Half-breeds, Opinions on metahuman crossbreeding. Options

[Chodav]

Okay, I can't remember where I read it, but as I recall, children of mixed metahuman heritage are predominantly the race of one parent or the other. Unlike fantasy games, there are no half-orks or half-elves.

This "official" viewpoint is bolstered by the fact that human parents can still have UGE'd or goblinized children (last I heard - I'm not up to speed on the Comet stuff).

So, all official rules aside, having parents of different races could make for interesting character material. Does anyone have any house rules for half-breeds? Alternately, can anyone steer me to a sourcebook that more clearly explains the genetic relationships among metahumans?

(If this topic has been hashed out before, I apologize.)

Thanks!

[Cain]

ShadowTech is the book that explains why there are no cross-breeds.

If you really have to have cross-breeds, you can use the SURGE rules to have a human with pointed ears and Exceptional Quickness, or several other combinations.

[Hero]

What Cain said. Just pick edges/flaws and SURGE changes as appropriate to the parents.

[Lilt]

IMHO half-breeds don't exist yet as the magic rating isn't high enough. I'm considering adding half-breeds after the magic level rises a bit more. The idea of adding them as surgelings seems sensible as it was caused by a temporary boost to the magic rating of the world.

[Ancient History]

I go into this in some depth in my metagenetics page.

I rather enjoy the concept of no half-breeds. Far too DnDish for me.

[Dende]

Does any book make mention of whether or not 2 metas can parent a normal human? or is the active gene passed active to the children.
How about elves fathering dwarves, that sort of one metahuman making another...?

[Cain]

Shadowtech mentions that it's theoretically possible, but for practical reasons, children only either come out as the mother's race, the father's race, or a human born to either orc, troll, or human parents who later goblinizes. Also, one metatype of trolls, Giants, had a tendency towards genetic reversion (1 out of 4 ends up being born human). Based on that, it's possible that any of the races might give birth to a human. However, there's never been a documented case of elf parents giving birth to a dwarf, or anything similar.

[Abstruse]

I'd just like to throw in that though orcs and trolls have shorter lifespans than humans on average, orcs and trolls who goblinize from humans still have human lifespans.

The Abstruse One

[snowRaven]

In the old Germany Sourcebook there is mention of 'freaks' like elves with dwarf beards, humans with troll arms and such - not far off from Changelings, whose appearence stems from broken genetics and mixed races - so I'd do what everyone else suggested - use the SURGE rules!

But I'd also refrain from calling the result half-elves, half-orks, dwelfs or whatnots - call them what they are: unique genetic freaks...

[Sphynx]

[Lilt]

Minor point sphynx, but I think the 'all the official rules aside' bit was talking about how half-breeds can't exist. The fact that our house-rules apply systems stolen from official rules dosen't mean they don't answer his question.

Anyway: I'd just allow the player to choose what applied (within reason). Thus an elf/dwarf could choose to be anything from almost fully either race (elves with beards and dwarves with pointed ears) to a select mix of abilities, the exactities of which (and cost of which) would be determined with the GM. Obviously gnome/elves with +2 charisma and +2 willpower would make ideal mages, but they'd be paying through the nose for it (>15 points) if I was GMing.

[Solidcobra]

Well, someone (i lost the post while i surfed... oops) here mentioned that no metatypes would be likely to interbreed....
but i think that any good porno in the sixties would have a little male troll/female elf action......

just a thought!

*Goes into hiding, quickly*

[Siege]

Acually, SotA (I think) mentions the issues of racisim and cross-species mating.

The specific page shows an Ork male and an Elven female, so the subject has been broached at least once in canon material.

-Siege

[Synner]

[Ancient History]

I could cite sources and page numebrs, and people STILL wouldn't pay any attention, would they?

[Phaeton]

[Siege]

[Ol' Scratch]

Whenever I create a character that has mixed parentage, I just create them as whichever race I really want to play then give them slight physical characteristics from the "other side of the family."

For instance, if I'm in the mood to play a dwarf who has a dwarf and elf as parents, I'll create him as an unusually tall (130cm) but skinny (35kg) dwarf with sparse facial hair and a high Charisma score. If I'm creating a reverted human born to dwarfin parents, he'll be a standard human and then I might give him the Bad Karma flaw and use it to buy Resistance to Pathogens, Resistance to Toxins, Immunity (to one natural drug of choice), and Bonus Attribute (Willpower). In both cases they'd still be a dwarf and a human respectively in every other way. No one would call them a "half-dwarf" or anything, at least not in polite conversation.

Or in other words, pretty much what everyone else has recommended for the most part. They'd basically be treated just like people of mixed heritage today... and in my book, such people usually turn out to be incredibly beautiful or freakishly weird-looking... so have fun with it. :) Just don't try to come up with weird stats or whatever for the different possibilities. The system's already abstract and open enough to handle it.

[Solidcobra]

[nezumi]

In response to Doc, I'm not going to say you're wrong for doing it whatever you way, but I don't think that's strictly necessary. It seems to me its like saying because one parents was female and one was male, I'll have traits of both. In this case, race is discrete, like genders, not a broad spectrum like race IRL, so as a male I get all of the male traits and none of the female traits. I do get traits from my mom like skin color and hair color, but that's a different part of the genome and isn't really affected by gender. So your dwarf/elf relationship would produce full, absolute dwarves and full, absolute elves (IMO). But, of course, it's however you want : )

[Ol' Scratch]

Well, I have to just continue to disagree with you there. :) Tigers and lions don't seem to have trouble mingling traits together when they breed, and they're even more distantly related than the metahuman races are in Shadowrun (every last one of which was derived from human stock).

I don't see how it can possibly be closer to a gender issue than a heritage issue.

[BitBasher]

its not a gender, or a hereditary issue, fundamentally it's a binary issue. Either you are a specific metahuman race or you are not. There is either a 1 or a 0, there are no other possible answers. You are free of course to alter canon and do it however you wish.

[Ol' Scratch]

I'm not altering cannon whatsoever. I said, repeatedly, that they're one race or the other. In no way did I even hint that they're a new "half-breed" race.

[BitBasher]

I was addressing the thread in general, not you specifically Doctor. :D

[Hot Wheels]