As a GM, How Would You Handle This Situation? [Shadowrun 4e]

[PrinceOfMadness]

Warning: Long block of text follows.

First off, allow me to clarify myself: I am not looking to get this situation turned around or overruled. I'm just curious as to how other people (particularly GMs) would have handled the same situation.

So a little bit of background. We're just starting a Shadowrun 4e game. None of us have played 4e Shadowrun before, but a couple of people have played older editions, so we're still familiarizing ourselves with the rules and stuff. I'm one of the guys who has never played Shadowrun before.

My first character turned out to be too similar to another's for my taste, so I decided to roll with a hacker (we needed one, and I was like "sure!"). At first I was a little put-off to be playing the hacker, as I felt like my first concept was much cooler, but then I had a brainwave that made me excited for my character concept as I've never been excited to play a character before. I would be a variation on "the Shadow Broker"

Spoiler

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For those not in the know: the Shadow Broker is a character in the Mass Effect universe who is, essentially, an information broker. He (or she, or it, or they, because no one knows WHAT the Shadow Broker really is) makes a living by selling secrets to various organizations, including governments. He/she/it/they runs a massive criminal organization that allows the Broker to manipulate governments, basically forcing them all to play its game. Governments that refuse to play ball get overwhelmed by the governments who shell out, as they get an edge from the Broker.

Basically, the scheme was this: I would sit back in my house and run errands through my drones, or through the Matrix. Need to talk to someone? Send a drone, or a message. Need a shipment? Arrange for dead drops. Need someone dead? Murderdrones. I would employ faces on the rare occasions an actual body was required. I even had a fluffy reason for staying at home: severe allergies to seawater. Since our campaign is based in Seattle, that's obviously a big reason not to go outside. I would speak with my fellow shadowrunners through my drones (sort of like Mr. House in Fallout: New Vegas), and no one would know my real identity).

Unfortunately, when I ran this concept by my GM, he vetoed it. His reasoning was that he didn't "care for a character that can't be hurt except through the Matrix, and it's not fair to the other players, who are risking life and limb while you only risk nuyen".

Now, as a fellow GM, I can understand and even somewhat appreciate this ruling, but (as I tried arguing), as the storyteller, if he wants to send a street samurai knocking on my door looking to extort money in the middle of a shadowrun, i'm in serious trouble. All I've got is a pistol and decent ranks in dodge. If some corp gets annoyed with my hacking, one astral assassin will kill me off pretty quickly. I don't have any backup, after all. And even in the Matrix, I'm not invincible.

So now I've got a character with pretty bad combat stats and an allergy to seawater running around the streets of Seattle. We haven't had the opportunity to play a game since I've generated this character yet, and I think I can still accomplish my character goals - I just won't be able to do it from the safety and security of my home. So what does everyone else think about this situation? How would you have handled it, had you been the GM (or me, even)?

[only1doug]

I'd of let your concept fly, and if the other players don't like it hey don't have to deal with your character at which point you get to generate a new one, that the party can work with.

[Kurald Galain]

I would totally let you do this, yes.

[comicshorse]

As a G.M. I'd be concerned that you'd be to far out of the action and so liable to get ignored or bored from not being directly involved. That said the concept is perfect for Shadowrun and if you'd be prepared to give it a shot I'd be fine with you running it.
Its not that uncommon an idea, I've heard more than one story of crippled Riggers who never left their vehicle, only dealing with people via their drones

[Sidmen]

As far as I understood, your character concept is pretty much identical to the default decker package. I.E. You are in the action because you're always jacked into a vehicle, drone, or comlink within the party.

Not everyone should be even remotely near the "action," especially in shadowrun - where the matrix makes cybercrime a viable alternative to being a street samurai.

Sounds to me like your DM wants you to play a street samurai with a few hacking skills to open locks and shut off cameras - and doesn't actually want an intelligent character on the team. (I.E. Not risking life and limb for peanuts)

[Gnomish Wanderer]

Yeah, your concept is pretty old-school Shadowrun (3e and back all had deckers like that). I know 4e specifically retooled the deckers to make them better at actually being present for what I assume are much the same reason your DM made the ruling that he did. Personally, I used to let my players know that they could have a matrix-esque character but the primary hacker was going to be an NPC so I could deal with the party as a whole while I was inexperienced. As I got better I took away the restriction and opened up the game a bit to my players, tried to be more encompassing. Nowadays I would have definitely allowed it, but again at some point it's easier to say no.

