Shadowrun Edition best for playing offbeat metatypes?

Libertad · Post by **Libertad** » Fri Jan 24, 2020 11:39 pm

Because I am an insufferable weeb who'd jump at the opportunity to play a kitsune if it's a PC option.

However, my knowledge of Shadowrun is that it plays loosy-goosy with allowing said options. Sometimes by making them technically playable but the mechanics and setting fuck you over. Or making them technically playable but you have powers which allow you to fuck most challenges over.

Let's presume for the sake of this thread that I'm not talking about dragons, playable spirits who cannot interact with the physical world or Matrix, or other really broken concepts. Metatypes whose concepts are more down to earth such as "you are an animal who can shapeshift into a human," or "you're a ghoul."

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Jan 24, 2020 11:54 pm

SR4.
Saying that as an SR3 fan hurts, but it is accurate.
SR4 has the options you want and is the least bad version available.

RelentlessImp · Post by **RelentlessImp** » Sat Jan 25, 2020 4:07 pm

SR4, hands down, aside from the fact that being a ghoul means you're a walking apocalypse.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jan 25, 2020 8:47 pm

Which . . i mean . . . can't go much more offbeat than that.
There's even an anime about that.

Iduno · Post by **Iduno** » Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:39 pm

SR4 works. If your power set is "looks like a fox, and is a person", that's not even going to affect things in-game except for roleplay.

If you want to really get into powers and whatever, it's going to get wild quick, and everyone else should be playing something crazy like a full-blown cyberzombie or a even slightly-optimized mage.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:20 pm

Or . . you know . . Punch and Judy.
Or the ultimate mundane climber.
Or Bear walks through Walls . .
Binky is right out though.
But you CAN do MLP in at least 3 different ways . .
Run them as a Mercenary outfit.
Call them the Pony Express.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:10 pm

The Shadowrun Companion is a book for 2nd edition Shadowrun. It provides a lot of character generation options, including new metatypes and edges and flaws and shit. It was a very well received book and is much better than other books of its era.

The subsequent editions of the book had worse writing and sloppier rules but more options. Basically each revision adds more material but is sloppier about what it adds. The SR4 version has the most material while still being playable at all. If that's your sweet spot, then that is your sweet spot.

-Username17

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 5:36 am

What ARE some of the cool critter options you can use for a player in Shadowrun? I might be joining a 4E campaign later this month, but I've never been much of an expert on the setting or system.

I think there was a shapeshifting kitsune as a party member in one of the old SNES games, and the recent computer games definitely give you a ghoul in the party, but all I really remember reading in the 4E books a decade ago was a variety of marginally different goblinoids and dwarves.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 12:54 pm

Avoraciopoctules wrote:What ARE some of the cool critter options you can use for a player in Shadowrun? I might be joining a 4E campaign later this month, but I've never been much of an expert on the setting or system.

I think there was a shapeshifting kitsune as a party member in one of the old SNES games, and the recent computer games definitely give you a ghoul in the party, but all I really remember reading in the 4E books a decade ago was a variety of marginally different goblinoids and dwarves.

Honestly, Human is the best option unless you're going all-in on spirit binding or something and really need a high Charisma score, in which case it is worth it to be an Elf.

Being big and strong isn't particularly good or useful, so even though Orks get a decent price break on their toughness, it's still a waste of points. The exotic metatypes and non-human sapients are written quite conservatively, with the assumption that people were going to figure out how to break them somehow, and the points cost is higher than what they give you. The 'exoticism tax' you pay is quite high.

But if you're just a Human or Elf who summons demons, you don't pay any exoticism tax. It's kind of weird.

-Username17

Iduno · Post by **Iduno** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 3:13 pm

Elves are expensive at 30 BP, but you're paying for a combined 3 stat points (30 BP worth) in the best physical and best mental stat, which also increases the modified maximum. They also don't have any drawbacks like everyone else does. It's a stupidly good deal if you planned on spending those points anyway, and you almost certainly planned on putting points into agility. +2 charisma is "you get to be the face in addition to whatever you wanted to do" points. Elves make good shamans, or a mundane who can do well at everything in and out of combat that you actually care to do fairly competently.

Orks, for comparison, pay 25 BP to get extra dice for damage resistance, and also strength which is used for who gives a shit. They also get negatives to initiative, in a game where you can take down an opponent in one round.

The Runner's Companion metatypes are either over or under-costed significantly. Usually it's something like "pay a pile of points for +1 to this and -1 to this, even though that should probably come close to breaking even", but you do get a few crazy shapeshifters that would have gotten errata'd if Catalyst gave a shit.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 3:41 pm

Thanks for the tips. So, human is generally the goto, but there are a few neat shapeshifters in Runner's Companion. How favorably do they compare to being an Inhabitation/Possession mage or just learning a shapeshifting spell?

Let's say Libertad wants to play a kitsune. The Fox Shapeshifter in the 2nd printing of Runner's Companion is 50 BP (or more if you layer on a nonhuman base race). For that, you get shapeshifting and regen, but also a major silver weakness and very heavy cyberware restrictions. You have Magic, but you aren't automatically an adept or mage.

Now, I seem to remember two other ways you might be able to achieve this. One involves spell locks to sustain unlimited duration buffs and shapechanging on yourself, and Frank discusses that here: http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?p=21775

The last option is to use spirits. If you have summoning and the right tradition, you can just shove a spirit into someone to take them over / give them some buffs. That's usually an iconic insect spirit thing, but maybe you could have a mage that binds a fox spirit and gets some cosmetic changes to go with their powers? You might need to re-bind periodically for more services, but it's not gonna devour your BP/Karma like Fox Shifter would.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 4:55 pm

Orks in SR4 are the master race because they get more attribute points than it costs to be an ork.
And they get lowlight vision as well, for all it is worth.
You can even take the human looking perk and still come out somewhat on top in terms of cost . .

Pixies are interesting. Stupid but still aside from the reasoning behind them the most playable.

HMHVV makes you into the main protagonist of Stink Bomb.

Sasquatsch . . technically easy to circumvent the disadvantages other than:"There was a sasquatch with them" *Oh it is THEM!* because you literally are one in a million . .

Shapeshifters . . should be played more like ANIMALS that TURN INTO META HUMANS . . but end up being played more like the Werewolf were the Human turns into an animal. Also, kinda stupid on account of worn and carried gear.

An AI in a robot body or using drones and holograms to disguise itself as a regular human decker would be kinda sorta doable i guess.

But then you can achieve pretty much the same as a normal decker or even otaku.