Help this noob create his first character, .. a typical, run of the mill Street Sam Options

[Moab]

There is just so much to absorb and understand in SR3 it's difficult for me to create a character and feel confident that it was done correctly. I would hate to finally find a local SR3 group to run with and then have everyone telling me I can't do this or that because ... whatever reason, or you can't have those, or you have to do this or that ... you get the point. I would really appreciate if someone would walk me through char-gen step by step and explain it to me so I know for certain I understand the "whys" and "hows"

I don't have much ideas thought out for his background yet except, like so many other street sams(I'm sure) he's either ex-military or ex-Lone Star. He has a best friend he grew up with on the streets of Seattle and has managed to keep in tough with. His best friend is a Troll Street Sam who I intend to create once I have a handle the char-gen process.

I Understand the basics of char-gen, it's the specifics that are tripping me up.

Anyway, any help would be sincerely appreciated.

Aspiring Shadowrun Player.
"Big Mo"

P.S.
I currently only have the SR3 Core Rulebook (that's the "BBB" right?) but I have recently bid on some books on ebay and have Sprawl Survival Guide, Man & Machine Cyberware, Canon Companion, and Corporate Download on the way. Anything else I need to get to help get me started??

[Oddfellow]

I'd try to narrow down your character concept a little bit before you started number crunching blindly.

Would you prefer a character that specializes in melee? gunfights? sniping?

Do you want to be a full on combat specialist, or do you want to diversify (for example a Sammie could also be a leader/tactician, or ex-detective, or intimidator, or bodyguard/security expert, or you name it.)

You don't necessarily need to come up with some complicated back story for these kind of choices yet, just get an idea of what you want your runner to be good at.

Also, the way I learned the chargen process was to try to use the rules to create the pre-made characters in the book from scratch. I found it a good way to test my understanding of the rules.

[TinkerGnome]

"Street Samurai" covers a lot of ground. One of the biggest questions is, do you mean a true Samurai (one who lives by a code of honor) or a merc, weapons specialist, or other character who does not have that code of honor?

The first step should be to refine your concept as much as you can before looking at numbers. It may or may not get very far, but every little bit helps. As yourself a few key questions:

• What is my character's reason for being a shadowrunner?

Are you in it for the cred? For the challenge? Do you have a grudge that you need to settle or are you just trying to buy yourself that much dreamed about rating 10 fake SIN and small private island?

• How does my character handle social situations?

Are you the life of the party? Do you limp by on chipped skills? Do you let someone else do the talking and rely on your "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry" factor to get by? Tip: Some games don't allow social skills to be used as skillsofts. Make sure to ask before you rely on it.

• How does my character handle runs?

Stone cold professional? Along for the ride with thrills as they come? Complete basket case? Tip: Most groups look down on players who kill for fun or have serious personality disorders.

• What is your character's race and how does it affect his world view?

Take a good read through the racial writeups in the BBB. Never, ever pick a race based on the numbers, because there's a lot those numbers don't tell you such as racism and the like. Tip: This is most true for orks and trolls. I was considering making an ork street sam a while back, but, frankly, I didn't want to deal with the fact that he wouldn't be able to blend in with a crowd the way a human or elf could. I ended up picking an elf with a low (3) charisma which lead to a good piece of the character's background. A homely, SINless elf would likely have a pretty hard row to hoe, as it were.

• In a fight, how does your character handle himself?

Okay, so the fecal matter has hit the oscillator unit and there's a fight going on around your ears. What do you do? Do you grab your Predator from the concealed quickdraw sheath and start blazing while diving for cover? Do you scream like a frightened schoolgirl and soil yourself (well a sam probably wouldn't be having THAT reaction)? Do you send a mental signal to have the smartlinked Ares Protector (currently disguised as a briefcase -- it's in Cannon Companion) drop its outer shell and start hosing the area with an SMG? Do you pull your assault rifle out of the guitar case you were carrying and make the room a killing field? Or do you charge in and make it personal with hand-to-hand (or blade-to-face, depending) combat?Tip: Street samurai and other gun-oriented operatives generally have at least two weapon skills. One is generally small and concealable (most often pistols) and the other larger and more deadly (SMG, rifles, assault rifles, heavy weapons, shotguns, etc.). My last few builds have been pistols and assault rifles going on the theory that if you're going to be loud, you might as well go all out (that and you can get 8 points of recoil comp on a Ares Alpha (in CC) without much trouble -- it's just conceal 0 after you do).

