Hey everybody,

Been a while since I've been here. I originally came for help on an Adept build for an online game, but that fell through and I hadn't had a chance to play until now. After playing a game with a pregen, I got permission to do my own character for the game.

Now I got a new in-person game and a new character to build. This time the team needs a commlink jockey, and since we already have a samurai, a face and a mage, it falls on me to be tech support (especially since the only one we had was a NPC contact that wasn't very good. I do want to take the hacking rules for a spin, so here I am.

The game is based on monthly long-form sessions, so progression is going to be pretty slow.

As for a concept, as I said, I am going for a hacker type. I kinda had this kooky idea of doing an ork hacker based on beast form the X-Men: a hulking brute who is deceptively intelligent and erudite. As far as a secondary role, I was considering wither a rigger or a sniper. i even considered making him a parkour-based sniper that used his physical skills to get to ridiculous positions, and covered the team with his rifle when not on the Matrix.

I did debate whether or not to go Technomancer, with the main advantage being that less gear = more mobile (a plus for someone needing to move a lot) and the main disadvantage being the BP investment. the flexibility with CFs also appealed to me, but being a rookie, I'm still having some issues.

So what I have so far is a sample hacker and a sample TM that I feel get the flavor down. I used PACKS to whip them up quickly, and hopefully any less than optimal numbers will be pointed out. Also, no Knowledge skills, nuyen or gear has been added yet, so any suggestions for that are more than welcome as well.

Test Hacker (Ork)


Test Technomancer (Ork)


Thanks for the help! Again!

How many build points is that based on.? Are those your totals for the dicepool or the actual levels of the skill?

In short, something looks incredbily wrong here. On the first build your skills alone cost 540BP. Thats without the skill groups. And you have skills listed that are in the skill groups you have already taken at a lower level Also, standard character creation rules is that starting skills are at a max level of four plus specialties, and you can have either one exception at level 6 or two exceptions at level 5. I am seeing multiple 7's and 8s. It normally takes a positive quality to increase a skill past 6. This guy is world class bleeding edge good at half a dozen different things. Unless this is for a super high powered and and heavily houseruled campaign, where the characters are among the most elite operatives on the planet (which is possible, to each his own) you have made some fundamental mistakes with the rules.

Also, since we are talking about it, 21 build points probably is not going to cover the cyber, electronics, programs, and other gear you are going to want.

I am unfamiliar with PACKS rules. If this is what you can build with them I am switching.

First, don't go TM unless you want the flavor, they start making fun after a bunch load of karma, which you said you won't get.
so, what about a drone-sniper? don't have to get to the sniping position yourself, just fly the gun

you too many skills.
Cracking 4
Electronics 4
Etiquette 2
Dodge 3 (for melee, ranged and your drone)
Gunnery 5
Pilot Aircraft 3
Infiltration 2

for gear:
get a nice flying drone, with an assault rifle and an underbarrel grenade launcher.
Pushed Genware, Encephalon 2, Nanohive, Control Rig

more later, if this is what you want

Oh right sorry.

I am using the Chummer chargen program, and it outputs the total dicepools. I am using the standard 400 BP and the PACKS thing is from the Runner's Toolkit. They are just pre-built arrays of attributes, skills, and other stuff to speed up chargen.

As far as the 21 BP, I figured as much. I know I will need at least 30 BP in nuyen to get the top of the line hacking gear at start.



Yeah I have read enough "Hacker vs TM" boards to get the gist of the issue. So I was thinking going for flavor (I like the idea of flexibility and Threading, probably more than the actual mechanics).

A drone sniper wouldn't be a bad way to go, although I am pretty clueless about the drone rules as well.

Keep in mind that unless you are doing alternate hacking rules using Logic + Skill the Hacker is going to need a pretty decent commlink and decent programs at chargen.

It also seems like you have the Cracking Skill Group and Individual Cracking Skills (like Hacking) so you might have some duplication of skills.

You also have the problem of a mixed focus, you want some athletics + shooting for you concept but you don't want to damage your dice pools so much that you can't handle basic hacking of relatively common systems.

Cool cool, sorry about the misunderstanding.

One thing though RAW you can't put a specialization on a skill you purchased as a skill group at char gen. Later you can break the skill group up into individual skills and take specialties and just advance one at a time.

If you want to excell at the matrix stuff I would take makki's advice and lookt at getting the Pushed Genware and Encephalon 2, it adds alot to your dice pools. Both are in the Augmented book.

Also, you probably don't have enough points to excell at being a hacker and excell at being a sniper. You certainly can have some basic combat skills, but by the time you buy the athletics, the infiltration, the combat skills, etc, to really take on that job well you probably are short on points. Good secondary roles for the hacker are drone rigging or vehicle skills. Some combat is fine, there are time when you will have to go along in the meat to do a job.

After freaking out on my first post about your super high skill levels, if those are dice pools honestly, they are kind of low for your primary areas. You are at present about as good as a mid range if slightly talented corporate computer specialist. Getting the gear the makki mentioned will give you quite a few more dice. Get the absolute best programs you can. Many matrix tests are program+skill instead of stat+skill. As a general rule starting characters should probably be looking for dice pools in the low to mid teens for their primary skill focus (magic can be different, as it has different rules).

I would advise against going ork.
It's just too many build points for a guy who's going to spend most of the run sitting in the van.
You're probably not going to be hacking AND sniping on a roof at the same time.
It doesn't make a ton of sense for a hacker to be in the middle of a firefight while breaking into a location.

It would make much more sense to go with a hacker/rigger concept.
You can still contribute heavily in combat and provide technical support.
It makes total sense for a pair of rotodrones to provide cover while you hack into the system.

If you've gotta have it, you've gotta have it, but you're basically spending 20 BP so you can have less logic.
As a hacker, you're rarely going to be using the extra body and strength an ork has.

20 BP can buy a lot of programs and fancy gear. Plus, there's the extra edge.
It's your character., so you've gotta play it, at the very least consider pairing your core role with something a little more compatible.

I honestly don't see why anybody chooses anything other than Human for a hacking/rigger type.
I might also be a human supremacist.

If you want to be a hacker/sniper on the roof top.

Get the street sam to drop a sniper rifle mounted on a smart firing platform on the roof. Then you can be in the van, hacking, AND use command+gunnery to snipe people while ignoring recoil. It's nice, and if someone sneaks up on you? fuck it, all they did was take out a smart firing platform with a sniper rifle that has no firing mechanism.

I personally love Orc as a TM. Decent Body without spending BP on it, so i can layer armor with FFBA and a Long Coat. As for weapon skills, take Heavy Weapons at 2 or three and grab one of the Automatic Grenade Launchers. These are within the availability range at chargen and get a butload of nades, they are cheap. There you go instant suppressive fire from a Nade Launcher and good Matrix skills.
Possibly one of the best combos for a TM out there other than a Face/TM.