I'm gonna (re)introduce SR to my gaming group using On The Run. This group will have four, maybe five, players so I figure a pool of six PCs from which to choose ought to do it. From pg. 89-104 of the BBB which of the example characters would you offer up were it your group and why?

I've removed some of the PCs from the pool due to issues with the characters as presented (Covert Ops Specialist, Weapons Specialist) or nefarious plans I have for later (Technomancer).

Bounty Hunter
Combat Mage
Drone Rigger
Enforcer
Face
Gunslinger Adept
Hacker
Occult Investigator
Radical Eco-Shaman
Smuggler
Sprawl Ganger
Street Samurai
Street Shaman

Thanks!

(Don't a couple of these have BP issues? How would you fix them to balance them out?)

As of the 1.3 version of the PDF the sample characters should all be very close to legal. The Eratta sticky thread at the top list the few problems there are, and aren't big enough to worry about anyway IMO.

Also, although I haven't read or played On The Run, the non-spoiler buzz suggests that poorly optimized characters are likely not up to snuff for that run. The sample characters are definately in the poorly optimized catagory. So you might want to bring them all.

Those from your list seem all right for playing... considering much better characters could have been achieved with some optimization.

The on the run adventure is actually not so tough so these underdeveloped chars may well complete the run with little problems.

Of course, better versions of the same archetypes can be found in this very same forum, or you could tweak them out a little bit.

(The technomancer and the covert ops specialist, however, are hopeless...)

good luck

max

Choosing between those listed, here would be my choices:

Bounty Hunter
Combat Mage
Face
Gunslinger Adept
Hacker
Street Samurai
Street Shaman

Edit: I guess that's 7, could scratch bounty hunter off the list.

Having just GMed On The Run last weekend, I would say you NEED

A Face
A Hacker
A Spell caster type

And a couple of combat types would be good as well

have to say i would use the gunslinger adept, mainly because i've spent years perfecting it for 3ed

I would get the street samurai and gunslinger adept for muscle, since they are the most effective at that role. I would get the combat mage and the radical eco-shaman, since they are the most effective awakened types (also, one is focused more on spellslinging, and one is focused more on conjuring, so they complement each other well on a team). To round it out, I would get the hacker (an essential role) and the drone rigger (another essential role, and he wins because he has a vehicle and drones).

This is assuming a fairly combat-oriented run. For a more roleplaying/legworking style of game, you would want a different mix.

And the choices made:

Combat Mage
Enforcer
Face
Hacker

I made some changes to the characters to get them to fit and play correctly. Everybody got earbuds (at 10¥ they're effectively free) so they could fully experience AR as well as seamlessly communicate with one another.

(1) Combat Mage: Swapped Astral Combat for Assensing, ditched Blades, lowered Pistols by one and added a specialization in Semi-Autos. With the additional 10 BP I gave him a bound Sustaining Focus (rating 3) and an (overlooked) Fake SIN (rating 4) and Fake Licenses for his Fubuki, Focus, and Magesight Goggles (all rating 4). He had enough leftover for other overlooked knick-knacks (Medkit (6) and glasses w/ image link, smartlink, flare compensation, and vision magnification).

(2) Enforcer: As written, 26 BP over (Uncouth *hurts*). Ditched Con, Forgery, Palming, and Shadowing. Raised Intimidation by one, added a specialization in Physical. Added Perception 3 with a specialization in Visual. Also lacked a Fake Sin (rating 4, of course), added flare compensation and vision magnification to the glasses.

(3) Face: With the Negative Quality of Gremlins for 10 BP (ow) I made the Face a bit less broadly technical. Dropped Electronics Skill Group 2, added Data Search 4. Dropped Pilot Groundcraft, raised Initimidation by one, raised Dodge by one, raised Pistols by one and added the specialization in Semi-Autos. Lost the Monocle and the two rating 2 SINs, added Glasses w/ image link, flare compensation, and vision magnification and a rating 4 SIN & gun license.

(4) Hacker: 6 BP over as written (Uncouth strikes again). Removed the Spider contact, lowered Electronic Warfare to 4, added Exploit 5 to the Program list. Lowered Perception to 2, added specializations to Forgery (IDs) and Pistols (Semi-Autos). By dropping a couple of the four (!) rating 4 SINs the Hacker can afford to raise some of his Programs and/or fill the remaining capacity of his cybereyes (enhancement (2) and magnification), add select sound filter (2) and enhancement (2) to his earbuds, etc.

Changes are working well so far. Everyone enjoy the system quite a bit!

As a minor side note, SINs are capped at 3 at chargen, since it's rating x4 for avail. Licenses are rating x3....

Sample Character Redux
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...wtopic=14853&hl

I wanted to let everyone know of this thread. The two characters that got revamped are the Covert Ops Specialist (now legal and more useful) and the Gunslinger Adept. The Covert Ops Specialist isn't highly optimized because lorechaser chose to tweak the build rather then create it from the ground up. The Gunslinger Adept is optimized. There are other people in the thread that said they would post builds but haven't yet (errrhhhmmmm, hint hint). Hopefully they will post them (double hint hint).

As for which of them I would choose, probably none of them. I know that isn't the answer you were looking for but I choose to make my own characters. It has gotten a lot easier for new guys to Shadowrun like me to build characters with all those great community chargens out there. There is also a site somewhere around here that has a whole bunch of characters builds for SR4. If I remember it I will post a link. The builds aren't uber min/maxed, but they are still worlds better than the example characters in the SR4 core.