I was wondering what everyone thinks is essential or near essential for every Shadowrunner to have. Whether your playing magician, adept, street sam, rigger, hacker, etc.

If you could break your post down into sections like

GEAR:

Skills:

Language:

Knowledge Skills:

Qualities:

Contacts:

(Doesn't have to be in this order, just giving you ideas. Add or remove from the above list as you see fit.)

I think you get the idea. I am looking for things specifically every class will benefit from. If they benefit every class except a few that is alright too.

Commlink & good armor
Stealth & Perception
The language that is typically spoken where the char lives & works
Nothing definite on qualities or knowledge skills
Fixer

fake SINs

just off the top of my head these are my basic essentials:

duct tape, zip-ties (called plastic restraints in the book, i think), multi-tool, rope

then some sort of a safe-deposit box or locker at an airport/bus station with a really good fake SIN/passport of a person from another country. then you also need to know the language of that country and should specialize in the accent, so you can be really good at masquerading as the person your fake SIN says you are. also, even your fellow runners shouldn't know about this box/locker.

*edit*
oh, duh! some certified credsticks should be in that locker as well - enough to give you a good start at a new life. i'm sure i'm forgeting more...

A gun and ten years supplie of ammo
Fake Sins
And Ducttape lots of duct tape.
Who needs body armor when you have duct tape.
Tape there guns shut.

Always take perception. I always forget perception! And if you have a magical char with touch spells, take unarmed if you ever want to use the spells.

Don't forget some rope. Cause Charlie Bronson's always got a rope. And you never know when you might need to fall out of a vent hanging upside down by said rope and kill a bunch of bad guys...

...can you tell I just bought the Boondock Saints Special Edition DVD?

skills:
perception and dodge
stealth (cant be in the shadows we you cant sneak)


gear:
duct tape
pocket knife (leatherman multitool is a bonus)
pack of cigarettes (great for breaking the ice with people)
lighter
fakeSINs
cretified credstick


the rest depends on what the character is.

...Willpower, lots of Willpower to resist the effects of spells.

A library of Chuck Norris videos (held together with duct tape).

And sunglasses!


- Commlink
- Fake SIN
- Weapon, integral or otherwise
- Body Armor
- Contacts

- Weapon Skill (Pistols, Unarmed Combat, Spellcasting, etc)
- Perception
- Infiltration
- Athletics
- Influence Group
- Pilot Ground Craft

Those are certainly useful for everyone, though not everyone must have everything on the list.

Bye
Thanee

A gun, in jar, back in your trailer by the beach. Doh!

GEAR: All of the eye and ear enhancements, survival knife (as a tool more than a weapon), some type of gun w/ammo and smartlink, commlink, fake SIN, grenades, body armor

Skills: Stealth, Athletics, gun skill, Etiquette

Language: Err, English? Maybe Japanese

Knowledge Skills: Some kind of security knowledge and gang knowledge

Qualities: Not a fan of qualities unless it fits the flavor

Contacts: Fixer - you have to get paid somehow right?

Backup weapons. You never know when your explosive ammo is going to cook off, the ninja in front of you is gonna snag your SMG, or the place you're headed to just installed a metal detector in their doorframe. Keeping a polymer hold-out strapped to the inside of your ankle or a nylon knife taped to your ribs can be a lifesaver.

A goddamn car! The number of times I ask, "So, how are you getting to the meet" and "Shadowrunners" ask, "So, who can give me a lift?" because they forgot possibly the most important part of their gear...

A Towel (link goes to one of my previous posts on this subject)

what you need depends a lot on what you DO.
everyone needs a lifestyle, medical (usualy docwagon), 1 or more fake sin, and soem money. having contacts is a very good idea. a commlink is a good idea, but not vital.

if we are talking about gangers in a Z-zone... its very differet than shadowrunners preparing to hit a corp for an extraction of an unwilling target.

Skillwise... look at your actual dicepool, not your skill rating. if you have an attribute of 7+, your default is good enough for a non-core skill. if it cant be used untrained, look into getting 1 rank in it.

what you do need, is as high a reaction as you can get. reaction is life, it prevents people from hitting you. dodge helps, but not in every situation.

generaly, i would say what skills you take depend on how you view your character. if the concept is that you have zero combat experience or training, then you dont take those skills (but theres always skillwires).

Language is not a problem in SR, as you can just slot a linguasoft in your datajack. same goes for knowsofts. you just need acess to a decent selection of chips, which can take a few runs to acquire.

