I have a friend who loves nothing more than to have the fastest character in the game. If MoveByWire Delta were possible at char gen, no matter the twitch problems, he'd have it. Here's DocHoliday's starting speed stats/cyber, and why he made the choices.

Obviously, he starts as an elf with both Exceptional and Bonus Quickness Edges, in addition to 8 points Ambidextrous and 6 point Lightning Reflexes for a starting Reaction of 7(10)

Cyberware:

• Boosted Reflexes 3 (Beta)
• CyberEyes (Alpha)
• - Cyber Replacement
• - Flare Comp
• - Image Link
• - LowLight
• - Mag x3, Electronic
• - Thermographic
• Datajack (Beta)
• Smartlink II (Alpha)
• - Processor
• - Limited Simsense
• - Induction Pad (L)
• - Induction Pad ®
• - RangeFinder

Bioware:

• Cerebral Booster
• Enhanced Articulation
• Muscle Toner - 3
• SuperThyroid Gland
• Synaptic Accelerator II

Initiative: 14+5D6 (Additional +3 reaction in surprise situations)

Of course, alot of his essence went into being good at something other than speed, since he plays both the Sniper and GunAdept of the group. His goal was to get everything -except- the Reaction Enhancers due to their expense/essence levels. But to make sure he leaves 1.44 of the 9.00 points to get Alpha Reaction Enhancers at a later time via his level-2 Buddies still in DocWagon (He has the skillsets and background of an HTR team-member).

Of course, the biggest debate generated by this discussion previously was the Cultured Bioware and Beta Grade cyberware (all with availabilities less than or equal to 8, and availability is our only rule/limitation at char-gen)

I believe the boosted reflexes can't be used with the synaptic accelarater. I remember back in the day when MBW and SA 1 stacked, but in SR3 I believe they state niether stack with anything. So prolly be better off keeping the SA and replacing the Boosted with a reaction enhancer.

Boosted Reflexes can be used with Synaptic Accelerators. Only Wired Reflexes can not be used with them.

The Boosted actually works with Synaptic in SR3. It's implicit in Man & Machine and explicit in the official SR FAQ (ignoring, for the moment, the implications of other parts of that FAQ).

Unfortunately for your friend, if you go by the official rules (M&M, p45), you cannot have betaware as a starting character. I also remember something about cultured bioware being considered the same as betaware for finding the implants and a compatible clinic to do the implantation, but I can't find the exact reference right now.

That reference is in the FAQ, not the books (and we don't treat the FAQ as Canon)

IIRC, they errataed it in. Or maybe I'm just thinking of the called shot rules. Either way, I seem to remember some of the stupid from the FAQ leaking into canon.

~J

This is what made Canon: It is recommended that cultured bioware not be available to starting characters.

Though it is recomended that you have no cultured at Character Generation, personaly i go with no upgrading to cultured a generation.

So Cerebral Boosters and Synaptic Accelerators are ok, but not Cultured Muscle Toners.

I dp it this way because some of the legal Cultured bioware should IMO be avilable to the mass's, well anyone with the money.

Depending on your interpretation of some rules, some people allow you to spend an attribute point to fill in the extra space left by Exceptional Quickness.

A major motivation to rule this way is that not doing it leaves Otaku completely screwed.

~J

Sorry Wolfis, I should have seperated it into 2 lines.
Exceptional Quickness (Exceptional Attribute Edge)
Bonus Quickness (Bonus Attribute Edge)

Does it need to Swe? Are you suggesting that, even though you can take a Bonus Attrbute point to exceed the Racial Modified Limit, by taking Exceptional Attribute you suddenly can't?

Sorry, but I still don't get how the Bonus Attribute Edge stacked on an Exceptional Attribute Edge has been addressed as questionable. o.O The Bonus Attribute Edge isn't giving you a bonus attribute point to spend. So the "6 max" doesn't apply. He didn't spend 7 points (14BP) on Quickness. He spent 6 points (12 BP) on Quickness, then raised it with the Bonus Attribute Edge, then raised his Modified Limit at the same time.

...Had a character in my last campaign who worked out a 19 Reaction w/3d6 Initiative

Elf - Maxxed Quickness 7
Reaction Enhancers 6
Wired Reflexes (alpha) 2 (+4)
Enhanced Articulation (+1)
Muscle Toner 2 (+1)

The only thing that was able to beat him on Reaction tests was a pair of Cyberzombies the team ran into.

Oh, no, that stacking isn't questionable at all. It's just a waste, IMO. Because of the karma costs of improving the stats afterwards, I'd say either put the Exceptional Attribute on Quickness and the Bonus Attribute on Intelligence to max INT and give QCK an easy improvement path, or do it the other way around depending on how you interpret the interaction between stat improvement costs and bioware-improved attributes.

That and spending the seventh attribute point if you think, as I do, that that is implied valid by the Otaku rules.

~J

They raise the RML, but they don't explicitly lift or contradict the "one to six points" rule. This implies to me that the rule is already considered void.

~J

I think Karma Cost on high attributes is too high to consider doing. Last time he played this character, he spent all his karma to get his skills under Quickness up to his Quickness. I think he has his Specializations under Pistols and Rifles to 12 and his entire Stealth skill to 12 before we finally moved on. Not possible if he'd had to spend that much on raising attributes that high first.

It'd be just 14 karma, and you'd have an extra attribute point to show for it. YMMV, of course.

~J

Ah, you're talking about delaying implementing BioWare into the character then. Implementing the SuperThyroad and Muscle Toners in-game, and spend weeks or months out of game to heal. I was talking about that 12th point of Quickness, not the 7th.

Oh, right, I missed that he had Toners as well. Not sure why, given the topic. Ne'er mind me.

~J

I've done similar builds for speed sammies, although I usually add Reaction Enhancer: 6 to it - dunno if he could afford it after the other stuff, though.

that's one of the... quirks of the SR system, the usefulness of reaction and initiative dice compared to any other improvement you can get. especially since many methods of raising your reaction (those that improve your qui or int, basically) also improve your combat pool. a guy with maxed initiative and pistols 4 is way, way more dangerous than a guy with 1 init die and 8 pistols. about a third more dangerous, matter of fact.

Depends, as always, on the situation. That said, why would you call that a quirk-or-worse?

~J