Hello all,

In potentially starting a new campaign up this year in a new town and all that, I've polled the audience and they're mostly new-comers to the SR universe. To that end, I've considered this: start them a little lower than your average runner and help them to build their characters up. While their characters learn about shadowrunning, so do the players!

To that end, I was playing around with the NSRCG and different numbers of points and karma to create new characters. I'm interested in what others have done to create a different class of characters with respects to character generation. Discuss?

When tuning down, it's better to go for BeCKS, or maybe even a tailor-made priority system (though that'll still allow a few very high skills and attributes). Steer clear of BPs. And you might want to change the Karma Pool rules a bit.

I started my current SR campaign with 350 Karma BeCKS v1 characters. It was great for characters who're top-of-the-line as generic organised crime operators, slowly crossing the line into become true shadowrunners.

A few things to keep in mind, though: You should allow for enough resources that making a street samurai with decent cyberware is possible, and you should also check the mundane vs magical balance with whatever creation system and numbers you decide to go with. It's really easy to totally screw mages and adepts when tuning down starting character "level". Perhaps the best way to correct this is not to simply make being a mage/adept cheaper, because that easily tips the scales the other way, but to (also) reduce the amount of abilities starting mages and adepts have (3 Adept Power Points, less spell points, etc).

Feel free to put in some hard and fast rules -> No Tech above 600k, for example.

-Siege

I'm going to chime in agreeing that BeCKS is the way to go, though I havent really ever examined v.1 so I can't recommend one version over the other.

Mages and adepts will be the most difficult to keep in line with other characters, especially if you intend to severely limit their income in the beginning (as would be appropriate for a low-level game), as everyone else will require both money *and* karma to improve, while they will only really require karma. As AE suggested, you really should work out some way to limit their beginning power, but avoid doing so in a way that is unnecessarily harsh. Perhaps you should start adepts with only 3 power points, but the next 3 shouldnt require initiations to attain - perhaps 10 karma apiece until they have 6.

Simply eliminating mage's spell points wont work either, as spells are the second cheapest thing to acquire (karma-wise) in the game. You could probably also reduce mage's magic ratings to 3 or so, and require a similar 10 karma per magic point to buy them up to 6.

Otaku are weird. I have no ideas on how to balance them in a low-level game. I suggest you avoid them altogether.

Other than that, as Siege said you would do well to set stricter rules on gear acquisition, as well as maximum skill levels and the like. But you probably already intended to do such a thing.

Yeah -- I agree with everything. The balancing act for mundane v. magical makes me almost feel like I might give them the normal becks karma and put attribute/skill caps in place and limit the gear they can buy somehow. All left over karma is re-routed to karma pool and then lost (helps to keep newbies alive with those extra karma pool die) and all remaining nuyen is reduced in some arbitrary fashion to represent tough-guys-and-gals on the up-and-up.

I would suggest that if they haven't played before sticking to the basic rules for character creation might be a better plan -- and then just be a little more generous than you might otherwise be to let them build up their characters faster, if you really want to let them see progress right away.

BTW, from your location and your description of your situation, it sounds like you're a new student at the University, eh? You should know that most of us townies call it Champaign-Urbana, not Urbana-Champaign -- about the only one who calls it that is the University. Urbana was here first, but Champaign is bigger (and far superior!). There's also a lack of decent gaming places around here, so....

(Yes, I know my sig and location points to Chicago, but The Containment Zone is much cooler than some University town south of the city.)

Let me know if you want the skinny on the rest of the University/town....I've been here for 24 of my 27 years, so....

I would stick to the rules, but have everyone use the same set of generation rules (i.e. all priority, all points, all becks).

Just give them a few 'GM Breaks' every once in a while and start them off as 'new guys in town' and let them have to build up a rep as they build up thier skills.

That's just what I'd do, but it is your game. I strongly agree with sticking to the published rules though.

