[Chalkarts]

What would you do with a runner that was a completely average Mundane guy who just sort of stumbled into the life?
I mean as a player,
If you had to play it,
No cyber, no magic, no specializations. 
Just a bland guy with a realistic skillset.

What would you do with that?(Don't say die)
Would you Face, Front line, medkit support, lob grenades?

[Banshee]

That's a tough one for sure .. really the only thing you will be able to do at first is generic support but should be able to develop into most any role that the team will need filled.

One of my favorite PC's over the last 30 years was a mundane no cyber street cop that ended being good enough to hold his own during combat but really shined during the legwork investigation phase

[Chalkarts]

That's a tough one for sure .. really the only thing you will be able to do at first is generic support but should be able to develop into most any role that the team will need filled.

One of my favorite PC's over the last 30 years was a mundane no cyber street cop that ended being good enough to hold his own during combat but really shined during the legwork investigation phase

My one shining thing on the character is languages, he has a lot and can learn them fast.
Other than that hes a human, stats are all 4, except edge(7), best skills are 4-5, completely mediocre in every way I could make it.
I want him to be like somebody's lame dad that just decided to start running the shadows to fulfill his midlife crisis. Just a Minivan, a hand gun, a sporting rifle, and no fear.

[Sir Ludwig]

Chalkarts,
I will use 6E ideas, If you looking at 5E numbers/dice pool may be different.
My thought processes on it would be this:

1.)    What did lame Dad do beforehand? I mean he had to have a job to pay for the kids and minivan right?

a.)    What skills go with that Job? In those skills, I would at least have him at “professional” level (3-4) plus avg attribute (3-4).  Why is he good with language? Does he translate ancient text for a university?

b.)    Secondary skills, What country is he from (CSA/SIOUX might know how to hunt/use a gun, UCAS/CFS probably not)

c.)    I would add qualities Pos/Neg that align with whatever edition your talking.  Here are some suggestions. 

1.)   Positive:
   *   Blandness (Lame Dad)
*   Guts (Fearless)
*   Home Ground (Running in the same city he lives/works)
*   Indomitable (You got to be strong-willed to raise kids)

2.)   Negative
*   Bad Rep (People know he is a Lame Dad)
*   Combat Paralysis (I would tie this one into which country Lame Dad is from)
*   Dependents (YEP!)
*   Glass Jaw/ Low Pain Tolerance
*   Sinner (Depends on Day Job)
*   In Debt (Most people are nowadays)
*   Social Stress (Meeting a Johnson or new Runner?)

d.)    I would have him drive a minivan. (Might leave off my child is an honor student a X Middle School thought)    

2.)   Roles:
   
   a.)   Support:
      
•   Medical/First aid.
•   Maybe basic hacking/engineering? I fix a lot of things around the house.
•   Driver (Parents drive their kids to a lot of places):  I like this one with Home Ground, he would know all the best routes from taking the kids to soccer practice.

b.)   Weapons:

•   Squirt Gun: Modified Super Soaker? I play water guns with my kids all the time…
•   Dart Gun:: Modified Nerf Gun? Again, play with the kids all the time.
•   Mace Spray (Pepper Punch):  Took it from his wife’s purse.  (Or put it in the water gun)
•   Baseball Bat: Belonged to kids or from his glorious HS/College days (Al Bundy, yeah I know that should be a football). 
o   Wait, is this why you were asking about Baseball Bats and Grenades?
•   Sling Shot:  Taken from the kid's closet?  You might have to use rules for Bow.

Chalkarts, I enjoyed the mental break from my Wage Slave job.  I think this might be a fun and interesting character.

Regards,
Sir Ludwig   

[Tecumseh]

Edge is a superpower and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

From a pure mechanics standpoint, I presume we're talking about 5E. I don't have enough experience with 6E to speak about it with much credibility. Sir Ludwig's post can help you with that.

A no-cyber mundane is perfectly viable as long as they have a lot of Edge. As far as roles, being the face is the most viable. Unlike combat types which have a lot of back-and-forth rolling, faces often rely on just a handful of rolls over the course of a mission. Negotiation is often boiled down to a single roll, for example, which makes the use of Edge that much more potent. Same goes for Etiquette, Con, Intimidation, etc.

Charisma 4 + Social Skill 5 + Edge 7 (or 8) gets you a seat at the table and makes you a valuable contributor. Sixteen dice with exploding sixes will generate 6 hits on average. Allocate 5ish Edge for social rolls, keep 1 or 2 in reserve for pulling your hoop out of the fire (or a fire fight) and you can have a long and successful career.

In a fight, take cover and use your 9 dice for Leadership or suppressive fire. +3 to your team or -3 to your enemies is worthwhile. Nobody's going to kick you off the team for that.

