I've always loved trolls in Shadowrun. They're big, they're tough, they're in your face, and it isn't always fun to be the big man on the block. When you can't solve all your problems through violence and intimidation, all the violence and intimidation others think you're capable of works against you. So trolls would end up being far more anti-social on average than every other metatype. Their size alone makes them quite literally a poor fit for sixth world society. One of the things that always stuck me are the manifold problems for trolls in the sixth world.

They need to eat more, their clothing costs more, the vehicles they can fit into are more expensive, and they are the smallest minority of the five metatypes. The first three make everything about their lives more difficult and expensive, and the last can make it very hard to find someone who understands you, and can safely and comfortably have sexual relations with you (I think about this stuff too much...)

For giants, the problems are even worse. Though they are more human in porportion, and less "ugly", they are even bigger than other troll metavariants. If you were 3 meters tall, I have to admit, there would be desperately few chances for you to make a life for yourself in the sixth world in a legitimate fashion. You would scare the hell out of people all day since you tower over everyone, even trolls. Less ugly, but seemingly more inhuman. And you just don't fit in; clothes are hard to find, food is going to be a problem, and just living indoors is going to be a struggle. What apartment in the sprawl has ceilings to fit you? None. The best thing I could think of for a giant in the big city would be to squat in or rent out a loft in a warehouse (one that hasn't been converted too much, so it's not a warren of tiny tenements), which would be the only place I would think you could comfortably stand up.

As a runner, I don't know how well you could do. You would really stick out, and be memorable. Equipment will be even harder to get in the proper sizes. How easily can you fit into corp labs, warehouses, etc to do your job? You'd have to crawl through doorways. You'd get damn sick of sitting cross legged in a bar for a meet with Mr. Johnson all the time. It must suck to be a giant, and I feel for the fictional fellows. Your sort of destined for either finding some kind of niche in security or construction, somewhere your size helps, or being a squatter or neo-primitivist, leaving out in the wilderness. A gang banger life is one of the few places you'd fit in relatively well, even then, you'd be lonely.

I think giants would try to live a full immersion lifestyle often, escaping into the Matrix to be in a place that doesn't judge them by their size and appearance, a place they do fit in. I think metatype and metavariant dating services and social networks would be vital for many metatypes, to find the right kind of mate who is biologically compatible, as well as emotionally and intellectually. I know they like to push the transhumanist nature of sexuality in the sixth world, with all kinds of doodads to let trolls and dwarves do the nasty safely and with lots of fun, but I think when looking for companionship, a giant would want to find another giant, a relatively rare metatype to find at all. Long distance and virtual romances to find someone who fits you would be something a giant would have to deal with.

One thing that I think is cool is Evo's Metaergonomics brand, building consumer products for all peoples. I remember in an old SR2e adventure there was a part of the run that involved kidnapping a troll whose family owned a store that sold troll sized gear, including motorcycles. I saw the bike that Jesse James built for Shaq, built to his specifications. It was a monster bike, and when Shaq got on it, he said it was the first time in his life he felt small. The bike, unlike everything else, was built to fit him completely, and it did. I can see a lot of giants going for similar custom bikes. It would be a form of transportation you could get relatively cheaply custom made for a giant's size. It would also be huge and awesome. I think a bike made for a giant would outweigh most cars on the road in 2072.

Depends on if they're rich or not, but that's the same as everyone.

Honestly, having so many other weirdos out there can only make things easier. Yes, they're huge and odd, but the whole world's gone crazy.

As for jobs, I'd imagine that any job in which you imagine someone big/strong would generally be a decent fit for a giant. They would make perfect bouncers and excelent construction workers. They might work as a bodyguard to some degree, though they would be quite conspicuous. They'd also be great for the more overt crime, like that of gangs, and once again, would make great bodyguards/bouncers for crime bosses and such. Metalman would be another criminal occupation possibility. Also, if they could get past general prejudices, they would be just as competent as any other person at any job which doesn't require direct interaction with customers. Alot of cubical jobs, call centers, marketing people, etc. never have to interact with a customer face to face, and so would just have to get around the prejudice of the employer (which would admittedly likely be very difficult).

