The game in a nutshell:

SR4: I have all the books so they're open, plus Sprawl Survival guide if you wish to flesh out your living space.
Points: 400 BP but, dont worry about that yet as I want concepts first.
# of players: 5

The 'meat' of the proposed game:

I want flawed characters, possibly a little comical but not so as to take away from the game. For example..the Face is a middle aged former used car salesman, the muscle is so punch drunk he cant help but slur his words and, the rigger has so many DUI's that his regular vehicle has a device he has to blow into to start it (breath-alyzer). I'd like to see negative qualities actually be incorporated in a character and not some point shuffling so you can get some more "goodies".

Feel free to expound upon my examples or create your own.

I'll reiterate again...comical is fine but not so as it takes away from the game. Being comically flawed doesnt mean retarding the play of the game.

Hope some of you are interested.

I've been working on a TM character that I could adapt. I think I used Infirm as a main flaw but I haven't looked at it in a couple of weeks so I'll have to check. Most of the work is done, I've just been waiting for something to come up so I can flesh it out....

I also have an idea for either a Rat Shaman or a Rigger that specialises in sewers that might fit depending on the circumstances.

I have an ork adept I'd like to use. He's a sort of warrior/diplomat...with a thing for revolvers and the uneducated flaw. He's actually more of a survivor type, but he thinks he's a warrior and diplomat. Improved Reflexes 1, Kinesics 2, Commanding Voice, Sustenance, Nimble Fingers, Linguistics and Improved Pistols 2...his charisma and social skills are rating 2, so he's not great at it...but he thinks he is. Native language English, Fluent in Or'zet and 1 point in both Japanese and Salish...but a logic of 2, so he's not as smart as he thinks he is either.

Basically he's got enough stuff to be useful, but not great at anything but shooting his revolvers. Sound like fun?

Hey this sounds like a good time possibly. It immediately made me think of a Hypochondriac Vegan Troll Street Sam/Barbarian type who started off life as an actor on a third rate trid shadowrunner show. After the show gets axed and he can't find a role anywhere, and needing to keep up his homeopathic medicine cabinet takes a job as a sec guard for (some corp here). One night while on guard duty while mixing up his green tea with echinacea, the alert goes up and its all men on deck to thwart some real live runners (who turn out to be some two bit thugs in too deep) Anders (that'll be his name or something like that) rises to the occasion and takes the two punk runners down with his stun baton, (careful not to touch them without some rubber gloves on, which are tough to get in magnum troll size) after which he decides if he could stop them he could be them and takes his little savings to get a little chromed up and live his former role. Hoping he doesn't have to touch anything too gross...Or meet any of those ghouls...or worse someone with that weird vampire virus...or a nasty cough...here have some tea...

Just a heads up though, if you let me play with you I've never done a PbP before but i've been lurking in this forum for a few weeks checking it out. I've also never played SR4 (I do have the corebook though, and a bunch of 2nd ed sourcebooks), I started with SR2 about ten years ago and have kept up with the stories and books but with no one to play with for years so I'm probably a bit rusty. If you're willing to work with that or you think this guy might work out let me know, sounds fun!

crizh's rat shammie or dwarven sewer dweller and the ultra clean Troll sammie might make a great pair lol

Last of the mikeys: care to flesh your concept out more for me? or provide me with the hook for him, is he a jack of all trades and master of none type?

How about the super-arrogant hacker type? The kind of guy whose unjustified self-confidence finds its equal only in how much everyone around him just wants him to shut the frag up. He's always loud about how good he is and how much every run is only a success because of his amazing skillz (without going far on the leet speak side though, cause well.. it can be annoying for real).

This brings me to the fact that I'd like to try out to really rp the Elf Poser negative quality. Never really seen it tried out seriously, and a hacker could be a great candidate for this, what with the odd personalities associated with that line of work. A quality I'd like to try out also to go along is Codeblock on something related to hiding his trails (say all uses of Stealth outside of cybercombat for instance), since he's so arrogant that he really has trouble with working the code that goes with that (mostly because he likes to leave hints as to the fact that HE's the one messing up a system). Possibly add in low pain tolerance for taste, to show his general flimsiness (as affirmation of "elfiness"!)

Is this the kind of character you'd be looking for?

