What is your favorite role in the party? Do you naturally gravitate to the lure of the augmented killing machine street sam, or are you more of a spell-slinger when left to your own devices?

Personally, I tend towards either face or street sam. Magic is cool, but I prefer to use cunning and guile to defeat my foes than mere hocus pocus. (That said, illusionists and manipulation mages are very very fun)

I want to be the codeslinger the Matrix operative with the weapon skills to be the backup shooter, slinging code very well, and bullets well enough. And I prefer augmentations over magic or technomagic.

I've found a lot of fun and natural disposition towards being a magician. I've branched out to other areas of expertise, and not exactly MASTERED them, but found some fundamental fun in those other roles. Currently, trying to come up with interesting and useful character ideas that don't break the game, and possibly even gimped. I've recently noticed other players doing just that, with GM permission, which means I may have to step up my game again.

So far 4th and 4A only. Still

I like to break things. I typically play the gun-bunny/demo kind of guy. Occasionally a brick, but usually the gun guy.

Of course, my current character in the SR4A/2050 campaign a friend is running, is a dwarf gymnastics/athletics adept with high agility, wall running, and specialization in Parkour. So go figure.

Mostly I like to play mirror shades style deckers and riggers, or pink mowhawk "high concept" characters.

The pink hawks include:

I once made an awakened critter/spirit exterminator that was unawakened himself. Street Sam meets Ghost Busters with a touch of the exterminator from Arachnaphobia. Laser rifles, Squirt guns, animal handling, and chemistry were his big things. Devil rat extermination isn't easy afteral.

Zeke the redneck gunlover. Seriously, he had one of just about every class of fire-arm, each completly pimped out and moded to high hell and including a Personality program so they each had their own name and female personality. He'd "take them out dancing." Except Bertha: Bertha would take him out dancing seeing as she was a construction drone modified to work as a poor man's power armor, with a custom paint job and kicking speaker system. Bertha was involved in the killing of a dragon.

Until 5th edition came out, I was working on a Razor Hound: A dog based street sam character. I had two viable-ish builds: An biorigger pilot program AI with a super charged biodrone "dog" body (technically a Warform Hyena genetically modded to look like a dog) , and a wolf clone (genetically modded to look like a dog) used for biorigging (chromed critter rules) that just happened to awaken into a Shifter, and simply walked (naked) out of the corp facility it was defending. I was leaning towards the AI end of things, but technically an AI can't take restricted gear, and that prevents the Stirrup Interface from being used.

In 5th edition I really want to play a Cascade Ork T-Bird pilot and fly a small VTOL through city streets and drop off runners on roof tops, etc.

Magicmagicmagicmagicmagic...


All sorts and types, for Magic is a veritable Baskin Robbins of flavours, each giving us a tantalizing taste of their particular style of power.

Always exploring, poking and prodding to discover that new way to twist and thread the mana to different effects...

Sometimes the path may take a darker turn, but when one stands before a puddle it makes more sense to cross it even with muddy paws then turn aside from the journey.

I prefer the GM role... mostly because no one else wants to run the SR games (they enjoy playing in them too much). When I do get to play as a PC though, I prefer the hacker that doubles as a sniper, or the rigger.

Decker/Sniper = Plug 'n Splay? (ok, not really perfect as sniper is more single shot, but closest I can come)

Decker/Rigger = God Mode GTA

I love to play the face. Typically mundane too. I enjoy this role so much that I find I attempt to do it even when I'm playing a totally unsuitable character, like a street sam. I get by one roleplay, but when it resorts to roll-play it's nice to have skills so your character can do things you can't. (I might be lost for words, but Mister Superawesomeface isn't!)

That would be plug 'n stay

Hmmmmm... Depends upon the Game, I guess...

I will try to play anything that has a good concept. Latest 5 Characters are:

Human Mystic Adept Occult Investigations Face with a focus in Defensive and Manipulation Magic. Specializes in Cultural Research (Asian and Persian).
Human Unaugmented\Unawakened Mercenary with a penchant for Russian Technology from the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.
Oni Ninja Assassin, Adept of the Athletes Way. Last Surviving Son of the Iga Clan, looking to return his Clan to prominance.
Human Cyberlogician, Deep Cover Agent for Knight Errant Security in Hong Kong.
Human Surge III (Humanoid Spider) B&E Specialist. Trying to get out from under the thumb of the Red Dragon Society.

