A street samurai (also street sam, sammie, or razor boy/girl) is an archetypal shadowrunner who specializes in physical combat. They are often heavily augmented with cyberware and/or bioware to enhance their combat prowess and carry a variety of weapons to deal with any threat their groups encounter. Because of a reliance on some form of the -ware, they are distinguished from the more rare, magic wielding martial combat experts known as (physical) adepts.[1]
Street samurai often come from military, paramilitary, or corporate security backgrounds, but a street gang's culture of violence breeds street samurai of its own.[2] Any situation that involves violence or overcoming physical defenses, such as assassination or sabotage, greatly benefits from the samurai's presence, though they are not known for subtlety.[3][4]
Street samurai are rarely social creatures. Their role as muscle leaves little room for it, and heavy augmentation causes others to experience an uncanny valley effect when interacting. They often adopt codes of honor, such as simply avoiding the death of bystanders, to more complex codes like bushido, as a way of holding on to the humanity that they are gradually exchanging for cyberware or bioware.[5]
Notes[]
- ↑ Physical or magical, half the street sams who enter my shop come in asking if I can reattach their arm. --Amargi
- ↑ Most of them suck, too. I get the 'survival of the fittest' thing, but can I get a good opponent one of these days? One who knows how to actually move? --BlossomWind
- ↑ Unfair, but technically true. Also, never underestimate the benefit of a good distraction in a black op. --Sabot12
- ↑ Or the benefit of a good hard punch in the right place. --BlossomWind
- ↑ A good street samurai understands that this is a weakness, and seeks to either make use of it or obliterate it. A bad street samurai is made use of, then obliterated. --Sabot12
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