[X] My Assistant

[CanvasBack]

I had to ressurrect this thread as I think the concept is cool. I had personally thought about making a human ganger with no mods and no magic and then through the course of a campaign working his rep to get beyond street level runs and getting him involved in more high flying stuff later on. At some point, after having a talk with his fixer, he might start getting some mods to keep his edge and score that million nuyen payday and book the first flight out of Seattle to ... anywhere.

[Siege]

It would be an interesting exercise in role-playing to generate "normal" people and have them wind up in a shadowrun team.

-Siege

[Synner]

A lot of my runs are heavy on the legwork and information gathering so there's always a place for a Face or Investigator type character, and since I also play yup prejudice against high-end cybered characters (like Sams with Wired 3 and no Reflex Trigger) there's always a place for non-augumented characters.

[Digital Heroin]

I've actually played several sucessful non-cybered/mundane characters in the past... currently in the Reign of Shadows campaign you'll find one of them Jon Snow. It's a matter of skill and contacts, really... if you can get just the right gear, it makes up for a lot. Plus they make excellent infiltrators. Consider that the majority of security measures look for cyber, magic, or guns... all you need is for him/her to pack ceramic weapons, and you're a ghost...

[Sahandrian]

I rarely play non-cyber mundanes, but I also very rarely go for low-essence.

My current set of characters (only two are active, the rest are from old or on-pause games)...

[Rompler24]

As some people have already mentioned it, I guess the best non-cyber non-magic character is a sniper/terrorist/infiltrator/face.
Someone who sneaks or talks his way into a building and does some covert op like sniping or planting a bomb. Basically, a sniper needs no cyber and would just make him conspicuous. For a good terrorist, no cyber no magic is a must!
He might also have a datajack. That is basically no cyber, since a large percentage of the population has a datajack. This way, he could also be some kind of decker guy.
Remarkably, a sniper/terrorist/infiltrator/face/(decker). That sounds like a good character concept to me. I just have to find a shorter name for it :)

[ShieldT]

[Jonah]

Damd. I tried playing a totaly straight character ONCE. It was a heap of fun, but you have to see what the rest of your team is doing character wise and what the campaigns gunna run like.
I had an ex-marine called Rellik (errr killer backwards). He got booted because he was no longer viable on the battle field as he refused cyber and though magic was a bunch of dreck (character, not Me). On the point system I went bust on stats and skills. This guy could do anything and do it well, except keep up on initiative. Any punk with the slightest boost jumped the gun and busted his hoop. If he survived the first encounter all hell broke loose as he pulled stunts with nasty TNs (when you roll a butt load of dice you tend to take risks).
SR should be about character any way, so what is you are slower than the combat wombat in the group....if they frag with you wait for them to take their first action, hold yours and when they've killed everyone on the battle field and are about to brag it off at you, shoot 'em in the hoop.
Have fun.

[Stonecougar]

My take on the non-cyber character is a guy named Johnny Eagle Rock. He's an ork from the NAN who's just a plain good ol' boy. No cyber... that shit's expensive. No magic... hell, can't have EVERYbody be a mage or adept. Only 1% of the population, y'know? Naw, Johnny just shoots straight, fights hard, and knows his shit. High rifle, pistol and shotgun skills, high stealth, athletics, drive, and unarmed... practical knowledge skills, and a smart player. Johnny knows he can't keep up with Generic Wired Sammie #453, so he plays smart. He finds hisself a nice li'l nook to hole up in where Sammie can't get 'im, and waits patiently. Then, he takes a nice, long aim at 'im and pops 'im with his .30-30. Yup, Johnny uses a sporting rifle. All the power ya need, plenty a range, and the cops don't blink so much at 'em. Slap a Ruger Warhawk on his belt, put a Remington 990 in his truck... and fer Gawd's sake, don't charge headlong into stuff! Use them backwoods huntin' skills to get into good position! Use that body, hardened by life in the hills, to pull shit that'll surprise the adept. Use that shootin' ability, honed by poppin' rockchucks at 300 yards, open sights, no rest, thank you, and a stiff crossbreeze to boot. And think simple. Think clear. Use silly things like non-lethal ammo... sometimes, it's easier to knock 'em out than to kill 'em. Talk first, if you can. Hell, lotta folks get fooled by straight up backwoods honesty and openness. They think you're tryin' to fool 'em, and second guess themselves, which you can take advantage of. Or sometimes, they'll cooperate, and you can get drek done without firin' a shot.

Johnny takes playin' smart, but he's really rewarding. I gotta find a campaign for him to be in...

[michaelius]

i wholly agree with Synner and Siege. mundane characters always have their place as a possible front person/legworker. even in combat, while not hella fast, they can turn the tide just by being in the background making targeted attacks and such.

i also really enjoy taking characters from their mundane roots as a change of pace. it makes for some incredible background building and creates a great sense of investment in the character.

i'm currently playing a guy who fell in love with a yak boss's daughter and ended up on the wrong side of an operating table. they took his face, his life and his arms and legs (leaving him with cybers). so, obviously he's not a mundane anymore, but he's not overpowered with cyber and he doesn't even really know how to use what he has (he's a decker mostly). anyhow, it's lots of fun.

[Kurukami]

I've been playing a mundane -- no bioware, cyberware, or magic -- for a bit. I threw in a bit of a twist, though -- she's ex-Lone Star who SURGE'd, and since Lone Star isn't exactly accepting of alternative metaraces she quickly found herself off the force despite an excellent service record and a good rep.

Overall an interesting character, I thought... but in a group of ultra-cyber sammies, and physads and mages perpetually rolling four dice for initiative, she got old real fast.

[El_Machinae]

I've made a movie about my shadowrun character. He's kinda like batman, but not quite as cool. And of course, he's a serial killer.

El_Mac's Movie (no really, I made it. Honest)

Here's a teaser.

[Dim Sum]

I just started a new campaign with my group and one of the provisos was that all the mundane characters start without any cyber-/bioware.

One of the opening sequences saw a squad of local militia (all non-cybered) come looking for one of the PCs who had retired to a reclusive life of a farmer in Aztlan. It really brought home to everyone how much of an advantage cyber/bio is when the militia almost killed the PC.

A mundane non-cybered character can work but only in very limited roles, some of which have been mentioned already.