There are cracks in the world.
They're slender, dark, and often cold,
but they are the only things that
keep you hidden. Keep you alive.
They are the shadows of the world,
and they are where you live.
It is 2075, the sixth world, the awakened world, a world dominated and ruled by corporations. Across the globe the average person goes too and fro about their dull lives. You are something different, alive in the shadows, your lives in the end may be shorter but they are far more interesting. This is the world of the Shadowrunner, the anti-wage slave. You may take the corps nuyen to do their work but are never there to be their little toys and pets. One day you may take their nuyen for a job well done and the very next break in to take more. That is what you are and how you survive in this world.
You are a breed apart from the average runner, those who have survived for years on the street, you have stepped up in the world and your name is known in the shadows across Europe. Even those who manage to become known across their own sprawl do not compare with you and your name is known to every corp across the continent. Things are moving in the shadows though and risks coming to light, the rumor mill is turning and high grade runners are coming at a premium for odd disjointed runs. Someone is making plays and runners are dropping off the grid. Something is happening, something big from London to Warsaw and somehow nobody can put the pieces of just what it is.
You are prime runners, able to operate across the European continent and beyond. Highly skilled and well equipped having survived for years working for and against the corps ready for all the drek the sixth world can throw at you.
Shadowrun 5th edition, Prime Runners
The campaign will take place in Europe and as prime runners expect some travel
Useful sourcebooks are Sixth World Almanac, Shadows of Europe, London Sourcebook, Germany Sourcebook, Euro War Antiques, Tir Na Nog
Since 5e is heavily lacking in all the versatility and various menagerie of tools and tricks 4e allowed I am allowing 4e stuff though it will need to be ported to 5e so just ask me what you are looking at. I also fully allow homebrew stuff though just run it by me first.
I build campaigns around the players so fun fleshed out characters you enjoy are generally the best to bring. If a team of murder hobos is assembled expect murder hobo jobs.
This is a living world, if it looks like a shit job, it might be a shit job and you are under no obligation to take it while bad decisions follow you, or even good ones.
I am not a killer GM but I don't pull punches, as I said, it is a living world.
I advise against things that leave a huge gap that are just asking to be exploited like have a 1 in a stat.
I do not like broken cheesy things like how a chargen 5 essence charisma focused adept can throw around twice the dicepool of anyone else.
Do not be afraid to ask questions
I am almost always on mobile so the easiest way to contact me if you want to communicate in roughly real time I am on Skype with the name 'Omega' with a Jackpoint avatar.
At chargen you begin with 3 Street Cred and 1 public awareness
Ciara "Firehair" Ó Fionnagáin
METATYPE: HUMAN
B 4, A 6, R 3, S 3, W 3, L 3, I 3, C 3, ESS 6, EDG 3, M 3
Condition Monitor (P/S): 10 / 10 Armor: 14 Limits: Physical 5, Mental 4, Social 5 Physical Initiative: 6+1D6 Active Skills: Archery 6, Athletics Group 4, Banishing 4, Blades 4, Counterspelling 4, Etiquette 4, Firearms Group 6, Free Fall 4, Intimidation 3, Pilot Ground Craft 3, Sneaking 4, Spellcasting 4, Summoning 4, Unarmed Combat 2
Knowledge Skills: Magical Theory 2, Nightclubs 3, Shadowrunning 3, Weapon Manufacturers 4
Languages: English N, Gaelic N, German 5
Qualities: Bilingual, Code of Honor: Bystanders (6dicepool vs. 4), Guts, Mentor Spirit: Adept Powers: Dragonslayer, Adept Powers, Natural Athlete, Shamanic Mystic Adept Spells: Combat Sense, Detect Enemies, Detect Magic, Increase Reflexes, Knockout Adept Powers: Combat Sense (2), Danger Sense (1), Enhanced Accuracy: Pistols, Mystic Armor (2) Vehicles:
. . Suzuki Mirage [Handling 5/3, Speed 6, Accel 3, Body 5, Armor 6, Pilot 1, Sensor 2, Seats 1] Gear:
. . Armor Jacket w/ Chemical Protection (3), Fire Resistance (3), Nonconductivity (3)
. . Ear buds (3) w/ Audio Enhancement (1), Spatial Recognizer
