The Code, Does your Runner have rules to live by? Options

[Kagetenshi]

Certainty.

A similar discussion.

In SR3 Stun is indeed worse. Serious Stun can be healed (if temporarily) in seconds via a stimpatch, while even a Light Heal/Treat has a base time of five turns of sustaining to become permanent. Taking your average highly competent spellslinger (twelve dice to cast) on a cop (maximum Essence 5) results in an expected four successes. That's two turns for a Light wound, ten for a Moderate, and fifteen for not even healing all of a Serious wound. That sounds worse to me.

You're also making the very questionable assumption that gel-rounding or capsule-rounding a squad of the 'Star will not attract their ire.

~J

[Kyoto Kid]

[Foreigner]

Echo what Kage, mmu1, and Solstice said.

My character has taken the "Distinctive Style" flaw.

In this case, he has a personal code of honor.

Being raised in Japan, he follows the religion of onmyodo, the Japanese counterpart to Taoism/Daoism, "The Way of Yin and Yang", which, at least as I understand it, was a common religious belief among ninja. He seeks balance in his own life, as well as others'. In a nutshell, he will *always* do what he thinks is the right thing, regardless of others' opinions, and whether or not it's (at least technically) illegal.

(Unusual for a PC whose primary job will eventually be as an assassin, I know. :))

(1) If he gives his word, regardless of to whom, he *always* keeps it (put another way, your word is one of the few things that you must give away in order to keep it) <see sig. below>;

(2) He WON'T kill law-enforcement officers, *unless absolutely necessary*--this includes anyone from corporate security guards to Ares Knight Errant officers, among others (generally speaking, nothing complicates a 'runner's life more quickly than killing a cop);

(2a) Soldiers--of whatever type-- are specifically exempt from this rule, because they are professionals, and thus more dangerous than cops or corporate security officers, for whom it is often just a way of making a living;

(3) No children, *EVER*, and the *only* time that he'll use lethal force against a woman--except in self-defense, or in the defense of others--is if the job specifically calls for it (i.e., if it's straight-up wetwork and one or more of the targets is female);

(3a) Number (3) above does *not* apply to members of other 'runner teams hired to eliminate either the PC or other members of his team;

(3b) Or to a double-crossing Johnson, if said Johnson happens to be a woman;

(4) He won't take a job if there's a risk of collateral damage--either to people or property. If asked to perform such a job, he'll walk out. If a Johnson wants a bloodbath, for whatever reason (one crime family "sending a message" to another, for example), he/she is trying to hire the wrong guy--they want a butcher, not a surgeon; and

(4a) No innocent bystanders--i.e., he won't use lethal force against a potential witness, and will instead seek less violent alternatives (i.e., a pistol loaded with Gel rounds, a Taser, or a Narcoject loaded with Gamma-Scopolamine). (Note: If a bystander draws/picks up a weapon, he/she immediately becomes a *TARGET*, and is no longer considered a bystander.)

--Foreigner

This post has been edited by Foreigner: Jan 3 2006, 01:24 AM

[TheHappyAnarchis...]

[TheHappyAnarchis...]

From that discussion, I found Ed Simmons questions on this page particularly important, and yet they were not addressed.

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...opic=8077&st=50

I also found this bit interesting

[toturi]

Stay alive. Everything else is secondary to this.

[nick012000]

This is why the Sanitize spell is so useful. Takes care of all of those pesky bloodstains...

[Wounded Ronin]

As a tribute to the 80s I think it's important to have at least one character spilling some tortured American dramatic understanding of bushido all over your game world. If you can make him start quoting characters in an Eric Van Lustbaeder novel, that's bonus points.

I've even gone one-better on that. For a while I was playing a character who was a direct, blatant, and intentional ripoff of Sho Kosugi in "Revenge of the Ninja". In fact, the idea was to play Sho Kosugi's character in the Shadowrun setting, which was less sufforcating than you might think since his character hadn't been developed in too much detail, really, in the film.

So, for a number of games, I was typing (this was in IRC) with a super exaggerated Japanese accent (and people were having trouble understanding me, which was awesome), and I basically flung around an 80s movie ninja code, actually as shallow as a wading pool, as though it were rancid sausage all over the game. Man, what fun it was.

EDIT:

Heh, as distinct from the American 80s ninja sterotype, I once used the Japanese 80s ninja sterotype which tends to revolve around lean, melodramatic young men looking for their fathers who are also ninjas. (The example you probably all remember would be Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden I). So, in someone's campaign I had a lean emo guy who went around in a short kimono and loincloth. The combination of my character's constant emo posturing and erratic, continual ninja-like hiding at inappropriate times made that character a truly awesome gaming experience. And by awesome, I mean I succeeded in annoying someone.

