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DanJ
What skills, priorities, attributes where on your sheet would you put if you where making a scientist character?

as i dont believe its a normal archtype.

anyway if anyonw could help me with this i would greatly appreciate it.

smile.gif
Cheese Emperor
High Int and possibly Quickness are mandatory. Electronics and Electronics B/R are also typical, along with various other B/R skills. A couple good background skills like physics and chemistry would be a good idea too. Craploads of money can't hurt. I'd think certain cyberware that generically enhance those kinds of abilities like cyber-replacement eyes with vision magnification and the like and maybe some explosives to boot.
Tanka
Greater points into Body and Intelligence. Why Body? They gotta resist all those things that they create (Possibly some pathogens, poisons, etc...).

Skills in different Sciences and possibly Maths (For a Physics guy, especially.), as well as Teaching and other things like that. Maybe not much money, but if he works in his own lab, enough to buy a shop (Facility if he's a big name.) and supplies.
Lilt
Well it depends on what category of scientist you want to create.

Generally speaking: Take an intelligent (int 6) character and give him whatever academic knowledge skills you want (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Parabiology) and possibly the Biotech Active skill.

You can do a lot more if your GM allows you to use the rules in the shadowrun companion. Look at the edges of Bonus Attribute Point (intelligence), College Education, Exceptional Attribute (intelligence), Technical School education.

[edit] oh yes: and electronics and computer... you need to use/build all of those gizmos you make[/edit]
DanJ
How about this using the sum of 10 system (yes i'm using sr3)

Human - 0
Mundane - 0
Attributes - 27 - 3
Skills - 40 - 3
Rescourses - 1,000,000

the thing is there isnt exactly pricing stating how much a lab would cost but then again what else would i spend all that money on i actually dont see how.

any other suggestions and are those choices ok?

Lilt
Those choices look fine. Your lab will probably be a shop (see page 288, sr3) or collection of shops in whatever your fields of expertise are. You will probably also want a number of other portable gizmos like gas detection systems and chemical analysers.

Shop-wise: I'd go for
Computer
Electronics
Physics/Chemistry/Biology

That'd cost about 45-60k...

How about spending your spare cash on a faithful robotic assistant? Or maybe a small army of them?
DanJ
hmm ok what weapon skills would i choose and to the crucial topic how did this scientist get into shadowrunning?
Siege
As others have pointed out, you might want to pick a discipline -- is he a researcher? Does he tinker in a warehouse? How'd he get mixed up with shadowrunners? Is he affiliated with a corp or a school?

As for spending money:

Contacts (even lab geeks have lives) and knowing people in or related to your field is also beneficial.
Workshops (depending on how you envision your geek working)

Even some cyberware
chipjacks
datajacks
image link, microscopic vision
encephalon, math SPU
Edit: Headware memory /edit

If your GM allows cultured bioware:
cerebral booster
mnemonic enhancers

Skill choices would revolve around your character's discipline and how you envision him fitting into the SR team.

Biotech, Chemistry, the B/R skills Lilt mentioned.

-Siege
DanJ
i want this scientist to be a charismatic female one.
Siege
How many weapon skills do you want the guy to have? Does he practice with the Karate club on campus? (Unarmed combat)

Does he shoot on the range? Does he hunt? (handgun, rifle/shotgun)

Is he a national Guardsman, a weekend warrior? (better selection of skills: assault rifle, demolitions, heavy weapons and so on)

Does he go rock-climbing on the weekends? (Athletics)

Maybe he was approached as an extraction candidate and decided to jump ship after it went wrong. Maybe he decided to have himself extracted from his parent Corp because he disagreed with the immorality of the research program. Maybe he wanted to go freelance to make more money.

We can give you ideas, but you have to make the decision and develop the personality of the critter on your own.

-Siege
Siege
QUOTE (DanJ)
i want this scientist to be a charismatic female one.

Ok, now what does she study? Is she a college professor? Does she work for a corp? Is she still working a respectable job?

Physics? Chemistry? Cyberware research? Clinical psychologist?

-Siege
DanJ
she works for a corp or used to. and studied bioware research to name one.

ok if shes a charismatic female scientist see my list of priorities (sum of 10) where should i put my stats?

she trained with the martial arts but since she used to work for a corp and she aint a professor then where would she have learnt it i dont know.
Lilt
Charismatic female can be done. Cha 6+Ettiquette 6+Negotiations 6'll get you anywhere. As-for your weapons skills: it depends on what floats your character's boat.

