pc motivation Options

[fool]

An issue that came up in my last session is what actually motivattes a character of shadowrunner caliber to be a runner. Anyone who is a shadowrunner could have a nice cushy job giving them at minimum middle lifestyle, all above board. A shadowunner could even start with a full legal sin meaning that he wouldn't have to worry about legal complications (in fact the rules mechanics rewards this condition albeit with drawbacks.)
So why would anyone wiht this high of skill level ever bother doing the dirty, dangerous and just downright unpleasant work of shadowrunning?

[James McMurray]

• Disillusionment at the corporate world, possibly spurred by betrayal.
• living for the thrill
• their wife was killed by a one-armed man and they were framed
• shadowrunning may pay as much as a middle lifestyle, but you only work 3 days a month
• alcohol or drug abuse makes a job hard to hold on to
• Playing with the big guns means giving your loaytaly to someone besides yourself

[UndeadPoet]

Loyalty to a person that can't escape the shadows.

Actually, few of my characters have a special motivation for running.
One knows that the only thing he is able to is taking life, and if he is paid for it, nice.
Another one is into the idea of breaking the limits of the human body by throwing himself into challenge after challenge.
Yet another one believes only in himself and his personal freedom and does not want a "real job".

[Kanada Ten]

Random Angst Generator #12

[ Spoiler ]

You're a terrorist during the Russian occupation of Poland for ten years. You've spent time in multiple prisons, you've been tortured, experimented on, and released from time to time. Now the occupation is over and you can start a new life. Two years later, you're working as what? A street sweeper for minimum wage, scraping a living with your new wife. It takes two pills for you to sleep every night, and one to wake up - they cost a week's salary for a month dose. You start cutting them in half, but one night you wake up with a gun in your hand pointed at her head. She's alive and crying, begging you not to kill her. A few phone calls puts you back in touch with an old friend. Yes, he has a way for you to make money - if you don't mind returning to the old ways. You look around: is this life any better than before? The first jobs are easy, knock over a Russian bank, take out a communist hardliner. But you're one of the usual suspects these days, so it's time to find a new place with a new face. What are the skills you can write on a resume? "Hard worker, some English skills, good with bombs." The money your making in Seattle allows you to send some home, and there it's worth ten times what you were making a month.

[FanGirl]

What about simply not having a SIN? You can't get a legal job without one, so it stands to reason that SINless people are forced to take illegal jobs, such as "shadowrunner." In fact, a runner is practically expected to be SINless: having a SIN is officially a Negative Quality in SR4.

[Kanada Ten]

Well, lots and lots of people don't have a SIN, but the vast majority of them can never develope the skills needed to be elite runners. That said, I think SINless is part of Random Angst #1-9. ;)

[Backgammon]

Actually, there are really very few plausible reasons why one would shadowrun. The highest being that you CANNOT hold a normal job. People raised in the ultra violence of the Barrens, or hell simply an abusing home, psychologically damaged so that normal work can't do, a path of violence and risk is all they can know.

Alternatively, people who were ok, and took the legal equivalents of Shadowrunning, such as military, corp sec, etc, but then were forced into the shadows by something that happened.

But in most cases, I think you don't chose to shadowrun. You're forced into it.

[Teulisch]

lets consider what it REALLY means to be a runner. It means, your the guy who will say "if you pay me money, i will do illegal and immoral acts for you, putting my own life at risk." you carry illegal weapons and gear, to B&E, kidnap, steal, and murder.

If the above is true, and you have the right usefull skills, then your a shadowrunner. If you lack the skills, then your probably in a gang, or a member of organized crime, or just a petty thug. Shadowrunning is the glamourous high-risk high-pay end of things.

as to the why... a lot of times, a person will not understand the actual risk, compared to the payoff. look how much people spend on the lottery. they see a big $$$, they go for it.

we dont need a 'plausable' reason. we just need to know why character X is doing this instead of something else. maybe he saw the Karl combat mage movie, and decided it was the life for him?

just cause we here on dumpshock have working brains, dosent necesarily mean the characters we play have to.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[FanGirl]

[Kanada Ten]

[mfb]

i tend to assume that there's a glut of capable people willing to perform acts of questionable morality for money. i mean, consider how many large-scale conflicts there have been in the SR world--not just wars, but corporate takeovers involving illegal manuevering, entire sections of the countryside being cut off from all infrastructure and being forced to rely on smuggling to get basic commodities, stuff like that. the job market for guys with the skillset to be shadowrunners is going to be wide open--and the nature of the work means that the moment any political heat comes down, you're going to be out on the street, and you probably won't be hireable by any legitimate outfits.

