HOW TO MAKE A CHARACTER YOU'LL LIKE

The character you play in Shadowrun game is a very important factor in the overall fun of the game. As such, it is very important to make the right decision while making it, to avoid having to play an overall boring character. The following steps have proven to be good to me and those of my player who cared to take the time to use it.
  1. Choose a concept. This doesn't mean choosing the archetype of your character, you don't choose right away if your character is gonna be a decker, sammy, etc. Of course, if you know what you want to play, keep that in mind. What this step is for is finding what's the overall personnality and type of person the character is. Is he some punk who never lived anywhere else than on the streets, a big, stupid, but strong, troll who can't stand people who make fun of him or a rich elf who decided to run the shadows because he found his life thrill-less? This step is very important, as it determines mostly what you'll be playing. Don't choose the concept based on equipment or look! A concept that reads like "a guy with two SMG, an heavy armor and some incredibly fast reflexes" isn't a concept, that's a shopping list.
  2. Choose an archetype. Keep the concept in mind as you ask yourself what a character like that would do for a living (ie, what archetype). Do not choose this thinking about how much damage you want him to inflict! Choose it as a logical continuation of its concept.
  3. Make up some background. Now that you know what your character is doing now, find how he came to do it. Who did he encounter? (That'll be his contacts) What did he learn? Where? How much work did he put into it? (That'll be his skills) Did he take more time working on his physical side or his intellectual side? (That'll help define his attributes) You don't have to be extremely specific, details can come up as you play. The background of your character doesn't have to be set in stone when you finish filling the character sheet, details can come as you play. Only choose the important information.
  4. Choose goals. This step is, sadly, very often forgotten. An intersting character has goals he wants to achieve. Keeping in mind his personnality and his background, choose at least one short term and one long term goal. They can be as hard or as easy and basic as you want. Usually the long term goal is harder (and often hardly possible at all) than the short term one. For example, in short term a character could want to buy a level 4 focus but in long term he could want to get rid of Damien Knight. Usually short term goals are, in some way, a part of a 'plan' to obtain the long term goal.
  5. Fill the technical aspects of the character. Keeping in mind all the precedent steps, fill the character sheet. You don't have to care about the power of the character, just make it the way you envisionned it, no more, no less. Don't give him skills he shouldn't have, even if that gives him some kind of "flaw". For example, if your character never learned to shoot with a gun (let's say he's an otaku), that could actually become one of his short-term goal. Remember that you don't have to take the million to make a fun character! Unique skills, high attributes or a different race are often even more fun to play!
  6. Read back what you did. Go through everythign you've done and correct some inconcistencies or some glitches you might have left. This is a good time to get through your background again and check if you have to include things you thought as you were filling the character sheet, like including the origin of some edges and flaws for example. You can notice things you might have forgot, for example I always seem to forget to buy a 'Doc Wagon' service to my characters...
  7. Give it to your gm. Give your proud work to your gm so he can put his approval on it. At the same time, explain to him what the character's goals are, etc. so he can see if it fits into the game he has devised.
  8. Enjoy.
That method can be used with very little changes for any rpg...
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