50+ Questions for a potential character for comments. Still crunching the numbers, but I wanted to get this in here.
[ Spoiler ]
1. What is your character's Sex?
Male
2. What is your character's physical size?
Riley Travis (Vice, to those he works with) is 6’1� (1.8542m) tall, and an athletic 206lbs (93.44kg).
3. What is the color of the character's hair, eyes, and skin?
Riley has a shaved head, and cyber eyes. His complexion is light brown.
4. What is the character's general appearance (i.e., How does she dress, etc.)?
When he’s relaxed, his style of dress is Gold Coast Chic, and very retro 1980s. When he’s working, he wears whatever is appropriate for the situation.
5. Where was the character born (City, State, Hospital Name)?
Jacksonville, Florida. Ares Company hospital
6. What is the character's date of birth?
April 3rd, 2041.
7. What was the character's family life like?
Vice grew up in the idyllic nuclear family on all the Ares propaganda posters. His father was a pediatrician, and his mother was an avionics engineer. His younger sister spent her time chasing her big brother and his friends around, getting into trouble with them.
8. Has the character begun her own family?
No, and he doesn’t intend to until after he has gone grey. He won’t go grey until he gets control of his addictive personality, and even if he didn’t want to wait, he’s emotionally incapable of sustaining a serious monogamous relationship at the moment.
9. Where or how was the character educated?
He graduated from an Ares run high school in a corporate enclave in Jacksonville, Florida.
10. Has the character ever done anything else for a living?
Riley joined the CAS Army after high school and spent 8 years on active duty. After that, he spent 3 years working as a Company Man for Saeder-Krupp Prime. After leaving his corporate job, he spent six months as a mercenary in the Indochinese peninsula.
11. What are the character's political and religious beliefs?
Vice was raised Roman Catholic, and still attends confession and mass at least once a month, and, despite his loose, reckless lifestyle, draws his social opinions based on the dictates of the pope. He can’t bring himself to stop doing things because the pope says they’re wrong, but he’s more than willing to declare them to be wrong.
Politically, he’s somewhat indifferent, since he doesn’t pay taxes, lives by stealing from the rich, pays cash for his health care, and resolves conflicts through a mix of deception and violence. He is very strongly in favor of more power to extraterritorial corporations, big government, and the widening of the surveillance of the law abiding public because these are the things that make it easier for him to slip through the cracks.
12. Describe the character's moral code. Include how mercenary she is, whether or not she'll kill innocents, etc.
Riley is extremely mercenary. Everything boils down to making sure he can afford his fast paced lifestyle. He goes to great lengths to avoid doing anything illegal in the CAS, because he still feels a sense of loyalty to the nation he swore an oath to defend.
13. What are the character's goals?
Get control of his addictive personality and go back to living grey rather than black.
14. Why does the character run the shadows? (Why does she run the shadows still, rather than getting a "real" job?)
His job skills are suited to life in the military, the grey corporate world, or the shadows. Only one option will tolerate his rampant addictive personality.
15. What kind of personality does your character have? This should not necessarily be obviously stated in the background, as it is more important for actually playing the character, but it may colour or add mood to the history.
Outwardly, Riley projects an aura of infallibility and invincibility, along with a sense that everything is going exactly according to his plans.
In truth, he’s plagued by self-loathing, driven by his own insecurities about why he can’t seem to stop doing things he knows he shouldn’t. The mix of guilt and desperation to find something to make him feel good just keep chasing each other in an endless feedback loop. Fortunately, he’s a good enough liar and con artist to make sure his own issues don’t undermine his façade.
16. What special qualities does the character possess? This does not refer to skills, but rather to other things, such as how she gets along with people, whether she plans ahead, etc.
He’s acutely aware of his own abilities and their limits, which gives him a massive appreciation for the talents of those who do what he can’t, and makes him instinctively and openly complimentary of the competence of those around him outside his area of expertise.
17. Are there certain things that the character can't or won't do? Why?
Riley can’t seem to stop himself from replacing addictions. He stopped drinking and lost control of his sex addiction. When he stops spending every free moment cruising for prostitutes, he’ll probably end up a compulsive gambler. When he stops doing recreational stimulants, he’ll end up hooked on opiates. When he stops that, he’ll end up going 180mph through traffic on a racing bike.
