Full Version: Charecter Backgrounds
Curious to see what other people think.
Mundane human paranormal animal hunter.
Sorta similar to the military or corp background, a fun one, especially for a low power setting campaign.
Sorta similar to the military or corp background, a fun one, especially for a low power setting campaign.
I like to cone up with unusual backgrounds... stuff ya don't see often but tha makes sense
Greetings. I'm a new poster here, and I found this particular topic interesting. I personally like the ex-military background, for it gives, IMO, a realisitic background into why a person is such an expert in hand to hand, ranged weapons, martial arts, firearms, tactics, etc. And if the character was big into Special Ops, once they are out, they would naturally be inclined to do shadowrunning.. to keep their skills honed, and for the challenge of it. My favorite NPC (as my group's GM) a cybered Ork, who used to be in the UCAS Army. I also liked the back story of the Sioux Wildcats, but I never did do a character with that backstory. So I would say, if I had to do a character from scratch, I would probably start him off with an ex-military background. And of course, the military offers many variations of a character...infantry, Special Ops, Pilot, etc.
Once they are out from the military they might also want a nice calm job or a peaceful retirement where people will not SHOOT at them. Security guard or something similar is rather quiet and calm, except for a shadowrunner or two now and then.
Most of my characters started running to escape the harshness of their lives. Many were gangers, or parts of otaku tribes (I used to play alot of otaku chars). All of my chars were mundane, and very few were cybered, giving them more of a underdog/ no talent/ money but lots of heart and skills feeling.
And all my chars have a large amount of street contacts
And all my chars have a large amount of street contacts
I definitely like the ordinary guy approach who falls into a life of crime for whatever slightly plausible reason. (I guess that falls under "Shadowrunner by Accident") Makes for some fun/interesting RP with the internal conflicts. Of course, I'm an angsty teenager. Err, no, wait, I'm 20 now. Damn. My precious angst... 
I like the whole "ran from the corp world, lives on the thrill angle"
A surprising number of my characters have become shadowrunners simply because it was the highest paying job they could get with the skills they had, which leans toward the 'accident' theme. I've only had one ex-military character. He embezzled his GI bill through a dummy university to buy himself cyberware.
My previous, and oddest character was an actor. He had the dermal sheathing with adaptive coloration, plus fingerprint and retinal scanner. He could impersonate anyone (even women, provided there weren't any mages watching on astral) and was constatly stealing clothes and uniforms. Fun to play.
My previous, and oddest character was an actor. He had the dermal sheathing with adaptive coloration, plus fingerprint and retinal scanner. He could impersonate anyone (even women, provided there weren't any mages watching on astral) and was constatly stealing clothes and uniforms. Fun to play.
Most of my characters (when I get to play) enter the shadows for personnel/political reasons usually as an effort to hit the PTB where it hurts.
I voted for other, because that depends on the character I'm playng at the time. For example:
Elf Street Sam - Ex-Corp
Human Street Shamman - Street
Human Physical Adept (Bounty Hunter) - Ex-Cop / Tribal
Troll Mercenary - Ex-Military
Ext...
Elf Street Sam - Ex-Corp
Human Street Shamman - Street
Human Physical Adept (Bounty Hunter) - Ex-Cop / Tribal
Troll Mercenary - Ex-Military
Ext...
I do like the Ex-corp angle, because it can plausibly leave you with any skill set. Hackers, Faces, Magicians, Street Sams, Riggers, and Adepts are all raised/trained/equipped by the corps for different reasons. And they are all also discarded by the corps for reasons equally as varied.
It can be hard to explain your bleeding edge Synaptic Boosters with a street background, and it can be hard to explain why it is that you are a fragile hacker/face with a military background - but with the corporate background both of those backstories pretty much write themselves.
Of course, I can see people disliking the ex-corp background for the same reason - it does write itself. Character was part of secret project to do X really well. Character is now really good at X. Project was cancelled with extreme prejucide. Character is now trying to make it on the down-low with leet skills in X. We hope for his sake that [fill in corporation] does not realize that any part of project remains unterminated.
-Frank
It can be hard to explain your bleeding edge Synaptic Boosters with a street background, and it can be hard to explain why it is that you are a fragile hacker/face with a military background - but with the corporate background both of those backstories pretty much write themselves.
