Welcome to the Data Haven

Hello chummers.  😉

My name is J, but I also answer to Insomniac.  This blog will soon be the home of all my Shadowrun stuff that I have scattered around the Net.  Primarily a place to grab run notes, I plan on reviewing sourcebooks, posting fan fiction and perhaps even commenting on the game itself.

If you’re not familiar with Shadowrun (in the P&P RPG style, rather than the video games), it is a near-future, dystopian, cybernetic future game where fantasy elements have been re-introduced to the world causing an interesting blend of magic and machine.  The storyline is in-depth and there are so many things going on at once that Game Masters should have no shortage of material.  However, if you find yourself short on material, hopefully some of the future posts on this blog will help with that.  🙂

While I will occasionally pipe up like this, the bulk of my posts will likely be “in-character” as my grumpy, sleep-deprived sysop alter-ego, Insomniac.  He runs a board in the Seattle Matrix where shadowrunners can look for work.  He’s a no nonsense kind of guy, but he does welcome some discussion.  So if you’d like to comment on run notes, feel free to do so in character and become part of the dialogue.

Well, I think that’s it for now.  Hopefully, you’ll check back from time to time.

J.

>>Oi!  Who’s grumpy?  Anyways, I figured I’d step up and introduce myself.  The handle’s Insomniac and I run my own little corner of ShadowSea.  If you need work, I’m your guy…assuming legality ain’t a scruple you tend to have.  If you think the shadows might be the place for you, then loiter for a bit and see what’s around.  Who knows…maybe you’ll be the next best thing round here.  Or maybe you’ll end up as the next red stain on the asphalt.  Either way, these should be interestin’ times, omae.  Perhaps I’ll see ya round.
>> Insomniac
“The shadows never sleep, so why should I?”

RPGaDay 2026 #31 – Edge (#RPGaDAY2026)

Well, I made it. Even doing this prompt on the actual day. For a Shadowrun GM, today’s prompt could be easy: Edge. While Edge in Shadowrun is like a built in luck mechanic, I was looking at it in terms a character who is getting on in years. You’ve outmaneuvered the odds, survived everything the world has thrown at you and you’re starting to see those first grey hairs. Have you lost your Edge?

When you write up a character, do you ever think what their retirement might look like? If they complete the quest, or complete what they set out to do, do they lay down their sword and enjoy the retirement they’ve earned? Or, in your mind, do they find a new cause and continue to fight? Most rational people won’t fight longer than absolutely necessary, yet we often get so attached to our favourite characters, the idea that they would just voluntarily stop seems to interfere with our enjoyment as players. So, how does your character retain their edge when confronted with the end of their road?

If a character’s backstory is side quest resolution material, getting something in the main quest that resonates with them is the simplest way to keep them around. “My quest is done, but I couldn’t rest while this sort of injustice afflicts others”. There are some systems, like Shadowrun, that supports open gameplay better than others… there’s always another run needing able runners. In a game like 7th Sea, however, the game is very story-driven and propels characters forward on what is most pressing for them. I often promote the use of the Foul Weather Jack Advantage, which allows for multiple stories, so that there can be a short term and long term story you’re pursuing.

There may be a point when your character must ultimately lay his weapon down… but they can fade into the background within the world. Shadowrunners become fixers, smugglers and arms traders. Adventurers can become merchants, nobles or bandits… just because you are no longer rolling their dice doesn’t mean they vanish. This sort of retirement isn’t a matter of losing one’s edge, but rather a shift in the global lens. If you aim to change characters, especially for story reasons, work with your GM so the character isn’t gone, but part of the world in other ways. There is more than one way for a character to fade away without sacrificing their edge.

RPGaDay 2026 #30 – Pride (#RPGaDAY2026)

Pride can be a good thing in a hero, when it comes to confidence and the notion that you’re making the world a safer place. However, it can also be a shortcut on the road toward becoming the villain. If your pride makes you blind to needing help or listening to the concerns of those around you, you may set out to set things right, but in doing it in your own way, make yourself the villain in the face of those around you.

The most recent example I can think of was a recent game of Shadowrun Anarchy I’ve mentioned before, where the local healer fell into blood magic when her magic alone wasn’t enough to save the local population. The team was hired to investigate by an outsider and when they learned the truth about her magic, they did the right thing and ended the threat of blood magic in the Seattle Underground. However, in doing so, they left a large part of the Underground without a physician. All of the blood magic she had performed was done on outsiders for the benefit of residents. To the locals, she was a miracle worker and the runners killing her off made them the villains in that part of the city.

