we'll... i was looking around and i found on a SR3 chargen an option to create Drake and Changeling characters... i've got an idea about changelings, but i've got none whatsoever about that Drake option...

Can anyone explain both to me, including (any kind of) descriptions, pros and cons?

Information regarding them can be found in the old book, Threats 2 (Or the first one. I forget which).

Basicly a Drake is like a shapeshifter, except instead of an animal that can turn into a human, this is a human that can turn into a small dragon.

A search on this on the forums will also reveal more, since this has been discussed before.

One major con against playing a Drake is that if you do, expect to be hunted down and either exterminated, or be made to work for one of the Great Dragons (and be killed by another one...)

Changelings are metahumans (any normal race) affected by an effect called SURGE caused by mana fluctuations when halley's comet passsed over in 2061 (see Year of the Comet). Basically they transform into anything from the much maligned catgirl to blue skinned astrallly active freaks(I still get hassle about that...) across a range of weirdness, mostly they're odd and balanced - have a couple of weak powers(extra senses and the liek) look fucking freaky...

Drakes on the other hand. Drakes are metahumans (non cybered mostly magically active) who can transform into small dracoforms, they are a race created to serve dragons and them altered slightly and "freed" to breed a new race. See earthdawn and Year of the Comet and Dragons of the Siwth World for more. Basically you get to turn into a dragon with all the coolness that implies, but you get chased around by dragons that want you as their bitch, or you are a dragons bitch already.

thanks, that helped a lot!!

by the way, now that the surge has been mentioned, what is that awakening? what could be the difference between an awakned and a non-awakned character (the same character, for instance)?

Um, the awakening is the rebirth of magic, an awakened character is a magical one, a surged character (changling) is one effected by surge effects, some say latent geneic code that cant express itself with such low levels of mana currently. But the passing of Halley's comet it created a mana surge that let these traits express.

Do you even play SR? The Awakening is about as basic as you can possibly get.

as a matter of fact, it's been quite a while since the last time i've played SR... I'm trying to get a checklist of SR books to see what i can gather to stay up to date...

i'm aware about the awakening of the world, but i've asked about that because my brother's friend said something about this changing radically (he didn't tell me the nature of such changes) on SR 3 and 4, and since i couldn't get such books until now i've decided to risk being flamed but ask about it anyways...

anyways, i really appreciate the help you guys provided me here!

I could easily be wrong, but I'd guess that your brother's friend might be thinking about the streamlining of the Magic Rules, mages of any Tradition be it Shaman, Mage, ect all get the same powers, the only major differences is what you use to resist Drain with and what Spirits you summon for which task...

Surge is explained in Year of the Comet. Most people, here at least, say it made SR too anime/cartoony. To me its just another bit of flavor we use once in a while, not much though.

Drakes I am almost 90% sure are covered in detail in Dragons of the 6th world. I dont remember the rules because well our group isnt that into half dragon characters.

I didnt mean to sound like I was flaming you, SR hasnt really changed metaplot wise since first, second or third edition or fourth for that matter. And I seen you said you found those options in a SR3 character generator. To me it seems you may have been mining for rules instead of getting the books.

EDIT: Metavariants like gnomes and ogres are covered in the Shadow Companion

indeed i've seen those options (drake and changeling) on a chargen, and i cannot say you're wrong about me mining rules, because i was... it's not that i'm too lazy to get the books, i just wanted to get an ideia while i was searching for something... i live in brazil and it's REALLY hard to find SR books around here (rulebooks, not to mention other stuff like year of the comet), therefore the only resource i've got to find out "news" about SR is the internet...

anyways, none offence have been taken Frag-o Deluxe!

i'll keep trying to keep up with Shadowrun!