In one of the games I ran I had a player who was an Elven PhysAd assassin, and I allowed him to have a very high rating weapon focus, said weapon focus being a DiKote enhanced mono-whip concealed in a fingertip compartment.

So, I was wondering-

Are their any Players or GM's out there who have stories about characters who, shall we say, might be considered to go slightly beyond what would be generally considered reasonable for a PC in the Shadowrun setting that they would like to share with the group?

Not that my monitered ass can recall, but you have to remeber in Shadowrun no one has Hitpoint and we all can be extinguished by any one, it's one of those things i love about this game.

Acccually now that i think about it I did let a player have the apptitute edge for brawling, and damn it made a difference , especially with multi strike, so now as a house rule the Aptitude edge is only used for certain skills now.

And risk the ridicule of the holier than thou canon gm's?

Are you insane?

Why is canon holier than thou?

If the PC can bond the weapon focus, then I won't mind. However if the force of the focus is higher than 6 at chargen, then the game balance in your campaign might need some help.

I would mind the combination of monowire and surface treatments, especially of this kind, but thats just common sense + knowledge of material sciences.

I encountered an active member of the order of sun, moon and stars once. The player of said character was enough reason to leave the group. Some styles don´t mix at all.

Wow, that monowhip focus is on par with someone allowing a fully automatic heavy pistol or explosive flechette.

I think the most uncannon thing I have experienced, was my GM having a vampire spirit possess my char for a few sessions, so I had the benefit of regeneration, and an essence of 6. Because it possessed me, it didn't tap the 1 point of essence I had left.

Our very first campaing... One of the players was a Shapeshifter Adept who became a Vampire. Yeah...

A few years back, we made an extremely liberal interpretation of the rules regarding hydraulic jacks that had my "cyb-orc" leaping from building to building and over twelve lanes of traffic.

There were a few other times like that, but that's the only one I'll admit to right now.

I let a team start with a Citymaster once, because I liked their A-Teaminess so much...

Stevebugge: that's kinda what i meant. I was also referring to the GM's that like to punish their runners for having a tool/gun/widget that might give them an advantage in a particular situation.

Since there are a few brave souls out there willing to divulge their dark, slightly munchy secrets, I can divulge one of ours.

Becuase it allowed for some AWESOME roleplaying, and becuase I liked the idea, I allowed one of my players (elf physad, with mental issues) to embrace his unknown, unmentioned drake side.

/GASP

How un-canon!

I have:

• Allowed Sacrificing Metamagic
• Changed the Available Design Options By Frame in the CC (to be more broken than ever)
• Allowed the Aptitude Edge for Magical and Comabt skills
• Regretted it in almost every case

In the last campaign, I let the team sell off an Antonov 335 heavy transport they "acquired". Even at the standard 1/3 value it still came out to a lot of .

Thought it might make some of the characters consider retirement (particularly the pesky mage with the Mind Probe spell)

Thought wrong.

Well, "a friend of mine" had his very first shadowrun champaign escalate into some kind of bad "starsherifs"-rippoff. To my def.., ehr, my "friends" defense, it was an alternating gm round, his very first sr round and the other guys starded throwing Mecha and UFO´s, was allso only 13 or 14 by than. "he" never ever participated in any alternating gm round afterwards! (which tragically means allmost always being gm and nearly never playing, since most of m.. "his" buddys won´t play something other then sr anymore)... Oh, man, feals so dirty thinking about this first champaign

I'm currently "allowing" the Aptitude edge for magic and combat.

"Allowing" meaning they took it and we got a full session into the game before it came up. If I take it, they'll whine about it, so I let them keep it.

Never again, I believe is the proper expression.

how about an ally spirit going free after 5+ years when the summoner is vivisected (becuase he was a drake), then returning later to free it's former master and making him a hidden life receptacle?

I remember a munchy windfall in a game once

early 3rd ed

the GM had us attacked by a 12 man squad where they wee all BBB street samurai

one player had a contact foor laundering second hand cvyber

the GM immediately went inti damage control by showing the rigger the private jet section... so e could do his preplanned international runs and we lost all our cash in one go.

I allowed a PC to be a twisted path adept. It lead to some great roleplay between he and the other players.

I've always allowed Aptitude for specializations instead of skills, but left it open to any skill. And after about 3 years of having that rule, I've only seen one character take it.