Hmmm, this gives me a mind to try out an AmerInd type character. Someone who knows more about his history through the trids then through actually living it. Probably even a shaman. I'm picturing someone who is wearing leathers and warpaint all the time and has geasa where he actually has to dance or hum some Hopi tune to cast his spells. Or, if there is too much magic in the room, a street sam that does the same thing might be equally entertaining.

Sounds like you had no problem finding people. I'll be very interested to see what sort of characters people end up with.

He THINKS he's a jack of all trades. The hook is that he wants to fit into his peer group, be that the underground or his runner team. To do so he'll act like he's smart and knows what he's doing/talking about. He's actually just a convincing dummy.

Basically he's the SINless product of the Ork Underground who raised himself. He's confident and sees himself as a "smooth operator," a mover and shaker on the rise. In reality he's a bit player. He's uneducated and not too bright, but he fails to realize this. He's the kinda guy who, knowing nothing about a topic, try and talk (convincingly, thanks to his magic) like he knows a lot about it so he'll fit in...then he'll act on that "knowledge." He'd talk to Gobogen's "arrogant hacker" about computers while having absolutely no knowledge about them whatsoever. He'd talk with Elipsis' troll sammie about veganism and how it's unhealthy for a big troll like him, pulling pseudo facts out of thin air to support himself...then compliment him on his fighting skills and his choice to run the shadows. Fortunately he's usually lucky and tough enough to get through whatever trouble he gets into with a minimum of injuries.

So, high body and strength (8/7 respectively), low charisma and logic (2's), and 3's or 4's everywhere else. Edge of 5 as well. He fights well, especially with his revolvers, which he likes because they are easier to take care of and use. He's got just enough Influence and Stealth (2 for the groups) to be useful and a touch of magic (Kinesics 2, linguistics and commanding voice)

I could Email you the character sheet if you like.

I'll throw mine in for the face. He's a former sports agent who got caught up in the high life and ended up over his head. Maybe some btl addiction with a little bit of scorch or some gambling debts. need to flesh him out some.

Ohh, serious odd couple possibility there hehe, "I am NOT sitting next to that dirty little thing again I don't CARE if they're shooting at us! Just try not to touch me okay?! Here have a tissue."

Just wait till you hear the 'through the U-bend' infiltration plan....

Ahhh, the hideous possibilities of Shapechange....

Alright! looks like a good crowd of scrubs...errr.... shadow-challenged.

I can only imagine the extraction call coming in...
"Squeak! I'm trapped in the third floor ladies room toilet! It's overflowing! Someone get in here with a toilet snake on the double!! *glub glub*"
"Is it because I'm a Troll that I always have to play the master of the custodial arts? That's just racist, and I'm not sitting next to him...grumble, next time I'm using the plunger."

Dakka you have any ideas for when you'd like to get this thing rolling? I could start work up the char this weekend. And as a side note anyone have a lead on a good SR4 chargen program?

Sorry about the lack of talking yesterday...madness at work.

So, it appears I must adjust my ork to make him more of a second stringer.

I must emphasize the uneducated feat. No schooling at all! He's an uneducated "know-it-all." Product of the Ork Underground, so he managed to pick up some Or'zet thanks to his Linguistics power (making him a kinda idiot-savant with languages), though he only knows Or'zet and English. He survived mostly due to his Sustenance power.

His hook is that he wants to fit in and he does this by talking about all the things he knows nothing about as if he were an expert on the topic. If someone makes him look ignorant by, say, actually knowing about what he's talking about and using that knowledge in a discussion, he gets all aggressive and threatening with strangers, throwing childish tantrums with those he wants to fit in with.

I am open to suggestions on how to adjust this guy and make him a second stringer. Perhaps a couple of incompetancies?

I have a former SWAT combat mage, who has serious trouble with spirits. He quit the star after the shutdown of renraku acrology, where his father lived. Now he has a thing against both renraku and AI.
During the cleaning up of the Universal Brotherhood mess, he went against the bug spirits, but he played on the wrong team. Knightwatch was on the winning site an he was set to cleanup duty for escaped bugspirits. After losing team members he got the neg quality spirit bane bug spirits. He is also a very religous person, worshipping the Lady, wiccan style. To be precise the Crone. --> praying geas and a talisman geas

Thoughts of a narcoleptic Rigger come to mind when you say flawed, but not hindering gameplay flawed. Now we're not talking Duece Bigalow "I got's to wear a helmet" narcoleptic, but a more true to the real deal (from a guy with the real deal) type. He wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel, but he might just nod off while the others are inside doing something and he's playing getaway driver.

