I am building a hacker for Missions, and I would love your input. It seems like 400BP went so quickly

I am making a Troll hacker, both for survivability and to try playing against type. If I can, The con specialisation is to help with social engineering.

It is still a WIP, so forgive if it isn't exactly 400BP.

Attributes:
Body 6
Agility 4
React 5
Str 6
Cha 3
Int 4
Log 4
Will 3
Edge 5
resources 10 (50K)

Skills:
Athletics(gr) 2
Cracking (gr) 4
Electronics (gr) 4
Etiquette 2
Con (Impersonating) 2(4)
Survival (urban) 2(4)
Longarms 2
Pistols 2

Quaities:
Addiction (Mild) -5
In Debt (20000) -20
Prejudiced (Specific, Biased) -5
Media Junkie (Mild) -5

Ware:
Datajack, Wired 2, Simsense booster

Gear:
I copied the comlink from the hacker in the book.
I am still choosing other gear, but I am thinking low-tech big boom like a shotgun and a Warhawk. An armor jacket to keep me alive.
Instead of the usual cyber optics & ears, I am thinking goggles and headphones. Just for a change of pace

So, what do you think? I am worried that the typical convention Missions table will be all super-specialized twinks, and I don't want to be left holding jackets and purses because I am not optimised enough.

TIA

Your hacking skill needs to be higher. Swap the electronics and cracking groups.

What programs do you have, and at what ratings? This is a very, very important question.

Uh what?
Swap Electronics 4 for cracking 4?
That doesn't even make any sense.


Skill wise he seems fine.
70K for gear and programs is going to be super duper tight.

If you're that tight on cash, do not get an implanted commlink. It's a terrible idea money wise.

The sony Emperor is a bad commlink.
I would go with the Hermes Ikon, or the Transsys Avalon depending on your theories on advancement.
There is sadly no reason to get the FairlightCaliban. Such sadness.

Transys Avalon 5K
with R5/S5 upgrades 5k
Trodes 50
Sim Module Modified for BTL/Hot Sim 350
System: 5 2.5k
Firewall: 6 3k
Common Use Programs: all at 6 3.6k
Hacking Programs: 6k each (12 Minimum) 72k

grand total: 91,500

You can shave some ratings off your hacking programs, but then of course you have to buy them later.

edited to fix costs on rating 6 programs

Hacker have minor need for STR, so dropping it to 5 and increasing
Willpower (and reinforcing it to add Biofeedback Filters)..

Instead of Armor jacket (no concealibility bonuses), Lined Coat/Great Coat (Mortimer of London)
and some pieces from PPP line would be better choice (IMOO) (Form Fitting Body Armor too)

Sony Emperor w/ Sim Module modified for BTL/Hot Sim, w/Response 5, Signal 5, System 5, Firewall 5)
Programs [Analyze 5, Armor 4, Attack 5, Biofeedback Filter 4, Black Hammer 4, Browse 5, Command 5,
Data Bomb 2, Decrypt 3, Edit 5, Exploit 5, Scan 5, Spoof 4, Stealth 5, Track 4];

I'm not disputing you, but why is each 'link you mentioned good/bad?

btw, I didn't notice the 'link was implanted, thus didn't get it that way.

firewall 6 cost 3000 yen (rating 4-6 500 yen /rating)

Very good point about STR, but I don't like making a character who has any stat at 1 before race mods. I can deal with a Troll "geek" who is just "below average" Str/Bod, (2 before mods) but not one who is sickly (1 before mods)

That is a hit I am willing to take for character concept.

You can only increase signal and response by +2
The Sony Emperor is a 2 response 3 signal commlink for 700
The Transys Avalon is a 4 response 4 signal commlink for 5000

At best you can make the Emperor a 4 response 5 signal commlink for an upgrade cost of: +3000
The Avalon can be upgraded at char gen to 5/5 for an aditional 5000 but more importantly, it can be upgraded post char creation to a 6/6 for 11k

the Emperor is maxed out on upgrades.
Now, the Sony Emperor maxed out to 4/5 for 3700 is not bad if your plan is to throw it away alter (or turn it into a spare commlink) when you can put 16000 together to buy your top of the line commlink.

Interesting stuff...

I realise this is slightly meta, but how does the money run in Missions? Is it highly variable depending on a bunch of stuff, like in my regular game, or is it pretty consistent? Will it take a lot of runs to net that 16k?

It really would just be for the best if he just freed up some points to spend on more gear. It's awful tough to fight the fact that Riggers and Hackers tend to be nuyen heavy archetypes. Keep in mind that even just dropping both specializations would net another 20k while a single attribute point would be worth 50k, so we're not necessarily talking about some kind of major thematic overhaul here. Another option to consider would be dropping Pistols, since there's a short barreled shotgun in Arsenal that uses the longarm skill but is otherwise a heavy pistol in terms of damage code and concealment. That'd also free up some points for gear or could even just be used to bump longarms up to a 4 and into genuinely competent territory. Besides, who doesn't like the idea that a "troll pistol" is really just a pared down shotty? I know I like it.

It was 2 and 4 when i replied, hence the WTF.
Hacking is way, way more important than software, hardware or data search. Computers, though, is essential.

I would strongly consider using restricted gear to get a rating 6 processor chip for your commlink at the start. Its expensive, but its worth it.
Alternatively, you can -plan- to pick it up immediately, and get your programs/system/firewall at 6, and just let them be downgraded to 5 until you get your new processor. Its only 8k. Even if you don't, don't forget to upgrade your firewall as high as it will go.

You may want to look at the born rich quality in the RC. it'll give you more money to spend on augmentation and programs and stuff.

Consider dropping wired reflexes. Drugs, slap patches and autoinjectors can get you by if you need it. If you have to fight, i'd recommend using a drone instead.

