More dystopia!, Why would anyone be a criminal in 2070? Options

[Buster]

I've been trying to figure out why my character would ever be a criminal in 2070. It sounds like a really great place frankly and my first thought is an intelligent charismatic mage could make a lot of money and have lots of fun just getting a regular mage job. Why the heck would he risk his life as a criminal?

The discussion about Emergence made me think that there should be an X-men theme throughout Shadowrun where prejudice against ALL Awakened characters (including all metahumans, magicians, adepts, and technomancers and including anyone who's related to such Awakened people) forces the characters into the underworld.

Every member of a team I've ever met was Awakened in some way, even the razorboy/girl was at least a physical adept. Even if they weren't Awakened themselves, they could be related to someone who's Awakened and therefore tainted by association. Besides why would anyone even play Shadowrun if they didn't want to play an Awakened character?

If the characters are hated and even hunted down, that would easily explain why they have no place in normal society. They would have the punkish attitude of wanting to lash out at anything corporate or establishment. Hence, Shadowrunners are born.

How would you incorporate more anti-Awakening dystopia in your games? And is this more fun for all the players?

[TheMadDutchman]

There's another thread the "Gibson-Style" one that touches on similar ideas.

the general conscencus seems to be that runners are at their cores flawed in someway that prevents them from going with the flow.

There is one thing that I did think of that wasn't mentioned: Down-sizing. IRL corporations downsize all the time. People get laid off after years of loyal service to their company. Maybe that's what it takes for a socially normal character to end up in the shadows. His magical research department was downsized and enough time elapsed before he could get another corp job that he had to find another way to pay the bills.

People don't think of firings in Shadowrun that often but if you look at how many changes there have been to the big 10 over time then (to me at least) it's easy to believe that a lot of talented deckers and mages and security guards and company men have found themselves out on their keisters with a small severance package and a "we'll vouch for you on your resume". If they were talented enough than instead of going to a new corp they started "consulting" which is just a cool way of saying shadowrunning.

[Xenith]

On a similar route, Ex-military types are likely common in the shadows. But as for normal people becoming criminals? Most reasons would likely be considered Personal choices. Revenge, seeking lost friends, or thrill. Thrill, the real deal, is likely a little hard to come by for someone with just another average life. Sure, digitized thrill is enough for most, but some might know the difference between the synth-Thrill and real Thrill and be addicted to the real stuff. An expensive habit if you will. This would likely be mostly bored rich/sheltered kids with a touch of naive.

Theres also the MASSIVE number of SINless. Running from a criminal past is a good one too. On and on.

[Abbandon]

magic is only half of shadowrun. I enjoy all character types, but mostly my people tend to end up cybered although if you include race in your awakened catagory some of them fall into that. I prefer cold hard metal cyber to bio also but they have gaps in each thing so you have to take both. So yeah I can say that I do not play shadowrun exlusively for the magical side of things.

As for everything being great. Imagine that even though alot of people are working that only 5-10% of the population has all the wealth. Everyone else is paying bills and just barely keeping their head above water. Everything is corp run, it would be infinitely worse than it is today. Imagine the actual content of a tv show in 2070 to be 10 minutes long per hour with the other 50 minutes nothing but commercials(unless you buy the premium tv channels that let you get 20 extra minutes worth of content per hour)

Now think about population size. Imagine you had to compete with like 100,000 other people for the same position. There would be people who would do or say anything to get ahead. People would be constantly getting paid to do stuff to other people or their property. Like making false records of Joe Blow looking up kiddie porn on company time.

Corp life is just as vicious as street life just on another level. You have got millions of people backstabbing each other to get to the top of the pile so they dont fall to the streets with the rest of the trash. More often than not people are gonna fall and those people make up the subculture and our runners.

What that one movie with jede law and uma thurman..attica or gattica or gallactica, gallaga? lol I forget. You have to be the most perfect, pure human to make it into this space program or something. Watch that for a glimpse at corp life.

[Kyoto Kid]

...Xenith has it, SINless. So many people fell through the cracks after the Crash. Without an identity you can't lead a "normal" life 2070. Most of course ended up in the Barrens (Seattle) and similar districts of other cities where the terms "law enforcement" an "public safety" are meaningless. One is forced to become what he or she may have once feared/hated in order to just survive.

I also agree with TheMadDutchman on Corp Downsizing and ex-military. This would release a pool of skilled (in some cases highly) people into the mix. Unable to get another job outside of a min wage StufferShack™ clerk, losing the flat or house, the family, and seeing that crime can pay, it would be all too enticing.

As for ex-military yes. Unless a Mercenary company snaps you up, there really is little else except maybe the Star, KE, and Corp run security (see above). Add to the equation PTSD for anyone involved in a conflict and you have a very good candidate for the shadows.

Of my "star" characters two are from the SINless category (KK & Da Brat) and one is ex-military (Kat Markova).

[Backgammon]

[Buster]

[mintcar]

If you've read as much Shadowrun sourcebooks as some of us has, some things become very clear about this specific issue: First of all, Shadowrunners are almost always SINless. The ones who are not have some strange yuppie dream of living as Shadowrunners, because they are in fact a cultural fenomenon which generates a lot of hype.

Now, what does it mean to be SINless? Well, it means you don't have an identity. And that's not by choice by the way. Sure, life seems to be pretty sweet for the corp wage slaves, albight not very free; but the life of a SINless is not as hunky dory. The SINless population is huge, and they are not recognised by any laws or governments. They live in so called Z-zones, were the police rarely visits, and the syndicates and gangs make the rules. The corps like it that way. It provides a safety valve for societies misfits and have-nots. They can wall off the unwanted elements, and they can have a back yard in which to conduct their own shady buisness. Shadowrunners exists because the corps wants them to. It's the most profitable occupation for a SINless person unless you sign up directly for a syndicate or get recruited as an asset for a corp.

Being recruited by a corp is the only way to get a bonafied SIN if you are born SINless. If you ask the government for a SIN they will give you a criminal SIN, which just gets you less freedom, not more rights. A lot of Shadowrunners live pretty good lives in the fiction, but they do so because the became criminals and got themselves a lot of money, then managed to get themselves forged identities and enough allies in high places not to get brought in by the law.

That's how you justify being a criminal in Shadowrun.

[mintcar]

One other thing: Because the number of highly skilled criminals in the underworld of Shadowrun is so large (again: because the corps have designed it that way, so they can have a lot of deniable assets), that changes a lot of things. It becomes a lot easier to get caught up in that world then it is in real life, as it is larger.

If you are a corporate hacker who stumbles upon some very sensitive data and your employer wants you dead, there's actually a chance that you know someone who knows someone who can wipe out all signs of your previous existence and set you up with a new identity. Well, that would make you SINless (even though you've jumped the dirt poor part, were you can't even take into a motel because you don't even have a credstick with a false SIN on it). And because the people who helped you have the contacts to make something out of that data you stumbled upon, chances are you will deal with them some more and find a new spot for yourself in the underworld.

This is just an example. But the main things to keep in mind is the large areas of urban wasteland called "barrens" that you can find in any sprawl in Shadowrun—and the large number of skilled criminals AKA Shadowrunners. These things are real forces within the world that has plenty of justification. If you understand the concepts you should have no problem finding the role of your characters.

[Backgammon]

[Buster]

[hyzmarca]

Remember, wageslave isn't just a fun slang term. It is the literal truth. While corporate employees get paid, they are most certainly slaves. This is the whole point of the voluntary extraction. In the fifth world, you can quit your job at a moment's notice, though thirty-day notice is polite, because of laws that protect against involuntary servitude. In the Sixth World, if you try to quit your job then your boss will shoot you in the face and he'll be perfectly within his legal rights to do so. Corporate security guards exist to keep the employees in as much as to keep the criminals out, really.

Shadowrunners have freedom. The corporation doesn't tell them when to eat and when to pee, and this can be very tempting to those who would otherwise be chained to the great corporate machine.

[fistandantilus4....]

Employees have contracts with corps in SR. They sign that contract, they have to work for them. A lot like endentured servitude used to work. They had to work it off. Once they did, everything was fine. But until then, they're effectively owned.

[hyzmarca]

Those employment contracts are drawn up by slick corporate lawyers. Between the legal latin and the microcroscopic print, I pretty sure that a corporation can extend the term of employment indefinably if it so desires.

[Ravor]

Hell, between the deducted "Benefits", interest on those corp loans, and paying for the cyberware/drugs/equipment (You don't actually think that the corp provides that Gun/Armor/Radio/ect to their Sec Guards for free do you just because they aren't allow to leave the building with the equipment do you?) that is required just to hold a job its quite possible that your grandchildren will still be paying off your Contract unless they are Execs...

[Method]

I think its also important to keep in mind that corporations are about productivity.

Money is the bottoms line. If your are Ted Johnson, a middle manager for Corp X, the last thing you want is an "auditor" to visit your little corner of the company. And when I say "auditor" I'm talking about corporate executives that call thier offical kill totals "success rates". Imagine that kind of stress.

Plus, your reward for moving up in the corp is having more and more people trying to take you down. So your choice is to wallow in a low paying job as a pee-on or strive desperately to attain a place in middle managment, at the risk of loosing your life. It is literally a life threatening occupation. And dead employees don't collect retirement.

Downsizing (as mentioned above) would be an ever present danger. The primary goal of any corporation is to make the same amount of crap with less employees to pay.

And as for the vast SINless population: well the corps need a consumer base to sell all that crap to right? They just don't want to deal with all the expensive social issues that come with supporting a free population.

Now imagine that you live in a motel room a little larger than a coffin. You are probably sick, but you can't afford both medical attention and the crappy beef flavored tofu paste, so you have to choose between eating and suffering. And if you don't make your rent by next week the hotel manager is going to pass your name on to his "boss", who is probably the leader of an underworld organization that employs very large angry men for just such an occasion.

Life in SR would suck.

[Wakshaani]

Now, it should be noted that, if you have money, it *can* be a great place to live. Robotic housecleaners, Trid and, for more expensive entertainment, SimRecreation, low traffic problems, shopping nicities, safety and job security, nice place to live, and so on.

But if you're not at least middle class, you're not doing so well.

But if you've got money?

*Fantastic*.

[Darkest Angel]

Back in the old days of the "Neo Anarchist's Guide's", being a runner wasn't just a means to an end, it was a political statement, it was fighting the corps and their hold over people, and using corp money to do it. One of my old characters, an ex military Dragonslayer Shaman who had been based in Chicago saw there how the corps and government worked first hand; favouring their own and leaving the rest to rot, reviled by that, she realised who the real monsters were and took to the streets.

I really have no idea why you think it's a 'nice place', I mean sure there are flat screen TVs, fully automated self stocking fridge freezers and Felix the Synthcat as described in SSG, but those are for the rich execs, not street scum like runners. Bug City is a prime example of just where government and corporate priorities lie - save the VIPs and Technology, nuke the locals.

[Backgammon]

[Wakshaani]

Oh no, the middle class guys have all the goodies, the trouble is that they can't afford it and are in debt up to their eyebrows. Lose your job and it alll goes away.

But as long as you don't think about it, you'll be fine. :)

[mintcar]

[Rotbart van Dain...]

After the second crash, there were SIN Amnesty Programs - and anybody that really wanted could get one.

[Ravor]

Yeah but were they a real and effective outreach to the masses or were they just a half-hearted PR Spin doomed to failure when everyone knew from the start that only the wealthy would get SINs?

[mintcar]

[Backgammon]

On paper, maybe. But I'm pretty sure the jobless, near feral people from the Barren did not get SINs. Not that it would change their lives much if they had one, really. Having a SIN but no money is pretty much the same as having no SIn and no money, really.