Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Raiderjoseph on <09-14-16/1857:11>
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I know it varies but is there a general method to finding a fixer? If someone has(or chooses) to turn to Shadowrunning to Survive then how exactly does one find a fixer in the Shadowrunning world? This is from a In-Universe view. Not gameplay rules mind.
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In my games I always play it off as the players knowing a guy who knows a guy who dated the sister of his best friend's former roommate.
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In my games I always play it off as the players knowing a guy who knows a guy who dated the sister of his best friend's former roommate.
I appreciate the flawless humor of a Mel Brooks anything as much as the next guy but I was being serious.
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The Fixer is sort of a metagame thing, providing the reason the various players come together.
EiraHaexa is not far off though, without someone knowing you, albeit at a distance, why would they hire you?
When the newbie joins the shadows he has little to no rep and fewer connections.
They will probably start out by doing odd jobs to get by, depending on their skill set.
As they gets to know people and be known in turn, some of those connections will probably pass the word along what they can do.
The Fixer pays attention to this networking, sifting the stats from the hype and may throw the new runner a job or two to test the waters.
If they don't muck it up, more jobs may become available.
You also have to remember there are few dedicated Fixers whose sole purpose in life is just hooking people up. Most have other aspects to their life and the Fixing often ties in with it.
A local gunsmith might act as your Fixer for gearing up on some hard to find ammo or putting you in touch with a gunbunny he supplies who might be willing to provide some needed firepower for a job is one example.
Most tables sort of skip this initial initiation into the shadows, and just put the team mates in touch with each via the Fixer and get on with the runs.
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If you chose to become a shadowrunner (and sometimes even if you didn't), then you probably went looking for places fixers frequent. It's not that hard; there are bars and such for deckers, mages, fixers, etc - you might not know who you're looking for, but if you case the joint long enough (or march straight up to the bartender like a rookie) you'll pick something up.
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The Fixer is sort of a metagame thing, providing the reason the various players come together.
EiraHaexa is not far off though, without someone knowing you, albeit at a distance, why would they hire you?
When the newbie joins the shadows he has little to no rep and fewer connections.
They will probably start out by doing odd jobs to get by, depending on their skill set.
As they gets to know people and be known in turn, some of those connections will probably pass the word along what they can do.
The Fixer pays attention to this networking, sifting the stats from the hype and may throw the new runner a job or two to test the waters.
If they don't muck it up, more jobs may become available.
You also have to remember there are few dedicated Fixers whose sole purpose in life is just hooking people up. Most have other aspects to their life and the Fixing often ties in with it.
A local gunsmith might act as your Fixer for gearing up on some hard to find ammo or putting you in touch with a gunbunny he supplies who might be willing to provide some needed firepower for a job is one example.
Most tables sort of skip this initial initiation into the shadows, and just put the team mates in touch with each via the Fixer and get on with the runs.
I would love to play a campaign like that. I don't really feel like I know the Shadowrun Universe. I know lore but it doesn't replace expierence you know?
If you chose to become a shadowrunner (and sometimes even if you didn't), then you probably went looking for places fixers frequent. It's not that hard; there are bars and such for deckers, mages, fixers, etc - you might not know who you're looking for, but if you case the joint long enough (or march straight up to the bartender like a rookie) you'll pick something up.
Its funny that was my first guess and I didn't think it would make much sense!
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If I recall correctly Slam-O! is a second generation shadowrunner so that's one way to get in.
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Also keep in mind that usually the game sorta assumes that while you're a new Shadowrunner, you're not necessarily new to the lifestyle in general. PCs are, skillwise, already a cut above. To use a D&D analogy, normal folks are 0 Level, basic beat cops, gangers, and corp guards are 1st through 3rd level, and most starting PCs are 5th level. They have some kind of experience, they've gotten some gear, they've learned some skills, and they've made a contact or two.
I usually encourage my PCs to either take a Mr Johnson or a Fixer as a basic contact at chargen to represent this.
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Also keep in mind that usually the game sorta assumes that while you're a new Shadowrunner, you're not necessarily new to the lifestyle in general. PCs are, skillwise, already a cut above. To use a D&D analogy, normal folks are 0 Level, basic beat cops, gangers, and corp guards are 1st through 3rd level, and most starting PCs are 5th level. They have some kind of experience, they've gotten some gear, they've learned some skills, and they've made a contact or two.
I usually encourage my PCs to either take a Mr Johnson or a Fixer as a basic contact at chargen to represent this.
I usually go with this method myself. New runners are generally assumed to be at least semi-experienced even if they don't have a major rep. Unless your specific campaign assumes otherwise going by my reading of the books. As Bull said new runners for the game aren't the same as new runners for the world. Its the difference between my getting framed by the police, going on the run and trying to stay alive/free long enough to prove my innocence or just embrace the shadows and my having been a runner for years. In the former case I know no one, have no running relevant skills and will probably be "Killed resisting arrest" shortly unless a group of actual runners take me in because they were hired to find out the truth of the incident I was framed for and keeping me alive provides them bait. In the later I know what I'm doing, I have contacts who can get me gear, I have useful skills but my being hired is "I know a guy" still not "I know how to get in touch with that person" much less "You don't want to poke the tiger unless its very important". So people looking for a skilled mage who can provide some security will have me offered as a possibility, people looking for a massively experienced combat mage to take part in an assault on the Renraku Arcology as part of an information gathering strike will have someone else suggested because I wouldn't survive long enough to provide useful information.