• Point A and Point B. How do you bridge the distance between them?

Does your character ride the tube? Do you have a broken down old Scoot that you drive and leave around the corner so that no one sees it? Do you ride a souped up racing bike? An SUV or other vehicle? Tip: Your selection is limited from the main book, but you can still get something that'll get you to and from a meet. Most teams have a rigger (well, in theory) so you likely won't do the driving on a run itself.

• Besides combat, what can you actually do?

Some of the most important abilities in the game have nothing to do with combat. How do you handle a maglock (electronics B/R)? How do you get past guards (stealth)? Tip: You should always have some sort of etiquette skill. Even if it's only Etiquette/street 1/3, it'll still save you some trouble in certain situations.

• Who do you know that can help you?

Contacts are important, regardless of the character. Most street sammies need someone who can get them jobs (a fixer), someone who can fix their gear (an armorer and/or techie), someone who can get them weaponry (an arms dealer), and someone who can patch them up/upgrade their 'ware (a doc or street doc, usually). It doesn't hurt to have other contacts, though you may never use them. Or they might be the most important thing on your sheet, depending on the nature of the situation.

• What kind of cyberware does your character have, how did he get it, and why did he want it? How does he handle the loss of his basic humanity (ie, essence)? Given the chance, would he have more installed or the current 'ware upgraded?

These are very tough questions. So your street sam has almost 500,000 :nuyen: worth of cyber crammed into his body. Why'd he have that done? Where'd he get the gear and the money? Does he suffer bouts of depression from it? Does he still have strong emotions? Tip: This is another place that naturally born orks and trolls sometimes get hit. Age is important for cyberware. While it's reasonable that a 20 year old might have some light cyber, he'd need a good reason to have the kind of suite a 35 year old ex-merc might have.

Okay, that's enough from me for a while. There are other lists of questions out there (Bull had a 50 questions, and there's a 20 questions in the SR Companion) that will help you with fleshing the character out.

[Roadspike]

TinkerGnome's post is an excellent way to flesh out the basics of your character. I think I would start with the basic concept you want to play (shotgun toting ex-SWAT entry-man, pistol and axe-wielding ex-ganger, troll brick with a heavy weapon and a big sword, etc), and then go on through the questions in TinkerGnome's post. As a suggestion, I generally consider the following skills as "necessary" for all 'Runners to have (it could just be a 1 or a 2, but these are the skills that to me say "'Runner"):

Etiquette (even if you're a huge troll with a huge gun, you're going to have to sweet-talk someone sometime--there's always someone with a bigger gun).
Athletics (it's called Shadowrun for a reason).
Stealth (if they can't see you, they can't shoot you).
A Melee Skill (sooner or later, someone's going to try to hit you, and you don't want to be defaulting to Strength when they do).
A Ranged Skill (be it pistols, pull-bows, throwing weapons, or Heavy Weapons, when someone's shooting at you, you want some way of shooting back--note, Sorcery counts if you can cast spells).

Some characters can get away with not having one or more of these skills (Deckers or Riggers, for instance, often forgoe Athletics), but in general, a Shadowrunner who expects to accompany the team on insertions should have all five of them.

[The White Dwarf]

Its relativly easy to actually build a character once youve thought thru the ideas Tinker did such a dam good job outlining.

If you want, post a breif reply to that process with your ideas on your char. Im sure me or someone else can then layout the basics for the numbers side.

[kevyn668]

Charater creation is similar to having a child. Once you've actually made the thing, all you can think about is what great things he or she is gonna do...Then you start thinking about all the bad things that can happen to him or her. ;)

Or did you want a sample build? I can do that too, but my ideas for a sam are most likey not in line with what you want--just 'cause we're different RPers. If you answer some of the above questions, the others and I can provide templates.

Oh yeah, welcome aboard! :)

[Snow_Fox]

I don't remember if 3rd Ed has it but older Ed's had like a 20 questions. Be less concerned with the number crunching than the character himself. As long as you're just using the core book it's hard to create something a group won't allow.

