What's Your Favorite Character To Play?, Vote for your favorite archetype. Options

[Everial]

I like the thrice-initiated mage with a datajack and a VCR lvl 1... high magic, decking, and basic rigging...

I'm not a power-gamer / dreamer... really!

@=^)

[Fortune]

I have played mostly Shamanic characters in the past, and even in D&D I would more often than not play a Mage. I love Magic!

In the last year or so though, I have been making (and occassionally even playing) the odd Gun Bunny. I'm surprised at how much fun they can be.

[Strobe]

[BigBlacksmith]

[Dalassa]

d00d 3y3 h4xx0r3d j0r n0d3.......

:D :grinbig:


So yeah, deckers for me, that or pissy ork techies. Never mess with the ork who just got shot out of her car by the Azzies and is now holding them off with a grenade launcher in one hand and plantains in the other.

[Ronin Soul]

Hmm, well I like to play characters that break the standard sterotypes, to the point of becoming a stereotype in and of themselves. The trick I find is to do it is an engrossing way. As long as there is an enthralling background and lots of plot hooks with a character, it really doesn't matter how cliched they are (hell, in V:tM I played a naive non-manipulative Tremere, and a pacifistic Brujah).

My characters are the type to be really odd and likely to never work at first glance.
The Street Samurai who has sworn never to take another life.
The Adept living on borrowed time and with a Body of 2 - who fights passionately for what he believes in
The Hermetic Mage with amnesia who has forgotten that she is Awakened (yes, with the Priority A taken for magic and money spent on Foci and additional spell points etc)
The Decker who was the best fighter in the group.
The humble elf... :)

Hmm, well that was a bit of a ramble. I think I'll just click "other". As long as it's different and has a good background, I'll play it .

[Daishi]

I like to play a variety of things, and make a point to push characters in new directions. Even if that fails dismally. ;) But I think I've had the most fun with folks who are really good at getting into places. So I chose covert ops. It covers most of that. I like either talking my way in and out trouble, or sneaking and silently doing the job.

[Sphynx]

Magic types are, without a doubt, the best characters to play, not only because they have such a wide variety of options but because they advance the nicest, 100 Karma for a Mage will double (or much much more) his power levels, for a non-magickal type, that's barely a change at all. Not to mention they outclass others in possible attribute advancement (and when skills and attributes are all a non-magic type spends their Karma on... that's a huge difference)

Gun Bunny type plays a dwarf with a starting strength of 8 and works to get it up to the max of 12. Spends 18+20+22+24 for 84 karma.

Mage type plays an <anything> with a starting strength of 3 and also wants to get to a Strength of 12, Spends 6+8+10+12 to raise Strength to 6 for 36 karma, Initiates w/ Group for 3+9 karma, learns Improved Strength for 6 Karma (Force 6 spell) learns Quickening for 0 Karma, uses 2 Force-6 Expendable Spell Foci for 18,000 nuyen and rolls 24 dice TN 6 with 1 re-roll giving him 7 successes for a Strength of 12. 12 Karma to Quicken it for a Total Karma cost of: 66 Karma.

This gives him 18 (of that 84 the Gun Bunny used) Karma to do that with another Attribute as well (assuming it's already at a 6, such as Willpower) buy learning a Force-6 spell for 6 karma and 12 karma to Quicken. He now has a Willpower of 12, a Strength of 12, and is Initiated for the same price the Non-Magic type spent to go from 8 to 12, except the NonMagic type started with a 5 point headstart, built his character around this one advancement, and for the Mage type, it was little more than an after thought.

Then of course there's the whole problem with the "combo" types who get the best of all worlds. Mnemonic Enhancer (for games that allow that out-of-whack Bio), and Trauma Dampener make matters even worse then, as now spell casting is cake and skills are dirt cheap, so regardless if you're a Mage type or not, you can get the one main advancement-advantage that the non-magic types can get.

I've personally House Ruled that installation of the Mnemonic Enhancer (which I've just recently let into games I run) removes all Spell Casting abilities. Doesn't make any in-theme sense, but it's about the only way to make it worth it (advancement-wise) to not play a Magic-Caster type.

Anyhows, that's my Rant and why I always play Mage types (Shaman exclusively). I like character advancement as much as I like the storytelling part, I want my character to visibly improve. And unlike games like AD&D, a Mage type starts out just as powerful as any other type, so there's not even an initial weakness to balance the vast character growth that follows once you start advancing.

Sphynx

[Greyfoxx]

Adepts. I never liked them at first until i started to make one when i was GMing. Then Mage types. again, never liked them at first until i had to make one as NPC.

its when i discovered their true destructive potential. :vegm:

[Cain]

While adepts have never impressed me with their raw destructive ability, they more than make up for it in sheer versatility. Using an adept or a physmage, you can duplicate just about any non-cyber character concept from any game.

[FlakJacket]

Adepts all the way baby! :D I play physical magicians once in a blue moon but other than that it's mostly deckers and detective types.

[Zeel De Mort]

Well, for one thing, your dwarf in that example should be paying TRIPLE the new attribute in karma, since it's going above his racial modified limit. So it'd work out to a lot more than 84 to boost it to 12.

