I recall joking about this sort of thing during a game once....

Link

Heh. Earlier today I read a Not Always Right where a passanger on a low-budget air carrier was harassing the flight attendants. It got so bad they radioed ahead to have a police officer meet him as he got off the plane, not to arrest him, to to show him that his behavior wasn't appropriate.

Turned out he had an outstanding warrant and was arrested anyway.

After reading the title, I assumed it was about someone who got away while using public transit. Which would be downright hilarious, come to think of it. I've had Streetsammies in my games who spent all their money on 'ware and weapons so they had to rely on public transportation to get them to run locations.

So have we... we had a Street Sam take the Bus after the Massacre he instigated. It was hilarious, and we still joke about it, even today (8 years or so later).

This reminds me of a game, very pink Mohawk, where a street sam ordered a pizza from Pizza Team; delivery by the high-threat response team... in the middle of a firefight. Ah, I loved SR1.

In my experience, public transportation is a very poor means of escaping police attention. While things may be different in the 6th world, all a cop has to do here is flash a badge, and they can stop and search any bus or train. Of course you may give them the slip if the bus has its doors open, but meh - It's a lot better to find a populated area to get to ground, particularly if it's friendly turf so people will let you into houses or through closed alleys.

it depends on what you are playing.
a face or chameleon will have little to no trouble with this.
hell, even most mages and deckers.
if the sam is good at being inconspicious and does not carry a big arsenal and heavy armor, as long as he's an elf, human or dorf, it could work as well.

Well if it's good enough for ninjas. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

"I thought YOU had bought the team van?!"

This actually happened too. One of my players always plays cybered Orks of various kinds, usually Riggers. One time, he decided to play a Combat Rigger, i.e. a Streetsam with drones. Turned out he spent it all on ware and guns and had no money left for any vehicle/drone save for a flying eye.

We once had a run that took place almost entirely on and around a public bus. The target was taking it home from the coffee shop the team had tracked him to.

Well, if youre in Seattle, youve just got to ride the monorail, dontcha?

You know it has like two stops, right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
http://www.seattlemonorail.com/

You know that it probably has more stops in the 2070's, right?... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Yes, but we are not counting gangs stopping the rail for their 'tolls' (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I thought street sams bumming rides or taking the bus was... wait for it... standard fare?

Seriously though, of all the full blown street sams I've built, for one reason or another, none of them has owned a vehicle. Although I gotta say, now that I've played a couple characters who ended up being "the guy with the van", I wish there was a way to spread the cost around to the entire team at chargen - nothing like footing the bill on a team vehicle that at best is going to get stained by spilled blood and soycaf, and at worst is going to end wrapped around a telephone pole when one of your buddies does something monumentally stupid. Joint-ownership would ease the pain a bit.

~Umi

Since they invented Wi-Fi after '64, I would not count on that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I gotta disagree, Stahsteele, at least for very realistic games. Cops are going to arrest first and ask questions later, which isn't where your runner wants to end up. Runners are going to stand out as 'people of interest' on even a cursory scan. Plus, people riding buses rarely have on-call lawyers to make trouble. Yeah, the pornomancer might make it away, but for the rest of the team ... they'd be burning a LOT of karma.

(Of course, Pink Mohawk it's all good.)

It was supposed to have more stops by 1970. Never got them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Cheap life hack for Street Samurai: Can't afford even a motorcycle? A ten-speed bicycle is probably an order of magnitude cheaper, and with your wired reflexes you can probably get it moving hella fast!

It makes no Sense to be afraid to go home like runners tend to be, but drive a car all over. The erratic routes you will most likely take will eventually attract attention.

on the other hand....

Now it makes little sense to rob a bank in the city you live in just to ride the bus home. But bank robbers do tend to be from out of town too.

Trolls with inline skates can break the sound barrier.

Only if they have a Control Rig or Magical Movement Powers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I hear those things are awfully loud.

It rides as softly as a cloud.

according the the first ed core book the monorail has more then 2 stops [img]http://www.shadowiki.de/images/thumb/3/3d/Downtown_seattle_2050.png/320px-Downtown_seattle_2050.png[/img]

Also the route is mentioned in the Archology Shutdown book.