[Erik Vale]

Yea, I believe your GM would disallow this for the same reason my GM disallows summon (Heroes).

Little risk. You character can hide behind the inpenitrable (spelt wrong, I know. No spell check for some reason) fortress of doom, and with just a little smarts, you become much better than other characters.

[Krazzman]

I would let it fly.

Maybe because I personally would like this concept. If you want to restructure your build I would advice you to Cybermage. They do the same stuff you would do at home as a Mage with the party (that might fly with your DM).

But seriously? Why is being smart dumb? He didn't veto the mage in the party didn't he? I played SR4 with a optimized sniper and while I picked my targets and could say: "boom a new room in braincolored grey..." next to a Troll that could only be hurt by a small nuclear bomb (or allhis C4 he wore on his body...)
and a Mage that singlehandedly killed a whole Organization (about 40 Radical Elf-haters...) and he was the main point we renamed alamo 40k to alamor 10k in our campaign...

But back to your "situation". A world where your every move is recorded by sattelites. Your income is low since the majority is poor and can only survive due to soja-replicated food. Companies enlist groups of so called Runners to steal information and handle situations intelligent... and then your DM forces you to play it dumb because the group MIGHT not like it? Yeah... I would be pissed.

[Earthwalker]

I think I would let you play this character but I would have to give you a few words of warning about the new 4e.

4e has made moves to make Hackers part of the group and to have to go along to deal with electronic security.

The simplest example is coating buildings in wireless reflective paint. No signals in, no signals out. So your team heads in with you playing one of your murder drones. You get in the building and the drones dog brain takes over as you lose signal.

You sit out the rest of the session.

[Roderick_BR]

I think I'd veto it too. Just too much possible problems. Either the other players will feel ripped off that your character has too little risk, or, in case of someone attacking you directly, your character is as good as bad, and the feel of DM FIAT will be hard to remove.
The concept is nice, but that's the kind of thing you should keep for a NPC.

[Killer Angel]

I would speak with my fellow shadowrunners through my drones (sort of like Mr. House in Fallout: New Vegas), and no one would know my real identity).

(snip)

Now, as a fellow GM, I can understand and even somewhat appreciate this ruling, but (as I tried arguing), as the storyteller, if he wants to send a street samurai knocking on my door looking to extort money in the middle of a shadowrun, i'm in serious trouble. All I've got is a pistol and decent ranks in dodge. If some corp gets annoyed with my hacking, one astral assassin will kill me off pretty quickly. I don't have any backup, after all.

The thing could be handled differently, but I can sympathize with your DM.
I can (really?) imagine some thoughts:

"Yeah, I can easily trouble him: a street samurai or an astral assassin while he's alone and defenseless, it would be an easy game. Also Rocks fall it's easy, but it's a jerk move nonetheless".
(edit: see also the post above)

or

"Yeah, so he'll have those fancy drones. The first time I'll mess with them during an incursion (and of course I will, sooner or later), he'll be cut off from the game for the rest of the session. Big Fun, I'm pretty sure..."

[Malak'ai]

When I used to play SR (can't remember the edition, but we were using Bioware) we had a Decker with the call sign "Avon" who used to do all his decking from his penthouse appartment.
I was pretty inexperienced with SR at the time, having only been playing for about 6 months and it appeared to me that the GM was running two seperate games, one for us "meatheads" and one for the "techhead", so yeah, I can see where the GM was coming from. Mind you, the GM who ran our game was awesome and had heaps of cyber traps and things Avon had to get round or get brain fried.
Great thing about Avon was that if he hacked a computer network he would leave a pic on the screen of a spinning Avon Cosmetics card .

[Badgerish]

If your character concept involves being "untouchable" I would veto it. That's a trait for NPCs or something to work towards during play (and may well be an actual retirement condition).

If your concept doesn't involve being untouchable, then I would allow it, but with warnings.
You mention hiring faces to do social deals for you. How many faces are willing to negotiate with gangster or booster-gangs or corps? How do you handle briefing them (a lot of Shadowrun negotiations change scope/direction conversation, etc)
Drones are difficult but possible to trace. If your location is compromised you are potentially very, very screwed. How do you rebuild your little empire when you have to flee your lair?

Hackers/Deckers have a good reason to keep their distance, most of the time, but it's not something you can keep up 100% of the time. Watch Leverage and she how much time Hardison (the hacker) spends hacking vs not-hacking.

