Is there a Quality covering surgical reconstruction or do I have to pay (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) for it at chargen?
He's an escaped clone and wants to change his looks to cut down on the chances of being caught.

Qualities thus far:
Gnome (25) - We represent the lollipop gkaa... *sounds of someone's head exploding*
Drake (65) - Oriental drakoform. *cue the Chinese music*
Escaped Clone (5) - What happens when you mix a gnome with a dragon? Dracoform gnomes!
Erased (10) - This is not the gnome you're looking for. And why are you even looking for a gnome?
Soy Allergy, Common, Mild (+10) - Easier to keep track of the clones if they need real food.
Flashbacks, escaped clone (+5) - Not the lab, anywhere but there. NOOOOO!!!!!
Paranoia, escaped clone (+10) - Do you work for the Lab? LIAR! I know you work for that bastard! Frag you!
Wanted, escaped clone (+10) - You'll never take me alive, White Coat!

Theres only one man who would dare give me Raspberry!

I don't think he's as worried about Lone Star as he is Saeder Krupp.
He's from Europe, they're from Europe. They're ran by a dragon.
I think it'll work.

HEY, you ninja edited me!

To answer the actual question...I think you need to just pay for it. Cosmetic modification isn't too expensive by RAW, so it is a more cost efficient solution anyways.

Personally, as a GM, I wouldn't charge for cosmetic surgery that you had before the game started. I'd just consider it a background element and part of how your PC slipped into the shadows. Of course, this is assuming it carried no mechanical bonus and was just a function of your background.

If you wanted the surgery during play I'd make you pay for it with cash if it was a one time thing. If you wanted to constantly be changing, say before each run, I'd work it into lifestyle costs just to save on book keeping.

Keep in mind that changing your appearance makes escaped clone less useful (your DNA will match, but your appearance won't).

Pg. 61 of Augmentation has rules regarding different types of cosmetic surgery, including costs and essence reduction.

I agree with Prof. EO about not charging for it. It's just background stuff. Even if there is a surgeon out there who knows what you really looked like...

However... You're a drake gnome. How much is that surgery going to help? And you forgot the distinctive style quality. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

The only reason I'd consider charging a PC for that, and the reason I mentioned the cosmetic surgery rules, is because of the specific character background.

A magically active clone that has been surgically augmented either needs to limit it to minor, aka no essence cost, procedures or take the magic hit. This balances out how you try to hide from your past (which did give you quality points) IMHO.

I've already got my 35 points of Negatives.
And you can't tell a normal gnome from a drake-gnome unless you can peer into the spirit world. Then you see his dracoform.

And it's only a couple of grand.
The GM said I had to pay for it with my starting cash (I've got the max starting without picking up Born Rich, since I can't with my background).

But at 33 1/2 inches tall, I look like a five or six year old human kid after surgery. A very buff 6 year old, but a six year old none the less.

Distinctive Style-negative quality what you get from gnome-metatype PC does not count againts
35 Bp negative quality limit..

Correct. In fact, you don't even get the BP bonus for it.

One little observation : according to Augmentation, the Awakened qualities of a person/creature are not shared by clones, so making your character both a drake and a clone is pushing things quite a bit.

Be that as it may, there's no game rule (I know of) that specifies a clone cannot be magically active / awakened.

But isn't Drake a race? Which would make a clone of a drake also a drake?

And also make a non-human drake a stretch, as far as the rules are concerned. Works in my book, though.

According to the Runner's Companion on page 74, the drake quality is chosen after metatype selection and does not count against the 35 BP limit for the purposes of selecting positive qualities. I would assume this means the quality can be chosen regardless of metatype. But technically unless Saeder-Krump has cracked some meta-genetic secret to promoting Awakened clones, it would be very unlikely for a clone to ever manifest the drake quality, regardless of what race the original source genetic material was from.

Personally I'd say run with it, should provide plenty of plot hooks. Just remember to be careful walking around in public, without the Masking metamagic anything duel-natured or astral perciving will spot you like the proverbial elephant in the room.

So drakes occur by random expression?

From what I've seen in the fluff drakes have two different ways of coming to be. Either they are created by a great dragon (which is exceedingly rare in the sixth world), or they spontaneously generate. Those that appear spontaneously are most likely expressing the metagene from back in the previous age of magic when they were turned into a drake by a great dragon...but it was so long ago that for all practical purposes you can say they appeared "at random".

Actually, at 33 & 1/2 inches tall, you're about as tall as the average...two year old human. And a below-average one in terms of growth percentile.

Seriously, that's REALLY small. Small enough that it'd be hard to pass for human without some radical biosculpting, behaving like a completely harmless barely verbal child (even moreso than a five or six year old) and having an adult-looking 'prop' to be your 'escort' wherever you go in public. But on the other hand, you'd look REALLY harmless.

The main trouble I see with the concept is that you can expect a really hard time shadowrunning.

For exemple you're likely to be refused entry to the classical "Meet Mt Johnson in a night-club", even with a decoy "parent". In most places you cannot rent a place, drive a vehicle or shop physically without someone else to visually hold your hand...

Also many shadowrunners may simply refuse to work with you unless you bring something really unique and extremely useful for the runbecause you're extremely noticeable. Finding infos "the gruff orc with milspec shoes and lethal cyberware" in Seattle will net you most of the time "Which one ? There's hundreds of them", but a 6-year old 'runner ? Throw in the dragon aura for those who can see it, and there is exactly ONE match in the whole northern america, yourself...

Ok, I'll up him to max height, which is 100 cm or 3 feet 3 & 1/3 inches, so I can look like a short five or six year old.

And I'll just have a drone attend the meeting if I can't get in.
Or I could build a drone that I can drive or fly and come in it.

A question : what function in a shadowrunner's team do you plan for him to fulfill ? Some can make the limitations of the concept even more crippling than they already are.

This.

If being able to fly and have 4/4 hardened armor with enhanced senses isn't going to be an asset over and above being a gnome mage* or gnome adept* then you might want to drop the "drake" bit as you effectively spent 60 points to do nothing.

It appears to me that you went out of your way to create the least effective possible shadowrun character ever.

*Or are you going to go "magic, what magic?" despite being an awakened sueprnatural dragon? If your magic ever falls to 0 (which means any cyber/bio/gene augmentations) you lose access to your drake form. Not that augmentations help in dracoform anyway.

Edit:
Also, Drake is 60 points, not 65.

I checked in the Companion, it's 65.

I'm AFB, I must be mis-remembering.

Carry on.