[kevyn668]

The 20 questions in the SR Comp now. I know someone has a copy online. I'll see if I can find it Monday when I get to my work comp. Strangely enough, most of my SR stuff is on that.

[TinkerGnome]

Tinkergnome's monster-super-huge posts, take 2. This post is really only for use once you've established the basics of your character already and are ready to start crunching numbers.

Okay, once you have the basic ideas behind your character, it's time to start picking out attributes, skills, gear, and cyberware. Let's go through it step by step.

You can go ahead and establish your choices for priorities (this is the simplest method, so go ahead and use it... there is one more official character generation system, and two unofficial character generation systems which float around here, but we'll stick with priority). I'm going to talk about what I picked for my elven street sam and why with a lot of this, just by means of example. The character's background fits with these choices, as well, but I'm not going to talk about that too much.

For priorities, I chose:

A - Resources (1,000,000 :nuyen: )
B - Attributes (27 points)
C - Race (elf)
D - Skills (30)
E - Magic (mundane)

With the priority system, resources and skills both offer more bang for your buck the higher they are (compare the jumps between A and B for both and the jumps between C and D. Significantly different). The attribute category is flat with 3 points difference all the way between A and E. Race is just race, and magic is just magic. Usually, you set magic and race first and then fit the others in. A street sam usually has resources as either A or B. Skills can be really important or you can push them down the pile a bit, that's really a personal choice.

Attributes

Okay, let's take a look at them one by one.

Body

Body does a few things for you. It determines your ability to resist damage, your ability to resist drugs and toxins, and your ability to train a small set of skills (including athletics). Since we're looking at a street sam here, we'll want to set this at least above average, at 4+.

The Elf: For the elf samurai, I chose body 5. He's got to be in top physical shape, after all, if he wants to survive.

Quickness

Quickness is possibly the most important stat for a combat character. It's half of reaction, it determines how high you can raise your firearms and stealth skills, and it determines how fast you can move. A street sam generally wants this as high as he can afford, generally as high or higher than all other attributes.

The Elf: For the elf samurai, I chose quickness 6. He's fast, and he's agile, which is going to come in handy. He also gets a racial +1 to quickness, giving him a value of 7 for even more fun.

Strength

Strength is one of those attributes you either set very high or very low. It helps you with encumberance, with unarmed combat, and with throwing weapons. These skills can be critical or they can be not-so-important. If you're using Cannon Companion, high strength can also provide a little bit of recoil compensation (6+ gives you RC 1, 12+ gives you RC 2).

The Elf: Because the elf's concept is going to be assault rifles and a bit of unarmed combat, so I set his strength high, at 6. That extra recoil comp will also come in handy since it means you don't have to worry about compensating most SA weapons.

Charisma

Charisma cover social skills and might also come into play if you're forced to go against a spirit with a force of will attack. You do do NOT want to play with a charisma less than 2. Really. I mean it. With a street sam, you don't need loads of charisma (usually), but you don't want too little, either. I'd settle for somewhere in the 2-4 range, myself.

The Elf: Party of the elf's concept is that he's homely (for an elf). I set his cha at 1, which rises to 3 with the racial modifiers.

Intelligence

Okay, intelligence is a funny one. It's how smart you are, but it's also how perceptive you are. Street sams want a fair bit of intelligence because they need to be alert. I'd set this at 4+.

The Elf: Another part of the elf's concept is that he's good at spotting trouble. I set this one at 5. He's not really that intelligent, he's just ultra-aware.

Willpower

Willpower doesn't do very many things for a mundane, but the things it does are important. This is the attribute that resists mana spells (ie, manabolt) and overcomes some spells and spell powers (ie, confusion). Don't skimp here, but you also probably don't have the points to get it really high. I'd settle for a 3-5 most of the time.

The Elf: The elf's pretty average in terms of willpower. I set this at 4. It's not high enough to save him from a mana spell, but it's high enough that it's not overly easy to nail him with one.

Skills

Skills are where your concept really comes into play. Basiclly, active skills are broken down into Breakdown/Repair, Combat, Magical, Physical, Social, Technical, and Vehicle. Buy according to what fits your character and what you have points for. Because the Elf is going to be using skillwires, I have a lot of freedom at this point. The skills I chose were:

Pistols 6
Assault Rifles/Ares Alpha 5/7
Unarmed Combat/Wildcat Marital Arts 3/5 (note that if you're using CC's martial arts, this works differently)
Throwing Weapons 2 (for grenades)
Athletics 4
Stealth 6
Etiquette 2

This leaves him with no Vehicle or Breakdown/Repair skills and few Social skills. This will be fixed with skillchips later. Obviously he's not going to need any Magical skills.

