[Warden Drake]

So, simple enough question for you guys; out of all of the different metavariants and archetypes that you can have for a character, which ones are the most likely to be snowflakey?  Not necessarily for powergaming, mind you; I was more interested in what metavariant and what archetype in general was the most snowflakey; for instance, I've heard in the past that the Night Ones and the Fomori were the most snowflakey metavariants, and that a Mythic Adept was the go-to snowflake archetype for that particular kind of attention-seeking player.  However, those boards and answers tended to be from years ago; times have changed, new editions have come out, and there's bound to be new answers out there in terms of overall snowflake character design. 

So... what are they?  What metavariant and what archetype is the most snowflake design possible? 

[Reaver]

Depends on what you mean by "snowflake".  If you mean a simple "LOOK AT ME!!!" attention whore type character, well that would be anything made by those said players (In SR, just about any archtype and meta-variant can be made into an attention whore character:P)

If you mean "Snowflake" as in "So unique as to not feasibly be a Runner..." well, that is going to vary from person to person... but to get the list started, I'll give you my top 3, in order, and why...

3: Shifters.
Yes, the entire kit and kaboottle. Every single one of them. The problem isn't with Shifters per say (as they are a nifty piece of lore in the world), its characters based off shifters. The number one problem I have with shifters is that people can't read the first paragraph on them (for 5e anyway)... Shifters are NOT "People that turn into animals", they are ANIMALS that turn into people. But that is not the way any character I have seen has build them.. nor are the players playing them as... They are basically... to put it diplomatically, the playground of furries, and furry adjacent.

2: Pixies.
Well... I started it so... Why the fuck anyone thinks something the size and weight of 6 month INFANT is viable in a combat role is just beyond the realm of intelligence. Standing a whopping 1 FOOT 6 INCHES tall (50 centimeters!), and weighing in at 20 pounds soaking wet doesn't stop the "intellectually challenged" from trying to justify everything from "Pixie heavy machine gunners" to "Pixie martial arts"... Which just invokes the image of a the Chihuahua being punted for a field goal, in terms of actual use. With the most common defense being: "Well, the book doesn't mention Physics or gravity, so..." Which goes over as well as a wet fart in a crowded elevator.   (And that was me being polite on the topic!)

1: AI.
Again this is something that should have stuck to the realm of NPCs... The level of contrivance that goes into the old AI builds was just beyond the pale... 7/10 of the builds required someone else to carry some "Special" device (usually a commlink) because without it, the AI was well.... useless (and immobile), 2/10 relied on a some "special" drone that usually broke the build rules of the time, but was needed because without the "special" drone, the AI was, well, useless and immobile. Rarely was there an AI build that didn't fall back on the "special" device/drone.. and those builds were generally so weak, that the troll Gunner with 1s in all mental stats was a better hacker... And this is on top of the fact of RPing issues...



There are more... lots more.. But those are the top 3 for me... followed by the infected they come in fourth... Mostly because, Every. Single. Character has the exact same basic backstory... "Yea I'm infected, but I'm not bad... I'm just miss-understood and unloved. Please, love me and pay attention to me!"
No. you are fucking monster that exists by eating the souls (Essence) of your victims. Stop bullshitting me, and yourself. Besides Anne Rice to Christopher Golden has done the "remorseful Infected" plot line much better than you could.   

[Warden Drake]

Which just invokes the image of a the Chihuahua being punted for a field goal...

Okay, first off; this is single-handedly the funniest line I've read on this site in a long time; nice job making me laugh out loud! 

Second off, was wanting to ask; what about the variants of the five "normal" races?  Whenever I see people talk about snowflakes, they usually only mention stuff like Pixies and Drakes, as if they're the only ones that tend to qualify; I know what you said about any metavariant being a potential attention whore, but I can't help but imagine something like a Minotaur or Nartaki being a snowflake character in and of itself. 

You got any horror stories of metavariants like that? 

[Hobbes]

Depends on how hard your table leans into the transhuman elements in Shadowrun.  A full on Furry conversion is a couple hours and a few thousand Nuyen in Ye Ole' BodyShope down at the local strip mall. 

Cosmetic appearances are mutable.  There is even "Human Looking" type qualities and augmentations (in older editions anyway).  So even your Naga could theoretically pass as a heavily modified "Normie" with a couple of Cyberarms and enough Chrome on the tail.  Mechanically I'm not sure why you'd do that, but the options are there.

And you can absolutely go the other way.  Human with heavy biosculpting and some exotic cyberlimb options (especially some from older editions that haven't been re-done in 6th yet) can be a Cyber-Centaur or whatever.

Don't get too hung up on the cosmetics, pay attention to the RPees.  Keep in mind the "average" Core Rule Book Troll is around 9 feet tall.  That sticks out in a room, and that's "Just" a Troll. 

The RPs is the important bit, and you can have an exotic backstory regardless of your Metatype.  All kinds of former Corporate trouble shooter/Special Forces/Organized Crime sort of backstories that aren't any more common than an Oni or a Cyclops. 

Personally my most exotic was a four armed blue skinned burn out adept that was a Yakuza hostage for her childhood years.  But many 'runner backstories get kinda silly crammed down to a single sentence.