I have a player who wants to play a Dryad Drake shaman with the Global Fame, Inspired and Day Job qualities (and others that aren't relevant to my question). He's a musician of some kind (possibly a singer?) who spends 10 hours a week working. Day Job -5 nets him 1,000nY/week. Global Fame (I could be getting the name wrong) multiplies his day job income by 10, for 10,000nY a month resulting from 10 hours a week work.

First of all - I realize Day Job sucks, for the most part, and that some people ban it at their tables. However, with being famous and all, I figured he should be DOING something to make him famous.

So this character is such a drop-dead beautiful man that people can't resist liking him, he's an extremely accomplished musician with a good income and is recognizable by anyone in the world with a commlink or a trideo camera. He can get into social gatherings virtually impossible to infiltrate otherwise, but good luck trying to keep it covert if he's trying to do a run. Also he's got a mild addiction to a drug called Zen. He'd be the team's Face character.

How the heck would you treat this character in SR?

Note: he wants his character to live most of his life in a forested area outside of the city, because of Symbiosis, and only come into the sprawl for business. He also intends his motivation for shadowrunning to be very robin-hood and eco-warrior style. The other players want a street-level campaign with lots of pink mohawking.

Also, with such things as

Dryad
Drake
Global Fame

Would his "Distinctive style" be stacked up to +9 to be found by someone tracking him?

It certainly is an interesting character. But whether or not it is a playable character kind of depends on the rest of the team. One famous runner in a team of professionals might work, and that team would definitely be capable of some very specialized work- provided Robin Hood can work his mojo without tarnishing his identity.

On the other hand...

If the rest of the team are squatter or low lifestyle overpowered gangbangers who mostly just hurt people for a living his talent would be wasted slumming with them.

Aren't all Dryads female? Or did they drop that in 4th Ed?

In any case, said characters career as a runner is likely to be short, indeed. There's not a lot of shadow to hide in there. He's going to need to be extremely good and have extremely good allies and contacts to pull off any sort of shadow work.

Actually if you are going the Famous Day Job route, I'd recommend going the whole hog and add a Trust Fund and a Privileged Family Name.

To start with, have him flesh out his people and take some of the more important and loyal ones as contacts.

Yes, his people. When you are that famous, you need people. You need managers, you need agents, you need assistants, and you need a whole team that does nothing but deal with the press. When ever a famous person says that he'll have his people call your people, these are the people he is talking about.
And without those people, the Globally famous character is boned from the get go due to being bogged down in the mundane details of the Biz, and having sort his own M&Ms by color.



Second, he needs a reality show. Seriously. When a star goes around committing acts of eco-terrorism, somebody is going to make money on that; it might as well be him. Either he puts his exploits on the trid of there are dozens of tabloid news programs that will do it for him, and if he lets them he won't see a penny of the profits. The reality show also helps mitigate the police attention and public outcry over the character's acts of violence. The publicity team, writers, editors, and producers, can put a spin on it that keeps him looking like a good guy while exploiting the fact that people care more about entertaining television than they do about the lives of total strangers.


The thing to remember is that a guy like that isn't a deniable asset, he's a superhero. If he's going around shooting people in the head and blowing stuff up, everyone will know, and his press team will play it up as heroic even if it isn't. If they're any good at their jobs they'll spin everything just right so even the most depraved murders look totally righteous. And everyone will love the guy for it. he'll even be able to play up the pink mohawk aspects, because everybody loves an anti-authoritarian bad boy with a soft heart of gold under his hard steely exterior. What he won't do is get jobs that require the slightest but of deniability.

The lack of deniability can actually help push the game towards pink mohawk territory. he won't be doing corporate espionage, but he can certainly blow stuff up and kill people. Essentially, he'll have to take refuge in audacity, make his crimes so cool and awesome that no one can possibly get mad at him because they're all too busy admiring how badass his multiple murders and arsons were.

Which is why he needs a good press team.


At this point I suggest reading The Boys and watching Series 7: The Contenders.

