A Samurai's Script 
               Just what is a "Street Samurai" anyways? 

     Ok, ok, I can hear some of you now.  "What is a Street Samurai?"
you're asking incredously.  "Why, it's some muscle guy cybered to the
hilt who can blink between counting each individual bullet pouring outta
the Vindicator Minigun and out jumps the speed of light on an average
day." 
     That's exactly my point, that's not what a true Street Samurai is.
Oh, that's the stereotype, and perhaps even what every sammie should
aspire to, but that's not what makes a good sammie.  Augmentations are
all fine and good, but only if they're the right augmentations.  Skills
are also important; a skill base that encompasses more than just combat
is vital to a sammie that wishes to not only make a difference, but
actually excel at shadowrunning. 
     Let's start at the top and work down, and that means skills. 
                                    
                             THE KNOWLEDGE 
     What you know is everything in Shadowrun, both as a character and
as a set of numbers that will be put through the grinder of game
mechanics; the dice rolls and so forth that back up what you attempt to
do.  Sadly, many players concentrate solely on combat skills, to the
exclusion of everything else.  This is the worst decision you can make,
both as a character and as a player. 
     Unless you game with a set of munchkins, the game is not all
combat.  It's not even mostly combat.  The most combat I've ever seen in
a session of Shadowrun was about forty-five to fifty-five percent
combat.  The rest was negotiations, conversations, sneaking, fixing and
other non-combat skill tasks. 
     No one in a role playing game, regardless of genre, likes to end up
not doing anything of any note for long periods of time in the game.
Sure, you still get to be there and experience what the other players
and their characters are experiencing, laugh at the jokes, feel the
tension and so forth; but if you haven't the ability to actually DO
anything, it gets boring fast. 
     Players that make up combat only characters are hurting themselves
in two ways.  The first is one dimensional character creation.  You have
a character that can do only one thing, and perhaps not even that one
thing very well.  If nothing else, this means that a creative opponent
(read, GM) can nail you to the wall by pinpointing your glaring
weakness(es). 
     The second is boredom as it relates to the rest of the party.  A
player who is bored because his character can't do what the rest of the
group's characters are involved with looks for things to do.  This can
screw up the plans of everyone else at the table, though it makes the
bored player happy because he's now doing something that he's good at. 
     So when you design a character, you need a base of skills that fall
outside traditional combat areas.  Both for yourself, and for your team.
You're more valuable if you know more.  Valuable both in usefulness and
in nuyen.  Mr. Johnsons and fixers will note who can do what how well,
and pay accordingly.  Pure idiot muscle can be picked up on any street
corner for a few hundred nuyen; top flight skills in a combat package
rake in a few ten thousand nuyen, or more. 
     Now, what to get?  As I've stated in previous issues of Shadowbuzz,
I feel that a skill rating of less than three is next to worthless.
Because the maximum number of any applicable pool dice that you might
wish to add to a roll is limited to a number equal to your skill rating,
this can lead to some dreadfully dangerous circumstances for players. 
     Rolling two dice (skill of one plus one pool die) gives you not too
uncommon odds to score a Rule of Ones result.  Rolling four dice (skill
of two plus two pool dice) gives you only marginally better chances of
not making a Rule of Ones result.  And for both of these, you don't have
very many chances to get a success, and certainly not enough to dazzle
and amaze everyone. 
     A skill of three gives you a possible six dice, however, for the
roll and that's where things start to get useful.  So I never design an
archtype that has any skills of less than three; why waste the points on
a skill that you won't get much use out of anyway?  Put those dice into
something else, making it higher, and use character development to fill
in that skill that you wanted but could only spare a point or two for. 
     The bare bones of a starting combat skill set for a sammie is as
follows, as I see things.  Firearms, (Un)Armed combat, Athletics and
Stealth.  These four skills make up the absolute minimum skill range
that a combatant in Shadowrun must have.  Without these four skills, you
will not have the ability to operate effectively in the cyberpunk
environment. 
     A few notations.  Firearms can be *replaced* with Throwing for
those designing a "back to basics" character type that won't use
firearms.  You do need a distance weapon skill of some kind, the ability
to inflect damage and affect your opponents from range is vital. 
     Unless you truly do have more skill points than you know what to
do with, getting both Armed and Unarmed combat is a waste of points,
always.  In melee combat, a skill of three (minimum rate for a skill,
remember?) is someone that will have to duel it out with an opponent
with a similar skill.  Against an opponent with a skill of five or six,
you'll be lucky if you can inflect a few wounds before you're in
trouble; and against someone higher than that, you'll just be able to
keep things from being over in one turn. 
     Getting both melee skills leaves you drastically short on skill
points, and for now good reason.  Both skills fulfill the melee need, so
only one is needed.  Pick which you think will be more useful to you,
noting your other weaknesses that might dictate one choice over the
other, and leave the unselected melee skill for character development
should you still wish to gain it's abilities. 
     Athletics is a skill that so many players overlook, and I can't
figure out why. Think about any session of combat that you've seen,
either in a fantasy sense such as a novel, television show, movie, or in
real life should you have had the occasion.  It's full of movement.
