As the title says, the game will be based in Denver. Its the first time my group plays outside of Seattle. We dont know much about Denver except for superficial readings on 3E´Shadows of North America and 4E´Spy Games. I would like your guys to help me filling up this guy´s "empty spaces", conceptually (this is important, I m not caring for the mechanics right now).

So, basicaly, I want to play the old "burned-out mage" archetype (but shaman instead of mage). I havent decided the specifics. I thought about 2 possibilities:

1) an awakening shaman man in his mid 20s. His life was good, he had a promising starting career on some local corp (or gov), but then things went down, and right now his life turned to sh$t - drugs, alcohol, chips, whores, you name it. Then he began having these weird dreams he hasnt had since... his childhood ? The dreams intensify more and more, until one day, when hes at home at night tripping in a crazy BTL chip just after having smoked this new weed his pal gave him yesterday, then he has this f*cking disturbing experience where he sees himself, real time, through the eyes of some beast there with him, on his room, stalking him, smelling him.. until it jumps over him.. and he sees himself in panic, trying to escape the room and... well, you got the idea. Once he gives in to the animal spirit, his life begins to take a turn for better. He awakes as a shaman of some totem, but with the problem of not having learned the way of magic until now (= zero magical skills), and having installed some cyberware for his job/profession (a datajack and a commlink or skillwires) which hinders his magical potential.

or

2) a weak shaman in his late 30s, who grew up as a wiz-kid magician, talented and proud, until some day, after years of putting his hubris above his totem´s spirit, is literally chewed up by a uncontrolled spirit that send him to the local clinic almost dead and in need of a new pair of cyber-arms (and maybe new cyber spleen and lungs and heart, etc). Years later, older, diselusioned, and fallen in oblivion as a magician, he is forced to take the path of shaman again to save his [son ? sister ? friend? father ?] of some mystical menace.


So, what you guys think ? Regardless of which option I go, I thought about making him a Pueblo Corporate Council citizen (I find this nation really exotic and would like to explore ir more), raised by a anglo father and a amerindian mother. Which "hooks" I can use here? Things, conflicts, struggles specific to a Pueblo citizen? What hooks are there in Denver related to Pueblo ? What of the options above would fit better with Pueblo and Denver? What would you guys pick, and what would you change in them ?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

I think either character would only work in a very low-powered game, or one where the other players don't mind having a weaker character in the group (and where you don't mind feeling useless and overshadowed most of the time).

Option 1:
Essentially, a mage who is not that handicapped by 'ware, only down by about 1 point of Magic. But you seem to also want to start him out with a relatively low Magic and no awakened skills. A low Magic drastically limits what you can do, and a lack of awakened skills is a huge karma sink - it will take many sessions of play before you get to the same level as a normal starting mage. The lack of high Magic or awakened skills will let him be versatile in other areas, but honestly, being decent in your secondary specialties does not compensate for not being good at your main function.

Option 2:
A mage with some awakened skills, but with a harder hit on his Magic, and it sounds like you are not going for the optimal 'ware, either. He won't be in as big of a hole skill-wise, but his Magic will be middling at best, and improving it will only be possible with initiation. Things like cyberarms are not really that much good for a mage, either - yeah, they can boost his meat combat ability, but they are not nearly as useful as things like cerebral boosters or cybereyes.

Overall, both of them are concepts that offer a lot of roleplaying hooks, but are very ineffective from a rules standpoint. In most campaigns, the latter does matter, because the dice quantify things like how good your character is, or whether he succeeds at something. They would be good for a non-standard campaign, but they are definitely characters you want to discuss with the group first.

Now, if you want to optimize them, staying mostly within your parameters:

Option 1:
For cyberware, get a datajack, good commlink, sim module (not modified for hot sim), cybereyes 2 with some goodies (example - low-light vision, flare compensation, vision enhancement: 3, and vision magnification. All legal, by the way). For bioware, get cerebral boosters: 2. If you're losing a point of Magic, at least get something useful out of the deal - and all of this stuff makes sense for a guy who used to be an ambitious suit, and it includes the stuff you mentioned.

