hey guys, me and my friends have been starting SR back up, and been making characters. so far we have a technomancer, a dedicated ninja/sniper, and then a character thats going heavy in magic. now, they all try to aim for an average dice pool of about 12 or higher, which is what we used to do. reading further into the book, it says that theres an average dice pool of 6. now, i decided to go with what the book says, and made a generalist. im human, all my stats are either 3 or 4 (the average for a person) and decided to get 2-3 ranks in skills to get 6-7 dice pools. i do have a lot of skills, ranging from guns to influence skill groups to some rigging. i was wondering if this jack of all trades idea is worth any merit, or would i be better off sticking to a particular skill type?

You probably want to move this to the "Shadowrun" forums (as opposed to the "Welcome to the Shadows" forums - which is for play-by-post gaming). Off the top of my head, though, what you're doing looks pretty good for what you're planning to build. Keep a few things in mind:

* 6 is average stats for a "commoner". You're not going to impress anyone with 6 dice in social tests, you probably won't hit dedicated melee characters with 6 dice in combat skills, and you'll have a hard time breaking into anything worth taking with 6 dice in hacking skills. However, you're not trying to specialize in any of these areas, so you'll meet your goal of being "passable" at all of them.

* Edge is your best friend. For a jack of all trades, I would try to max it out (or get it as high as you can afford). At ranks 6+ it will basically allow you to double your dice pools on any of those tests I just mentioned when it is really important. Also, by throwing around 12 dice on those tests, you'll stay competitive with the specialists.

* A Jack of all trades is a viable character, as long as the rest of your group composition covers the basics. If your team has a dedicated face, firearms specialist, mage, and melee-specialist, but no hacker - it probably isn't a good idea to have your hacker spread so thin that he can't really do his job effectively. However, if your team is pretty solid, without you, and you just want to be able to back everyone up with what they do, and cover a few holes that they missed that few people pick up (demolitions, for example), then they'll appreciate having you around - either assisting them, or doing things none of them can do.

Ah, i see. thanks for the tip and sorry for the wrong forum post. the group doesnt seem to have a dedicated face, so i will most likely specialize in that area, and take a few skills that no one has, like first aid and demolitions