It's possible that she's just nut-case who loves to kill stuff: Take skills to use chainsaws and shotguns.

It's possible she used to work for a megacorp where she was involved in research on animals and she left because she loved the animals too much. (Pacifist?)

You could go the corp way again and have the character sacked from a project deemed unnececary. (it's possible that corps offer self defense/pistol tuition to researchers in-case of runner incursions)

Even taking a day-job is possible, saying that you run the shadows to augment whatever meager salary you earn. (your character may have gone to lessons or been shown by a friendly runner how to handle a weapon)

If you want to go the tech-whiz route through-and-through: ask your GM if you can have the Laser Pistol from CC. Normally such weapons have too high an availability, but your GM may give you permission if it augments your character's (presumably meager) combat ability.
DanJ
thanks alot for that that was very help ful.

anyone got a minute to whip together a sample character based on that and my sum of 10 choices for me to use as a guide.

id really appreciate it this is my first character.
Siege
Attributes: 27

Bod 3
Quick 4
Str 4

Chr 5
Int 6
Will 5

Skills 40:
Unarmed 4
Biotech 6
Etiquette 5
Negotiations 5
Computer 5
Etiquette 5
B/R Electronics 5
Chemistry 5

Knowledge 30:
Medicine 6
Biotechnology 6
Biology 5
Corporate politics 4
Elven wines 3
Illegal Medical Supplies Sources 4
Street Docs 2

Background:
<Insert Name Here> worked as a biotech researcher for an small firm founded on an cutting-edge idea. The president and founder of the company was <insert name here>'s thesis advisor in school and recruited her after graduation.

One afternoon she overheard shouting in the president's office; she came around the corner as two somber looking men in suits were leaving. When she asked her mentor about the shouts, he smiled and shrugged. "It was a buyout offer -- nothing special."

She'd known him long enough to know his eyes were lying. But when she tried to question him further, he begged off and left to inspect the morning's progress. Scared, <insert name here> signed up for self-defense classes at her gym. It didn't help solve the problem, but the classes helped her focus her frustrations elsewhere.

Two weeks later, she left work early to meet a friend for lunch. As she started her car, the building errupted in flames. Glass bounced off her windshield like rain as she gunned her car and fled for her life.

Lonestar attributed the explosion to mistakes in the lab which contributed to the initial explosion. No survivors found. <Insert Name Here> knew that to be untrue and stayed in hiding. Days later, the remnants of the company was dissolved and the research purchased by unnamed buyers.

<Inert Name Here> knows her life is in danger as a potential witness or as an indentured researcher so she stays in hiding. Her natural curiousity and a burning desire to find out who and why has driven her to stay in the Seattle sprawl, plying her trade as a free-lance cutter.

Flaws:
Curious -2
Dark secret -2 (real name, wanted by unknown corp)


Sorry it's a little rough, but it fits all your basic requirements.

-Siege
DanJ
thanks i thought i'd get a reply saying no but cool thanks i'll work around that. any other suggestions?
Siege
Work with this visual: Your character is a lab geek. She is never going to win a knock-down, drag-out brawl with a Marine.

With that in mind, don't stress your combat skills nearly as much. She's not a samurai, nor is she intended to be.

That's not to say a few points wouldn't be a bad idea, but remember your initial concept.

-Siege
Lilt
QUOTE (Siege @ Nov 3 2003, 12:22 AM)
That's not to say a few points wouldn't be a bad idea, but remember your initial concept.

Heh. That's good advice. I've seen 'non-combat' characters end-up with more weapons than most sammies and tables for their different ammo types.

Oh yes: If you go with cyberware you'll probably want some chipjacks or a knowsoft link. That gives you the option of just slotting a chip and hey-presto: I know Chem-Fu (= Chemistry). You may even want to take a skillwires system but that's less likely. Actually Lilt (my first SR character) was a corp-fostered street-doc who had absolutely no combat skills himself, but chipped them through a skillwires system. Just a thought.
RangerJoe
Just for general inspiration, I thought I'd post my magic-theorist.

