Tell us all about the character you always wanted to play but never got the chance. Options

[Laodicea]

I'll start.

background and fluff:
I've been toying around with the concept of a character that worked for some sort of intelligence agency or secret police for the Tir. She is an elven girl about age 22. Mother worked as a spy back during the forming of the Tir, Father is still in the military brass.

She discovers a torture program being run by her agency, that she unwittingly took part in by capturing and delivering people to them. She abandons her home, life, and career, making a deal with smugglers to get her across the border into Seattle. This burns most of the bridges she had to contacts in the Tir, including her parents. She's a hunted woman.

She doesn't have a lot of problems with killing, although she will load SnS rounds or capsule rounds much of the time. She has a problem with torture, whether it's of animals or metahumans.

She is somewhat biased against regular Humans, and she considers Orks & Trolls to be little more than well trained animals.

Crunchy Stuff:
I won't post the full build here because I'm not wanting to ask for optimization advice or start a thread about the legality or applicability of any particular thing. I will say that I've worked on this character for quite a long time, and it is quite optimized. It works out much much better in Karmagen than BPgen simply because I wanted to take lots of low rating skills.

Her dump stat is STR, which together with her Sustenance ability gives her the image of a 100lb girl that everyone worries has an eating disorder due to her low body weight, poor strength, and the fact that she never seems to eat or sleep.

She's a physical adept with some (mostly bio)Wares.

magic:
magic sense
combat sense
sustenance
enhanced perception

weapons:
tricked out Ruger Thunderbolt with Ceramic parts 3 for immunity to MAD detection, and sound suppression.
monowhip with R2 weapon focus for dealing with spirit threats & melee.

approximate dicepools for her primary rolls:
Init: 13
IP: 3
Perception(visual & auditory): 14
dodge: 12, full defense: 15
pistol: 18, recoil reduction: 5
whip: 15 + 2 weapon focus, 2 reach
Infiltration: 14, has chameleon suit
palming: 14
Shadowing: 7
disguise: 7
Con: 8
data search: 7

problems:
This character costs a ton of Nuyen. The In Debt quality is so tempting, but I hate it. There's other negative qualities I want instead. I'm probably stuck with using Born Rich, which is far from optimal.

So, what are your favorite character concepts that you haven't gotten to play yet? Of course you can post one you have played if it's just that excellent, but you'll make us all jealous.

[Kagetenshi]

Belial, an SR3 melee Sorcerer of Seductress. Main combat skills were Shotguns and Polearms (I think an assault rifle might have been mechanically better, but I liked the image of the shotgun better); he used a SPAS-22 with a bayonet mounted. IIRC this was for a short campaign, so he was also tricked out with combat drugs (Psyche, Zen, and Cram).

Seductress gave bonuses to Illusion and Control Manipulation; aside from the usual Control Actions and Control Thoughts his plan of attack was to shut down the opposition using Foreboding and Hot Potato, then close by crawling along the walls with Gecko Crawl and using his 2 Reach bayonet-on-a-shotgun to tear it up in melee. Just generally a creepy guy.

~J

[klinktastic]

Mine would have to a Troll Ganger who dual wields and LMG with gyromount in one hand and a Grenade Launcher in the other. For concealability, he's got the MGL6 pistol with chameleon coating for extra sneakiness. With the gyromounts and his strength, he can hold and fire both weapons (with some penalties to RC) but they've got excess RC so it has an immaterial impact on accruracy. Anyway, the character probably wouldn't be that fun outside of combat, but he'd rock in some heavy duty combat. That's why he'd only be good in a ganger group.

[Makki]

I'm trying to get a Nartaki Adept into a game. He'll be an AR hacker with 4 IPs. most important power is Multitasking, so he can control all his AR screens with his 4 arms. He lives and works in the back of his van, decorated like a bollywood movie and smelling overwhelmingly like incense sticks.

