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FuelDrop
Hello all. This thread contains references to both racist stereotypes and religion, so please be extra-specially considerate of other people's beliefs and opinions.

Some quick background: my friend is joining our shadowrun game, but hasn't played since third edition. back then his character was a redneck from america's deep south (Built around the stereotype, not based on any person living or dead... or that's what he tells me at least), who's had a run in with a bad personafix which left him believing he is The Jesus Christ. Yes, that one. Never short-change your BTL dealer.

as a result we now have "Redneck Jesus", as statted out below.

[ Spoiler ]


as you can see, Redneck Jesus still loves his shotguns and his moonshine, and will be using combat drugs to be effective and bliss to be happy. i was wondering if the good folk at dumpshock could give me some ideas on how to improve him or, failing that, he should at least give you a good laugh.

some things not in the readout: He lives in an old church, with a perfect housemate I lifted from another thread here: Larry the Ghoul (i figured it was fitting, as if i heard the story correctly Jesus slept among the lepers smile.gif). Larry's loyalty 5, and a fixer to boot. plus he considers unwelcome intruders to be lunch...

Your thoughts, if any, on this most eccentric of characters?
Xenefungus
Most important:
Ask your GM how he handles addiction tests, expecially how often you got to roll. That totally defines whether drugs are viable or not.

Then:
Go Orc. Be a human poser to be able to be a nazi. makes for an even more interesting character who hates his own race and had a surgery to be able to blend and stand himself. and boosts your stats, efficiently. even with human looking calculated in.
Up Agility
Up Intuition
Willpower to 3
Drop your face skills completely or specialize more, 5 dice for everything won't do anything at all.
Stealth group 1 is no good, same as Influence group. You got 7 dice to sneak around. Thats nothing.
Nice that you discovered that used alpha is strictly better than standard ware...and now common, go talk to your gm already, ask how he rules it, it's a bug.
I wouldnt use the skill wires. Those activesofts are expensive now, and your GM probably wont let you pirate those (if he does, go for it, all skills at 4 for free). If you really have to, use restricted gear MBW level 2 instead. I would specifically not choose Dodge as an Autosoft if you dont have to. why does he use activesofts in the first place?
if you dont do mbw, drop dodge, up athletics or gymnastics, go for synthacardium
Longarms and Pistols is redundant, choose one of those.
Same for Clubs and unarmed.
Get a skill at 6. Especially in BP Gen.
Use Karma Gen.
Instead of magic resistance, better surge for astral hazard. _gives_ you karma back and protects you far better.
Get Martial Arts to improve damage of melee. unarmed ges the bigger bonus than clubs and can get improved through ware for +6 DV, so yeah..

Those are the first things that came to my mind.
Blade
Not awakened with "Turn to wine" spell? frown.gif
Critias
Are the rest of you also playing joke/satire characters, or is this guy going to wreck the feel of your campaign?
FuelDrop
QUOTE (Blade @ Aug 24 2012, 10:50 PM) *
Not awakened with "Turn to wine" spell? frown.gif

afraid not. he believes that he's got all these supernatural powers, despite being completely mundane smile.gif

@Critias: My gm tends to push the RP side of the game, which makes having an interesting character more important than having the best marksman who ever lived. that doesn't mean that we don't already have the best marksman in the world in the group, but it does mean that he's only useful when the shooting starts.

for those wondering about the various suboptimal choices (many of which are intentional):
Laser sights over smartlink: The character is old school, and doesn't trust all this 'new-fangled technology stuff'. i'm frankly considering replacing them with obsolete red dot laser sights for that matter nyahnyah.gif
second hand 'ware is because he used to pick most of it up from people he killed. for instance, he got the skillwires from a knight errant officer who came sniffing around his still, and it's still loaded with the KE self defense package (Dodge and Unarmed 3, for those without unwired). it's more or less there so that the player can pick up some low-rating skillsofts, keep them in storage, then run whatever he needs at that moment.
the low rankings in some skills (such as the social skill group) are fine, as 5 dice (instead of the 3 dice without the one rank) means that the odds of a crit glitch are comparatively low. he's good enough not to embarrass himself too badly, which is usually good enough for a non-face. likewise, 1 rank in the stealth group is just enough to stop him knocking over the trash cans every time we need him to lurk in an alley.
strength over agility is also an aesthetic choice, as it fits with the character's goals and dreams (he wanted to be the strongest man in his own little world. that's the personafix he was originally going for btw).
Drugs should be viable in our game. Thanks for the concern though, Xenefungus. much appreciated. the player wants human, unfortunately, so no orcs who've gotten surgery. trust me, i wanted to do it smile.gif. also, we already have an astral hazing character. a second would likely attract GM ire.
Longarms and pistols are redundant is agreed... sort of. automatics covers all of the roles that the other two do in a single skill, and tends to be best bang for your buck. however, longarms + pistols means he can fire anything that uses a shotgun slug, which is the stated purpose of the character. shotguns are highly suboptimal, but does that really matter if we're all having fun with it?

In summary, thanks for the prompt replies and good advice. I'm probably going to use some to tweak him a little, but for the most part his dicepools are about on par with the rest of the group. we don't particularly want to escalate things, as the GM can always out-escalate us!




Udoshi
QUOTE (FuelDrop @ Aug 24 2012, 02:23 PM) *
afraid not. he believes that he's got all these supernatural powers, despite being completely mundane smile.gif


I still maintain that the best way to play the 'God gives me super powers' thing is with an absurdly high edge.

the amount of absolutely bullshit feats you can pull on a regular basis with edge 6,7 or 8 is miracle worthy.
KarmaInferno
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op40ndRaaOY

Yes?




-k
FuelDrop
QUOTE (KarmaInferno @ Aug 25 2012, 10:04 AM) *

Looks right, but I haven't seen him in action yet.
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