You may want to consider getting an agent. those things are handy.

Yeah, I agree with Whip. Remove pistols, add a point to longarms and a specialty in shotguns, giving you 3/5, better than your 2 in both skills.

Agents are 10 grand.
He might be better off waiting on that.

He's got wired reflexes? I hadn't even noticed that.
Two things,
1) get the simsense booster as used standard so you pay 1/2 price for it.
2) you're buying a simsense booster, but skimping on a solid commlink? WTF.

Some guy was asking for advice on a combat hacker like 2 days ago. Take a look at the solid 6 pages of postings here: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=33406

I am afb so forgive me if I'm a bit vague on some of this.

First off my compliments on a character who is against type.

I would strongly recommend encephlon and some grade of skillwires oreven mbw if you build can support it, as a hacker you can make the test necissary to get access to a pirate network which makes skillsofts viable again.

On my missions character I laid down the points for a rating six implanted link and have been happy with it. The other plus to this is it allows you to get that all important stealth six with your first paycheck which is the biggest thing you can do to increase your ability to get into systems.

I'm also going to come out recomending dumping cracking EW and cybercombat are good to have at least a level in and raise later but hacking (and the exploit emphasis) are king for getting into a system when your team needs it.

As to making points for these changes the athletics group and survival are good places to look to start.

I'm inclined to disagree with cutting points from the Athletics group unless he wants to pick up Dodge. If anything I actually considered suggesting that he drop a point of Strength and put it into Athletics so he could hit a Gymnastic Dodge of 3 if he really needed to. That's still not great, of course, but overall I'd still say Strength deserves to be first on the chopping block even without considering gymnastics dodge. His minimum score is more than adequate to carry hacker gear and he doesn't use close combat skills, so much of its value in attribute tests is already gone. And as far as skills go, Strength can't even manage to be the linked attribute on the entire Athletics group.

Agreed here. Hacking 6 (exploit +2) is pretty much the best thing you can have.
You can tank cybercombat, and make up for it with a good Attack program. (No, not the stealth specialty. It doesn't help the test to get spotted when you break into a node)
I'd -almost- agree on EW, but that threshold 4 on hidden nodes is brutal if you don't have a good dice pool or phenomenal luck. You use it for decryption too.

If you don't have a math spu, you should get one. They're cheap and good.

using restricted gear, a rating 6 mook(unwired, it makes your agents able to do illegal stuff) is exactly availability 20, and only 18 grand. Its a very solid deal for 9 build points.

Where does the max +2 upgrade come from?

Game balance? Who knows.

I meant where is the rule, it's not one I've ever seen.

It cropped up in 4A to stop people buying a metalink and upgrading it to a 6/6 commlink.

As for the build, you need to do something to get more dice. My thought is that if you don't have more dice than an agent, you aren't a hacker. And right now it looks like you have about 11 dice, which is one shy of an R6 agent.

Depends on the mission and table rating, at TR 6 it should only take a 2-3, longer at lower TR's. Some missions don't pay squat it feels like. On the whole i would plan to make about 5k a mission with some missions paying more depending on factors (amount of stuff you steal, how good your face is etc etc).

Thanks for all your comments so far.

This is a more general Missions question. (OK, it is still a pretty specific question, just not troll hacker related) How practical is the In Debt quality in Missions? I guess the big question is how much time is there between Missions runs. 1 per month could make In Dept very difficult, because most of your pay would go to a bookie. 2-3 runs a month, it gets workable.

In debt is entirely impractical in missions. Missions requires you to not only pay the 1.5x debt back, with interest, they also expect you to pay off the BP cost in karma. Which frankly makes it the worse quality you could ever pick.

All depends on which runs you do, and how often you get together with your group. We pretty much be running missions and CMP's since May. I will tell you that In Debt will be banned for character creation during season 4 so you better get busy playing the guy.

I'd offer this as a well built model to go off of. (Though I dont like the cyberarm). Post 10.

Kind of like having to pay off Enemy after you kill him? Inconvenient, but it makes sense.

Except you'll never actually want to kill your enemy, because you know doing so will soak up your next 30 karma or however much the enemy was worth. You'll literally want to let her go so that she can continue being your enemy. Similarly, you'll never actually want to pay back your debt, because it is going to cost you 60 karma to do so.

Incidentally, this is why it is getting removed from missions. They don't want people to take it without realizing it is the worse quality ever, and they don't want people to use the rules to make it a decent quality again. All they have to do is leave 1 nuyen on the debt, and it isn't paid off. They don't have to pay the karma, but the interest is now .1 nuyen every month.

And enemy is actually better. It makes sense that you are unable to resolve it. You fail to kill the person, the person gets a HoG, you kill the enemy and the enemy's protege or whoever takes over. Debt? Well, you have the money to pay off the debt but you don't because.... you know you'll never be able to learn anything ever again if you do?

No need to get into it too much here, there is already at least one long thread on here that goes into plenty of discussion about the quality. The point though is that it is the worse quality you could pick for your character, right up there with Borrowed Time for a missions game, because you'll net a big nuyen loss, and you'll kill your own character advancement.

If you kill your Enemy, his son/brother/friend/whatever replaces him. Isn't that in the rules?

Anyway, let's not redo the In Debt debate, but no, not really an option in Missions.

It's not actually, much as I thought it was. It is the rules for vendetta though, and I figure it doesn't take much imagination to transfer it over to enemy.

In New York you will do exactly 1 run a week/4 a month. The only exception being if your character is doing more downtime for whatever reason. Personally I recommend against in debt for some reasons others have stated, by one interpretation it's pure gouda, by another it's completely crippling. I've completely come around on it and am glad it's going away.