Given the way the game handles character creation the only way in my opinion to represent a brand new to the running world is either have a group fully in agreement who purchase mostly non-running skills artisan vs automatics or run a street scum campaign where you have other skills but only represent the running relevant ones.
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Maybe it's time for a new version of one of my favourite supplements ever, Mr Johnson's Black Book? With all informations about how the whole shadowrunner ecosystem works.
It could even be fused with an updated Sprawl Survival Guide. Now that would be awesome.
I would name it Mean Streets. Or Street Smarts.
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I think the answers to this question are as many as the number of shadowrunners.
For a completely new team...
Obviously you can have a face char on the team that knows "everyone in town". He has the contacts, so no one else needs to at least to start.
After a few (successful) jobs, the face's fixer is everyone else's fixer too.
Or maybe one of your contacts knows a guy.. or knows a guy that knows a guy.
Perhaps you got kicked out of the University for practicing unlicensed magics.. and you just ask your bartender buddy if he's heard of any work.
He hooks you up with a fixer that has a lot of his meetings in that bar.
Maybe you work part time for Doc Wagon as a medic and you've cleaned up more than once after someone's run went bad.
You are looking for some extra cash to buy that sweet new bike so you ask one of your patients where you can find some "night work".
The possibilities are really endless.
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In my games I always play it off as the players knowing a guy who knows a guy who dated the sister of his best friend's former roommate.
I appreciate the flawless humor of a Mel Brooks anything as much as the next guy but I was being serious.
I was too, lol.
PC: "I need to find some work soon. Rent is overdue and my landlord is threatening me."
PC's friend: "I think my chummer's girlfriend knows a guy who might be able to set you up with something. I mean, as long as you're ok with working under the table."
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Given the way the game handles character creation the only way in my opinion to represent a brand new to the running world is either have a group fully in agreement who purchase mostly non-running skills artisan vs automatics or run a street scum campaign where you have other skills but only represent the running relevant ones.
Judging by our own campaign, starting at "street scum" is one of the better ways to explore 'running from the ground up - especially with a table full of folks used to D&D/Pathfinder. Since neither the PCs nor the NPCs are tricked out with cyberware and munitions, the setting's a little less lethally unforgiving of mistakes. The risks and rewards do ratchet up with time.
However, "a guy who knows a guy who dated the sister of his best friend's former roommate" would be an IMPROVEMENT. Lately, it's been one prospective Johnson or another so desperate that someone gave them our team's contact info.
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A homebrew mission I played through with my sharpshooter, Mouse, started like so...
Mouse arrives in Denver from the Salish-Sidhe tribe, to get a taste of the big world immediately after losing her brother in the second matrix crash.
Goes to a local concert that is showing a few local bands.
At concert, gets to talking with a lead drummer who uses the band's tours to cover for his work as a fixer. (Mouse doesn't know that last bit yet)
We both hear screaming, and find a young wage mage being chased down by a Red Samurai. (Just the one, but it was a troll)
We both intervene and save the woman's life. She offers a fair chunk of Nuyen to get her out of Denver, we accept.
Find out later that she is carrying a data chip that holds proof of Renraku's involvement in the second matrix crash, and implicates several corporate executives in criminal activity.
After getting her out of Denver, we have a decker make several copies of the files, and make BANK selling to various interested parties.
Mouse now works as a fixer in Denver, supplying anti-Renraku jobs.
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My current character used to be a thief/burglar before becoming a shadowrunner. She knew a few low-time fences that bought her stuff, and one day they said "Hey I know this guy, who's looking for someone who can get into places without being seen. Interested? Here call this number".
That's basically how she met her fixer.
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How potential shadowrunners can start from the scum side of the street:
(More like, how NOT to start out?)
Technomancers like Proxy can make big money if they play their trons right! However, when you're on the hook with a loan shark over upgrades, and a friend asks if you could get a couple of lowlifes together for an easy "cleaning" job, there you go. (Questionable life decisions :-\ )
Max was an orc changeling living on the streets who just wanted to afford dog food. Eventually enough money for some biochem projects he'd seen on YouTube would be great, but at least there's money for homemade explosives now. (Cash, something to do :D )
Mads/Matt/Al1ce had a set-back in therapy and hit the streets to hide or something. With a SIN issued by Ares Macro-Technologies. Right. That works. Because no one's ever going to notice a blond caucasian 'brat with a frackin' crewcut in South Detroit. One that never got bullied at school after the freak "gas leak" explosion. But he and Max got along! (Chance, knowing a guy who knows a guy ;) )
Blaine was just another UCAS vet with a dodgy record and no prospects for a paying job. Not entirely a "people person", and in dire need of "structure" and cash in his life. Several months and much karma later, he may have finally shot more people than knifed. (Down on one's luck :P )
Red ... we kind of got his cousin sent to State lockup for a dime or two. But by that time we had a few hundred nuyen between us, so the money was good? Now our enemies are his enemies too! (Misguided sympathy for the underdog :o )
Preacher. His cousin didn't do so well working with us either, but the UCAS is still the Land of Opportunity, at least for bounty hunters who don't mind a bit of car theft and drug running, yeah? Or at least one who needs to never be seen in France again. (Cash, 'cause it's a job 8) )
GoGo was a B&E gal making her way up amidst a smuggling operation. Being one of the survivors of a police sting, and a potential witness, we brought her with. If we hadn't, maybe Scotland Yard and Interpol wouldn't be after her now. (Failing to look more carefully at that one-way ticket out of town. ::) )
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On another angle.