Dmitri Zacharov was a successful MIT&T student, studying 6-19 (EECS and Thaumatology). A dedicated hermetic, Zacharov was drawn to the "magic" of the _other_ mirror world-- the matrix. Never the most wiz decker on the block, on account of a reliance on a 'trode net, Zacharov got into BTL programming to prove his skills to his frat brothers (TEP). Making a name for himself as a cutter of slick BTLs in the Boston 'plex, Zacharov was drawn into the shadows after becoming the unwilling patsy for a group of runners workling aganst a Boston area Vory family. After running the shadows for several years (where I had a chance to play him-- an interesting challenge), Zacharov was snapped up by a fledgling corp called Cryotronics, an R&D firm specializing in bleeding edge cryo-cooled matrix servers. While working for Cryotronics (this time as an NPC for a game I was running), Zacharov was given a secret assignment from the CEO to explore the possibilities of "cold magic" (it came to the CEO-- also awakened-- in a dream). Relocated to a secret lab deep beneath the Cryotronics building, Zacharov threw himself into the project, producing a "Cold Focus" after almost two years labor (Player: Cold focus? There's no such thing! GM(me): There is now!). The focus was a stunning example of the fusion of magic and technology. Its successful genesis is partially owed to a free spirit of some kind which aided Zacharov. Zacharov was last seen in a pool of his own blood, having been ruthlessly murdered by the runners in their attempt to steal the foucs. After finding the focus in a locked cell deeper within the lab, the runners returned to the main lab room and found the body gone, streaks of blood pointing towards the door. Zacharov's current whereabouts are unknown.

Name:Dmitri Zacharov
Designation: Magical Scientist
Age: 26
Height: 5' 10"
"The Universe can be modelled by a finite series of
elementary computational models. Forces, fields,
particles, are all simply reflections of these underlying
equations. Men, money, happiness, and tragedy are
refined permutations of a deeper truth."

Body: 3 Willpower: 6 Initiative: 1D6
Quickness: 5 Intelligence: 6 Reaction: 5
Strength: 2 Charisma: 5 Essence: 6.0 Magic: 6

SKILLS:
Active:
Sorcery: 6 Stealth/Sneaking: 1/3 Eng R/W: 6/4
Conjuring: 6 Etiq/Matrix: 2/4 Russian R/W: 4/2
Pistols: 4 (MIT&T still has a better rifle and pistol team than West Point!)
Electronics B/R: 5
Unarmed/Wrestling: 1/3
Computer: 5

Knowledge:
Magical Theroy: 6
Physics: 5
BG Enchanting: 3
Parazoology: 3
BTL Production: 3
Chemistry: 5
Art: 2
Elec Eng: 6

Spells
Name: Force Drain TN
Stunbolt 4 3(DL) W
Clairaudience 1 2M 6
Clairvoyance 1 2M 6
Analyze Truth 3 3L W
Detox 2 2(ToxDL) Tox Power
Heal 4 4(WL) 10-ess
Analyze Device 2 3M OR (-2 fam)
Laser 3 F+1 (DL) 4
Stealth 3 3M 4
Magic Fingers 3 6M 6

Laser is a tool-laser varient of the spell which aids B/R skills. Detox was learned at Tech... for obvious reasons.
Shanshu Freeman
Maybe she took karate in school? Or she was on the fencing team in college?
sidekick
If you try to split your skill points between combat and scientist skills, all you get is a half way decent scientist who can kinda use weapons. Focus your skills on your science, and then maybe pick up like Unarmed 2 and Pistols 1-2, you don't really need them higher then that since you'll only be shooting/fighting when the drek has hit the fan. Just remember to pack a taser. Those things can stop most Sammies in their tracks, much better then tossing lead their way.

As for a background here are a couple ideas:

You worked biotech at a big firm... when newsnet broke the story about your corp's illegal human testing the boys upstairs made you the fall gal. Now discredited and black listed, you work the shadows as a street doc/bio technician.

A rival corp tried to wipe you out to set back your team's research. you escaped the hit team and have decided it is safer to work in the shadows.

There was a project you were assigned to that your were morally opposed to (maybe turning HMHVV into a bioweapon? Or an airborne nano-machines that sterilized Orks, Or bioengineering fleshform DNA into awakened test subjects, just remember to make it particularly nasty). To bad that the project was so secret that the Corp didn't want you to leave with the knowledge of said project alive.