. . Fairlight Caliban Commlink
. . Firehair w/ (12 months) DocWagon Basic Contract, Fake License: Gun (Machine Pistol) (5), Fake License: Gun (Pistol) (5), Fake License: Gun (Rifle) (5), Fake License: Gun (Shotgun) (5), Fake License: Magic (5), Fake SIN (5), (12 months) Middle Lifestyle
. . Gecko Tape Gloves
. . Glasses (4) w/ Image Link, Smartlink, Vision Enhancement (1), Vision Magnification, Electronic
. . Maglock Passkey (5)
. . Medkit (4)
. . Medkit Supplies x2
. . Metal Restraints
. . Microwire (m) x100
. . Rapelling Gloves
. . Standard Rope (m) x100
. . Tag Eraser
. . Trauma Patch x2 Weapons:
. . Ares Desert Strike [Sniper Rifle, Acc 9, DV 13P, AP -4, SA, RC (1), 14 (c)] w/ Bipod, Imaging Scope, (100x) Regular Ammo, Shock Pad, Silencer/Suppressor, Smartgun System, Internal, (100x) Stick-n-Shock
. . Ares Predator V [Heavy Pistol, Acc 8, DV 8P, AP -1, SA, 15 (c)] w/ (100x) Regular Ammo, Smartgun System, Internal
. . Ingram Smartgun X [SMG, Acc 6, DV 8P, AP –, BF/FA, RC 2(3), 32 (c)] w/ (50x) Explosive Rounds, Folding Stock, Gas-Vent System (2), (100x) Regular Ammo, Silencer/Suppressor, Smartgun System, Internal
. . Combat Knife [Blade, Acc 6, DV 5P, AP -3] Contacts:
Natalia (Nightclub Owner) (Connection 2, Loyalty 4)
Natalia is a Munich 'private' (read: fetish) nightclub owner, who also acts as Ciara's landlady- and a good friend (with a fair few benefits on the side). A troll, she defies many of the stereotypes, and is fiercely protective of anyone who works for her.
Mr. Johnson (Connection 4, Loyalty 3)
Ciara only knows this contact of hers by the name Amir, but to be honest, that's more than most know him by. A Turkish man who appears middle-aged, this Mr. Johnson has often dropped Ciara first line on more than a few jobs- and steadfastly refuses to screw her over, something that's been the case ever since one of her first jobs, when she rescued a young girl for Amir. She suspects the girl was a relative of his, but she isn't sure- and she hasn't pried.
Damien (Street Doc) (Connection 3, Loyalty 2)
A wizened old man with more energy than he has any right to, Damien lives in Berlin with his family, and often acts as Ciara's go-to doctor when she receives injury in the area. He also knows a few other street docs across Germany, so she's never far from someone who can patch her up quietly.
Street Cred: 3
Public Awareness: 1
Starting ¥: 1430¥
Ciara- or 'Firehair' as she goes to all but close friends- fits her runner's name incredibly well. The first thing most people notice about her is her bright red hair, fanning out behind her and reaching down to her back- framing a face that still looks startlingly young for someone who's garnered a reputation as a Shadowrunner. With freckles scattered across her face, she looks about twenty-five (which is her actual age), although her piercing blue eyes make her look older.
Her build's a lot like that of a professional runner- she's tall but not awkwardly so, and is certainly well-shaped in most ways people care to speak of. She generally wears a black coat when she's on the job, with pistol concealed under the coat, while her smartgun and sniper rifle are both slung over her back- easily accessible if she needs them. Swirling celtic tattoos poke up just over her collar on her neck, the rest covered by her gear.
In terms of personality, Ciara can best be described as 'experienced enough to know how painful life can be, but still able to laugh'. When she's on a job, she's all business- she approaches her work professionally, and unless a Johnson lies to her about what the job entails, she'll get it done. She doesn't hurt innocents, however. Higher-ups on the Corporate ladder are never innocent, but the wageslaves don't deserve to end a day at work with a bullet in them. She's always kept to that- and while she makes a point of not judging personal lives, she expects people she works with to do so too.
Still, she's friendly once she's run with people enough to get to know them, and often enjoys having a night out to get to know the team she's running with at the moment.
I may also edit to remove that DocWagon contract, yes. Also, guess the 'personal' item that's useful on runs as well.
EDIT: Added description and personality, edited one of her contacts- owner of a club Ciara often frequents.
