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There are as many character types as there
are characters in the MetaCyber setting,
but for ease of conceptualization there
are eight broad Archetypes of characters
that are generally recognized and sought
out in the hard and fast world of Runners. |
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The Archetypes are not straightjackets;
they are just intended to provide recognizable
niches that are typically sought out by
those putting together Runs. A Fixer trying
to fill out a contract will sit down and
think to themselves "Going to need
a Driver for insertion and extraction, two
Shooters to pin down the front and back
doors, and an inside team comprised of a
Hacker, a Breaker, and a Scrapper. The Hacker
and Breaker can be one guy maybe, in which
case a secondary Scrapper with some ancillary
Breaking skills could work...", and
then proceed to seek out talent to fill
such a roster. |
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However this is mostly a concern for new
Runners and loners that either don't have
or don't want to Run with an established
team and have to look for pick up contracts
where they are hired or not hired based
upon what they can bring to the table specifically
for that job. |
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Runners that function as part of an established
Runner team usually have a Facilitator who
in effect subcontracts Runs from Fixers
and manages the details of the planning
and execution themselves, typically taking
into consideration the skill sets of the
team and fitting the plan to that rather
than the other way around. Runners in such
a team environment are much more free to
pursue individualized progressions and not
have to worry about being competitve within
a narrowly defined skill set.
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GENERALIST CHARACTERS |
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Since Archetypes are very generic or idealized,
many characters wont fit exactly into an
Archetype while some other characters will
be very generalized and have the potential
to grow into various Archetypes with time,
but currently are more jacks of all trades. |
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There is nothing wrong with this per se,
but such characters will have to work harder
to prove their value to Fixers to convince
them that they are assets to a Run when
they are trying to break into the field.
There's no margin in just tossing warm bodies
at a contract and thus Fixers hire Runners,
particularly new Runners without a proven
track record, because they claim to have
relevant Skills that are specifically applicable
to the job at hand.
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However, Fixers also put a premium on experience
and results, so if a Runner that doesn't
fit nicely into an accepted role manages
to get work and pulls it off, they're likely
to find no shortage of work thereafter once
word of it gets around. A Runner with a
perfect skill set match and no experience
is usually passed over for a Runner with
a partial skill set match and proven experience. |
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HYBRID CHARACTERS |
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Some Runners are combinations of two or
sometimes three Archetypes, or have the
semblance of one Archetype but fill the
niche of another. For instance, a Runner
that specializes in piloting heavily armed
Drones from short range has the semblance
of a Driver but serves the purpose of a
Boomer. Similarly a Runner that is a brutal
Hand to Hand fighter that excels at infiltrating
a facility, finding someone with a high
access level and either coercing them or
mugging and bio-collecting parts of them
to defeat security, functions more like a
Breaker even though on the surface they
fit the bill of a Scrapper. |
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Such Runners can be very successful, particularly
for specific Runs that require exactly their
sort of M.O., or working as free agents.
However the volume of jobs where their off-brand
approach is sought out will be far fewer
than more mainstream Runners that excel
at filling the standard roles. Thus while
the occasional contract will come their
way preferentially and pay off higher, most
of the time such Runners will find themselves
in the position of having to get work by
presenting themselves as conforming more
closely to an established role. |
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Some of the top Runners are in fact nonconformists;
their nonconformity and unusual approaches
are part of what helped elevate them from
the rank and file. Young Runners aiming
for the top via a path less traveled can
and do take hope from the fact that at least
some that reject the narrow brush strokes
of the typical Runner roles make it big
in the end. |
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ARCHETYPES AND PROGRESSION |
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Most starting characters belong solidly
to one Archetype simply due to point economies,
or risk spreading themselves too thin. However
as they progress their characters players
will either tend to branch off into other
skill sets, or reinforce their existing
Archetype's skill set. |
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The upper echelon of Runners is composed
of those who are experts at two or more
specialties that are capable of wearing
many hats on the one hand, a smaller selection
of ultra-specialized people that are insanely
good at filling one sort of role in another
hand, and a smaller group of odd-ball individualists
that made it to the big leagues doing their
own thing in a third (and final) hand.
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The ultra-specialized can demand the highest
rates for jobs that need them, the broad-based
have a much larger selection of jobs they
are capable of pulling down, and the left
fielder Runners that go their own way typically
excel at a particular type of job for which
they are one of the recognized world's best
at -- though some compete effectively with
the mainstream rather than controlling a
niche. It's all just yet another example
of Supply and Demand at work. |
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TOP OF THE HEAP |
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All that aside, the upper rung of Runners
are like brand names. What they do and how
they do it are so well established that
people hire them basically to be themselves.
You don't hire "Daring" Lee because
he's a Shooter / Scrapper, you hire him
because he's "Daring" Lee and
he's done more Runs than you can count without
the aid of an actuary or math whiz.
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In fact, most of the best Runners plan their
own missions from soup to nuts and many
have learned to be paranoid enough even
of their own employers to demand total autonomy
and to refuse disclosure of how and when
they will execute their missions. |
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For instance, someone that hires Gra$$$nake
to penetrate a megacorps and extract a top
brainworker isn't hiring him or his team
because they fit certain recognized roles
in some idealized configuration of skill
sets. They are hiring him because he and
his team have a proven record of carrying
out successful extractions. Whether they
pull it off via stealth, force, hacks, all
three, or something else is really not a
concern to the hiring party so long as the
job gets done. |