I seem to be in a minority of Shadowrun GMs in a couple of ways 1)
Decking has never been an issue in any of my games and it's been rare
for my games not to have a Decker PC and 2) I actually prefer the core
Priority System for character creation over the other systems.

The line I'm throwing is for #2, what does everyone else use and why do
you prefer it over Priority? Or do other GMs use Priority as a default
and if so why so?
I'll start with my own reasons. For me Priority is part and parcel of
the flavour of the game, just like rolling for stats in D&D, WoD's
Point Buy arrays, losing clones in chargen in Paranoia and so forth. I
enjoy the fact that it means you cannot entirely customize a character
to minutiae and it leaves a few rough edges that typically the nuyen
and karma from the first few sessions goes into smoothing out. In my
opinion that itself is the germination of character growth in a more
organic fashion it forces a few small but meaningful choices that often
leaves a few immediate or short term goals for a character in terms of
skills and gear acquisition.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 17/12/2018 21:47, Jonathan Woodhouse wrote:

I seem to be in a minority of Shadowrun GMs in a couple of ways 1)
Decking has never been an issue in any of my games and it's been rare
for my games not to have a Decker PC and 2) I actually prefer the core Priority System for character creation over the other systems.

The line I'm throwing is for #2, what does everyone else use and why do
you prefer it over Priority? Or do other GMs use Priority as a default
and if so why so?
I'll start with my own reasons. For me Priority is part and parcel of
the flavour of the game, just like rolling for stats in D&D, WoD's
Point Buy arrays, losing clones in chargen in Paranoia and so forth. I
enjoy the fact that it means you cannot entirely customize a character
to minutiae and it leaves a few rough edges that typically the nuyen
and karma from the first few sessions goes into smoothing out. In my
opinion that itself is the germination of character growth in a more
organic fashion it forces a few small but meaningful choices that often leaves a few immediate or short term goals for a character in terms of
skills and gear acquisition.

I like priority and use it for most of the characters I build, but I
also like the life module system from Run Faster (yes, I play SR5, but
in the 50s). Life Modules generally result in weaker characters it
seems, but they come with a backstory in place. It's almost worth it.
One thing I noticed is that certain character types clearly were created
with the karma system in mind, so the one ghoul shaman character I built
I had to do with the karma system because he didn't make mathematical
sense otherwise.

But to be fair, I mostly was creating ready made characters of varying strengths and backgrounds for a game where the players get to choose
from a pool of runners. The idea here is that they
1) get a choice of roles to play so they can get into Shadowrun and the concepts behind it
2) have to make choices between weaker characters without problems and
stronger ones with obvious drawbacks
3) have to deal with characters not being available all the time

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

In article <m_mdnZRhUvvtX4XBnZ2dnUU7-I1QAAAA@giganews.com>, woodhousej@gmail.net wrote:

I seem to be in a minority of Shadowrun GMs in a couple of ways 1)
Decking has never been an issue in any of my games and it's been rare
for my games not to have a Decker PC and 2) I actually prefer the core >Priority System for character creation over the other systems.

The line I'm throwing is for #2, what does everyone else use and why do
you prefer it over Priority? Or do other GMs use Priority as a default
and if so why so?
I'll start with my own reasons. For me Priority is part and parcel of
the flavour of the game, just like rolling for stats in D&D, WoD's
Point Buy arrays, losing clones in chargen in Paranoia and so forth. I
enjoy the fact that it means you cannot entirely customize a character
to minutiae and it leaves a few rough edges that typically the nuyen
and karma from the first few sessions goes into smoothing out. In my
opinion that itself is the germination of character growth in a more
organic fashion it forces a few small but meaningful choices that often >leaves a few immediate or short term goals for a character in terms of
skills and gear acquisition.

I'm with you - Decking hasn't been a problem, and I always have a PC
decker.

And I FRAGGING LOVE the priority system - way more than the other CC
systems - for many of the same reasons that you like it.

-It keeps everything in line and balances the game really nicely.
-I love the idea of having to choose. You have to give up something to
get something - which for me really shows the feel of SR's cyberpunk
heart. ('Course, I come from an AD&D 1e background where you had to roll
your stats and deal with the hand that fate gave you - which I also
found fun. So, I guess I just like the challenge of it =) )
-It makes more realistic, non-optimized characters that can have goals,
room to grow, & weakness that enhance to the story.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Priority system all the way for me. Aside from Magic / Metahuman
everything else solves itself with Karma and Nuyen.

In article <m_mdnZRhUvvtX4XBnZ2dnUU7-I1QAAAA@giganews.com>, woodhousej@gmail.net wrote:

I seem to be in a minority of Shadowrun GMs in a couple of ways 1)
Decking has never been an issue in any of my games and it's been rare
for my games not to have a Decker PC and 2) I actually prefer the core >Priority System for character creation over the other systems.

