Between 10 Jackpointers and Street Legends, we know quite a few, but, are there any Jackpointers that you look at and go, "Man, I really wish I knew what so-n-so's backstory was." ... or, being Shadowrun, "I wish I knew their stats. That way, I could shoot them in the FACE."

I figure that everyone has a favorite, new or old, and might be sniffly that they've never given us info on them. Here's a chance to say "Hey! I want to know more about Plan 9, dangit!" or the like.

Well, there is always the Grandpa of the Matrix, Fastjack. Not so much for actual stats, but a more comprehensive background would be nice.

I would like to know the Backstories and stats Netcat and Slam-O,or at the very least know whether or not Slam-O is in fact the father of Cat's baby. Jackpointers are assuming he is but I don't think any thing been confirmed. Also as Wakshaani said this is Shadowrun so knowing Clockwork's stats would be nice so I can shoot him in the face.

I believe that the Baby reference has been confirmed in Canon. And yes, Clockwork deserves a bullet in the face. Probably a few bullets. From High Powered Sniper Rifles or Assault Cannons. Of course, a Heavy Pistol has that Personal Touch.

Man-of-Many-Names, Krasnaya Anya, Kat o'Nine Tails (or whatsername) and Ma'fan.
As for Clockwork, I recall only one of his quotes, and barely at that, but he sounded like a jerk anyway.

Clockwork is a jerk, part of being a Hobgoblin. Ma'fan was in Street Legends, and Man-of-Many-Names was in 10 Jackpointers.

Fastjack, NetCat, and Slamm-O!, I'd like to know more.

Clockwork. I want his stats. Trying to collect on a TM bounty... S'n'S, Resonance Trodes, and Sprites. I'll leave the rest to y'all's imagination.

Many Names is... SCARY. A "god in disguise" kind of scary. But, since I already have some knowledge of him (and Fianch, for all it's worth, read: bubkes), Slamm-O! and Snopes are further on the list.

None. In fact I'd prefer they stopped doing books like Street Legends. The time and effort they're devoting to publishing their Mary Sue could be time spent fixing things, or producing stuff I'll actually use in my games. I can make my own Mary Sue's by the thousands. I want more vehicles, guns, locations, and setting details. If that means I have to endure an NPC here and there-fine. But I wish they'd shuffle the NPC's off to Missions or some other place.

Netcat has always been a favorite of mine. Her and Turbo Bunny.

I'm with the posters who dont want stats for these people. Someone once told me that if you assign stats to something, players WILL try to kill it. Bringing them in as more than vague and mysterious outside forces of nature kinda cheapens them, in my opinion.

Turbo Bunny is in 10 Jackpointers.

On the players killing: I both agree and disagree. I've seen D&D players specifically say the character goal ws to kill gods (because they are statted; personally, it's my opinion that a god especially wouldn't have a body that could be killed. Sure, you can destroy the form, but the god lives on, baring "rule breaking" ancient magics or tools, like a Godbane sword...)

On the other side, whether stats are provided or not, some GM's will work established character's into their games. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and it may make some work easier on the GM.

On character profiles (stats not necessary), I enjoy knowing about some of the characters and how they do fit into the world, and what similar characters can do to get along. That said, sometimes things are a little much (like special abilities only one character has, like Serrin Shamander's Watcher Spirits).

I'd like to know a bit more about Slamm-O's parents. This may already be known, but my character specific metaplot knowledge is slim. I'd like a picture of Mihoshi Oni mostly so there's a better picture of Fomori floating around. I'd kinda like an updated Jackpointer index thing like one I found a while ago that lists skills, race, and some personality traits, just cuz they've added a couple that I don't know. Like that guy who only talks in riddles, am I supposed to know who that is? and how long has SEATAC Sweetie been on board? That index would really help to give a bit of a view into the perspectives they bring.

The anonymous poster! 'Nuff said!

Also, is it just me, or should Turbo Bunny be played by Jewel Staite?