Jumping, running, diving, rolling, throwing and the whole host of human
body movement is used by person(s) engaged in a lethal struggle. 
     Without Athletics, you're a person that learned to shoot on a
firing range, and who learned his melee techniques from a book; because
when you get hammered, you won't bounce up.  Get knocked down and it'll
take time to roll back to a useful fighting position.  Dodge desperately
and you'll sprawl yourself on the floor out of the action for crucial
seconds as you gather your ungainly body off the ground to see if you're
dead yet. 
     Stealth should be obvious, after all, the game is SHADOWrun.  The
inability to move silently is the trademark of not only an amatur, but
a foolish amatur.  Even mercenary teams have the ability to deploy and
operate with total silence.  Shadowrunners should be professors of the
art of soundlessness, so get the skill. 
     After your combat set, you need a few other things.  Street
Etiquette and Negotiations are a basic minimum of "social" skills.
Without Street or another applicable Etiquette skill, you're a person
that was shunned all his life by everyone he encountered.  A person that
made no friends, no chummers, doesn't know the lingo and moves of any
particular subculture of the world.  This is not only a roleplaying
problem, it drastically limits your ability to interact with NPCs, and
to gain information from listening to the world's actions. 
     Negotiations is also overlooked, but it shouldn't be.  This is not
just getting more money from the ole Johnson at the meet.  Negotiations
is the art of the Bullshit.  Talking people into and/or out of things
that you choose to per/dis-uade them into.  Not only does this give you
some great roleplaying opportunities, it's a better option than
violence.  Can't always pull a gun or slam a face everytime you have a
"problem" with someone.  Speech is easy, free and quiet.  Do it well,
and it's more untraceable than leaving a body. 
     Finally, a vehicle skill.  Something, doesn't necessarily matter
what, but something that allows you to run around the 'plex without
bouncing off the street signs.  Sure, cars in Shadowrun have autopilots;
but have you ever been stuck in downtown Metroplex traffic with three
cars of corporate security screaming after you with your "wonderful"
autopilot?  Did DocWagon cancel your contract afterwards for costing
them too much money in putting you back together too? 
     For all of these skills, you need to weigh them appropriately.
Firearms is a given for atleast a rating five.  Lower will allow you to
make all but moderately difficult shots with regular precision, but will
mean a required multiple shot engagement per target to neutralize it.
Being able to inflect solid damage on opponents with merely a heavy
pistol is a valuable asset, and that means a good skill rating. 
     Your melee skill should also get atleast a five.  See above
comments about low melee skill opponents; shadowrunning is about silence
and subtly.  But when things to break loose, it becomes an exercise in
quiet, *fast* takedowns of any who oppose you.  A high melee skill means
one or two shot combinations to clear an opponent, as opposed to a more
prolonged engagement. 
     Athletics is a three, and it won't terribly hurt you to leave it
there for quite some time into your shadowrunning career.  It's a needed
skill, but not an overly needed skill.  In other words, having a massive
skill here won't do you as much good as those same points into something
else.  So get an Athletics of three or four, perhaps karma increase in a
concentration or specialization, or two, and leave it at that. 
     Stealth should be atleast a four, five if you have points
available.  This too is a skill that, if you get a three or four to
begin with, should serve you in good stead at that level for quite some
time.  Sure, a few more points (and dice) might let you sneak over
broken glass and take out a cybered sentry; but a three or four will let
you run around a building without clomping the roof down. 
     Etiquette, I recommend atleast a four, five if you have points.
Raising it wouldn't hurt terribly either.  Negotiations, same.  Atleast
a four and you'll be able to talk the troll at the door to let you in
most of the time.  Higher levels will allow such feats as convincing
grandma to give up her walker, and the CEO of the corporation that you
just got nailed inside to hire you as a "security consultant" after the
fact. 
     Lastly, for the bare basics, the vehicle skill.  A three or four
should keep you from bouncing off the sides of buildings all the way
down One Seventy Second street with a pair of Patrol-1s on your tail,
and that should work.  Leave the higher skill ratings to those who slot
in a Vehicle Control Rig and specialize in vehicles. 
     Now that you have a starting skill set, what might you add with a
few points that're lying around during Character Creation, or in
Character Development with karma?  Glad you asked. 
     Most of the B/R skills have more than a little bit of use during
the average shadowrun.  And when things start hosing, and there isn't
time to screw around, a runner or two that know how to talk to the
computers, or rewire the circuitry, or jumpstart the stolen car...well,
let's just say that they should be in for a point or two of karma for
being so useful to their teams. 
     Biotech has the obvious advantage of knowing, so it certainly
wouldn't hurt to take a paramedic's course or two at the local college
and be able to patch yourself up after taking flash burns from that last
grenade blast that you dodged away from. 
     Electronics has some obvious advantages in a highly technical
society such as 2054 too, so get it.  It's not quite as totally useful
as the B/R Electronics skill is, but it still has a number of high
points to it's credit. 
     Leadership can be of use when the party breaks down into
in-fighting, and to rally the NPCs. Interrogation can save a number
of severed limbs on your victims.  A wide variety of decently skilled
Etiquettes will save calls to the Fixer or other contact asking
questions.  And so forth. 

