TheGenerator's Character Generator

For the items I got as a benefit I'd like to choose these:
Skill Augmentation with a limit of Cr75000 and TL12
Skill Augmentation Skill DM+1 TL12 Cr50000. (gun combat ~energy weapon)

1 blade with a limit of 1000Cr and TL12
Blade TL2 Melee 2D dmg 1Kg Cr100

1 gun with a limit of 3000Cr and TL12
Laser Pistol TL9 20m 3D 2Kg Cr2000 Zero-G
Laser Sight (TL8) Cr200
Secure Weapon (TL10) Cr250

I read somewhere that if you have money left over from the base items, you can use the rest for weapon augments. That's why I added the laser sight and secure weapon.
Let me know if I have to get rid of those.

I haven't really thought about my backstory yet, I'm waiting to see how our events can line up before specifying my past.

I don't recall any mention of that, but I assumed 'a pistol with a sight, and secure weapon' counts a 'a weapon'. So long as it all stays below the specified Cr and TL values.

Page number references would be useful so I don't have to search for what on earth a 'Secure Weapon' is. :)
No problem. Someone will need to start with a little backstory else it can be hard to find the initial connections.

We may need to get a better handle on the shape of the world before we know what sorts of backstories make sense. Then our backstories will feed back into the shape of the world, and so on. Knowing what happened to the characters during creation will tell us a lot about the sorts of things that happen in the world.

I forgot to reply to this. Sorry.
It was a "home rule" that the guy (Seth Skorkowsky) in the YouTube video used, I think. I'll go with your judgement on it.

Page numbers:
Augments: 106,107
Blades: 124
Guns: 129, 135

About the gun; I noticed that both Airshark and TrailHead have gone for level 1 Gun Combat~Energy. So for variety's sake, I'm going to grab a different type.

Body Pistol TL8 5m 2D — Cr500 6 Cr10
(If possible, with addons:)
Laser Sight (TL8) Cr200
Secure Weapon (TL10) Cr250
Suppressor (TL8) Cr250

Guns: 126, 135 Seems appropriate for a smuggler and useful for a spy.

Hardly a 'home rule' when it fits what the text says. Nowhere that I saw does it say it needs to be a single line-item, just 'a weapon'.
Cool.
Toss in some ammo magazines to make up the difference?
Quite.

Right. I won't get very far with just pistol whipping everyone :P
With a magazine size of 6, I'll get 6 of them = 36 shots. = 60Cr

I'll probably get a bigger gun with my cash on hand, but I'm waiting to see which tech level we go for.

Yeah. I am waiting for the summaries, and to see what we've got. Then we can discuss TL and Ships and such.

I updated my char sheet.
From my connections:
- Broker from 0 to 1
- Persuade from 1 to 2

From my implant, with the slight change that instead of energy I'll be going for slug, as mentioned here.
- Gun combat~Slug from 0 to 1

Added the gear too. I guess I need to come up with a story about how I got them.

Is it ok for me to have a TL12 implant? Or is that impossible because of our lower TL game choice? If so I'd have to downgrade. However, I see that there is no implant lower than TL10.

If it seems interesting. We can also leave that till that piece of gear becomes relevant to the story.
I will have to look at the Implants when I can get to the book. We just can say that that +1 Slugger Arm is TL10.

The things we get from Benefits are noteworthy examples of their type, which is why we bothered to keep them (obviously a Cybernetic Arm has it own reasons for being kept, but why do we care about those Blades, or Guns?), so it is fine for them to be TL10.

If I recall, higher TL Implants will cause you problems when you need Medical?

Yes, you need a doctor with the same TL to work on it without a penalty on the roll.
I'm not sure which TL Lio would be qualified for. The rule is that for every TL level you are below the TL of the implant you get a -1 to the roll.

What I don't know is how this affects my arm. Would the whole arm be useless, or only the implant. Or maybe that's just a "see what happens" kind of situation.

Definitely only TL9 at the start, that is the (highest) tech he trained on. But that change after much exposure to TL10 Implants. That penalty would also go away if Raf were to help Lio, since Raf is a Cybernetics Specialist.

This is mainly about the TL of the hospital facility you are being treated at, so we might end up ignoring it for shipmates.
All your Medicals are affected, not just stuff done on your arm. It will not have any effect on the functionaing of your arm.
That table is all over the place. A +1 Skill is higher TL than a +1 Characteristic?!? So it is easier to get your DEX up than your Guns? Both would affect shooting but +DEX would be useful in a lot more places?!? +DEX is more expensive, but that is seldom a real deterrent.

It does still make some sense for Cybernetics to be considered 'high tech', so TL10 sounds fair. It makes them more interesting and unusual, which the medical complications add to. It is just a slightly harder Check, so you can take steps to offset that when you need medical attention.

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If this does not work out we can adjust this ruling.

Is it helpful if Lio improves his cybernetics skill as a connection skill with Raf? I don't know when he got that skill and if that is relevant.

In that a +1 to the Skill could offset the -1 for the TL difference? Sure.

But this rule is about using the Medical Skill, and I don't believe there is any allowance for rolling with Cybernetics at the same time as Medical, you could do a Task Chain (page 63) by doing some Cybernetics first, but that still is only a +1 (we can assume you have Cybernetics 0 due to your general Science training) and diluted by the nature of Chaining Tasks. Just talking your time will give a +2 to the task, so we really are talking about small differences.

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Mechanically, I really would not worry about it unless you want to focus on Cybernetics. You would still start as a TL9 Medical practitioner since that is the upper level of all the gear and training you have, any higher tech stuff or experience would need to be acquired in play. It could be an interesting story element if you want that one, a shared interest during university can bring you closer together --but then that is the nature of all the Connections.

I was taking a loot at gear, but didn't really find many predefined items that are not combat related in the book. Or maybe I was looking in the wrong section?
Can Ronny have some gadgets like tracking pins. Do I have to specify tracking range and things like that?
Maybe also some kind of comms device for 2 or 3 people (or the whole team if possible)?

I'm not very good at thinking in sci-fi gear terms.

Yeah, fairly old-schooly in that sort of thing. Most of most RPGs used to be mostly focused on combat. :(
That probably depends on what you want to do with them. 'Incidental items' we can possibly just assume you have, if they will play a significant part in the story we should work out the details and costs. We can assume 'incidental' until something becomes important enough to care about or make a difference and then work out where/how you got it and what its 'stats' are?

Maybe model a 'tracking pin' (airtag?) after the Bug (page 109)? But what are you wanting to do with it? Track your stuff? Follow a car? Both those should be fairly easy.
At least differentiate between 'works in this room', 'works across this city', 'planet-wide', and 'solar-system' and such? Also sensitivity, a device that can follow a parcel across the solar-system and also tell you exactly which room it is in is pretty fancy.
We can just assume your 'phones' can do that? They might have 'walkie-talkie' type abilities, but you can also 'join a discord server' and have group text, voice, and even video.

We can go into detail in situations where it becomes interesting. But this is a fairly technologically advanced city, so there is (currently) good phone-service. Do we want to bring this into play?
Yeah. I prefer real gear, so was happy when we decided on keeping the TL closer to earth-standard. That is tricky (and very hard on cyberpunk) with the rate at which our technology is progressing.

Yes, I get what you mean. I just wanted to at least write some things down that I have with me and pay the cost for it where applicable.
I was thinking a type of radar app. Where I can see the direction of the tracker only if it's within 5 kilometers or so? Could be used to tail someone.
They can, but I like the idea of using either more high-tech encrypted signals, or just the opposite. A technology so old (like FM radio waves maybe) that nobody bothers hacking them anymore ;)

It could add some flair/flavor to things.

If you're okay with me making these things up as we go, that's fine by me too.

That sounds doable. Maybe a few dozen Cr for the 'pin' you place on the target (the smaller it is the more expensive, but still not very), and a portable computer to run the app on? These days we just toss an old phone into the car and track it over the internet, so a little roleplay and you can get those 'pins' for free.

You can maybe use Abby's computer, or get one of your own. If all your computer does is run such an app, it will be very cheap. Getting Abby involved will have interesting consequences down the line once you have taught her 'bad habits'. :)
'End-to-end encryption', sure. You can do that on your smartphone, or on a dedicated device (like the recently raided and shut down Exclu Chat? (don't try use it) (just an image)). Whatever you guys want.

I do have 'plans' for such 'signals' later in the game, so we can easily layer them on top of the regular network traffic. A Spy would know about such undernets.
Security through obscurity? Sure. Abby would be horrified. :)

There would be no way of knowing whether such systems were being observed, so no way to know if your communications were compromised, so go for it. No cost aside from telling us where you got the old gear.

How about doing it the D&D way where most professions have a 'kit' that you can buy and that kit contains whatever you imagine that profession would use?
That way I can still suggest items that would be in the kit. But I have already paid for it, it's on my sheet, and it's limited to a range of objects.

I do like the old technology angle :)

We are already doing something like that. If you think you would have it, you probably have it. If the cost is something we need to look at, we look at the cost.

The game does have 'profession' 'Kits' and 'Toolkits', starting from page 118, though those are more like 'items' than the ill-defined 'kits' in DnD. If (when) you think you character would have one/some, take it.

Alright, fine. ;)

Be warned: vagueGM will totally hold you responsible and make you pay (at some point), no matter what you disclaim.