I've been chomping at the bit for a chance to come back to the boards, waiting for a game to start up again...

Lots of good concepts. I'll be keeping the recruitment open till tuesday and then will make that hard decision of the cast.

mmm... I had a troll bouncer with MPD I could throw out there...

MPD as in Multiple Personality Disorder?

Oh yes... imagine the fun when the big, mean troll suddenly thinks he's a little girl....

LOL, what is the cause? BTL addiction, childhood abuse?

I'd like everyone to think about the causes of your 'quirks' and any possible ways you cope or try to counteract them (if you're inclined to do so). I understand genetic things like narcolypsy cant really be explained so....dont worry about that.

For the game I played him in the first time, the MPD was a side effect of some rather interesting experiments that the military performed on him. However, that was also a fairly high power campaign (we took out a gang leader who was uniting the gangs of the barrens (and took out most of the gangs in the process) by strategic use of lots of guns, drones, explosives, powerlines, and a mage overcasting fireballs and rolling really, really well on his soak tests.)

As for this game... it sounds alot lower powered than that game was, so I'll have to think and research causes of MPD if the experiments idea doesn't float.

hmm... *wanders off to think and plot ways to torture his character*

The cause for narcolepsy would be genetic, indeed, but there are different degrees depending on just how bad it is. Of the classic symptoms we have:

- Excessive daytime sleepiness: Despite a full night's sleep, the sufferer will periodically get extremely tired, and will not be able to fight the desire to just sleep. This will usually not occur during periods of physical exertion or heightened mental exertion, but more often during 'downtime' or periods of waiting/repetitive mental activity;
- Sleep Paralysis: Wherein a sufferer is unable to control their motor functions for a period of time after waking from a night's sleep (or less often when going to sleep), resulting in them being awake but paralyzed;
- Hypnogogic Hallucinations: Vivid dreamlike experiences which are often fear inducing, and occur while dozing or waking up;
- Cataplexy: A temporary loss of muscle control (ranging from drooping facial muscles to total body collapse) resulting from sudden stimuli, such as fright, anger, surprise, or even laughter; and
- Automatic Behavior: Where a sufferer will conduct conversations, go about activities, etc, all while unaware of their doing so, in a semi-sleep state.

I myself suffer from EDS, which is the hallmark, and the occassional bout of automatic behavior, with the hallucinations becoming a more frequent factor lately. Thankfully I am not on the level where cataplexy's an issue, and I've only once experienced sleep paralysis (and hope to hell to never have it happen again).

It's livable, and amusing even to me... I could see the rigger suffering from EDS (which all narcoleptics do), the occasional hallucination, and from cataplexy. The former two would more often be roleplay fodder, but imagine the evil that would the the Rigger losing all motor functions for a combat pass when someone gets the drop on the team. Sure, if he's jumped into something it's not a problem, but if they're on the run... ouch...

Alright, I'll expand on my idea for an extremely arrogant, elf poser hacker, with some background info. His hacker name and street name is 'Handsome'.

Handsome's always been an outsider in society. Since childhood, he's been a total nerd with next to no social skills, but a real knack for everything techy and computery. This is easily understandable since he was a SINless kid in a SINless "family", raised by his uncle who was a decker of limited talent, and also an anti-social couch potato. Handsome always wanted to impress his uncle, and also the hacking community, and really made a name for himself early on, with impressive programming talent, especially for his young age. Later as a hacker, his style was always arrogant and show-offy. He programmed for himself a persona which was a beautiful and effiminate elf male. Over time, living more on the matrix in VR than in the real world, his personality _became_ that of the persona. Deep inside of him, he believes (or wishes) to be a handsome elf, flowing through space at lightning speed, and he hates to be reminded that he isn't really an elf, nor really handsome at all. He's arrogant and doesn't really care for any skill or achievement which isn't related to the use of the matrix, although he's good enough to do runs in the meat nowadays, since he wants the money for more interesting cybers and to make a living to spend long periods of time working on new software.

I just had a brand new idea. It might be fun to play...