Cyberware

With a street sam, cyberware (and bioware, if you have Man and Machine) is going to be a big deal. Most street samurai will have some sort of reflex boost, and a smartlink. The rest is all to your taste.

The Elf spent 612k :nuyen: on cyberware, and a lot of it was from other books, so I won't go through all of it, but here are the highlights of what is in the BBB:

Skillwires R4
Wired Reflexes II (Alphaware)
Reflex Trigger for Reflexes (Alphaware)
Datajack (Alphaware)
Chipjack (Alphaware)
Ear replacement with hearing amp and dampner (Alphaware)
Smartlink (Alphaware) -- Actually, Smartlink 2 from Man and Machine

You'll notice I use a lot of alphaware. Part of the reason I blew all of that extra cash is to cram in more essence worth of gear, but another part is that it's simply better quality cyber. Alphaware is harder to spot with detectors and damage than standard 'ware (rules for damage to cyberware appear in Man and Machine).

If you have a natural vision mode, it is generally a bad idea to replace your eyes. Go with retinal mods, instead.

Gear

Weapons and armor aren't generally that tough to pick out. Go with what fits your skills and you're generally fine. A few grenades never hurt anyone, either. Some items you probably don't want to forget:

• A fake ID of mid or high rating (4+)
• A tranciever with a little bit of encryption (Encryption rating 3+, generally)
• Ammo and lots of it. Spare clips, as well.
• A vehicle of some sort.
• A couple of months of lifestyle

[Glyph]

Tinkergnome did a great job hitting the roleplaying questions, so I will address the issue of building a street samurai, in general terms. I don't know what cyber your GM will allow, or whether he will allow bioware (which is in Man & Machine) or not, so this will be general advice.

Cyberware

A street samurai can have many skills, but the main thing you are is muscle. You are there to take out the opposition, protect your other teammates, and handle the brunt of enemy fire. So you need at least 3 basic things:

1) A smartlink. This is one of the most important tools you have. It gives you a bonus to your Target Numbers to hit people with guns, and is so essential that most mundanes who are combat-oriented at all will have it.

2) A speed boost. A street samurai is effective because by the time the other guys can react, he's killed a few of them. The more people you shoot first, the less people shooting at your team afterwards. Speed is what give the sammie an edge against most opponents. You will probably want Wired Reflexes: 2 - minimum. Be sure to take a reflex trigger, though, so you won't shoot a teammate who taps you on the back by mistake.

3) Toughness-enhancing cyberware. A street samurai is on the front lines, so he needs to be durable. There is bone lacing, dermal plating, and, in Man & Machine, dermal sheathing. They add to your Body Attribute, helping you to resist damage.

I recommend Resources of A or B.

Gear

You want the weapons you are skilled in (and don't forget to buy ammo), usually with internal smartlinks. You want good body armor (the armored jacket gives the most protection, but a lined coat helps you to conceal weapons better - also, with a good Quickness, you can layer armor for more protection). Other essentials:

*Fake ID: A good fake credstick helps you when police want to see your I.D. or you want to do one of the many things that you normally need a valid S.I.N. for.
*DocWagon Contract: A high-threat medical response team will pick you up when you get wounded. It can be literally a life-saver.
*Lifestyles: Don't forget these! And remember, transportation, such as a tube pass or a leased commuter car, comes with the various lifestyle levels, so you don't need to buy a vehicle unless you plan on driving during the run.
*Contacts: Your bread and butter. They can help you find things out, give you information that you need, buy your ill-gotten loot, or help you acquire your less-than legal weapons and other gear.

