I looked into the idea of child characters some time ago. The long and short is that I got torn to pieces here, because a lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea.

Logistically, a hacker is a perfect candidate for a younger character. Children have a fantastic ability to pick up technical and linguistic skills. In a world that is changing on a technical level almost daily, children and teens are going to be living on the bleeding edge of the Matrix. It makes a lot of sense that a lot of hackers and possibly techno's are actually quite young.

For rules, I would take the earlier suggestion for using Neoteny as a basis for the physical condition of a younger character. When I looked into this, I also looked at qualities like Day Job (think of it as going to school and getting child support/a scholarship/public services money to help pay for your lifestyle). As for the character's lifestyle, this is largely based on the GM's choice. I found it interesting to focus on the character's own contributions (like entertainment, using vending machines a lot, and the personal space in their house). This kept the lifestyle cost down, and removes the parents' contributions from the equation.

As mentioned, cyberware is off the table. Cyberlimbs would not be advised until the child finishes growing (otherwise they have tiny limbs). Any headware is out of the question (short of MAYBE a datajack), as the brain goes through a massive growth period during the early teens. Anything like bone lacing or dermal plating is also going to be out of the question. At the end of the day, I understand that most cyber/bio surgeries would be illegal or unethical to perform on a child. Genetics is an option, but only for the richest families (maybe the high lifestyle Face of the group).

If I were to run a game with younger characters, I would probably deal heavily with virtual contacts, non-lethal street crime and minor corp runs, and tweak character gen a bit. I would probably lower the number of points available to start, but be more free with them. I would also lower the att/skill limits, as mentioned above. Lastly, I'd consider lowering the availability cap, as kids are going to have less access to equipment than their adult companions.

I've rarely seen this pulled off well (read: never). Could your players do it? Maybe. Are you willing to chance campaign on it? Your call...

- J.

which means either going TM, or investing all starting money in parental christmas presents, i.e. gear. "Mommy! I really need the simsense accelerator for this game! All my friends have one!"
Some geneware should be good idea, Pushed!!! And drones of course. They make the best toys for children and runner.

Or the hacker can buy it him/herself, using hacked bank accounts and a part time job selling pay data. That raises another point. You'd be surprised how little parents know about their children, and their actions. While surveillance is a big deal in Shadowrun, parents still have jobs and need to do them. They would have to take time from work to hover over their kids 24/7, which is unlikely. Children and teens lead secret lives all the time, and I don't see that changing in the Sixth world.

"No aspirations as long as your under THIS roof, young man!"

To go back to an earlier topic in the thread...



The point about the Johnson is a fair one, but getting into Dante's isn't (or shouldn't be) a problem. Any establishment that has private meeting rooms for shady deals, accepts bribes to bring weapons/spirits/dangerous cyberware through the door, and so on, is not going to blink twice about letting in someone underage (as part of a group, and as long as they don't flaunt it by throwing back the shots, natch).

Furthermore, if you think Mr Johnson isn't going to consider a team with an underage member seriously, imagine how he'll consider a team who left a member outside because they couldn't figure out how to smuggle a minor into a nightclub.

Yes, lets point out the flaw in my example instead of accepting the logic behind the example:
Minors have social modifiers.

Which CAN be overcome.

I did accept the logic behind it - I said the point about the Johnson was a fair one.

I'll also point out that that post is over a year old.

Canonically headware has been put into kids and young adults in the shadowrun world. Cyborg brains the most dramatic example. Not to mention the wonderful story in the first edition Virtual Realities book. Or the running narrative in VR2. Most Otaku got datajacks early if I remember. Honestly once all the other problems of cyberware have been solved young brains might be the best brains to implant headware into. Brain plasticity and all.

Sure any sort of grossly mechanical cyberware like limbs and bone lacing are going to be out of the question. But most implants and sense ware shouldn't work much differently in children then adults. Though eyes might be a problem. Kids do get cochlear implants and pacemakers even now. Infact doctors prefer to install CI's before the age of two.