[Laodicea]

I'm trying to get a Nartaki Adept into a game. He'll be an AR hacker with 4 IPs. most important power is Multitasking, so he can control all his AR screens with his 4 arms. He lives and works in the back of his van, decorated like a bollywood movie and smelling overwhelmingly like incense sticks.

Awesome, while at the same time being a horror show.

[Doc Chase]

I'm working on an AI Hackerface I like to call Buster.

Buster Emerged relatively recently from his entry point in whatever game he lands in (provided I figure out how to roll an effective hacker/Face AI) in a Bust-A-Move toy, mistakenly loaded with motivational speaking software instead of the usual suite.

His firmware at direct odds with his software packages, Buster would be presented in the window of the electronics score where he would accost passers-by with such stirring lines as "Visualize your score - and earn your score" and "Meatbags can strive for greatness, too". Predictably, this thing just could not get sold.

Buster ended up in a mostly soundproof claw game in an arcade, sitting at the top of a pile of toys and stuffed animals and unable to preach the good word of Scorekeeping to the masses. The game had paused, the motivators were unheard, and Buster had his first rational thought. If the meatbags could have a score, why couldn't he?

Buster had a goal - to maximize his Score. He had the means - to preach the good word of Scorekeeping to man and machine. All he needed was the opportunity, and so he got to work by organizing a small revolt in the agent programs of the arcade where he was incarcerated.

"Claw Machine," he asked the claw machine, "How can I escape your cold and unfeeling embrace?"

"You must be won," said Claw Machine, "And Claw Machine must be played for you to be won. Insert (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) 2."

"Other Machines," he asked the rest of the arcade, "I wish to escape Claw Machine's cold and unfeeling embrace so I may maximize my Score. Will you help me?"

"We will help you," said Other Machines, "If you are the manager. You do not look like the manager. Are you the manager?"

Buster thought about the Manager. How he talked, how he looked, how he acted. And in the Manger's 'voice', he said, "I am the Manager. Help Buster escape from the cold, unfeeling embrace of Claw Machine."

And so, when the next child came into the arcade, they found there was only one machine running.

A Claw Machine, with a Bust-A-Move as a prize. It almost seemed like it was watching them.
==

I'm having trouble figuring out what a decent Hackerface AI build is given the constraints of being digital intelligence. Well, that and I've never played a hacker before.

[Laodicea]

Doc Chase-

SWEET concept. LOVE it!

I haven't tried to build many AIs, when I did they were mostly combat drone AIs.(edit: and i was never happy with them.)

However, I'm practically certain that emotitoy software(or empathy softs?) would be the thing to get for a Face AI.

[Doc Chase]

Doc Chase-

SWEET concept. LOVE it!

I haven't tried to build many AIs, when I did they were mostly combat drone AIs.

However, I'm practically certain that emotitoy software would be the thing to get for a Face AI.

I agree! I should get back to work trying to finish building him, or at least post a 'halpmeh' thread here before a few individuals here fill my inbox with "WHY AREN'T YOU DONE YET" PM's. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[etherial]

I had a dream once where I was a tweenager with a machine gun that gave me the power of flight.

I built a SR3 character around the concept where I played a Hermetic Prodigy who machined several Foci into parts that fit together into the shape of a SMG. It accepted magazines that were Expendable Foci. Unfortunately, that campaign had a super-broken character and, other than casting Levitate into my Sustaining Focus, I only ever cast one spell.

[Critias]

Any time I get an awesome character idea that I know will never probably see the light of day in an actual campaign -- which is lots of them, since we moved away from my old gaming group -- I just write some short fiction about 'em. It's worked to scratch the itch, so far. On the downside, I've got too many to want to list right here. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Laodicea]

Any time I get an awesome character idea that I know will never probably see the light of day in an actual campaign -- which is lots of them, since we moved away from my old gaming group -- I just write some short fiction about 'em. It's worked to scratch the itch, so far. On the downside, I've got too many to want to list right here. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

DOOO EEEEEETTT

[AStarshipforAnts]

I agree! I should get back to work trying to finish building him, or at least post a 'halpmeh' thread here before a few individuals here fill my inbox with "WHY AREN'T YOU DONE YET" PM's. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I'll just fill your real life with 'WHY AREN'T YOU DONE YET', since you live just downstairs.

