(maybe Critias knows the answer)
How to build a viable Adept of the Burnout's Way?

For maximum potential and minimum loss, we want to come out at exactly 2 points of Essence loss, which is the minimum but every bit more looses you another point of magic...
I think this largely depends on the campaign. In a 350 BP street level campaign, Muscle Replacement 2 would do the trick. In a 500BP Highlevel campaign Synpatic Booster and Muscle Augmentation/Toner would be great.

But what to do in an average 400 BP campaign with 5-15k payout per run? That's why I was thinking Muscle Replacement. It's cheap for a start, so we don't loose BP-nuyen, when we replace it. And no matter what we put in, we will have to replace it.

As we know every Adept can use some 'Ware, like Pheromones for the Pornomancer, but the EXACTLY 2 points of Essence strikes me as very difficult. Unless we want to drop another point of magic, but that means 30BP lost at chargen. Feel free to add Biocompatability to your ideas.

As a start, let's assume the character's a shadowrunner, who needs augmentations to keep up and was very exited to hear the doc's news that he's very biocompatible to cyber or bioware. But once you give in to the dark path, there's no return! Maybe some mental qualities from Augmentation, something like depression. Temporal Lobe Epilepsy could be fun, too.

Hmm. let me see if i can whip up 2 points of loss:

Muscle Augmentation Lv. 2(14k)
Muscle Toner Lv. 2(16k)
Synthacardium Lv. 3(.3, 30,000)

That's 1.1 point for 60k, or 12 BP.

Synaptic Boosters Lv. 1(.5, 80,000)
Reflex Recorder(Skill, .1, 10,000)
Bone Density Lv. 1(.3, 20,000)

.9 points for 110k, or 22 BP.

Keep in mind this is 400 BPs, but it assumes you don't mind dropping a fairly decent load early on on these augmentations. It's a grand total of 34 BP on Resources. It's hefty, but there's your 2 exact points for a Physad, that covers the muscle stuff, increase of reflexes, a skill boost, some bone density and stuff for Athletics.

If you don't mind going light/living on the cheap(Low lifestyle, bike, etc), you can probably get away with this. Though assuming Magic 6(65 BP), plus this 34(up to 99 BP), that leaves 301 BP for more resources, Attributes, Skills, and Contacts. If you grabbed - Qualities(which I'd likely do for this kinda thing), that's another whatever BP, up to 35.

Now let me toss in some stats:

Joe the Adept of the Burnout's Way
Human

B: 4
A: 4(6)
R: 4(5)
S: 3(5)
C: 2
I: 4
L: 2
W: 3
E: 2
M: 6


121 BP left

-6(30k more for resources)
=115 BP

Then just try to waggle in some skills and contacts, taking - qualities if needed. It's probably quite possible-of course, if you go unarmed or melee would probably want MA qualities for Unarmed or Blades. So even if you maxed - Qualities at 35, you'd likely want at least 10 Positive, leaving a max of 25 toward extras.

Just scratched this out real fast. With those BP left(plus possible extra), you should be able to get a couple of high skills and then a spread of backups. Say I could take Unarmed: 6+2(24), Pistols/SA 2+2(10), Athletics Group 2(20), Ground Craft/Something 1+2(6), Etiquette/Street 2+2(4), Perception 3(12) and whatever else. With a Reflex Recorder on Unarmed he'd be rolling 15 dice in his specialty. Not real overpowered but pretty damn good. With +2 DV from Qualities, a 5 Strength, Bone Density and Critical Strike he'd be hitting damn hard(3+3+2=8P).

Can I request some confirmation on the Way of the Burnout?

To me it seems that an adept taking this quality at chargen is in exactly the same position as if he took Biocompatibility. From this I deduce that the two should stack, which is fine, but doesn't it mean that crunch-wise if only taking one of them the adept may as well take Biocompatibility for not having a lower limit on his Essence loss. Have I read it wrong, or does Way of the Burnout have nothing over Biocompatibility?

The Way quality let's you choose an "original way" and gain some boni to metamagic techniques, like +1 to initiate grade for the purpose of adept centering etc.

That's not how it is worded:

So you can spend any amount of Essence between 1.01 and 2.

Actually it's any amount of Essence lost greater 1 AS LONG as the Adept has at least a Magic rating of 1 left to be able to use any magic-linked action/quality/skill at all or he just went completely burned out.

lol, you're right! that opens a lot more windows. THX

I don't see anything that makes you lose your Way when you completely burn out. Of course, it doesn't matter for the other ways since they only boost powers and metamagics.

I don't think the Burnout's Way was intended to be taken at chargen, so it does not need to add anything more than Biocompatibility. The whole point is to roleplay tha adept burning out.

It can be taken at chargen, but it's mostly there as a "safety net" to transfer the Positive Quality of another Way over, once Magic has been lost in-play, yes. Starting gameplay as a burnout is perfectly valid (and kind of a shout out to the old Mage template, in fact), but I wanted to include a Quality that would let someone really show their mindset changing in gameplay, show that Ways frown on augmentated shenanigans, but still wouldn't be just outright crippling.

It looks like other folks already chimed in with anything else I was going to say (like pointing out the Essence/Magic difference in how the Way works)...but if I missed something, just holler.

Short answer: Get everything as ware that costs less essence than power points. E.g. Cybereyes and -ears and Synaptic Booster.

Another short answer: get 1.50 Essence worth of one kind of 'ware, lowered to 1.35 by biocompatibility, then get 1.30 Essence worth of the other kind of 'ware. Use alphaware to lower the Essence costs further, where feasible.

There are lots of possible combos, but here is one example:

Bioware - muscle toner: 4 (alphaware), suprathyroid gland (alphaware), 2 reflex recorders (one for a skill, and one for a skill group). This is 1.50 Essence, which is then reduced to 1.35 by biocompatibility.

Cyberware - cybereyes III (alphaware), cyberears II (alphaware), olfactory booster: 3 (alphaware), radar sensor: 4 (alphaware), attention coprocessor: 3 (alphaware), datajack. This is 1.30 Essence, which, being the lower of the two, gets divided by two and becomes 0.65 Essence. Total Essence loss = 2.00.

I've probably missed a point somewhere - i thought bioware only came as standard or cultured and that the 'grades' apply to cyberware only?!? A correction on this one would be great!

Bioware gets the alpha/beta/delta treatment the same as cyberware. There's even a quality that allows you to treat basic bioware as deltaware, so it's pretty set in stone.

And for the poor people among us there is also the second hand ware.

-50% cost for a +20% essence isnt too bad. Especially if you take biocompability too, stops you at +0,1 essence. Ok, so it wont work for cultured bioware but it is still useful.

yeah, Second-Hand Bioware isn't worse than any other organ transplant from the early 21st century...

Thanks!

Although the thought of second hand cyber makes my skin crawl!

Depends which transplants...

Second-hand bioware is great to really pimp out a street samurai, but it's not as useful for a character trying to cram as much stuff in under a certain Essence threshold as possible.

Note that while the 1.50 (1.35)/ 1.30 build is the most optimal, purely points-wise, an adept might gravitate more towards bioware, since initiative enhancers and Attribute increases are the two main areas where adept powers are not as optimal. So for example: synaptic boosters: 2, muscle toner: 4 (alphaware), cybereyes II (alphaware), attention coprocessor: 3 (alphaware), and radar sensor: 4 (alphaware). And you don't need bio-compatibility for this one.

Isn't that Bill's leg?
Bill had such fat thighs.