So, talking with another Shadowrun player, we discussed 'Street Samurai', and why this is a thing. Really, you'd think "Ronin" would make more sense, considering the connotations of the word "samurai".

A samurai is a member of the noble (warrior) caste, rather than the noble (courtier) caste, merchant caste, farmer caste, untouchable caste, or entertainer caste, and serves a lord (daimyo). A member of the samurai caste without a lord is a ronin, and can be a ronin because he was disgraced, his clan was destroyed, his lord was slain, or because he is acting covertly in service to his lord.

That being said, I'm curious why 'street samurai' was used for Shadowrun, and that aside, I'm curious how the term caught on in-setting as well.

Because in the 80s we loved Japan, but we didn't always go to great lengths to understand the history/culture.

We just though it was boss, so ka?



(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I can accept that explanation to some extent. Though I'm wondering where the reference came from. I'd seen 'ronin' in cyberpunk before, so I'm curious if it was a need to avoid that specific term, or what?

That being said, I wonder how it cropped up in-setting. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

1st edition especially pushed the 'code' aspect of street sams, bushido of the streets etc

This is complete speculation here but perhaps most ronin couldn’t actually afford all of the whiz toys needed to a modern cyber street fighter so they actually started off with a “lord” of sorts, whoever backed them with the toys. With this in mind the Samurai title is more appropriate, and when they broke away from their lords (for what ever reason) hey didn’t change their titles.

Again pure speculation, I don’t tend to read splat too much. But I love Shadowrun. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I believe it comes from Gibson's novels (Johny Mnemonic, Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive...). who are the main inspiration for the Cyberpunk in SR. Molly Million / Shally Shears is refered to as a street samurai at some points in the trilogy. Also as a 'razor girl' so that too comes from there.

Why Gibson used the Samurai motif? Ask him. I didn't even read the entire trilogy and didn't remember the samurai bit until I read the wiki entry. And why Street Samurai instead of Street Ronin? Street Samurai is a better alliteration (both with S and R instead of just R) so it sounds much better. Seriously, I bet this wy the use of Samurai over Ronin. It's not like Ronin is a particularly obscure word or uncool word.

This here is the main reason, I'd say...



coupled with this...



and this...



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These days, the name is only tradition. Though, the code part is still there to some extent.

Bye
Thanee

I never really saw it in first edition - street samurai then were basically a bunch of cybered thugs who, judging by the character intros, thought that threatening the Johnson was the height of professionalism. Although a lot of the early archetypes were alternately threatening or condenscending - I kind of like that outlaw, maverick feel to them, to tell the truth. SR3 and SR4 were where they started giving the street samurai a code of honor, and some snippets of Japanese culture in their knowledge skills.

Personally, I think professionalism should be common among heavily augmented people. Either they were loyal and stable enough to get picked for heavy augmentation by a former employer, or they survived as a freelancer long enough to augment themselves piecemeal into a killing machine. On the other hand, that only means they were stable and professional at one point in time. The stress of their job and successive augmentations could certainly make some of them unstable.

Thank you all for the speculation and insight. This gives me food for thought, and I may need to consider this a bit more for my campaign. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Much appreciated!

Because then you can describe a street sammy with prose that can be sung to the tune of "Sweet Caroline."

That's terrible Aaron. "Streeeeet Samurai, dun dun dun ..." and now it's in my head.

Because "Road Warrior" was already taken.

~Umi

It's a Gibson reference, pure and simple. Molly was called a Street Samurai, and the title stuck. The first Shadowrun street samurai, Ghost, had a strict code of honor that he followed, which he said was the difference between a street sam and a cybered thug.

I hate you so much right now...

Argent, Hatchetman, Ghost-who-walks and the Ork Samurai Archetype beg to differ. But it never was a "class" feature in Shadowrun, mainly because Shadowrun never had straightjacketed character concepts like D&D.

Way of the Samurai and Runners Companion reintroduced Bushido code and the "street samurai attitude" as qualites, by the way.

All those little bios are pretty bad though really, I wouldn't single out the street sam one. I mean, it's not like there isn't a looooong history of the sample characters being awful in just about every way or anything.

But touching on your second point, I really want to see how the CP game in development deals with the cyber-psychosis stuff, if at all.

Would you have preferred "Sweet Child Of Mine"? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/twirl.gif)

She's got a smile, that it seems to me;
Reminds me of ice cold memories;
Where every night was as grey as Seattle skies....

I guess that it is fortunate that I cannot hear either of those songs in my head right now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

That. Is. Epic.

Plus, the term (in game, without giving Gibson the due credit), is really just another bit of slang that street thugs would obviously throw around with all of the Japanese corp influence the old editions had. Probably first coined by an Elven Hip Hop artist with lyrics like "Cook's in the kitchen, biggest slice of the pie, swingin my sword like a Street Samurai." Bam, new phrase in the barrens omae!

Yep.

Shdaowrun began life as the pairing of Neuromancer and D&D. Nearly everything from 1st Ed that was "cyberpunk" was ported directly from the Sprawl series, right down to the name "The Sprawl" for Seattle. I'm kinda surprised they didn't just go all out and set it in BAMA, lol.


But 1st Edition was a giant pile of 80s awefulawesome. The Rocker Archetype should explain anything and everything you need to know. A singer/musician who happens to be a covert street operative in his spare time to make extra cash. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Don't get me wrong. My time with Shadowrun goes all the way back to those lovely halcyon days when it was possible for three Shadowrunners to ride their motorcycles up to a terminal in a back alley, steal some data, throw a fireball at the corpsec who showed up, and ride off into the night on motorcycles, laughing as they go. But it was a ridiculous mess. The game didn't even really find its groove until about halfway through 2nd Edition, when they finally started to explore the idea of "Just what would high tech future security look like, and what kinds of people would actually be doing this?"

And Charon probably hit the nail on the head with "Street Samurai" as an alliteration. Gibson was all about language usage. So despite the fact that the samurai term really isn't a great analog, it sounds better than Street Ronin.

Frankly, I prefer a game with a bit of the 1st edition flavor. I like having rockers around. I like the idea of motorcycles and alleys. 1st edition wasn't assuming a professional type secret identity kind of situation.

If I wanted a full blown tactical simulation game, I would go play one.

That being said, you need balance, you have to fear 'The Man', but at the same time, if it's too scary to let your face be seen, then that's no fun either. It's a part of my problem with SR4. With the rules that are in place, it should be impossible to pull off a shadowrun. RFID tags, astral security, DNA, ritual magic, nano-drones, cyberware detectors, etc.

Street Ronin alliterates better with ShadowRun. Identicle syllable count though it's 1-2 and 2-1 rather than identicle for the matched alliterated letters.

Whoah oh oh oooh, Street Saaaamuraiaaai! Oooooo oo oo! Oh, oh oh oh, Street Samuraieeai!

To be fair, I won't touch SR4 because it lost touch with what Shadowrun was always about. It wasn't entirely SR4's fault. SR3 started show signs of going off the rails near the end and the guys at Catalyst just decided to run the throttle wide open instead of hitting the brakes.

Ultimately, there are different play styles and the goal is to have fun. So whatever version of the game you like to play, more power to you. In our most recent campaign, I decided to eliminate all the fantasy elements and rewrote the whole "And So it Came to Pass" story for the players to see if the game works just as a cyberpunk setting.

But there's no arguing that 1st Edition wasn't a "sillier" game than what Shadowrun slowly evolved into, and much less believable, even within the confines of its own established parameters.