Of course, I can see people disliking the ex-corp background for the same reason - it does write itself. Character was part of secret project to do X really well. Character is now really good at X. Project was cancelled with extreme prejucide. Character is now trying to make it on the down-low with leet skills in X. We hope for his sake that [fill in corporation] does not realize that any part of project remains unterminated.
-Frank
| QUOTE (FrankTrollman) |
| I do like the Ex-corp angle, because it can plausibly leave you with any skill set. Hackers, Faces, Magicians, Street Sams, Riggers, and Adepts are all raised/trained/equipped by the corps for different reasons. And they are all also discarded by the corps for reasons equally as varied. It can be hard to explain your bleeding edge Synaptic Boosters with a street background, and it can be hard to explain why it is that you are a fragile hacker/face with a military background - but with the corporate background both of those backstories pretty much write themselves. Of course, I can see people disliking the ex-corp background for the same reason - it does write itself. Character was part of secret project to do X really well. Character is now really good at X. Project was cancelled with extreme prejucide. Character is now trying to make it on the down-low with leet skills in X. We hope for his sake that [fill in corporation] does not realize that any part of project remains unterminated. -Frank |
That's true, but then again there really are only a few reasonable paths that could lead a person to run to begin with. I prefer a Street background because it still allows for most skills, and both Street and Ex-Corp can really play up some of the themes of the CP genre, what with the rebellion, grittiness, corporate slavery, et cetera.
I ended up choosing the Syndicate angle simply because I grew up on gangster movies and the like -- I approached Shadowrun with a mind on films like Black Rain, The Usual Suspects, Reservoir Dogs, Heat, Brother, Ghost Dog, and many Chinese gangster movies.
I tend to favour that sort of thing, but I'm in no way limiting myself to just this genre for ideas and angles.
I tend to favour that sort of thing, but I'm in no way limiting myself to just this genre for ideas and angles.
Tough call, but I'll go with Ex-Corp for more or less the same reasons that Frank posted. The fact that it's also a catch-all category for half of the poll's options doesn't hurt either. 
Yeah, Ex-Corp writes itself but there is some fun in scomming up with a unique background. This can be done with ex-corp, of course, if you put in the right details, but I find it far more fun to do wih more mundane lifestyles.
Shaddowrunner by accident pretty much overlaps with everything. Most people don't wake up one day and say 'I want to be a Shadowrunner'.
Three of my four favorite characters are accidental Shadowrunners.
There a minotaur medical doctor on the run from a politically powerful enemy.
Then there is the human pirvate eye from a middle class family who is running from a blood mage.
Then there is Scout, the young daughter of card carrying Alomos 20kers who killed her parents in their sleep when she goblinized out of fear that they would make her the first casualty in their race war.
The fourth, who has begun to evolve from my Gilgamesh story and will probably never be played, did work up from the streets.
Shaddowrunner by accident pretty much overlaps with everything. Most people don't wake up one day and say 'I want to be a Shadowrunner'.
Three of my four favorite characters are accidental Shadowrunners.
There a minotaur medical doctor on the run from a politically powerful enemy.
Then there is the human pirvate eye from a middle class family who is running from a blood mage.
Then there is Scout, the young daughter of card carrying Alomos 20kers who killed her parents in their sleep when she goblinized out of fear that they would make her the first casualty in their race war.
The fourth, who has begun to evolve from my Gilgamesh story and will probably never be played, did work up from the streets.
My two favorite characters were ex-military and ex-cop. I won't be bringing the ex-military sammie into SR4, though, because I'm sure we'd be dead by then. Very much nihilist.
Ex-Corp seems to be the most popular... and that is quite logical too, it explains the funding and also provides a good reason to stay in the shadows as Frank has already explained.
As the Gm in my group I can present the backgrounds of the characters running in and out.
14 characters there as follows:
1 runaway kid (technomancer), 1 ex-intelligence from the CAS (face), 3 ex corporate (military, hitman and security officer; the samurai and the secguard from the same corporation), 1 ex Sioux border patrol, 2 geeks (hacker and drone rigger), 2 activist/terrorists (gunslinger and mage), 2 street types (ganger and a chinese adept), a university student (mage) and... this is the best... a former Ninja...
Personally, I like corporate backgrounds and/or a unique story.
