Anthropomorphs?

So I'm a Shaodwrun newb, who's been slowly working his way through the 20th anniversary core book, and was thinking about a possible character to play who's a sort of Cyberware Melee character, however one thing that I was looking for but haven't read much about would be half-breeds, essentually what would in comparison be Anthro-type characters. Obviously some of the more fantasy based beings exist with elves, trolls, orcs, and dwarves. But do Anthropomorphs exist or would that be concidered out of genre for the Shadowrun world?

To give you a better idea, here's some photos of what I'm considering.

Shaolin Tygar

Actually, yes you can, sort of. With qualities, and various mods, you can make an anthropomorphic character, it's just a matter of getting the stats how you would want them. I would suggest reading in the Runners Companion and Augmentation supplementary rule books as well. Especially under the Surge quality area and... well... anything really in augmentation could be useful, case mods for full limbs, etc. Just remember to read All of the rules, you can't go completely nuts and fill yourself full of cyber past the essence limit.

So it wouldn't be genetic or bio-ware but straight up cyber-ware?

Surge is technically genetic, if you read it. Yes you can do bio, and cyber, and gene mods, and what not. They have a collective amalgamation of nearly everything that you can wrap your mind around. If you look hard enough.

Looks like the possibilities vary from Metatype Reassignment to less drastic Hair Growth mods and cyberware. I think I may need to get a solid hold on the system then consider beefing up a concept.

The closest thing to anthropomorphic characters are changelings, detailed in the Runner's Companion sourcebook. For a character to be a changeling, they have to take a SURGE quality, in one of three levels (I, II, and III, costing 5, 10, and 15 BP, respectively) which grants them access to a number of metagenetic qualities. SURGE I grants 10 BP of positive and 5 BP of negative qualities, II grants 20 positive and 10 negative, and III grants 30 positive and 15 negative. For a character as anthropomorphic as yours, you'd want to take SURGE III. The qualities, however, are quite varied, and many of them can be replicated with the cyber, bio, and gene mods found in the Augmentation sourcebook. You'd have to decide which ones you want naturally and which ones you want modified.

For example, you'll probably want something that alters your fur. You can take this in many forms: SURGE has two classes of fur qualities: functional and non-functional. Functional furs offer a physical bonus, like Quills, Insulating Pelt, and Camo Fur. Their cost varies from 5-10 BP. Non-functional fur is called Unusual Hair, and can range from simple lion's manes to full-bodied fur, and is a 5 BP negative metagenetic quality. Cyberware offers cyberlimb casemods, which alter the appearance of cyberlimbs, allowing you to cover one in fake tiger fur, as well as the vague "cosmetic modification" found in the corebook that costs between 200-10,000 nuyen and specifically lists things like fiber optic fur and tails. Bioware offers a hair growth mod, which at 500 nuyen per human-head-sized coverage, is a relatively cheap alternative with no essence cost. Finally, geneware offers the simple and holistic animal features transgenic alteration, costing upwards of 45,000 nuyen and .3 essence, but if you're going to spend at least 9 BP in resources for a cosmetic modification, you might as well take it as a metagenetic quality and earn yourself 5 BP.

If you want a tail, you have a few options as well. Just like fur, SURGE offers functional and non-functional tails: The Balance Tail costs 5 BP and grants a couple bonus dice to some tests involving keeping your balance. The Vestigial Tail grants 5 BP with no effective function other than wagging. You can also get a cyber balance tail, with fake fur available. With bioware, you can get severe cosmetic modification surgery, but there is no cost listed for it.

If you want to use your claws and fangs as weapons, there are also several options. Claws are a 5 BP positive metagenetic quality, with Retractable ones costing 5 BP more. Fangs also cost 5 BP. Cyberware fang implants are cheap and have a slightly more expensive retractable option, and retractable hand razors/spurs can act like claws and can be implanted straight into a natural armor or installed into a cyberlimb.