No one took the time to consider the impact of their actions. The team knew what needed to be done when confronted with blood magic, but their professional pride never even considered the impact of their imposed justice. Would it have gone any better if they’d let her live? Probably not. But they also did nothing to fill the gap left and never looked back. Even if the runners had tried to explain to the locals about the magic being used, it might have made even a small difference. Being the heroes of the tale doesn’t mean you can act with impunity… forgo the pride and consider your character’s actions in the context of the locals. You might be surprised how unheroic your actions may appear.

RPGaDay 2026 #29 – Labour (#RPGaDAY2026)

Ah yes, the thing every character must endure to get anything done… Labour. Every journey will throw hardships in your character’s path and it is their burden as a hero to carry. Sometimes the labour is physical, emotional or soul-crushing… but you’re a hero right? You can take it.

That said, what would it look like if they couldn’t? Would they break entirely? Would their worldview become twisted? Stop at nothing to rectify the burden they carry, even if it means they become the villain in the process? There are so many ways to explore that darkness, where the hero treads close to the edge. White Knight heroes have a place, but most of the best heroes in modern media stand somewhere within the grey. If you want your character to be good, but not be afraid of getting their hands dirty, you should consider what they might do if the weight of it all gets to be a bit too much.

A character that ignores the gravity of the trials they ensure is unrealistic and leads to a world that happens around the character, rather than something they’re a part of. Let them feel the world… when the world shudders in fear, the character should feel it with everyone else and rise above it to be the hero they are.

RPGaDay 2026 #28 – Devotion (#RPGaDAY2026)

Devotion. It can be a fundamental building block for a character, or tear them down. Being devoted to a person or a cause can push a hero out the door to pursue a calling. It can used by NPCs to lure the devoted into a trap or try to topple them from grace. Being linked to an idea can provide strength or make you predictable.

As usual, I’m going to lean on Burn, my long-standing Shadowrun character. He is devoted to his brother Corey. Looking after his brother gives him purpose and spurs him on to actually exercise a little bit of caution on the job. If he were to die, who would look after his brother? However, he has taken several steps to obfuscate his family ties from anyone who might look into his line of work, as if anyone learned about Corey, he could be used as leverage or as a means to get back at him. In that regard, his devotion is a double-edged sword. It makes him a better man, but it is his singular greatest weakness as well.

It is (in my experience) rare for players to build characters with an Achilles Heel, but having something that the character truly cares about… something they will do anything to protect… can add a lot of drama and purpose to playing the character. I think most would find the story much more rewarding than the vagabond with no roots. Maybe that’s just me, but if players devoted more time to crafting a story, I think player engagement would be much higher overall.

RPGaDay 2026 #27 – Hunger (#RPGaDAY2026)

Hmmm… Hunger… there are different ways to interpret this. Some characters, like vampires and other monsters, this could be quite literal hunger, seeking to consume those they share the world with. For most, this is connected with things like Desire and Grit… the very thing that spurs the character forward in life.

What are they hungry for? Justice? Redemption? Favor with their God? There are no shortage of reasons that an adventurer might strike out on their own. For many, the motivation may be purely monetary… they need to make ends meet to support their family or village. But along the way, they discover something more motivating than mere gold. An end to tyranny or a desire to purge evil from the land, so those they aim to support will be able to live a life in safety. I have seen players play mercenary characters, who only travel for the almighty coin, but those characters often become dull and hollow in time. There’s no investment in the story or the group’s purpose, so each adventure just sort of blends from one into the next, rather than being present and contributing to the story.

So, explore your character’s hunger and let it guide them, but don’t fear change. If your character shifts their focus, definitely don’t forget their original purpose, but it should shift as their world view does. Tastes change and so should your character’s motivations as you play.

RPGaDay 2026 #26 – Regret (#RPGaDAY2026)

Regret. Most characters have them. Some seek to correct them. Other run from them. But, the things we regret often shapes the person we are and how we conduct ourselves. Our fictional characters should be the same way. If they are looking to rectify regrets from their past, they should regularly be conducting themselves in a way to avoid repeating past mistakes. If they’re running from past misdeeds, they will similarly want to avoid repeating that mistake, but also be doing whatever they can to not cross paths with the people or entities familiar with them.

Over the course of adventuring, there is always the possibility that they will be misled and conduct themselves in a way they come to regret. How will they correct that? Has their capacity to trust new people been permanently altered in some way? A regret that rises from an in-game moment can be some of the best character building over the course of a campaign. Something that occurred in a written backstory won’t have near the impact that a shared catastrophe will have with a party.

So, don’t fear the betrayal, the lies and the misrepresentations… your character may be fooled once, but they will learn and hopefully become stronger from the experience. If they don’t learn, or retain the wrong lessons from the experience, then there may be more missteps on their journey. But flawed characters will stumble along the way and those are often the best stories to tell.

