Nah, I think it was Corporate Enclaves when he actually went Offline for a bit to take his Sister's Kids to Disneyworld or something.

Or maybe it was Emergence that he complained about his age... That's the Technomancers are revealed Campaign, with AIs thrown in to boot!

And Fatima dying was listed in the In-Character Chat.

Everyone sells out. Everyone.



Which book? I didn't notice it in Emergence.

In-Character Chat, not book. As in the Monthly Chat that CGL has. One month was In-Character, and it was revealed she died.

Not everyone. Its just that the people who don't tend to end up broke and marginalized.

Ah kk - thanks. I guess I'll have to start paying attention to those.



I think this depends largely on one's definition of selling out.

How did she die?

There's a difference between not selling out and not being able to find a buyer so to speak.

Again this depends on the definition of selling out.

One of the reasons I keep mohawks (and fringe-hawks with one side of the head shaved) is because it allows easy access to datajacks. You really don't want hair getting in the way of your fiber-optic plug. Every decker/hacker I've had has had their datajack below their hairline on the back of their neck, or shaves the side of their head. It's the new geek-chic.

And given that some of the most common datajack users would be corporate employees, I imagine a lot of people were rocking fringe-hawks with their drone-cleaned Synergist suits, and the full hawk would be for a bit of elegant symmetry. Counterculture absorbed for mainstream convenience.

Looking at it that way, I believe the advandcements in non-invasive DNI technology - The fact that trodes have no real performance deficiency compared to a datajack - Means that the corp-hawk has gone out of fashion by 2070.

Interesting idea.

I always stuck to the artwork where people with datajacks just had one shaved temple (usually combined with glamrock poodle hair, as seen on the SR2 BBB cover).

But when taking the artwork into consideration, the 2050s also had an enormous mohawk per capita ratio.
And i'd say as it's the 70's now, it's about time for the beginning of a 50's revival.
About time.
Even though i must say that i prefer spiked hawks over the thick and brushy, centurion-helmet ones typically found in SR.


Now that i think about it, all characters with mohawks i have ever played where (mostly trollish) street sams...just like most of the guys with mohawks in the old illustrations.
Suits the horns, i guess.

For corp deckers I usually go with selective shaving at the temple or behind the ear or have them go with a buzz, crew, or high-and-tight haircut. Someone sporting a hawk varient would be seen as going for the "maveric" style.

What about the Mullet. Buisness in the front and party in the rear. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif)

Aside from Mohawks, let's not forget face paint. Runner Havens has a passing note about the revial of Neo-Tribal (fluorescent) tatoos. And trode paint nearly forces lots of people to put on really cool face paint.

Last year, i actually saw an accountant at my bank wearing a bright red mohawk to his button-down shirt.
In a decade where people surgically turn themselves into catgirls on a semi-regular basis, this should be even less of an issue.

Unless it's a really exaggerated mohawk (The Casualties, anyone?).

funny how that same timeframe had the comic books grow darker. especially watchmen really questioned the old good guy, bad guy split. i guess we can see it in westerns to, with the good guys using whatever means needed to take the bad guy down.

funny enough, i think i have shared the opinion of the watchmen "villain" for a number of years now.

these days we seem much more introspective...

Because introspection is easier than blowing stuff up.

Cheaper too.

Hey, I'll admit it: I play shadowrun because blowing up the corps, fragging the system, and pissing on the ashes of city hall in RL gets a little too tempting sometimes. Guess you could call that selling out.

You want more mohawks in your game? Go old and bitter. Guys who used to have a cause, and either burnt out or finally found their limit when survival became more important than idealism. We're talking ex-Terra First! and AB+ here. Better yet, be one of those guy's kids, who hasn't learned The Hard Lessons yet but picks up the banner and a Molotov cocktail in rebellion against their parent's seeming betrayal of the punk ideal.

Some good, gritty RP to be had there, omae--in between all the bullets.

nothing like being an bitter old "idealist" that now do drug or gunrunning to stay afloat...

hmm, im reminded of a story about a mom dealing drugs to keep her family together.

