www.nazro.net/hokage.htm

Please comment... keep in mind I can't really change it now though. I don't have much time now, but I'll put up a history later... It's pretty interesting.

Linkage for the cut-and-paste impaired.

Fortune you do that a lot and I don't think anyone thanks you. So I guess I should say thanks!

THANKS

Has your GM looked over this character yet? Because there are a couple of mechanic errors, that if changed, really go in your favor

First: You don't need to purchase Edge Weapons 6 and Edge Weapons: Katana 6. What you do is specialize your Edge Weapons, meaing it comes out to be Edge Weapons: Katana 5/7. Same goes for your off hand edge weapons

Second: You don't need to purchase a Smartlink II Processor and Eye Display when you already purchased a full Smartlink II Package (you only purchase those things when you do piecemeal smartlink systems, you bought the full package hence you don't need them)

Third: According to the BBB pg 90, you automatically get Background skills in Active skills equal to your Level in the Skill -3. So you don't need to spend any skill points on Background Edge Weapons

I know you said you can't change this char, but here are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Etiquette Skill. All characters need this skill. It is essential. Even if you only take it at 1 or 2.

If this character is a sammie, he might need to be a bit faster (maybe pick up some Boosted Relfexes or even Wired). Also, he needs some weapons with a bigger bang then just a light pistol. Get a Pred III or maybe a Salvatte Guardian. Also, you need armor or else you will end up a blood smear on your first run.

I'll second Sidekick. At least pick up an Armored Jacket.
Go with the duel Berretas but keep a backup gun (Like a Pred 3 for your SL2 or a Guardian).

You obviously have access to M&M but if you can, rifle through Cannon Compainion too.

For speed, get Wired 1 or Boosted 2. If your GM allows it, Synaptic Accelerators are good as well (but remember that most bio is incompatable with cyber)

If you use two guns as well as two katanas, you may want to just take the Ambidexterity Edge. Note that if you do use two guns, you don't get the targetting bonuses of the smartlink. A burst-fire light pistol has a lot of style, but damage-wise it is weak. A heavy pistol does the same 9M damage with a single shot that the Beretta does with a burst, without the recoil penalties, and you get two shots per turn (rather than one complex action if you fire a burst with the Beretta). And there are so-called "heavy" pistols that have a higher Concealability and a lower weight than the light pistols that you are using.

On the personal smartlink safety - you need it on the guns, as well as the cyberware.

Like Sidekick said: Etiquette is an essential, must-have skill for any starting character!

Reflex enhancer: 2 costs 120,000 For less than that, you could get Wired Reflexes: 1 or even Boosted Reflexes: 3 - both of which would help your inititative a lot more.

Sidekick is also right about the armor. A simple Armored Jacket (5 Ballistic and 3 Impact protection) will go a long way towards keeping you alive.

I assume you plan on getting Athletics later? Right now, your climbing claws only really negate the penalty that you will take defaulting to Body for climbing tests.

I liked the description, and his knowledge skills were good for an ex-Yakuza (I assume) character. Hopefully his background will explain his current Squatter lifestyle (hunted by former collegues, maybe?). Fortunately, he does seem to be Japanese. The Yakuza and Japanacorps would not take kindly to seeing a gaijin running around with paired samurai swords, which only the samurai are supposed to be allowed to do.

He can change the character. All he has to do is e-mail me the updated file and I'll html it and put it up on the site for him.

Yeah, I mentioned the armor. Armor ahs saved my rear about maybe four times already, and I've only been through about 3 sessions.

I'm a beginner, as well. Got our GM teaching the whole group slowly. My GM had us BeCKS a character at 325 karma, and is using the next "100 karma" to run us through some initial survival/training type missions to show us the kinds of stuff we need, so we're not horribly crippled by taking some bad skills.

Whatsis aboot background skills now?