Yeah. I don't know why everyone always seems to want to underpower starting characters. The best part of the game is that you start out as a tough, seasoned pro, who already has some contacts and a bit of a rep, instead of a first-level wienie. If someone's playing Shadowrun for the first time, show them how cool it is, instead of limiting them to weak characters.


That said, I do agree with Dr. Funk that you could limit things to only the core rulebook when starting out. Then, you can introduce things from the other books as the game progresses. That's not too limiting - you can create some tough, effective characters with the main rulebook.

While there is merit to Black Isis', Dr. Funk's, and Glyph's concerns, I also totally understand Dashifen's thoughts on the matter. Yes, normally, you start off as a moderately experienced runner with contacts, quality gear, and a rep. I dont think that can really be considered the "best part of the game," that is the basic game, certainly.

However.

I, too, have found myself thoroughly frustrated by the fact that the basic game forces new players, who do not have any idea what they are doing and have no real familiarity with the setting and concept beyond a cursory read of the timeline in SR3, to play veterans. It really isnt a bad idea at all to teach players the basics of shadowrunning from an in-character perspective - its just an atypical approach. I dont get the impression at all that the players will be generating anything approximating "first level weinies" either - to continue an already distasteful metaphor, they would, perhaps, be 4th level characters rather than 7th.

Some players/groups would really appreciate such a thing. Others wouldnt. I think Dashifen is in the best position out of all of us to judge which of those applies to the group in question.

Hah! I remember something very funny about one of the guy's I used to play with, and this IS on topic pretty much.

He had this character named Lothar who was an absolute porcupine. This guy's dice were blessed and though this guy would get wounded, he'd never really die no matter how much I threw at him.
After about 200 or so accumulated karma, one day Lothar's player jokingly remarks before the session something to the effect of : "I could totally blow away that samurai that comes with the book." referring to the 3rd Ed. SR
So I say hell let's give it a try.

The sammie rolls initiative and totally beats Lothar. Rolls all his SMG dice and as much combat pool as he can and FLATTENS Lothar in one burst. The whole group almost died with laughter. =)

But anyhow, starting characters totally have the capacity to whoop butt.

***

I usually just help the new player put together the kind of character they would like to play and then do a little 'piddle-run' and teach them the game mechanics as we go.

The trick is to strike a balance in power.

Samurai with a million nuyen tend to outmax and outclass adepts and mages.

The amount of skills for each group doesn't change much, but a million nuyen of toys can unbalance a party's power level.

-Siege

Ah, the famous 'million dollar samurai'...who needs attributes when you can just buy them anyways? =)

Just a little input by way of an equation:

BeCKS + New Players = Ex-Players hating Shadowrun

It's too complicated a system for people who don't even understand the game itself and don't know where they need to assign the points, etc.
Besides, I've heard a few comments on here from experienced players saying that they don't use BeCKS for a variety of reasons.

Personally, I do like BeCKS, but it requires a few hours and some experienced players as far as my (limited) experience has shown me.

I'd agree with the suggestion of sticking to the core rulebook though. Perhaps even using some of the pre-written characters in there. That way they would get to see how everything works before they have to choose what statistics they need.

My players were new to Shadowrun. They never tried any other character creation system than BeCKS. They still like SR more than any other RPG we've tried over the years.

If the players seem to hate BeCKS, don't use it, but just because they're new doesn't mean they won't like it.

Good suggestions, all. There's about two weeks before I get to meet all of the players, so I'll probably just pose the question to them. See what they feel. They're all veteran gamers, just not shadowrun players, so they may not mind the concept of jumping in as veterans.

Black Isis: Doctor Funkenstein *was* agreeing with you. He noticed that you already posted what he wanted to say, so he provided a bit of extra advice - thats all.

Oh....okay, I see what he's saying now. I thought he was saying "I agreed with her, until I saw what she posted and thought more about it". Duh. Sorry for the blonde moment.

D'oh. Even when I try to keep myself in check I still get people irked at me. <bangs his head on his desk a few times>