While I agree that the difficulties seems to indicate that there would be alot of depression/escapism among giants, they (like trolls) seem to by lore almost revel in their strength and physical ability for the most part. I could be wrong about this, as my lore knowledge is fairly sketchy, but I've always gotten the general impression that they like being strong and tough and powerful and etc for the most part (Now that we're looking at 3rd or more generation trolls). They seem to get alot of support from the Orks as well (the other 'ugly' metatype) and so while other trolls may be somewhat rare, others that will accept them aren't nearly so much. And of course if trolls all hang out with orks, there is a greater chance that two trolls will meet at an Ork gathering. Don't know if giants have this same kinship with Orks or not.

All that said, I'm sure there are quite a number of trolls and giants that would prefer they were just normal humans that didn't have to deal with all the difficulties of being a troll/giant. This would be especially true of those that goblinize unexpectedly I'd imagine. As the two more likely responses are "Sweet, look at how big and strong I am now." and "Oh gezz, this sucks, now I'm huge and ugly and everything is going to suck."

Yeah I agree, you might be memorable because your huge, but so are the crazy makeup wearing clown gang down the street. Crazy crazy shit

"How hard is it?"

Well, that depends entirely on your GM and how "realistic" a game they want to run.

Well for jobs, i beliave that troll and their variants have pretty much cornered the market on jobs like bounchers and the like.
Would you be starting trouble in the line to club if the guy at the door is 3m tall giant who looks likes he's allways a little angry.

I don't know, I think phys ads would be the norm at the super high end clubs. Gotta respect a club with a dwarf Kenshiro manning the door

No not really, raw physicality counts for a lot, especially in the deterence area, and if that giant also just happens to be a physad or wired....ouch.

Deterrence? Where's the fun in that? But you're right, I hadn't considered deterrence. Too busy thinking of dwarfs kicking the crap out of patrons

Why kick them when the dwarf could throw them instead (dwarf tossing backwards-style).

I shy away from playing Trolls already due to their size and the ease with which they can be picked out of a crowd. Can't imagine how bad that would be for the giant. Unless your are going full pink mohawk, it is going to be important to blend into your surroundings.

I hate to bring up a racist stereotype (and in this case, it really is Racist in the literal sense), but your GM can make your troll stand out as much or as little as he wants him to. "Alright, now describe what he looked like." "I don't know Officer, he was a Troll! They all look the same!"

i usually mostly play trolls.
i make it a point to whine and complain about exactly this stuff.
in bars, i push the bar-stools aside and sit on the ground. i know it looks silly, but it's comfortable.
And i can still look even orks straight in the eye, if i sit up straight. and i have no problem with other people making fun of me.
i usually only ask them to come and take their problems with me outside. there's usually a free path to the door for at least one of us pretty quick.
i do the same at meetings with johnsons and the such. and if they start shit, i calmly remind them that they wanted me there for exactly the reason they are now being dumb about.
then i double my price. and if they don't stop, i get up and leave. let me see them find another competent strong-man in my weight class any time soon, if it's an urgent job . .
furthermore, it might be hard for me to get through a door . . but it's completely impossible for other people to get through the door if i decide they are not coming through there.
and as a troll, i have a BIG body-score and copious ammounts of armor worn and built into my body that don't look to be any thicker than most normal leather clothes on me.
so i can take the damage of people trying to simply shoot through the door and shrug it off. basically, i can block of whole rooms all by my little poor old self.
also: have you ever seen the kind of havoc a troll that has been made improved invisible can to to any number of people in a room, if he's carefull?
sneak up behind someone, then use what was a problem to your advantage. the ceiling is too low for you . . grab someone by the neck and HAMMER their head into the ceiling.

I dunno, trolls have been around for about fifty years now. That's two full generations of people, and most buildings will have either made allowances for them if not directly built with them in mind. That includes furniture, clothing, and everything else. I doubt if it would be any more inconvenient being a troll in the 2070s as it is being over 6'6'' in the 2010s. A nuisance in a lot of places? Sure. But not to the degree I see some people mentioning in this thread.

Giants, though, will probably still run into problems. 'Course, that goes for some of the other metahuman variants, too. Especially the freakier ones like Satyrs and .... the new multi-armed Human one I can never remember the name of. But those issues would deal more with just clothing and certain types of gear, which is a relatively minor concern. Especially since I'm sure specialty shops would cater exclusively to them by 2070, too. But Giants? Yeah. They're still going to have to crouch down in a lot of places, and using public transportation will be a pain in the ass.

But hey, it's worth it to be a virtual treant.

I wouldn't be that sure - especially if you consider that a single troll will use up as much ofice space as two humans. He will probably require troll-sized toilets too, which is a painfull expense to provide for what might be a single worker. You'l probably have to provide enlarged door and higers ceiling too, which will jack up costs. Consisdering the thin profit margin of that sort of jobs, odds are the trolls won't be picked. Not out out of racism, but simply because they're not as cost-effective as a normal-sized metatype.

On the other hand, any job where siez sin't a problem and a troll's natural strength can save the expense of machinery they will be picked up rather than humans and possibly even orks. Unfortunatey most of those will be on the shitty end of available jobs.

They could always play basketball. But yeah, I can imagine being 9'8 to be quite damned annoying. But then that is a larger annoyance for a Joe SINner than it is for a shadowrunner. Sure, you won't make the best covert ops specialist, but you are certainly predisposed to a life of crime.

Unfortunately makes getting away with a crime a bit tougher, considering how rare and distinctive giants are and all

"What did they look like,Mr.Beaten-within-an-inch-of-his-life Security Guard?"

"Well they looked like everyday people...except for the one that was...like...3 meters tall.I think I was mugged by Treebeard."

In 2070, I'd assume all clothing is custom-tailored on the spot using an image scanner and some sort of robo-production. They could laser cutting and welding for synthetic materials, maybe some kind of glue in place of thread, or maybe even just high speed knitting to make a seamless outfit (like a t-shirt body has no side seems). Given how cheap drones are, and how hugely variable even non-troll body types are, such a non-mobile specific purpose mini-fab just makes sense. It effectively allows a MUCH huger "inventory", without tying up capital in actual stock (besides raw materials). This might be done via matrix shopping, or at a physical storefront... not that there's much difference in SR.
Most vehicles are stated to be similarly tailorable, iirc. Newer construction would (at least in the UCAS) be required to be metahuman compliant.
As for sexual relations... well, yes, your pool of mates is smaller. But so is that of any potential mate. Lesbians and gays, people into BDSM- none of them have to much trouble finding potential partners, and in that case there isn;t even the obvious visual clue as to who would be compatible!



Giants and other troll types would probably socialize just fine, but yeah, they'd likely have race-centered social circles, at least for dating purposes where physical sex was a desired outcome.

As for the bike- like I said, such "custom" designs would probably be pretty much the norm. With everything produced by CAM and nano-forge methods, asemebled by mechanic droids, you don't need an artisan like JJ producing every part; he just produces the designs, and the computers and robots handle the rest.

As for work.... meh. I know a fair number of 250 lbs weight lifters who work in IT. Telecomuting would let a troll / giant hold a white collar / IT job (and most service industry jobs) without concern for working conditions, and telepresence drone operation would let even the weakest human work in construction. Physical size just isn't a factor in most jobs, given 2070 tech.


All that said, playing any shadow runner character who is so abnormally large is hard, due to teamwork issues. Your team needs vehicles that can transport you, they can't loan you gear so easily, it makes for a more obvious team profile, and (worst of all) few if any of the group members are strong enough to drag you to safety if you go down. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of teams had a "no trolls" rule. Or, if there were teams with ONLY trolls (and metavarients).