| From: | "Gurth" <gurth@******.nl> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | PC Fixers: tell me what you think |
| Date: | Mon, 20 May 1996 20:20:12 +0100 |
fixers. I'd like feedback one it, if y'all don't mind... it's not complete
yet, however.
-------------------------------
PC FIXERS
---------
I am the crime without trail
And all I want right now is you
-- Savatage, "I Am"
FIXER SKILLS
------------
Most of the skills here are Special Skills, and do not really default to
the Skill Web. Attributes can be used in their place, if required, by
applying the modifier indicated to the target number. (When an open-ended
test is to be rolled in the skill, subtract the indicated modifier from
the roll.) For example, "Charisma + 4" means that a character can
substitute his Charisma for the skill, but must apply a +4 modifier to
the target number, or a -4 modifier if he makes an open-ended test.
EQUIPMENT ACQUISITION
This skill allows fixers to find equipment of all kinds. The target
number for its use is generally the Availability rating of the equipment.
Acquiring information is also covered by this skill, even though it can't
really be called "equipment."
Concentrations: Biotech, Electronics (Communications, Cyberdecks,
Entertainment, Information (by field), Lifestyle,
Security/Counter-Security, Vehicle), Implants (Bioware, Cyberware),
Magical Supplies (by tradition), Narcotics/BTLs (Illegal, Legal),
Vehicles (by type), Weaponry (by class)
Default: Charisma + 4
EVALUATE
Governs the determination of the market and insurance values of items.
The target number will depend on how familiar the character is with the
item being evaluated, from 2 for things he deals with everyday, to as
high as 12 for something he has never seen before in his life.
Concentrations: Biotech, Electronics (Communications, Cyberdecks,
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Security/Counter-Security, Vehicle), Implants
(Bioware, Cyberware), Magical Supplies (by tradition), Vehicles (by
type), Weaponry (by class)
Default: Intelligence + 4
LAUNDERING
This skill is used to remove the origin of the money a character
possesses. This makes it appear like the money always belonged to him, or
that he got it through legitimate channels. The concentrations represent
where the money came from, and specializing increases the skill in the
same area, as with Electronics skill.
Concentrations: Business, Criminal
Default: Intelligence + 6
PRIVATE ENTERPRISING
This skill is used for general, everyday, fixer business. Its use is
explained in the Doing Business section, below.
Concentrations: Biotech, Electronics (Communications, Cyberdecks,
Entertainment, Information (by field), Lifestyle,
Security/Counter-Security, Vehicle), Implants (Bioware, Cyberware),
Magical Supplies (by tradition), Narcotics/BTLs (Illegal, Legal),
Vehicles (by type), Weaponry (by class)
Default: Intelligence + 4
DOING BUSINESS
--------------
For those who own the Shadowbeat sourcebook, fixer business is handled a
lot like musical performances under these rules, except that they
generally take a bit more time.
First of all, fixers have a Fixer Status, like the Rocker Status for
musicians.
PART-TIMER
Resources Cost: Free
Lifestyle: Street
Police Trouble: 1
Income Multiplier: 50
Reputation: None
You've got a regular job or you're unemployed, and you do some illegal
dealings to make a bit of extra money on the side. Nothing major, just
some nuyen to pay the rent with. You probably don't do anything that's
really illegal anyway, you just bend the rules a bit.
STREET-DEALER
Resources Cost: 500
Lifestyle: Street
Police Trouble: 2
Income Multiplier: 150
Reputation: 14
In the past, you started out as some nobody selling odds and ends, but
gradually you've made yourself a reputation, and now people come to you
instead of the other way around. It's not like you've got a major
business going just yet, but you're on the right track.
ESTABLISHED
Resources Cost: 1,000
Lifestyle: Low
Police Trouble: 4
Income Multiplier: 500
Reputation: 10
JOHNSON
Resources Cost: 10,000
Lifestyle: Middle
Police Trouble: 3
Income Multiplier: 2,500
Reputation: 8
CRIME BOSS
Resources Cost: 100,000
Lifestyle: High
Police Trouble: 2
Income Multiplier: 5,000
Reputation: 6
TOP DOG
Resources Cost: 500,000
Lifestyle: Luxury
Police Trouble: 1
Income Multiplier: 10,000
Reputation: 5
WHAT IT ALL MEANS
Resources Cost
This is how much nuyen you need to pay from your Resources money, at
character generation, to take this Fixer Status. For example, by spending
1,000 nuyen, your character will be an Established fixer.
Lifestyle
The Lifestyle you get automatically when you take this Fixer Status in
character generation. You won't need to spend any Resources money on
Lifestyle, unless you want to pay ahead or need a second Lifestyle as a
means to lay low.
If you want a higher lifestyle than the one listed, just pay the
difference between the two -- an Established fixer wanting a Middle
lifestyle pays 4,000 nuyen extra.
Police Trouble
This is the number of dice that the gamemaster rolls against once every
month to see if you got in trouble with the cops for doing something
illegal. If you don't touch illegal stuff, they still may come to
investigate, but their target number will go up to reflect this fact. The
target number depends on the legality of what you buy and sell, as
explained under Police Investigations, below.
You will notice that the number of dice drops off the higher Status you
get, and then starts to increase again. This is because well-established
fixers bury all traces of their illegal activities in dummy corporations,
middle men, and all kinds of other dirty tricks to prevent trails from
leading back to them. On the other hand, most cops won't bother too much
with small fish if they can catch bigger ones, so if you're dealing used
car parts from your garage to make a few extra yen, you're also less
likely to get into trouble with the Star.
Income Multiplier
This represents how much nuyen you make each month from your deals. Each
month, make an open-ended Private Enterprising skill roll, and multiply
it by the Income Multiplier. The result is the amount of nuyen you made
by dealing in the various goods of your choice. You might want to launder
this money (as described under Dirty Laundry, below) to make it less
easily traced by the cops, corps, and anyone else with an interest in
your bank balance.
Reputation
This number represents how well-known you are in your chosen area of
business. It is used as a target number for Perception tests made by
people to recognize you. They must have some way of knowing you, for
example because they're your competitors, potential customers, stand on
the wrong (for your point of view) side of the law, and so on. Someone
who isn't involved in the criminal circuit whatsoever will not need to
make a roll to know that Diane Kincaid is that fixer who sells cheap
replicas of Fuchi decks, for example. On the other hand, someone looking
to buy a gun will need to roll to know that the man he happened to walk
into is Harlowe White, THE man to turn to for a Predator.
MONTHLY ROLLS
Each month, when you pay for your Lifestyle costs, you make a number of
rolls to see how well you did business this month. The most important is
the Private Enterprising skill roll, which is open-ended. As explained
above, multiply the result of this roll by the Income Multiplier for your
Fixer Status.
Now multiply the Private Enterprising roll result by your Intelligence,
which results in your Deal Factor. Apply any modifiers from the Deal
Factor Table that apply, and then look in the Fixer Status Table below to
see what additional effects take place.
If you lose or gain a Fixer Status level, keep your Lifestyle, Police
Trouble and Reputation as they were (except where it is indicated to
modify them on the Fixer Status Table), but change your Income Multiplier
to the one for the new Status.
The Insufficient Contacts modifier works as follows: you and your
gamemaster must decide how many of your contacts are "business
associates" of yours. Now look at your Equipment Acquisition and Private
Enterprising skills, and take the lowest one (if it's 0, use the other
one). If your number of associates is less than twice the skill level,
subtract 1 from your Deal Factor for every point of difference between
the two.
For example, Harry The Bastard (AKA Ted) has Equipment Acquisition skill
5 and Private Enterprise 2. He has three business associates, which means
he subtracts 1 from his Deal Factor in all cases: the lowest skill is
rated at 2, which makes 4 if it's doubled, and 4 minus 3 (the number of
associates) is 1.
DEAL FACTOR TABLE
Situation Modifier
Reputation over 10 -2
Reputation under 6 +2
Police Trouble value -(2 x value)
Insufficient contacts -1 per contact
FIXER STATUS TABLE
Deal Factor Business Dealings
9 or less Very poor. You messed up pretty bad this month, making
others lose the little respect they had for you. Your
Fixer Status is reduced by one level, and add +2 to your
Reputation permanently.
If you already are a Part-Timer, subtract 20 from your
Income Multiplier and add 1 to the Police Trouble value,
until you achieve an Exceptional or better result.
10 to 21 Poor. People start to wonder whether you can live
up to your promises; add +1 to your Reputation and
reduce your income by 5% (including for the past month)
until you get an Exceptional result or better.
22 to 36 Average. Nothing much changes in the way you do business.
37 to 60 Exceptional. Subtract 1 from your Reputation permanently,
and increase your income by 10% for the past month.
61 to 96 Incredible. Subtract 2 from your Reputation and increase
your income over the past month by 25%.
