Common Character Types and Their Roles

Face: The face runs his fingers over the thrumming strings of other people’s wants and needs, playing them like a maestro. He is master of the con, a polished negotiator, and often an expert leader. Interacting with Mr. Johnson during the meet is his specialty, especially when it comes to bargaining for the greatest profit. The face also excels at legwork, coaxing or squeezing vital information from a variety of sources that could help make sure his job is a success. Though the face usually manages to get what he wants with charm and a smile, he knows how to be more forceful to get people to cough up their secrets. Words are the face’s weapon of choice and Charisma and Willpower are the face’s two important attributes—but he has no problem using an Ares Predator when the situation warrants.

Spellcaster: A manabolt to your chest, a fireball in your face—that’s what the spellcaster brings to the table in combat. And he does so much more. He manipulates and channels mana, an energy field that is the essence of magic. Mana can be manipulated in several different ways, allowing for different types of spellcasters. Magicians follow a more logical and ordered system of magic, while shamans rely more on their instincts and intuition. To make a spellcaster, a player needs to select a priority that grants a Magic attribute rating (see Priority Table, p. 65, CRB). Depending on the tradition, Charisma or Intuition can be important attributes for spellcasters, and Willpower is an important attribute for resisting Drain.

Decker: The trickster in the Matrix, the flash of lightning in the corner of your virtual eye—a decker specializes in hacking into computers, commlinks, and datahavens. Her job often involves stealing, altering, and manipulating data as well as taking control of or modifying security systems so her teammates can get in and out of defended facilities. A good decker knows her work may put her right in the middle of heated action, and she knows how to react. Whether she’s firing a weapon, disabling the weapons of others, or sending every electronic device in a place on the attack, she has a whole bunch of options to keep herself involved in unfolding combat. A decker never travels without her cyberdeck (Cyberdecks) (p. 227, CRB), the tool of her trade. Logic, Intuition, and Willpower can be important attributes for the decker character.

Technomancer: Some people hack the Matrix with physical tools, but a few have the ability to log on with nothing more than their minds. These people are technomancers. A technomancer can access the Matrix with his mind through an intrinsic connection that’s not fully understood, even in 2075— though plenty of people would pay plenty to figure out how it works. A player who wishes to play a technomancer must select an option on the Priority Table (p. 65, CRB) that gives the character a Resonance attribute. Logic, Intuition, and Willpower can be important attributes for the technomancer.

Rigger: Some people drive cars; other people use vehicles as an extension of their body, like an additional set of limbs. A rigger is a professional driver, an ace controller of all sorts of machines. She is highly skilled in the operation, repair, and customization of all sorts of vehicles and/or drones, offering surveillance, transportation, and remote firepower to their team. Reaction is a critical attribute for riggers.

Street Samurai: Some artists work in watercolors, some in oils. The street samurai is an artist of pain. In any given situation, he knows fifteen ways to hurt an opponent, and an additional eight ways to hurt an opponent real bad. He can take significant amounts of damage and stay standing, leveling devastating damage on her opponents. He typically is augmented with significant amounts of cyberware and bioware to make him exceptionally tough and dangerous in physical and armed combat. While he is ferocious and deadly, he tends to have a code—it may be a code comprehensible only to him, but it’s something. Body, Strength, and Agility are important attributes for characters that are street samurai.