named Trainwreck. He wants a human, costing no Kar- ma, and he decides to settle in Seattle. This costs 15 Karma, and he adds the attribute, skills, and qualities to his stat block so that it looks like this:
B A R S W L I C EDG
1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2
Active Skills Computer 1, Intimidation 1, Perception 1
Knowledge Skills Knowledge: History 1, Knowledge: Seattle 2, Knowledge: UCAS 1,
Languages English (Native), Spanish 1
Qualities SINner (5)
Taking 15 from the starting pool of 750 leaves Steve with 735 Karma.
Next Steve has to think about Trainwreck’s back- ground. He decides he had a comfortable upbringing, with parents who were corporate management types.
So he selects the White Collar module and makes the appropriate adjustments to his attributes and skills (no new qualities come with this particular module). He de- cides the Interest Knowledge [Any] +3 he receives in this module should build on the knowledge of History he already has. His adjusted stat block is as follows.
B A R S W L I C EDG
1 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 2
Active Skills Artisan 1, Computer 1, Intimidation 1, Negotiation 1, Perception 1
Knowledge Skills Interest Knowledge: History 4, Knowledge: Seattle 2, Knowledge: UCAS 1,
Languages English (Native), Spanish 4
Qualities SINner (5)
The White Collar module costs 40 Karma, leaving Steve with 695.
Next up, Steve needs to think about Trainwreck’s teen years. He decides to follow the path of other fa- mous warriors and have Trainwreck’s parents killed and Trainwreck out of the street. In the back story he is devel- oping, Trainwreck’s parents were killed by gang crossfire, and Trainwreck was cast out into the streets by a corp that no longer had use for him. Steve picks the Street Kid module to represent this phase of Trainwreck’s life.
Steve decides to add the Street Knowledge [City] +1 skill from this module to the Seattle knowledge he al- ready has. The character now looks like this:
B A R S W L I C EDG
2 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 2
Active Skills Artisan 1, Clubs 1, Computer 1, Etiquette 1, First Aid 1, Intimidation 2, Negotiation 2, Perception 2, Running 1
Skill Groups Acting 2, Stealth 1
Knowledge Skills Interest Knowledge: History 4, Street Knowledge: Seattle 3, Knowledge: UCAS 1
Languages English (Native), Spanish 4
Qualities Bad Rep (7), Enemy (10), SINner (5) We have 645 Karma left
Steve figures that Trainwreck’s rough life keeps him out of any traditional education structures, and that in- stead he continues on a troubled path. He now selects the Ganger module to represent this phase of Train- wreck’s life. The Criminal SIN replaces his original SIN, and his stat block is as follows:
B A R S W L I C EDG
3 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 2
Skills Acting skill group 2, Artisan 1, Blades 3, Clubs 1, Computer 1, Cracking skill group 1, Demolitions 1, Electronics skill group 1, Escape Artist 1, Etiquette 1, Firearms skill group 2, First Aid 1, Heavy Weapons 1, Intimidation 2, Negotiation 2, Perception 3, Pilot Ground Craft 1, Running 2, Stealth skill
We have 545 Karma left
Steve now decides that Trainwreck needs to do a better job of making a living, and perhaps hold himself to slightly higher standard, so he moves into the shad- ows and takes the Shadow Work module with the Street Samurai focus. There are some small complications with this. Trainwreck already had the Stealth skill group with two ranks; gaining Sneaking +1 means he breaks up that group, keeping 2 ranks for Disguise and Palming, and raising Sneaking to 3. Additionally, he already had Run- ning 2, so getting the Athletics skill group +1 means he gets Gymnastics 1, Swimming 1, and Running moves up to 3. That makes his stat block look like this:
B A R S W L I C EDG
4 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 2
Active Skills Acting skill group 2, Artisan 1, Blades 5, Clubs 1, Computer 1, Cracking skill group 1, Demolitions 1, Disguise 2, Electronics skill group 1, Escape Artist 1, Etiquette 1, Firearms skill group 4, First Aid 1, Gymnastics 1, Heavy Weapons 2, Intimidation 2, Negotiation 3, Palming 2, Perception 5, Pilot Ground Craft 2, Running 3, Sneaking 3, Survival 1, Swimming 1, Unarmed Combat 1
Knowledge Skills Interest Knowledge: History 4, Street Knowledge: Seattle 3, Knowledge: UCAS 1, Street Knowledge: Safehouses 3
Languages English (Native), Spanish 4
Qualities Bad Rep (7), Enemy (10), Criminal SIN (10), Code of Honor (15)
The Shadow Work module costs 100 Karma, leaving 445 Karma remaining.
