All right - since it's summer, my car is (now) in need of repair, and I can't seem to find a Shadowrun group in my area, I'm slowly creating characters to get myself used to the rules system, and to either have options for myself when I find a group or to have an opposing group of characters should I wind up needing to form a group. I've already used you great folks to hammer out my Rigger/Hacker hybrid, so I'm hoping that I see an equal amount of help with my Covert Ops Specialist here. Stats follow, guidelines for advice follow the stats.



As for feedback, I'd like to keep the character Human and keep Int and Logic at 4+ (both out of personal preference). The aim of this character is to be a castoff from a corporate Black Ops team (whether the team was disbanded or this character is the only surviving member (or both) remains to be decided), so I'm aiming for a lot of capability - mainly B&E, but also capable in combat and able to extract data from systems in the B&E target location. I'm open to suggestions, and will continuously update the first post here with any changes that I choose to incorporate. Thanks in advance, folks, and I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

P.S. - I plan on asking for critiques on three more characters to round out my options/team, and they'll be trickling in - they'll be a Wiccan Mage (with Pacifist!), a Gunslinger Adept specializing in Pistols (a shameless ripoff from the BBB, but with my spin!), and a Hacker/Technomancer (haven't decided which way to go on that one yet!). I hope that you'll all be up for helping me with these as I continue, and I'll eventually post them all as a single team, possibly with some background, once I'm through tweaking them with critique from you fine people.

A pretty decent build, with lots of room to grow.

Two bits of augmentation I would suggest - cerebral boosters (a cerebral booster: 2 would let you start with intuition: 5 and logic: 3, then boost logic to 5, leaving you with +1 in both stats), and the attention coprocessor: 3 (since perception tests are fairly important to covert ops specialists).

I'm not sure about print removal, though. It's very pricey, and the negatives (drawing suspicion to your character) outweigh the positives in my opinion. Also, the FAQ disallows the combo of wired reflexes and reaction enhancers. While I strongly disagree with that myself, you still might want to double-check with a potential GM to be sure it's allowed in that game.

Thanks for the pointers on the additional augmentations - I think that those might be more room to grow, and less rounded starting character material, though.

I think that Print Removal is worth it for this character - as I'd mentioned, I'm thinking of him as being an assassination/covert ops machine that was built and eventually abandoned by the corps. They wouldn't much care if he was concerned over the removal of his prints, and I'd like to deal with the issues of re-integrating into society after being transformed into a virtual ghost.

As to Wired Reflexes/Reaction Enhancers - the FAQ was last updated on Dec. 1, 2006 and SR4A, which was printed much later, explicitly allows these two mods to stack. So it is RAW!

EDIT: On second thought, I'm slightly modifying your suggestion about augmentations. I'm just going to flat drop Logic by 1, put the points necessary into Equipment to pick up the upgrades, and wind up with Intuition 4 and Logic 5, as well as Perception 2 (7). I'm out doing the math on it now, but I'll edit it into the original post in a bit.

EDIT EDIT: Changes detailed above have had their math done and have been added to the original post. This also gave me enough spare nuyen to pick up a motorcycle!

Just thought of another bit of synergy on this character that bears mentioning - Genewipe and Print Removal are particularly important, since they go part of the way toward mitigating the drawbacks of Records on File. I'm not trying to be munchkinny with that or anything, but I think that if your records were on file with someone out to get you in one way or another, being virtually untraceable would be a godsend, no matter what drawbacks come with it.

All that aside, any other comments on this character? Even just a 'looks good, go for it!' would be nice, if that's all that folks have to say. Suggestions for change are, as always, welcomed and usually incorporated into the build!

Buying programs at rating 4 strikes me as a terrible choice, either go with 3 and get a great price break or 6 and kick ass. Buying 3 and pirating your way up to 6 isn't a bad idea. Oh, you have system 4! That's why. See my advice on OSes below.

Who's the character in debt to? A 25 BP negative quality is pretty important to defining a character, you're going to want to choose a group with whom having a relationship is realistic and flavorful.

