After some really fascinating and varried responses - not to mention a couple good discussions - in another thread, I got to thinking about something that appears to be something of a "wedge issue" to paraphrase Karl Rove. What do your characters do when they aren't on a run? Is it even an issue? Do you GMs ever bring it up? Does anybody even care? Or do you actually keep track of days and friends who aren't runners and things like birthdays, anniversaries and going clubbing or on a pub crawl? I would love to hear some responses from both sides, although I imagine a lot of the "no" responses will be not much more than a single word. *grins* And maybe not.

To mangle a famous book title: "Do de-sensitized hardened shadowrunners dream of awakened mutant sheep?"

Usually, i give each character one or two hobbies that they try to have fun with.
Even if it's only drinking beer, having hookers and parties.

the last 3 characters ive made were leaders of initiatory groups aswell as enchanters. for the most part, the reasons my characters even run is to inspire them for the next enchanting project.

*Chuckles softly*

Coming from you, I would have been highly dissapointed with any other answer, given the stereotype you're working so assiduously to embody. I AM curious what the "other" hobbies besides the hookers and booze might be.

You DO realize you were born in the wrong century, right? *wink*

Oh-kay... now that's actually kinda cool... but that's more of a concept. You can't slave over your craft eighteen hours a day. Even Japetto took time off from his beloved craft. That's still rules related. Any pure fluff on the weekends? Or as they asked in the "20 Questions" from Runner's Companion, "It’s Sunday morning, and your character has no commitments until tomorrow afternoon. What does she do for the day?"

Well in my former group we had the Logic 9 hacker that had an extreme interest in trains. And we had the ambulance driver that spent most of his time converting his amculance into a retro 70's loveshack. The origami folding, native american, Sikh, street samurai.
And a couple of NPC contacts that almost became part of the group because they always ended up i trouble because of the between-jobs-antics group.

Of course. They have to keep their sanity in some way.

*look at the IC marker*

I am an American. Americans never stop working. When not acting as a free agent, running the free clinic "The White Dove" occupies most "down time". When the savages take a break from mutilating my kind, I organize like minded human-itarians. Discussions related to peace and harmony fill the few hours available. Then its back out on a run and into horrible places, side by side with horrible beasts. God may have sent these demons here as a punishment but if I can maneuver them for some good, I have done my job.


The White Dove

Woodworking for example.
Urban Brawl
Combat Biking.
Combat Golf.
As a Fan and/or active participant.

OK, that has just GOT to get bonus points for style! "Love-shack Baaay-beeeee!" THAT's the kind of stuff I love to hear about or see around a table I'm playing at. And yes, I can remember a number of cases where NPCs essentially became honorary party members, or at least a part of the extended family. Thanks for sharing! I got a great chuckle out of this.

Back in day when we played several days a week with 1st and 2nd edition. We played out alot of downtime love lives, side jobs, family life etc. Now that we only get to game once every two weeks alot of "real life" concerns are handled in short "asides" before and after a game session. As far as quirks and hobbies we have several floating around. The clown hacker complete with doll drone who plays Pony Rancher ™ online. Two addicts who play out there addiction well.

And if things are going really well, I blow off steam (and more) at superdads. Sorry, forgot to mention that.

*nods*

Yeah, I buy that. Especially the last part.

Wait: woodworking? Now you're pulling my leg! No, it won't come off with a gentle tug. Seriously? That's an awesome idea, I just can't Grok you taking it... would you share the "why" with me? I'm certain it's GOT to be interesting!

That reminds me of "Gunnar" our hackers Dobberman drone. He customized it so much that it almost became an AI. (Gunnar is a Norwegian name that can sound like the word gunner which is a common RP pun in Norway)

i wake up get, out my big block o metal, and start sculpting. ive sculpted various statues of paracritters large and small. ive even made a 30 foot Big O model.

or maybe i make instruments and play them. i prefer the brass and wind instruments.

if ive got nothing to do for a few days ill go out in the NAN in my rv and just relax with nature a few days.

if ive just finished a big project or have done something amazing ill go to the meeting hall for my group and celebrate.

The why?
One of my most beloved Troll-Characters had a more or less indianic upbringing, he likes Blades, he is more or less meant to be a Tribal-Wrrior/Hunter. Fishing is just too . . bleh . . soo woodworking. Wood is around in, well, the woods . . and his hunting knife is there.
Something to do to pass the time with.
Later on, he picked up Origami too.
But he usually used the remains of his beer cans. Much more durable than with paper.
And also around in big enough numbers, being a troll with high body ^^

It usually depends on the Character in question.
Most of my human characters that are done for another style than the combat brute get things like classical music or something like that.
Most orks get Troll Trash Metal/Bands.
If i ever do something japanese or a ki-adept Meditation.
Dwarves mostly Weightlifting

Awesome! One benefit of the internet is that you can handle the "background" stuff by Email and chat easily enough. Oftentimes we have had more fun with that aspect than we did the crunchy bits when we got together officially! But as we get older, that whole "real life" thing keeps getting in the way for some reason. I RP text so much from my BlackBerry^TM that I am a Yahoo top-tier power-user: as Bruno the Magnificent might have said "Weeth mai thumbs, yet!"

