I was thinking up names for a shadowrunner I'd like to play as, and for some reason I thought of the surname "Yoder." This immediately got me thinking of the Amish. I thought it would be a fun and unique endeavor to play an Amish girl who UGE'd into an elf during Rumspringa and decided not to return to the community for whatever reason.

Which got me to wondering; do the Amish exist anymore in 2070? I mean, they're barely hanging on now as it is, but when the different governments took their slices of the United States and chopped it up into the UCAS, with all the wild social revolution that took place during the Awakening, and a corporate agenda to spread out and conquer, could the Amish even exist anymore?

Regardless of the merits of my idea, I'm simply curious as to the possibilities of this inquiry. Are the Amish extinct in Shadowrun?

edit: Brainfart

I believe that would be the Ute Indians, because that was their turf in the first place.

I think you're confusing the Amish with the Mormons though; the Amish's two biggest settlements are in Ohio (Holmes County) and Pennsylvania (Lancaster County) respectively. They both shun most all technology, but they don't have any of the sophisticated resources (or will to use them) that the NAN had. Both settlements are on UCAS territory.

i'd have the Amish bought out by Ares. it'd be a combination of direct purchase of their land, corporate subsidizing of their quaint, authentic ways, and convincing the UCAS gummint to claim their land and award it to Ares for development. Ares would then turn around and turn Holmes and Lancaster Counties (maybe just one of them) into a nature preserve/theme park, where hordes of gawking tourists could trample the privacy and dignity of the few real Amish with the strength of will to cling to their principles in the face of being made into cultural whores. as the Amish population dwindled, it would of course be supplemented with Ares employees who live the Amish way from 9-5.

It is a great idea but there is one small problem, people don't goblinize into elves. You're either born an elf or you'll never be one. She could have goblinized into an ork or a troll. If she was already an elf she could have SURGEd into a bizarre elf metatype.

Night ones are a popular metatype choice because they're sort of like dark elves and they have munchy stat bonuses. I think dyrads would be better because no one plays Dyrads and they aren't nearly as munchy. Plus, all dyrads are female which gives you an excuse to be a lesbian elf. You could even have an Amish elf boy SURGE into a female dyrad, making things very wierd.

Actually, isn't there a mention of amish under the flaw uneducated, I dont have my copy or SR4 to check though.

Well just to put the obvious answer up here because it is late and tis the best your gonna get outta me right now.

Remember it is your game you want to have the amish still around then go for it same with any social order and/or religion.

As to what the game designers have or have not said is around I sadly haven't a clue but I am sure someone who has read it will chime in and if not writen in yet wait for a designer to give his/her 2 nuyen worth lol.

Having lived in the lancaster county area for 12 years, i think i ca say with some certainity that the Amish would still be around, horse poop and all. What better proof that their way of life is the right way of life than magic, SURGE, UGE and everything else in SR.

as an aside, i dont think they would LET anyone that expresses in any fashion in the community, or would shun them if it happened while "on the homestead"

Yeah, I get that. Also, many practitioners of Shinto live in Japan. That doesn't make either of them at all relevant to the Amish.

~J

Sounds to me like Amish lifestyle would fall under what a lot of people are calling "pinkskin."

Recently I read an article of quite a few Amish selling their lands for a good price in Lancaster area and moving to places like South Dakota (or was it North? I forget). Thing is, while they might be 'uneducated' in the form of formal education, that does not mean they are not shrewd in business. If they do get bought out by a megacorp for their land in places like Penn, they'll probably move out further in some remote areas for farming, etc... They'll still be around. The main question I would have is what is their stance of magic?

Gawd, I remember driving through Lancaster and watching the traffic back up because of the horse and buggy on the main street. Wheeee.

I kind of like the idea of planting runners in an Amish Community. Imagine a a decker or technomancer trying to fit in in a place with no matrix, or even electricity, where everyone is expected to do physical labor. It seems like it would present a situation with a lot potential for some light humorous roleplay. Likewise the Amish background character moving to the big Sprawl could be interesting to play. Maybe Incompetence in electronics but having some obscure but useful artisan skills or a hidden aptitude they only discover after leaving the Amish Community.

Yes, Ares sponsered and promoted Amish Rake Fights!

It happens. Just so long as at the end of the discussion they're unconfused, all's well

~J

They would probably burn people who can do magic at the stake.

But what if magic are actually miracles and such given by God (in their view)? The spirits that are summoned taking form of angels and such. Hmmmm?

Here in New England, we have the Mennonites and the Quakers. We fraggin' rule in the Radical Reformation Anabaptist sect contest!