If you don't watch Burn Notice (and who does?) look up the plot online. You might find some inspiration for your character; it's about a covert operative who's fired and hung out to dry, and his struggles.

Speaking of which, Hung Out to Dry is a great negative quality. You might want to consider it; how did your character meet this fixer, anyway?

I would specialize blades to knives, personally. They're a lot easier to sneak places, and if you really need to get messy a vibroknife will do messy. Then again, if you just went with a monowhip and put it in your fingertip, you could replace the muscle augmentation, and there's cash money. If I'm not mistaken, you could even use it as a monowire garrote. Slicey!

How's the character getting erased? Is his old agency trying to keep him hush-hush, or did he hire someone, or what? And what is his restricted gear?

The Suzuki Mirage is friggin' sweet, but if you're just looking for something to drive around, the High lifestyle includes leasing a car. Using the vehicle as a getaway car and installing guns aren't allowed, but it's just 8,000 more than Low, which is cheaper than most cars (plus you'll have a nice life).

Buying an OS is usually a waste of time, just buy Firewall and System 6 for a total of 6,000 nY. You won't regret either choice.

I really like your knowledge skills! Good spread of "useful" and "fun."

Electronics 3 is a wise decision, but you may soon find yourself breaking it for specializations. Hardware is a very valuable B&E skill, and Computers is vital to programming disguises. In fact, INT and LOG 4 are a good personal preference AND damn handy.

Skill groups are fun, but more efficient in karmagen than BPgen (then again, everything is). For 20 BP, though, Athletics 2 might be a better investment than Gymnastics 3 and Climbing 3. There's a lot of gear that helps with climbing/jumping, and running and swimming could both come in handy.

Overall... I have a lot of suggestions, but don't be fooled. This looks like a great character. Anything you change now is really just tweaks.

Also, I'm a great fan of cybered hackers (instead of TMs), but only if you use the "Logic+Skill, capped at Program" rule. TMs are better in general if you use "Program+Skill," whether or not you cap it at Logic. If I ran a table, I'd let players use either (i.e. One+Skill, capped at The Other).

And remember, pacifists can still knock bitches out. Or better yet, Influence them.

Took some of these ideas and incorporated them into the character/expanded on them, but I'd like to go point by point here.

I'm banking on the character being in debt to the Fixer who is his only contact on the outside world - the Fixer contributed to the costs of some of the character's augmentations in order to help him hide from the corporation who had previously employed him and is expecting to be paid back both monetarily and through having a dependable runner at his disposal.

Character being Erased and pointed to the Fixer are both part of the same question - a Hacker who had previously done a run on the corp that this character was working for incidentally found information about their plan to liquidate his team and attempted to warn them, though only the character received the warning in time (or did he? And if he did, why was he the only one..?). At any rate, as part of the warning, the Fixer's contact information was included as being someone who might be interested in helping the Black Ops team escape corporate notice... for a price. This Hacker is someone who's taken an interest in the character's well-being, but only incidentally, and has no desire to make contact (or a Contact) at this time.

Restricted Gear is the Genewipe - availability of 16F!

I'm planning on breaking the Electronics Skill Group during play, both for specializations and for differential increases, but at char gen, I think that the group is the most effective way to go.

I upgraded the Firewall and System to 5 and all of the programs received their upgrade as well. I didn't go to 6 because that would've been cost prohibitive - I was cutting it pretty close as it was.

Consolidated Gymnastics and Climbing into the Athletics Skill Group at rating 2, saving 4 points from skills. Removed one point of loyalty from the Fixer contact (since he's new and essentially a loan shark at this point and all), and spent the resulting 5 BP on Ambidextrous in order to have the option of using 2-Weapon Combat without penalty should the need (or the opportunity to strike from surprise/ambush) arise.

I agree about Knives being more practical in general - that specialization has been switched, and the small amount of remaining money has been spent on updating the character's arsenal with several knives for various situations and for the possibility of 2-Weapon Combat.

