[justkelly]

I created a character for SR5 that I'm really enjoying. The characters story includes 6 brothers and sisters and a set of parents all shadowrunners-except one sister who's not sure what to do with her skills so she's in college.

Anyway, I working on creating full characters for the family. I can get the story easily, but not sure how to best manage the numbers.   

Specifically, the parents have been runners since 2040ish, therefore they are very experienced. Do I just create them with whatever stats I want or can someone suggest a method of initial character development and then growth plans for 30 years. They are still in the business primarily as fixer and talismonger, though are available for runs at the right price.

Additionally, the siblings have also been in the business since they were kids of various ages gaining contacts and such. The oldest was born mid 2040s.

Any advice and guidance would be appreciated.

[Namikaze]

Interesting question.  I suppose the question would be what each family member does as a runner.  Based on what you said, it looks like magic might "run in the family" so to speak.  There's no proof that magical ability is hereditary, but it's always a good story hook.

If I was developing a runner with that kind of background, I guess I'd start by figuring out when they likely stopped running regularly.  With kids in the picture, it's hard as nails to run regularly so I would imagine they likely have about 10 years of running experience before getting out of the game.  So I'd probably build a regular character and then add approximately 10 years of Karma to them.  I like to say that a campaign takes approximately 3 - 6 months to complete, and most of the characters in my campaigns gain about 30 Karma per campaign.  I don't make anyone use downtime for training, since I figure that into the length of the campaign already.

What you could do is look at what you make initially for the characters, look at what you want them to become (numerically) and then calculate the training time to get to that desired numeric value.  That would help you get an idea of how long they would have to be runners to get to that point.

[justkelly]

Thanks for the karma earning suggestion.  I'm considering creating each character use the SR edition from whenever they began running.  The parents would be 1st addition; the other kids would use editions 2-4.  I could then grow and expand them with a fixed karma progression until everyone is 5E.  I'l have to at least try it.


The story has everyone still involved in some aspect of the shadows.  I'll have to post some of the storyline when it gets better defined. 

[Rebeldawg]

Wouldn't creating prime runners for the parents work just as good?

[Always Overkill]

Is this a game you are running or are you a Player?

[justkelly]

I've got a character I'm playing in a 5E game. Her story is that her parents and all the brothers and sisters are also runners with different skills and there own stories. 

[Davidvs]

I would suggest not worrying about the points, at least at first. Take your character / character history and build everything backwards from your character story and character hooks. Keep in mind that backgrounds are driven by conflict. The more you have the better.

Why are you a runner? What influence did your parents have on your career path? What is one thing you learn from dad to do? Same for mom. What is one thing dad always said to avoid. Same for mom. Did you listen to them or did you do the opposite? How did that work out for you? Who were mom and dads friends and how did they influence you?

For your brothers and sisters start with the ones older than you: Did they have to watch out for you a lot? Were they overprotective? If so, how? Or were they too busy to care what you were doing? Opposite goes for then ones younger than you. Did you have to watch out for/ over them? Did they resent it? What is each brother or sister best and worst at? Which ones take good/bad traits from your parents? Which ones went polar opposite?

Big conflict questions: Which child is the favorite of which parent? How do the other siblings react to that one because of it? What is a topic that everyone talks about at family events? What is a topic that they all avoid? Which ones do you love/hate/indifferent about? What secrets do you have against them/do they have against you? Which ones love you? Are indifferent? Hate you? How many are dead? How did they die? What have you/others done to avenge them? Which ones us drugs? What does the rest of the family think about it? Remember here that non-resolution here adds more conflict/drama and give you (and your GM) more to work with. Who does your family pay off at Lone Star / KE to keep them out of jail?  Are the parents faithful to each other? What other secrets do each of them have?

Rank each person in the family in order of toughness: Physical, Mental and other. Their skill set should accomplish this. Maybe the second to the youngest is the toughest physically because they were always fighting with the older brothers and sisters. Was the youngest papered by all the older ones? etc etc.

Once you have fleshed out all the highs and lows of each parent/sibling. Then assign the MINIMUM score or trait that can accomplish that. Then see where you are at and throw in contacts for each and polish off the rough edges. The point of the minimum is that you aren't making a family of super heroes - give them only what they have to have to survive. i.e you don't need a 30 main skill if you can get by with a 12-16 main skill and an edge. Or if they are dead, what wasn't high enough to get the job done.