Been musing over a random encounter that I "threw in" last session; one of the PCs spotted one of her enemies at Infinity (this is during the "A Stranger In Our House" scenario from Ghost Cartels) and retreated to the ladies' room to avoid confronting him. In there, after about 15-20 minutes, I decided to throw in a friendly NPC; a young woman sidles up to the PC and asks what's wrong; PC invents a story about her ex-bf being out there, and embroiders their last encounter into an appropriate sob story, and does a good enough job that the NPC volunteers to take the fellow down a few notches. "For this dirtbag, I'll gladly be your shadowrunner. So, Ms. Johnson, what's the job?" End result after that was the PC getting a new Loyalty 1 contact and the enemy getting publicly humiliated.

But did some thinking after the session was over; the NPC didn't know that she was talking to a shadowrunner. All she knew was that she offered to give some help to another woman that was distraught in the bathroom, and yet she used the metaphor of being a "runner"--someone else's covert operative sent to anonymously attack someone else--with a degree of gusto and the enjoyment of doing something "naughty." Further thought brought out the example of the "Barefoot Bandit" and the aura that he's somehow attracted around himself.

So, looking for more data so I can stop trying to generalize from a sample size of one NPC. In your games and setting interpretations, how are shadowrunners seen in the public perception? Anti-heroes? SINless animals that need to be put down? Etc and so forth.

Depends on which 'Trids and Simsense they enjoy. Some see them as the heroes of the last bastion of freedom... Others see them as terrorists and should be reported at once.

Security Guards always see them in a bad light.

The exception, of course, being LA, with it's P2.0.

Yeah, both LA with it's P2.0 and NYC with it's MeFeed...

There's been plenty of canon reference to shadowrunner simsense/trid though, and with a Public Awareness of 10 a runner is a 'household name' who may have had movies and tridshows made about him, so...

I'd say you are safe to say that a significant part of the population will have a romanticized view of them, possibly similar to how some people of today view outlaw biker gangs, criminal rappers, etc. Other parts of the population will view them as terrorists, spies, scum-of-the-earth, murderers, or just part of the big diffuse criminal population - as approperiate.

Kane's got movies based off of him.

Geh. My Missions character Old Man Jones has a PA of 10.

It's disconcerting for him to see that remake of "The Equalizer" on the trid, using his name and general look.

I suppose it's time to go get some more Notoriety just so he can burn off Street Cred and lower the PA rating.





-k

In my own games Shadowrunner's are criminals, and like all criminals some have charisma; a cinematic face and happen to be in the right place at the right. Most just go through the various facets of the criminal justice system, as it were.

"If you're in trouble, if there's no where else to go, you too may be able to hire..." *Gunshots* "Shadowrunners."

"My name is Michael Westen and I used to be a 'corporate asset'. Until..." *news fragment about the Crash 2.0*
"When your data is wiped, you have nothing. No cash, no credit, no job history. You do whatever work comes your way. You rely on anyone who's still talking to you."

That was a good show...except that his GF was so annoyingly Mary Sue-ish that I just couldn't watch it anymore

I haven't noticed that. Plus, she finally got arrested in Season 5 finale.

To me, public perception of runners depends a lot on people's position in society. Wage slave corp managers (middle-class) have a lot invested in "the system" and a lot more to lose, and would therefore tend to think of runners as criminal scum who could ruin their nice cosy lives at any point in time. Folks at the fringes of corp life or in the barrens (working class) might be more inclined to have a romantic Robin Hood view of runners.

Naturally, 10 people will probably have 11 different views on shadow runners, and their bias may be largely moulded by events in their lives: the janitor whose cousin was killed by runners on night-shift would see them as murdering scum, and the corp executive whose kidnapped daughter was rescued by a runner team might look on them as a necessary evil that have uses from time to time ...

And THAT is exactly the way I like to play
Actually, the team's current van is black and has a red stripe on it.

I'd like to think there is no one specific view of the various criminals who are "Shadowrunner's". Obviously there is no one right way to present it in game, or at your own table.

As an example one of players has a character who's a sort of combination Face/Street Sam that has a reputation for hurting animals. This means some of the people who deal with sometimes become aware of this, and react appropriately. (A guy who's psychotic maybe thinks "Gee, a kindred soul." Where as maybe a NeoAnarchist aligned gang member is a bit wary of a cat who gets his jollies from hurting pets.)

I want to play a bastard of a journalist with some filthy assistants.

You need drugs for that though.




-k

I live in Winnipeg. That's not an issue.

...

OH you mean in game. Yeah, I'll buy some drug dealer contacts.

Tell them you need vasopressin, washed caffeine, jumpstart, ginkgo biloba, guarana, and any intelligence enhancer introduced in the last five years.

Then get yourself a bowel disruptor.




-k

Wish I had one to use on myself sometimes... I feel so full of drek.

Then I see my writing and realize that's where I get my ideas.

Actually I would see it similar to the popular opinion of Jesse James around when he was killed.

I concur with Paul that there would be no one general view of shadowrunners. Some people would consider them little more than terrorists for hire, while others would romanticize them. Despite corporate control of the mainstream media, Shadowrun assumes a pretty vibrant counterculture, from the Kapow!Kapow! profiles in Shadowbeat giving the scoop to all of the "shadowteens", to Kid Stealth cyberlegs, to L.A. runners on P2.0. And just like today, a lot of that counterculture is actually packaged by the big corporations - who, after all, do make use of shadowrunners. So at the same time the serious news decries them, other outlets will give everyone lurid tales of their exploits. The same company that hire runners to hit a rival studio will also run an expose on how Knight Errant is not doing enough to reign in these dangerous criminals, at the same time they are filming the next season of Wade the Wagemage, Spellslinger for Hire.

It's nothing new, really. From pirates, to Billy the Kid, to Pancho Villa, to Bonnie & Clyde, to gangster movies, to gansta rappers, to about half of the action movies out there, there has been a long tradition of romanticizing the outlaw life. So why should the Shadowrun universe be any different? Hell, Shadowrun itself is that, with cool antiheroes fighting corrupt authorities and criminals who are magnitudes less sympathetic than they are, with the occasional bit of altruism or world-saving.

As Glyph stated. But what gets really funny is to contemplate the irony of the message. Sure, you can watch them give the finger to the system on your entertainment system of choice. But try to emulate that in real life and bubba the troll rent-a-cop will show you the error of your ways. In the end it is a bit like the screaming masses telling the winner of the roman circus to kill his opponent, but if any of said mass got the gladius tossed their way they would not know what end to grasp. Plus ca change people, plus ca change.