Now, Magic - here I would deviate a bit from your concept. You were going to play the guy right after he awakens (if you want that and no magical skills, you are actually better off taking Latent Awakening and discussing it with your GM). I would suggest, instead, that you have him start play a bit after that, when he has gotten the handle of his abilities a bit. Give him Magic of 4 (lowered to 3 by implants), which will be on the weak side but at least a level where he can do something with it. Similarly, at least give him some bare-bones magical skills, like maybe spellcasting: 3, summoning: 3, and aura reading: 1 specializing in auras. And just a few spells, maybe stunbolt, improved invisibility, heal, levitate, and another illusion spell.

Other skills - he's a corporate guy, and as a shaman he will have a decent Charisma, so go ahead and give him the Influence skill group at 3 or 4. He can be a backup face, and have some corporate knowledge skills (and maybe a corporate-affiliated contact or two). And give him a data search skill to go with his commlink. He can help the group with information gathering.

Option 2:
For cyberware, since you want cyberarms, get good ones - optimized limbs with improved agility, and maybe improved Agility and/or a cyberarm gyromount. Make them alphaware, so that you have room for cybereyes: 2 (with a smartlink). For bioware, maybe synthcardium: 2. This is two points of Essence loss, so I would give him Magic of 5, lowered to 3 by the 'ware. Again, because I think 3 is the minimal Magic to really do anything with it. His magic skills can be a bit higher, although still probably not fully optimized; in the 3-4 range, maybe with a specialization. Spells would be a bit more combat-oriented. For other skills, some firearms skill at 3 plus specialization, influence skill group: 1 but also an intimidation skill of at least 2, pilot ground vehicle/bike: 1/+2, and athletics skill group: 1. Because this is a ganger, someone combat-oriented but nowhere near street samurai level. With his cyberarms, though, he can be a decent shot. Again, depends on how much you want to actually optimize him. This advice is assuming you want someone able to be functional in a "standard" campaign - for a more purely role-playing campaign with less overt danger, you don't really need to be as concerned with functionality.

Even if you get the karma you need to get your skills up to snuff that's karma that could have been going to Initiate grades, so option 1 is just tough sledding all around in a fairly standard group. I've had players approach me with such sheets before, but instead of making them play catch up forever I just had them build a standard 400 bp Magician sheet and then handicapped them for a few runs as they grew into their full power--first run, they could only assense and counterspell, by the second they could summon etc. It's non-standard results in a character that's objectively weaker than it has to be at first but even so it has worked out in play better than the alternatives.


The cyber arm magician would be a more effective option in a standard game, particularly if you lean on summons and utility spells for um, utility and use a high agility arm for self-defense. I'm guessing you're probably enamored with the visual appeal of two cyberarms, but if you insist upon all your enhancements tying into the spirit attack and are interested in an alternative I'd opt for either a single arm or even just a single arm and synthacardium 3 rather than two cyberarms. Myocardial contusion, aka a bruised heart can have long-term health effects and can be caused by serious blunt trauma like car accidents. I find the notion of a big spirit latching onto your arm and shaking you around like a ragdoll before tossing you (sans arm) into the nearest wall followed by major corrective surgeries just as likely as a spirit nibbling a couple limbs off. That way you'd end up with either better magic or the same magic as well as enough of an essence hole available that you could invest in something less redundant than a second limb without further gimping your magic.

Guys, he specifically said he wasn't worried about the mechanics just yet and wanted help with the background. In the first paragraph.

How much have you read on the Pueblo nation Silva? I always start by deciding where exactly your from? Once you settle on where you're from, start on the background stuff. For some inspiration find some sites like this and snag some questions pertinent to your character. Once you start on settling on who this guy is, then you can start imagining why his totem showed up, and made the connection. And why you didn't end up in some Tribal accelerated program for Shaman's instead of on the streets, working for a risky dollar.

Once you flesh some of that out post it up and the sad, twisted minds here on Dumpshock, of which I proudly proclaim membership, will dissect the crap out of it, and potentially provide some useful input.

