I've been thinking of having my street sam do some prize fighting on the side. He's fairly heavily augmented (0.024 essence remaining, so make that very heavily augmented) and I'm wondering what kind of opposition he'd come up against in the ring and how far the fights would go (And what, if any, precautions would be taken against the contestants beating each other to death)? Also, what kind of money could he earn for it?

For the kind of fights where they let someone with less than 0.1 Essence participate?

The fights are explicitly to the death, precautions are taken against a contestant being left alive, and the money he can earn for it largely depends on how good he is at staying alive.

Depends on what you mean by prize fighting. At that Essence level, and as a shadowrunner? I think you're more likely to be involved in pit fighting.

Heavy cyberization does tend to lead to lethal pit fighting, yes. More "sporting" combat is more likely to be found among mundanes and adepts, because they're more concerned with natural athleticism. But... since you are so heavily cyberized... this is exactly why the Sangre y Acero martial art was written up.

The money should be decent. People are putting their lives on the line, after all. Maybe have the GM choose the price of the cover fee to watch the fight, or the average size of a bet that would be made for that fight, multiply by the size of the crowd, then take a percentage of that as the winnings for the surviving fighter (10-30%, maybe?).

The fights should also be CRAWLING with undesirables and criminals, private and organized alike. There should also be at least some danger of a raid by the authorities if the local mob protection isn't strong enough. And the Sammy is gonna need contacts with whoever runs the show, or no one is gonna let him fight. You'll probably need to grease the wheels to get started, maybe impress someone, maybe bribe someone, and you'll definitely have to please the crowd. You should also have to deal with underworld politics and crazies. Unfair matchups should be a real risk, angry friends of defeated foes might seek revenge, desperate spectators might try to interfere in a match to make sure they win their bets, and even just getting to the fight venue could be a source of difficulty or annoyance, depending on local gang activity.

Of course, there might be other types of fights available, even for the insanely cybered. Maybe you and your GM can come up with something like an underground transhumanist cyborg MMA league. They'll probably not be as big or profitable, but it's a non-lethal option with a lot less risk, both of death and of other troubles. Steampunk is still fashionable in the 2070s, I imagine somewhere in the world there might even be a gentleman's mechanized boxing league, where dapper machine-men have good clean honorable fights and get paid in tea and jaffa cakes. Whatever works for you and your group.

~Umi

When I first saw this thread I though you were going to be talking about cybered-out animal fights. I have a cyber+bio rooster stat-up floating around here somewhere that I was going to share.

Share it anyway. Things have happened that mean the character is no longer going to be relevant, so why not let the thread evolve?

In the world I choose to live in, Cyber-Chickens will always be relevant.

Pit fighting for heavily augmented characters brings to mind the "Unlimited Class Wrestling" thing from Marvel comics. The idea being that in a world with mutants and whatnot, there would be a pro wrestling version where the gimmicks were real. In SR, I could see a darker version of that. The big money games that are broadcasted would be like "Running Man" but the smaller scale stuff would probably be illegal and held in old warehouses and the like. Think JCVD's "Bloodsport" or the pit fighting ring on the last season of "Alphas". Street sams, phys ads and so on, the flashier the better. You got a guy who can turn into a lion? Bring him on down to the Ultimate Street Fighting Leagues, and bring the kiddies why don't ya. Nicer places might have mages and medics on hand to patch up the damage, the grimier rings you just take your face home in a doggie bag.

As unpleasant as it would be, I could see a pit fighting ring for awakened animals as well. Hell hounds fighting packs of devil rats and so on. And some mixing would be appropriate, like how many sasquatches does it take to get to the gooey center of a sam? It opens up all sorts of avenues for runners; in addition to the fights themselves you have the acquisition and smuggling of dangerous and exotic animals, hackers trying to put the footage online, fighters rigges up with simsense so people can experience what it's like to fight to the (near) death from the comfort of their living room. It's fertile ground.