                              THE TALENTS 

     After the skill base, the attributes come.  These are mostly self
explanatory, but I'll run them down as they pertain to a muscle team
member. 
     Body is about the most used attribute in the game during combat,
and is vital to the shadowrunner that will earn his share of the nuyen
by dueling with security guards who aren't exactly pleased to see them.
I have the opinion that the absolute minimum Body for a sammie or other
muscle runner is five.  Both for the dice it gives against damage, and
as a target for toxins and physical offensive spells. 
     Quickness would probably be ignored if it wasn't for it's status as
one-half of Reaction.  That sole indicator gives players fits as they
struggle to balance out their attribute points.  I recommend that the
points between Quickness and Intelligence be shared out equally, not
dumped all into one or the other.  Other than that, atleast a three,
hopefully atleast a four, is wanted here. 
     Strength is the next to lowest "need" attribute, if you play
tactically.  A low strength runner is one that uses modern and ranged
weapons to shoulder his combat duties, and if that's no problem for you
this attribute can be left low.  Generally, however, I don't recommend
taking it below three for a combatant. 
     Charisma can be buried to no ill effects save the utter lack of
personality that your character will have; or I should say, utter lack
of "pleasing" personality.  A low charisma character is the type that no
one likes, even if he is effective and loyal and so forth; there's just
something about the guy that makes him hard to like.  Make the choice. 
     Intelligence is the second most vital attribute if you play the way
I play; tactically and very intensely.  Intelligence is not just one half
of perception, or the right to play a genius character; it's Perception
and how alert your character is.  Seeing things before they introduce
themselves to the side of your head is a tremendous advantage. use it. 
     Finally, Willpower.  So many players leave Willpower at the base
three "average" level, or even steal a point or two from it for their
physical attributes.  I don't understand why. First off, roleplaying
wise, a low Will character is one that is pushed around easily and can't
make decisions.  Secondly, mental offensive spells target Willpower; and
if you're running a three here, you'll be in the gutter with your brains
leaking out your nose while the mage laughs.  If at all possible, get
atleast a four.  Higher is better. 

