I know most of us will never play a character long enough and have them survive long enough to accumulate sufficient... whatever to call it quits and retire voluntarily, but what if? What would be YOUR favorite character's final goal before hanging up their Lined Coat for good?

wow!!

never thought about that

more like how long before the current character either joins the graveyard, or i just set them aside to play whatever has my current interest

The ultimate Run... the one that can never be topped...

My original Character (a Physad) retired after he was hired to acquire something from the Aztechnology Headquarters and return it to the Dragon who hired him... was a run that could not be topped, and I netted a cool Permanent Luxury Lifestyle as a payment, complete with the island it was built around... talkabout a great retirement... That run only took me about 10 sessions to actually complete, and I was mostly hamburger by the end, but I survived and managed to bring the object back to my employer... what a great run...

BTW, it was in 2nd edition sometime around 1996 or so... and the character retired with 387 Karma...

The day my brethren can live in peace without fear of assault from horrible monsters, that day I can think of myself.

The day when we have a cure for the horrible mutations which plague some children, that day I can take a break.

The day when the evil devils are dethroned, that day I can soak in some sun.


The White Dove

I've always run and never played so I don't personally have a goal but over the past 20 years I've had several players retire.

One to Denver to take over as head of a smuggeling operation.
One to join the retinue of an Immortal Elf.
One in prison for life.
One got death penalty.
One that retired and manages his corporate investments....comes out of retirement on semi regular basis due to boredom.
A few others includeing one or two that went out with a bang, because they couldn't stand the thought of retirement. (Red Hot Acid Drop took a strip of Kamikaze and went after a long time enemy.)

i usually have a reason to run the shadow. if its a certain goal to get accomplished, il retire after that. but as a general rule if i manage to get enough saved up for permanent luxury i no longer have reason to put my ass on the line.

I had a group that had been running for about 3 years of real world time (this was a SR3 campaign) where the team was almost ready to retire. Each of us had different goals and requirements.

My character, a vat-job sam, had set aside enough money to:

1. Burn his IDs
2. Buy a New SIN
3. Buy a permanent LIfestyle
4. buy a 2nd full SIN
5. and a second full lifestyle

He gave SIN 1 to a decker contact to live in and do his best make it look like a full quiet life. SIN 2 was a quiet Middle Lifestyle in a small city in the midwest.

Besides earning the money to do all of that, his requirement was that the rest of the team retire at the same time. He didn't want them to go on that "one last job" without him and get called out of his retirement. Once he retired, he didn't plan to kill, or pick up a gun, again in his life.

We had all discussed how we saw our lives after retirement--my sniper hoped to sit on the porch and drink his beer, with the biggest worry being pests in the garden. There was talk about local trouble and "Old Man Cleary" giving lessons to young punks who decided to make a name for themselves in his town.

All of that said, I think the reasons a runner retires are intimately tied to the reason the runner got started in the first place. Retirement is never just something that happens because you reach a specific age--it is a mindset.

-Have you completed what it was you wanted to do with your professional life and can put that part of you away?
-Are you able to put that life behind you? (Many people get so tied into WHAT they are that they forget WHO they are.)

Runners who get their start looking for revenge or to get rich, have a fixed point at which they may be able to quit. Successfully completed X or earned X amount of ¥.

The people who fall out of society because they don't fit (born SINless, Infected, Changeling, etc.) have to find a way to fit back in, before they are able to retire.

Thoughts?

My character of around 7 years never really retired per se. He became a fixer/information broker. He stopped active running but made a killing orchestrating jobs and selling dirt.

He as a paranoid/obsessive nut and while he liked retiring from active running, he could never truly picture himself retiring I don't think. It was too much in his blood.

I can think of several reasons how/why a character would retire but they are all dependent on the character really. Some character's would never want to retire fully.

- J.

Most of my characters have a nice, round, "One million nuyen" target number in mind. In theory. The one that hit that amount didn't retire from it, but did eventually call it quits after running through Brainscan, surviving a second run into the Arcology, and getting himself all tangled up in the goings-on of the politically powerful, during the UCAS revolution stuff. He and his long-time girlfriend (a combat mage) had saved up enough by then that it was time to just say "fuck it" and get as far from Seattle as they could and settle down out of the life.

If I was going to retire, I'd want enough for a Permanent Luxury lifestyle with shitloads of chump change. Possibly enough for a second permanent (luxury) lifestyle. As a runner you never know when your identity could be compromised.

Honestly, I think after living so long with a degree of paranoia, it would be hard to ever truly let go. I think I'd always be looking over one shoulder, but I admit I'm a naturally paranoid individual.

- J.

