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HunterXDR
Hey there,

I'm new to Shadowrun so I have a few character creation questions. I bought the 3rd edition main book. I am looking at the character creation system and it's all based on priority. I was at gencon and I was told there was a point system also somewhere. I can't find this point system character creation in the main book though. I believe I was told standard starting characters are like 125 points or something.

If anyone has any info on this it'd be a great help.

Thanks
K
Tanka
The BP (Buy Point) is shown in the Shadowrun Companion, and suggested characters are 123 points, but most people tend to go to 125 to make a character comparable to Priority.

2 BP for 1 Attribute Point
1 BP for 1 Skill Point

10 BP for Elf or Troll
5 BP for Dwarf or Ork
+5 BP for Metavariant
+10 BP for Ghoul
+30 BP for Otaku
25 BP for Shapeshifter

30 BP for Full Magician (25 Spell Points)
25 BP for Aspected Magician (35 Spell Points)
25 BP for Adept (Power Points equal to Magic Rating)

-5 BP for 500 nuyen
0 BP for 5,000 nuyen
5 BP for 20,000 nuyen
10 BP for 90,000 nuyen
15 BP for 200,000 nuyen
20 BP for 400,000 nuyen
25 BP for 650,000 nuyen
30 BP for 1,000,000 nuyen
HunterXDR
great, thanks for the quick reply. Any chance you would know how many points are given per level...I know shadowrun doesn't really have levels and you go by karma. like 1 karma = 10bp or something like that?

Thanks
K
Tanka
In Chargen, karma doesn't really apply to anything. It only does if you're using BeCKS, which we won't get into.

There is no universal equivalent for Karma, unless you allow Cash for Karma, which, if I remember (Somebody correct me if I don't) is 25k nuyen for 1 Karma.
Herald of Verjigorm
Karma is used for all in-game advancement (well, nuyen.gif for some).

A magical character can buy functional karma at 25,000 nuyen.gif each.
Tziluthi
You might also want to take a look at the shadowrun character generator (or NSRCG), which can be found online and free here.
Squirtduck
GenCon SoCal? I was there too! Didn't you think that Damien Knight and the Ammo Factory was such a great idea! I did...
kevyn668
Hey Hunter, welcome aboard!

I'd stick w/ the priority system for starts. It may seem more complicated at first but I think it turns out the most balanced characters, especially when you're just starting out.

Of course, thats just my opinion and you should do what ever you feel most comfortable with. Thats the single most important thing. And even more important when it comes to the Dumpshock community. wink.gif
Cray74
QUOTE (HunterXDR)
great, thanks for the quick reply.  Any chance you would know how many points are given per level...I know shadowrun doesn't really have levels and you go by karma.  like 1 karma = 10bp or something like that?

There's no real connection between BP and karma. Note (in character creation) that 1 BP gets you 1 skill point whether you're making a skill rating 2 or rating 6, but the karma cost (after creation) of improving a skill from 1 to 2 is a lot cheaper than raising a skill from 5 to 6.

In fact, you should probably make an effort now to shake yourself out of the idea of levels with regards to Shadowrun, because the game doesn't mesh well with the idea.

Shadowrun character improvement works like this: you improve individual skills and attributes, which also pretty much kills the idea of classes. Everyone is pretty different, even when they notionally can be called a "rigger" or "street samurai." That "wizard" might be the best machine gunner and pilot on the team, while the "fighter" might be a computer expert who runs a computer shop on the side.

So if you want to determine what "level" someone is, you need to think of it more in terms of "how good the person is at some specific task." Actually, this is kind of like the way you'd do it in the real world - look at the person's resume, reputation, and/or proven talents, not an abstract overall level. For example, if you want to know if a character is "a high level fighter," you should probably ask, "does this guy have high physical attributes and good combat skills?" If you want to know if someone's a "high level decker," look at their computer skill, intelligence, and task pool. There's a table somewhere in the main book that rates different skill levels...level 3-4 is professional, level 5 to 6 is expert, etc.

Karma awards don't exactly help determine level, either. There's no way to say "I need 10 karma points to get to the next level." You can invest 30 karma points into a human's physical attributes only to see a new troll character have much higher attributes. A veteran character who puts 20 karma points into a skill to learn it from scratch might be easily embarrassed by a new character who bought the skill at rating 6 to begin with. Is the troll "higher level" than the human? Is the new character "higher level" than the veteran? You should probably ask, "Which one is better at a task," rather than trying to figure out their level.

Which all means a "starting" Shadowrun character isn't necessarily low level. That "merc" might well have all those "expert level" combat skills because he's a 10-year veteran of Desert Wars. On the other hand, he might be a gifted new trainee.
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