Skills

My list is very similar to Roadspike's -
*Pistols: a general-purpose, easily concealable weapon. You probably want 6.
*A heavier weapon: get something like assault rifle or shotgun, to handle the toughest opponents. You want a 5 or a 6.
*Etiquette: You want a minimum of 2 here, just to be able to function.
*Stealth: The multi-purpose sneaking skill. I recommend 4 at least.
*Unarmed Combat: you want 6 here, unless you favor using a weapon in melee combat, in which case give that skill the 6, and this one slightly lower. It is vital to have a high skill in melee combat! Melee combat is a dice contest, where the one with the most successes wins. You can take damage when "attacking" or do damage when "defending". A ranged weapon skill of 3 only misses more often. A melee skill of 3 means you will get beat up... badly.

Those are the absolute essentials. Other good ones:

*Athletics: the general skill for running, jumping, etc. With your high Body, you can get away with defaulting to this skill... barely. Very useful, nearly making the essential list.
*Negotiation: nearly as useful as etiquette, helpful to have any time you are bargaining with someone.
*Biotech with the First Aid specialization: great for patching up yourself or your teammates, and combined with magical healing it can be far more effective than magical healing by itself.
*Car or Computer: while you may not do much hacking or make switchback turns, having these at a low level could represent a general competence at driving or using a computer.


Attributes

You will want all of your Physical Attributes to be high, as well as your Intelligence. A high Willpower is also highly recommended. Street samurais are very demanding on your Attribute points. The old cliche of the street samurai with the low Charisma arises, in part, because Charisma is about the only stat where it doesn't have to be high. Attributes should be Priority A or B (Attributes and Resources take the top two Priority slots. If you are using the point build system, buy 60 points of Attributes and spend 25 or 30 points on Resources).


This is the basic samurai build. I encourage you to customize it based on the personality of your character and the role he will be playing. But remember, while a good background is very important, having decent skills and stats is, also. Success depends on things like dice rolls and modifiers, so you want to make a character who won't get killed in the first round of combat.

[TinkerGnome]

Glyph, mine's prettier ;)

I do disagree with body boosting cyber being a must have. It's nice, and certainly a valid choice, but most of it greatly reduces your ability to blend in with society (dermal sheath and plating are both pretty obvious, and the good bone lacings light up a MADs like a Christmas tree).

The alternative is to go with stuff that makes you hard to see or attack (high stealth skill and/or ruthenium polymer suits from Man and Machine do this job well). The elf had a ruthenium cloak with 8 scanners and some thermal dampening (from Cannon Companion). The basic theory being that you can get away with less body if your opponent has a lot higher TN to hit you.

[BishopMcQ]

[TinkerGnome]

How's he going to get a date in the first place with an etiquette of 2? Besides which, any chica willing to date a street sam with more cyber than most street gangs can handle herself ;) It's only stun damage, after all ;)

[Moab]

Wow! So much good stuff here. Okay, let me get to work on the 20 questions thing and see what I can come up with. I'm afraid most of answers will be so cliche. Thanks SO much guys. You really put a lot of work in those posts (especially you TinkerGnome)

[Entropy Kid]

Sort of an obvious statement, but a lot of choices will depend on the style of game. Make sure to be clear on any house rules that are being used. Those factors can make some gear/cyberware/spells either useless or essential, as compared to a different game.

Unless going with a "weapon specialist" (firearms or melee), where you frequently could be using a variety of weapons, I like to specialize all combat skills, except Unarmed.

A note on reflex triggers- if not using the Effects of Increased Reflexes rules (pg 45 Man and Machine) AND you're in the kind of game where illegal cyberware won't be an (big) issue, then don't bother with one. The Essence and nuyen could be better spent elsewhere. Even if those rules are used, find out generally how bad it'll be to go without a Reflex Trigger. It makes detecting the wired reflexes a lot harder, but you can be screwed in surprise situations (it takes a Simple Action to turn the WR on).

A piece of cyberware I like, but isn't "necessary" is the balance augmenter (pg 13 M&M).

This post has been edited by Entropy Kid: May 16 2004, 05:05 AM

[TinkerGnome]

I think the indication is that he didn't have a specific gaming group yet, which kind of precludes house rules and the like. Because of that, I think the best course of action is to generally err on the side of caution and go with things like the reflex trigger.

Also, I should probably make it clear that the cyber I listed was what the elf sam had picked up and not my "recomended list" for anyone else's character. I do generally like wired better than other types of reflex boosts if I can afford it, but that may just be me.

