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Message no. 1
From: K. Suderman suderman@*****.ocean.fsu.edu
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 14:46:30 -0400
So,
I misread the information about pay scales and concluded that shadowrunners
performed about one run a month and spent the rest of their time
vacationing (or in the hospital, shop, or computer lab).
My players disabused me of this idea (which surprised me- I would have
thought longer vacations were better...). They want more frequent runs. I
am happy to oblige. But it brings up some questions:

How often do runners run?

How long does a run take? Legwork? Execution?

How much do they get paid? Base pay, expenses?

How many runners are there in Seattle?

How many corps? (How often do they get hit? How high are their black-ops
budgets?)

Note that I don't expect any of these answers to be concrete, but the
magnitude of the answers says a lot about the shadow community. If runs
happen every week and pay around 1500Y (each), that's a very different feel
than if runs happen only once a month and pay 5kY. [Assuming 5kY/month
lifestyle] I seem to recall that published modules pay pretty well (i.e.
~15kY+) which suggests that shadowrunners are either living awfully well or
are spending a lot of time on vacation (hmmm... or are spending a lot on
medical/mechanical expenses).

Does anyone have any advice, rules of thumb, estimates, etc.?

Thanks,

Keith


Keith Suderman suderman@*****.fsu.edu
Florida State University 850-980-3218
Department of Oceanography
Message no. 2
From: Oliver McDonald oliver@*********.com
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 11:57:38 -0700 (PDT)
On Wed, 21 Jul 1999 14:46:30 -0400, K. Suderman wrote:

> My players disabused me of this idea (which surprised me- I would have
>thought longer vacations were better...). They want more frequent runs. I
>am happy to oblige. But it brings up some questions:

If they are running too often, they may start to rise to the top of the Lone Star most
wanted list...

-----------------------------------------------------------
Oliver McDonald - oliver@*********.com
http://web2.spydernet.com/oliver/
-----------------------------------------------------------
Space. The Final Frontier. Let's not close it down.
Brought to you via CyberSpace, the recursive frontier.

"that is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may
die."
-H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu."

ICQ: 38158540
Message no. 3
From: Lehlan Decker DeckerL@******.com
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 15:57:39 -0400
>How often do runners run?
Two posts in a month or so!! Woah....:)
We seem to be running about twice a month (game time). The downtime
we use to heal, restock, and train.

>How long does a run take? Legwork? Execution?
Depends...lately anywhere from 3 days to a week. But sometimes its
overnight.

>How much do they get paid? Base pay, expenses?
We've gotten paid anywhere from 5K to 40K. Sometimes we
negotiate medical. It sounds like alot. But by the time we bribe, pay
contacts, and pick up extra gear...we probably blow 20% of any
payment during the actual run.

>How many runners are there in Seattle?
Depends...wannabe's or real runners. :)
I'd say the real runner population is perhaps in the 500 range.
Wannabe's....who knows.
But these are off the top of my head.

>How many corps? (How often do they get hit? How high are their
black-ops budgets?)

All the major corps have some location in Seattle, and plenty of minor
ones do as well. As far as budget...I'd say as much as the GM wants
them to have. During quiet time, it might be low. During the recent corp
war it might be as much as necessary.

This also depends on whether you playing a high or low end game.
My team made 40k each on the last run. By the time we restocked,
cyberware, surgery, magic, training, cost of living....it just depends.
Some characters have no money and karma (samurai).
My shaman has money but no karma. (And those damn foci are
expensive)
In a previous game that was low end, if we got 5k a run, we were
rich! But in that game a shotgun went a looong way.
Message no. 4
From: Lehlan Decker DeckerL@******.com
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 16:00:20 -0400
>If they are running too often, they may start to rise to the top of the
>Lone Star most wanted list...

