For the Iron-Munchkin thing... by understanding the most absurd things possible in the game, you have a better understanding and appreciation for the more normal things. I considered playing a bullet-proof troll in a real game for about two minutes before realizing exactly how boring a character with next to no potential for social interaction would be (who's going to let a troll, chrome from head to toe, into their building, exactly?). However, by looking at what it takes to withstand a shot at xyz damage, it lets you better understand what a merc character would be mechanically built around, for instance. It doesn't help you make more interesting characters, but it helps you keep your characters around a bit longer (which is interesting, in and of itself).

How much fun your character is to play has absolutely nothing to do with his stats Tinker. It all depends on the player.

I think I know what you're getting at and I partially agree, but what you specifically say is not true. Having a character whose mechanics closely model his/her persona and concept is important to the fun, and by understanding what's possible, it helps you better understand how to get what you want for a concept which falls well short of the theoretical limits. Saying that the mechanics are irrelevant is just flat out wrong.

To a certain extent, having a survivable character is a critical part of the SR game. I don't mean "must take every advantage to survive, no matter what the cost", but rather a character who has some basic idea of how to handle themselves in a rough situation. If you want to really focus on other things, fine, you just need to be ultra-efficient about how you get that base level of survivability. Playing the newbie-runner can be fun, but they tend not to last too long on the streets (particularly when you go on actual shadowruns, though gritty street-level games can also be fun and generally require less surviveability).

Can someone provide me for a link to that? That may be some of polaris's antics that I missed. If it's what I think you mean (decreacing a stat from 6 to 5 or so, casting a spell with a lower TN to raise it, then dropping the decreace spell) then your GM rules that once the decreace spell is dropped the rolls should be re-applied against the higher TN (IE: 6) so there would be no net gain. If he's doing it without the 'dropping the decreace bit' then it's fine.

The problem is that he's not re-applying the rolls to the higher TN once the decrease is dropped. For example, he drops bis Willpower from 6 to 3, then casts the Increase Willpower spell against the TN of 3, after which he drops the Decrease spell and keeps all of the successes that he got from the lower TN.

I agree that, by the letter of the rules, it is possible. In-fact it was something even I considered at one point (Conjuring with 14 charisma... Eww! Eww!) but it was something I decided not to even mention to my GM at the time.

The GM may house-rule this though. Do you think he should?

Also: Tie-breaks are decided based-on coolness factor.

Biggest 'uh oh' in the above is the Quickenings, primarily the "Glowing Armour". But, this character is currently (not previously) a member of the HTRT for LoneStar, and has permits for each of the spells. He doesn't mind that he Glows, YOU should mind it though.

Great thing about it is that, with the worn jacket, he has the equivalent of 13/11 Hardened Military Grade Armour (Gel packs are the BOMB when stacked with the Armour Spell). Not to mention that a bit of reading under Limited Armour Spell shows that Armour spells reduce the Power to Fire, Cold, Etc, not just Ballistic/Impact.

Of course, stack that with his 18 Combat Pool for Dodging (natural of 8D6 +6 for Combat Sense, +6 for Deflect, -2 Gel-Jacket), even assuming someone munchkin'd the "ignore armour called shot" rule. The TN of the shooter raised enough to make it that he'd need to roll about 20 dice to succeed in a hit.

Respirator is nice for Gas attacks, and you can't poison someone via food who never eats/drinks because he casts Nutrition and Fast as often as needed.

But let's say you got pass the Oxygen Mask, the Fast/Nutrition, etc, etc, the Detox and Antidote make it alot easier than a mundane has to overcome the poison, and with the Oxygenate spell, good luck drowning him.

Oh, some strange FAB that wants to drain the magic? Sterilize the area.

BTW, he's still gotten 8 Expendable Health Foci to use after all the Quickening with the following averages being the likely outcome

Magic Fingers: 4 successes via 2 Force 6 Exp Spell Foci, 1 reroll for 3 more successes: 7 successes (6 Str/6 Qui makes for nice fingers)
Levitate: 12 successes via 2 Force 6 Exp Spell Foci, no reroll.
Armour: 4 successes via 2 Force 6 Exp Spell Foci, no reroll.
Combat Sense: 12 successes via 2 Force 6 Exp Spell Foci, no reroll (+6 dice)
Deflect: 12 successes via 2 Force 6 Exp Spell Foci, no reroll (+6 dice)
Increased Reflexes: 6 successes via 1 Force 6 Exp Spell Foci (other Exp Spell Foci used to resist 5D drain)

Of course for any/all of those a character could/might have spent the whole 3 karma pool each instead of just 1 karma pool total among all of them. But that seemed un-necessary for a 6 karma spell that will probably be dispelled soon (though not easily) anyhows.

Alot was left un-done because it's just not needed for the survival part of the character (knowledges, contacts, extra cash spent).

Sphynx