Also, I went with specializations for things which I didn't intend to use two different ways (throwing weapons would have been specialized to grenades if it'd been any higher -- going to 2/4 costs 5 karma from 1/3 or 3 karma from 2, if your stat is 4+). Pistols I'd avoid specializing since you'll generally have more than one weapon that you use. A dart pistol, taser, Predator, and AVS, for instance, would all use the same base skill.

[Eyeless Blond]

I'm finding as I write up my adept that I'm running horrifically low on skill points, like down to under 30. Is this normal, or is there something I'm just not thinking of cutting?

[Moab]

Okay, here is what I have so far. There is still plenty of stuff left unaccounted for I know, but this is a start. I also have an idea of how I want this character to look, act and some the weapons I want him to carry. So, at the risk of being laughed at :D ... here goes.

Answering MOST of TinkerGnomes questions:

1. Why is my character a shadowrunner?

My Character, "Tex" was a bouncer at some hole-in-the-wall strip joint in Santa Fe, New Mexico - Pueblo Corporate Council. "Tex" grew tired of his low quality of life and decided to try his hand as a Bounty Hunter. Growing more accustomed to the increase of nuyen, he decided to bid farewell to Santa Fe and his job there, moving to Seattle where there was more action (and Nuyen) to be found. Bounty Hunting eventually lead him to the shadows where he has been a runner ever since.

2. How does my character handle social situations?

"Tex" is the silent intimidator type relying more on his "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" 'charm.'

3. How does my character handle runs?

"Tex" is a stone cold professional.

4. What race is my character?

"Tex" is human and is not racist an any way.

5. How does my character handle himself in a fight?

"Tex" is the type who will blaze away while seeking cover. Shoot first ask questions later.

6. How does my character get from A to B?

This one I struggled with some. I know if I hook up with a team there will most likely be a rigger and I won't need transportation of my own, however, I wanted "Tex" to have a Harley Davidson motorcycle ... an "older" one, like a 2012 'FATBOY' model instead of a 2063 model. Is this doable and if so, should I spend the nuyen or let it be?

7. What can my character actually DO?

I haven't answered this one yet. I wanted to wait and see how some other things come together .. maybe that would give me some ideas. Maybe he's really good at B/E so he would be a wiz with maglocks?? Maybe something to better play into his bounty hunter history??

8. Who does my character know that can help - Contacts?

A.)A Stripper who moved to Seattle from the Santa Fe strip club. (lvl 2)
B.)A Fixer who goes by the alias "Lich" (lvl 1)
C.)A Bounty Hunter who knew "Tex" during his Bounty Hunter days. (lvl 1)
D.)A Mafia member who is a friend of a friend (lvl 1) [If I can do this one??]

9. What Cyberware does my character have and why did he get it?

Haven't decided which Cyberware to get yet. I wanted to wait and see how much nuyen I would have to spend and get your advice. But, the reason he got it is because he wants to have the edge, be at the top of his game .. and because he could afford it. He doesn't give much thought to the effect of the cyberware on his humanity. As long as his thoughts and emotions are still his own, he is fine with it.

Now, what I was THINKING .. if it wouldn't be to rediculously stupid to do ... is have this character wear an armor plated/kevlar lined (whatever) westorn style duster and a stetson hat and wrap around shades. Synthdenim jeans, maybe some t-shirt advertising the strip joint where he used to work and some combat boots. That's the look I had in mind. He looks like a futuristic cowboy. He even has the handlebar mustache long sideburns and 5 o'clock shadow where his beard would be. Most of the time he is chewing on an unlit cigar. He rides an "old" Harley Davidson and carries twin ingram smartguns holsted to either thigh and carries a Defiance T-250 shotgun on his harley. (Just to maybe give you a better idea about "Tex" to help you assist me in fleshing him out)


Here is his Priority List:

A- Resources(1,000,000)
B- Attributes(27)
C- Skills(34)
D- Magic(mundane)
E- Race(Human)

ATTRIBUTES
Body-5
Quickness-6
Strength-6
Charisma-2
Intelligence-6
Willpower-2
Essence-6
Magic-0
Reaction-6


SKILLS
Athletics-5
Stealth-5
SMGs-6
Shotguns-6
Etiquette[Street]-2(4)
Unarmed Combat-5
Bikes-3 *
{maybe a 3(5) Harley Davidson??If not I could use these 4 points on intimidation and maybe electronics/maglock?}

That's all I have for now, it's really late and it's getting hard to think clearly.