RPGaDay 2026 #25 – Familiarity (#RPGaDAY2026)

Familiarity… just like me playing catch up on RPGaDay content…

This actually ties into the last prompt for me… characters sticking to what is familiar, even when it may not be the best course of action. The number of times I’ve heard the comment “…I guess I’ll shoot them” in response to the “what do you want to do?” question in Shadowrun… rather than being inventive, creative or throwing a wild card into the mix. It turns into something like one of those isometric combats like Shadowrun Returns… which are an excellent series of games, don’t get me wrong. But at the table, things are far more flexible than a video game. Click more than one skill, dude…

The familiar can be a trap for creativity. While there is strength in doing what a character is skilled in, it can lead to stagnation, if the character never strays from what they know well. So, make those Hail Mary plays… break up the expected with something out of left field. Be the creative disaster to challenge your GM and take some risks!

RPGaDay 2026 #24 – Distance (#RPGaDAY2026)

He’s going the Distance. He’s going for speed…

Many characters have a long road ahead of them… some have a long road behind them already. But one of the things that set heroes apart from most NPCs is the distance they travel and how far they’re willing to go. There is a lot of truth to the tale of the person who has never really traveled far from home. Maybe they are the Samwise Gamgee type, who can rise to the occasion, but most of the “background noise” NPCs the characters will encounter will have worked in their humble little village and maybe the surrounding villages all their life.

Player characters should be the most cultured and traveled characters in the world. Traveling far and wide, interacting with far off kingdoms and remote villages. Yet, in so many games I’ve run and played in, the characters don’t expand their world view at all, despite everything they see. I know I’ve been guilty of this. Characters who are so rigid in their methods that they remain unyielding in their world view, despite extensive evidence that might contradict what they’ve come to believe. And maybe this is the older, more mature version of me talking, but I find characters that evolve to be far more interesting to play, both as a the controlling player or sharing a table with.

So, if your character is going to go the distance and see the world, when they inevitably return from where they came, they should be changed from the person they were. If they’re going to leave an impact on the world, the world should leave an impact on them as well.

RPGaDay 2026 #23 – Fortune (#RPGaDAY2026)

Ah yes, Fortune. Every shadowrunner wants to make one. Of course, if you’re looking at fortune in regards to chance or luck, that kind of falls into the mechanical part of any game system… luck is typically relegated to dice rolls or whatever mechanic the system uses to determine the outcome of any uncertainty in the game. Aside from dice, the other factor that feeds into the good vs. bad fortune side of things is tied to setting. A dystopian setting is likely to have a more negative slant than something like 7th Sea, which is based in heroic fantasy. The heroes are expected to succeed in 7th Sea, where every runner is expected to be on borrowed time.

A character can harness their own destiny somewhat in the face of the random element through their life outlook. Someone who is described as brash and reckless is more likely to fall prey to ill fortune based on their behavior over a more cautious character. Similarly, a character who is under taking the exposure of a lesser noble is going to be exposed to less danger than someone aiming to topple a king or megacorporate CEO. Despite these character design choices, the biggest factor in your character’s fortune stems from their dice. Being highly skilled and having a solid plan cannot fully save you if your dice are standing in your way.

As important as a good story is to a fun character, whether good fortune finds you or abandons you still boils down to good old-fashioned luck. And perhaps, that’s the best parallel to reality we can get.

RPGaDay 2026 #22 – Grit (#RPGaDAY2026)

Grit… if this were a conversation about a setting, I’d just say “Yes please!” and move on. But when it comes to characters, it’s less clear cut. Sure, every character should have a back story to tells everyone why they’re risking their life like this… but for so many players, beyond the story that states why they’re here, the back story actually guides very little about their day-to-day actions.

Grit is all about treating their desires as a marathon rather than a sprint, but it always seems very rare when a player acts during a session in a way that is a means to their end goal. I often get told what their character was doing “off-camera” to pursue their agenda, but when we’re at the table, their actions are very much focused on the here-and-now and pass up opportunities to chase their own agenda. It would be like my wife’s character Hel, who is bent on hunting down the last vestiges of Cross Applied Technologies, breaking into a corporate compound that used to be a Cross holding, finding an old CATCo data vault buried under the building and then just ignoring it because it’s not for the game we’re doing right now. She would never… she would derail my plot to make sure she bled that server dry… but I’ve had players that have outright ignored the plot carrot placed specifically for them because they didn’t even remember their own character’s back story. That’s not grit… that’s coughing up a story to shut me up and let them play.

So, where every GM has an obligation to keep their players invested, so do the players have an obligation to at least buy into the story of the game enough to engage with the story the GM is trying to tell. Then, when a loose thread for your story is dangled before you, find that grit and pull that thread with everything you’ve got. The GM placed that there for you and acknowledging that indulgence is very welcome. Speaking from experience here…