I'll put in another vote for Slamm-0!, Netcat, JackPoint-Baby, and Slamm-0!s parents. Slamm-0! is pretty sure the kid is his, as I remember from a few posts on this topic (Apparently it was in the book of short stories.).

I'd also like to hear about /dev/grrl/. Yes yes yes, Boo, I know. I just want to hear how the hell she got onto the JackPoint in the first place in-universe. Out of the game, she's the clueless person with a Corporate Education that needs to be told backstory, and thus allows the "Old Guard" to educate her on things like Bug City, the Presidential Dragon Assassination, and how bad Aztechnology really is.

Most Definitely... Perfect Choice.

I've got two backstories in mind for her, personally.

She's one of the ones I really want to know more about.

I think any NPC that gets used in a game should have stats, which are plausible and consistent with the game world. The second part is key - if you are running a high-powered game, then the upper echelon of NPCs needs to be powered up, too, unless part of the premise is that the PCs are actually at that same level.

NPCs should never be an untouchable plot device - that's just taking an author-Sue and making it a GM-Sue. The players have stats and they take their chances, even if they are squaring off against some street punk with a Streetline Special. NPCs shouldn't have any special immunity. Either keep them off center stage, or let them face the same risk that the PCs do every day. They should be something the PCs can interact with, and possibly charm, annoy, outwit, outdumb (when they are too stupid to follow the obvious false clue, or blindly guess the NPCs real motives), and maybe even kill, or (more likely) be killed by. Save the non-interactive cut scenes for console games!


Me, I would like to see stats, actual hard physical stats, for things like Harlequin or Ghostwalker or Fastjack. If they cannot be given stats, then Shadowrun has failed, because they have stuck things into their game, that the game cannot model. That may be excusable for Call of Cthulhu, where the actual entry of the elder ones into reality would be more or less the end of the world (and the game), but it is not excusable for merely powerful NPCs.

Puck, instead of more teasers I finally want to know the whole story...

But that would ruin the surprise.

I'm not sure I'd go that far-but I agree they in theory they should all be able to produce a "Character Sheet" for them. However in practice I think it detracts from the game for them to do so. By not defining them if I want to use the NPC's I can fill them in how I see fit. Which is what I do anyways. I can't believe so far I'm the only voice of dissent. It shocks that so many people use the NPC's in their games.

Surprise is for people who can't do the legwork

Sometimes you can't do the legwork.

My Mary Sue character, "Money" Johnson has so many false backtrails and histories that have been passed around and verified by 'Runners and Electronically there's no way to know what's real and what's not. Sometimes even he has a hard time remembering what's real and what's fake, of course, he did have a building land on him.

Heh, I once built a character like that, just one step further: It appears he is not quite sure who he is or even suffering from multiple personalities -- but that's just another assumed identity, he is perfectly aware who he is

What killed the concept is the extreme availability and cost of counter-biometric wares...

"I have 37 personalities in my head. Not like multiple personality disorder, well, one of my personalities is multiple personality. . ."

Hell, I'd like to know more about all of them, personally, since I am kinda-sorta working on a story set in SR. 2069 as a date, about a girl who finds herself being a technomancer, and getting into all sorts of fun.

They help add a different point of view, breath some life of add some jokes to in-game texts, but other than that I don't care about them.
A short blurb explaining who they are, in order to better understand their point of view is all I need.

There was an adage back when the old "Deities & Demigods" book came out - "If you don't want me to kill Loki, don't tell me how many hit points he has."
From a writer's perspective, some characters weren't made with stats in mind. They were made to tell a story. If that same character has been written by several authors, who has the right to determine his stats? Bobby Derie would probably give /dev/grrl way different stats than Aaron Pavao; so whose would be right and whose would be wrong?
If a character's stats are deemed too low, does that mean that everything they say is moot to the reader. "Who cares what Pistons thinks? My starting character is better than her at everything!"
It also limits what future writers can do with the character. If every aspect of the character's knowledge and abilities is mapped out, it constrains the believability of what that character can do.

