Howdy everyone. First session of my game is tomorrow, and I thought I'd be lazy and post the characters up here for you good folks to take a look at them and figure out if anything is too off.

Valk - The Shape Shifting Close Combat Gal
Rakki - Thrill Seeking Burglar
Ningyo - DolphinBoy/TechnoRigger Extraordinaire
Hey You - Elf Jason Bourne and Sexy Biatch
Red - Ex-Lone Star Detective with Dead Wife Syndrome
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/88794/hey%20you.htm
I know there's no real magical support (sadly, the guy playing MooMage had to duck out, but it was Minotaur Magician hilarity).
Rules used are as follows:
1) German Karmagen, 500 Karma (going for a newbie runner power level)
2) Books Allowed: SR4A, Unwired, Arsenal, Street Magic, Digital Grimoire, Augmentation and Runner's Companion
3) House/Optional Rules: Metatype = BP x 1, Free Contact points = Cha x 2, and free knowledge skills like BP build.

I encouraged my players to keep in mind the fact that hardcore min-maxing could be bad for them, as I had no problem making the Cha 1 uncouth character HAVE to make basic social interactions and similar situations. No idiot-savants if I could avoid it, the characters needed to be someone who could feasibly make it in the real world. I figure for our first session I'm going to run them through Food Fight to get them used to how the combat and such works (one completely new PnP player, the others have played DnD4e) and then segue into On the Run for their first real shadowrun. After that, sticking with homebrew campaigns that may draw inspiration from some premades (Ghost Cartels comes to mind).

Questions, comments, criticisms and advice are all welcome. I'm trying to avoid some of the pitfalls that seem to have plagued Hyphz's game, and have taken a good deal of the advice I've seen there to heart already.

Edit: Updated the links to HTML sheets.

Maybe some one else is having better luck but the links to the characters is broken for me.

Looks like they were made with the Chummer Character Creator. Which I don't have, so can't tell if they work or not.

they display as XML in Chrome, you should be able to open them with any text editor... though if you could post the HTML versions I think it would work out better. Raw chummer format is kind of hard to read

Sorry about that, didn't even think about the raw Chummer thing. Links have been updated to HTML sheets.

Comments on Val

1. Animal Empathy won't do her much good without putting a rank or two in animal handling... but unless she's going to try the "animal minion" route she might be better off dropping it for something else like penetrating strike or rapid healing.
2. Strength Upgrade can only be added to the military grade armor sets (Form Fitting Body suit isn't one)
3. I'm not sure what the single rank of chemistry is for but that could be better used elsewhere unless it's just to add to the characters flavor
4. Perception of 1 is going to hurt
5. As GM, don't forget to make use of her qualities... Common Sense can be used to help keep them on the right track while that Dependent and Day Job can introduce all sorts of hilarious hijinks

Comments on Rikki

1. He has his Rea pumped up to 5 but no Rea based skills so I presume he took it for the Init boost - if that's the case Int 4, Rea 4 would be cheaper for the same Init score
2. You already noted the Cha 1 yourself, but he needs to be careful with 1 Edge... Edge will keep you alive when nothing else can
3. Parents as an enemy = WIN!
4. A rank of 3 in the electronics skill group, by itself, makes him qualified to hold down an IT job but doesn't do a heck of a lot for a shadow runner. Sure, he can search the Matrix for information like a pro, but Computer 1 / Data Search 3 would do the same.
5. The locksmith skill might seem like a logical choice but, in 2070, mechanical locks are rare - a 6th World burglar would need to know how to hack more than they'd need to know a torsion wrench from a snake rake.
6. Perception of 1 is going to hurt... especially a burglar
7. He has a Chauffer but no vehicle... hmmm. Does his Chauffer happen to drive a cab?
8. While I guess there's technically no rule against adding a Ruthenium Polymer Coating to a Chameleon Suit, it wouldn't actually provide any benefit because the Chameleon Suit is already made from the Ruthenium Polymer
9. His Morrissey has a Smartgun System... he remembered to get the image link for his contact lenses but forgot to add the smartlink on top of it, so he can't actually use the Smartgun currently

Comments on Ningyo

1. With all those metagenetic qualities he's going to stick out like a sore thumb - make sure you take the "Freaks" modifier into account (RC pg 110)
2. Astral Hazing... messy stuff. This means he has a background count of 4 extending out 6 meters from him (nearly 20 feet). While that sounds cool it means Val wouldn't come within 20 feet of him - if she did she'd lose all her adept powers and immediately revert to her animal form until she got away from him (since her Magic is only 4). So traveling someplace Val would have to be in a different vehicle following at a distance. It also means he's going to glow like a beacon on the astral plane and he'd break wards just walking nearby (thus setting off every alarm in the place). Also note that if they stop in one place for a few hours the area his background count affects will grow by 1 meter every 2-3 hours.
3. His goggles are missing the smartlink necessary to use his pistols smartgun system

