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Shadowrun: Sins are not Forgotten

Muscler Toner and Muscle Augmentation are compatible, I think 4E even explicitly said so. From the description, the latter adds strands while the former improves existing ones, so that's not an issue either.


Instead of Bone Density Augmentation (which at Rating 2 adds +2 to Body for damage resistance tests, costs 0.6 Essence and 10k€), you might want to take Plastic Bone Lacing. For 0.5 Essence and 9k€, it adds +1 Body - but also +1 Armor and increases your unarmed damage by 1.
It's pretty much better - you might not need the extra damage, but if you're wearing proper armor the +1 Armor won't be negated by armor penetration, and will increase your odds that physical damage will be turned into stun damage by your armor rating. However, it's a drawback against magical spells (some of which can ignore armor entirely.
Of course, it has the drawback of being easier to detect by Cyberware Scanners, which can be a valid arguments against it. It won't set off metal detectors, but cyberware scanners can still detect it.

If you DO want to go with Bioware - consider Orthoskin. It costs slightly more (6k per rating), but uses slightly less Essence (0.25 instead of 0.3). It offers armor instead of Body, which can be nice as mentioned above.
Better, it can be upgraded (also later, you don't have to do it now). The Insulation-upgrade is especially noteworthy - for only 8k and 0.1 Essence, it adds +2 armor against Electrical Damage - such as Tasers or Stun Batons. Dragon Hide offers +2 to resist heat damage, and only costs 2k and 0.1 Essence. Both upgrades are completely unnoticable from the outside too.


If you are going mostly for Bioware, I would recommend taking the Biocompatability (Bioware) quality. It's only 5 Karma, but knocks off 10% of all Essence loss from Bioware.
There is another option - but it'll heavily define your background. Prototype Transhuman costs 10 Karma, but also saddles you with a negative quality (Mild Common Allergy, Astral Beacon, Insomnia (10) or Wanted). In exchange, you get 1 point worth of Essence you can fill with Bioware without losing any Essence whatsoever. (Of course, it's possible to be extra-cheesy and take the allergy drawback, then eliminate it for 0.1 Essence and 20k€).


Of course, the real question is: Do you want Initiative Augmentation?
The answer is typically: Yes please. But please take a look at the following options (all incompatible with each other unless otherwise noted):
Wired Reflexes: Cyberware. Compatible with Reaction Enhancers. Cost 2 Essence and 39k at Rating 1, 3 Essence and 149k at Rating two. Add +1 Reaction and +1D6 Initiative per Rating. Sadly, all but Rating 1 is out of reach for you due to money. Also, needs an action to be activated.
Reaction Enhancers: Add +1 Reaction per Rating, cost 0.3 Essence and 13k per rating. Compatible with Wired Reflexes as long as both are wirelessly active. Can be augmented with the Reaction Optimization Geneware (0.1 Essence, 6.6k) to add +1 Initiative, but is then no longer compatible with Wired Reflexes
Move-by-Wire System: A Rating 1 system would cost 3 Essence and 40k, and add +3 Initiative and +1 Reaction.
Synaptic Booster: Bioware. Costs 0.5 Essence and 95k per rating, adds +1 Reaction and +1D6 Initiative per Rating. Clearly out of reach for you now.
Boosted Reflexes: Bioware. Costs 1 Essence - but only 10k! Adds +1D6 Initiative. Sadly, they can not be removed ever again - otherwise they'd be a great option for you now, to be replaced with a Synaptic Booster once you have the money.
Synaptic Acceleration: Geneware. 0.4 Essence, 78k. Adds +1 Initiative, +1D6 Initiative and +1 to Defense tests. However, it can never be removed too, so you're stuck with it (or take something better and forever lose that 0.4 Essence without being able to recover it).​
So you basically have two options now: Go for Cyberware, pick Synaptic Acceleration or go without an Initiative boost for now. Something to contemplate, I suppose.
Don't worry, it is possible to have a good character without Initiative Boosts, even if you do combat - solid dice pools will carry you for quite a while.
 
