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Posted by: apple Feb 16 2014, 12:37 PM

My players got money to spend, so they decided to invest into a nighclub (legally). Does anyone has quick and easy system to "simulate" the reward/investments/things to happen in the coming months/years? I am searching for a basic rule system where I can challenge the players with a little bit more then "roll 10d6, I tell you whats happening" and a little it less then an Excel calculation sheet from the finance department.

Any ideas/rules (even from other systems which could be converted)?

SYL

Posted by: Shortstraw Feb 16 2014, 12:48 PM

Knowledge: investment/management/whatever is appropriate

Threshold:
1 Safe
2 Balanced
4 Risky

For each hit above (or below) the threshold player earns (or loses) 0.25/0.5/1.0% per month on their investment. Glitches reduce principal due vandalism/fire/embezzlement etc. Requires 1hr/week/10k invested.

Posted by: psychophipps Feb 16 2014, 02:28 PM

Worst thing that can happen to a bar is that it becomes the "it" place to score drugs (and/or BTLs). You start getting junkies, dealers, and all of the other trash that follows them lowering the tone of your place. Cops get called there a lot, constantly breaking up fights of the normal baby momma drama and drunken bravado variety with the added spice of shankings and the occasional guns getting pulled. Then the local drug cartels/mobs get involved for "protection", money laundering, etc.

As you can see, there are all sorts of "fun" you can get into when 'runners open up a bar.

Posted by: thorya Feb 16 2014, 04:31 PM

http://nymag.com/nightlife/wheretodrink/2009/costs/

Not sure if that will help. I imagine the start-up costs are higher than they anticipate.

Ideas for systems:

Multiple checks on related skills that add bonus dice to a final Edge test to see if the bar is profitable (i.e. lets them start paying down the massive investment). Cap how many dice they can roll on these checks based upon the number of hours they're investing per month (or week) into the task. Start out with an initial investment (200,000 nuyen?) and monthly costs (20,000 nuyen). The bar earns a baseline of 10,000 a month. Each hit on the edge test earns 5,000 that month, so 2 hits are required to break even. Then add in one or two monthly "events" that require some other skill to deal with.

Instruction/Leadership (to manage and direct the staff): Threshold 2, +2 Edge Test

Etiquette (to maintain good business relationships): Threshold 2, +1 Edge Test

Negotiate (to try to get good deals with distributors and work out things with local politicians): Threshold 3, +1 Edge Test

Mixology Knowledge/Area Bars/Etc. (To pick your menu): Threshold 2, +1 to Edge Test

Club Music (to pick your play list and get the right vibe): Threshold 1, +1 to Edge Test

Business Knowledge (Small businesses specialization): Threshold 1, +1 to Edge test, Threshold 3, +2 to Edge Test

Monthly events:
1. Perception (Spillage is high this month, because one of the bartenders is handing out free drinks to their friends): Ongoing, threshold 2, -1,000 nuyen from earnings. If you don't catch the bartender they keep doing it and you keep losing money.
2. Security Procedures (someone tries to hit your place, see if your security holds up): Damaged from forced entry 500 nuyen, Threshold 1, or 1,000 nuyen in stolen booze.
3. Computer (Time to make your matrix site and make sure it doesn't suck):
Threshold 1: functional, sort of (-1 on Edge test)
Threshold 2: functional
Threshold 3: Good word (+1 on Edge test)
Threshold 4+: Amazing, people check the sight even when they aren't looking for a drink (+2 on Edge test)
Or pay 4000 nuyen to automatically have a functional site.
4. Sponsor a local team
5. Protection Racket

So your team of 4 (assuming), decides they'll each invest 10 hrs/week into the bar. So each one can roll up to 10 dice total in the related skills or to deal with monthly events and each skill can only be rolled once by the group. Monthly events can be rolled by multiple people with only the highest roll taking effect.

Sammi doesn't have a lot of relevant skills, so he uses 5 of his dice on Club Music (the only relevant skill he's decent at). Gets 2 hits and adds +1 to the edge test.
His club music skill is a 3 and his intuition's 3, so he could spend more (up to 6) but he's saving the other 5 to try to deal with any monthly events.

