A new fraggin way to build characters that is incompatible with all existing systems

What in the drek-headed naming convention-
If you see a weird name at the top and MathemagicWiz all over the history, it means the Wiz ain't too proud of what's in it omae. I gotta throw my drafts somewhere, and if I put it in a google doc, the formatting gets messed up.

What the hell's your problem with SR now, Wiz?
Nothing, really. Just a look at balancing and simplifying the current system. Really, just take this stream of consciousdrek any way you want, maybe a look at how I view games so that I can game, but you might game your game with a different game. Eh, failed the delivery... If you want to skip the errata, CTRL+F on 'guts'

Get to the point already...
Let's wipe the slate clean. The first thing you think of when making a character is probably the archetype. And an archetype isn't actually codified, like classes in DND and disciplines in Earthdawn.

Current Attributes
So, instead think about the different attributes that are most important for these archetypes. Then, I thought about the different "dials" used to tweak the archetypes. I probably missed more than a few- after all, most people dabble a little into things that are "face" or "street sam" territory if they have the spare skill points. I tried to keep the attributes loose, since usually things like Willpower and Logic go together anyways. Choosing the attributes is important- I wanted to slim things down a bit. I looked to a few of these sources for insight:


 * SR5: Strength, Body, Agility, Reaction, Intuition, Willpower, Logic, Charisma, Magic/Resonance, Edge
 * ED4: Dexterity, Toughness, Strength, Perception, Willpower, Charisma
 * D&D: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma

Selected Attributes

 * Charisma: Roleplay is important for determining success, but some players are better than others. Negotiation is a large part of the game, and charisma is pretty much the only "thing" Faces have. It's also an important dial for Shamans.
 * Willpower: Drain is a major part of how Shadowrun's magic system works. It would be bad to remove this.
 * Logic: I was intrigued at how Earthdawn rolled logic and perception together, and wanted to do something similar. I took out Intuition because of this. However, I prefer the keyword "logic," as perception is more of a skill than a natural attribute. In the world of shadowrun, cyberware is used to account for impaired hearing and vision (If affordable, of course).
 * Toughness: A Body stat is important, and I like how this one sounds a bit better.
 * Strength: I strongly considered combining Strength and Toughness into one attribute. But I felt it was important for Adepts and Street Sams to be concerned about multiple physical attributes. Combining these two makes sense, because someone who works out more is probably healthier, too. But a Strength/Toughness distinction means that a Street Sam will have to balance melee, ranged, and defense.
 * Dexterity: I combined Agility and Reaction. Dexterity is a more precise term for what I'm going for. Though it's true that quickness of small muscle groups and quickness of large muscle groups can be vastly different, I didn't think the realism gained from this distinction was enough to warrant making them into two seperate base attributes. In any case, things like running fast and shooting weapons are skills that need to be practiced. People may have a natural affinity for one or the other, but experience and training are a more significant indicator of overall talent.

Based on this, I assigned the most important attributes: The optional ones are for different variants or skills that the archetypes might have. A face probably branches out into Knowledge skills, a Mage might be into Alchemy and Enchanting, and a Rigger might invest in a bit of Willpower from protection from unruly hackers. The number represents the number of attributes each archetype has, with magic/resonance separated. It's about 2-3 for each, with the Mystic Adept having 3 on top of magic. This was used to build my first "balance" chart for designing the character creation.
 * Adept: Magic, Toughness, Strength/Dexterity - 2+1
 * Decker: Logic, Willpower - 2
 * Face: Charisma, Logic(optional) - 1.5
 * Mage: Magic, Willpower, Logic(optional) - 1.5+1
 * Mystic Adept: Magic, Willpower, Toughness, Strength/Dexterity - 3+1
 * Rigger: Logic, Dexterity, Willpower(optional) - 2.5
 * Shaman: Magic, Charisma, Willpower - 2+1
 * Street Sam: Toughness, Strength/Dexterity - 2
 * Technomancer: Resonance, Logic, Willpower - 2+1

Triangle of Mystery
All characters start at the center of the triangle at character creation. They have 2 points to spend.

