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Wakshaani
You're a mage. You have the power to summon spirits, view, and VISIT, the astral, and can unleash spells from your fingertips. You're a rare commodity, in demand by every megacorporation, regular corp, and, heck, just about any other type of business to one degree or another. You could kick back, have a cushy life, with excellent pay, benefits, and relative safety.

But you, instead, choose to be a Shadowrunner, living from day to day, staying one step ahead of the law, being shot at (And hit!), dealing with sanity-destroying creatures and soul-destroying corruption on a regular basis.

Why?
Tarantula
Because you don't like being explicitly told what to do by mundanes who have no idea the vast complexity of your abilities.
Rotbart van Dainig
rotfl.gif
Fortune
Because the nature of Corporate employment is not conducive to independent research.

... Or because it's hard to hide those psychotic tendencies from the random corporate Mind Probes. wink.gif
Tarantula
Or maybe you don't want to have the job of mind probing at least 30 prisoners per day, and good luck to you if you pass out on the job.
Narmio
Because you want to blow stuff up but don't want to have to file the paperwork.
ShadowDragon8685
Because the magic, it burns to be free.
redne
Because you are a greedy bastard and the possibility of a big payoff is more tempting than (even a big) regular salary.

Or because you just like the excitement.
bibliophile20
Because someone out there is hunting you (the members of her old coven, in the case of one of my players).
Ravor
Because cutting your cloned replacement hand off and throwing it at your therapist in the middle of a mandatory session doesn't bode well for your future as a magical researcher?
Naysayer
Because Gaia will have her revenge on those slavers that ravaged her, and you are chosen to aid in bringing forth her justice.
________________________________________

Because then you'd be giving a lecture on the Unified Magic Theory to a bunch of snotty corp kids with less magical potential than a watcher-spirit now, instead of snortig novacoke out of the belly-button of this "exotic dancer" here.
________________________________________

Because you see dem tusks here? Colleagues who only don't try to set you on fire because they know that you can kill them with your mind don't make for enjoyable working conditions...
________________________________________

Because Wolf must runs with his pack. He stays true to his people.
________________________________________

Because the average wage-mage has an average magic-rating of three, which is totally lame, and regularly gets him killed at the hands of slightly above average shadowrunners. And the only corporate-employed magician who is ever allowed to initiate is inevitably bound to be a major antagonist, which gets him exactly nothing but death at a major plot point, and maybe an extra edge-roll to bring him back at a later point in the campaign.
Nah, thank you, I'd rather run the shadows...
hyzmarca
Vegetarianism.
Ravor
Because the streets are all I have ever known. Sure those corp boys talk a good talk, but when it comes right down to it, this is my home, and nothing is ever going to change that.

*Edit*

Yeah, vegetarianism doesn't really go well with working for the Big A. cyber.gif
Ryu
Because of the things that he/she did to EARN that criminal SIN?

Because being a shadowrunner is the ultimate powertrip for cybered-up magicians? Superhuman, supernatural, not bound by law.
Buster
Because your mentor spirit is Doctor Doom. Any cybersammy or scriptkiddie hacker can be a regular villain. Only an Awakened can be a supervillain.
Fortune
Because the name of the game is Shadowrun, not Wage Mages 'r' Us. wink.gif
James McMurray
Because my Dark Goddess won't let me stand idly by while some lowly wageslave gets the first cup of fresh coffee.
Particle_Beam
Because the little scheme of the other wage-mage that the Corps encourage did indeed make you fall out of the system, and you're not allowed to go to another Corp for work, so there you are...
Gothic Rose
Because I like it when they scream.
FriendoftheDork
Because no one in the corp believed I was awakened, but I managed to fool the Shadowrunners smile.gif
Fortune
Because the Corporation didn't approve of my overly-affectionate Ally Spirit.
James McMurray
Because they said my overly affectionate ally spirit couldn't be dikoted, and now I'm on the run for luv.
Wasabi
My latest mage traces his roots back to the Mayans and has Criminal Sinner (Aztlan). He wants to undermine their efforts. Viva la resistance!
Nerf'd
...because you had to disembowel your supervisor after he killed your puppy and used its bones in a ritual...and your mentor spirit is a Dog
knasser

...because magic is a spiritual calling, not just another toy for the powerful to buy. Magic comes from the soul. Working for the corps is selling your soul.
Fortune
The Corporations just don't quite understand Toaster.
Talia Invierno
... because I've always been an independent with ambitions of the non-monetary sort, and magic only broadens personal goals of any kind. Maybe it's because the magic first manifested during something shadowy that I never thought of it as something to sell into another's structurings.
Naysayer
QUOTE (Fortune)
The Corporations just don't quite understand Toaster.

They don't know how to burn cds and dvds on a mac?
(sorry)
Unarmed
Because I am not GMing your games and your magician character has not been infected with a deadly toxin that requires him to get treatment every three days and only Aztechnology has the cure..
Solomon Greene
Because you cannot, will not, must not be contained.

What's the point of being able to shape the raw stuff of the universe if you have to punch a time clock and deal with everyone else's shit? Did Gandalf punch a time clock? Did Gargamel?

Well, he was just sick, and no one would hire him - pedophile, but that's not the point.

*flash to image of Gandalf standing in front of the Executive washroom shouting "YOU SHALL NOT PASS! .. without a gold card.*
Naysayer
Because in this game, only magic-types get the + X Sword of Awesome.
(Until Dikote returns and Sams get their +Xpensive Sword of Chopping.)
Buster
Because they took my Swingline stapler and I Ignited the building on fire...
Unarmed
QUOTE (Buster)
Because they took my Swingline stapler and I Ignited the building on fire...

Because the ratio of people to cake is too big.
Moon-Hawk
QUOTE (Unarmed)
QUOTE (Buster @ Jul 16 2007, 02:20 PM)
Because they took my Swingline stapler and I Ignited the building on fire...

Because the ratio of people to cake is too big.

I love you both. grinbig.gif
knasser
QUOTE (Moon-Hawk)
QUOTE (Unarmed @ Jul 16 2007, 02:33 PM)
QUOTE (Buster @ Jul 16 2007, 02:20 PM)
Because they took my Swingline stapler and I Ignited the building on fire...

Because the ratio of people to cake is too big.

I love you both. grinbig.gif


Takes printer outside and kicks it to pieces yelling "piece of shit."

(Khadim wants love too. frown.gif )
Jtuxyan
...because they blew that whole "mind controlling the entire student body" thing way too seriously. It was just a community college! Yeesh.
Hypatia
because it runs in the family. And daddy ran the shadows.
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