The Gaming Den

[Captain_Karzak]

I have a character in a Shadowrun game who the mayor of one of Seattle's districts.

I wanted the Den's advice on what you guys would do with a character in that position to to try and make the world (or at least a small part of it) a less shitty place.

I would also like to know what you guys think are key social, economic. and political issues in Shadowrun, and which of those issues should a local politician try to address? For reference, the game is set in the year 2050, so a lot of things in the official timeline (like Deus) have not happened yet.

I'd also like to know what sort of relationship such a political figure should have with the Shadowrunning community. Like should I be trying to have more of them arrested, or should I try some kind of outreach to help Runners climb out out of that Underworld and be able to find more legitimate lines of work that can satisfy them? - basically help those who were tossed into the shadows as a result of tragedy or unjust circumstance as opposed to those who do Runs for the sheer joy of getting to hurt people.

[K]

You'd probably be hiring runners as "contractors" to hunt down go-gangers, Universal Brotherhood, vampires/ghouls/wendigo, Toxic shamans, and the like.

Keeping down the number of truly terrible things hunting the slums far exceeds any good you could do with social programs and economic development (though attracting a decent factory or small industry like vid production wouldn't hurt).

[fectin]

If you're going to start playing Logistics & Dragons, make sure everyone else wants to do that first. It's a huge disconnect from normal mission-based gameplay, and can really rip a game apart.

Within that, Shadowrun economics are all crazy. I would not count on being able to 'boost the local economy' or anything similar. What you can do (probably) reliably is turn your local government into a sort of mini-corp. Hire people, expect them to be loyal for life, and in return give them a walled garden of not-suck. Then you have two ways to improve the world: hire more people, and improve your walled garden. Yes, you're essentially throwing the people outside to the wolves. They were already living in monster-infested squalor though, so it's not like there's a lot of downhill for them.

[Smeelbo]

What we did in Frank's ShadowRun game is choose our next "client" by running a spreadsheet ranking potential victims by wealth versus evil. Assuming wealth as a proxy for security, we would choose the biggest asshole we felt confident we could rob and/or kill, and then proceed to do so. There was a lot less stress once we eliminated the middleman (the ubiquitous "Mr. Johnson") and just take the jobs we wanted.

One lesson I've learned from the CIA is that if you want to get away with murder, you must have a well chosen patsy to take the fall for your numerous crimes. In the case of Mayor West, perhaps a shadowy vigilante would do the trick. Be sure your actions can never be traced back to your office: an all out pursuit of the vigilante would be a good first step.

Even if your plan is to strengthen society, it would be best for the Mayor to appear as someone else's lackey. Better yet, rumors that these apparent "improvements" are all really part of a sinister plan (far more believable than altruist intent).

Long Live the Kurdo-Armenian Reciprocation Council!
Smeelbo

[Maxus]

I'm with Smeelbo. The mayor needs someone to wear black and stand just behind his left shoulder at all public appearances. Maybe a mage of some kind who can look menacing.

Therefore, even if outside forces notice the town is becoming a better and better place to be, they put it down to a bait-and-switch or some other nefarious purpose.

Oh, the character also needs a suit with some belly padding to appear in his office as the mayor. And discards it when he's shadowrunning. To make himself look more mayoral and throw suspicion off. "Wait, the Watchman can't be the Mayor! Only if the mayor lost forty pounds or something..."
_________________
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

[Smeelbo]

Actually, IRL Seattle already has a super hero scene.

Google "Phoenix Jones" and his sidekick, "Shadow."

Smeelbo

[Captain_Karzak]

So the apparant BBEG in our campaign plans to bring it hard against the Megacorps. We don't know all the details of his plan, nor the full extent of his resources, but our party is making progress in uncovering all that.

When it comes down to the big showdown, I don't want to win by putting a bullet in his head, or exploding his base. Rather, I want to win by recruiting him. I want to prove that there is a better way to go about "fixing" the world.

To credibly do this, there are 2 things I was hoping to learn from the Den:

(1) Actions I should be taking as politician to prove I have the capacity and intent to start making things better for people and are therefore worth following.

(2) An understand of what the key economic, political, and social forces that have brought the world to it's current miserable state. Despite the incredible technology, and the endless possibilities of sorcery, why does the world seem to function so poorly for the vast majority of those who inhabit it? What has to change to make things right? Is this a problem that can be solved with well-placed bullets?





RE: Franks game - that sounds like it was an awesome game. I really like the idea of bypassing the Johnson completely and tasking yourselves with missions of your own devising. How did it work out for you guys? Is there somewhere I can read more about it?

RE: A fall guy - that's a really smart ideal. My character does have a secret identity via act of plot in order to allow us to investigate the BBEG, whom our entire party worked with extensively in the past. I could start blaming all kinds of shit on my alter ego, whose disguise is plot-power strong.