Wow, I had to think long and hard about this one. I can't think of many "characters" that I actually like in Shadowrun (at least enough to incorporate them into my game). I like the Lone Gunman from back in the day before the X-Files ripped him off. I've never had a problem with Lofwyr, mainly cause he's so erratic and alien he can do anything and it would make perfect sense to him. Plus he stomped his bro Alamaise, and that is one old ass Great Dragon. I always kind of dug Damian Knight as someone that schemes "almost" as well as a Great Dragon to keep himself at the top of his little empire. I can list my most hated characters though.
Mr Darke AKA Senor Oscuro. The Dragon Heart trilogy ruined him.
Any of the twink Immortal Elves (Like Harlequin) Pink Floyd?, after living for over 6000 years you run around with t shirts from a band that is over sixty friggin years old! Why not a Salieri tatoo as well!
And a special loathing for the ultimate in twink crap characters, Ryan Mercury. I'd rather be sodomized by Talon than have to ever read about Ryan Mercury banging Nadja Daviar again.

Why would Novatech need to Thor shot a corporate shark? Seriously.

Lofwyr hasn't been mentioned. I guess he isn't a character so much as a nexus of political and financial power. Same with pretty much every other authority figure, which makes sense. And Nadja Daviar isn't hot anymore; she's 56 years old, and for elves, that's around 40. Isn't it? Or do they live REALLY long?

Henzo Shotozumi.

Very, very good book. On par with, if not better than, Cybertech. Nothing beats UB or Bug City, however.

None of the other SR3 sourcebooks gripped me as much as SF did. In fact, only a few of the SR2 books did. Nothing recent, unfortunately.

And then they moved immediately on to 4th Ed. Kind of killed the flow they had for the few moments they had it. Sigh.

So many to choose from..

Of all of them, i'd have to say Dirk Montgomery. Noirish, gritty detectives -when well done- are a favorite character type of mine.


Honorable Mentions:

Art Dankwalther: Yeah, i liked him. Or rather i liked the idea behind the character.

Alfredo Garcia: In a sourcebook (cant remember the name, or if it was 1st or second edition) there was a musical loving, dancing sasquath who tended bar in some English pub.

Argent and Matador: Consumate professionals. Plain and simple.

Perianwyr: One music lover to another.

dirk montgomery. I loved his stories and his attitude. any news about him after house of the sun? i still can't believe that Nigel Findley died.

Wolfgang Keis. Who cares if he doesn't follow in game rules? one bad motherfragger, if you ask me.

Dodger, Cap Chaos, Fast Jack, Jack the Ripper, Remy. love 'em all. whatever happened to Jack the Ripper? i know that remy is still floating around somewheres.

and what about zapper weisman?

Dunklezahn. I always had a soft spot for him.

Ghost-who-walks-inside.

Argent.

Hatchetman. Cybertechnology brought a whole new perspective to being a street sam for me.

Sam Verner. Did he get his magic back after the secrets of power trilogy?

and so many more...

Alfie was in Prime Runners.

System Failure had a lot of just completely f-ed up stuff in it.

I can't for the life of me understand why anyone likes Sutherland.

Picking up on the thoughts of SL James and TeOdio, Damian Knight does deserve special mention as far as Shadowrun NPC's go. He is, in a way, sort of like the old Detective archetype writ large. He has no reality bending magic powers, no cyberware to boost his physical abilities to super(meta)human levels, and he is not a god in the martix. Instead he relies on his intelligence, skills, resources, and contacts (although, in those catagories he is super(meta)human). He does not even own his corporation outright, yet he competes against, and triumphs over, those who use their magic and cybernetics to get there way (as opposed to, say, Azetech where magic and dirty tricks are the rule for success; or Mitsuhama, where stories abound about the nasty surprises their CEO "hands" out to those who displease him with his monster cyber-claw).

And, for those of us with a less than favorable opnion of Ryan "Twink-Silver" Mercury, let us not forget (or, even better, take a minute to remember fondly) that when Twink-Silver ran up against Damian Knight, it was not Knight that ended up naked and cuffed on a concrete floor with a pair of Troll Company men pointing assult rifles at his back.

Which, is not to say, of course, that Damian Knight is not a total prick, just that he is a very cool total prick, in the way only a fictional character can be.

There are very cool Dumpshock regulars?

Sure there are...

Back to topic:

Coolest:
Damien "Gavilan" Knight
Argent
Matador

Hated

Ryan Mercury
Ryan Mercury
Ryan Mercury

And I also hated Sam Verner

I like Ryan. Except his taste in nipples.

Hm. I'll stick with my criteria of, "would the game universe be less without them."

In no order:

Chuck-Chuck Razool (Can't beat a street name like that)

Cap the Knife, aka Casper (ditto)

Wolfgang Kies (for the reasons listed)

Jack Skater (not Slater as previously mentioned)

Kid Stealth (he's an icon)

Derek Montgomery (gumshoe much?)

Bloodwing aka Blackwing (THE elven hitman. Period.)

The Big D (why not?)

Archangel (Ice Queen in love...)

Harlequin (c'mon, he's cool)

Chance (first published Insect Shaman)

Alice Crenshaw (women can be cold killers too. even in 1989)

Critias:

With all due respect, the role of "President Josiah 'Jed' Bartlet" in The West Wing is played by Martin Sheen, not Donald Sutherland.

I think that you *might* have the families mixed up.

Everyone else: Please excuse me for this brief off-topic excursion.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled Dumpshock Forums.

--Foreigner

I happen to like Harlequin as I imagined him after reading the first of his adventures, and some of his shadowtalk. That isn´t to say I like all accounts of him in the novels, or any of them actually. That he´s a bit out of fashion all the time is a good idea by his creators. It gives the GM a chance to make him seem wise when just speaking about bands of the -90´s or something, and it´s natural that someone with a long lifespan would not follow the sota fashion even if it´s one of the more "hip" old ones around.

Derek Montgomery is the best of the lead character´s in all of the SR novels.

and maybe the coolest one:

Alice. Living in her noir, celluloid city that´s a world of it´s own in the matrix, chain smoking virtual cigarettes, being a mysterious ghost in the machine and part of the most intruiging meta-plot—makes her no1.

That´s an honest of-the-top-of-my-head list of the ones that I remember thinking, "wow, that´s cool" when reading about.

From the old SNES game: Kitsune

From an adventure: The Cat Troll from Missing Blood.

From a fiction section of a sourcebook: Lucifer

Just to clarify, I'm not responsible for the quote attributed to me above, though I do agree with most of it.

I'm going with either Hatchetman or Damian Knight. I'm leaning towards Hatchetman due to his rather nice apperances in the sourcebooks, especialy Real Life and Cybertech.

What's up with Sally Tsung, btw?

Skwaaark.

~J