Rex sophisticated heir to the Reinhardt Fortune figured he'd prove his bad boy rebellion creds by hanging out with a few kids from the rough side of town. Afterall if they started something he could finish it. Sadly what they started turned out to be not an abandoned building complex but rather a hidden test facility for Lofwyr that was experiencing a slight glitch. Now the others are dead, his face is popping up on most wanted signs as armed and dangerous, his dad's disowned him and there's that annoying voice in his head that wont shut up. The others are dead right? its just he keeps getting glimpses of Tex-Mex's face in the mirror.
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Given the way the game handles character creation the only way in my opinion to represent a brand new to the running world is either have a group fully in agreement who purchase mostly non-running skills artisan vs automatics or run a street scum campaign where you have other skills but only represent the running relevant ones.
Judging by our own campaign, starting at "street scum" is one of the better ways to explore 'running from the ground up - especially with a table full of folks used to D&D/Pathfinder. Since neither the PCs nor the NPCs are tricked out with cyberware and munitions, the setting's a little less lethally unforgiving of mistakes. The risks and rewards do ratchet up with time.
However, "a guy who knows a guy who dated the sister of his best friend's former roommate" would be an IMPROVEMENT. Lately, it's been one prospective Johnson or another so desperate that someone gave them our team's contact info.
I've found the problem with the "street scum" setting is that it doesn't affect where your attributes or magic can start at, so you end up having spellcasters who are just as tough while it is nearly impossible to make a samurai or something that can keep up with them.
I'm going to try and start something soon where no one starts as a shadowrunner, but I'm going to have them use the "sum to ten" character creation variant from Run Faster, with the additional caveat that no one can take priority A, and availability on starting gear is capped at 10.
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I've found the problem with the "street scum" setting is that it doesn't affect where your attributes or magic can start at, so you end up having spellcasters who are just as tough while it is nearly impossible to make a samurai or something that can keep up with them.
Our campaign's based on SR4A, so "street scum" chargen came out to 300 points base, 150 points max to stats. Also, "Here's 1,000 nuyen. Don't spend it all in one place, or on anything over availability rating of 6. Loans are available!"
(SR5) Run Faster's optional point buy method can be scaled similarly. Instead of 800 points, maybe try 600? I think the life module method also lends itself to flexible capping.
But security guards and the cops? They're still built on a base 50% higher, and they usually don't like freelance magicians very much.
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AH right there's street scum and then there's the other one which modifies the priorities you can spend that's the one I was thinking of, nice catch.
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As many have mentioned, it is assumed that you have gotten on past the initial entry and are already immersed. However, for a "realistic" look at becoming a primetime runner:
1) The game world has an underlying assumption that there is a thriving not-quite-black market in specialty shadowrunning services which is allowed to exist tacitly by the corporations because they all use them, and by the government because they're either too weak to stop it, they also use them, or they figure that if sovereign corps want to kill each other quietly who f***ing cares - did you see how many ridiculous overplayed 80's gangs and mafias are tearing around Seattle making REAL problems? With that in mind, in the SR world making this sort of connection is easier than circa 2016 real world. So, some flexibility exists. From here lets look at some paths in:
2) The most "realistic" path for hi-end shadowrunning is that you were already an expert at something. The reality is that a "tough life on the streets and willing to kill" makes for a great disposable sicario, but those 18 dice in your primary represent a lifetime of investment, usually with someone else footing the bill to actually train you to that standard. We're talking firing thousands and thousands of rounds for a sammie until its second nature to hit a meta sized target every time while moving across a room, working not just at DOSing a website but actually Stuxnetting things for a hacker, etc. .
In reality you don't wake up that good at 18, and you very rarely get that good just by self learning - especially on a topic that isn't exactly public access or publicly practicable. Usually there is a larger, cutting edge organization that helped you out to get you to "Shadowrunner" levels. Bank robbers in real life look more like "Hell or Highwater" or "The Town (minus the excessive firefights)" than they do "Ocean's 11" for precisely this reason. Its also the reason why if you actually gave everyone at the table one to three seconds to call their action during a round, mostly you'd just get a lot of people screaming "SHOOT! SHOOT!"
In this case, the runner would be in their 30s or 40s, coming off a long professional build and now finding themselves free market. In the real world, this usually means selling your services to a consultancy that has some strong ties with your community to begin with. In SR world, that would translate to being referred in to the game, or asking around to old mentors, leaders and so forth. As a matter of fact, it's quite likely that you would end up in a consultancy that worked in the corporate sphere for a while longer, and that would be where you either decided to break off with some friends or go solo once you knew your way around a few likely clients.
