Now this has me confused. Why would I need to post something along with the poll? Why only ten answers per poll; are you afraid of answer spamming? And secondly, why is there no spell check for the answers to the poll?

I've often played mages and deckers in the past...
But there is just something cool about sliding into the seat of a car, or sliding onto a motorcycle, and not just driving it...but being one with it.

Riggers just strike me as the ultimate in cool.

While mages/shamans are my favorites, and definitely the most open character archetype, I have to admit there's a lot of fun in playing an in-your-face gun-bunny.

i play magicaly active characters 80% of the time, mostly mages, sometimes adepts and an occasional shaman

faces

mostly because of thunderchild the ork street face.

Oh, I've already made quite a contribution to that section, thankyouverymuch. Really, I was just confused at to how the poll would appear and did not realize that it would still appear as a thread with a poll attached to it. It was the first poll, after all.

FYI: I increased the maximum number of poll responses to 20. If that seems to get out of hand I'll revert it back to 10, but I think it'll be okay.

Well thats what Thunderchild is.

i know, and if it werent for me he wouldnt, i was making a statement

well thunderchild is only an adept face when i have 150 points... otherwise for 125 points he is just a street face.

When every I get the chance to play, they usually make me the shaman as I'm the only one that can handle the magic rules effectively. When I don't get the mage job, I get stuck with the rigger.

I always find it funny that magic is so rare it hits one in a hundred people if you are lucky.. and then about half to three quarters of the shadowrunners i have ever met at magically active. Strange world. I prefer playing non-magic characters just because I get sick of seeing every character magic active (Mage-Sammy, Adept-Face, Mage-decker, Adept-Rigger) I know that the strongest combinations are all magic active, but I see magic as rare and try to keep it that way (unless of course the GM asks for a magic characters).

For some odd reason, people around my parts don't quite understand how powerful mages and shamans are. The mage in my current game, however, is getting the hang of it really quite well. He's a new shadowrun player and I haven't even introduced him to some of the extra rules that he can get his hands on (initiation, watcher spirits, ritual magic... Essentially he's not read MitS yet).

Mostly I play shamans or mages. Why? I like magic. Simple as that. I like playing with mana. But playing gunbunnies are fun as well. They are so simple when it comes to rules of engagement etc.
I am not fond of riggers or deckers. I am not overly fond of cars and 'puters in the first place.

But we had problems with the group being magic heavy as well. GM made a rule: You only get to play magicuser every other character and if there is one in the group already? Too bad, you have to wait. Simple as that. Nobody thought about retiring their character though, when the slot for playing a magic (ab)user came up. Honor amongst thieves and the fact that we were mostly adults. Well, most of the time we were/are.

I honestly have no problem with magic. Its definately fun, and definately powerful. I mean its magic; its supposed to be. Its just the taste and feel of the shadowrun universe that makes me play other things more often. Im actualy a big fan of deckers at the moment, I just wish the rules were simpler. It seems the rules are easiest for combat, then magic, then decking, then rigging. Then again maybe thats just me.

Well it might be that only 1 in 100 people are awakened, but then what percentage of people do you suppose are willing to/can afford to have lots of cyberware and so on? For that matter, what percentage of the general population is involved in shadowrunning, security work, the military etc?

Sure, more PCs than there should be are awakened, but having abilities that other people don't does lead you to certain types of work. It's the same nowadays, people who are particularly strong and fit, or intelligent, charismatic, or whatever, tend to be found in particular jobs more than those who aren't.

Anyway, it's fun to play characters who are awakened, and gives you more scope for your characters, I'd much rather let people do what they want than stick to the statistics.

For me it has to be covert ops whether a physad or cyber based it matters not. It has something to with the likes of james bond/ spec ops films.

Understandable, statistically its likely to say only 1 in 100 have any priority A (be it money for cyberware, magic, whathaveyou), so I suppose they actualy are just as possible. And people should play what they want rather than rely on statistics.

Thanks for opening my eyes... I wish I had thought about it more. I always thought that will most people being mundanes, that they would share an equal portion of the shadows to thier normal lifestyle. I thought 1 in a 100 mages would mean that 1 in 100 shadowrunners would be magical. I guess its more likely for a mage to do something either shadowy or corperate because they have a much greater affinity for it than some mundane (they have the abilities so why waste them being a nobody.)

Anyways thanks for clearning my mind. I shoudl have paid more attention in statistics.

i have been roleplaying for twenty years nearly and i'm playing my first mage-and loving it

It all depends on what concept I come up with, but since I read far too much Gibson I find myself gravitating towards deckers, techies, faces etc. I find its a facinating aspect to develop - finding a balance of humanity and cold mechanical logic - that is all too often neglected by many gamers.

Even though I only GM (nobody else in my area will, sniff sniff), I imagine being a Vehicle Rigger would be fantastic. I suppose it's because I love motorcycles. And Riggers, at least in my dichotomy, are bloody-well indispensable for getaways and other freaky maneuvers.

