Starting up a Firewall campaign on Mars soon. I've reworked this character a number of times and think I have it right. The character will be the leader of the Firewall team and act as the Face and Requisition Officer. One of our team is a scientist with high r-rep, so I left that network uncovered. As the team lead, I'm allowed 39 max i-rep (others are less). GM ruled that Profession: Social Engineering isn't a Complimentary Skill to Networking checks. Instead, I went the route of an experienced corporate procurement guy, which should stack with most Networking:Hypercorp checks.
Here's the link to the character sheet: https://validating-insanity.obsidianportal.com/characters/pierre-reinhaus
Couple of items not on the sheet:
* Re-instantiated background
* Hypercorp faction
CP Expenditures
Morph & Implants - 52 (40 + 12)
Gear - 19
Credits - 13
Attributes - 50
Moxie - 30
Traits - -35
Rep - 31
Know. Skills - 300
Active Skills - 510
Specializations - 30 (6)
Advice and improvements always welcome!
Edit - Split out credits from morph & gear.
Edit (2) - updated per comments below. Character sheet aligned with comments.
Edit (3) - Added character backstory to the Obsidian Portal page.
Edit (4) - Updated CP distribution
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Comment and Critique my First Character
Fri, 2015-05-22 22:58
#1
NJMechWerks
Comment and Critique my First Character
Sat, 2015-05-23 06:32
#2
trismegiste
It depends how you play
It depends how you play around your (virtual) table but putting too much CP on morph, gear & gizmo isn't very useful. At the first egocasting, it will "stay behind".
Buying attributes, skills & blueprints are more rewarding.
—
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced
Sat, 2015-05-23 09:26
#3
NJMechWerks
Good point
I updated the CP accounting to differentiate between credits and 'stuff.'
Sun, 2015-05-24 14:41
#4
FrivolousVector
Full breakdown:
Ok, going through the entire breakdown:
You have solid attributes running. Your character can use every morph available without penalty, which is a blessing. There is a typo in your Morph's Reflex attribute, where it should be 10/+10/20.
Also, you've got a good WIL and Sanity, which means that you've made a character who can survive longer. Glad you took that lesson to heart.
Traits: I would encourage you to consider loading a little more on. Social Butterfly is amazing (again, glad you caught that), but there are other traits that you can benefit from. If you want ideas, tell me what *you* want to get out of this character and I can scuttle off to get you some good edges (and maybe some fun flaws to go with them). As far as I'm concerned, a proper selection of character flaws just means more roleplaying opportunities, which can net you respect from the GM and extra points tossed your way.
Reputation: I think it *might* be worth considering cutting down your rep networks to 4. If you condense Fame and Anarchists into one, you will have another 80 rep with a very strong networking skill backing it up. Since one of your major roles is acquisitions, make sure you are good at it!
Knowledge Skills: Personally, I would try to condense this list a little more as well, try to buff up the most important ones to 61, but understand that right now your list is *perfectly adequate*.
Active Skills: Excellent job here, not a lot to say otherwise. Might want to invest in more specializations, but that's because I get a huge amount of economy from that.
I'm sure you can cut down a little more on gear, which would give you a little more to spend on skill points - Cash is cheap, CP is where it's tough. As far as your actual gear list is concerned, I would swap out the armor you have for SmartVac clothing. It tends to be good armor overall, with the added benefit of not dying when you get spaced. Also, buy a helmet because they are useful (they give a base Stacking bonus, which is pretty unique considering).
—
Sudo drop your weapon.
Sun, 2015-05-24 20:43
#5
NJMechWerks
A little rebalancing
FV:
Thanks for the comments - including my typo!
Looking through your analysis, I think there are ways I can continue to optimize. But first, I think I should walk through the character concept in more detail.
Once Pierre gets out of cold storage, the TTO indentures him to get 'stuff' for the terraforming effort. Pierre, of course, is insanely good at this effort and works off his indenture in 2 years. During this time, he's made new contacts within the criminal and hypercorp circles. He's also abused the TTO's simulspace, running time accelerated training regimes to gain sniper level proficiency with assault rifles and legendary swordmanship.
