Wait... Your group actually has morals? How the hell did that happen?
It's probably my own fault. The initial pitch for the game went like this:
[spoiler]
Theme: Professionalism
The idea is to look at the demands of being a professional criminal, often asked to do morally repugnant things, and the consequences this has on your interpersonal relationships and the rest of your life.
Influences: TV: Burn Notice
Chuck
Human Target
Leverage
Smith
White Collar
Film: Collateral
Domino
Grosse Pointe Blank
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Lucky Number Slevin
Miami Vice
Ronin
Smokin’ Aces
Strange Days
The Transporter
The Usual Suspects
Way of the Gun
Concept: I want to run a Shadowrun game heavily influenced by the films and TV shows above. The idea is that cleverness is more important than brute force, or more simply: tact is more important than dakka. I envisage that most people will not use weapons bigger than pistols with any regularity whatsoever.
I’m keen to use the rules to create the atmosphere of a crime-based TV show or fairly clever action film. I love heist movies and so I’d like to make legwork and planning a big part of the game. I’m also keen to emphasise that your characters are criminals but should probably not be sociopaths, unless that’s a feature: killing should not be an easy option and particularly visible acts of violence or murder will certainly be met with police investigation. So each and every time you kill someone in the game should be a conscious decision that you’ve made. It may sometimes be a necessary evil but it is certainly never a good thing or an easy out.
You will start play as a group of criminals (with the appropriate flaw) who are in transit between two prison facilities in Seattle, along with a number of other criminals. You might just be starting your sentence, or on your way to your final parole hearing. You might be innocent, or you might be proud of your crimes. You might have been imprisoned for two months or twenty years. All that matters is that your character is in the transfer vehicle when it’s attacked, and left behind after the guards are killed and the target of the extraction is removed. Your characters should be the sort to work together and go into business as a shadowrunning team, as you don’t have any other options.
In that line of work, you can mostly expect not to get totally betrayed by your employer but you should be aware that you are likely being used, manipulated, lied to and kept in the dark at any given point. Over time, I hope that the campaign will develop in such a way that there will be much international travel and involvement in many high-stakes activities that challenge your characters’ morals and capabilities, with the end result being lots of fun for everyone.
[/spoiler]
Somehow, from that, they got to this place where they obsess over not killing people. I should stress that one member of the party doesn't really have the same qualms; the
houngan managed to summon a Force 10 Guardian Spirit during the last mission, and selected Natural Weaponry as one of his optional powers. He killed every single person he attacked on the first blow; when the other PCs found out, they (verbally) tore him a new one for going so far off-plan.