I finally got some free time ( hurray for tax season ) As some suggested in my last post, (Is It Me?) to do a GMPC. Well, I've emailed my players, and talked to my buddy and they all agreed.

For the next few sessions, my buddy, not a regular player but has played SR before, will be GMing while I get to show the other players how to run in the shadows playing as their mentor. Only problem I'm having now is what role/job/class my mentor should be. It's going to be based out of Winnipeg.

Group consists of :
Human Tank / Weapon Specialist
Ork Adapt Stealth / Sniper
Troll Pacifist Mage / Medic - Buffing & Spying spells, no combat spells to start
Dwarf Hacker / Face
?? (Mentor)

Here's what I wrote up on the mentor.

So I've come asking, what should the player's mentor be?
I'll try to respond more then I did in my last one, but free time I have of late has been far and few between.
Thanks,
Akh

Edit: Tried to make what / who mentor is more clear

Friends are hard to come by in the shadows. If you have a Mentor(and perhaps the Sensei quality), there should be a good reason for those people to share a bond. Try to work some humor into it, or a funny situation.

Imagine, if you will, for a moment. Money's always tight. Not enough for toys, new programs, bribes and you have to do something when you're not running - and then there's rent. Against better judgement, your runner moves in with a roommate for a while. They now have to put up with Other People. Being around, a little less privacy, them maybe going through your things while cleaning, having to explain being out at odd hours all the time. Maybe even a random, 'accidental' trip to the hospital - and needing an excuse for a lift home.

Now imagine the other roomate doing the same thing. See, he/she's a runner too. And they're both trying to keep it secret from each other. Throw in some hijinx, an amusing moment or two, drop of bad luck, a bit of real danger, a big-reveal scene pointing(possibly guns) at each other, going 'holy shit, you're that person?, and you either have a sitcom, a murder scene, or an excuse for the two to team up. Bam, your chance mentor is your random roommate.

well, that's just one idea. If you want specific suggestions, you're going to have to give us more details - what are the player's like, who's mentoring whom(players vs npcs?), that kind of thing.

I like your idea and will have to keep it in mind if we have another player join or a PC gets keeld.

I'm tired so using verbal diarrhea speak. Mentor works for corp. Corp wants runner team, off books. Corp pays mentor to train runners (characters all new to shadowrun). Mentor teaches runners how to work in the shadows. Few missions go by. Runners learn how to "run" and don't need mentor. Mentor gets paid.

I'm more looking into what kind of role/class/build I should make the mentor.
As it stand, my buddy will be GMing, so I'll have no knowledge of what to expect. The mentor will be played by yours truly... I meant me.

At the end of it all, I'm going to switch back to GMing and will give the players the option of continuing where we left off with old characters or continue with these ones. If we continue, was thinking of making mentor the villain to the campaign.

As for what are the player's like, well. 1 player never plays anything other than a PI, librarian or D&D ranger type and must always be seen as doing good. 1 player who's character will screw anything with a hole. (His character once gave free HJ to 11yo boys while waiting for her flight). 1 player who has mostly GMed and "doesn't know how to play a character". His words, not mine. Last player will shoot down most plans because they have the potential of something going wrong.
And they all try to plan for every possible out come, and can spend sessions on trying to figure out how to sneak into a building.

Hope that didn't muddy things up too much.

Akh

Since all the major bases are covered, and considering your intent, I'd likely go with the "professional runner." The nearly stereotypical human dressed in a trenchcoat, sporting an Ares Predator and a concealed Streetline Special as a back-up, specialized in Stealth and Covert Ops but skilled in all the basic runner skills (Perception, Dodge, Etiquette, Con, Athletics, etc.), and possessing a just enough cyberware to get the job done while relying on gadgets for everything else. Knowledge Skills would include the basics, too, such as Safehouses, Police Procedures, and Security Design/Systems. He'd have pretty traditional contacts including a Fixer and two or more informant types (Bartender, Corporate Secretary, etc.). Gear would include Fake SINs and Licenses, Autopickers and Maglock Passkeys, a Microtronic Toolkit, a Survival Knife, a Nano Disguise Kit, a Savior Medkit, and all that hubabaloo. Basically, nothing kooky or out of the ordinary but extremely useful in the shadows. Don't worry about being the best of the best as far as combat or other tertiary abilities go; do what you do and do it well, and let the rest of the team worry about their fields of expertise while you offer a support role.

Not the kind of character I enjoy (except for that last point), and probably not the most interesting one for anyone else, but if you're trying to teach people how to be professional runners... who better than a professional runner?

I actually had a NPC mentor, and campaign, based entirely off the cover of Shadows of North America once. It wasn't so much his abilities that made the character memorable, it was his experience and knowledge, as well as "we can handle this" attitude.

de Niro in Ronin, R. Crow in Body of Lies and Redford in Spy Game come to my mind. So he should be an ex-spy...

What about a mechanic / pilot? A fixer-upper kind of guy?

Or a shaman who's less of a healer and more aggressive. A cat or wolf shaman would be a good fit for this team, I think. Something predatorial.

I had a mentor style NPC prepared for my campaign, but I've ended up using him (along with the surviving members of his old team) as bounties for the players to hunt. They're going to get a surprise. The character was called OMFWOG which stands for Often Mistaken For Wrath of God. He's a troll demolitions expert, now in his early fifties, retired some time past and running a manufacturing plant in Auburn. His stats have dropped slightly since retiring, but his skills are still sharp and he maintains his contacts, some of them now quite influential. Despite the nice house, wife and kids, he still looks like what he is: a very hard man in a suit. I can't wait for the PCs to try and take him down. It's not going to be easy.

Well, Here's the mentor. He's 450BP, which is OK with GM. I made him after work and half asleep so not to how accurate/good it is.

So, feel free to rip it apart and let me know.

i see a very expensive commlink with even some elite hacking programms but no skill to use them, or knowledge what they do. So some old colleague just told him he needs all that stuff and the agent will take care of the rest or did he fall for some spammed advertisements?
i like the rest