His compulsive nature has been a part of him his whole life. Before he started drinking and doing drugs in high school, he spent all his free time playing video games and working on his golf game.
18. What things, people, or ideas does the character hate?
Aztechnology and Aztlan. After having to deal with far too many mindless mountains of muscle in the military, he’s also mildly prejudiced against trolls.
19. What things people, or ideas does the character love?
Right now, he loves drugs, partying, pretty girls, fast cars, comfortable clothes, and nice homes. His priorities keep shifting about which ones he likes the most, though.
20. What is the character's name? Give both full birth name, as well as nicknames, street names, etc.
Riley Travis. His working name is Vice. A Miami fixer (who he eventually threw off a roof) kept calling him Miami Vice because he drove a flashy car, and looked and acted like a shadowrunner, while still serving his corporate masters. The name stuck, though over time, his obsession with drugs and whores got the name shortened.
21. Determine what your character used to do, before becoming a shadowrunner (very important).
Before he was a shadowrunner, he was Mr. Travis, a troubleshooter for Saeder-Krupp. Before that, he was Staff Sergeant Travis, CAS Army.
22. Decide why your character left her old job, if she had one (also important).
He left the Army because he got bored.He left just before he got fired for being a discipline problem.
23. Come up with a reason for why the character became a shadowrunner. (This very often will tie in with #22. This is not the same as #14, but rather why she started running the shadows originally. What led her to it?)
After being driven out of Saeder-Krupp Prime, he went to work doing mercenary
counter-insurgency work in Vietnam. He was good at the mix of negotiating with the locals and shooting at them, but was amazed to find out how quickly living in Miami had softened the man who used to sleep in a small hole dug into the west Texas soil.
Rather than rough it in the jungle, he went from grey to black, where he could have his hookers and silk sheets when he wasn’t working.
24. How did your character come to know her contacts? Contacts are an important part of Shadowrun, decide how and why you know them.
Still working on all these.
25. Does the character have a SIN? Does the character actually use it? Or is the character one of the SINless masses? This may be affected by the character's previous employment.
Vice was born in a corporate hospital so he was issued a SIN at birth. He was enlisted in the CAS Army when Crash 2.0 hit, so he was issued a new SIN when the old one was destroyed. He still uses the original SIN when he’s in the CAS, when he can take advantage of his service record.
26. Is the character a full-time shadowrunner? Or does the character lead a Batman-like double existence?
He’s a full time shadowrunner.
27. Which person(s) or group(s) do you love the most?
Mom.
28. Which person(s) or group(s) do you hate the most?
Aztlan.
29. Which person(s) or group(s) do you respect the most?
Travis has a weird respect for his parents’ ability to fall into the company mold and live within the lines. Deep down inside, he wishes he could live that life, but he knows it’d mean giving up so many things that he loves.
30. Which person(s) or group(s) do you fear the most?
Saeder-Krupp Prime. He knows how good his old coworkers were, and doesn’t want to clash with them if he doesn’t have to, especially since the company still has all his biometrics on file.
31. What is your favourite colour?
Orange. It reminds him of the massive orange groves, and home.
32. What is your favourite food and/or drink?
Pulled pork and sweet tea.
33. What place would you most like to visit?
Tibet. Between his complete freedom of schedule, and huge disposable income, Travis has been almost everywhere in the world that he’s had a whim to go.
34. Which person(s) or group(s) are you most loyal to?
Despite all he’s done, Travis’s nationalism remains solidly intact.
35. What pastime (that you participate in regularly) gives you the most enjoyment? (Warning: Answering Sex for this question can and will result in penalties to your character!)
Recreational drug use. Sex. Rock climbing. Golf.
36. What pastime (that you participate in regularly) gives you the least enjoyment?
Travis hates cardiovascular exercise. Despite his hatred, grumbling all the way, he runs several miles every day because he knows that occasionally his life depends entirely on how fast and for how long he can keep running, climbing, or swimming.
37. What annoys you the most?
He can’t stand working with people who try to force their morality onto others around them.
38. What (if any) is your favourite form of art?
Travis is a big ballet fan. Originally, he only supported the Hong Kong ballet in a ploy to sleep with several of the ballerinas, but along the way he developed a genuine love for the art. He took lessons for a little while, and found that while he was quite good, he didn’t enjoy performing anywhere near as much as he enjoyed watching it.
