So with summer upon us, my friends and I are looking forward to a bit more gaming. We all have something we are looking forward to running while we have the extra time. One of the guys is doing a Shadowrun, and it's been a long time since I played that one. I've got my character bascially figured out concept-wise, I need some help with the statting out. Here's what I've got...

Elf Street Samurai, name undecided
Years ago, he was a great assassin. Stationed in Hong Kong, he was one of the best of the best. SIN-less, he was almost impossible to track. There was just one problem... And it was a pretty big one. He really liked his VR games, which wasn't too bad in and of itself, but he also really liked his drugs. Eventually, the two didn't mix very well, and he found himself narrowly escaping forced "retirement."
Fleeing to Seattle, neither of his problems got much better. In fact, they were so linked now, he seemed to see the world as an extension of his games. Sooner rather than later, his money began to dry up... Which meant the drugs were drying up to. As fate would have it, he was dound by a Johnson who recognized his potential, if not he himself. Setting him up with a new home and gear, Johnson welcome him to the world of the shadows. Now he's trying to get clean, but old habits (and their effects) are hard to break...

So how would you stat him? Not the whole thing, of course, just the broad strokes and I can fill in the details...

Seems pretty easy...just create whatever kind of character you want and give him the Addiction flaw and/or the Media Junky flaw (I'd go with the latter since it's basically Matrix/VR addiction).

Vatjob or Adept, that is the question.

Or Both

I'd veto it if I were GM. Either that, or I'd stack them and exploit it as much as possible, because it's basically getting the build points for the exact same flaw, like taking Enemy twice for the same NPC.

He's addicted both to drugs and to BTL that seems logical

Hmm... Seems like both would be too much. Have to ask the GM.

So would we suggest Street Sam or Gun Adept?

Oops, my fault...I missed the drug addition. I just saw the VR games addiction (I personally find it hilarious a hardened street sam would be addicted to Farmville).

While it's all well and good to want to be "one of the best," do remember you're making a starting character. "Lots of potential" is a lot easier to stat up and justify in-game than "already the best in the world," y'know?

IIRC, an adept can get more dice, but there's just so much fun cyber/bio/nano/geneware to play with - and you can get more than enough dice either way. So, it really comes down to how you see the character, and what books you have.

I'd go with some Unwired qualities: Media Junkie and Reality impaired. Ought to cover the VR-addiction.

Consider technomancer. It kind of makes sense - and using drugs to get your extra passes fits with your theme.

With a submersion or two TM's can make decent stealth-samurai's, and can take some typical samurai things like smartlinks, simrigs and tacnets with complex forms.

Just throught I'd throw that possibility out there.

Well, see, I was kinda looking at the "best assassin" thing as in his past, ya know? Now he's so messed up, he's not much better than a starting Shadowrunner (he may have a few point advantage from all the flaws, I dunno). So as he gains experience and gets his shit together, he starts to drift more towards how he used to be, and if he lives long enough, gets to be that awesome "again."

That's what I was shooting for, anyways...