Top point is amount of nuyen, left point is how many attributes does the player have at 5-6, right point is how much resonance/magic they have. These would be sliding scales in the "final" version, but are simplified here.

If someone were building "pure" characters, this would lead to:
 * Adept: Magic 1, Attribute 1
 * OR: Magic 2
 * Decker: Nuyen 1, Attribute 1
 * OR: Nuyen 2
 * Face: I realized I made a mistake when I got to Faces. They don't have to worry about attributes, and their equipment costs aren't as high as Deckers and Riggers. Equipment in terms of bribes, disguises, and fake SINs is all the Face needs.
 * Mage: Magic 2
 * OR: Magic 1, Attribute 1
 * Mystic Adept: Another flaw in my plan. They can have the same build as an Adept, but they rely on far more attributes.
 * Rigger: Nuyen 1, Attribute 1
 * OR: Nuyen 2
 * Shaman: Magic 2
 * OR: Magic 1, Attribute 1
 * Street Sam: Nuyen 1, Attribute 1
 * Not really much benefit to going Attribute 2 or Nuyen 2, since Nuyen feeds into Attribute for the Street Sam.
 * Technomancer: Resonance 2
 * OR: Resonance 1, Attribute 1

Square of Contentment
This was my final balance chart for the draft. The number of skills is subject to change based on total number of skills. This assumes that the skills are at max as well.

Skills allow the Face to have something to throw points into. A pure Face would put 2 points into skills, and 1 into Nuyen. Maybe even Magic, if they wanted to be an occult investigator.

This square would instead allow for 3 points to be spent at character creation. This would ease up pressure on the Mystic Adept. They could go 2 Attribute, 1 Magic and still be functional. The max amount of points in any category would also be 2.

The other archetypes would either throw the extra point into skills, or specialize- a high-magic adept, for example. Or perhaps a Rigger with particularly shiny toys.

I ultimately decided not to have metatype as one of the spokes on the wheel. Instead, each meta would have a set point cost.

Skills, spells, and adept powers would also use the same spoke. Spells and adept powers would simply require you to have magic before you could take the skill.

Skills by Archetype
This also begs the question of how many skills each archetype is expected to have. Naturally, all but perhaps the face should be able to survive with just 5 at max. But there should be some benefit to getting more skills for the archetypes that can handle it. In truth, the Mystic Adept and maybe even Decker/Rigger should stick to their main two spokes. Decker/Rigger stuff is expensive, and Mystic Adept is wearing a couple of hats already. So, below are proposed skill types per archetype (With some overlap), and the 'target' number of skills.