My favourite character (as a player) was an elf smuggler running from the heat.
Cheers,
Max
As the Gm in my group I can present the backgrounds of the characters running in and out.
14 characters there as follows:
1 runaway kid (technomancer), 1 ex-intelligence from the CAS (face), 3 ex corporate (military, hitman and security officer; the samurai and the secguard from the same corporation), 1 ex Sioux border patrol, 2 geeks (hacker and drone rigger), 2 activist/terrorists (gunslinger and mage), 2 street types (ganger and a chinese adept), a university student (mage) and... this is the best... a former Ninja...
Personally, I like corporate backgrounds and/or a unique story.
My favourite character (as a player) was an elf smuggler running from the heat.
Cheers,
Max
I've had the most fun with ordinary backgrounds
-former troll trideo star (started out in action movies, had his breakout dramatic role that showed his acting chops, then found he couldn't find work in either genre).
-former janitor (teen gang member that tried to go legit for a few years)
-former executive chef (this one is brand new; I'll see how it works out).
-former troll trideo star (started out in action movies, had his breakout dramatic role that showed his acting chops, then found he couldn't find work in either genre).
-former janitor (teen gang member that tried to go legit for a few years)
-former executive chef (this one is brand new; I'll see how it works out).
My primary characters have all been by-accident characters. My favorite tagline from one of my characters was "With dangerous skills and no better place to use them, he turned to a life of crime and shadowrunning"
| QUOTE (hyzmarca) |
| Most people don't wake up one day and say 'I want to be a Shadowrunner'. |
Most of these will actually never land in the shadows, or crack on the first cakerun.
In my world (I am mostly gm) the ones who want to be runners are usually wannabees, like the one in Ronin, most real shadowtypes slipt into the trade somehow or were forced to this kind of work.
Me personally, I do not often play myselfe, so its hard to decide.
I probably like the ex-spooks and mil/merc backgrounds most, but looking at the pc I played myselfe, so fare, its really a mixed bag. Actually most of the backgrounds are mixed by themselves, like corp-parents and mil-career ore something.
The only SR4 pc I built a bg for yet (an old pc I build new, since most of his stats would have atrophied by the time), is an ex-medical scientist turned corper, turned Mossad-plant in MET 2000 turned runner Combat-Medic after exposure and faked termination (which I played in SR3 in the late 50´s) turned Deus-Green-Experimentator turned Streetdoc turned prisener in an automated instalation after the 2nd crash and now in 2070 is fresh out of prison, after they realized, they had lost all data during the Crash of 64 about why he was imprisoned in the first place, so they simply shoved him out to the streets.
He now tries to build up a new life as streetdoc/combatmedic, while living his old life with his killed wife and children in BTL-fantasies on weekends.
I think this probably quallifies for other, which I´ll vote for, since it really depends on the character concept. I probably like mobsters as well as ex-cops and reporters and streetscum, as well as all the above, from corper to cult member.
I picked ex-military because the last character I played and really enjoyed was ex-military. I have over the years built, GMed or played characters from just about all of those categories (and combinations of those categories). Just depends on what I feel like playing or how the concept comes to me.
| QUOTE (hyzmarca) |
| Shaddowrunner by accident pretty much overlaps with everything. Most people don't wake up one day and say 'I want to be a Shadowrunner'. |
That is why Leela's story is about 30 pages long, same for Violet, and KK's (in the SR4 rewrite) tops out at 45.
These kids have some really good reasons to run the shadows.
I picked ex-intelligence because I find that my (good) characters were usually gathering intelligence or performing black-ops for someone else before they started to do it themselves. This means they could have been corp intel, military intel, actual spooks or something else -- its just a convenient way to explain the skill set and training that most runners use.
Katklaw was a slightly nerdish corp scion who following his Goblinization, dropped out of corp school, got pretty much disowned, and started wandering. Eventually, he became a citizen of the Salish-Shidhe, following his rescue of a shaman. So, he wandered around the NAN for a while, until a nearly fatal bear attack left him crippled, and he had all of his cyberware (legally) installed. The thing ripped both his legs off, clawed out his eyes, ears, and most of his face and chest. A nearl mage played the good samaritan and fried the thing, then stopped him from dying with his magic. So, Katklaw continued to roam the wilds afterwards- and started hunting inside the city as well as without.
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