Sorry for the wall of text and the 80 char line-wrap. Did this in a terminal at work
20 Questions:
[spoiler]
1. What is the character’s gender? Standard male or female? Transgender?
Indeterminate? How do they present to the world? A lot of the issues
around gender have been dealt with by the 2070s, but individuals still
have opinions and prejudices—and their own ways of expressing themselves.
Standard Male (So boooooring)
2. What is the character’s physical size? Is he pretty standard for his
gender and metatype, or is he a tall, skinny dwarf or short for a troll?
Skinny kid, on the smaller side. Being malnourished as a child stunted his
growth significantly. Living with "Mom" and "Dad" in his early teens helped
but the damage was done when he was young.
3. What is the color of the character’s hair, eyes, and skin? Is her coloring
particularly striking, or so average that she blends easily into crowds?
Remember, with cyberware, surgery, and cosmetics, your character can have
just about any coloring you want her to have. Remember too that most racism
in the Shadowrun world is centered around metatype rather than ethnicity.
Dark brown, almost black, hair in a shaggy mop on top of his head with an
undercut that keeps his tattoos and datajack visible. Dark eyes that are
usually covered with goggles. His natural skin tone is darker, but it's not
seen the sun much in his life so it's on the paler side. It's probably he's got
a decent amount of NAN herritage, but there's no way to know. And then there's
the obvious cyber-arm from his elbow down on his right hand.
4. What is the character’s general appearance? First impressions matter. Is
your character a slob or neatly dressed? Does she slouch? Does she like to
make a splash when she enters a room? Is she drop-dead gorgeous, butt-ugly,
or somewhere in between?
He's tidy. Between the attention that Eisa started to pay to him and knowing
that to get people's attention he had to look better. He's attractive enough
especially when he's wearing his fancy suit he bought a couple of months back.
Baby makes fun of him for it, saying he's "sold out to the man." But MF knows
that in order to make the "man" be the "meta-man" he's gotta play a part.
5. Where was the character born? Was he raised a rich corp brat, or did he grow
up as an orphan on the streets fighting for every meal? Was his childhood
spent in a megasprawl or in a more natural setting like the NAN lands or
Tir Tairngire?
Born in a secret lab burried somewhere in the Barrens now. He doesn't have any
idea what happened to it. Spent his early childhood on the streets and then
was adopted my "mom" and "dad" as a pre-teen. Spent his teen years with them
in the Windy City.
6. What is the character’s age? A very young character will have a different
perspective on the world than an older one; likewise, an ork with a short
lifespan will see things differently than an elf with a very long one. What
important Sixth World events does your character remember? Was she involved
in any of them?
Somewhere between 20 and 22. He's not really sure. He was born after the
blast. He's got some vague memories of them openening the Zone, not that you'd
really call it "open" even now. The largest impact on him would have been
Crash 2.0. Nearly killed him as a child, and he lost his connection to the
Matrix. Wasn't until he emerged a few years ago that all of that came back.
7. What was the character’s family like? A character’s childhood shapes who he
is today. Did he have siblings? If so, does he keep in touch with them? Did
he know his parents? Did he grow up in a large, close-knit group, or was he
an orphan with no one he could trust to look out for him? Does he have any
dark family secrets?
His "parents" were some test-tubes in a lab. Then the streets where his family
and finally he was found by the two ladies he calls "mom" and "dad" that
adopted him and Baby. They were very active anarchists in their youth though
have ratcheted that back more recently. BH has followed more in their prior
footsteps, while MF is more moderate in his approach. MF has channeled more
of those energies into Metahuman rights activism.
8. Has the character begun her own family? Is she married or partnered?
Separated? Widowed? Does she have children? If your character is male, does
he have children he doesn’t know about? (Even if you don’t think so, your
gamemaster might think otherwise!)
No family at this point, and not even on the horrizon. Eisa and he have been
dating on and off for a couple of years now, but neither of them seem to have
the inclination or the time for settling into a family structure at this point.
9. Where or how was the character educated? Did she get her education from the
School of Hard Knocks? Does she have an advanced degree from a respected
university? Was she raised in the corporate educational system, or did she
learn her skills from a mentor?
A combination of pre-programmed training, the school of hard knocks and the
good ol' 'Trix. Between the programing he went through in the lab and then
living on the streets, his connection to the matrix and innate intelligence, he
was remarkably well off considering his resources. Most of what the ladies
taught him was social engineering stuff for the collective.
10. Has the character done anything else for a living? What did he do before he
ran the shadows? Was he a professional, a student, a ganger, a corporate
cog, or something more exotic? Why did he give it up to become a
shadowrunner?
Somewhere between a ganger and a political activist is all he's ever been.
"Running" the shadows has always just been a way to make ends meet and return
favors.
11. What are the character’s political and religious beliefs? The two big things
you never want to discuss at a friendly gathering are politics and religion.
Does your character have strong political beliefs, or any at all? Is she
religious? Atheist? Anti-religion? How important are these beliefs to
defning the character?