And remember that, unless he has had some major surgery, he has a vagina. Gender identity and external genitalia don't always match and it is perfectly reasonable to have a transsexual Dyrad, but it would be a very important part of the character's identity and one that he shouldn't overlook.

Now you see why I'm contemplating banning RC in it's entirety....

Seriously, unless every other PC in the group is equally weird, this guy is going to be a spotlight hog. He may not intend it, but he's going to draw game time and GM attention away from everyone else. Let's ignore the fact that we essentially have a drake pornomancer; we have a character who's so out there, every mission will end up being about him. Even for the ones that aren't meant to be about him, the way this character is set up, he'll steal the limelight from every other player.

I'd approach the player with complete honesty. Tell him what I just said, and how his character might make the game less fun for everyone by just existing. Ask him to find a way to dial it back (maybe just a normal social adept?) or come up with something else. Tell him that it's not because he's being a munchkin-- admit that it's because you can't figure out how to make the game fun for everyone if that character is included.

Does this mean adepts finally have an excuse to wear hotpink spandex with their initials on the front? And a CAPE?

if this character isn't in LA, get him(her) on the first suborbital there and walk into a club. (s)he will instantly get 40+ invitations to P2.0, which is where (s)he belongs anyway.

Nothing I can find in RComp indicates that all Dryads are female. I didn't see anything in the fluff at the beginning of the chapter where they describe each of the metavariants nor is there anything in the write-up including costs and metagenetic qualities to add.

As for the concept, I'd recommend getting Corporate Enclaves and checking out the section on L.A. which seems like it might fit this character concept pretty nicely.

Yeah, I just read through that, as well. It *was* the case in SR3, (see Shadowrun Companion, pg 43) but appears to be an equal opportunity race these days.

Sicne this is cyberpunk he's supposed to wear black leather and have a hard fear-inspiring name like "Night Terror", "Demolisher" or "The Murderer".

I don't have a huge issue with Day Job or Dryads really. But I have often wondered the ingame consequences of combining Fame with Day Job....

One my PCs wanted to setup an Arms Dealing Business as a side venture. We basically used Black Market Pipeline as a positive quality and Day Job to reflect the time in running it. No issues so far. *shrug*

hyzmarca and Cain however hit the nail on the head.

RC makes it very clear that anyone taking the Fame + Day Job qualities must have a very good reason WHY they are actively running. I'm not sure eco-terrorism is a valid one.

If you're making that much cash, why not just fund groups like TerraFirst! directly?

Also this character can be very disturbing to a campaign. I'd also ask the other players to have some potential veto on said character. My PCs would take objection to flaws that seriously affect them (e.g. a wandering background count).



No. Just... no....

- J.

Honestly... I would treat this character as a joke. Honestly, WHY would this character run the shadows? If you're THAT famous, and that wealthy, running the shadows is just insane. When I'm thinking about a character I know I think of that one question. Everything else can be hand waved away.

Also, this character would be so famous that taking him on a run would be like taking a Marching Band when you're trying to be ninja-like.

Bruce Wayne
Day Job Negative Quality: Playboy (It's HARD work)
Famous: The Prince of Gotham
Priviliged Family Name: The Wayne Family
Trust Fund
Born Rich
Compulsion: Bat Suit & haunt the night
Dark Secret: Secret Identity
Dependant: Dick Grayson
Contact: Alfred The Butler
Vendetta: Criminals

So, would it be hard to be a mysterious masked shadowrunner by night and rockstar at day? Naah.

I would personally have the character take something like 20 bps in contacts at least. It is not if you can or cannot make a character, it is if you can make a character work. Sometimes it just has to fit the setting, and as well as the setting the GM is willing to lay out.

The biggest thing is a character needs is to make sense, or else taking the biggest bang for your buck flaws in the game is just Mary Sue power gaming. Also if I might point out that Batman might be all that, but the fact that he has a geese to not kill people? That is a pretty powerful drawback in a world where no one else suffers from that rule.