The skill names here are not final.
 * Adept: 5-10. Depends on if you want a stealthy infilitrator or a heavily armored tank with a mana blade. An infiltrator needs some security know-how, sneaky skills, lockpicking, etc. A tank just needs the appropriate weapon skills and adept powers.
 * Adept Powers. Of course.
 * Weapons. By weapon type (Pistols, missiles, etc.)
 * Infiltration. Lock-picking, sneaking.
 * Knowledge Skills. Law enforcement, corp security, etc.
 * Decker: 5
 * Cybercombat. Hacking to attack IC or personas.
 * Data manipulation. Hacking to decrypt, encrypt, modify.
 * Device control. Hacking to gain control of security systems, vehicles, weapons.
 * Etiquette. Matrix
 * Knowledge Skills. Neotechnology, matrix security, etc.
 * Face: 15
 * Investigation. Tracking, Sense Motive, Perception.
 * Etiquette. Any. Main thing about social skills- instead of separating Con/Negotiate/Intimidate/Disguise, it makes more sense to separate it by type of Etiquette. (Street, Society, Matrix, Gang, etc.) A corporate executive is going to be nowhere near as good talking to some gangers in a dingy Puyallup bar as he is in the boardroom. This can also help to spread the load of a Face onto a few players. Your ex-corp accountant is the one you want talking to Mr. Johnson, but the gangers trying to mug you will probably listen closer to your troll sam who grew up in the barrens.
 * Knowledge Skills. Area knowledge, Group/gang/corp knowledge, Academic knowledge, etc.
 * Mage: 10-15. Breadth vs Depth, since spells are rolled into here as well.
 * Combat Spells
 * Utility Spells
 * Support Spells
 * Alchemy/Artificing/Enchanting/etc.
 * Knowledge Skills. Paranimals, Paratechnology, etc.
 * Mystic Adept: 5
 * Mix of mage and adept skills.
 * Rigger: 5
 * Pilot. Groundcraft, Seacraft, Aircraft, and Drones
 * Repair. Groundcraft, Seacraft, Aircraft, and Drones.
 * Shaman: 5-10. Breadth vs Depth again, but lower than the mage since it is important for a Shaman to have both high Charisma and high Willpower. A mage really only "needs" high Willpower with high magic.
 * Summoning. Summoning, Binding, Banishing.
 * Etiquette. Spirits
 * Shamans can dabble in mage skills as well.
 * Street Sam: 5-10. Same reasons as the Adept.
 * Weapons. By weapon type (Pistols, missiles, etc.)
 * Infiltration. Lock-picking, sneaking.
 * Repair. Cyberware. Depends on what sort of wound system you are using.
 * Knowledge Skills. Law enforcement, corp security, etc.
 * Technomancer: 5-10
 * Any decker skills, substituting Resonance for any equipment bonuses.
 * Sprites.
 * Foundation stuff? I never really read up on Foundations, but this seems important.

And here's the guts
At character creation, you have 150 Creation Points (CP) to spend on your character. You must also select a metatype and pay the cost. You may not spend more than 100 Points on any single creation category (Attributes, Skills, Nuyen, and Magic/Resonance).

You also get an extra 25 CP for skills only, and 100 CP for attributes only. We're also giving you 1000 nuyen to start with, buy yourself something nice.

Metatype
Norm. COST: 0 CP. All of your attributes are type D.

'''Elf. 'COST: 35 CP.'' Dexterity is type C, Charisma is type B. All other attributes are type D. Elves have low-light vision.

'''Ork. 'COST: 50 CP.'' Body is type A, Strength is type B, and Logic is type E. All other attributes are type D. Orks have low-light vision.

'''Troll. 'COST: 75 CP.'' Body and Strength are type S. Dexterity and Logic are type E. Charisma is type F. All other attributes are type D. Trolls have thermographic vision, +1 Reach, +1 dermal armor, and doubled Lifestyle costs.

'''Dwarf. 'COST: 35 CP.'' Body and Strength are type B. Dexterity is type E. All other attributes are type D. Dwarves have thermographic vision, +2 dice to resist pathogens/toxins, and +20% Lifestyle costs.

Attributes
All attributes start at the 'BASE' for their trait. The cost shown in each cell is the total cost- it costs 100 CP to get a rating D attribute to 6. A 'N/A' means that it is impossible for an attribute to be at that rating.

The cells colored red are at the GM's discretion- this system does not use qualities, so 'Exceptional Attribute' does not exist

Skills
CP to skill points is a one-to-one conversion. However, you may not have more than 6 points in any skill at character creation.

Magic/Resonance
The first point costs 50 CP, and each point after costs 10 CP.

When you buy this, you must select a path:
 * Technomancer: Uses Resonance, can use Resonance skills.
 * Mage: Uses Magic, can use Summoning and Spellcasting skills
 * Adept: Uses Magic, can use Adept Power skills.
 * Mystic Adept: Uses Magic, can use Spellcasting, Summoning, and Adept Power skills.

Nuyen
Each CP can be converted into 2000 nuyen.