Character Creation Walk Through

Okay in the Shadowrun 5e Core Guidelines go to page 62 where we can walk through the process and we will discuss each piece as we go.

Step One : Choose Concept

Read through pages 62 through 64 be sure to read it all and tell me what you think you might enjoy playing -- keep in mind certain archetypes will be easier to play than others due to the layers of complexity within the game. Now as many variants are being allowed keep in mind if while reading those pages you get a concept you feel might be fun to play as there is a very good chance that we can implement that as well.

Your standard Human is the most common race and there are some times prejudices against other non-human races. For instance Japan is very prejudice against non-humans and to a lesser degree non-Japanese humans. However, I am not sure how our GM plans to make their Philippines in regards to this but there a pockets where there are reverse prejudices well like the underground (I assume there is one here) where Trolls and Orks rule and Dwarves are accepted but other races are sometimes viewed with disdain or outright hostility. And of course, no one every trusts a dragon as such everyone knows to Never Deal with a Dragon of course they are extremely rare so not like you bump into one of those everyday, and often if you do bump into you might even know it. And no I highly doubt the GM will let you play a dragon, of course if you did it be a young one a major target for every mage out there.

Respond to this post with your ideas towards what you think you might like to play -- use broad strokes when painting the picture that will help us to drill it down to the details that best fit what you feel you might have fun playing. Focus on character concept and personality and those kind of things mostly.

P.S. Feel free to use DnD5e references if that helps for instance Orcs are Orcs and Trolls in this game are more like Ogres in DnD, elves are elves and dwarves are dwarves and we have just about every other race both playable and not-directly playable that can be found in DnD5e

Okay, so I have a goblin artificer that I loved playing that could fit the bill. Are there goblins in here? Think Rocket Raccoon crossed with Warcraft goblins. :D So like...a mechanic of some sort? Big guns? Bombs?

You're likely looking at a street samurai then. There are hobgoblins, not sure on normal goblins, I haven't read all the supplements.

I'm definitely looking for a small, animalistic race of some kind.

Okay well goblins in Shadowrun are just diseased ghoul-like creatures -- so we would be working with a Dwarf or Dwarf MetaVariant

Dwarves appear in the core guildelines so no need for me to cover them the other metavariants for dwarves can be found HERE but to be clear they are as follows:

Gnomes: ....... Central European Dwarf
Harumen: ...... Dwarven variant from India with monkey-like appearance
Koborokuru: .. Japanese Dwarven variant
Menehune: .... Hawaiʻian Dwarf
Querx: .......... Variant from Saxony in the Allied German States

Monkey Dwarf?! Booyah. Let's do that. Haha

Okay, so here's my Heroforge mock-up. Where do I go next? You said a street samurai? I can see him being a sort of bounty hunter type?

I myself have become interested in the shapeshifters. Curious in making a stealth/infiltration focused pantherine Adept. (Which may mean my mystic adept just becomes a mage, or I even just swap characters.

You might want to look at some of the Monkeyking images but yours works too just giving potential suggestions. The Mankey is what came to my mind when I first glanced at the description.

Hanuman

Bdy 1/6 ... Agi 2/7 ... Rea 1/6 ... Str 2/7 ... Wil 1/6 ... Log 1/5 ... Int 2/7 ... Cha 1/5 ... Edg 1/6 ... Ess 6 ... Init: Rea + Int
Racial Traits: Low-Light Vision, Monkey Paws, Prehensile Tail, Unusual Hair (Body)
This metatype has a +20% increase to Lifestyle costsSo you were talking a small guy with big guns that knows how to make them as wall as perhaps be a mechanical/electrical genius of a sorts. Now you say Street Samurai bounty hunter style character. That could be two totally separate paths as street samurai generally focus on physical characteristics and a mech/tech genius would focus more on the mental aspects.

So need a clarification on your character concept -- more physical or more mental oriented

That may be my fault for saying street sam earlier, as just saw the big guns + grenades.

Hey LightOfMidnight are you wanting help with your character build as well ?

