Feel free to use this in your campaign, and feel free to tweak it to fit your needs.


Critiques, Comments and Criticisms are welcome.



Opening Weekend

A Shadowrun 4th Edition Adventure

Adventure Synopsis:

It is late November. There is a definite chill in the Wisconsin northwoods as day by day, winter slowly approaches. The deciduous trees are all barren, having shed their colorful burdens weeks ago. There is also an excitement in the air as the gun deer season approaches. The northwoods will soon be teeming with tens of thousands of men and women from all parts of the UCAS and the rest of North America (mostly middle and upper corp manager types) looking to bag a nice buck to hang on their opulently furnished homes, and put some very delicious venison on their dinner tables.

The upcoming deer season attracts others, too. Animal rights activists and eco-rads make their way up from Madison to push their agendas. Some groups do nothing more than stage nonviolent protests and acts of civil disobedience, although there are others who prefer more unrestrained tactics when it comes to stopping the pillaging of Mother Earth's precious creatures. Shadowrunners also find themselves called to the northwoods during deer season. The gun deer season provides ample opportunites for extraction, sabotage, and "unfortunate hunting accidents."

Despite the danger posed by rads, shadowrunners, and even the occasional nasty paracritter, many corporate managers and execs heed the call of the northwoods every November. One such person is Rick Terry, who heads Harley Davidson's Design department. Deer hunting is his passion, and is the one thing he looks forward to every year. He usually goes hunting every year with three or four friends from his division, but this year, Rick had to send them to Los Angeles to meet with the producers of the Karl Kombatmage series of sims about a bike design for their next simflick, and they won't be able to join him for opening weekend.

Things have gotten a little dicey in L.A.. Shadowrunners working for Saeder-Krupp tried to extract the Harley-Davidson representatives, but failed miserably. H-D's managed to secure their delegation, but they are concerned that Rick may be a little bit too exposed during his hunting trip. Nervous that Saeder-Krupp might try to extract Rick, Harley-Davidson has ordered one of their Mr Johnsons to hire a team of shadowrunners to keep Rick safe during his long weekend (Friday afternoon until early Sunday evening) at his hunting cabin near White Potato Lake in Oconto County.

Upon meeting their principal, the runners will have an uneventful trip up to Rick's cabin, where they will have the evening to settle in and make appropriate preparations to protect Rick. Aside from a a hungry Greater Wolverine looking for a midnight snack, Friday night will pass uneventfully. Saturday Morning will be a bit more hectic. The runners will have to deal with a small group of vocal, yet benign PETA activists, a pair of Wisconsin Department of Paranatural and Natural Resources conservation wardens running license checks, and a lost hunter.

That night, Terra First! rads will attempt to kidnap Rick and try him for "Crimes Against Mother Earth." If the rads are successful, the Runners will have to track down the rads and get Rick back.

If Rick escapes the Terra First! rads and is able to get out into the woods before the close of hunting on Sunday, Rick will finally get his buck. On his way back from the deer registration station a team of experienced shadowrunners hired by S-K to extract Rick will ambush the team.

Sounds very promising mixing some otherwise mundane activities with corporate and geo-political intrigue as well as the dangers and allures of the SR wilderness.

I may borrow this for my Minneapolis-set game.

perhaps i'm missing it from the synopsis, but why on earth couldn't the corporation just send it's own assets for this? no deniability is required to protect your own assets from being extracted.

now, if the runners were hired by saeder-krupp to extract the guy, *that* would make sense.

More money then bodies available?

then lone star or knight errant (or any number of other private security companies) could have provided. what, you didn't think they only do police contracts, did you?

No but by the same token why hire those companies for a small one time job out in the boonies when Runners are available? KE and LS require contracts jurisdiction etc etc where as all the runners require is a pile of money and an introduction. Additionally you can ask runners to do things that you can't ask KE and LS to do. Additionally there is a to catch a thief element.

Here in Michigan there's a line drawn across the state-North of it is Rifle and Shotgun, south of it is Shotgun only. Does Wisconsin have similar laws? Also how active is the DNR during hunting season there? Around here, in real life, DNR agents have a lot of power-including arrest, search and seizure, etc...

