But in a world where bio-sculpting, cosmetic modification and minor cybernetic implantation is as easy as going down to the mall, where there are chains of body-mod clinics, and where the media constantly bombards people with standards of beauty... why wouldn't the majority of people have damn good looks?

That was possibly the most clever pointing out of the obvious I've encountered on a forum, bravo to you!

On the subject though, I have dealt with many players who have gone out of their way to explain that their characters are el chupacabras hunchbacked deformed cousin, and not a movie star. Also have you seen the pictures officially published for this game? Especially the ones in the core books, none of the people in there exactly remind me of pure beauty here, though I assume standards of beauty in the shadowrun world are way off from todays. I mean when you factor in orcs, trolls and elves every scale in the world just kind of gives up.

This reminds me of the many instances in the novels where the author is describing someone's beauty and feels the need to add that it is natural.

I think over time people are getting better looking. Pretty people mate more, while the hideous ones live alone in caves - or their parents basement. Is 50 or 60 years enough for everyone to be beautiful? Nope, but maybe the pretty-challenged got killed off every time there was a riot or epidemic or other catastrophe. Why? Becuse so and so always hated that ugly fragger, or someone else decided she was too pretty to not get medical treatment.

Think this is too eccentric? Studies have already been done where pretty people get more good stuff - like better jobs, more promotions, more likely to get others to do something for them, even better seats in diners.

Come out west. In Phoenix, I can go to a mall and get assessed for plastic surgery. I can get my teeth cleaned at the same place I get my hair cut. Did I mention we have mobile teeth whitening services out here to?

I think it depends on the geographic area.

I think the fear of folks messing you up would keep the population less than perfect looking.

tweak

[General Jack D. Ripper] Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream.

[Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake] Lord, Jack.

[General Jack D. Ripper] You know when fluoridation first began?

[Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake] I... no, no. I don't, Jack.

[General Jack D. Ripper] Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.

Thank you for using my comment - I am much pleased


Body Sculpting is something that gets mentioned often in Cyber books [CP 2020 is a good source, as is the Hard Wired supplement]..
..Which infers that it's cheap for modding, and something that wealthy people do on a regular basis - to keep up with fashion, just as body maintenance, etc.


In fact, CP 2020 has a very different idea about Cyber..
..In CP 2020, cyberware is much more common, cheaper, easier to install [wired reflexes in CP costs 1,600 ED$, common DataJack costs 200ED$]..
..Wheras in SR, cyberware is much more expensive and much less common [wired reflex costs 11,000-100,000¥, common DataJack costs 500¥]

I seem to recall something where the more successful people are the less kids they have on average. People who are professionals and educated were having less kids on average than all the uneducated slobs out there. So by the logic that pretty people get better jobs and are more successful and the more successful people have less kids then wouldn't the world be getting uglier as time goes on? From my higschool all the people who have gone to uni and gotten degrees maybe one or two of them has a kid. All the ones who didn't even hit college and just hooked with someone all have 2 or 3 kids. And from the people who didn't go to uni compared to the ones that did the ones that went were the better looking.

It has to do with education. In general, the more education a person has, the better they are at determining what the costs are for having a child (and additional children). So someone with a good job and decent education typically won't have more kids than they can feasibly support physically, financially, and emotionally.

On the flip side, the people who have less education and uncertain prospects tend to have more children. Not because they don't understand the costs, per se, but because hopefully a few of their offspring will survive and grow up to be successful and be able to support their parents in their old age.

Look at the rural farming communities, children provide labor as they become old enough to contribute.

Now, in Shadowrun, it's easy to see that orks and trolls, being typically disadvantaged when it comes to opportunities for education and decent levels of earnings job-wise, would then tend to have more children. Mid level orks, trolls, dwarves, humans, and elves would have the typical 2-3 offspring, and the higher levels of education and income might only have 1-2 children.

At the lowest rung of the economic ladder, all races could try to produce large families, since a lack of education, proper nutrition, and hygiene would mean a higher mortality rate of children. Whether or not the traditional (and suspect) ork birth rate of 4+ means every year a female ork does produce 4+ offspring and that they all survive is a matter of environment. The current graph of total fertility rate vs GDP (2004) shows that in countries with less than $5000 in income (per person), the typical HUMAN woman can have from one to eight children. Double that income, and the amount of children more than halves to one to three children per female.

In someplace like Seattle, where you have areas of total economic flux (ultra rich areas versus ultra poor) you would have vastly varying birth rates, but the balance would be that the better-off people would have fewer children, but those would typically survive. The poorer residents would have more children, but lose more of them due to disease, starvation, accident, etc.

Cosmetic modification does run from about 200-10,000 , so we could make a reasonable assumption that people on average don't have visible disfigurements even if they are a 'low income' lifestyle. But there is a difference between the 'normal' appearance of a wageslave and the cosmetic modifications that (depending on GM) are in style. The text mentions the popularity of fiberoptic color-changing hair, which is probably the realm of the high class lifestyle individuals. So yes, the ultra-poor are probably unmodified and varying in appearance. But once you reach a level above starvation wages, you probably could afford to remove the small flaws that might hold you back. The ultra-rich have all the options, but that's hardly a surprise to anyone.

Not neccessasarily. You could have 2 burger flippers of equal skill, but the better looking one gets the promotion to Assistant Shift Manager. I wasn't claiming advancement all the way to the top of the job market, but within certain strata. Take 2 people of similar ability and the prettier one is more likely to get the perks. SR3 even had an edge for it - Good Looking and Knows It.

Where my logic may have been flawed is in people having the same attitude toward mating partners. Doesn't everyone like eye candy? If not, why are there not an abundance of ugly people in the media? I know I have asked out a lot more girls I considered above my level looks wise than either on my level or below. (So I'm helping keep the world uglier. )

That is, if you manage to be get caught alive at all, and not simply turned into a pile of unidentifiable goo after the guard spirits and drones come after you, while the guards just open fire upon you legally on their ground because of their extraterritoriality status.
And if you don't have a SIN, you don't exist, because the government doesn't even know you, which means that there is no right that the police could violate.

Being a terrorist for hire with no system identification number doesn't make your life easy in 2070+.