At a young age, Xiula was adopted from Asia by a rich elven couple in the Herzogtum Pomorya, an elven state in the ADL. Her childhood knew no want of physical needs, but her adoptive parents could never quite connect with her. Any mention of her home country was forbidden, and so was any interest in non-elven culture. Fortunately for Xiula, that allowed her a way out of her parents grasp. She joined a group of traveling actors - an acceptable activity, for they performed supposedly ancient elven plays.
Xiula did her best to excel in her new role. But ultimately, she was just a decent actress and acrobat. She had awakened as a teenager, but even with her adept powers she did not rise above mediocrity. She decided to push her limits with performance-enhancing drugs, which even got her a lead role several times.
And so the years went by. Xiula didn't bother to save much money, spending it on fancy clothes, parties and of course the drugs she now needed to perform as well as she could. The habit was slowly building, but she thought she had it under control.
Until the second crash. Her SIN got wiped, and with it the money she got from her adoptive parents. But worse, she lost contact to her drug supplier. Not willing to let her troupe down in such hard times, she cut to street-grade drugs - and went over the edge.
Xiula is still not entirely clear what happened. She remembers the best performance of her life, transcending a mere play into true art. But she got fired for it, whatever exactly she did while on a cocktail of at least three street drugs. SINless, nearly broke, she tried to get another job as an actress. But the drugs didn't help her this time. Several more tries, and she recognized that she was slipping deeper into addiction. Not willing to go to her parents, she contacted her sister and called in a favor. Half a year later, she was clean of the effects of her addictions, helped by bio- and gene-ware paid for by her generous supporter. Who of course wanted both the money and the favor back - and offered her a job as a Shadowrunner.
Xiula has run with several crews since then. Her talents proved apt for both break-ins and combat. She reveled in the role of a Shadowrunner, building some reputation due to her bright, costume-like armor and her deadly use of a monofilament whip. She has not stayed with any group of runners for long so far, since her unstable personality never clicked with any of them. Still, most of her runs were successful and money was good. She never paid off her debt in full so far - it was too tempting to just spend it on new gear, wild parties or drugs that didn't get her addicted so far. The Fixer who set her up with the debt was happy with that arrangement - she did pay on time, and in case she couldn't she had so far accepted every run he gave her. Xiulas path is currently uncertain, just waiting for the next big run.
Elf (3) - Priority C
Adept (Magic 2) - Priority D
Attributes 20 - Priority B
Skills 46/10 - Priority A
100.000€ - Priority E
Strength 1->2: 10 Karma
Logic 1->2: 10 Karma
Magic 1->3: 25 Karma
New Active Skill: First Aid: 2 Karma
New Knowledge Skill: Street Drugs: 1 Karma
Free Contacts: Charisma (7) x6=42
Free Knowledge/Language Points: (Logic (2) + Intuition (3)) x2=10. 1 point buys two points of Languages due to Linguist
7 points into Language= 14 points for languages
English 5
Japanese 5
French 2
Russian 2
Theater 2
Fashion 1
Adept Powers: 3 Power Points
Adrenaline Boost 2 (0.5), Combat Sense 1 (0.5), Facial Sculpt 1 (0.25), Light Body 2 (0.5), Linguistics (0.25), Wall Running (0.5), 0.5 PP left
Money: (note that the € will be used instead of Nuyen. Prices are 1:1, it's just easier to write for me that way).
100.000€ starting money. In Debt: adds 30.000€. Total Money Available: 130.000€
32.420€ (Augmentations) +
29.475€ (Electronics) +
05.540€ (Gear) +
18.090€ (Weapons) +
25.600€ (Armor) +
07.500€ (Drugs) +
10.000€ (Lifestyle) =
128.625€
1.375 left in Cash
Alright, i would really only need one if we get like seven people or more, otherwise you can join as a player even if you want. i think not counting you so far like five of six people have expressed interest.
You can download CHUMMER, a shadowrun character creatior, in addition to the Quick Start Rules that were linked earlier.
The gist of character creation is that you have 5 Categorizes to choose from. (Metatype, Attributes, Magic, Skills and Money), and you rank them in order from most important to least important, which determins how many resources you have to spend in each of those categories.
They say which doesn't kill you makes you stronger. In Raziel's case, that debatable true, but what's for certain is that it made him stranger.
Raziel's story is rather simple one. Born in London, he was standard corporate brat, as much as anyone was normal and corporate under the rule of the Lord Protector and the New Druidic Movement. Still, things were going well for him, graduating from Novatech Online college with two degrees, one in programming, and the other in matrix hardware. While not the head of his class, he was still a talent in programming, and had a wonderful carrier ahead of him.