...a high school student! Someone who's got no real-world experience. Perhaps a high school "tough guy" who thinks he's a badass. But he's not. His parents have money (he does not) and he's got a "rebel against authority" thing going and, since everyone knows shadowrunners are all serious rebels, well, of course he'd wanna be one, S.I.N. be darned! So, he's a 16 year old kid (Grade 11...a September birthday) with some luck, a bit of athletic skill and some high school fight team (is MMA a high school sport in 2070? There's been precedent for fighting sports with boxing and wrestling)...just enough to get him in serious trouble when he lips off that gang member who was raised on the streets and is tough as nails.

He'd be a human, by the way.

I've had a few PM's and discussions/clarications on the thread here. Some of you only left one or two lines that were.... less than informative. Please expand upon those lines so that I can make choices for good fit.

Sooo...I was planning on throwing the sinner quality on this guy because if he was an actor of any sort he'd have to get paid once upon a time as a regular joe. In addition because he was an (extremely) minor celebrity he's always looking over his shoulder and trying to disguise himself in small ways to try and keep himself from being "recognized", which would be a real possibility. There's a minor phobia that's connected to that. The neat freak/Hypochondriac angle I haven't really figured out how to fit in as a quality (maybe a mild-moderate allergy to filth?) which springs from when he goblinized. Born to a regular human family, with a somewhat loopy mom witha homeopathic bent, he was always being fed different roots, twigs, berries and oils to keep him healthy and as such grew up thinking you could get sick from anything. When he finally went through the process of transformation he just KNEW that it had something to do with a missed belladonna dosage, and so after being released as his new self redoubled his efforts to keep on the clean life. I also thought about the combat paralysis too because he's not a hardened runner, but an actor, although at the point he'd be in this story I would say he'd have to have done some real dirty work. Tho' that could really gum up things if the trigger man has some trouble jumping right into the fray so that I don't know about for sure. As for playing the neat/sick scared boy, well I can imagine him always having an apothecary of roots and herbs at his side in a fanny pack, not to mention getting really discombobulated when he can't wash his hands. Just the term "Dirty work" makes chills go up his spine, but he does it because he knows its one of the best things out there until he can get a nest egg and disappear into some tropical cabin. any other ideas?

G'day Dakka.
Are you all full up or are you still interested in taking idea's/Characters?

Well I am itching to get into a game and I will use the concept of the character I have made.

He is an ork, was a typical kid in school, hated his parents for trying to rule his life. He started hacking at a young age and is addicted to online gaming and hacking. His parents told him he had to stop doing it so he scrapped together the money he had and got cut to put an internal commlink and hotsim mod into his brain at a very young age. From then on he has been hacking/hotsim gaming everyday.

One day he came accross some information that wasn't meant for him, it was about a murder that was about to occur on some corporate execs. Well he was still a good kid at heart and went to lonestar and told em. Things seemed fine for a few days until he realized the lonestar were corrupt and came to his house to kill him. Both parents were dead by the time they found him in his room, he was scared out of his mind, right as the Lonestar officer went to shoot, the strangest thing happened, the kid managed to summon a stunball and both lonestar cops dropped unconcious!

With no parents, no money, no weapon skills (incompetant in all melee fighting), he went to the streets as a hacker, selling data and learning the ways of magic. He was picked up by a group of chaos magicians who followed the dark godess, so now he is a very angry ork man who has a temper and just decides to start rampaging when someone gets in his way...

Still very addicted to the hotsim/games/hacking and I consider it a mod addiction, has to be 1-twice a day or suffers mods, also has a criminal sin after "attacking" 2 cops, and completely incompetate in melee weapons and refuses to touch any weapon aside from his commlink and magic. He def does have some essence burned from the hacking supplies and some bioware he has gotten along the way.

I can gladyl shoot you a character sheet if ya want.

Matt

I put a few ideas out there earlier. Bit busy today but I'll try and flesh them all out at some point later on and you can let me know which you like the best...

Sorry for the silence, but here goes

Felix Caleb
Race: human.

