Recruitment Closed: Shadowrun 4e: Heavy Metal King

[AllieCat]

Alley Kat - (Real name: Alexis Davis)

Metatype : Human
Mundane

Attributes
Body: 3
Agility: 4
Reaction: 4
Strength: 3
Charisma: 5
Intuition: 3
Logic: 3
Willpower: 3

Edge: 2
Initiative: 7
Essence: 5.3

Knowledge Skills
English : N
Japanese : 3
Knowledge (Seattle Strip Clubs 4)
Seattle Corporations 4
Lone Star Patrol Patterns 3
Seattle Gangs 4
Seattle Museums 3
       
Active Skills
Climbing : 3
Gymnastics : 3
Running : 3
Swimming : 3
Pistols : 4
First Aid : 3
Data Search : 3
Etiquette : 3
Negotiation : 5
Computer : 3
Hardware : 3
Con (Seduction) : 5


Positive Qualities
Quick Healer
Natural Athlete
First Impression
Ambidextrous
Double Jointed
       
Negative Qualities
Records on File

Cyberwares
Commlink (1/3)
Cybereyes Basic System (Rating 1)
Low-Light Vision
Smartlink
       
Biowares
Muscle Toner 1

Weapons
Ares Predator IV
Regular Ammo (10 shots)
Regular Ammo (10 shots)
Regular Ammo (10 shots)
Regular Ammo (10 shots)
Regular Ammo (10 shots)
Regular Ammo (10 shots)
       
Armors
Clothing (Regular)
Clothing (Regular)
Clothing (Chic)
Leather Jacket
Armor Jacket
Clothing (Regular)

Vehicles
Harley Scorpion (Chopper)

Commlinks
       
Equipments
Fake License (Rating 3)

Contacts
Alex Donovan (L:4 C:2)
Corporate Manager-Ares
       
Contacts
Trouble (L:3 C:4)
Fixer
Doc Slice (L:4 C:2)
Street Doc


Alley Kat is a low level runner in Seattle. She is very good at "social engineering", distracting a mark with a whispered laugh and a touch on the arm while her teammates search for the mark's secrets.. She will take it as far as she needs to (even in certain occasions, sleeping with the mark, but she always asks for additional money from such runs).

She generally worked solo, or with groups short-term, which sometimes limited the jobs that were available, so during down times, she'll moonlight as a go-go dancer, or stripper just to make ends meet. That was her downfall two years ago, as Lone Star raided a club where she was working. Normally, she wouldn't have had trouble making her escape (she had planned out an escape route that she was sure would get herself out of the area).. but since she  was on stage at the time, finishing up a set escaping was.. too problematic (There are few things that will faze Seattle-ites, but a naked woman running and bouncing from fire escape to roof and back probably would be one of them) . She got off with only a fine (for unlicensed adult entertainment), but since she was SIN-less, she got one issued to her.. whether she wanted it or not. (she didn't)

So, she has a "criminal" SIN in the system that she's been hoping to get a hacker or technomancer to erase, but never could really afford the requisite services. She was very happy to see Knight Errant replace Lone Star as Seattle's police provider.. but inside she knows that it probably doesn't make any difference. After this long, her vitals are probably in many different databases. So she works smarter, now, hoping to make sure that she doesn't make that second mistake that ties her back to her prior record.

[Opheliac]

Oh sweet goddess im in this! Ive only play Shadowrun 3 tho, so give me a day to throw up a sheet. Ive had characters pretty much set from SR3 so it wont take me long, except for my finals.

[Kunoichi]

I could probably come up with a street samurai, but I don't think I could create a rigger I'd be in any way interested in playing.  I've always found it to be a terribly limited, limiting, and to be frank, just plain crummy role.  I'm still somewhat disappointed it didn't get mustered out completely in the 3rd to 4th conversion.

Rather than get thrown out completely, it was more rolled in together with the hacker. ^^; I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want to play one, though.

[Hikari]

Yeah.  Mechanically, there's no real problem with them--in fact in SR3 I'd argue they were disturbingly overpowered if properly designed--but there's a reason the rigger is always the 'odd man out'/'last for kickball' when people make characters.  The role is just better relegated to an NPC, usually.  (Decker used to be in much the same boat, but the move to a more GitS-style AR/Wireless Matrix and far more streamlined hacking rules seems to have brought them into their own.)

From the look of things, we have a face-y samurai and an infiltration expert.  I suppose a straight up combat samurai would fill in the biggest blank.  Do you think a gunslinger adept or a more conventional "infantryman" type samurai (automatics/shotguns, melee, lots of damage resistance, etc.) would be a better fit?

[ReijiTabibito]

Well, I know that one thing the group is lacking right now is heavy weapons.  Kunoichi's character is a Mage, and my character's a Hacker, and from what I can tell, the heaviest weapon we have in the group is my Hacker's Defiance T-250 shotgun.  Aside from Kunoichi's mage magic, which is FRIGHTENING.

[Opheliac]

Im rolling up a combat samurai right now, actually. Unfortunately, im only familiar with SR3, so im kinda winging it.