This all came crashing down 2 year later, in 2061. Halley's comet returned to earth, bringing with it surging mana levels, and SURGE itself. London was wracked hard by SURGE, and Raziel was caught up in the storm, twisted into a dinosaur-est monster, complete with spiked tail, claws and feathers. Still, Novatech wasn't going to let their investment go to waste just because he came out a bit strange. Raziel was pulled from his Matrix R&D job, and re-assigned to a simpler job, acting as a security spider for the site he once worked at, once he had recovered from the minor pschotic break brought on by his changed form. It was to ease him back into the company, HR said. He knew it was to keep him hidden away, at some dusty cyberterminal, where people didn't have to look at him.
Still, he threw himself into his work, learning all he could about rigging and decking, and took great joy in fucking with his old research "buddies", and the occasional shadow-runners that came calling, trying to steal data about the new Wireless Matrix Initiative. He actually made enough of a name for himself as a security decker, coupled with the fact that he didn't have to attend meeting in person, that he was tapped to help run Matrix security at the Novatech IPO.
Once again, Fate chose to spit in his face, as the crazed AI Deus attempted to take over the matrix in a bid to remake itself as a Seed AI, while other attempted to stop him, and others let loose the most damming computer virus on the internet. It was chaos, and in that battle, Raziel was opened up to a brand new world, one outside of his corporate overlords, as Angels battled for the future of humanity. As the battle wound up, Raziel was saved from certain death by one of the angels, dumpshocked by a Sparky attack before the many blackhammers of the worm hit home.
He woke up several hours later, with a nosebleed over a dark cyberdeck. The whole installation he was in had gone dark, and many of the researchers had been killed when the Virus swept through. From what little communication traffic he could tap, the world was in chaos and flames, from EMPs and the Virus.
Sensing that Novatech wasn't long for this world, Raziel gathered as much of the prototype gear as he could, and fled into the Shadows, starting work at first as an independent contractor working on restoring the matrix, which was shortly followed by other jobs, making sure that certain groups bid to rebuild the matrix failed. With Novatech wiped out, and all it's records lost, there were few places for a freak like him.
What roles do we still need filled? I can do pretty much anything, Just kind of mucking about with a Technomancer to get the feel of chargen in between doing problem sets. (Also, does anyone remember where the advanced rules for cyberware were for 4E? I keep remembering this upgrade for cybereyes that turned them into itty-bitty drones that you could pop out of your eye sockets.)
== Description ==
A chromed up punk girl with constantly shifting hair colors covering her half shaven head, the other side is an intercate weave of tattoos, which reaches down her neck and ends as it meets the metal elbows of her augged arms.
A cheerful dispostion with a love of bright, garish colors and a keener mind then one would think.
Large amond eyes that shift color to match her manic moods and crushing down turns.
Surpisingly good at fighting, for a techie.
== Concept ==
Puts the Punk in Cyberpunk
Ada Nadia Karimi, the girl who would become Lovelace, Mercenary Decker for Hire, was six years old when her parents moved house from her native home, a Casablancain apartment that was cramped, expensive and surrounded by nosy neighbors. To an apartment in Stepney, London's East End
that was cramped, expensive and surrounded by noisy neighbors.
The French Corp to whom Ada's father was a middle manager for their tech department insisted it was for the best. That he would be allowed to "branch out, and spearhead a new office in a new location, and prove your chops as lead on this. Everything will be fine!"
The ruthless takeover by Novatech five years later said otherwise. The restructuring demoted her father out of his job, and he found himself hawking used bits and bobs for all manner of mechanical and electronic devices to more shady elements of London's market.
At the age of twelve, Ada found her passion. Hardware, software, everything that buzzed and clicked and wurred with not-so-shiny perfection. In her Father's shop Erol's 2nd Hand Electronics And More. She learned how to build, maintain, and repair the electrical treasures others thew away, and sell them far above what they were worth only a week before. From this passion, she made her first deck at fourteen using the case of a Radio Shack that had fallen off a truck and ripping everything else out replacing the insides with bits from around the shop. She affectionately calls it "Ol Trusty."