I don't get to play.

Adepturai is my fave. An adept with some bioware as an edge. Just a pure killing machine is nice too. I'm usually "the muscle" character in the trenches putting holes in people. I've been really enjoying my latest character until I realized I was an elven Fiona from Burn Notice with ninja skills.

Two trends in many of my recent characters: magic of one form or another, and fish-out-of-water. So,

1) Archaeology professor: an adept who for most of his Awakened life channeled his powers into being a better researcher. framed for a theft and murder he didn't commit, he's in the shadows looking for the criminal mastermind who framed him. Just surviving is a bitch.

2) Farmer/shepherd: an adept who lost his farm in the mountains and most of his beloved dogs to thugs from a mining corporation. Now he runs the shadows with his last border collie, doing what damage he can to corporations in general. Keeping the dog alive is a bitch.

3) Free Spirit Valkyrie: amnesiac who doesn't know why folks back in Valhalla shun her. Attached to a (mostly) altruistic street gang in L.A. cleaning up the streets. Background count is a bitch.

I tend to go Gun Bunny, sometimes street level sometime ex spec forces or Lone Star and various sams. Then again my last 2 characters have been against type, a vampire Doctor and a a mage that thinks he's an immortal elf (he's sure he's Odin but stuck on Midguard, and that giants have turned in to corps to deceive us all).

so far I have only gotten to play 2 characters & one was not given a fair shake

main character: Shade, Elven Infiltrator/Sniper Adept
second: Maestro: AI Hacker/Rigger who wanted to see what meatspace was like

I play magicians (Druids preferred) that focus on physical manipulation spells besides the must-haves. Else I play riggers.



I thought that was fixed? Or did you only cut the "never"?

It means my operatives are doing their jobs.

I've gotten tiny, individual games that promise to be epic campaigns, then either the GM stops or the group falls apart completely.

It could be worse, mate.

The GM could, out of the blue, say "I don't feel like doing this anymore, CanRay, you GM now" at three hours to game time, when you're on three hours of sleep.

(That happened to me last week in my D&D game. And I still fucking nailed it thanks to the magic of canned adventures and some quick worldbuilding.)

But is the group falling apart due to group dynamics or just RL family/work concerns?

I have pretty much always been pen & paper, but have dabbled a little with the Skype and the Roll20 looks like it has possibilities if one is looking for a group and is willing to try something that may be long distance.

Just have real irregular hours so hard to find a fixed time for even trying to set up groups, though hopefully later in the fall this will straighten out.

You've got the internet, don't you CanRay? As it happens, I'm looking for a mage for my IRC/Skype group.

Last character I played was a Wakyambi Houngan named Sugarcane Joe. Tall, lanky stitch who followed the loa Ghede. Eventually freed a zombie who became his friend and tended his sugarcane fields in Trinidad. Got into lots of Caribbean adventures; pirates, high seas, island hopping. Was a fun change of pace from the urban street scene. Sometimes, it got downright D&Dish/fantasy-time.

But usually, I run the game. And I prefer it. I really love the dystopian world of Shadowrun. I try to do my world right by all of the work of the writers in the games and sourcebooks. I even have one of them as a player in my games - which is both nice and intimidating at times.

It's a give-give situation, that.

It gives them leverage over you, in that they can sneak overpowered stuff or other stuff they know you wouldn't approve as a houserule into a published book and thus become Armed with Canon.

It gives you leverage over them, as if they do that too many times, you can throw the kind of surprise party only a party of Red Samurai appearing by surprise at his doss late at night can throw.

This writer primarily writes the story portions of the books, not as much on the game mechanics.

That's possibly worse. He can slip alterations to wide swathes of the setting in.

Role of choice: GM

If playing:
1. I most prefer tech/face types. Techies (core hacking/rigging/demo/mechanic competency) who are con men and investigators on the side.
2. Mobility and stealth adepts are an excellent second choice.

My main emphasis is to make sure that I as a player have to make interesting and tactical choices, not just throw around dice pools. Those two options seem to let me do a lot of that while doing stuff I find fun and interesting.

