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Sludig's Rant on Humanity in Shadowrun

This rant covers something I've seen in a great deal of Fasa's Shadowrun sourcebooks and novels. The subject, is humanity. Humanity as a concept or theory. This might seem a little existential or metaphysical, but it's something to be looked at. The fact that everything in the Shadowrun universe is from some dark future does not mean that humanity has suddenly decided that generosity, compassion, or any of those others qualities mankind has. I got into this debate on undernet #Shadowrun because of something that I saw in the books. In all the books we consistenly see greed, cruelty, paranoia, all the bad parts of humanity. Now I agree that in any RPG you'll see a great deal of those qualities, but Shadowrun has chosen not to even shown any of the other qualities that exist. True, many of the corporations, the Barrens, many of the so called charity organizations, have ulterior motives that work against the players and society. The point was brought up that any good charity like this will not impact the players at all. Well, think about it, if there's a homeless shelter or free clinic that's being run by a charity, it will be neutral territory for any gangs, therefore, if it's nuetral for gangs then no one will attack the players in that clinic. My whole point really has nothing to do with how the game is played, or what is the best way to GM or play. My point is a small but fundamental change to seeing the whole shadowrun universe. My view of Shadowrun is that while there is death, suffering, and other nastiness, where is the compassion, generosity, these qualities of humanity are just as prevelant, and useful as the others. Humanity has a great deal of depth, try as players, Gm's or whatever to use them in games. No one said runners or even NPC's don't have any of these.

Ok, I'm done now, I think.

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