The line I'm throwing is for #2, what does everyone else use and why do
you prefer it over Priority? Or do other GMs use Priority as a default
and if so why so?
I'll start with my own reasons. For me Priority is part and parcel of
the flavour of the game, just like rolling for stats in D&D, WoD's
Point Buy arrays, losing clones in chargen in Paranoia and so forth. I
enjoy the fact that it means you cannot entirely customize a character
to minutiae and it leaves a few rough edges that typically the nuyen
and karma from the first few sessions goes into smoothing out. In my
opinion that itself is the germination of character growth in a more
organic fashion it forces a few small but meaningful choices that often >leaves a few immediate or short term goals for a character in terms of
skills and gear acquisition.

--
Dems & the media want Trump to be more like Obama, but then he'd
have to audit liberals & wire tap reporters' phones.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

woodhousej@gmail.net wrote:

I seem to be in a minority of Shadowrun GMs in a couple of ways 1)
Decking has never been an issue in any of my games and it's been rare
for my games not to have a Decker PC and 2) I actually prefer the core >Priority System for character creation over the other systems.

The line I'm throwing is for #2, what does everyone else use and why do
you prefer it over Priority? Or do other GMs use Priority as a default
and if so why so?
I'll start with my own reasons. For me Priority is part and parcel of
the flavour of the game, just like rolling for stats in D&D, WoD's
Point Buy arrays, losing clones in chargen in Paranoia and so forth. I
enjoy the fact that it means you cannot entirely customize a character
to minutiae and it leaves a few rough edges that typically the nuyen
and karma from the first few sessions goes into smoothing out. In my
opinion that itself is the germination of character growth in a more
organic fashion it forces a few small but meaningful choices that often >leaves a few immediate or short term goals for a character in terms of
skills and gear acquisition.

I don't know, I'm a weird one who prefers the life module system which
I've found to be generally disliked across the board. So. I guess people
like what they like?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

I have always been a fan of the Priority system and have always viewed
as part of the package, as you said.

However, I am also a big fan of the Lifepath system, so much so I am
converting the one in 5E’s Run Faster over to BeCKS.

The reason for that is that I feel the Lifepath system fixes one of my
bigggest questions in character generation - what kind of skills would a
NAN resident who went through the Wildcat special forces training have?
If you went to MIT&T, what skills would you walk out with?

The Lifepath system handles that. You end up with a character with a
wide range of skills at what feels like relalistic values. I have
started making test characters and all of them end up with skills I
never would have spent points on due to pressure of spending your points correctly but that really feel grounded in the life experience of the
person I am creating. Characters also end up with a much broader
selection of skills with lower numbers than I would have been
comfortable with, but once I was done, it was perfect.

The Lifepath system feels like Priority generation for me - you are
still choosing how to allocate your karma for your metatype, your
resources and to determine if you are magically active or not. I just
feel like it really helps ground a character in the Sixth World that is
very hard to do when you are left to just pick skills silly-billy on
your own.

YMMV, of course.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

In article <m_mdnZRhUvvtX4XBnZ2dnUU7-I1QAAAA@giganews.com>, woodhousej@gmail.net wrote:

I seem to be in a minority of Shadowrun GMs in a couple of ways 1)
Decking has never been an issue in any of my games and it's been rare
for my games not to have a Decker PC and 2) I actually prefer the core >Priority System for character creation over the other systems.

The line I'm throwing is for #2, what does everyone else use and why do
you prefer it over Priority? Or do other GMs use Priority as a default
and if so why so?
I'll start with my own reasons. For me Priority is part and parcel of
the flavour of the game, just like rolling for stats in D&D, WoD's
Point Buy arrays, losing clones in chargen in Paranoia and so forth. I
enjoy the fact that it means you cannot entirely customize a character
to minutiae and it leaves a few rough edges that typically the nuyen
and karma from the first few sessions goes into smoothing out. In my
opinion that itself is the germination of character growth in a more
organic fashion it forces a few small but meaningful choices that often >leaves a few immediate or short term goals for a character in terms of
skills and gear acquisition.

Priority for me.

We tied a point-buy system, but soon abandoned it for the stability of
the priority table combined with edges and flaws, allowing each player
to custom-make their own archetype and then customize it... saving the
GM several headaches from confirming legality

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

woodhousej@gmail.net wrote:

I seem to be in a minority of Shadowrun GMs in a couple of ways 1)
Decking has never been an issue in any of my games and it's been rare
for my games not to have a Decker PC and 2) I actually prefer the core >Priority System for character creation over the other systems.

The line I'm throwing is for #2, what does everyone else use and why do
you prefer it over Priority? Or do other GMs use Priority as a default
and if so why so?
I'll start with my own reasons. For me Priority is part and parcel of
the flavour of the game, just like rolling for stats in D&D, WoD's
Point Buy arrays, losing clones in chargen in Paranoia and so forth. I
enjoy the fact that it means you cannot entirely customize a character
to minutiae and it leaves a few rough edges that typically the nuyen
and karma from the first few sessions goes into smoothing out. In my
opinion that itself is the germination of character growth in a more
organic fashion it forces a few small but meaningful choices that often >leaves a few immediate or short term goals for a character in terms of
skills and gear acquisition.

There are other character generation methods besides Priority? :-)

--
Dems & the media want Trump to be more like Obama, but then he'd
have to audit liberals & wire tap reporters' phones.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

weberm@polaris.net wrote:

There are other character generation methods besides Priority? :-)

Straight archetype... ;)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)