Ambidextrous is a good idea, but you might be able to get more out of those 5 BP. If you instead spent them on Martial Arts: Arnis de Mano, Pentjak Silat or Sangre Y Acero, you could pick the option of +1 Blades DV. Alternatively, you could go for Ninjutsu, and pick up +1 to Infiltration rolls. Regardless, you can then purchase the martial arts maneuvers "Off-Hand Training" and "Two-Weapon Style" for 4 karma (or 2 BP) each. Two-Weapon Style is great, because it lets you attack with one knife using your full dice pool, and use the Full Parry option with the other one for free.

The advantage to Ambidextrous over Off-Hand Training is that Off-Hand Training only works with Blades, Clubs or Exotic Melee Weapon, pick one. It doesn't work with firearms, so if you're interested in dual-wielding those, Ambidextrous is the better way to go.

I get the impression this character isn't the sort to sneak weapons past a security checkpoint, but rather to sneak around the checkpoint, am I right? Nevertheless, I might switch one of those Cougar Shourtblades for a ceramic knife. The cougars and Colt Government will all be met with "and where's your license for that?" and the vibroblade will be met with "get your face on the floor, slotter, you're coming with us!" but nobody care if you have a ceramic knife on you.

I'm flattered that you've incorporated so many of my suggestions. I like the threads you post: they manage to avoid turning into the shouting about ambiguous rules that characterizes many threads here. Rawk on!

I strongly considered the potential of Ninjutsu, Off-Hand Training, and Two-Weapon Style in place of Ambidextrous. The big problem here is, of course, the fact that those cost a total of 9 BP, while Ambidextrous only costs 5. I realize that the added benefits are worth it, but couldn't scrounge up the extra 4 BP from anywhere that I wanted to sacrifice from. Oh, hey! Found a spot. Locksmith reduced from 2 to 1, got rid of Ambidextrous, picked up Ninjutsu 1, Off-Hand Training, and Two-Weapon Style.



I don't see dual-wielding firearms as being a focus for this character - firearms are more a method of non-lethal takedown/an item of necessity for him. One at a time is fine.



Quite right about sneaking around the security checkpoint, but also quite right about not being able to do that all of the time. Ceramic Knife x2 added since it never hurts to be armed well when meeting with Mr. Johnson in a high class restaurant.



Well, no need to be flattered - I'm just taking good advice! As for liking the threads I post... I think that there's minimal chance for shouting matches in them simply because they're pretty straightforward and I like to actually take advice and constructive criticism as they're offered. Just wait until I get around to posting some of the more complex characters... then we'll see =P Speaking of, a traditional cyber street sam has entered into my plans (mainly because I started drawing up something else and wound up playing with cyberware in a big way), so the new roster to come is: Gunslinger Adept (almost done), Street Samurai (also almost done, actually), Mage, and Hacker/Technomancer.

Anyhow, thanks for all of the help, and please keep the critiques for this character coming!

On the one hand, I had envisioned you picking up Ninjutsu as chargen, and being taught Off-Hand Training and Two-Weapon Style in play. Then again, Locksmith isn't usually the most vital skill, and besides, a high-rated autopicker can really help, so skimming off that probably won't hurt.

I'll post on the rest when they're done! And trust me, I know the feeling of "can't find a group, guess I'll just make characters."

Just popped back in to say - the Vibro Blade Knife isn't any more or less legal than the Colt Government 2066! They're both 6R. The Vibro Blade Sword, on the other hand, will get you hauled away right quick. Also, some fake licenses may be in order for this character... I'll have to think that over a bit.

A fake license would be a good idea (and, unless you find a total hardass GM, you can get a "security equipment" license, or a "concealed blades" license), but if you get fake licenses, you'll also need a fake SIN, because they need to be attached to one, and yours is a little hot right now, right?

Also, dunno how I missed the vibroknife thing. I guess I saw that the sword is 8F, and assumed the knife would also be Forbidden.