Replacement 2 10,000 Nuyen
Orthoskin 2 60,000 Nuyen
Move-by-wire System 1 50,000 Nuyen
Skillsoft: Dodge 2 4,000 Nuyen
Skillsoft: Hardware 2 4,000 Nuyen
10 Plasteel Restraints 500 Nuyen
40 Laes Cigarettes 1,000 Nuyen
40 Scentmasking Cigarettes 400 Nuyen
Rating 5 Fake SIN (Jonathan Hunter) 5000 Nuyen Personal: Rare Art Dealer
Rating 5 Fake Gun License 500 Nuyen, Hunter
Rating 4 Fake Drivers License 400 Nuyen, Hunter
Rating 5 Concealed Carry License 500 Nuyen, Hunter
Body Cavity Escape Kit 10,000 Nuyen
Maglock Passkey 4 8,000 Nuyen
Sequencer 4 800 Nuyen
Glass Cutter 10 Nuyen
13BP
Contacts:
Xavier Talbot C5/L2 7BP Ares Corporate Handler and Direct Contact
Elzette Du Randt C3/L3 6BP Black Market Weapons Dealer
________________________________________________________________________________
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[Karoline]

Ah, you're using the SR4 and not the SR4A rules.

I suppose you know, but those rating 5 SINs you have are availability 15. I'm guessing this isn't a problem thanks to your company backing, but just figured I'd throw that point out there.