First character concept (Hope you guys can help me out with this)

Ok, before I launch into this, I've tried building a SR4 character before but have never had a GM that could validate if it's good or not, along with that never played a game. Soooo... Without further ado: Pacer

General concept:
Slightly hyperactive mix between a rigger and a hacker. He loves to tinker with any and, almost, all electronics he can get his hands on. Loves building and re-building things, after first having taken them apart of course. The only other thing that piques his attention as much as tinkering with electronics is street racing motorcycles.

/concept

That's what I have so far. I'll be putting up what I THINK his stats should be but please, for those of you that are seasoned runners, feel free to critique if you see something wrong.

Thanks
-Lukin

Also an afterthought just occurred to me, how many Build Points do people usually use on here? 400 as per standard in the book?

400BP is standard here too, just be prepared that you will most likely have to make/remake the characters for a game when the time comes. There can be different criteria at any moment and most characters are made just for one specific game in mind.
Would like to see more to judge this concept, but the idea is nice, depending on the skill-set and attributes he could be one hack of a rigger, keep working.

Ok, so got stats and stuff. Here they are, Now I need to figure out equipment and I'm set.

Attributes
Body:	2	Charisma:	5	EDGE:	2
Agility:	4	Intuition:	4	Phys Init:	9
Reaction:	5	Logic:	5	Passes	1
Strength:	2	Willpower:	1	Essense:	5.52

Active Skills

Armorer	1
Cracking (Group)	2
Electronics (Group)	2
Etiquette	1
Aeronautic Mechanic	2
Automotive Mechanic	3
Navigation	1
Pistols	2
Gunnery	1
Pilot Aircraft	2
Pilot Ground Craft	5

Knowledge Skills

Corp (Novatech)	1
Hangouts (Safehouses)	3
Hangouts (Junkyards)	5
Navigation (Smuggling)	3
Procedure (Border Patrol)	3
Design (Clothing/Armor)	2
Design (Firearms)	2
Operating Systems	2

Languages

English	N

Qualities

Low Light Vision
Mistaken Identity	10
Photographic Memory	10
Sense of Direction	5
Spirit Bane	-10

Cyber/Bioware[tr]

Control Rig (Alpha)	Datajack (Alpha)

Not sure if I'm done with the 'Ware but I might be... All that's really left is the gear.

Cols or hot sim needed to jack in your ride
see no reason for Charisma 5, 3 would be enough and i would consider increasing Willpower.
any reason you did not want to go Mechanics group? could have the whole group lv2 with this amount of points

just a quick look, and look good.
There is no need to min-max him so do as you like, even a paraplegic sammy in a hover-chair would be OK just for the RP potential alone. [working on one for a humor game RL]

my main question now is about what hacking things to get... I'm using a character builder but as I'm fresh to the SR scene I'm not entirely sure what I'd need.

Hopefully this is an ok place to ask.

I'd say, if you wanted to use the motorcycle racing as a basis, you could go for hacking functions that would give him an edge in his races - like spoof and the like. Hack into or spoof the other racers' bikes into malfunctioning, shutting down their computer systems, or even distracting the driver (if they're using visual or audio equipment - which I'd imagine most are). Not really an expert on this myself as I'm only making my first character, too, but might give you a direction to at least consider.

How do the GM's on here look at the Lifestyle choices? I'm looking through the expanded version in Runner's Compannion. Specifically the qualities Workplace, and Haunted.

Most of us haven't really looked into the lifestyles section in runner's companion, simply because we haven't had many (or any) characters that use them, I would assume if you did add it, then talk to your future gm, that they would be more than happy to work with you. I know that i usually jump at any chance to add to a run's particular flavor.

I'm also wondering if there are any books that detail the various locations around the world... I'm thinking of starting in LA but I'm really not sure of what things are like there.

Any help would be appreciated.

Other question:
If I get a tool kit, would I be able to use the same kit to repair aircraft and ground craft or would I have to get separate kits?

One thing I did notive your body. Remeber drive skills are tied to body.