So here's kind of a weird question. Restricted gear requires licenses. Okay, sure; most of us just fake them. What about SINners who, you know, actually qualify to get licenses, though? What would the process be? How much would it cost? Would it be possible to start with them at creation? Is there anything in the books on this, or is it strictly houserule territory?

I would assume you could go about getting them in an entirely legal manner should you choose. But here is the catch, you fire a bullet and kill goon A. Lone Star matches the striations on the bullet to the gun that is registered to you. Sorry.

Which is why you change out the barrel and firing pin, if it doesn't use caseless ammo, of the weapon after you get your license and keep it in a safe for when you have to re-qualify. Good reason to have some ranks in Armorer eh?

Or, you know, have the Erased quality. Too bad that ballistic evidence just keeps disappearing.

I mean, I realize that it presents its own set of challenges; in fact, these kinds of things are what lead me to believe that going this route wouldn't actually negate the disadvantageous nature of the SINner quality. (That is to say, being legal doesn't mean you get a free pass on certain common SR problems.)

It does, however, make border crossings that much simpler! unelss of course, you have a criminal SIN.....

Which is a higher point cost, and for good reason. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I don't want to get distracted, though. Is this a possible thing in SR4A?

... kinda hard to do, if the gun in question is a laser weapon. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Also hard to do, if you're using a smoothbore (like a shotgun, for example).

Right right, i was just throwing out a random example i thought of (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)





I would allow it in my game, provided you had a) the contacts and b) the story to back it up

So you would require contacts? Is that in the rules?

Basically what I really want to know is, is there a process hidden in the books somewhere or am I going to have to figure out how I want to run this on my own?

I think this is never mentioned as an actual rule in the SR4 books. The authors didn't consider that some Shadowrunners would want to be doing legal stuff it seems (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Someone said that these kinds of rules are in the SR3 books, if you're looking for guidelines. I've seen ideas introduced to have a real license cost as much as a fake one.

I'd charge a lot less than that. Rx20, perhaps. Remember, an actual license ties the object(s) in question to your SIN ...

Sure, when they find your pistol. Which means when they have enough evidence to get a search warrant for your residence. Which is likely to occur never. And when they do it seems that there is no ballistics match as that gun was turned into razor blades a few hours after the shooting.

True true. Although the costs here are so small compared to everything else, I don't think it matters too much...

An actual license would not have a rating, since the rating of a fake license is there to determine how well it passes inspection and checking. A 'real' license would always pass muster since it is completely bonafide.

Well, that's blindingly obvious. I can't believe I missed it; thanks for pointing it out.

So what would that license cost, then?

Honestly, it should just be rolled into lifestyle and said that you have them. Anything further is just trying to create another needless money sink.

So if you're a SINner, but you have a Squatter lifestyle ... you can have every license you could imagine? Pilot, Firearms, Concealed Carry, a Medical Practitioner's license, maybe a Magical Practitioner's license, and so on?

Wow, those licenses must come CHEAP.

Pretty sure that there's some fluff about a gun license meaning they have the ballistics on file. That might be from an earlier edition, though. Anything in 4e about licenses like that?

Well, it might be, the guys who write this stuff have no idea how gun laws actually work or why. And no, it still won't help after I clean the barrel with a stainless steel bore brush and shoot a few thousand rounds through it.

If they have the ballistics on file, and that file says you were the last legal owner but you can't providelegal paperwork proving you sold it to someone else?

You're on the hook for whatever the gun was used for.

Actually, here's a thought, though: Do they really keep track of that?

As we see in the sample characters (the Gunslinger Adept has the most obvious incidence of this), you don't have a license for your particular gun--you just have a license for a particular make. To me, this implies that what licenses are really for is the right to posses a firearm of a restricted make. In other words, it seems that licenses are mostly there for the purposes of Lone Star looking at you and going, "Are you allowed to own that, citizen?"

EDIT: ...You know what, never mind. The Street Sam has one for each Predator, the Enforcer just has one Gun License, and the Weapons Specialist just has two "Licences." What.

Some licences are going to need skill ranks. They don't hand out real pilot licences at the Stuffer Shack counter. Also, some licences would necessitate membership of a regulatory body - it's fine to pilot things for a hobby, but surgery is another matter. So if your genuine SIN doesn't say you're a genuine doctor of medicine you can't easily justify having the associated licence.

The impression I got was that a SINner could get most restricted gear without too much trouble. It would just require some time, money, paperwork, and perhaps a competence check(like getting a drivers license).

Forbidden items you'd actually have to have a profession reason to own(such as a locksmith owning lockpicks).

A few folks have mentioned a possible reference in an older edition--anyone know where that would be?

I'd think the cost on a legitimate licence should vary with the country/corp, and depending on the license. When I was in high school there was one foreign exchange student from Europe who was keen on getting her drivers license in the states as opposed to back home. I don't know how accurate her info was, but she said that to initially get a drivers license in her country cost the equivalent of USD$2,000.00 where in my area it was about $20 (in 1990's money).