How (un)realistic are Street Samurai?

[Ragitsu]

Especially in a near-future scenario.

[SSgt Baloo]

What's a Street Samurai?

[Ragitsu]

I know that the idea of a Street Samurai is part of Shadowrun, but it's likely not unique to it.

A Street Samurai is mercenary (usually working for companies, but not necessarily) that's augmented with cybernetic implants, highly skilled in the art of war, and sometimes dons a trenchcoat plus katana (this is more thematic than anything). They also, at times, have origins as street urchins or orphans that had two choices growing up due to the dark future in which they inhabit: crime, or violence-for-hire.

[Bloodstone]

What's the setting like?

Growing up in poverty and deciding to become a gun for hire is totally plausible. Though I will say, most of the mercs I know IRL are ex-military guys that grew up in pretty "normal" middle class families. Then again, most of the guys I know are from 1st world countries like the US or England...

Skill in the arts of war totally depends on training and experiences, but it takes more than being able to throw out quotes from Sun Tzu or Hgakure. The idea behind the Street Sam is that they are in some way above the average street thug and it's more than just having chrome.

The rest of the concepts that really make them work require the correct setting IMO.

[Ragitsu]

What's the setting like?

Growing up in poverty and deciding to become a gun for hire is totally plausible. Though I will say, most of the mercs I know IRL are ex-military guys that grew up in pretty "normal" middle class families. Then again, most of the guys I know are from 1st world countries like the US or England...

Skill in the arts of war totally depends on training and experiences, but it takes more than being able to throw out quotes from Sun Tzu or Hgakure. The idea behind the Street Sam is that they are in some way above the average street thug and it's more than just having chrome.

The rest of the concepts that really make them work require the correct setting IMO.

Is the sword feasible at all?

[Bloodstone]

Feasible in what way?

In real life, swords are dangerous as hell in close combat or against unprepared opponents. Most ballistic armor will turn aside bullets, but isn't very impressive against sharp pointy things (knives, swords, arrows...)

Over a distance of 20' or so, a good guy with a sword or knife can get in close before average dude with a gun can unholster, aim and pull the trigger. At 30' or so, the average dude with gun beats awesome dude with a knife or sword more often than not. We've run simulations like that and most gun guys are pretty horrified by the results, but it's still just a simulation. Realistically, there's a pretty good chance of a double kill in either scenario. The odds just start to stack in favor one way or the other as the distances gets longer or shorter...

Modern militaries don't tend to issue swords for combat because they are just big, pain in the ass hunks of metal that get in the way, won't get used much and serve no real utility. Knives are MUCH more functional in everyday situations and are good enough to excellent in hand to hand. But close quarters melee is total last resort territory anyhow...

And lets not forget that real world samurai learned how to use bows, spears and firearms. The sword has almost always been a secondary weapon in almost every culture, often times after the spear. It's really more often associated with leadership and ceremony than down and dirty fighting.

But in a world with cybernetic implants that enhance speed and reaction time, I imagine you can get away with some truly ridiculous stuff...

[danbuter1]

In a world where corporate mercs are given special dispensation, I'd think street samurai would rock. All the major corps would have them.

[Ragitsu]

"Bodie McLean grew up on the rough streets of Los Angeles. He's been back a couple of times, but not since the Quake of
'09 dumped half the city in the ocean (there's a running joke that calls the earthquake 'urban improvement').
Kids who grow up the way Bodie did generally have two choices; one, they turn to crime, or two, they make the much
harder transition to violence for hire, and become street mercenaries. The very best of these are called 'street samurai'.
Bodie's been one for some years now.

Bodie made his first foray into the quasi-legal world of 'have gun will travel' when he was eighteen; in the ensuing two
decades and more, he has risen through the ranks to become a recognised force in his own right, from being a follower to a
leader. In this time, he has travelled to distant places, and faced foes he never would have imagined. The cumulative
effects of injuries have forced him to take cybernetic and bioware enhancements, some of which he could barely afford. But
those same enhancements have saved his life on more than one occasion, so he isn't complaining.

Bodie's last mission was to hit an R&D company which was researching some esoteric tech. This tech turned out to include a prototype dimensional door. It would not have worked, but when Bodie blew it up, the power surge weakened the fabric of the universe enough that ...

