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galvatron42
Hello everyone. I'm getting ready to play my first Shadowrun games in years at GenCon this year. I played for a few months back in high school and loved the game. I picked up a copy of the 4th edition rulebook a few years back, but have never been able to get enough intrest to start a game (my gaming group prefers traditional fantasy games, we are playing Pathfinder right now). I have signed up for 2 games at GenCon this year and am playing around with character ideas. I wanted to introduce myself to the community and see if there was any intrest in helping me get my characters done right. Having been so long since I've played, and not playing a lot then, I am afraid I may miss something or not understand something properly when I am making my characters. I look forward to talking with everyone and learning the rules again. Thanks...
Patrick Goodman
Welcome to the party!
BlueMax
Welcome.

This board can certainly help with rules accuracy but please remember: If its fun, nothing could be better for your game.

BlueMax
augmentin
What type of character are you looking for?
hermit
Forget hat you may remember. SR4 is radically different from SR 1 theough 3. Start anew.

Also, as for characters, it is common good for learning what to look out for if you build a character that is about as you'd like it to be, and post it her, open for corrections and criticism.

Also, welcome to the crazyness known as Dumpshock and SR fandom. Have a pair of fireproof underwear.
galvatron42
Thanks for the greetings and advice. I had planned on asking if I could post my characters for review, though I was worried that it would seem too ...what is the word..."needy" I guess. As for character ideas, I am thinking of a gunslinger adept, though different from the one presented in the corebook. And a brick type troll character (nasty brawler type). I have seen reference to a SR4A. Is that a revised ruleset, or the special anniversary edition book? I have 4th edition, but not the anniversary version. Thanks again everyone.
augmentin
QUOTE (galvatron42 @ May 12 2010, 04:29 PM) *
As for character ideas, I am thinking of a gunslinger adept, though different from the one presented in the corebook. And a brick type troll character (nasty brawler type).


As hermit pointed out, it's generally best to post your character and then refine it through critiques. Also as hermit pointed out, have thick skin. Don't worry about being needy. Everyone here is needy. The greater dumpshock sin is being sensitive.

As far as gunslinger adepts, definitely a fun build, though if you're looking for raw firepower, I might suggest some sort of drone rigger. For the troll brick, I recommend mystic adept with a possession tradition. Once you initiate and get channelling, you become quite the tank. The traditional Cyber trolls are fun, too. Do what you'll like!
Xahn Borealis
QUOTE (augmentin @ May 12 2010, 10:34 PM) *
Don't worry about being needy. Everyone here is needy. The greater dumpshock sin is being sensitive.



QFT biggrin.gif
koogco
Yes, if you take anything personal in here, you are screwed.
As for your character; Don't be afraid that its not 100% optimal. As long as you don't ignore general skillgroups and basic skills like perception, its easy to make a character that is playable. And if you are going to play it for a short time, sometimes its more fun to end up roleplaying something you where not really expecting, than to have a "perfect" character.
There are a ton of archetypes you can go for, but if you want to experience more of the game, don't be afraid to throw some differnet things in there. Some social skills, for example, isnt a bad idea at all. I find that while we talk about combat 80% of the time on the forums (and I think about it 80% of the time when making a character...) combat is more along the lines of 10% of the actual gameplay. The rest of the time is spent utilizing contacts, speaking to Mr Johnsons, planning with the team, sneaking about, or bluffing your way into places you are not supposed to be. In short, min maxed characters suck in this game, unless you are playing it "hack n slash" style, but I hope thats not what people do at concentions, as it would give a completely wrong picture of the game.

Hack n Slash can be fun, mind you. But not for long, in my oppinion.
tagz
QUOTE (koogco @ May 12 2010, 10:36 PM) *
Yes, if you take anything personal in here, you are screwed.
As for your character; Don't be afraid that its not 100% optimal. As long as you don't ignore general skillgroups and basic skills like perception, its easy to make a character that is playable. And if you are going to play it for a short time, sometimes its more fun to end up roleplaying something you where not really expecting, than to have a "perfect" character.
There are a ton of archetypes you can go for, but if you want to experience more of the game, don't be afraid to throw some differnet things in there. Some social skills, for example, isnt a bad idea at all. I find that while we talk about combat 80% of the time on the forums (and I think about it 80% of the time when making a character...) combat is more along the lines of 10% of the actual gameplay. The rest of the time is spent utilizing contacts, speaking to Mr Johnsons, planning with the team, sneaking about, or bluffing your way into places you are not supposed to be. In short, min maxed characters suck in this game, unless you are playing it "hack n slash" style, but I hope thats not what people do at concentions, as it would give a completely wrong picture of the game.