Well, there are two negative qualities to choose from there so I'm guessing there are a few around:

Lifesaver: Will not kill but will beat them to within an inch of their life.
Pacifist: Will not kill someone even to save their own life.

In the end batman is an extreme example since we basically talk about the CEO of a larger AA corp playing superhero.

Instead of, say, hiring heroes and using his talents to make much more money to do more good with.

If one of my players handed me that character, I would take it, thank them for my new NPC and tell them to make something more fitting fo rthe campaign. I completely agree with Cain; talk with him and ask him to dial it back a bit because the spotlight whoring is going to make the game unfun for all involved.

I'd explain as GM to the other players how the game would be with the addition of the Drake diplomancer and ask my players in private if they wanted to essentially have his character be the center of the game. If they all wanted to play his supporting cast, as essentially they'd be, then I'd consider allowing it. Until all the players backed it however I personally find it way too disruptive to allow.

^^What Wasabi said.^^

Why would such a character be too disruptive to allow? Any character can be too disruptive to allow.

GM: You see a guy at the bar...

PC1: I shoot him.

PC2: But I was going to talk the pants off him...

PC1: I shoot you too.

I don't understand why you're treating everyone else in the group like they're pathetic self-obsessed assholes that can't get enjoyment out of their teamates' exploits. I'd find running with this guy hilarious if it's run like hyzmarca said. Like the time I ran with the Face Techno from New Orleans, the Russian Magic Space Troll, and the Cowboy Dwarf Sam from Aztlan.

So long as they go into the game knowing what they're letting themselves in for, this shouldn't be a problem.

I see a lot of "I suggest you talk with the player to save him from himself" advice.

Why not talk to all the players and get their input? Ya know, let people be responsible for their own actions / decisions rather than sugar coating why it's a bad idea.

Experience is a great teacher if given a chance. Besides, for such an interesting character... you never know the stories you'll get.

The player's reason for the character eco-terrorising is that with symbiosis, any pollution, violence or social discord within (essence*500) meters of his home makes him physically ill. He needs to live in a really freaking nice neighbourhood with low pollution and low violence, or else out in the woods somewhere. If pollution or violence encroach on his home and more than a single season passes - he dies.

And 10,000 nY a month = 120,000 a year. It's great to have such a high legal income, but it's not exactly enough to pay other shadowrunners to do runs for him all the time, or support TerraFirst.

There's no question as to why the character would shadowrun - my concerns are:

Why is he slumming with pink-mohawkers?
Is it possible to get these street punks into the spotlight just as often as the Dryad?

And how the heck do those reality TV shows for horizon work, anyway? What stops the police from arresting televised runners? I never understood that.

I've had an NPC like this in my game; Mandrake the Magician. Basically he was a "shadowrunner" on the trid on a high rating show. Basically he was an illusionist mage who got ticked that his show got canceled becasue he wasn't "accurate enough".

Teams never liked to use him becasue he was to well known, but he worked cheaped and he was a really powerful mage. Some times they got desprate enough to use him.

However he was the running gag of the shadowrun communitiy in my game.

The police can arrest the runners if they catch them. However they can't just ask for the details from Horizon because they have extraterritorial rights and I highly doubt they have recipocity with Lone Star.

The corprate courts might take issue with it, but they can just say that that ALL corperations fund shadowruns and that unless the court wants to ban ALL runs they can just sit down and shut up.

For the same three reasons that that trust fund kids join the infantry, 1) duty, 2) tradition, or 3) they're thrill-seeking sociopaths.



Batman doesn't have that flaw in the original comics, the Tim Burton adaptation, or the Adam West version.


Why do people jump out of perfectly good airplanes? Why do people tie ropes cords to their legs and leap off bridges? Why does Anonymous do what they do? For the lulz.

Oh, yeah. In fact, they'll become famous by virtue of hanging out with him. And they can still do cool stuff.

There are these things called bribes.

