| From: | TopCat <topcat@******.net> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Killing in Shadowrun... |
| Date: | Sat, 18 May 1996 13:32:16 -0500 |
>there kill casually? I mean, think about it, people generally don't go
>around offing people... usually there is some extreme emotion involved.
Depends on the setting in your campaign. If you go onto corporate grounds
with the intent to harm employees in any way, shape, or form (or more
importantly, harm the corp) you will be shot at and probably killed. If
you're lucky, it'll be a bullet. If not, it'll be the "tell us this and you
get a quick death" situation. Terrorist activities (shadowruns) demand that
sort of reaction from a corp.
Now that's for NPC's. For PC's (in our campaigns) you do whatever it takes
to get the job done. If that means loading up on APDS and piling up bodies
like bales of hay, then that's what'll happen. If it requires Cascades
loaded with Narcoject, then that's what'll happen. It is always better to
overkill than underkill, though.
TopCat killed, but didn't really understand what was going on. He still
doesn't. Vagabond went through a VERY nasty stage where he killed people
because he thought he needed a change of clothes to elude pursuit (the
infamous wino-slayings). Brutal killed and didn't care one bit. Vagabond
and Brutal both came from gang backgrounds where death is an everyday thing.
TopCat just kinda threw himself into the shadows and did what he felt he had
to. Eventually, Vagabond mellowed (right before he started college) and
he's now lost the bloodthirsty edge he had for a while.
So I guess my characters have been casual in their killings. One knows it
isn't right anymore, another still hasn't fully realized what he's doing,
while the third kills without remorse. Our campaign style breeds this,
though. Lone Star doesn't think much of bodies unless they're important
ones and bodies turn up often.
>In SRII, it seems like alot of chars just say "He's there, so I'll kill
>him." Most of my chars are relatively opposed to killing... in champions
>terms, my SRII chars have 5-15 pt CAKs (codes against killing). Are
>there other characters out there who are like this, or am I the only one?
We've never done the "He's there. I kill him" bit, but if the "he"
was
armed and ready, he'd die or get KO'd. A code against killing is a nice
thing in some games/campaigns, but in a cyberpunk campaign it can be a major
detriment. Champions is a super-hero roleplaying game and sort of lends
itself to more "heroic" play where killing is an extremely bad thing (and
hard to do, too). Closest Champions equivalent to our Shadowrun campaigns
is Dark Champions (which is a pretty cool game). Morals come into question
often, and aren't always answered the way we'd like them to be in a perfect
world. SR is not a perfect world. But I babble...
...anyway, you aren't the only one. There've been a few characters that I
knew that steadfastly refused to kill or tried as hard as they could not to.
It's all up to the player, the character, and the setting.
-------------------------------------
"I was thinking of the immortal words
of Socrates, who said: I drank what?"
-- Real Genius
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TopCat at the bottom...
