Re: So why would anyone become a shadowrunner, anyway?

On 11/16/06, pentaj2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 <pentaj2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> He likes patrol, has some success as sort of the informal "juvenile
> cop", with a lot of community policing stuff. But there's a bit of an
> adrenaline junkie in him, so that (plus the prospect of being posted
> closer to where he grew up) pulls him to SWAT.
>
> And....here's where I have trouble.
>
> I can't see this character going dirty. So the way I figured it, his
> SWAT unit got nailed in an audit because the commander, who was
> basically my character's mentor, was bending the funding rules. Not
> embezzlement, just not following every subclause of the budgeting
> regulations. Everybody does it, normally it's a slap on the wrist, but
> this Lt had made an enemy out of a junior exec type; bit of a
> maverick, see.
> [ . . . ]
> OK, so he's jobless. Separated on good terms, but still.

My suggestion: knock out the 'good terms' part.  You ever seen _Training 
Day?_

Your superior officer wasn't "bending the rules," he was bad to the
very core.  Perhaps using his position to pull off thefts or even
assassinations.  Perhaps there's even a cadre of crooked cops.
They've got it all covered so well with a superior performance record
that no one would ever know.  But your character sees the wrong thing
at the wrong time...  And ends up framed.  And the evidence against
you is a *lot* stronger than the evidence against your boss.

So that's why you run the shadows now.  You didn't quit Knight Errant
on conscience.  You fled, and now you're a fugitive hoping someday to
clear your name.

....Just one idea.  Plausible?  No, not really.  But this is Shadowrun.
 (And it was a fun movie.)  >8->


> Why would *anybody* become a shadowrunner, actually?

Because without it, there'd be no game.  I don't think you can look
*too* deep on questions like this.  It just has to have something
there on the surface.  That real life is never this dramatic is *why*
we play games.


-- 
Have Fun,
   Steve Eley (sfeley@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
)
   ESCAPE POD - The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine
   http://www.escapepod.org