How do you explain this?, Creating Suspension of Disbelief for the SR Setting Options

[tisoz]

It's a valid point. One I thought about, even.

Basically, it boils down to a couple things, for me...

1) This is the most salient point for me. This is Shadowrun. In Shadowrun, there is NO way runners would ever get away with most of what they do. They'd certainly never survive more than a short while and a few runs. Between magic, spirit powers such as Search, technomancers and their Resonance "I can find anything that's ever been recorded to the matrix" thing, the omni-present security and camera system, etc, etc, etc. There's no way Shadowrunning is the least bit viable in a world like that.

And yet, we suspend our disbelief enough to allow for it. Because it's more fun that way. The game would suck if you were never able to play more than a couple game sessions before you were inevitably captured. And there's be a LOT fewer runners out there.

<snip>

Bull

I read this post and had to agree. Then I started trying to think of ways that we suspend our disbelief. I'm hoping others can add more ways, or even more problems of why criminals/shadowrunners would soon get caught.

1. A big reason and one I think people keep getting away from is if it is financially feasible to even try to apprehend the perpetrator. Say the victim decides to find the shadowrunners. Fine, they find them, they apprehend them. Now what? Whatever they did or stole is likely long gone or cannot be undone by the culprits. Chances are the victim knows who hired the runners just by figuring out who benefits from it. It's the basis for why shadowrunners exist in the first place instead of corporate black op teams. They are just a layer of deniability.

2. Yes, in a perfect world, there are cameras everywhere, and ways to track everything. But the world of SR is hardly perfect. Cameras cost money to install and maintain. First they need to be budgeted to even install them, so a cost analysis needs to be made as to whether or not they make sense, then some greed and corruption get thrown in as to whether the approved hardware actually gets installed or if several of the folks involved say it got installed and pocket some nuyen, or if they install inferior hardware or even facsimile hardware that only looks like the hardware (think of all the domes that supposedly have cameras inside.) Then, even if the real deal, real good tech gets installed, will someone shoot it out or steal it? Then there's stuff like acid rain and pests that like to eat stuff, especially awakened pests and nuisances.

In Star Wars, someone pointed out to me that they made the technology seem like it had been around for ages by having it break down and having used droids, etcetera. I look at SR as the same thing only put greed as a big factor as well as a more hostile mother nature.