From:	Waffelmeisters <evamarie@**********.NET>
Subject:	Re: Ingentization
Date:	Thu, 28 May 1998 02:44:48 -0500

>
> Re: Ingentization (Geoff Skellams , Tue 20:26)
>
> On Shadowrun Discussion, Karl Low[SMTP:kwil@*********.COM] wrote:
> > From: Erik Jameson <erikj@****.COM>
> >
> >
> > >Hey, is there anyone out there besides me that thinks that if the
> Awakening
> > >were to occur right now they would probably remain a vanilla human?
> I just
> > >don't see anything in my body that indicates "troll" or
"elf" or
> anything;
> > >I'm pretty much well within statistical and cosmetic standards for an
> > >average male...
> >
> >
> > Just my luck, I'd remain your shorter than average human.
> > I don't have the stockiness to really qualify as going "dwarf", and at
> 5'3",
> > I'm just a shade too tall, to boot.
> >
> > -Karl

Your current aperance would likely have NOTHING to do with your
MetaType (or that of your children). AFAIK, you can't BECOME an elf or
dwarf- theres no reported instance. Bummer, I'm tall, and could really
use the charisma. :) But I'm assuming nobody is a "spikebirth" for
now, so UGE "goblinization" is the only way any of us would change, and
we'd all be OLD goblins. As for bocoming a troll, I'm not sure my
charisma could take the hit... I'm not ugly, but my people skills and
pressence could be better...

>
> What everyone seems to be forgetting is that these are all just
> stereotypes. In Shadowrun, it *is* possible to have a tall skinny dwarf
> (5'3" is probably where a dwarf would top out), just the same way as it
> is possible to have a short, fat elf. The figures in the book are just
> averages. There are probably elves as short as 5'3" as well.
> Let's see more short, fat, ugly elves. And ork or troll
> supermodels. It makes the world a more interesting place
>
> cheers
> Geoff


In our campaign, we DO have ork media stars (Trudy Garland, ork
reporterfor KSAF- and of course, Neil T.O.B. is FAMOUS, and quite
charismatic). Mongoose is an uncouth hulk of an elf, a total street
thug, mistakable at a distance for an ork, and I also played a very
small, cute, intellectual troll for a while. But genrally, we assume
racism plays a big factor in excluding metas from mainstream media
popularity as models and such (even elves- why torque off the japenese
market?).
We like to keep PC sizes within 15% of given norms, seeing as that's
the range from human norm we've had have in our PLAYER group (a motly
crew, statistics wise). People tend to go with characters that are on
the same side of the meridian as themselves. OTOH, there nothing
preventing FREAKS, like growth- stunted trolls or orks, unless those
characteristics are actually un-awakened aspects of meta-humanity.
Now THERES a question- would human's be as variable in 205x, having
"giants" and "dwarfs", ie growth "disorders", or would all
the genes for
those sorts of things turn out to be meta-human factors, tending to cull
the "5th%" folks off into other metahuman races? If so, "short, fat
elves" would (usually) be HUMANS.
-Mongoose