You ain't had lovin' until you've had troll lovin'.

i would like to see a good(not horribly min/maxed) tank build for an elf before i say anything else to that sentence please ^^
yes, i know that you can cyber up the elf with limbs and built in armor like the troll . . but aside from that?
in SR3, high quickness meant more armor without penalty and high combat pool for dodging/soaking even with not all that high body scores . .
now that armor is based off of body instead of agility and the mali accumulate based on that and not agility and there is no combat pool the only
thing that i would guess would be high athletics with dodge and pool modifiers and edge . . technically, that's still tanking, but i meant tanking as
in MEAT-SHIELD . . not in hard to hit Target every enemy should be shooting at o.O


Troll goes and buys a Trolldo(yes, Dildo in Troll size):"i think i will call him rrrrrrrrodger!"

An elf can be a tank in the same sense that a troll can be a face - not as good as the more "suited" metatype, but good enough to handle most situations. An elf with a 5 or 6 Body, ceramic bone lacing, and orthoskin: 3, using FFBA and PPP stacked with normal armor, can soak a respectable amount of damage - and you still have enough to get other essentials such as initiative boosters. Indeed, you can get decent damage soaking and still do a Neo build, getting someone who dodges most things and soaks most of the rest.

Usually shamans, often with a 'face' function, thought I had a Voodoun follower of Ghede in an antiJapanese campaign in CFS, fighting against Saito. She was so obnouxious they worked hard to keep me away from people we needed help from. I decided i wanted someone else to be the face.

I would think that my Sasha(elven armed escort) would work resonably well as a tank with her Body 5 and 14/12 armor.

If I ever get to play again, I think it'll be the Jack-of-all-Trades Bod Mod/Tattoo Artist/small-time Street Doc.

-Siege

I tend to play sepicilist roles dem/sniper/rigger/Technomancer. I have habit of going with magic/resaonace plus cyber. I only played one mundane but hes perhapes my fav yet and hes done next to nothing.

i hate elves . . hate them hate them hate them hate hate hate . . somehow, one of the characters with the best laid out plans/background turned out to be an elf . .
i love dwarves . . really, i do . . and somehow, most of them turn out to be nothing more than an exercise in numbers who get barely if ever played . .
Orks and Humans are meh, and somehow, they get played the most and in all roles too . . .

Once you've had troll, that's the way you'll roll?

So, basically all you really like is trolls? That has to suck.


Honestly, the races are generally pretty even in this one, with maybe dwarves getting the shaft ever so slightly; even then, their enhanced natural vision and Will bonus can make them a natural choice for a Magician. Trolls and orks can be combat machines or cost effective all-arounders while elves are obviously consummate faces. Humans are cheap and Edge rocks. In all honesty, a troll Technomancer is about the only metatype and role combination I'd advise against, and even that is fairly doable if you're comfortable with leaving a few attributes fallow.

yep, especially if all of the others decide to play mafia/yakuza human/elf elite killers and the such . .
the james bond kinda thing more or less . . and as soon as they get into a real fight, they suck and
the big street brute has to come and pick up the pieces . . means i don't get to play as much as them.
but it means i get to say:"i told you so" often enough

Now that SR4 has made it easier for a hacker/rigger combo its gotta be my favorite.

I've always had a thing for melee/unarmed specialists, either cybered or as adepts. I love playing Mages, too, but usually let others take the mage since it's such a popular role.

I have never done well as a decker/hacker -- I've always had a hard time justifying why a good one would risk face to face contact for most illegal activities.

Usually adepts with the rest split between street sams and deckers for the most part.

I usually play medics in one form or another just because its really fun taking the fallen bodies of both friend and foe, dumping em in the back of my bulldog taking em home and dicing up their bodies for spare parts and implants which is decent money. Also trying to make a cyber commando. A tech/demo specialist who can hack a computer then blow it up.

Does anyone else like "Aspected Magicians" from SR 2 and 3? Man, Sorcery Adapts were the Beezzesknees baby.

SR 4th, not sure yet as I haven't PCed yet. But I am learning towards a Elven Technomancer or a Elven Hacker/Face. Shadowrun elves are probably the coolest incarnation of that particular race to date.

Sorcerers in SR3 were among my most favorite characters, because they were so versatile. With 35 spell points, you could have a wide assortment of spells, and skill-wise, even at the lower end of the Priority System, you had plenty of points to be well-rounded. Because really, you only needed one single skill, Sorcery, to do your main job.

