Murdock the Flying Gun:
#CharacterCreationChallenge
As I return to Shadowrun after my stint with Werewolf characters, things are about to get a bit more interesting, with characters that are neither the standard five metatypes, nor the traditional five roles, at least not fully. Instead, this group of five will be all metavariants, and each will be a hybrid between two traditional roles. I am also changing the setting to Berlin, because the version of the Shadowrun 6E rulebook I have, the “City Edition Berlin”, has a chapter on, well, Berlin, including some interesting gear options. I also really enjoyed the “Shadowrun: Dragonfall” game and intend to include some references.
Appearance and first impression
A Satyr in his early 20s, Murdock rarely wears anything other than a flashy, red jumpsuit, helmet and goggles. His horns are swept back along the side of his face, and his hair - both on his head and the thick but short facial hair are black. He is jovial and exuberant, but has a short temper.
Backstory
The child of Greek immigrants, Murdock grew up in Kreuzhain, one of the alternative districts in Berlin. He was always a daredevil at heart - if it could be climbed, jumped off, driven or piloted at speed, he would do it, and there were few days when he did not come home covered in scrapes and bruises. He started flying his first Kuznechik airbike at 12 and had his first bit of cyberware installed at 16. Now at 20, he is known around Kreuzhain and neighbouring districts as “that Idiot with the flying bike”, but he is also known as the someone who can get a message, piece of gear or even a person from one end of berlin to another quickly and usually in one piece.
Priorities
Murdock needs a lot of attribute points to be viable, so that has to be the highest priority. Resources are a close second, followed by Skills, which leaves Metatype for D, and of course Magic/Resonance is E for a mundane character. One thing that is different for a metavariant is that the metatype costs some of the starting Karma:
A: Attributes (24)
B: Resources (275,000)
C: Skills (20)
D: Metatype (4) -10
E: Magic/Resonance (Mundane)
Attributes
Reaction is at the top because it is the main attribute for piloting. Satyrs have an increased Reaction maximum, so this goes up to 7. Logic, Agility and Intuition are also important and all go up to 5. Charisma and Body are only at 3, and Willpower and Strength down to 2 at this stage. All four adjustment points go into Edge, because Murdock will need luck:
Body 3
Agility 5
Reaction 7
Strength 2
Willpower 2
Logic 5
Intuition 5
Charisma 3
Edge 5
Skills
Piloting gets maxed out because that is the main skill for driving/operating any vehicle. Engineering and Firearms are the runner-ups - firing guns from vehicles and otherwise is going to be almost as important.
Athletics and Perception are at 2.
Piloting 6
Engineering 5
Firearms 5
Athletics 2
Perception 2
Knowledge Skills
The high Logic gives Murdock quite a few Knowledge skills, but he’s not really the scholarly type. Fortunately, Berlin is a very cosmopolitan city and knowing a couple of languages is useful - so in addition to his native German, he also knows basic Russian, Turkish and English. He also knows a fair bit about the different Berlin Factions that rule the divided city, and where to find Scrap Yards for spare parts.
Qualities
Analytical Mind... anyone who has read the previous entries knows about it by now.
Catlike costs 12 Karma and gives bonus Edge for Balance, Falling and Landing safely, all of which is likely going to come up at times.
Guts costs another 12 Karma and gives bonus points for resisting Intimidation or similar effects.
Simsense Vertigo provides 6 Karma and prevents use or gain of Edge when using VR - fortunately, we won’t need it much.
Impaired (Body, 1) is another quality I use maybe too much, but… you know.
Combat Junkie makes it harder to resist attempts to goad him into a fight.
As a Satyr, Murdock also has natural Low-Light Vision and Satyr Legs which increase running speed, give a significant bonus to jumping, and a smaller bonus to kick attacks.
Altogether, Qualities run at a net -7 Karma.
Gear
Weapons
Murdocks main personal weapon is a Ares Crusader II machine pistol, small but fast and deadly. It comes with a Quick-Draw Holster. 2 Spare Clips and 100 rounds of explosive ammunition.
Because you always need a backup, he also has two Streetline Special holdout pistols that are small and easy to hide. One is in a Concealed Holster and another in a Hidden Arm Slide as a literal ace up the sleeve. Each also has 50 rounds of explosive ammunition.