[Wounded Ronin]

[Lazarus]

First Critias... nice... :P You called it.

I think Toturi gets the award for best code. You summed up in two short sentences what I was talking about in my long ass post. My hat is off to you sir. :|

I do find it interesting that almost without exception everyone listed not lying, or honesty as being a value. Why is that I wonder? Is honesty that important or is it the perception of honesty? Overwhelmingly most people's codes are made up of a veneer of morality but they're really just pragmatic rather than virtuous.

I do like the not taking wetwork runs and the over use of non-lethal subdual combat. Really those methods aren't all that effective. I mean sure you can use magic to put someone out of commission pretty effectively but you can't do that all the time. (Mage collapse) A DMSO/<whatever> cocktail is nice but its use, realistically, is very limited. As far as putting someone down a good ole fashioned bullet wound does the job.

One of our house rules is that every time you receive a physical wound you have to roll a Willpower check to keep fighting. You have to get as many successes as you have wound boxes. If you don't get all the boxes then that is how many combat rounds you basically just lay there bleeding. Basically it takes a mentally tough hombre to keep fighting after taking a Serious physical wound. You shoot an average security guard in the leg and he'll probably not want to fight anymore. Also that little non-lethal cocktail takes a little bit to take effect, or at least it should. While it's doing its magic the guard is probably still shooting at you. So that could be a problem.

So what's the solution? Use stealth when possible and don't go out of your way to kill but if you are going to pull it don't f**k around.

Now don't take this the wrong way. I'm not busting on anyone's code. Some of them were just funny as hell. I think it's great that most Shadowrunners out there are Boy/Girl Scouts with Big Guns. I guess my question would be why does your character value these things? Is it she thinks she should act? Does he think it will be helpful to him or is it because it's "the right thing to do"? Is it because that is how shadowrunners are supposed to act?

Just curious.

[Kagetenshi]

[Foreigner]

[Solstice]

[Kagetenshi]

It isn't a part of everyone's priorities, you know.

~J

[Solstice]

[nick012000]

[mmu1]

If you don't metagame your approach to Stun and Deadly damage too much, there's very little practical incentive for using "non-lethal" weapons on your opposition, for a couple of reasons.

1. Chances are, the cops or the corps don't particularly care what you attacked them with, and they'll shoot to kill in response anyway.

2. Legally speaking, they can call it assault with a deadly weapon or attempted murder regardless of what you used. Gel rounds aren't non-lethal, they're less-lethal - same goes for shock gloves, or narcojet. If someone needs a second shot to be put down after taking S stun, and ends up at S physical, then in non-metagame terms, you just injured someone to within an inch of their life.

[Critias]

Yeah. Waving a gun at someone is waving a gun at someone. It's not like, mid-combat, your average sec-guard or cop is gonna go "Hey, wait. Nevermind. Hah hah, ohhh, those kids. These are just gel rounds! Okay, dispatch. Ignore that request for backup. Let's go on home, boys!"

[Wounded Ronin]

I like that houserule about needing to roll to keep fighting after taking Physical damage. I think it makes combat more strategic and more harsh, which I like.

[Lazarus]

For those you who are curious that house rule is a base TN# 4 with wound modifiers. We also allow a Background or Active Skill: Combat Training

(Another GM and I disagree as to whether it should by background or Active. My vote is background because it's use is very limited, plus I say your character has to have actually had combat experience or fomralizied training to even have it.)

Combat Training is used as a complentary skill with the Willpower roll.

Oh and once your penalty rounds, if you have any, have passed you can resume normal combat behavior, whatever that is.

<This is per SR3 combat system.>

[FrankTrollman]

Chun the Unavoidable had a pretty lenient code. He'd lie, cheat, steal, murder, eat the flesh of victims, whatever. He did have one maxim that he always lived by:

Never piss in your swimming pool.

That means that no matter how well a job pays, if it's going to make you unable to work in the future don't take it.

Don't pollute the environment. That includes the astral environment.

Don't order your spirits to do things they don't want to do. Do take them out for pizza (or whatever they want) when they do services for you.

Don't dick over your friends. You can screw 20 people you don't care about, but your friends are off limits.

Don't get romantically involved with your own contacts, teammates, or spirits. Really.

---

Chun had no problem assassinating people. Or working as a foreign agent for Asamundo. But he recycled his bottles.

-Frank

[nick012000]

So does that mean you can't have sex with your ally spirit? Even if it's dikoted?

[mmu1]

[FrankTrollman]

[Vagabond]

My take on it.

I'm such a plug-whore.