[Kunoichi]

I say you should go with whatever you think you'd have more fun with. ^^

As far as roles go, though, we don't have any drivers, either. ^^; Not that that's a request, or anything, just more making an observation that Samurai types tend to have good enough Reaction to also make for excellent drivers.

And Reiji, just because I can spam Force 8 Stunbolts all day long doesn't make my character's magic frightening.  Heck, she doesn't even have decent summoning skills... >>;

[ReijiTabibito]

All I'm saying, is that spamming Force 8 Stunbolts all day makes for dealing with baddies a bit easier.

[Opheliac]

Can anybody quickly rattle off the differences between character creation from SR3 to SR4?

[ReijiTabibito]

Quickly?

How about instead of making priorities this time, you're given a pool of points with which to buy everything?

[Kunoichi]

Well, the biggest difference, as I recall, is the switch from a priority system to a point-based one.

You typically start off with 400 Build Points, can spend no more than half that on your stats, your Metatype costs a certain amount of points, you can get a few extra points by taking negative qualities...

There's an entire character creation chapter in the main book that walks you through the entire process, if you've got a copy. ^^;

[Opheliac]

Ive only got the SR3 books. I dont have SR4.

[Kunoichi]

Ah.  Walking you through the process won't be too difficult, though it will be time-consuming... ^^;

[Hikari]

Unfortunately, SR4 isn't really an incremental update, it's more a re-imagining (ala D&D 3rd to 4th), so you might need to have a go at the rulebook to really understand the beast you're dealing with.  A lot of the same items are still in place, true, but there's often a fundamental difference in how they interact with the system due to changes in rules to attribute maximums, dicepool calculations, the complete revision of the roll resolution mechanic, and a general balance pass on all prices for cybernetics, biotech, etc.

There are concepts that translate (ie, a sammy with Wired Reflexes 3 is still crazy fast), but the fine execution has changed dramatically.  You might be best off just conveying the overall idea of your character to someone and letting them try to match the stats for you/make recommendations.

[Opheliac]

Well, would it work if I was to hand one of you guys an SR3 sammy to convert to 4? At least until I can go get and read the book?

[ReijiTabibito]

Actually...that might work out the best, handing us a 3rd ed character to be converted to 4th.  You might lose some things in the transfer, and probably miss out on the Quality section, but that could work...

[Kunoichi]

Hmm.  Depending on how the conversion goes, there might even be points left over...

[Hikari]

It can sort of work, I'd just advise being open to some revisions for the sake of playability.  For example, Agility (the stat the replaces Quickness) now adds directly to your dice pool for virtually all attacks, making it far more valuable than its predecessor (which primarily lowered the cost of learning Pistols skill, for instance, but didn't add dice to using it).  As such, Muscle Toner is now much more of a direct "combat upgrade" than it ever was in SR3.  Another good example is that your Reaction stat is now your chief defensive value, making it far more than just the "initiative modifier" it was before, while bonus initiative dice are now automatic additional initiative passes.

So, whereas Wired Reflexes 3 might have made you a combat monster in SR3, in SR4 you'd probably be better served with WR1 and some mix of Reaction Enhancers and Muscle Toner.

[Opheliac]

Dammit, my character builder program cant be run at school. I'll have to wait until I get home. :(

[Kunoichi]

Another good example is that your Reaction stat is now your chief defensive value, making it far more than just the "initiative modifier" it was before, while bonus initiative dice are now automatic additional initiative passes.

So, whereas Wired Reflexes 3 might have made you a combat monster in SR3, in SR4 you'd probably be better served with WR1 and some mix of Reaction Enhancers and Muscle Toner.

Actually, bonus initiative dice aren't automatic additional initiative passes.  Implants that give you extra passes just also add to your Reaction, and thus enhance your initiative, is all.

And extra initiative passes are still pretty important in SR4.  Wired Reflexes 3 will still help to make you a combat monster, you'll just also need to pump up your Agility alongside it.

At the very least, having everyone have the same number of Initiative passes definitely helps avoid making combat dull for anyone. ^^;

[Opheliac]

Ive been messing with SR4 character creators, and it seems that 250000 nuyen is the most you can start with at creation? What happened to the 1 million? I ran out of cash before I ran out of essence!

[Kunoichi]

Yep.  You can only spend a total of 50 points on starting cash, and each point is worth 5,000 nuyen.  Any particular list of items you're going for? ^^;

[ReijiTabibito]

Oh, and you have a limit on Availability at the start.  So, you couldn't buy Wired Reflexes 3, but you can get 2.

[Opheliac]

Wired Reflexes 1, Cybernetic arms (both full), legs (both full), Bone lacing, Cyber eyes (thermo, enhanced, smartlink, magnify,flash supress), muscle toner, reaction enhancer. This puts me way over, and I havent even started buying guns!

[ReijiTabibito]

Are you sure?  You've got 250,000 to spend...

Then again, I'm just a hacker - all I need to buy are a couple of commlinks and full sets of programs and I'm pretty much OK to go, aside from typical runner needs.