DM is shifting gears on us from a forever fantasy to Shadowrun. I have 48 hours to build a character and didn't see a 'primer' on character creation like I'm seen in the /5E/ and other threads.
Pretty much a n00b for the non-fantasy RPG so looking for any help you can offer. I know next to nothing of the system aside from he mentioned most of our general fantasy races are included.
>>52613384
>48 hours to learn the setting and rules of Shadowrun.
Oh sweet fucking lord I pity you.
Go to /srg/, I think they have a primer of some kind in their pastebin. What edition are you playing? Because they also have a neat program to make building a character slightly less painful. Good luck anon.
>>52613384
Whatever you do, don't do what I did and play an AI as your first character. That shit was a total nightmare.
>>52613394
not the setting, just make the character for the zero session he'll be giving us all the details of the campaign then.
5E SR, flat official from what I understand, no homebrew elements this first go 'round.
>>52613410
Thanks.
>>52613454
Alright, definitely head to the shadowrun general and grab Chummer. It'll make this a lot easier and quicker.
Unless your DM has a problem with non-handwritten character sheets.
>>52613384
The primer is this: take one of the existing archetypes and customize it (shift points, buy different spells, cyberware, etc.). Everything else will drive you insane.
How to play the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvEEmCPQgy8&list=PLHKocVDXoWBsMbeJZYIcm1nZZibWmXY4i
Rules Explanations. Ignore the most recent one, it's a joke.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmlAiLD6dwbGAGRoi5IhyTi8qlLgLj27U
Geek the mage first.
Never cut a deal with a dragon.
Never trust an elf.
Welcome to the shadows, chummer. Do your best to stay alive, neh?
>>52613562
Awesome, thanks.
>>52613509
Never heard of it, but assuming it's just another digital sheet management tool, their cool with that.
>>52613384
read the book pussy
>>52613596
>assuming it's just another digital sheet management tool
SR is full of fiddly math and interdependent values. Chummer is a character creator and career tool that keeps it all in line. You need the books (because of legal reasons, the devs can't include the full text of everything but only references to page numbers) but it works great.
Make sure you get the latest nightly.
Other than that, aim for a 12 die pool for the things you want to be great at, 9 for things you want to do well, 6 for things you want occasional competence. Minmax is the way to go, SR heavily rewards optimization at chargen and spreading out from there. Pick one type of weapon (or two if you want to be shooty and melee as the party fightan man) and put your points into that; Automatics is the best choice for someone who will be shooting occasionally, because Suppressive Fire.
Make sure to get a couple points into Con, Sneaking, and Computer, for basic 'not fucking up in the day to day.'
If you have details about what kind of character you want to play, post here or /srg/ and I'll give more relevant tips.
>>52615939
Addendum: Make sure it's Chummer5 you get, there's another one out there for SR4e but Chummer5 is (obviously) for 5e.
>>52613384
you're going to want to pop open chummer5 once you download it, go to options and click every book that isn't in german. Then you'll want to download the SUPERBOOK which is basically what you're looking for.
Shadowrun suffers from a horrible editting team that has a personal battle against table of contents because their son once figured out how to read and became gay or some bull shit.
ALSO you'll find some of the art work is shitty because the guy that runs the company embezzled money to make his house cool.
>>52613384
If you have money and you don't like it, you can get Herolabs for SR5. It's basically the paid version of Chummer. But it's expensive as fuck because they buy the licenses.
>>52616600
But it's taught me more about SR than most other sources by just building different characters and realizing what is useful and what isn't by reading through a collective of all the options you can have in the game all in one place. Great for optimizing.
Thank you all!
>>52616370
Wait, SUPERBOOK?
>>52618424
Made by
>>52616370
>ALSO you'll find some of the art work is shitty because the guy that runs the company embezzled money to make his house cool.
That's meta as fuck.
>>52616600
The demo version is free, it doesn't have every little thing, and you can't print or save your character. It should get you started just fine.