[CHAR] Shadowrun 3E - A Walk in the Dark

[JaceBeleren]

I'll fully explain character creation mechanics next. For now, this is the CS format.

Example CS

Name: Self-explanatory
Street name: Most shadowrunners keep their real name secret. This will usually be something badass, like Breakdown or Hardpoint or something.
Age: Self-explanatory
Gender: Self-explanatory
Appearance: Self-explanatory
Psychological description: How the character thinks, acts, etc.
Notes: Anything that doesn't fit into one of the other categories you think is important to mention

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Priorities: A character creation mechanic, explained soon, don't worry!

A:
B:
C:
D:
E:

Attributes: Self explanatory

Body:
Quickness:
Strength:
Charisma:
Intelligence:
Willpower:
Essence:
Magic:
Initiative:
Reaction:

Metatype: Human/elf/dwarf/orc/troll
Skills:

List all skills possessed by character and what level they are at (also explained with character creation mechanics)

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Nuyen: How rich the character is after possessions have been bought
Lifestyle: The lifestyle type your character has paid for
Cyberware: Any cybernetic/bioware modifications the character possesses
Armour: Only the armour your character is wearing
Weapons: Again, only the ones on his/her person. Include ammo owned for each firearm/projectile weapon.
Vehicles: All vehicles
Other possessions: Everything else they own
Contacts: Helpful NPCs the character knows, these are paid for (money can even buy you friends now)
Spells: Spells the character can cast/adept magic in use

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History: Go as detailed or as basic as you like. As long as there's something for me to work with, I'm good.
Non-contact relations: Self-explanatory
Notes: I've included this section again because if you're anything like me you'll have had like 5 awesome ideas between the last one and this one, and you need somewhere to put them without them sounding disorganised, and well, trash.

[JaceBeleren]

Character creation mechanics are here!
Step 0: Character Concept
It seems obvious, but it's much easier to make a Shadowrun character if you know how you want them from the get-go.

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Step 1: Priorities
So you have five priority slots: A, B, C, D, and E. Essentially, you choose which aspects of your character are most important (skills, money, etc.). You fill each slot with one of: Race, Magic, Skills, Attributes and Resources
Priority: Race
A: Race cannot be priority A or B
B: " "
C: If you choose race as priority C, you can be a Troll or an Elf.
D: If you choose race as priority D, you can be a Dwarf or an Orc.
E: If you choose race as priority E, you are a human.
Priority: Magic
A: If you choose magic as priority A, you are a full magician (access to both spells and summoning spirits).
B: If you choose magic as priority B, you can be an adept (no spells, but passive magic abilities), or an aspected magician (as full magician, but to a limited degree).
C: If you choose magic as priority C, D or E, you are not magically active.
D: " "
E: " "
Priority: Attributes
You have a number of points to spend on your attributes based on your attributes priority.
A: 30
B: 27
C: 24
D: 21
E: 18
Priority: Skills
You have a number of points to spend on skills based on your skills priority.
A: 50
B: 40
C: 34
D: 30
E: 27
Priority: Resources
You have an amount of nuyen to spend on gear based on your resources priority.
A: 1,000,000
B: 400,000
C: 90,000
D: 20,000
E: 5,000

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Step 2: Decide race
If your race priority was C or D, you need to decide which race you are.

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Step 3: Decide Attributes
You must put at least one and up to six points into each attribute. This increases the attribute (from 0) by that much. Only body, quickness, strength, charisma, intelligence and willpower may be improved this way. The other attributes are based on other factors. Then add to or subtract from these numbers based on your race. All attributes must be at least one after modification.
Human: Attributes unchanged
Dwarf: +1 body, +2 strength, +1 willpower
Elf: +1 quickness, +2 charisma
Ork: +3 body, +2 strength, -1 charisma, -1 intelligence
Troll: +5 body, -1 quickness, +4 strength, -2 charisma, -2 intelligence,
Your other attributes are decided as follows:
Essence: Starts at 6, goes down as cybernetics/bioware is installed
Magic: Your magic is equal to your essence rounded down to the next whole number (essence can be a decimal). If your magic priority is C, D or E, your magic is 0 instead.
Initiative: Starts at 1, can be increased through cybernetics/adept powers/etc
Reaction: The mean average of your quickness and intelligence.