[Jay R]

I don't think it can work. I susepct that there are too many problems, starting with the fact that you have already split the party.

I suspect that it's just going to introduce too many unexpected logistical problems.

But so what? Why shouldn't the party have logistical problems? The DM's job isn't to prevent problems; it's to hand the party lots of problems. Let's try it. If it works, we'll have done something cool and new. If it doesn't work, we'll introduce your next character later.

(And if your player winds up too secure, somebody will eventually attack his house.)

[The Random NPC]

You mention hiring faces to do social deals for you. How many faces are willing to negotiate with gangster or booster-gangs or corps?

All the ones that matter, you're playing Shadowrun, if the face won't deal with you, they aren't worth mentioning.

EDIT: I think I see what you mean, the face will deal with you, you just assert they won't deal with your clients. Regardless, my answer is the same, all the ones that matter.

[Calimehter]

I think I would let you play this character but I would have to give you a few words of warning about the new 4e.

4e has made moves to make Hackers part of the group and to have to go along to deal with electronic security.

The simplest example is coating buildings in wireless reflective paint. No signals in, no signals out. So your team heads in with you playing one of your murder drones. You get in the building and the drones dog brain takes over as you lose signal.

You sit out the rest of the session.

I haven't run or played Shadowrun in some time, but this pretty much sums up why I would be loathe to allow it.

You know how annoyed you are at not being able to play your character "smartly" or "intelligently"? Well . . . your all-or-nothing character concept pretty much forces all the enemies in the campaign to fight unintelligently. If the GM uses electronic shielding, or has someone track down your street address with an assassin (electronic or otherwise), then you are screwed for the bulk of the session. So, either the GM has to lampshade all his bad guys ignoring solid tactical options to keep from screwing you over, or he just kills you in "rocks fall" fashion (or keeps you from participating) and has you roll a new character.

The question I would ask him would be to allow you to retool the character somewhat, so some of your crippling disadvantages (purchased when you thought you would be living in the basement) could be mitigated before starting play.

[huttj509]

I think an issue with the 'faces' is trust. You need to trust them to value their paycheck over the danger of their actions. This means you need to pay them well. Also, to build up a network, you need people at some point who know who you are, to insulate you from the faces (who might be tempted to turn on you for money). This means high level contacts.

Building something like that would be an awesome goal for a character, but seems a bit dicey starting out, needing the trustworthy contacts, funds to hire faces, funds for drones and tech, skills for hacking, etc.

With information comes power, but you're starting out, you don't HAVE the information yet. Oh, you might be able to gets SINs and some e-mail passwords, but for the juicy stuff you need to get some physical access, even if it's to plant a hidden remote node for later (isolated networks, etc).

Actually, that gives a perfect reason why you're with the runner group. They help you gain access, you deliver the goods to the client, and gain some side benefit along the way, biding your time until you can erase your record of existence, and become simply a name referred to in shadows. The go-to guy when you need something got.

[kyoryu]

I'd allow it.

I'd also point out all of the issues that the character would have:

1) vulnerability to getting "locked out"
2) vulnerability to being betrayed by your faces
3) as you get known, you'd *best believe* that people will try to figure out who and where you are. And that will not, not, not be impossible information to acquire.

... just to start. And how is any new gear getting to your house/bunker, anyway?

EDIT: The problem with this type of character is that the typical tools a GM has to deal with them often result in "not fun" for the player if they come to pass. But as a GM, I fully believe in letting what happens, happen. I also believe in warning players up-front.

It's kind of a social contract thing, and in many ways an attempt to abuse that social contract by players. Since having a building with significant amounts of anti-wireless paint would result in the player not playing, GMs won't do that, even though it's something that in the game world would (cost permitting) pretty clearly be a standard security measure.

So in this type of situation, there's really 3 options

1) Ban the offending concept (it would break the social contract, so no)
2) Play the world as being stupid, maintaining the social contract but giving out a disproportionate benefit
3) Allow the concept, but ensure the player knows the likely ramifications. And then live by that.

[holywhippet]

Your GM needs to take a closer look at programs like black hammer. In the last session of Shadowrun 4E I played the enemy we were fighting had a hacker off site supporting them. One of the players, who was running as an AI, hit them with black hammer, rolled well, and killed them outright.

[avr]

That your plan would probably have got your character killed eventually isn't really a balancing factor, and it'd be difficult to do socially. I'd have strongly encouraged you to make a different character myself as the GM. Dunno what I'd have done if you insisted.