This may be a question already asked, but I cannot find anything about it in the previous threads.

I am making a covert ops character strait from the templet. I am dropping the bland to gain 10 points back and then converting this into cash to buy cyberware to enhance my character.

What would be the best options to buy for a covert ops character with 50,000? I would like to keep the essence down as I may want to add more later. I was thinking bioware, as it cost the least essance.

Please help a semi-newbie

Bioware is cheap in essence, but high in cost. 50k won't get you a heck of a lot.

You could pick up muscle toners, for more agi, or pheromones, for persuasion.

However, I'd pick up a cyber eye rating 3 with all the bells and whistles. Same with a cyber ear. Then I'd get wired reflexes 1.

That'll cost about 2.5 essence, but it's all stuff you need. Why save the essence up for stuff you might need later? You'll only buy the same equipment now....

Most standard cyber-/bioware doesn't cost that much. The only 'problem' will be your reflexes, since the only thing you really can afford there is a Wired Reflex 1.

Other than that, get some nifty cyberware eye or ear enhancements, bioware Muscle Augmentation/Toner, and you got the basics covered.

Bye
Thanee

The template comes with wired reflexes, so I would be adding on that with the 50k

Actually if you want to save on essence I'd use goggles rather than cybereyes. They can do about as much as cybereyes but is cheaper and costs no essence.

gunsnammo

If you are doing a real "covert ops" kind of character wouldn't you want to skip the wired reflexes and use bioware or adept? Wired reflexes are detectable easily and mark you as someone clearly dangerous.

Except of course if he uses GEAR as opposed to Cyber he is not only leaving himself open to losing his vision mods when he needs them he is also telling the world that he is using some sort of vision enhancing gear.

Personally I say that Cybereyes are one of the things that almost every character, Awakened or not should have, (Remember that vision mods paid for with Essence can be used to target spells.) Cyberears are almost a 'must-have for non-Awakened as well...

Yeah, since this is "covert ops on a budget", I'd go for cyberware that can't be replicated with gear, namely wired reflexes 2.

Spend the rest on gear, including some nice night vision goggles and a chameleon suit.

Of course, this guy is obviously up to no good, and as others have mentioned, he will be detected if he tries to walk through a cyberware scanner. So, the solution is to not walk through any (funtioning) cyberware scanners! Get a good perception and intuition so you can spot sensors, and a decent hardware and logic so you can disable them! Sneak past guards instead of trying to bluff your way in.

And if the shit does go down, as it inevitably does sooner or later, your wired reflexes 2 will serve you well in firefights. It also helps a lot when someone does spot you and you get to go first and taser him unconscious before he raises an alarm.

Yeah, but he could put his glasses/contacts on in the extra round he's gained by getting wired reflexes 2 instead of wired reflexes 1.

Cyber eyes and ears are all very well, but the small advantage of "well, if you get captured they might not know you can see in the dark" isn't enough to justify the cost on this budget. In most situations you'll be able to prepare appropriately for the coming mission, rather than having to make do with whatever internal organs you happen to have lying around

Also, who says the nightvision contacts aren't 24 hr (or more) contacts?

Keep in mind, he says that he is tweaking the archetype in the book. His character already has cybereyes with some goodies, reaction enhancer: 2, and a chameleon suit. For 50,000, I would get:

>Muscle Toner: 2 (+2 dice for all Agility-based skills, which this character has a lot of).
>Synthcardium: 3 (+3 dice for all Athletics skills, also nice since this character has the skill group).
>Add Thermal Dampening: 6 to the chameleon suit.
>Add Ultrasound to the glasses that you use with your commlink.

I would actually skip ultrasound since there is a good chance facilities might have ultrasound detectors that would react as soon as you use them.

It's a good point that cyber-eyes and ears aren't illegal in anyway. To assume that a corp is going to flag and search everyone that comes in with them is a bit paranoid.

I mean, well off salarimen probably get at least low-light vision (to save the corp money by turning down the lights) and vision magnifiers/enhancements (to save money on microscopes).

As to wearing contacts: I have contacts currently that I can wear for a week with zero maintainence beyond the use of cleaning drops available over the counter. I typically wear them for about a month at a time, to the chagrin of my doctor. I only encounter issues when my allergies are kicking in, and even then, simply removing them for a night gives me another 2 weeks or so.

