420 BP - starting a little higher than average to catch up with a game in session.

Dwarf Technomancer

Body 3
Agility 2
Reaction 2
Strength 3
Charisma 5
Intuition 5
Logic 5
Willpower 6
Edge 3
Resonance 6

Skills:
Electronics Group 1
Cracking Group 3
Compiling 3
Registering 1
Dodge 1
Perception 1
Etiquette 1

Knowledges:
Sperethiel 5
Matrix Games 5
Matrix Clubs 4
Matrix Topography 4
Data Havens 4
Icon Design 4
'Dude With A Girl Icon' Sense 4

Contacts:
Technomancer guild 4/8 (using group contact rules from RC)
Data broker 2/2

Positive Qualities:
Technomancer 5

Negative Qualities:
Data Shadow 5
Day Job 5
Media Junkie(Mild) 5
SINner 5
Virtual Personality III 15

Complex Forms:
Analyze 6
Command 6
Armor 6
Attack 6
Decrypt 6
ECCM 6
Exploit 6
Spoof 6
Stealth 6
Shielding 6

Gear:
2 Fake SINs (Rating 4)
Tag Eraser
Form-Fitting Full-Body Armor (w/fire resistance 3, nonconductivity 3, chemical protection 3)
Helmet (w/micro-transceiver 6, flare compensation, sound filter)
SecureTech Vitals Protector, Arm/Leg Guards, Forearm Guards
High lifestyle, 1 month

There's some cash left over, I'm eyeing drones with the thought of being able to actually shoot things.

The concept's that our boy here is a normal schlub (SINner) net addict (Media Junkie, Virtual Personality) who plays online games like no tomorrow. He's the head of a large guild in the ever popular Earthdawn MMORPG and has a side-business of selling virtual in-game stuff to people for non-virtual cashola. He's a little Internet Famous as a guildleader, so he's not very incognito online (Data Shadow), and the guild has two raid nights a week that he "has" to attend (Day Job). He doesn't have a real job, hacking a steady stream of motel rooms to crash in, though he maintains his dead parents' home as a safehouse. (The high lifestyle cost comes from the very middle-class house having a resonance well.) He's something of an elf poser, playing an elven character in-game and being fluent in Sperethiel, but isn't deranged enough to try to pass for an elf out in the real world.

His life of crime is to fund his steady stream of junk food and matrix gaming, rather than any particularly noble motives. Not a lethal sort of person by nature, he doesn't carry any brain-frying software, and even if he could use a gun worth a damn, he wouldn't be very inclined to shoot someone unless his back was to the metaphorical wall. Not so much because he's any sort of saint, but more because he can view his hacking as a victimless crime if nobody gets hurt.

I like the style and love the "'Dude With A Girl Icon' Sense 4" knowledge skill. Very funny.

Body 3 huh? Can you wear all that armor without encumbrance? Or just don't mind the hit to physical abilities while wearing it?

Even if you can wear all that, you might want to consider something less conspicuous to wear in public areas where you might be asked questions by the Star or local security on the way to the job or while staking out a place.

Very Entertaining... I like it...

Keep the Faith

Form-fitting body armor only counts as half its rating for purposes of armor encumbrance, so even though it's 6/2, it only counts as 3/1. The other armor pieces come to 3/5, giving a very respectable 9/7 without pushing him into penalties. He's far from invulnerable, but the occasional stray bullet shouldn't cripple him.

That's a good point about armored street clothes for when he's not on a run; I'll see about slipping those in.

OK, first...that is ALOT of points put into complex forms! Personally, I would reduce your
Resonance and your complex forms by 1, and add 1 to your Compiling Skill group, then
add in either the CodeSlinger(Threading) trait or the Natural Hardening Trait. Use the
remaining points to get yourself a self-defense combat skill(I would recommend pistols,
myself), because, honestly, I would not be even a rich kid who lived a pampered life without
having SOME skill with a pistol in the 2070's...

Well using BP to raise Resonance and complex forms is cheaper than with karma. I'd say keep them.

Buying 6th point in Res and 10 CFs: 25 + 10*1 = 35 BP
Buying 6th point in Res and 10 CFs: 5*6 + 10 *6 = 90 karma

1 BP ~ 2 karma, so 70 karma vs 90 karma...

I'm inclined to say that you use Computers for things like gaming, since it's pretty much the general skill for any computer use tasks not covered by anything else. So maybe you want to raise that a bit to guild-leader respectable levels.

High CF is cost effective, true, but seems a bit out of tune with rather low Electronics groups to me. I mean, you probably learn CFs by threading them a lot with Software..

