In practice, though, there's literally nothing stopping you from acquiring stats, skills, money, or more magical ability. It should be noted, though, that for game balance purposes, picking a race with cool stat bonuses means you have to give up stats, skills, money, and/or magical ability. Square Race, Round Class: In Shadowrun, characters are not bound to any specific archetype due to their race.Also, SURGE (Sudden Recessive Genetic Expression) in 2061 brought changelings, which aren't exactly a specific sub-species, but more of a collection of odd mutations. The Magic Comes Back: Metahumans appeared in two waves: The "Unexplained Genetic Expression" (UGE) births of 2011, where babies were born as elves and dwarves, and the "Goblinization" of 2021, where adult humans, elves and dwarves morphed into trolls and orks overnight.Meaning no halvsies, and an elf could be the biological sibling of a troll, and half-sibling to a human. If one metahuman procreates with another of a different metatype, the children would be one of their parents' metatypes. Half-Human Hybrid: Thoroughly averted.The latter four races are commonly referred to as "metahumans" and first appeared in the 2011 "Unexplained Genetic Expression" shortly before the return of magic to the world. Characters can be one of five races: human, elf, dwarf, ork, or troll note Later editions add additional, non meta-human races, but these are the stand ones you'll find in each edition's core rulebook.