I just stumbled upon this guy. As you'll quicly notice he would make an awesome SR-char.
Anyone familiar with the Transmetropolitan graphic novels?
Has anyone taken a shot at creating a character based on Spider?And if this is the case, how did it turn out? I mean roleplaying- and storywise, less than the crunchy stuff.
I'll figure that out when I've read the comics done some research.


Note: I already tried the search function but I think that this character deserves a thread of his own.

Dear god no!

For the love of all that is good any holy (and mostly for the sake of your gaming group) do not attempt to play Spider Jerusalem. It will just end in tears (and fire, lots of fire).

I mean really, is that a headspace you want to be in for more than 5 minutes at a time.
That's enough to drive any man insane.

Unless, of course, he's Patrick Stewart, and already insane:
"Tell me, Warren, what do you know about killing rabbits?"


((Enjoy the comics, BTW. The full ten volume run is one of the single things created in the history of comic book storytelling.))

would not mind dating the second assistant, but then i am a sucker for abuse...

"Filthy Assistants, to me!!! Attack Wombs at the ready!"

now i have the mental image of the good captain saying just those words...

I think you left out a word there...

shadowrun isn't weird enough for spider Jerusalem to function. a street reporter character will work fine though, and IIRC was an archetype/example character in at least one earlier edition.

Well, sounds like I have to read all those graphic novels. And fun, lots of fun. Besides I was well aware that playing a 100% Spider Jerusalem-character could be... problematic. Still if you leave out some the nasty bits and given the right group (A character like this would basically scream for a flashy eccentric pink mohawk group) it could work.

Spider doesn't do Shadowrunning. He does freelance journalism. There is a big difference.

People are more likely to shoot a journalist with the lethal stuff, for a start.

There is no fun in Shadowrunning compared with journalism. Oh sure you can do the same drugs, wear the same clothes, maybe even share the same sex (and I have the audiobytes to prove it). Shadowrunners shoot people in the face for money, I give them both barrels with an audience of millions and when he, she or them get up for round two. I still have my typewriter to machinegun them down. Praytell, which is more satisfying?

Heh, heh... A very sadistic Johnson could hire shadowrunners to kill Spider (or worse, act as his bodyguards ). SJ as NPC - why not? But not too often. Besides, if this freak would appear in Seattle and write anything... Brackhaven would commit suicide.

BTW:"Spider J: A Half-True Story" by Ellis Alt is mentioned " in "2072 SIM bestsellers" table (SR4A, p. 50). And in one of old books (Shadowbeat, I think) I saw "I Hate It There" in a trid channel guide.

or designate him a non-human and let humanis deal with him...

how about guerrilla journalism?

LA anyone?

how would one make spider as a contact?

Very, very carefully...and while wearing an industrial-strength diaper.

Personally, I say pile a bunch of random pills under a box held up by a stick tied to a string.

Wow, I registered just to make a post on this thread, as a first time lurker. I actually never played Shadowrun before 2 weeks ago, and when the GM gave me a Trid Pirate Journalist pre-made character (who was a contact before) to play, I actually modeled him after Spider Jerusalem on the spot. I've gotta say that it's been a lot of fun. He is primarily a hacker, which means that his journalism skills aren't up to par, but the rest of the persona is basically the same. Playing with the group I've played with, as long as they react with laughs once in awhile, it's really enjoyable. I would mix in parts of Hunter S. Thompson as well and turn off some parts of his personality, but it's definitely doable. Pirate Trid journalist who broadcasts against the corporate enterprise is actually the best fit for Spider as an RP concept, but given his lack of social graces, a hacker is probably the best fit for him mechanically, though I guess you can get away with a face/skill monkey.

Actually, with Poolitzer, there is a semi-official (German) canon character who is a reasonably softed down version of Spider JErusalem that is both playable and makes a decent contact.

I'd really hope some of the FanPro Germany books would be translated. Many of them were garbage, but there's some gems in there, too, like Marcus Heintz'm run, or the (sadly incomplete) Alex Wichert trilogy.

There's a problem with basing a character on Spider though...is it based on Spider or Hunter S Thompson (on whom Spider was based)?

And I swear at least one person on the development team for 4e was in the middle of reading Transmetropolitan when they were working on revamping the setting to move into post-cyberpunk. Hand a few of the Transmet graphic novels, the Firefly DVDs, Bladerunner, and the Dresden Files novels to someone and say "No spaceships, no aliens, but mix all this together and you've got Shadowrun".

Doesn't shadowrun already have it's own version of Hunter S?(Whatever happened to McBean, anyways?)

Not to mention the nods given to TransMet in, say, Runner Havens (check the top 5 movies of '71).

And it is quite probable that Poolitzer was indeed based on Hunter S. Thompson.