Steve decides it’s time to put the final coat of polish on his character, and he looks at his attributes first. He thinks the Body of 4 is good for now, but he thinks the Agility needs to be raised from 2 to 5 (60 Karma). He bumps Reaction from 3 to 4 (20 Karma), Strength from 2 to 4 (35 Karma), Willpower, Charisma, and Logic from 2 to 3 (15 Karma each) and Intuition and Willpower from 1 to 3 (25 Karma each). That adds up to a total expen- diture of 185 Karma, bringing his total to 260. His stat block now looks like this:
Now let’s look at skills and groups. Steve views the Firearms skill group as essential, so he boosts it one more rank to 5, costing 25 Karma. He wants skills with a full range of weapons, so he decides to boost Heavy Weapons 2 ranks to 4, costing 14 Karma. He then boosts Gymnastics, Demolitions, First Aid, Survival, and Un- armed Combat all from 1 to 2. Each boost costs 4 Kar- ma, so it’s 20 Karma for the whole batch. He wants Train- wreck to be stealthy, so he boosts Sneaking from 3 to 5, costing 18 Karma. All of these boosts cost 77 Karma, leaving Trainwreck with 183 Karma. His stat block now looks like this:
B A R S W L I C EDG
4 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2
Active Skills Artisan 1, Blades 5, Clubs 1, Computer 1, Demolitions 3, Disguise 2, Escape Artist 1, Etiquette 1, First Aid 3, Gymnastics 3, Heavy Weapons 3, Intimidation 2, Negotiation 3, Palming 2, Perception 5, Pilot Ground Craft 2, Running 3, Sneaking 6, Survival 3, Swimming 1, Unarmed Combat 3,
Skill Groups Acting 2, Cracking 1, Electronics 1, Firearms 5
Knowledge Skills Interest Knowledge: History 4, Street Knowledge: Seattle 3, Knowledge: UCAS 1, Street Knowledge: Safehouses 3, Street Knowledge: Gangs 6
Languages English (Native), Spanish 4
Qualities Bad Rep (7), Enemy (10), Criminal SIN (10), Code of Honor (15)
We have 183 Karma left
Qualities next. We give Trainwreck Ambidextrous (4), Home Ground [Street Gangs] (10), and Guts (10), which costs 24 points, leaving us with 159 points. We also decide to buy off Criminal SIN (–10) and Bad Rep (–7), which costs 17 points and drops our total to 142 points. Trainwreck now looks like this:
B A R S W L I C EDG
4 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2
Active Skills Acting skill group 2, Artisan 1, Blades 5, Clubs 1, Computer 1, Cracking skill group 1, Demolitions 1, Disguise 2, Electronics skill group 1, Escape Artist 1, Etiquette 1, Firearms skill group 4, First Aid 1, Gymnastics 1, Heavy Weapons 2, Intimidation 2, Negotiation 3, Palming 2, Perception 5, Pilot Ground Craft 2, Running 3, Sneaking 3, Survival 1, Swimming 1, Unarmed Combat 1
Knowledge Skills Interest Knowledge: History 4, Street Knowledge: Seattle 3, Knowledge: UCAS 1, Street Knowledge: Safehouses 3
Languages English (Native), Spanish 4
B A R S W L I C EDG
4 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2
Active Skills Artisan: 1, Blades 5, Clubs 1, Computer 1, Demolitions 2, Disguise 2, Escape Artist 1, Etiquette 1, First Aid 2, Gymnastics 2, Heavy Weapons 4, Intimidation 2, Negotiation 3, Palming 2, Perception 5, Pilot Ground Craft 2, Running 3, Sneaking 6, Survival 3, Swimming 1, Unarmed Combat 2
Skill Groups Acting 2, Cracking 1, Electronics 1, Firearms 5
