I have a new player (wife of a current player) that is interested in joining the SR game that I am currently running. She is really new to RPGs in general and I need some help in creating an easy to play character for her. I was thinking of an elven stealthy physical adept that is geared toward unarmed combat and/or blades. I'm fairly new to the system myself and I haven't created a ton of characters to understand all the nuances of adepts. Any help or write-ups would be greatly appreciated.

Quick question first, did you ask her what she would like to play or the elven adept her idea?

She had no idea what she wanted to play and is completely unfamiliar with the genre. We talked about different character ideas and she liked the idea of the elven physical adept. Something cool and sexy and is easy to relate to from other movies and books (cast from Kill Bill, Miho from Sin City, etc.). The group already has a mage/face, a troll sammy, and a rigger. This character idea would allow her to fill a niche while giving her opportunities to do cool wire-fu stuff.

I Think thats a Good Idea. Adepts are (ImO) ideally for new Players.
We have the same Situation. A Couple of totally new Players .He's playing a Cat Shaman and she's playing a Ninja
OK To Topic
Elfen Adept.....and I guess You're using BP Rules ?
I'd advice to Use the full 200 BP on Attributes(AGI 6,BOD 3 ,STR3 ,INT 4 or 5,LOG might be the Dumpstat ,maybe only 2 )

Magic 5 and Edge at least 3
With Magic 5
I'd give her Boosted Reflexes 2 (2,5 Ki Points)
Missile Mastery (1 Ki-Point)
Combat Sense 1 or 2 (0,5 or 1 Pt)
improved Acrobatics or Infiltration 1 or 2 (depending on how high the Skill itself is)
and/or Power throw


He who dances with New Players
Medicineman

I'd just do a Wired character with a gun for 'simple' and 'beginner', but whatever works.

Sounds very doable. First of bioware is an adepts friend. There are a lot of implants that do things better then magic can. For instance the Adept powers that provide extra IPs aren't that cost effective when compared with bioware that gives the same thing. It's best to improve skills with adept powers after they hit 6 because last time I checked (and this was a while ago so it may have changed) the adept powers increase the whole rating instead of just giving bonus dice which increases the karma cost when improving them. As an infiltrator some technical skills would be a good idea, specifically hardware which is the main skill to get past most modern locks. Skills like climbing and focusing on gymnastics dodge is also a good idea. The synthcardium is a god sent for your average physad.

I would go with Unarmed combat and pistols.

Being able to shoot someone with a silence pistol using SnS or Gel Caps is often a god send when infiltrating

First of bioware is an adepts friend. There are a lot of implants that do things better then magic can.
That is correct(I'm playing some of them myself) ....BUT !
It's a new Player with no knowledge of the rules ,etc.
I think she's not so much interested in playing the best Char there is, but more in playing a simple char, with Rules she understands.
Thats why I suggested the ...Vanilla Adept.
Maybe later ,when she understands the Rules and the SR -World she can opt for another (Min/Maxed) Char

@Sabs
They allready have a Sam (a Troll Sam)
Her Part could/would be Infiltration, Blades and maybe Thrown Weapons

with a Vanilla Dance
Medicineman

For a beginner, I'd say cover the simpler things for her to *do*: dodge, shoot, punch, sneak.

I dunno if 3 IPs is necessary, but obviously experienced players know you want it. Likewise, and like Medicineman said, I'm not sure if bio-tweaking is a great idea for a learner. B&E is fun, and it goes along with infiltration. Get her a nice set of basic tools and a little Hardware.

Yeah OK, 3 IPs are a lot
maybe only Lvl 1 for 1,5 KiPoints.Leaves more Pointsfor other Goodies
and yes a combination of Burglar and "Ninja" is a good Idea (ImO) at first Glance
But than she'll need a lot of Skills !
Her Char should have some Melee (Blades and/or Unarmed)skills, some Firearms (or Throwing or Projectile) skills
Perception,Infiltration, Athletic Group (These are the Basics )
The Burglar also needs Hardware, ....Lockpicks(Schlosser?),...
And the Player should know (at Least a little bit) about B&E Equipment.....


HokaHey
Medicineman

Just get everything at 2.

Things the character would like:

Pistols(SA) 4
Unarmed Combat 4
Perception 3/4
Stealth Group 4
Athletic Group 3/4
Influence group 2/3
Hardware 3 (locks)
Dodge ?
Lockpicks: 2/3 (Don't forget how awesome autopickers are)

KS:
Security Procedures
Security Systems
B&E

You can do some amusing things with Adept Powers:
Skill Boost: Hardware
Skill Boost: Gymnastics
+1 IP
Enhanced Perception
Great leap
Combat Sense(maybe)
Rapid Healing

She /really/ wants a boosted Agility but.. gah that's SO expensive using PP Consider using the alternate PP costs .. I think they're obtainable by searching this forum.

Do not skimp on a decent commlink, with an agent to keep her stuff safe.

Also, cover the things for her not to do: Charge ahead and catch a burst to the chest.

As far as B&E is concerned, Sequencers, Maglock Passkeys and Autopickers work just fine for unskilled users. The disadvantage is that Sequencers and Maglock Passkeys work with opposed tests instead of extended tests, so even the most cutting-edge hardware might fail against the crappiest lock.

