[Whiskeyjack]

What kind of Shadowrun character would you bring to the zombie apocalypse?  Not shedim or other forms of spirit possession, not CFD.  Magical viral outbreak zombie apocalypse, no headshots means do not pass go or collect $200.

Blades (sword) adept with Wudang Sword. Or a mono-whip adept. Weapon focus either way.

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

Most likely, my current character, a blade adept, with a few minor tweeks. Those being, having sustenance and less disguise related powers/foci, for stuff like hang time, wall running, etc., and having more ranks in improved ability (swords and automatics).

[JanessaVR]

I only play magicians.  Period.  My personal take is that if you're not Awakened, well, you're basically just another NPC.  And do the muggles really count, in the grand scheme of things?  Eh, not really.

In this case, they'd be lunch.

[SmilinIrish]

Hahahahaha. Inhale. Hahahahahahahhahahaha

[Csjarrat]

I'd probably go with a Druid mage with shapechange spell or a falconine shifter. Zombies approaching? Fly away! Need to get to that place on the other side of the zombie horde? Fly over!
Fireball and such for when you gotta fight too

[CitizenJoe]

You guys really don't seem to understand what a zombie apocalypse is.  You're playing murder simulators not survival horror.

[MijRai]

You guys really don't seem to understand what a zombie apocalypse is.  You're playing murder simulators not survival horror.

There isn't really a 'right' answer, man. 

[Sendaz]

Especially when you consider magic actually gives you options to address the issue at hand.

A lone guy with just a machete and limited ammo, the latter of which you use sparingly both because you only have so much or the noise tends to attract even more zombies, has to choose a much more careful MO.

Throw magic in the mix and a lot of those calculations change drastically and you can not fault people for picking more proactive solutions.

Hell something as simple as Move Earth to dig a pit, physical barrier over it until a bunch of zombie walk over it and release it to drop them in to your own personal kill box changes the battlefield considerably.

[Hobbes]

I'd play an overworked middle manager that was having an affair with his secretary.  If you're going to play a zombie apocalypse game, you need to follow the tropes.

This.  Unless the Zombies are some kind of Super Zombie!  For Shadowrunners this is simply anarchy where they're likely the best trained and equipped group of people around and therefore will wind up on top of the local pile pretty quickly. 

Boston Lockdown and Bug City are Shadowrun settings that pretty well simulate a local breakdown of law and order.  Awakened and Armed to the teeth runners do well compared to the average wage slave in these environments and would likely become the de facto local warlords overnight. 

Either game has it's merits but "Oh noes all teh corps haz fallen!" is not something your typical Shadowrunner is usually worried about.   

[Lighthouse]

I would love to run Boston Lockdown with a street level campaign. The horror! Also the best part about CFD is it's not just zombies they are like 28 days later zombies some of which have cyberware and others are super geniuses controlling a hivemind. Bwa Ha ha. Then you can make variants: suicide bombers with internal explosives made by their nanites. It also can ad weird things like some of them are eghosts. They could think they are Sam Spade detective personality someone engineered or a downloaded personality like Armitage.

[Hobbes]

Totally off topic but, I don't get Street Level games.  Magic Archetypes are already mechanically favored, I'm not sure what the appeal is to outright banning Street Samurai, Deckers and Riggers from the table gets you.  Don't most Street level games quickly become a magical go-gang and a technomancer? 

I understand the desire to start out with a more local focus, but that can be achieved pretty easily with character backstory.  *shrug*  Just my suggestion.  Work with the players to not create a pack of murder hobos or international mercenaries and you should get the same story vibe as a street level game without banning certain classic Shadowrun Archetypes. 

[MijRai]

Totally off topic but, I don't get Street Level games.  Magic Archetypes are already mechanically favored, I'm not sure what the appeal is to outright banning Street Samurai, Deckers and Riggers from the table gets you.  Don't most Street level games quickly become a magical go-gang and a technomancer? 

I understand the desire to start out with a more local focus, but that can be achieved pretty easily with character backstory.  *shrug*  Just my suggestion.  Work with the players to not create a pack of murder hobos or international mercenaries and you should get the same story vibe as a street level game without banning certain classic Shadowrun Archetypes.

Which rules are you using?  There's the Street Level rules and Street Scum rules.  One drops most of your nuyen, some karma, etc., the other just adjusts your Priorities (I think it is B, C, D, D, E?  The rules for it are around page... 250 or 350 I think?).  If you're doing low-level games, the latter is better.  I also wouldn't call it a ban on Shadowrun archetypes; they just become more difficult to start out all shiny; that gives the GM a chance to provide options in-game for people to acquire their stuff. 

On top of that, your concerns about 'magical go-gangs' are easily rectified by working with the players to not create a 'pack' of magical murder hobos.  Magic is rare, it generally shouldn't make up most of the party unless there's a theme going on. 

I'm not going to get into the whole 'magical' archetypes are mechanically favored' part.  It is partially true, but there's a number of counterbalances and concerns. 

[Halinn]

the other just adjusts your Priorities (I think it is B, C, D, D, E?  The rules for it are around page... 250 or 350 I think?)

BCDEE

[Hobbes]

Street level rules I've seen is on p. 64 and it's dramatically less Nuyen, 13 Karma instead of 25, much lower availability on gear (not that you can afford any).  So pretty much a ban on Riggers, Samurai and Deckers.  PITA for Mystic Adepts who lose a PP, Adepts and Mages are out some starting Karma.   

Street Scum is essentially a SumTo6 chargen, p350.  I honestly don't know how you make anything called a shadowrunner out of that.  Good for Wage Slaves gone bad though.

[MijRai]

Street Scum is essentially a SumTo6 chargen, p350.  I honestly don't know how you make anything called a shadowrunner out of that.  Good for Wage Slaves gone bad though.

That's part of the point, though.  You're not making a full-blown, experienced Shadowrunner.  You're making a member of the street scum.  You're starting lower on the totem pole.