Someone had mentioned having a soft spot for riggers and vehicle rules in another topic and it got me thinking about how some of my buddies always play the same kind of character archetypes whenever we launch a new campaign. One of my current players is playing a combat tank bounty hunter pretty close to his standard character of a street sammy. Another player just recently broke his common mold and actually ended up not playing a neurotic chemist/alchemist mage/demolitions character. Another guy at the table told me how he always plays a shaman.


So the question goes out, and especially to those who have been playing Shadowrun over multiple editions and many years, what's your favorite team roll/character archetype to play?

Me? I like to favor a Martial Arts based adept or Mystic Adept, and usually an ork.

I like to play lesbian el...oh wait, we're talking about archetypes. Mages then. Definitely mages. I likes the mojo.

I was the one who mentioned Riggers... I like playing Riggers.

I like changing what I play everytime we have a new campaign/game.. so mage this time.. then a gun bunny.. then a decker.. err hacker.. then ...

Generally speaking, I usually play specialized generalist type characters. I often lean towards a type of combat but I like to play characters that have a broad array of abilities. I like flexibility. I don't mean being best in every area, but if one of the specialists is out of commision I like to be able to at least fake it on my harmonica. Usually I end up playing a talker (face/investigator/whatever) who is at least able to saunter, if not walk. Although I admit many of my characters have an obsession with cool. I mean almost every game I play in, no matter what game system it is, my characters try to pull off James Bond stunts. I have been known to deliberately increase difficulty on tests just to make it look cool.

Long story short, I play generalized faces.

I typically tend to play non-tech-oriented characters. Various gun-bunnies and mages of all sorts, typically with a splash of face, are much more my cup of coffee (I hate tea! ).

I tend to prefer either mages or faces. I love social characters, but I also loving blasting, and the Occult Investigator is one of my favorite mage types, period (thanks to a love of noir and urban fantasy).

I usually end up playing the mage, partially because I have the best understanding of the magic system and astral space in our group(what can I say, I've always been able to wrap my head around the metaphysics of imaginary worlds), and that I just typically play magic users in general. Otherwise what I play varies, though it will often resemble a character from a show I have been watching recently.

I can play anything, but I like the gun bunny's and mage's roles a lot. The magician is power with a touch of subtlety. With your ability to command various aspects of magic, you are easily the most versatile person on the team. And the samurai is good for more than just shooting things. You're the one everyone looks to for battlefield tactics, and to protect them in a fight. As a result, you're also the one everyone tends to look to for overall strategies.

While true, I find that team members often over estimate a mages versatility. You can only cast spells you know, and they get expensive, and spirits can't do everything. That said I often build my mages twords a specific goal so I don't step on too many toes as to not bruise any tender egos.

Well, it depends on what you're going for. It's way easy to hyperspecialize a character, sometimes even by accident. The best approach is to spread out your secondary skills a bit. That way, for example, you're not treading on the toes of anybody else, but keep your versatility.

The trick with mages is to focus on the things only magic can do. Build the rest of the character as you wish, but don't use magic where mundane skills will do. Save the magic for when you need it, and be very good at it.

I play technophil characters, who adore and embrace SotA technology. That's why my mage is a chaosmage, has cyberware, and is a computer/hardware freak. These characters tend to be highly intelligent and be the brain in the group and have or develop moral qualms about their collegues, addictions, or other bad habits. I like the tragic, unstable geniuses.

I play a lot of different archetypes, but my mages tend to use guns as much if not more than magic and they often have useless spells or at least spells that I've never seen anyone use.
Nearly all of my characters are good at facing, because I love playing faces and I have a hard time restraining myself in a negotiation.

Well, trolls allot, usually troll tanks, but almost always also cerebral (for a troll) and philosophical guys. Sometimes I like me a Elf Razor/Gun Bunny/Faceman and once in a while I'll play a Shaman, usually human then and often Ute.


Isshia

Heh. Back in SR3, I played a Troll sammie/tank who had an Art History knowledge skill at 9. He was very cerebral, but with his Charisma of 1, he liked going to museums and seeing if he could make the curators cry.

I'm still looking for my first game.

But, I find myself most interested in gunslinger adepts and gunbunnies.

Big Blue, an old favorite of mine, is an accomplished Blues Musician (plays the whaa whaa trumpet like nobody else, with his lung mods he can hold a note until YOU get tired ) and writes reams of sonnets ...in old English.


Isshia

I play anything, but I tend to prefer to play mages or adepts. I tend to have a decent grasp of all the rules (60% rules lawyer) and I tend to cover my specialized rule set in depth.

I see we are clearly missing a majority of deckers/hackers and save Malachi, riggers.

I have a minimum set of dicepools in a number of skills I will achieve with any character.

Then I always pick two things and try and do both. So a mage/face or a hackerai or whatever. Often mage/X because mages are so complementary, especially hacker mages - its totally irrelevant what tradition you choose, and you can make a decent hacker with two skill groups and some cash.

I particularly like that blend because mages convert karma -> power and hackers convert money -> power, so you can always advance your shtick.

My GM is a rigger lover. Hackers/deckers have always been in the minority with out group, though I've played a couple ehre and there. Oftentimes Adept Hackers though, due to shear awesomeness.

I find faces and infiltration experts fascinating as I enjoy social/charismatic characters or ones that rely on wit and guile rather than the biggest guns.

I like to play a general character, my first and favorite is a dwarf with a small splash of cyber, a variety of skills, and all the gadgets he could carry. I mean i had felix's the cats magic bag, anytime we came up with something i had an item to handle it. I didn't even use it sometimes, i would just hand it off to the person who could use it the most.

