cross-post: https://sh.itjust.works/post/973541

My characters are organizing an extraction of local (country) MCT head of security. He is Japanese, raised by the corp from birth, but not completely beguiled as his son is an orc and he had to pull some levers to get him into school etc.
He’s aware of extraction and agreed to it.

But the twist is that he decided to get extracted because he’s taking the fall for a secret lab getting blown up in the middle of MCT office campus. So in a way he was made responsible for actions of some shadowrunners and now he’s hiring (technically it’s his mother organizing this but that’s a detail) another ones. I think that can evoke some ambivalent emotions.
They are going to meet in secret soon to get some of his blood, pass the details of the plan, etc.
What are your thoughts on how to roleplay his attitude towards the characters and the whole thing?

P.S. He doesn’t know that but, of course, it was our jolly bunch of psychos that have blown the lab up.

  • @INeedManaOP
    2•1 year ago

    Not much comes to my mind, unfortunately.

    We probably could take as a basis the protagonist in Equilibrium. Raised in a certain worldview and not putting emotions on display.
    But the character I will portray is not an enforcer, rather lawmaker. And now he’s hiring those who he’s seen as opposition whole life to save him and his family when the beliefs he lived by (but started to question sometime in the past) turned against him

        • Andy
          1•1 year ago

          You described a character in a story with some similar experiences. Copy that performance. Adjust as needed, if needed.

          • @INeedManaOP
            1•1 year ago

            I’m afraid the differences are too big to just copy-paste. Character in Equilibrium went after revenge on the system. My exec is rather running away for his life.

            He was a subject of Mitsuhama’s corporate brainwashing their whole life and surrounded by traditional Japanese work culture and ties to Yakuza. He would probably be meta-racist if not for his son.
            Also, he would probably still be living his life as before if not for actions of some shadowrunners. Who basically are just hired mercs and he probably has ordered some runs in the past.

            But now it’s not only corporate property that took a hit, now it’s also his life that is impacted

            • Andy
              2•1 year ago

              Huh. Perhaps you could remind me what you’re looking for? I thought a general voice and set of mannerisms would be enough, but it sounds like you’re struggling to capture how someone in a particular situation would feel and behave. It’s that right? Can you explain more fully what you’re asking for?

              • @INeedManaOP
                1•1 year ago

                I’ll try, although an unspoken part of my question is that I think I am missing a few books of knowledge on Shadowrun lore. So in broad strokes:

                1. Mitsuhama
                  • it’s one of the big 10 and the exec is a full citizen - he was born with MCT SIN. So the level and amount of brainwashing he went through (and passed) are high. Think “wallmart employees singing hymns before the shift” and crank it up to 11 - “MCT is the best corp in the world and we have an obligation to keep making the world a better place by striving to nothing less than perfection. Those pesky SIN-less don’t understand how much good we do for them but they simply lack the characteristics required to grasp it”
                  • we are playing around 2065, so the Emperor has finally given back some rights to meta-humans. MCT is “sainter than the pope” of course and while it tries to influence it’s PR a little, from books it seems that they are still very racist. Since races in Shadowrun are just genetic lottery, I decided that the exec has an orc son. That definitely put some cracks on the impeccable image of MCT a regular employee has
                  • MCT became big thanks to its ties to Yakuza and while it’s much bigger now, the two are still in bed. So this whole cutting fingers, hierarchy, etc is still around the MCT community/culture
                2. Shadowrunners exist
                  • big part of the exec’s job was to prevent things like shadowrunners infiltrating a lab taking place
                  • on the other hand, shadowrunners are just a part of the system, these are not terrorists (although the corporate tv will want you to see this way those who wronged the given corp) but highly-skilled mercs. Deniable assets. At least from corporations’ perspective. So it is probable that he at least was in copy in the talks about hiring a team to extract some information from competition and the biggest issue with it was how much to pay them, whether to try to kill them after the run to tie all loose ends and how to make sure that none of it can be tracked back
                  • in such dynamic, one can’t really expect the security to be always perfect. Shadowrunners need to succeed only once, when security has to be on top of their game all the time. He is being made an example of partly because of politics and the fact how PR-visible the explosion was
                3. extraction
                  • they are moving to another corp out of big 10, so while he looses some status, it’s not a complete from riches to rags
                  • the extraction will probably make life of his son safer/with more perspectives

                But still, I feel there is some conflict here, he is being punished for actions of people not much different than the ones he’s organizing the extraction with. He’s probably a rather reserved person, with corporate experience and capability of politics (a must have at executive levels in a corp). So I don’t want him to come across as completely hot mess. On the other hand, I guess there’s a lot of tension and suppressed anger in here

                I am not sure how to roleplay this person. How much of outbursts of anger is too much and how to not make them bland. I have an opportunity to show my characters the effects of their actions by proxy, I want to use it

                • Andy
                  2•1 year ago

                  Respectfully, I think we just have very different styles. Maybe this is what works for you, but I’d just get in his head like you have, write one or two good lines if they come to me and then act it out naturally.

                  I think this kind of work can be fun as a GM but has very diminishing returns for player experience. If you’re enjoying it, great, but if this is honestly vexing you I think the good news is that players won’t care or notice whether you refresh on another tome of lore. You understand the character enough for what they need, and then some.

                  • @INeedManaOP
                    1•1 year ago

                    No offence taken, that’s a fair point

                    Usually I try to rather go with the flow and improvise without going all Game of Thrones on backstory. But recently my players said that the feel of a few locations felt flat, and also in general I have problems with NPCs. They either come out bland, comical or incompetent. So I’m trying to prepare something more this time and see how it goes. Working on an example and having something to compare to works better for me than some general rules from “how to roleplay better”
                    And sometimes it turns out that there is something in the lore, that I’ve forgotten/overlooked/haven’t read, that gives me a direction to go with or against