Thus, the most "realistic" shadowrunner is probably someone in their late thirties to early fifties who isn't a physical powerhouse, but is well connected enough to actually land in this field, can think cooly in any situation, has a lifetime of practicing the multitude of skills needed and applying them, and can professionally deliver two in the head every time, on time.
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3) But that's no fun! I want to be a rebel from the streets or a mafiaoso or whatever!
That's understandable. Now, you can approach this a few ways:
A) You can accept that the term "shadowrunner" is nebulous, and that while we all like to envision a beyond-SWAT team for hire in a cool dystopia, most "runners" are far short of that. So go ahead, call yourselves runners and get in to it however one might get in to crime in general. There's really no reason not to. You could even make a leap that the organized syndicates of 2072 are powerful and savvy enough to build mid level shooters. In reality, this is not that true, the willingness to commit crime at all is the defining mark of a criminal gun for hire, not a particular skill in the craft. They get away with it because the average person is not expecting to be conned, robbed, gunned down in a grocery store, or have their ID stolen. These are the types of "runner" that would "realistically" end up coming in because they owed a bad payday loan and knew a guy. If you're willing to liberties with how people actually learn (I.e., assuming killing a peasant makes you a better swordsman than practicing every day since you were eight, ala the RPG classic idea of XP) it's even possible that these guys would eventually get pretty good. Not in any real way humans work, but its an acceptable jump for gameism.
So from that perspective, being in the right neighborhood, family, or social circumstances to pull you in to a gang or organized crime before conveniently not owing them loyalty anymore by narrativium, could get you there.
Alternatively, it not too uncommon for "OGs" and others with a rep to go freelance in the real criminal world, especially if they didn't become leadership and got tired of dicing with sixteen year olds. These guys would have some rep (mostly for being loyal and dependable, not wildly skilled, but we already jumped that bridge in the name of gameplay) and the initial contacts in the criminal community that you could then spiral up. The upward spiral almost never happens in reality, but in SR semi-permissive economy of criminal skills, it might. Given the corporations are directly tied to many of these elements, it'd even be possible to spill over into corp interest or catch the eye of a "fixer."
B) You can assume that internecine warfare on the "shadow" side of the economy has gotten so intense and traumatic that you really are getting highly skilled professionals out of it. In reality, this would predicate society collapsing into a near apocalyptic state, followed whoever has the most/best killers becoming the new government and then enforcing law. But, if we look past that blithely...then yes, you could argue that people would be sitting there, watching for the extreme talent to rise out of this ceaseless underwar and then inviting them or pulling in friends.
C) You can assume that everyone else isn't actually that good, and these dice rolls are mostly propaganda. Cops win most shootouts with criminals, but to be honest you wouldn't have to work very hard to get better at combat shooting that the average police officer. So your "runner" skills aren't really SEAL Team Six, they're just quantifiablly better at these things than most people and honestly, who really even defends against "slightly better than average" in a corporate or criminal setting?
In this case, hey, you do crime. The assumed economy of criminal skills is there. So, by virtue of being a supply where there is demand, you inherently get commodified by a fixer after you've worked with a crew.
4) Democratization of criminality. Once upon a time, if you wanted to be a drug dealer, you had to know a guy and do supply chain stuff and probably hook up with an organization. These days, you want to deal coke, you can get some sent to you via any number of very easily accessible dark net sites. You want to be a hacker? No problems, there's a thousand forums where you can do that as of 2016. (Pro tip: don't do this in real life: you can). You are now in business. Extrapolate that to a user friendly, all pervading Matrix in a gritty SR world. You want in, you look for it. Someone is hiring.You'll have to build rep, not unlike most dark/deep internet communities do now, and eventually the nature of your services will involve you meeting people. ta-da! You're running! Of course, you probably had a lot of false starts, got screwed over every now and again, and most of you almost certainly got caught, killed, or out of the business when it proved to be hard and scary - but if you're in character gen, you obviously made that cut. No idea where you got your 18 dice, but one of the above might work?
5) You can just ignore reality and do what is fun. Runners exist because they exist, and fixers sell them to Johnsons because the environment is just that permissive.
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Hmmm with regards to B I can see how the corps would deliberately manipulate things so that there would be areas that would produce skilled fighters probably not as good as their elite troops but still very dangerous they can hire. If somone's fighting for their life from their earliest memories then they'll pick up something or die.
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2) The most "realistic" path for hi-end shadowrunning is that you were already an expert at something. The reality is that a "tough life on the streets and willing to kill" makes for a great disposable sicario, but those 18 dice in your primary represent a lifetime of investment, usually with someone else footing the bill to actually train you to that standard. We're talking firing thousands and thousands of rounds for a sammie until its second nature to hit a meta sized target every time while moving across a room, working not just at DOSing a website but actually Stuxnetting things for a hacker, etc. .
Most of my characters don't start with 18 dice in anything. More like 12. Unless you are an adept or something and then you have magic boosting natural talent. And magic is a great excuse for just about anything. :)
In reality you don't wake up that good at 18, and you very rarely get that good just by self learning - especially on a topic that isn't exactly public access or publicly practicable.