Upon gaining his freedom and a new morph, Pierre freelances with 2 specialities: (1) Utilizing his criminal and hypercorp connections, he can get anyone just about anything and (2) Utilizing his criminal connections and skills, he's a fixer for hypercorp elite that need something found or disappeared.
As Pierre gets more and more of the ungetable for the Martian elite, he builds reputation with the media / glitterati. As most of what the wealthy and powerful want are in anarchist habs, Pierre's rep in the outer system builds, providing the anarchists with 'liberated' hypercorp tech in exchange for forbidden art and products.
These connections and Pierre's ability to get contraband into Valles-New Shanghai first intrigues Firewall. What seals his entrance into the conspiracy is his deft and discreet erasure of a hyperelite's one night error with an octopi uplift. What could have been a major, hypercorp ending scandal was just another missing person among millions.
Ok, now that background is out of the way, how to implement your suggestions...
(1) Reputation
Pierre needs @-rep to get stuff that the hyperelite and criminals want, but can't buy. F-rep is less useful and I can probably dump it. I was originally thinking that he's built up such a rep with the hypercorp elite and criminals that it would start to spill over into f-rep as a guy who can get you anything or make your poor judgements go away. Assuming I want to get @-rep and f-rep maxed I need 30 CP for Networking: Media / Glitterati, 4 CP for @-rep and 2 CP for f-rep. Total = 36 CP
(2) Specializations
I think I want Pierre to have 1 more specialization, Intimidation: Verbal. This specialization fits very well with the fixer capabilities he's picked up. I think I also want to change Pierre's Kinesics specialization to Judge Intent, since that fits better with a master negotiator. So I need 5 more CP.
Total need is 41 CP. Let's get some more points.
(3) Negative Traits
(a) E-Rep Blacklisted (5 CP) - People want Earth artifacts. Pierre gets them, which pisses off reclaimers.
(b) Jovian Blackmark (30 CP) - An early mistake, Pierre took a too good to be true job smuggling nanotech into the Republic for the Triads. While the Triads had a good laugh teaching Pierre humility, the Jovians were not amused.
(4) Active Skills
(a) Drop Scrounging (15 CP) - Pierre doesn't dumpster dive, he's got connections for that.
OK, that give me 45 CP to spend, only need 41. Game on.
(5) Gear
(a) Drop MRDR (5); Selfhealing mod from Armor Clothing; T-Ray Emitter
(b) Add full helmet
I'm not adding a vac suit, despite its utility, because Pierre is a Martian through and through. He's got no plans on leaving the planet. That's why he's modified his Sylph with Enhanced Respiration and Temperature Tolerance, so he can survive outside a dome on Mars.
Pierre normally wears his Armored Clothing and carries his sword, knife and pistol (where firearms are tolerated). When on a mission, he armors up to the Light Body Armor, Helmet and carries his assault rifle along with the sword, pistol and knife.
Thoughts?
Sun, 2015-05-24 22:59
#6
MrWigggles
T-rays are quite handy.
T-rays are quite handy. Though its so handy, that chances are your group will have at least one.
Mon, 2015-05-25 17:19
#7
Praxis Cat
You should probably..
You should probably pick up a little bit of interfacing and increase your perception. You can afford to bring down your kinetic weapons and you can DEFINITELY bring down your blades -- you're probably not going to be using melee a lot unless something goes really, really wrong. Yes, it's cool, but it's probably not going to be a good investment in EP, especially how quickly and easily it is for someone with even a pistol to take down a charging meleer.
Regarding Rep levels, if your GM plays with Rep rules, with such high rep it makes you a liability more than an assistance. Everyone will know who you are, and if you suddenly show up somewhere and ask for favors, it's going to turn a lot of eyes. High rep can be a hindrance as well as a help -- I agree with another poster to decrease your rep to level 4. Also seconded on decreasing your armor -- generally, anything other than a smart vac or armor clothing turns a lot of heads, especially on an inner-system campaign.
