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Draconis
Quirks, the stuff that brings characters to life. I'm curious as to what character quirks you have or have seen.

One guy I ran with would get part of his payment in scratcher lotto tickets then during downtime i.e. on a stakeout he'd scratch em off often leaving a pile of useless tickets.

There was a dwarf rigger who I ran with who would go to restaurants and just eat condiments, ketchup and mustard seemed to be his favorites. Oh and he dry shaved unconscious people but we won't go into that.

Then there's my current character, Scratch, who seems to have an unhealthy obsession with cheesecake. Oh and since raiding a tomb for jewelry crowned himself a pharoh.

There's the dwarven mage we run with who's entire tradition and paradigm is based on a popular CCG.

The dwarven rigger who plays go with snowmen.

What have you guys seen?

Hmm come to think of it I run with some very odd people. Especially the dwarves it seems.

Larsine
Oh just the usual:

The Rat Shaman which litterly lives out of dumpsters.

The foreign monk that doesn't know one nuyen from 1.000 nuyen, always accepting runs for the price mr. J offers initially, and spending money without worring about what things cost or if they are usefull.

The spy who is absolutely paranoid. Triple checking all locks, sweeping everything for bugs (at least twice, with 3 different scanners), collecting photos (from his eyecam) of everybody, having his programs constantly looking for matches, etc.

The ork who things everybody is a member of humanis.

And there are more wierdness out there...

Lars
Ol' Scratch
I absolutely love quirky, off-beat characters. Not crazy or insane ones, just characters with believable traits that are unusual and breath a ton of life into them.

My all time favorite character, Ol' Scratch (I wrote a little about his concept in this thread), had a few. If a job offer involved the hunting or murdering of ghouls, he'd waiver his fee unless rent was due (and in those cases, he'd donate the rest to a shelter or something).

One of his quirkiest traits though evolved from some implants in the 3rd Edition rules that required players to increase their Lifestyle costs to account for an increased caloric intake. I think SR4 has one or two, too, but I haven't really made a heavily cybered character yet. Anyway, to reflect that in-game I just always had Scratch eating or drinking some random fast food product in most scenes. Like eating nachos while staking out a building, or slurping a SoyIcee while waiting for a meet to begin.

Another character of mine, Cosmo, was a menehune decker and a totally burnt-out hippie/surfer dude. When he talked in the meat world, it was always really slow and he'd easily get distracted by pretty much anything going on around him, complete with an overabundant use of the word "man" and "dude." Dressed like Eric Stoltz's character in Pulp Fiction most of the time too. You know, a pair of flip-flops, boxers, a t-shirt, and an old comfy robe. That sort of thing. And like Scratch (mine, not yours), he had a thing for eating in most of his scenes, but instead of random fast food he carried around a custom-built fanny pack that was a combination cooler and burrito toaster.

The list just goes on. But yeah, quirky characters are totally my thing.
Critias
There's a fine line between a "quirky" but believable Shadowrunner, and a character from Toon. Tread carefully.
Draconis
QUOTE (Doctor Funkenstein)
I absolutely love quirky, off-beat characters.  Not crazy or insane ones, just characters with believable traits that are unusual and breath a ton of life into them.

My all time favorite character, Ol' Scratch (I wrote a little about his concept in this thread), had a few.  If a job offer involved the hunting or murdering of ghouls, he'd waiver his fee unless rent was due (and in those cases, he'd donate the rest to a shelter or something).

One of his quirkiest traits though evolved from some implants in the 3rd Edition rules that required players to increase their Lifestyle costs to account for an increased caloric intake.  I think SR4 has one or two, too, but I haven't really made a heavily cybered character yet.  Anyway, to reflect that in-game I just always had Scratch eating or drinking some random fast food product in most scenes.  Like eating nachos while staking out a building, or slurping a SoyIcee while waiting for a meet to begin.

Another character of mine, Cosmo, was a menehune decker and a totally burnt-out hippie/surfer dude.  When he talked in the meat world, it was always really slow and he'd easily get distracted by pretty much anything going on around him, complete with an overabundant use of the word "man" and "dude."  Dressed like Eric Stoltz's character in Pulp Fiction most of the time too.  You know, a pair of flip-flops, boxers, a t-shirt, and an old comfy robe.  That sort of thing.  And like Scratch (mine, not yours), he had a thing for eating in most of his scenes, but instead of random fast food he carried around a custom-built fanny pack that was a combination cooler and burrito toaster.