I should be mostly good but I may be keeping an eye on here, and occasionally asking questions/still writing down steps. As by using HL I may miss some stuff, like just realised you can adjust lifestyle to a degree.

Edit: As only made one before and it was in a game we were all new to the system.

I’ll say it this way, and hopefully it helps. If this was 5e, it would be artificer, with multiclass into rogue. So smart first, but also nimble and stealthy. Does that make sense? Definitely INT first, DEX second.

Okay DnD Int is SR Log -- and DnD Wis is SR Int

And yes that makes sense so not a typical Street Sam per-sae as they tend to be more Tanky like Fighters in DnD except they move a LOT faster let me mull the concept around in my head and outline some options

Thinking to make a male Human Adept.

okay

Re: Metahuman Discrimination and Discrimination (draft)

Okay Mr.Armitage I rolled the concept around in my head some and you have two paths we could go -- one is going to require tactics to pull off (and we the other players can perhaps help with this) and the other is much more straight forward but lacks imo pizzazz but it would be lean mean and semi-effective in most situations.

1) Rigger 2) AdeptOkay so option 1 is more like the Artificer but this Artificer does not usually carry big guns they put them on a vehicle and then remotely use that vehicle. This guy would make things and use them, sort of like summoning monsters to do your fighting for you. However a rigger is not good because of their stats nor the vehicles they use. They are good if played cleverly. For instance, Riggers are as good at spying as they are at combat. One does not need to directly kick azz like a Street Sam for there to be plenty of appreciation for their skills. Someone flying a drones over the combat, finding all the of the baddies, and putting them on a AR map for their buddies so their buddies know where to lob the grenades, while also having a drone watching the escape route, while yet another flying high to watch for trouble further afield, etc...

The Adept on the flip side can be like the DnD Monk on steroids. If done properly no single individual can do more damage than they can in a fight and they are far form being a glass-cannon. While the Street Sam is like a high-speed Tiger Tank the Adept is the the higher-speed more maneuverable Panther Tank. Neither one of them is invulnerable but both are very hard to put down, if designed properly and playing to their strengths. The ranged Adept would be more like a highly specialized Archer while the melee Adept would be like a highly specialized swordsman

Of the two I think the Rigger is closest to the concept you described BUT the question I pose to you is are you up for the challenge that playing one requires. Its not necessarily learning all the intricate details of the game but it will involve learning how to use all the elements you have at hand to their greatest effect which I will not lie means reading a lot about how combat works and figuring out how to use your remote vehicles to exploit that. It also means figuring out other effective uses for the vehicles for doing other things, for instance getting a small spying vehicle that is built to be as realistic as possible like the Entertainment Systems Falcon (A Falcon Shaped drone with realistic feathers). Your imagination and money are you only limits to this.

I definitely think the rigger is the best fit

Okay Rigger it is -- so now you need to answer those questions posed by the GM
You should be able to answer these questions without having dived into the nitty gritty details of your mechanics

Further I suggest, as we continue forward, that you start reading the combat rules in general and then I will point out somethings later on that you ought to take specific note of -- other than that we will continue on to...

Step 2: Select Priorities (Choose MetaType and Magic/Resonance)
Step 3: Assign Attributes

Here is where we get into defining the skeleton of your character that all the muscle and organs get placed within -- this has a Major Impact on your end character and determines greatly what you will be able to do out of the box. To me and many others the Attributes are generally the most important thing as they greatly affect all of your Dice Pools and are generally the most expensive to raise later on. Of course, the differences between this and the other important items can be like splitting hairs but again to me the most costly thing to raise later on and the thing you cannot do without up front is solid Attributes.

