 Help this noob create his first character, .. a typical, run of the mill Street Sam |
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 Jun 20 2004, 03:18 AM
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#101
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 113 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 460  |
Dredging up semi-old threads. Please for the love of Dunklezahn, don't shoot me for it :) Anyways, just some things to note in making your first character.
You may want to reconsider this skill displacement. You're using a Smartlink-2 so you can skimp a bit on your weapon skills and save some points. Of course on the other hand you've also got Skillwires so addition skills aren't really as important. I've never really liked skillwires personally so I most often ignore them. You're not, that's good =) However, as a viable option you could consider something like this Athletics 4 Stealth 4 Pistols 4 Shotgun 4 Ettiquitte(Street) 3(5) Unarmed Combat(Brawling) 4(6) Bike 2 Leaving you with 5 points for Negotiation(Fasttalk) 1(3) Intimidation(Mental) 2(4) Consider also the descriptions of skills on pg 98/99 of the BBB, and 4's are often much more fitting then 6's for starting characters. Also if you and your fellow players start out like this, this leaves a good GM much more maneuvering room in a campaign with challenge levels from start to end. I think personally it helps for making a more long lasting campaign then having everyone start every combat skill at 6. (That being said, I fully believe in starting Sorcery and Computer at 6 for their respective Archtypes because of no really viable way to lower target #'s like the Smart Link). You've also got some more social skills to accurately represent your past history as a bounty hunter and bouncer. The intimidation specialty could go either way on Physical or Mental, but I think mental is more fitting as you want people to *think* they better do what you say, rather then rely purely on muscle. For instance, using Physical intimidation on troll is kinda wishy washy if you're human. However, screwing with his more feeble (likely) brain might be an easier route to go. Anyways, my point is mostly that unless all your fellow playmates are going to be powergaming, 4's are very respectable for skill levels, and will match up quite nicely against most standard security forces and stuff you're likely to face at the start of a campaign. THAT being said, from a metagaming standpoint (and you seem more intent on creating a well rounded character then metagaming him out for the most part, which is something to be respected) it's better to pump skills at the start to 6, and buy up other skills later with Karma. It's cheaper that way to end up with the same skill sets. The only other note I'd apend to all this is in your question period you noted that "Tex" always acted as a stone cold professional. This is something I think most newer players like to attribute to their runners. However, to me it seems lacking in personality. Think Heat and Robert DeNiro's character. Sure he was a stone cold professional the majority of the time, but even he, a character who'd been at the professional crime business for a long time showed several traces of humanity. He tried to talk a friend out of doing a job cause it was heaty and he was set-up well. He talked to Pacino's character frankly, fell in love with a woman. Lots of little things that brought his character life, instead of just making him an automan. I think you'll have more fun if you treat "Tex" more as a character rather then a Shadowrunning machine. - Incredibly respectful of Women - Won't shoot a man in the back - Won't steal personal property. Corporate Property however is free game. Just some lil character traits that can make your character a lil more enjoyable. That's just my opinion though. |
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Jun 20 2004, 07:22 AM
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#102
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,116 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,449 |
Personally, unless the GM has specifically said that he will be running a low-power campaign, I would recommend against lowering your combat skills.
You see, unlike first-level D&D characters, Shadowrun characters start out as professionals. Not the very top of the food chain by any means, but tough enough to survive as professional criminals. 6's are very "fitting" for such characters, at least if the archetypes in the book are any example. A lot of folks do prefer for shadowrunners to start out less powerful, and work their way up in fights with gangs and low-end crime before doing actual shadowruns against megacorporations. But you don't want to assume that. If your GM is running a more "standard" shadowrun campaign, a "well-rounded" character with 4's in everything will tend to be overshadowed by the other characters. This is a game of specialists - overgeneralizing weakens a character. Gimping ranged combat skill is a bad thing to do, in any case. A lower Target Number from a smartlink is not enough - ranged combat has lots and lots of modifiers that can send that Target Number shooting back up again. Ranged combat works by the attacker rolling skill and Combat Pool, and the defender rolling Combat Pool and Body. It is the net successes that determine the damage. So you want to be rolling as many dice as you can. |
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