I'm partially to jack-of-several-trades characters. Augmented/Combat Mages (a la Burned-Out Mage), Skill Adepts (lots of magically improved skills), and so on are particular favorites. I don't feel the need to have absurd dice pools, so if I can manage at 10-12 dice on the things I'm supposed be pretty good at, I'm content.

About as specialized as I like to get are the dual/triple role characters like a Face/Shaman, Mage/Hacker, or Infiltrator/Gunslinger/Driver who can get a lot of mileage out of having one or two really high attributes.

-paws

i usually try to get as much oomph out of any built that is inhumanly possible . . but in game, i tend not to even use most of the stuff i put in somehow . .
for example, i forget the +1d6 from artwinculation and toughness or the + on ouchies from bonelacing . . and combat pool . . in character generation, i try
to get it higher and higher . . had an elf with combat pool 15 once . . and i did not use the combat pool even once in a whole session . .
so generally, i will play the cyber/bio monster that is best at fighting. or best at whatevr it is that he does. Hello, my name is Stahlseele, and i am the Groups PG

I GM SR4, but if I were a player, I'd run Technomancers. In fact, I just got into the game a few weeks ago, and already I'm in love with the idea of TMs. In the old days of my GURPS Cyberpunk game (1991?) I had a metaplot about a technomancer-type character. I was delighted to see the idea repeated in a published game. Very cool.

^^In that case.... Welcome to SR, I hope you enjoy it at least as much as I do.^^

Cybered to heck Troll with tons of armor.

Weapons, demo, and Close combat focused.

However I'm branching out a bit with the contemplation of playing a Technomancer/Rigger.

Hackers, by far. And preferably a Technomancer, even being aware of how much of a sink they are for karma. I can't get over the appeal of some one who molds code with the mind alone. But I do have an idea for 2 raven (eagle) shifter mages based on Huginn and Muninn from Norse mythology. Who truely think they are Huginn and Muninn. That aside Hackers hands down.

Bumping for goodness.

My main character I played for years was a human Dog shaman with a fair chunk of cyber. He was a 'jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none'. I'm a fan of cybered-magicians (Adepts or Full) and making full use of the cross genres (high-tech meets high-fantasy) and also a person who is a generalist skill monkey.

I never like being caught in a situation where I don't have a skill or an answer to a problem. So invariably most of my characters wind up with skillwires. I also hate being pidgeon holed into playing any one archtype. So I usually go out of my way to play a bit of everything.

Personality wise however (and this is probably the biggest consideration in my playstyle), I love anti heroes and always wind up playing someone with an overwhelming hatred/contempt for authority figures.

- J.

Currently I am playing the teams communications specialist... have done so for about a year now... This concept is a lot of fun... I get to hack a little (well maybe a lot, as I have most of the hacker skills/programs), control Drones a little (well, also a lot here... have about 20 or so drones) and I am the tactical coordinator...

Lots of fun...

I usually play a shaman, and end up acting as the group's face.

Have i wanswered in here yet?
I try and play different things, but i usually end up being the Combat-Machine.
My FACE was the groups best fighter once for fucks sake . . And he looked splendid doing the nasty ^^
Mostly, i try to play Characters/Concepts i think would be fun to play/have around for me/the others.
A Mage/Shaman on a Power-Trip, full blown out of control Levitate, lifting heavy objects and trying to
drop them on whatever has provoked his ire for example ^^
Or people who annoy him.
Depending on how much annoyance, the height to which they are lifted changes.
And the height from which they are dropped does too ^^

I had a great Oni sorcerer in SR3! he was a ninja in close combat, literally, and all his ranged attacks were spells.

that being said, I like interesting, funny type characters. I am currently running a super short and fat human rigger that names all his drones and makes horrible jokes in the form of similes(eg: deader than a cat in a korean grocery, or happier than Jesus at a water park)

I usually wait to see what the party needs, and then play that. I don't think I'd want to play a pure decker though. Sam/decker rigger/decker sure but pure decker not so much.

I like Trolls the most, and finding ways to play against type(Like my Speed Troll Physical Adept, or my Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineer Troll Rigger, or a Troll Face I have somewhere...)

That said, I will pretty much play any concept I think might be fun to play. Generally, I do not play that many elves, though..or normal humans. Well, admittedly..I tend to play Orks, Trolls, and sometimes Dwarves..with Breeders and Daisy Eaters being the bottom of my choices unless I am going for something specific that cannot be done effectively any other way.

Then again, I like my characters to be the "outside the box" thinkers, like my Mystic Adept who has a smuggling compartment in her cyber arm, and some self-destructing, chameleon coated flyspies...(Ok..so the character is an elf..but is surged to be rather, um...demonic looking...fits perfectly for an elf!)