Spent most of his life privileged and a little spoiled. Went to private schools, and a good college. He has a degree in marketing and brand management. Started working for a promotions agency that handled mostly sports stars. Started small but through luck and good maneuvering managed to land two of the biggest stars on the Houston Mustangs combat biker team. Hooked on making the big buck to support his growing narcissistic consumerism, he started gambling on the sports that he was representing. He started bribing players to take strategic dives and cut corners to keep lining his back pocket, cutting them on his voluminous winnings. He started making people rich. Well richer. The wrong people got wind of how he was making so much money at their expense and got very angry. They started making it hard for him to win. As it got harder for him to win he wagered more and more of his and other people's money. He eventually started losing more than he could afford and was forced to run away from his debts. His finances were soon investigated and the media exposed his bribery of players, ruining two careers and almost ruining numerous others. He fell deeper down the hole letting his addictive personality seek out and find methods to satisfy his lust for luxury, even if it was only a sensation and not reality. He continues to run from his problems and looks for that one big score that will get him back on his feet and back on top.

====

I have never played before, but I am familiar with the concepts of Shadowrun (Mostly from this board and the old sega video game.) I only have the core rule book, so abilities and gear may be pretty generic.

Caesar
Vae Victis

Flint Westone, a Dwarf.

Flint was my first ever SR character, created by me, with the aid of a blind friend, a few minutes after I first found there was a game called ShdowRun. Don't remember when exactly, but I believe we transitioned to 2nd ed just after the run. About 1989 I think.

Flint is best described as gullible. Also as being about as bright as a 10- watt light bulb. He is definately a shoot first kind of dwarf, as frankly he couldn't think of a question to save his life. (He's not stupid, just not bright. Doesn't think) Paired with this is his (aparently) incredible persuasiveness. He manages to talk his chummers into some incredibly stupid things mainly because he really believes they are good ideas.
As a runner he is definately capable, but usually in over his head.

Flint has a definate preference for what can only be described as vagabond cowboy/gunslinger chic. He typically wears a beaten up old cowboy hat, dusty cowboy type clothes (He empties vacuum cleaners onto them when he can to make them dustier), and is constantly chewing half smoked cigar's
This of course goes over incredibly well with the local Amerind populations.

Geraldine MacBeath is in her 60's. One of the many, post Crash2.0 Sinnless, her DOB is a mystery and she ain't talkin'.

A mother and a grandmother who lived her whole life in a backwater village in what she still describes as rural Caledonia. She has never known any career other than that of a housewife and had never committed a crime until the Crash. The last thing she remembers is playing some sort of new-fangled Matrix game with a group of the we'ans before waking up in a research facility two years ago. The runners who 'rescued' her were looking to collect the bounty on TM's from Transys but became so enthralled by Geraldine, who they dubbed 'Mrs Doubtfire', that they arranged for her to disappear to North America.

One should not be fooled, however. Beneath the exterior charm, the 'have a cup of tea and a scone' Scottish Granny act, beats a heart of stone. Cross her or threaten her 'family' and you'll be 'up to your neck in a peat-bog' before you can say Milngavie. Scottish women of a certain age, a bit like the Mafia, just not as nice....

With her entire life lost to her she makes a living as a Taxi-driver. Rumour at the depot has it that she got in a cab at the airport and talked the driver to death and just kept the cab. She loves people and stories and is friendly to the point of madness. If a sentence begins 'Here's our Hamish when he was two' it is time to turn off your commlink and flee.

A pious woman, she is convinced that the world is full of evil, wicked people who need a stern talking to. She may not be far wrong but for four decades she lacked the ability to do anything about it other than raise her own children properly. Now God as given her the 'sight' and a purpose in life and she intends to use these gifts to set things right.

Keenly aware of her own mortality and the limits it places on the good she can do with God's gift to her, she prayed long and hard for insight. One night an Angel appeared to her. Kemuel claimed to be one of God's servants newly descended to this world of Sin with a great mission. The world was ripe with Sin and Kemuel was weak with the effort of coming to it, he needed somewhere to shelter his spirit until he could grow strong again and in return, for so long as she held his essence within her, Geraldine could remain in this world, untouched by time, to continue doing God's work.

Completely unafraid of personal death, she nevertheless is cautious of wasting any of the time she might have to do good here on Earth and does not wish to send anyone to see the 'big-man' until they have repented.

Ok, here goes.

Mars grew up in an abusive situation with an uncle who wasn't fit to have custody of any kids. He was a pretty boy, until goblinization hit. The trauma of a particularly unpleasant goblinization, coupled with abuse from his uncle, broke his mind. When his uncle came to unleash some stress on the "Monster," the monster unleashed some stress on him. When they found the uncle, each of the pieces had several of his "toys" shoved into it.

