| From: | K. Suderman suderman@*****.ocean.fsu.edu |
|---|---|
| Subject: | wages of sinning... |
| Date: | Thu, 22 Jul 1999 14:38:59 -0400 |
>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
