So, I just had a thought. There is a lot of talk about ghouls buying up the parts of people that can't be harvested by the Bodyleggers...

But what about starved and feral ghouls? Put them in a pit, and you have a nice replacement for Cock Fights.

Cheaper than dogs, too, and won't have you vilified in the media quite as much.

Bu then you got the ghouls who are doing OK, or doing runs, who may take it very personally and make the ring leader the new target. A couple bricks of high-grade explosives will stop them from mistreating my brothers, rawr.

Why stop at just ghouls? SINless fights! If you win enough, we'll give you a free SIN and a nest package to start your life! Until then you're just entertainment! Now here, take this dinky little club you've never used and go beat up that troll who's the current reigning champion.

Now THAT I like.

Ironically enough, I'm doing this in my game. My players run a street clinic, it's partly legit (as legit as an illegal medical facility can be) and partially a front for runners in need of very particular work. Some of the PC's are more about the helping the SINless who can't get any help due to their status and all that. Had some obviously yuppy kids come by, inquiring about doing a sociology report, and possibly start an outreach program, to help the SINless. My players, unfortunately for them and highly amusingly for me, don't really check things like this, usually. No Social rolls, no Assensing (and my games run magic heavy, too) to see that this is a big lie. They want the SINless for entertainment. More cases of odd injuries start coming in, and they all can suddenly pay, too. In Certified Cred. Finally, one of the PC's pays their hacker contact to really really dig into the cred, and finds out that it's all from the same bank, and from the same account, one of the yuppy kids. Oodles of fun, especially now that even the pacifist is out for blood.

As for the ghouls, it's funny they get mentioned as well because I was thinking of the efforts to get them recognized as a people, and that they have rights, too. I just finally got around to watching American Zombie, and I could see something like that happening. Haven't seen it? Do it. It's what Blair Witch should have been, with out some dumb-ass pissing in the corner at the end, or whatever the hell he was doing.

The Sega Shadowrun video game had pretty much exactly that setup; when your character starts out, he has amnesia and is being held prisoner in a junkyard. You have to fight in a series of "pit fights" earn enough money to buy your freedom from the guy who runs the fights.
On the plus side, as long as you are his prisoner, none of the folks looking for you can find you...

That's not the Sega's Shadowrun, it is the SNES's. The Sega's Shadowrun starts with you arriving in Seattle trying to discover what happened to your brother.

Pit fights are a staple of most dystopian futures. Doing it with ghouls just means a few less people who object to it (and a few people who eat flesh who might take it personally)

How about Devil Rat matches? Nobody likes them and they are everywhere.

Guess you haven't heard of Homeless Fights that are getting attention on the Internet, eh?

Dystopia isn't too far away...


Runner's Companion, Page 154.

Yeah, I could easily see a ghoul fighting ring that the PCs are paid to break up by an underground ghoul rights group... only to find that the ghoul "activists" are really just trying to corner the market, and are enslaving their less-intelligent brethren... cliché, but they get that way for a reason. Or a bunch of bums dropped in the ring with a ghoul, with the one who lasts longest pulled out and given a bunch of money, and the ones who don't keeping the ghoul fed.

And all live spectators have to roll vs HMHVV !!
Baaad Idea

Hough !
Medicineman

Yeah, splatter guards are a necessity here.

"Welcome to THE PIT, here's your Tyvek suit, helmet, and waiver. No, we don't have food service in the bleachers."

And nearly no normal person can actually see them...

Devil Rats? They're everywhere and easily seen.

They also make for most of the protean in SINless homes.

Did you forget about the -3 to Perception Tests from Concealment? That'll put most people at barely any dice, if any at all, to see them. 3 Intuition + 1 Skill = 1 dice, and that's assuming someone has put a rank in Perception. Most people wouldn't, and as a result would be at a dicepool of -1 (3 - 1 Defaulting - 3 Concealment). Actively Looking and any glasses addons may help, but that would not likely come up often.

And then you have to deal with the Devil Rat's Infiltration 4 + Agility 5... likely 3 successes with a diminished/negated dicepool.

So, in short, nearly no normal, everyday person can actually see a devil rat.

When they are trying to be sneaky.
Two devil rats fighting each other to death?
Yeah, even with -3, I can see a lot of other bonus added that anyone could see them.

I think that was more in response to catching them so that they may fight.

Devil Rats are hard to catch, which makes them valuable (To a SINless point of view.). A good rat catcher could make some good money for the fight pens.

Ghoul Catchers, the same. A HMHVV carrier, but one does not demonstrate the infection, that would find a good job as a catcher. Might even a way to get some minor amount of respect if found out...

Higher-End Metacritters would also be good fighters, but that would be more of the rich folk.

I'm pretty sure I'd let your average homeless devil rat hunter use the "Gettin' Dinner" knowledge skill as a supplementary skill. There's also nothing in a -3 concealment penalty that's going to protect a devil rat from a snare or trap.

Hm... keep those snares/traps/deadfalls/flipped-over dumpster traps in mind the next time your runners go sprinting down an alley. If it'll kill a devil rat, it could definitely impair your day