For those cool tiger eyes, you can take the SURGE negative metagenetic quality Unusual Eyes for 5 BP (a cheap cop-out is to just buy a pair of contacts or mirrorshades to overcome that negative social dice pool modifier, but with the rest of you being so modified anyway, your GM will probably be imposing one anyway). You can get a cosmetic eyemod for your cybereyes on the cheap, as well. You may also get implanted with bioware cat eyes that grant you low-light vision.

For all of the other benefits a tiger may be granted, like enhanced hearing and olfactory abilities, these can be purchased with SURGE and cyber/bioware as you see fit. Don't forget the other combat benefits that SURGE can provide like increased attributes.

With this in mind, it is up to you to decide how many SURGE qualities and/or cyber/bio modifications that you want to take. Your decision should be guided in part by the character's flavor and by what you want him/her to do. If you plan on being a melee adept, you should probably take SURGE over wares. If you want to be a mundane street samurai, wares might be a better alternative.

I'll leave you with a cyberware suite (rules found in Augmentation):

Xevozcorp Tygar Combat Cyberware Suite: 30,000 nuyen, 1.575 essence
Xevozcorp has been dedicated to developing and producing cyberware modifications that allow consumers to live the anthropomorphic fantasies that they desire. The popularity of these modifications among consumers interested in the field of private security has lead them to design various combat suites to allow them to use the might of their chosen animal in their line of work. The Tygar suite was designed for those who wish to have the grace, elegance, and utter ferocity of a tiger.

Spoiler:

 

R2 Cybereyes (Feline Eye Cosmetic Modification)
+R3 Vision Enhancement
+Vision Magnification
+Low-Light Vision
+Flare Compensation

R2 Cyberears (Feline Ear Cosmetic Modification) (I charged this cosmod the same as the eye's mod since cybereyes and ears are so similar cost-wise)
+R2 Audio Enhancement
+Increased Sensitivity
+Damper
+Balance Augmenter

R3 Olfactory Booster (Feline Nose Cosmetic Modification) (I charged 2,100 to round the total cost up to 30,000)

Retractable Fang Implants

Balance Tail (Tiger Tail Cosmetic Modification) (Cosmod is free)

Retractable Cyberspur

p.s. I loved Xevoz.

What if I just wanted to create a cat person, ie the anime cat girl. The ones that go nyan.

Cat girls are possible via SURGE.

In fact in the introduction to Surge one such person is interviewed. I believe she's actually interviewed in After the Comet but possibly in the SR4 material rather than the SR3. None the less all the qualities are still there and the SURGE system is relatively unchanged and it's still very possible to make a 'cat person' via Surge (you actually have to use a mix of positive and negative effects), Bio augmentation, Gene manipulation or cybernetics. The real problem with doing it with anything but SURGE is cost in essence, nuyen and availability. You can in the 2070's buy totally custom made, unique, one of a kind creatures made via biotechnology. There's even a section that covers them in Augmentation. Life forms have now become rare works of living art, and hell the newer material such as Attitude has even introduced clothing that's alive (but not sentient).

If you want to stick to it being specifically racial related though, the only ways to genuinely do that in SR4 is either with SURGE or with Genecrafting, and the latter isn't really feasible in character generation. Keep in mind some GMs may also not allow SURGEed characters. Personally I do, but also one has to keep in mind that changelings face many of the same extreme prejudices that trolls and orks did when they first appeared (Much less the prejudice they still experience which is far less these days). Of course there's some exceptions to every rule and there's some changlings that became famous just for their appearance alone. Your also almost guaranteed to be 'one of a kind' rather than have fellow kin unless you work something out with the GM.

Theoretically there probably are some other truly viable races that popped out thanks to the comet other than the drakes. SURGE is still not understood in 2070 beyond what it more or less does. No one (At least not that's ever been revealed in official material) knows everything there is to know about SURGE, except perhaps dragons and their not talking.