The key word here IMO, is "rarely". Shadowrunners are a rare breed. Only about 1/2 of 1 percent of the population (according to some calculation that someone did long ago).
And most of them, as you point out later in your post aren't 18. They are probably in their (late) 20's at least. And usually they had a previous career where they learned some of those skills.
But people who do something as a hobby are often more dedicated and more skilled than the average person who does something as a profession (like programming or even shooting a gun).
Actually.. really no one "shoots a gun" for a living and police officers are notoriously poorly skilled with a pistol in general. I was reading recently that police have a 40% hit rate inside of 6 feet.
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Its because of the game mechanics punishing anyone who tries to be good at a couple of things raning down to poor at a few others instead of amazing at one thing and useless at anything else. Pesronally I prefer to play a game where your specialized main skill is 12-14 dice, secondary skills are 9-10 and you may have a few 4-6 for other things of interest rather than what you should do mechanically which is pump one or two skills to 18 and have everything else default.
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Whoever calculated at 1% is massively incorrect. The US currently supports about 35k personnel that are "shadow runner" levels of good (despite the hype, most of high-end organizations are analysts, support personnel, managers, etc.). Lets give some state and municipal agencies the benefit of the doubt and double that. We'll even throw in an extra 30k private sector types - programmers, NRA shooting champs, etc. etc. . 100k all together.
Now, we'll just imagine every one of them for four generations is on the market. 400k potential "runner good" people in a nation of 330M. 0.121% of the population. That's assuming of course that every single "runner level" professional decided he wanted to embrace a career of ongoing criminality when there are plenty of other well paying jobs. So...lets imagine the thrill of running is JUST THAT COOL THAT ITS WORTH COMPLETELY SACRIFICING EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE FOR...and say, 10% of these cats actually go that route. .012% of the population. Now, we say that in the actual US about 3.3% of the population is criminal (slightly over 11M), though that of course mostly accounts of crimes of a far lesser nature.
Understand that with the full might and resources of the largest defense/security/intelligence industry in the world producing "runner good" people, the US could, with an average return to criminality, generate...wait for it... 0.0039% of the population as runner good criminals.
So, if we want to go "but I learned on the streets" route, and accept that this is very rare compared to actually getting these skills elsewhere...call it one in a thousand? Then the modern US would have 13 "up from the streets" people at "runner good" levels.
Which leads us to one of two conclusions: either most runners really AREN'T "runner good", especially the street rats OR there are no where near that many runners in the system.
We know as a SR premise that there are plenty of runners in the system. Therefore, most runners are probably slightly better than average criminals with delusions of grandeur.
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All the more reason for my 12 in your main skill and that's with a natural advantage of 6 in a stat.
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Whoever calculated at 1% is massively incorrect. The US currently supports about 35k personnel that are "shadow runner" levels of good (despite the hype, most of high-end organizations are analysts, support personnel, managers, etc.). Lets give some state and municipal agencies the benefit of the doubt and double that. We'll even throw in an extra 30k private sector types - programmers, NRA shooting champs, etc. etc. . 100k all together.
Where did you pull these numbers from? 35,000 that are "shadow runner levels of good"? How do you define that and why 35,000?
Anyone can be a shadowrunner at nearly any skill level. I once had a character that was a history professor that became a shadowrunner by necessity. He had nearly no useful skills to start.
Obviously the exception, but my point is that there is probably no such thing as "shadow runner levels of good".
Looking back at my spreadsheet (I have one for creating the overall runner population) I see it says 1 in 5000 people are runners.
That makes for about 1200 runners in Seattle. That's not all that many, particularly if you break it down by archetype or race.
If you assume 10% of runners are mages that's only around 120.
OK.. I found the original reference for my number... so rewriting what I wrote here..
The original was from the 2nd Neo-Anarchists Guide to Everything Else (NAGEE).
The article was called "The Economics of Shadowrunning". I'm not saying it is gospel or anything, but had some reasonable logic.
For the interest of people here I will cut and paste the article below the original author was Earl A. Hubbell
His article was written way back when it was 2050. The population of Seattle is now around 6 million not 3 million.
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Abstract: Statistical analysis applied with some wild assumptions demonstrates
1) Shadowrunners are not generally a significant force and
2) They are an economic preferred alternative to 'in-house' operatives, despite general unreliability.
Seattle of 2050:
Population : 3x106 individuals
Corporate affiliated: 1.5x106
Below Poverty: 1x106
Thus, we see economically independent units compose 5x105 individuals. We rule out the 'Below Poverty Level' population, as any significantly skilled/cybered/magic unit will be aggressively recruited/have entered poverty voluntarily/will not be counted in standard census.
From the UCAS census estimates, we have approximately 1% of the population having 'significant' cyber-enhancements (so called 'samurai', 'riggers' or 'deckers') or significant magical enhancement ('physical adepts'). Full mages compose approximately .1% of the population.
Thus, there are approximately 3x104 units of significant personal power in Seattle. Of these units, 3,000 are mages. Due to aggressive corporate recruiting, it is estimated that only 10% of the 'significant' population may be considered 'independent'. Thus, we have 3x103 significant units, of which 300 are mages.