On the other hand, since he's not awakened, he can just ram in the bio/cyber ware to increase a lot of his stats and it costs him no karma at all. The million he gets for resources A instead of magic A will go a long way towards him *starting* with great stats, physically at least. Then he can spend that 100 karma on boosting his skills sky high since many of them are linked to physical stats which are all bioware increased to 9 or more. :)

I wouldn't say the big advantage mages have over mundanes is increasing of their stats, but they DO have a lot of advantages. Both archetypes (merc/street sam vs mage) have many plus points. I like them both but play cybered guys more.

[Sahandrian]

"Other", though I didn't actually vote. I've played everything but riggers, and it's normally more about concept than archetype...

Sahandrian, my longest-running character, is a face/covert ops. He's a fairly arrogant british elf who has interests in swords, explosives, and ferrets. Don't even ask about the third one there.

Malkav, my most popular character (and later NPC), is a physical mage. He's completely neurotic thanks to being a survivor of Bug City, is absolutely fascinated by vampires, and has had his mind split in two due to an accident involving a vampire, the Fading power, and a Force-120 magic explosion.

Phobos, my current character, is a rude, violent, and cruel ork with heavy cyber and the highest intelligence score of anyone in the group. He was a go-ganger before running, and keeps the same mentality. And he's shot people for calling him a Street Sam.

I once played myself as a decker... but that was just odd...

[lodestar]

Although I generally have no specific preferences, Most of my characters generally have skills of a technical bent, so my vote lies with the Rigger. I prefer having characters who can do things aside from just shoot well, powerball people or just plain beat them to a pulp. I usually get derided for being usless in combat, but it all makes up for it when I'm the only one who can haul everyone's ass out of the fire when the going goes from bad to worse. That's usually when it comes time to make sure I get my cut of the pay... ;)

[Darkest Angel]

Idolists all the way. I like to play a cybered up gunbunny once in a while too, but I always end up missing the ol' mojo, so I always go back.

[JongWK]

I mostly GM, so my own characters are rare.

Deckers are something that represent the Cyberpunk world of Shadowrun and remain my Nº1 pick. Awakened characters are also great.

Mage/Decker Archetype. The perfect SR combination.

That being said, any concept can be good. It depends on the players and the GM.

[last_of_the_grea...]

"Guns, guns, guns. Life would be so dull without them."

Gunslingers are not special. There's nothing that makes them a 1%er. They are not elite social or technical. You don't need a super brain to be effective. All you need is a gun, ammo and a target! Joe Blow with no skill using just his quickness attribute of 3 can seriously ruin the day of a runner when he gets that lucky couple of shots doing 2 serious wounds! That is the charm of the gunbunny. You have the most dangerous job! You have the lowest life expectancy. You kick serious ass! :cyber:

[hp_warcraft]

w00t, l33t hax0r!

Decker! There just isn't a proper cyberpunk 'feel' without a decker:
I add atmosphere baby! :D

And teams benefit from a good decker, and games benefit from someone
who is comfortable with the decking rules.

I have never had much luck playing an adept, mage or shaman.
Being magically active is like having a big red target superimposed
over you. You have my sympathy and respect mana-manipulators.

[Peter Pan]

do not meddle in the affairs of deckers, for they are subtle, and quick to hack your bank account

8)

[TinkerGnome]

[Peter Pan]

[Kurukami]

[Buzzed]

The Bait character.

This guy is half sam, half merc. He specializes in ambushing.

A troll with a synthacardium bioware, a cybertorso, & a pair of obvious cyberlegs with quickness 6 enhancement (quickness 10 for movement). The cybertorso has 5 points of ablative body plating (all in the back). Each cyberleg has 5 points of ablative body plating, level 5 hydraulic jacks, & retractable cyberskates. He also has a decent microtranciever in his leg and a transducer implant in his head.

Small Unit Tactics Skill 6
Athletics 6

When in a situation where the runners are outnumbered, this guy will tell the players to take a seat and relax in a location with only 2 exits. He then proceeds to run through the building to where the most enemy people are located, turn around and run his ass off to back to the resting team. Along the way he radios the rest of the team orders (using his small unit tactics skill) to get ready.

I know it's been done by a million people, but bait and luring is just so much fun.

[Hocus Pocus]

I've always loved playing the hermetic mage. Whenever I could I would, but sometimes I had to play an adept instead....as long as it was magical. By far Hocus Pocus was my favorite....really identified with him. Mages rock!

[kenny26]

i like mages. even before i got introduced to SR, i loved maigc! :D (i played mostly wizards in D&D)

and the way magic works in SR is even cooler than in D&D (well, in some ways. but u can't really compare, can u...).
my first char was this elf from japan.
he was full of hate and vengence which had turned him into a cold-hearted silent killer with a katana.
and his magic abilities were droven to their maximum by his will and strong hatred.

so he had the eerie presence flaw and the piercing gaze edge and was magically active, using astral perception at any chance to get information about the people he would meat.
this cocktail turned into one f-ing spooky character! :D