First off, I have Chummer, and I know the setting, so I'm off on a running start. However, from there it gets tricky. I decided to shoot myself in the foot by wanting to play a street sam, and that's where it gets challenging for me; full body obvious cybernetics or muscle toners, what to put into the cyberware, etc... it's a mess.

To keep things a bit simpler, our group (all new guys) only allow the core rulebook, so there's that. But I could use a hand building a decent character. My concept is basically being the walking utility belt, the six million dollar man, etc. My role in the party will primarily being, well, the street sam, but I'd also like infiltration to be my thing; opening locks, grappling to the roof, being a bionic batman, basically.

Can anyone help me get started? I don't need charop through the roof, just a decent character that can do a lot more then just chop people to dice-sized cubes.
This message was last updated by a moderator, as it was the wrong forum, at 14:02, Fri 06 May 2016.

Any experienced players around who could lend a hand? Game starts on Wednesday.. :)

In reply to Crusader2010 (msg # 2):

I'm really not experienced enough to give advice, but maybe you should talk to your GM...? And maybe your fellow players?

Seems like that would be a good group of potential help, though I can understand asking here if you might be trying to keep things secret from them.

Other than that, I'm a newbie myself so... I'm afraid I wouldn't be much help.

We don't see each other before then, and we would like to have characters ready before the session or else we lose the entire thing to character generation, so I thought I'd try here.

What are the rules? Surprisingly enough, there are (I believe) multiple options in the core rulebook for character creation. Much like D&D suggests an array of stats, or you can roll for stats, or you can use point buy, there's more than one way to make a character (I think).

A, B, C? Karma? Something else? It's been a while, but could make you a character if you'd like. I'll work up a wired street sam, with infiltration, grappling gun arm, etc.

So, in 3rd edition (which is what I started with years ago), there was only the A, B, C... system.  The problem lies in that you can't have multiple areas at the same priority level (well, you can but you only lose out).

There are five categories:

1. Race
   
2. Attributes
   
3. Magic
   
4. Skills
   
5. Money

Now if you want a human cybersamurai, then race can be at E because you want a human (basically, all non-humans get bonuses of some sort and are better than humans, but you'll usually suffer pretty blatant racism because of it).  Magic can also be at an E because you don't want any magic -- you're a cybered individual whose soul is already going to be split apart by machines and you'd be a crap magician anyway.  So now you have the other priorities at A, B, C, and two at E, but you don't get anything by "giving up" a D category.  Well, you could change the race to elf instead of human, but if human is your concept then you're just missing out.

The karma system started as an optional system in a side book and either in 4th or 5th edition was brought into the main book.  You know how, after you start playing, you can buy skills and attributes with experience?  Karma works a similar way -- you buy up your starting attributes/skills with karma points.

Sum to Ten basically takes the old priority system, and tries to assign a point value to each letter.  So if you want an A, B, C, E, E, individual then because you don't have a D you get to give a small bump to A, B, or C.  You could even go with A, A, C, E, E, for instance.

Well, I'm only sorta familiar with 5e, but I know most of the past editions pretty well.  If you're looking at a "street sam", that's actually a pretty broad category.  All of the old adages apply, and only vary with the specifics.  Here are some general thoughts:

Tough Guy street sams tend to be big, strong, and carry the heavy weapons.  The downside to this character type is that they're really, really useless if you're, say, infiltrating high society.  The upside is that they can take out a tank while standing in front of it and (probably) not dying.  A sizable percentage of the "this one time we were playing shadowrun and..." stories that make you want to rupture your own eardrums to escape involve one or more characters in this category.

Pick a troll or ork and focus on physical stats and cyberware that enhances that.  Weapons tend to be the heaviest thing you can carry (and convince the GM to let you have).  Magic tends to be your weakness because your mental stats suck.

Fast Guy street sams focus on getting their initiative as high as possible to get more initiative passes.  While they don't generally bring a whole lot of durability to the table, they trade it for being able to take out twice as many targets in the same amount of time.  This type can also be played using a physad, if you pick things right.  Due to the nature of how cash and karma tend to flow, the physad is, long term, going to be much more powerful.

Pick an elf (or possibly human) and focus on cyberware that boosts initiative (synaptic accelerators seem to have supplanted wired reflexes).  Having to actually take damage probably wrecks your day.  You may also have a somewhat limited repertoire of tricks.

Toybox street sams focus on having all sorts of cool tools on hand.  They're not as focused on either being fast or tough (though they'll probably lean one way or the other), but on being ready for anything.  The goal is to use tech and Edge to compensate for what you lack in raw power.

Pick an ork, human, or elf and don't neglect mental attributes.  Grab synaptic accelerators, headware, and sensory ware.  Amass an arsenal of weapons of various types.  Also include in chameleon cloaks and the like.  As with all mortals, your weakness is a manifest spirit.  You can't even taser them post 3e.

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It sounds like you're trying to go with the general idea I called "toybox".  That's fine, and a time-tested method.