She began to write programs, viruses, ways to attack and defend in the world of the digital, selling those for sweet nuyen on the darknet. Falling into a all female gang of Deckers, Hack-tivists and Punk Rock cromeheads known as the Shine Grrrls at fifteenth getting her first Aug six mouths after she joined. Then moving onto Hooding, and from there she entered the Shadows at seventeen. She became L0v3-L@ce.
She's been a Runner for seven years now. The length her career a testament to her luck. Or her skill.
What roles do we still need filled? I can do pretty much anything, Just kind of mucking about with a Technomancer to get the feel of chargen in between doing problem sets. (Also, does anyone remember where the advanced rules for cyberware were for 4E? I keep remembering this upgrade for cybereyes that turned them into itty-bitty drones that you could pop out of your eye sockets.)
There are several roles in Shadowrun. Generally, most characters can contribute at least a bit to more than one role, though you can diversity and specialize. Several roles can be filled in several ways.
Combat: This is honestly the broadest role, where you can contribute in dozens of ways. Generally, a team is well-off if you have people for close-combat situations (melee weapons, shotguns) and long-range situations (rifles, magic, heavy weapons). Combat specialists exist, but even if your character is not one you should give them some combat skills. Also, each character should have ways to deal stun-damage, because not killing everyone you fight against is a good idea.
Alright, so how do you make your character Combat-Ready?
Obviously, you'll need at least one Combat-Skill at a decent level: At least 4. Pistols are good and versatile, but the Automatics skill can also be quite useful. If you want to focus on combat, you can get more skills (or Skill Groups), and obviously at a higher level.
Second, you'll need decent Agility and Reaction. Reaction is arguably more important - while Agility contributes to hitting, Reaction contributes to not getting hit. It also contributes to Initiative, which is important as we'll see later.
You can substitute the combat skill and agility with spell-slinging, if you are an awakened spellcaster. In that case you'll want good drain-attributes so that you can cast high-power spells without crisping yourself.
Get a decent Body-attribute, it'll keep you alive in a whole lot of ways. At least 3 please.
You will also want some points in the Gymnastics-skill, since it helps with evading incoming attacks.
That's basic competency, every runner should have that.
Now, the way of being a really dangerous combatant in Shadowrunner.
The first answer is "more of the above". Higher attributes, higher abilities, further additions to your dice pool. That can be boosted with Cyberware, Bioware, Magical Spells or being an Adept.
Then, look at your Initiative. It's normally "Reaction + Intuition + 1D6". Everyone gets that - you'll do well to get above ten including the dice roll. Why 11+? Simple, at that point you get to act twice during each Combat Turn. At 21, you can act three times, at 31 four times. How to get to those numbers? You can get 11 just from good attributes. For higher numbers, you will need either Augmentations or Magic. Reaction Enhancers,, Wired Reflexes, Move-by-Wire Systems, Synaptic Boosters and Synaptic Acceleration are all augmentations that can boost your Initiative - but be aware that they do not stack with each other (except for the first two), cost quite a bit of money and a good chunk of your Essence. The Improved Reflexes Spell and the adept power of the same name also enhance your Initiative.
The rest is basic gear. Get good armor - there's no reason not to, since wearing armor has no non-social drawbacks and good armor is very cheap (you can get 12 points of armor for 1000 Nuyen). Obviously weapons too - you should put a Smartlink on your main ranged weapon, and get some glasses with an in-built Smartlink System. A cheap way to add 2 dice.
Get some smoke-grenades even if you're terrible with grenades. They're great for retreats, and a miss won't have any fatal consequences for that purpose.
Also, get a medikit even if you are absolutely untrained in first aid. Modern medikits can be automated and can be life-savers.
Information: That's the other big purpose of Shadowrunners. But there is a lot to say about it, so it'll be split into several chapters:
Social Interaction and Contacts - aka "Legwork": A character who is great at those - high Charisma, high social skills and lots of Contacts - is called a "Face". Faces are also generally negotiating for the team, so having a god one means higher pay.
Building such a character is rather simple: Get them high Charisma. Get them the Acting-Skill group and the Influence skill group (or the individual skills of either of them) at good levels. Get Intimidation if you want that. Then, use the free contacts that your high starting charisma provides to get lots of contacts - people who know people, not just people who can sell you gear.
You will use all that to listen around before a run. Information is Ammunition. Or at least will make sure that said ammo doesn't land inside you. You'll check your employer, you'll check info about the location, you'll try to arrange for all advantages you can get via social engineering and favors.