Ha! When I read Milwaukee and Opening Weekend by mind translated that to Opening Day and I thought Brewers.

no, KE and LS don't need jurisdiction. they're security companies. you need a business license which lets you be a bodyguard, and a few licenses for carrying a gun, having certain equipment, etc. just because they compete for police contracts doesn't mean it's the only thing they do.

as for why would you turn to them before runners? gee, i dunno... why would you want certified representatives of a respectable business entity you can hold accountable in court for failure to deliver on their contract over a bunch of violent psychopathic professional criminals? surely it couldn't be reliability, or concerns about the person you're trying to protect being involved in persons illegally transporting, possessing, and using all kinds of illegal weapons, cyberware, unregistered combat spells, explosives, drugs, and who knows what else. i mean, if you can't trust people who routinely break the law for money, who *can* you trust? [/sarcasm]

seriously. the runners are a walking violation of the law. many times over. they're probably wanted for multiple crimes, ranging from breaking and entering up to assault, murder, manslaughter, destruction of property, arson, forgery, fraud, possession of all kinds of illegal things, and who knows what else? these are not the people you call when you're doing something legal. you use shadowrunners when you can't afford to have something traced back to you. when you are doing something perfectly legal, like trying to protect your employees from being kidnapped by violent criminals, you use legal methods.

it's a reasonable situation, until you go and hire runners to protect the guy. why not make the runners take an assignment to extract the guy, and put them into a situation where they have to protect him from someone or something else without him knowing it so that he's available for them to extract later? now *that* you might hire shadowrunners for. i mean, if you know you have to extract him, but your mr J doesn't want you to extract him until time X (to avoid raising alarms when the other group is supposed to be extracted, for example, so they have to be simultaneous), and you see a huge critter about to smash his hunting cabin while he's sleeping and defenseless, you have to do something. corp Z also wants to extract your target, and sends a team, you gotta stop them. and you gotta do it all without him knowing. that would be a believable shadowrun.

First question: Not Really. The state is divided into Management Zones that dictate mostly whether a hunter may harvest a buck or not. There are a few of these management zones that are restricted to shotguns and handguns only, but these are only found in urban areas such as Madison and Milwaukee.

Second question: They are quite active, and do have full powers of arrest, search and siezure.

In 2072, The DPNR Conservation Wardens have not been privatized, as many northwoods representatives and Madsion Liberals alike do not trust the likes of KE or Lone Star to enforce conservation law. Understandably, there's quite a bit of friction and animosity between the DPNR Wardens and Local Law Enforcement (Which in the rural counties is by and large privatized.)

However, the DPNR conservation wardens are badly stretched, overworked, and underpaid. They average only 5 pairs of Wardens per county (During hunting season Wardens usually patrol in pairs for safety.) They are supported by drone and awakened assets, but due to budget cuts these assets are more badly stretched than the actual wardens.

Nice.

Here in Michigan; sorry if I keep using that as a reference point-but it's all I have!-I know DNR agents are MICOLES certified, which means they meet the same basic requirements as the State Police, County and Local Law Enforcement Agencies. They also have a pretty intensive training academy. I imagine running afoul of the wrong cat could really ruin someones day.

Also another fun incidental encounter could be friendly fire incidents- hunting season draws morons with guns like fly's to rotten fruit. Perhaps one of them could be a bit disgruntled? At any rate I'd love to hear how this all plays out.

Why hire runners for the Job? Maybe...

Internal Security Officer Deon Krakalaka stood in the AR room surrounded by over 100 virtual windows. Some showed him text of employee files and others were surveillance films, trid stills and even biometric charts.

He stood transfixed, both hands sheathed in Ar Gloves. Occationaly he would move a window from one side of the room and replace it with another. Like a chess master he looked for an pattern, an opening that would show him what he was looking for.

" I know your here, you little slitch, and I will find you." he mumbled to himself. For 3 months he had been trying to discover who had been passing secret data to the competition. Three months of staring at files and seeing nothing. Who ever it was was good, very good. They had left no trace of themselves in the matrix or the meat world. But he knew that everyone slips up. they all do.

