What to do with Otaku in SR4? Options

[Garuda]

What do you think Otaku should be in SR4? Do you even want them in SR4?

Personally, I'd love to see them become a new type of magician, using their abilities in a very specialized way. Mages use their Magic attribute one way, Adepts use it another way, so I'm sure there is room to have more variants.
However, I suspect I will be pretty much alone on that one. So, Let's hear your opinion!

[Da-som]

I dislike Otaku... Magic is better out of Matrix... :grr: :rollin:

[otaku mike]

Hey Garuda, at the time I write that, I see you already have a friend thinking just like you.
That's not me anyway. I voted for adult playable otakus, because kids don't really belong in a shadowrunner team IMHO.

[BitBasher]

[Eyeless Blond]

I voted the same as mike, but with a caveat. As I see it, adult otaku would really fit into a runner team and the darker theme of SR if they were all undergoing the Fading. However, unlike years previous, it is apparently possible to keep from Fading via this Dissonance thing, which is an interesting angle. What *is* the Dissonance, anyway, and where/what books is it referenced? Maybe all PC otaku should by default serve the Dissonance, with whatever advantages/restrictions that implies, rather than the Resonance?

More than that, adult Otaku should be really rare, so even if they were allowed there should be mechanics to reflect that. Maybe you can allow Otaku undergoing Fading to still undergo Submersion as well (make it a little Karma-cheaper too, so it's actually *less* expensive than a mage's initiation as it's already nowhere near as good)? This would add a little desperation to adult Otaku, as they try to Submerge enough to stave off the slow erosion of their powers.

[DrJest]

I only know of the Fading by reputation, but it strikes me as a really crappy thing to do to a PC. "Here's a neat character type you can play, but you'll lose all your abilities and invested karma in a few years and just be another decker type." And if you accept the novels as canon - which I believe they're intended to be, correct me if I'm wrong as I don't know for sure - then the explanation for the Fading (that adult minds are incapable of the flexibility of a child and cannot use Channels) is already nullified by the existence of some adult otaku out there.

No surprises I voted for adult playable otaku :)

[Demosthenes]

Otaku != magic.
I really dislike the idea of making the Otaku another kind of magician, because it would completely undermine what little consistency (!) the SR magic system currently has, IMHO.

I voted for adult Otaku - they're a part of SR canon, so I don't see any way to get rid of them that won't strain suspension of disbelief, and I don't really like the idea of the Fading as an inevitable weakening of the character - it's not consistent with what happens to everyone else (SOTA rules notwithstanding, since they're optional).

[Dizzo Dizzman]

Really, really dislike otaku. They're okay for an occasional NPC, if your game has a heavy anime flavor, but make no sense in a gritty cyberpunk game.

I have an idea! Maybe they can have their own optional book. It can be called "Anime Crap" and it can also include optional rules for Changelings and Full Conversion Borgs (ala BattleAngel). People can buy it if they want it and it can never be referred to in any other Shadowrun book ever again.

[mfb]

i voted for adult otaku. i'd like to throw in a vote for no magical otaku, as well. i don't think otaku should be too "weird"; as it stands, they're within the bounds of the believable. they should remain so.

[Synner]

Sometimes I hate my NDA.

[Demonseed Elite]

[Ol' Scratch]

I'm still sticking with my original theory that they're just a different type of magician who "astrally project" into the Matrix, and here's to hoping they'll be adults as it was always incredibly lame how they were stereotyped into little kids. But... I think my views on all that are fairly well known. :)

[Kagetenshi]

Definitely hoping that they get kept as kids, with the alien, dysfunctional aspect played up. I would absolutely hate to see adult Otaku running around; the fact that kids don't belong on a Shadowrunning team is, to me, the entire point.

~J

[Rolemodel]

Fucking stupid, rediculous Otaku.

Ruining the genre is one thing. Maybe that's forgivable. But ruining it with -Otaku-. Fucking please.

Give them the axe. Repeatedly.

-RM

[Lucyfersam]

I voted for adult otaku, but that isn't really accurate. I would like there to be adult otaku, but still utterly socially alienated as the kids are supposed to be. IMO if otaku are allowed as player character, they should have a disadvantage even more extreme than incompetence for all social skill, something along the lines of them not being able to learn them and being at an additional +2 when defaulting. Beyond that, the player would be expected to roleplay that in all situation, which would be hard but could make for a cool character if the player, GM, and rest of the team were up to dealing with such a thing. Mostly I like Otaku as NPCs, but they can make very cool PCs if everyone is up to it. Even adult Otaku would not belong on a SR team, because they are not equipped to work well with others outside their kind, personality wise they should still be fairly child-like. Certain AI created otaku could be exempt from the social flaws above. but that would take a massive backstory and a GM who wants to make that the core of their plot. I'm also in the group of "highly opposed to them being magicians."

For reference, information on the Dissonance is in Threats 2.

[Penta]

[GrinderTheTroll]

I don't care for Otaku personally, IMO, they add a bit more fantasy that I like. They remind me of a lame anime where the 7-year-old becomes the hero. Bleh.

I haven't read a ton of cyberpunk, but is Otaku purely an SR construct aside from the obvious Japanese culture reference or do they exist in some novel as useful characters?

[mfb]

i think that if otaku are going to remain a playable 'race', then they need to be altered. as it stands, it's just about impossible to play one in a regular game while remaining true to what otaku are supposed to be--dysfunctional, antisocial rejects who associate almost exclusively with their own kind in the meat. they've become the drow of SR--almost every otaku i see played is the different otaku, the one that "grew up too fast" (cry me a river for their lost childhood), who basically acts like an adult in a kid's body.

i think otaku are neat. i like them as they are. but as they are, they're not playable, despite the hard work of DE and others.

on the subject of magical otaku, here's why i think the idea is terrible: it's too easy. it's pat. it's simple. otaku are not a thing which should be easy. the environment which creates them is mentally scarring and wrong. otaku are inhuman, their thought processes rewritten to function more like machines; most people wouldn't survive the trauma an average otaku's been through. otaku survive by distancing themselves from the meatworld as much as possible, repressing all of reality the way some trauma victims repress bad memories.

and the punchline to that is "it's magic"? hell no.

[Spook]

You know... I liked otaku better when they were less common and more of a street myth, like your ghost in the machine stories, or AIs. Like in the Denver box, when they're just brought up in shadowtalk and nothing solid is presented on them.

[mr0b1tsc]

I voted for keeping the same, but they need to have the rules clarified. Plus the paths need to be defined and maybe adding some new ones. The otaku make matrix easy for new gm's and those who have fear of it. 8)

[Garland]

[Fortune]

[Grinder]

Screw them - i don't like them and don't want them. :)

[Dizzo Dizzman]

Naw Count Zero was different. He was a teenager rather than a kid and he had a cyberdeck. The closest I can think of is the Tad Williams Otherland books, which are not entirely cyberpunk. There is a group of kid hackers in that series (I forget the name) that are good (but not mystically different good).

[Kagetenshi]

A lot of Otaku are teenagers too.

~J