However the easy-peasy thing for this character is what gets put into Slot E as you are not doing Magic nor Resonance its a throw away for you. Okay so that leaves Attributes, Metatype, Skills, and Resources and Slots A, B, C, and D

Your Metatype starts with these Attributes:
Bdy 1 ... Agi 2 ... Rea 1 ... Str 2 ... Wil 1 ... Log 1 ... Int 2 ... Cha 1 ... Edg 1

So to get a 2 in all Attributes will Cost 5 and that is the bare minimum one should have still to be an effective character IMO you need 3s in all Attributes which increases Cost 13 for this character. Now you can only have one Attribute at a 6 without augmentations and the since your Logic is capped at 5 this means we want to take Reaction to a 6. This just means your character will a bit better at Piloting things than they will be at Jumping In things so with everything at a 3 it costs an additional 3 to get Reaction to a 6 and 2 to get Logic to a 5 (which you need for fixing stuff) for an additional total Cost 18 so while a 24 Attribute points would be nice we can get by with just 20 (but that is your call). Assuming we go with 20 that puts that in Priority B and we put that last 2 points into Intuition to helps us with Initiative and your Attributes would look like this:

Bdy 3 ... Agi 3 ... Rea 6 ... Str 3 ... Wil 3 ... Log 5 ... Int 4 ... Cha 3 ... Edg 1

Further we have to put Priority C as your Metatype or you cannot be Hanuman

A) Hanuman(7) -5 Karma ... B) Hanuman(4) -5 Karma ... C) Hanuman(1) -5 Karma

And since you do not have Magic nor Resonance we put that one Special Point into Edge raising it to a 2

Bdy 3 ... Agi 3 ... Rea 6 ... Str 3 ... Wil 3 ... Log 5 ... Int 4 ... Cha 3 ... Edg 2

Thus your Priority Chart would look like this:

... Priority A : Resources (500,000¥)
... Priority B : Attributes (20)
... Priority C : Hanuman (1)
... Priority D : Skills (22/0)
... Priority E : Magic/Resonance (0)

This is going to hurt a bit with Skills but for a Rigger Attribute/Resources are 1 and 2. You will see why, as we progress forward, these two are as important as I have denoted but for now just trust me we can always go back and change things. Also you are going to need to consider how much Essence you are okay with losing to put in Cyberware/Bioware but we will need to balance their costs against what we want to spend on Vehicles. Still both can be acquired later if desired.

If you are okay with the above we can move to the next step -- but if you have any questions please ask them as you need to understand this step for as I said this is your characters skeleton or foundation that everything else gets built upon

So far, so good. :) Given this is my first game in SR, I'm going to trust your judgement. If I understand you right, we're prioritizing money and attributes so that I'm able to buy gadgets etc, as well as attribute so I can use them effectively?

As for the backstory questions, I start working on those.

Carter is looking good. Just mostly working on goods now.

Think of him as a street samurai type person. Hired merc mostly. Great with a sword and good with a gun. Has fairly good connections. Big on drugs and the street scene. Seems to have an excellent supply of money. Rather familiar with Manila.

GeneCortess since your character was raised in Manila (if I am correct) how about us having a connection of some sort -- currently my character concept is a Shadowy Mystical/Adept that functions as a Decker -- and since your character has Adept abilities I figured they would not only have something in common but also be able to compliment one another on assignments -- what do you think? Note this concept for the character does not change regardless of the outcome of what the GM says about what I presented to them for approval so we can work off this -- if we do become compadres I will fill you in with more info on him as it solidifies

Carter growing up was BLIND from birth. It wasn't till his late teens that he got his first set of cybereyes. His father never accepted him a son. Publicly Carter never existed. His father is the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. Otherwise very rich. Carter could have most anything besides acceptance and publicity. His Adapt abilities are more secondary. Your a true Adept. Later Carter fell to drugs and the street scene. As long as he never publicly admits his last name is "Delta", the family name, he receives funds.

What do you think about a connection to that. 1) times before he could see 2) Times after getting sight 3) Times he left the family as he feel into drugs and street scene.

Those are the three most major times for him. At each time he really is a different person.