He reached up to move a window and froze. The window contained a trid shot of two groups sitting at tables in Diamond Slipper Restaurant . The first table held four men he recognized as employees. In fact, the sharp dretssed man facing the camara shot was his superior, James Trimbull. Directly behind him at the second table was a Dwarf woman in a Zoe evening gown and a companion, an Ork gentleman, looking slightly uncomfortable in his ill fitting tuxedo.

Deon Zoomed the the image in and expanded it to over lap all of the other images. He rotated the shot 45 degrees and stepped back. He let his breath out slowly,whistling softly. Running out the leg of his boss's chair was an optical cable that ran straight back and up the Dwarf womans dress. Looking closer, he could trace outline of the cable to the right sleeve of James suit jacket.

His gut told him he had his man, but there was no way he could go upstairs without more proof. He would have to set trap and he would need assets that could be trusted and deniable at the same time.

"Time to take Shank, the fixer out to dinner to discuss some business..." he thought as he shut down the room with a swipe of his hand...

edit: probably should have gone in the viginette thread...I was just going to make a point and got carried away...

Well to be fair, the way I imagine most people play the Sixth World, a legit sec company might very well balk at a standing order to kill Rick if they can't prevent him from being extracted.

That's not the point i'm making it's not that lonestar can't do the job, it's given the short notice, the remoteness and the clandestine nature of the job in question, not to mention the all important COST loen star isn't that much better of an option then runners. And yes there is a jurisdictional issue, lone star despite being a private security firm may or may not have rights to operate in the jurisdiction the principle will be traveling in, and such arrangements take time and widen the intel pool. Runners for whatever other flaws they have, and they have many, don't have that problem.

Are we playing the same game? While KE certainly qualifies for your criteria. However it's been a well established fact for many many years that the main difference between Lone Star and the thugs they protect against is drum roll please.........badges. Yes there are private security companies that could be hired but the good ones are likely to incur significantly higher costs and have less operational flexibility then a runner or mercenary team. Also whether you like it or not last time I checked the game is "Shadowrun". The use of Shadowrunners for all sorts of jobs is well established in setting, I see no reason to claim that there's some sort of reason where it's not actually appropriate here.


Since when have the corps ever cared about legal or illegal. What is legal is what they can get away with, your defense falls apart so long as the runners don't get caught, in which case their deniable. It's not what you know it's what you can prove as it was said in Training Day. Billy Bob, sheriff of upper michigan may believe HD hired the runners, a bunch of sinless criminals. But has no way to prove it, and since the runners arn't actually committing a crime at that time (presumably) there's no harm in them guarding the principal.



I'm starting to feel your in the minority on what is and is not a believable shadowrun and whats worse want the whole thing re-writen to conform to your view.

But lets see

Pluses to private security form:
Neat Uniforms
"Professional" in that they will uphold to the contract unless they think their lawyers can get them out of it or their not bribed enough to make it worth their while to look the other way.


Cons to private security firms:
No guarantee of right to operate or transport their gear.
Cost
Cannot be asked to perform illegal actions

Pluses to Shadowrunners:
Costs will likely be lower then private security firm
Work cheaper (usually)
Deniable if things really get messed up

Cons:
They might be criminals, you might have to vet them through your fixer or other shadow assetts.
You can't just haul them into court if they fail to mee thte contract. You have to send someone after them. Which is actually probly still cheaper then hiring lawyers.

Final parting shot: The game is called shadowrun. It's a game world that by it's very nature unlicensed paramilitary personell have become part of the operating framework of the world. If you look at it through the lens of "Pure realism" the whole setting starts to break down, and then we can't have the terminator having a shootout with merlin on a street corner in what's formerly Brooklyn.

eh, whatever. do you call shadowrunners to fix the plumbing, too? oh, look! i broke my wrist! well, why bother calling a hospital, shadowrunners have good medical skills! quick, get me a shadowrunning team that includes a medic! [/sarcasm]

yes, the game is called shadowrunner. and what are shadowrunners? deniable assets. when do you use shadowrunners? when you need to be able to pretend that you've never seen those people. if you don't need deniability, you don't use shadowrunners. you call up a bodyguard service, or a private detective; someone who (gasp) already owns their equipment legally, and doesn't need to get a license for it on short notice because they already do this sort of thing for a living, and they already have the necessary gear and licenses. you don't hire shadowrunners to be bodyguards. you hire bodyguards to be bodyguards. that's why they call them bodyguards.

but whatever. it's your game. personally, this doesn't sound plausible to me, but then again, i don't have to play in your shadowrun, so do whatever you want.

but you *did* ask for critiques, comments, etc. if you don't like mine, that's fine. but you quite literally did ask for it.