You don't quit the shadows, the shadows quit you.

The only SR character I had that really retired was my first, an ork private detective with no cyber, bio or magic. I played him for about four years ('94-'98) with a couple long breaks in there because of groups falling apart and being cobbled back together. I retired him at the 10 million mark (and change, I think his total net worth was 12.5 million when I finally added it all together). Permanent luxury lifestyle, and retirement in the Carib League.

The retirement was as much because the large Karma Pool was starting to drive my GM crazy as it was about the money, and I was ready to play something else. The character after that I played for about two years, then "retired" him when SR3 came out (as much because I didn't feel like remaking him in the new system as anything else). The character after that I played for 5 years, but only earned about 100 Karma, because we were gaming sporadically by that point.

I've played SR for about 15 years now (with a lot of on-and-off time, not by choice) and other than a handful of characters I've played for one or two sessions, I've played three characters. I never really thought about that until just now.

Shadowrunners don't retire. They just run out of ammo.

Only one of my chars. came so far and he had been retired by my companion runners. Mine was the only one left in 2nd edition while my team-members all went to retirement or death long before. He had more than 1.000 karma that days and the others didn´t wanted an uber-character in the team. Maybe driving to run-meetings with your own rolls-royce-phaeton was a little bit to much for them.^^

Of my characters... nearly none survived. It was a wonder if they got over 50 Karma, and i think one got to a hundred or so. He did somewhat retire. Got a good SIN, a small business (air-taxi) had three helicopters. Worked out fine... (No he was no rigger... he was a melee Ki-adept)

And one of my characters was near retirement when my old group split up for college. He survived three seperate missions into the Renraku Arcology in that "troubled" months. Oh we invested so much into that... having to buy full armors with ruthenium polymere coating, temperature sealed to not trip all the sensors and drones, tools, nightgliders, bribes... I think my armor alone for the trips were at 60.000 nuyen. But we made tons of cash with paydata, electronics and stuff. He was planning a huge heist with the new ressources. That one thing if it had worked properly would have netted 10 million or so. (With an investment of around 500.000). Too bad we had no time to play it... i wonder if it would have worked. After that he would have quit.

Ah well, but back on topic: You are not ending your runs, your runs end you *g* - i agree.

I think it depends on your character.

Some runners are lifers, they're in till the end be that a burst of automatic fire or heart failure.

Some are in for circumstances, they need enough money to pay for surgery or pay off a loan shark.

Some are in for the adventure, they stay till they get bored.

Some are in to get rich, they stay till the big payday.

Its not unreasonable to assume that even a fraction of the runner population doesn't want to be dodging bullets for their whole lives and eventually just wants to settle down to a nice quiet life.

I have a character in a game right now who is a smuggler and adrenaline junky. He's in until he can pay for a sweet set of wings and then he's gone

I don't think I have any Shadowrun character that I don't see dying their head in the gutter after an unlucky night, except maybe one that I think could get beaten to death by a riot police squad instead.

Different runners have different reasons and different kinds of retirements.

I've played characters that were going for the big payoff and a cushy retired life, but most of the time that doesn't work because trying to amass a fortune in the shadows is a good way to die. Besides, if you want to get rich you don't shoot people and get shot at for a living; there's clearly an adrenaline appeal too. Not being able to stay retired is a definite risk. So no, I've never had a character make it to a life of permanent luxury and leisure.

Other characters may retire from running the shadows in various ways without really leaving the shadows entirely. Becoming a fixer is a good way to turn your experience into a safer living and still be able to tell the young 'uns about how good you were in your day. Characters who get enough underworld fame may get legitimate jobs that they don't have to sneer at. Becoming the completely idiosyncratic security consultant or freelance decker/hacker that can mouth off to authority because you're just that respected in your field isn't bad.

Finally, there are the runners for a reason. If you're out for revenge, your time in the shadows has a limit. If your life was wrecked, you can eventually put together the resources and contacts to put it back together. Not necessarily permanent luxury, but permanent middle class living with a nice day job can work just fine. Or you can make enough cash not to be rich but to get out of the Barrens with a clean SIN and start a quiet life where you go to your corp office, drink your soycaf, and do your paperwork. The other runners will sneer at your selling out, but you'll be the one to live past thirty.

Hi i havent had any dudes activily retire i would say but my troll kaos mage Ghroth went to the bahamas for vacation when i swiched to a 2ndary guy when our game went on hiatus so i supose he retired this was 4th ed he has 25-30 ft boat and about 250k invested into lifstyles and such i was planing on playing him agian so no perm life styles although he is 32 yrs old so im not expecting him to live much longer

Oddly enough we have been playing since 3rd ed and now onto 4th and during all that time ive only had one character retire (oddly enough retire alive not due to lead poisoning lol). She was my very first character I ever made named Locohendu. After quite a few years of running she ended up geting into quite a bit of trouble and some how living thru all of it (That I cant quite explain due to normaly rolling pretty badly) But yah she ended up marrying well her long time running mate and having a kid. Pretty much a few years from the 4th ed story line they had there kid kidnaped and poisoned with a exotic magic drug if I remeber right. At that point they both realized they had enough money and contacts to get out of Denver and dissaper for good so they could settle down and raise there child. I miss that character some times but cant ever think of a good reason to bring her back to Denver though that would probly be a bad idea..even going to Seattle would be bad lol.

Donald "Warlock" Locke, the master Conjurer and Enchanter, will eventually retire when he figures out how to make a standard Scholhouse skeleton (the kind in biology rooms) stand up in the middle of class and dance in front of the students. He will do this because he is a complete practical joker, and will feel that his lofe's goal is complete when this happens... If it's in the class of an old professor of his at MIT&T (Mass. Inst. of Tech and Thaumateurgy) then so much the better.

What can I say, its how Locke acts....

Yeah...retirement...remember the old days?^^

Uhh...Magic Fingers and/or Animate ftw?

Retirement. A figment of the runner's imagination most of the time.

....I usually find about the time to retire is when the character closes on the 200 karma gained mark. By then things get crazy.

Shadowrunners rarely retire. When they stop working your contacts dry up faster then your enemies, which can cause problems. Maybe that's why many runners become fixers in a kind of semi-retirement.

Otherwise it depends on the runner, a lasting luxury lifestyle may be enough for one runner, and another might want to take down renraku once and for all. It all depends. I had a character once who's end game would be more "disappear in the deep metaplanes without warning" rather then "retire happily with a wife and 2 1/2 designer babies."

Such statements always amuse me to no end.

Especially given the SR4A karma costs and rewards.

no no, I'm thinking more along the lines of Ally Spirit or Bound free spirit. I want it to be permanent. Not to mention, the professor would probably have more than a few magical boobytraps there for the pranksters magicians...hehe

I rarely have had any characters of mine or my own players ever get close to retirement. The Shadows in fluff (especially 4th ed with its Street emphasis) tend to give you just enough money to get by till next week.

Breaking out of small time into the big time generally requires a lot of luck... And even then, the threats grow asymmetrically to a point where lifespan rapidly approaches zero.

That and underworld life generally doesn't just let you 'retire'. The people you know still know you. The scores you settled are probably still unsettled for somebody and chances are good your ass is still worth some nuyen to somebody. Good luck just walking away.

The most likely retirement plan for most shadowrunners is a nice cold gutter or in the dumpster as part of next week's trash, with a bullet to the brain or a knife to the back. They probably won't even get a funeral service.

I've almost always been the GM so I don't have many characters.

1st ever was a decker from New Orleans, White Rabbit. She "retired" when I took over as GM and became a Seraphim for CAT. She probably didn't fare so well coming out of Crash 2.0. She made a brief reappearnce for the Legion portion of Brainscan.

Other character I played for long enough to be popular was Dixie. Former NASCAR driver who tried to make the jump to F1 after putting a VCR 3 in this head. Didn't work out so he moved into smuggling. He ended up retired with his decker buddy Fast Eddie (who survived Brainscan) to a manor in the CAS.

As for players in my campaigns: we've got a ton who decided to not move up the ladder and continue with the "milk runs." We also had one very memorable story arc where they helped their long-time Johnson take over as head of S-K Prime where they all retired based off their rewards for helping. (long story short he got gunned down while they were on a vacation he'd planned for them in the Carib and they nursed him back to health and helped him figure out what was going on)

I had a hermetic mage in a third edition game who, essentially, retired. I played the hell out of her and she (and the rest of the group) had enough karma pool to annoy the GM when the game ended. I ran Shadowrun a few times after that and used her as a fixer. It would probably have been wiser for her to move far away and try to leave it all behind.

I have a Troll Rigger. I played him in 2nd edition. In 3rd Edition(when I started running), he became a background NPC. For 4th Edition, he is living the quiet life in Seattle, having retired. The old school VCR hurts when it rains, sure, but Seattle is his home..it is where his friends died. It is where he scattered bits of stupid Street Sams when he ejected their explosive filled seat for them pulling a gun on him in his own Eurovan. It is where his first wife died. It is where his old Fire House turned Garage and rose garden are. He still has that old Battleship turret outfront with its paired water cannons, and on hot days, he still aims the cannons at the sky and creates an artifical rain for the neigborhood kids. He sold the Eurovan to some kid heading to Australia years ago, but he still keeps a truck or two to work on. Sometimes, young up and comers come to him, and he teaches them how to maintain and tune an engine. Maybe, he might build something for them in his shop. He still sleeps with a shotgun by his bed, and he has all the latest engineering texts.