From a GM's perspective, publishing a book with a bunch of stats for the big names of the Shadowrun universe is just daring your player to go globe trotting to try and kill them just to prove they can. When those PCs die, they try again, for no other reason than to prove they can beat Shadowrun. Players start to view Lowfwyr as less of a shadowy corporate dragon and more of a final boss fight.

Now I'm not in favour of GMs giving NPCs unlimited stats. That's just being a jerk on top of poor game design. But for a publisher to do so is problematic.

And let's be honest, a healthy amount of wanting to peak behind the great GM's screen in the sky and see the legends of Shadowrun's stats is to prove how your various characters stack up. Have a bench mark for how well you made them and how carefully you crafted them. It's tempting, but it benefits no one.


There is a massive amount of information on Puck available. As of Street Legends, it was promptly ignored.

Personally, I'd like more info on Snopes. Currently he just acts a lot like the website of the same name, discounting rumors and innuendo, but why does he do it? What's his motivation? What screwed him up so badly that he must know? Sounds like a cool story.

A great post, and one of the reasons why I'd prefer the curtain not be pulled aside. I'm not willing to adhere to Glyph's standard, and while I agree that there should be some internal consistency I think Fortinbras nails it in one: most of the reasons people have to stat NPC's have little to do with actually using them.

Couple thoughts here...

1) Books like Street Legends aren't coming at the expense of "Toy" books. So it's not a matter of "One or the other".

The Runners Black Book compilation was released in print at the same time as Street Legends, and there are additional "gear" books being worked on by the eBooks gang, in various formats.

2) Personally, I find stats to be useless, and as we've seen, everyone just argues over them anyway, since everyone builds characters differently and everyone disagrees about what constitutes "powerful".

That said... The fact is that if we didn't stat them, there would be complaints on that end too. Damned if we do, damned if we don't. It's better to put in stats and let GMs modify or ignore them, IMO. And if players complain about a GM not adhering to "RAW" (I fragging hate that term so very much), well... That's why we made the book a hardback. So you can thump them with it.

3) Projects like this are fun and useful in many ways.

But they're not going to be a product for everyone. No Shadowrun release is. I personally found Gun Haven to be a waste of time and effort (Oh look. More guns. *yawn*), but I'm very much in the minority there and accept that.

A product like STreet Legends lets us, in theory, flesh out the world a bit. Tell some stories, give players and GMs a better sense of what's going on around them, and honestly, this is the type of product that fans have been asking about for two decades. The SHadowland posters, and now the Jackpointers, have long been a source of interest for players, and the question has been "Who are these guys" since day one.

Whether the project succeeded or not, well... Hard to say. Some folks LOVED it, while others hated it. The reasons for the dislike and hate, though, is incredibly varied. Sometimes it was simply because of the choice of characters included. Some is due to the stats, either because they don't like seeing them or because they disagree with them. And for some, they just feel the book is a waste of their time and money.

*shrug*

For me, Street Legends is the type of book I've wanted for ages. It's what I wanted Prime Runners to be back in the day.

Bull

I pretty much agree with a lot of what you've said Bull. I'm glad to hear a few things: that it doesn't have to be an either or situation is amongst the best of what you had to say for me. The good news is I can ignore books like Prime Runners and Street Legends-gleaning form them what's useful and go about my game. That's one of the many nice things about Shadowrun.

Over in the Cancer Game I had a character that wanted to kill a particular god.

Had nothing to do with the stats. Hated the deity because of a cliche backstory "killed my family and everyone I ever loved".

He set out to accomplish this goal by attempting to kill every worshiper of that god in existence.



-k

It's good to have long-term goals....

Nobody tell Longbow, but the whole reason I'm doing an epic tier D&D one-shot is so the players can go god punching since I got that Orcus mini for half off. He doesn't know I have the mini, I think he's assuming I've gone insane. Be interesting to see what he cooks up for level thirty, though.