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Serafina said:
Muscler Toner and Muscle Augmentation are compatible, I think 4E even explicitly said so. From the description, the latter adds strands while the former improves existing ones, so that's not an issue either.


Instead of Bone Density Augmentation (which at Rating 2 adds +2 to Body for damage resistance tests, costs 0.6 Essence and 10k€), you might want to take Plastic Bone Lacing. For 0.5 Essence and 9k€, it adds +1 Body - but also +1 Armor and increases your unarmed damage by 1.
It's pretty much better - you might not need the extra damage, but if you're wearing proper armor the +1 Armor won't be negated by armor penetration, and will increase your odds that physical damage will be turned into stun damage by your armor rating. However, it's a drawback against magical spells (some of which can ignore armor entirely.
Of course, it has the drawback of being easier to detect by Cyberware Scanners, which can be a valid arguments against it. It won't set off metal detectors, but cyberware scanners can still detect it.

If you DO want to go with Bioware - consider Orthoskin. It costs slightly more (6k per rating), but uses slightly less Essence (0.25 instead of 0.3). It offers armor instead of Body, which can be nice as mentioned above.
Better, it can be upgraded (also later, you don't have to do it now). The Insulation-upgrade is especially noteworthy - for only 8k and 0.1 Essence, it adds +2 armor against Electrical Damage - such as Tasers or Stun Batons. Dragon Hide offers +2 to resist heat damage, and only costs 2k and 0.1 Essence. Both upgrades are completely unnoticable from the outside too.


If you are going mostly for Bioware, I would recommend taking the Biocompatability (Bioware) quality. It's only 5 Karma, but knocks off 10% of all Essence loss from Bioware.
There is another option - but it'll heavily define your background. Prototype Transhuman costs 10 Karma, but also saddles you with a negative quality (Mild Common Allergy, Astral Beacon, Insomnia (10) or Wanted). In exchange, you get 1 point worth of Essence you can fill with Bioware without losing any Essence whatsoever. (Of course, it's possible to be extra-cheesy and take the allergy drawback, then eliminate it for 0.1 Essence and 20k€).


Of course, the real question is: Do you want Initiative Augmentation?
The answer is typically: Yes please. But please take a look at the following options (all incompatible with each other unless otherwise noted):
Wired Reflexes: Cyberware. Compatible with Reaction Enhancers. Cost 2 Essence and 39k at Rating 1, 3 Essence and 149k at Rating two. Add +1 Reaction and +1D6 Initiative per Rating. Sadly, all but Rating 1 is out of reach for you due to money. Also, needs an action to be activated.
Reaction Enhancers: Add +1 Reaction per Rating, cost 0.3 Essence and 13k per rating. Compatible with Wired Reflexes as long as both are wirelessly active. Can be augmented with the Reaction Optimization Geneware (0.1 Essence, 6.6k) to add +1 Initiative, but is then no longer compatible with Wired Reflexes
Move-by-Wire System: A Rating 1 system would cost 3 Essence and 40k, and add +3 Initiative and +1 Reaction.
Synaptic Booster: Bioware. Costs 0.5 Essence and 95k per rating, adds +1 Reaction and +1D6 Initiative per Rating. Clearly out of reach for you now.
Boosted Reflexes: Bioware. Costs 1 Essence - but only 10k! Adds +1D6 Initiative. Sadly, they can not be removed ever again - otherwise they'd be a great option for you now, to be replaced with a Synaptic Booster once you have the money.
Synaptic Acceleration: Geneware. 0.4 Essence, 78k. Adds +1 Initiative, +1D6 Initiative and +1 to Defense tests. However, it can never be removed too, so you're stuck with it (or take something better and forever lose that 0.4 Essence without being able to recover it).​
So you basically have two options now: Go for Cyberware, pick Synaptic Acceleration or go without an Initiative boost for now. Something to contemplate, I suppose.
Don't worry, it is possible to have a good character without Initiative Boosts, even if you do combat - solid dice pools will carry you for quite a while.
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Hell" wall" only has one die pool (soak) and he should be fine for awhile
 
@Serafina

As someone who's new to Shadowrun, I'll pass on the Augs that bump up my Initiative for now. Such a permanent option shouldn't be something I'd take lightly.

