We began by making gangers at 300 BP, trying out the SR4 rules for the first time.

Now we have skipped ahead 2 years in time and received a loan of Karma and money. We were sort of picked up by benevolent rich people and put through 2 years of "behaviour modification"...

Now we are happy, well-adjusted corp operatives. Or so our chip tells us.

My character is a streetkid turned ganger, awakened untrained Mystic Adept with a penchant for detection and dodging.

Now I have 62 unspent Karma and 56.803 nuyen. My current stats below:

Human, age 20, male

Body 3
Agility 2
Reaction 2
Strength 2
Charisma 5
Intuition 3
Logic 2
Willpower 4
Total
Edge 5
Magic 4
Initiative 5

Negative Qualities
Sensitive System, double Essence loss from Cyberware
Geas, Daily Prayer to the Norse Gods
Nano Intolerance, Nano injection decays in 4 days, if Hive, pay 10 Karma to lose this trait

Positive Qualities
Mystic Adept

Automatics 2 Spec: Ingram Smartgun
Blades 1
Clubs 1
Gymnastics 1
Infiltration 1
Longarms 1
Palming 1
Pistols 1
Unarmed Combat 1
Con 4
Etiquette 4
Leadership 4
Negotiation 4
Disguise 1
Perception 5 Spec: Visual
Shadowing 1
Cybertechnology 0
First Aid 0
Medicine 0
Banishing 1
Binding 1
Counterspelling 1
Ritual Spellcasting 1
Spellcasting 2
Summoning 2
Dodge 4
Pilot Ground Craft 1 Spec: Bike
Climbing 1
Running 1
Swimming 1


Knowledge skills
Applied Nordic Mythology 3
Puyallup 2
Seattle Street Gangs 2
Security Companies 2
English Native
Ancient Norse (Runic alphabet FUTHARK) 3

Adept Powers, all Geased to a Daily Prayer to the Norse Gods
1 Magical Power
4 Enhanced Perception
4 Combat Sense, +1 to Surprise, Melee and Ranged Defence

Spells known:
Increase Reflexes

I have no cyberware. I have a Force 2 Sustaining Focus and a Yamaha Growler and a Jumpsuit with helmet 6/6.

Other than that, no items of real value.

Where should I spend my karma and money? - Most bang for the buck?

Oh and how do I know how much Force I need to cast a spell at to get the effect desired? - Books really vague on this.

Force limits your hits, so for unresisted spells you cast them at a force equal to the hits you require and hope you roll enough hits. Resisted spells tend to require a higher force since the opponent gets to reduce the effect with his hits.

I' raise attributes first and foremost, can't help with the specifics though since we don't use karma at our table.

Hmm, I clicked this topic thinking how eerily familiar this theme was to the game I was playing. I wonder if there could be a reason for that... . I put a list of my upgrades on the club forum. On a slightly different note I didn't get my core book back from the session. I'm hoping one of you guys took it by mistake, I think it would have been Ryan since he was using it, but I just though I'd ask if you might have it?

Also on the topic of the topic you should probably pick up some specializations and an increase charisma spell perhaps. Could boost Reaction too so you'd get better initiative, improving attribute with Karma is fairly cheap.

Hehe, yes indeed. Very similar.

I do not know who has your book, but I checked that the room was empty when we left so it was not left behind.

I am considering spending 15+18 karma raising Magic to 6 and spending them on Magic Power, so I can actually do some useful spells and spirit summonings.

But the character was never really "peaked" in anything, so how to develop him best eludes me. So more help please, can he be salvaged into a specialist direction? - Since hacking is a low priority in our group, I suppose I could buy the programs and cover that angle, but again never as "best in class" but more like "carrier of the cool programs".

I think going for more magic would make best sense. It's important to have a mage in a group and there's no way to fake that. So buff magic, magic related skills and get some specializations for your social skills. You can then as I said get some Charisma boosting spell and a sustaining focus perhaps. Then you can cover the face/mage angle.

If you really want to specialize more talk to GM and see if you can rebuilt the character slightly based on some sort of "I haven't used that skill for 2 years so it decayed into karma" rationale. Possibly even a full rebuild as long as you keep the character recognizable. We've been out for 2 years and you could have undergone high-intensity and quality training so I think it would make a fair amount of sense.

If on the other hand we desperately need a hacker we could leech some programs and activesofts of Lone Star. I'm getting Move by wire (second hand), which among other things works as a level 4 skillwire, so if GM wants to have a run involving hacking I can cover that angle. I've got a 4/6 "Q"-like contact for that purspose.

