There are some simple principles you can follow: Points Most of min-maxing concerns how you allocate your points and Karma. You must use up most of this at chargen you can only carry a small amount over. The amount you get at chargen is decided by the Priority you select for it. Nuyen: this is money for gear and augments.You begin with 25 Karma you can allocate, and can get another 25 by taking on optional Negative Qualities. Much of min-maxing is based on making it possible to use your Karma more efficiently later on in the game, so you don’t have to save up as much for the things you want. Karma: this is the “experience” you earn towards upgrades during the game.At C I get 16 points, at D I get 14 points, and at E I get 12 points. If I set it to Priority B, I only get 20 free points. For instance, if I set Attributes to Priority A, I get 24 free attribute points to allocate how I like. Points: these are “free” points allocated to you based on what priorities you choose.There are three resources you get to spend during character creation: If you’re using Hero Lab then you can purchase these as expansions to the app, and it’s cheaper than buying the rulebook PDFs (although then you don’t get the context for a lot of these things). Run Faster is a great supplement regardless of your type, and Hard Targets will probably have a few things you can use as well. Riggers will want Rigger 5.0, and Street Sams will want Run & Gun. If you’re a Decker, you’ll want Data Trails. If you’re a mage, that means Street Grimoire and possibly Shadow Spells. It’s also a good idea to invest in supplements appropriate to your character. It is an incredibly useful tool, and worth every penny. They also license the source material so you can see excerpts from the book in popups, etc. Shadowrun is insanely complicated and Hero Lab organizes it all for you, making it easy to tweak your character and see what the results are. PreambleĪs I mentioned in my other post about building a mage, you should get Hero Lab. (If that’s what you’re looking for then I invite you to Google “shadowrun min max”.) But there are a few basic principles that are easy to follow when creating your character that will lead you to a much more practical build in general than if you just try to spread things out evenly, and may in fact take you less time than building without a guide because you can better navigate through the myriad of options that Shadowrun gives you. This is not an in-depth guide on how to use the Point-Buy system to carefully maximize your use of Karma in making the perfect runner. Isn’t it hard/time-consuming?ĭepends on what you’re going for. In fact, some basic min-maxing allows you to be a better teammate because it lets you focus on the one or two things your character is meant to be best at while leaving room for the rest of your team to shine at what they do, rather than just being average at everything.
On the other hand, though, Shadowrun is a game and you’re playing as part of a team, and it’s not a lot of fun if you get in there and find you’re no good at doing the things your character is supposed to be good at. On the one hand: sure, the roleplaying should always be at the forefront of your decision-making process. Or more rudely, isn’t the game supposed to be about the roleplaying and not about reducing your character to the best numbers you can put on a sheet of paper? When talking about creating a character in an RPG like Shadowrun, min-maxing is the process of minimizing the things you don’t need while maximizing the things you do need, so that your character can excel in the areas that are important to them.