Right, first post, deep breath, here we go. Having recently come into some loot and being keen to do my part for the global economy I picked up some SR4 source books the other day and sat down to learn the rules and maybe sketch out a few characters. This is of course the easy bit; the hard bit comes when you want to start persuading your friends to play the game with you. For some reason the words role play always seems to conjure up two sorts of images for the uninitiated; one, the more butt clenchingly embarrassing of corporate training courses and two, the more racy sexual fantasies. Since I have little desire to join a gaming group that is good at handling customer complaints and am insufficiently attractive to get invitations to the other sort of group, this can be a little off putting.

But I digress. Lots of the posts at dumpshock have noted the flexibility of the setting (see Chrysalis’ thoughtful post on “The World of Shadowrun�). Games can run the gamut from pink mohawk to black trench coat, which is all to the good. But coming back to Shadowrun after a long time I feel that there’s been a definite shift in the middle ground. The most graphic example being the colour plates of the archetypes at the beginning of the book. This is pretty reflective of the changes in the genre across films, computer games etc. Shadowrun these days is more realistic less cartoony. So is James Bond, so is Batman and so is my style of play (note to myself re: being Batman. You are not Batman).

This means more realistic characters and that’s what I want to create. Character details come thick and fast. I imagine that most posters on this board could knock out new specialities and occupations, that are fun to play, faster than I can type. Depth of background just requires a bit of thought (no more “orphaned at birth� characters for me). But the part I’m finding difficult is that, while the detail can vary, there only seem like a few fundamental routes into the shadows. The companion lists them like this;

1. Fallen from grace.
2. Risen from the gutter.
3. Born to the shadows.

Number 1 has always appealed. Ex spooks, ex armed forces, ex military research types all fit in well here. The corporations add another set of options alongside the civil authorities. This allows for more normal childhood years with the employer adding the skills and some crisis jettisoning the character into the shadows. However this gets formulaic quickly.

Number 2. This is less satisfactory. While it’s easier to explain relevant skill set and even moral base (or lack thereof) its less easy to understand what keeps the character from being enticed into corporate or government service (even if its not the sort to job where you where a shirt and tie to the office). Its slightly easier for mundanes who may have racial, social or physiological hurdles holding them back but less believable for the awakened. This is detailed in masterofm’s excellent post “who’s side are you on�. I quickly run out of reasons why my mage (above average intelligence and charisma and powerful enough to levitate three guys simultaneously) doesn’t think doing exactly what he’s doing now wouldn’t be better with more money, better faculties, and all those unpleasant questions about why he was found in the Seattle ACHE with three illegal foci and a submachine gun being handled by the legal department.

Number 3 is a nice idea (I like Slammo and the other next gen characters) but its conceptually difficult (dad showed me how to shadowrun and I formed my own crew and I just blew away a rival shadowrunner who…looks…awfully familiar…oh hell, mum’s going to be pissed off) the same way as having traditional runner archetypes as contacts is tricky to resolve.

I guess what I’m really asking is does anyone have any bright ideas on how to breath new life into any of these ideas beyond; I was fired from Ares / I’m from the block and I don’t work for no stinking corp / Mum taught me how to hack and now I work for myself.

For that matter does anyone have some alternative routes? What alternative paths into the shadows exist? I tend to find that fleshing out a character concept (what my guy does) is easy once I know why he’s doing what he’s doing so anything original would be good to hear.

My paranoid imagination is filled with the sound of flame mail being written.

Please be gentle!

Revenge is a route as well. Do not confuse it with fallen from grace, since the character who takes to the shadows for revenge does not fall, but instead decides working from the shadows is his best bet.

Excitement junky is another route. 9to5, 9to5, 9to5, I can't take this boring shiz'nit anymore! I wanna blow stuff up!

Money is another route. They might even still have a job (though eventually lots of them might move completely to running the shadows). Your lil job only pays just enough to support you and your dependent at low lifestyle, with a little left over. Couple runs a month on the side and you got enough for medium.

Etc etc etc

Heck, combine all three. You were born to the Shadows, you rose from the gutters, and then you fell from grace. Now that's a trajectory.

One of the things about rising from the gutter is all the addictions one picks up along the way, all the favors owed to the mafia or yakuza, all diseases and toxins that left scars on more than just your body. The enemies made, the lovers and lives lived to get to the top of the trash heap.

To the corps, guttertrash is tainted, no matter how talented. Sure, the bureaucracy might pick you up, but your co-workers would never accept you, your boss would always be leery about giving you a promotion: always waiting for you to show your true colors.

Born and raised in the seedy underbelly of Seattle by a pair of mediocre Shadowrunners, Dwight craved more. He trained harder than his parents, worked harder than his parents, and killed harder than his parents ever did. He schmoozed, he organized runs both successful and unsuccessful; he slowly made a name for himself and gained contacts in the criminal syndicates and drug cartels. He pushed harder and snagged a job from an Evo corp Johnson.

Dwight became one of the best; he ran with FastJack and his pals; he pulled off some wicked scams, broke lots of heads, and made mad cash.

