Every once in a while inspiration strikes me and I feel the need to write, whether it get seen by the public or not.
At the moment I'm in quite of a Shadowrun mood, and have been writing some character introductions showcasing
their abilities and what not.

Now I'm thinking of tying them all together for a larger story and I know I'm missing a few archetypes/characters and
but I'm not sure exactally what I want to add in so I figured I'd ask the dumpshock community what mix you prefer for
your running groups and maybe draw upon some of your answers for ideas.

Synth-Rum and Q-Cola ("The Feathered Dragon's Choice").

...

Wrong mix?

Usually our group has a mandate of 1 combat spec, 1 support spec (usually mage/medic), and 2 "anything goes". As long as the first two are filled we will allow most any other archetypes in and then tailor the runs around the group.

We usually end up with 1 B&E/stealth and 1 matrix/drone. Usually someone will tack-on low-end face abilities as well.

-D

P.S.
We're almost always a 4-person team. We do have others drop in and out occasionally and we on rare occasion run as a 3-person team depending on player availability.

Our Current Group of Characters includes:

Cat Burgler/Semi-Hacker (1 IP)
Completely Unaugmented Mercenary (1 IP)
Construction Magician (Shape Spells) (1 IP)
Face/Edge Monkey/Driver (3 IP)

All Human.
The Cat Burgler and Mercenary use Jazz to hit 2 IP when necessary.

We're currently set up this way:

Critter Hunter/Combat Shooter (way good shot, but not exactly a tank - can take a punch, though)
Combat Mage Troll ('nuff said)
Orc Driver/may be able to hack (doesn't really like to, claims to be competent with his knife and guns, his ego is the size of a small country)
Face/Sniper
Mage/Rigger/Something/Support (that's me, still looking for my niche - support will do, I think)

We're not very easy to classify... Combat is mostly not a problem, though.

Overall we're kind of lacking a real tank and a decent hacker, but that can be helped without a new character.

We usually try to have at least one magic user, and one gunbunny/combat guy. After that, it's anything goes. That said, we've had situations a few times where we have no one who is astrally capable at all. Drastically changes the dynamic of the game.

We try to get 1 character for each major role (Magic, Guns/Combat, Tech/Hacking, Face/Social) and if there are more players, then we fill in as needed (dedicated Rigger for example). We also try to go through the team roles listed in Runner's Companion to make sure we have those covered as well as possible. At a minimum, we look for Magic and Tech. Ran a few games with just a well rounded magician/face (combat spells, utility spells, buff spells) and a rigger/hacker with some useful drones (fly-spys with fully modded sensors, roto-drones with a sniper rifle and a doberman with assault rifle). Characters used stealth and social skills with some hacking tricks and magic until the brown stuff hit the rotating blades and then the combat drones got in on the action.

there are 3 archetypes I consider vital if the GM is not limiting his content for a smaller groupsize: vital means that it is something you'd be paying an NPC for anyway, if you were smart, for almost every run.

Mage
Hacker
Combat tough

Combat tough is not necessarily the best killer in the group either. It's someone who can garner attention away from the squishies, if they get caught, and who can generally survive more of said attention. A tank.

Mages and Hackers are vital because of the specialized information they can gain, and the fact that you need one to effectively counter one. After those things, I worry about mages/hackers fulfilling other rolls (drones, combat spells, etc)

After that, roles can get more specialized.

Infiltration/sneak specialist
Damage Dealer
Face

Keep in mind as well, some builds cover more than one of these. As long as they are adequately covered, based on your opposition, you're in good shape.

Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief.

You forgot mastermind.

Ranged Shooter, Dodgy Bait, Tanky Bait....

I approve of this New season is on.

Fomori Sam/heavy weapons expert
Former Winternight melee/throwing Adept
Black arts mage
Techno/Face
Rigger
"WWSD" sam/mastermind
Elf Adept

last big game we had...

Hacker+Rigger/Face
Face/Face
Doctor/Face
Mage/Face
Face/Face
Asskickey Adept/Antiface

It turned out pretty hilariously, actually.

What's a Face/Face, and why are there two of them? Are they half-elven dual-class Face/Faces?

IIRC, we last had
Mage shooter who can hack/electronics
Mage face who can shoot
mage shooter with heavy weapons/rigging

Yes. (there was only one of them, by bad). Everyone could face to some extend, but the double face kicked everyone's asses at it.

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker.


No seriously:

Butcher (Street Sam/Combat dude/Adept)
Baker (Mage/Shaman)
Candlestick maker (Tech guy for hacking/rigging/Demolitions)

Any of them can be the Face.

Vlad

Huh?! And here I thought all good Canadians would be drinking beer and some sort of decent Canadian blended malt whisky. Damn stereotypes!

Vlad

I do enjoy beer, but rum is my go-to drink for a variety of things. When I'm out, I have a nice draft or bottle of beer, as I find them more affordable and go better with a meal than a spirit does.

Except for the antiface?

So the face-face could out face the fake faces?

Got it in one.

It was a hollywood/LA game. Basically everyone in the party was moderately socially competent to some degree or another, and could shoot the shit well enough if they had to.

the double face was an non-minmaxed pornomancer adept with a specialty in impersonation. his disguise check and powers were such that he could basically dress up as anyone and get away with it. At one point he rolled high enough to defeat a tricked-out drone's perception/sensor test and freaked out the team when a complete stranger walked right up to the operations van and hopped in.

I mean, anyone can put on a dress, but it takes talent to fool UWB and gait analysis too.

We're currently set up this way:

1 melee adept
1 sniper/ ninja adept/ face
1 mage
1 hacker
1 street sam/ heavy weapons guy

Dammit Canray, you beat me to the correct answer by 2 days.

In that case, my answer becomes:

Sammy, Techno, Face, Infiltrator


~R~

you can get away with not having a hacker in the team. especially new groups like to avoid learning this massive extra rule set.
But there will come a time, when somebody suddenly decides, he won't pay for the hacker connection anymore and like to play a technomancer.

that said, for a group of three we went with: face/techno, Rigger/sam (cyber arm and MbW), melee combat troll mage (more on the summoning side, friends in melee bonus, fuck yeah!)


also: What CanRay said!

NOM!
I do enjoy some capt and cola!!!

The way my group has traditionally done it is basically a set of primary and secondary roles.

Primaries:

• Combat
• Infiltration
• Magic
• Hacking

Secondaries

• Face
• Vehicles
• Demolitions
• Healing

So, for instance you could have a party loadout that consisted of:

• Combat/Demolitions
• Infiltration/Face
• Hacking/Vehicles
• Magic/Healing

Or an alternate loadout could be:

• Combat/Vehicles
• Infiltration/Demolitions
• Magic/Face
• Hacking/Healing

If we had more than four people, which was often the case, the roles would often be significantly more mixed up, and would tend to result in either character having a primary but no secondary, or a charachter having a secondary with no primary.

My group consisted of a hacker, a shaman (should do as a face in a pinch, 8 dice for starters aren't something to scoff at), a rigger (with air support and heavy weapons platform) and a B&E guy (who turned out to be an Agi7 combat monster). Then, the B&E guy, most powerful of the bunch, bailed out - there's another player wanting to replace him, and he's rolling a shootist (good God, Hawkeye is such a broken quality...). Team Rocket, the Prime Runner group, consists of very tanky shootist, melee adept, wheelman with some basic rigging capabilities, B&E guy/face (the only character I didn't build) and a combat hacker.