Hello, this is my first post. I have done a search but have yet to find the answer to my question. I am new to 4th edition and have not played in a few years. Some friends talked me into joining their campaign. I have read over the core (20th Anni edition) as well as unwired. My question is what are the key attributes to invest in and what skills/forms are considered the absolute necessary minimum. We are using a 400bp build, where I am trying to build as a "real time" hacker type and I am having trouble deciding on where to wisely spend. I want to be able to afford to at least fire a pistol and dodge some, so I won't be a completely useless meat-shield on scene during runs. I understand a bit about sprites, and another player was explaining threading to me. I have seen a few builds on the forums through searching, but I really was unsure why they chose what they did. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Hello all. Is there anyone willing to lend a little advice? I'm not asking for some broken Otaku. Just advice on what 4th ed is like, and what is considered needed/mandatory minimums for a stable baseline to this build in this edition. I have never played 4th edition, as well as, have never played Otaku. Played a rigger once before. I'm trying to build a hacker type that won't have to sit at home, nor will die right off the back when combat breaks out, and will not piss off the party. Any help is appreciated.

Don't worry, I don't think they are ignoring you. Many who currently play on the MUSH itself only check the forums occasionally. You may want to try logging onto the MUSH as a guest to ask questions. I have no advice myself on this issue since I've never tried making a hacker but you might find some interesting details in the older posts under SR Mechanics.

Hey Outsider.  I used to be the resident Technomancer on here.  There are one or two others who have dipped their fingers into the realm of awesome, but none have attempted to study it as much as me (at the time I was active).

What are you wanting to be able to do?  Be a part of the run while being an elite hacker?  Not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, but it definitely isn't as hard as some have thought.  They key is to not go overboard with the hacking skills/attributes/etc.

You said you had Unwired right?  So look through there and find out what stream you want to focus on.  In those streams, there is a listing as to what attribute is the primary 'soak' attribute.  For me, I chose Technoshaman.  One because of the religious preference, the other because since I'm playing an elf, I can maximize on one of the elf's primary benefiting stats: Charisma.

You could put that stat to whatever you want, I chose 6 because I designed my Technomancer to be a major Sprite user and heavy on using only hacking skills.  Now, before going into skills, you'll want to figure out what you want to focus on as far as being a hacker is concerned.  Are you going to be the type that just bosses their way into the code and beats up on IC/hackers?  Or are you going to be the stealthy type that mainly looks for information while using your Sprites to beat up IC/hackers.


I ask this, because we're going to have to make sacrifices in order to pull off being able to effectively be a part of a run (I use my weak ass TM as the guy who carries a bunch of grenades and randomly useful items for the team I am with).  So.  After this, go ahead and pick up your pistol and dodge skills real quick.  Then, look at the two skills that are basically exclusive to TMs:  Compiling and Registering (I wouldn't suggest even bothering with Decompiling at the moment).  If you are going to be using Sprites a lot, you'll want these two skills to be at a decent level.  You'll probably want to have a focus on Compiling/Registering the Sprite you'll primarily be using (I personally enjoy Paladins and Crack Sprites).  Next, you'll want to look at all of the hacking skills at your disposal.  If you are getting tight on BPs, you might want to look in to getting a skill group.  You canlater raise individual skills in the skill group, which will cause the skill group to be broken up and won't be able to be combined again until they are all the same level.  Again, you'll want to try and focus on key areas.  You CAN be a hacker of all trades type, I should add.  I just don't suggest it if you're looking to be more hands on.

Next, you'll want to look at what CFs you want.  If you're looking to use Sprites more often than not, try and go for CFs that will complement them.  I personally suggest at a minimum: Exploit, Stealth, Shield, Armor.  From there, you can specialize in cybercombat, information gathering, driving a fleet of drones, etc.

I'm not going to give you a speicific build because I don't know what sort of technomancer you want to be.  A lot of people will go:  I want to be a good one.  Well, everyone wants to be a good one.  If you think of being a Technomancer as being a Magic User in the Matrix, it might help you out a littlte.  Also note that if you can carry a pistol and use it effectively (with like what, 4 dice total at least?) you'll be good on the run.  My personal TM has, I think, 0 in Pistols.  Mainly because I was going to make him into a Dronomancer/Ultimate Bad Ass Hacker.

anyway, I'm sure this didn't help in the least.  If so, sorry.  Please, if you have any further questions, shoot them on here and I will try my best to answer them.  I am currently deployed so I'm not able to check the forums every day.  At the least, I check it once a week or so.  At most, every two days or so.

I look forward to any questions you will have.

Like with all the areas of SR4, the most effective way to be a hacker and an effective person in the run is to build a decent combatant/stealth type.  Decent meaning 8-10 dice total for each: Soak/Dodge/Stealth/Combat (one weapon is fine, likely ranged if going one).  Once you have those done, figure out the rest of your character.  Realize that hacking, although difficult to do without a trace all the time, it isn't that hard to do effectively in a run where there are other people.  This also gives you room to develop.  Don't go heavy into one attribute (those eat a lot of points) but instead make sure to be more well rounded.  You can probably slack on Strength (1 or 2), have a 3 Agility, and 4 Body (so you can get good armor), and then work out the other stats.  Don't worry too much about doing anything super complicated combat wise, or being amazing at particular areas of combat because right now we have some pretty good straight combat folks who will help whatever group you have going for you in that regard.

The most versatile characters out of the gate go in the following order:

Street Samurai
Adepts
Mages (Technomancers fill this role)

If you choose to play a technomancer, don't worry if you aren't the best Hacker, get your overall combat/stealth skills going, with okay even hacking, and then just work on those as you go.

Sorry I can't go more in depth on specifics with regards to technomancers (I have never even attempted to make one) but the general system of SR4 follows the basic guidelines I've given.  If you aren't at X level for one particular thing or the other, don't worry either, as you can always build upon it with Karma.  Just know your weaknesses, avoid those situations when in a run and you'll be fine.

Thank you everyone for the tips. It was all very useful to me, and helped me get going in the right direction.