[Shadowrun] Shadowrun:Welcome To Seattle (4E)

[Nomad240]

@Arczero, I love your character <3

okay so some more specific oriented questions.
how am I calculating capacity as I need to get my cybernetics in order.

1. Can I get a monofilament whip inside my arm? ( e.g. lucy from edgerunners) (this is just me being a nerd)

2. extensive googling says I start with 6 essence? and every mod takes that dowm, but is there a limit to " how low I can go?" I'm guessing this is me skating the line between being a person and being a walking murder bot?

3. for the cyberware it says capacity is [2] so is that like 2lbs? with my 5 Str. I have a carrying capacity of 50? after comlink it's 48?

4. can I get bone lacing? things that are [R]estricted and [F]orbidden?

[SilverOcean]

Originally Posted by ArcZero

@Ermine I agree, both straddling tech and magic. But kind of mirror opposites of each other

I was worried about stepping on toes, who was already what, etc. But SilverOcean intends to run us as two separate groups anyway, so it will all work out.

A few things in the book mention karma, like bonding to a Foci. Is this a different kind of karma? Can we bond to foci if we're using BP instead of Karma? Also I'm not seeing many flying drone choices in Chummer. I haven't gotten to that part of the book yet, but if I want to specialize in rotary flying vehicles/drones, would I be able to have some more options for drones out of Arsenal perhaps?

I wanted to stay within the base book since we do have some new players however if there is a specific Drone your interested in I have all of the books myself just let me know which drone you are looking at.I Know the base book doesn't have alot of choices when it comes to drones and same goes for Mage Traditions so I am open to allowing something from arsenal

[SilverOcean]

Originally Posted by Nomad240

@Arczero, I love your character <3

okay so some more specific oriented questions.
how am I calculating capacity as I need to get my cybernetics in order.

1. Can I get a monofilament whip inside my arm? ( e.g. lucy from edgerunners) (this is just me being a nerd)

2. extensive googling says I start with 6 essence? and every mod takes that dowm, but is there a limit to " how low I can go?" I'm guessing this is me skating the line between being a person and being a walking murder bot?

3. for the cyberware it says capacity is [2] so is that like 2lbs? with my 5 Str. I have a carrying capacity of 50? after comlink it's 48?

4. can I get bone lacing? things that are [R]estricted and [F]orbidden?

Edit:

1) I have returned and I have looked at the Items your talking about to answer this question better yes there is such a thing called a "Fingertip Compartment" Which is commonly used to hide a monofilament whip; However the whip has a 12F(Forbidden) which means it is not only VERY,VERY illegal but hard to come by. When looking at items you will see usually three things "L,R and F" Legal,Restricted and Forbidden. Legal means obviously you can have a fake sin and buy an item and carry it around with you. Restricted usually means your SIN should give you a reason to have the item and finally Forbidden means what it says the item is HIGHLY Illegal. The Police Would Arrest you on the spot if caught with it.The reason it has such a high Rating is its one of the best melee weapons in the game. It has a base of 8P(penetration) damage plus any hits you get with your dice roll and on top of that it Minius -4 armor so if lets say some one has body armor rating of 6 your already taking four dice away from their dice poll to roll to resist that damage. I am willing to work with you if you wanna find a replacement because I am reluctent to give you such a strong item at character generation.

2)Yes a good anology to say Cyberpunk is if your essence drops to Zero you essentionally become a Psycho Killer or in Shadowrun "Cyber Zombie". You Lose Control of your character and they become my pawns to play with :P. What I would avoid taking your essence score right at the line because in the game there are things that can "DRAIN" essence from you like Vampires. Those infected with HMHVV. So if your ever attacked by one of these kinda Mobs in a job it would make it hard to be up front in combat.

3)To answer your question about Capacitcy those I would think are like enhacemetns to your cybernetics for example you can get Ear Bub augmentations to allow you to hear better but thats all they will do unless you get enhacements like this for example "Earbuds (Rating 1–3)" But you can add on Select Sound Filter,Spatial Recognizer or Audio Enhancement. So if you add on all three capaticies you would have earbuds Rating .

4)As far as being able to purchase bone lacing you can but you cannot go above the Availbility rating of a 6 during character generation "Note that starting characters may not purchase items with a rating
greater than 6 or an Availability greater than 12. Once the game is on,
characters are free to try to get their hands on anything they can buy,
scam, or steal—within the gamemaster’s discretion, of course"

[Ermine]

Cyberzombies, while out of player control, are scary, but cool. They technically have negative essence, kept alive by a magic ritual. But yeah, out of player range.