Comments on Hey You

1. Nothing jumps out at me - seems like a pretty solid shooter with a secondary role as a Face

Comments on Red

1. Nothing jumps out at me - seems like a pretty solid Face with a secondary role as a shooter

Overall not a bad team, but the group is very "magic lite". There's nothing specifically wrong with that... as long as their Fixer understands their limitations and finds them jobs that fit the skills they do have or arrange an NPC they can hire to fill in when needed.

Yeah, the magic liteness of the group was an issue, sadly the guy who decided to be a mage bailed on the game due to some personal friction with other members of the group. For posterity, here's MooMage the Udderly Terrifying. I figure a week or two in, after they've done their first run and what not, we'll see if anyone wants to tweak their character, swap out for a new one, etc.

Thanks for the feedback on all the others, I'll be sure to bring it up to them tomorrow.

Rakki's player made some updates, so the new version is up. Thanks for the input Stalag.

How do you treat Full FFBA from a fluff/appearance walking around town thing? Does it draw attention in your campaign?

I was going to comment on Valk's edge but since everyone has an edge of 3 or lower, no worries. At some point, someone is going to discover just how powerful edge can be and plateys whose characters have an edge of 1 may feel a bit left out in the cold then.

With the Morrisey Elan, you need to decide how you want to handle the restrictions. (The gun is restricted, the ammo is forbidden.) Personally, I think it makes sense to have the ammo for the Elan the same as the gun, but it's your table.

Later on, characters may want to migrate to the private/public commlink models. As it's a new campaign I don't recommend being too aggressive on their commlinks without giving them commlink advice first.

They all seem to be built for hand to hand combat capability. That could be interesting.

Goven locksmithing, as well as the lack of serious matrix, magic, and electricity (for summoned enemies), I'm thinking low-tech/outcasts campaign. Dealing with gangers, drug dealers, low level types, rather than high level corporate work.

With the FFBA, I consider the half-suit able to be hidden sufficiently underneath clothing that it doesn't draw attention from a casual glance. The full suit is obvious, so when going to meets and what not the characters will probably have to ditch it in favour of just plain old jeans and a t-shirt. Again, this set of characters are 500 karma as opposed to the standard 750 from karma gen, giving the effect of them being just starting out runners. They'll get "easy" jobs for a while until they manage to get their karma and earnings up. Basic fetch missions, cleaning up a neighborhood, etc. The equivalent of Rank C missions from Naruto I guess, heh.

I agree, the way I read it the FFBA being designed to be worn under other armor or clothing makes it not really obvious (RAW probably should have given it a concealability modifier). For the full suit I'd think the "booties" could be worn under regular shoes or boots and the gloves, by themselves aren't a give-away. The hood is a little more obvious but could, theoretically, pass for a hooded undershirt.

Speaking of armor, Rakki's Chameleon suit... I don't think it's stated explicitly anywhere but I think most tables run that the suit can be turned on or off - however, even when off it's still somewhat obvious what it is. I generally envision it looking something like this or this (Helmet not included). You may want to get him to pick up some street clothes or, at least, an urban explorer jumpsuit to wear when not in "burglar" mode. Otherwise - thumbs up to the changes. Looks like a good infiltrator\burglar.

Oh, and make sure you throw together some stats for his chauffer. If he ends up driving Rakki around during a run there will probably come a time when you'll need to know how well he can drive or, possibly dodge. Lot of fun to be had there from an NPC point of view... he could be anything from an Alfred to a Kato

The "street clothes" should be covered by lifestyle, and you can wear a hoodie and jeans with your FFBA. Cool characters!

That's true, I forget that when it's not listed

And (heaven forbid) that means walking around unarmored

Especially when you look at these two together.



Just wanted to agree here. This could be a great and fun plot point arc in the game.



Yeah in fact I'd probably drop something to pump this. But then again goals are noble, and there's something to be said for playing the neophyte...



Yeah and I'd also kind make the sure other players at least think OOC on how their IC reactions would be.



I do agree with everything he said here, and have to say in our group, which is a little more cut throat perhaps than some others, my players would probably end up dumping this character in a recycling bin somewhere. A PC like this would definitely have to be useful in some way they couldn't do themselves or subcontract.



I agree. Sounds like it could be a fun mix.