A Real-Life 'Runner Options

[kjones]

I'd say this guy was built with 400BP and has accrued in the neighborhood of 500 karma...

Why can't my players be this awesome?

(I guess he's really just a criminal, and not a corporate-employed deniable asset, but... who cares? If he was alive in 2072 we know what he'd be up to.)

[PaulK]

Damn! I just finished reading that article. I, too, wish my players could be that interesting. Heck, I may create a character around that idea just for grins.

/Paul

[Mongoose]

Double post

[Mongoose]

Why can't my players be this awesome?

Rehetorical question? Assuming not, one major difference is that this guy got to cherry pick his jobs, and had a lot of info to go on. Are you running a campaign where your players are free to pick any profitable target they like, or do you feed them a limited number of risky options? How often do they get to walk through places at random and decide "yeah, I could / couldn't break this joint", vs having a target they know nothing about assigned to them? The later seems the case in most shadowrun campaigns.

Besides, the guy might have been smart and successful, and had a lot of fun, but what kind of RPG character would he be? There's only so much table time you can dedicate to making phone calls, lounging on the beach, and studying schematics.

Ont the other hand, IN THE RIGHT GAME, he's be a nice intrusion / hacking expert. But in most games, he'd be better as a "hands on" type fixer.

[nemafow]

That was a really good read, thank you

[crash2029]

One time when I was a player in Imago we were in Edinburgh and had some down time while waiting for stuff. My character Car decided to steal the Gundestrup Cauldron from a local museum. A day later we had the Cauldron. Of course you really cannot fence anything like that, plus Car didn't really want to keep it so he anonymously sent it back.

[FriendoftheDork]

Reminds me a lot about "Jimmy" in my old game. Except she didn't have a history of being arrested from young age, which realistically every Shadowrunner out there should have (even if those records would be lost later). Also, the PC didn't have the secret urge of being arrested and being able to reveal her genius, and certainly not blabbering around like this guy did.

Then again we have to wonder if this is an ALMOST great criminal and that the really great criminal masterminds out there are simply unheard of...

[GreyBrother]

Reminds me of the theft of the Saliera. Same city, just it was stolen from the Museum of Fine Arts and the dude was drunk.
The story went like this: He is some kind of security expert and rambled about the lax of security of the museum. One day he got drunk, a little bit overexcited and decided to steal the Saliera. He climbed the scaffold (which was used to restaurate the building) to the room with the exhibited Saliera and just went it, grabbed it and was away.
Now my intel gets a bit foggy. Apparently, the curator was the first who found it missing. Police searched for the damn thing everywhere but had no clue on what was going on and who could have stolen it because this thing is so unique, you couldn't sell it without somebody noticing it.

Fast forward a year, our dude turned himself in because of his conscience. He buried the Saliera in the woods so it was actually well hidden. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)
The only thing that was damaged was the trident of one of the figures. It broke off.

[Draco18s]

That was a really good read, thank you

My sentiments exactly. My mom thought it was pretty funny too, though I just gave her the highlights.

[kjones]

Rehetorical question? Assuming not, one major difference is that this guy got to cherry pick his jobs, and had a lot of info to go on. Are you running a campaign where your players are free to pick any profitable target they like, or do you feed them a limited number of risky options? How often do they get to walk through places at random and decide "yeah, I could / couldn't break this joint", vs having a target they know nothing about assigned to them? The later seems the case in most shadowrun campaigns.

Besides, the guy might have been smart and successful, and had a lot of fun, but what kind of RPG character would he be? There's only so much table time you can dedicate to making phone calls, lounging on the beach, and studying schematics.

Ont the other hand, IN THE RIGHT GAME, he's be a nice intrusion / hacking expert. But in most games, he'd be better as a "hands on" type fixer.

It was sort of a rhetorical question, but this is good advice were I to run a game like that. Thanks!

[CanadianWolverin...]

The last paragraph of the article:

The judge had a similar thought during Blanchard’s plea hearing. The banks “should hire him and pay him a million dollars a year,” he said. And right before sentencing, the judge turned directly to Blanchard. “I think that you have a great future ahead of you if you wish to pursue an honest style of life,” he said. “Although I’m not prepared to sign a letter of reference.”

Amazing. The dude could easily have fictional novels or movies based on this life he lead, perhaps even Shadowrun setting the stuff. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[kjones]

Yeah, it sort of reminds me of "Catch Me If You Can" which is good reference material for anyone who wants to play a face. (It's about a guy whose life was basically one big Bavarian Fire Drill.)

[CanadianWolverin...]

Yeah, it sort of reminds me of "Catch Me If You Can" which is good reference material for anyone who wants to play a face. (It's about a guy whose life was basically one big Bavarian Fire Drill.)

No kidding, that is exactly the movie I thought of as well, thanks for remembering the title.

I wonder though if someone like this would be exactly the kind of person someone CSIS would love to have working for them, he plainly retained enough Canadian values that he could possibly be a asset, perhaps as a trainer. He also strikes me as the kind of person Spec Ops military personel would love to have teach them a thing or two as well, those guys love dirty tricks as well and are considered legit back at home base most of the time, correct?

EDIT:
Oh. My.

Check out something I just found in the comments, I haven't verified it though:

Posted by: MarkoS | 03/27/10 | 11:10 pm |

I know from following this in court listening to the case,it did not mention in the article that surveillance was on him at Toys R’us buying over $4,000 worth of toys and driving to the Children’s Hospital then giving out the toys before Christmas. The judge said during the sentencing hearing “You might be some type of today’s Robin Hood but that still doesn’t make it right.” Also,from the $510,000 he took from CIBC bank in Winnipeg, he donated some of the money to CIBC Run for the Cure Cancer. I think its hilarious that he would give some of the banks own money back to their organization they sponsor.

Ok, I have to wonder now if this convict is a Shadowrun fan.

There is a follow up of sorts (it actually came out before the Wired link) article here as well:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/20...l#ixzz0jEBMZXlR