That is very true, particulary if the run was bloody and loud.
And the corps may still be gunning for you. You can eat cash quick if
your bribing people, buying fake sins, etc. Also you may have lots of
cash, but be too hot to touch. In which case the money means jack.
Heck, lone star or the corps may even higher other runners to come hunt
you down.
Message no. 5
From: Starrngr@***.com Starrngr@***.com
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 21:26:37 EDT
In a message dated 7/21/99 11:47:09 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
suderman@*****.ocean.fsu.edu writes:

> How often do runners run?
>
Hooo boy. The short form answer is that it depends on you and your players.
In theory one could do about a run a week, but it usually is longer than
that. For one, if people are going to be training in new things, or if they
got shot up and wound up in the hospital, it could be 3 months before thier
ready for a new run. Most conitnuing campaings seem to give the runners
about 1 month off between runs unless something has to happen that takes
longer.

> How long does a run take? Legwork? Execution?

That depends on the run, and how much information the Johnson gives them.
The less information or covert support the Johnson gives them, the longer the
legwork will take. the time it takes to execute also depends on the sort of
job... A smuggling run from Chicago to Seattle or pulling a scam on a Yak
boss would take more time to actually pull off than nabbing a truck filled
with experimental animals and delivering it to the J.
>
> How much do they get paid? Base pay, expenses?
>
Depends on the team and the J. In general though, the team will get a set
fee (either X amount per person, or X for the whole team) and te rest of
their expenses are out of pocket... thats why they get paid as well as they
do.

> How many runners are there in Seattle?
>
I'd expect that its less than 1% of the population, but that really is totaly
up to you as the GM. Remember that if you make runners rare and hard to
find, the amount the team could expect to pull down goes up. If runners (or
wannabe runners) are a dime a dozen the amount runners can expect to get paid
goes down.

> How many corps? (How often do they get hit? How high are their black-ops
> budgets?)

Now THERE is a loaded question I'm not even going to touch. All 9 AAA
Members of the Corporate court have some sort of presence in Seattle, and
there are numerous smaller ones as well. Look in the back of BBB v3. Most
of their black ops budget is determined by you as the GM, but in general they
find it easier in the long run to use Shadowrunners as their deniable assets.
About the only "Black" ops people in any corp would be their
"Johnson"
division, and maybe some really heavily cybered types who provide addiotnal
security muscle for certain sites.
Message no. 6
From: Ulrich Haupt sandman@****.uni-oldenburg.de
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 10:36:41 +0200
"K. Suderman" asked:
<snip intro>

> How often do runners run?
In my group (with changing GM) we have runs (depending on
the length of each) about 1 run every 2 month. The time is
necessary because we play that you need some time to learn a
new skill/increase attribute.

> How long does a run take? Legwork? Execution?
Our shortest runs lasted 3 days while our longest (with a
travel from seattle to atzlan) took about 3 month. Usually
our runs take about 2 weeks.

> How much do they get paid? Base pay, expenses?
Depending on the run (honor or money) we demand from nothing
(for friends) or just expenses to 15 KY. One of our GMs is
usually quit generous so I am a bit stingy ;-)
Of course it depends on how you want to set up your
campaign. If you want your runners to live in Redmond you
should not give them 5KY per week. Most of our characters
have a high standard of living. What is the reputation of
your characters? Are they well known for silence our for
firepower. Since we have 3 magical characters and two
non-mages we can demand 'more 'cause magic is expensive'. If
you use elementals at each run you need 1000+Y more as if
you have to replace ammunition only!

> How many runners are there in Seattle?
You tell me ??? String from several thousand gang members
and low level deckers op to some ten or twenty first class
runners. On 'starting character' level I think there are
some hundred.

> How many corps? (How often do they get hit? How high are their black-ops
> budgets?)
A big corp is involved almost every time, directly or behind
the scenes. They are rarely the target of runs.

