How does your Character appear? How would you describe your character? Are they fat, thin, tall, short, average? What color are their eyes? How do they carry themselves? Are they overbearing, quiet, observant? Are they insensitive? Do they cry at the drop of a hat? How do others perceive them? How tall or short are they? Are they human?

“I see you are not so impressed with this nice black panther. May I guess why? Because you want to see the real me. Alright I switch to AR and get you the vid link to see the 'real' me.”

“Are you surprised? You did not expected a charming middle aged elven man? Now keep that image secret. I would love people thinking me younger and I would not mind if they can't guess my metatype. They expect all elves to be fancy with magic and such. Well aside that it is true as well in my case, I am a hacker at your service.”

How does your character live? What lifestyle does your character enjoy? Do they live on the streets or in a penthouse apartment? Do they live in a nice area of a bad neighborhood or a bad area of nice neighborhood? Do they live in the slums? The ritz? Did they rise or fall to their current station or were they born there? 

“Now, now. The next you will ask me to buy you a drink, right? Alright. I tell you, but just because I like you. I live in the Elven District at Downtown of Seattle. A nice little place, you shall see it once! Just call me before you come and I straighten your path with the security if you lack a SIN. And switch of your AR if I may advice. That fantasy-show is laughable, but the University District is close by.”

Is your character educated? Did your character ever go to school? High school? College/university? Did they graduate? Were they good students? Did they know a lot? Were they the nerd of their class? The class clown? The cool kid? Where did they go to school? Were they from an educated family or were they the first? 

“Educated? I would love to think so. Mind you the modern university educations are nowhere from the old elitist approach. It is part of social engineering, not letting out the unemployed youngsters straight to the market and thus you engineering the statistic. Well... now that I think they use this almost since '68, I mean 1968. But yes, I am a doctor of philosophy and I have a masters in mathematics. Though no one would think I would make it when I was in high school.”

Why is your character running the shadows? This is the big one. Why is your character choosing a life of crime? While they're breaking the law, why are they doing it? Is it the adrenaline? The money? The fame? The lifestyle? To torque off the corps? Would they kill people? When would they are wouldn't they kill someone? 

“Thrill-seeking. Why else? I have money, I enjoy my little world, but something is missing. You don't believe me? Alright let me tell you from another perspective. There is the reality of the legal society. Tax paying, elections, businesses, etc. Now, that is one reality, but there is a second layer of reality: the criminal world, the illegal, poetically – the shadows. You can't understand one apart the other. How would you keep a touch better with the shadow layer then be one of them? Preferable the one specializing with information dealing and extraction.”

Where is your character's family? A character without a family is a bit unrealistic. Who are your parents and what did they do? Were you close to them? Were they divorced or separated? Did you have siblings, cousins, uncles, and/or grandparents that lived with you? Did you get along with

them? Where are they now and what do they do now? Do you keep in touch? When and how? 

“Yes. I have. A daughter. She get me into my nerves with her new age mambo-jambo and her constant criticism that I am getting old! Old? I am just 61! These youngsters have no respect I tell you. Yes I had a wife too. We divorced twenty-five years ago. She lives in a nursing home in France, the poor human. If you would see her in her main time! She was gorgeous and we had a good time: marching for the metahuman rights

and such. But she has changed so much, her nerves gave up and those suicide attemps. I visit her each year a few times when I have a conference in Europe. My parents? They are dead. Humans die early.”

Who are your character's friends? Who does your character hang out with when they aren't running? What do you do to wind down? Why do you

hang out with those guys? Do your friends know that you run? What do they do for a living? 

“I do like to hang out my students if I have some bright mind. Some gals and guys are quite promising. Some of my fellow lecturer are good too. After all the shamanic studies draw a wide variety of people. Friends? I would not call them so.”

What is your character's interests outside of running? What does your character do when they aren't blowing things up? Do they collect art? Go to museums? Build weapons? Go to truck expos? Buy clothing or upgrade their cars? Maintain relationships with friends/family/contacts? Gamble? Paint?

“You ask my interests? Brave question. I hope you have a time. Now my profession is my passion, aside of a few other passion I have for music and for the gentle sex if that is still appropriate expression in the age of amazons with machine guns.

So my interests is the reality itself. Or rather the realities. Now, lets go back at around 2010s. Imagine my homo sapiens sapiens parents to hold a homo sapiens nobilis baby. Or the first sight of the dragon. The old reality has been shattered with the Awakening. A magical realm has opened to be explored. Then we created another reality, the Matrix , with it's own rules. Then we discovered the metarealms, the technomancers and so on, and so on. Many layers of reality exists in the sixth world, interacting finelly with each other.

Now from another approach. Imagine that our reality itself is a substantial brick. The atom as the ancient Greek would call. Something what you can't divide anymore. Which reality you would find this? Would be the mana and the magic realm where it would be hidden? Or in the Matrix and the fundamentals of reality would be mathematical after all? Now you would tell me there is nothing mathematical in the Astral Realm. Think about it: if you describe an emotion or feeling either as exist and present or not, you can describe it with the binary code. Perhaps deep inside the Astral Realm itself is mathematical?

Or perhaps our reality itself is a simulation in a supercomputer, you might call it god if you wish, running together with other simulations and slowly attached into each other?

But perhaps we are wrong from the beginning and there is no fundamental truth at all in the universe. But then why just not let to flown with the waves?

So as you see this is my interest. And I have a nice collection of jazz, folk and progressive music, also you should see my library.

Erm, I don't care what the rumours say I have a strict code not to sleep with mys students. Yes, perhaps I broke it once or twice, but why would borders are there to cross, no?”

What does your character like? What does your character desire? Will running somehow achieve their likes? Do they like something tangible (cars,

beaches, etc), or something that can't be bought (love, family, etc)? Are the things they like completely different from what would be assumed? 

“I assume you already know what I like and what I desire, but if you want a straight answer: knowledge or rather to hack the reality itself. Running in the shadow is exactly that.”

What scares your character? What is your character afraid of? Is it an idea? A type of character? An action? A critter or animal? Losing their status?

Why does that particular thing scare your character? 

“We knew well from Orwell's 1984 that everyone has something to afraid from. I guess I am not an exception. I have a healthy fear from death, which might link to my fear from nursing homes. I would hate to admit but I have a fear of losing my daughter. Devil she is, she is still my angel. And don't feed her ego but I am proud her in way.”

What is your character's biggest dream? What is the pinnicle of your character's existance? What is the one thing they want to do/have/achieve before they die? Is the dream obtainable? 

“My dream? What else then immortality. One way or another at least. Why else one would teach? You can spread your genes by procreating. Done and I continue to do. And you can spread your memes by teaching. Done and I continue to do. By the way do pay me a visit in one of my lectures. Shape the world, the reality around you to create something different. I am not talented in art, so I have to get more subtle way to note my existence. By the way have you noticed that the shadowrunners are some kind of underground celebrities in certain circles?”

Where is your character from? More than just a name, where was your character born? Was it a rich area or poor area? Where do they consider themselves to be from and what are their values? Are they from far away or nearby? If they live in Seattle, which neighborhood? 

“I born in Bristol. Would you guess it? It is a beautiful city I assure you and it was a home of many musical movements, like the triphop or later the elven psychedelic in the '30. Yes, I am an Englishman. From a proper breed of working class intellectuals. My family had a long tradition of protesting, my grandfather celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall, was there to protest against the Iron Lady in the '80 and listened Clash. My father fought for the rights of the metahumans. And then we all celebrated the raise of the new nationalism, the emerging elven nations. I applied to citizenship in Tir Tairngire. Honestly it is disappointing what is happening there. Like if we have a sharp ear and resembles of Tolkien's elves we have to create nobility and a new feudalism. I tell you Tir is only alive because the orc migrants, otherwise it would dry out from lack of innovation. Anyway, I got fed up and moved to Seattle where I got a job.”

What is your character's name? What name were they born with and what are they called now? Why are they called that? Was the name a joke, something serious, something meaningful, something intelligent? Is their family name known?

“Philip Mitchell at your service. But I run as Tel Quel among the shadows: 'as is' at least in French.”

Has your character ever been married? Are they in a serious relationship? Have they ever been? Are they divorced, separated, or estranged? What kind of relationship is it? Is this someone they care about? A support structure? An advisor? An anchor? Or someone that holds them back? Does the significant other know that the character runs? If they do, what do they think about it? If they don't, how does your character hide this fact? 

“Yes. Married once. Now that I think I am quite a romantic guy only married once in my life. I might try later with another one. Serious relationship? Not at the moment, no. Divorced. Yes. She gave up. She could not handle the thought she will age quicker than me but I think that was just a petty excuse to succumb to the escapism that was dormant in her. She used drugs before, but I hardly took serious as I used too. I just never became really addict and I knew the borders. Do I care something about? My pupil. Yes, I think I love teaching. And hell, I don't know what my students would say if they would guess I run in shadows. I don't even know what would my daughter say. I hope I will never know.”

How old is your character? Why is your character running at this age? What have they lived through that influenced them? Do they see themselves as teachers, students, or outsiders? 

“A young fellow, just crossed my sixties. Why I running so old you ask? First I am not a human. I am not old. Second, you need a change, otherwise you get into shematics doing the same things over and over again for decades. Yes, I think myself pretty much a teacher except if I am misbehaving. You don't need to learn that!”

Does your character have a "real" job? How does the character balance their "real" life and that of a shadowrunner? What is their real job? Does it bring in money? How many hours do they work in their real job? What would happen if their secret life was ever discovered? Who are the character's coworkers and how well do they know your character? 

“Yes. I am an university lecturer and also do some research. Don't expect anything dangerous, except if you consider thoughts dangerous. Some politician do that. It pays pretty well, but mainly because I do it for a while. I had my struggles in the past economically. Now I can afford a good house in Downtown. And yes, I am quite busy man. 40 hours in a week. Consultations, mentoring, lectures, complains and such.”

What are your character's beliefs? Is your character religious? Which religion, if any? Why do they believe that way? How do they see the world around them and how do they perceive the other races? 

“Funny you say that. Yes, I think I do have strong believes I can't prove it yet. But no I am not religious person, but I do play with the thought of the existence of a godlike being. Just for the sake of fun of course. Other races? Let me tell you a theory. It says that the conscious mind shapes the reality. Look at quantum physics. The actual place of an electron in a atom depends on if the observation took place. Thus the examiner itself changed the reality with the observation. Interesting concept, no? Now with all the conscious creatures in the Sixth world how many reality might exist?”

What are your character's morals? Where does your character "draw the line?" Who does your character defend and why? Who do they hate? What are they willing to do on a run? What would they do for money? Under what situations would they kill someone or let them live? Do they try to avoid death and destruction or do they thrive on it? 

“Morals? I suppose I am quite humanist. There is not any real grace murdering even in the shadows. If someone must die better to let others to do, preferably someone you don't like, but gladly I never had to reach that. Low profile in work, playing with reality or rather shaping it. If life is truly an illusion what's wrong with a little mind control? As long as you won't remove your prey from the game...”

Would your character ever stop running? Would it take some horrific event? Would they need a certain amount of money? Accomplish some task? Take out a person or raise them to power? Do they have a higher purpose or will they always run? 

“I think there is some situation I would retire from this job, but as long as I can find a balance between my needs of knowledge and thrill and my desire of keep safe the things I care I would run.”

Who would play your character in the “Shadowrun Movie?” Take into consideration awesome makeup and special effects to make your character look just right.

David Bowie

Why should other Shadowrunners want to run with you?

“Why not? Everybody loves elves, no? Alright from the business side. To hack into something the safest route is to know a password. A bit of persuasion, mind-tricks comes well to get a hand into a legal access. I might be slow with work at times, but what would they expect from a young newbie, like me?”