That is correct Mr.Armitage just want to be sure your okay with things before moving forward as well as to help you understand the creation process. So with that we move on to... (note tweaked previous Step post -- Step 3 is Assign Attributes)

Step 4: Acquire Qualties (45 Karma)

This one dovetails allot into who and what the character is all about but there a few things you are definitely going to want -- first we can have up to 20 Points of Negative Qualities which if chosen properly augment your character and give them some personality. There have been times where my concept called for more Negative Qualities than I would get credit for and I would weave these Negative Qualities in but in a manner that caused them to be more role playing than mechanics affecting and sometimes well I just took the hit because it really needed to be there. Other times I did not get the full 20 points but that is rather uncommon since I like the color these Negative Qualities add. Below are links to a fairly comprehensive list of predefined Negative and Positive Qualities we start with the Negative ones so we know how many points we ultimately have to spend and because it helps to define things about the character that we might not already have considered.

Negative Qualities

Positive Qualities

Now as for Positive qualities you are going to want two of them out of the gate and those are:
• Gearhead (Cost 11 Karma)
• Juryrigger (Cost 10 Karma)

So read up on these two Positive Qualities -- once you have gone through both lists making notes on the ones you think might be interesting -- and have posted your Background story for your character outlining who and what they are all about taking into account potential negative and positive qualities you think you might like -- I may can better make suggestions on what Negative and Positive Qualities to take and why I think so.

GeneCortess well I think it would be cool if during his blind youth he had a young individual (about his own age) that was helping with how to acoustically get around. Basically how to see your environment using sound. Something he may have forgotten how to do since he got his eyes. Then later on when he fell into drugs and the street scene they meet once again and he eventually figures out this was his childhood friend. How does that sound. If you like it we can discuss more details about it.

DeJoker Sounds about right. You would have been only a voice to him mostly. A childhood playmate per say. Not like he had very many at all. Perhaps we split more apart (parents doings) later. With getting his eyes, he had mostly forgotten and surely later in life didn't help.

Your fairly much lost to him until he hears your voice, then he would remember you. As you can imagine, voices he never forgets.

You may be one of the few that actually knows who he is. Carter is what every says, but you actually know he is Carter Delta and know of his family which vertually no one else knows. There is no doubt you were sworn to keep that secret. Your parents were probably paid off too. The Delta's own and run Farmers Goods. A large pharmaceutical company. And which why his parents are very wealthy. Always money in drugs. And even in public records Carter Delta doesn't exist.

You know as a child Carter wanted to be like the great sword fighters that could even fight blind. It was always a childhood dream of his. He didn't have the body for it as he was fairly fragile back then. You even played with that. He of course failed each time to anticipate anything. He was just a blind kid. He was hard to play with because of that too.

Despite being a lesser body person and all, Carter was actually never sick. He just had a birth defect and was blind. A lesser body came as he was totally inactive. His father gave him zero incentive. Only his mother held any concern for him and it was strictly controlled.

And he doesn't have dead white eyes any more. That and he isn't the weakling that he was then either. His body has very much changed. He has become rather muscled and now has penetrating blue eyes. His whole body has been worked over. But Carter's voice hasn't changed. It always had a distinct sound to it.

How is that?

Sounds hot to me. But we both need to be in the same group I would think. I can't access the picture you tried to send to me.

Yeah I saw your statement and can see your character gravitating to that crew -- not that it would be all that good for him ;) long term -- drugs is bad business -- still good business folk do not mix business with pleasure (aka smart folk who deal drugs do not use drugs and further they know its good business to get others addicted so they can be used)

I can adjust my background to slip into your group -- perhaps my character can get your character to leave the drug scene ;) which is why he is there maybe --- to bad one cannot belong to one group and still do work for another group

For GM mostly but tossing out thoughts if it becomes viable -- I mean if your character belongs to the Jasper group and you get a mission that can use my talents -- your character could let me know -- and if I belonged to the Max group and got a mission that can use your talents I would let you know --- but that would only work if the group you are doing a mission does not necessarily need to be the group you belong too --- this would only be an issue if both groups have a mission that is taking place at the same time --- I mean I do not necessarily see direct conflict between the Jasper group and the Max group but I could be wrong -- however I do see direct conflict between the Max group and the Maya Group -- while the Jasper and Maya groups might be on okay standings maybe

Then again maybe we already went through this perhaps... aka my character helped your character get off the really bad drugs which got you back into doing shadow running --- I could see very few folks trusting a drug addicted runner -- yeah they exist and seem like they might not be too uncommon but I would venture to guess they get the bottom feeder jobs for the somewhat unreliables or the send some expendables on that job kind of thing.