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Step 4: Magic
If your character's magic priority was C, D or E, skip this.
Full and aspected magicians require spell points to purchase spells, at a rate of one spell point per force value of the spell. They start with 25 (full magicians) or 35 (aspected magicians) spell points, and can buy more when choosing gear at 25,000 nuyen per spell point, but may not have more than 50 spell points. Spell points can also replace karma in bonding foci (more on this when I get the chance). Adepts have power points equal to their magic attribute, and cannot gain more or lose any unless their magic attribute changes. These are used to purchase powers.
A full list of adept powers and spells will be up soon.

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Step 5: Decide skills
Active Skills: You have a number of active skill points based on your skills priority. Each skill has a linked attribute. You may increase an active skill by one for one skill point, as long as the total is less than or equal to the linked attribute. If the total is more than the linked attribute, it costs two skill points instead. No skill may be above 6.
Specialisations: A character may be specialised in a number of skills - this is free, but they may only be specialised once per skill. What this does is that in a test involving that skill, the skill is considered to be one lower for all purposes, unless a specific requirement is met, based on your decision and what specialisations are available for that skill. If the requirement is met, the skill is considered to be one higher (this can put it effectively above 6). For example, a character with the pistols skill at 6 may be specialised in the Ares Predator (a type of pistol). They will be considered to have pistols at 7 when firing a Predator, but if they have to fire a Remmington Roomsweeper they will effectively have pistols 5.
Knowledge Skills: A character has a number of knowledge skill points equal to their intelligence times 5. All knowledge skills' linked attribute is intelligence. Otherwise, they function similarly to active skills (you can be specialised in a knowledge skill, too).
Language skills: A character has a number of language skill points equal to their intelligence times 1.5. Knowledge skill points can be used to learn language skills. A character also has the read/write skill for any language they know, at half the level of the speaking (original) skill. Language skills are linked to intelligence. Specialisations for language skills represent subgroups that speak a variation of the language (either areas with specific dialects or other subgroups, such as gangs, deckers or mages.).
A full list of active and knowledge skills will be up soon. Obviously, language skills are just real-world languages, although there is an Elven and an Orcish language as well.

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Step 6: Assign Resources
Buy any gear or cybernetics/bioware your character wants. Extra spell points are bought here as well. Keep in mind your character must pay for their first month of lifestyle (general living costs) too.
Lifestyle (monthly) costs:
Street: 0 Nuyen
Squatter: 100 Nuyen
Low: 1,000 Nuyen
Middle: 5,000 Nuyen
High: 10,000 Nuyen
Luxury: 100,000 Nuyen
Contacts cost money as well. A full catalogue will be up soon (I know, there's a lot coming "soon", but I can make things happen I'm sure)

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Step 7: Everything else
Name, appearence, personality, other non-stat, roleplay stuff. The important part.

[JaceBeleren]

Example CS:

Edge

Name: Sakarushi Hirotaka
Street name: Edge
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Appearance: Edge is heavily built, even for an ork. He has pale green-white skin, and is very tall. His tusks are prominent, and he is completely bald. He has cut scars on almost every visible part of his face. When not on a run, he dresses simply due to a combination of financial problems and personal preference, preferring to emphasise his build and never hide his ace despite the scars.
Psychological description: One word. Aggressive. Edge talks tough because he is tough. He is prejudiced towards elves, sees them as dandelion-eaters. Even if one proves him wrong, he'll do little more than begrudgingly repect them and think of them as the exception that proves the rule. Even so, there is one kind of person to him that's worse than an elf - a pretender. He hates it when a human, who has had the good fortune not to be an elf, tries to look and act like one. After all, if you're weak and stupid, what good are you?
Edge is also somewhat self-destructive - he seeks death, but sees this desire as weak, so tries to hide it. Instead, he takes huge risks in the hope that they will be his last. His preferred weapon is the monofilament whip, a famously dangerous weapon both to the target and the user. The cause of his self-destructiveness has come from psychological damage after a painful run-in with a rat shaman while hiding out in the sewers - also the cause of his facial scars.
Notes: Suffers from clinical depression but is unable and unwilling to get help. Low-light vison.

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Priorities:

A: Attributes
B: Resources
C: Skills
D: Race
E: Magic

Attributes:

Body: 9
Quickness: 6
Strength: 8
Charisma: 2
Intelligence: 5
Willpower: 3
Essence: 0.65
Magic: 0
Initiative: 1 (3)
Reaction: 5 (9)

Metatype: Orc
Skills:

QUI Whips 6 (+Monofilment whip)
QUI Pistols 4
STR Unarmed Combat 4
BOD Athletics 6
QUI Stealth 3
CHA Intimidation 4
REA Bikes 5

INT (Street) Black Market Dealers 5
INT (Academic) Psychology (+Mental Disorders) 5
INT (Sixth World) The Ork Underground 5
INT (Background) Athletics 5
INT (Interest) Vintage Firearms 5

INT Japanese 6

r/w 3

INT English 1

r/w 1

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Nuyen: 650
Lifestyle: Low
Cyberware: Radio (Rating 3; Legality Legal), Memory (100Mp; Legality Legal), Cyberears (With hearing amplification, dampeners and recorders; Legality 12P-N), Cybereyes (With opticam; Legality Legal) Wired Reflexes System (Rating 2; With Reflex Trigger; Legality 4P-Q), Smartlink (Legality 5P-N)
Armour: Securetech Long Coat (Concealability 10; Ballistic 4; Impact 2; Legality Legal)
Weapons: Monofilament Whip (Melee; Concealability 10 (15 with coat); Reach 2; Damage 10S; Legality 1-K; Skill Whips), Ceska Black Scorpion (Firearm; Concealability 3 (4 with coat); Ammo 35/315 (c); Firing Mode SA/BF; Damage 6L; Legality 5-G; Recoil 1; External Smartgun Mod Underbarrel; Skill Pistols)
Vehicles: Harley-Davidson Scorpion (Handling 4/5; Speed 120; Acceleration 6; Body 2; Armour 1; Sig 2; Autonav 2; Pilot -; Sensor 0; Cargo 4; Load 60; Seating 2; Skill Bikes); Eurocar Westwind 2000 (Turbo Model; Handling 3/8; Speed 240; Accel 14; Body 3; Armour 0; Sig 1; Autonav 3; Pilot -; Sensor 1; Cargo 5; Load 45; Default to REA)
Other possessions: Binoculars (Concealability 5; Legality Legal), Encryption Software (For cybernetic radio; Rating 10; Legality 8P-W)
Contacts: 1x Level 2 Contact (Iwakiri Koto – Fixer)
Spells: Not magically active

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History: Edge’s childhood was spent in the slums of the Ork Underground. He spent most of his time desperately trying to get by, earning scraps of money using his considerable strength to perform manual labour. His family had been killed in a racist attack when he was barely nine years old.
He survived, barely. As a teen, he quickly realised that as an ork, he had no chance getting a legal job that was worth the drek he’d be paid for it. He started pit brawling for cash. He was good at it, until one late night he got a knife in the back from a rival of his. The only reason he survived was because they thought he hadn’t. He woke up the following morning with blood covering the alleyway. That morning was spent stumbling to the hospital, before collapsing at its doors.
He decided pit brawling wasn’t for him. But his story hadn’t gone unnoticed – it even hit local news. It wasn’t long before a representative of Shiawase Corporations turned up, with a lucrative offer. They wanted him as something of an attack dog, to sabotage other megacorps so they could get ahead. Something like being a shadowrunner, actually, but having a megacorp backing you and a reliable paycheck. For Edge, this was too good to be true.
He was successful. He made a lot of money, and had military-grade gear and cybernetics installed courtesy of his employers. But it seemed like the world truly did hate him, because after a few years he discovered a corporate secret – the kind most people would be killed over. He already knew this, and that he’d have to go underground. He wiped his SIN, moved his gear to a safehouse and did everything he could to wipe his trail, effectively dropping off the planet.
This leaves him in an interesting situation – he’s been living off his earnings since he left Shiawase, spending as little as possible and generally using what the Underground taught him. He has high-grade skills and weaponry, and no SIN. In other words, he is the perfect start towards becoming a shadowrunner.
Non-contact relations: Non-existent. Edge couldn’t take that risk, plus he’d only get them killed if he was found out.

[Duthguy]

Hider

Name: Moteki Youta
Street name: Boom
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Appearance: Boom is of average height and build for a dwarf. He has ebony skin and red brownish hair that he keeps in a ponytail. Most people quickly notice his clearly cybernetic eyes, due to their rainbow colored irises and protective covers. Something he doesn't mind at all as it draws attention away from the chromed steel "fingernails" on his right hand. In his free time he is generally wearing a mechanic's overalls.
Psychological description: Boom has never really gotten over the deaths of his wife and son, and if it weren't for his desire to take revenge at the one responsible and the system that let them get away with it, he would have put a bullet in his brains a long time ago. Instead he became determined to live as long as he could, in order to cause trouble for both the corporations and the government.

He is both smart and patient enough to start small and work his way up to the point where he can really hurt those he wants, while keeping as many civilians out of the crossfire as possible though if he has no choice but to harm an innocent he will.

Notes:

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Priorities:

A: Skills
B: Resources
C: Attributes
D: Race
E: Magic

Attributes:

Body: 5 ( 4+1)
Quickness: 5
Strength: 5(3+2)
Charisma: 3
Intelligence: 5
Willpower: 5 ( 4+1)
Essence: 4.68
Magic: 0
Initiative: 1
Reaction: 7

Metatype: Dwarf
Skills:

Resistance (+2) to any disease or toxin
REA Car 5
INT Car B/R 3
INT Electronics 5
INT Electronics B/R 6
Cha Etiquette 2
INT Gunnery 5
STR Cyber- implant combat (hand razors) 3 (5)
QUI Pistols 5
INT Pistols B/R 3
INT Biotech (First aid) 3(5)
INT Launch Weapons 4
INT Demolitions 3
CHA Negotiation (Bargain) 3 (5)

INT (Interest) Scrapyards Tokyo 5
INT (Street) Mafia Politics 3
INT (Background) Sorcery (spellcasting) 4 (6)
INT (Academic) Chemistry 3
INT (Background) Computers 4
INT (Interest) WW II History 5

INT Japanese 4
R/W2

INT Rigger-Speak 3

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Nuyen: 56000
Lifestyle: middle
Cyberware:
Cybereyes (alphaware) (legal)
image link (alphaware) (legal
thermographic vision (alphaware) (legal)
camera (alpahaware) (legal)
flare compensation) (alpahaware) (legal)
Hand razors (alphaware) (3-n)
Commlink 5 (legality legal)
2 datajacks (alphaware) ( legality legal)
Headware Memory ( Alphaware ) 50 mp (legality legal)
Headware Radio (alphaware) Rating 5 (legality legal)
Smartlink (bodyware) (alphaware) (legality 5-pn)
vehicle control rig (alphaware) (rating 2) (legality 6-pn)
Armour: Lined coat (conceal 8, ballistics 4, impact 2, legal)
Weapons: Ruger super warhawk ( pistol, conceal 4 (6 with coat 8 whit holster and coat), ammo 6(cy) mode ss, damage 10m, legality 6p-e recoil -, skill pistols) flechette rounds x 1,( concealabilty 8 12 with coat, legal) regular ammo x 3 (concealabilty 5 7 with coat, legal) regular ammo for ak-97x4
Vehicle: Ford Americar( modfied for dwarfs, handling 4/9 speed 108, accel 8 body 3, armor 0, sig 2, autonav 2 pilot -(1), sensor 1, cargo 12, load 110, remote control interface)
Other possessions: concealable holster (Conceal +2, rating -, legal), flash-pack ( conceal 12 18 with coat, damage special, legal), gm-nissan doberman (handling 3/5, speed 70, accel 8, body 2, armor 6, sig 2, autonav -, pilot 2, sensor 1, cargo 2,5, load 50, setup/breakdown -, external fixed firmpoint (with soviet ak-97: conceal 3, ammo 38c, mode SA/BF/FA, damage 8m weight 4,5 legality 2-g, rc-), remote control interface, remote mictroturret) medkit, wire clippers( conceal 12,legal) kit/electronic( conceal 3) shop/vehicle work (conceal -)
Contacts: 1 x level 1 contact ( Fujino Masuru- fixer), 1 x level 3 contact (Kagamine Shouta -mechanic)
Spells: None

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History:
Eleven years ago Boom worked as a mechanic in Kagamine's garage. However one day both his wife and six year old son got run over by a senior manager from a megacorp and died from their injuries. Wanting revenge Boom sued the elf but not only did he walk free thanks to his lawyers, Boom had to repair the damages to his car.

Enraged he swore revenge, his first impulse was to sabotage the car while "fixing"it, but he quickly realized that was foolish, the elf was bound to have someone check the work done on the vehicle and if not he would be the prime suspect in the guy's death.

So instead as soon as the repair work was done, he began saving as much money as he could to buy cyberware, weapons and get some combat training. Now after more than a decade he finally feels ready to take the next step towards revenge by officially becoming a shadowrunner.
Non-contact relations: his brother in law, Hasagawa Takumi
Notes: