EDIT: Are pictures not allowed here?

Shadowrun and the Cyberpunk genre used to have more of

[img]http://armoredsquirrel.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/PunkMohawk.jpg[/img]
feel.

However these days the look and playstyle is more:

[img]http://www.cinematical.com/media/2006/05/missionimpossible3pubz.jpg [/img]

And I'll admit to being a pushing that myself because the mohawk playstyle tended to devolve into:

[img]http://www.fpsmagazine.com/gfx/feature/dandd.jpg[/img]

Which is not what I wanted to GM.

Anyway so I'm wondering about how best to bring back a little style over substance and edge without also bringing back the stupid.

I guess I'm looking to try and get my players to combine Raoul Duke and James bond inside a mohawked cranium, and have it fit in a reasonably realistic (and RAW) SR4.

Nope.

As to your ponderings: The 80s are dead. Long live the 80s. Honestly, I can count on one hand the number of mohawks I see on the street in a year (outside of a punk rock club). What you're talking about is "street" of which hip-hop is the predominant counter-culture today. Expose yourself to some Hughes Brothers movies or episodes of The Wire and you'll be set.

Hm...i see tons of mohawks these days, many more than back in the 90s, but that could be because of the punk rock kids in the rehearsal room next door.


As far as SR is concerned, i sometimes get the (slightly frightening) impression that in canon fluff, furry has become the new punk.

You have something against lesbian cat girl ninjas?

Yes, i prefer pirates.

See also: Assault Cannon

My current GM has a pink mohawk. So I think I'm currently getting enough of it. He started a gang campaign with us, focussing on cyberware freaks. Price and availability cuts on obvious limbs and really gritty 'ware (muscle replacement...) and it's working great so far.

People are constantly getting me wrong for some reason.
Of course, pink mohawk is and always was my preferred play stile.

I don't mind furries that much, either.
Mutants, borgs and gnomish nartaki pirate houngans quadrupple-wielding zombie rodents are fine, too.

Just no ninjas, please.
Not even if they are catgirls.

Damn. Cyberpizzle

Actually that seems harder to write for. The cyberpunk culture at least had some redeming virtues that meant the players weren't usually as bad as the Johnson thought they were.

I guess now "cyberpunk philosphy", "style before substance", and "attitude" would all be 5 BP flaws or something.


Hmmmm. Maybe that's not such a horrible way to do it...

Squinky just did a pic of one of my main characters that's still got his Mohawk.

Neato.

I quote the RC:



Distinctive Style, of course, being a 5 BP negative quality.

Heh, me too

http://squinkyproductions.deviantart.com/a...amuari-94263938

Of course, I'm cutting my hair into something similar for the Shadowrun Scramble event at Gen Con this year (This week! Tomorrow! Holy SHit!!!! )



Bull

See, Mohawks are still around in Shadowrun. You can usually tell the Old Skool players, or those people that grew up and remember the Cold War as something other than from the History Books.

Ninjas are quintessentially 80s.

Don't have the book handy to quote any of it, but I should also point out that it makes it very clear that Distinctive Style is subject to GM approval, and should be based on teh style of game played.

In my game, A green mohawk, flourescent or otherwise, wouldn't count, because my version of Shadowrun is very rooted in it's 80's cyberpunk incarnation. Shadworun will always be that old 1st edition art style, for me.

Distinctive Style has to be something unique to the character, something you're not going to encaounter anywhere else in Seattle. I don;t let people have freebie flaws, so it doesn;t get used much.

Bull

In a nutshell... Word. I couldn't agree more.

-paws

Why are they always lesbians? Why can't they be in committed heterosexual cat-people relationships with their high-school sweethearts?

Because they are played by guys...

Incidentally, I was playing GTA San Andreas on my PC yesterday and decided that CJ should dress as a Shadowrunner.

Previously, I'd given him the camo pants, dog tags, and the Vietnam-era combat jacket from the cheap clothing store, and imagined that as his character backstory that CJ imagined himself as a military-style "professional" for hire who tried to use strategic approaches to mission goals, although he had never served in the military and therefore his approach was informed as much by action movies and such as by anything else.

But after he'd had that appearance for a while I decided that a Shadowrunner look would be in order. So I went for the blue pants and the jean jacket, so he could be like Michael Dudkioff in American Ninja 2. Then I was actually going to give him the "pink mohawk" hairdo, but I felt the pink mohawk in GTA SA was too understated. Basically, it wasn't big and obnoxiously pink enough. So instead I just kept him with the big fro which is probably the most outlandish hairstyle available.

