Day 18: Castle the Flux Defender:
#CharacterCreationChallenge
Today I am looking at a member of one of the newestMetavariants introduced in Shadowrun 6th World - a Valkyrie, a winged human. While most people tend to treat them as just another variation on humanity, some consider them angels and have a variety of religious interpretations of their appearance. This character is a hybrid between a combat and social role - they are a sniper and negotiator that defends the Flux State (the alternative zones of Berlin) with words where possible, and bullets where necessary.
Appearance and first impression
Castle is a non-binary Valkyrie, a human with a large set of wings sprouting from their back - the wings have a colour gradient from a deep, dark blue nearest to the body towards a light orange, almost gold, at the tips. They usually wear a long, lined coat that makes no secret of the armor plating inside over regular streetwear prominently sporting the logo of the Flux state, and a Heavy pistol in a well-visible holster - the sniper rifle is only slung over the back when they plan to use it.
Backstory
Castle’s parents (and grandparents) were idealistic neo-anarchists, having supported the Flux state since its inception, and Castle intends to keep up the family tradition. When they expressed as a Valkyrie, nobody knew about the existence of the metavariant yet, so most people including they themselves assumed it was a form of SURGE (a catch-all term for sudden, magic-induced changes that have happened at times since 2063). As their magical abilities developed, they became both a spokesman and enforcer of the alternative zones, and running the shadows helps shift some Nuyen from the corporations to the alternatives.
Priorities
There was no priority that would have been suitable for priority E (normally either Magic or Resources would be used, but for an adept that needs at least one very expensive sniper rifle, that would not work). Therefore, I used the Sum-to-Ten system again, with a B-B-C-D-D spread as follows:
B: Attributes (16)
B: Skills (24)
C: Metatype (10)
D: Resources (50,000)
D: Magic (1)
Magic can be as low as 1, since we can use adjustment points with no downside for an adept. The Valkyrie metavariant costs 15 Karma. As a contrast to regular humans, they have an increased maximum for Strength and Stamina and therefore can use Adjustment points on those.
Attributes
Agility (for using Firearms) and Charisma (for social skills) are the most important, with Agility taking the top spot. Everything else (expect Magic, of course) gets an intermediate rating, not too good but also not too bad. Reaction is lower than most combat characters since - as a Sniper - they don’t have to worry too much about taking out the enemy before they retaliate. Overall, we have the following attributes:
Body 3
Agility 6
Reaction 2
Strength 3
Willpower 3
Logic 3
Intuition 3
Charisma 5
Edge 2
Magic 6
Skills
The topmost skills required are Firearms, Con and Influence - again, for shooting and talking. Once again firearms takes the top spot at 6, the other two go to 5. We also need decent Athletics as it is the skill covering flying (in case we get into an aerial dogfight or something), and we want a little Perception and Stealth. We also want Close Combat and Outdoors but that has to wait for Karma - for now we have:
Firearms 6
Con 5
Influence 5
Athletics 4
Perception 2
Stealth 2
Knowledge Skills
German is the native language, and they also know a bit about Anarchist Philosophy, Berlin Zones and the History of the Allied German States (AGS).
Qualities
As a Valkyrie, Castle has the Functional Wings (type 2) inherent quality - this gives them a pair of wings in addition to normal human arms and legs, while the rest of their body is largely “human standard”.
In addition to that, they have the following qualities:
First Impression: Bonus Edge and some advantages during a first meeting.
Mentor Spirit: Castle follows the Wise Warrior who appears to them in the shape of a faceless Athena (based on her appearance in the Pergamon Altar reliefs). She provides an advantage to Influence Tests and a free level of Improved Ability (Firearms) in exchange for Castle never acting dishonourable or without courtesy (sniping an enemy is not considered dishonourable for this character, but killing a target that is not deserving of death would).
Agent of the Flux State gives him a bonus on social interactions with the neo-anarchists and other “alternatives” in Berlin, and also gives him the “Kiezspeak” language at native level - it is a Berlin-specific “language” that incorporates elements of German, Turkish, Russian, Arabic and many others.
Low Pain Tolerance doubles wound modifiers.
Incompetent (Piloting) means Castle can never learn how to control a vehicle. Having wings makes that less critical (and this is likely the reason - why learn how to drive a car when you can just fly to where you need to be?), but it may still cause issues at times.
Glass Jaw reduces their stun damage track, making them easier to know out.
Magic
Castle has the following Adept Powers:
Improved Ability at rating 3 for Firearms and rating 2 for Con and Influence. This effectively increases the skills by that amount.
Enhanced Accuracy increases the Attack Rating of any weapon they use.
Attribute Boost: Mental for Charisma at rating 6 allows them to temporarily boost their Charisma considerably. This is risky, however, as it is almost guaranteed to cause drain and only lasts for a short time.
Gear
Weapons
The Barret Model 122 is a high-end, powerful sniper rifle and Castles primary weapon.
As a sidearm, they have a Nemesis Arms Praetorian II which is not only a perfectly adequate Heavy Pistol, but also has a bayonet-like blade attached for close combat.
Armor
A classic Lined Coat fitted out with some Cold Resistance and Chemical protection. Nothing special.
Other stuff
Most of it is just the usual, but a few items that should be mentioned are:
2 Sensor Tags, one with a camera and one with a microphone, can be placed in a hard to spot location and record up to 24 hours of “sensor data” (i.e. video / audio respectively).
10 Stealth Tags lack the sensor but are very hard to spot, record their location, and transmit it once per day in a short, low-energy burst, helping with tracking people.
The usual Visual Enhancements are split in two - Contacts contain Low-Light Vision, an Image Link and Flare Compensation, all of which are “always on”. A Monocle attached to a headband has a Smartlink, Thermographic Vision and Vision Magnification for sniping.
Adding it all up
Altogether, the gear costs 45,365, which is less than what the priority table gets us, so there is no Karma cost and we start the game with a respectable 4,635 Nuyen.
Spending our Karma
After Qualities and Metatype, we have 31 Karma left. We spend this on a dot each of Close Combat and Outdoors, and specialisations in Firearms (Rifles), Influence (Negotiation), Athletics (Flying) and Close Combat (Blades). We start the game with one Karma.
Finishing it up
Contacts
Marina Amsel, a human and the niece of legendary Kreuzhain Fixer Paul Amsel has been stepping into her uncle’s footsteps recently (Conn 5, Loy 3)
Sigma is a Konzernhai, a mid-level manager for Evo who grew up in the mean streets of Berlin. They are far more loyal to themselves as to any corp (official NPC from the Berlin Edition core book) (Conn 5, Loy 2)
Albert Wacker, a dwarf weapons smuggler with military connections thta sometimes lets him get his hands on particularly juicy goods (Conn 5, Loy 3)
Silke Meier, an Elf who has turned a former occult bookstore into a reasonably well-equipped independent magical goods shop (Conn 5, Loy 2)
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Barret Model 122: 7/14/19/24/22 (with Bipod, otherwise -2 across all ranges)
Nemesis Arms Praetorian (Gun): 13/12/14/-/-
Nemesis Arms Praetorian (Blade): 8
Defense Rating
6
Initiative
5 + 1D6
Notable Dice Pools
Attacking with Barret Model 122: 18
Attacking with Praetorian (gun): 16
Attacking with Praetorian (blade): 9
Negotiation: 14 (can be increased with Charisma boost)
Other social: 12
Flying: 12
Resist Drain: 6 (changing to an appropriate Adept Way like the Warrior’s, Athlete’s or Speaker’s Way in the future would improve this).
Condition Monitors
Physical: 10
Stun: 8
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 18 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT