Job Or Vocation?, What you do or what you are? Options

[Talia Invierno]

In Shadowrun, to have magic or not to have magic is a life choice, like race. To have cyberware and specific equipment of specific kinds is also a life choice but of a slightly different variant: invest the initial meganuyen in a deck and relatively few other options will occur; invest half or more of total Essence in a VCR and you have just invested a significant portion of your life into those skills, that job ... that vocation?

In your games: is what you do integral to who you are, or is it just another role you fill, another variant on the 9-5 job that happens to pay better than most (supply and demand, don't you know)?

The first two options on the poll I designed for magically active PCs, while the second two are for non-magically active PCs. I'm curious if there will be a significantly different pattern of response between the two.

[Talia Invierno]

I'm just posting to move this one on top. I screwed up on the other one, but that's the one that seems to be garnering the views.
(Is previewing and/or editing poll options going to become possible in the future, or is this just not something available with this software?)

[MrSandman666]

Well, I guess it really depends on the character you play. I, as a player can not answer this question/cast a vote since all my characters would give different answers.
Ohanzee does it only for the money and is planning to get out of the business as soon as possible. He doesn't have a regular job but he most definately has a (rather active) life besides running.
Nate also leads a real life when not running, but only to earn some extra cash and maintain a cover identity. He is running only for the trill of it.
Jack Frost however, runs because that's all he can do, really. He never learned anything else.
None of them are magically active.

[Talia Invierno]

I don't know ... to do something simply because nothing else has ever been known to be be available? Does that qualify as a true choice? How would Jack Frost react if he did know other options existed, and they could be made viable for him?

(Silly me. Clicked on the "view results/null vote" option - and now it looks like I'm not going to be able to vote on my own thread. Maybe with cookie removal ...)

[MrSandman666]

Well, fighting is all he can do. He learned a little woodworking in the past. It's actually a long story, but I'll try to cut it short. Here's a rather complete description of Jack and his history

History
Jack grew up in a remote village, somewhere in Alaska. He was one of the view children in the village and the next school was too far away for him to visit it. All he learned, he learned from his parents.
His father was a woodworker, from whom Jack learned to handle sharp things like knives, saws, chainsaws, etc. His father also made him train his body really hard because he needed his help with chopping wood, carrying logs, etc.
Through all this time he worked with more-than-obsolete machines. An old diesel truck, old woodworking machines... There was no electricity in the village except for the one coming from generators, which where running on diesel, which was hard to get. So it was spared for when it was really needed. Let's just say this made Jack a little... "technologically impaired".
When he was 14, his totem, Fenrir, came and chose him (guess I was wrong about none of my characters being magically active... oops.)
He's an adept, not a shaman, but he still follows the tradition of Fenrir, although he get's none of the bonuses. I chose the flaws accordingly, though (combat monster and such).
Fenrir outfitted him with great combat abilities and he used them to get the village under his own little reign of terror. After some time the villagers wheren't going to take it any more. They took the few weapons they had and tried to force Jack out of the village. They eventually suceeded, but he killed many of them in the course. He then lived in the woods near the village for some time and fed on cattle and food supplies which he stole from the village. He lived like a lone wolf. Of course, he killed still more villagers when they where causing him any more trouble (like keeping him from stealing the little cattle they had).
In a final show down they managed to make him flee for good. Of course, the remaining villagers (who moved away from the village, since there was not much left of it) are trying to hunt him down since they want to see him dead.
When he was 20 years old he came to Seattle with not much more than an old pickup truck (which he still drives), some camping equipment and some primitive weapons (knives and a chainsaw, mainly). Of course he wasn't assigned a SIN in his little remote village.
He noticed that there wasn't much to do without a SIN and therefore turned to the Shadows. After all, this was his place anyways. There he had an outlet for his aggressions, managed to earn some money and generally life well within his own, low standards. Currently he lives in a small hut in the forests just outside of Seattle, heating with wood, eating mainly what he hunts himself.

General Description:
Jack is a simple guy. Not dumb, but simple. He doesn't know a lot about the world, actually he knows hardly anything about the world. He is ill-tempered and quick to anger, and believe me, you don't wanna be too near when he gets angry. He has the attitude that you can reach almost every goal by means of violence. However, he doesn't blindly run into action when he can clearly see that he doesn't stand a chance. In the Shadows he quickly found out that he isn't invincible.
He's quick to judge people and tends to get violent when he feels insulted even the slightest bit.
Oh yea, he doesn't talk much. He rather likes his actions to talk for him.
Also, Jack doesn't have much experience using modern weapons. He is somewhat familiar with shotguns but uses close combat techniques whenever possible. If he has to go for ranged attacks he tends to throw things at his opponents, which he is rather good at. He claims to have killed a guy by placing a pencil in his one eye from 25 feet distance.

Hmm... this got kinda lenghty... I hope you don't mind?

[hp_warcraft]

Well, occasionally after all the decking, searching, covering-up, and
writing code to update the tools is done ...

... .... My decker character likes to go play Dawn of Atlantis!

His Lizardman Swordmaster is already 5th Circle!!!

Life outside the matrix is scary and the rain stings. :(

[Atrox]

I have to agree with Mr Sandman666 here. Depending on character, I could give a variety of answers here. Most do have some kind of life other than "the biz", but to Senex, the mage, magic is all that matters.

[Fortune]

I would think that any awakened character's off-time is still defined by his Magic.

[Kagetenshi]

The character I'm currently using, Major, had some... trauma, shall we say, in her teens.
Ever since then, she has been fighting. Fighting to forget, perhaps. Regardless, it is as much what she is as what she does. She'll probably only ever retire the hard way.
Besides, she loves it too much.