I can't really say much about how the character fits the background you have in mind, as you don't have his background posted. Therefore, I can only comment on mechanics:

You seem to have shorted yourself 2 language points (should be Int x 1.5 = 4x1.5=6, and you've only spent 4 points)

The character looks to be a ganger. As far as gangers go, I'd put him as a mid-to-high powered street ganger. As a shadowrunner, this character is on the low end of the power scale. Which is fine if you're running a "street-level," low powered game. But you might want to give him a bit more oomph if you'll be working with a party of more serious runners.

Buying a squatter lifestyle is almost always a waste of money, I'd instead put the cash towards a couple months of low lifestyle, some nicer guns (more on that in a minute) and some other gear (phone, armor, some wiz shades?)

Light pistols are also almost always worthless. The munchkin's gun of choice is the Viper Slivergun, and I would recommend grabbing two of those and smartlink L2 for each. The Viper is so good, I often see house rules making it a bit more balanced against the other heavy pistols. The manhunter would be another good choice, and if you're on a budget and want to get to use that SL2 hardware, the Pred3 is a good buy.

Did you already divide your starting unspent cash by 10? If so, you could make a lot better use of that money. Some reflex enhancements and mods to your bike would be a good start (Also see suggestions above).

The guys above are completely right about not having to buy katanas separate from edged weapons (same with off-hand). Drop those and spend the points on etiquette and intimidation. If he is indeed a yak or former yak, etiquette is a must to make sure you keep all 10 of your fingers. Intimidation is just a useful skill for any ganger. Since I mentioned before that you might have been a high-level street ganger, maybe you were a gang leader of some sort? If so, Leadership is another important skill.

Unarmed Combat of some sort is also usually pretty important, especially to ganger-types.


These are all min-max type suggestions. If you made your choices purely for style reasons, then by all means leave them as they are!

Are edges and flaws allowed in this game? If they are, ditch the off-hand weapon skills and take the ambidexterity edge at 6 points. Also, reread the rules on off-hand weapons. I don't believe you can use a katana in your offhand (you can use a wakizashi, though, in a traditional daisho).

As someone else has mentioned, you bought the smartlink wrong. You can either buy the entire package for .5 essence OR you can buy it in pieces (processor + simrig + data/imate link + contact pad). You don't have to buy it both ways.

Otherwise, a short list of what you're missing:

• Armor. It's better to never be hit, but you WILL get hit eventually. Armor provides an exponential increase in survivability if it can drop a damage code from above 7 to 7 or less.
• With that set of firearms, you might as well not shoot at all. Either add in enough recoil comp that you can fire a burst with no recoil or change weapons entirely. For less than what you're paying for those Berettas you can get Predator IIIs with folding stocks (or customized grips, which are even better) which are so vastly superior to the Berettas in many ways, even a ganger would figure it out.
• Someone else already pointed out that you're spending skill points wrong. When that's corrected, you should probably buy a little bit of athletics, some more stealth, and Edged Weapons (sword) B/R if you want it (make your own sword blades, etc). Spend the rest to taste.
• In melee combat, speed isn't much of an issue, but every other time, you're going to need some kind of speed boost. Right now, you have a 50% chance of one action per turn and a 50% chance of two actions per turn. Boosted 1 almost guarantees a second action, and wired 1 does guarantee it (with a third possible, though unlikely).
• Buy a shotgun to go with your skill. The SPAS-22 (free smartlink II and a 1 point recoil comp) is a pretty good choice, but any of them will do.
• Language skills, you should have int * 1.5 points for free (6). You only spent 3 points.
• Bioware? There are some great pieces of bioware which are also pretty cheap (enhanced articulation is a favorite). You may not want to go that wa, but it's a good suggestion

As for the free background skills... that's an optional rule, check with your GM.

Just a logistical suggestion:

If you're going to be big into handguns, you might want to consider:

B/R Handgun
B/R electronics

Those two skills will let you build silencers for handguns, build custom grips, add smart links and so on.

If you happen to have the extra points, it's definitely a consideration.

-Siege

I thought there was some rule about free B/R skills that was similar, but that may be the result of a combination of wishful thinking, the rules for free read/write and background skills, and too little sleep.

~J

Umm... they're optional rules.

