Meoil, Space creature

#ttrpg #shadowrun #tabletop_rpg
Trying to incite character bonding in the shadowrun game I am running, but many of the characters are comically abrasive and/or don't trust each other. The characters are a former Renraku red samurai with yakuza ties who ran to Seattle (who is now ironically living in the ACHE), a street-doc / gadget guy satyr turned shadowrunner, a sort of modern Buddhist monk who is exceptionally adverse to using lethal force, and a "decker" (techno sorcerer) with some social skills who is just a generally experienced shadowrunner. The whole group is sort of under the protection of a "nice" crime boss named Sharky who has been in power over a reasonable area of Seattle since killing the previous crime boss in 2074 (game is in 2080). The previous group of mercenaries / shadowrunners he had working under him were set up, and the current plot is the new team investigating the setup and eventually breaking them out. Unknown to any of the characters / players, the crime boss Sharky "killed" was actually a head case named Cinder, who has now been body hopping and slowly building resources over the previous 6 years, most recently embezzling a huge sum of nuyen after getting injected into an ares executive, and soon after the next run there will be a news story about the unsolved case of the random ares exec who made off with a bunch of cash and then "committed suicide." Cinder then plans to have themselves injected into a random gang leader, infect the whole gang, kit them out with the few million nuyen they embezzled, and then try and take out Sharky.

Any questions / suggestions / comments are welcome, I just like talking about shadowrun

Mar 26, 2019 at 11:43amWeb
Show threadCyclone DuskMar 26, 2019

@Meoil

I love this. I love this so much. I really wish I could get back into playing table top dice RPGs again. But anyway, you mentioned suggestions.

I have a go to when it comes to trust building.

Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Generosity, and Laughter. They're the Elements of Harmony from MLP:FiM. I know - the characters are naturally untrusting. That's why it takes a trick like this. Don't TELL them you're going for these specific things. Just keep this in mind, and their insticts will follow, because no matter how hard or tough they want to play, they're still HUMAN:

When someone shows Integrity (Honesty), it inspires Respect (Loyalty).
When someone is Respectful, it brings Integrity out in others.
When someone shows Patience (Generosity), others are naturally more inclined to Empathize with them (Kindness).
And when someone is relatable and empathetic, others tend to accommodate for them.

These are ingredients to a recipe, or directions to a desired place... People KNOW them, without thinking about them, because natural selection has favored those who recognize them. If you bring them all together, you then only require one last thing, a catalyst, to set off the reaction: "Laughter".

Not like literally laughing at a joke always, but more like the quintessence of encouragement...
Hope. Motivation. Wanting for another to succeed.

But it CAN be as simple as a joke, if all the other elements are present.

This is the inner workings of tribal instinct. You can tap them to bring unlikely people together. Even role play characters. Do this and it will be satisfying to the players. So satisfying, so right, so RICH with verisimilitude, that resisting it will feel fake and hollow. This is how associates of convenience become FAMILY.

"No one is as smart, strong, or resourceful as ALL OF US!"