97 or more Superb. Increase your Fixer Status by one level, and
subtract 2 from your Reputation. Also increase your
income over the past month by 25%, and subtract 1 from
the Police Trouble value permanently (it may drop to 0
in this way, but not below that).
Example: Diane sells those cheap cyberdeck knock-offs, with her Private
Enterprising skill of 3. She's a Street-Dealer status fixer with a
Reputation of 13, a Police Trouble value of 2, and and Income Multiplier
of 150. She rolls her 3 dice, and, amazingly, scores 3, 3, and 3; This
gives her a total roll of 3 (that's what the highest-rolling die scored).
She makes 150 x 3 = 450 nuyen that month from her illegal dealings.
Multiplying the roll of 3 by her Intelligence of 4, she gets 12. Her
Reputation is over 10, so she subtracts 2 from this, and 4 more because
her Police Trouble value is 2. This makes a total Deal Factor of 6 (12 -
2 - 4).
Oops... Diane loses status, and is now a Part-Timer. Her Income
Multiplier drops to the standard 50 for a Part-Timer, but her other fixer
stats are modified or stay as they were: +2 is added to her Reputation,
which was 13 but now becomes 15, while her Police Trouble value stays at
2.
At the same time you roll your character's Private Enterprising skill,
the gamemaster rolls the Police Value dice, as explained under Police
Investigations, below.
TIME IS MONEY
Naturally, all this doesn't come free. You don't go hanging around the
house all month doing nothing much, and then get to make a roll to see
how much you've earned. Being a fixer is actually work, you know.
Per point of Private Enterprising skill, you're going to have to work a
number of hours per week, equal to the square of your (Private
Enterprising skill rating plus 4), minus your Equipment Acquisition skill
rating. The minimum time here is 2 hours. This time is spent visiting
your contacts, calling them on the telecomm, buying supplies, selling
those supplies again, letting people come to you, and so on.
Especially at higher skill levels, you're going to spend a lot of time
just keeping your business running. This may result in you having to
spend more time than there is available -- a week only has 168 hours, and
you will have to eat and sleep sometime, haven't you? If you assume a
minimum of 8 hours of sleep and associated exercises per day (which is
very little, by the way), you end up with 112 hours per week. If your
Private Enterprising skill is 7 or greater, you're going to be in trouble
here: (7+4)^2 = 121, so here you'd need an Equipment Acquisition skill of
at least 9 to be able to fit it all into a week's work. The best option
is to let people do your work for you, in effect creating a network of
fixers loyal to you (or as loyal as they get -- they're in this for the
money, just like you are).
FIXER NETWORKS
Letting others do the work for you will lighten your own workload, but
not one a one-to-one basis.
You can start out with a network during character generation, but you
must pay for them as for a gang or tribe (50,000 nuyen). This gives you
enough people to reduce your workload by 60% at maximum (see below).
Each person in the network must have either Private Enterprising or
Equipment Acquisition skill, or both. To determine by how much they
reduce your working time, use the following formula:
((Private Enterprising / 2)+2)^2 + (Equipment Acquisition / 4)
For example, if one of your underlings has Private Enterprising 5 and
Equipment Acquisition 3, you gain a work-time reduction of (2.5+2)^2 +
(3/4) = 20.25 + .75 = 21 hours. If you would normally have to work for 60
hours a week, now you've only got to put in 39.
Don't round fractions off until after you've calculated the total time
reduction given by all your employees combined. Then round the reduction
off to the nearest hour.
People working for you will generally have lower skill levels than you
have -- if they had higher ratings, it's likely you'd be working for
them, not the other way round.
You can never reduce your own workload to less than 10% of the actual
time you should put in, no matter how many people you hire to work for
you. The only way to do that is to totally give away all your business to
your workforce. But any good fixer would keep an eye on things, if
nothing else than just to make sure they don't run the empire you built
up over the years into the ground within a week. And that constitutes
work...
However, you can always choose to have someone do less work than they
actually /can/. You could let the person from the previous example only
do 10 hours' work, leaving you with 50 per week. You can't make him do
more than 21 hours a week, though.
Paying Your Workers
As you can expect, they don't do it for nothing. Everybody wants to make
money off your deals, so you'd better pay them if you want to keep them
working for you. Note that the payment we're talking abou here is partly
actual payments (like wages) you make to these people, and partly money
you would normally have made, but which they pocket themselves now as
compensation for their troubles. Hey, you don't expect them to give you
all the money they make for you, do you?