39. What is your greatest goal?
Get clean, go grey, and reconcile with his family.
40. What do you think is your characters best quality?
Vice takes great pride in ensuring the safety of those who entrust themselves to him.
41. What do you think is your characters worst quality?
His addictive personality.
42. What is the most important thing you have ever done?
He has no idea what the most important thing he’s ever done is.
In the Army, he was frequently only tangentially involved with a mission by providing security to a SF team’s insertion or extraction flight. Details of the operation’s purpose weren’t shared with him. As a company man, the high level objectives of his projects were deemed to be “above his pay grade�. As a PMC, he didn’t ask because he didn’t care. As a shadowrunner, no one ever provides him with the full details of the impact of his actions. He’s spent his entire professional life at least partially in the dark about the reasons why he is going somewhere and killing someone.
In truth, one of his flights into west Texas was to insert a SF A-Team, who then smuggled 326 refugees back over the border from Aztlan into the CAS. At the opposite end of the spectrum have been ten minute snatch and grab shadowruns that ruined careers, toppled privately held corporations, and destroyed the dreams and hard work of thousands.
43. Which religion (if any) do you follow?
Vice was raised Roman Catholic, though he breaks an average of 8 commandments per week.
44. What is your most treasured possession (and why)?
He still has the crucifix his grandmother gave him at his confirmation.
45. What are your three most common dreams?
His most frequent dream is a lucid “day in the life of� dream, where he’s a normal 32 year old corporate drone, with a wife, a house, two kids, and a dog. He wakes up, walks the dog, kisses his wife goodbye, goes to the office, spends the day in a cubicle working on sales and earnings projections, has lunch at his desk, stays in the office until 6:30pm, rushes home, has dinner with the wife and kids, then settles in to have a cigar and a glass of brandy while he catches up on the day’s news, then goes to bed.
His second most common dream is his judgment at the gates of heaven. He stands before St. Peter like a middle school child in the principal’s office as the long, long, long list of his sins is read aloud to him. The dream starts in the middle of the reading, and he wakes up before the list completes.
His third most common dream is a fairly generic adolescent sex fantasy, full of preposterous situations, vapid but gorgeous women, and mountains of dope.
46. What is the Character's current relationship with her family?
Travis remains estranged from his family. He broke ties with his parents when he went to work for Saeder-Krupp.
47. If the character's family is still alive, what do they do, and where do they live?
They’re now retired and still in Jacksonville, berating his sister about why they don’t have any grandchildren yet. He hasn’t spoken to his older sister Kathleen since he left for Vietnam. She is an Ares fleet helicopter pilot in Manhattan, and spends her days chauffeuring executives and VIPs around.
48. Where did the character learn her Skills?
In the military, and working as a Company Man in Miami.
49. Does the character have a good luck charm? What is it, and why?
In the jungles of Vietnam, a mortar round struck his helmet and failed to detonate. Rather than killing him, it gave him a concussion. The round’s fuse was defective, and he has had it ever since. It currently sits in the middle of his coffee table.
50. What type of music does the character like?
Early 2060s era eastern European techno, and middle eastern heavy metal.
51. List any past serious relationships that your character has had, and give a brief overview of the relationship.
Most of Vice’s relationships are one night stands or long weekend flings. The only long term relationships he’s had were more a case of being a regular customer of the same escort for a few weeks. Attempts at normal relationships are generally brought to a crashing close when his chronic philandering is discovered.
52. Where does your character live? Why does she live there?
Vice lives in an apartment on the 33rd floor of a Downtown Seattle skyscraper. His apartment faces east, offering a view of Council Island. The furniture is very austere and minimalist, and the place is decorated with hand made reproductions of ancient Chinese antiques.
53. Remember, your Gamemaster like detail, so if you can think of any other little details, quirks, or whatever that you think might please the almight GM, then add them in as well. Oh, and your GM won't use any of these details against you at a later date. trust me...
At a glance, Vice looks like the quarterback in every John Hughes movie. He’s the cheesy cool guy that the movie’s other characters love, but the audience recognizes as being an egomaniacal jerk.
