Any input would be welcomed. I have never played a Street Sam and I have gone through numerous revisions over the last couple of days.

It is a 500 BP game with four players. Game will be players as special unit cops in a mega-sprawl, running from UCAS/CAS border to Corpus Christi. We'll mostly pick our own cases. Mess up and get demoted. Do well and prosper.. professionally, criminally, socially... whatever. Basic cop skills will be added for free if not purchased at a higher value. Pistol, Baton, Knowledge: Law

Usually I go with Adept but we have a player who is playing an Adept who is the "Scout" type. The game will be over the top and we don't have the combat role covered so that is my niche this go around.

Any advice?

What kinds of restrictions do you have on your build? (That is, how much can you spend on attributes and gear? I'm guessing 250 and 50, respectively, but that might not be the case. Also, are you bound by the normal availability rules?)

The first big decision is metatype. I'm generally inclined to stick with human for the extra edge.

Gear is very important for a street sam. Get 'ware. Extra IPs are an absolute must - Wired Reflexes are OK but see if you can get your hands on synaptic boosters. Whether or not you want cyberlimbs is really up to you - I am of the opinion that there are more useful things you can spend your Essence and nuyen on, but even I must admit that gyro stabilization (built-in recoil comp, stacks with gas-vent and whatnot) is incredibly useful.

Pick a wide variety of skills. Make sure you pick up Heavy Weapons and Throwing - you'd be amazed at how many people skimp out on those and end up fumbling with an LMG or throwing the pin.

Be a badass. What else is there to say?

We're going by the book and using half of our build points on Attributes and no more then 50 on Resources. Human you say? I don't like the lowered Agi but I was thinking about Troll for the increased Body.

Use 250 BP for normal Attributes.
Ask your GM if you can spend more than 50 BP on Resources. 'Ware isn't that cheap.

You may want to think about buying Heavy MilSpec armor with STR Upgrade, Mobility Upgrade (as needed), Ruthenium Coating etc. thanks to the Restricted Gear quality

Muscle Toner 4 (again with Restricted gear) is a no-brainer IMHO.

I do like the MBW, but this does restrict you to 3IPs at Chargen. It frees up points on Reaction though.

@Recoil Compensation: especially if you use heavy weapons buy a Gyrostabilization Unit (the worn one, not the gyros in cyberarms). With RC5 in the weapon and the harness you can fire full bursts without negative modifiers while running. And you don't even suffer the drawbacks of previous editions.

@Trolls: While they are tough, they are also recognisable large and heavy. This is not always a good thing. Orks are cheaper, less obvious and almost as tough.

I'd say Ork - they're almost as capable in terms of body, cost half as much, and in general are a good choice - I personally back the Synaptic Boosters route rather than MBW, because it's less invasive (less Essence-intense) and while you done get the huge reaction and skillwires, I still think the sacrifice is worth it, for you to be able to fit more random junk into yourself.

A valid point, but using an essence hungry piece of initiative enhancement (i.e. cyberware) frees up more essence for nice bioware like synthacardium, suprathyroid gland, Muscle toner/augmentation, orthoskin, bone density augmentation etc.

An interesting way to look at it, but true. Since your larger essence is in cyber, it basically cuts the essence cost of all bioware in half.

Edit: Standard limiting to 12 availability too? You should really consider asking the resources to be bumped up to 60 or 75 BP and availability cap up to maybe 16 or so. Otherwise you don't get the power progression that you should with resource intensive builds out of 500 BP (Riggers and hackers especially advance alot more by nuyen expenditure than BP/karma)

I use synaptic boosters more for adepts, who need to be really Essence-conscious. Street samurai rely on 'ware for everything, so it's not a good idea to blow 160,000 on nothing but a Reaction/initiative enhancement. They also need senseware, Agility and Strength enhancing 'ware, dice pool boosters (such as synthcardium or reflex recorders), and 'ware such as bone lacing, orthoskin, etc. to help them soak damage. For initiative enhancements, I find wired reflexes: 2 (often alphaware) and two levels of reaction enhancers are about the best you can get without using the restricted gear quality.

For 500 points, I would probably be an ork, take the full 250 allowable for Attributes, and 50 for resources. That still leaves 180 points for skills and contacts, enough to be good in combat and a few other areas and know enough useful people (and since they are "legitimate" characters rather than career criminals, they don't need contacts to get jobs, gear, ID, etc. - they will mostly need contacts solely for information gathering).

What books are you using? I ask because there are things in Augmentation and Runner's Companion that aid immeasurably in pimping a street samurai. Mainly the genetic heritage, restricted gear, and born rich qualities.