A Face will often also make a good Shaman or Technomancer, since both profit from high Charisma.
A word of advice: Every character should have at least a few points in Etiquette and Negotiation.
Etiquette is the "don't put your foot in your mouth" skill. If you don't have it, you might insult the Yakuza Oyabun who politely invited the whole team to dinner, and get people killed.
Negotiation - well, even if you don't do it for others, you might do it for yourself. Your own contacts are likely making deals with you, not your well-dressed elf friend.
Magical Information: Assensing is a very powerful skill. You're basically looking at peoples soul - it's great for looking through disguises, to see if they're lying, to see if there's anything fishy about them. Having someone in the team who can do it is invaluable.
Proper mages can also explore astral space - and since astral space is linked to the real world, that can often mean getting into locations without anyone noticing and getting the lay of the land (and potentially discovering hidden nasties).
It's also useful for identifying and tracking spellcasters.
And last but not least, you might be able to get impressions off scenes - violence, or other emotional scenes can leave imprints.
To get that, you need to be Awakened and get the Assensing skill (duh). More points in that and higher Intuition will make you better at it. And being a full mage (instead of an Adept or Mystic Adept) means you get to explore astral space freely.
Matrix Information - Hard Data: That's obviously a job for a Decker (what "hackers" are called in Shadowrun). Well, anyone with a decent commlink and computer-skill and do some basic data-trawling. A good hacker will do that in their sleep, while also hacking into a lot of secure systems to squeeze juicy info out of them.
Hacking is a chapter on it's own. It can be done in two ways - normal Deckers, or Technomancers. The latter are a sub-chapter on their own, suffice to say that they are much more specialized (but they can make good Faces too).
All the other stuff: There is a lot of other stuff you can do in Shadowrun, and that a team will probably need sooner or later:
Magical Defense: The best way to fight magic is with magic. As such, a team will really want a spellcaster in their team (adepts don't really do it well).
Defending your team comes mostly in the way of the Counterspell-skill. But you'll also want to erase astral signatures and take on enemy spirits - with your spells, sometimes with banishing and most importantly with your own spirits. Because spirts can be very hard to damage with weapons, magic is the best way to do that.
Breaking and Entering: You'll want to do that. Every Shadowrunner does it. That means bypassing security systems of all kinds. The needed skills for that are Lockpicking (in case of actual, physical locks with tumblers), Hardware (to bypass the more common maglocks) and sometimes Explosives. Oh, and often Sneaking. Then you'll need to get Autopickers, Maglock Passkeys and Sequencers, which do cost a bit of money.
Of course, most security systems can be bypassed via the Matrix, and a Decker will likely want a good Hardware-skill anyway, so that's a good sub-role for them.
To be good at the physical aspect, you'll likely also want Gymnastics, Climbing and probably at some point Running to actually get inside buildings.
As for the sneaking-bit: Every character should have at least some points in that skill. You don't need to be the one who can sneak by five guards in a brigthly-lit room, but at least be skilled enough to not alarm the whole neighborhood while inserting somewhere at night.
Transportation: It might be shocking, but people don't walk everywhere in the Sixth World. And you might not want to take public transport while packing heavy artillery.
This is the stereotypical job of the Rigger. Drive a van full of Shadowrunners to their target, sit outside and wait until they're back.
That's not a job for a player character. First, the driving can be done by anyone really - having the skills of a Rigger is only really important once you are actually in a chase or fighting with that vehicle (often both). Second, it'd be really boring - and a Rigger can do so much more.
By now, all Riggers need to be good at Cyber-Combat at the least. So you'll most likely be a Rigger/Decker hybrid. That goes well together in many ways. You can sit outside in the van and send your drones in along with the team - but if you want, go grab some combat gear and get inside yourself, too.
Well, that's a rough overview. Most of those roles can be mixed and matched in several ways - there are legitimately good ways to make a Mage-Hacker, basically every archetype can also do combat well, and the support-skills can be tagged onto pretty much every concept if you can spare the points.
Soak can sometimes be substituted instead of gymnastics, not the best route but viable for people who can get it high like troll meta types after a certain point of cyberware, stats, and everything else it takes anti-tank weapons to bring you down. That said, you can buy a disposable rocket launcher off the street on the cheap so there is a strong reason dodging is favored to soaking.
