Editing Shadowrun (section)

==Gameplay==
Shadowrun doesn't have a class system ''per se'', but the priority system is basically a class system in a clever disguise. Prior to Fourth Edition, the priority system was the default character generation method; players assigned priority to five categories, which determined how important those categories are to the character concept: attributes, magic, race, resources, and skills, with higher priorities giving greater quantities or qualities of the desired category. If you wanted to play a mage, you had to make magic your #1 priority. If you wanted to play a non-human, race had to be lower priority. Later books expanded character creation systems to a point-buy method, which allowed greater flexibility than priority, and karma generation, which assigned a karma value to everything and allowed you to spend a pool of karma to build your character the same way as you would advance in experience.

Characters are basically the sum of their skills. All functions in Shadowrun are based on a related skill or stat rating, or a combination thereof. Through Third Edition, task resolution was Attribute + Skill vs Target Number. If the Target Number was higher than 6, you had to roll at least one 6 and then add another roll; in practice, TNs of 7, 13, 19, and so on were no different than TNs of 6, 12, 18, etc.

Despite the system being classless, there are still broad archetypes. The major divide is between Awakened (magically active) and augmented (cybernetically or biologically enhanced), and further divided into roles below. The limit to any character's magic power or cybernetic enhancement is his Essence, a measure of how "whole" they are. Installing cyberware/bioware costs Essence and the attribute, rounded down, is the cap to the Magic or Resonance attribute; losing Essence also knocks down your Magic/Resonance attribute. When Essence hits zero, the character dies as his soul mistakes his body for a machine or an inhuman monster and moves on to the afterlife. A mage or technomancer raises their attribute cap by one each time they initiate or submerge; e.g. a mage with two grades of initiation and an Essence of 5 has a Magic attribute cap of 7.

===Metatypes===
Biologically, most player characters are metahuman (i.e., part of the species ''homo sapiens''). After the Awakening, magic interacts with ill-understood bits of DNA to transform people into fantasy creatures in a process dubbed "Unexplained Genetic Expression." Elves and dwarfs change ''in utero''; a few years later, regular people started transforming into orks and trolls, usually quite painfully, a process informally called "Goblinization."

'''[[Human]]''' - Regular humans still exist and are still the majority metatype around the world.

'''[[Elf]]''' - Tall, pretty, and arrogant. Yep, that's an elf. Some have delusions of superiority, such that they've created entire nations for elfkind, Tír Tairngire (formerly Oregon) and Tír na nÓg (formerly Ireland). A few (notably Ehren the Scribe and Harlequin) claim to be immortal and lived during the Fourth World, a time thousands of years ago when magic last cycled into existence.

'''[[Dwarf]]''' - Short, stubborn, and resilient. Yep, that's a dwarf. They have an affinity for technology and dislike magic.

'''[[Orc|Ork]]''' - Big, tough, and strong, the average ork would be a successful NFL linebacker. Multiple births are far more common among orks than any other metatype; combined with their accelerated life cycle (orks become old geezers around forty), this creates a lot of tension between orks, who just want to be treated with dignity, and humans who see them as slightly above rats.

'''[[Troll]]''' - Really big, thick skin, and a bunch of horns. The average troll is around three meters tall. If you're a really tall guy, you know how hard it is to get by in a world designed for people around 5'10". Trolls experience that up to eleven (feet). Everything is child-sized to a troll. They have to get beer by the pitcher. It's not all bad, though. Most racists don't want to persecute the guy who can deadlift a car and tank a shotgun blast to the chest.

'''Metavariants''' - Think your snowflake isn't special enough? Well, other books brought out metavariants, "subspecies" of each metatype associated with various regions and cultures. Want to play a [[minotaur]], [[gnome]], [[hobgoblin]], or something else? You can now.  Ironically, this includes ''humans'', since there's an Indian metavariant that has extra arms and technicolored skin.

'''Changelings''' - What, ''still'' not special enough? When Halley's Comet made its latest pass through the solar system in 2061, mana levels spiked and a second wave of Goblinization hit the world, called "Sudden Unexplained Recessive Genetic Expression." Now you can live out your [[furry]] fetish and be an actual catgirl or dragonboi, or something even wilder thanks to the mix-and-match nature of the changeling metatype.

'''Drakes ''' - These guys got the short stick. Simply put, a drake is made by a dragon. You can think of them as half-dragon, half-metahuman. Why do they get the short stick ? Because daddy is an asshole. Dragons, even the kindest ones, see drakes not as people but as tools. If you're a drake, you'll be indoctrinated, abused and told to obey every whim of the dickish wizworm who made you. And if you manage to be a free drake, it sucks even more. Without the protection of daddy, every other dragon wants to put his claws on you because making a drake is HARD. On the plus side, you can transform into your draconic form and become even more badass.

