In the world of Shadowrun, only citizens have SINs. If you dont, you are either from another country, born too poor to be given one (can you get one later?), or 'lost it' on your own.

So, I have three characters in my game. One was born in Japan and came over the Seattle with the Yakuza. Another was born in the UCAS and joined the military, and the last was born in Seattle and later decided to 'remove himself' from society.

The first would have a SIN from Japan, as well as the "company" that he immigrated to the UCAS with (as a front for the Yakuza.. we are looking at connections to MCT).

The second would be a natural UCAS citizen.

The third would be as well, though he has 'retired' from civilization, so to speak, after he goblinized.


So, we are working on finishing up characters the other day, and the ex-soldier asked me "so, do I have a SIN?" To which my response was "I guess you would, had to in order to join the military". From there, he had a host of questions. So, I will relate them to you:

- How can the players get other 'fake' SINs, so they can justify permits for various gear and equipment (such as our Yakuza gunslinger having a fake Corp SIN which allows him to have his 'security' equipment)?

- Are there rules anywhere for getting new fake SINs?

- How would they get rid of a SIN? Lets take our military friend, who (I believe) no longer wants to be on the records as having existed. How much would a Decker ask to do this? Could they start the game without a SIN?



This is just something that seems to be important for every character, but barely covered in any of the resource materials that I own. Even the Sprawl Survival Guide only tells you that you have to have one to really DO anything in modern society, yet it tells you nothing about getting fake ones, getting rid of your old one, or things like that.

Adding and deleting a SIN (SR3) is covered in Sprawl Survival Guide on pp125-126.

(I think that fakes are covered other places, but I just happened to have that open when I read the post.)

Okay. This is a tricky question. And I'll say this right now. It all depends on how you want to play it. There are many different ways of looking at SINs.

First you can go by the canon and look at the Sprawl Survival Guide. That's easy.

However if you don't have that book or you want a explanation on what a SIN is then look at what it does and doesn't do.

First a SIN is not a SSN. Arguably a SSN is sort of a defacto national ID Number in the United States but you can look up this on the web and see what a SSN is supposed to be for and what a National ID is for.

Technically you don't have to have a SIN to survival in the SR world but it is a HUGE inconvenience. The reason it's a pain in the ass is because almost all banks and credit agencies require a SSN in any application today. Think what it would be like in the hyper-digital world of SR. Basically buying anything that requires credit or a bank account is next to impossible, unless it's done illegally.

Say Joe Shadowrunner doesn't have a SIN or even fake SIN. Can he buy a car legally? Maybe unless that country has a policy against buying large purchases with unsecured credit, credit not attached to a bank account, which is available in SR,. Can he rent an apartment or buy a house? Doubtful unless he has a scumbag landlord that will take UC, which means you probably don't have a lease which means you have no legal recourse or rights. You can still buy food, clothes, or anything that doesn't require ID. You can have a fake cosmetic one so you can buy booze, but forget legal firearms or anything that requires a background check.

Also pray to the Gods you don't get pulled over by the police. At least with a SIN you have rights in the country you're a citizen. Lone Star has to let you see an attorney if that's you're right as citizen, unless they catch you on Mega property then you're f**ked regardless.

Is it possible to get rid of a SIN? Sure. But think how much of a pain in the ass that has to be. Take your military guy for example. He would not only have to erase his Service Records, but also his birth records, high school graduation, discharge papers from every unit he's ever been it. To completely go off the grid is next to impossible unless you are a kick ass decker or know a kick ass decker and have A LOT of time on your hands.

Creating a fake SIN is even more of a hassle. Because you basically have to do all of the above but make stuff up, make it match up, and place it in certain databases. Essentially you need someone on the inside of the database or a decker that can get in which is almost a difficult feat.

So actually having a clean SIN is better then being SINless in my opinion. In fact in my games I make players who want to be SINless take it as a perk and have to deal with living a life of being SINless. Remember if you've never been finger printed or have blood or tissue samples on file then even if you leave it at a crime scene it won't match up to your SIN anyway. Just don’t get caught or f**k up.

This whole subject interests me immensely, largely because of the implications of how government issued identifiers would work in an SR-like world.

The first thing to realise is what a SIN actually is - especially when combined with a credstick. Imagine a national identity card (pretty much like the UK government are planning) - there's obviously a lot of resistance to the idea and many people who won't want to carry one. One of the "ideas" that the UK Government has had (sometimes I swear somebody up there is a Shadowrun player!) is to require the card for various services - obviously governmental services, but that will be extended to private industry. Banking will likely be one of the first - your credit/debit cards will be subsumed into the ID card. Transport is likely to be another - not only will the passport morph into the ID card (it's the same government agency responsible and the costs are already being loaded into passports), but cards such as Oyster (used for transport services in London - yes, they track your every journey) will be stored on the same card. Even something simple like buying a beer will require the card - proof of age for a start. There are lots of problems with this - not least is the probability of data leakage; ie, how do you stop any service provider from accessing data for other services stored on the same card (the bar again gives a good example - all the bartender REALLY needs is an assertion that the bearer is over the age of 18. Adding medical record access to the same token could open a world of hurt (and don't get me started on the NHS project to centralise all medical records)

This is almost exactly what the SIN/Credstick is in SR, but there are a few important differences. In order to get a "National Identity" you have to go through an interview process and subject yourself to a full biometric test - all ten fingerprints, retinal scans, photo and (at some stage, DNA). When these tests are taken then duplicates will obviously be blocked - preventing someone from having multiple identities. The main difference is that cross pollination has, as yet, not being seriously talked about. Adding in "untrusted" identity providers to the mix creates a weak spot.

The trick in creating and removing identities is that you're bypassing those controls. The system (even on a small scale like the UK) will become massively unwieldy and those cross checks can't be done at any other time - your friendly decker drops in the entries (birth, school records, tax etc), sets the links against them and you're done.

One of the interesting scenarios resulting from the cross-pollination of IDs is that most citizens actually have multiple IDs - a national one (or potentially two for immigrants), plus a corp one. In this case, I assume the IDs are cross referenced so that a single "identity" is derived.

I'd let someone choose at chargen whether they wanted a SIN or not - there are actually advantages of each - an identity is attached to financial records and that can create a tax liability (didn't Shadowbeat have some rules for this?), plus there's a constant data trail...

Not having a SIN results in huge problems for a person - no shopping at all (except black market - that's what Street Index is for), no transport, no rights. Hence, fake SINS get used - which can be almost as good as the real thing, but still carry some of the same problems.

Having multiple IDs is a good thing - as long as they're /generally/ disposable - once it's dirty then drop it and get another. Buy equipment using different ones so it doesn't look like you're kitting out for a war - move income across different IDs to avoid tax, but not arouse suspicion about your 10,000/month living costs!

When you leave fingerprints on a crime scene then there's no way of knowing which SIN that will get traced back to... could be all of them! That's the reason for also keeping at least one lifestyle as cash only (I recall there are rules for this as well - especially around reduced Matrix services).

One final thing is that when you do get captured/arrested, it's in your interests to assert your identity. "I'm Joe Bloggs" - here's my ID and the DNA sample matches WILL be a better scenario than LS (or another corp) discovering that you have 5 different identities by running a check on you

Retinal Dup and fake fingerprints might also play a role here for the truly paranoid

Ok, I dont know how, but I totally missed the rules in both SR3 and SSG. Got that covered.

So, whats the benefit of having a higher 'rated' ID? I mean, is that how buried their info is, so the more likely a fake ID will be accepted?

Can the players make up whatever BG they like for their fake ID? For example.. my first player (Yakuza) would probably want an ID which has him listed as a 'security specialist' for a corp.. probably MCT or some such. Is that plausable? He wants to get permits for all of his guns, and I figured it fit in well with both his story and his contacts (he has a level 2 or 3 contact in MCT).

Lets say they get cought. Do they just present their credstick (with the fake ID on it) when they get arrested? Or would they run fingerprints/retinal/etc and pull up their REAL SINs which would be on file?

I don't have the rulebook here in front of me, but the higher rating on a SIN means it's more detailed. Thus harder to spot it's a fake. Basically you have all this info on several systems.

Remember this is SR. It's a digital world. It's not like you walk into a bar and a doorman spots your shoddy fake ID because it doesn't look like a Texas state ID because you made it on a site on the internet.

Your credstick, which as Xirces explained, is your ID, passport, debit/credit card, medical records all rolled into one. The scanner cross references the various databases to see if the info on the stick matches the data in that system.

Now is a bar going to have a high level scanner? Doubtful. They just want to make sure you are of age to drink and maybe if it's high class joint that you’re not a known criminal, have outstanding warrants, a file in their database for causing trouble, and how much credit you have. They aren't going to care about anything else really. If you're buying a car the dealer probably only cares if you have a valid bank account, credit, and will check whatever else the law requires them.

As far as players making up whatever background they want that's up to you. I always GM by the philosophy of "The GM giveth, and the GM taketh away". If your player wants all that stuff give it him if he has a good reason for it. But here are some things you and your player need to consider.

If he has a Corp ID is he an employee, a citizen, or is it a fake? If it is a fake how good is it and who did him this super awesome favor because it really is. Did he do it himself before he left? Why hasn’t anyone caught it yet if he did? If he has permits for his weapons where are they valid? Having an MCT concealed carry permit is great but it doesn't mean crap once you step off corpland into the UCAS if you're playing in Seattle. Does the permit have restrictions? For instance say you give him a permit to carry a submachine gun since he’s a security specialist but does that mean he can carry it anytime? Doubtful. Most likely only when he is actually guarding someone and "guarding" a joygirl he's trying to pick up at Dante's doesn't count.

Basically if LS pulls you over and you're carrying around Partial Heavy Armor, a machine gun, and 1000 rounds of APDS you're getting arrested no matter what kind of ID and permits you have.

And ask a player why he thinks his character needs this fake corp SIN. Most of my characters have a fake SIN, if not their real SIN, just get by in the everyday world. They have a clean gun registered to it with all the concealed carry permits required.
One of the best things one of my characters got was a Tir SIN complete with citizenship signed by one of the Princes. It was a super hard run and not everyone survived, but that's what GM gave us. Being a Tir subject, err citizen, rocked because if I ever needed to vanish I always had my safe haven, unless of course I pissed off the elves.

As far as getting caught. Unless they have a really good fake SIN then yeah it will pull it up as being fake. If they are pulled over by LS and they are running a check to see if they have a valid ID, permits, or any outstanding warrants then probably not. If they are in an interrogation room and are a suspect in a murder then yeah because LS will check all the databases for info.