Character Creation Challenge

Rich Kids Can Never Lose | Shadowrun: Anarchy

With Enough Effort, Any RPG Character Can Make a Point About Wealth Inequality

Shiny

Human Vehicle Rigger

Tags: Driver • Car Enthusiast • Poser • Cynical • Shallow

Shiny likes cars. They go fast and they make him look good because he has a nice one. Anyone who doesn’t have a car is a loser in his eyes.

Shiny comes from a well-off family, a fact that he hides from everyone at all costs. Both his parents, who are alive and well, were managers at Saeder-Krupp Heavy Industries. They’re vaguely aware that he isn’t regularly employed. He once told them that he was a private consultant, and they didn’t press the matter.

His love of cars stems from his love of car movies. Shiny has loved car movies and TV shows since he was a kid. He’s more enamored with media about cars then actual car culture. He rarely talks shop with other car nuts, and he can barely patch up his own car. But he knows what movies feature which cars.

A lot of runners can sense he’s a poser, but he’s a good enough rigger for them to ignore that. He’s not the best, and he doesn’t do drones, but he’s a reliable transporter and getaway driver. He’s good under pressure and balances risks well. Having a weaponized sports car doesn’t hurt.

A lot of crews won’t work with him because he’s so ready to bounce as soon as a job goes south, but Johnsons appreciate his caution. It’s telling that his closest contacts are both corporate Johnsons.

Shiny runs the shadows because it pays well and it’s better than getting a real job. But because of his trust fund, he can say no to jobs he doesn’t like and Johnsons he doesn’t trust. He never has to take a job out of desperation. Combined with his negotiation skills, the only thing he retained from private school, he drives a harder bargain than most runners.

Some old school gamers will notice that Shiny is not particularly optimized. They’re right, but he doesn’t need to be. In the long run, he’ll surpass most other player characters by simply existing.

Shiny has two very on-brand Qualities, both from the Chicago Chaos sourcebook:

• Born Rich: Improve an existing Shadow Amp by a single level for free.
• Trust Fund: +1 Karma per run.

Born Rich just means you were rich but you’re not anymore. The Amp bump is just leftovers. But Trust Fund has way more potential value. Unless the GM interprets it as a bonus the player gets specifically from the job, Trust Fund nets extra Karma per run regardless of what happened. Even if the crew botches the job or gets stiffed, the Trust Fund kid still builds wealth in the background. It’s not that the Trust Fund kid is getting more cash then everyone else from the job. It means that while they’re working, the Trust Fund is making money all on its own.

Shadowrun: Anarchy abstracts both money and experience into Karma. You can use Karma to improve Attributes or Skills, or buy new Weapons or Gear. You’d think Trust Fund would only give extra points to spend on hardware. Not so.

Money isn’t just money. Wealth brings about piece of mind and free time to practice. When you don’t desperately need cash, you sleep better, eat better, and relax better, and you recover faster. When you’re not in survival mode, you internalize what you learned faster. When you don’t have to string yourself out, you do everything with greater proficiency. It’s easy to get good when you don’t have to worry about the consequences of not being good enough.

A Shadowrun character with Trust Fund doesn’t have to be particularly well optimized. All they have to do is survive along enough for that Karma bonus to show results. After that, everything gets easier at a faster rate for the Trust Fund kid than their peers. Kinda like real life.

Estate and wealth taxes now.