Children as player characters Options

[TheMadderHatter]

So I'm setting up an SR4 campaign, and one of the characters wants to play the younger sister of another, who is in high school. Elementary school younger, to be precise, and an early-blooming technomancer to boot (with sprite imaginary friends); they certainly have the roleplaying ability to distinguish between immaturity and random Chaotic Stupid tantrum throwing, so I'd like to see it happen, but I'd like to have some sort of rules-based representation of her unusual age. Is there any quality or metatype out there designed to make a younger-than-average character?

[Draco18s]

I know that my group ran an "all kids" game, but not having been involved I don't know if they did anything special.

[Ramaloke]

Check out the Neoteny negative quality in runners companion. Usually given to a character with a genetic disability that keeps them from growing to adult size. Basically it changes their physical boxes from a base of 8 to a base of 6.

[Whipstitch]

Yeah, Neoteny covers the basics pretty well, I think, since it also suggests adjusting social dice depending on the situation but doesn't give hard numbers. That last bit might annoy some GMs, but keeping the social situation modifiers flexible rather than fixed hits me as important in this case since I could easily see how being a young kid could help with some Con and Etiquette checks while often being a detriment to Intimidate and Leadership or in situations where Street Cred is valuable. Another thing to keep in mind is composure tests, since I would suspect that even a young kid from a rough neighborhood probably hasn't seen as much drek hit the fan as your average starting runner likely has.

[jaellot]

My wife played a young kid for her 1st character, and it was in 3rd ed. For that I set a limit on the physical attributes primarily, but let the mentals have their max. I think I also may have put a cap on skills, to represent the lack of learning and experience.

I only had the corebook when we started, so we had to wing it, but it worked amziingly well. Another thing was the obvious social ... hurdles of a middle schooler running around.

Also, it was sort of Shadowrun Lite, obviously on the wrong side of having a SIN number, but not really doing the usual "shoot people in the face for money" schtick.

[Seth]

I am running an all kids game for my kids in Denver. I just restrict the maximum stats to 5 (big difference) over the next couple of (real life) years I will give the children free stats to represent the adult growth spurt of puberty. The game is deadly enough already that I don't feel the need for neotony although I considered it strongly.

[CanRay]

Isn't Shadowtalker "alt/dev" is a kid. Has to balance going to school with her hacking, IIRC.

[Karoline]

Isn't Shadowtalker "alt/dev" is a kid. Has to balance going to school with her hacking, IIRC.

Well, school doesn't automatically mean kid. Could easily be up to 25ish and be talking about grad school. Of course if you're going off of more than just school, could well be.

[Finis]

I forget which book, but there's a post in one of the recent ones (maybe Ghost Cartels?) where it refers to /dev/grrl being in 10th grade and 'not yet legal' - to which several male Jackpointers made jokes about 'almost'.

If I had to make a guess too, the red headed freckled elf girl featured in one of the Chapter Head shorts (maybe runner's companion? The one about 'Pfft, Hard Copy?!' is "/dev/grrl" 'In Real Life', as it also fits the description about 'pointy ears and freckles' they give for her in Ghost Cartels. ( I think it is Ghost cartels, as it's a data dump of a report she did on South America for her 10th grade history class)

So there is defiantly cannon precedent for it. I'd say depending on the age though (mid-late teens), physical stats might not be as high (though I don't know if I'd go so far as 'capped') and I would look really hard at any skill over 4 to see if there is sufficient back story for it. The big deals are going to be the social modifiers and situation. "Sorry kid, you can't come to the meet. even with the best fake id on the planet - you look 14, they aren't letting you into Dante's." The chapter head short that features (I think) /dev/grrl is another great example - how many Johnson's are going to take your /team/ seriously if their hacker is 14-15?

Don't forget too, that for a good portion of early third edition, Slamm-O! was a minor too.




I'd say go for it, but in my game it would be mostly a roleplaying handicap, and not a point based one.

[tagz]

Had a player in my group that played a kid. In fact, named "The Kid".

Anyhow, what we did was get him a SIN that listed him as a surge with Neoteny as a existing medical condition. Got him into a lot of places where age was a restriction, but kept him out of places where freaks were restricted.

[Karoline]

how many Johnson's are going to take your /team/ seriously if their hacker is 14-15?

If the hacker is 14-15? Very seriously. If any other roll is 14-15? Not so seriously.

[Whipstitch]

Magicians can also likely get away with being a bit young* as well. After all, the fluff seems to indicate that magic is just common enough that most established teams will have it but just rare enough that many runners are willing to live with (and hell, maybe even expect) some weirdness. If given a choice between having a 15 year old kid or a Raven Shaman on the team I know I'd at least take a moment to find out what the kid can do before making a decision.


*Keeping in mind that magical talent usually becomes noticeable around puberty in most cases.

[Megu]

Magicians can also likely get away with being a bit young* as well. After all, the fluff seems to indicate that magic is just common enough that most established teams will have it but just rare enough that many runners are willing to live with (and hell, maybe even expect) some weirdness. If given a choice between having a 15 year old kid or a Raven Shaman on the team I know I'd at least take a moment to find out what the kid can do before making a decision.