As for horrible characters, there's always this (which I'm sure some of you still remember and have mental trauma associated with). But I immediately took the sheet away from the player, put it in my pocket, and told him he could never have it back, so it doesn't really count.

Anyway. In my current game, I'm making the shapeshifter a Hidden Life receptacle. But the spirit is rather evil (it was originally going to be a Horror), and will be able to influence his actions and sometimes possess him. So this should be fun.


Edit: Oh yeah. The player who made that awful munchkin thing? He later ran his own game and used that character as a major NPC. When we decided we didn't want to meet the guy for a job offer, we were teleported to the meet and held in place through some unnamed magic/technological force. And upon refusing to take the run, we were teleported to where he wanted us anyway.

I allowed a player to name his character "Neil the Ork Barbarian" after an obscure reference to the voice mask cyberware in the first Street Samurai guide. His real name was Neil, so we all found it quite funny.

First time I ran SR2 in college I allowed a PC to be a baby dragon. (Duck and cover) We cut his mental and physical stats to shreds, didn't start with anything higher then a 4. Unfortunately a few points of hardened armor made him a B#@$ in combat. Plus since dragons were listed with an essence of 2d6 I let hjim roll for it, essence of 11 and by our understanding a magic rating of 11. That was a small problem[sarcasm]

Running and hiding

Let's see, as a player:

Played a magically active vampire
Bandersnatch DJ (one of the other pc's, my lighting desighener, was a firefly shaman)
A troll sammy that got turned into a Dzoo-no-qua then possesed by a force 10 greater form fire elemental.
Spider shamen named Recluse


Things I've allowed as a gm:
A char to be duel natured
Banshee

I'm sure there are others, I'll have to think of it.

I've let a player be a baby dragon. We used the ork stats and costs. Armor and such had to be purchased with Adept Power Points. It's not unbalancing, just embarassing to me personally.

I also let a player be a cyberzombie. Actually "let" him play a cyberzombie is a little bit dishonest. The player asked for full amnesia (the version where the gamemaster makes your character), so he woke up left for dead impaled on a piece of rebar - with an Essence of -1 (and of course vastly more cyberware than could technically be afforded by a starting character). He was crazy crazy good, but it took a long time for him to be unduly influential in the game because he spent a long time not even knowing about a lot of his skills and abilities.

As for cheesy characters, I've played an Aspected Hermetic Conjurer Rigger with a huge pile of Geasa that collectively don't mean crap because he needs to be in contact with expensive materials to conjure anyway. Add an Ally spirit and Spirit Focus and he was able to pull off Force 9 Great Form Elementals. :blush:

-Frank

once upon a time, i didn't read character sheets. i was punished for my sins by getting both a panther shaman with a PAC spell focus ("see, it's called a Panther, and my totem thinks that's cool!") and a clone of Casca, the immortal Roman legionnaire from the paperback series. he had shapeshifter-style regeneration and several hundred karma.

the most embarrassing character i've played was a female ex-LS vice cop with pheromones and other appearance/interaction-enhancing mods. i swear to god, i thought the concept was really cool and it was not for the purpose of playing out wet dreams at the table. her only saving grace was that she wasn't a lesbian. i burned the sheet at once, upon realizing what i'd done, then showered for days.

i'm so filthy. so filthy.

oh yeah, I forgot about the one char I mad but have never played, prolly never will.

Physad, duel monowhip weapon foci.
Improved armed, amby, stealth improved....

Cannon, yes. Not something I'm going to try and talk a GM into anytime soon.

But...you were a Tiger....heh.

I have never wanted to play a shapeshifter for their animal form, I just wanted a badass adept that could heal like mad. That is something I should probably be ashamed of, but since I have never succombed fully to the urge to play one.....

One thing I think would add to this thread is that my GM wanted(wants) to make shapeshifters have a middle shape, like were-creatures.....I am ashamed for him,heh.

I did play a cyber-armed native american street sam named "RainDance" back in the SR2 days, that, somehow through the progression of the game became a wolf shifter...Something about a totem changing him or something...of course he lost his cyber and grew back the arms...I can't remember much more about it except I totally exploited the regeneration, I remember playing in an Urban Brawl game for some reason and just jumping off a building for the heck of it....

Good times...