Hack n Slash can be fun, mind you. But not for long, in my oppinion.

I agree with just about all of this.

Biggest thing is to make a concept you will enjoy. Optimizing is fine, but sometimes you can limit your own play experience with it. I have a player in my game that is very good at getting the maximum power out of a character. Thing is, I'm not going to scale the difficulty just for him I'm going to base it on the group, so since he's more powerful then the other combat characters he tends to not be challenged much. Also, he is a bit specialized and sometimes can't contribute much outside of combat and stealth. It's a shame, he's a great player.

First, I'd find out what sort of game the GM is planning on playing. If it's going to be heavy combat, or if it's going to be much more dialog and cloak and dagger.

Also, as a GM I highly recommend taking one skill that seems a bit out of character/concept. It just seems unrealistic to me that just because someone is a "gun-bunny" they only know skills related to shooting, dodging, combat, or gun repair, etc. Toss 'em a rank 1 in Artisan, Survival, Navigation, Escape Artist, Lockpicking, Disguise, Swimming, etc. It would help make the character feel more "real" and you might be surprised how often that "odd-ball" skill might come up.
hermit
Survival, Computer, a driving skill, Athletics and Infiltration really are skills any aspiring runner should have to at least some degree, if you ask me. Nothing like an aspiring streetsam who cannot move silently if his life depended on it - which it may well do.
galvatron42
Well, the games I am playing in are Jackknifed (one of the Missions) and Babes in Toyland (which I understand to be a one shot deal). Has anyone played the Jackknifed mission that could shed a little light on the type of mission it is? Also, can someone tell me the difference between the SR4 and SR4A I keep seeing? My character concepts right now are a "gun monk" and a "reluctant brawler". The gun monk I was thinking of making as a gunslinger adept, whose is fanatical about the old spaghetti western era. (Duster, wide brim hat, twin revolvers, drives a harley (i believe I've heard them called steel horses) Perhaps even giving him a slight addiction to western themed BTL's. I would really like to try a mage type, but I am a little worried about trying that with such little experience. Thanks for the help everyone.
tagz
SR4 = Shadowrun Core 4 rule book
SR4A = Shadowrun Aniversary Core 4 rule book

Basically the same book, but SR4A has some errata, some improvements in layout and readability (Matrix section I'm looking at you), and a few rules and entries from the other source books that were deemed worth putting into the core book. Use SR4A if you can, if not then print out some errata.
Caadium
QUOTE (galvatron42 @ May 12 2010, 04:51 PM) *
Well, the games I am playing in are Jackknifed (one of the Missions) and Babes in Toyland (which I understand to be a one shot deal). Has anyone played the Jackknifed mission that could shed a little light on the type of mission it is? Also, can someone tell me the difference between the SR4 and SR4A I keep seeing? My character concepts right now are a "gun monk" and a "reluctant brawler". The gun monk I was thinking of making as a gunslinger adept, whose is fanatical about the old spaghetti western era. (Duster, wide brim hat, twin revolvers, drives a harley (i believe I've heard them called steel horses) Perhaps even giving him a slight addiction to western themed BTL's. I would really like to try a mage type, but I am a little worried about trying that with such little experience. Thanks for the help everyone.


SR4A is the 20th Anniversary edition. It updated a few things from SR4. If the core rulebook you have is SR4 then I would check out this link:

http://shadowrun4.com/resources/sr4a/sr4a_changes.pdf

tagz
QUOTE (galvatron42 @ May 12 2010, 11:51 PM) *
Well, the games I am playing in are Jackknifed (one of the Missions) and Babes in Toyland (which I understand to be a one shot deal). Has anyone played the Jackknifed mission that could shed a little light on the type of mission it is? Also, can someone tell me the difference between the SR4 and SR4A I keep seeing? My character concepts right now are a "gun monk" and a "reluctant brawler". The gun monk I was thinking of making as a gunslinger adept, whose is fanatical about the old spaghetti western era. (Duster, wide brim hat, twin revolvers, drives a harley (i believe I've heard them called steel horses) Perhaps even giving him a slight addiction to western themed BTL's. I would really like to try a mage type, but I am a little worried about trying that with such little experience. Thanks for the help everyone.

A gunslinger adept isn't that difficult a concept. Also, if you're duel-wielding then Ambidextrous Quality is a must.

Though, if you wanted to try out a spell-slinger but are afraid you don't know the rules well enough you could always make yourself a mystic-adept and just invest all your points into the adept side for now. Then, once you feel more comfortable with the rules Initiate and invest some magic into the mystic side. Problem with this is that your spell power will be fairly weak and it will be fairly high cost doing this if you started with a high magic score. But something to consider.
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