In their defense, haven't you ever had a character that you were so enamored by that you just *had* to play it? I have. Several times over. Drizzt is just brought up the most because he's so super cool awesome (not my opinion, mind) that everyone and their mother wants to play him. It's just normal to have someone so super awesome be so super popular.

Is it good gaming? Depends on the table. If everyone is having fun and the character isn't intrusive, NBD. If not, - well, the player should be talked to.

It comes down to knowing your group and knowing what would fit and what wouldn't. In my dream group that includes my gf and a couple of super-creative but super-goofy friends, a catgirl probably wouldn't be a problem. In most other groups, you'd have to adjust for taste. I mean, what about the Puma sisters in Dominion Tank Police? Arguably there because Shirow is a massive pervert, but they were still semi-credible threats in-universe. It's all in how you approach the situation.

Not a catgirl fetishest (honest!)

We've had catgirl characters in two campaigns - modelled after Anapuma and Unipuma - without a problem. They were not even the most outrageous ones...

First, I do not buy all this "everyone hates me" stuff. Makes no sense, not with so many already modifying their bodies.

Second, who says they would shun you? Since removing the surge changes is so damn easy in most cases, why would all people shun you? For some circles it could be like an accident that maims you, you get it fixed, and have stories to tell.

And yeah, experience changes you, and blah blah. Same goes for killing people, getting seriously wounded, and basically growing up.

Nope, I do not see Surge as being that much of a deal, not in the 6th World, not with bioware and cyberware so common.

I'll add to that and say that with the sheer number of changelings, it especially isn't a big deal. Seattle 2072 says (not that I'm not retconning this out of existence), that at least 10% of the population of Seattle are changelings. (sidebar, pg. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) . Okay - one person grows horns, it's freaky. But when 1 in 10 people you know changes, meaning close friends, current partners and ex's, brothers, sisters, mothers, children are all changing, well then I just don't see that being a source of great prejudice. It makes almost as little sense as the Emergence book did.

K.

Especially not when chances are people are already using cosmetic sugery to look as freaky or even more so then you will from SURGE in most cases.

I really like all those ideas!

Well, I mostly finished a "catgirl" changeling Hacker/part Rigger/part Face NPC out of spite, started right after 4th ed. came out and using the YotC stuff as a launching pad. I got really tired of always being the GM, and especially tired that the other 3 players always wanted to just play a shaman, phys ad, and sammie. The group broke up shortly before the first 4th ed game, but I dusted her off when RC came out.

She had gotten rid of some of the obvious physical changes (ear bobbing, cybereyes), so no BP. But the color spots on her light skin had to stay hidden (minimal/no BP). She had prominant incisors but couldn't bite attack. She had some mild physical bonuses like flexibility, but it was because of the one extra vertebrae (detectable by the biomedical analysis on higher end cyberscanners). She was a "riser" - no external tail, but bits of cartiledge, bone, and extra muscle there (also detectable by med scanners). She also had specific dietary requirements, including the need for taurine and other enzymes either via supplements or fresh meat... either of which could be traced back. She also discovered she had several moderate & severe food allergies (chocolate, raisins/grapes/wine, onions, garlic, etc). And as a dwarf, she grew taller (4'10") making her a very short human or a way too tall and skinny dwarf. She had to deal with her parents (dad a corper at Renraku) disowning her, the usual metahuman biases, plus crap from dwarves accusing her of "heightening." I had intended this mostly as background development, so she got minimal net BP for all her trouble. Throwing in some of the conginetal diseases, like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and polycystic kidney disease, and "catnapping" was left out because it bordered on cruelty.

She didn't crave milk or cream, didn't dress like an anime character, didn't say "Nyah", didn't go into heat, no retractable claws, and didn't dress/act like a "sex kitten." I always intended her to have Ripley's/Sarah Connor's determination and ruthlessness (without either's physical prowess) and a strong compassionate streak for the SINless and other outcasts of society.

The Drizzt character is far from an original concept to begin with, though. As someone who was around when the modules introducing the drow came out, I remember that everyone's reaction was "I want to play one!" There were so many renegade drow adventurers that you wondered if there were even any left underground. So the Drizzt books were just jumping on the bandwagon much, much later.

Boba Fett, I don't understand. What makes him so cool? Was it how he was ignominiously bested by a blind man with a stick, or was it the shrill, little girly scream as he plummeted to defeat?

About playing an existing character, or a character modelled after one: There's a saying in german:

Besser gut geklaut als schlecht erfunden. (It's better to copy/steal something well-made, than invent something bad)

If you have more fun playing a Drizzt or Ryian Mercury clone than inventing your own trenchcoated tortured soul, go for it.

Drizzt exacerbated the Drow problem with everyone modeling their Drow after Drizzt.

I don't think most of the people that love Boba Fett do so based solely on the movies. It's mostly through the expanded universe, specifically the Bounty Hunter Trilogy.

Personally, I think the most awesome minor character presented in the movies is Wedge Antilles. There's noteworthy achievements recorded for him in the movies, and the Rogue/Wraith Squadron novels made him even better. Wedge's achievement is surviving both Death Star assaults. Luke, Wedge, and some unnamed pilot survived the first. Lando, Wedge, Admiral Ackbar, and Nien Nunb survived the second.

But back on topic, I've made a "cat girl" character, but not in ShadowRun. It was an anthropomorphic panther in an epic campaign and she had a lot of levels in Dervish. I abandoned the character because it felt under powered compared to the other character I had and other players PCs, and that was before we were min-maxing and eeking out all the power we could from our characters. In retrospec, I think the character could have worked very well had I made it a human or had used actual weapons instead of relying on claws.

As for ShadowRun, it guess it's okay if it's your cup of tea, but what I see about surge is you get a lot of the metagenetic traits which seem pretty underwhelming with the exception being the trait that raises attributes, but that can only be taken once per attribute. I don't see why so many people keep taking SURGE over and over when it seems like you end up burning more BP to get the same level of attributes. Of course, my powergaming tends to be based on how much everyone else in my group is doing so.

Someone hasn't seen the Boba Fette from Robot Chicken yet.

"BACK FROM THE DEAD ASSHOLES!"

No, I totally agree with you about Boba. In fact, it wasn't until Robot Chicken that I could really stand the guy. He has all of one line in the original trilogy!!!!. Why are so many girls obsessed with him? Grar!

Yeah, Boba survived the Sarlacc and wounded it pretty badless according to the bounty hunter trilogy. Of course he would have died from exposure if Dengar (I think) hadn't found him in the desert looking for scrap from Jabba's barge.