I like being a tech/logic orientated character, but i hate being left out of combats so i usually end up designing a demi-rigger or semi-sam. And i have yet to play an actual magician, i just cant get the hang of magic users who arent adepts

I do not get to play much. Mostly I get my playing done here on the forums and I often grab an Equal NPC, mod him to fit house rules and I am good to go. I know it will work, why? Because my PC was an NPC that worked very well against my players' PCs, which is the reason why I got the stats on my fingertips and personality is a snap since I have used him often enough to have it down pat. But the problem is the build is going to be very effective with no easy weaknesses to exploit.

SR3
Elf adept shooter
Troll adept bow hunter
Human druid

SR4
Human adept hitman (Mr Lucky variant)
Human magus(Zoroastrian)
Fomori sam

That's what I did when I made my guy-only, well, different by the sound of role. I gave him Metagenic Size(2.3 meters tall), made him an elf, gave him the demon-legs, horns, elongated limbs, and claws, and he's indeed an elf. However, his role is more of grinding the opposition bones to dust with his bare hands(or, in his case, his kicks, since I decided to have some fun and make the kicking-machine with about every increase to his Strength that I could muster. He puts trolls regularly in their place arm-wrestling.) He was a gang-leader in his background for awhile of a gang with a demon/angel name kind of theme, but now he's actually able to function in even higher society, albiet his looks still keep him out of the ritzier clubs. A suit does look rather ridiculous on him, even when he pulls his rather unruly mane of hair back into a ponytail.

I dunno why I have fun playing the melee guy, but I do. However, I've branched out and found playing a jack of all trades(I made a battle butler for that), or even a total gunslinger without an ounce of melee could be fun, as well(both of these are human, too.)

And again, I do like the smart trolls and orks, as well. Something about that is just cool.

Ah, yes, i think i know why i like you . . We have similar Tastes ^^

xD Agreed. I know you aren't an elf-fan, but, well, I tend to play my elves as not very...''elfy'' at least...

i don't like the squishies.
Priority:
Troll
Dwarf
Orc
Human
Elf
My elves can usually pack more of a punch than most orcs, my humans are most of the time slick quick boys, my orcs usually kinda facey and my trolly PLAY the big dumb but are usually the machiavellian sheming mastermind . .

If I had to divide the races up into my favorite race/occupation archetype:

Elven Close Combat Monsters
Human Randoms(whatever I'm in the mood for)
Ork Mages
Troll Faces/Smart guys(who usually have a nice punch to them too, either a spur or some big bang-bang)
Dwarf Mage/Techies

About sums it up.

Hobo with a Shotgun

how cliché *snickers* ^^

Hey, gotta love when the little guy can hide, peer out, and no one realizes where the manabolts are coming from.

From inside the drone that's set up to be a half-man size toaster on wheels! No one expects it.

OK, that is pretty silly/awesome ^^

My absolute favorite characters to date are CQC tanks. High shotgun/melee skills, martial arts, and armored like a tank.

If only because of the amount of trash you can talk in-game since nobody can really hurt you all the much.

And yet, currently I'm playing a jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none down-on-his-luck mercenary commander. He can't do anything particularly well, but there's tons of shit he can do at least well enough.

Usually though, it's the personalities that make characters playable, and NOT their archetypes.

Sam I am... I do not like green eggs and ham.

When I actually get to play, I tend to build the Sam since most people seems to want to play (Mage/Adept/TM/Face). Often times I build an Elf Sam, since everyone expects the Ork or Troll to be the big heavy. Plus, everyone hates elve'z, which gives me a reason to Blow Their FREAKING HEAD OFF AND EAT THEIR BRAINS LIKE A RARE DESER...

Errmmm, excuse me, where was I? Oh yea, Elf Street Sam mostly. My current character is an Ork Ganger (wanna be sam, actually not that bad at it). I was considering making him an Elve'z, but in low point builds Ork is king.

Since 1st edition I'm pretty much sold on the burned out mage.
Other types I play are normally things like troll faces or hackers, ie not that amazing at their main role but with some hand to hand abilities for good measure.

Human rigger or mage 90ish% of the time. Besides that street sams.

I bounce between good guys and bad guys... one character might be like a librarian who almost got kidnapped and the next might be an Azzie who's goal is to collect jars of blood from blood mages. For me the role is secondary to the personality so I decide on hacker/rigger/mage/infiltrator/gunbunny/skillmonkey after I determine personality.

*high fives suppenhuhn*

-paws

I always liked the little backstory from the BOM talking about himself and working a little 'magic' with his gun.