Mohawk ponderings Options

[sunnyside]

EDIT: Are pictures not allowed here?

Shadowrun and the Cyberpunk genre used to have more of

[img]http://armoredsquirrel.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/PunkMohawk.jpg[/img]
feel.

However these days the look and playstyle is more:

[img]http://www.cinematical.com/media/2006/05/missionimpossible3pubz.jpg [/img]

And I'll admit to being a pushing that myself because the mohawk playstyle tended to devolve into:

[img]http://www.fpsmagazine.com/gfx/feature/dandd.jpg[/img]

Which is not what I wanted to GM.

Anyway so I'm wondering about how best to bring back a little style over substance and edge without also bringing back the stupid.

I guess I'm looking to try and get my players to combine Raoul Duke and James bond inside a mohawked cranium, and have it fit in a reasonably realistic (and RAW) SR4.

[Wesley Street]

EDIT: Are pictures not allowed here?

Nope.

As to your ponderings: The 80s are dead. Long live the 80s. Honestly, I can count on one hand the number of mohawks I see on the street in a year (outside of a punk rock club). What you're talking about is "street" of which hip-hop is the predominant counter-culture today. Expose yourself to some Hughes Brothers movies or episodes of The Wire and you'll be set.

[Rasumichin]

Hm...i see tons of mohawks these days, many more than back in the 90s, but that could be because of the punk rock kids in the rehearsal room next door.


As far as SR is concerned, i sometimes get the (slightly frightening) impression that in canon fluff, furry has become the new punk.

[kzt]

You have something against lesbian cat girl ninjas?

[Rasumichin]

You have something against lesbian cat girl ninjas?

Yes, i prefer pirates.

[It trolls!]

You have something against lesbian cat girl ninjas?

See also: Assault Cannon

My current GM has a pink mohawk. So I think I'm currently getting enough of it. He started a gang campaign with us, focussing on cyberware freaks. Price and availability cuts on obvious limbs and really gritty 'ware (muscle replacement...) and it's working great so far.

[Rasumichin]

People are constantly getting me wrong for some reason.
Of course, pink mohawk is and always was my preferred play stile.

I don't mind furries that much, either.
Mutants, borgs and gnomish nartaki pirate houngans quadrupple-wielding zombie rodents are fine, too.

Just no ninjas, please.
Not even if they are catgirls.

[sunnyside]

As to your ponderings: The 80s are dead. Long live the 80s. Honestly, I can count on one hand the number of mohawks I see on the street in a year (outside of a punk rock club). What you're talking about is "street" of which hip-hop is the predominant counter-culture today. Expose yourself to some Hughes Brothers movies or episodes of The Wire and you'll be set.

Damn. Cyberpizzle

Actually that seems harder to write for. The cyberpunk culture at least had some redeming virtues that meant the players weren't usually as bad as the Johnson thought they were.

I guess now "cyberpunk philosphy", "style before substance", and "attitude" would all be 5 BP flaws or something.


Hmmmm. Maybe that's not such a horrible way to do it...

[CanRay]

Squinky just did a pic of one of my main characters that's still got his Mohawk.

[Jackstand]

Neato.

[tsuyoshikentsu]

Damn. Cyberpizzle

Actually that seems harder to write for. The cyberpunk culture at least had some redeming virtues that meant the players weren't usually as bad as the Johnson thought they were.

I guess now "cyberpunk philosphy", "style before substance", and "attitude" would all be 5 BP flaws or something.


Hmmmm. Maybe that's not such a horrible way to do it...

I quote the RC:

For instance, while colored hair will not normally constitute a Distinctive Style, sporting a fluorescent green mohawk might[.]

Distinctive Style, of course, being a 5 BP negative quality.

[Bull]

Squinky just did a pic of one of my main characters that's still got his Mohawk.

Heh, me too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

http://squinkyproductions.deviantart.com/a...amuari-94263938

Of course, I'm cutting my hair into something similar for the Shadowrun Scramble event at Gen Con this year (This week! Tomorrow! Holy SHit!!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/ork.gif)

Bull

[CanRay]

See, Mohawks are still around in Shadowrun. You can usually tell the Old Skool players, or those people that grew up and remember the Cold War as something other than from the History Books.

[Wounded Ronin]

Ninjas are quintessentially 80s.

[Bull]

I quote the RC:

Distinctive Style, of course, being a 5 BP negative quality.

Don't have the book handy to quote any of it, but I should also point out that it makes it very clear that Distinctive Style is subject to GM approval, and should be based on teh style of game played.

In my game, A green mohawk, flourescent or otherwise, wouldn't count, because my version of Shadowrun is very rooted in it's 80's cyberpunk incarnation. Shadworun will always be that old 1st edition art style, for me.

Distinctive Style has to be something unique to the character, something you're not going to encaounter anywhere else in Seattle. I don;t let people have freebie flaws, so it doesn;t get used much.

Bull

[paws2sky]

In my game, A green mohawk, flourescent or otherwise, wouldn't count, because my version of Shadowrun is very rooted in it's 80's cyberpunk incarnation. Shadworun will always be that old 1st edition art style, for me.

In a nutshell... Word. I couldn't agree more.

-paws

[Wesley Street]

You have something against lesbian cat girl ninjas?

Why are they always lesbians? Why can't they be in committed heterosexual cat-people relationships with their high-school sweethearts? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Fritzs]

Why are they always lesbians? Why can't they be in committed heterosexual cat-people relationships with their high-school sweethearts?

Because they are played by guys...

[Wounded Ronin]

Incidentally, I was playing GTA San Andreas on my PC yesterday and decided that CJ should dress as a Shadowrunner.

Previously, I'd given him the camo pants, dog tags, and the Vietnam-era combat jacket from the cheap clothing store, and imagined that as his character backstory that CJ imagined himself as a military-style "professional" for hire who tried to use strategic approaches to mission goals, although he had never served in the military and therefore his approach was informed as much by action movies and such as by anything else.

But after he'd had that appearance for a while I decided that a Shadowrunner look would be in order. So I went for the blue pants and the jean jacket, so he could be like Michael Dudkioff in American Ninja 2. Then I was actually going to give him the "pink mohawk" hairdo, but I felt the pink mohawk in GTA SA was too understated. Basically, it wasn't big and obnoxiously pink enough. So instead I just kept him with the big fro which is probably the most outlandish hairstyle available.

[Wesley Street]

Funny. I just finished the story-mode in GTAIV and since Niko is now wandering around and exploring, I've done the same thing. I kitted him out with the camo pants, shades and other Eastern Bloc regalia from the cheap clothing store. Wish I could give him tats and a new haircut.

I'll rip your heart out! Budda-budda-budda! Down goes an entire police precinct.

Because they are played by guys...

Ask a silly question...

[CanRay]

I use GTA IV to demonstrate what the Barrens are like.

"And the cops that come after you and shoot you down, those are the gangers. And as you increase their hatred, they pull out the bigger guns and vehicles to chase after you."

That and I just watched "Doomsday", which has another excellent example of the Barrens in it. With Mohawks!

[hyzmarca]

There are uptight anal-retentive highly-professional accountants who go to work in expensive pin-stripe business suits day-glo green mohawks. A giant green mohawk would not be the slightest bit out of place in any oppressive corporate environment, including the boardroom.

Its just another side effect of the rampant commercialization of a counterculture such that conformists can make themselves believe that they are no conformists by having the same hair style as everyone else. With commercialist hijacking and mundane conformity sucking the life out of Punk, it is the people who don't have giant neon mohawks who are the true rebels.

[CanRay]

A discussion I had with some Goths while in High School.

"So you're being an individual... By being like all your friends and like what your media icons tell you to be like." "Um..." "Whereas I, who dress like I want to, have the haircut I want to, and behave like I want to, am a 'Conformist'. Right. I think you got things confused there, Bucko."

[Dumori]

A discussion I had with some Goths while in High School.

"So you're being an individual... By being like all your friends and like what your media icons tell you to be like." "Um..." "Whereas I, who dress like I want to, have the haircut I want to, and behave like I want to, am a 'Conformist'. Right. I think you got things confused there, Bucko."

Good point but a lot of the goths at least round here are all petty different. Sure black is prominent but the rest is all different. But there are a lager and gowning group of people how are all clones and the same but they all so switch what band they like every 10-20 minutes and buy anything that there friends have.

How good is Doomsday? Look like it would be good but its not showing anymore in the UK so I missed it.

[CanRay]

Doomsday just came out for Rental here. And it's pretty good.

Shades of "Escape from New York/LA" and "Mad Max", with some interesting twists.

I like it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Of course, I liked the original "Gone in 60 Seconds" as well. But you only watch that movie for the chase scene anyhow.