The Face has lots of relevant skills, but he knows that leadership has the biggest pay out and uses all 10 of his dice there. He gets 2 hits and adds +2 to the edge test.
His leadership is at a 1 (specialization small business) (3) and his charisma is 6 (with tailored pheromones 2), so he could roll up to 11 dice, but he's only spending 10 hrs/week there so he's still capped at 10 even with the dice pool bonuses.

The hacker doesn't have very good social skills (cha 2), but he has some business knowledge. He maxes out his roll at 8 dice. He's got 2 to maybe deal with a monthly event but not likely. He gets 2 hits on his business knowledge, +1 to the edge test.

The Mage tries to smooze up the clientèle and meets with some community planners, etc. He's trying to use etiquette. He's only has Cha 3 and Etiquette 3, so he's capped at 6 dice. He rolls 1 hit and doesn't add anything to the edge test. He has 4 dice left over to try to deal with a monthly event.

The group then picks someone to roll their edge with the bonuses (probably the person with the highest). The hacker has 4 edge and they let him roll. The edge roll does not count against the limit on dice rolled. He rolls:
4 Edge + 1 from the Sammi + 2 the Face + 1 from the Hacker + 0 from the mage = 8 dice.
The hacker rolls and gets only 2 hits, the bar broke even.

The monthly event "High spillage rates". The Sammi, the hacker, and the mage each have dice left over to try to spot the bartender stealing from their bar. The hacker bows out, because the risk of glitch is too high. The sammi rolls 5 (his left over dice) on perception and the mage rolls 4 (his left over dice). Both have perception high enough that they're not limited by their skill. The sammi gets 1 hit and the mage gets 2. The mage spots the bartender handing out free drinks and fires him, but they can't get the drinks back, so that month the bar loses 1000 nuyen.

It might seem a bit complicated, but really it's just everyone rolls 1 or 2 skills to support the bar and then they roll to see how well the bar did. If they don't want to invest any time in it, it will likely flounder and just be a money sink. If they want to invest a lot of time, they could probably turn a nice profit after a year or so.

Posted by: bannockburn Feb 16 2014, 04:44 PM

What the ...
Did you have a house rule for that kind of thing? Are you working in that area?

Just letting you know: I'm gonna use that, if a player ever wants to open a bar.

Posted by: Ellzii Feb 16 2014, 06:13 PM

Drop the dice, you now have a reason for your players to do whatever crazy runs you want to protect their investment. For example after tough negotiations (which can be an adventure in itself) you manage to book Suki Minaj an up and coming performer with a hit that is about to top the charts which will do wonders for your bottom line. However, there is a slight wrinkle. The new contract she signed as part of her deal has her playing a club across town that night. However, if the club just happend to burn down, get shut down for their horrible roach problem, the city had a water main break and flooded the club etc. She would come back and play your event which you have already been promoting.

A chapter of a gang are muscling your alcohol distributer, they don't like you much either unless you want to throw them a percentage for their friendship and protection. Do you ditch on the guy that set your bar up for you and find someone new to get alcohol from. (Of course everyone on the streets are going to know you are a douche that does not care about his friends), or do you do some (the words make me sick) pro bono work and shut down this gang (which of course will eventually get back to the other chapters) and save your distributor.

A local alderman died in your bathroom. When you find the body he was bleeding from the nose. However it does not look like he got punched. In his suit pocket you find enough Novacoke to drop a good sized dracoform. Do you hide the body, or deal with local law enforcement. Oh and local law enforcement has been taking heat from the tabloids about their lax policys regarding drug enforcement. Soooo your club pretty much becomes a local garrison for a bit with cameras flashing everywhere. Of course most of your clientele don't want that much attention from law enforcement. So the crowd in your club is about as big as ground zero at Cermak. Otherwise it's you hid the body, but folks are now looking for this alderman. The people he was supposed to give the drugs to, of course local law enforcement, and politicians are pulling strings to find out what you know.

