What metatype do you play?, What metatype do you play? Options

[Rolemodel]

Human, exlusively. And usually at the place where man in lost inside the machine, and being 'human' is a question of morality, machinery. Not merely genetics.

-RM

[wargear]

I usually go for Humans. The zero bp/priority was a big factor, but I also find it easier to come up with deviant character concepts for humans. For example, the ganger character I played once was the only human "throwback" in a family of orks...justified the high strength and body...

I only occasionally play an Elf or Ork.

[U_Fester]

you mean there are other races than dwarf that you can play..... why would they have that?

[RoaminNose]

Mostly dwarves and orks, but I do have a ghoul whose concept I'm very proud of (though I've never gotten to play him).

[Capt. Dave]

[Sahandrian]

I voted elf, as my original and most-used character is elf, and I think they outnumber my other races by a few. I've had at least 3.

But I've also run a troll, two orks, three humans, a ghoul, and a shifter.

The ghoul was a fun one. The GM let me play with SURGE as much as I wanted, even after I told him "You realize I could kill half the city with this, right?" Chronic Osteocuspis and Natural Toxin (VITAS), injury vector. One scratch from any of his bone spikes (he had a very high melee skill) would make the target roll to resist infection against both HMHVV and the VITAS plague.

The shifter was created to try out an idea I had. Basically using those healing adept powers in SotA to transfer damage to myself, then let regen heal the damage.

[Critias]

[Grinder]

Most of the times i played elves, but my current character is a human face. Had two orks and a dwarf too.

[Kali]

meta-varie :-)

i like pcs with flavor, and the mvs have more flavor than humans too bland for me

[Mace]

I voted elf because the one character I have still going is an elf but I've played all five of the standard races - no metavariants, no shifters, no vamps etc - not that they're disallowed - one of the players does a very creditable effort with a jaguar shifter.

Probably my favourite character ever is my namesake - a troll physical adept.
Before I landed my recent 50 hour a week job I had several characters going in various online games over the last two years - the breakdown is two orks, one human, one elf and three dwarves.

[Prospero]

This is kinda interesting in that the poll numbers are vaguely like the actual SR population numbers. I mean, the largest single group by far are normal humans and the other metatypes are decreasingly common. Interesting.

[John Campbell]

I've had exactly one character of each of the basic metaraces, with the balance being human. I've never played a metavariant, though I don't have any particular aversion to them (well, most of them... dryads are terribly mishandled). I don't play shifters or ghouls, and don't allow shifters as PCs in my games, nor starting ghouls... though you can become one the hard way.

And I'd say that these poll numbers are pretty good evidence that, however the numbers might work out, Elf priority/BP cost is perfectly fine right where it is.

[Fortune]

Keep in mind that this poll encompasses all three editions, two of which didn't have Elves costing more than Dwarves and Orks. Add to that the fact that a lot of the forum members are GMs, and haven't actually had a chance to play for years.

[hermit]

Still, I'm amazed as to how close these numbers are to the actual population of the Shadowrun world.

[Capt. Dave]

[hermit]

Generally, shifters are seen as too powerful, especially when they're made mages. They are very powerful, but have been a bit downgraded and are playable, at least ina upper to high power campaign (they can still be downed by a well-aimed assault rifle burst with Exex - as a friend of mine's leopard shifter/shaman found out the hard way. Never leave your home without sufficient armour ...).

As for ghouls ... I personally would find them hard to integrate into a group. It would be virtually impossible to have either of my main characters run with one - they'd simply kill the ghoul at the first opportunity, unless the ghoul managed to conceal themselves (a comparatively hard task). But generally, I don't see any problem with them, provided no other characters have an aversion against ghouls in particular or "undead" (HMHVV infected) in general. *shrugs*

[mfb]

shifters are really hard to play, because they're balanced badly. not unbalanced; their advantages are, roughly, as good as their disadvantages are bad. however, their advantages and disadvantages are huge--too huge to easily fit into a normal runner group. on the one hand, they're pretty damn hard to kill; on the other, if you've got a shifter with straight average stats, you've just spent 84 build points. it's harder to build a multipurpose shifter than it is to build a multipurpose adept!

my favorite analogy, for balancing shifters, is the see-saw. if you put a 300-lb kid on one side of a see-saw, and a 300-lb kid on the other side of the see-saw, the see-saw is technically balanced. in reality, though the see-saw isn't going to work, because it's going to break. same thing happens to the game, when you try to use 300 lbs of disadvantages to balance out 300 lbs of advantages.

[Smiley]

[John Campbell]

[Capt. Dave]

All good points, John Campbell.

In my game, even though the players are fairly familiar with shapeshifter abilities, they would probably be scared of a werewolf of comparable Karma to themselves. One never knows what a shapeshifter is thinking, and even though the players may know what in-game bonuses one would get, they can't know his motivations or intentions. They would know that his thought processes are animal, regardless of how human he appears.

As to ghouls, we had one in our game, and when he was discovered to be a ghoul, he had quite a few problems becoming part of the group. In fact, he never really did, as feasting on the flesh of metahumans creates a bit of a stigma that never really goes away. I think after witnessing firsthand the effects of HMHVV Krieger strain, the players are more frightened of getting infected ;)

As a GM, my feeling is that if a player wants to play something, be it shifter, drake, or ghoul, I'll let 'em. If they would have fun running around at night feasting on bums that sleep in the park, more power to them. My view is that limiting the racial possibilities detracts from the game experience.

I had a player who really wanted to play a ghoul. He had a neat concept and backstory. I wasn't going to say no to a race that's canon if it would make the game more fun for him, because the fact is, it's a game, and games are meant to provide fun.

That being said, I stick to canonical races. If a player says, "Hey, It'd be fun to play a great dragon!" I'd reply with "Yep, try a drake and earn 100K+ Karma."

Now before I end this fraggin' monologue, I would just like to say that I am not attacking anyone's views. As always, this is IMHO and YMMV
( in fact probably does V) :D

[Crimson Jack]

[Weredigo]

I'm Blunt, Stubborn, Fearless, and I often bite off more then I can chew... care to take a guess?