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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Gear costs

Posted by: braxat2000 Sep 10 2007, 05:19 AM

Hi,
I'm moving forward with the campaign, and two players out of four have already finished their character sheets.
After I gave them my ok, I took a better look in the gear lists. Does it make sense that a sports cmotorcycle costs 6500 Yen while a month of high lifestyle costs 5000?

Am I missing here something and the high lifestyle is really really high (because To me a condo or a small house doesn't mean you can buy a motorcycle for a month living costs)?

Thanks,

Posted by: Fortune Sep 10 2007, 05:22 AM

High lifestyle is a little more than a small house or condo.

Posted by: kzt Sep 10 2007, 05:24 AM

Middle is more like small house or condo.

Posted by: braxat2000 Sep 10 2007, 05:30 AM

I hear you,

My take on the high lifestyle was that it is living in a nice place, but not luxury. The medium lifestyle is a worker class appartment from what I get.

Great to hear your thoughts, and thanks for the replies

Posted by: Fortune Sep 10 2007, 05:34 AM

Think of it this way ...

Luxury is absolutely everything you could possibly want ... think Bill Gates or Richard Villiers. High lifestyle is just down from that, where the normal rich people live. Middle lifestyle is still in the high range for most people, and the bulk of the middle-to-lower middle class will live in a Low lifestyle.

Posted by: The Jopp Sep 10 2007, 07:57 AM

QUOTE (braxat2000)

Does it make sense that a sports cmotorcycle costs 6500 Yen while a month of high lifestyle costs 5000?

High lifestyle is 10K not 5K.

Posted by: braxat2000 Sep 10 2007, 08:03 AM

You're right, I meant the middle lifestyle (or whichever costs the 5k).

So it enhance the point, as one month of medium lifestyle and a sports motorcycle costs the same (in SR4 book at least).

In real life I guess I live in medium lifestyle, but it will cost me at least 6 months of monthly wages to buy this kind of bike, assuming I spend on nothing else..

Posted by: Cthulhudreams Sep 10 2007, 08:13 AM

QUOTE (braxat2000)

If you go by australian household incomes, a honda 600cc sports bike (probably not a bad substitute for the bike in the thing) costs about 1/7th of said income. Which means said bike should cost about 8500. There are some dodgey assumptions in the above which means that the bike is probably 10000.

However, there is every reason to assume that manufacturing technologies have got better so the price of manufactured goods has probably come down - like bikes.

Posted by: braxat2000 Sep 10 2007, 08:36 AM

Thanks .

Posted by: Blade Sep 10 2007, 08:51 AM

Or maybe it's the other way around: decent conditions of living got more expensive.
You need to depollute the air, get tap water without too many restricitions and treat it.

And you also need drones to keep your house clean, screens painted on all your walls and drones to repair all this, at least until next years when the new models come out and your old models become obsolete (and don't work that well anymore or become incompatible with the new security upgrade that you absolutely need).

Posted by: braxat2000 Sep 10 2007, 09:56 AM

Actually we can see even today that as technology becomes more widespread the cost of it descends quickly. I remember when a DVD cost a whole lot more from today for instance. I also remember paying a high amount of money to get 360k floppy disks from the computer shop (had to save to get a pack of ten).

The thing is cars and bikes ETC always kept their high value.

Though I can accept the reasons Cthulhudreams and Blade mentioned. Maybe as technology and mass production continued to improve, making a bike can be a quick and cheap procedure.

Posted by: Aaron Sep 10 2007, 11:23 AM

QUOTE (braxat2000)

Does it make sense that a sports cmotorcycle costs 6500 Yen while a month of high lifestyle costs 5000?

You've actually probably got a bike or two in your roomy garage.

Incidentally, it's a "roomy" house or condo.

Posted by: DireRadiant Sep 10 2007, 01:12 PM

QUOTE (braxat2000)

Middle Lifestyle = 60,000 a year
High Lifestyle = 120,000 a year

Think about people who earn those levels of income and compare what kind of goods they typically have.

Someone with a High Lifestyle should be able to afford buying a new sportsbike at least once a year, if not more often.

Posted by: deek Sep 10 2007, 02:37 PM

And my understanding of lifestyle is that its not just rent...its all the costs associated with living. Someone mentioned the cleaning robots. It would include that plus the furniture, the entertainment, food, etc.

It enables players to have a certain lifestyle and not have to detail every item they own...

Posted by: Buster Sep 10 2007, 06:31 PM

Also, in 2070, food is LOTS more expensive, especially farm grown food that we get in the grocery store now. Remember, the cyber rules keep making a big deal about having to eat a little more food costs a lot more for your lifestyle costs.

And as Wil Rogers is often quoted: "Buy land because they ain't making any more of it". When most of the land mass is one continuous city sprawl, even a small apartment is going to cost a fortune. Check out the prices in Tokyo, New York, and San Francisco and consider that to be the case all over the world in 60 years.

In Tokyo today, students and low-wage workers sometimes have to rent a lounge chair in a cybercafe so they have somewhere to sleep for the night. A coffin hotel is now considered a luxury!