[FST_Gemstar]

Here is a list of 5e mundane characters from a challenge:

https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=23988.msg445658#msg445658

Sneaky/social infiltrator types can be made just fine. Ex. Gamblers, socialites, detectives, bounty hunters, smugglers, etc.

High Edge and and mixing qualities like like Revels in Murder and Daredevil makes for good murdery characters for more pink mohawk games.


Using extra karma/nuyen and a less spread out priority configuration for more unique character perks like more contacts (even use some more advanced rules for blackmailed contacts and contact groups, etc.), a cool car, RCC/drones, tool workshops, other weird stuff you can't usually buy at chargen.

Don't forget to still use drugs! Or take the sensitive system negative quality for free karma!

[Chalkarts]

1.)   Positive:
   *   Blandness (Lame Dad)

If I could take it twice, I would.

2.)   Negative
*   Dependents (YEP!)

I considered this, but decided the more pressing issue would be his job.
Corporate SINner is the only negative trait i gave him.  He still works for The Man.

d.)    I would have him drive a minivan. (Might leave off my child is an honor student a X Middle School thought)    

He definitely drives a minivan.  His only illegal piece of equipment is a smuggling compartment under the seats of his minivan.

   a.)   Support:
      
•   Medical/First aid.
•   Maybe basic hacking/engineering? I fix a lot of things around the house.
•   Driver (Parents drive their kids to a lot of places):  I like this one with Home Ground, he would know all the best routes from taking the kids to soccer practice.

In his background I gave him a year of national guard training to explain his low level First aid and Auto repair and his ability to use firearms.  He's a lame dad, but he's also a deadeye.  He keeps his Rifle, shotgun, and pistol in a compartment under the back seat of his mini-van.  I didn't think about home ground, good catch.

•   Baseball Bat: Belonged to kids or from his glorious HS/College days (Al Bundy, yeah I know that should be a football). 
o   Wait, is this why you were asking about Baseball Bats and Grenades?

No, I made an ex pro baseball player thrower adept, was just wondering if the batting grenades through windows would work.

Chalkarts, I enjoyed the mental break from my Wage Slave job.  I think this might be a fun and interesting character.

Regards,
Sir Ludwig

Thank you for the banter.
I do so enjoy a good theorycraft.

In considering progression for this character, I thought it might be fun to play him until he gets a major injury, loses a hand, blows off a leg, something like that.
He gets some ware to replace the lost limb and gets addicted to the Ware.
Becomes a cyber-singularity seeker, spends all of his NuYen on replacing pieces of himself, upgrading from Lame Dad, to DADBOT: Enforcer of the Curfew.

He could go through a divorce after his wife tells him he's only half the man he used to be(the left half), get all dark and sad.  He may lose heart and just not be able to take joy in Punching Lone Star cops that he used to. 

[Chalkarts]

Edge is a superpower and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

In an effort to make him as bland as possible I took Atts-A and made all of his stats 4, except edge, which is 7.

I figured that his edge would be the only thing that kept him alive for a while.

[Sir Ludwig]

Chalkarts,

It's not really a smuggling compartment.  He just took the spare tire out and threw all the guns in there. 

sir Ludwig

[Glyph]

You can actually make a pretty badass character in 5th Edition with a Sum-to-Ten mundane human.  You are taking E for Magic already, and E for Resources is very viable with the expenditure of 10 starting Karma for extra money (26,000 Nuyen is fine for kitting out a starting runner).  So that leaves Attributes: A, Skills: A, and Edge: C.   You can be a good specialist who is well-rounded in other areas, especially with the right Qualities.

That same mix of priorities can also make Joe Average, though.  Attributes: A lets you take straight 4's across the board (or, say, two 5's. four 4's, and two 3's to mix it up a bit).  Skills: A lets you take a huge load-out of skills and skill groups in the 3-4 range with a few 5's and a few specializations.  For starting Karma, 10 spent on Resources leaves you 15 for Qualities (Example - Bilingual: Japanese, Blandness. and Jack of All Trades).  With an Edge of 7 to get him out of trouble, you have a Joe Average who can (hopefully) hang with the pros.

[RuleLawyer]

I imagine Average Joe is a not-yet successful writer just trying to catch up on past-due rent. The team wants him because he’s got a real driver’s License and a forgettable minivan. In 15 years, if he lives, he’ll make a mint on the movie rights to the team’s adventures.

[BeCareful]

Not the same thing as what you had in mind, but I did have a mundane dwarf decker hacker with Essence 6 in 4a. He was just squeamish about cyber-surgery, so he relied on trodes in his hat.
Because he was the only one interested in group cohesion, nobody listened to him and everybody blamed him when things went wrong. Then the group fell apart after the first run.
But I was happy to see him be the least dysfunctional one on the team, and would maybe have relented and gotten a wiz cyberarm if I had to burn Edge or something.