I think the best argument for using 'Runners over legit corp-based security is simple: the corps. Does HD really want to hire somebody like KE and give them all that information and access to the guy? That could easily result in the guy getting extracted by Runners working for Ares at a later date.

Hiring Runners means Rick is covered multiple ways. If the eco-rads get him, eco-rads will end up dead. If another corp tries to snatch him, the Runners will kill him before they let him get captured, if necessary. If some other dumb ass hunter gets pissed at Rick for taking his shot and starts harassing him at the lodge, dickhead hunter is dead, too. The best part is if the Runners end up in a shooting match or break the law, Rick can disavow them when the cops show up. All of this with no paperwork?

The best reason is the GM wants to do it. The IC reason could be an executive with a preference towards Runners over data trails. It could be a HD employee who actually works for SK setting the whole thing up. It could be the Johnson hiring the Runners wants to cover Rick's ass because Johnson owes Rick big, regardless of what HD wants. It could be Rick's wife works at HD and this is the excuse she needs to find out if he is cheating on her while he is on his trips. The Sixth World can be just plain petty in addition to byzantine and macabre, right?

Your /sarcasm tag is misplaced. It doesn't stop there, how do you properly form posts. I'm not actually the OP and didn't invite comments. I'm just a neutral observer who disagreed with your assesment on the viability of the run structure and shadowrunners as bodyguards, a function that they have traditionally performed in setting in a pinch. You yourself can't handle that and that's fine. Your righteous indication does wear a bit thin after a while.

What to you is the quinisential difference between a shadowrunner and a bodyguard? A bodyguard might have legal firearms permits, but those permits might night be valid in the locale the principle is traveling to, which is a definite concern in this case. But ehre's the thing, a shadowrunner's licenses could be just as valid as a bodyguard, and more then a few bodyguards and private investigators dabble as shadowrunners and vice versa. The difference for a shadowrunner is they can be a deniable, a nice quality to have, not a quality that excludes them from legitimate work.

Well, In my vision of Milwaukee, H-D would never want to use Knight Errant, as Ares is one of the two AAAs that have been trying to acquire them for decades. The only reason they've stayed independent is because S-K wants Harley Davidson, too and over the years, neither AAA has been able to gain an edge over the other.

ok, let's go over this again: we're talking about professional criminals who hire themselves out for the purposes of committing crimes. in all probability, they are violent, unstable, and quite possibly clinically insane. they probably shoot or otherwise seriously injure and/or kill people routinely as a matter of course, have little to no respect for authority, and are probably breaking all kinds of laws just because of the stuff they own, never mind the stuff they do. Private investigators and bodyguards don't dabble as shadowrunners. they don't break into high security facilities and steal prototypes or kidnap people. they don't commit arson or assassinate people. certainly, some of them will have appropriate skill sets to be shadowrunners, but that is a very different thing from being a hired professional criminal.

shadowrunners do kidnap and steal. they can commit arson, assassinate people, and all kinds of other crimes. odds are good that they're wanted under one or more alias in several countries, and the only reason they aren't wanted in more is because those crimes haven't been linked to them (yet). we're not talking about sane, stable people here. we're talking about people who are not capable of functioning in normal society, for the most part. people who have skills that could allow them to get a high-paying job where they aren't likely to get shot at, and instead choose to routinely risk getting shot in the face.

this kind of assignment i might expect from one of the SR team's contacts if they suddenly get into trouble. i would not expect it to come from harley davidson.

but assuming that the shadowrunners have legal permits for their gear and professionals who have legitimate, legal reasons to own that same gear don't? assuming that you can trust violent psychopaths who were probably drunk/high/chipping when you called them but not licensed professionals who've probably received some degree of training in their job and who carry the added plus of not being violent sociopaths?

perhaps your specific group of shadowrunners are a bunch of stable, well-adjusted people who for some random unfathomable reason just like risking their lives on a regular basis. but that is not likely to be the standard in a group consisting entirely of highly skilled individuals who've chosen a life of crime.