Sounds like Breaking Bad, great show, by the way. That's totally what I'm going to do if I ever get lung cancer. Though probably less "cook meth" and more "social vengeance with fulminate of mercury".

You better define selling out then. It's easy to say something like "everyone does X" and then define X so that your statement is true. The most obvious form of this fallacy is when people claim that all action is selfish, and then say that altruistic acts are done selfishly for the good feeling people get by doing them. It's part unprovable theorem, part circular logic, and all bad form.

Besides, I think that people are born into a "sold out" situation these days, our parents and grandparents sold us out already. Reversing this, "buying out" if you will, is the new challenge. It's not maintaining your integrety that's the hard part, it's finding some to begin with.

It would be like an eville paladin.

Any course of action or inaction that does not hold true to the individual's ideals regardless of reason, including changing ideals. Hyzmarca's individuals who he claims don't sell out and "tend to end up broke and marginalized" are IMO selling out in that they are giving into societal pressure and ceasing to try. True, it is not always practical to continue trying, but no one ever said ideals were practical.



Totally agreed.

It's tricky. At it's most accepted there has to be roughly some identifiable change in a persons behavior that amounts to "selling out" i.e. compromising something for cash.

Most people never get such an offer in a meaningful way.

But then there is the idea of starting out "sold out". The idea that John Q. Public who just wants to drive their delivery truck and have some kids is already in a sold out state. Once you go there it's pretty hard not to be "sold out".

But anyway I am liking the vibe that the mohawk set is mostly in the old and gritty demographic. Especially since it combines so well with the real world. I imagine if I got a gaming group together at random the fetuses of the group would want to play black trenchcoat possibly emo type characters. And explaining the whole cyberpunk thing to them would be difficult in the first place.

But the 40+ year old guy with the beard and a bit of a spare tire? That guy knows wtf I'm going on about, probably better than I do. And it could be interesting to play off that real world dynamic in game. While I've been in games where, of course, the elf wizard is a hundred or whatever years old, character age never came into the RP picture in any meaningful way.

Oh no, they're still trying. McVeigh, Bin Laden, all sorts of people are trying. They're still as marginalized as hell. Even the ones who don't blow stuff up are marginalized, for the most part, because they're unable to adapt to the process of lobbying and politicking. Of course, there is also the fact that people tend to look at their ideals through rose-colored windowpane LSD. Talking to a neo-hippie peace protester, for example, yields the bizarre combination of saccharine feelings and total idiocy that one might expect from the Barney Generation.

The ideals of the 60s and the 70s were backed by a strong well-organized body of young people willing to sacrifice for them. The ideals of the 80s were backed by a small but dedicated body of young people who were sort of pampered and self-centered. The ideals of the 90s were back by a few young people who weren't really dedicated and never really had to work for anything in their lives. The ideals of the 00s are backed by the people who used to be hippies and punks and whatever the hell the 90s had and simply couldn't make it in the world.

There are a few exceptions, of course; there are idealists who do effectively lobby. But, the huge movements of yesteryear simply don't exist anymore for the simple reason that the big social injustices have been taken care of and the ones that are left are the ones that most people just can't get worked up about.

Luckily not a problem in Shadowrun. Though 4th ed seems to be toning the dystopia down a notch. That from how things were portrayed in the Neo Anarchist sourcebooks vs the more modern ones. Of course that does fit in with the newer generation. You can try and get them riled about racism, but they really have trouble getting it. And I think it doesn't have the intensity of emotion for me as it would have for the people picking up SR1 when it came out.

One could make the point that these types are actually hurting their own causes through their actions, and thus selling out in that way. But you do have a point.



Which innately involves selling out.



Guilty.



Sadly true, but I think this is the result of a natural progression. People generally cease to care about things once they are no longer news.

Hmm. Anybody know what does rile the kids (who would be playing shadowrun) these days? What internal bigotries or such that they might be strugling with?