That, and since Chummer isn't up-to-date, I'll have to do some calculations manually and I don't want to mess up my sheet too much. :confused:
 
Also, I've updated my Sheet to include my Bioware, Gear and Equipment. There's probably quite a few stuff I've missed since I don't know what to actually bring with me, but by my reckoning I should have 10 Karma Points, 5.19 Essence and ¥52,000 left.

I also bought myself one of those GMC Bulldogs as my ride and mobile home, I guess. I may need some help finding out if I've left anything vital or useful for my Street Sam.
 
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if I did the courier he would lose adept get cyberware and essentialy be a motorcycle riding (while dual wielding smgs) street samurai.
 
@Serafina

Thanks for your response earlier! It was super useful; I'm still feeling my way around 5E.

How practical is it to build a drone operator without a control rig? My reading of RAW is that the control rig gets you a few extra dice and a few points to threshold, but it's still pretty viable to build a drone operator that uses Control Device and a deck to run drones.


@Conundrum

How many devices can we daisy-chain for improved Firewall? That is to say, can I slave a cyberdeck to a commlink, and have the cyberdeck use the commlink's firewall rating?


More generally, how hard should we be optimizing our characters?
 
Rigger Command Consoles give you the following:
- They're cheaper and more available than Cyberdecks for the same Device Rating, Firewall and Data Processing. That gives you higher Initiative, higher Limits and more Defense.
- They give you Noise Reduction and/or Autosoft Sharing. The latter is mostly useful for running Clearsight and Electronic Warfare on it, since your Drones will likely not have the space to run that as well as their maneuvering and targeting autosoft. You can also use it for Evasion and Stealth Autosoft if you're using one model of drones. The latter is really useful since it basically allows you to run your drones at a greater distance than usual - you can easily got for 10 kilometers with the RCC you could afford, in addition to basic Autosoft Sharing.
- You can also compensate for Noise on the fly, again unique to a RCC (AFAIK).
- You can control Drones more easily - as a simple action, and while rigged into another drone. Again unique to the RCC.

And that's it as far as I know. So yes, you can control drones without an RCC - just be aware that you won't be as good, that your drones will have less autosoft and that you'll run into problems with range.
(Not sure what a RCC does to rigging, there does not seem to be any benefit if you jump directly into a drone other than noise reduction).
 
@Secretariat it is device rating x 3 on the number of items you can have slaved to a device. If you want to daisy chain you can have theoretically unlimited, you slave your commlink to your deck and then your gun to your commlink, your commlink gets your deck's firewall rating and your gun gets your commlink's firewall, not your deck's firewalls, however, if you get a mark on a slaved system you also get a mark on the master which means your daisy chain is indeed a chain, the gun is a slave to the commlink so a mark on the gun gives a mark on the ccommlink. the commlink is a slave to the deck so there is now a mark on the deck as well.

Do not go out of your way to optimize and try to not be cheesy. I would say do not min-max but this is Shadowrun where people are expected to specialize so I do not expect everyone to have well rounded characters. Basically do not do rule abuse cheese or go completely insane with optimizing.
 
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Conundrum said:
@Secretariat it is device rating x 3 on the number of items you can have slaved to a device. If you want to daisy chain you can have theoretically unlimited, you slave your commlink to your deck and then your gun to your commlink, your commlink gets your deck's firewall rating and your gun gets your commlink's firewall, not your deck's firewalls, however, if you get a mark on a slaved system you also get a mark on the master which means your daisy chain is indeed a chain, the gun is a slave to the commlink so a mark on the gun gives a mark on the ccommlink. the commlink is a slave to the deck so there is now a mark on the deck as well.

