Greetings New Seattle forum.  I have known about Shadowrun for all of 3 days.  Needless to say I was awestruck by the game.  Never did I think I would be pulled away from my precious Dungeons and Dragons.  I come to you in a sad state however.  I have grasped the basics of the system, roll lots of d6s compare to other d6s, but the concept of making an actual effective character escapes me.

Too long have I dwelt in the lands where wizards, clerics, and druids rule with an Iron fist.  I come asking.  How do I make a character that is new player friendly, and won't make my team want to slag me so they can keep my cut?

Well first you have to decide on what kind of character you want to make. There are plenty of ways to make an effective character and several different ways to go about doing it.

First you should pick your race. Race can determine a lot of stuff, like which cyber or bioware you pick for example if you are going with a street samurai type. It of course has a lot of bearing on -who- your character is as well.

Once you have picked your race (And any race is fine for just about any concept, they can all be made workable) then you have to pick what style of character you want to make.

Social. Physical. Ranged. Magic. Close Combat. Stealth. Rigger. Hacker. Etc.

Take a look at the sample characters in the main book, those are decent starting points for concept as far as that goes. They aren't built the most efficiently, given that they were built without Arsenal and Augmentation books, but they're good for concept idea's.

Once you've decided on the general idea of what you want your character to -be-, let us know here and myself or Tear can help you make a character that is true to what you want the character to be and still be a good shadow runner.

Much thanks.  Originally I figured that an elf sniper character would be the easiest on me.  I could stay far from combat and watch other people roll their various dice and learn from there.  Then I realized most mission will probably happen indoors and all the range in the world won't really help me.

I have been entertaining thoughts on an Ork Close/Mid combat specialist.  I downloaded a character generator to play around with and I think he was semi ok for combat. A bow for ranged attacks and a vibroblade for once his cover is blown and it is time to mix it up.  Threw on some chameleon armor for that Metal Gear Solid ninja feeling.

If I figured my math right with his 9 agi and 10 strength he was rolling 18 for his attack pool with his bow and 15 for his blade. (no clue how average that is)  The thing is I didn't know if he was too overly combat orientated and too flat.

I will try to recreate him and post the stats based on the format I have seen here.

Snipers are rarely a good choice.  Snipers only work in particular situations, where there are places of hide, and relatively open terrain with lines of sight.  In your typical corporate facility, the sniper is almost useless once the team is inside.  You can make a person who uses a sniper rifle and is stealthy, but for the love of god make sure they can be useful in close quarters too.  People who say "I'm a sniper, the only thing I will ever agree to do on a job is hide and shoot" are the most worthless people you can have on a team.

Also, don't fall for the "knives are cool" trap.  Melee combat horrible in Shadowrun.  When someone with a gun shoots an enemy, the enemy rolls only Reaction to defend, unless they use up their next action to Full Defense, which prevents them from doing anything else.  But in melee, the enemy rolls agility + melee skill (or dodge).  That means that against an opponent of equal skill, when you shoot him, you'll probably hit unless he goes on full defense.  But against an opponent of equal skill in melee, you probably won't hit, and you definitely won't if he goes on full defense.  Not only that, but in melee you have to get up close, AND you can only make one attack per phase, as opposed to two or more with firearms.

The reason you might want a melee weapon is not for offense, but for defense -- if the enemy attacks you in melee, you can't shoot him anymore without a penalty.  So it's good to fight back in melee.  Melee is also good for stealth, because if you surprise someone, they can't defend at all, and a melee weapon generally won't make as much noise as a gun, even a silenced gun.

Finally, I'll say that you shouldn't focus on melee unless you're an ork or a troll, or you won't be strong enough to make it worthwhile, but it looks like you're going with ork so it's cool.  That's not to say that you can't get a melee weapon for coolness alone, you just have to realize that all in all they suck pretty bad.  If you know you're making a sub-optimal choice with a melee weapon, then go ahead, just don't get suckered into thinking it's a good idea   Even my character has a sword even though I know it's mostly silly, just because it fits her theme.

Oh yeah, and bows -- they're not quiet.  Bows with any kind of pull make a loud crack when you release them, not as loud as a gunshot, but it's not much of a stealth weapon.  The flat out best category of ranged weapons is automatics, followed by longarms.  If you do have to use a bow, make sure to take a martial art from Arsenal and learn the iaijutsu maneuver, otherwise you'll only be able to make one attack per round.

Thanks a ton Tear.  I tweaked my character concept a bit based on your suggestions.  I realize bows won't be as silent as a silenced gun, but I just couldn't shake the image of a bad ass archer with incendiary and explosive arrows.

Obidiah Erk'lok aka Deadeye

Ork Archer

Body 4 (+2 to resist damage)
Agi. 5 (9)
Rea. 4 (6)
Str. 6 (8)
Cha. 2
Int. 4
Log. 3
Will. 3
Edge 2

Archery 6 (will specialize in bows once he gets some karma)
Athletics (Group) 4 (+2 from my Synthacardium)
Infiltration 5
Disguise 5
Perception 5
Dodge 5
Unarmed Combat
Pilot Ground Craft 1

Martial Arts (2)
Restricted Gear (Muscle Toner 4)

Addiction Mild (Long Haul)
Combat Monster
Flashbacks (Uncommon)
Lost Loved One
Vindictive

Muscle Toner 4
Muscle Augmentation 2
Platelet Factories
Wired Reflexes 2
Synthacardium 2
Bone Lacing (ceramic)

Cybereyes with
Flare Compensation
Low Light Vision
Thermographic Vision


I went with a chameleon suit and full form fitting body armor for my defense.  Do augmentations to an item add to its overall availability or are they separate?  If separate I will probably add some fire and electricity resistance to the armor, along with that thermal dampening stuff.  Will probably pump up the cybereyes a bit as well.  Also can the smart gun system be integrated into a bow?

