[Dudesomebody]

  Hello all, me again with another pointless question about our favorite game!  They have a ganger archetype in the main book but they don't say which gang and I have always loved the Halloweeners aesthetic. What can I say, I'm an old haunter at heart Anyway, reason I am bugging you guys is I have read over all the info I can find about the gang and they seem a little on the...Murderhobo side. If you guys where going to play one in a mixed group of runners  (not a ganger game) how would you square the backstory and mesh with your group?? Mostly this is just some theory crafting, I don't want anyone to make a character for me. Though I won't stop you guys if you have a few fun game mechanic ideas.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

The first question would be where the game lies on the scale from Pink Mohawk to Black Trenchcoat.  If it's a full on Pink Mohawk game, being a Halloweener is probably going to be in the running as the "straight" runner


If your group prefers a more gritty/black trenchcoat/cloak-n-dagger/"realistic" game, being a molotov-tossing loonie could sure be problematic, of course. 

Some ideas for integrating into this kind of game with that kind of background:

1) Maybe you avoided the usual fate for Halloweeners (dying of an overdose, dying in a gang war, dying in a house fire,  dying in a rave that got out of hand and burned down, etc) by being arrested and forcibly separated from your worst influences by being incarcerated.  Now that you're out, you still have old friends in the gang (maybe) but you're not really IN the gang anymore, because personnel turnover's a bitch in that circle and most of the gang by now doesn't know you from Jimmy the Rabbit.  Being a con, unable to get a job with a criminal SIN, is easy fodder for a motivation to turn to Shadowrunning.

2) "Maybe you're not as bad as the WORST of them". Maybe you're simply not insane (yet) from imbibing random chemicals or frying your brain on BTLs.  Maybe you're only involved with the gang for similar reasons many real life kids fall into gangs: safety and/or it's the only thing you can feel like you belong in.  If, for example, you're an Ork, you're a grown ass adult at 12, 13 years old?  Would you want to stay in middle school as a human if you were in your 20s?  Easy to see why Orks don't.  What do you do when you drop out of school? Can't get a job as the laws all are built for human perspectives and since humans are still children at this age, then so are you, legally!  Joining a gang it is!  Maybe you're a full-fledged Halloweener, but you're looking at Shadowrunning as a way off the crazy train that only has one ending that comes in a morbid variety of subtle differences.  What can you offer to professional, "black trechcoat" style shadowrunners?  You know the streets.  You have street cred with the NPCs in those circles.  What's more, with GM permission, you can easily whip up a bunch of ganger buddies to provide a loud distraction whenever the sneaky plan calls for one.

[Dudesomebody]

  Really great suggestions, seems for most ganger characters being removed from the gang is the best way to play them fewer loyalty issues I suppose. It is a real shame that the gang with the best aesthetic IMO is the usual cannon fodder bad guy

As a bit of an edit to your #1 example, instead of being arrested, the 'cell' they where a part of could have gotten wiped out by [insert bigbad here] and they had to go into hiding. Turnover would still limit their contacts in the gang and forced a change of occupation while sticking to familiar tricks and dresscode Not everyone likes to run SINs, I know I usually dont unless I have a specific story in mind....which this would definitely qualify as I guess :-/

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Well, the hard break from the gang can be any explanation... doesn't need to be a stint in prison.

The clubhouse burned down, everyone inside died!  (I'm sure that happens semi-regularly for molotov loonies).  You survived because you were the one making a run to Stuffer Shack at the time.

[Dudesomebody]

lol, I can see it now. Pumpkin jack on a burger run during the weekly pyro contest and comes back to a burned out clubhouse. 

[Tecumseh]

Really excellent suggestions from Stainless Steel Devil Rat.

Halloweeners are cool but they're also very insane. I was listening by a podcast (by Opti?) which described them as "psychotic pyromaniacs, particularly feral and violent, with a side of fire damage". As such, they don't always make the greatest shadowrunners unless they go through a transformative event like SSDR describes.

Honestly, the prison explanation is really solid. It separates the ganger from the negative influences and lets them mature. Hell, maybe they even connect with some hardened shadowrunners in prison, leading the PC to think about crime in a bigger, more strategic way.

If you want to go the gang war route - and depending on what year your campaign takes place in - the Halloweeners were almost wiped out in a gang war with the Ancients in 2069. They survive (as the Halloweeners always do) and rebuild themselves in 2070 and 2071 only to have another gang war with First Nations over Tempo. So there are plenty of opportunities for gang violence to wipe out the PC's friends and connections with the gang, making it easier to explain a separation and subsequent evolution.

[Dudesomebody]

  This was mostly a thought exercise, not so much a real character idea. Though I do love the halloween aesthetic. Also I always get the best answers here, its why I bug you guys so much.