It has been a few years since I have played SR and I looked at one of my characters. One character is a Minatour who was born in 2017, 4 years before the goblinlization. He entered the military in 2034 and retired in 2050. He started shadowrunning in 2055, and the last time I played him, the year was 2058.

What year is it in the latest cannon? I am currently reading YotC and it funny wondering what my character did during that time. How about you guys do you have similar experiences?

I have an Elf born in 2011. Canon current is 2064.

~J

as a GM I've got an antagonist runner team headed by a troll who was born around 1990... he's getting pretty old, but he's a darn fine leader.

He's also way behind the times socially, and an outcast from other trolls cause of his age and position before the change (military officer in Ukraine) at this point, he feals that the world can't phase him anymore, he's seen it all, anything else is just icing on the cake.

-Mike R.

1990? I assume that the troll wasn't born one correct? 74 years old? I thought 50 was getting to old!

How about PC characters?

Our best character is a troll born in 2000.

yep, 74, and he goblinized with everyone else.

he don't run around much, mostly sits in a van and co-ordinates, he has some cyber but most of it is very old.

-Mike R.

My oldest was born in May of 2024, while I am human, both my Father and older brother Goblinized into trolls while I was in grade school. It has made for some interesting roleplaying let me tell you.

I have a dwarf born in 1994 and played last in 2057.

Yes, I know that by canon dwarfs are born and do not "goblinize", but we always found that a bit boring so he "goblinized" into a dwarf in 2011.

Otherwise you could just say that he was a spike baby.

Actually in 1st edition all meta's changed at Puberty. That must be a 3rd ed. thing.

And i thought it was the elves that just sorta appeared, not just the IE's.

isn't 74 way beyond the max lifespan of a troll?

Not if they were born human and expressed at puberty

So are some of the ages of living humans.

~J

The one character I play (rarely as I usually GM) is 39 in 2064. He was born in 2025, trained as a Ranger, then 18B in CASSOCOM, then spent a few years in the DIA, finally topping his pre-running career in ConsOps, sort of like a 2060's version of John Clark (for all you Clancy fans). He's been in the shadows for about 4 years, give or take.

Most of my players have characters in their late 20's, early 30's. Though the first two characters I ever GMed for were in their late 20's in 2052, but have long since been retired from the game.

This bring up another interesting question. What is the AVERAGE age of your characters? Are most of them in their 30's with a Corp/Military/whatever background, or much younger with a Street background?

Between 20 to 35, depending on concept and history.

History is usually limited, detailed enough to cover all the various aspects of the character and/or any particular quirks, but that's usually the extent of it.

-Siege

The troll I mentioned above started his Shadowrun career at age 38. All my other characters started in their late twenties. That seem like a good age for anyone as experienced as starting PC.

Then again my groups always added a LOT more skills, depending on the background of the character.

Most of my characters are either young teens/late preteens (Otaku, natch) or late 20s/early 30s, most often with some sort of either military or academic background.

~J

I actually worked a brief cameo of myself as an NPC into one of our Shadowrun games a while ago. It was 2054; I'd just turned 80.