Maybe you got extracted by a group of shadowrunners, who learned to thier dismay that you were the wrong white-coat. You can't go back to your corp because they think you were extracted, so now you work the shadows.

The project you were working on turned out to be a dead-end technology. The corp plunged tons to nuyen into it, but in the end it was worthless. You're rep in the academic and corp world is shot, so you turn to the shadows.
El_Machinae
I made a scientist once who had level 2 skillwires. Why? Because he could then use them to do tasks that he didn't want to spend mental effort on.

His job's insurance required him to exercise for an hour every day. Well, he just slots his 'athletics 2' program and set it to work him out for an hour. Meanwhile, he can sort through his research in his headware memory.

... as well, since he was to eventually be an adventurer, he could slot the 'non-character' type skills. The PC would never start the game with firearms, but at the flip of a chip, he have it.
Siege
QUOTE (El_Machinae)
... as well, since he was to eventually be an adventurer, he could slot the 'non-character' type skills. The PC would never start the game with firearms, but at the flip of a chip, he have it.

Well, you could actually justify some skills:

The character was middle-class afraid and signed up for a defensive handgun course at the local gun range.

The character was/is a weekend warrior with the Seattle Metroplex Guard.

-Siege
nezumi
I would definitely go for the skillwire. I'd have it set up to take active skills up to at least level 2, and knowledge skills up to level 6-8. Science now involves knowing tons of extra fields beyond your field of study. Depending on what she was studying, I'd go into biotech, magical theory or computer skills (or some mix of the 3). Datajack is a must, along with a deck (but likely few normal decker programs). She'd almost certainly have cybereyes. In biotech, electronics/hardware etc. she'd need them for microscopic vision, in computer science/physics/chemistry it would be very useful because of the neat options (window in a window, reverse video, snapshots etc.) I'd kill to be able to read a paper while programming. Headware memory is a super bonus, along with anything which increases intelligence. If she knew she was going to go running, she might pickup some other cyberware, synaptic accelerators being a good one (I imagine geeks either going for more 'body friendly' bioware or impressive cyberware... if it's not cool looking, it had better be efficient.)

In regards to weapons, I imagine a techie going for one of three routes: a hold-out pistol, something small and out of the way, but something she can hold in her hand as she walks through dark parking lots at night (kinda like pepper spray now), a taser because it's actually effective, more legal and it won't kill anyone or a Big Friggin' Gun, like a manhunter, just because it looks cool (this is more of a Guy Route). Pistols of 2 should suffice, maybe 3 if she lives in an especially nasty part of town. I think it'd be totally justified in a world like shadowrun because it's not a safe place, and a smart, lovely young woman who works on her own will need self defense. I can't imagine her having shotguns or rifles or something; eggheads tend not to be real big into guns, it just takes too much of a time commitment and you actually have to GO somewhere to use them (being a geek, I'm allowed to say this : P I've wanted to go rifle shooting for two years now and there's a range literally four miles up the road. I just haven't had the motivation to leave my computer.)

Why would she run? Fallgirl is a good one, but my favorite is because the group she's running with are her research subjects > ) . You're testing your implants in the field and they don't know it. Just give them some extra karma and don't tell them they now have the 'mysterious bioware' flaw, and your dear doctor can study her dancing monkeys up close and personal.

What else? She could get involved with one run (extraction, perhaps) and decide she enjoys it. Us geeks have pretty boring lives, generally, and video games only go so far. Maybe her old corporation decided, for reasons of their own, to slaughter her family in an attempt to force her loyalties, accidentally making her willing to risk it all to strike back. Hey, maybe she's accidentally caused herself some sort of weird psychological trauma while randomly sampling chemicals in the lab! (Okay, that one is kinda stupid.) In the end, I'd say she'd probably be running for one of three reasons: research/work, fear or anger paired with powerlessness.
Abstruse
Steal a page out of the first Shadowrun novel.

Corp researcher wants to be extracted after <insert bad event>, but something goes wrong and she finds herself on the wrong side of the law/some corp/powerful entity. She couldn't go back to the universities or corps to work because they'd find her then, so she sticks to the shadows until she can clear her name...if she even wants to after getting hooked on the shadow life...

The Abstruse One
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