For obvious reasons, counting this population is difficult, however, it seems that only approximately 20% of this final group engage in high-risk operations (the remaining 'independents' belonging to various 'normal' occupations).
Thus, the 'significant' population available to 'shadowrun' consists of merely 60 mages, 60 skilled 'deckers', approximately 120 riggers, 120 physical adepts, and 300 samurai (numbers do not add due to some overlap in categories, and approximation errors).
Given the near-necessity of 'magical cover' on any significant operation, we see an operating population of approximately 100 'teams' of runners within Seattle, composed from a pool of approximately 600 'powered' individuals, and approximately 2,000 skilled personnel in various 'support' positions (so-called 'fixers', 'detectives', 'security consultants', 'cannon-fodder'...)
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There was more, but I didn't want to make this post much bigger. :)
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When I say "Runner good" I meant the average moderately optimized 5E build that has neither completely munchkin'd it, nor thrown away the dice pool in the name of RP. Depending on your table, 12-18 DP in primaries.
Alternatively, we could go with any primary DP of 12 or more, given the average careerist should have 7 (3 AVG stat, 4 "reasonably professional" skill ) before bonuses, and 12 implies the ability to perform at levels that for the normal un-augmented human would be considered "exceptional."
Which takes us back to "how do you become a shadowrunner". If you assume an average character build, which is both exceptional in nature and connected/willing enough to operate in super high risk corp on corp ventures with a reasonable expectation of success and deniability for Johnson, then there aren't many "realistic" ways in because of the organizational pre-reqs you typically need to get those skills (if we went with one in a thousand can self teach to the level of exceptional without resources, mentors, facilities, or a paycheck to support that training, we have 1.3 "up from the streets" runners in Seattle.)
If you're willing to call anyone who will do crime on the freelance a runner, then the original question become much less difficult - you can become a runner by virtually any means you can become a criminal. But there's no indication why you would be invited to play in the big leagues other than the game requires it.
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Re: numbers
The current publicly declared size of US Cybercommand (4k)
The current publicly announced strengths of Delta, DEVGRU, FBI HRT, and about 1/4 credit (which is generous) for the service SOC communities (18-20k)
The estimated strength of clandestine and paramilitary portions of the CIA minus support staff(Mazzerati's number's mostly) (5-6k)
A rounding up of about 5k from where that estimate would land just to give benefit of the doubt.
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As for the stat analysis: he has 660 runners in a pop of 3M, which as you pointed out becomes 1320 in 2072. That's .002% of the population. Which is actually only 2/3 of the rate I guessed it in at using US current criminal stats versus the initial estimate for four generations of employees. So, it looks like we're in close agreement despite our methodological differences - which would mean runners probably ARE that good, which in turn would mean there are very few "up from the streets" stories available.
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Except the average moderately optimized 5E build isn't the average runner. They're the guy's who've been there, done that often enough and succesfully enough to have built a small reputation and have a general idea of what they're doing. The average runner is probably closer to street scum (modified priority version) rules in their abilities hence the trope of them being expendable.
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But it is the average runner that a PC plays, hence is of value when determining "how do you become a runner?"
As we noted earlier, the range of "stories" varies on how game-ist vs. realistyou want to treat human learning models.
At the game end of the spectrum, you stab a peasant, all of a sudden your're a better swordsman. You win a local gymnastic competition, you're magically a better acrobat, etc.
This is the model that "they've done a few runs, so they got good" represents. It coalesces nicely with our desire for progression in terms of narrative and reward for playing.
It just isn't in any way accurate. While "gameday" experience is proven to be useful, it's not because the owner's technical skills got better as a result, it's because their ability to mentally frame events and sort through lessons learned inspires better overall decision-making in terms of both speed and results in similar situations.
Think of a pro athlete. If playing in a game made you throw/kick/stick a ball faster/harder/accurately (more dice), people would simply practice games all the time. In reality they spend so much time on skills training because three passes a game doesn't make you a better passer; five thousand passes in practice make you a better passer. The scrimmage is there to help the decisions on when to pass, who to pass to, what situations not to pass in, and apply those technical skills as part of an overall effort.
So, if we go with a realistic human learning model, you don't get char-gen good at the technical stuff because you've done a few runs; five firefights != NRA shooting champ. hence why the more realistic you get, the more and more tied to some sort of organization or lifestyle where you could conceivably invest the time and money in training and do so in an environment that supports it. Thus "was a private eye, had to sling his gun on a few cases gone bad" nor "did some drive bys for the gang/mon/bleh" nor "used to be a KE cop, but left because he got tired of the paperwork...cops know how to shoot, right?" cannot justify a PI char with a 6 skill pistols pool in a non-gameist view on entry to running - Unless of course you assume there are super training facilities where in between runs they've been firing the hundreds or thousands of proper technique practice shots needed to get there. What it can justify is knowledge about the tactics that have worked in similar situations in the past, thinking quickly, overcoming hesitancy and willpower issues and so forth.
All of which can be ignored in the name of game, but if we learned skills the way SR implies "he's been around the block" then street level sicarios would be the best shots in the planet by the time they killed their fortieth man. They aren't. Which means higher DPs significantly limit the "realistic" paths to runner hood.