Don't really care. The flavor stuff is important, admittedly, but there's seriously not much we can do from that end given that our reading of the fluff could very easily end up wildly different from the GM's interpretation of the fluff. As far as I'm concerned I play Seattle as strict to the fluff as I can and yet my Seattle keeps ending up different from other people's Seattles. It's the damndest thing.

He could be a Magician as his Secondary niche, rather than Primary. Mind-Blowing, I know, but not unusual.




So, Professional Level Skill Ratings in Spellcasting and Conjuring (Ratings of 3) are now considered "middling?" Really? Are you kidding me? That is PROFESSIONAL Grade. Middling is one to two, with a likely emphasis on One.

I get that you are trying to give advice on something playable, Glyph, but the ideas as presented are already playable. And could be a great deal of fun.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your ideas Silva. Go with what you like. I think that either idea could be fun and entertaining.

*shrug*
Not really any "hooks" that I could think of specific to being a Pueblo citizen or living in Denver. That's like saying "My character is a UCAS citizen and lives in Seattle. Any character hooks for that?" He wasn't interested in the mechanics to start with, but at some point, he will need to consider them, so I was giving a bit of advice in that area. Like I said, both concepts as envisioned would be good for some campaigns, but perhaps too much of a detriment for a "standard" campaign.

Considering that skills range from 1-6 without qualities, yes, I would call that middling.

Kind of the definition.

Middling (I was referring to the Magic Attribute itself, but the same reasoning applies) and professional are synonymous, sometimes. Professional does not always equate to the average skill of a shadowrunner, since they can often more accurately be described as "expert" (skill of 5) or "elite" (skill of 6). Even in the books, most of the magical archetypes have a go-to skill at rating: 5. The only one that doesn't, the occult investigator, still has that "professional" rating across seven magical skills, and is as much a detective as a mage.

Edit: Wrong thread!

- J.

See, I do not equate "Middlin" with "Professional." But then again, I do not have a problem with playing characters that only have professional ratings (or less) in the majority of their skills, becuase their background cannot support anything higher. For the OP's question, Skills of Rating 1-2 are most appropriate, with the focus on Rating 1. Newb does not equate to Professional. And the sample characters in the book are not considered Newbs (Even if they could have been created a bit better). They are considered professionals, who have been in the business a while.
*shrug*

As for the magic Attribute of 3, that is average. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with Average, even in Shadowrun. But this falls back to whether you can have an average (or Unaugmented, as in the other Thread) character and be surviveable in Shadowrun. I contend that yes you can. Opinions vary, however, and hardly ever produce an agreeable consensus.

Another angle, after reading through the original post a little more carefully, is that PCC seems to be-by all appearances-the most technically literate of the Tribal nations. It could be that it'd be easy to lose some of the traditional aspects of society to the newer, shinier stuff. Trying to keep his identity in a world where people are much more connected to their machines than perhaps they are to the land?

Of course your post sort of suggest a pretty adversarial relationship with your totem.

Who likes hearing themselves talk to themselves? First sign of Insanity.

I do, given that in the book "professional" is equated with a recent college graduate entering their field or a college athlete. That's good relative to the general population but inexperienced relative to their veteran peers; their skills are not useless but they haven't personally had to improvise in situations where "by the book" solutions simply aren't available. They very well may succeed with whatever improvisation they come up with, but they can't really say they have consistently done so in the past.

Beyond that, the skill rating table is showing examples of the kinds of people who typically have such skill ratings, not requirements to have such skills. At my table how skilled the character should be is for the most part up to the player. In a system in which only 7 degrees of expertise are tracked prior to specializations I generally don't have a problem with people being more skilled than their old job title would indicate, particularly if the character isn't fluffed as a neophyte runner or otherwise has had motivation to improve oddball skills. Beyond that, I find it rather counterproductive to be very strict with skill ratings given that it provides optimizers with even more incentive to favor "ice cold pros who worked for corp/gov X" backgrounds.

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. I open my bank statement every so often and confirm that this is indeed the truth.