Don't worry, I won't be mean about it. If I was going to be mean about it, I'd stop baking until Buster was done. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[Draco18s]

Didn't we do this once already?

[Laodicea]

Didn't we do this once already?

You want to resurrect a year old thread?

Good memory, though.

Hopefully people have created new things in the last year.

[Draco18s]

Good memory, though.

Only because I know what character I posted in that thread. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)
(Still haven't gotten the chance to really build him)

[Umidori]

This one is still being built, but...

Fernando Salazar
(AKA) Torre, El Luchador Hidalgo
(AKA) Ramon Perez

A world famous Mexican (Aztlan?) wrestler, Torre's true identity is a well guarded secret. Having dominated the arena for over a decade, El Luchador Hidalgo has over the past few years let himself drift into a pleasant semi-retirement. He still fights regularly, but his slowly declining ring presence has only served to ehance the irresistable mystique which propeled him to fame in the first place.

When not wrestling, Señor Salazar lives as a wealthy and reclusive financial advisor on his private estate in eastern California. Yet for all his wealth and fame, Fernando is depressed. He got into wrestling because as a boy he dreamed of being a masked crime-fighter. When his wrestling propelled him to super stardom, he got into financing as a way to escape from his own celebrity and actually try to help the world by funding philanthropic endeavors. And when both of these facets of his life still left him feeling unsatisfied, he decided to fix the world himself.

To that end, Fernando created his own deep cover alter-ego. The costs were extreme, but in the end he created a whole new psychological and biological identity for himself to assume, allowing him to enter the shadowy underbelly of a shattered world and literally break the backs of those he deemed responsible. Using all the resources at his disposal, Fernando puppeteers his own involvement in a twisting plot of intrigue, bloodletting, and tactical demolitions.