As for self-defense, try the Fichetti Security 600 with Stick-n-Shock rounds. It does a lot of stun damage. Effective, but morally neutral. And it has that amazing 30 bullets capacity.

As an alternative, try the Hammerli 620S; a light pistol with heavy pistol range, internal smartgun and gas-vent system. I figure such a high-tech weapon would suit a technomancer. Again with the SnS round for moral high ground (It's a dangerous city, you want to be able to put muggers to "sleep").

You can't just compare buying Resonance with BP vs. Karma. You have to look at how else you could have spent the BP.

6th Attribute point=25 BP or 30 Karma
A skill at 6=24 BP or 44 Karma.

It's more efficient buying the skill to six with those BP.

Now, let's compare Attributes:

Raising Resonance to 6 costs you 25 BP *and* move 5 BP from Attributes to another category. Those 30 BP could be used to raise an Attribute from 1 to 4.
Res 5->6: 30 Karma
Charisma 1->4: 45 Karma.
You'd need to spend those 5 BP on something that costs 15 Karma just to break "even".

Maxing out Attributes with BP isn't karma-efficient until the Attribute reaches 9 or so.

CF 5->6 1 BP or 6 karma.

So using 5 BP to raise 5 CFs to 6 is worth 5*6 = 30 karma.

Raising attribute to max isn't normally effective, but because Res sets cap to CF max value, as a whole it is efficient.

Also this build suffers from an amazingly low Computer score (Electronics Skill Group 1) and Software skill - which is used for Threading. This is unforgivable in a TM build.

- J.

Have you tried convincing your GM to use the optional rules from Unwired for Complex forms? It could make things a lot easier.

Ah, I didn't realize that was what you were driving at.

i'd suggest higher skill levels and maybe sacrificing some body and other physical stats for extra BP, i mean if you end up in a combat situation your teammates do their shtick and everyone's happy. also, on another note, my friend played a technomancer and had sprites constantly videotaping our encounters and posting them on the matrix for noteriety and what not and it worked really well.

good luck

aka RunnerTube^tm? We did this too.

yeah we shoulda made a web page and all that o.o

CF's are a good buy at chargen; but don't neglect the one thing that really makes TMs uber pwnage: Sprites. Compiling and Registering Sprites can pretty much make you an unseeable, unstoppable, and unfuckable hacker in the matrix. I personally think it's worth it to drop Resonance and your 10 CF's down to 5 - you're saving 45 bp (55 if you drop willpower down to 5, which you should with a resonance of 5), which you can do a lot with, in exchange for 1 or 2 less dice per pool. What to do with your extra 55 bp?

CFs: I would leave Decrypt actions for sprites and Edit would probably be useful to have without needing to thread or rely on a sprite.

Traits:
Codeslinger is a very very good trait. Control Device, Hack on the Fly, and Matrix Attack are the most useful actions to specialize in.
Paragons are nice: Figure out which Sprite complements your weak areas the best and a get a Paragon that specializes in that Sprite. One with Data Search, Decrypt, Defuse, etc would be pretty helpful. In addition, use it to Assist Operation your Stealth CF and laugh, laugh, laugh.
Analytical Mind: + 2 to Software Tests. You use Software to thread. This is a great one for TMs.
Perceptive: +1 to both physical and matrix perception, for 5 bp. It saves you 3 bp per level, and seeing things before they see you is very important in Shadowrun.

Skills:
The Electronics Group:
You want Computer higher than 1 - Matrix Perception is important!
You want Software higher than 1 - You need to be able to thread CFs you don't have.
You don't need Hardware (obvious) or Data Search (it governs exactly one action. Have a sprite do it instead.)
Therefore, drop the group and buy up the two skills you will use. It will save you BPs.

Cracking Group:
You need Hacking.
You need Cybercombat.
You don't need Electronic Warfare - I am serious. Take a look at all matrix actions EW governs: Detect Hidden Node, Initiate Cryptanalysis, Capture Wireless Signal, and... that's it. Use Sprites to do those three things for you. So why have EW at all? You certainly will never need Hardware, so scratch the group, get Computer and Software higher, and save your self some BPs. TMs need them like Hackers need more Nuyen.

Compiling Group:
Decompiling sucks. Get the other two skills up to 5. Sprites are special, and are what make you more than a hacker who can't hack as good as the other hackers.

Dodge: You use this in physical Get it up higher. You will especially need it for those Oh Shit! moments in the real world, and it comes in handy if you ever decide to Rig.

If you have BP left over, you may want to consider giving him some more face skills, to take advantage of the 5 charisma.