Character Creation Walk Through

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Jul 3, 2020 7:44 am
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
Last edited Jul 3, 2020 7:58 am
Jul 3, 2020 8:48 am
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/
Jul 3, 2020 5:10 pm
What are your thoughts on Stunt Driver, Speed Demon, and Subtle (Vehicle) Driver?
Jul 3, 2020 5:15 pm
May help you beat Metro Manila Hell level traffic :)
Jul 3, 2020 6:06 pm
[ +- ] Speed Demon (Cost 3 Karma)
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 thing
[ +- ] Stunt Drive (Cost 4 Karma)
This 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 play
[ +- ] Subtle (Vehicle) Pilot (Cost 4 Karma)
Okay 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*
Jul 3, 2020 6:23 pm
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?
Jul 3, 2020 11:46 pm
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
Jul 4, 2020 1:58 am
Okay cool. Everything looks good to me. What’s next?
Jul 4, 2020 2:33 am
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.
Jul 4, 2020 2:26 pm
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
Last edited Jul 5, 2020 1:16 am
Jul 4, 2020 4:24 pm
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. :)
Jul 5, 2020 1:17 am
Yes and that is the endeavor -- we just can only do so much from the beginning but now we move on to skills
Jul 5, 2020 11:53 pm
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?
Jul 6, 2020 1:06 am
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.
Jul 6, 2020 4:20 am
So what skills should I be taking?
Jul 6, 2020 4:53 am
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 well
[ +- ] Skill Level Guide
So 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
Last edited Jul 6, 2020 5:19 am
Jul 6, 2020 4:54 am
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.
Jul 6, 2020 3:09 pm
Do drones fall under piloting still?
Jul 6, 2020 3:47 pm
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
Jul 6, 2020 8:32 pm
Okay, so lets go with piloting and mechanics for air and ground. Gunnery for sure.
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