Senior Michaelangelo i trust from your tone that you are a master but I think your brush strokes are a bit wide.

I'm not sure how you factor bodyguard and private investigators being such upstanding citizens and somehow completely seperate from the sociopathic murdering stealing shadow-runners. I find it especially odd considering it's a world where megacorporate paramilitary forces are the norm. After all couldn't all the qualities that you seem to assign to bodyguards and private investigators. People who regularly subject themselves to getting shot at for pay, yet if their skills are that good why arn't they working full time for a corporation.? The OP, which once again I'm not, has already stated why at the very least KE, the premier security force in the world is not being employed. If i remember one of his writeups from elsewhere KE effectively owns Mil. which decreases the chance that Lonestar will have a presence there as it's likely not profitable for them in most cases.

Rather then address any of the salient points I post you would instead prefer to randomly assume the corporate mindset is all shadowrunners are indiscriminate killers and thieves untrusted with anything more complicated then smash and grab. When the setting suggests, no flat demands that that is not the case. Additionally what is the difference between a shadowrunner doing bodyguard work and a bodyguard. They both can have licenses after all, concievably they both can have sins, they both are putting their life in harms way for pay. In shadowrun where the basic premise is that extra-legal deniable assetts are employed for sensitive tasks for corporate espionage then it naturally bleeds they'd be used for other things as well.

actually, i rather doubt that if you were to ask a bodyguard or a private eye how often they get shot at, and how many times they've had to shoot someone... i bet it would be a lot less often than the average shadowrunner in the sixth world. the main point is that shadowrunners are the people who don't fit into normal society. frequently they are highly skilled individuals; the typical shadowrun team face could be a powerhouse of a businessman. the average hacker may very well be able to compete with the corporate court's top hackers one on one. the samurai probably puts many special forces to shame. the magician can likely perform feats of magic that would make most corporate wagemages look like a mundane.

but they choose a life of crime instead. they choose, deliberately, to live outside the law. to be perpetually in a state of worrying that someone might kick in your apartment door and empty a full clip into you. whether or not they start off as sane, well-adjusted people, they won't be after any reasonable amount of time in the shadows. they're going to watch their co-workers die on a regular basis, and they aren't going to get any closure. they're going to have to kill people for no other reason than that those people got in their way. their job essentially both requires and causes mental issues.

bodyguards and private eyes don't have to deal with that. they surely are not stress-free, but there's a big difference between "spy on my wife/husband/other so i know if he/she/it's cheating on me" and "please break into a heavily guarded research lab and steal all their research". you might get some untrained shmuck trying to beat you up in the first (or heck, even a trained shmuck), whereas in the second, you're probably going to be shot at by multiple trained and armed individuals with guns.

so yes, there is a large difference. bodyguards and private detectives don't routinely deal with death.

now then, which points do you feel i didn't address? your argument that the runners are somehow more likely to have legitimate licenses than the security company? the fact that lone star isn't example a shining example of human kindness and charity? (you trying to tell me the average LS officer routinely gets into gunfights and kills people? even then, lone star probably has lots of people with the appropriate skill sets who aren't violent sociopaths. and if lone star doesn't, then some other company does) or is it your argument that corps don't have to deal with what's legal and what isn't? (which is complete nonsense. most corps are not extraterritorial. they can't just go hide in their own 'country' and refuse to extradite. they still have to deal with the law, and the sheriff doesn't have to suspect those runners were hired by H-D, he can tell because they're the guy's freaking bodyguards. best case scenario: H-D has their guy thrown in jail for who knows how long for being a part of whatever crimes the shadowrunners are just as a result of owning the gear that they do)

your assertion that shadowrunners are cheaper is also suspect. there's no proof either way, but i'm inclined to expect quite the opposite; otherwise, corporations wouldn't maintain their own in-house resources. if it was just cheaper to hire a shadowrunner, then nobody would have firewatch teams, you'd just use shadowrunners and give them temporary SINs and licenses whenever you need them to do legit work. if it was cheaper, then no megacorp would be throwing away money on having their in-house operatives, and yet they do.