I am sorry but what does MBW stand for?

Move-by-Wire. The state of the art initiative enhancement&Skillwires&dodge Bonus.

Move-By-Wire. It is in augmentation and is basically Wired reflexes with an extra kick.

I called the GM and he said that 50 BPs on resources was the max and he was sticking with it. At the moment I only have the main book but I will be picking up the others from my GM.

Unless I am misreading some comments, it seems that for 500BPs and a somewhat limited resources, it seems that Adept might be a better route.

Most likely. All the extra BP will make a 5 magic exceedingly easy and a 6 not overly painful. In general mages are going to benefit alot more from the extra BP if resource restrictions aren't lifted at all.

It depends. I'll give one example:

For a mundane, you will be spending, say, 20 to be an ork, 250 on core Attributes, 40 to soft-max Edge, 50 on resources, and 140 on skills and contacts, assuming that positive and negative qualities are balanced.

For an adept, probably about the same, but you will also be spending 65 points for a Magic of 6, leaving only 75 points for skills and contacts. Since that is not really enough, you will probably have to lower what you spend on Attributes a bit. On the other hand, assuming you get synaptic booster: 2, muscle toner: 4, and two reflex recorders, you will have 4 power points to use to boost this guy up.

So the mundane guy will probably have (for example) wired reflexes (alpha), reaction enhancers: 2, orthoskin: 3, muscle toner: 4, cybereyes with some mods, two reflex recorders, and a bit of other enhancements. So he will have +2 reaction, 3 points of dermal armor, and some enhanced senses compared to the adept - and have 65 more points that he can spend on Attributes, skills, and/or contacts.

So the question is: how do 4 power points compare with all of that? You could get 3 levels of combat sense, 2 levels of improved ability, killing hands, and 4 levels of critical strike, for instance, to make someone who rolls more dice to hit, does more damage, and can hurt things like spirits. The sammie will be more versatile, but the adept will be a better martial artist. Street samurai make better generalists (in the sense of being overall good in combat, rather than the Jack of all trades sense), while adepts make better specialists.

Mundage guy? Okay, here you go

Positive Qualities:
Restricted Gear(Move By Wire)
Born Rich 10
Genetic Heritage 10 (Adapsin) Alternatively, Genetic Optimization Reaction or Agility. Its only 1 bp more, and saves that cash from hitting your limit. The sideways Genetic Infusion is also good.
Genecrafted 5
=25 points. 10 left. Options:
Biocompatability for more essence reduction. Black Market Contacts for Implants, which shaves 10% off their cost. More Restricted Gear for a Nanohive or Milspec armor.

This nets you a 20% Cost discount on all genetic treatments, and 20% more on Transgenic EPE's, of which there are some good ones. Because they cost less, you use less of your Cash Limit, and can fit more ware in. You want Synch and Reakt. I'd probably throw in PuSHeD because, with those build points, you might as well snag the cracking group 4 on the cheap.

85000 for the MBW2. 75000, discounted to 45000 for the Genetweaks. 130k nuyen spent, leaving 170000 unspent.

Extra gear:
A Gyroharness - 6 points of recoil comp? Please. Partner that with an Ingram White Knight for a gasvent 5, and you can fullburst all day. Two more points, and you can do it while Running - the gyroharness neutralizes movement penalties too, which is a -2 for running.
Reflex recorders: Dodge
Skillwire expert system. Cheap enough to alphawear.

That's the shortlist. Hope it helps.

Nanohive doesn't require restricted quality unless you go higher than 2.

Also, it fits well in cyberlimbs

I recommend them all the way.

Problem is, he said he only has the core book.

Sticking with that, I personally prefer the Mr. Lucky build: sammie with 8 Edge and 18 dice in Pistols. You've got plenty left over to be decent in the other areas, so you can pick up a social skill or two, as well as rounding out any other areas you might need. Skillwires also help here, although you really need the Skillwire Expert System from Augmentation to compliment the high Edge. Edge doesn't count against the Attribute BP limit, so you'll still have high basic attributes.

Normally I advise against true hard-capping of Edge (or any attribute, for that matter-- Agility and Edge are the only ones I'd even consider) since even 5 or 6 points is usually so powerful that you can afford to grab a whole mess of contacts* and another skill group instead and still have enough exploding dice to be sitting rather pretty in the event of an unforeseen occurrence. But with 500 bps to play with? No objections whatsoever. Go nuts with the Edge.



*I usually try to avoid tacking on a "YMMV" to my posts, but with contacts it's practically mandatory. In my experience no other asset can mean so much or so little depending on the way the GM structures his games.