The list just goes on.  But yeah, quirky characters are totally my thing.

I hear ya. I mean who hasn't lived out of a stuffer shack on a run? Mmm pull tab burritos.
Our team personally prefers Taco Temple, "Sacrifice your tastebuds on the altar of flavor".

Draconis
QUOTE (Critias)
There's a fine line between a "quirky" but believable Shadowrunner, and a character from Toon. Tread carefully.

Of course, but c'mon who can forget the guy in Blade Runner who left behind little origami animals. Then there's Rutger Hauer's character Stone in Split Second who's always eating chocolates and coffee. Etc, Etc....
NightmareX
QUOTE (Draconis)
I hear ya. I mean who hasn't lived out of a stuffer shack on a run? Mmm pull tab burritos.
Our team personally prefers Taco Temple, "Sacrifice your tastebuds on the altar of flavor".

Great, now I want tacos. Damn you Aztechnology subliminal advertising! wink.gif
Marwynn
There's a Dwarf Mage that we ran into that didn't know the first thing about weaponry, but he carried around a mean set of weapons, rugged used ones, just so he didn't get geeked first. Of course, it didn't take a high perception to notice that the ammo he had strewn about himself (in belt form) wasn't meant for any of the guns he was carrying... poor guy blew up when a wagemage Magic Fingered his brace of grenades.

There was a lesbian ork that always hit on the ladies, couldn't help herself. She'd toss out come-ons even in shootouts against corp security.
flowswithdrek
We had a rigger in our group, who when jacked in was pretty normal, however when he was back in the real world walking/driving about he was prone to a bit of bin hoking (dumpster diving). anything/anywhere that looked like there might be a bit of discarded tec was investigated, anything from skips, abandoned warehouses to wrecked cars got the once over even in the middle of hostile actions. This was based on a guy we knew in real life who would stop his car at the sight of a skip or discarded item on the road side to check it out.
deek
We've had a shoplifting/whippit addict that always hit a store after a run to grab a few whippits...even though he just got paid and the cost was pretty negligible.

Covert Ops guy that hit a bottle of booze and some novacoke before each run...and the timing when he crashed was always horrible for the group.

A porn addicted mage that constantly sent animal erotica to his teammates, before, during and after runs. He actually got caught masturbating in his chummer's pad during a meeting.

Had an ork adept that spent most of his free time in the bathroom "dropping the Browns off at the superbowl". He was constantly looking for bathrooms during meets and sometimes on a run.

Had a mage that only used public transportation, but normally, just walked everywhere. Eventually, one of the group decided to pick him up all the time.

Another guy ended up being a pathological liar and on top of that, had a tendency to make up his own details whenever being contacted for runs and meets. He had a knack for "remembering" extra objectives to a run at the worst times.
Critias
See, some of those guys you just wouldn't work with for very long, is what I'm saying. Sure, it's funny-hah-hah to think it up OOC and get everyone at the table laughing, and stuff... but for several of those, after the first time they're dead weight and flat out shouldn't be hired.
PlatonicPimp
Someone I once played with played a male dwarf who was attracted to female trolls. Since I was playing a female troll it came up a lot.

Back in third Edition when you could take Shadowland as a contact, I had a character who was always looking for some big scoop he could post. Kept detailed records of his runs thanks to cybernetics and would scour them in his off hours for interesting data. The other characters were always worried about the gigapulses of recordings of their illegal activities sitting on my hard drive.

My last running group were circus folk. All of them.

my next character is going to be a cybermod freak. He'll have the skills to maintain his own cyberware, and will sort of obsessively fiddle with it. Like that guy who's always taking apart his computer or motorcycle to tweak it's performance, except it's his ARM he's poking around in.
otakusensei
I once played a character who vaguely talked about "hitting the big time" and kept saying that everyone would know it when he did. Later, after a big run, my character bought a nice house in the suburbs, one with a pool which he proceeded to fill with Sloppy Soy ™ brand soy based food stuff. When asked about it he responded that he could flavor it however he liked! Didn't get much work after that, but a raid on his house caused him to have to jump from a second story window into a pool of three month old soy product. Know what? Fresh as the day it was extruded. Thanks Sloppy Soy™!
Draconis
QUOTE (otakusensei)
I once played a character who vaguely talked about "hitting the big time" and kept saying that everyone would know it when he did. Later, after a big run, my character bought a nice house in the suburbs, one with a pool which he proceeded to fill with Sloppy Soy ™ brand soy based food stuff. When asked about it he responded that he could flavor it however he liked! Didn't get much work after that, but a raid on his house caused him to have to jump from a second story window into a pool of three month old soy product. Know what? Fresh as the day it was extruded. Thanks Sloppy Soy™!