Why did he retire? Because, in the end..when you look in the shadows, and see only the ghosts of friends and enemies, it is time to step away.

I had a group that was looking to retire after one last job: steal a stonewall battle tank. We had a contact that made it know that a certain Japanese corporation was willing to trade a defunct aircraft carrier for one, and we were going to turn it into a sort of floating community and live out the rest of our lives traveling the worlds oceans.

That seems like a really bad trade on the corporation's part. Even if a CV is defunct, it was probably worth more in scrap than a single main battle tank. You probably picked up a ship that was built and commissioned sometime in the 2020s, possible the 2010s....

I don't know if you remember it, but the Stonewall battletank was the heaviest piece of armament in Rigger 3. It had enough armor that the only thing that could even hurt it was another Stonewall, mainly b/c of the giant railgun mounted on it. It took 3 riggers to control, and only CAS (or maybe UCAS, I forget) had the technology to make them. There were something like 15 - 30 in existence. The main reason the corp wanted one was to study it so they could begin producing them on their own.

I'm just dubious, from a reverse engineering perspective of that ability. For something so rare, you aren't going to tear it apart in any way that would render it unusable. The corp could probably build a tank that is just as armored and armed as the Stonewall, but it wouldn't be as compact, and would require a massive drive system, which means a larger production facility, more resources, and thus a higher cost. The trick to reducing those costs is reducing the weight and size of the armor for the tank. The heavier the armor, the larger the drive system. The biggest barrier to matching a stonewall was likely two factors, armor construction and reducing the power supply size/weight for the railgun. Depending on how the power supply is setup, bank of batteries versus one battery versus drawing it from a source like a small nuclear reactor, it may have been easier to nick a couple batteries for the corp to analyze. Likewise with the armor, it would have also been easier to steal a bit of it that just came off its production process. A huge friggin tank is a lot harder to hide away than a battery and bit of armor. Plus you are much more free to cut, scrap or do whatever you want to the component parts instead of risking the ability to use the full product. Of course, stealing a tank is a much bigger finale than stealing a bit of armor and a couple batteries.

I think that the fluff involved stated somewhere that the big deal for the Stonewall was the gun it used, which had some tech that no one else had access to, and that the only reason the tank itself was so protected was to have a way to move the gun around and still survive if you had to shoot something close to you. If I remember correctly the rail gun did area effect damage, mainly caused by the particles of whatever you fired / hit flying in every direction fast enough to cause damage on a massive scale.

The benefit to stealing the tank, versus just a piece of it, is that since the production facility is just as guarded as the tanks themselves, at least when you steal the tank you have a heavily armored flying vehicle to escape in.

That and we wanted take it through at least one taco stand drivethru before we delivered it to the final buyers.

Now THAT is a worthy feat!  Think of the rep the characters would gain for doing that.

Epic.

For my characters:

• Vanguard, a stealthy cybered elf, I first played circa 1990. He retired to a quiet life with his npc-decker girlfriend after earning enough karma that the game systems were becoming seriously strained.
• Rick, a physad ork with a lot of contacts, I first played circa 1996. He "retired" to life as a fixer, he operates out of a club he owns with a former teammate.
• Bulwark, a bodyguard/rigger, I first played circa 1997. He went legit and started his own small high-security limo company.

The rest of my characters are either taking a dirt-nap, or were not played long enough for it to matter.

I never played any one campaign long enough to retire a character, but I don't really think my characters would ever be the type to actually retire. Maybe it's a bit cliche of an archetype, but I always enjoy playing the live hard, die young type of street sams. If they were going to retire at all, it'd have to be after becoming obscenely wealthy, and being able to retire toa nice little island in the carib. Or if the rest of their team bit it and he was the only one left, I think he'd retire. But barring those conditions, I think my characters would all have kept running the shadows, as it's what they enjoy doing anyways.

I had a male fomori physad named Annwyn Breohnen back in the early 2000s, and played him off and on for the better part of 3 years. I had a lot of fun with him, and made a lot of impressions. He started a contract security company and trained the officers himself. I retired him when I found out Annwyn was a girl's name.

we had a couple of hcaracters retire to a 'high' lifestyle with 1 million.
One went into sim's, usually it's just comfort.

As a player, I say you quit the character when it stops being fun.