Mages are fun, but they tend to tear up too much. And I can't wrap my head around the Decking rules. Some day, you guys can explain it to me, I guess.

not a problem as personaly ill play anything but a gunbunny

Machine Project's got a point: vehicle riggers are very useful. And at the same time, their skills are rarely used but they still get an equal share of the pay. Hey, if I ever make another character, it'll definitely be a vehicle rigger; a guy who's too lazy to be useful but too important to let go. Probably be my first character to make it to retirement because of that.

I like the thrice-initiated mage with a datajack and a VCR lvl 1... high magic, decking, and basic rigging...

I'm not a power-gamer / dreamer... really!

@=^)

I have played mostly Shamanic characters in the past, and even in D&D I would more often than not play a Mage. I love Magic!

In the last year or so though, I have been making (and occassionally even playing) the odd Gun Bunny. I'm surprised at how much fun they can be.

d00d 3y3 h4xx0r3d j0r n0d3.......




So yeah, deckers for me, that or pissy ork techies. Never mess with the ork who just got shot out of her car by the Azzies and is now holding them off with a grenade launcher in one hand and plantains in the other.

Hmm, well I like to play characters that break the standard sterotypes, to the point of becoming a stereotype in and of themselves. The trick I find is to do it is an engrossing way. As long as there is an enthralling background and lots of plot hooks with a character, it really doesn't matter how cliched they are (hell, in V:tM I played a naive non-manipulative Tremere, and a pacifistic Brujah).

My characters are the type to be really odd and likely to never work at first glance.
The Street Samurai who has sworn never to take another life.
The Adept living on borrowed time and with a Body of 2 - who fights passionately for what he believes in
The Hermetic Mage with amnesia who has forgotten that she is Awakened (yes, with the Priority A taken for magic and money spent on Foci and additional spell points etc)
The Decker who was the best fighter in the group.
The humble elf...

Hmm, well that was a bit of a ramble. I think I'll just click "other". As long as it's different and has a good background, I'll play it .

I like to play a variety of things, and make a point to push characters in new directions. Even if that fails dismally. But I think I've had the most fun with folks who are really good at getting into places. So I chose covert ops. It covers most of that. I like either talking my way in and out trouble, or sneaking and silently doing the job.

Magic types are, without a doubt, the best characters to play, not only because they have such a wide variety of options but because they advance the nicest, 100 Karma for a Mage will double (or much much more) his power levels, for a non-magickal type, that's barely a change at all. Not to mention they outclass others in possible attribute advancement (and when skills and attributes are all a non-magic type spends their Karma on... that's a huge difference)

Gun Bunny type plays a dwarf with a starting strength of 8 and works to get it up to the max of 12. Spends 18+20+22+24 for 84 karma.

Mage type plays an <anything> with a starting strength of 3 and also wants to get to a Strength of 12, Spends 6+8+10+12 to raise Strength to 6 for 36 karma, Initiates w/ Group for 3+9 karma, learns Improved Strength for 6 Karma (Force 6 spell) learns Quickening for 0 Karma, uses 2 Force-6 Expendable Spell Foci for 18,000 nuyen and rolls 24 dice TN 6 with 1 re-roll giving him 7 successes for a Strength of 12. 12 Karma to Quicken it for a Total Karma cost of: 66 Karma.

This gives him 18 (of that 84 the Gun Bunny used) Karma to do that with another Attribute as well (assuming it's already at a 6, such as Willpower) buy learning a Force-6 spell for 6 karma and 12 karma to Quicken. He now has a Willpower of 12, a Strength of 12, and is Initiated for the same price the Non-Magic type spent to go from 8 to 12, except the NonMagic type started with a 5 point headstart, built his character around this one advancement, and for the Mage type, it was little more than an after thought.

Then of course there's the whole problem with the "combo" types who get the best of all worlds. Mnemonic Enhancer (for games that allow that out-of-whack Bio), and Trauma Dampener make matters even worse then, as now spell casting is cake and skills are dirt cheap, so regardless if you're a Mage type or not, you can get the one main advancement-advantage that the non-magic types can get.

I've personally House Ruled that installation of the Mnemonic Enhancer (which I've just recently let into games I run) removes all Spell Casting abilities. Doesn't make any in-theme sense, but it's about the only way to make it worth it (advancement-wise) to not play a Magic-Caster type.

Anyhows, that's my Rant and why I always play Mage types (Shaman exclusively). I like character advancement as much as I like the storytelling part, I want my character to visibly improve. And unlike games like AD&D, a Mage type starts out just as powerful as any other type, so there's not even an initial weakness to balance the vast character growth that follows once you start advancing.

Sphynx

Adepts. I never liked them at first until i started to make one when i was GMing. Then Mage types. again, never liked them at first until i had to make one as NPC.

its when i discovered their true destructive potential.

While adepts have never impressed me with their raw destructive ability, they more than make up for it in sheer versatility. Using an adept or a physmage, you can duplicate just about any non-cyber character concept from any game.