A local faith opened up a church right across the street. Now you have nutjobs out protesting the Orks, Humans, Elves, Whatever you have in the club. Unfortunately the church a favorite with a local politician and if you cause them grief he will have to take his gloves off.

Just some random thoughts.

-LZ

Posted by: Curator Feb 16 2014, 06:58 PM

yea i work in that industry and i've got to ask. are you planning on running the club? or just buying a club and hiring a staff? both can be profitable, but one's a full time job and the other would be just like a 10% skim. running it could be fun but real in depth. especially in making profits from good management, you can make over 100K a month if you work it. build a rep. flip it 10x it's original value in 8-10 months. good nuyen

Posted by: thorya Feb 16 2014, 07:26 PM

Well glad it's useful for someone.

It's just a variation on how we do teamwork tests and certain other extended tests.

Posted by: apple Feb 16 2014, 08:38 PM

Buying the club, hiring staff and let them run the show, with some of the runner as the legal face, working behind the scenes. Your idea and description of the house rules is really very good and most appreciated. If you have further ideas, please feel free to share them with us.

SYL

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Feb 17 2014, 12:41 AM

Uh, watch Road House?

Posted by: Curator Feb 17 2014, 06:08 PM

yea i would just say you would get a 5% profit on the investment weekly so drop in 200k, get around 10k a week, but add a system to make variables although if you forgot to be a part of it 1 week a dice roll could be a +/- to the profit by 3%

do things like adding to the investment in big chunks (bigger sound system/stage/improved seating/amenities, deco), meeting people to employ (security/attractive, locally loved, and/or experienced bartenders/entertainers(DJ's, musicians, comedians)), plan evfents to attract crowds. etc etc. doing that should add about a 5-10% boost in revenue.

etc etc go illegitimate and run some secret shops in the basement like that lady in shadowrun returns.

Posted by: Curator Feb 17 2014, 06:10 PM

run a runner underground railroad w/a secret safehouse ooooh

Posted by: CitM Feb 18 2014, 01:19 AM

Remember that you have to pay taxes and have a really good faked or legal SIN if you want to go legally. Also you raise Public Awareness if you run a bar officially. Also you can not run illegal things, what makes you work hard to keep the bar running. Also yor profit wont be as high as with "illegal stuff". All that crap.




This is quite how we do it. Except we difference between legal and illegal.


Invenstment (I); The total amount invested in a business.
Profit (P); The calculated amount of profit (of a year) based on risk (determinded by GM).
Monthly Profit (MP) = P/12
Risk ®; Threshold for monthly roll.


R = 1 --> Legal (a bar, a vehicle workshop, carwash) --> I*1 = P
R = 2 --> Illegal (cigarette dealing, protection money, dummy firm) ---> I*1,5 = P
R = 4 --> Risky (drugs, cybercrime) --> I*2,5 = P

Every month the investor rolls a appropriate skill like Intimidation (protection money), Hacking (cybercrime, phishing) or Negotiation (classic investments), supported by a apropriate knowledge-skills like Business, Streetdrugs or e.g. Seattle Area.

P/12 is your Monthly Profit (MP).

So basicly you get your MP if you succeed + some % per nethit. If you miss, you gain nothing. If you glitch you loose some % of your invested ressources or attract attention of cons or officials. On a critical glitch you maybe loose everything (Bar burns down, drug connection gets killed, someone bigger than you makes you stop etc.) or get serious problems like police razzia and arrest warrants.

Edit: I like the "improvement" factor of the monthly events by Thorya. I guess i will implement them as a way of change the +% per nethit. Kind of "you got a website? +1% per nethit", "you gave your staff a training, you get +0,5% per nethit". Something like that.

Posted by: Curator Feb 18 2014, 03:14 AM

there's a lot of anonymous investors in clubs, your rep doesn't need to go up at all if you stipulate a private investment. in SR world, either hush on the investor or the neck of all the employees is commonplace. clean money and dirty