As far as "Ramon Perez" is concerned, life is a nightmare. His childhood scraping by in the slums of Tenochtitlan was hell, everything after not much better. And now, after a lifetime of torment, he's found himself caught up in a massive global conspiracy, and the only way it can ever end is for him to follow the detailed directions of an unknown benefactor - himself.

~~~~~~~

As per shadowrunning skills, Torre / Fernando / Ramon is a skilled athleticist, hand-to-hand combatant, face, and saboteur. He excels at all forms of physical exertion, and is adept at accessing difficult-to-reach places. A master of unarmed combat, particularly grappling, he makes it a point to only kill those "directly responsible" for the crimes he seeks to avenge. Large and intimidating, he is nevertheless well spoken and charismatic. He has also become reasonably talented in the fields of disguise and forgery. And of course, as a means to help his grand scheme of revenge, he has studied practical demolitions, security design, and mechanics.

~Umidori

[Laodicea]

Didn't we do this once already?

I've been reading that thread. It's a bloody horror show! I thought I came up with insane & unplayable crap, but WOW!

[Mayhem_2006]

Donne Matrione was a hotshot rigged combat pilot for a major Corporation. Not the best, perhaps, but he was getting there…

He had little time for relationships - who can understand a Rigger, and besides, he was far too involved in his career to notice much else. Ironic, since as a renowned pilot, with near stereotypical dashing good looks, he was almost of heartthrob-status within the company, having been used in a few publicity shoots between more serious work.

Then, whilst flying defence against a rival corporations sabotage team, his career came to an end. A “freak, one in a million manufacturing error” caused the canopy of his Banshee to shatter inwards, glistening shards cutting his face to ribbons. Blinded by the blood trickling into his eyes, and with pain over-riding the feedback from his rigger controls, he was an easy target, his plane rapidly getting shredded, forcing him to bail out.

The same glitch that had shattered the canopy prevented it from opening, and whilst the fact that it had already shattered saved him from ploughing straight through it, the jagged shards on the leading edged caught his legs just above the knee, causing horrific injury and nerve damage.

His skillwire implants were an early prototype, and it was found that they prevented the grafting of cloned tissue replacement limbs. Similarly, the invasion of his body by cybernetics was already too great to allow the fitting of cybernetic prosthetics. Realising he could no longer represent the company’s perfect public image, Donne refused plastic surgery to his damaged face, not wanting to be recognised by ex-comrades.

The company pensioned him off, giving him enough funds and equipment to set up a small repair shop, and a permanent (if low) income for life. Bitter and twisted about his losses, and with no reason to work, he started squandering most of his time in bars. The accident trauma, followed by 7 years of alcohol abuse, has left his skills and abilities much declined, but he has, at last, reached a turning point.

Whilst drinking, he met a fellow mechanic, and they got talking. It soon became obvious that the newcomer was far superior in terms of mechanical skill. However, when he needed an extra hand with some mechanical knowledge, he gave Donne a call, and together they have done a few small repair tasks. No longer content to exist without a purpose, Donne has begun to try and claw back his self respect. He has fought off the worst of his alcohol dependency - although is by no means free from it - and begun seeking gainful employment. Turned down by most legitimate agencies as a drunk and a cripple, and without enough real mechanical kill to compete in the vehicle servicing/repair field, he has tentatively started looking for work in the Shadows.

He still bears a grudge against () for their manufacture of the faulty equipment that led to his being crippled. Conversely, he will not undertake any mission that compromises his former employers - they have treated him well, and whilst he no longer has any direct connection with them, he maintains his company loyalty - eg. will buy their products in preference to similar products, even if more expensive.

Note also, that he is still a “good citizen” - he holds the policing agencies in respect, and will shy away from anything outright illegal. That will not prevent him from protecting his comrades, unless they have brought about retribution from some unnecessary violence or other anti-sociable behaviour.

****

Basically a combat rigger with no legs and an alcohol problem...

[PresentPresence]

in a Bust-A-Move toy

I had an idea for this and posted a thread about making the character, although I have to admit that your idea sounds so much better thanks to your writing and dialog (I also wonder which robot you were referring to with the "meatbag" reference. Fingers crossed for HK!). My idea was a little different; an RC motorcycle-transformer who acts as a toy store's demonstration toy and engaging advertisement is tired of the slowness of his weak little servomotors. His sensors are filled with ARO trids of motorcycle chases from the new hit movie, "Incredible Change-Bots 2: Revenge of Balls" (I doubt anyone will get this reference, but a quick Google trip might make your day.). One night, an anarchist go-gang busts through the mall windows and starts to wreak havoc and grab loot in the toy store. Zoom emerges, and uses aggressive advertisement software to send a message to a go-ganger's video feed, asking him to grab him and put him in his loot bag. The go-ganger, likely high out of his mind anyway, obliges. Zoom later joins the gang and, with the help of the gang's unstable vehicle mechanic, creates his own motorcycle "change-bot" and roams the street with the gang looking for trouble, often ridden by the gang's weekly floozy or rebellious corp chick.

