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ShadowFighter15
2010-05-05, 12:32 AM
I'm wanting to try my hand at Shadowrun sometime but I'm a bit unsure about character builds. I decided to throw one together using the basic rules in the book (400BP, Availability 12). I thought I'd start out simple with a gunslinger who wields a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other. Made him an elf since I didn't want to play a human (most of my DnD characters are human, so I wanted a change) and none of the other metatypes appealed to me. After a while, and a bit of fiddling around with a character generator I found, this was the result: http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=204890

The fang implants were sort of a for-the-hell-of-it thing and I'm tempted to get rid of them if the extra nuyen can be used for something better. Two of the knowledge skills (Coffee and Turn of the Century sci-fi media) are just for flavour. To explain the second one; I find it hard to believe that YouTube or a site like it won't exist in a world like Shadowrun (there'll always be people wanting to watch the weird stuff people catch on camera, like the stuff in this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtaCtAtHItw) (warning, some swearing)).

I threw the lockpicking and driving in so that he had more to offer than shooting and stabbing.

The Ruger Super Warhawk is more of a backup weapon for if something goes wrong with his Predator IV (smartlink gets hacked, drops/loses it) or he needs a weapon with a bit more punch. And in a pinch he can sheath the katana and use both guns at once. Can't remember now why I went with the Ulysses Line instead of a normal Lined Coat, worth keeping, or should I just use a Lined Coat?

SINner and Trust Fund were also for flavour (and because the character generator I'm using is a pain with pre-paying months of lifestyle, that might just be me though) while Spirit Bane was partly flavour and partly to free up some BP. Not sure why I threw the allergy in though; probably because I was using the Gunslinger Adept example character in the rulebook as a rough guide.

Haven't done up a background yet, gonna save that for when I have a proper look through the fluff in the rulebook (I read the history section, but kind of skimmed the rest), but can anyone let me know how this looks from a mechanical standpoint? Anything in there I don't really need or that I need more of? Anything I've missed?

ShadowFighter15
2010-05-05, 05:29 PM
Anyone? I don't like to bump this for the hell of it, but for all I know, I've made some terrible mistake building this guy and I'm wanting at least some feedback. For all I know, I spent too much on the commlink and its OS for what it'll be mostly used for, or there were some other things I need to buy that I missed, or any number of things that I may've screwed up.

I have zero experience with Shadowrun of any form (not even the PC/XBox 360 game that came out a couple of years ago since I don't have a 360 and you need Vista to run it on PC (still using XP)) so if I could get at least some feedback on this guy, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Tehnar
2010-05-05, 06:16 PM
I'm not very experienced,but Ill offer you a few pointers.

When building a gunslinger in shadowrun, there are basically 3 ways to go about it. Playing a adept (and enhancing your gun-fu with inner power), building a edgemonkey with a decent pistol skill (where you basically max out your edge, and live by the phrase better lucky then good), and a Street Samurai (chromed (cyber or bio ware) to ~1 essence or less).

In any case, to be decent in a shootout you need extra initiative passes. These come the easiest via wired reflexes / synaptic boosters / move by wire, but you can get them via drugs, spending edge, spells.

I think you spent too much BPs on attributes (200 is max for 400 point characters).

Personally I would add various skills to your character. Shadowrun is not about fair fights. Generally speaking you want to avoid a shootout, or rig it so that you have the upper hand. Picking skills that can help you avoid fights is a good thing.

You can't really go wrong with perception, stealth skills, social skills, electronics. Having a highly specialized skill is good too, as it is almost a character train. The locksmith skill is not bad per se, its just that most locks you will encounter will be: maglocks (which you can't lockpick, you need to use the hardware skill for that) or you will have the time/space to blow it up.

As for the comlink, unless you are really strapped for cash, spend as much as you can on your electronics. Usually people slave all their PAN devices to their commlink, so you want a good one so it is hard to hack.

Well thats about all I can think of for now.Ask away if you need more help.

comicshorse
2010-05-05, 07:00 PM
Yep you really need some extra Initiative passes. Either through magic or cyberware


And get some insulation for your armour taser's are nasty

borg286
2010-05-07, 12:05 PM
Think about spiffing out a couple dogs(mechanical things that can carry a gun near the end of the book). Load up some guns they can use. If you do get .1 essence always try to round to the nearest 1 essence and don't go over. Get second hand on some things, bio on others to minimize costs getting as close to 1 essence as possible. Initiative is a must and is easily available through implants. I recommend the mechanical hand which has slots for essence that you can switch out stuff inside.
I forgot where it is, but there's a forum for shadowrun and there's a thread dedicated to spiffed out guns. Get your body armor custom fitted so you can get heavier armor.
Get 1 super-concealed handgun also spiffed out so when you're stripped of weapons you still have a backup. For me, I almost always maxed out spending points to get money due the better bang for the buck. It takes lots of time perusing through the material but it's well worth it.