I don't think a month at a time is unreasonable for 2070.

I suspect that the same companies that check all cybereyes for bad stuff would be likely to do a quick retinal scan for contacts as well...

I agree on the rant about the covert ops specialist - it is a very clumsily-constructed build, including things such as armor that gives the character combat penalties, spurs and a monofilament sword for a character with 2 Strength, and an Ingram Smartgun X for a character who doesn't even have the automatics skill.

The skill advice is pretty dead on - you want to split the close combat skill group. For a low strength character who depends on quick takedowns, I would get Monofilament Whip at 4 and Unarmed Combat at 3 (with a specialization in kempo or boxing - since your main use of it will be to use your shock glove). Then, I would replace the Electronics skill group with Hardware at 4, and use the 4 points you save to change your 3 stealth skills to the Stealth group at 4.

For Attributes, raise Body to 3 and lower Strength to 1. Such a low Strength is not good, but it will be easy to raise up with Karma later, and this will give you a high enough Body to wear your armor without penalties. Alternately, you could lower Charisma to 2, instead, since this build does not really use social skills much, unlike the 3rd Edition version.

For cyberware, lose the spur, and replace it with a shock hand [Alphaware] and a fingertip compartment with a monofilament whip. Essense is unaltered by this change.

For gear, lose the monofilament sword and shock glove, replace the armor jacket with a lined coat, and lose the Ingram Smartgun X (with sound suppressor and 10 clips of ammo). Add a concealable holster and 10 clips of stick-n-shock ammo to the Hammerli 620S.

Unfortunately, this puts the character 1,965 into the red. So... add a disposable printer and a mapsoft of the Seattle area (Rating: 6) to make it an even 2,000. Then, drop Lifestyle to Middle. Yes, this drops your starting Nuyen to 4d6 x 100, but it is better off to start with the gear you need, than with a bit of extra cash. And you can upgrade your Lifestyle later, too.

This leaves 3,000 more for gear, so... upgrade the Jammer to 6 (and make it a directional jammer, so it will be legal - an area jammer should only be able to go up to rating 4 for a starting character), get a rating 6 micro-transceiver, get a rating 4 sequencer, and get an electronics toolkit.

I have shitty eyes, really shitty eyes. I am currently wearing monthly contacts that don't require any maintenance beyond eye drops if allergies kick in. I barely notice them and I've been wearing them now for almost 5 weeks straight. Self-cleaning, non-maintenance contacts would be old school in 2070, you'd probably see non-degrading, self cleaning contacts.

I heard those things are a really bad idea. My fiancee was thinking about getting some. (apparently new materials allow them to breathe a bit better so you can keep them in longer)

My opthalmologist said he really wouldn't recommend it, the amount of build up of bacteria underneath them makes them a lot higher risk than ones you clean every day or disposables.

Back on topic, my recommendation would be for NV goggles or glasses anyway. My suggested character concept revolved around a guy who looks like Sam Fisher anyway - the guy's obviously up to no good, but he's very good at stealth so he shouldn't get seen. So the fact that if you do see him you can tell he has night vision isn't really much of a big deal.

They can be bad, yes. If you leave them in too long, and don't keep them clean, and ignore signs that an infection might be starting.

Again, 15 years ago, when I got my first "extended wear" contacts, you could sleep in them for a single night, and it wasn't recommended.

Now you can go a week with no worries, longer if you want.

Skip ahead 60 years, I have no doubt they'll be self-cleaning and coated with a mild antibiotic.

Edit:

They use that stuff at the nursing home where I work. But the first time I heard about silver impregnated cloth was on Entertainment Tonight. Some German company made a whole line of silver impregnated clothing because it doesn't pick up BO, allowing you to party pretty much non-stop for a couple days, longer if you're European. Sounds like it would be popular in the Shadowrun world for a variety of purposes.

Because X-Kalibur a) that costs money, b) that costs essence, c) it's not sweat that smells bad, it's the waste from bacteria feeding on the oils in your sweat and d) sometimes it's nice/ sexy to get all sweaty and musky.

Nah, they tried that but it didn't work to well. Turns out, no matter how much rose oil the biotech gland in you asre squirts out, it just smelled like shit and roses.