Yes. I think those players who think Authority is limited have never met a... less than perfectly ethical police officer. Lies, threats of incarceration for minor offences, or simply the threat of constant harassment/attention can achieve quite serious results if successful. Most of my old characters would have preferred to be shot at or have a netrunner mess with their credit rating than have a cop breathing down their neck. Hell, when's the last time any player did their taxes accurately? That's how they got Capone in the end...
Also down with what Chris has to say (as per usual). I've been replaying the early parts (read: before unpatched becomes unplayable) of Vampire: Bloodlines, and they did a fine job most of the time in that game. It's really only the long fighty bits/boss fights where being a hardcase is truly dominant, the rest makes you have to choose some specialisations. Persuade, intimidate, obfuscate/sneak, dementation, hacking, lockpicking etc. Looking through walkthroughs, one would have to plan every bit of character growth in order to do everything "Perfectly", but almost everything can still be done. This is what happens when players writing the game can make a huge difference.
Just going the Shadowrun Returns route, where you hire the right guys and it doesn't matter what class you are is more frustrating than rewarding, as things still get done, but not by you. I'm still shirty over how pointless netrunning was in a cyberpunk future in that game :/
Still, some of my best runs as a player involved out-of-the-box use of interesting characters and roles, and each game wherein I achieved my goals, I could have achieved them differently with different roles. Like using a Nomad to put pressure on a bar owner for info, by promising in return that he wouldn't have weeks on end of Nomads starting fights in his bar. Just one or two, and never the same ones, and in a month the bar would be known as a roughneck dive. He saw it our way in the end. Sure, a netrunner might write a bot to make for terrible reviews to stream in, or call down weekly health and safety inspections. A fixer might offer something in return that the guy needs. A Solo might run a few drive-bys, a medtechie spread an innocuous but lingering virus, etc etc etc...
In some cases, such wins turn into losses down the road, and sometimes set you up for glory. The point is, the job gets done, and done your way. Which, really, is the heart of true Role Playing in my far less than humble opinion.