Then he ran against a Horizon subsidiary and made a mistake: Horizon traced him and found him. Rather than geek him, Horizon did Dwight one better. They hired him to Shadowrun for them on the Trid; they made him a star.

Two season in, they pulled the rug out from under him, all in the interests of stellar Trid ratings, and he was almost erased by a nice fellow with a Gauss Cannon. By an extremely unlikely twist of fate, Dwight survived.

With hiw new cyberarm and leg, and severe deformities, Dwight is recovering in the home of a street doc he knew from the old days. His Horizon Corporate SIN is registered as DECEASED. Head trauma caused him to forget many of the advanced skills he'd learned, and his muscles have atrophied because of extensive bed rest. Now he's out for revenge.

How's that one?

@Phase Space: Nice opening post. Welcome!

1. Fallen from grace.
   
   • For malperformance. You didn´t do your job, either because you couldn´t, or because you didn´t want to. You either walked, or were forced to walk.
   • You were used as a scapegoat, either by your superiors, or by someone else who needed to cover something up.
   • You were downsized, and couldn´t get a new job. Then you did criminal things, made beginner mistakes, and now you can´t go back.
2. Risen from the gutter
   
   • You climbed the ladder, and have seen ugly things. You never made it in with a syndicate, so you freelance.
   • You were a syndicate soldier, but now they have seen your true talent, and put you to the shadow community (taking a cut).
3. Running as a choosen carreer.
   
   • University fees are exorbitant, one of your parents got downsized... You can already do stuff, but don´t have the certificate to prove it.
   • You are the ultimate corporate consultant. Legality or morals matter, but only as long as you have to show your hands doing stuff. The only law you really accept is your own.
   • You are a card-carrying "Freelance Personal Assistant", with formal bodyguard training and an MBA. Running is only part of what you do.
   • You were a mercenary. Most of the work you did is seen as illegal or at least undesireable by someone else, so the move into the shadows was pretty short. With a fresh SIN you could do mercenary work again.

Welcome to the cacophony, Phase Space.

The criminal org recruiting base is the gutter. Once working for the org, it's unlikely you could even get corp or government work. And since the criminal org recruits young, the recruit gets locked into the life pretty early, earlier then the corps can get them. And then it's no longer the worth the corps investment to recruit you.

WHY ARE YOU HERE PHASE SPACE?

Simple. Your luck just ran out. Natural law of enthropy in a dysotopian future.

Welcome to the Dumpshock.

Another simple character dynamic is your character is what they do. "jockeys gotta deck, scapper gotta scrap".

Conventunal existences has no place for this personality type. Whatever you choose that to be. So there is the shadows.

Everyone eventually ends up in the shadows...
We should know...
We did...

Something else to keep in mind is that anti-authoritarianism isn't limited to the hip culture of the day (punk rock, hip-hop, etc) or to sociopathic criminals. Often, anti-authoritarians wear a tie, go to work in an office building, and feed their families all the while quietly bringing about change or shutting down the establishment from the inside. You could be fed up with the shallowness and superficiality of society and decide to "erase" yourself form the scene... there's something liberating about not paying taxes to a government that no longer represents the people (or you).

You could also simply be an adventurer/researcher. One of the PCs in my game is a Chinese tiger shapeshifter and a student of Professor Schwartzkopf in Prague. He runs the shadows because he wants to study unusual forms of magic and the shadows are the most direct way to find the information he needs. Perhaps you're a writer or journalist in search of a inspiration and living a life of danger and intrigue could be the ultimate deterrent to writer's block.

Being a "bad-ass" isn't the only way to play a shadowrunner. Just the most uninteresting.

Another reason to enter the shadows is to look for a loved one who disappeared and the normal means of finding said person fail. I used this reason (via the Lost Loved One flaw) for my Chaos Mage to enter the shadows.

One option is the unwilling participant.

For example, you were strapped for cash once month and did a favour for a sketchy friend. You botched the job and now owe a lot of money to the wrong people.

Welcome to the Shadows chummer, got DocWagon contract?

Ok lets get to the point.
As far as I can understand you ask for ways that bring to the shadows that are different from the ones described in Runner Companion. Well lets take a look at them:

Fallen from Grace:
This thosen't necessary mean that you were anything like a corper fallen in the rat race (even if it is plausible), it means that you had a SIN and a relatively normal life, than something happened and you found your way into the shadows; it could be that you failed in backstabbing someone in order to get ahead, and this someone screwed you hard enough that you have to run the shadows to survive; it could be that you were happy with your life until someone dear to you died, just to find out that the corp is responsible; you could have had no future there, for example your father lost the rat race and a rival destroied his carreer, along with the one of your mother and your future (restricting your instruction possibilities to blu collar), your life can be described as low end of low lifestyle, you have no hope of improvment in any legal way so you chose the illegal ones; it could be that you were subject to neglect and/or abuse from your parents and you escaped.