As you can't hack at all yet you would be better off just buying agents and programs with your money, will be way more efficient than spending 56 karma in computer skills.
Raising magic seems a good idea but with edge 5 you can be a somewhat competent spell caster 5 times a session already
Now the problem is you only have one spell which you apparently overcast and put on your lvl 2 focus, so when you raise magic you won't get any benefits from it apart better summoning. Considering your high edge and that it doesn't help with the spirit's force but does waive the force limit on spells you should consider just raising magic by 1 point and getting some more spells. Shapechange for instance can be very handy, even on low magic spell casters. So just skim through the books and look for spells that just need a low threshold to work and you will have some nice utility spells. Also consider raising automatics as combat spells in general suck at low force.

You can go the counter spelling face route:

Counter spelling 1 -> 5 (28 karma)
magic 4 -> 6 (33 karma)

Leaving you with 1 karma left.

Buy some combination of kinestics and improved social ability:
Example:
Improved Negotiation 2
Kinestics 3

Gives you the following pools:
Negotiation: 14
Con: 12
Etiquette: 12
Leadership: 12

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If you'd rather have spent time learning to shoot stuff:

Magic 4 -> 5 (15 Karma)

Borg up-> 51,000 Y (.9 essence spent)
Muscle Toner 2
Platelet Factories
Reaction Enhancer (yes, double essence spent)

Raise body 3 -> 4 (12 karma) Now you can wear and armored jacket

Raise automatics 2 -> 4 (14 karma)

Raise agility 2 -> 3 (9 karma)
Raise Reaction 2 ->3 (9 karma)

Totals: 59 karma, 51,000 Y

And your stats look like:

BOD 4
AGL 3 (5)
REA 3 (4)

Your pool for automatics goes to 9 + specialty + smartlink
Of course, your initiative is still pretty crappy at 8 with your foci running.
AT least you are reasonably damage resistant, with body 4 and platelet factories.

Of course, this route spreads your character pretty thin.

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Try to get some use out of spellcasting:

Magic 4 -> 5 (15 karma; magic for spellcasting -> 2)
Spellcasting 2 -> 4 + specialization (16 karma)
Learn 3 spells (15 karma)
Force 2 power focus -> (16 karma, 50,000 Y)

Totals: 62 karma, 50,000 Y

You will be limited to force 4 spells, but if you can find 3 utility spells in the same spell category, you'll have 10 dice to cast them.

Thanks! Thats awesome!

Great inspiration here.

Can you Initiate? Would you want to, given that your initiatory group would probably be tied to HappyCorp...

I think I can initiate, yes. And with a group and ordeal too, should not be a problem.

I've been reading up on spirits, I think I can get alot of mileage from those. Many different powers, and as I understand it, I can call unbound spirits, give it a task and leave it to it. Then summon another while the first is still working.

So it will probably be 2 points into magic, spec a spirit type, initiate for Centering and that might be it.

But keep the ideas coming, I am taking notes.

You mentioned the character had a penchant for detection and dodging. As such I'd work on upping both Reaction and Intuition, kicking up the relevant skills and then maybe going in for an Astral perception power at some point so you can't be caught unaware. Round out combat skills for survival reasons, but make your guy the "point man" or scout. Basically the guy they send to get the important visual information that others will normally miss. You could spend money on weapons, armor, clothing, and surveillance gear most of all. Maybe pick up infiltration as well, because sometimes you need to slip inside just to really get the details you want.

Do check what your Initiatory Group is tied to. It might be a bit metagamey to not Initiate while under Corp control (cos you'll be very vulnerable if you do ever break free), but might be worth a chat with your GM about where the game might go and get their advice.

Well, *cough* my character is sorta the one that got us in this pickle. He is born street, but his best buddy was an upperclass rebel who dropped out of college and started making drugs for resale and own use.

And he was going down fast... Highest addiction rating, popping Kamikaze and Nitro every fight, self-afflicted with a magic boosting Azzie superdrug that would kill him inside 5 years (if he would even survive that long).

So, being a good friend, I had to save him by betraying him to his family.

When the family came looking for the lost son, I sort of gave him up on the condition they take me out of the streets of hell too. And we were in waaay over our heads at the time, being set up to take a fall of Winternightish proportions.

So he is the chipped one, I am the willing stooge who helps keep him calm. with that, I have more leeway in selecting who to initiate with, no limits imposed by GM since I'm there willingly.

No You may only have One unbound spirit at a time. Even if you give it a remote service you may not summon another unbound spirit until its task is complete. Now you can bind up to Charisma Rating spirits and keep them on retainer.