No problem with cats and dogs coming over to drink from the pool?


Here's another one... the same dwarven rigger who plays go with snowmen also creates drugs as a sideline and sells them from an ice cream truck with a bobbing clown head atop it wherein is hidden a heavy machine gun. It's really creepy when she makes it laugh maniacally before firing. Still the thing comes in handy as we've hidden bodies and parts in the freezers.

She also converted a Tab soda machine into a combat drone.

Ol' Scratch
QUOTE (Critias)
There's a fine line between a "quirky" but believable Shadowrunner, and a character from Toon. Tread carefully.

Shadowrun has always catered to off-beat characters. In fact, one of the most famous NPCs in the game is an immortal elf with a severe drinking problem who wears clown make-up.

The art is littered with similar characters. You have Ming the Merciless, an obese Asian short-order cook on the side who runs around with cleavers. You have the street mage in Magic in the Shadows being carried around in a bathtub by his manifested elemental. You have werewolves and ghouls running in groups with troll sprawl gangers and Bond-like covert ops specialists at the same time. It's all unbelievable and unlikely, but that's the cornerstone of what Shadowrun is actually presented as versus what some people choose to see it as.
Rotbart van Dainig
QUOTE (Doctor Funkenstein)
Shadowrun has always catered to off-beat characters.

Only if their performance rating was to low... nyahnyah.gif
ThreeGee
QUOTE
It's all unbelievable and unlikely, but that's the cornerstone of what Shadowrun  is actually presented as


I want flying vectored thrust cyberhorses and I want them now!!
Rotbart van Dainig
Check p. 47 of Augmention.
Ol' Scratch
QUOTE (ThreeGee)
I want flying vectored thrust cyberhorses and I want them now!!

SR3 had rules that allowed that very thing in Rigger 3.
PlatonicPimp
Augmenation, however, lets you put vecored thrust in the cyberlegs you installed in the horse, and rig it to boot
Draconis
QUOTE (PlatonicPimp)
Augmenation, however, lets you put vecored thrust in the cyberlegs you installed in the horse, and rig it to boot

Yes those cyberhorses, striking fear into corp. security everywhere.
Are cyberpenguins with switchblades next?
bibliophile20
QUOTE (Draconis)
QUOTE (PlatonicPimp @ Aug 12 2007, 03:03 AM)
Augmenation, however, lets you put vecored thrust in the cyberlegs you installed in the horse, and rig it to boot

Yes those cyberhorses, striking fear into corp. security everywhere.
Are cyberpenguins with switchblades next?

Bah, it has to be the cyber bunnies that have the switchblades! And the bunny needs to have an Addition: Moderate: Alfalfa Margaritas.
Draconis
QUOTE (bibliophile20)
QUOTE (Draconis @ Aug 12 2007, 02:00 AM)
QUOTE (PlatonicPimp @ Aug 12 2007, 03:03 AM)
Augmenation, however, lets you put vecored thrust in the cyberlegs you installed in the horse, and rig it to boot

Yes those cyberhorses, striking fear into corp. security everywhere.
Are cyberpenguins with switchblades next?

Bah, it has to be the cyber bunnies that have the switchblades! And the bunny needs to have an Addition: Moderate: Alfalfa Margaritas.

Just don't erase their Baywatch tapes wink.gif
Sterling
I've had a couple 'quirky' characters, but none topped Mack.

He was an ork decker who (at one point) had a set of those prototype dual-smartgun / independent cybereye systems.. the ones that gave you a splitting headache and were worse than having no smartlink. I think they were mentioned as fluff in the SSC.