Unrelated, I'll have to pick out hacking programs at some point. I have the generic "hacking/general use program, rating X" written down and paid for, but not specific programs.

[SilverOcean]

Originally Posted by Ermine

Cyberzombies, while out of player control, are scary, but cool. They technically have negative essence, kept alive by a magic ritual. But yeah, out of player range.

Unrelated, I'll have to pick out hacking programs at some point. I have the generic "hacking/general use program, rating X" written down and paid for, but not specific programs.

Also they have background Count which is a pain in the butt to deal with for any one who is awakened

[Nomad240]

Originally Posted by SilverOcean

Edit:

1) I have returned and I have looked at the Items your talking about to answer this question better yes there is such a thing called a "Fingertip Compartment" Which is commonly used to hide a monofilament whip; However the whip has a 12F(Forbidden) which means it is not only VERY,VERY illegal but hard to come by. When looking at items you will see usually three things "L,R and F" Legal,Restricted and Forbidden. Legal means obviously you can have a fake sin and buy an item and carry it around with you. Restricted usually means your SIN should give you a reason to have the item and finally Forbidden means what it says the item is HIGHLY Illegal. The Police Would Arrest you on the spot if caught with it.The reason it has such a high Rating is its one of the best melee weapons in the game. It has a base of 8P(penetration) damage plus any hits you get with your dice roll and on top of that it Minius -4 armor so if lets say some one has body armor rating of 6 your already taking four dice away from their dice poll to roll to resist that damage. I am willing to work with you if you wanna find a replacement because I am reluctent to give you such a strong item at character generation.

2)Yes a good anology to say Cyberpunk is if your essence drops to Zero you essentionally become a Psycho Killer or in Shadowrun "Cyber Zombie". You Lose Control of your character and they become my pawns to play with :P. What I would avoid taking your essence score right at the line because in the game there are things that can "DRAIN" essence from you like Vampires. Those infected with HMHVV. So if your ever attacked by one of these kinda Mobs in a job it would make it hard to be up front in combat.

3)To answer your question about Capacity those I would think are like enhancements to your cybernetics for example you can get Ear Bub augmentations to allow you to hear better but that's all they will do unless you get enhancements like this for example "Earbuds (Rating 1–3)" But you can add on Select Sound Filter, Spatial Recognizer or Audio Enhancement. So if you add on all three capacities you would have earbuds Rating .

4)As far as being able to purchase bone lacing you can but you cannot go above the Availbility rating of a 6 during character generation "Note that starting characters may not purchase items with a rating
greater than 6 or an Availability greater than 12. Once the game is on,
characters are free to try to get their hands on anything they can buy,
scam, or steal—within the gamemaster’s discretion, of course"

1. was just because I'm a nerd, and the wire doesn't really fit what I am going for on this character atm, so I'll pass on it. :P

and thank you for the others.

[Ermine]

So, assuming I don't jack in (because I'm an adept), do I still get to use my 3 initiative passes while hacking? (I've never played a true hacker before, even as a technomancer. I'd just submerge until I could hack people's brains and black hammer them to death)

And actually, three things:
Given the high magic of the parties, I may switch to technomancer anyway.
And will we have a chance to submerge/initiate?
Finally, I can't find the BP cost or ratings of complex forms and I don't remember them. ><

It's been MANY YEARS since I last played. ^//^

Edit: Found the cost and ratings for complex forms. V expensive in BP. (Essentially equal to 5000 nuyen per rating)

Do we have a Face? I can do it (since I need high Cha) if necessary.

[SilverOcean]

Originally Posted by Ermine

So, assuming I don't jack in (because I'm an adept), do I still get to use my 3 initiative passes while hacking? (I've never played a true hacker before, even as a technomancer. I'd just submerge until I could hack people's brains and black hammer them to death)

And actually, three things:
Given the high magic of the parties, I may switch to technomancer anyway.
And will we have a chance to submerge/initiate?
Finally, I can't find the BP cost or ratings of complex forms and I don't remember them. ><

It's been MANY YEARS since I last played. ^//^

Edit: Found the cost and ratings for complex forms. V expensive in BP. (Essentially equal to 5000 nuyen per rating)

Do we have a Face? I can do it (since I need high Cha) if necessary.