the corporations have a lot of money. security corporations can offer services to their employees that shadowrunners don't have. docwagon contracts, not having to live in fear every day of your life that the law is going to break down your door and kill you, a regular paycheck instead of hoping you get enough work to keep you off the streets.... there is legitimate work for people with the shadowrunner's skills. security guards probably only get shot at maybe once or twice in their life. a private eye doesn't have to worry about a hundred armed soldiers coming to kill him if he gets spotted. even a bodyguard working for someone who actually does get attacked a lot (which won't be most) at least probably has access to some kind of backup, even if it's only the law, without worrying about getting arrested.

most shadowrunners have marketable skills, and tend to be among the best in their field. the only reason for them to stay shadowrunners is that they aren't exactly what you would call sane. as i said earlier, their work both tends to require and cause mental issues.

so, which issues have i not adressed? please, do tell? i don't believe i've covered anything new or groundbreaking in this post. and yet i don't see which issues you've raised that i haven't addressed. so please, elaborate. enlighten me.

You are trying to compare two different things, real world bodyguards and private investigators with sixth world shadowrunners. Completely ignoring the fact that if the profession int he sixth world were compared side by side their likely not that differnet. The sixth world is louder, more chaotic and less "nice" then our own world in a lot fo ways. So it's not an accurate comparison to act like a bodyguard or private eye in our world has any kind of baseline for a bodyguard or private eye in the sixth world. Your example of a private eye spying on a cheating spouse, if said cheating spouse crosses into corporate territory, guess what. Their a shadowrunner, it's either that or fail the job and not get paid.

As to mental illness and instanty. There would be those that would state that living a soulless corporate existance where you still might get geeked on the street by a ganger is insanity. At least a shadowrunner can turn down a job they don't like or shoot back because they didn't have to consider whether their predator whould be considered legal for their license given the rating of the zone their in. All of that however doesn't have jack all crap to do with the fact that it is indeed Shadowrun, a game where corporations hire shadowrunners.

Security assets are great for many things, their great for coming in guarding a building or target with predictable assets in a relatively controlled enviroment where they know their equipment licenses are valid, they have carte blanche to do what they need to do with attackers, and their backup will be handy. They will work a fixed schedule and then be relieved by other security assets. In the event of an attack they'll assume defensive positions and try and pin down the attackers until a stronger force will arrive. They will not for example be as effective to guard a guy on a hunting trip in an an area they do not have exclusive jurisdiction in. Sure you could employ them, but what if you don't have time to negotiate a contract or can't consult a local legitimate firm (KE in this instance) because of complications. What is one of the basic premises of the setup that can be infered, the corp has no in-house forces it feels are suitable to the task, and it doesn't want to deal with the local security contractor. Shadowrunner time.

But that is not the point, the point of your argument was the adventure set up wasn't "realistic" to which my response is of course it's not realistic, it's fucking shadowrun. It's a game where trolls walk down the street and people can summon fire spirits to toast bread. It's a game who's setting of corporate espionage under a backdrop of dystopia is litterally predicated on the fact that the corporations can and do often hire extralegal assets to support and accomplish goals in a wide range of fields. Don't like that? Congrats, that doesn't make the idea any less valid or accurate.

In any case while this has been interesting but is taking attention from the original posters point so i'm done with it. I wish you best of luck in your struggles.

so, let me get this straight...

your new argument is that because shadowrun has elves and magic, nothing has to make sense at all? there's no need to maintain any degree of versimilitude in the setting? i guess we're back to calling in shadowrunners when the toilet gets clogged again. after all, it's the shadowrun game, people call shadowrunners when they have problems, right?

(also: a private investigator doesn't need to go on a shadowrun to follow someone across a corp border, unless the person is going to a secure facility. they just walk right through, the same way everyone else does. if it is a secure facility, well, guess what? nobody has a license for that. you don't send in the private eye, because he's not crazy enough to break into a secure facility. he sits outside and waits for his mark to come outside, and then follows them around)

(also also, i find your assumption that in a world where there are highly skilled persons willing to commit crimes and risk their lives for money, there would not be any persons who are willing to perform legal acts for money using the exact same skill set. or that somehow it's easier and faster to contact shadowrunners than it is to look up security companies on your commlink and place a call through legitimate channels.)