But Mack was known for more than a wild shock of reddish hair that looked like it was the result of biting into a power cord. He has this totally 50's era chromed toaster that was a mini-drone (all it would do was follow him around and occasionally get 'frisky' with someone's foot) that was his cyberdeck. He really tricked it out, it was armored, and pretty high tech. I got a groan from the gaming circle when they asked him how he loaded his programs, and he just shrugged and said 'breadboards'. And it still made toast, too!

He wasn't bad in a firefight, wasn't top ork stats but could take a bullet or three, but had the personality of someone who took one too many hits from black ice and just was a little.. off. Harmless off, but off nonetheless. I think he was designed about the same time as Cyberkender's Chaz, who definitely takes the cake as far as 'quirky' goes as far as I've ever seen. Cyberkender even found some sort of real-life prop that let him... well.. I'm sure he'll chime in here with a full description sooner or later.

I also had 'Bill', the lean, thin troll who (with the help of enhanced articulation) could run on all fours. That pretty much was his quirk, along with being unable to speak more than a few sentences (damaged vocal cords). He was the one who ended up bending some hired thug's arms... not breaking, but bending due to the thug's bone lacing. Everyone took a few moments pondering how unpleasant that sensation would be.

There are a couple other quirky characters I'd thrown out there over the years.. Hans Forewarned, for example. Pretty much a cybered-out sammy with four cyberarms. Nothing really different beyond the extra arms, but it was a defining quirk. I also had a shaman who was a double amputee (legless) and, until 4th edition, levitated everywhere. He wore a long tapered armored tunic/serape. I'm not going to bother mentioning his name because I expect as the 4th edition 'rule shift' effect hit, he fell out of the sky and left a large impression on something.

I'll find my big blue book of characters and look through it sooner or later, I don't think there's much beyond those few that really qualified as 'quirky'. I think I made more than my fair share of characters with a decent 'hook', but nothing beyond that. I just realized a day or so ago that the troll ex-ganger (now full cyberlimb'd) NPC I created to help bodyguard the 'clueless mage PC'™ was a semi-subconscious transfer of the character Kikuchiyo from Samurai 7. Now that I've realized it, I think a really big sword is in his future.
Draconis
Dude the toaster rocks. In SR3 we converted a few toasters into flying drones.
Sterling
QUOTE (Draconis)
Dude the toaster rocks. In SR3 we converted a few toasters into flying drones.

I brought Mack back in SR4, he's one grey-haired, elderly, tottering ork. He's still crazy, and he still has the Toaster, but I don't know if it'd count as the worlds biggest and most unwieldy commlink ever.

I did forget (and had been reminded of) Jake Thrash, aka War. He was this no-nonsense, ultra professional street Samurai... who needed to spend a little less money on booze and women and a lot more on the SOTA and maintenance for his cyberlimbs. He had odd whirring noises, grinding sounds, and more annoying malfunctions than you could shake a stick at. It was like he was rolling minor glitches often. It was like he had bought some dirt-grade K-martware or something. We're talking retractable spurs that don't, or when they emerge they just keep going.. right out of the arm. Mostly fluff, but definitely quirky.
Ophis
My quirkiest was Havok. Havok was a follower of the Dionysus as the Wild Huntsman. He was an elf and his body was traced with self harming scars. He wore a mask to cover his face as he wasn't comfortable with how pretty he was (very) and Dionysus had banned him from mutilating it. He kinda berzerked in combats and when out of combat was mostly just odd. His most memorable odd behaviour was howling at a light bulb (he couldn't see the moon at the time), sadly I only got to play him for two sessions.
knasser

My favourite was probably Wiggy. A simple minded, teenage troll shaman with a ginger afro and a limited grasp of consequences. Trigger even kindly did a picture of him for me. He drove people nuts, but spirits loved his tripped out psyche and he could conjure with the best of them, not to mention sling spells with like a lunatic.

The classic quote was "No, Wiggy! Not the Hellblast!"

Sadly, I mainly GM not play, so he's been in retirement for a long time.

(Hellblast was a 1st/2nd edition super-fireball
Ophis
No hellblast was a way for mages to KO themselves, 1/2F+6D drain!!!!
CountZero
My quirkiest runner was Thatch (named after Jimmy Thatch, WWII fighter pilot). On his first run, which was for Aztechnology, he nearly got blown up by a cell phone bomb by his employer. For the remainder of that campaign, the character kept thinking Aztechnology was going to come after them.