So with those musing let me know what you think -- so far we are flipping a coin so-to-speak between Jasper or Max

So Mr.Armitage how are things on your end -- we about ready to look things over or you still figuring things out?

Yeah. Carter is addicted to ZEN. It was the way he could escape for a bit and drop stress. He needs some every two weeks or less. (9 Karma build) It is a very cheap cost drug and easy to get for him. He of course tries not to use it, but sometimes and usually it preys on him. If he wasn't so good at what he does, it might be a breaking point for him. He is after all a prime runner.

So like an alcoholic does he stay out of bars when he can ;) and we join the Max Group or does he like to torture himself and we join the Jasper Group?? I mean I can still see him going to Jasper thrown parties ;) from time to time no stopping a junky from goin' where the junk is ;) but at least he's not neck deep in the stuff 24/7 and trying not to over consume

Okay, so as far as Negative Qualities, I think Uncouth looks like a good fit, especially if I'm going full Rocket Raccoon. :)



As for his backstory, he grew up in more rural Philippines (Leyte specifically), where he originally was a motorcab driver/mechanic. (I spoke with the GM via DM and he's cool with some of my race migrating over a while ago). As his town was eventually wrapped up in the conflicts there, he began exploring new inventions and drones and such to protect himself. When his talents began to be noticed, he realized a warzone is no place to make a living, and he made his way to Manila.

Primarily, he is quite literally a grease monkey, but is the guy to go to when you need a vehicle or drone or gadget in some way. He can be "the guy in the chair," the driver, or the pilot. He has a temper, and makes up for his small stature by being surly and short-tempered. Those who know him know not to piss him off or he'll likely just send a drone to take you out (or even better, publicly embarass you) when you're not looking. He's impulsive, vindictive, and as smart as he thinks he is.

Yeah. Carter is good on other drugs about resistance.. and fails on ZEN if he is stressed out. That or hasn't had the feel in days on end. And wants to feel it again. Seems like every two weeks now he just gotta have some.

Okay Mr.Armitage if you do not want to post it openly please post a note to me so I know what Negative Qualities you took for your character -- I can guess at them but I would much rather know for sure what you chose so that I can either make suggestions on those and/or suggestions on other perhaps Positive Qualities you might want to take that fit the picture you are painting of this guy. Look forward to seeing those.

@Armitage

If you're gonna go with Vendetta, do note on your character sheet about your nemesis, and on your background the reason why.
That would help me :)

I do not have problems with the other qualities you chose.

Okay on to Positive Qualities and we already have :

• Gearhead (Cost 11 Karma)
• Juryrigger (Cost 10 Karma)

Note you will need to use those two Positive Qualities smartly or you may either not get their full impact or end up destroying a piece of equipment unnecessarily ;)

This leaves you with (44 Karma)

I think you will also want Ambidextrous (Cost 4 Karma) which technically means (from what I understand) you can now use any one of your 4 hands equally well but the GM will have to chime in on that one to be sure. I mean you pay for the extra "hands" so I see no reason not to allow this to affect them all but I am not the GM and they might just up the Karma cost a smidge if anything.

Common Sense (Cost 3 Karma) for new players this is almost always a must so I would strongly suggest you takes this one and will work on your Edge eventually as well.

Vehicle Empathy (Cost 7 Karma) you might want this one as well

Grease Monkey (Cost 8 Karma) you might want this one as well

And if you picked up all 4 of these -- you would be at 44 - 22 = 22 Karma remaining (see below)

Other than those fairly obvious ones there are others you might like -- so go through the positive quality list and see if there are any in there that speak to you -- be sure to read them carefully -- if you have any question any then be sure to ask

Note you are probably going want to hold on to at least 15 Karma to take your Edge from a 2 to a 3 taking it to 4 is good but that will cost an additional 20 Karma meaning you cannot get all 4 of those PQs that I suggested but its a toss up here as Edge is rather useful and ties into your Common Sense -- but those others I suggested are quite useful to -- so here we get down to either flipping a coin or committing to game concept over game advantage -- some lean to concept others lean to advantage and neither is wrong as they are all about style of play and what is more fun for you.