Here's the promised bg... (BTW, I have changed the character, still working though... )

He was the son in a pretigious (sp?) family of samurai warriors, trained since the age he could hold a sword. At 18, he brought home a mysterious sword he had found. He unsheathed it, unknowingly releasing a demon who had been trapped in the blade. It took possession of his body, and killed both of his parents. He awoke in a daze, and seeing the sight of his parents lying on the floor, he looked around, finally catching a glance at his hands, covered in blood. He ran to the sink and washed them until his skin was raw, and fled the house, hunting the demon who had caused him to do this. After a while, it became apparent he needed a source of income... With his shady background and his weapon and combat skills, the natural choice was the way of the street samurai, the asphalt warrior. For a name he chose "Hokage", Flame of the Shadows. On one run, he was confronted by Yakuza, and incapacitated them with such professionality a high-ranked Yakuza man offered him a position. He politely declined, but to this day has run numerous times for the Yakuza, and he is trusted more highly than some of the gangers. In return, the Yakuza boss, who he was at friendly terms with, rewarded his runs with cyberware, nuyen, and trained him in the use of pistols, and got him to a reasonable understanding of shotguns and SMGs. That's how it's continued for most of his adult life, a shadowrunner, known to take any dirty job, as long as it involves demons and the paranormal.

I raise my hand to start to point out the myriad flaws in the background, and then I realize...
This is your first SR background. Reasonably good, actually; there are some things I personally would explain better, but you aren't working from a knowledge of canon that has come from long studying and reading sourcebooks and advetures cover-to-cover. The world is, for you, mostly undefined.
So as a result, I applaud this background. If you want help making it more canon ask away, as it certainly has a way to go in that direction, but I see no reason why you would need to fix that for your first character.

~J

I thought Musashi's style used a katana and.. one of those longer ones. Um. Brain suddenly dead.

I'll have to bust out the book of 5, but I'm pretty sure it was two katanas.

He was also insanely strong.
By comparison, I'm pretty strong (probably Strength 4) and I can't wield two katana for soybeans. I can get one good strike out of it, and then it takes me so long to get the second in that I'd be dead in any actual confrontation. I'd allow it for Strength 6+ or Strength 5+ Body 5+, but not much else.

~J

Just a quick OT question -- what program is used to make the character sheet in HTML?

Just a note, what I mentioned above was a house rule, and moreover was my houserule. As such, you should check with your GM as to his or her opinion, and if you like my ruling suggest it and the reasoning behind it, but just because I'd allow it in those circumstances doesn't mean your GM necessarily will. On the other hand, just because I wouldn't allow it without massive penalties doesn't mean that your GM might not let a Strength 1 character dual-wield katana just fine.

~J

Just a quick change, now that you have the 8 pt Ambidextrious edge you no longer need to purchase the Offhand Edge weapon skill... meaning... more points to spend!

Oh, and on a quick note, pick up a pager and a cellphone for this guy, they are always useful. Also, maybe set of nightvision or thermo shades.

Looks better You don't need the offhand weapon skill, though, since being ambidexterious (at 6 or 8 points) lets you use your regular weapon skill for both hands. Also, you probably want to buy some armor. Your bone lacing and forearm guards go well with anything, and formfitting is a special favorite since it layers for free (ie, no penalties) with another layer of armor. A secure long coat is a good choice since it boosts the conceal of anything under it by 50%. All together, that'd make your armor 7/4 with no penalties

Besides that... looks good

First... Added Secure Long Coat (I am the chosen one ) took off Off-Hand Weapon (thanks for heads-up) and used extra Karma for putting shotgun up to 4, Capoeira up to 4, Stealth to 5, learning Capoeira Evasion. Also drew sketch of Hokage. (steadily decresing rate of quality from top to bottom to coat. ) HERE.

okay, here's my official declaration that I am an idiot. I just gave the book of 5 rings a quick read. Miyamoto Musashi's style was called ICHI not nito. I was wrong. Also the book of 5 clearly states that Miyamoto used a katana and a wakazashi. I was wrong again. You can all point and laugh now.

Thought so.
That still takes some mad strength, though.

~J