Hmm, sounds almost exactly like my current character.

Added bonus for the novice player - amnesia over her own background (shes actually a clone but doesn't know it) and uneducated so lack of knowledge about the world of shadowrun is IC.


Shame these forums aren't set up for tables or I could copy-paste her across from the forum where I play her.

I would do something like this
Athletics Group 3

Adept Powers
Improved ability Running
Improved ability Infiltration
Wall Glide
Traceless Step
Great Leap

Give a more John Woo Wire Ninja to a beginner
Then for Offensive Power Throw and Missle Mastery

I see everyone concentrating on the (phys) adept. A social adept would be more fun for a beginning player(especially a wife). you can add some combat support skills and such. Learning the shadows as social adept would help the player improve further down the road.

Because the OP said the Wife thought that the Elven Covert Specialist Phys Ad was sexy and that was what she was interested in. And the group already has a face type character, and this would fill a niche in the group that is unfilled and introduce her to something she finds cool.

She's a tad on the shy side and her husband is playing the elven mage/face so he has the social niche filled. I really appreciate all of the input so far and I will try to sit down to spec her character out tomorrow (gaming tonight). After reading all of the posts, I'm leaning towards the quiet but deadly adept build for her. I will run this idea by her tonight and try to get some more specific input.

There are alot natural infiltration ability with an adept with social abilities that compliment her face sculpt and voice control and other powers. It is more important for her to play what she wants.

Man ask 3 poster what are the best adept power and you get 12 different answer lol
The problem with making recommendation based upon new player is without knowing them its really hard to
make a character fit them.

The simplicity of Adepts is one of their great strengths imo.
So I always recommend:
Improve Reflexes (level 1), (its easy to drop 1 more point in later for the 2nd level) (1.5)
Improved Ability (Weapon of choice 3) (Blade clubs, are nice cause you can get nice synergy with a weapon foci, but Unarmed and Some killing hand get you a lot millage) (1.5)
Improved Ability (That non-combat thing you do 3) (.75)
If you didn't go melee weapon grab the unarmed suite (Killing Hands and a 1 point or so of cool effect addons to player taste)
If you did go with a melee weapon Some more attribute is fun, or some kind parry improvement is solid,
Then finish out with that cool magical talent you have. (Can track like blood hound, dosen't leave tracks, jump like the Bionic man, has the ability to concentrate on 3 things at once out of combat.)
That should eat up the rest of your point no problem. Giving new players things like weapon foci I have found can take away a lot of the omg gear information overload.

This sounds a bit like Miho from Sin City...

This is what I have so far. All in all, pretty straight forward build with 35k in gear. Anything I am missing?

Elven Adept

Body 4
Agility 6 (7)
Reaction 5 (6)
Strength 3
Charisma 3
Intuition 4
Logic 2
Willpower 3
Edge 2
Init 9[10]
Passes 1[2]
Magic 5

Skills:
Pistols (Semi-Automatics) 4 (+2)
Unarmed Combat (Krav Maga) 6 (+2)
Perception 3
Athletics (Group) 4
Stealth (Group) 4
Etiquette (Yakuza) 3 (+2)

Knowledge:
Criminal (Yakuza) 4
Security Procedures 4
Security Systems 4
Zen Meditation 2

Languages:
English N
Japanese 4

Qualities:
Adept +5
Amnesia -10
Wanted -10
Sensitive System -15

Adept Powers:
Improved Reflexes I
Killing Hands 1
Critical Strike 4
Imp. Phys. Attribute, Agility 1
Combat Sense 2
Improved Sense [Scent]

Contacts:
Fixer (Loy. 2 Con. 2)
ID Manufacturer (Loy. 2 Con. 3)

Just to throw you a curve, it might be worth exploring an almost identical character built purely with bioware/genetech.

Still just as straightforward to play, but you might get a little more "bang for your buck" plus if they realise in play that there is a really cool thing they want to be able to do its a lot easier to add new bioware than to save up the karma for a new point in Magic.

Bah, I say make her a taciturn Ork Adept with an 8 Body, one Essence worth of 'ware (prolly Muscle Toner 3 and a little cyber), and murder in her eyes. One of the great things about an RPG is that you get to play someone utterly unlike yourself. If she's shy, don't load her up with Charisma skills: let her feel the satisfaction of causing egregious physical (and perhaps structural) damage with her mighty imaginary thews. And guns. Big, big guns.

Cheers, -- N

Seems Ok, can't find any big Mistakes...except....
He's former Yakuza ,right ?
Maybe Languages
Japanese (N) and Engrish 4 ....?

and specialisation in Krav Maga ?? Why not some asian MA ?

hokaHey
Medicineman

because it is to good to pass up? Take Aim as a Free Action is great.

Thats debatable , for example Improvet Reflexes 3 combined with 2 points of essence worth of ware(that doesn't have to include an expensive IP booster) can get you pretty nice results.
Or only taking IR 2 and saving .5 power points from chargen so you only need 1 more PP to get fourth IP in play and can either take some other intresting powers or more ware at chargen.
1 PP is much easier to get in game then the half a million nuyen(at least, more likely a full million nuyen is needed) you would need to upgrade your synaptic booster.