Locust pilots are the weirdest!

My favorite battletech story involved a Locust pilot and hte phrase "Whoop, whoop, whoop."

After encountering the phrase "Her angry eyes flashed the blue of P.P.C. fire," I gave up on Battletech books completely. And that was in the very first one I tried to read.

Hey, don't knock the author for putting a little reality in their metaphors. If I read any more fantasy novels that use the phrase "azure sky" I will flip out and eat the cover though.

At least Mercury wasn't human.

Yeah, a drake, boo hoo. He still was way over powered.

And he still sucked ass in a major way.

I mean, Sam Verner did extraordinary things too, and he wasn't Aneki's custom-made android son surrogate who found out he was also magical and lofwyr's sire mate.

Besides, the badass sam character can be done a lot better. Check out Argent in Findley's books, especially 2XS.

Not everyone goes up against a smart cyberzombie and comes out alive.

Not everyone goes up against a smart cyber zombie in the first place. This isn't Champions, after all!

Kid Stealth was a mob hitman, before he pissed off the Don. He was sent to "sleep with the fishes", fortunately for him he had somekind of body compartment with some plastique in it, and an internal airtank. He ended up blowing off his legs and swimming to shore, taking a few shark hits on the way. Where he was found by Doc Raven, he then designed his legs. So yeah, not the most pleasant guy to be around.

If he had the plastic, couldn't he blow the concrete?

I didn't write his backstory, but yeah probably. Wouldn't it still mess his legs up though?

I'd guess a lot less that blowing them off. then again, if I was stuck in some cemcent and only had a few seconds to live as panic was setting in fast, I'd probably go for the sure thing as opposed to a maybe. though I woulda gone below the knees, not above. too likely to bleed out before you reach the top. (femoral artery is a bitch)

actually he went just below the knees and used his shirt as a pair of tourniquets

that makes more sense, but that doesn't excuse the rediculousness of the unstealthy legs in a world where you don't want to stand out to Joe Average.

In Stackpole's defense, the legs were modular, so he could switch out to normal-looking ones. Also, Kid Stealth had a degree of diplomatic immunity, as one of Raven's crew. When combined with a natural "Frag you" attitude, he probably didn't care if he stood out.

Plus, remember, this was all written very, very, early. Some people prefer a more realistic game (Heat and Ronin being the classic inspiration/examples), some people one with more magic and high power (like a few of the novels) -- some, especially early in their Shadowrun "career," like a game that feels very flashy, chromey, cyberpunk "style over substance."

Maybe if we'd all read Wolf and Raven before a rulebook, we'd think Kid Stealth legs were the mark of a true professional, y'know? It all comes down to what flavor/mental image/tone of game you're going for. As it is, I tend to like a more realistic, gritty, almost-modern-day-feeling game (for better or worse), so the last guy I remember seeing with KS Legs got beat with a crowbar by some bouncers after being refused entrance to a bar I run, in-game. But maybe in another life or something, I'll think crazy shit like a balance tail, surge marsupial pouch, and KS legs with cyberskates on will just make an awesome set of additions to my Night One.

Ya never know.

I'm playing an ork furry street sam w/ a balance tail, KS legs, and his face rebuilt to look like a cat. He's a sniper, though, so he isn't seen too often by his enemies.

Does it affect his social life? Do you play that out?

I will say this is the one thing I truly dislike about Shadowrun.

The whole point of cyberpunk is you're losing your humanity, right? And you see it throughout the literature. Essence, mindless corporate drones, CEOs are invariably unpleasant, the corporations cease to 'care' about the people its made up of, etc. But they seem to have fallen off the train with cyberware. We SHOULD see outlandish cyberware, that's the whole idea! Tattoos, cosmetic cyberware, more and more invasive cyber for even the most mundane office workers. Otherwise it ceases to be CYBER or PUNK. The fact that it's effectively impossible (aka, a very bad, very silly idea) to become full borg upsets me profoundly, and the lack of brains in jars is a loss.

In my games, outlandish cyberware is pretty common, especially among the prols and kids with money to blow (after all, they can have it upgraded to normal stuff later). A shadowrunner with kid stealth legs will be noticed, but no more than you'd normally notice a guy with a mohawk. He's certainly not the only guy like that in the known world.

Well there it is. I prefer a near future "reality" based game, but if your preference is hardcore cyberpunk, then there you go...

That's fine. Your game and my game. (Actually, my players can probably attest that I"m too forgetful to push the point home anyway.)

But as I stated at the beginning, this is what I don't like, not what is secretly hidden in the rules or the background. I did get the sense from the earlier versions had a touch more punk to it (heck, they had a book and cyber dedicated to music). I do hope that SR4 is heading back in that direction.

I get the feeling SR4 will, if anything, move more towards the "cyber" than punk. Hell, even White Wolf have abandoned some of the "gothic punk" nature, and gone a bit more X-Files.

Christ, if they turn this into Conspiracy X I'll cry.

And I thought it was bad when I was the fast with a low cybered streetsam with a lot of skills. No face skill above 4, but he had a really good rep.