Mars, in the mean time, had fled to the barrens, where he was taken in by a local gang who thought that the hulking troll covered in blood stained rags would make for some useful muscle. They cybered him up and got him ready to be unleashed on a rival gang. Unfortunately, they didn't learn about his alternate personalities until the night before a big raid.

The raid was canceled... but, to be fair, having a massive, cybered up troll who was very quiet and reserved suddenly start coming onto every male in the room like the 5 hooker from down the street would be quite tramatizing.

As for the actual mechanics of having MPD, each personality would have different skill sets (each costing the same amount of BPs), the number of personalities would have to be discussed with the GM, and the actual means of switching would also need to be discussed.

[work in progress...]

Scab is a weasel, a fawning, simpering, ingratiating coward and weakling.

His parents were runners back in the fifties but they made their fortune and retired. Unfortunately they also made enemies on the Council of Princes and a year after their 'disappearance' they were discovered and killed by a team of 'Ghosts'.

Friends in the Shadows had gotten wind of the plot from the pattern of purchases made by the Ghosts from local Fixers but they were two late to prevent the car bombing that orphaned Scab. The existence of a baby in the vehicle was either unknown to or no concern of the assassins. Blown free of the wreckage and badly burned Scab survived long enough to be found by his parent's ex-team mates and rescued.

Spirited away into the Orc underground where he would be safe Scab grew up a lonely and persecuted orphan. Although his adoptive parents loved him and had sufficient status to force the community to accept him as a member he was forever bullied, side-lined and marginalised. He has never belonged and ekes out a meagre existence on the fringes of the community. He is not truly welcome anywhere, although he is tolerated everywhere, like a court jester, an oddity that is briefly amusing and never sufficiently annoying to persecute or expel.

He prefers his own company and the seclusion of his sewers.

I'm going through the list (It is not complete), I have decided the following are definately in:

Crizh-Shaman
Gobogen-Hacker
Caesar-Face
Digital Heroin-Rigger (but only if he's a dwarf that goes by sleepy j/k)

I still have the muscle to think over.

I need more clarification on roles, Last of the greats are you more hands on than guns? Ellipsis, the same question please. Annachie are you going for yosimite sam? Mickle how cybered up is this guy? Lidralyn, what is the role of your submitted character exactly?

I may be extending my original number of players slightly.

He was intended to be a gang's combat monster, so I was thinking mostly combat-type cyberware (mostly second hand and possibly a second hand alphaware if you're feeling generous). As for specifics, I haven't figured those out quite yet.

Also, as it will probably alter your decision, honesty demands that I admit that, starting next tuesday, I'm going to be afk for just short of 2 weeks time.

I don't really see this guy as being into close combat particularly given the amount of touching involved there . So I would have to say that he would fall into the guns and ammo bracket. Keeping in mind this troll isn't a trained killer more of a killer in training, but he has learned over the last couple years in the shadows that getting home at the end of the run is all that's really important if you're going to play with the bad kids you gotta be one. I'd put him down as going for awe, shotgun in one hand grenade launcher in the other, trying to use a show of force and his size to his advantage without needing to take a life, but more than willing to make a bit of metahuman chutney if the drek hits the fan. Jebus I have to get back to work, try to get you some more on that later if that won't do it!

G'day.

Yeah Dakka, I am. It's about time he went on annother 'milk run'
He didn't have much cyberware (This was well pre bioware rules) but I suppose he's picked up a bit more by now.
Wish I could find the original char sheet. Thought I still had it but ...

Well my guy is mainly a stunbolt/stunball damage dealer with, with an addiction to hacking, so randomly he's just gonna be like Im out, and jump into the matrix to do things.

Cool, I'm in

Looking forward to this game, should be a lot of fun

I'm still reviewing the best possible make up of the team. It is much harder than I thought it'd be. It's a new situation on having more players than I can use.

Go with youth!

For the muscle, I have decided from a what fits standpoint.

Ellipsis
Last of the greats

are added in to the mix. I'm sorry I couldnt take you all.


To my players:

Question number one:

What is your malfunction?! Please write a short bit (yes you may qoute from earlier posts) on what quality makes you a second stringer.

Question number two:

What is the root cause?