<snip some text>
> Does anyone have any advice, rules of thumb, estimates, etc.?
Give them less you want them to give and don't listen to
their complaints. They will complain even if you give them
100K a week because they can't afford a third fairlight
excalibur. What I have done (not is SR but in another
fantasy game) was to let them start by the rules and then
slowly made them pay all their money until they had almost
nothing left. Then they started slowly from zero. You should
have seen their happy faces when got their first 'Ares
Predetor'(Longsword). This kind of advancement gave me the
possibility to stop at that point of power where I wanted to
have them.


> Thanks,
You're welcome


BTW if anyone else (from the old sRNers) reads this - maybe
it is worth to compile some answers to such questions as
'how much Karma/money to you gave your players' in a FAQ
since those are questions which come up every two month.

Sandman
Message no. 7
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 11:32:29 +0200
According to K. Suderman, at 14:46 on 21 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> How often do runners run?

Often enough to have some money to spare after their lifestyle and
hospital costs, and expenses (have you seen "Erik the Viking"? :)

> How long does a run take? Legwork? Execution?

That depends entirely on the run. Common sense is a good guide here: if
the runners say they spend half a day staking out a building, the length
of the run has increased by half a day. As for legwork, I'd say it takes
them as long as they talk to the contacts -- which is usually only a few
minutes at a time -- plus any travel time needed. That means they could
easily spend a few hours to talk to one or two people.

> How much do they get paid? Base pay, expenses?

As has been said often, this is entirely dependent on your campaign. If
you want them to be low-lifes who can only just keep their head above the
water, pay them about 1,500 to 2,000 nuyen a month or so. This should
_just_ cover their expenses and lifestyle.

On the other hand, if you view shadowrunners as dashing types who live an
easy life in their spare time, 10,000 to 20,000 nuyen a month (or more) is
a better figure.

> How many runners are there in Seattle?

Nobody knows, I guess, least of all FASA. There is an article in issue 2
of the NAGEE called "Economics of Shadowrunning" which is a good guide,
though. You can find it at http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/nagee

> How many corps? (How often do they get hit? How high are their black-ops
> budgets?)

There are a _lot_ of corps in Seattle, but most of them are smaller ones
that often don't have much to steal or do a shadowrun against. Only the
megacorps would get hit with any regularity, I feel.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Cooking with the devil, frying down in hell.
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 8
From: Aaron Binns sparrow@***.net.au
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 23:10:31 +1000
> > How often do runners run?
>
> Often enough to have some money to spare after their lifestyle and
> hospital costs, and expenses (have you seen "Erik the Viking"? :)

You know, Id never have thought of relating shadowrunning to Erik the Viking...
amazingly it makes sense - kind of... :)

> --
> Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
> Cooking with the devil, frying down in hell.
> -> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
> ->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
> -> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-
>
> GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
> PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
> Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 9
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 19:10:55 +0200
According to Aaron Binns, at 23:10 on 22 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> > Often enough to have some money to spare after their lifestyle and
> > hospital costs, and expenses (have you seen "Erik the Viking"? :)
>
> You know, Id never have thought of relating shadowrunning to Erik the Viking...
> amazingly it makes sense - kind of... :)

I was thinking of that question in the beginning of the movie, about why
they go on raids. The answer, "To pay for the next one, of course!" is
extremely relevant to shadowrunning, I'd say -- if you don't do a
shadowrun you can't pay for the stuff you need to do your next run...

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Cooking with the devil, frying down in hell.
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 10
From: Lehlan Decker DeckerL@******.com
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 13:13:16 -0400
>I was thinking of that question in the beginning of the movie, about why
>they go on raids. The answer, "To pay for the next one, of course!" is
>extremely relevant to shadowrunning, I'd say -- if you don't do a
>shadowrun you can't pay for the stuff you need to do your next run...

Why do we work. To pay for our next toys, or shadowrun book. :)
Is there another reason to work?
Message no. 11
From: K. Suderman suderman@*****.ocean.fsu.edu
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 14:38:59 -0400
At 07:10 PM 7/22/99 +0200, you wrote:
>According to Aaron Binns, at 23:10 on 22 Jul 99, the word on
>the street was...
>
>> > Often enough to have some money to spare after their lifestyle and
>> > hospital costs, and expenses (have you seen "Erik the Viking"? :)
>>
>> You know, Id never have thought of relating shadowrunning to Erik the
Viking...
>> amazingly it makes sense - kind of... :)
>
>I was thinking of that question in the beginning of the movie, about why
>they go on raids. The answer, "To pay for the next one, of course!" is
>extremely relevant to shadowrunning, I'd say -- if you don't do a
>shadowrun you can't pay for the stuff you need to do your next run...
>

That's part of the goal: to give them enough money to keep running (and
keep hoping for the big score), but not enough to retire on. If I dropped
150kY on them right now, the Rigger would buy some new toys, the Decker
would ask for more, and the Awakened ones would quit running...

The Economics of Shadowrunning is a nice essay (though the conclusions
don't follow from the data, imho). To paraphrase, there are ~600 runners
in Seattle, supported by 2000 associated support personnel. These runners
are distributed in about 100 teams. Corps put about 1/10th of a percent of
their budget into shadow ops, which comes out to ~1,000,000Y per team (much
of which is skimmed by the support personnel). The wealth is not
distributed evenly; the best teams make a *lot* of money, the dregs make
almost none.
It would seem then, that the Johnson has some lattitude when hiring. He
can spend as much or as little as he feels is necessary to get the talent
he requires. The elite teams would command higher pay.

Which brings me to my next question: How does a team become (or pass
itself off as) an elite team? Or stated another way, How does a team raise
its pay scale?
I think that street rep would be very important. A team that accomplished
its missions in a covert, deniable manner would command higher pay than one
that (for example), used ~30 kilos of plastic explosive and two dozen
grenades to level two buildings in its first two runs (and even got mug
shots on the Midnite News...). [Yes, I am trying to turn terrorists into
shadowrunners. Wish me luck...]
Perhaps a modifier to base pay based on success and discretion over the
last three (or some small number, the street has a short memory) runs...
Further mods for hazard pay, etc. And a generous 'GM fiat' to make it any
number I want...
Suggestions?

Keith


Keith Suderman suderman@*****.fsu.edu
Florida State University 850-980-3218
Department of Oceanography
Message no. 12
From: Lehlan Decker DeckerL@******.com
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 14:45:09 -0400
<SNIP Keith's commentary>
Good summary. Yep. Have the next Johnson negotiate hard, and lowball
them. Have the johnson make it clear that he is doing this, because he has
heard they have been indiscrete. Indiscrete runners can be a liability, and
therefore have less of a pay scale.
Remember it is hard to stay untarnished and on top, make one mistake
and folks don't forget. I've actually seen a tact like this used to also
enforce a racism feel on some runs to CalFree. We were told we would
have been paid more, if there weren't so many metas in the party.
Supply and Demand. There is a small pool of top talent, they demand top
pay. They can negotiate for extra perks because they're in demand. If
your not in that pool, you have less room to negotiate, and there may be
no perks.
Message no. 13
From: Schizi@***.com Schizi@***.com
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 14:46:13 EDT
In a message dated 7/22/99 1:11:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time, gurth@******.nl
writes:

> I was thinking of that question in the beginning of the movie, about why
> they go on raids. The answer, "To pay for the next one, of course!" is
> extremely relevant to shadowrunning, I'd say -- if you don't do a
> shadowrun you can't pay for the stuff you need to do your next run...
>
the most amazing part being htat Erik the Viking was on while I read that
thread, the qoute in question merely minutes away :-)
Message no. 14
From: Arcady arcady@***.net
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 18:00:16 -0700
> How much do they get paid? Base pay, expenses?

I just did the module in first run which ends out by giving the runners
about 40k each...

Now I've got to make them realize that won't be the norm... :)

>
> How many corps? (How often do they get hit? How high are their black-ops
> budgets?)

I would presume thousands. In the world at large there are lots of corps.
Most of the jobs won't be for the megas, or even the AA's or AAA's...

I suspect a lot of it will be local issues.

But I may not be using too much of the corp. angle in may game anyway. with
a team of 5 magically active PCs it's just crying out for occult horror
opportunities.

Arcady http://www.jps.net/arcady/ <0){{{{><
The Revolution will not be televised; it'll be emailed.
/.)\ Stop making sense. Be an Anti Intellectual
\(@/ Be Tao. Live Tao. Feel Tao. But don't do Tao.
Message no. 15
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 13:03:44 +0200
According to K. Suderman, at 14:38 on 22 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> That's part of the goal: to give them enough money to keep running (and
> keep hoping for the big score), but not enough to retire on. If I dropped
> 150kY on them right now, the Rigger would buy some new toys, the Decker
> would ask for more, and the Awakened ones would quit running...

I've actually found, now that I'm playing a mage, that _I'm_ the one who's
almost always without money, while the street sams and shaman have plenty
left... For shamans it's different, but if you want to keep summoning
those elementals, your money will run out pretty quickly.

[snip]
> It would seem then, that the Johnson has some lattitude when hiring. He
> can spend as much or as little as he feels is necessary to get the talent
> he requires. The elite teams would command higher pay.

It's like sports in that way: the best players make the most money simply
because they're the best.

> Which brings me to my next question: How does a team become (or pass
> itself off as) an elite team? Or stated another way, How does a team raise
> its pay scale?
> I think that street rep would be very important. A team that accomplished
> its missions in a covert, deniable manner would command higher pay than one
> that (for example), used ~30 kilos of plastic explosive and two dozen
> grenades to level two buildings in its first two runs (and even got mug
> shots on the Midnite News...). [Yes, I am trying to turn terrorists into
> shadowrunners. Wish me luck...]

I'm not sure that would be the case, exactly. I'd say that the team that
fulfills the mission best, from the Johnson's perspective, will get a
better reuptation than a team that does the job but in a way Mr. Johnson
doesn't really like but can live with, and they in turn will have a better
reputation than a team that frags up all the time.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Cooking with the devil, frying down in hell.
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 16
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 13:03:44 +0200
According to Schizi@***.com, at 14:46 on 22 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> > I was thinking of that question in the beginning of the movie, about why
> > they go on raids. The answer, "To pay for the next one, of course!"
is
> > extremely relevant to shadowrunning, I'd say -- if you don't do a
> > shadowrun you can't pay for the stuff you need to do your next run...
> >
> the most amazing part being htat Erik the Viking was on while I read that
> thread, the qoute in question merely minutes away :-)

Talk about coincidences :)

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Cooking with the devil, frying down in hell.
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 17
From: K. Suderman suderman@*****.ocean.fsu.edu
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:49:15 -0400
>
>> Which brings me to my next question: How does a team become (or pass
>> itself off as) an elite team? Or stated another way, How does a team raise
>> its pay scale?
>> I think that street rep would be very important. A team that accomplished
>> its missions in a covert, deniable manner would command higher pay than one
>> that (for example), used ~30 kilos of plastic explosive and two dozen
>> grenades to level two buildings in its first two runs (and even got mug
>> shots on the Midnite News...). [Yes, I am trying to turn terrorists into
>> shadowrunners. Wish me luck...]
>
>I'm not sure that would be the case, exactly. I'd say that the team that
>fulfills the mission best, from the Johnson's perspective, will get a
>better reuptation than a team that does the job but in a way Mr. Johnson
>doesn't really like but can live with, and they in turn will have a better
>reputation than a team that frags up all the time.
>
I see your point. I was thinking of runs as being strictly _covert_ ops,
in which case, the best publicity is no publicity. I realized last nite
(while trying to come up with the sort of run that a Johnson would seek my
team out for) that some runs are very overt. [I think they are about to be
approached by an Italian businessman who wants to send a (rather loud)
message to a competitor...]
So, street rep would be heavily influenced by the Johnson's satisfaction
with the results. Hmmm... do fixers make follow-up calls to the Johnsons?
How corrupt are fixers? (as corrupt as they can afford to be...) Would a
well-placed bribe help the fixer decide who gets the easy jobs? :)

Keith


Keith Suderman suderman@*****.fsu.edu
Florida State University 850-980-3218
Department of Oceanography
Message no. 18
From: Dennis Steinmeijer dv8@********.nl
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 19:06:24 +0200
Hail Runners,

Pay, that's a hard one. I had a hard time coming up with the right pay when
I started playing GM to a bunch of overgrown children who imagined they were
hacking elves, trolls with guns or someone who could kill with a single
blow, every sunday evening.

I think I got the right answer from Gurth with additional kewl information
from Marc Renouf. Gurth told me that you should give them enough to get by
and to let them upgrade and save some money for a rainy day according to the
speed you set for their advance.
Marc told me it completely depended on the type of scenario you set for your
characters. I started out letting them have anything they wanted, so I
immediately had to deal with an Physical Adept with a monofilament whip, but
don't worry, I know better now. They were a well-equiped team with a high
survival rate who could whoop some ass. So they made bunches of money which
they subsequently spent on nice appartments, new cars, new guns, a year
supply of Double Think Sloppy-Soys (no kidding) and various other crap.
This all went very well until they encountered their first vampire. Needless
to say the group was unprepared and didn't know what hit them until it was
to late.

The next scenario I am planning is to start this sunday evening, and will be
more of a gutter punk scenario. Anyone who has seen the movie "The Warriors"
directed by Walter Hill (48 hours, etc.) will know what I'm talking about.
These shitkickers will live in the Barrens and eat sticks and dirt to get
by. I restricted them to fairly brutal availability limits for starting
equipment. For instance, no firearms of an availability of 3 or higher. No
cyberware of an availability of 4 (they could get 5 if they had a damn good
story behind it), etc etc.
These idiots will start out making about 5-10% of what the other characters
were making when they started out. Like I said, just enough to get by until
their reputation goes.

Dennis

"Abashed the Devil stood,...and felt how awful Goodness is..."
Message no. 19
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 11:50:17 +0200
According to K. Suderman, at 8:49 on 23 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> I see your point. I was thinking of runs as being strictly _covert_ ops,
> in which case, the best publicity is no publicity.

Certainly. The problem then becomes, though, that nobody will know you did
it. It's a bit like a discussion our group had last night about deckers
and very secure hosts -- if you break into one and get out in one piece,
you can't really tell anyone about it because someone will probably come
after you. But you want to break into them to prove you're a hot decker...

> So, street rep would be heavily influenced by the Johnson's satisfaction
> with the results. Hmmm... do fixers make follow-up calls to the Johnsons?
> How corrupt are fixers? (as corrupt as they can afford to be...) Would a
> well-placed bribe help the fixer decide who gets the easy jobs? :)

Perhaps it would, sure. The way I figure it happens is that Johnsons who
aren't satisfied with the way a team performs the run will let the fixer
know, and perhaps other people they know deal with shadowrunners. A runner
group's reputation can be made or destroyed that way.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Cooking with the devil, frying down in hell.
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 20
From: Lehlan Decker DeckerL@******.com
Subject: wages of sinning...
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 10:06:07 -0400
> So, street rep would be heavily influenced by the Johnson's
>satisfaction
>with the results. Hmmm... do fixers make follow-up calls to the
>Johnsons?
>How corrupt are fixers? (as corrupt as they can afford to be...) Would
>a well-placed bribe help the fixer decide who gets the easy jobs? :)

Yes and no. I see different types of reputation. One based on
professionalism and how successful you ar. The other based on the
type of jobs you take. Some runners may get a rep for not doing
"explosive work" so johnson's won't pass on those type of jobs.
They may also get the jobs, because the johnson has the biggest bribe
out there for certain job offers to come his way first. Lots of possibilities.

Further Reading

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