[Edward]

Sinless only works for people without highly marketable skills.

And magician of any tradition could work into any megacorp office and get a job with corporate sin provided. You will have to sign a long term contract with vicious non compliance penalties on your end and the corporation chooses your postings. You will only be provided low lifestyle and medical for the 3-6 months of your corporate indoctrination. Corporate indoctrination could mean many things, in aztechnologys case being used as a ritual sacrifice but for most corps nothing worse than being plugged into psychotropic sim sense.

And not having a sin is not a crime. You are a “probationary citizen” with almost no rights and the inability to deal with any government of financial institution.

[Ork4life]

The man who said "give me liberty or give me death" is a man who would possibly be a shadowrunner if he lived in 2070.

Really, that quote summarizes why most shadowrunners do what they do (IMO).

I mean, let's say you are a very skilled gunman, mage, rigger, whatever. Here are your options:

-Corporate Work: Your job is probably boring and repative, but safe and comfortable. You don't have to sleep with one eye open and unless you are involved in shady dealings you don't really have to worry about someone betraying you or selling you out. You make good money and your job is perfectly legal. On the down-side, big brother isn't just watching.. he lives with you. You have no privacy at all and the corp owns you.

-Shadowrunning: Your on the wrong side of the law. You have an exciting job, but only if you consider ringing death's doorbell and running "exciting". Like corporate work, you make alot of money, but you can't really live the high life you may want to, because you don't want to draw attention to yourself. One wrong move may be your last, and in all likelihood you'll die violently and unexpectedly. On the bright side, your life is *yours*. No one can tell you who to talk to, what to do, or where to spend your free time. And you have privacy.

To pull an (admittedly extreme) example from my SR game, there was a female Mr. Johnson who we were working for who fell for me after some very lucky seduction checks (Can't really blame her though.. I mean, who can resist an ork?). Long story short; we went on a couple dates, her corp caught wind and didn't like her mingling with the 'hired help', and sent a couple thug "bodyguards" to keep me away. She's a social adept, and would probably be a welcome addition to any shadowrunning team as a face. The moral of this story? If she lived in the shadows she'd make the same kind of money, and might live in constant danger, but she'd be able to live her own life.

So the question is; is life really worth living if all you're doing is following instructions and guidelines like a drone?

If the answer is no, and you've got the skills, then shadowrunning may be for you. If it's yes, well... you might as well start typing up that resume.

[Kyoto Kid]

[mfb]

[Kanada Ten]

[Edward]

Mfb. True, but that isn’t running the shadows because you are sinless, that is running the shadows because you have enemies you need to hide from.

Kanada Ten, bumber.
In SR3 a magician with good ennui social skills (like 3) and enough money for a bribe could actually get a sin without selling out to a corp, and make mid lifestyle easily.

You would walk into the equivalent of the social security office and apply for full citizenship. You would need to prove you will be a worthy member of society and you can do this with a simple business plan, you wish to run your own small business setting security wards for paranoid middleclass workers. Slip the worker a thousand nuyen to grease the wheals and your legally in business for yourself.

[FrankTrollman]

If you are personally an Insect Magician, Ares will hire you, but only as a deniable asset. They won't take the PR hit for putting you on salary.

-Frank

[Kanada Ten]

[Edward]

When did the UN declaration of rights of the child get repealed

I was bord at work and it was up on the wall (translated so children could understand it) one of the rights was the right to belong to a country. This would mean a child would hav a rite to a SIN.

Edward

[Edward]

Aries has insect shamans on payroll.

See threats 2

Edward

[Crusher Bob]

[Ophis]

[Rotbart van Dain...]