There are two main kinds of armor, visible armor and concealed armor. I know Serafina said there is no social drawbacks to armor but if you walk around with heavy body armor on people will notice and that is not always something you want. It is often good to have more visible but better protection as well as thinner concealable vest and various things like armored clothing, jackets, and things of that nature since it is rare to have a good all use armor.
Pistols and automatics really are the best unless you are a combat specialist, most other weapons are specialist for certain situations . It is also a good idea to have some variety in your arsenal because sometimes you need to go loud and sometimes going loud gets you killed by a corp HRT.
Initiative is insanely important but a trap I see some new people fall into is building up initiative while neglecting their ability to actually do anything, once you encounter heavy hitters they laugh at your inability to actually hit back effectively.
With magic as mage or shaman your main importance is not actually direct combat but versatility. They say geek the mage first not because he can throw a fireball, anyone with a grenade launcher can do that. A mage can take control of your buddy's mind for a second and that is all he needs to pull the pin on a grenade.
Sitting back in the van or even across the city is not as safe or effective as it used to be for cyber combatants. SR5 completely overhauled decking making them practically cyber wizards. Your pair of shades with a smartlink for your gun is a nice buff but if it is wireless you just gave the enemy decker the ability to see everything you see and do things up to and including firing your gun for you depending on upgrades without protection from it. Some of this stuff deckers could do was possible in previous editions but was not very prevalent, deckers are very much now second line fighters given their buffs and nerfs. Sitting back in the van now means they are taking penalties much like how mages deal with background count.
I said that there are "no NON-social drawbacks." As in: You don't get dice penalties or anything from properly worn armor.
So there's no reason not to armor up even if you have low body, or want to be quick and nimble. Well, specifically you can wear any single piece of armor - and then you can add "+X" armor items (such as helmets or shields and a few other items). Those are limited by your Strength-bonus, every 2 points above that imposes a -1 penalty to agility and reaction.
Take Xiula for example. She only has 2 Strength, but she could wear Full-Body Armor (armor 15) with it's helmet (+3) without any trouble at all. That'd only be 2500€ too, so it'd be really affordable and offer a ton of protection - it's enough to stop assault rifle rounds (of course, at that point enemies might break out armor-piercing ammo). Oh, and keep in mind that even the best armor (except true mil-spec battle armor) doesn't make you immune to damage - that assault rifle round will still do damage, it'll just be stun damage instead of physical damage. Which is still very valuable.
But as mentioned, there ARE drawbacks to that. Namely, you'll be running around in full-body armor. Sure, that won't be a problem if you're currently breaking into an Ares Laboratory in the middle of the night. But even there - if you have to exfiltrate and can't ride in a van, you'll be easy to identify on cameras and people will notice.
But that armor would do you no good if you have to go into a situation where you'll actually encounter people. Because it's obvious. You'll want some good protection that you can actually wear on a street. Maybe even some that you can wear to a fancy restaurant where you meet with Mr. Johnson or one of your contacts.
That's where armored clothing comes in.
Armor Clothing (p. 436 in the core book) can come in any style you want, and looks just like normal clothing. It's cheap (450€) and completely legal, but only offers 6 points of armor.
Actioneer Business Clothes (same page) are more limited in style - think "stiff suit". Still perfectly acceptable fine clothing. Affordable (1500€) and still legal, and offers decent 8 points of armor.
But the really good stuff is the High-Fashion Armor Clothing in Run&Gun. Take any piece of armored clothing, and combine it with any piece that has "custom fit (stack)" in it's rules. Anyone can grab a Synergist Bussiness Line Longcoat for 2300€ to add +3 to their armor rating, as long as you can get it properly tailored to fit you. There are a ton of options there, even if high-fashion stuffy clothing isn't your characters style.
Well, or you just grab some armor jacket that you can slip over when you need it, and normally wear armor clothing in whatever style you want. That works too.
This was actually a tough decision since normally you are not supposed to but that is pretty silly since you are prime runners and someone in full body armor with a Yamaha Raiden or toting a Shiawase Cyber-5 is not some nobody.
As a result I am awarding 3 Street Cred and 1 public awareness to everyone.
@Conundrum : I have added the details about my character creation to my post about Xiula. Everything should be in order, though I did spend a smidgeon more money than I had recalled. It was okay though, it just cut into my pocket money so no big deal there. As usual, spending the money is the fuzzy detail, everything else lines up properly - except I still had some contact points to spend I forgot about, gotta think up a new contact.