'''Metasapients''' - They're not metahuman and never were, but are sapient and capable of interacting peacefully with metahuman civilization, in some cases even qualifying for citizenship. Things like sasquatches, [[centaur]]s, [[pixie]]s, [[naga]]s, and shapeshifters are viable character types, but all come with disadvantages like being uneducated (because of not living in metahuman society), incompatible with commercially-available augmentations, and even being incapable of human speech.

'''Artificial Intelligence''' - After Crash 2.0, AIs started appearing. They weren't as powerful as the three that fought during the Crash, but are as varied in personality as metahumanity. Being entirely software, they need to live in hardware, be it a beefed-up commlink or a drone. They make excellent riggers and hackers, but are crap at interacting with the real world.

'''The Infected''' - Not a metatype unto themselves, but when a person contracts Human-Metahuman Vampiric Virus (HMHVV) and doesn't either miraculously resist and/or die before it magically alters the poor sod's genetic structure, he becomes Infected. Depending on metatype and strain of HMHVV, you become some type of [[vampire]] or other 'undead' (Strain III HMHVV turns anyone into a [[ghoul]], a blind but dual-natured obligate cannibal, for instance.) All Infected have in common a hunger for either fresh metahuman blood or flesh that makes them go feral if not sated and this makes them pariahs with open "shoot-to-kill-on-sight" bounties in the majority of places. Oh, and to top it all, even if the initial infection doesn't kill the victim or drives them insane, and they manage to somehow find sustenance without going feral/crazy from what they're forced to do to survive; there is no post-change cure for HMHVV even after decades of research and experiment.

===Typical character roles===
Runner teams, as any teams built up of professionals, tend to have their members highly specialized. Roles are varied and often combined, but generally most teams have these roles:

'''Muscle''' - Either heavily cybered Street Samurai (often just called a "Sammy") or Awakened Adepts, whose unusual physical abilities depend on the magic they channel through their bodies and their self-belief. Muscle deals with direct physical threats and are expected to be capable of dealing and soaking massive amounts of damage, coupled with high Initiative Passes count, allowing them to act more frequently in the real world than their opposition. It is also a good idea for Muscle to have some infiltration skills to cover up Shadows and at least marginal intimidation skills. Despite the popular Hollywood image, making Sammies and Adepts into actual sword-wielding melee warriors is only encouraged if you want to see your character dead. It's not as bad in fifth edition as in previous editions due to various balance changes; but melee still has the disadvantages of needing to get in the open and run up to people to slice/krump them where a good gun allows to stay at range and behind cover.

'''Shadow''' - Physical infiltration specialists. Those are usually either special Adept builds or non-Awakened characters using specialized implants. Naturally, Shadows are expected to be as unnoticeable and observant as possible, making implants and powers that allow them to hide from sight or perceive outside human spectra highly popular. Shadows should also be capable of full-on breaking and entering, requiring some hardware skills and specialized gear. Hardest role to pull off reliably due to the shitloads of security systems and ways to detect intrusion magically existing in SR, but oh-so-rewarding when done flawlessly.

'''Face/Fixer''' - The social player of the party. The Face is the one who deals with the employers (typically a go-between traditionally called a "Mr. Johnson"), gets the gear needed for the job, and has all the right contacts and the cunning plans to come ahead of the opposition. Many Faces are also the ones to hire the hideouts for the team and some of them make excellent impersonators, using magic or specialized implants to assume disguises. While Face is a relatively straightforward role mechanically, it is frequently the most intellectually tasking and roleplaying-heavy, since it often falls on the Face to arrange the team's planning.

A note on Faces and Fixers: A Fixer is someone who handles brokering jobs and checks that the Johnsons aren't fucking with you. Someone who's a dedicated Fixer stays far away from wetwork and is probably an NPC - they'll be basically a [[DMPC]], but with a much better chance than usual of not being terrible.
On the other hand, if a player really wants to be the team's Fixer, then they'll usually take some of the more field-oriented specialties like impersonation and regularly head into the field with the team. When you say "Face", this combined role is what you usually mean. Theoretically a Fixer could also be the decker and mission control, but in practice the stats don't work out well for that.

