toying with charc. creation..
Elf Social Adept
Dayjob: Priest
Surge lvl 3:
Fangs
Horns
Striking Skin Pigmentation (bright red)
Vestigial tail
Satyr Legs
..and naming him Daemon Knight

what outlook different religions would have that kind of member in their clergy? and in surge generally? (away from books now..)

You forgot Nasty Vibes, Critter Spook and Astral Hazing.

This guy would end up ion a clerical job somewhere since odds are no one would take him seriously, in fact the order of st sylvester might just burn him on sight just for sh**s and giggles

Well, it all depends on whether or not he's a shadowrunner. Obviously, he'd be treated with hostility by most people. It sounds like you're creating a Christian-type demon and most religions would frown on a priest/cleric naming himself Daemon, with those sorts of looks -- it rather sends the wrong message. The only way for him to stay as a cleric/priest in most any Christian religion would be to either 1) mostly cloister himself (so as not to bring negative publicity to the religion, "Isn't that the religion who has a demon preacher?") or 2) live an ascetic life of good works, like Mother Teresa.

Association with him would be terribly embarrassing for most religions. If they ever found out that he was doing anything even remotely illegal, then he'd be out on his ear before you could say "Mother may I?" If you were tossed out and thus lost the Day Job negative penalty, then unless you had karma banked you'd go into a negative karma state until you could buy the negative quality off normally.

I don't think it's a very good idea for a shadowrunner.

..i agree w/ that he is not shadowrunner material but then what would be ACCEPTABLE level of Surge then and what metatraits for
playable Surged elf priest? fur?
even so.. how would different religions wiew surged priest in their clergy and surge in general?

Now, this would totally make a great character as an ex-priest, who likely got kicked out of his church when he surged (maybe in the middle of a sermon and nearly being beat to death). Still tries to hold onto his ideals, despite everyone thinking he is a demon, being forced to run because no one wants to hire a demon, even non-religious folks because they don't want the bad publicity from those religious folks.

Like the others, I really can't imagine any church accepting a preacher that looks like a demon (You know, not counting satanic churches).

Here's the thing about deliberately offensive and/or confrontational character designs. You know the types. The combat monster in a social-focused campaign. The guy who is bizarrely somehow a member of a group that hates people like him. The pink mohawk ganger trying to join a team of ice cold professional types.

Most of them seem clever to their creators, but they're really not.

And that name. Oh, gods, that name.




-karma

..names can be always change...
hmm..ok.. how about..
ex-priest, now spokesperson (un-official) of Seattle Changeling community
changing traits:
Satyr legs
Unusual Hair (coloured fur, Brown)
Pacifist
Quick Healer

in other words: Freelance Face

How any real changeling or freak expect to survive in the Shadows is beyond me, but it happens religiously in the fiction. Just look at Kid fucking Stealth. Apparently he's so famous he had an entire line of cyberware named after him.

So as long as the campaign (ie, GM and other players) is okay with obvious changelings, there's nothing wrong with the character himself other than the stupid name. I'd fully expect a character who undergoes such a transformation to either embrace the significance there of when his mind snaps, or to go 180 and dedicate himself to a religious lifestyle.

SURGE rules aren't there just so you can take Astral Hazing, Arcane Arrester, Glamour, and Nasty Vibe while pretending to be a normal everyday person. They're there to create freaks. If those freaks are okay in the game, then this particular freak is not only okay, but a great example of what one would do under those circumstances.

Y'see, that's not so bad. Instead of trying to be just patently impossible, it attempts to fit in with the setting instead of trying to flip the finger at it.

I can see a priest SURGE-ing and then getting ostracised and thrown out, becoming a advocate for the Changed.

I cannot see a demon looking guy ever being allowed to publicly stay in the priesthood for very long.



-np

Didn't one of the core book fictional pieces have something about an Ork Technomancer who basically groomed himself and dyed his hair so he'd look like a steriotypical rendition of satan?

Yeah, the degree of difficulty involved with being a faithful person and the problem of evil are both major themes in Christian theology, so it's not like a priest should necessarily be super vulnerable to ditching his faith when times get tough. I mean, hell, for ages you pretty much had to be a martyr to have real crack at being canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, so it's pretty obvious that nobody said ever being one of the faithful was an easy gig.

With that said though, I totally understand why the characters are virtually always ex-priests even if they haven't really lapsed much in their faith. It's tough to make time for good works and the liturgy of hours when you're moonlighting as a professional criminal. Shadowrunning and the clergy are awful tough to reconcile.

Intro fiction to SR4A.

Honestly I think there will be alot of "Ooo look how evil I am" people who will make themselves look like demons, to show how out there and "unique" they are. Are you really going to be that freaked out by it when people can basically look like they want? Even today people get vampire fangs and other outlandish things. There's a guy who tries to look like a tiger. In SR the amount of cosmetic mods you can get is amazing.

Still not a good look for a priest. The second version is better imo.

I have strong doubts that the Roman Catholic church as an institution would have a problem with this character.
They should be aware that his appearance is not the mark of the devil, but just a weird genetic expression.
Bias of individual followers may be a different issue, of course, but i don't see why they'd kick him out.

Of course, the Westphalian counterpope with his "Heresy! Purge the xeno!" approach or some snake handlers may have a different stance on the matter.

But Rome has, from Grimoire up to Street Magic, always been portrayed as moving in a less superstitous position towards magic and metahumans after the Awakening (no surprise, their original knee-jerk reaction to UGE basically cost them Ireland and they have learned from this).

It really depends on what kind of church this priest belongs to.
Living in the 70s means that some people will look like those gargoyles they put on cathedrals in the middle ages, and some religions actually have adapted to it. In fact, most have, except for the more radical ones.



Actually, they are there for both. RC mentions that a lot of SURGElings aren't changed visibly.
Ending up looking like a normal person with low-light vision or a human half-troll is much, much more likely than being turned into a sparkledog shooting venom out of his eyes.

Great mental image. I may have to photoshop that now.