[Glyph]

I like the concept, and I think you did a bang-up job putting him together so far, but a 2 in Willpower <wince>... that makes you extremely vulnerable to a lot of spells. Personally, I would recommend raising it to 4, even if it means lowering your Intelligence to 4. At least that way, you have more of a chance against mana spells, especially if the group's mage is providing some spell defense. It depends on the campaign, though. If magic is not encountered that often, you might be able to get by with a low Willpower - although it would still be the first thing I'd improve when I got some Karma.

By the way, a number of people think that the "right" way to do a character is to answer all of the questions, then do the stats, but a lot of people will come up with a general idea, start putting the stats together, flesh out a background, and sometimes go back and change the stats as the background comes together more. That's how I do it myself, and it's worked well for me. But what matters is the way that works best and most naturally for you.

[TinkerGnome]

I agree with Glyph that you don't need to finish the questions before getting into character generation. However, some of those questions are directly answers to character generation processes (the contacts one, for instance) which can be answered at either time. I also agree about Willpower and Intelligence. 4 and 4 is better than 2 and 6.

For the rest, I'd take another look at your weapon skills. SMGs and Shotguns are both nice and fill slightly different roles, but neither is a "walking around" weapon. Pistols is everyone's favorite skill for a reason. One reason is many heavy pistols are conceal 8 in a concealable holster, which rises to 12 under a long coat. Another is that Tasers deal "elemental" damage (electricity) which is about the only cheap way a sammie can deal with spirits.

[Moab]

Alright, I will make the change putting Willpower at 4 and Intelligence at 4 and now my reaction is 5 and I think I will keep the two ingrams and pickup a pistol. Which one would you recommend? I see the Ares Predator in here but I've read a novel that mentioned a Savalette Guardian ... but it's not in here. Should I wait for my Canon Companion and Man & Machine books to arrive before continuing on?

[Modesitt]

I'm going to disagree with the other two RE: 2 willpower.

Don't just think instant survival. Think Karma.

If you start with Int 6/Willpower 2, it will cost 14 karma to raise your willpower to 4. But if you start with Int 4/Willpower 4, it will cost you 22 karma to raise intelligence to 6. In addition, you get 5 knowledge skills per point of intelligence at character creation plus the language skills. 4 willpower is a relatively common breakpoint for Samurai, some raise it to 6 at a later date.

[The White Dwarf]

Re: attributes

If youve got a M&M coming, Id advise this: lower str and quick to 5 each, raising willpower to 4. Then buy a suprathyroid gland, which adds 1 to bod, str, quick, and reaction. Thatll land you at pyshical attributes of 6 all round and get that will up.

Re: pistol

The choice here really depends on what youre gonna be doing with it; right tool for the job and all. If the pistol is gonna be a concealed carry for everyday wear, just grab the bronwing max power with its con6, slap it in a con holster, and ride. If youre actually planning on using it extensivly in combat, the savalette guardian is a bit more flexible. But youve got the SMG skill for big gunfights, so consider that too. Just weigh out what role you want each to fill and get one that fits.

[TinkerGnome]

While Modesitt is right from a purly numbers point of view, I'd advise keeping that kind of thing to a minimum until you've found a group and know more specificly what their play style is. Some groups make raising an attribute take a significant amount of training time, which would make that course of action difficult, at best.

White Dwarf has a point about the use of bioware, but my normal course of action would be to use muscle toner and muscle augmentation instead of the suprathyroid. The drawbacks of the suprathyroid can be hefty and fatal (being signature 4 is a killer). My general target is quickness 9 and intelligence 5 for non-elves. This gives you the most bang for your buck in terms of starting reaction.

With that course of action, and all of that bioware, keep in mind that you're going to have a very powerful karma sink in terms of skill specializations right out of the gate. Since bioware counts as a natural stat, it's like you'd raised your quickness to 9 naturally. That means you could, for instance, go from SMGs 5 to SMGs/Ingram Smartgun 5/9 for just 14 karma.

[Moab]

... :eek: Umm ... you guys are suddenly all speaking greek. Some of the stuff I understand ... kinda. Other stuff you're saying .. I'm like, " :huh: Maybe I should wait until I get the Canon Companion and Man & Machine??