Solid choice.

What is your malfunction?! Please write a short bit (yes you may qoute from earlier posts) on what quality makes you a second stringer.

Extremely arrogant (codeblock on Stealth related tests except cybercombat)
Elf Poser
Low Pain tolerance

So you've got a well below average-looking human, scared little pansy, thinking and pretending he's an elf all the time. He has a huge superiority complex regarding his computer skills and his new race. He's also a super nerd, which is good for his job, but bad when mixed with cockiness and arrogance. He's the kind of guy that can lose you a job during the first minute of a meet. His self-awarded streetname is Handsome.

What is the root cause?

Handsome's always been an outsider in society. Since childhood, he's been a total nerd with next to no social skills, but a real knack for everything techy and computery. This is easily understandable since he was a SINless kid in a SINless "family", raised by his uncle who was a decker of limited talent and anti-social couch potato. Handsome always wanted to impress his uncle, and also the hacking community, and really made a name for himself early on, with impressive programming talent, especially for his young age. Later as a hacker, his style was always arrogant and show-offy. He programmed for himself a persona which was a beautiful and effiminate elf male. Over time, living more on the matrix in VR than in the real world, his personality _became_ that of the persona. The vast majority of his social interactions were in VR and he was much more succesful there than IRL. Deep inside of him, he believes (or wishes) to be a handsome elf, able to flow through space at lightning speed, and he hates to be reminded that he isn't really an elf, nor really handsome at all.

---------

I will be unable to access the boards between Saturday and Wednesday.

maa... I don't blame you for not selecting me... I needed to put more thought into the character. *shrugs* ah well... Please, keep me in mind if you decide to run another game!

Well, since you needed muscle I'm guessing you wanted the ork character or did you want the human one?

Ork

He's a liar. He knows nothing about everything...but he's a convincing liar! He makes people believe he knows what he's talking about, often even himself. He lies because he wants to fit in and for everyone to like him and he hams it up. Oh, he's competant in a brawl, good with his pistols, but a total liability in social situations 'cause HE WON'T SHUT UP AND LET THE FACE DO THE TALKING! He just has to get his 2 nuyen in! He thinks he knows it all, even if he can't read! Magic? He's an authority. The Matrix? He's a guru! Geography? He's been up north to Tir Tare (it's what the locals call it up there). He even met Larry Zincan at a party. Cool guy. Politics? Well, Damien Knight, UCAS president, is a freind of a friend. Kenneth Brackhaven's runnin' the SCC better than anyone ever before. He ain't showed no racism to me! How the world works? Listen, pal, he's got the pulse of the world under his thumb. So he gets names mixed up at times, the point is he knows what he's talking about. He didn't need no fancy school or edumacation. He's got it all up here. *Taps his head.* It's not his fault the commlink ain't workin'. Must have run out of charge, or it's broken.

Human

Two words: Prima Donna! He's the 16 year old high school junior golden boy. He's the athlete and heir apparent to the senior golden boy. He gets the silver spoon treatment because he's athletically gifted. He expects those around him to bow down as he passes, clearing a path before him like Moses parting the Red Sea. He expects special treatment and believes he's invincible. He'll have no problems lipping off the ork gang's enforcer, expecting him to back down and not understand why the tough guy's not backing down. Anyone over 25 is OLD and decrepid! He's got no filter. He believes he's gawd's gift to the world. He'll dig himself deep in a hole and bring his team in with him. He's the best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be. Just ask him and he'll tell you. Consequences? Consequences are when you get hot chicks 'cause you totally made that dork or old man look like the loser he is. So, this prima donna thinks he's a bad boy, rebel, social superstar who can beat the crap out of anyone, just like shadowrunners! Why go into the workforce or to university when he's got all the skills and ability he needs to be a shadowrunner? Shadowrunners are cool! They get all the money, the chicks and they don't need to follow no stinkin' rules. Of course, he'll be king of the shadows! He'll be the Marquis de Shadows! He'll be the leader of his team, of course, 'cause he's the coolest!

In reality...well, he's moderately competant in a fight (he's on the school's MMA team!) and can shoot a pistol. He's got some high school level social ability and some charm...but in Dumpshock terms he'd be a borderline shooting target/neophyte runner. When things go wrong he'll never take the blame and expect others to fix it. That's what underlings are for!