Funny. I just finished the story-mode in GTAIV and since Niko is now wandering around and exploring, I've done the same thing. I kitted him out with the camo pants, shades and other Eastern Bloc regalia from the cheap clothing store. Wish I could give him tats and a new haircut.

I'll rip your heart out! Budda-budda-budda! Down goes an entire police precinct.



Ask a silly question...

I use GTA IV to demonstrate what the Barrens are like.

"And the cops that come after you and shoot you down, those are the gangers. And as you increase their hatred, they pull out the bigger guns and vehicles to chase after you."

That and I just watched "Doomsday", which has another excellent example of the Barrens in it. With Mohawks!

There are uptight anal-retentive highly-professional accountants who go to work in expensive pin-stripe business suits day-glo green mohawks. A giant green mohawk would not be the slightest bit out of place in any oppressive corporate environment, including the boardroom.

Its just another side effect of the rampant commercialization of a counterculture such that conformists can make themselves believe that they are no conformists by having the same hair style as everyone else. With commercialist hijacking and mundane conformity sucking the life out of Punk, it is the people who don't have giant neon mohawks who are the true rebels.

A discussion I had with some Goths while in High School.

"So you're being an individual... By being like all your friends and like what your media icons tell you to be like." "Um..." "Whereas I, who dress like I want to, have the haircut I want to, and behave like I want to, am a 'Conformist'. Right. I think you got things confused there, Bucko."

Good point but a lot of the goths at least round here are all petty different. Sure black is prominent but the rest is all different. But there are a lager and gowning group of people how are all clones and the same but they all so switch what band they like every 10-20 minutes and buy anything that there friends have.

How good is Doomsday? Look like it would be good but its not showing anymore in the UK so I missed it.

Doomsday just came out for Rental here. And it's pretty good.

Shades of "Escape from New York/LA" and "Mad Max", with some interesting twists.

I like it.

Of course, I liked the original "Gone in 60 Seconds" as well. But you only watch that movie for the chase scene anyhow.

Pointing out that countercultures are conformist is no longer a witty observation.

It was back when I was in High School.

Still got me beat up by the Goths.

I then took pleasure in pointing out that they were too pissed off to feel depressed, and that they should try joining the jocks, their fellow angry conformists.

I got beat up again for that one, too.

But still an individual!

I want to work for that firm.

Wow i missed this piece of British film by months XD trust me to for get to watch it after getting hyped about it.

Christ, man. You're supposed to beat up goths and make them cry. The goths aren't supposed to be able to beat you up.

I'm glad I went to high school in the early/mid-90s. All I had to deal with was an excess of flannel and Jennifer Aniston bobs.

Those of you with mohawk games. Is your playstyle still pretty thinky/mission impossible ish or is it more kick in the door?

First, I was alone, and there were GOTHS, plural.

Secondly, Goths can take a Computer Nerd pretty good. Especially one that's 30-pounds underweight.

Third, heavy boots do not feel nice when getting stomped by them.

Define "mohawk game".

The old "The '80s are the future" type of gameplay. Adventures based on a supply of bad Ninja movies, anything with Bruce Campbell in it, and Punk Punk Punk!

The term comes from the fact that most of the people's descriptions would be about their Neon-Coloured Mohawk.

You're supposed to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTZwKBBoQc

Or this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6OtvSHYzN4...feature=related

See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0dS5n-A5ow...feature=related

Stick and move, and fight like a tiger.

Yeah, no. I got in enough trouble with getting into fights.

It seems that rolling around on the ground, getting stomped and trying to protect your face is "Starting Fights" and "Encouraging them to continue through violence".

More commonly refered to as, "I can't be assed to talk to muliple groups of parents, so we'll just deal with yours."

Yes, I agree that the school system is pernicious and backwards in so many ways when it comes to dealing with "fights". This subject has actually come up extensively for discussion at some other forums, including Bullshido and Sociocide. IMO, parents on the recieving end on that kind of crap should sue the school. The reason the school has such an ass-covering bureaucratic bullshit response to "fights" is because they're afraid of liability and getting sued. That's also why they'll come down hard on the family/parent that is less likely to sue them or cause other trouble in retaliation. But if they keep getting sued anyway maybe they'll realize their charade makes no difference.

EDIT: Link to a related discussion: http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=70838

Careful not to confuse the Goth with the modern Emo.

Goth still has some metal and oldschool punk in its veins and the boots are usually pretty horrorshow.

With emos you could probably just toss them some razor blades and they'll take care of themselves for you.

(As a side note I came from the 6'2" Iowa farmboy demographic, which means I only know what its like to win fights, not that I got into all that many.) Though if this forum had a rep system I'd give CanRay some for keeping it real when many wouldn't.

Thanks man, much appreciated!

And I'm in the 6'1" Computer Geek demographic. Got some weight at last, but I was massively underweight (As mentioned above).

And, yeah, they were punky-goths. And I had yet to come into the metal that is in my veins.

Leg warmers. Flock of Seagulls. *shudder* I'm glad I was too young to realize how culturally devoid that decade was.

Michael Jackson, Wall Street, Hulk Hogan, Mullets, MacGyver, Transformers, Voltron, Ninjas, Rambo, Die Hard. The 80s were a decade of moral integrity, when people still knew that freedom and justice still meant something and were worth fighting for, when there were good guys and bad guys and the bad guy and everyone knew that it was right and just for the good guys to violently take down the bad guys, when the evil empire was knocking on our doors and we had a real adversary to contend with, and when things were cool, dammit. It was when heroes had style, real style, not this flashy poofy stuff of modern heroes, but shirt-ripping style.

Don't forget Knight Rider!

"One man can make a difference!"

Wow, your overseas goths really are a whole different kind. I used to be in the scene and I got out because of all the pretentious whining and angst that was associated with it. "Boohooo I can't afford that bondage skirt for 100 bucks, noone can understand the true intensity of my pain!" Yeah, especially not parents who have about that much to feed their kids for a month.
I never witnessed a Goth beating anyone up though. Lots of passive-aggressive bitchiness though

hyzmarca: That was the most disturbing stuff I read from you yet!

That was a generation after me when I was a goth in high school in the early 90s. The punk was my cousins in the late 90s as a result of successful remarketing of punk bands as "goth". In my school days you had the Goths who were obsessed with vampires and Marilyn Manson and the goths who were "non-conformists" and listened to eclectic "Alternative" music (my category).

Yeah, the Goths I'm talking about are the Manson Wanna-Bes. Punkers with a conformity.

Stupid Corporations. Even Punk isn't sacred!

Of course, even Hippies sold out in the end.

Bah you should see it now its all gone techno gothic or what not and 90%+ people can't pull it off. And those who do normally spend way to much. I'm unsure where its going but i tend to pick up these fads when there new then change my style again a month or so before every one dose it I I get called a freak by the people who follow my stupid ideas.

I should buy it sometime. CP2020 eventually did a supplement set a decode or so down the line where the Punks of 2020 had grown up, gotten more regular sources of income, gained some weight, and had kids. I think the plot was that something funky was going on with the kids(sorta like Otaku/Technomancers) and the corps were going after them. And you could play as one of the freaky kids or one of the now middle aged punks who dusted off the old combat cyberarm and shotgun to go and get your kid back.

Hmmm. You know that really isn't a theme SR messes with much. Changing times and getting older. To my knowledge nobody has done anything with what would now be older runners from the supplements or novels. Or delt much with changing culture.

Though in part I suppose later editions haven't really had culture supplements. I mean books like Shadowbeat, Sprawl Sites, or even the couple pages of philosophy in the Neo-Anarchist supplements.

Heh. Actually I'd be willing to give a player 50BP over what the other players are building with if they would play and old street sammy. The kind of person who put their essence to .01 in 2050 with standard grade cyberware because that's all there was, and now they're stuck without the new whiz bang stuff. And now there's some grey in the mohawk and a couple kids by a couple ladies he divorced that he sees on the weekends once a month. Only be able to put 150BP into stats to represent a little loss. So they'd probably have a high edge, a lotta skills, and a the old drive to use them for more than just the most nuyen.

Are you kidding? Look at all the Shadowtalk! FastJack complaining about getting old alone. All the lost 'Runners that count no more age and so on.

And then there's looking at the ShadowCulture that's into it's second and third generations (Fourth for Orks!), with a character like Slamm-0!.

I would like to see more of it. Perhaps some new novels are in order, eh?

And perhaps I might have to write more, won't I?

Was that in Emergence? I haven't picked that up.

Is that a culture book? I thought it was some crunch for technomancers and a rough campaign setting around them. Which, as I kind dislike TMs, I didn't care to bother with in my game.