To spitball how I'd do it...

You're not magical, so that's going to be your E rating.

Race is one of those things that's nice to get as high as possible - but you really won't have room for it, so it's going to be your D rating, and of your choices, Human gives you much better Edge, so do that.

Now you have three things, Attributes, Skills, and Resources to balance out your other three picks.  Resources is going to be at least a B in order to get you your basic toys, so that leaves Skills or Attributes to go with at C.

From that point, I'd actually go shopping for the "must have" gear and see if you can get it to 275k or less.  If you can, then Resources B.  Otherwise, Resources is going to be your A pick and the other of Skills/Attributes your B.

Most likely, I'd end up doing:

A: Skills
B: Resources
C: Attributes
D: Race
E: Magic

---

Some of the pregens in the book aren't terrible.  The Street Sam is an ork that more or less does what you want (though I get the impression you're going for more skills).  The Weapons Specialist would be alright if she had a reflex boost of some sort, but as is she isn't great.

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Also, the "wireless" cyberware is the most offensively stupid thing I've ever seen in an RPG (and that's a pretty big accomplishment).  I pretty much gave up on the game when 4e decided that wireless networking had to be part of the game and 5e apparently doubles down on the concept.

Which is funny, considering wired networking, electrical outlet networking, and non-wifi wireless networking gave multiple options in 4e, and bear few problems by being ported to 5e. (for those that don't already exist in 5e, that is)

Thanks, this is great stuff!

I indeed want to go with the toybox concept. What are the absolute must-have items I should purchase?

Another question, is your essence allowed to go negative?

Your comment comes across as snarky, and also out of context.  When SR4 first came out, there weren't a whole lot of options and the whole PAN thing was either godlike or useless, depending on the GM.  Unwired came out three years later and fixed some of it, but there are still things about the wireless shift in SR4 that I don't like.  Making riggers into a subset of deckers is one of them.  While it wasn't the only reason I gave up on the game when 4e came out, it certainly played a part of the decision.

Now, the fact that you have to "wirelessly enable" your cyberware in order to get the best benefits out of it just smacks of more "let's give deckers stuff to do" and less of anything any sane person would ever do (especially considering it would be better to just wire most of the 'ware together in the first place).  5e doesn't even give the option to use fiber optics for linking gear, as far as I can tell (though they do make riggers more unique again - though the matrix vulnerability of drones is still there).


Definitely not.  Below 0, your character would have to be a cyberzombie kept alive through horrible magics.  At least, in previous editions you would...

As for gear:

• Make sure you have a non-lethal weapon or two.  Ranged tasers use the pistols skill, too, which you'll definitely have, so they're a great choice.
• Think in terms of multiple "packages" for loadout.  You might just have a couple of pistols you carry around town, but on a smash-and-grab type mission, that assault rifle with the underbarrel GL looks much more attractive.  Regardless, though, never sink so much cash on a gun that you can't ditch it if you need to.  Felony murder charges are no one's friend.
• Wear as much armor as you can get away with in any given situation.  Since the layering rules are essentially "no" in 5e, that means one thing - so probably a jacket or jumpsuit (with a helmet).  If you can weasel a set of full body armor with all the bells and whistles, that's even better - but more limited in where you can take it (and that's more likely to be later on, anyway).
• If you're going to sneak, you need a chameleon suit, too. Don't forget to add Thermal Damping to it.
• You kind of have to make a decision on wireless or not.  If you're going to get the wireless bonuses from gear, you are going to need to invest in the best comlink you can get so that you're harder to hack.
• Radios.  Get extra because someone on your team will forget to buy one.  Plus, trashing them after can be necessary.
• Sensory stuff.  You need to be able to see in the dark, with smartlink and flare comp.  Anything else is nice, but not required.  Contacts can be layered with glasses or goggles easily, giving you a lot of capacity so you can skip the cyberoptics (though smartlink gives a better benefit if you do it that way).  As a suggestion, put the stuff you don't care about being wireless in the contacts so that you don't end up with your eyes being hacked.  Goggles you can at least pull off in an emergency.  I would NOT want to be the sam frantically trying to take out contacts in the middle of a firefight...
• Audio devices are similarly useful.  Ear buds have enough capacity to give you better better perception rolls, if nothing else.
• Sensors are more useful than they look.  Being able to leave a small friendly camera on a critical point can be the difference between being aware your breakin is discovered and being shot in the back.
• B&E tools are essential if you intend to B&E, as well.  Which ones you grab will depend on your skills, etc.
• Aside from eyes and ears (and maybe bone lacing), you probably want to stay away from cyberware in favor of bioware.  Particularly desirable are muscle toner (for the boost to agility), bone density augmentation (for the body), orthoskin (for armor), and synaptic accelerator (for the reaction/initiative boost).  Damage compensators are also remarkably cheap for something that can save your neck.
• Spare cash might go toward skillwires or reflex recorders, at your discretion.  It can do a lot to improve your skills, but it'd really depend on how you're looking on cash at that point.