Armor
The Urban Explorer Jumpsuit is a popular bit of armored clothing (and has a built in music player and biomonitor, just in case). It has a few enhancements and an electrochromatic feature in case red gets boring.
The Helmet is not only protective, it also has some audio enhancements built in.
Augmentations
The star of the show here is a rating 2 Active Control Rig - it works like a regular Control Rig except it does not require or allow the pilot to be in VR (also no remote control). For some vehicles, hanging limp in the seat is just not what you want…
Another Datajack is handy for connecting to any other devices.
Skill Hardwires are another useful buit of gear - they are a little like the Skillwires Ruth had last week, but they are a lot cheaper and less invasive - on the other hand, they only have one built-in Skill, in this case Close Combat at rating 4.
Speaking of close combat, an extendible set of Spurs are a nasty surprise for anyone wanting some up-close action.
Finally, rating 2 Muscle Replacements and Wired Reflexes increase Strength, Agility and Reaction by 2 each and add two extra Initiative Dice (and Minor Actions). They’re used, which makes them cheaper, but that also makes them more invasive (costing more Essence).
Vehicles
This is where it gets fun. Murdock’s favourite vehicle is a Kuznechik Airbike which is a new bit of gear from the Berlin Edition of Shadowrun. It is in essence a repurposed delivery drone turned into a flying motorbike. It is not particularly fast, and definitely not safe, but it is cheap and manoeuvrable. Oh, it also has the capacity to carry a Panther XXL assault gun and 250 rounds of explosive ammunition just in case something needs football-sized holes in it. Or someone.
As both an emergency exit method and a similarly fun vehicle, the Advanced Industries Personal Propulsion Systems is a literal jetpack. It has fairly limited range, and no room for any gear, but it flies!
Finally, less fun but of considerable utility, there is a Nissan Strider cargo van. Because Berlin is dangerous, it has a concealed, turreted weapon mount with a Mossberg CMDT shotgun attached to it. With more explosive ammunition because you can’t have too many things that go boom.
Other stuff
We have a lot of the usual equipment, alongside an Engineering Kit.
Goggles instead of the usual glasses (less likely to come off during daredevil maneuvers) house visual enhancements, and a Grapple Gun continues the trend of being able to get into high places.
Oh, and we have Rating 6 Autosofts for targeting the Panther XXL and the Mossberg CMDT, just in case that has to happen automatically at some point.
Adding it all up
Altogether, our equipment costs 285,205, which means 6 Karma need to be spent.
The augmentations use 5.81 Essence, leaving us with only 0.19 - replacing some of them with higher quality ware could open up a bit of space in the future.
Spending our Karma
After qualities, gear and the metatype costs, we have 25 Karma left.
These go into a point each of Outdoors and Stealth and specialisations in Piloting (Aircraft), Engineering (Gunnery) and Firearms (Machine Pistols).
Finishing it up
Contacts
All four of these are, related to NPCs from the computer game “Shadowrun: Dragonfall” - except for Dr. Ezkibel, they are all relatives of the original characters (Ezkibel in the original game is an Elf, and he’ll probably be around for a while longer).
Aysun Burakgazi, Fixer (Conn 3, Loy1)
Lucia Holyey, Mechanic (Conn 3, Loy 2)
Frederick Mettbach, Arms Dealer (Conn 3, Loy 2)
Dr. Ezkibel, Street Doc (Conn 3, Loy 1)
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Ares Crusader: 11/11/9/-/-
Streetline Special: 8/8/-/-/-
Cyberspur: 11
Mossberg CMDT: 6/13/9
Panther XXL: 3/11/14/10/8
Defense Rating
Self: 7
Vehicle: 19/17 (Aircraft / Other)
Initiative
14 + 3D6
Notable Dice Pools
Piloting a vehicle: 19/17 (Aircraft/Other)
Attack with smartlinked vehicle weapon: 15
Attack with Ares Crusader II: 15
Attack with Streetline Special: 12
Attack with Cyberspurs: 11
Engineering (except Gunnery): 10
Jumping: 10
Other Athletics: 9
Condition Monitors
Physical: 10
Stun: 9
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 17 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT