Day 4: Lurtz the Tough Guy Ganger
#CharacterCreationChallenge
So far, in the first, all-mystical group, we have covered the Combat, Social and Magical roles that most Shadowrun groups would have - this leaves Matrix and Vehicles/Drones. In theory, both of those roles can be covered by magic (Adepts have a lot of versatility), but Technomancers are the more popular (and thematically appropriate) option. They use Resonance instead of Magic, which works similar in some ways but only in the Matrix (and is utterly incompatible with Magic - nobody can have both). Today, I am looking at a Technomancer that covers the Matrix role… but in a slightly unconventional way.
Appearance and first impression
Most people quietly cross the street to avoid walking too close past Lurtz - he’s that kind of guy. Orks tend to be big and muscular, and the tusks don’t help. Add-in the heavy armor jacket, heavy motorbike, barely concealed short-barreled shotgun and variety of other weapons, and a gang-patch of the Al- Ork-and-Troll Sons of Sauron gang, and the stereotype is fulfilled. Few people look close enough to notice that he is not quite as heavily muscled as it first appears, and sports none of the obvious cybernetics most gangers have. Even fewer people talk to him long enough to realise that can be quite charming and good company once he warms up to someone.
Backstory
Lurtz’ parents were both members of the SoS, and he grew up in the gang, quickly learning that a Don’t-Drek-With-Me image was his best protection against most of the rest of the world. After an almost-fatal incident in his childhood, it became obvious that he was severely allergic to most cybernetics, and so he never ended up getting any ‘ware installed himself - which turned out well for him when he began manifesting strange abilities. His parents knew enough to recognize he was a Technomancer, and that even within the gang many would distrust him, so they managed to keep it secret and taught him to be circumspect - as far as almost anyone else knows, he managed to get an implanted cyberdeck that he was somehow not allergic to. He never really got the hang of hacking himself - sure, minor things, but his real strength was always in compiling and commanding sprites (a kind of matrix-spirits), particularly Faul Sprites that are best at turning electronic devices of all kinds (including, say, guns and vehicles) into sparking and smoking bricks.
Character Creation Overview
Once again I was using a standard priority method. The main challenge was giving him enough physical attribute and skill points to make him not useless at being a big, tough ganger, while keeping him able to handle the Matrix side of a shadowrun. Focusing on Sprites instead of his own hacking abilities helped immensely.
Priorities
The main things to cover were: Lots of attribute and skill points, and Resonance that could start low but needed to be increased to 6 with adjustment points, because it is the single most important stat for a Technomancer.
In the end, I went for:
A: Attributes (24)
B: Skills (20)
C: Metatype (Ork, 9)
D: Resonance (1)
E: Resources (8000)
Attributes
The concept as it is needs a pretty wide spread of attributes - the closest thing to a “dump stat” is, ironically, Logic, which is used for both Hacking and Cracking, but Lurtz rarely does that himself, so Logic stays at 2. Most important are Resonance (used for compiling sprites) and then Willpower and Charisma, since those are used to resist Fading (the Technomancer equivalent of Drain), and compiling (summoning) powerful Sprites can bring a lot of that. We also need decent Intuition and all the physical attributes (especially Agility), so in the end I went with:
Body 4
Agility 5
Reaction 4
Strength 4
Willpower 6
Logic 2
Intuition 4
Charisma 5
Edge 3
Resonance 6
Skills
There is one skill we need a lot of, Tasking - it is used for compiling and registering (long-term binding) of sprites (also decompiling, which may be handy when going up against another Technomancer). It gets maxed out at 6.
Then we also have a mass of other skills we kind of need a little of: Athletics, Close Combat, Cracking, Electronics, Firearms, Influence, Perception, Piloting, Stealth and Engineering. At this stage, I put Firearms at 3 so my Shotgun isn’t completely useless, Cracking (illegal Matrix stuff), Influence and Piloting at 2, and Perception at 1, and make a note to raise some of the others or shore them up with specialisations later.
My Knowledge Skills are a short list again - English as the Native Language, along with Seattle Gangs and Sprites.
Qualities
Once again, I maxed out my six possible qualities as follows:
Analytical Mind is a bit of an oddity. It gives a bonus Edge for Logic tests, and costs 3 Karma. This is ridiculously cheap compared to other “bonus edge for x” qualities that are normally 12 Karma and cover only specific situations, although they usually have some other benefits as well. While Lurtz is not a Logic-based build, this quality gives him a slight, well, edge, when doing some hacking himself instead of via Sprite, and considering how cheap it is, I went for it.
Focused Concentration at rating 1 let’s him sustain a single Complex Form (basically a technomancer spell) without penalty. It costs 12 Karma but is probably worth it.
Sprite Affinity for Fault Sprites gives him bonus edge when compiling one of those, and they are his favourite type of Sprite. It costs 14 Karma.