With no guidence as a youth, and then the first people he could trust being
devout anarchists he leans pretty far in that direction. Though he's smart
enough to realize that you need some kind of social infrastructure to support a
population of any significant size. That infrastructure is completely corrupt
though at this point, and it's time for a revolution. Either from the inside
with reforms and removal of the corruption, or through burning the whole thing
to the ground and starting again. He's still not sure which way is best.
12. What is the character’s moral code? Does the character refuse to kill? Does
he have any kind of sexual ethics? Does his morality have a large bearing
on his actions, or is he an amoral hedonist whose actions change depending
on the situation? What (if anything) might compel him to break one of his
moral strictures?
People die. All the time, especially where most people live. And when they die
it ain't pretty. He won't go out of his way to kill folks, but one more meta
breathing or not isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
Especially with the inequities currently in "society." MF would prefer to work
within the "system" but he's no longer naive enough to believe that'll happen.
If some blood needs to spill, it's not going to be his. He was literally
created to kill, might as well put some of those skills to use. Wiz?
13. Does the character have any goals? Everybody wants something. Does your
character want money? Fame? That big score that will allow her to retire to
anonymity? Security for her friends and family? Revenge? What kind of effort
is she willing to make to achieve these goals?
He's a meta rights activist. He wants to see all of metahumanity treated
equally. The Corps have tipped the balance of resources too far in one
direction and those resources need to be redistributed to those who need it most
14. Why does the character run the shadows? Is he doing it because he wants to,
or was he forced into it? Does he do it for the thrill, the money, or
because he hates the powers that be and wants to do his small part to bring
them down? What would make him stop running the shadows?
It's two fold. 1. To fund meta-human rights and/or anarchist activities. 2. To
damage the powers that be. He knows that it's just one corp paying to hurt
another corp right now, but that means resources coming out of their closed
system and better able to be spread to those that need it.
15. What is the character’s personality? Is she an introvert or an extrovert? Is
she funny, grumpy, irtatious, or just plain weird? Does she have social
skills, or is she uncomfortable relating to others? Is she opinionated,
easygoing, or downright apathetic? How do others tend to see her?
For an activist, he's easy going. For a "normal" person he'd be considered on
the driven side. MF knows how to kick back and relax, but for the most part he
is centered on trying to make life better for the dispossessed. A friendly guy
that can get along with most folks, but he has a tendency to be on the stubborn
side. He often argues with his brother Baby Hardcore.
16. What special qualities does the character possess? Not every quality is
directly related to shadowrunning. Can he draw well? Does he have perfect
pitch? Is he a really good organizer? Does he have a knack with animals?
He's a pretty special snowflake, being a prototype and all. So there's that.
Aside from that though, he focuses most of his energies on the plight of the
metas. Eisa would probably like to see him broaden his horizon a bit and work
on some of his more artistic leanings, but he's not ready to do that yet.
17. Are there certain things the character just cannot do? What are her
limitations? Is she terrible with money? Is she incapable of harming
children? Does she have a crippling fear of heights, or and it nearly
impossible to form close relationships?
He'll never knowingly take from the poor to better himself or others. They are
the exploited and abused. Nor would he ever commit random murder or even acts
of violence. Killing a person for a reason is justifiable, but just randomly
killing or hurting people isn't his bag.
18. What does the character hate? Elves? Religious people? Corporations?
Personality surveys? Himself?
Anchovies. Which is a problem because he's allergic to soy. So if it ain't
krill, he's gonna be unhappy one way or the other.
19. What does the character love? This could be a person (like a lover or family
member); an ideal (justice, freedom, metahuman rights); an item (her
favorite gun); a location; or even herself.
The little guys! He wants to level the playing field and redistribute the worlds
resources more fairly. Metahuman rights for ALL!!!! He's also pretty fond of
Eisa. Love might be to strong, but he may think he's in love with her sometimes.
Then there's BH and Mom and Dad. The four of them together make up his family in
one way or another.
20. What is the character’s name? Names have power in the Sixth World. What was
his birth name? Does he like/use it, or does he prefer to go by a street
name? If he has a nickname or street name, did he pick it or was it bestowed
on him by associates?
Not that he know's it, but his birth name is TPI-1773. Doesn't exactly roll of
the tongue, but that's okay because the only place one would find that is by
checking his DNA and finding the name hidden in there by the scientists that
created him. Made Free is the only name he's really known and he took it for
himself. Most call him EmmEff or ocasinoally Mikey (as in the diminutive for
Michael). But he's not good at responding to that one from any one but Mom.
[/spoiler]
Dunno if I did a good job of describing all of the parts, but the tattoos on his head are LED tattoos that he can change the way they look. Great party trick
@TecumsehPros+ Eisa's practicality and grounding help balance out MF's idealism
+ Their common intelligence and wit are like to work well together
Cons- Eisa's "practicality" probably often grates on MFs sensibilities. He's smart enough to probably understand the value of her position but young enough to still be driven crazy by her lack of "vision."
- Given their collective stubbornness I can see their arguments getting
really bad.
Any thoughts on how/where they met?
