I've had an idea for a while now for a street samurai who starts with a bunch of genetic enhancements but no 'ware - awesome eventually, but relatively wimpy to start. It began as a way to get around the money wasted in the long run by starting with inferior 'ware and upgrading to beta or delta, and it grew from there. Here's what I ended up with, using 600 Karmagen (I used 599) with full (BP x 2) race costs. He's optimized for a long campaign in which he can go for a full-body cyber replacement, preferably with a houseruled essence discount per limb for bodyware. With 4.2 essence left, he could easily get full-body betaware limb replacement, probably eschewing skull replacement - At .47 essence and 9900, it's not worth it for 2/3 of an armor point (assuming averaged armor values and averaged attributes which don't include the skull), and I don't see a cyberskull significantly discounting bodyware essence like limbs or torso would.

Gunther Hermann
Ork
Resources 220k, total starting cash 250k (in debt)
Lives in the Ork Underground

Qualities:

Contacts:

Attributes:

Active Skills:

Languages & Knowledge Skills:

Wares (prices include black market pipeline & genecrafted):

Gear:

Lifestyle:

Gunther doesn't really "get" other people; he tends to be socially inappropriate, displaying some of the hallmarks of high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome. He tends to shoot his mouth off at inoppertune moments, and doesn't seem to understand social graces.

One possible background:
Gunther was a megacorp experiment, one of many babies who were genetically altered as fetuses. The original program called for the babies to be brought up in various enviornments and observed. However, the patients' files were corrupted during a botched datasteal - in Gunther's case, they lost all the information they had about him for the past decade or so. The corp's been trying to find them ever since - but the project data was leaked, so everyone else is too. (This explains the Wanted quality - they have some pertinant medical information, including age and metatype, as well as his probable location [somewhere in the Seattle metroplex], and they can extrapolate probable height/weight/etc. from his medical records, but they don't know more than that, and they're also trying to find the others)

Alternate possible background:
Gunther's parents were successful, retired Shadowrunners, members of the Ork underground who had him after they settled down. Wanting the best for their child, they paid for the best in-utero genetic enhancements they could afford. One of their old enemies found them shortly after Gunther was born, but nobody outside the Underground knew about him, so when they were killed, Gunther (still an infant at the time) was raised by old friends of his parents'. (This background would require replacement of the Wanted quality with something else)

Neither of these backgrounds is complete; either way I'll have to flesh it out. I'd appreciate suggestions towards improving whichever backstory I end up using (I favor the first).

I'm assuming you got Uncouth because it really fit your concept, because you are paying what looks to be 18 extra points in social skills for a 20 point negative quality. Personally, I think you could pull the high-functioning autism thing solely with a low Charisma and low social skills, rather than shooting yourself in the foot like that.

You can only take genetic optimization once per Attribute, so you can't take it twice for Reaction (assuming that's not something like a cut-and-paste error: I've done that).

My overall take on this character is that he would eventually become a powerhouse, but getting there could be a problem. He's a newbie runner. How is he going to get the big jobs that he will need to be able to afford all of this? He is viable in a campaign with fairly rapid advancement, but he will be overshadowed a lot in the meantime, unless the rest of the group is at a similar level.

I'll think about replacing Uncouth; I'm an Aspie myself and like the idea of all the genetic tinkering having subtle effects like that. Do you have a recommendation for what I might take instead? Gene Freak might work, but I'm at a loss for what he might look like. I've looked into it in the past, and I'm just not happy with any of the possibilities I've looked at.


The reaction thing was indeed a cut/paste error; fixed, thanks.


He's only 600 karma; he'd do fairly well in a street-level campaign, gang wars and the like. He's definitely built for the long haul. He would indeed be overshadowed by 750 karma characters, and would be a bit underpowered even compared to 600 karma characters, but not too badly, I think.

armor in cyberlimbs is not averaged, btw

also, uncouth is like getting shot in the face with a hammer. repeatedly. and not one of those smooth hammers, either; think something like a meat tenderizer. only the size of a sledge.

per the rules: you cannot lie. you cannot tell when someone else is telling a lie. you cannot negotiate. you cannot resist negotiation. you cannot intimidate someone. you cannot resist intimdation from someone. you cannot be polite. you cannot be offended by someone else's rudeness (well, at least this i could see fitting into a lot of character types). you cannot attempt to lead people. you cannot attempt to resist being lead. and the only way to make the concept work at all is basically to spend more points on social skills than you got from uncouth. if you want to RP having aspergers, RP having aspergers and just keep your social skills low and your charisma low.

it is important to understand that uncouth doesn't do at all what the name sounds like (also, avoid infirm like the plague, it is pretty much the same; you can't jump, sprint, climb, swim, perceive things, etc). i cannot imagine a single viable character concept that the uncouth attribute actually fits (unless you assume the person is more trained than the average human being in all the skills he apparently has a harder time learning; remember, 0 skill is what normal people have)

Okay, okay, uncouth gone. Suggestions for a replacement?

If you want to play subtle social effects of the geneware, there are a number of qualities from Augmentation - mania/phobia or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) would fit best. Runner's Companion also has bi-polar and the various poor self control qualities.

Vindictive + Gene Freak might work - both obvious and subtle effects, and Vindictive works nicely with Gene Freak's suggestion of playing up the effects of years of social rejection. I'd have to remove the cram addiction, though, as the negative qualities would add up to -80 otherwise.