Hello folks!
Been a while since I've been on the paizo forums, mostly because I've been playing a TON of shadowrun. I've been having some problems with one of my PCs however; I'm not having much fun playing her anymore.
Part of the problem is with the character itself; when the game started, I felt like playing something simple, so I created a "barbie barbarian" type; a street sami ork who was raised in beverly hills, had an addiction to shopping, and was forced into the shadows because of significant rage issues. At first it was fun to play something uncomplicated, but it's becoming a bore. I have a hard time finding ambitions for her, goals to work toward, non-combat things for her to do that are actually useful.
So I've been wondering what others have done when a character gets boring and they cant readily change it. Or what other people have done to make bruisers "fun" out of combat.
I had a half-dragon (red) troll fighter in a 3.5 evil campaign that was a one-trick combat pony. It was built by a fellow player, and I in turn built his character. It was a challenge because I dislike straight-up warrior types. Thug Grimlock spoke like the Dinobot of the same name, confused the word ritual with recipe, and had a fascination with facial hair. The last so much so that when he acquired a hat of disguise to "fit in" as a regular troll (in Eberron, and he wasn't very creative) he gave himself whatever beard or stache struck his fancy in the given moment. I basically just made him comic relief. Beyond that I and fellow players have focused on occupations for the characters to excel at with craft and profession. My nautolan Scout / Force Adept sounded like Hermes from Futurama and was an academic archaeologist from the University of Alderaan. The GM worked in the archaeologist angle so I had other stuff to do in-game. You should talk to your GM about possibilities related to his game setting. If you are a street samurai, could you take on a street urchin apprentice like a Jedi Master and Padawan?
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Add some trademark quirks and phrases. Get a pet.
Start thinking about ways that you can turn battle trophies into accessories that will totally match her style? Give enemies beauty tips in combat? Use fashion terms as euphemisms for combat maneuvers?
There's always thrill-seeking.
Your sam has contacts, right? Use them. And not just the corrupt storeroom guy at Weapons World or the street doc who handles your augs. Your BFF who you call for shopping sprees or whoever you're hitting the club with can be just as valuable in the right situations. How about knowledge skills? Your sam's a shopaholic, right? Heavy consumers know a lot about the things they consume. Brands say a lot about a person. Being able to tell the difference between a Vashion Island and Zoe suit and knowing what wearing either says about a person's culture, background or what kind of appearance they're attempting to maintain are the kinds of skills that can be surprisingly useful on a run.
Beverly Hills in SR is practically next door to the most media-saturated zone in the Sixth World. Heard of livecasting? Hook up those simsense feeds, find yourself an audience and get the most of the exciting stuff Shadowrunners tend to get up to. If you're not into livestreaming your exploits, get your team's hacker to do a little creative editing to your simsense recordings and you've got your own reality show submitted for the approval of the local 'Runner community.
You've actually hit a lot of elements I've already done; originally, her ONLY contact was her sorority BFF who was in seattle and worked for evo. I could boost her fashion knowledge a bit; though she is already obssessed with Zoe.
I thought about the livecasting stuff; she is a bit full of herself and has a very distinctive style on her runs (she is the pink tigeress). Unfortunately, I am 100% sure our face would murder her if she did something that would bring the team so much public awareness.