| From: | mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: The Shadow Community. |
| Date: | Wed, 24 Jan 1996 19:27:44 -0800 (PST) |
>
> > Well, I'm not sure exactly how much of a "community" the
> > "shadow community" is to begin with.
>
> Personally I think that the Shadow Community is
> pretty extensive and well-defined. It is most obvious in the
> concept of 'Runner Bars (like my own Club'd To Death) where
> you can virtually (or in CTD, actually) guarantee that the
> guy stood next to you runs the shadows like you do. Very few
I actually don't really buy this concept at all. There aren't _that_ many
runners out there to make such a concept feasible. If you take New York, for
example, and consider the ratio of runners to populace, there just _aren't_
that many. Also, if there was something as well established as a "runner bar"
someone might well snitch it to Lone Star (or someone else) and all hell would
break loose.
> people living in the shadows can't call on a large number of
> other 'runners in an emergancy, that's what contacts are all
> about,
Contacts are not about the ability to call on a "large number" of other runners
in an emergency. Contacts are about the people you're personally down with.
In fact, in a real-world scenario, the runners would probably be at odds with
each other on an irregular basis.
and if there wasn't such a cohesive community then
> the individuals involved would have long since been wiped
> from the sprawls. The only real issue is in where it
> overlaps with the Corporate and Ganger communities and in
> what kind of class structure exists within it (there
> certainly existed a class-difference in the 'runners in my
> last group).
What Shadowrunners are are people who can occasionally be contacted (and paid)
to do illegal or quasi-illegal things. Such people exist in current-day
society, although perhaps in smaller numbers than posited in Shadowrun. You
should see the movie Heat for an _incredible_ depiction of exactly how that
works. Shadowrunners can stay around by being inconspicuous.
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