                           THE AUGMENTATIONS 

     Yes, some of you are thinking impatiently, now we're getting to the
fun stuff.  So buckle down and prepare to either start nodding your head
in complete agreement with what I'm about to relate, or scratching it in
puzzlement. 
     The number one issue in Shadowrun when all hell starts breaking
loose is initiative.  Not only does it mean you move before your
opponent(s), but it means you're not sitting there watching the cybered
monsters have all the fun while you're waiting for combat phase four to
roll around.  So to this end, you have to look at the endless options
for increasing reaction. 
     The most obvious is Wired Reflexes.  I like 'flexes, but they cost
an arm and a leg in essence; or they cost an arm and a leg in nuyen if
you get them special order (read, alpha/beta-ware).  Either way, they're
a major investment, but they're unstoppable in performance. 
     Boosted reflexes are a good investment for the character that
doesn't aspire to WR or VCR implants, cheaper on essence and nuyen for
some very decent boosts. 
     Muscle Augmentation from Shadowtech increases Quickness as well as
Strength, and the higher Quickness can raise your reaction.  Several
other bioware augments give you a raise to Quickness, Intelligence or
Reaction.  Look into them.  While having the extra dice for the
initiative roll is nice, having a high base reaction is just as nice.
If you have the option to, say, raise your base reaction by three
points, or get an extra die for initiative; take the three to base
reaction.  It'll work out better in the long run. 
     After these, you get to the almost as endless list of augments that
increase your damage abilities.  If you want to spend the essence on
them, rack it up.  Dermal plate is the old stand-by, isn't that
expensive even if special ordered, and can add three dice to the damage
roll.  Orthoskin is wonderful, lowering damage test target numbers.
Bone Lacing, while a major investment of essence and nuyen, can turn you
into a juggernaut of damage endurance with the higher body and natural
armor rating.  God help the guard that takes on a Sammie loaded with a
Dikote? Secure jacket, Level 2 Orthoskin and Titanium Bone Lacing! 
     But these are all mostly no-brainers.  I fancy myself a tactician,
and as a result always end up going for the *other* augmentations more
than these standard modifications. 
     Sub processor units are the best invention since breathable air.
For the character and/or player that knows how to use information, load
up a SPU with the appropriate hardwiring and take off running.  The most
used piece of cyberware I have would have to be my Math SPU, and I get
every essence point's and nuyen's worth out of it. 
     The various damage compensation systems, filtration systems and so
forth all have obvious uses, and can give an advantage that could mean
the difference between success or failure.  Especially the bioware
systems, as the cybersystems all demand a high level of implantation, or
a low powered foreign substance making the attack, to be of any use. 
     Smartlinks and Tactical computers are good buys, though the latter
is probably out of the reach of even Monty Haul Shadowrun campaigns.
And even if the nuyen is available to get it, the essence probably
isn't.  And if you special order it so the essence does become
available, then the nuyen won't be...six point three million, if I
remember correctly, for a betaware TaComp.  <whew!> 
     Then the sense augmentations.  These are the number one buys that a
character can make.  The ability to see, hear, smell, feel are all
crucial to effective operation of the human body; especially in a combat
environment.  Cybereyes with all the trimmings can mean the difference
between a miss and a hit.  Ear augmentations are as useful as a high
Perception is; act before events occur.  The smell and feel senses are
a bit more "abstract" in their effectiveness to combat, but if you use
them intelligently, with a bit of creativity and tactics, you'll go far. 
     Enough about individual systems, I've covered them before and most
are self explanatory.  About implantation.  I have always been a person
who attempts to follow the creed "Efficiency is Everything.".  Efficient
operation will make the difference in just about everything you might
do, either as a character in an RPG, or in real life. 
     When it comes to augmentations, I most especially follow this in my
characters.  I strive to bring up my weak areas with augmentations, and
then boost my strengths to new levels with the left over essence and
body index.  And that means Custom Implants. 
     Yes, betaware cybernetics cost a bundle, and cost a bundle more to
implant.  Yes, cultured bioware costs a couple of bundles and is
massively extensive to recover from adding.  But they are what it takes
to maximize your character's augmented potential, and his success. 
     It also gives the game a lot more character, when you're saving for
several games to earn enough nuyen to lay in that latest acquisition of
yours.  It also means you'll be "upgrading" for a lot longer; that you
won't hit that "point of no return" with the character's development
until a lot later. 
     So do more than blow three essence points on Wired 2, a point on
Dermal armor and the final two on muscle augmentations.  Not only is
that boring, it limits your range as a useful character.  Branch out,
see if you can figure out some good uses for some of those less than
obvious enhancements. 