I find it funny that DocWagon would be necessary. It's a corp-run medical team that can't go on any extraterritorial property, where shadowrunners lurk, unless permitted. Also, they have your DNA on file, as well as a band on your wrist that let's them know exactly where you are at all times. A savvy hacker could track you to within 1 meter of your exact position and a good enough combat team could get a DNA sample for a mage coven to plop ritual sorcery on your ass. Anywhere in the world. Not necessary in my book.

Sure you get picked up anywhere you get hurt (as long as it's not on extraterritorial grounds) but you are always being tracked. More so than normal. For someone who's whole existance isn't suppose to exist, that doesn't make sense.

A book of ways you got out of drek and how you did it. You never know when a fluke of a tactic or moment of convenience will resort in a life saving tactic for future runs.



"We're trapped in the middle of a complex, hiding in the janitor's closet, we're almost out of ammo, and if we don't get out of here in a few hours, we'll gonna be blown to bits with the place!"

"Hey Murry, can you wear a size 11?"

"Sure, why?"

"Cuz the janitors left their suits and keycards in these lockers, and they don't got faces on them."



Of course, then you have to hope the place doesn't use fingerprinting or camera identification of all janitors and whatnot, but maybe you brought some of that electro face paste stuff?

Every runner should have edit 4, that way they never have to roll to just send text messages, edit text, etc.

GEAR:
1. A combination of Contacts, Glasses, and Earbuds to boost perception and allow low lite, flare comp, image link, etc. I personally like to put ultrasound on the camera of every smartgun I wield since it will matter most in combat that I be able to 'see' my opponent.
2. Chameleon Suit with Thermal Dampening 6.
3. A commlink that has max system and response so it can handle rating 6 encryption
4. An agent with browse, stealth, sniffer, and scan to monitor and/or search for data. A rating 6 agent using a reality filter can use 11 programs making them a fully automated swiss-army knife...
For this reason I think every technomancer should have a full suite of hacker programs strictly to load into agents. These agents can then aid the technomancer by serving as an army of matrix drones [so to speak] and to do lightweight searches and things not worth risking Fading.
5. A motorcycle either with a good skill, skillsoft/skillwires, or Pilot program. Motorcycles can go places cars can't and can allow a team to scatter in the event of aerial pursuit.
6. (hackers/technomancers) An MCT Fly-spy with maxed out commlink for relaying. and for getting REALLY close to low-signal nodes like security nodes.
"Sir, the trace program shows they are flying 9km above us!"
7. Bodysuit or clothing with full elemental resistances [insulation, etc, etc.]
8. Respirator. Sure you may never need it but when you DO need it you'll wish you had it...
9. Thermal smoke grenades. Even two per person can buy getaway time
10. Every linguasoft that you can muster since it can act as a form of encryption [swahili, anyone?] or as a decryptor for social situations.

SKILLS
Perception, Infiltration, and lots of APPROPRIATE knowledge skills for the character. They add a lot of individuality to the character and make the game a lot more fun than formulaic builds.

EDGES
Only what fits the concept.

SPELLS
Also what fits the concept. Some of my favorite general purpose ones are Silence [to allow ignoring motion sensors] and Vehicle Mask. DPS mages are great don't get me wrong but mages allow a level of hiding/sneaking that mundances can't perform without them. Masking and Extended Masking can allow these spells to not appear on the Astral to casual observers so mages truly can add sneak-factor...

A sharp #2 pencil

About 25 D6

And paper

A crowbar



There is a story behind this. suffice to say that my players were tryiing to open a door, one said
"it has taken us so long to get this door open there might be 20 guards behind it waiting for us now"
To which another replied
"They don't need 20 guards, all they need is another door"

a knowsoft chip of 'WWMD'*.

* "What Would McGuyver Do?"

RFID or Micro Sensor with Audio or Visual, for surveillance.
Starting Cash, there's always something you need to buy right away.
Everyone should have a little drone.

...a Loyalty 6, Connection 4 (min) Hacker Contact. Unless of course they are the Hacker.

I always go with these basics:

GEAR: Heavy Pistol, Armor Jacket, Survival Knife, Bike, Helmet, Shock Gloves

Skills: Pistols, Unarmed Combat, Stealth, Infiltration, Etiquette, Negotiation, Drive Ground Vehicle

Language: English (maybe Japanesse or Spanish)

Knowledge Skills: Gang ID, Security Procedures, Paranormal Animals

Qualities: Fast Healer, Tough Body

Contacts: Fixer, Street Doc