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Post by Jona on Sept 18, 2005 15:00:48 GMT -5
So... do people have any ideas what kinds of characters they're looking to play?
For me I'm looking at 2 Slinky the Troll Street Mage and Aithine the Combat Hacker
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Post by Matt Droz on Sept 18, 2005 19:56:00 GMT -5
Since Brian brought it up, I thought I'd add my 2 cents to the thought:
Basically there are four "types" of characters. Not classes, since the game is very much GURPish in that you can have a mage that also decks and shoots (not well on all three, but...). Anyway, the types are basically Mage, Hacker, Street Samurai, and Face. Mage focuses on the magic, Hacker on the Digital/Electronic, Street Samurai is the Tank and Face to make negotiations. Ideally, I'd like to see one of each in the party. However, I don't want to restrict anything, so if there's a lack somewhere, I'll probably roll up an NPC to help out...
You may continue with discussions now.
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Post by Keikan300 on Sept 19, 2005 11:21:36 GMT -5
AH... Street Samurai.... The gunning gun boats of the game. If anybody plays one... DON'T CHASE A SMALL TEENAGE PUNK THROUGH DARK ALLEYS!!! ESPECIALLY IF ONE OF THE ONLY SPELLS HE KNOWS IS TURN TO GOO!!!!
After that I started to play a Wolf-Spirit Physical Adept. He eventually turned into a Wolf-Totem Shaman.... But not before I fought and killed our leader.
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Post by Relthar on Sept 19, 2005 12:37:12 GMT -5
Basically there are four "types" of characters. Not classes, since the game is very much GURPish in that you can have a mage that also decks and shoots (not well on all three, but...). Anyway, the types are basically Mage, Hacker, Street Samurai, and Face. Mage focuses on the magic, Hacker on the Digital/Electronic, Street Samurai is the Tank and Face to make negotiations. This is a little ambiguous (though the character creation details in the other thread helped a bit). My impression from talking to people who have played Sahdowrun in the past is that there's a lot more diversity than what the above says. For those with no real experience with the game (myself, Vince), something more concrete would be helpful. For instance, wolf spirit physical adept? What are they? Obviously magically based, but I know nothing more about them. A brief run down of some typical 'archetypes' (read: more focused builds of the four basic types) would be appreciated.
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Post by Matt Droz on Sept 19, 2005 13:44:37 GMT -5
I was shooting more for the overall outlook of a character, not really a "class" per se. Shadowrun is very diverse and fluid with their characters. I was thinking more along the lines of the role you'd play in the group, not locking you into a specific skill set.
Physical Adept are people with magic, but who, instead of casting spells and conjuring spirits, internalize that magic, making them have heightened physical abilities. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon martial artists, "Transporter" level drivers, Gun Adepts, etc. Wolf spirit means you follow the Wolf totem (now mentor spirit in 4.0) which gives you benefits to certain spells/etc, as long as you stay true to the outlook (a little harsher than Alignment...).
Like I said before, I wasn't really looking as these as archetypes, per se, but more of the role you'd fill in the team. Common mass-media examples of what I was thinking:
The A-Team: "Mad Dog" Murdock would be the Hacker type, BA Baracus would be the Street Samurai/Tank, Templeton Peck would be Face. Leaves Hannibal with Mage, so this analogy sucks after three...
Star Wars: Mage: Luke, Face: Leia, Hacker: Han, Street Samurai: Chewie
Fantastic Four: Mage: Invisible Girl, Face: Human Torch, Hacker: Mr. Fantastic, Street Samurai: The Thing
As you can see, most are nothing like the others. Does this clear stuff up? Or make you more confused?
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Post by Jona on Sept 19, 2005 13:58:17 GMT -5
Simons also talking about back in the days of 2nd edition.
anyway, all the way up to third ed they had various arctypes like decker(hacker), mage (hermetic and shamantic) adepts (think bruce lee with magic boosting what he could do normally) street samuri (cybernetically enhanced street warriors) riggers (drivers and mechanics that could control drones) and a few others that just got into the realm of WEIRD stuff.
Matt correct me if I'm wrong on this, you've read through the new stuff more.
If you can think of it and build it, you can play it. Examples from the book are Bounty Hunter Combat Mage Covert Ops Specialist Drone Rigger Enforcer Gunslinger Adept Hacker Occult Investigator Radical Eco-Shaman Smuggler Sprawl Ganger Street Samuri Street Shaman Technomancer Weapons Specialist A lot of those are the same kinds of arctypes, just with different skill layouts and forcuses.
Example being: Radical Eco-Shaman and the Street Shaman, both are the same thing, Shamanistic (nature) magic users, only one focuses on the back to nature aspect and the other focuses on the life in cities.
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Post by Relthar on Sept 19, 2005 15:09:24 GMT -5
The list Brian posted was what I was looking for. Concrete examples within the context of the setting. Thank you.
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Post by Matt Droz on Sept 19, 2005 16:08:55 GMT -5
I'm actually working on getting the extracts from the book up on my web space so you can look over them. Right now, you can see the Combat Mage and Weapon Specialist on the official site ( Shadowrun 4th Edition).
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Post by ronjeremyjr on Sept 19, 2005 21:52:36 GMT -5
Personally I'm torn between Otaku Hacker and Gunslinger Adept myself. It was Hacker and Street Samurai but I prefer guns over swords for the moment. ;D
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Post by Matt Droz on Sept 20, 2005 11:59:01 GMT -5
AH... Street Samurai.... The gunning gun boats of the game. If anybody plays one... DON'T CHASE A SMALL TEENAGE PUNK THROUGH DARK ALLEYS!!! ESPECIALLY IF ONE OF THE ONLY SPELLS HE KNOWS IS TURN TO GOO!!!! Actually, they appeared to have corrected this flaw. Turn to Goo and Calcify (Turn to Stone) are both Sustained spells now, and not permanent. Of course, if they succeed in catching you with it, your official unconcious and helpless and can still take damage. However, if someone kaks the mage, you're back to normal.
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