'''Mage''' - The astral cover. Mages are all Awakened, but still come in different traditions and specializations. While some rely on direct-effect spells which allow them to whip out bagfuls of damage dice, fly, dodge bullets, and more, others count on summoned spirits to do the job for them, without risking direct opposition or at least having some heavy support at hand. Mages' ability to astrally project makes them valuable assets for scouting, especially long-distance one. Given enough time and resources, they can get almost anyone in the world with ritual spellcasting, and naturally, Mages are also the only magical healers a shadowrunner team can hope to get. There's also absolutely no defense against a Mage except another Mage (or a quick bullet, leading to the basic and often given advice "Geek the Mage first"), so the runners depend on their mage's counterspelling abilities and guard spirits heavily. Not everyone who is Awakened can be a Mage, as it takes training to be more than a liability to your local community. Shamans, on the other hand, receive guidance from dominant spirit Totems.

'''Adepts''' - can amplify their own attributes and talents and have access to unique Adept Powers, but they can't use conventional spells or astrally project, making them more like Street Samurai or Shadows in practice. In fact, they can't perceive astral space at all unless they buy the specific power that lets them do so, a weakness shared with their traditional magic-using hybrid, the Mystic Adept. Finally, Aspected Magicians are "diet" mages, only skilled in a single category of magic, e.g. a spellcaster only or a summoner only. They're very good at that category, but can never use any form of magic outside that category.

'''Decker/Otaku (Hacker/Technomancer):''' - Before the Crash 2.0, Matrix intrusion relied on specialized hardware setups often built into a device the size of a skateboard, the archetypal cyberdeck. The decker maintained such a rig and used it to break into Matrix security for his team. His Awakened counterpart was the otaku, a teenager with the odd ability to interact with the Matrix without a cyberdeck; he still needed ASIST hardware and a datajack, but he didn't rely on a bulky and horribly expensive piece of tech to do his thing. The otaku lost their abilities as they aged, a process they called "Fading." After the Crash 2.0 and the Wireless Matrix Initiative, the times of the decker and otaku were over. In their place emerged the Hacker and the Technomancer, respectively - the former are mundane boys with a head full of 'ware and a commlink the cost of a house, and the latter are believed to be the "evolved" form of otakus that retain their skills as they age, and can also compile and command sprites (which are essentially the Matrix analogue of spirits). A Shadowrunning team depends on the Hacker (or Technomancer - in practice, their abilities are more or less identical) to find the info that the Face's contacts can't or won't provide, break into opposition's hosts to fiddle with security systems, intercept their data exchange or do the rest of other things a hacker can be doing with a computer. Most hackers were known to be couch potatoes, but between isolated wireless networks and wireless-inhibiting building walls, they have a good reason to have some actual infiltration skills. Hackers also frequently moonlight as Riggers on the side. Recent security measures introduced to the Wireless Matrix have brought the use of a new generation of cyberdecks modified to interact with the new Matrix and bypass security systems back into vogue, making the terms "hacker" and "decker" interchangeable again.

'''Rigger''' - The drone specialist and usually the driver for the party. Riggers are mostly the ones to pimp out rides for shady shadowrunning biz, and their swarms of drones can rival Muscle and Shadows at their jobs. While rigging presupposes spending a lot of your time "jumped in", wearing your drones or vehicles as your own skin, many Riggers also double as back-up hackers. The high Logic needed for hacking and rigging also makes Hackers and Riggers the most likely candidate for the team's paramedic.

===Pink Mohawk, Black Trenchcoat and Mirrorshades===
Among the player base, three terms have emerged for describing the prominent roleplay-styles for Shadowrun.
* Pink Mohawk refers to playing fast and loose. Subtlety? Screw that noise. Write your names on the walls of corporate property with bullets. Blow holes in the walls of secure military facilities. Flip dragons the bird. That kind of stuff. Playing as a Pink Mohawk means acting like a stereotypical musclebound 80s-action hero and generally being balls to the walls insane with a devil-may-care attitude and succeeding at it. This play style is most commonly associated with the older editions of Shadowrun when cyberpunk was first getting started.
* Black Trenchcoat refers to a more clandestine approach to runs. Generally more grounded in the concept of not getting caught in the first place. This play style developed as the cyberpunk genre evolved and is more associated with newer editions. Black Trenchcoats generally view runs more like spec-ops missions or espionage and try to solve situations without resorting to violence and not to leave behind incriminating evidence.
* Mirrorshades refer to a game that try to balance both above mentioned styles, where players do their best to plan things in advance and stay discreet whenever possible; but do not hesitate to go all-in and bring out the big guns when fecal matter gets in contact with the rotating ventilation device.