Do not go out of your way to optimize and try to not be cheesy. I would say do not min-max but this is Shadowrun where people are expected to specialize so I do not expect everyone to have well rounded characters. Basically do not do rule abuse cheese or go completely insane with optimizing.
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Awesome, thanks!


So, new standard protocol - we all slave our commlinks to Lovelace's deck, and we have a single hacker running full defense on her massively firewalled machine?...
 
@Conundrum does this work with the world? I tried to fix the problem you had mentioned before. Also I think I'll swap the Computer skill for First Aid.

Full Run:

Chimer was Sixteen when he had to run. With only moderate skills in infiltration and retrieval, an lesser education, and a criminal SIN, his most likely homes would have been a local street gang or the Russian mob. But Chimer was never one to think small. He was never one to settle. And he often seemed to catch the right break when he needed it. So it happened that the first people to catch up with him wasn't the police, but some of the locals going on a Run. They weren't even full Shadowrunners. But Chimer had caught there attention, and they thought they could use another quick pair of hands for their next Run.

His first job with that crew saw him walk into a building and swipe the information off an ID card off a security officer. Chimer did his work, didn't freak out, got paid, and got a glimpse at the cracks in the world. Then just as the money was starting to get tight, the Runners called again with another job. Same style as the last. Before it really hit him he had become a regular member of their crew.

Chimer Ran with them for three years, watching as Age, Chance, and Arrogance picked them off one by one. But, Chimer has a teenage sister to take care of and money doesn't flow too easily in the light, especially when you don't have the right SIN.
 
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Secretariat said:
So, new standard protocol - we all slave our commlinks to Lovelace's deck, and we have a single hacker running full defense on her massively firewalled machine?...
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Ol'Trusty gives up defense for Sleaze and Attack. My commlink has a firewall of 6 though and that's what's running defense for my deck.
 
I'm probaly goint ot have to bow out for now. I've had some stuff come up that leaves me without a lot of free time.
 
We've got a lot of Smokies, so far.

When I picked England, I knew I was picking a bit of a shit hole. (Granted, it's Cyberpunk, everything is a bit of a shit hole.) Hell, I planned for it. Her father makes money off selling stolen/repurposed electronics and cybertech to the good folks of the Overground.
 
@AbZHz101 your addition to your backstory works well, getting hired on as an extra hand with small timers and surviving long enough certainly works for a decent number of runners.
 
Okay its hard to make shadowrun characters without alcohol but here I go, I am about to make it!
 
I have an idea for a character, too. Dunno how well it would fit in. Basically a human from southern Germany who enlisted for a couple of tours and ended up partly rebuilt. Hard as nails soldier, kind of inspired by Wreck-it Ralph's Sergeant Calhoun. Due to injuries, has cyber eyes in an odd off color (sold cheap to the Army because of cosmetic issues, work fine) and to become more durable she's added dermal armor and aluminium bone lacing. To get an edge, she also has wired reflexes 2. On leaving the army (not deserting, just didn't reenlist), found herself at a loss in civilian world until she met one of the 2 contacts. Speaks German and English, and is skilled with small arms, heavy weapons, gunnery/vehicle mounted weapons and no slouch in a fistfight. Not the most sociable, she can be intimidating but beyond that just doesn't care much for pleasantries. Secretly collects romance eBooks and wishes there was a Prince Charming around... but she'd probably end up kicking his ass. :D (KS: Literature means she also is rather well-read, probably reading during all the inevitable hospital stays.) I made a character in Chummer 5.

One question before posting. I gave her both the Firearms and Close Combat skill groups at 4, and Chummer's saying I'm -2 Skill Groups now. Did I miss a change between 4th and 5th edition here?
 
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