(also also also, the whole point in working for a megacorp is that you don't live in the areas where there are gangers who might shoot you. the people who live in that kind of area are the ones who don't work for a big corp for a steady wage. for example, shadowrunners. who often have to live in such places specifically because the police don't go there.)

Personally I think you are both overlooking the biggest point of all, Shadowrunners are less likely than the "legit" options to balk at a standing order to kill poor Rick if it looks like he is going to be extracted. After all, if Rick is really important enough for the corp to hire anyone to protect him than he is also important enough for the corp to want him dead instead of working for the competation.

Jaid, what about those people who grew up in the barrens or are sinless? Unless they are magically active there really is no way they are going to get that cushy corp job. How about the former corperate employees who for some reason or another had to leave that life behind? Is another corp going to hire them? Some people have no choice but the streets.

Think it's a nice change of pace run.

now that i could buy, if there was any sort of indication in the OP that their assignment included that.


right. because we all know that growing up in a violent society with minimal (if any) education, where might makes right leads to well-adjusted human beings. nothing quite like routinely watching your friends and family abused, oppressed, and murdered to keep you from going insane, right? even those who used to be corporate... they have the connections to create a new identity. just like that. you think they couldn't start their life over again outside of the shadows?

i'm not saying that it's impossible for a given shadowrunner to be a sane, well-adjusted human being. i'm saying that most of them are going to be unsuitable for work outside the shadows, because otherwise they wouldn't be working in the shadows (or at least, they'd have a safer job in the shadows than shadowrunner. i don't recall anyone talking about the life expectancy of street docs being likely less than a year, but you hear that a lot for shadowrunners)

a hacker could surely find things safer to do than hacking into places that have software designed to turn your brain to mush and enslave you. a street sam or rigger should easily be able to find much safer work. even jobs like the military don't require you to routinely get shot at, or require you to kill people, on a regular basis. sure, you may be going to a war someplace. but you also may not. and even if there is a war, you may not be involved in it at any given time. certainly, you're far more likely to get (and be able to handle financially) times when you're not in a warzone. a mage... well, that's obvious enough.

sure, if your team 'medic' has first aid 1 (gunshot wounds +2) he's not gonna get a job with docwagon anytime soon. the starting shadowrunners likely don't have what it takes to get the big guys to ignore your past, but if you have the skills, it is a known event for a mega to offer to bring people in as corporate assets... provided you aren't otherwise unsuited for work in the corporate world. as such, most of the people above a certain skill level who are not corporate assets are going to be people who don't function well in the corporate world. we may talk condescendingly about how those in the corporate world are wageslaves, but the truth is, they're probably the people we most resemble in shadowrun. those are the people who tend to be sane. and by the time you're a 400 BP runner, your sammy can probably punch out the red samurai, your hacker probably cuts through near milspec IC like it's not even there, your mage can probably outmage most graduates from MIT&T in at least one area, your rigger could probably almost compete in nascar, and so forth. if they haven't been picked up by a mega, given a new identity, and put to work, it's probably because they're clearly not able to function well in society, or because they don't want to function well in society.

shadowrun tends to focus on the few that aren't completely messed up because, truth be told, most of us don't want to play the majority of shadowrunners who tend to be unpleasant people (to put it mildly). it's the same reason the default assumption in D&D is that the players aren't a bunch of evil murderers who'd as soon stab the inkeeper in the face as say hello. there's lots of other stuff different from the two genres, but ultimately, even when you want to be an anti-hero, you still kinda want to be a hero. that doesn't mean that's what the rest of the shadows are like. we're talking about people who live right in the part of the world where life isn't worth a bent penny. their societal values are very different from those who grow up in the corporate world.

True, but I just assumed that it was a given Jaid.

Seriously though, I more or less agree with you with one possible exception, Runners are usually described as having the same sense of "coolness" that the old made-men used to have, so if Rick was actually someone important with pull I could envision HR springing on a team as opposed to a bunch of "boring" legit guards, despite the huge downsides and even increased chances of failure that Runners woudl bring to the table, not even the corps are completely immune to style over substance.