Then again, in any setting where it's plausible - IE, a setting where the television show Star Trek actually aired, or, you know, the Star Trek setting itself - it might be funny to have a character whose hobby is to build scale models of starships.

Heck, in a setting which is our modern-day one, or descended from it, I think my next character, whomever they may be, will have to have a to-scale side-by-side model of the Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) and the Normandy (SR-2), just for shits and giggles.

Why stop there?

Give the character a model of CV-6, CVN-65, and OV-101.

My players seem to love sliding weird pieces of equipment past me.

In several of the D&D campaigns I used to run, by brother's characters would almost always have a "bag of random stuff" so he wouldn't have to write down that he had caltrops, rope, blah blah...
And when we got to our epic level game, it became a "bag of +1 $4!# to throw" full of hundreds of random +1 weapons for the express purpose of throwing...
This is the guy that also always has [Street Knowledge: Shadowrunning]

And going way back, one of the guys found a bag of holding and in the next encounter after killing a goblin in a storeroom filled it with a whole bunch of food...and the goblin. I then forgot about it until months later we suddenly needed a dead body for some reason and he says "well its a good thing i still have this dead goblin in my bag"....a great day in gaming history.

I know there are about a hundred other dump things i've found on my brother's character sheets but there are so many i can only think of a few ><

I don't recall anyone but your brother having weird things on their character sheet. I'm usually very practical and matter of fact and J was a minmaxer. The only ones I could see that would do something like that would have been B & M.

here you go

Hob, that made my day

One of my players is a Hacker/clown. His character sheet is amusing and includes things like... A modified emotitoy dressed as a cowboy and armed with hold out sized revolvers.

My last shadowrun character had a Nexus on his sheet. I/the character insisted that it was a UV node and where he went to practice his magic.

It never came up whether or not this was actually true (nor does it matter: the character believed it was true, and therefore it was for him).

A friend of mine got away with "all knowledge skills" as a knowledge skill, partly due to his character (named Joat) and GM fiat.

My GM let an iWin button pass by his "review" of my sheet... the first time I used it he let it go then immediately stripped me of it via extradimensional thief critter. Said a god wanted it for use.

And?

And Chad, Gage, Ian

I think chad had the De-sexing stick on one of his character sheets.

Just glad the image is still there, as i have no idea where they sourced it.

That's it... We faced a major threat, I wiped out my sheet, read it off, said that it had been on there for three weeks, he checked his copy, it was, I pressed in, major threat was hit by a column of pure energy obliterating him and 10 stories worth of material below him, and that was that. Three days later we woke to find something rummaging through my sack, taking it and leaping through a portal, at our level we didn't ask questions.

My Question was "WHAT WAS THE I-WIN BUTTON" though... There is absolutely no description of it. What was it? What did you have written on the sheet...

Did you write: "I-Win Button" on the sheet?
If that is the case... Epic fail of the GM...

Yep, it wasn't described until I pulled it out, an ornate golden box, cracked open to reveal a large, red button inscribed underneath it with the words, "Cast in the name of God, Ye not guilty". (bonus points if you get the reference)


Suffice it to say my GM had a few words, lots of laughs occured and he checked all future lists for shinanegens from then on.

So, you hit him with a beam of pure energy from the skies?


Niiiiiiiiice.

Heheheheh.... Classic. I love it.

That sort of shenanigans wouldn't fly in with my group. I had a player once try to take Batman as a contact. I suggested that he might want to also take the group enemy, "Rogues Gallery", because if Batman exists so do the Scarecrow, Joker and Clayface. Suddenly the player was much less interested in Batman as a contact. There's just something about a clown in a purple suit that puts the fear of TPK into players.

I'm okay with silliness, but if they open a can of worms, I'm going to have fun with it too.

Bah, SR already has a killer clown.

Tho if he happens to own a purple pinstripe suit, that may explain a lot...

Srsly, who here does NOT know that reference?
Click if you don't

If you're one of my players, stop reading. Or keep reading if you want to spoil things for yourselves.

No reason it can't be both, right?

(Now that I've officially outed myself...)

Don't forget that Big O has laser cannons in his eyes.

I think the point was not that I did it and he noticed, but that he didn't notice and realized that he didn't notice. I've always believed that when a player outsmarts a GM, the player wins.

And yes... Big 0's lazer vizor was the "Big Win" against many problems during the course of that show. Big 0's cities would be a great setting for cyberpunk off-shoot campaign, a city that forgot it's past.

That's why I like Dogs in the Vineyard. The entire rules for the GM consist of "Say yes, or roll dice." Dice only being used for conflicts.

Player once had to explain why he was found naked with a woman he wasn't married to (they had to run out of her house as it was on fire) and the PC, upon giving up trying to explain in such a way as to a) not get in serious trouble and b) not lie about it, said that the burning building collapsed and crushed the sole witness to his indiscretion.

He didn't get off scott-free, but the GM let it happen.
(It was supposed to be a short one-shot to give the PC background, and a mark or item of somesort that grants additional dice later. Everyone had one, that one was just the most memorable).

I have a player that seems to always go for the most...interesting thing he can come up with. Every game.

DnD: Star Pact cha-lock who started collecting halfling skulls because a) they were just so little and cute and b) he hated them. Getting shanked by what looks like a little kid can do that when you've recently had twin girls though...