It´s either riggers or mages for me. I´m torn on what to play next...

There's nothing quite like living in a Ford-Canada Bison with 20 points of concealed armor and a pop-up minigun turret.

Tank/Heavy Weapons/Devastating Close Combat Fighter . . yes, Trolls mostly *g*
Every Group needs one, especially one made up of elves and Humans that specialize in stealth and such things . .

In SR3 most of my characters were orc tanks with big guns and high charisma. Most of them were taking part in any subculture - Punks, Skins, Rude Boys, Gangsta Rapper,...
My SR4 characters tend to be loner type professionals. Im still searching for a new style for 2070 - and I even dont have found an favourite archetype. TMs are quiet cool, I think... or pixie mages...

"Not a mundane" is about the only thing you pin on me.

I, too, play technophiles. I honestly don't see any reason why anyone in 2070 should amputate the advantages that tech can bring them. Having technological aptitude in RL, I love AR. I don't necessarily play Hackers or Riggers, but I try to incorporate drones and computational infrastructure into any character I can. Because SR makes it easy. On the other hand, I do like Riggers quite a bit.

hi there
I tend to play big guys (read: trolls) simply because there big and can be tough easy.....
next up is usally magic users how ever that may come

I play mages. I'd like to think I'm good at it.

Totally not enough infiltrator love...

I love infiltrators, all of em', fat skinny, augmented, adepts, mages, shamans; ALL can do the infiltrator. All of them can be unstoppable with a creative player at the helm. Lord forbid if you have a hacker and a mage in support, then you really do become the wind.

I played my first SR4 character as an infiltrator until he reached 204 karma. And he's still not dead.

I like me melee monsters. Somehow, no gun is as satisfying as shredding some long range specialist with an axe or pair of swords

Melee guys here, usually. I do like to switch things up now and again, though.

I do sometimes mix and match-there was my fellow who was a face/martial artist-still melee but more of a hybrid. Dunno why I like the up-close and personal, but I do.

I also tend to play more brain-oriented trolls/dwarves/orks, the melee guys are humans and elves, typically. Not sure why. Just end up being drawn to it.

Anything that is not a dwarf.

Dwarves suck!

They're definitely the right height for it.

Yup, it says Immoral Elf for a reason.


Isshia

Orc marine! , loosely based on the Orc Merc, but with a broader skillset.

I feel so stupid right now

that is actually the only reason i do not like playing dwarves <.< . .
i myself alone can come up with at least half a dozend short jokes and little plays of words depending the size, or lack thereof, of dwarves in a single sentence, if i really try . .
and the rest of my group ain't that far behind when it comes to that . . i usually really love the idea of playing a dwarf, but all of the time taking those jokes and having to be the
one to show enough selfrestraint to not shove one characters head into the ass of another character sucks ._.


eh, it happens . . what's the reason this time? ^^

DPS.

Whether it comes from mojo, bullets, or cold steel, I like being able to pump out serious pain in a short period of time. Usually this ends up being an orc cyberthug (occasionally an actual street samurai) with abilities in ranged combat and melee, but I've been known to play a glass cannon human sorcerer on occasion too.

Ref.

As to PC's I play...
Everything with a good story.

Wrong thread, sorry for the non-content bump.

I like to play a Troll or an Orc, I love being the big mean killing machine. The first guy I made was a weapon specialist Troll, the next guy was a Bioware/cyber ware troll based monster who used his bare-hands having taken the martial arts quality from runners companion. My latest guy is a duel-wielding gunslinger Orc who can put a lot of lead down range.

Well, it seems that people use Trolls for the tanks that they are intended to be. Does anyone use odd combination metatype/team roles? Like instead of having an elf face, using a troll face? Instead of a troll combat monster do something like an elf tank? Let's hear it.

Yeah, well, because he was "da man" he was, Big Blue often did the talking for his comrades. Mostly of course I relied on RPing bonuses, but hey, he wasn't just a tank, he had a very decent Charisma (for a troll especially) and some bio mods that helped out too. He wasn't all that and a bag of chips, but word got around not to take him too lightly in a conversation either and since there were two elves in the group... Ok, one was mute and the other so disdainful of anyone not metahuman that he only got to open his mouth when there were no humans at all involved as subject of the topic or participating in it. Unless we were trying to piss people off. He was great at that.

Isshia

Yeah, I like playing metatypes against the popular stereotype. In SR3, I played Rent, a troll face who was a marksman with a pistol. No elf tanks yet (I have played around with such builds, but not played one as a character), although Dancer was similar, in that she looked like a petite ork woman, but was lethally skilled in melee.

Overall, I tend to gravitate towards awakened characters who are combat-oriented but have some face capabilties. In SR3, I liked sorcerers for their versatility, while in SR4 I tend to prefer adepts with a bit of bioware.

elves just don't work as tanks.
in SR3,. you could do that more or less because of high combat pool and armor being restricted on quickness instead of body . .
but to make a strong man, i once used an elf . . after some modding, he surpassed orcs in physical attributes and came close to trolls . .
the GM's face when he realized that i had made a character like that with a 3 in charisma as the dump stat he went into shock *snickers*

I love hackers. Making the world around me dance to my beat makes me giggle like a schoolgirl. My characters usually pull fire support as a secondary ability, as it's relatively easy to pump out damage boxes with a Warhawk or SMG, and smartguns are great for keeping my hide out of the line of fire.

I would play Jack-of-all-Trades characters, but I'm never satisfied with how they turn out and wind up just making a hacker with high edge and skillwires.

Elves work just fine as tanks! I've played my fair share of tanks, and have never once used and ork or troll for the job (or any job! ).