                             THE CHARACTER 

     First thing.  Even if you're not playing a sammie, do this.  Pick
up your copy of Street Samurai Catalog (? FASA Corporation).  If you
don't have a copy, GO GET ONE.  Even if you're a poor boy, still go read
the one page that I list below while standing in the store. 
     Page ninety-one and ninety-two, "Working the streets".  Read it.
Then read it again.  Then pull out a notebook and take notes on it.
That sums up how you operate in Shadowrun better than anything else I
could say to you. 
     Playing the game, running the shadows, is not all combat and all
power.  It's not about who has the bigger gun or the more friends or is
faster on the draw.  It's about stealth and deception, subtly,
preparation and precision.  As GI Joe used to admonish us all...knowing
is half the battle (Yo Joe! <grin>). 
     First thing you do when something starts going down, start
listening to the streets.  Street Etiquette is a great skill because it
represents your character's knowledge and awareness of the streets; a
roll on that could turn up all sorts of information that you'd heard
about but had no context for, or could relate it to anything, before
now. 
     Call your contacts, anyone you think might be able to help things
out.  When I play my characters, I'm a pest about my contacts.  But, I
take good care of my contacts, and they accept my going through periods
where I'll call them five different times inside of three hours to ask
one question because I treat them well, buy them nice things, and am
always polite and respectful to them.  I don't put them in bad positions
where they have to choose loyalties, and as a result I know what they
know.  Works pretty good, huh? 
     Knowledge is everything.  Information is power.  We're even now
fast becoming a society that thrives on information, information,
information.  Computer services that can provide the stock reports
current to a split second ago, phone services that lay out the latest
lines on sports events, the polls from the current political race.  We
want to know everything and anything, because it has value. 
     Shadowrunning is the same way.  You get contracted to hit a "small"
company on the outskirts of town, put your ear to the pavement (coining
a cool phrase from SSC) and ask what's the word on them.  Put your eyes
to a computer screen and pull up the public domain information on them
like stockholder's reports, holdings, criminal records (if any) of their
executives and who they're either partnered with or are owned by. What
if that "small" company is a subsidiary of Renraku, and has seventeen
million nuyen of expensive, specialized hardware on site for some secret
project.  Wouldn't that suggest a higher level of security than might be
otherwise anticipated? 
     After knowledge, it's actions.  Talk is cheap, as the saying goes.
So what you do is the real measure, it's what determines the results,
the winners and loosers.  Take good action, and good things happen.
Take bad action, and all hell breaks loose. 
     So think before you act, don't just pop off that cop who's asking
what you're doing here.  See if you can fast talk him into something, or
out of thinking something else.  If all else fails, sure, take him down.
But try a few other things. 
     Don't vaporize half the northern perimeter of the corporate
compound; sneak in and snoop through things.  Sure, if you have to, take
what action you need to in order to make it out alive; but don't
automatically grab for the Panther assault Cannon in the gyro mount when
all you really might need is a Predator Heavy Pistol.  Less is more. 

     So that's the Samurai's Script, such as it is.  A short guide about
the character and the play.  What's the response, chummers?  Chip truth,
or wasted bandwidth?