Now THAT's the spirit! Makes sense, especially the brass and wind since they would be thematically apropriate to your metalworking and crafting.

"Does that mean you've got brass?" *cheeky grin and raised eyebrow*

OK, now I am both impressed and HIGHLY ammused. "Beer Can Origami". Yeah, that's just too funny. Original in my experience, too.

"I knew there was more to you than money!" -Leia Oragana, Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope

Yeah, all combat monsters need some sort of balancing ^^
Because, you know, SOME TIME, the killing ends. Whether you want it to or not.
And then you have to find something else to do. Not neccessarely to keep you from thinking about it.
But to keep you occupied so you don't cause more trouble than is good for you. for no money.

balls of brass.

also in my collections of metal workings is an orichalcum canoe. XP

My middle-aged approaching old Ork ex-merc spends most of his free time happy to have the creature comforts (he lives a high lifestyle): real seafood, trid, and a motorcycle. He's a big fan of Karl Kombat Mage, so much so that he tends to interpret the options that are available on a run through the spectrum of shadowrunning he's seen on tv - he has a lot of combat experience, but virtual nil in the shadows where discretion is necessary. So blowing up a wall to do the job is a valid tactic in his book - hey, Karl did it in Seasons 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8, and they have real life runners as consultants, right? He also researches the Caribbean, both because he wants to retire there, and because he likes to tell people he's from there to indulge his fantasies. Finally, he considers himself a seafood connoisseur, which he is compared to the unwashed masses.

My young anarchist sammy is about as Stereotypical 1st ed Shadowrun as it gets. Sports a mohawk, hates corps, governments, and "the man". He has PTSD from a kidnapping he attempted on the wrong party which went horribly wrong, resulting in the loss of his hands and eyes so he has to stay constantly drugged up on NoFear, which leads him to do incredibly stupid and risky things, which results in further freak outs when his drug wears off, which results in an increased dependence. He likes to pretend to be into metahuman rights and community empowerment, but really he just parties in his off time and spouts off buzzwords to get laid.

My technomancer I have yet to get a chance to use believes he is the next stage of evolution, and the matrix will become the new home of metahumanity which will allow us all to live forever. He has mad matrix combat skillz because he believes that once the matrix begins to encroach on the meat world, there will be a war for its control. Sprites are proof that mankind can become gods if they leave behind their meat and enter the digital - spontaneous generation of sentient life forms proves his theory, after all! When he's not getting uber philosophical, he likes to shoot up noobz and frequent vr brothels - in short, he's a nerd with delusions that his talents make him more important than he is (which sums up about 50% of people on the internet now).

My old Troll mage was a racist who believed in elven conspiracy theories and was an ex-son of sauron who got hung out to dry by the org when the rest of his cell got pinched while he was serving time on a minor charge. He spends his time singing in a troll thrash metal band and using it as a platform to try to get young trogs out of the gang lifestyle and into his brand of metahuman rights, which mainly involves forcible takeovers of buildings squatted by non-trogs and renovating them them to be living quarter/community center/combat training facilities. He's a member of Cascade Ork, and dreams about turning the outer portion of the Redmond barrens into de-facto tribal territory, which he thinks would give him enough clout to take a place on the tribe's council so he can push his views even harder.

These two rock. Both of these characters would fit perfectly at my table.

Some nice work there Octo.

Back in the days, at the end of my game sessions I usually asked what the characters were going to be doing until their next run. I encouraged people to work on their skills so they'd have an in game reason for advancement other than completing runs. Some would work on their social life and nurture connections. Some would go party and get wasted. And there's always the guy that wants to track down that next big gun or build a death machine.

This gives me easy material for game sessions. Some times we'd go a few sessions without using the traditional Shadowrun formula; the players would make the game themselves. The rigger needs some drones? Cool, time to go steal some drones. People wanted APDS ammo? Awesome, the hacker finds a shipment coming through loaded with APDS ammo (and a bunch of para-military nut jobs guarding it).

A quick note:

As a GM I hate leading the group around all of the time. I enjoy it when players take the initiative and say what they'd like to do next. On the flipside though I HATE it when one player wants to do something that's extremely involved but doesn't include the others.