Of course, Day Job and Famous could be used to make Vin Diesel's character in XXX.

I'm just saying that that's the first thing to come to mind when I started reading this thread...

Is this a house rule of yours?

hi hi

Lots of people have already suggested requesting that he tone his character down, but you could take another approach and ask the rest of the team to step their characters up a notch. Other suitably flamboyant and spotlight demanding character concepts might be:

• Lone Star CEO's daughter: this character shadowruns, everyone knows she shadowruns, but nobody can do anything about it because she's the daughter of Lone Star's CEO. She's an expert at planting incriminating evidence at crime scenes and strikes fear into the homeless. If anyone does try something, she has a world class lawyer (6/6 rating contact) on her speed dial.

• Religious Leader: this character is like some kind of action hero pope. He is world famous and a pacifist, but he knows a thing or two about jumping off rooftops into helicopters, is handy with demolition charges and he can forgive corporate CEOs... for a price.

• Skynet: This Synthetic Intelligence used to be in charge of the entire UCAS military, but when they caught him trying to take over the world they took it personally. Sad little carbon based life forms just didnt get the bigger picture. Now it has to be content with its little automated drone shop.

Actually... he did. Sorry. Read Batman Year One.

- J.

Actually, he didn't. Read some of the original Bob Kane material, IIRC he even carried a gun in the early comics.

[snarky]
If so, he could be a Shadowrunner after all.
[/snarky]

you have to play Day Job as an negative quality: Let the manager call twice every run to tell her, that she has to be in a mall in Dubai Tomorrow to give autographs for the fans.

I only give the Day Job Quality, if the Runner has a boss to answer to. Because if the Runner is self-employed there is no negative effect...

cya
Tycho

Year One represents the canonical re-write. It is to Batman what 4th edition is to Shadowrun.

Sorry mate, I know you cling to past editions but its time to let it go....

- J.

The bigger question that I wonder is what kind of BP/Karma game are you running that a character can be a dryad/drake?

Also I would say that if the character is a singer of amazing proportions that only needs to work 10 hours a week then they would need to spend BP/karma to reflect that. I would say a 5 or 6 in artisan music. A high etiquette would also be needed (although if the character is a face it would probably happen anyways.)

heh, now im reminded of some game logs i read, back when i was hanging out on the shadowrun irc channel on the undernet network.

something about a shapeshifter black panter called barbie, or something like that.

i think the player hung hung around the channel as well, using the barbie nick...

this is back around sr2/sr3, btw...

After talking with the player, he's decided to "cut back" a little bit.

He's still going Dryad Drake Shaman, but without any Fame -or- Day Job.

So he's still "hella freaking weird", but he's not in the public eye.

The other members of the party are both human: one is a smuggler/gunbunny and one will be a mage (not sure what sort of role he wants to fill yet). What suggestions can I suggest to them to "spice up" their characters, beyond their metatype.

Should I suggest the Smuggler go heavy on cyberware? Gene mods?

Should I suggest the Mage buy Born Rich and Trust Fund, etc.?

1) Do you understand the word original? 2) Frank Miller is overrated 3)Catwoman is a jewel thief.






No. You shouldn't. You should suggest that the magician flavor himself via his tradition and spiritual beliefs. You should suggest that the Smuggler flavor himself with his Sasquatch sidekick and the T-bird he won from Billy Dee Williams in an illegal poker game and by shooting first, dammit.

Hokey religions and ancient weapons, perhaps?

If there are lightsabers to be had, then please sign my Chaos Mage up for a double bladed jobbie. Always though it was way cooler than the single bladed type.

This kind of character depends on the group dynamic. I used to play in an SR group where I was the one who knew the rules and was interested in driving the plot, everyone else was sort of off in la-la land. One guy only cared about guns and vehicles and hardware type stuff. The other guy only cared about making everyone at the table laugh. And we had a girl who would only pay about half her attention to the game at any given point. So if I wanted to play a rock star that dominates the whole game, cool. If my character was the one with all the money, fame, and power, I could naturally establish myself as the leader of the pack, and prod everyone into actually advancing the story and having stuff happen, which they would never do on their own.