Since he's running a "legit" character, black-market contacts for illegal goods becomes less necessary. He can simply requisition what he needs; no need to go through a fixer or fence contact for specialty ammo or weapons or 'ware. That does free up quite a few points.

Given the quirks of this campaign, Cain, I'd go with Lucky with maxed Longarms, since he is getting Pistols for free. He's a cop, shotguns under the dashboard wouldn't be out of place. In some countries, cops openly walking around with shotguns are commonplace, though I am told European cops tend to favor the SMG.

To do so while running you only need 11 points of Recoil/Movement Compensation: Full Burst -9, Running -2. Two more you would only need if you modded the White Knight to High Velocity. Beats a Minigun everytime IMHO.
I don't think this is useful ware. All it does is allow you to use Edge to re-roll a failed test. No rule of six, no nothing, just another chance. At least that is how I read it.

Can't get Adapsin with Genetic Heritage. Read the description for Adapsin. Cannot be gotten in CG because it is too new.

Dakka,

I think only smgs and Assault rifles can be hypervelocity. Which is frustrating since they left out the mod for the miniguns.

Also, I thought on Black market pipeline last night. It seems like a clever idea for a min maxer, but truthfully its a 10 point quality that nets you up to or around 5 points in nuyen at chargen. Now, after chargen it could save you some cash.

Right, I forgot about that. Still I prefer a weapon that can fire right away over a potentially more damaging one that needs a simple action to get to speed. being able to use short and long bursts in addition to full bursts is another plus.

Hmm, HV Ares Alpha +GV3(Accessory)+Personalized Grip+Heavy Barrel+ Gyrostabilization Unit Interesting Weapons plattform, if you have both skills to operate it.

I picked up my copies of Augmentation and Arsonal today and will work out a rough draft and post it here. Thank you for all the helpful advice so far.

What book is 'Born Rich' in? Unless I am missing a rule somewhere, 'Genetic Heritage' says it does not stack with 'Genecrafted'.

Heh, Born rich is in Runners Companion.

Runners Com. isn't one of the books that I bought. Is it worth getting?

RC is great if you want to try playing more oddball races like night ones or infected or free spirits or just about anything that isn't in the core book. The other great points are a ton of new qualities and the advanced lifestyle rules.

If you're limited on cash though, it isn't required to run out and grab it, as the main feature is the new qualities (Because most GMs are wary about allowing weird races).

That's crunch wise at least. Fluff wise there is tons of great stuff like ways to help round out your character, some ideas of what sort of team rolls you might want to consider, contact ideas, and so on.

And there isn't anything about genecrafted and genetic heritage being incompadable unless there is an Errata saying as much.

Yes and no.
I liked the Runners Companion because of it had the roles of a team and how they mesh together and what kind of builds are recommended. The extra qualities and flaws were mostly good. The advanced lifestyle options are good if you like that sort of detail.
I didn't like all of meta-variant rules and options which took up most of the book. If you want to play an AI or a ghoul you need this part, but if your GM doesn't allow it then its wasted.
Read through it first, think about it and then get it.

Well, It's a fun read

But it seems to me you have everything covered to play. All the rest is just more options, and if nobody else has those books in your group, its not like you will be missing out.

Just pick em up as you go.

Runner's companion has a bunch of new and useful qualities in it, as well as much more flexible lifestyle rules. I couldn't really care about playing undead, or the build-a-furry surglings, but those the first two parts of the book i mentioned are very cool and well worth using.

If you have genetic heritage, genecrafted is redundant, since genetic heritage gives you the 20% discount on additional genetech. I would not let the two stack, since they are so similar.

How much do you want your GM to hurt you?

2 or 3 guys with a loyalty of 6 and a connection of 6 will really screw over a game. You mean I get to borrow 500k worth of equipment from each contact?

Personally, I like
Heavy weapons for grenade launchers and missiles
Firearms well I like them all from pistols, automatics to shotguns. I really like the automatic shotguns
Thrown for grenades.
Unarmed combat include some spurs and then don't worry about it.

2 Cyberarms optimized (alpha) 5 str, 5 agi, 4 bod, then add +2 to each stat via enhancement. Pick synthetic if you want to remain inconspicuous.
Wired reflexes (2) (alpha)
Cyber eyes (4)
Cyber ears (4)
Platelet factory
Trauma Damper

I like humans as they don't raise suspicion and if you go the incognito route then most people won't even notice your have cyberware.

I like heavy weapons for the white knight, grenades and rockets suck hard after 4A. Even with air burst the scatter is too big unless it is a missile. (int 3 or higher).