Multiply the number of hours your employee worked for you by 0.2, and
then by your Income Multiplier. The result is the amount of money you
lose to your worker in one way or another. If this would, in the end,
result in you losing more money than you made, the whole thing levels out
at a zero nuyen profit for you this month.
DIRTY LAUNDRY
-------------
To anyone who knows where to look, the money a fixer has made will appear
to have come from a non-legitimate source. This is because most people
with a regular income find it hard to explain why they have a few tens of
thousands of nuyen on their cred accounts while they only make 1500 bucks
a month, plus of course where the Westwind 2000 and the apartment in
Inglewood came from, not to mention the diamond watch...
Anyway, you get the picture. You have to make it appear like you got the
money through some or another legal means, disguising where it really
came from and preventing investigators from tracking it back to your
shadowy activities -- in criminal jargon, it's called laundering.
This is easier if you have no SIN, because in that case you won't get
bothered by the taxman anyway.
GAME SYSTEM
In game terms, you make a Laundering skill roll. If you don't have this
skill, you may know someone who does, but these people generally charge a
fee equal to about 10% of the money they launder for you.
The skill roll's target number is a basic 5, or a 6 if you don't have a
SIN. There are no real modifiers to this roll (wounds do not apply),
except that the gamemaster may modify it to take into account the general
credibility of your scheme. A -1, for example, if what you have the
"reason" you have thought up is very plausible, or even +4 if it's
totally unbelievable. Yes, you have to explain to the gamemaster what you
want to project to the outside world as the reason for you having the
money.
If you fail to roll any successes, add 1 to your Police Trouble number
for the coming month only. If you totally mess it up an roll all ones,
the gamemaster makes an immediate Police Trouble roll, in addition to the
normal one for that month. Oh, and don't forget to add the extra die
because none of your Laundering skill dice succeeded.
If you do roll successes, count them and multiply them by 15%. The result
is the percentage of the money you started with, that you still have
after laundering. This DOES NOT include the fee charged by someone else
to launder your money for you. No matter how many successes you have, you
cannot get more than 90% efficiency -- that is, if you launder 100,000
nuyen you will at most end up with 90,000 afterward. The difference goes
into paying for the laundering operation.
Note that the money we're talking about here is that you have /after/
paying any people you may have working for you. How they launder their
money is not your problem. Usually.
NO LAUNDERING
Of course, you don't NEED to launder your money at all. It's just that
having large amounts of unexplained money around will sooner or later
attract the cops' attention.
However, there is also no need to launder every nuyen each time you make
one. You can elect to wait a few months -- this system assumes you make
one Laundering skill roll every month, and that covers your activities
for the whole past month -- and pot up some money before letting it flow
through the system.
POLICE INVESTIGATIONS
---------------------
Once every month, the gamemaster should make a Police Threat roll, using
the fixer's Police Threat rating for the number of dice to roll. The
target number for this roll varies with the general legality of your
practices, as well as a variety of other factors. Use the Police Threat
Table to find the base target number, based on the Legality Category
(from Shadowtech) of what you generally deal in. If you trade in multiple
categories of goods, take the lowest, and apply a -1 modifier per two
additional categories (rounding up).
POLICE THREAT TABLE
Class Target Number
A, B, C: Bladed or Blunt weapons 10
D, E: Projectile or Pistols weapons 9
F: Rifles 8
G, H, I, J, L: Automatic, Heavy, or
Military weapons, ammo or explosives 6
K: Military armor 8
BA, CA: Bioware/Cyberware 9
BB, BC, CB, CC: Bioware/Cyberware 6
CD: Matrix Tech 7
E1: Equipment 11
E2: Equipment 8
E3: Equipment 5
M1: Substances 10
M2: Substances 7
M3: Substances 3
Legal stuff (any) 12
Modifier
Security Rating of area character
operates out of*:
AAA to A -6
B -2
C -1
D +0
E +4
Z +8
Character's Lifestyle*:
Street +6
Squatter +2
Low +0
Middle +0
High +2
Luxury +6
Character has a SIN -2
Character has no SIN -0
Character's amount of unlaundered
money:
none +2
up to 10,000 nuyen -0
up to 50,000 nuyen -1
up to 100,000 nuyen -2
up to 250,000 nuyen -4
up to 1,000,000 nuyen -6
over 1,000,000 nuyen -8
* A character's Lifestyle is not the same as the Security Rating of his
area of operations. Luciano lives in a high-class apartment in Auburn (AA
rated by Lone Star), but all his business is conducted from an old
warehouse in Boise (rated at D). This gives a +2 modifier for his High
lifestyle, and +0 for the D-rated area of operations. If Luciano were to
work from his house, he'd face a -4 modifier (total) to the Police Threat
test target number, instead of +2. It pays to keep business and pleasure
separate, chummer.
