It struck me when reading 4th ed that all the runners in a group wil start at about the same expierence in the shadows and about the same age. There is really nothing to signafy being anything less then 18/20 or more then 45/50 (human years). Alsp there is so flew qualities that they don't reallly allow to much extra customization, nor are the extra points for negative qualities really sufficient to greatly shift the character.

I purpose a qualitity: Vetren O' the Shadows a la Vetren O' the Weird West from Deadlands. Basically the way this would work is that those who take it would have been running the shadows for a decade or two already, the've learned some of the tricks of the trade, usually at a price. As such, they get say... 100 extra BPs. This is just a rough idea, maybe 100 is to little, more likly a little to much. Then they roll a d66 (two d6, each a different color, one is the 10s, the other is the 1s. I.E. First dice comes up a 3, the second dice a 5. THat would be 35). Each result (or cluster of results) would give a different result.

11: Cursed- Sometime during your travels you corss a spirit or magician with some serious mojo, and he/she/it cursed you with its diying breath. At the beginning of each game the GM rolls your edge. if you glitch, your character will die during that game. A good GM will make sure you got out in style though

12-14: Unhinged- You have seen the full horrors of the streets, and it has broken a little part of you. Everytime you are faced with what the GM would consider a nightmarish situation ( a paticulaly ugly beast, a massicure, finding a torture victum, etc) you need to make a willpower roll (GM sets the threashold by cercumstance) or break down (you and the GM can work out the details when the character is made. curling up into the fetal position is a yes, flying into a beserk rage is a no. THis is terror it triggers, not rage or anger or anythin else like that)

15-16: Forsaken: YOu might have p*ssed off some spirits, or maybe an enimy build a powerful hermetic seal around your soul. Either way, no positive magic can effect you. The bad kind will fry you all the same.

21-23: SPirit-saved. THing might seem like a good thing, but you better think again. Sometime in the past a Spirit, shamen or other supernatutural critter saved your sorry hide, and left a bit to little flesh behind, or maybe your soul went astray. EIther way, your starting essence is 1 and you cannot log into VR into the matrix, nor use your Edge while in AR.

24-26: Maimed: One of your limbs don't quite work right. On a 1-2 you've got a bad leg, movment rates or halved. 3-4 a leg is simply gone, goodluck with that. 5-6 you are missing your nonweapon hand. You can get it replaced with a cyberlimb, but the injury is an old one, and the thing is obsolete by modern standereds. It has 1 point of capacity and costs double the essence. It is the GM's duty to make life miserable for anyone who tries to get a missing limb cybered right away, or to get their limbs replaced. This is supposed to bit a hinderance!

31-33: Jinxed- Your luck is fine, the same can't be said for your companions. All those who travel with you have the "Bad Luck" qualitity

34-36: Dark Soul- You have been hardened by the amount of bloodshed you have seen and it has marked your very soul. You never take prisoners and surrender is not an option for your enimies.

41-43: Debt: You owe a mob boss a BIG favor, or maybe a crooked LoneStar official has a juicy peice of information about you. Either way you can trust on them to recruit you for for jobs to dangerous for their own people. Refusing is bad, and they don't take no for an answer.

44-46: Fragile: You've been through helll and its taken a toll on your body. You have 2 fewer healthboxes then normal (1 fewer stun).

51-53: Shattered Nerves: In all opposed tests agienst intimmidation, bluffs, and the like you opponet gets 1 free hit

54-56: Touble Maker- You tend to get into fights. When someone is looking to start something, they make a B line to ya. People tend to take what you say the wrong way, and be a little less forgiving.

61-63: Hunted- Someone, or more likly something is out to get you. Its probly the result of unfinished buisness or someone who just once as dead as you thought.

64: No Room for Errors: You do not make mistakes. You have made to many in the past. You always confirm your kills, you always have a working plan, you never leave ANYTHING up to chance. In addition, you get another free roll on this table. Lucky you.

65: Tales- You got off easy. All you have to show for your years are a few thosand stories. You rarely encounter anything new, and start with 1.5 the free knowedge points. Not all that bad, is it? Well, as a result of all this expeirence already underyour belt you need to give a little extra push to earn Karma. normal RP or heroics just won't cut it here.

66: Eternal Hero- Fate has chosen your miserable soul as a champion of somthing or another. Evertime you are about to die make a Edge roll threshold 3. If you pass, you live. But nothing is free, maybe a loved one bought it instead. Fate is a cruel mistress.


Well, this is just an alpha verson, what do you guys think?

Variable Edge was supposed to in part reflect this. The Lucky Quality, however, creates an impression Edge is just luck instead of, well, your edge over the opposition. Likewise, I fail to understand how just being Human gives you the potential to be even edgier (or lucky or whatever you want to call it) than any other race.

What do you mean? It doesn't get much edgier than this and there is at least an outside chance they are human.

I kind of like it, I think 100 might be too much though. Maybe something in the 40-50 range. Though, It seems like you can end up getting a lot of other semi-bonuses out of it rather than just points. Some of the penalties are waay to devastating (1 essence???).

It seems like each option should have its own point value to it, either a bonus or minus.

I think the characters are powerful enough as they stand. Keep in mind they are "starting" characters.

If you want to create a "veteran" Shadowrunner I would just up the BP available and work out his/her backstory with your GM. This sort of thing is subject to massive abuse by players.

More Deadlands-styled flaws and edges!
Grim Servant o' Death, anyone?

I too really miss the additional qualities represented in the SR3 Companion.

There's this elf who likes pointy things based around Impulsive and Combat Monster.....

I still think there were some really cool ones in the SR2Comp, like At Ease.

Friends Abroad was and is just stupid, though.

i like the flaw, though i disagree with the reason for needing it. you can represent an older, more experienced character by spending less on attributes and more on skills, in any game system that lets you spend points on both from the same pool.

a more experienced runner wouldn't, necessarily, but an older one would. your body starts to slow down as you get old--you're not as strong or as fast as you were at 18, but you've been doing your thing so long that you can outperform some kid newbie most times.

Like Hawk and Spenser in Cold Service.

yeah. i'm ignoring the issues i believe exist with SR4, for the moment; as i said, the principle can be applied in any game where attributes and skills are bought from a common pool.

Well personally if I were running a game and wanted to reflect this, I think I'd introduce a Quality named 'Experienced', (Not sure on the Cost though, maybe 15 or 20?) that allowed a starting Character to choose between;

(1) Doubling the number of skills allowed at the starting 'cap' (Two skills at Rating 6, or four skills at Rating 5.). This applies to both Active and Knowledge Skills.

(2) Allow one Skill Group to be raised to Rating 5.

(3) Buy a single item with a higher Restriction then 12. (If the item was fairly small, like Ammo, then I imagine that more then 10 shots could be bought, although I imagine that the main things used with this option would be Cyberware and Foci.)

Sounds a bit pricey, plus spending points in Char gen for a bonus only in char gen not good to my mind. Not sure how to do it though...

hmm. well, first of all i think 'experienced' should also allow you to start with initiation, or betaware implants (possibly at alphaware costs). that right there makes people WANT that advantage.

you have to look at what the cost of the advantage makes them give up. you only get 35 points od these advantages max... but you can reduce the cost with flaws. you want to stay balanced with the rest of the group, but not screw yourself for taking the advantage.

so.. say its two seperate advantages. one for bonus magic/resonance (25 pts, so its not cheaper than the 6th point of magic/resoncance), one for access to higher skills/betaware. cash is very limited, so anything more expensive than alphaware isnt really a viable option- the betaware has to be made afordable.

either way, you will get a few very munchkin results from such an option, as everyone tries to use it.