Family and Friends, And Shadowrunning Options

[SL James]

[eidolon]

[Critias]

[SL James]

Swell. When she grows up she'll look like Alachia circa 1933.

[Critias]

Is that what all the little Tir girls want to look like when they grow up?

[Adarael]

I think the slutty ones are partial to Jenna Ni'Farra.

[fistandantilus4....]

well since Ni'Farria is (IIRC) Alachia's daughter with very strong familial resemblance....

[SL James]

Oh, right. I forgot that you haven't read Worlds Without End.

[Critias]

[Ed Simons]

I've seen a couple instances where other PCs had families.

Two players created elven sisters from England, which provided a good way for an experienced player to help the newbie. And it was very nicely played - when Jazz got caught up in a driveby shooting, Circuit Breaker came rushing in to save her baby sister. Nevermind that Circuit Breaker was a breaking and entering specialist and Jazz was a far more combat capable streetsam.

Or there was a physad - Joe Brick, the troll owner of Joe's Dojo. His son was a no-good dropout who hung out with scum. His daughter was an idealist who wanted to work with metahuman rights groups. And Joe's wife was the only being in the game Joe was afraid of.

And my PCs have typically had relatives; whether as contacts, dependants, or background color.

Chance, my Chinese streetsam, lost his immediate family as a child and was raised by an uncle. He also had a live in girlfriend. And was seeking vengeance for the death of a former girlfriend.

Fogg, my black British ork physical magician was born in Jamaica. His caucasian human half-brother lived in London. His Chinese elven half-sister lived in Hong Kong. His mother was still alive though she never kept in touch and he might have had other half-siblings out there. Then there was the former streetkid he was training to be a Shadowrunner.

Fiver, my rigger, is sure he'll goblinize any day now. After all, his parents, siblings and children are orks. He's got a big family and he's shadowrunning to support his numerous children.

All of these relatives enhanced the opportunities for roleplaying.

The only Shadowrun character I played who didn't have family was Whisper, my orphaned streetkid thief. And even he had friends.

[Magnus Jakobsson]

Before converting to fourth edition our characters achieved their longtime goal, became filthy rich, parted from each other, changed identities, and settled down.

We then made a ten year leap. Now the three characters meet again, and are for various reasons forced/drawn into shadowrunning again. In the five games we have played so far, family has been very important.

The first characters squandered almost all his money, then bought a garage, married, and got a kid. He is a bit of a bastard, though, so his wife divorced him and married a much nicer guy. Now he tries to maintain a civil relationship with his ex-wife, meet his son as often as possible, and control his growing antipathy towards the new husband (last game he lost control, however, and beat him up).

The second character married, had two kids, and became a secondary school teacher (!). He told his shrink about his past, the shrink told the FBI, and the character just barely got away, seeking out his old buddies for help. Now he's angsting over whether he will be able to contact his family again without anyone dangerous noticing.

The last character had to choose between his girlfriend and his criminal career ten years ago, and choose the career. Since then he has been making a lot of money, and has become a semi-important figure in the Seattle underworld. He is also paranoid and lonely, however, and wonders whether he made the right choice. And recently everything turned to shit anyway, and his mafia associates decided they want him dead.

- Magnus

[Wiz In Red]

I was playing an Elf who was basically a career student at UW. He already had a degree in history and was going for a degree in fashion. Both of his parents were professors (Magical Theory and Biochemistry) and loved the fact he was still in school. His shadowrunning was a vigilante thing. He thought of himself as someone who could fight for a little justice since the law was doing so badly with it. He had a SIN and everything. He was, of course, very choosy about jobs he'd take, and depended exclusively on his level 3 contact (fixer) to arrange his jobs and do negotiations. It worked out. He was a fun character to play.