From time to time I thought that it would be fun to make a mundane character with no cyberware as a challenge and do well in the game just through careful strategy during firefights.
The first such character I made was a demented demolitions person who only had Pistols 3 and Unarmed Combat 3 or somesuch as offensive abilities.
The second character was a Dirty Harry ripoff with a high Pistols skill but the only weapon he ever carried was a Ruger Warhawk and if he wasn't expecting trouble he would never carry more than 6 rounds for it and furthermore he would never ever use speed loaders. Furthermore, he always wore a three piece suit and *never* any armor, so he couldn't even afford to get hit.
I actually had a lot of fun with these characters because I had to play smart and hide from the enemies a lot. The Dirty Harry guy was especially a lot of fun because of his SS attack rate, his vulnerability, and his really slow reloading. I would delay actions and time things so that I could Change Posture, Aim, Fire, Change Posture.
Did you ever try something similar? Did you enjoy it, or did you find it frustrating?
Full Version: Have you ever made a mundane non cybered char?
Yes, you can do it. You tend to get hurt a lot, but the extra karma and nuyen you get compared to the cyber monsters and mage-types allows you to develop above-average skills and personalized equipment fairly quickly. A DocWagon contract is really, really necessary.
Have I ever made one just to be underpowered? No.
Have I ever made one? Yes. Two in fact.
One was a Paranormal Investigator with tons of Skills and Contacts, and the other was a Face who revelled in the fact that he could excel at his craft without having to rely on any toys or trickery.
Social Skills were, once upon a time, the last bastion of the mundane character. Now with insane levels of target modifiers and extra dice easily and readily available to adepts, that's no longer the case. At least the one Bioware implant that could sway things towards the augmented character was difficult to acquire (Availability 12), especially for starting characters.
Have I ever made one? Yes. Two in fact.
One was a Paranormal Investigator with tons of Skills and Contacts, and the other was a Face who revelled in the fact that he could excel at his craft without having to rely on any toys or trickery.
Social Skills were, once upon a time, the last bastion of the mundane character. Now with insane levels of target modifiers and extra dice easily and readily available to adepts, that's no longer the case. At least the one Bioware implant that could sway things towards the augmented character was difficult to acquire (Availability 12), especially for starting characters.
Made one and never had the chance to play it 
You get a lot out of skills though. On the plus side if you survive to get the ¥ and the right contacts you can do pretty well.
You get a lot out of skills though. On the plus side if you survive to get the ¥ and the right contacts you can do pretty well.
Rat, my character in the 40-BP Cage Fight game, was an uncybered mundane to start out (he has since gotten a smartlink II). He was a fun character to play.
Got one myself. She's a face, still doing fine despite the assumption that mundane Faces are going to be ousted by adept faces.
Personally, no, but one of the longest-running characters I GM'd was purely mundane for years. Wolf, aka Jason Blackwolf. And this, mark you, was under the old initiative rules 
Eventually he got himself a synaptic accelerator, and his sister (a Wolf shaman - he was shadowrunning to put her through her Doctorate of Magic) made him a Detect Spell/Personal Spell Barrier anchored pin during her post-graduate work. That's your lot, the sum total of his non-mundane gear.
Unless you count the 1,000,000
VTOL stealth transport that is his pride and joy, of course 
Eventually he got himself a synaptic accelerator, and his sister (a Wolf shaman - he was shadowrunning to put her through her Doctorate of Magic) made him a Detect Spell/Personal Spell Barrier anchored pin during her post-graduate work. That's your lot, the sum total of his non-mundane gear.Unless you count the 1,000,000
VTOL stealth transport that is his pride and joy, of course
The best bet for a mundane, non-cybered character is definately the face.
Although the social adept takes takes the cake when it comes to social skills (as often enough discussed here), the starting adept has to neglect other important areas for his magical skills (either connections, attributes or other skills).
It's much easier to make a wellrounded face if you don't have to churn out the points for the adept abilities. It will be much cheaper to raise your skills later if you have higher attributes to start out with. More skills will come in handy, and you will have a lot more points/money (depends on the chargen system) for connections. The bottleneck most of the time is not that your social skills are too low, but that you don't have the right connection for the information/gear you seek.
To throw in a famous quote: "It's not who you are, it's who you know."
I have to admit that I never played a social adept, but I have lots of experience with mundane faces/fixers.
Although the social adept takes takes the cake when it comes to social skills (as often enough discussed here), the starting adept has to neglect other important areas for his magical skills (either connections, attributes or other skills).
It's much easier to make a wellrounded face if you don't have to churn out the points for the adept abilities. It will be much cheaper to raise your skills later if you have higher attributes to start out with. More skills will come in handy, and you will have a lot more points/money (depends on the chargen system) for connections. The bottleneck most of the time is not that your social skills are too low, but that you don't have the right connection for the information/gear you seek.
To throw in a famous quote: "It's not who you are, it's who you know."
I have to admit that I never played a social adept, but I have lots of experience with mundane faces/fixers.
Did a Merc character a while back. Very skilled, lots of toys, knows just about everyone.
Only played it once...game folded...damn...
Only played it once...game folded...damn...
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.