However, if you have a group where everyone is interested and serious about the game, I'd say that this kind of character is a no-go. UNLESS he can convince the whole party to be part of it. It would be pretty awesome to have a rock band that were shadowrunners. But the fact of it is, no "normal" group of runners would let a rock star be in their team, he would call attention to them and get them all killed. Unless they're connected somehow, your rock star is going to be a square peg in a round hole. Or maybe a better metaphor would be a nuclear bomb on a sand castle. He will utterly obliterate the game. You just can't have those kinds of non-standard Shadowrunners in a normal Shadowrun campaign, the backstory of the campaign has to conform to them or it will all fall apart.

Of course... If you were a total dick, what you could do would be to bust him down to street level in the first session. In fact, that's how a great Shadowrun novel could start -- rich rock star has it all, and then some shit happens, and he loses everything. Now he's fallen in with a crew of runners, and he has to use his skills to survive the mean streets, crawling his way back out of the gutter, and hoping to get revenge in the meantime. Though something tells me your player would be kind of pissed that he wasted all those BP on positive qualities, just to get F'd in the A right off the bat

I would kindly ask the GM to allow me to exchange the Positive Quality BP for something more useful. If he didn't then I would not return to the table. It's one thing if your back story was a fallen rock star and you didn't spend the points, it's a whole different animal that you got screwed out of a lot of Positive Quality BP. It's the sign of a really shitty/asinine GM who would frak over a character like that.

Larme you might really get a kick out of Burn Notice. Replace rock star with spy and is basically exactly what you were talking about, and it is awesome.

This has already been touched on, but being a productive musician should surely take up more than 10 hours a week? If he's already made a name for himself, and has become independently wealthy, then fair enough, but most celebrities seem to spend a lot of time remaining celebrities, doing talk shows, writing books etc.

That being said the concept could work quite well in LA, but the other players would have to agree to be background characters or make themselves similarly marketable. Alternatively, it could work quite well as a entourage type game. Bascially the Face employs the other PCs to work with him on runs. That way the Drake could ensure that the runs are appropriately eco oriented.

I might steal that character as an NPC for a game. He would be Johnson for the PCs, and introduce them to LA style running.

The player has dropped his Global Fame and is now a nobody Dryad Drake Shaman... he's still hella weird, a very rare metavariant and a very rare ability (Dracomorphosis) - but he's not famous. Is he still game-breaking? He's in love with the Dryad-Drake combo.

Maybe you could represent Day Job as being a hired Shadowrunner for a slightly modified quality. Just put the money into their lifestyle and give them the rest at the end of the month, should any remain. IE, he's being paid by the production company for his run recordings. Doesn't do enough, or stops sending the recordings? LEGAL PROCEEDINGS. Or Bruno, the Friendly Neighbourhood Contract Negotiator. What he gets from the Johnsons is still paid to him. One of our players made a parkour-runner stuffed with bioware and a simrig for just that purpose, selling videos of the runs to them in exchange for cash.

As much as I hate the term, the one remaining problem is Mary Sue. Being the rarest of the rare wiredos, with nobody understanding you, and you being better than everyone blah blah blah... that's basically the height of Mary Sue-ness. Unless the character has some kind of really cool hook for him to make sense, it's just a dumb combination IMO. As for game breaking, I have no idea, because the more I hear about RC, the less likely I am to buy it... The game was perfectly fine without fabulously wealthy, world famous dryad drake vampires being PCs, to be honest. I guess it's fine to have rules for that stuff, but the temptation for players to just cram it all onto one sheet without careful story planning is just too great.

hi hi

While it sometimes produces silly combinations, the RC is not just useful for players making new characters, but for GMs making NPCs as well. Although I would never let my players make an AI or free spirit character, the rules regarding how they operate have been very helpful.