I'm really lovin cyber limbs since augmentation, I'd go with +4 to agility though in the stats for a 9 agility arm, I find strength much less useful. After one of my characters lost an arm, the replacement ended up being a decent power-boost.

Its worth saying that Platelet Factories and Trauma Dampeners are hilarious on spellcasters, because they work on drain.

I have looking at it as limited by the augmented maximum, which would have been 1.5 times the character attribute, which is why I put it as +2 for the stats. It would be much better to max at least 1 arm in strength and the other in agility while getting ambidextrous.

Augmented maximum for humans is 9. With some juggling you can get that easy with optimized limbs.

How the hell do you swing that kind of loan? Is there some rule about borrowing from contacts that I missed?

Yes, It is called a Favor... Page 288 of SR4A...
A Loyalty 6 Contact can, as a favor, loan the use of specialized equipment up to 500,000 Nuyen in value...

Keep the Faith

Page 288 under favors. Equal or less than the loyalty rating and with connection 6 they have the pull to do it.

Loyalty Actually, not Connection...

Keep the Faith

I was implying that you would need both to have someone be able to pull it off without a lot of complications.

Oh, Well of Course... Sorry...

Keep the Faith

I still plan on having my occult investigator start off with a contact of 12 representing a police station. Loyalty 6, connection 4, membership 2, area of influence district and minimal magical resources

Here is what I have so far. I didn't end up with a Cyberarm but the GM is allowing us to keep the unspent Resources so once I have access to better then Alpha grade, I will pick it up.

Orc

Bod 8
Agi 5
Rea 5
Str 3
Cha 3
Int 5
Log 3
Wil 3
Edge 5

Biocompatability
Genetic Heritage

Addiction - Mild
Allergy - Common Moderate
SINer
Incompetent

Resources 50BP - $250,000

Contacts
5 / 2
6 / 4
4 / 1

Know: Physiology 4
Know: Sociology 4
Know: Security Procedures 4
Know: Security Design 4
Know: Military Weaponary 4
Lan: Spanish 2
Lan: Japanese 2

Automatics 5
Dodge 5
Infiltration 4
Heavy Weapons 4
Throwing 4
Perception 4
Gunnery 4
Unarmed Combat 3
Shadowing 2
First Aid 2

Move-by-Wire rating 2 2.4 Ess

Cybereyes rating 4 0.8 Ess
Eye Recording Unit
Image Link
Vision Enhancement rating 3
Smartlink
Flare Compensation
Low Light Vision
Thermographic Vision

Cyberears rating 4 0.8 Ess
Ear Recording Unit
Soundlink
Select Sound Filter
Damper
Audio Enhancement
Spatial Recognizer
Balance Augmenter

Synthetic Torso 1.2 Ess
rating 2 Armor
rating 1 Body

Cybereyes and ears are up to 0.5 Essence per pair not for one eye or ear.

Why the cybertorso?

I assume you have resources allocated for other gear besides Cyberware.

Correct and good question.

Honestly this character seems distinctly unimpressive for 500BP.

It also seems you left some stuff out. What did you take with genetic heritage?

I was whipping up a character last night, just giving them stats and skills as I saw fit for them at the start. It came out to 641 points and was still unimpressive, 700ish points in Karma though. But for some reason I think he has points to spend, it does not look like 500 to me.

I see 148 in skills, 50 in gear, 22 in contacts, 260 in attributes(including edge), 20 race. Well I guess that is 500. One of the flaws of the BP system IMO, you can end up with somewhat mediocre stats and still have spent a shit ton of points. But basically with Body, agility, reaction, intuition at nat 5's that costs a lot, and is somewhat impressive. But a 3 strength on a orc Sam seems weird to me and a 3 willpower is a weakness. And a 5 edge is sweet IMO.

Well, I was talking alot more about equipment selection. 250k has gotten him eyes, ears, and a cybertorso that doesn't do anything. From what he said he is saving alot of that for beta gear, but personally I'd rather be able to survive my first run than save on essence a little bit for a character in which essence doesn't really matter.

It seems to me like he is being very over-cautious with his essence. (Betaware, biocompatability), and that is going to lead to a very sub-par character (Unless awakened or you go to great lengths to make an unaugmented mundane).

I mean .4 essence and 16k is enough to get him +2 agi which is +2 to combat.

Also important to note that this 500 BP Street Sam only has a single IP. Dude is going to have trouble with cops with wired reflexes I.

Then again, alot of equipment is left out, so many drugs will be helping supplement that.