I went with Krav Maga and got Take Aim becomes a Free Action and Ready Weapon becomes a Free Action, along with the iaijutsu maneuver. 

Basically the concept is to sneak up on people and put arrows in their back before they know what hit them.  If I did my calculations right by opening with iaijutsu I will get 2 attacks during my first Initiative pass (quick draw attack, free action notch another arrow, simple action fire, free action notch another arrow.)  The second initiative pass I can either get 2 more attacks or 1 and move for cover.  (Simple action fire, free action notch arrow, simple action fire.)  Then I would alternate between 1 and 2 attacks a round.  Not as often as a gun user I am sure but I am sorta confident I will hit with enough reliability to make up for that.  (unless I totally screwed up with how many attacks I get, which wouldn't surprise me)

 Unarmed is for like you said, defense in melee.  If I take specilization Unarmed(martial arts), will that add +2 to my iaijutsu quick draw roll?

As for his story.  It is still pretty full of holes because I haven't really dived into the backstory of the world yet. 
Obidiah was born in the Louisiana swamps, where he learned the ways of archery.  His parents land was threatening to be bought out and they would have to move from the only place they knew as home.  Obidiah took it on himself to take care of his mother and sister.  So he effectively sold his soul to the devil, or in this case a major corporation who needed test subjects for a "project".  The project was to create a ultimate super soldier.  Unfortunately Obidiah never made it past the alpha stages of the project.  He was too volatile and easily provoked, and once he started combat there was no stopping him.  After an incident where he put a commanding officer in the hospital, the company decided that Obidiah was unfit to continue into the higher levels of the program.  When he returned home he found his mother in the grave, his land gated up and being prepped for urbanization, and his younger sister no where to be found.  Eventually Obidiah found his way to the city, and to a new purpose.  Find his sister, find the people that took his family away from him, and find a way to tame the beast within.  Ok maybe not so much the latter one.

Are you sure you're a noob?  You haven't made many mistakes at all...  You've got the basics, for sure -- high Agility, decent Reaction, multiple init passes...

One thing is, add eye lights to your cybereyes.  This will give you 0 lighting penalties in full darkness.  Also, try to add ultrasound or ultrawideband radar, those are better in certain situations, and let you see through mage invisibility, as well as through walls with the radar.

Another mistake is you can only start with one skill at 6 OR two skills at 5.  So you'll have to lower some of your skills.

You also didn't list your martial arts maneuvers, so I dunno what ones you took.  Krav maga is of course epic badassery, though. 

And no, a specialization from Unarmed would not help your iaijutsu roll.  You have to make a Reaction + Weapon Skill (3) roll.  Now, if you get a specialization in bows, I think it would count as +2 to quickdrawing arrows.

Heh thanks.  I try to be a quick study.  I can't stand feeling like my lack of experience is a detriment to my team.
I completely forgot the 6 or 5 5 rule.

The only maneuver I took originally was Iaijutsu, but I added Full Offense, Set Up and Watchful Guard.
I dropped all my skills that were five down to four and bumped my willpower up one so I wont fail combat monster and vindictive checks as much.
Threw the eye light, smart link, and vision magnification on the cybereyes and pushed them to grade 3.  Grabbed a pair of cyberears with Ultrasound and Select Sound Filtering 2.

As for gear what is considered the standard must haves?  I grabbed a grappling gun and rope, along with light sticks (though I probably don't need those at all any more).  I threw a smartgun system on my bow and grabbed an inconspicuous car.  Is the rest of my nunyen just going to go towards stocking up on all those bad ass arrows from Arsenal?

Ok another thing to remember is a Chameoline suit and full form fitting body armor full suit is going to put you over your body so you're taking a hit to reaction. Since you'll have 6 Ballistic from the chameleoline and 3 from the FFBA for 9 which is over twice your body of 4. Ceramic bone lacing is awesome, underrated piece of cyber as it lets you do Str/2+2 Physical damage with a punch which can be flat out nasty but it doesn't give you a base body of 5 for armor purposes.

So you might want to adjust there.

Also Init of 10 isn't bad, my char has init of 10 and it's enough. It's not super fast but it's enough so you should be ok. Speed freaks like Bubblegum and Eclipse will go faster than you but most npc's should be slower than you unless facing some hard targets.

You'll want to pick up a full set of PPP Armor, it adds +2 Ballistic and +4 Impact armor and doesn't screw with your reaction. So I'd suggest getting a half suit of FFBA for 4/1 + 6/4 for Chameleoline + 2/4 for the PPP which will put you at 12 ballistic and 9 Impact. Not the most armored out there, but not bad at all either.

What else, oh, you'll need a specialization in unarmed combat of Martial Arts. So I'd drop Archery down to 5, With that freebie take a specialization in bows and unarmed. Take Infiltration of 5, then drop all your other 5's to 4's. With left over points boost up some social skills to be a little more well rounded.

My 2 cents.

Thank you both, you have been a tremendous help in getting me used to the how things work.  Sadly the group that I have been learning to play Shadowrun with is full of nothing but people who want to shot stuff dead.  So I have taken on the task of learning how hacking works and making a rigger/hacker, since no one else wants to bother learning it.

Thanks again.