Most of the really embarassing things I've done and allowed for in rpgs were not done in Shadowrun, and therefor I am saved from shame. You see, it would be out of topic to admit them here .

Once when we were really (can't stress this enough) young, I GM'd a duo concisting of a female mage called something..Nicole Smith, and a female ork street sam with lipstick and miniskirt. That's my SR low. And that's just a bit corny. In other games things have been extremely crazy at times.

As a player there was my totally over the top dwarven Met2000 Mercenary, Gracie. In a serious Min Max campaign and using the alternate strength rule from Cannon Companion, I maxxed out her strength & gave her 4 levels of Muscle Augmentation to boot (Total strength attribute rating of 12). Meanwhile Her Ares Alpha was fully tricked out for maximum recoil comp. Basically she could stand her ground & go full lead hose all day while barely breaking a sweat (total +1 modifier for recoil on full auto).

She also had Wired 2 (Beta) and 4 levels of Reaction enhancement (Built under the high power rule in MJ's BB)

Of course her favourite line was "Say Goodnight [insert appropriate character type]"

Unfortunately, the character sheet is lost to the sands of time. What I remember is I rolled 6d6 initiative (1d6 basic + 2d6 for shifter + 3d6 for boosted reflexes). I don't remember if I managed to boost my quickness or int above 8 or not.

The 3rd edition animal stats make a little more sense. Tiger does Serious damage instead of Moderate (+1 power, +1 range), but it's still stun, not physical.

I allowed Allergy: common cleaning substances for five or six flaw points (I forget).

I more recently allowed a ninja catgirl, but in my defense she's neither a space amazon nor a pirate, and the backstory is a lot of fun.

I mostly GM now, but, I have had some embarrassing PC's over the years as well, some of the highlights on my wall of shame:

Vampire, Owl Shaman, Massive Ally Spirit, and a Weapon Focus [note: This was first edition when Weapon Focus meant something quite a bit different than it does in these, more sober, times] that was not only obscene, but was only the finest pice in a foci collection that would have done any museum proud. And, of course, as he continued as a runner to fund his (eternal)lifelong quest to amass more magic, he left no spell un-learned, no foci un-bonded, and no meta-magic technique un-mastered.

Elven PhysAd Gunslinger [First Edition again here]: Specalized in pistols, specific weapon, Ares Predator II [Recoil Comp, APDS, Smartgun Link, Reactive Trigger], with a smartgun link and cybereyes. Bought up reflex enhancement, Pistols skill, and auto-successes [pistols], to obscene hights. There was this one published module [I forget the title] where the PC's fight a dragon in the end [iirc, at the top of a skyscraper, it has been a long time], and he killed the dragon with a single squeeze of the trigger [that being two shots back in the bad old days].

And My All Time Worst:
Free Spirit [A Nature Spirit from the Magic supplement, a Spirit of the Air-not just any run of the mill Air Spirit], who had Sorcery as one of the powers he gained when he became free [force was something like eight or ten to boot] and quickly gained a university sized magic library's worth of spells, which supplemented his natural powers quite nicely [and, of course, the game moves much more smoothly and much more quickly, when drain is not part of the picture].

I would point out that, these were all part of highly munchie games, where all of the players were way over the top.

I thought Pistols wasn't on the PhysAd skill list 'till 2nd edition?

Sorry, sloppy reporting there, you are right as far as I remember-everything was firearms back in first edition, except for when it came to buying specalities for skills, so where it says pistols, except for the part on specalization of the firearms skill, it should say firearms.

An initiated druid PC with Hidden Life from his free Ally Spirit - Mental Flaw: Pacifist. A initiated adept with Background 10 virtuso. Combination gang and otaku tribe(using ganger campaign rules and otaku tribe rules) controlled by the PCs.

Toxic, mutant adult Eastern dragon Master Shedim NPC.
Toxic Termite Queen NPC, with 2 toxic mutant cybered fleshform Juggernauts and 1 fleshform worker with very high SUT and TacComp and a lot of other cybered fleshform insect spirits.

You wouldn't. That's why the name of the file is "epoc_cheated".

I've got a human character with elf-looking, amnesia and hunted, surgeling, with fremen-type eyes, silver hair, and pointed ears..

I've also got an elf with: Bio rejection, Computer Illiterate, Sensitive Neural Structure (4 point), and Simsense vertigo.

In my defence, I did NOT take phobia(severe) computers.