Build schematics and archetypes | Character creation Shadowrun: Hong Kong Guide

Gender and race

The first step is to select gender and race of the character

In first order you must select gender. Except for the look of your character, it doesn't add any new dialogue lines nor affect character behavior or physical attributes.

Race has key importance because of two reasons: it determines the maximum level of attributes development (however, you usually won't develop them to the maximum anyway) and it gives you additional bonus. Humans have 3 karma points to distribute, other races have +1 to the attributes describing them (which is much more valuable - you pay much more for each attribute point). You can select from five races, below you will find their attributes and bonuses, where: S - strength, B -body, Ch - charisma, I - intelligence, W -willpower, Q -quickness.

Finally you can customize the look of your character - select the portrait, clothes, hair color and beard.

Archetypes

New player can use the so called Archetypes, some character development schematics prepared by the game developers. The specialization of each character (as it was designed) has been marked in them, it makes the Karma points distribution much easier. If you decide that none of the schematics suits you, you can create your own - by doing so you will receive more Karma points for the first distribution. If you need help with distributing the points for a character not related to any archetype, check the next chapter called Attributes and skills, where the possible character development parts have been described. If you pick an archetype, most of the points will be distributed automatically, you will have only 5 of them to spend (or, in case of human race - 8).