Based on the application I don't see any faces do feel free to go that route if you wish

[Pandaemonic]

I was dipping into face, in that I also will have a high charisma, but it wasn't going to be a huge focus.

Though I was hoping I could take the Dryad metavariant and get Glamour/Symbiosis to help with the social stuff.

[psuedenim]

I'm not entirely sure what you're all talking about so if we want to have some balance in the parties I might need some guidance with character creation. Having mostly played games where there are some guardrails (levels, classes) the choices here are too much and I cant get through the whole rule book before we start.

[SilverOcean]

Originally Posted by psuedenim

I'm not entirely sure what you're all talking about so if we want to have some balance in the parties I might need some guidance with character creation. Having mostly played games where there are some guardrails (levels, classes) the choices here are too much and I cant get through the whole rule book before we start.

Don't worry about party balance just play what you want to play! I'm not expecting you to go through the entire book trust me! Let me worry about party balance !

What we are talking sbout is an archetype for the group called a face who doesn't really excel at combat and they excel at more social situations. Like asking for more money or bargaining for the release of a hostage something like that.

[ArcZero]

@Nomad240 Thank you, I really like Riot as well. Such great art.

Yeah being a face is cool, but my hands are absolutely full trying to fit in all the skills and attributes I want to be good at in order to be a rigger and an assensing summoner. Out of curiosity, how much do one of you with experience think I can get away with being really good at assensing but not having astral combat?

I'm unclear on what all I'd need to invest in to be good at astral combat. Just the skill and buying a focus, or are melee skills needed too? I know mental stats take over phsyical ones.

[Pandaemonic]

Start with the sample characters. Combat Mage is probably closest going by your background and modify it.

Remove elf (-1 to agility, -2 charisma, - low light) and add dwarf (+1 body, +2 strength, -1 reaction, +1 willpower, +thermographic vision, +2 to some resistances). Makes you a little bit more of a melee brawler. This also frees up 5BP to spend elsewhere.

Swap out any spells you don't like. I know its a combat mage but it has a few too many combat spells for my taste. At least for starting out with, but that is up to you. I'd at least swap one out clout for stun bolt as that gives you a non-lethal lower drain option. Also levitate for magic fingers, invisibility, mask or some other utility. It you want to levitate summon an air spirit to carry you around.

For the increased initiative spell it's probably more effective not to cast it yourself but summon at least a force 3 spirit of man. For every 3 points of force of a sprit you get to pick an extra power for the spirit. One of the spirit of mans powers is innate spell. This spell must be one you know. For one service that spirit can cast the spell on you and sustain it. This means you won't have to suffer the -2 dice penalty for sustain a spell.

The skills a pretty good spread for a sorcery main. Someone who casts spells as opposed to summoning spirits. Though I'd probably try and find the points to bump the spellcasting up to 6.

You might look at the Sprawl Ganger example character for any other gear or contacts you might want to pick up.

[Pandaemonic]

Originally Posted by ArcZero

Out of curiosity, how much do one of you with experience think I can get away with being really good at assensing but not having astral combat?

You are a summoner. Your spirits can fight in astral space for you while you run away or pelt them with mana bolts.

You do know that the cyberware for rigging is going to reduce your magic attribute by at least 1 right? Also I totally forgot how essence cheap a vehicle control rig is in 4th edition so its not a terrible option..

[ArcZero]

@Pandaemonic Great, good to know spirits can do astral combat for me!

Yes I've played the Harebrained Scheme games, so I know how Essence and cyberware don't mix well, but hybrid characters are my absolute favorite. I figure if I stay above 5 essence, I will be pretty good at magic with just a commlink, control rig and datajack.

I'm still trying to figure out Initiation, is it correct that even with 5 essence I could go up to 10 Magic? Or does anything below 6 essence cut off Initiation completely? I know it's hugely expensive and kind of by DM fiat, but long term it's good to know the option is there.

Also, I watched a video talking about control rig subscriptions and how many drones it can be connected to, but I'm not seeing any options in Chummer for different control rigs other than Alphaware, Betaware, etc. Can you get capacity on a control rig? Finally, do the Nissan Roto-Drone and Steel Lynx come with weapon mounts or do I need to pay for them (I assume I need to pay). Page 350 of the 20th anniversary addition says Weapon Mounts are 8F availability which means forbidden right? Why is a Steel Lynx 12R, but other things are 8F? If they are Forbidden, do you just have to never let cops see your drones?