Adepts all the way baby! I play physical magicians once in a blue moon but other than that it's mostly deckers and detective types.

Well, for one thing, your dwarf in that example should be paying TRIPLE the new attribute in karma, since it's going above his racial modified limit. So it'd work out to a lot more than 84 to boost it to 12.

On the other hand, since he's not awakened, he can just ram in the bio/cyber ware to increase a lot of his stats and it costs him no karma at all. The million he gets for resources A instead of magic A will go a long way towards him *starting* with great stats, physically at least. Then he can spend that 100 karma on boosting his skills sky high since many of them are linked to physical stats which are all bioware increased to 9 or more.

I wouldn't say the big advantage mages have over mundanes is increasing of their stats, but they DO have a lot of advantages. Both archetypes (merc/street sam vs mage) have many plus points. I like them both but play cybered guys more.

"Other", though I didn't actually vote. I've played everything but riggers, and it's normally more about concept than archetype...

Sahandrian, my longest-running character, is a face/covert ops. He's a fairly arrogant british elf who has interests in swords, explosives, and ferrets. Don't even ask about the third one there.

Malkav, my most popular character (and later NPC), is a physical mage. He's completely neurotic thanks to being a survivor of Bug City, is absolutely fascinated by vampires, and has had his mind split in two due to an accident involving a vampire, the Fading power, and a Force-120 magic explosion.

Phobos, my current character, is a rude, violent, and cruel ork with heavy cyber and the highest intelligence score of anyone in the group. He was a go-ganger before running, and keeps the same mentality. And he's shot people for calling him a Street Sam.

I once played myself as a decker... but that was just odd...

Although I generally have no specific preferences, Most of my characters generally have skills of a technical bent, so my vote lies with the Rigger. I prefer having characters who can do things aside from just shoot well, powerball people or just plain beat them to a pulp. I usually get derided for being usless in combat, but it all makes up for it when I'm the only one who can haul everyone's ass out of the fire when the going goes from bad to worse. That's usually when it comes time to make sure I get my cut of the pay...

Idolists all the way. I like to play a cybered up gunbunny once in a while too, but I always end up missing the ol' mojo, so I always go back.

I mostly GM, so my own characters are rare.

Deckers are something that represent the Cyberpunk world of Shadowrun and remain my Nº1 pick. Awakened characters are also great.

Mage/Decker Archetype. The perfect SR combination.

That being said, any concept can be good. It depends on the players and the GM.

"Guns, guns, guns. Life would be so dull without them."

Gunslingers are not special. There's nothing that makes them a 1%er. They are not elite social or technical. You don't need a super brain to be effective. All you need is a gun, ammo and a target! Joe Blow with no skill using just his quickness attribute of 3 can seriously ruin the day of a runner when he gets that lucky couple of shots doing 2 serious wounds! That is the charm of the gunbunny. You have the most dangerous job! You have the lowest life expectancy. You kick serious ass!

w00t, l33t hax0r!

Decker! There just isn't a proper cyberpunk 'feel' without a decker:
I add atmosphere baby!

And teams benefit from a good decker, and games benefit from someone
who is comfortable with the decking rules.

I have never had much luck playing an adept, mage or shaman.
Being magically active is like having a big red target superimposed
over you. You have my sympathy and respect mana-manipulators.

do not meddle in the affairs of deckers, for they are subtle, and quick to hack your bank account

The Bait character.

This guy is half sam, half merc. He specializes in ambushing.

A troll with a synthacardium bioware, a cybertorso, & a pair of obvious cyberlegs with quickness 6 enhancement (quickness 10 for movement). The cybertorso has 5 points of ablative body plating (all in the back). Each cyberleg has 5 points of ablative body plating, level 5 hydraulic jacks, & retractable cyberskates. He also has a decent microtranciever in his leg and a transducer implant in his head.

Small Unit Tactics Skill 6
Athletics 6

When in a situation where the runners are outnumbered, this guy will tell the players to take a seat and relax in a location with only 2 exits. He then proceeds to run through the building to where the most enemy people are located, turn around and run his ass off to back to the resting team. Along the way he radios the rest of the team orders (using his small unit tactics skill) to get ready.

I know it's been done by a million people, but bait and luring is just so much fun.

I've always loved playing the hermetic mage. Whenever I could I would, but sometimes I had to play an adept instead....as long as it was magical. By far Hocus Pocus was my favorite....really identified with him. Mages rock!

i like mages. even before i got introduced to SR, i loved maigc! (i played mostly wizards in D&D)

and the way magic works in SR is even cooler than in D&D (well, in some ways. but u can't really compare, can u...).
my first char was this elf from japan.
he was full of hate and vengence which had turned him into a cold-hearted silent killer with a katana.
and his magic abilities were droven to their maximum by his will and strong hatred.

so he had the eerie presence flaw and the piercing gaze edge and was magically active, using astral perception at any chance to get information about the people he would meat.
this cocktail turned into one f-ing spooky character!