Care to out him/her?

Role of choice: Usually GM, but when playing - anything non-typical.

I'm bored of the typical archetypes in shadowrun. I ask players to build characters that are unique and interesting. Being a gunbunny or a ninja or a combat mage isn't enough to make a character interesting. I ask players to create characters that are particularly good at something quite specific. They may well also be good gunbunnys or ninjas or mages, but they also have a niche.

For example, a character who is great at capturing hostile targets ALIVE is far more interesting than a character who just kills things. Similarly, an assassin who always makes their all their wetwork look like an accident is far more interesting than an assassin who is simply a sniper.

I recently wrote up an NPC(who could be a PC with a little tweaking) who is very good with a PAB unit and can alter memories. He can also do some sneaking, rigging, gunning, fighting, and capturing.

I have no preferences, but my favorite characters in SR 2-3 were a troll tank and a decker/rigger. IN SR4-4.5, I played a gun bunny and a magician. SR5, I've only played a couple of sessions as the gun bunny.

As long as a character is good at what they do, the roleplay interests me more than the character. I prefer to get the stats out of the way, so I can focus on playing.

On those (twice per decade, lately) times I get to play, I play a security specialist. A deck, some tech toys, and an absolute metric ton of skills makes for the ultimate in breaking and entering.

The other 99.9999% of the time I GM.

Well-rounded B&E (Electronics, Explosives, pistols, sniper rifles, thrown weapons/grenades, basic social skills)

[Edit:] I generally go human & get plenty of edge. That way I can sub for another team member in a pinch or fill a role the team doesn't have a dedicated specialist in/doesn't have enough of.

I typically GM, but that's mainly because it's hard to find good GMs. Otherwise, I run a moderately cybered ex-MI6 PI. I remember once when he was following a lead through the Corpse Dump in Redmond and ended crawling his way through mounds of corpses while chased by devil rats...Those were good days. *wipes away a nostalgic tear*

Rusty Childers. Has written work in the following books:

Attitude
Sixth World Almanac
Spy Games
99 Bottles (author)

Also, have had Michaela Eaves in my group of runners. One of the artists on the following books:

Arsenal (cover layout)
Augmentation (cover layout)
Runner's Companion (cover layout)
Seattle 2072 (faux ads)
Shadowrun 4th Edition (various layout)

Always nice to have some of the creative talent in my games, but like I said - a touch intimidating. I jest mostly. But yeah..

Tell him that he does excellent work. Spy games and Attitude are two of my favorite books.
However, tell him that he needs to do a bit more research on Australia next time he does a Sixth World Almanac. a lot of that section was hilariously wrong. Other than that, I'm a massive fan of his work.

Rather than listing what I like to play (as I really don't have a favorite archtype), I'll list what I don't like to play... Party Leader... Guess what role I usually end up with...*sigh*

I see that you're from Australia according to your information. I'm ignorant of what the errors are, not knowing much about the country's history - or are you referring to things that don't jive in Shadowrun history?

I don't have the book on me, but I think that the stand out issue was that Canberra was listed as becoming the capital fairly recently when in fact it's was purpose built for the job.

Personally, I think that one look at Australia's actual megafauna from way back would spawn an entire book of paracritters, but that might just be national pride.

EDIT: check out the extinct list. a 2 ton wombat? we are so dead if they startccoming back with magic.

A Two-ton, Awakened, Rabid, Rampaging, Wombat. Yep, glad I don't live there.

Actually you should be more worried about what made THEM extinct in the first place, because if womtons ever come back odds favour so are the others.

Which still won't bother me, as Australia is a long way away.

A viable breeding pair awakened in the Seattle zoo and escaped back in 2012. Still feeling safe?

Hmmmm... Indeed, Seattle is a long way away, though.

I used to lean twoards cyber-heavy weapon specialists; but in group after group of uneducated, uncouth gun-bunnies I started to lean twoards the face role. I really grew to like it, too, and always made sure that I was passable with a handgun and just took pot-shots at wounded targets when in combat. Worked pretty well. I regret that our group stopped playing before I could try my nano/biotech focused doppleganger face.