We all know and love various awakened critters, including everything from devil rats to cockatrices. They add so much happiness to our lives.

But I think we can do better. What about awakened raccoon? The unstoppable sneak thief?

Awakened Skunk? The ultimate property value dropper?

Awakened Wolverine? Even Street Samurai need something to fear.

Clearly, Wolverine *was* an adept with cyberware.

Seriously though, the paracritters aren't just awakened versions of all the normal animals. They're usually things like mythical critters.

Bandits are Awakened Raccoons. They are a lot of fun.

God forbid you ever run into a tanuki... It'll make the ultimate frag seem like child's play when it hits you with it's giant nutsack.

Bandit: Running Wild page 151


Greater Wolverine: Running Wild page 151.

neither the Bandit nor the Greater Wolverine are awakened critters. They are paracritters, but not awakened. There is a specific mention of the Bandit being lauded as the first "awakened" drone, which is immediately called fraudulent because the bandit is not awakened. Grrr, I need to find that article.

Note the lack of a magical stat.

I feel like people frequently use 'awakened X' when they mean 'paracritter'. Even if this is 'incorrect', they do use it to mean that. Clearly:So there was no concept of a 'paracritter' that wasn't also Awakened until RW added a bunch of no-Magic critters to the 'Paranormal Animals' section. Even then, these are described as 'critters resulting from the Awakening', which is damned close to 'Awakened critters'.

true. Another case of word nonconformity between the book additions. So, they are metavariants? That would make more sense; it retains the same terms then as human metavariants vs human awakened.

I mean, usage determines meaning, but I can understand why someone might want a *technical* distinction. I agree with your suggestion: if 'paracritter' == 'Awakened' == 'Magic rating', then 'metacritters' is a good analogical fit for this distinct category. It's a sort of awkward construction (metavariant derives from metahumanity), but it's better than the book's 'goblinized versions of'.

I guess the catch-all of "paranormal" remains the best bet. Still, the awakening that brought goblinization did not "awaken" everybody, so it seems like the same set, and doesn't mean that they are "awakened" in the shadowrun sense of the presence of magic.

Anyway, on the topic for those above, the Toxic or Mutation rules might be a good bet for custom-twisting your own critters into something more. Running Wild, pg 162