~J

[Lilt]

Magic tends to be a life feature. A magician can use magic to help in almost every circumstance where high combat skills and reflex enhancements help relatively little in everyday life. Shamans also have relatively little choice in the matter (what with the totem and all) so I'd expect more macic users to involve magic 24/7 in their lives than sammies. Having said that many Cybered characters are going to have taken cyber to help them in a particular field (rigging/decking ETC) as they are highly interested in that field.

[Hot Wheels]

I'm a wheel girl. If not running the shadows I'd be hanging around race tracks and autoshows.

[Talia Invierno]

Lengthy, short: it's all good. And I always appreciate expansions upon PC personality.

I'm especially curious about overall outlook - patterns that run through multiple PCs or (for GMs) through their groups. If options don't exist because the PC doesn't know about them in-game, speculate: if the PC knew of a viable alternative (viable to them, I mean), would they even consider it? Could they?

And curiously it does seem to be splitting along the magic/non-magic line ... even though it is no less possible to commit one's life to a particular role or skillset whether Awakened or not. It's just as possible to be a "wheel girl" as to be a "magic girl": live and breathe vehicles, live and breathe magic.

But, perhaps: it is differently possible? Does the ability to wield magic alter outlook on one's non-work time that much? Does it make a difference which branch of magic one follows?

[Reth]

Well the ratios speak for themselves i think.

Awakened: 90%: its my life.

Non-awakened: 50%: its my life.

[Talia Invierno]

Ah, but it's not just the "what", it's the "why" and the "who" and the "how".

[John Campbell]

I once spent nine days crucified on an oak tree while a talking squirrel revealed the secrets of the universe to me. I came out of it with a Moderate wound, another Magic point, and a metamagic. You tell me where my priorities are...

[Reth]

Aaahh yes, good idea to model an initiation rite on Odins selfsacrifice. Seriously though i would assume that most awakened people in SR sees their magic as a gift, blessing...etc. something that is inherently always present and therefore always a part of that persons life, i would imagine that many magicians spend their free time studying, communing with spirits or just plain zipping around in astral space for fun i know i do.

[Ronin Soul]

I guess if there is a connection between all my characters then it would be obsession and passion. None of my characters have ever run the shadows for a "larf". Even characters who don't want to run the shadows do it for a reason, generally emotional. One character because they have to keep brining in the nuyen to pay for his wife's medical treatments (which are freakin' expensive!). His love for her transcends everything else. When he runs he runs by her moral code, not his own (as in he would do things he himself would find repulsive as long as she would forgive him for it in time). Another character runs the shadows for the best of intentions; he's the ultimate hood character; working for corps to help the little guys he grew up amoung.
All my characters are usually quite different (avaricious, selfless, arrogant, irritating, loveable) but all of them are touched by obsession no matter whether they are Awakened or not.

That said, most of them have a life outside of the Shadows (or in the Shadows more accurately). Once again it dffers from character to character. One character plays in the nightclubs as one hell of a singer and keyboard player. Another is involved in environmental work. Another indulges in stock trading. That same character also spends lots of time working on various Conspircy Theories.

Some of the characters have alternative options (though alot don't) but they simply don't choose to follow them. The reasons differ. One doesn't because she hates the corporate lifestyle (she was an extraction target turned Shadowrunner). Another runs the shadows simply because their is no other way to make money (at least in his opinion).

I think it all comes down once again to obsession and passion. Why do anything that could get you killed every hour of the day? There is a reason people do things and usually the more extreme the thing done, the more extreme the reason it is done in the first place.
And there is little in the human mind more extreme than obsession.

[MrSandman666]

Hey Ronin! Did you steal that idea from me? ;)
One of my favorite characters runs to pay the medicine and treatments for his wife (and the rent, telefone bills, etc...) and eventually the one operation (or operations) that will heal her.
And I thought I did something unique for once... :(

[Ronin Soul]

[Phylos Fett]

I like Face characters, so running is just an aside - making *legitimate* money on the side is part and parcel of most of my faces...

[Snow_Fox]

Being magically active is a part of who you are to the very fibre of your being. It's not like the razor girl who can leave the gun home when she goes on a date. You are aware of and interact with a whole level of existance that most people barely knows exist. spirits and elementals are a part of your life and you have "powers and abilities far above those of mortal men."

Sure you're not levitating a cup of tea to your hand or blasting roaches with mana bolts, but being a mage/shaman is a part of you.

[Kagetenshi]

But what about a razorgirl who can't, say, leave her Wired Reflexes, Cyberspurs, and Tactical Computer behind when she goes out on said date?

~J

[Talia Invierno]

A possible direct comparison: the street samurai who has devoted as much Essence as (meta)humanly possible to speed and improved attributes - better living through cyber - and the physad who has done the same, through magic. There would not seem to be any innate reason for one to see what they do as more of either a job or a vocation than the other - both have invested as heavily as possible of what they have into what they are.

Yet people generally do tend to see the two types of investments differently, and frequently even they themselves would ...?

[Talia Invierno]

And I'd be really curious to hear from the two people who noted magic as job and not "who I am". What's your take? What kind of magician do you play?

[Person 404]

I'm not one of the two, but I can certainly see some mages getting fed up with being singled out and being treated as 'special' for their entire lives, not to mention being annoyed with the superior attitudes a lot of magic-users hold. Said mage would probably do magic as a job (after all, it does pay well, and it's a shame to waste the ability), but do things at home the 'mundane' way. I.e. getting up and getting a beer from the fridge instead of using magic fingers, using the tube or the phone to get in touch with friends instead of manifesting, etc. Sometimes you just want to feel like a regular person, you know?