No, not really. From a reader's perspective, what makes these characters interesting to me is that they are my nature vignettes, tiny slices of the reality of Shadowrun that aren't put into context and analyzed under a microscope. Knowing FastJack's mother's maiden name doesn't make FastJack more interesting to me; one of the things I've always liked about the SR universe is its verisimilitude, and pulling aside the curtain on that - whether with background or with stats - doesn't do anything for me.

From a GM's perspective, that stuff's useless to me. It helps other GMs, cool, by all means it should exist, but I've never used an NPC someone else wrote, because I'm not a very good GM and integrating someone else's work into mine would look patchwork at best. If I need Hatchetman to have a sister, I can invent his sister: having someone do that for me doesn't help.

Asside from the Fastjack/netcat/slammo/clockwork hijinks, which I second, I've got an interest in our space cadet Jackpointer.

Orbital DK tweaks my interests. Who is s/he, who is s/he hiding from, how did s/he make it out of the gravity well, and how is it being a shadowrunner <Voice Style="50's Scifi movie trailer"> In Space!</voice>.

Yah, I know it's not an overly viable setting for runs, but it's still interesting to me.

EDIT: Now that it's been mentioned, I'm not sure if Orbital DK is male or female either.

I think Orbital DK is a woman, but I'm not sure why I think that.

But mostly pre-crash, and nothing past his abduction (except "wel'll tell you some day")...

This is more or less my attitude. I don't use these "canon NPCs", so it doesn't do me much good. We get enough about them from the in-book chatter, which is nice for flavor. Really, what I'd like to see at this point is setting details/locations and good premade Shadowruns and run hooks.

I really like canon NPC books! I also completely agree wholeheartedly with Glyph that if the NPC appears in the adventure then it should have stats! Not that lame kind of "Frosty stats" from the artifacts stats either ("whatever you need them to be" is a HUGE cop-out!). I mean hard, defined stat blocks that are canon.

That said, GMs are free to ignore them and do what they want... unless they are MY GM!

Soooo... I was really happy with Street Legends! Much less happy with Runner's Black Book...though much less still means quite pleased.

Orbital DK is a she.

And is 10 Jackpointers.

Which is a cheap download.

(I'm curious who did the artwork for Turbo Bunny, however. Great googly moogley!)

All the artwork in 10 JackPointers was done, if I'm not mistaken, by Andreas "AAS" Schroth, one of our great treasures in the SR freelance world.

"Pics or it ain't true!" - Kane, proving just how class an act he is.

I'd love to see a story about Kane as he is now. Screw background, I want pirate blimp!

A PDF product with biographies of the jackpointers would be great. To answer the question...Red Anya, Fastjack, Kat O Nine Tails.

Since CGL has anything but unlimited manpower, I beg to differ...



Nothing wrong with fleshing out the world, the problem is that you fleshed out the world in a way does not fit into the world. "We are a secretive network of top secret operators, let's just post gossip about ourselves". And now with SL2 it gets even worse. First an announcement of the big in-character dossier part deux, then a short story of how FJ goes to war against Horizon because they keep dossiers of his users...

Well this is an interesting topic to be sure. I personally like introducing or having the occasional cameo by a famous/canon character in my games from time to time. The people I play with (especially my wife) really get a stronger sense of immersion and accomplishment in the game world as the runners start rubbing matrix or metaphysical elbows with all those characters from the chapter blurbs and comments. Like Bull said up above, I'm sure there is a huge disconnect between people who want these kinds of supplements and those who don't, but IMO the more background story and fluff I get for the setting and world, the more I get to enjoy setting all manner of convoluted plots for my players to encounter.

That being said, right at this moment the Jackpointers I'd love to hear more about are Pistons, Kat o'Nine Tails and /dev/grrrl. I'd also be thrilled to see some updates to the current list of Jackpointers as well.

The fan base, OTOH, can be pretty damned close to monkeys with typewriters.

Only we have keyboards and Internet connections.

And energy drinks

And I don't know that that's necessarily a good thing. I can't tell you how much of SR4 was written under the influence of Red Bull....