*Keeping in mind that magical talent usually becomes noticeable around puberty in most cases.

It's also worth noting that culture can play into this. In traditional Hmong culture, young shamans are seen as the most potent; it's said a shaman's abilities tend to decline with time from their initial becoming-a-shaman sickness (there's a word for it that I'm spacing). So a Johnson in Yunnan would likely take a fifteen year old shaman very seriously. Although this also seems to imply that the Hmong wouldn't have a tradition of initiation for their shamans...

[CanRay]

"/dev/grrl/" was who I was thinking of. Just got the name wrong.

Gogo Yubari, 17-years old, able to drink you under the table, and gut you like a fish.

And was in Battle Royale at 15, too!

(Actress Chiaki Kuriyama.).

There's also my character, Speeder. She's 13 and already a damn fine hacker. Too bad she can't go into legitimate areas without being picked up by Child Services. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Makki]

Kick-Ass claims a 10 year old girl can have all combat skills max with the right mentor. you can be a good asset for deception

[CanRay]

B.B. Hood from Darkstalkers. Cute kid in a red hood and cape, with an Uzi in her picnic basket!

Also, Red Destiny from "The Big O" anime. Of course, she's a Robot, but still, cute kid that WILL KILL YOU TO DEATH!

I'm also willing to bet there's a number of former Child Soldiers IRL that are now mercenaries and such, and probably only in their teens. (There are actually a number of Ex-Child Soldier refugees in Winnipeg. I don't know of any personally, however.). I remember a horror movie that had a grown up African Child Soldier who has quite a bit to say on the matter. (I'll see if I can remember the movie's name.).

Corporate Culture (For Corporate Mr. Johnsons) will probably have them underestimate children (Like the one dealing with /dev/grrl/.), but Street Johnsons (Professional Mr. Johnsons, who are like Specialized Fixers in a way) would certainly know better. Unprofessional Mr. Johnsons (Like the night manager at the Stuffer Shack trying to put some dirt on the Day Manager and get a promotion) is just out of his/her element entirely and will have no idea what the hell.

[War 13]

How would a Gnome character appear to most people? Can they pass themselves off as a pre-teen early teen child?

[Whipstitch]

Yes. They have the Neoteny Quality although in the case of metavariants that simply means they have what we would think of as childlike characteristics even at physical maturity.

[CanRay]

OK, I just had a sick thought...

"You can't bust me for Pedophilia! Her SIN said she was a Gnome! How was I supposed to know she was underage and using a fake ID?"

[War 13]

My thought was sorta like that but in reverse. I was going to use a female gnome HtH adept to torture my SR group with. Was going to make her a 1st lvl initiate for masking power. A nice recurring character who I can use against them as they have over the course of the game taken child/teen NPC's to lightly. If I really feel like tormenting them I might even up the initiate grade and beef up stat/skills and make her strike from within at a crucial time.

[Whipstitch]

Hand to hand on a gnome sounds nice 'cuz it has the "What's wrong with this picture?" bonus going for it, but I wouldn't really recommend making it a recurring prime runner's main shtick simply because a character who has to get right up in the runner's faces is apt to either end up killing even sensible players because they're THAT good or end up getting punked themselves tout suite. Such characters generally need a high degree of stealth or evasiveness/durability, to the point that those qualities tend to end up overshadowing their fists. As one off mini-boss types they're great, but if you want her to really stick around I would instead emphasize the gnome's innate strengths and play up the anti-magic theme (they come with arcane arrester standard, after all). Gnomes are as well-suited as it gets to counterbalancing a team's magical firepower, so such a character could be a real pain in the ass even if she only provides backup to other NPCs and gets the hell out of Dodge once the bodies start piling up.

[War 13]

I was going to first introduce character as someone who is acting as a child who can help them in some way. Maybe as a contact with an "older brother" who is a fixer or useful contact. It will only come out that she is the enemy if they look into her character or get to deep into the trap if they fall into it.

[Karoline]

How would a Gnome character appear to most people? Can they pass themselves off as a pre-teen early teen child?

Except that your average gnome is .8 meters tall which is a bit under 3 feet tall which corresponds to about 3 years old. We're talking about toddler, not pre-teen.

Edit: This of course makes their strength bonus all the more ridiculous.

[War 13]

OK, well that plan needs a change then. Probably just need to make a runner with neoteny or rethink where I want to go with this. I never even thought about how short a Dwarf was, let alone a gnome.

[Whipstitch]

Yeah, I forgot about that goofy height table and was just thinking of the quality itself. My bad. I don't really run dwarves or gnomes by the RAW, to be honest. I should have known better than to answer, but I just kinda forgot how far off I actually am from the starting point. By the RAW you're dealing with such short metatypes that it doesn't really make much sense to allow Human Looking unless you're talking about some pretty unlikely specimens, so I just don't really run things that way anymore.

This post has been edited by Whipstitch: Dec 20 2010, 04:39 AM