As for him never leaving Mars, well. The campaign will probably (?) introduce him to a whollleee new world.
Mon, 2015-05-25 19:55
#8
FrivolousVector
Feedback
Sounds good. Specific notes:
I'd still consider upping the @-rep, it makes your job easier. You're the RO, the more gear you can get at once, the better. I disagree with Praxis on the basis of "this is what your character was made for", along with "anonymous accounts are a thing".
Re: F-rep, you can still have F-rep to account for a few favors done here and there, but not invest the Networking skill if you want to. It's never cheaper than now. At the same time, your character concept benefits strongly from hitting the Rep hard-cap.
Skills (responding to Praxis): Disagree strongly with dropping KW - your base skill is the second highest determinant of your damage-per-turn, slightly ahead of morph-based Speed, and slightly behind death. You can drop Blades (if you're getting into scraps at that range, it's... dangerous). PC - I already wrote out my thoughts here http://eclipsephase.com/comment/53479#comment-53479 (skip down to "For example, an Attack"). I'd put Interfacing in the "buy it later" bucket, since we're trying to cull the herd.
Good point on Perception though. If we can skim points and put them there, that can give you some critical "not dying yet" turns. Failing that, invest in senseware.
Specializations: Remember that you can also specialize in Networking. I made a smuggler who specialized in red-market smugglers across 3 rep networks (she had to work something else out for i-rep). Otherwise, I agree with your assessment.
Final advocate for vacsuit: the suit also protects you from airborne chemicals, toxins, and pheromones. Since you're playing a biomorph, that's worth keeping in mind.
Otherwise gear looks great. You've stripped the fat and have the bits on hand you need to get really messy with 2-weapon melee.
Wiggles- T-Ray Emitter is a good piece of gear, but it's best suited to vacuum work. You do have a point that senseware is more than worth its price tag, though - especially Enhanced Vision. If you grab EV, you're going to be able to spot anything short of invisibility cloaks, and anyone coming at you with one of those will ruin your day anyway.
—
Sudo drop your weapon.
Tue, 2015-05-26 10:21
#9
ORCACommander
ya if you take the the RAW
ya if you take the the RAW seriously False identity would be a mandatory purchase for every sentinel
Also as a GM i can vouch for the ineffectiveness of bullrushing opponents with automatic weapons :P
Tue, 2015-05-26 11:15
#10
FrivolousVector
"We strike under cover of
"We strike under cover of daylight, through the minefield! It's the last thing they'll expect!"
—
Sudo drop your weapon.
Tue, 2015-05-26 22:11
#11
NJMechWerks
Great comments, thank you!
OK, based on all the comments, I have made a bunch of changes.
I took everyone's advice and dropped the armor clothing and light body armor in favor of a smart vacsuit (std). I loaded it up with armor mods to get the protection way up and take advantage of the smart skin. Since the character's background is in petrochemical before The Fall, he'll be sensitive to poisons and industrial toxins when 'fixing' hypercorp issues. I also optimized my bullets, owning 8 mags of automatic (assault) rifle ammo split between homing AP and homing hollow point and 8 mags of medium pistol ammo split the same.
I also went 'all in' on reputation, pushing f-Rep up to 80 and the matching Networking skill to 60 base (70 with morph). I dumped Scrounging on the logic that someone else in the team will have it, plus I can utilize a trivial favor or Persuasion check to get someone to dumpster drive for me. I took 10 of the CP freed up from Scrounging to push Perception up to 40 (ego), but my initial morph has a full set of senseware, so I'm at 60 with the morph for most tests. I used the remaining 5 CP to pick up specialization in Networking: Hypercorps (Mars) since they are Pierre's biggest customers.
Pierre is probably over motored in Blades, but I wanted a equally good backup to firearms in case of combat in an environment where firearms are unavailable (such as a habitat or heavily policed area). It also provides a combat option in the event of a 'naked drop', with the Blades skill, he can likely fabricate a basic knife in a few minutes with whatever can be found (a shiv or rock). I assume carrying a sword would be ridiculous given firearms, so he could carry it everywhere since local law enforcement could just shoot him - keeping him combat capable in areas where potential enemies may not be (as they don't have their guns).