Also having left over Karma at this point is not a bad thing -- even having left over Karma when you start the game is not a bad thing either -- however if there is a PQ you really like get it now as it does not get any cheaper

RE: Four Arm Ambidexterity

I'd raise the karma to 12 to buy 'dexterity' for all off hand. (4 points for each extra hand)

Reason:
Cause there are not many activities that require you to have an off hand as good as your dominant hand what more about having two extra arms. You need to train them to be as good as your dominant hand reason why you have to 'buy' it.

It should be an amazing feat to have dexterous four arms but... do you really need it? If you're just going to use your other off hands for climbing, carrying stuff, things that do not really require dexterity I suggest don't buy it. The need for one to have equal dexterity in all four limbs is really conditional that I suggest you don't buy the extra.

For more info here's a reddit thread about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadowrun/comments/9vhc5x/5e_four_arms/

What are your thoughts on Stunt Driver, Speed Demon, and Subtle (Vehicle) Driver?

May help you beat Metro Manila Hell level traffic :)

Okay this one is only 3 Karma but that is because it is highly situational nice for when it applies but it only applies to when you are fully committed to a single vehicle -- by either driving it directly or jumping in it mentally -- so kind of depends on how often you think you might be doing those two things -- which kind of goes to what you feel your style is going to be -- currently I see your main focus is making, fixing, and using vehicles -- not necessarily being in that driver seat kind of using though -- but ya never know -- flip a coin kind of thingThis one is more generic in that you can use it either, physically driving, remotely driving, or jacked-in driving as such much more useful in more situations it just only applies to pulling off Stunts -- for this I would suggest you look into vehicle stunts to see how viable this will be for your mode of play -- if you see quite a few stunts that you might use or even a few that you feel you might use a lot then I would go with it -- again style of playOkay I would only take this if you plan to specialize in a specific Vehicle as you have to buy it for a specific vehicle each time and its has situational benefits -- so very narrow and situational -- I probably reserve this for picking up in game and then only if I felt it was something I had been running into where getting it would actually pay off.

Okay as kenesperanza pointed out having Ambidexterity while neat is not really something your character would benefit a lot from so I would suggest passing on that one. That said we have this so far

44 - 15 (+1 Edge) = 29

If you take these which is totally up to you and what you feel is going to be fun for you
.... Common Sense (Cost 3 Karma)
.... Vehicle Empathy (Cost 7 Karma)
.... Grease Monkey (Cost 8 Karma)
--------------------------
New Total : 11

Things you were considering adding
.... Speed Demon (Cost 3 Karma)
.... Stunt Drive (Cost 4 Karma)
.... Subtle (Vehicle) Pilot (Cost 4 Karma) (just choose the one you want to focus on)
........ Air Vehicles - Fixed-Wing, Lighter-Than-Air, Rotary Wing, Tilt Wing, Vectored Thrust
........ Ground Vehicles - Bike, Hovercraft, Tracked, Wheeled
........ Water Vehicles - Hydrofoil, Motorboat, Sail, Ship, Submarine
........ Space Vehicles -Deep Space, Launch Craft, Semiballistic, Suborbital

--------------------------
New Total : 0

This might be good and it might not be good *shrug*

I’m realizing I probably want to have something to do when I’m not driving too. What would you suggest if I had dabbled in firearms or gadgets/explosives while I’m not driving?

You do have something to do when your not driving and that is working on those things you drive repairing them, augmenting them, building new ones, fixing someone else's ride

Okay cool. Everything looks good to me. What’s next?

