Given that technomancers are treated with a fair amount of suspicion, and are also less effective game-wise than hackers, would you say a small BP advantage would be a fair offering to someone who wanted to play one?

less effective?

All else being equal, by the RAW a technomancer is less effective than a hacker at most tasks. They can't use skillwires, Math SPU's, Encephelon-II's, sleep regulators or any of the other cyber goodies hackers can take advantage of. They can't be Adepts and get stupidly large dice pools. The most effective build for a technomancer by RAW is one emphasizing Sprites, since that lets them do things hackers can't.

That seems to be the prevailing view on DS, anyway.

Personally, I like Frank Trollman's alternate matrix rules.

I wouldn't give any additional stuff to someone playing a TM. Depending on the group it could make people jealous and lead to bitching.

Just because there's IC hostility towards an archtype doesn't mean they should get more stuff. Otherwise you have to start handing it out to everyone. Trolls and orcs have bad reputations, so why not them too? Then you've got AI's... The list goes on.

If they want to play a TM fair enough. They're tricky to build into good characters, but they have some interest RP hooks and while not as good overall as a hacker they /can/ be very good specialists.

i think unwired takes care of a good deal of those.

Unfortunately, not only did Unwired fail to patch some of the most glaring holes in the system, it introduced several new ones.

Don't forget that TM's can Thread up a Complex Form when the need arises, and they don't have the Response limitations of Hackers. True, Hackers can get more IP's faster with the gear, but the Echos introduced in Unwired give some pretty great options. Personally, I think TM's are right around where starting characters in SR should be, with a lot of room to grow. It means that creating a powerful TM is more about just playing and earning Karma than optimizing your build.

btw, im not sure that having the TM focus on prites is a bad thing. its their sthick, after all...

kinda like how a shaman back in sr1-3 was the spirit guy, with one for every place and situation...

What he said.

There are echoes now for Skillwires effectively. Nothing is stopping a TM from taking cyber but it will impair their abilities - no different to an adept doing exactly the same thing.

Having said that, there will be no stupidly large dicepools for TMs like there are hacker/adepts. Their trade off is they can do things no hacker adept will ever, ever be capable of, but it will take a lot of karma and time.

- J.

Kinda like Magicians?

Random Post # 5

Technomancers get quite a boost if you Use the Resonance Difference sidebar from Unwired.

I played a TM for a while, and it was a nightmare having all the programs I needed as complex forms, so I inevitably needed to thread one or two. Those threading penalties become crippling quite quickly, rendering the TM far less effective than a hacker.

Relying on Sprites for effectiveness renders a TM into a one trick pony, which I find tremendously tedious.

For TMs to live up to their fluff reputation I think Frank's rules are most effective, but I've not run with them extensively.

That "prevailing view" is IMO part badly informed, and part full of agenda.

A TM can:

• Use threading within "fading-less" boundaries to gain a cheap +2-3 to the activly used CF. Trauma damper? Worth it.
• Use Support Operation services to gain a short-term boost of (rating) to one CF
• Laugh in a manical way while the hacker tries to find their living node.
• Get a few echos to do stuff the hacker won´t ever be able to (Multi-Processing, Info Sortilege, ...)
• Run a sprite of any rating on any node, what was this "Response Limit" about again?

So if you look at some matrix mechanics, you will find that:

• Boosted stealth brings practical immunity from detection, at least on systems hackers can even enter.
• Boosted offensive programs bring death to all enemies.
• The Shield CF is a massive advantage in Cybercombat (Addition. Wireless Matrix Chapter programs. Please?)
• High-rating compiled sprites bring almost no fading (if you build for it), and can be seen as "intelligent one-shot programs". Compare a rating 7 paladin sprite to Attack 6...

Yeah, that's an interesting one. IMO, Immunity to Crashing and Immunity to Nuke make a lot of sense from a fluff perspective. A Complex Form is supposed to be a "mental technique" that the Technomancer uses and should be immune to any attacks that treat it like a "running program." The other ones seem a little too much in the TM's favor.

@ the original poster:

It's totally up to you if you want to give the TM some extra BP, and while I wouldn't necessarily suggest it, I wouldn't discourage it.

If I did this, I would stipulate that the extra can ONLY be spent on Skill Points, Contacts or Nuyen. Period.

Alternately, you might increase the cap on how many negative qualities the TM can take to get more BP for himself. That one seems slightly more balanced against the other characters... but be careful you watch what he takes.