Raisen from the gutter:
This means one thing, your life was dreck and you are struggling to improve it or at least to survive. You could have been a street rat, joined a gang and did dreck untill you showed something more of you, something that had a market in the shadows (that isn't your ass or your organs) so you started running; you could have been forced in prostitution untill you have escaped and managed to survive by doing various jobs, honing skills that later would allow you to be a shadowrunner; you could have been part of some neo-A/religious/whatever community that shielded you from the wrost, said community has difficultiesm that require cred to be solved and you have what it takes to run the shadows; you could have been someone that fell from the top, hit the bottom and started over.

Born in the shadows:
Well you were in contact with criminal elements from your childhood, it's just your life; you could be the child of a shadowrunner, or a smuggler, and you have grown up into it learning from daddy/mommy's friends; you could have been an heir of a mob's capo who attempted to get ahead at expenses of someone who tooke it personal and destroied your family, you were spared but your life in the mob is over, they wouldn never trust you and you, while understanding that your parents had it coming, would never work for them,nor for any other syndacate; you could have been an illegittimate child of someone with enough clout to call some shots who sees your existance as detrimental to his/hers carreer but didn't want to dispose you so affided you to some contacts in the shadows (a fixer, a retired company man) to be taken care of, once you hit adolescence you have learned certain skills that few have, you know how the world works and that the corporate life is not for you, so you hit the shadows.

Ok maybe I'm not usefull, but seriously there are as many ways that bring to the shadows as there are shadowrunners (and even more), but as general rule you either were born there, or got there from somewhere, be it the legal world or the street.

Oh yes I fogot, you could be runnig the shadows for a cause (for exemple a Humanis bastard who tries to get money to bankroll some racist operation by taking runs against meta-friendly organizations).

Why? When people are poor they might be forced to leave their children to an orfanage, you could run for helping the orfanage, put up a team, go to a fixer to have a concert, running around on a used Lone Star car, with enraged Humanis and cops chasing you and.... oh wait those were the Blues Brothers.

This must be done.

Not everyone with talent is scooped up by the megacorps or military. Some are just so sociopathic or out-of-sight that they stay where they were born. They often have ties to organizations who want to keep them - gangs and syndicates who build loyalty in their people. This is the arc that many of my group's campaigns take. I love gritty, street level campaigns, and the other guys like high-level espionage games. So we start out working for the mob, and quickly move up to corp work. These are people who like being a big fish, don't recognize or care how small the pond is, and are horrified at the idea of working for the suits.

Some terrific ideas here, thanks to everyone. As to why no orphaned characters I guess my feeling there is not that orphaned characters are bad or even bad to play just that I'm guilty of using it as an excuse not to envisage a more detailed family dynamic. Like I said some brilliant ideas (which I will be pinching!) maybe I'll post up the characters they lead to, thank again.

My current mage went with a minor variant of fallen from grace: He was a research mage in a minor corp, and got conned by an active shadowrunner - cute girl, lots of fun, you understand. It was a long-term run (as runs go), she got into his pants and into his head, and thereby into his research lab. The job came first, and she wasn't about to flub it for him - but she found she really liked him, and ended up offering to take him with her into the shadows, as she was ruining his career anyway...

Lets not forget the double-life. Mild mannered stock broker by day, daring neir-do-well by night! Tiring for sure, but hey, somebody has to stand up for us common folk.....

welcom!

as the comminitys most sexiest and studly member I wish to welcome you! have a hug *gives ya a big hug*

I understand, but orfaned doesn't necessarily mean without family.
Orphaned people could have an adoptive family; just think if you character was old enough to remember his/her parents when he/she was orphaned, he/she has been adopted and has found the love of a family, but has never forgotten the previous one, he/she is going to be subject to a certain level of stress which is a good premise for a rough relationship with his/hers adoptive parents, but he/she cares for them and when something bad happens to them he/she does his/hers best to help them. As an angry teen the character could have turned to "less savory" aspects of society (a pack of friends that goes about having fun and committing very minor infractions in the process) but remained a good guy/girl to the core, than something bad happened to his/hers family and the time for quiting arguing and starting to help them has come; if it can be done legaly much better but this is SR so guess what, it can't.
Now that the character runs the shadows, did he/she tell his/hers parents what is all about? If so how do they react? Do they accept it? Do they try to persuade him/her to quit the shadows? Or they have accepted that the character is a shadowrunner but keep expressing their concernes? If the character didn't inform them, did they have found out by their own? And so on.
This is if we assume that the character has found a good adoptive family. What happens if he/she has been given in adoption to abusive parents? Or would the character have an affair with a stepbrother/sister? What happens if he/she has passed trought many families without having a place that he/she could call home for more than a few months? What if his/hers family is a group of squatters? And his adoptive moether is a SINless prostitute?
Being orphaned is a great way to explain many peculiarity that the character has and it allowes both the "Fallen from Grace" and the "Risen from the Gutter" Backgrounds. Not to mention the fact that the original family either is dead or has abandoned him/her, which means that something has happened: What? Why? In which way? By the hand of Who? Where? When? And most importantly: How does this affect the character?

Just a few thoughts.

This is highly dependent on your campaign's setting and playstyle. For example if salaries are low, you can't say your character chose to run in order to get rich (except if there was some misinformation involved).