When I GM at conventions, I often hand out pre-made characters. I have a set of about 30 right now, including the SR3 archetypes, but they are all in different formats. Some are SR3 printouts, some are hand written, some pulled from adventures I found online. My problem with most is that they are NOT designed to be an ongoing character sheet. They are in a format different from a regular char sheet, and many players want to take their sheet with them to play again.

Does anyone know of a good set of pre-made characters on character sheets?

Can you enter them into NSRCG and ask for a print out? I'm not sure how good the printed character sheets are though.

I've examined the NSRCG "prints", which go to HTML pages. They are pretty good as web pages, with links to separate pages for vehicles or gear that exceeds the regular space. But that technique doesn't work well for something that has to fit onto 8.5" by 11".

If no one else has a good set of pages, I might start with the HTML pages and edit those to fit well on regular paper.

get the newest version and use the XML print option. You will like it the did a great job.

The XML print is great. I can tweak the XSL to adjust the format if I need. Thanks, I appreciate the responses.

I've also just used the original SR3 character sheets downloadable from www.shadowrunrpg.com somewhere. I often have to copy the sheets from NSRCG's output, but that's not that horrible. Gives me a chance to look them over anyway.

Character handouts=Not good
If you haven't created your own character, why would you care for him? How do you know who he is, what he likes, thinks, eats... (Those i can answer, he is himself, he likes his girlfriend, sex and his guns, he thinks about running, killing and sex and he eats his girlfriend and hand grenades....)
No, honestly... do you hand out small descriptions of their personality or will the players have to come up with a complex and truthful personality right there and then?

... oh well...

The specific topic is about characters to be used at cons. You're generally talking one-shot players or players who are new to the game. Investment in the character is secondary to being able to actually, you know, play a game before the con's over.

Missed the first sentence... *hates self, hates life, hates self a little more*....
blegh..... there aren't any SR cons in sweden, EVER.... *cries*

If I had a dollar for every time I missed a critical sentence in a post... well, I'd have several dollars, at the least

Also, you could always snag the PDF character sheet from the Main site, then visit Adobe for the 30-day free trial of Adobe Acrobat Professional then create a template form that you can fill in the permanent information then print it out and hand it to them. I'm doing this with several of my game sheets now (though it is a pain in the arse to create a form, but it's a labor of love.

Actually if people are intersted I have it already done in a form here http://www.ninja-attack.net/blank_character_sheet.pdf. Feel free to use it if you like.

My computer is down just now, but I have a standard 1-page Word tabled format that I jig a bit around character specifics. Thus far I've used it for maybe 30 or so major PCs and NPCs.

If you want, once I get the computer up again, I can send you a few different versions (eventually they will end up on the website-to-be). Perhaps predictably, most of the ones I have do focus on variations of Awakened types, but there are also some versions of sams and other 'ware focused types, and the sheets could also be readily adapted to vehicles/decks. (I think at least one or two of those characters were deckers or riggers, and most who own vehicles upgrade them.)

psyberian, that link doesn't seem to work for me.

What error are you getting. Also this address ( http://66.178.174.45/blank_character_sheet.pdf ) should work in case it is a DNS problem. Sorry it's a new box I am working on and testing a few things on it still.

Much better. you may want to check with your DNS service provider. they might not have updated your information yet. or it simply hasn't propagated out very far yet.

Shouldn't be a time issue, I had the dns records changed over a month ago. You aren't the first to complain. I am waiting to hear back from them about what is going on. I should have my own DNS server set up soon, with someone else I know doing back up (to many computer geeks with way to much time on our hands). Sorry for that brief hijack. Back to the important things we should be doing at work like talking shadowrun.

Thanks psyberian... I had embarked on the process of making one myself and was on the verge of stabbing myself in the eye. Now I dont have to deal with it anymore!

Any good methods for saving the stuff you put on the sheet? Aside from buying Adobe?

Nope, there is the temp demo. Or you could always set up a run on your local college bookstore, they probably don't much astral security. Just watch out for the roving drones. If you get Adobe Pagemaker it has Acrobat in it now I believe.

Actually, I was able to modify the sheet, then do save as, this kept my changes without destroying the original. and reader is free.

That's not nearly as fun.

PageMaker doesn't come with the full version of Acrobat; just Distiller. However, the new Adobe Creative Suite does. It's a pricy package for character sheets, though.

OpenOffice can make pdf's, but not edit them.