Non-Typical Runner Types, Things that go outside the standard. Options

[Rifleman]

Okay, everyone knows the usual character types people play in shadowrun. Hacker, Face, Adept fighter, Mage, Cybernut-with-a-cannon, Rigger, Ect.

But what about the ones that don't quite fit?

For instance, in my current SR4 game, there is a runner who doesn't quite fit any of the stereotypes. He's a little bit face, Intimidation in a can, a little bit of an accountant, a little bit artist, a little bit of a pugilist, and a little bit mafia. It's all in the way he's played.

I've since named him "Mr. Wolf", simply because that's the way he's played (by someone who has yet to see Pulp Fiction, I might add.) But there are more I can think of off the top of my head.

I just want to hear what non-typical player archtypes have you seen running in the shadows.

[Moon-Hawk]

Illusionist.
Uncybered Mundane.
Mnemonic Courier? :-D

[deek]

Moon-hawk...nice reference, Johnny...

How about someone completely dependent on skillwires...a template, per se, that adjusts his skills based solely on the software loaded?

[Moon-Hawk]

What would you call someone like that?

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[bibliophile20]

[Moon-Hawk]

[deek]

[deek]

[sunnyside]

So you're looking for more types of archtypes? I sometimes refer to "the skill guy" who is someone who didn't put in for the heavy cyberware and piles of combat skills and stats but instead put points into a variety of skills allowing them to do a bunch of tasks. Often having a goodly number of knowledge skills too.

I find that "the skill guy" often is the sort to become an unofficial leader of the group. I don't know that the extra skills have anything to do with it, it just seems to come out that way. Kind of like how the cybered troll tends to be played by an idiot.

But many characters don't fit easily into one of the standard archtypes we use around here. Even the sample characters. For example the bounty hunter, the smuggler, and the sprawl ganger are all more "profession" concepts and it wouldn't really be accurate to call them a sammie. The smuggler comes close but none of them really qualify as a "skill guy" either.

Sometimes you just can't effectivly label a build.

*EDIT: If anyone is confused we're all posting at the same time.

[deek]

Some others I kick around:

Counterspeller/Banisher
Electronic Countermeasures Specialist (jam signals and comms)
Grappler
Rodeo Clown (meaning the one that is able to draw everyone's fire, so he uses his IPs to make himself the target, allowing the rest of the team clear targets)

[bibliophile20]

[Moon-Hawk]

[PBTHHHHT]

the tick cartoon?

[Adarael]

[sunnyside]

[Kerris]

The only (pg-rated) difference between that concept and a meat puppet is that the meat puppet is blacked out in addition to having the skillwires.

[Wasabi]

[Adarael]

[Spike]

[Glyph]

By the rules, though, it is extremely easy to make a hardcore specialist who is good at a handful of other areas. If you overgeneralize, you can swiftly reach the point of uselessness. With the limitations of 400-BP char-gen, it is usually better to be really good in at least one thing, and get additional skills during play. And specialists are also good because shadowrunners work in teams. Generalists would tend more towards solo play, and be on the lower echelons of 'running.


But you can mix and match your primary and secondary specialties from the "standard" ones. A sammie can be a close-quarters specialist who only uses a pistol, or he can be a heavy weapons grunt with little hand-to-hand skill but some drone piloting and electronics warfare. A hacker can also be good at infiltration, or fire combat. A hermetic mage can have healing skills to complement his healing spells. That's the beauty of an open build system.

[sunnyside]

EDITed out silly comment on glyphs post. It's fine, and he may just be using different phrasing.

Seriously though there is specializing and there is specializing. If you have 5 in a skill and 5 in the relevant stat you are good at something. You are not a specialist. When you're putting stats and skills at 6 or 7 and are pumping your gear and qualities and everything else into really doing something well, then you are a specialist.

So Spikes "shadowrunner" likely has some 5's, probably some cyber or something of the sort. It's just that none of it is specialized enough to really make them one of the steriotypes. Like he's got some combat ware, but then mixes in some phermones and some sensory stuff so that he really isn't a propper sammie.

[toturi]

[Glyph]

SR4 rewards hyper-specialization, but it does not reward hard-maxing at char-gen, except for skills, so I guess I agree with Sunnyside, and am thinking something slightly different when I think of a "specialist"..

My notion of a typical specialist sammie might have Agility: 5, muscle toner: 2, a firearms skill of some sort at 6 with a specialization, a reflex recorder, and a smartlink. You can have that, and still be a well-rounded runner.

When you get into aptitudes, exceptional attributes, and hard-maxing, you wind up spending far too much for a few extra dice. I would only do that if I was intentionally making a limited character, someone obsessed about being the "best" at his niche and not as seasoned in other areas.

[Wasabi]