So then, what would more proactive Amish communities be accepting by the 2070s? Maybe they allow computers, but not matrix connection or games. (not even solitaire)
They probably mostly allow electricity in most forms, and cars.
Maybe they even allow video TV, provided it's only news and weather. (not trid, though)
No Simsense, I'm betting.

Thoughts?

There are some really large communities of Amish just outside of Kitcher/Waterloo. Some of my cousins have worked with them, and the information that I had relayed to me, was that for work, they were allowed machinery, but not at home. There is a great deal of Amish furniture sold around here, and the pieces are definitely crafted with power tools, but not huge machinery. All of the information I have is heresy, but the same stories repeated by several different people.

By 2070, they'd have been wiped out. Lancaster County is, after all, prime farming real-estate, and it's got to have a fairly positive background count, given all the years of hard Amish labor and wide-eyed tourists flocking to the railroad museum.

Which means that some corporation that wanted the land would have funded a "Racial hatred" gang that targeted the Amish, and wiped them out. Then stepped in at the last minute with a bunch of HTR teams, wiped out their dirty-work-doers, too bad, so sad, not in time to save the innovent folks who lived there. But we feel really sorry about the mess, and we'll buy the land from the government for a lot of money, and then farm it.

there are lots of quasi-Amish communities around, some of which call themselves different things and some of which call themselves Amish. some of them only keep the dress codes; in my hometown (Franklin co) i see lots of women in bonnets and ankle-length dresses driving cars around town.

i thought "happy" background counts helped magic? or am i confusing that with aspected?

You're confusing with aspected.

I think it's pretty easy to misunderstand the amish, to think them unable to keep up due to their odd view of technology, and so on... I grew up in PA, and my grandparents were brethren so I've had some exposure to the culture. It's more complex than most folks give it credit for. I don't know that their is an official answer as to whether the amish still exist or not, but it's pretty easy to do the research and decide for your own campaign.

Wikipedia article on Mennonites makes for a great place to start, as the amish split from the mennonites originally.

"Clip-clop clip-clop clip-clop *BANG* clip-clop clip-clop clip-clop..."

-- Amish drive-by


Sorry, had to get that one out of my system.

Well,

one thing is clear out of most of the reponses so far, most of us seem to have read the wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish

I think one thing which hasn't been highlighted is why the Amish don't like wired phones, powerline electricity etc, and that is because they do not want to be dependant on the outside world.

They don't use machinery so that no man becomes greedy and wants more land then he can till himself.

Personally, I'd say some form of amish would survive into 2070, especially as they are geographically well disparsed in the USA. Alot of their reasoning seems to be similar to alot of native american and even elven attitudes, i.e. back to basics, non-reliance on tech.

bladepoet

Based on those beliefs they would probably be welcomed in some of the NAN Nations. They aren't tribal but the work hard and don't pollute much, and are probably pretty unobtrusive in a large sparsely populated territory.

Out this way, western Canada, the Radical Reformist representitives are the Hutterites. They live in large communial farming colonies, have fairly set dress code, and largely are bilingual speaking both English and their dialect of German (they originated in Austria several hundred years ago), which gives them a fairly recognizable accent. They tend to be hands-on working folk, however they definately use modern conviences like large farm equipment, automated livestock feeding systems, cell phones, and such.

Many colonies also supplement their income with any of a number of crafting industries such as goose down quilts, processed foods, and knitting. Alcohol consumption, mainly homemade wines, also is prevalent on some of the colonies and if you want in-person tutoring on swearing in German they can be an excellent local source.

Coffee is ok, but smoking is usually forbidden. For many of the individuals though that means just don't get caught. I once came upon and gave a ride to a fellow that looked about 16. He had be walking from the colony to a neighbour's place to trade homemade wine for cigarettes. The notable thing? He was dressed in a light jacket and his traditional cap that doesn't cover his ears. He didn't even have any mitts on, he just had his hands in his pants pockets. It was -25C and a nasty wind. This was bald flat praire, and he was about 1 1/2 miles into a 3 mile walk. Next time you whine about having to step outside for a couple minutes at work to smoke think about that guy.

I would expect them to survive the 6th World well because they have shown that they will use pragmatism to adapt, and flurish, in a changing world. Many colonies have shown strength in communal orginization and decent business skills. Even those many of their teens and some adults have gone AWOL, the colonies themselves tend to continue to prosper and grow.

P.S. It is interesting to note that there are 3 different branches of Hutterites colonies, and there is friction and some theological disagreements between the different branches. But many outsiders that do not deal with them do not know about this.