Bioware would probably be even less of a problem. It's living tissue the cultured stuff should grow right along with the kid. Of course rich parents who want to give their children every thing very likely will take advantage of it if they can. Legal no, thats what extraterritoriality is for. Ethical well it's Shadowrun
"Little Jenny's in ballet. Get her enhanced articulation and maybe a reflex recorder if she is serious. While your at it consider dietware. My Lynn got it last year and it made her third grade so much better."
"Ever since Johnny started playing Miracle Shooter he's been pestering us for enhancements. His fathers and I keep saying no but this year there's going to be a superthyroid under the tree for him."
"It doesn't matter that both you and your husband are VP's. Ares accelerated daycare program wont even consider an applicant unless they have a Mnemonic enhancer and at least one level of cerebral booster."

The OP mentioned that the character they are thinking of is a high-shcool age girl living with her Humanis parents with a high lifestlye (and presumably going to school).

Girls tend to do most of their growing younger than boys, so 12-15ish I believe. So a 16 or 17 year old high school girl should have done most of her growing, and with skilled application of make-up (and perhaps by necessity the Disguise skill, even as part of the Stealth group) should be able to pass for older if she needs to.

Most ideas have been mentioned by other posters, but given the background the OP suggested, as a GM I would include the following restrictions:
1) Perhaps limitations on physical stats, BOD and STR no higher than 4 say without an appropriate background (e.g. athelete); probably not a concern for a budding technomancer anyway.
2) Limitation on skills: 1 @ 4 or 2 @ 3, with the rest at 1 or 2 ... if the PC could persuade me I might allow 1 skill at 5 if the character were pretty obsessed with that one thing.
3) Limitation on 'ware - nothing that would necessarily stand out on a school kid, and extremely 'ware light overall, if indeed she has any. Of course, a kid that grew up in the mean streets of the barrens might have gotten a few choice pieces of ware by the time he/she is 16 or 17, but not so much for a school-going kid.

Could be interesting in terms of roleplaying, the naevity, the first experiences with alcohol and perhaps other drugs, a different idea of how many zeros make a lot of money ...

"Ewwwwwwwwww, hardcopy!"

I've played several child PCs, mostly 12 or 13, but also as young as 6 or 8. Shadowrun is a big world - roughly the same size as ours, plus a metaverse - and it has room for a lot of stories.

I've been wondering: was that /dev/grrl?

Yes. She's gotten more diplomatic since then.

Now she holds an assault rifle up to the head of the most hunted man in the world, just to prove that she can find him and get at him. Earned her a drekpot of respect from Kane!

We tried a High Schooler aged game, limited a truck load of stuff, and it was a group of different kids come together to solve a problem. it was fun for a change and a few adventures but the cultural limitations sort of limited what we could do with them. I mean what Johnson is really going to trust a runner who is the HS football player and so forth? add to it we all had day job - school- and cerfews-meddling parents- and the limitations got in the way.

Children as PCs?

Aren't they called Orks?

And they were pretty fun. Some were lower powered, but at least a few were at least normal starting level characters.

Even the teens were were limited to local crooks, drug dealers, corruption in school etc. Cyber wear was limited to jacks-for school work, a good ol' boy with a smart link for hunting and a school footballer who's dad had paid for some muscle tone and augmentation to look good for possible scouts etc.

Deke, for example, who while in his early teens, nevertheless had rather an unhealthy amount of cyberware he'd, gulp, found lying about. His point value [90 points, 300 karma, in SR3] might not have been quite "starting level character," but his power level [his ability to affect change on the game world] certainly was.

Teen Dronomancer: Ph34r teh Cut3 1s!

I've not yet had a chance to use my child character I made. I took inspiration from Gunslinger Girl and it came out good and creepy. Cybered to the gills with flaws of neoteny and cyber psychosis. I think I've still got it saved somewhere.

Now that I think about it, Falcon from Shadowplay is just a kid, too.

I just want to play.