I guess you're now at Step 5 which is to Purchase Skills.
You have 22 points to allocate on skills.
You get one native language, I'm guessing you're choosing Filipino?
You have free 18 points you can allocate on knowledge or language skils.

The list of skills are on page 90 of the core rulebook.

Okay so please clarify what positive qualities you did take so that I know if you have an Karma remaining or not --- other than that as kenesperanza outlined we are at :

Available : 65

Total Used : 46

Remaining : 19

Step 5: Purchase Skills

Okay so positives:
Gear head
Jurryrigger
Common sense
Vehicle empathy
Grease monkey (hehe)
Speed demon
Stunt drive

Does that work? Honestly I’m so new at this that if you change it to make it work given the info I’ve given, I’ll figure it out. I’m here to have fun. :)

Yes and that is the endeavor -- we just can only do so much from the beginning but now we move on to skills

A quick browse of the books I have easy access to hasn't revealed it to me, so I'll ask here.

My character sends some of her money back to the halfway house she grew up in. This isn't required of her, and they don't generally ask questions about where the money comes from. This isn't a group that would be totally screwed if she were to stop sending her support. It's not child support or backpay or anything. She just wants to help them.

I considered using Dependent to represent that, but that seems a bit "more" than it is. Like the House won't seek her out for things unless it's a truly desperate situation. While the people in charge have likely figured out she's a Shadowrunner, the illusion of ignorance protects them, and neither party wants to disrupt that.

I might end up using Dependent anyway, and say that if they actively call her, it's because they need help with some sort of healing thing, more than for Runner stuff (though I do want to leave the option open that they call her for a Runner type job if something threatens them that's more dangerous than them acknowledging their association with a Runner). But do you know of any better way to represent that?

Something that compels your character to send money back to the house where she grew up in is something like an oath. Let's just call it an Oath and you can have bonus 6 karma for an oath that compels you to send money back regularly. May not be all your money, but most of it.

So what skills should I be taking?

Priority D : Skills (22/0)
Bdy 3 ... Agi 3 ... Rea 6 ... Str 3 ... Wil 3 ... Log 5 ... Int 4 ... Cha 3 ... Edg 2

Well sadly not very many... which means you have to focus on what you want to be good at and not necessarily worry about the others so much as such I am going to list everything that you might be interested in and keep in mind its your dice pool you are interested in getting high -- which you augment with other abilities so keep that in mind as wellSo let us start with your meat-n-potato skills

Reaction Skills (6) in what I think would be priority order
.... Pilot Aircraft
.... Pilot Ground Craft
.... Pilot Watercraft
.... Pilot Walker
.... Pilot Aerospace

Logic Skills (5) again in what I think would be priority order
.... Aeronautics Mechanics
.... Automotive Mechanic
.... Nautical Mechanics
.... Industrial Mechanics

Logic Skills (5) -- related skills that you might want listed alphabetically
.... Armorer
.... Chemistry
.... Computer
.... Demolitions

Charisma Skills (3)
.... Con
.... Etiquette
.... Negotiation

Willpower Skill (3)
.... Survival

Intuition Skills (4)
.... Perception
.... Navigation

Agility Skills (3)
.... Automatics
.... Gunnery
.... Heavy Weapons
.... Locksmith
.... Longarms
.... Pistols

So as you can see with 22 points available you cannot have them all and in fact you cannot have many that are going to be overly high in rating but hopefully your bonuses will cover some of those. Still with 22 points that is basically 7 skills at a rating of 3 and it is better to be good at a few things then poor at a lot of things. For instance my character has no gun skills because having a 1 in Pistol versus a 5 in something else much more beneficial and a lot costly to get a higher ability now than later. Still you need to have enough skill base to be more than a one-trick-pony so aim for a two-trick-pony as I think that is going to be your limit

Maybe focus on Air and Ground vehicles -- piloting/mechanic and get Gunnery (I think that is the skill you use for vehicle mounted weapons (even really small vehicles) and I would think Perception and Navigation might be important -- and if you had not noticed that is 7 skills -- still without digging deeply into the concept and mechanics of your profession I cannot really say what is the best of the best to go with -- you have to determine what you think you will need -- do a google search on Riggers they have lots of suggestions granted not all will fit your concept -- which to me is more important the min-maxing stuff -- note I believe in understanding min-maxing in order to help me render the concept I am going for -- aka the most bang for the buck in implementing that overall concept I want to play