In Debt is an odd duck in that it is technically a negative quality, but doesn’t give Karma. Instead, it increases the amount of Nuyen that you get for Karma (from 2,000 each to 5,000 each), but then you owe that much to someone and have to pay at least 10% of the total amount in interest per month (and more if you want to pay down the principal). In Lurtz’ case, this means he owes 30,000 Nuyen to the Seattle chapter of the Sons of Sauron, and has to pay at least 3,000 Nuyen interest each month to remain in good standing with them.
Impaired (Logic) at rank 2 is nothing new by now since I have used it in some way for each of my builds so far. 16 Karma basically for free.
Allergy (Chrome, Severe), on the other hand, is a new one. I used it as part of the backstory to explain why he never got any augmentation, but it also provides an extra 11 Karma - in exchange, if he is in contact with Chrome (including, say, being grappled by someone with a cyberarm), he has a significant reduction to all dice pools and takes ongoing damage.
Overall, the Qualities cost a net total of 3 Karma.
Complex Forms
Because we started with Resonance on the D priority, Lurtz only has 2 Complex Forms, which are effectively spells for Technomancers:
Resonance Spike is an attack in cybercombat - most of the time he would leave this to sprites, but it’s good to have some ability to do something himself.
Puppeteer allows him to take Control Device actions without having the right kind of access - in other words, do things like make a car slam on its brakes, a gun eject its ammo clip etc. It still requires a test to make it accept the command, but not to hack the device first.
Gear
The 8,000 Nuyen from the priority table did not go far, but the In Debt quality helped with that… of course there will be a price to pay in the future…
Weapons
Lurtz carries three weapons: Knucks for hitting people up close, an old Bike Chain mostly for intimidation factor, and a Remington Roomsweeper short-barreled shotgun (with external Smartgun system and 80 rounds of ammunition).
Armor
A big, heavy Armor Jacket with built-in Electricity Resistance and Fire Resistance.
Vehicles
A Harley Davidson Scorpion - big, heavy, low cruiser, extra loud exhaust, you get the idea.
Other stuff
A Meta Link Commlink - the cheapest of the cheap, because as a technomancer Lurtz has no need for a commlink, but not having one attracts attention.
A pair of rating 4 Glasses with Flare Compensation, Smartlink and Thermographic Vision.
A Gas Mask because you never know when someone lobs a tear gas grenade or worse.
A Monofilament Chainsaw which is useful for getting through barriers etc, but mostly to play up the “big tough ganger” image.
A decent (rating 4) Fake SIN with attached fake license for the shotgun.
2 Silver Certified Credsticks that can anonymously hold up to 20,000 Nuyen each.
And a month of Low Lifestyle prepaid.
Adding it all up
Altogether, the gear costs 34,510 Nuyen. 8,000 of that comes from the priority table, the rest is purchased with 6 Karma (thanks to the In Debt quality), leaving 3,490 Karma to start the game with.
Spending our Karma
After gear and Qualities, we have 41 customisation Karma left, and they all go straight into shoring up skills. First, 1 point each for Electronics, Stealth and Engineering, then specialisations for Close Combat (Unarmed), Cracking (Hacking), Firearms (Shotgun), Influence (Intimidation) and Tasking (Compiling). Unarmed close combat includes things like Knucks and bike chains (for some reason), so that all works out well.
Finishing it up
Contacts
Omega is a reasonably well-connected dwarf fixer that occasionally does business with the Sons of Sauron and some local Mr. Johnsons, but it is strictly all business. Connection 4, Loyalty 1
Chartusk, a higher-up in the Sons of Sauron, can get access to some weapons, vehicles and similar gear, and as a fellow member of the gang there is some level of expected loyalty. Connection 3, Loyalty 2
Beebop, a free sprite that has taken a liking to Lurtz for some reason - their alien mindset makes communication difficult, but they would be willing to help with a variety of Matrix-related information and guidance. Connection 4, Loyalty 3
Lee Anderson, a human merchant who specialises in selling.. secondhand goods with ambiguous ownership. He knows exactly where to offload items without questions being asked. It’s all just biz, though. Connection 4, Loyalty 1
Terrence Sullivan, a Lone Star Detective always willing to look the other way or “lose” some evidence or files, in exchange for… well, there’s these tickets to the police ball, you see… Connection 4, Loyalty 1
Fagin, the Ork ring leader of a group of burglars and carjackers. They might be willing to help out with something… for a price. Connection 2, Loyalty 1
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Cybercombat: 9
Knucks: 6
Bike Chain: 5
Remington Roomsweeper: 9/8/4/-/-
Defense Rating
8
Initiative
Physical: 8 + 1D6
Matrix Initiative (AR): 8 + 1D6
Matrix Initiative (VR Hot Sim): 6 + 3D6
Note: Matrix Initiative can be improved through bonus points from Resonance as per SR6 p. 189
Notable Dice Pools
Compile Sprite: 14
Banish or Register Sprite: 12
Attack with shotgun: 10
Attack unarmed (incl with Knucks or Bike Chain): 9
Hacking: 6
Piloting: 6
Intimidation: 9
Condition Monitors
Physical: 11 (+ 8 overflow)
Stun: 11
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 4 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT