[Hobbes]

Positive Quality "The DAN", Requirement Dwarf, Cost 5 Karma.  Character is hooked up to The DAN or the Dwarven Assistance Network.  At any time the character may ask to substitute The DAN as a connection 3, Loyalty 5 connection for most tests involving contacts.  This represents a loose network of Dwarf helping Dwarf.  Requests for Forbidden equipment, and Fencing "found" gear are generally not allowed as are other outright illegal requests.  The DAN isn't for metahuman trafficking and organ legging, it is typical Dwarf helping other Dwarfs.  At chargen no non-Dwarf can take The DAN, but during play if a character does a favor for a member of The DAN then they may add The DAN as a connection 3, Loyalty 1 Contact as per normal contact rules.


... or something like that.  Could be set up as a Group Contact or whatever too.  I'd love to see a slew of Metahuman specific qualities and contacts sometime.


. 

[MijRai]

So, is Catalyst screwing things up in the big picture some more?  Or are you using biased, in-game census numbers?

Here's the official numbers from Seattle in 2070 (this does not include SINless and is of one city; one can imagine various cities have various populations), compared to the 'current' percentage world-wide.
Humans: 66% - 39%
Elves: 13% - 15%
Dwarves: 2% - 14%
Orks: 16% - 22%
Trolls: 2% - 5%
Other: 1% - 5%

Humans take a precipitous dip, but a good fraction of that is because they basically drew off of the human totem pole to get the others to their current level.  It also doesn't factor in SINs for the equation.
While I don't think elf populations should be growing, that too could be a part of local versus world-wide.
Dwarfs having such a steep increase in population this edition does seem a little...  Off.  That said, as one of the main metatypes, I definitely wouldn't have left them at 2%.  That's far too low.  Perhaps my idea of dwarfs just avoiding Seattle works. 
It is explicitly stated that ork populations are booming, with an expected 30% of the world population being ork around 2080.  That is an insane increase compared to usual humans, but ork physiology does help that along.  Also, less documentation due to less likelihood to have a SIN.  Having 5 years to go up 6% could be reasonable.  And it still doesn't factor in the bias of in-game polls of the Seattle numbers versus the world-wide population numbers. 
Trolls should be somewhat rare, but 1% seems extremely low as well.  Given trolls don't fit into cities that well and have the same kinds of issues with SINs as orks do, I'd tend up a little here as well when compared to the Seattle numbers, though not as high as dwarfs. 
Others getting such a population increase is extremely off, in my mind.  Adding up all of the numbers from the individual metasapients and all, the Other population comes out to an estimated 481,500, with no numbers for SURGE or Pixies given.  Rounding it up to 500,000 to fill in the gap would mean they would have to be 500,000 out of 10,000,000 to be 5% of the population (unless the pixie horde is much larger than anticipated, and they're awaiting the chance to strike).  We can brush these guys into the cracks as far as I'm concerned. 

Were I to assign percentages of my own to the setting (a bit of fluff to go along with the binder full of other house-rules to make the game feasible at any of the tables I play at), I'd change the numbers to this (and I'd definitely vary these from region to region);
Humans- 50%
Orks- 25%
Elves- 10%
Dwarfs- 10%
Trolls- 5%
Others- ~0%

Humans are still the most populous, but if everyone decided to play 'kick the humies,' they'd be about even.
Orks are catching up, given their propensity towards multiple births and multiple children per birth.  A relatively short lifespan doesn't reign them in that well. 
Elves probably don't reproduce all that fast, but given nobody is dying of old age-related causes any time soon...
Dwarfs should be a bit like elves what with the old age thing.
This puts trolls at a percentage of the population where they can't just be written off.
Others, by the numbers, don't come up to a full percent of the world's population.  They shouldn't impact the percentages by hogging the precious numbers. 

In places like Japan, spike the human population at the cost of others.  Elven nations are dominated by (you guessed it) elves. Amazonia, Angkor Wat and the Yakut would have appreciable numbers of Others.  Those metahuman enclaves in the AGS would have skewed numbers as well. 

[jim1701]

First, Wyrm is correct.  They won't have a larger variation, it'd just stick out a bit more among a smaller population. 

Second, those numbers are bullshit, Joe.  Run Faster has the breakdown of the world population by metatype:
Human: 39% (a given)
Ork: 22% (also the fastest growing)
Elf: 15% (makes sense)
Dwarf: 14% (NOT 1%)
Troll: 5% (STILL NOT 1%)
Other: 5% (Metasapients and shapeshifters, mostly; I think SURGE falls under here, maybe Infected)

I'm not at all down with those numbers, for the record. They go agaisnt everything published previously and the overall universe feel changes *enormously* if you don't have a Human majority. The traditional numbers look more like:

Human - 68%
Elf - 12%
Ork - 16%*
Dwarf - 2%
Troll - 1%
Other - 1%

* Ork population is undercounted due to the large number of SINless that are Ork. (Trolls are similarly undercounted, but not to the same extent.)

This lines up with the world-as-presented much better.

The 4A CRB has humans at 60% of the world's population in 2072 (page 73), the remainder of meta-humanity comes in at a collective 33% (can't find a reference in the CRB that breaks that down) and the remaining 2% as non-meta-humanity.  I'd say the trend it towards humanity becoming a plurality rather than a majority though I would agree that it's unlikely humans would have declined that far, that fast in just the last few years. 

IMO it makes a lot more sense to me that after 60+ years that humanity should be reduced being the largest minority or at least close to it by this point. 

[Hobbes]

Were there additional Waves of Goblinization in between the counts?  That could account for some of the large shifts in percentages too.  If 10% of the human population were to have Goblinized along the way that would account for the human share dropping some and the other categories increasing some.  Obviously not all but certainly a statistically significant amount. 

Overall some of the increases can be accounted by an increase in Birth Rates (Orcs) and/or more accurate census numbers for the SINless (Troll/Other).  Dwarfs are the largest gain going from 2% to 14%.  A staggering 12% of the global population became Dwarfs?  500+ million more Dwarfs in a few years from a population base of 200 Million isn't a population explosion.  It's a population Super-Nova.

[MijRai]

Keep in mind, those numbers with 2% Dwarfs are for Seattle only.  I personally figure that due to the Night of Rage and the falling out with the Ork Underground, there just aren't that many of them in the city.  That would explain why there's such a disconnect between one place and the world. 

There haven't been any new waves of UGE, Goblinization or SURGE in the last decade, though the occasional case probably pops its way up; exceptions, not the rule. 

Really, I think Other having a solid percentage is an overestimation of their numbers by far, especially given the populations shown as of yet.  4th Anniversary does use these numbers for world-wide as of 2070;
Humans- 60%
Metatypes- 38%
Other- 2%

I guess if Infected fall under Other, the ghoul population might boost them up a bit, but...  Still. 

[TheMusketMan]

Woof, okay, so, as I said before, all I've played is the cRPGs  and did some research on the wiki. Are you guys getting all your information from the tabletop? I'm sort of new to the whole serious Shadowrun community, so I'm unclear.

Other than that I'm loving this discussion.

[jim1701]

Woof, okay, so, as I said before, all I've played is the cRPGs  and did some research on the wiki. Are you guys getting all your information from the tabletop? I'm sort of new to the whole serious Shadowrun community, so I'm unclear.

Other than that I'm loving this discussion.

Yep.  The tabletop RPG has been around since the late 80's and is in its 5th edition so there is a lot of source material for this kind of stuff.  As you can see, however, not all the source material is in perfect agreement.   

[MijRai]

Page 73 of the 4th Edition Anniversary Core, Page 45 from Run Faster, the Seattle-specific numbers from wherever they came from...  Disparities between the first two are annoying, the Seattle one is understandable. 

[TheMusketMan]

Yep.  The tabletop RPG has been around since the late 80's and is in its 5th edition so there is a lot of source material for this kind of stuff.  As you can see, however, not all the source material is in perfect agreement.   

See, I want to get into the tabletop but 1. I live in Idaho, USA 2. Figuring out how to go about the shadowrun tabletop without a guide is like bashing your head into a brick wall and expecting it to fall.

[Blue Rose]

Ladies, gentlemen, could we please cut back on the personal attacks and fiery language as we talk about the magical pretend fun time gun bunny tea party?

[jim1701]

Yep.  The tabletop RPG has been around since the late 80's and is in its 5th edition so there is a lot of source material for this kind of stuff.  As you can see, however, not all the source material is in perfect agreement.   

See, I want to get into the tabletop but 1. I live in Idaho, USA 2. Figuring out how to go about the shadowrun tabletop without a guide is like bashing your head into a brick wall and expecting it to fall.

If there is a local game shop in your area that has a demo agent operating out of it you may be able to get in on a Missions game.  Missions are a series of basic adventures that are similar to but completely unlike D&D Encounters(assuming you know what those are.)  They even have pre-generated characters IIRC you can use if you don't want to try making your own character (initially.) 

The older editions did a pretty good job of summarizing the whole origins of Shadowrun thing but the more recent editions, not so much. 

[Tarislar]

Run Faster upped the proportions.  I'll admit that 1% was low, but it wasn't 14%.  Yea, Seattle is at 2% for each of dwarf and troll.

My point is that their numbers put them as the statistical outliers.  Their primary feature is that they are either short or tall.  That means that anyone in the other metatype that is either a little too short or a little too tall gets lumped into the dwarf /troll metatypes.  So they have all the variations of their own metatype plus all the variations of the other metatypes.  But how does the world see them? Just a dwarf of just a troll.

IIRC, The difference is between 3050 Seattle v/s 3075 World Wide.

Seattle happens to have a lower figure.
Also, in 25 years the faster breeding & population growth since 2011+ the Meta #s will keep getting bigger

[Critias]

Their primary feature is that they are either short or tall.  That means that anyone in the other metatype that is either a little too short or a little too tall gets lumped into the dwarf /troll metatypes.  So they have all the variations of their own metatype plus all the variations of the other metatypes.  But how does the world see them? Just a dwarf of just a troll.

None of this part is right. 

[Blue Rose]

The older editions did a pretty good job of summarizing the whole origins of Shadowrun thing but the more recent editions, not so much.

The early episodes of the Neo-Anarchist Podcast do a fantastic job summing a lot of that up.

[CitizenJoe]

What are the phenotypic characteristics of a dwarf?

What are the phenotypic characteristics of an elf?

Can you make a human character that is mechanically equivalent to an elf or a dwarf... note that you can use "human looking" quality.