I also redid my knowledge skills. Pierre has no backstory reason to have high academics skills, he is college educated, but in business, not economics or chemistry. So I picked up Interest: Gang Politics to compliment Networking: Criminal tests. I also redistributed the Profession knowledge skills to balance out the extra CP invested in Interest: Gang Politics. Basically, Networking tests should pick up a +30 most of the time, depending on what I'm doing. When I'm trying to sneak something into a locale, I should be able to pick up a +20 on the test.
Given Pierre's motivations and backstory, I'm not all that happy with having only 13k credit in the bank, but something had to give. I think I've got a solid Face / RO / Hitter that fits his back story well.
Here's the updated character sheet and backstory: https://validating-insanity.obsidianportal.com/characters/pierre-reinhaus.
Thoughts on the backstory as well as the mechanics?
Wed, 2015-05-27 00:45
#12
MrWigggles
Whenever I run EP, I tend to
Whenever I run EP, I tend to have habitats overlook melee weapons. Some of the conservative ones, may have you put a peace tape on the hilt or something.
But as far as firearm laws goes, generally PC characters are doing nefarious, and dare I saw, illegal things. Or at the very very least, encounter folks who are doing nefarious and illegal things.
But like everyone said, its very hard for melee characters to make the distance to use their CQC.
Wed, 2015-05-27 08:09
#13
FrivolousVector
Looks fantastic
If this is your first character, he's already better than my first 5.
As far as "items to keep track of", you may eventually want to get High-Gravity Adaptation (Gatecrashing) and Hardened Skeleton (core). Both will improve your Somatics to cap, and I think they will also give you +Durability. The former is easily explained if your character regularly leaves Mars' surface or just hates feeling vulnerable during high acceleration. Neurachem is also hugely useful (with your skill and a speed of 2, you can only get better!).
Oops, forgot about the bullet upgrades. That's what I get for constantly switching systems. Glad you caught it, though.
Also remember that 13k-cred doesn't really cover all of the capital you have access to. Think of *that* more like an expense account or liquid assets. You have 4 rep networks at 80, which means you have something in the neighborhood of 20-50k "invested" (and more or less readily available) *per* network. In the Post-Scarcity economy, your character can functionally be considered a millionaire.
Edit note: "After a night with" should either be "an octopus uplift" (singular), or "octopi uplifts" (plural). And now, inevitably, I am imagining Woodhouse from Archer having to clean up that... encounter. Poor Woodhouse. ("very good sir")
Otherwise, should do well. You have more than a couple good plot hooks in your story in case the GM wants to use them. Your skill base is solid, so you aren't useless on your first egocast. Since you are an RO, start making a grocery list of those nifty little things that can come in handy later that you can't afford now. Also start talking to other players about what they'd like. If you find that you have favors you can still cash in (especially in the Moderate-High range) that you can still cash in, talk to your GM about the time frame between now and your next mission, then stock up on goodies.
—
Sudo drop your weapon.
Thu, 2015-05-28 22:29
#14
MrWigggles
I took a stab at making an
I took a stab at making an Archer character. I was stuck between choosing a Sylph or a Ghost for him. Went with a Ghost. And Woodhouse is his Muse. Though making him a pod indenture would be good route.
Fri, 2015-05-29 07:12
#15
FrivolousVector
Woodhouse
Do remember that Muses can also be pruned forks. So if you have the Indenture Holder trait, you can get Woodhouse to work in a pod morph, and have a copy of him running in parallel as your muse.
Especially useful for excursions on roads towards regions of peril.
—
Sudo drop your weapon.
Fri, 2015-05-29 09:11
#16
ORCACommander
with a full ghost rider
with a full ghost rider upgrade you don't even need a pruned copy :P
Sat, 2015-05-30 15:35
#17
Trappedinwikipedia
If you're willing to accept
If you're willing to accept lower aptitude maximums you can even run a full alpha fork on your mesh inserts