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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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...
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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.
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Enjoy.
That method can be used with very little changes for any rpg... |
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