SLA Character issue

[Joose]

Right. Ive been thinking about SLA, and more specifically, why I tend to lose interest. I think part of the problem may be due to the fact that the characters im playing are awesome in concept, but not much fun to actually play. For instance, K'trr is brilliant to describe, but most of the time all he ends up doing is standing about shouting enthusiastically at people. Which isnt actualy as much fun as it sounds. In fact, the only character I really enjoyed playing was Toast, who had...other problems as a character.

Looking at what I did right with Toast, but wrong with the others, is I tend to make combat characters. The trouble with this is that combat tends to be all they are good at. Toast was better because, although he was a combat monster, he was actualy pretty good at the out of combat stuff too. Well, ok, maybe "good" isnt quite the right word, but there was plenty of situations outside of combat that made me think "ooh, Toast could do *this*". I dont tend to get that with K'trr, and I almost never had that with Gerald.

So im thinking of making a character that would have more to do outside of combat. Maybe even be mostly focussed on non combat. Ive got a few ideas, but instead of just spamming something out, I thought i would try and tailor one to the group. SO! What areas do you think the group is low on? Do we have a financial dood? a media dood? something else I might have not thought of?

[deject]

Yeah I think we could really use a combat cameraman. It seems like that's the way to really get the money flowing. A finance guy would also be handy to have on hand. We're definitely all set as far as combat dudes, though losing K'trr would have a negative impact on that.

I'd say the biggest holes we have are definitely in media and finance, then after that would be in an actual tech guy. I'm sort of filling that role, but since I'm basically having to multiclass it, the computer side is rather weak.

[Roman Totale]

For me combat has always been a secondary distraction in SLA. That's a personal thing though - I love investigative work and trying to read Pants' twisted, treacherous mind. I tend to go for characters that will be interesting to play rather than be awesome in combat. Chopper was my first attempt to make a combat character, but even then he's pretty gimped by 1) poor perception and 2) being a massive tool.

How about a Media Financier? Business orientated but with a thing for the cameras and showbiz. You could be like Alan Sugar.

That's actually given me a really good idea of making a SLA "spin doctor" based on Malcolm Tucker:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjAyazqtQj8[/media]

[The Shutting Downs]

An Alan Sugar finance/media bod would be brilliant.

A Desciple of Haynes maybe? sent on his way in the world. Although 'You're fired' will be a bit harsher in SLA.

[Dog Pants]

I'd definitely recommend a Media and/or Finance character. I love both classes and have written in a lot of house rules to enable them to support the squad. Both have package perks (link to Control, stock trading license), and both can bump up earnings. I also like the medic package, but it's of limited use in an Op campaign (although those of you who played the Horror scenario at beard bash saw how useful a medic can be with my house injury rules).

[The Shutting Downs]

I do like the idea of a medic character, but it does suffer from being overshadowed by Ebb healing/KS.

Hmm, a Brain Waster medic... Be riiight back...

[Joose]

You could be like Alan Sugar.

Ooooooh, I am so doing this.

[buzzmong]

*Points finger* You're fried!

[buzzmong]

Catching up on the current SLA run and reading threads like these over the past week have got me umming and arring about SLA again.

I really quite fancy the idea of a Pilot and Navigation trained human character. It might be an interesting role to play due to having skillsets of which half could come in very useful for the squad on the ground (navigation) on a frequent basis yet also having a set of specific skills (pilot/driving) which are rare. Think "I'm a Doctor Jim, not a soldier".

Same can't be said of Sabotage as a training package though. Pete's gunnut character for Shadowrun is stopping me from creating an interesting character persona.

[Dog Pants]

All the training packages are going to get some love, so even the oft neglected pilot, mechanic and medic should find something to do (although medics will almost always be eclipsed by Ebb healing unfortunately).