Which then begs the question: what competitive advantage does a low DP runner have over any of the other multitudes of disposable violent entities available for use by a Johnson? Discretion/loyalty/professionalism, but for an untried runner, Johnson doesn't know that. You can see where it goes from there...
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It just isn't in any way accurate. While "gameday" experience is proven to be useful, it's not because the owner's technical skills got better as a result, it's because their ability to mentally frame events and sort through lessons learned inspires better overall decision-making in terms of both speed and results in similar situations.
Part and parcel with that improved frame of reference, or rather, one more in line with reality vs. trids, is the realization that if the runner is going to survive doing X kinds of jobs they need to improve certain skills, pronto. That's not that hard to do in a world of sophisticated AIs supporting fully immersive VR. The 99% devoted to the sex trade and gaming and more pr0n easily subsidizes higher-prestige training tools that really exist to keep the code monkeys interested, maybe a defense contract or two. Those programs can run as fast as your wetware can cope ...
Some skills (assensing, astral combat) will still require a living subject to practice on. It sucks to be SINless if there's no one to watch your back/check up on you.
Which then begs the question: what competitive advantage does a low DP runner have over any of the other multitudes of disposable violent entities available for use by a Johnson? Discretion/loyalty/professionalism, but for an untried runner, Johnson doesn't know that. You can see where it goes from there...
If those DP are from Magic or Resonance, you take what's available.
If the job requires 18-30 DP tasks that can't be spread out, break out your contacts list. You should already know who's capable and how to reach them yourself. You should also already know that your target will also know who's capable and who could afford their services.
If the job only requires 8DP max in a couple of related skills, sub-contract the whole mess.
Otherwise, the more generalized runners (lower max DP for a given point buy) have a huge value in NOT being one-trick ponies. To the extent that they can double-up/back each other up, you may end up hiring fewer people for the job, which is better for operational security. At least you may benefit from having them all NOT defaulting on the same skills.
There should be many more candidates to choose from who can hit a lower given DP. More chummers chasing the same jobs means the price goes down. It also means the suspect list may substantially go up (This job is perfectly legal, and so you're hiring shadowrunners? Right.)
There can also be the rare case (plot twist!) of it being a low-DP chummer who has that unique skill, quality, or combo you need. One that maybe isn't magic- or resonance- based.
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GloriousRuse, I think you're also missing the fact that Shadowrun is a dystopia.
The guesttimates I've played with (and generally use) put 450-600 active shadowrunners of all levels - from just moving up out of the gang to 'quarter million minimum' - in Seattle's 3,000,000 people - 0.02% of the population. That is, granted, a bit over five times your 0.0039%, but we're also talking a world that is significantly different than our current world.
But standard shadowrunners - the PCs - aren't at the bottom rung in that. Oh, some may never have done 'this sort of thing' before, but depending on their origin story, they have gained skills through training, job experience, kill-or-die living, or whatever. They're on the run from The Corp; the Men In Black would like a word. They're the toughest rat in the nest. Their hitch was up and they left to pursue vengeance on insert reason here. The mob boss is giving them permission to expand their experience and contact network.
There are a LOT of potential reasons why a person becomes a shadowrunner, why they don't have a fixer contact, why they've never done this before.
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Well covered wyrm I would tend to agree.
One of my favourite characters started out as hired muscle for the yaks and was actually opposed to the main runners team, he didn't know a fixer for at least 10 or 15 games. While a characters backstory and the state of entropy society is in are obviously important not everyone even started out with criminal intent, skills or contacts.
The shadows only care about one thing, if we throw the drek at you, will you complete your goals and live to tell about it? Somone who knows nothing about the shadows would still quickly meet a fixer of sorts if the answer to that question is yes, word travels fast, particularly in the shadows when knowing or not knowing something can be the difference between life and death and almost any information is worth something to somone.
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Ironically Wyrm, those are precisely the types of runners I'm saying are at least semi-realistic. People with significant backgrounds at the extreme business end of personal clandestine activities. Whether that's former spooks or Firewatch or whatever. Even their "on the down low" contacts are from the time when they A) had someone underwriting their mistakes, B) a large organization to keep them alive, and C) a large organization to get them very good. Its the runners who "were born rebels of awesomeness, did some crime, and now look like SEAL TEAM 6" who are only really viable if you use a completely game-ist learning model.
as for Hobs "need to improve skills pronto" with sim, I would point out that skillwires still command a substantial price and are still commonly referenced in the literature as being used for craftsman-esque labor. If you could simply VR learn kinesthetic skills with enough sims, I guarantee that corps would be paying a significantly lower price than the 60k a rating 3 skillwire takes. They would simply have the welder run VR sims for three weeks till he was awesome.
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as for Hobs "need to improve skills pronto" with sim, I would point out that skillwires still command a substantial price and are still commonly referenced in the literature as being used for craftsman-esque labor. If you could simply VR learn kinesthetic skills with enough sims, I guarantee that corps would be paying a significantly lower price than the 60k a rating 3 skillwire takes. They would simply have the welder run VR sims for three weeks till he was awesome.
