So, my S/O and I are considering getting into a Shadowrun game together. She likes playing people that are related, and pretty people - like elves. I have no preference for the former, and really wanna play an ork. Is it out of the realm of possibility for a pair of twins to be born as different metatypes?

There should be no problem if they are fraternal twins. Could lead to some good comedy too.

As for identical twins, it would be harder, as they should be genetically identical with the same metatype, but still possible _if_ the GM decides to go with it. He could argue that although the genes for metatype are reasonably well understood and identifiable for 99.9% of the population, there still could be variations based on in-situ hormonal and magical variations for those people who are marginally meta. Heck - prenatal genetic testing could have identified both of you as human based on markers. Toss in the year of the comet and anything could happen. Still a chance for good comedy.

There's various ways that can be:

One child goes through UGE (human that turns into an elf/dwarf) while the other goes through goblinization (human that turns into an ork/troll). This would be extremely rare in the 2070's, but it can still happen, especially if you were alive during the pass of Halley's comet (ref "Buzzkill" in the first SR4 book, not SR4a) and unless your characters are gonna be young children they were likely alive when the comet passed in 2061/2062.

Mixed parentage of different metatypes and the twins are fraternal. IIRC if you're parents are of different metatypes it's 50/50 for the metatype of each child (note there's no halfbreeds). If one's gonna be an elf, and the other an ork, then I think this might end up being your most likely reason.

If you really wanna dig up details about epigenetics, then most certainly identical twins can be different metatypes if the parents are different metatypes. This would depend on your GM.

Half-siblings could work - with a shared mother, perhaps.

I did that once in a 2050's era game; two characters were siblings, despite one being an elf and the other a dwarf. Their mother, um, slept around a lot during her college days (and a bit beyond) ... including with at least one un-Expressed Elf, and one un-Expressed Dwarf. So we had a fifteen year old dwarf hacker, and his nineteen year old elf mage sister.

Also note, Twins are not genetically identical, if they were, they wouldn't be twins, they'd be clones. They are incredibly close genetically, as in they are likely the best possible match for organ and blood donation, however not always. And since I suspect it's my game you two are getting into, I'm good with that

Magicial qualities(such as metatype) are often passed along with normal genetics, but not always. Whenever scientists think they figured out something, it screws up.

The only way I could see it happening(assuming the character are not fairly old) is if they had a human and elf parent, with one twin elf, one twin human, and the human child goblinized.

Huh? AFAIK, differently from goblinization, no one turns into an elf or dwarf. UGE is always already developed at birth.

It may be considered dated material here, but I don't see any reason why this can't apply to SR4 as well (had a would-be player once try to convince me that crossbreeding was impossible between metatypes):I'd expect that the later part, the "Human couples can have a baby of another race;" part and such, is almost nonexistent as of the 2070's (with a few exceptions that're irrelevant here), but I'd wager the former part like "the child of an elf and ork would be an elf baby or an ork baby" still holds true for SR4a & the 2070's. There's no need that one parent in this must be human.

And as an idea that just might add some fun to the family history, one or both of the parents could've been a poser of another metatype (the elf an ork poser, or both human posers, by RAW), and the excrement hit the air dispersal device when the twins came out as mixed metatypes.

Looking back in SR3, I guess I got that one wrong (kinda; I think it's possible to happen still in utero); haven't done as much reading in the older systems as I have 4th. But with the passing of the comet it's possible that a SURGE could've turned as simple as an UGE for someone already born. Aside from the few things magic certainly cannot ever do, there's still a lot that magic can do that cannot be easily explained or predicted at times.

I believe one SR4 book (Augmentation?) actually states outright that elf and dwarf metatypes only ever develop pre-birth (well according to 2070s state of research). IIRC there's a SURGE effect in Shadow of the Comet that has a human grow pointed ears, but that's just cosmetic.

Regarding the OP I agree with you and Lantzer: I'd consider fraternal twins from an Ork/Elf couple perfectly plausible.

He's my brother!
...
He's adopted...

As far as i know, twins are natural clones - the fertilized egg screws up a bit in the repclication process and splits (homzygotic twins) which means they share the same genes. There might be soem differences in the geen's experssions (which genes gives apparent effects), but the genome is the same.

Dyzigtoc twins (ie two eggs) are, genewise, normal brothers, sisters or any combination thereof.

I believe I read about a legal case in Germany(?) where the courts couldn't pin criminal charges on a fellow because they had no way of conclusively proving that it wasn't actually his twin who committed the crime. Consequently he and his twin were cleared and the case was thrown out.

~Umi

Even homozygotic twins have different fingerprints, different retina patterns and can even look (somewhat) different – depending on lifestyle. But their genetic fingerprints (the electrophoresis patterns of their micro-satellite DNA) are indistinguishable.

Indeed. Manunancy and MYST1C are both correct.

Identical twins come from a single fertilized egg that split during the growth process. While the final product will develop slightly different, they have the exact same genes. They share the same base DNA, but do not have identical DNA either. It seems very unlikely that identical twins would wind up different metatypes though, because shadowrun has been insinuating that it's a genetic predisposition for a while now. That would make separate expressions (UGE vs goblin) very unlikely. It's still possible though, especially with the SURGE excuse.

Fraternal twins, or non-identical twins just for black/white clarity, are two siblings fertilized at the same time. They are only as identical as a regular sibling would be to another.

Now, if you take the idea that metavariants are magical expressions, rather than pure genetics, it's far more plausible that they may turn out different, but still very unlikely.

Still, if your GM, do whatever fits the group/campaign the best. If you are not, this needs to be done under their prerogative.

I just checked YotC, and yeah, you can't SURGE into an elf or dwarf - only orks, trolls, or variants of your original metatype (dwarves into menehune, elves into Night Ones, trolls into fomori, orks into oni).

Twins... with the fat dwarf played by Danny Devito and the buff ork/troll played by Arnie!

Got a page reference, please? Not that I'm doubting you, but I'd like to read for myself just to make sure.

Sure.

Year of the Comet, page 141, under Goblinization.

I just checked Runner's Companion, and Goblinization isn't noted there, but neither is the meta-variant thing (which I'd keep for my home game). Metahuman traits is listed as an example of Class 1 SURGE though, so.

I meant more for a cheap GM justification, but I wasn't aware you could even do what was posted.

Ah, I see. I completely overlooked that old SURGE edge there. Mind, I counter propose with the "Creating Your Own SURGE Effects" on page 143. Even though magic has a set list of things it absolutely cannot ever do, at the GM's discretion having a human spontaneously express as an elf or dwarf could still be one of them.

The closest thing Runner's Companion has to Goblinization is in SURGE and it's the "Metahuman Traits" quality, with which a few other choice SURGE qualities can come close to mimicing a particular metatype.

IIRC I read somewhere about metatypes and DNA being influenced by their astral shadows and mana. This would lend credence to a more magical influence into metatypes & SURGE, and I honestly can't say I've read anywhere where DNA evidence identified someone's metatype. Otherwise I'd think it'd be an easy DNA check to see who might SURGE, and though potentially costly a simple genetic rewrite to "cure" a metahuman to make him/her human again (Humanis would love it if this were true).

So would that one Japanacorp executive that SURGEd into either a troll or near-obsidiman(?). The one the memos are written to in YotC.

Personally, I have no dog in the fight - I was curious about whether or not the rules had written you could express as a dwarf or elf and went looking

by twins and elves I immediately thought of the Matrix movie.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/Twins300px.png
Their alias even is "Ghosts".