First Shadowrun character: A changeling (surge 3) who was dubbed by the engrish speaking dwarf as Fisheye. He was an anthro-fish. Very mild mannered, pacifistic, naive, and has racked up the highest kill count (50 kills, another 100 or so maimings) at once in all of our Shadowrun sessions so far.

Second Shadowrun character: I banned changelings this time, so I ended up with a human, dissonant technomancer clown who suffered from neotany and a cranial bomb that is controlled by the ninja clan that adopted him. Who, since he was the size of a child, impersonated a little girl whenever he was around people and lived in a women's shelter. Did I mention he's a voyeur? He's focused on being a rigger, so he has a humanoid drone (I forget the specific name of it) with the realistic mod (the one that gives them skin and what not) who chauffeurs him around. He has plans to build another one either as a pregnant woman or a morbidly obese man so he can ride around it in a rigger cocoon.

Third Shadowrun character: Changeling (surge 3) satyr who due to SURGE looks like a real life, anthro-hyena from a Japanese anime, including the large eyes and a ridiculously cute male voice. He's from a long line of circus performers, and currently makes a living 10 hrs/week as "a magical plush toy for an heiress' adopted two year old Cambodian orphan".

Knowledge : Relevant Knowledge (Specialty : Correct Relevant Knowledge)

Really?

I would have suggested it was a typo and that instead of "Batman", his contact was this fellow....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bateman_(painter)

I get that when the player thinks of something the GM hasn't they win and I love that part of the game, but it doesn't seem like outsmarting the GM to slip something that completely breaks the normal bounds of the game world and isn't part of the world. It would be like having the birth place "the planet krypton" in a character's background or just playing with loaded dice. If you want to play in a world with access to the Big O, in my group you're inviting the GM to play with that too. A world with Big O also has other Megadeus, some of whom probably want to kill you. But if your GM is cool with random giant robots popping into the game, more power to you. Next time you should spell something out with the first letter of each thing on your character sheet.

Equipment-

Sword
Umbrella
Pitons
Everburning Torch
Rope

Shield
Pike
Entertainer's Outfit
Explorer's Outfit
Dagger

No, his son, Junior.

If your goal in playing an RPG is to beat the GM, and thus 'win', don't be surprised when he pulls out a much bigger bag of tricks to kill you.

Like Consultants. From online boards, such as this.

*brofist*

Hehehe. Dumpshock is a Consultant organization. Nice.

Knowledge: Stuff (Specialty: Lots of Stuff)

Knowledge: Death (Specialization: Metahumanity)

The upside is you can tell how anything died. The downside is you have to roll a composure check to eat a hamburger.

~Umi

Reminds me that I did 'Knowledge: Have I seen it on the Matrix?' once.

Knowledge: Mythbusters

~Umi

That's not likely to come up much, though, is it? Soyburgers FTW!

You forgot
Specialization: Confirmed

*critical glitch*

"No, dude, it definitely works! The Mythbusters proved it! Now hand me that thermite already, will ya?"

~Umi

I'd think about letting it fly, but let the player know it probably wouldn't be long before The Bat was hunting him. I mean don't Shadowrunners typically do "illegal" stuff? Or hurt people while maybe doing not quite illegal stuff?

Having him pick up the group enemy would just be icing on the cake.

I'm surprised everyone is jumping to commandeer this. Wouldn't State the Obvious get a person in trouble when they need to use some discretion? Or if they were trying to pass themselves off as someone else, like a cleaning crew or security guards? State the Obvious: "Yes, I am only pretending to be the delivery guy so I can get past security," said to the security at the front desk.

That's only stating the obvious if the disguise is bad and they get caught. If they're trying to be subtle then stating the obvious isn't going to change anything: they are currently being subtle and therefore not obvious.

Aah, so the GM need not point out or let the PC use the skill for anything subtle.

I keep thinking of situations where you would like to hurt or kill someone, but can't for a variety of reasons. And blurting out how much you hate them and want them dead would set things waaay back or have negotiations fall apart. Or Haggling... "500,000 nuyen is my absolute top price." Or, "I only need 1000 nuyen to pay my rent, so I can't do the run for any less than that." Even though the Johnson was willing to pay the team far more than that.

A group of trolls swaggering down the street - "I could smell you from a block away."

I think I could find countless ways to have the player wish he never thought of using the skill, or at least have his teammates kill him, let him be killed, or quit working with him.

Security guy: *blink*
[beat]
Security guy: "BWA-HAH-hahahaahahahahahaaaaaaaah! That's a good one, wise guy."
Security guy: *opens the door for them.*


It's called the Sarcastic Confession.

The TSA are never impressed by this. :/ I'm sure it totally works in the cyber future, though.

Don't try it in the airport. The body cavity searchers are trolls with oversized cyberarms.

NM, misread this one.



How "obvious" is your rent, exactly?



"Snrk snrk, of course you could. That's the whole point."



Remember, it's only obvious knowledge if the people you're telling it to could have figured it out on their own or already know.

Good example: "Centipedes, despite their name, don't actually have 100 legs. And in fact, never could, due to the 'odd number of pairs' rule."
1) Most people know that centipedes don't have 100 legs.
2) Most people could figure out that centipedes have a "odd number pair" rule, if they really cared (by sitting down and counting).
3) Given #1 and #2, most people could figure out that 100 is an impossible value.

Bad example: "My rent is $1000/month, so I can't do the run for any less than that."
1) Who would know besides you and your landlord?
2) This isn't the only job you're doing this month, in all likelyhood.