1) Not combat centred characters. That much is clear (not by design, just looking at what I've played)
2) Not too low on essence, that just always makes me uncomfortable
3) Beyond that .... the annoying kind who doesn't optimize for role, I guess?
I mean, my first character was a racoon shaman in 1e and was pretty straight up, if kind of weak. But since coming back to the game via PBP in 5e I've been all over the map, with the major theme being "trying to be good enough at a role to get by while also doing other things that I find interesting." and minor theme being "looking at what holes the group may have."
Or maybe a better way to say it is that I I love exploring the lore and the world (and neat qualities and game mechanics) with my characters, and then I find some things that they can do in order to play them in ShadowRun. That makes the actual role kind of secondary so it varies a lot. Out of characters I've logged much time with there was a pacifist mage who was bad at spirits, a decker whose cyber-arm cost more than his deck, a mystic adept who couldn't cast spells and whose best skill was intimidate, a face who wanted to be a brawler, a low magic mage detective who was an ace at astral perception and astral combat, a drone user who isn't a rigger, and (6e) a technomancer who wishes they weren't and whose best skills are Athletics and Con. If anyone sees a pattern that I missed, I'd love to hear it!
(but also, what I really remember about them are things like: Exploring the potential emotional/mental health side of having literally used cyberware, putting what was an integral part of someone else into yourself? What does the prison system do with long lived meta-types and what is the effect of being imprisoned for decades and then being released in the prime of your life? What is it like to be re-built better than before, but to lose connections to your past/culture in the process? What does teenage rebellion look like in the SR world? What if you were the crazy drone lady?)