If the roll yields any successes, the police has some kind of lead on
your activities. No successes means they don't know anything about what
you've been doing the past month, but even one success indicates that
they know you're out there, and have at least a rudimentary idea of your
dealings in the shadows. Whether they act upon this is up to the
gamemaster to decide, but in general he should keep track of the number
of successes that get accumulated over time. When certain numbers of
successes are reached, various actions may be taken, at the gamemaster's
discretion. The Law Enforcement Reaction Table gives some suggestions.
It is highly recommended that the Police Threat roll is made where the
player can't see it, and that the number of generated successes is
likewise kept secret.
LAW ENFORCEMENT REACTION TABLE
Successes Action taken
0 None -- they don't know the character is in business at
all
2 Character will be kept under surveillance if time and
manpower allows (unlikely): Police Threat rating +1
5 Character will likely be kept under surveillance at
least some of the time: Police Threat rating +2
10 Character is under definite surveillance, and is prime
target for law enforcement: Police Threat rating +4
15 Character is arrested
Under Surveillance
When a character is under surveillance, add the indicated number of dice
to his Police Threat rating. Additionally, lower all target numbers for
Police Threat tests by -1.
These extra dice are removed at one die per month -- if 11 successes have
been gathered against Diane, her Police Threat rating is up by +4 for the
next month. At the end of that month (/after/ the Police Threat test), it
goes down to +3, then +2, and so on.
If the character does anything that is obviously illegal while under
actual surveillance, he might be arrested on the spot, if the cops (i.e.
the gamemaster) thinks they can make a case at that moment. If not, they
will keep it in mind for when the character /is/ arrested.
Arrests
Naturally, in all cases of arrest, charges will be brought to bear based
on all crimes the police has gathered evidence about, or which have been
confessed by the character. Use Shadowtech and the gamemaster's booklet
from the Denver boxed set to determine the appropriate sentence (fines,
prison, and so on).
At the gamemaster's discretion, only threats of this nature will be made
in order to coerce the character to become an informant. If this fact
ever gets out, the character's Fixer Status drops at least 2 levels,
possibly more. If nobody with a gun comes after him, that is.
FIXER TYPES
-----------
Just as there are various "styles" in shadowrunning, fixers come in all
kinds of orientations. Most of these are represented by the various
concentrations of the Private Enterprising and Equipment Acquisition
skills, and it is recommended players concentrate in one or two areas of
these skills. It will give them a higher income, because more dice give a
higher chance of rolling high results.
What follows here are descriptions of a number of types of fixer that
commonly exist in Seattle and most other North American cities. All of
these are available to player characters, although you should discuss
your choice with your gamemaster. If you don't like any of the ones
presented here, make one up yourself that does suit your ideas.
CHIP OR DRUG DEALER
Suggested skills: Equipment Acquisition (Narcotics/BTLs), Etiquette
(Criminal), Etiquette (Street), Laundering, Negotiation, Private
Enterprise (Narcotics/BTLs)
DEALER
Suggested skills: Equipment Acquisition (any military), Etiquette
(Mercenary), Laundering, Negotiation, Private Enterprise (any military)
DECKMEISTER
Suggested skills: Equipment Acquisition (Electronics), Etiquette
(Matrix), Etiquette (Street), Laundering, Negotiation, Private Enterprise
(Electronics)
FENCE
Suggested skills: Equipment Acquisition, Evaluate, Etiquette (Street),
Laundering, Negotiation, Private Enterprise
INFORMATION BROKER
Suggested skills: Etiquette (any and all), Interrogation, Laundering,
Negotiation, Private Enterprising (Information)
LOANSHARK
Suggested skills: Etiquette (Corporate), Etiquette (Street), Laundering,
Negotiation, Private Enterprise
SMUGGLER
Suggested skills: Equipment Acquisition, Etiquette (Street), Laundering,
Negotiation, Private Enterprise, [Vehicle skill]
TALISMONGER
Suggested skills: Equipment Acquisition (Magical), Evaluate (Magical),
Etiquette (Magical), Negotiation, Private Enterprise (Magical)
--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
I can feel it coming back again.
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Character Mortuary: http://huizen.dds.nl/~mortuary/mortuary.html <-
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