[Bushw4cker]

How does your Seattle Troll and other races react to Metavariants? I have a player in 5th Edition playing a Mystic Adept Fomori, I was going to house rule it, but he just wants to just use the Troll stats, and change it later if they come out with some new rules. He does have Counterspelling maxed.

I'm putting finishing touches on my first two runs for the campaign. In one part the characters are more then likely going to be going into a Troll Bar, and another bar that is mostly Ork/Troll. I'm wondering how other Trolls would react to a "cousin".  Everything being Globalized in the Sixth world, I can't imagine that most people haven't seen a Fomori before on the Trid or in Sims. At the same time though, I don't think your Average Puyallup Troll or Ork has ever met one personally. Would anyone even be able to recognize a Fomori from Regular Troll just by looking at them?

[Reaver]

Well, Trolls are the rarest meta-type before you add in the Fomori variant (which are native only to the British isles)....


On the good side, they basically look like smaller, cuter regular trolls... so they have that going  for them... (the lack the dermal deposits, and are smaller in size).....



I would guess in this case, people would probably think he/she is a small troll that had some cosmetic surgery done (the dermal deposits removed).



But you start getting into the really "weird" and exotic variants and take them out of there native area and you are asking for problems IMO.

Nartaki

<SNIP>...a pair of additional arms and unusual skin hues. <SNIP>...
In fact, their only
non-human traits are the obvious ones: they possess blue, red, or
golden skins tones and two pairs of upper limbs (arms) which
originate from unique, flexible joints at each shoulder (making
them one of the rare 6-limbed mammals).
<SNIP>... The total population is believed to number less than five thousand.

Here, we have a good example. in Theory, if a PC makes a Nartaki, he is one out of 5000... out of a world population of 6 BILLION!

It's pretty safe to say no one has seen of them

So now you have a 6 limbed human with odd colored skin... At the very least, people are going to remember just where and when they saw him, even if it was just buying a soykaf....
Or, the more, um, traumatized(?) individuals in society might make a counting error and put lead into them. ("Blue skin?!?!? one, two, three, four arms?!?! BUG!!!!!" <BLAMBLAMBLAM>)

[Medicineman]

Well, Trolls are the rarest meta-type before you add in the Fomori variant (which are native only to the British isles)....

i never found anything that restricts Fomori to the british Isles .
They're native there ,yes and a bigger percentage of Trolls are Fomori, but afaik Fomori (and other Metavariants ) can appear anywhere. So  a chinese Fomori ,a Danish Nartaki,a scottish Oni or NAN Korobukuru is possible.

How does your Seattle Troll and other races react to Metavariants?

How does an african american react to a Watussi ?
Might well depend upon how racist he is
ImO he is just an exotic Guy.  You look twicde, even take a picture but only for the first few times.Small children will stare and ask their Mom inconvenient questions....
otoh Metaraces exist for 50+ Years now and some Metavariants (IIRC Oni f.E.) for 25-30 Years thats a whole Generation.Lots of time to read about them and get aquainted to them.

Jahtahow
Medicineman

[Bushw4cker]

Thanks for the Replies.  I've re-read Player's Companion section, and I have to agree with Reaver. I don't think anyone would notice anything much different. Just a smaller then normal, and less boney troll. After just talking to player, his character is going to have lived in Seattle most of his life, so no accent. The rest of the players are human so they would probably be the ones standing out the most in a Metahuman Bar.

[Medicineman]

Here, we have a good example. in Theory, if a PC makes a Nartaki, he is one out of 5000... out of a world population of 6 BILLION!

It's pretty safe to say no one has seen of them

more like 50.000 (which doesn't matter much, its only more correct)
this Magic wave happened first in the late 2060 but was  repeasted a few times after that(at Holy Days like Onam & Diwali  f.E.)
And I bet it was in the News all over .So my Bet would be that a lot of People have seen them in the News and there's a lot of Gossip about them but no one from the CAS/UCAS has ever seen one for real.
@Reaver
Maybe you underestimate the  presence and curiosity of News Media in Shadowrun

with a curious Dance
Medicineman

[Reaver]

@Reaver
Maybe you underestimate the  presence and curiosity of News Media in Shadowrun

with a curious Dance
Medicineman

not really. Just factoring in the average person's 5 second attention span

I news report from 2061 about blue skinned 4 armed humans is probably not going to make a 10+ year impression on most people.


They also state right from the Runner's companion "Native to the British Isles" for Formori...... take that as you will... Does it meaning they only manifested there? Does it mean only people of British Isle decent, no matter where in the world? All I did was repeat verbatim from the book.. take it for what you will.

[Cowdragon]

the idea of a Troll mage is always fascinating to me. No good at building one though. I'm a human kinda guy, lol.

[Medicineman]

in SR4a every Metavariant got the neg Qual Distinctive Style at Lvl 1 for Free/automatically

with a distinctive Dance
Medicineman

[Reaver]

the idea of a Troll mage is always fascinating to me. No good at building one though. I'm a human kinda guy, lol.

it works frighteningly well!

A player in my current game has one.

Think:

"Weak, magical tank, that also hits like a train"

[RHat]

the idea of a Troll mage is always fascinating to me. No good at building one though. I'm a human kinda guy, lol.

There's options - Troll A lets you get to Magic 6 with either A or B Magic and still lets you have a decent Edge; it's easy enough to make Attributes E work for a mentally-focused Troll that you can still pick up Resources D and get a solid Power Focus.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Well, Trolls are the rarest meta-type before you add in the Fomori variant (which are native only to the British isles)....

i never found anything that restricts Fomori to the british Isles .
They're native there ,yes and a bigger percentage of Trolls are Fomori, but afaik Fomori (and other Metavariants ) can appear anywhere. So  a chinese Fomori ,a Danish Nartaki,a scottish Oni or NAN Korobukuru is possible.

Nooooot exactly.  Metavariants come from specific areas - or rather, from specific genotypes.  You may find a 'Chinese Fomori', but that will generally be because the troll is simply 'in China' - because his genetic heritage is that of an Irishman.  A fellow whose family is genetically pure Chinese not going to become a Fomori, just like a full-blooded Scots ork is not going to be the Japanese/Korean/Chinese oni.  For this information, though, you need to read the fluff in the various Shadowrun Companions; the 4e version had the clearest in-game discussion of it, describing them as ethnic variations of metatypes.  Yes, there are rare instances of, to use one of your examples, 'Scots oni', but it is invariably a result of a Japanese infusion into the bloodline - and vice-versa for the fomori.

Picking a metavariant means picking an ancestor, near or far, who came from that area.  While the rules allow for a 'Chinese Fomori', it makes a hell of a lot more sense to simply straight out be an Irishman.

[Medicineman]

Picking a metavariant means picking an ancestor, near or far, who came from that area.  While the rules allow for a 'Chinese Fomori', it makes a hell of a lot more sense to simply straight out be an Irishman.

I agree ( i also like to play with these kind of Archetypes)
 But I just wanted to add that ist not totally Impossible ( just like a Human whose Parents are Orks f.E.) just exrtremely Rare.
Another possibility is to "create" a Metavariant with surge
So you could create a scottisch Ork that has all the Traits of an Oni, or a Chinese male Elf that has all the Traits of a Dryad

with a rare Dance
Medicineman