(They never did - though Saeder-Krupp and Renraku got on their case, though).
CyberKender
I've mentioned Chaz in another thread. He wasn't as outre crazy as Mac, but as soon as you started speaking to him, people's eyes got wide. Chaz isn't terribly unusual: A human, lightly-chromed street sam. He's got a natural-looking, left cyber arm, that he talks to. And it talks back. Implant a set of miniature cybereyes into the hand, add a speaker to the palm, and build as sophisticated of a smart system as $250K will buy you into it, and name it Merlin. Chaz was certifiable in that Merlin was all but a split personality of Chaz's, but it didn't affect his ability to function in the real world. It was all but running two characters simultaneously. All of the abilities were Chaz's, but some of them were only expressed through Merlin. (Negotiation, for instance.)

And, yes, I did find a hand puppet to use for when Merlin spoke. It consisted of a pair of eyes connected by a u-shaped bar. You stuck your middle finger in the U and the eyes sat above your fingers, allowing you to use your hand as a puppet, a la Kermit, but without the fuzzy fabric. I still have it, actually...
Thomas
QUOTE (CyberKender)

[...]
And, yes, I did find a hand puppet to use for when Merlin spoke. It consisted of a pair of eyes connected by a u-shaped bar. You stuck your middle finger in the U and the eyes sat above your fingers, allowing you to use your hand as a puppet, a la Kermit, but without the fuzzy fabric. I still have it, actually...

I'm sorry, I think this thread is about quirky characters, not players.
silly.gif
Sterling
QUOTE (Thomas)
QUOTE (CyberKender)

[...]
And, yes, I did find a hand puppet to use for when Merlin spoke. It consisted of a pair of eyes connected by a u-shaped bar. You stuck your middle finger in the U and the eyes sat above your fingers, allowing you to use your hand as a puppet, a la Kermit, but without the fuzzy fabric. I still have it, actually...

I'm sorry, I think this thread is about quirky characters, not players.
silly.gif

I'm not really sure you can have 'quirky characters' without 'quirky players'.

CyberKender has that quirkiness, sure, but he doesn't have to let it out. But when he's roleplaying Chaz, having his hand 'look' and talk were pretty critical to making the character seem more real.

And I found out those were 'Oobi' eyes, from the show of the same name.. which my two year old son loves, but sends me into massive flashbacks of those Chaz-era Shadowrun sessions.

I think every Shadowrun character does need quirks. Not necessarily outrageous Mack/Chaz levels, mind you, but something to differentiate them from the sea of 'professional' shadowrunners.. the ones who die in droves because sometimes, the best method isn't stone-cold professionalism, it's balls-to-the-wall lunacy. The day can be saved by plans 'so crazy they just might work!!!!!' I'm not saying the team should be ShadowClown CircusRunners... but the guards wouldn't react to a thrown clown nose like they would to a thrown grenade.. even if the nose explodes. Advantage: ShadowClown.

It also adds flavor to the game, like a cybered Street Samurai whose left arm emits a low whine when it moves, the mage who just has to wear that metal skullcap like Nicol Williamson in Excalibur, or the Rigger who insists that installing a spoiler makes his vehicles more stable and faster, even on the insectoid micro-drones. I'm sure some will argue that a character doesn't have to have such an outrageous level of quirk, and I'm not saying every runner needs the equivalent of the 'distinctive style' flaw.

But in SR4 (and after 3rd) with the severity of the security available to the average Corp, a Runner should be changing his or her SIN often, and their face when things go really south. So how does your Runner with their new face and SIN prove they really are the real McCoy? Or does having that signature quirk affect their ability to dodge the 'Star and any other corp that would like to ask them a few questions?
hyzmarca
Is having a romantic sexual relationship with a giant sentient cheeseburger a quirk?
Fortune
QUOTE (hyzmarca)
Is having a romantic sexual relationship with a giant sentient cheeseburger a quirk?

Only if it's done with relish. wink.gif
Draconis
QUOTE (hyzmarca)
Is having a romantic sexual relationship with a giant sentient cheeseburger a quirk?

Ronald McDonald doesn't seem to mind having such a relationship. wink.gif Speaking of clowns....
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