... over in Reich-5, scientists working for the Ahnenerbe-SS parachronic division suddenly had a success on a project which had been reading a flat zero for months. The idea was to pull in a living human being from another parallel - any human, any parallel - and interrogate him (or her) for local conditions. The ultimate goal, of course, was to create a fully-functional two-way gate.

What they got was Bodie.

Severely stunned by the explosion (he had been in a firefight seconds before) and the very rough transit, he did not put up much of a fight. So they had him down and sedated and under interrogation before he fully regained his wits.

Of course, at this point, things started going wrong for them. There were several facts about Bodie that they didn't know, and all of these would cost them dearly.

Firstly, he has internal nanobots designed to flush poisons out of his body; by the time they got past "what is your name?" he was mostly lucid, though still faking it. The interrogation drugs gave him a mild buzz, nothing more.

Secondly, he has implanted ceramic blades between his knuckles, invisible to 90% of scanning methods.

So when he spat out blood (from biting the inside of his mouth) and faked a seizure, they panicked and undid one of his restraints. They never got a chance to regret their mistake.

Thirty seconds later, he left that room, dragging one of the scientists with him. Everyone else was dead, from either blunt trauma, slashing trauma or bullet wounds - they had left his equipment in the same room.

Five minutes after he left the facility, with alarm bells still shrilling, the building blew up; he was trained in demolitions, after all.

A rough and ready interrogation of the scientist gave him an idea of the world he was in. Eager to see the back of him, the scientist also told him about the Chronobahn - a transdimensional 'highway' that could be accessed under the right circumstances, and be used to travel from reality to reality.

He thanked the man before he broke his neck. Under the circumstances, a live witness was something he did not need.

Upon locating the Chronobahn, he began exploring it. Apparently his personal 'trigger' was the light of the full moon; after midnight, the hexagonal stones of the 'bahn would stretch much farther than possible during the day, disappearing into misty obscurity in both directions.

So he began exploring it. From time to time, he located a Reich-5 outpost, and he did what he did quite well - he killed them.

It took the high command of the Raven Division some time to catch on to the fact that there was a lone operative stalking and killing off their outtime personnel, but eventually they did. And so they dispatched Jager-teams, seeking him with orders to kill without mercy.

He's met some of them. Occasionally they put up a good fight.

Bodie McLean is a tall, grizzled man with a neatly trimmed vanDyke and shoulder-length hair. He wears a broad-brimmed hat and a long-coat, as well as a pack of supplies. His weaponry includes paired auto pistols, a high-end TL9 assault rifle, and a katana (because you can't be a street samurai without owning a katana). The more obvious weaponry can be stashed in a duffel bag he generally keeps folded up in the pack.

He can be found on basically any world where Reich-5 has a presence, or may be scouting for potential incursions, or that he has a suspicion that they might have wandered on to."

[csyphrett]

It seems okay to me. Some blades in the Shadowrun setting can cut through armor like butter. That would make a sword on par with what you see in things like the matrix and highlander
CES

[Ragitsu]

It seems okay to me. Some blades in the Shadowrun setting can cut through armor like butter. That would make a sword on par with what you see in things like the matrix and highlander
CES

But would you need cybernetic implants to make swords consistently viable weapons alongside firearms?

[csyphrett]

But would you need cybernetic implants to make swords a consistently viable weapon alongside firearms?

Depends. I think Bloodstone is right about distance involved. I think it depends on how trained the character is, can he lure someone into close combat time after time, and how deadly the blade is.

Most professionals like to stay far away from their enemy so guns are a better alternative.
CES

[Sundog]

But would you need cybernetic implants to make swords a consistently viable weapon alongside firearms?

No, I don't think so. Strength enhancement would make the sword stroke faster and deadlier; reacton speed enhancement would make parrying more effective; enhanced movement speed would increase your area of lethality. But the main thing remains that a blade is quicker to use than a gun at short range, and a long blade moreso than a short one, generally (though a Katana, being a slicing blade, is poor at defeating armor - I'd choose a sabre). I think it's more of a case that "enhanced beats unenhanced" - and that's likely true in any case of each having commensurate arms.

[Ragitsu]

Well, most street samurai DO work in urban environments...which is something in favor towards swords.

[csyphrett]

Street Samurais are known for hacking their way through their enemies so I don't see the problem other than pragmatism. I'm sure some of them would kill people with tea cups.
CES

[danbuter1]

Most street samurai carry pistols or even bigger guns. They don't limit themselves to razorclaws or swords, at least in books and Shadowrun.