Of course skillwires would continue to command a high price. Unlike a professional training course in welding, a rating 3 set of skillwires allows the use of ANY active skill that does not depend on a resonance or magic rating. All that's needed is the skillwire installation plus the appropriate rating 3 activesoft. The cost of the software itself is trivial to a corporation, as it only needs to develop one copy (or a set of licenses) that can be dispatched to any wired worker on demand, or switched out whenever or wherever the company sees fit - either way, spreading out and reducing the per set costs in a way that few individuals could make use of.
So, to a corporation, the price per R3 skill available through any given employee approaches 1,000 nuyen. After all, there are over 60 active skills listed in the core book, and that's assuming the corporation is paying retail (not happening in any real-life scenario). It's true that not every employee would be equally effective for all skills - they wouldn't be equally or randomly distributed either! - but that's what application screening, employee physicals, and employee-driven health maintenance programs (or PT, depending on your POV) are for. Just need "good enough" in one skill at a time? Skillsofts are a way to go.
However, skillsofts only go up to rating 6, while a person that learns their skills (i.e., buys through karma earned) tops out at 12 or 13. It might take a career to hit 12 from a skill group (adult life modules appear to be designed to net 25 karma a year), but the 140 needed for a tradesman to beat top skillsofts in that group should be available after 6 years. That's without making a single shadow run.
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Hobs,
Point 1) Skill representations.
We know that the "average" meta has a professional skill of 4 in their primaries. It is in fact as far as we expect the average employee to go in many cases. Per the core:
"You’re comfortable with what you do and perform well under
normal pressures. Professional level for most jobs."
A skill of 12 is explicitly:
"You have reached the pinnacle of mortal achievement. This
expertise represents the top 0.00001% of all practitioners in
known history."
That is expressly NOT what an average tradesman can achieve in a career.
What a skill of 6 represents in relation to a normal career is questionable, as "you can easily sell your skills on the open market" is pretty vague, but i'll allow that it is probably achievable with sufficient motivation, time, training, and experience.
Which leads us to
Point 2) How do you get to skill 6?
Your karma math represents the entirety years of your life being spent in an environment where you worked with that skill on a regular basis, with the appropriate resourcing and environment to actually Spend Karma so to speak. So, per your math a 6 in Automatics/Firearms would take someone who could spend 5/11 years shooting automatics/firearms in a consistent environment, as one of their primary skills if not the primary skill (assuming 25 karma a year). Not many/any gangers are spending 5 straight years practicing shooting at a consistent rate for organizational and resource reasons. Or for that matter, not many hackers without some sort of large organizational coverage are practicing that intently either (fun story: Anonymous considers hacking to require about five years of experience to be proficient at, and most cyber security folks consider them to be low grade threats). You get the idea. You are basically cementing my point that one does not just decide to get real good at one of these things - it happens due to a fairly extensive background which provides the opportunity, need, and resources.
For what it's worth, a "B" Skills choice represents about 20 years of experience under the 25 Karma a year model...which again suggests that the "realistic" route into shadowrunning is via being a professional, not a guy who needed to make a payday loan happen.
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One of the problems with Shadowrun skills is that they cost a flat rate, and improve at the same rate, even though different skills in real life take different lengths of time or levels of training to improve. The other problem is that while there are rules for skill progression, there are no mechanics for skills degrading over time if not used regularly.
A skill of 6 can represent the slow progression of many years, but it can also represent comparatively short but intense, focused training. A skill of 6 in SR5 is good but not exceptional (unlike SR4, where it was close to being the very best).
Truthfully, it is not skill alone that sets shadowrunners apart, but the fact that they are outliers in a world that has only begun to embrace transhumanism. Magic, Resonance, and augmentations are what make runners stand out - and mechanically, they provide the bonuses that give shadowrunners those high dice pools.
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If only there was still a Runner's University (http://web.archive.org/web/20070406112423/http://blackjack.dumpshock.com/stuff/HUMRwannabe.htm) you could get your Street Diploma in.......
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If only there was still a Runner's University (http://web.archive.org/web/20070406112423/http://blackjack.dumpshock.com/stuff/HUMRwannabe.htm) you could get your Street Diploma in.......
Love it. I'd never actually seen that one before :)
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If only there was still a Runner's University (http://web.archive.org/web/20070406112423/http://blackjack.dumpshock.com/stuff/HUMRwannabe.htm) you could get your Street Diploma in.......
Love it. I'd never actually seen that one before :)
If you enjoyed that, you can see more of Blackjack's works thanks to the Wayback Machine here: http://web.archive.org/web/20070406102635/http://blackjack.dumpshock.com/
Part of the old Shadowrun Ring, bear in mind it was written for earlier editions so some of the terms or items depicted may not be around anymore...
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If only there was still a Runner's University (http://web.archive.org/web/20070406112423/http://blackjack.dumpshock.com/stuff/HUMRwannabe.htm) you could get your Street Diploma in.......
Love it. I'd never actually seen that one before :)
If you enjoyed that, you can see more of Blackjack's works thanks to the Wayback Machine here: http://web.archive.org/web/20070406102635/http://blackjack.dumpshock.com/
Part of the old Shadowrun Ring, bear in mind it was written for earlier editions so some of the terms or items depicted may not be around anymore...
Cool. I have played since 89 and the release of 1st ;D Will have to take a look at some of this stuff