Knowledge Skills Interest Knowledge: History 4, Street Knowledge: Seattle 3, Knowledge: UCAS 1, Street Knowledge: Safe Houses 3
Languages English (Native), Spanish 4
Positive Qualities Ambidextrous (4), Guts (10), Home Ground [Street Gangs] (10)
We have 142 Karma left
We use 105 points for starting resources giving Train- wreck 210,000¥ to buy vehicles, weapons, and augmen- tations. This now leaves us with 37 points. Contacts for Trainwreck are a Street Bum (Connection 2/Loyalty 5) named Old Charlie, from his years as a Street Kid, who helped him find shelter and food in the early days and who he kept in contact with. Johnny Razor from his Gang- er days (Connection 3/Loyalty 3); Diamond, a Fixer (Con- nection 4/Loyalty 2); and Gunsmoke, his favorite Armorer (Connection 3/Loyalty 3). These cost 25 points and leave us with 12. Trainwreck now looks like this:
B A R S W L I C EDG
4 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2
Active Skills Artisan 1, Blades 5, Clubs 1, Computer 1, Demolitions 3, Disguise 2, Escape Artist 1, Etiquette 1, First Aid 2, Gymnastics 2, Heavy Weapons 4, Intimidation 2, Negotiation 3, Palming 2, Perception 5, Pilot Ground Craft 2, Running 3, Sneaking 5, Survival 2, Swimming 1, Unarmed Combat 2
Skill Groups Acting 2, Cracking 1, Electronics 1, Firearms 5
Knowledge Skills Interest Knowledge: History 4, Street Knowledge: Seattle 3, Knowledge: UCAS 1, Street Knowledge: Safehouses 3
Languages English (Native), Spanish 3
Positive Qualities Ambidextrous (4), Guts (10), Home Ground [Street Gangs] (10)
Negative Qualities Enemy (10), Code of Honor (15)
Contacts Street Bum: Old Charlie (Connections 2/Loyalty 5), Ganger: Johnny Razor (Connections 3/Loyalty 3), Fixer: Diamond (Connections 4/Loyalty 2), Armorer: Gunsmoke (Connections 3/Loyalty 3),
Resources 210,000¥ We have 12 Karma left
So what to do with 12 points? We can go into the game with 7 Karma maximum, but we decide that’s not for us. We will spend them on some more skill levels, improving Intimidation and Pilot Ground Craft to 3 for 6 points each, or the last 12 points from our pool. The final sheet for Trainwreck looks like this:
B A R S W L I C EDG
4 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2
Active Skills Artisan 1, Blades 5, Clubs 1, Computer 1, Demolitions 3, Disguise 2, Escape Artist 1, Etiquette 1, First Aid 2, Gymnastics 2, Heavy Weapons 4, Intimidation 3, Negotiation 3, Palming 2, Perception 5, Pilot Ground Craft 3, Running 3, Sneaking 5, Survival 2, Swimming 1, Unarmed Combat 2
Skill Groups Acting 2, Cracking 1, Electronics 1, Firearms 5
Knowledge Skills Interest Knowledge: History 4, Street Knowledge: Seattle 3, Knowledge: UCAS 1, Street Knowledge: Safehouses 3
Languages English (Native), Spanish 4
Positive Qualities Ambidextrous (4), Guts (10), Home Ground [Street Gangs] (10)
Negative Qualities Enemy (10), Code of Honor (15)
Contacts Street Bum: Old Charlie (Connection 2/Loyalty 5), Ganger: Johnny Razor (Connection 3/Loyalty 3), Fixer: Diamond (Connection 4/Loyalty 2), Armorer: Gunsmoke (Connection 3/Loyalty 3)
Resources 210,000¥
As you can see, Trainwreck has very good Perception skills, is handy with a blade and most firearms including heavy weapons, and can even get by unarmed. With the right cyberware, he could become something of a leg- end on the streets.