For instance my character gets a +4 Dice Pool to Knowledge skills which means with just a 2 rating in a Knowledge skill he has a pretty good Dice Pool to work with and considered a Veteran however there was a solid reason I did not put any points into using a gun I am just not all that good at that as it was not the focus of my character even though in shadowrun not knowing how to use a gun is often not a good idea but I am hoping that I can get away without needing a gun

My suggestion:

Get some engineering and piloting skills (specialize, you don't have to take the whole group unless you want to)
Add professional knowledge on Mechanics
Left over points go to some computer skills and language.

Do drones fall under piloting still?

Yes you have to pilot drones and they use the same piloting skill as you would use if sitting in the cockpit of that drone -- keep in mind that some drones are as big as vehicles the cockpit is simply in your head instead of physically within the vehicle

Okay, so lets go with piloting and mechanics for air and ground. Gunnery for sure.

Okay but you have to give them numeric values of 1 to 6 which come out of your 22 point allotment -- note I have not mentally gathered together all your dice pool bonuses as such I cannot recommend numbers to you but an 8 or more Dice Pool for your primary skills that should be sufficient to begin with -- while an 11 or better would be awesome but not at the expensive of only having 5 skills -- hopefully you can get maybe 9 or so skills based of the ones I and kenesperanza suggested

Creating a character sheet is pretty straight forward once you have finished your character :)

Just fill in the Shadowrun 5e character sheet they have within this forum under Characters

You might want to make various notes to remind you of what each thing does and what all your bonuses are but other than that its pretty straight forward

A Dice Pool = Attribute + Skill + Any Bonuses

Okay how’s this?
6 Pilot Aircraft
4 Aircraft Mechanic
5 Gunnery
4 Pilot Ground
3 Ground Mechanic

That’s a gut check on the character more than anything

Okay sounds good but you might want a minor adjustment and here is your info thus far condensed

Pilot
.... Aircraft 6 + Rea(6)
.... Ground 4 + Rea(6)

Okay you have a +3 Dice Pool for Difficult Maneuvers and +5 Dice Pool for Stunts with an additional +1 Dice Pool at High Speeds so I would suggest dialing these two back a bit

Pilot
.... Aircraft 4 + Rea(6)
.... Ground 3 + Rea(6)

Netting you +3 Skill points

Mechanic
.... Aircraft Mechanic 4 + Log(5)
.... Ground Mechanic 3 + Log(5)

Okay you have a +3 Dice Pool to Juryrig and a +1 Dice Pool for everything else as such I probably leave those as is

.... Gunnery 5 + Agi (3)

No bonuses to this leave it as is --- so you have 3 Skill Points you can use so I might go with

.... Computer 1 + Log(5)
This covers the basics of computer use for your character which can be very handy (perhaps even necessary) as a mechanic/pilot just hope you do not encounter a Hacker who wants to override your drones or be sure to install high security in them

.... Perception 2 + Int(4)
If you do not see it coming you can be rather hosed so you need something in this one which can be augmented with 'ware or onboard vehicle systems (I think)

However in the end it is still your call but I would look at Computer in regards to being a Rigger I think that is almost an essential skill but I could be wrong. If you would rather have a 5 in Pilot Aircraft you can drop your Perception to a 1 and buy augmentations to compensate but I think you need at least a 1 in Perception to start with

I hate to do this, especially with all the effort you've given DeJoker, but I've recently had a family emergency come up and won't be able to even touch this for several days. If I'm holding anybody up, feel free to cut me loose for the sake of the rest of the group. This is way more complicated than I expected, and I'm not sure how much time I'm going to have to learn a new system over the next couple of weeks.

Well you take care of RL as it is much more important than a game -- and hopefully we will still be here going strong when you get back ;)