Pacifist Hacking Technomancer (First SR char, help requested)

First, let me say that this is my first ever SR character. I've played a bunch of D&D 3.5 and, regrettably, some 4.0. My friends and I are starting up a SR group, and trying to learn the new system on my own has been a bit....overwhelming.

That said, I have an idea for a character that's a bit...odd. I've got the idea thought out pretty well, but I don't know exactly how to pull it off as I've never played in the SR world before, and my group of friends only have limited experience with 3rd edition, so, needless to say, I'm in need of some help.

Getting down to it, I basically want a pacifist Technomancer who specializes in hacking. Generally thinking Pacifist 1, but could do 2 (though in this world, it'd be kinda hard to pull off without some other benefit down the road. To use a D&D example, say Pacifist was a prereq for another feat that gave you bonuses on certain actions so long as you don't harm another creature. If SR has something like that and I'm just missing it, let me know). Part of the reason I wanted to go with Technomancer over straight up hacker is because I think it would be cool to be this sort of purist who doesn't like violence and I had this notion of hacking into enemies' weapons and disabling them (flipping the safety on, disabling its software, etc). Race, I was debating between Elf and Human, leaning more towards Elf for the Charisma bonus since doing so much hacking, it'd be nice to have that extra Biofeedback Filter boost. I'm still learning how the stats all play into one another and how different abilities work, but I've been doing a lot of reading in both the core rulebook and Unwired, as well as reading a couple technomancer build threads I've seen on these forums (and others) but none have really been Hacking specialists, so I'm unsure how to properly build one. I'm really loving the idea of being able to thread and temporarily boost my hacking ability in a pinch.

Any thoughts and input on this character and how to implement it in game would be most welcome. I have a character generator and access to all the books, and I'll continue reading through them to try and figure this all out on my own as I go, too.

Welcome, I'm in the same boat as you about learning the new system.
I'd suggest looking through the quick start guide first it helps a ton with learning the rules.

As for your concept. I'm trying to build a hacker as well and from what I gather weapon hacking is not impossible but REALLY difficult if the person you're hacking has any kind of brains. Also it depends on if the weapon has smart link/wireless capabilities or not, though a good portion of them do. Pasifism, though is totally doable. You could be the one to do the legwork for your team and guide them through the meat world to make sure they don't get in trouble and have to resort to violence.

^_^

As for implementation, I'm reading through Unwired to get the idea of hacking in my head and what programs to use. You'd be looking for complex forms and Sprites I believe.

Also watch for Netcat

Thanks for the welcome, and the heads up on the weapon hacking. In my head, I was interpreting everything being wireless, and the books including examples like glasses and weapons and t he like all having wireless connectivity to mean that you could potentially hack them and, at the very least, crash their systems. I realized this would work better on people with more 'ware because they'd likely rely more on the programs and whatnot than their own skill. At best, was hoping to jam, activate the safety, or outright disable the weapon. Just seemed like a fun idea - sort of inspired by the scene from the first Matrix where Neo just holds his hand out, says, "No." and the bullets all fall to the ground. (Obviously can't do that, but hacking their weapons is close enough.) Not completely against going Hacker (saw a few good hacker v technomancer threads - kind of like how the mancer can thread up his abilities and is a bit more specialized....though being more well-rounded as a hacker sounds a bit more stable...but not as interesting.)

Making a pacifist is easy, pulling it off in game terms could be a pain in the ass due to running in the shadows being a bit.. bloody. Hacker V. Technomancer is also another interesting argument, people argue that with the military specialized gear available in some of the newer books that they can smack a technomancer, but that isn't the case, it takes nuyen for a hacker to really grow, vs. a technomancer is purely karma and build points. Even making a pacifist, you don't have to worry about actual combat skills which would go against your idea, you can simply focus on what you need.

As for hacking a person and/or their gun... also not impossible and the difficulty really does vary from encounter to encounter. It is possible to make a gun entirely without electronics, which would inherently make it hacker proof, however anyone with a PAN and any form of visual enhancements, glasses, contacts, goggles, cyber, etc. you could render blind, at least distracting them. If they have an ear enhancement, headphones, ear bud, cyber, etc. you could do the same thing with a high pitched squelch, and if they have both, or if the entire enemy group has both, you could fire off a flash bang that no one else would be able to notice at all with this idea.

Shadowrun, any edition, is truly a game where YOUR creativity truley does define your character. That being said, Technomancers are Insanely bp expensive during character creation, to a point of almost having to spend a good half of your bp on your complex forms, the good news is, if you're willing to be creative with a few things, you can truly make a character that can thrive in any environment with the slightest bit of technology nearby. All it ever takes is a good eye for details, and a hell of a roll on your perception test to notice nodes and/or rfid tags.

Happy Hunting.

Hey, thanks for the reply, Phantom. I was actually reading an (older) thread that you were posting a fair amount in - a technomancer who went more the rigging route, and it really helped me understand the workings of a mancer and gave me a few ideas I may or may not have the BP to incorporate. My main concerns, having not ever played SR before, is not knowing the importance of stats. Yes, I've been in the process of reading up on what stats and skills are good for what, but sometimes things don't turn out as well in gameplay as they look on paper. For example, signal doesn't seem to generally be too important, but for what I'm looking to do, a higher signal rating would mean I would be able to do my hacking from farther away (if I'm understanding how signal works correctly) and have a stronger resistance to jamming devices (iirc). I know the basics and what is obvious - the mental attributes are more beneficial than the physical. I just don't know which ones to emphasize, or if I should just try and balance them all out. Yes, I'm a bit of a min-maxer - I blame D&D 3.5 and WoW for that. (Had a Hellbred Raptoran Paladin with a +13 to Disarm checks....the DM started throwing unarmed fighters/ninjas with multiple weapons at us for a while because I'd just disarm everything else. It. Was. Glorious.)

I've helped work on two mechno-mancers that i can remember. One of my favorites was Father Anton Levevich, nothing like a hacker being able to call in his own air force complete with very very large machine guns. But what you want is a character that sees the technological world as its own form of nature, much like how you described Neo, he viewed the matrix with its own ebb and tide that he could control and manipulate, for non-violent purposes in your case. I would imagine your character would even scoff at others that resort straight to killing. It's given me a few ideas, especially since resonance is very unique when it works with certain forms of technology.

As for stats, the only thing you can do, is read, re-read, read some more, and then eventually figure out that in game, some stats are universally awesome, others not so much, but the point of this being that you won't know till you try.

Ahh, ok. Thanks again, Phantom. I'm going to go back and read over the stats again and decide on exactly how I want it to feel in game. As for your description of my character - that's a pretty accurate description of what I'm going for. Thinking of the possibilities is definitely exciting - I just need to go back through the character creator again and see what I can afford (BP-wise). I'd love to hear any ideas you have on the matter, though, so feel free to share.

If you can, try to snatch a glance at Unwired. It really is the book for technos. I think that the core book, and CGL even, are a little shallow on the technos' rules, heck, even the whole matrix rules. Maybe consider taking some non-lethal combat options in case you find yourself not-so-alone in a dark alley. Tasers, for example.