Editing Unnamed Shadowrun Homebrew (section)

== Races ==
Quite frankly, the idea of just wholesale transplanting Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves into cyberpunk is pretty dorky. Spelljammer-level dorkiness. 

I keep trying to think of a way to make them interesting, but all I keep coming up with is crap. Every possibility in my head is just "Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves IN CYBERPUUUUUUUUNNNNK!"

Fluff-wise, they're easy to get rid of. After all, they were technically human anyways and you can do a lot of replacement stuff. Elves of Tir'Olgne (or however it goes)? Now they're just a bunch of humans who favor magic far over technology and have a superiority-complex coupled with a chip on their shoulders!

That being said, in a world where genetic engineering (enhanced by magic, of course) is common, then a certain group of traits become common. These form the semi-races and, left to their own devices, would eventually result in new species. So, we have loose genetic archetypes. Fish-people, super-intelligent, magic-resistant, magic-prone, big and strong, quick and agile, a little bit of all the above, etc. Walking through a more cosmopolitan city would be like walking through an uncaged menagerie. Racism, of course, we start to pop up as these archetypes start to develop: "The only thing worse than a fishies' smell is it's look." "How many brutes does it take to screw-in a lightbulb? Who knows. None of them have ever been able to figure it out." And of course, there would always be pro-human/pure human racist groups which won't deal with any "muties".