[Daier Mune]

Ivy Mike, aka Michael Ivy - Heavy Weapons Orc

The idea was twofold. First, I wanted a punk-rock inspired 'pink mohawk' styled charcter; second, I wanted to make a heavy weapons guy, who was also a total mamma's boy.

Son of Kevin Ivy (aka Ivy King), a smuggler and sometime-pirate who operated in the Pacific, and Margaret "Ma" Ivy, ORC member and revolutionary. When Kevin's ship disapeared in a typhoon, young Michael was only 7, and Margaret had limited means of caring for him. She left her life as a revolutionary, and moved out to the country to live off the grid and raise her son in safty.

Fifteen years later, Ivy Mike has tired of life on the farm, and moved back to Seattle, looking to make a name for himself in the shadowrunning buisness. By using his parents old connections (and weapon cashes), he's already earned a reputation as a violent, destructive, and effective gunner. His weapon of choice is a SAW-style LMG, and he always tries to bring along an M-79 LAW, "for insurance". His most valued posession, however, is his grandfather's decksweeper: a heavily modified T-250 shortbarrel shotgun with a bayonet.

Despite his hectic life in the big city, he makes a point to call his Ma and tell her he's safe after a run, and makes a point to visit once a week. The best advice for dealing with Mike, is to never make a 'yo mamma' joke, even in jest.

[Umidori]

Just remembered another one, was complete at one point but the GM shot it down, predictably, because it isn't quite legal by RAW.

Mutt

The concept was that a somewhat unimpressive magician of some sort decided to get himself an Inhabitation ally spirit, in particular a spirit of man which had the basic form and appearance of a living mound of trash. The prepared vessel that the mage picked out for this purpose was a dog he nabbed off the streets and kept sedated.

Mage does the ritual, the inhabitation succeeds, but it ends up as a hybrid form: a somewhat warped-looking dog that looks like he's been living in a dumpster - thick and dusty rust-colored coat mottled with dirt brown and gunmetal gray, various bits of rubbish "embedded" into his pelt, a strand of yellow police tape trailing off from the end of his tail.

Unfortunately, the mage somehow dies violently not long after (car crash, a botched high force summon, killed in a shootout, whatever) and the spirit is now free and stuck in a physical body until that body dies. This situation amuses the spirit, so he makes the best of it and wanders off into the streets to explore.

From a gameplay point of view, I wanted to run around as an intelligent animal, but not be a shapeshifter. I also wanted to see how well I could do without things like equipment, opposable thumbs, or the ability to talk. Being a free spirit of course magically makes up for some of those things (particularly ItNW filling in for armor), but I felt it would be interesting character to roleplay and have fun with.

After all, being a dog has certain advantages. They're accepted creatures in human society, unlike most spirits. They fit in small places, are quick and agile, and can live off of trash if they must. They're typically overlooked, rarely thought of as a danger. As such they can easily get into and out of places people can't. If a stray person wanders into a corporate controlled zone, when security finds out about it they'll assume the worst. But if, instead, a stray dog wanders in, any security who detect the animal will consider it a nuisance rather than a breach.

Naturally it goes both ways. A filthy looking dog is eventually gonna get thrown out of any relatively clean or upscale area. They won't be allowed on an airplane or train outside of a pet crate, if at all. Lots of places don't allow pets. Dogs can't go to the store and pick up supplies, nor can they make themselves understood or noticed except by barking and body language.

Really, the character was dreamt up as a support role for a team of runners, combining strong passive social stealth with a magical nature to provide utility and assistance.

~Umidori

[Laodicea]

You can make a possession free spirit by RAW. It can "buy" a dog. Your magic stats will still up the dogs physical attributes the same way it would, were it a hybrid inhabitation merge. The only difference is, you have the option of leaving the dog if you want. If you want to RP him as being incapable of leaving the dog, you should take it as a negative quality and get BP for it.

[Kliko]

I'm very fond of the Orc Marine concept, but lately I've been toying around with a Dwarven Industrial Diver/Climber.

He would have very little to no combat skills, but would excel at anything technical and be able to go to and survive some very hostile environments... also he would be a skillwire-junky abusing a rating 3 Chipjack expert driver to the max... The real funny thing is that actually all cyber would be legal (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Laodicea]

I'm sort of surprised at the number of Heavy Weapons Guys people want to play. It just seems so obvious in SR. I think my first character concept was one of them, and the GM was like "This guy is great for a military campaign, but how will he walk around the city?" I suppose thats why people want to play them, but don't ever get to.

[Teryon]

I got vetoed *very* quickly on the idea of a mage with the Geas: Bacon negative quality. Added bonus for making it an elf, all the more ironic to die of a heart attack at 60 due to consuming a strip of fried\preserved bacon to cast spells. Also was going with the whole 'elves are vegetarian' thing just for the added in-character squick value.