Hi,

Got a new SR5 game starting up and wanted to have a suggested cheap costing runner's kit of basic equipment that every runner should have but contains the boring fiddly items that newer players probably won't find all that exciting to look at.

Let the players pick their guns and mods, drones and decks etc. as those are the cool flashy stuff that they'll pay attention to. Stuff like Licenses, Data chips, maybe ammo, etc. they are less likely to think about or want to spend time considering.

The last time we tried to play Shadowrun was in SR4A and we didnt get past character creation as after 2 hours of people trying to deal with equipment half the group threw up their hands.

So, can people get a basic runner kit built for <Y5k?

If not Y5k how close to that can you get?

I was thinking something like
SIN of some sort...probably worryingly low rating
5x rating 2 licences
cheap commlink
cheap accomodation
survival bag
survival knife
5 datachips/credsticks
cheap pistol (or taser)
50 regular ammo (or equivalent cost taser ammo)
cheap armour

What am I missing? Is there something superflous in there? What would your characters never be without?

Edit: Essentially imagine you have taken priority E resources and spent no karma for extra money. How would you equip your character?

Hello,

Good premise, for some people the equipment list can be daunting (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

5x rating 2 licences - a rating 2 license is not that great, and you run the risk of someone spotting it for a fake. Rather than get 5 rating 2 licenses, you would be better served by getting 2-3 rating 4 licenses.

cheap commlink - always a good idea to have a throwaway 'link.

cheap accomodation - are you talking about lifestyle? If so, this is a personal choice - some players want characters that live large, so to speak, and have higher lifestyles. Others prefer to life in crappy apartments. For me, this is more about character concept than part of a basic kit.

survival bag - You mean a survival kit? Not a bad idea - I've never really needed one, but it is relatively cheap, and has lots of "just in case" items.

survival knife - same as survival kit.

5 datachips/credsticks - good, cheap, always better to have it.


These last three:
cheap pistol (or taser)
50 regular ammo (or equivalent cost taser ammo)
cheap armour

Should not be cheap. These things will save your life, and you should be paying attention to them, and paying top dollar. (Unless you are buying these as throwaway items, or for show - but not sure how often you will need that - don't think it should be part of your "runner" kit.)

So, for me, what should be in your kit is really determined by what role your character plays. There are some basics

Fake SIN(s) - for my games, this is very important, as you are required to pass muster to get through places. For other GMs I've played with, not so much. I would say invest in a Rating 4 and perhaps a Rating 1 as a throwaway.

Fake licenses - same as above. For anything that is going to have to pass security, get rating 4s (to go with your Rating 4 fake SIN), and some rating 1s as throwaways (to go with your rating 1 SIN)

Flashpak or 2 - cheap, quiet, and might prove the difference in an ambush - 125 each

a couple Sensor and/or Stealth RFID tags - useful and versatile, 40 and 10 each respectively

Bug Scanner - I would get a rating 6 - so 600

Medkit and supplies - again, this is your health, so Rating 6 if possible, so 1500

An Antidote Patch or 2 - never know when they will come in handy - again, Rating 6, so 300 each.

Glasses/Contacts with vision enhancements (if you don't already have them cybernetically) - hard to price, since everyone has preferences, but assuming a human with no vision augmentations you would want at least Lowlight and Thermo.

That's just for a basic runner. Each character is going to have other "basic kits" - someone who specializes in sneaking into places will have a very different set of kit than a combat guy, or a face, and so on.

Thanks.

That's starting to get seriously pricy though, a rating 4 SIN of 10k all by itself for example.

Hmm. If basic kits by archetype - decker, mage, melee, face, long ranged firearms, short ranged firearms, rigger, etc.

What would people suggest?

Honestly, look at the sample characters. The numbers on their stats and skills have some known bugs in the Errata thread, but the basic layouts they're carrying are pretty decent. Really, though, your prime kit will vary by personal playstyle, character opinion, and GM preference. I pack a -lot- differently for my Thunderbird shaman who lives out in the Salish than for my Troll face from Boston.

The high cost is apparently part of the SR5 design. If you're playing a street game where you never leave the Barrens or a wilderness based campaign, you could probably get away with a R1 Fake SIN or no Fake SIN at all. But anything beyond that kind of game is usually going to require a much more robust fake SIN (R3 or R4) to get around and do things. Basically, you're probably going to have to invest about 10K to 15K into a standard runner's kit if you want to include a worthwhile SIN and licenses, plus the other gear you might want to pick up. I don't know if I have built a character yet with Resources E where I haven't dumped a large portion of my chargen karma into resources just to cover the basics (Fake SIN & Lifestyle).

I think people are missing the POINT of a cheap (~5k nuyen) "starter kit." It's not comprehensive, it's there to handle the basics and give you a jumping off point. A throw-away license/sin, a throw-away gun/taser, and a throw-away commlink, some survival gear? That sounds like a decent place to start. It won't do everything for you. It won't do your job for you, but it may keep you alive long enough to do your job.

One man's Basic Kit is another Man's Comprehensive Kit. It is all subjective. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Though I do agree that a cheap set of clothes, gun, knife, first aid kit, survival kit and an Emergency ID/comlink are probably more than enough. Wouldn't necessarily call that cheap, however. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Maybe we should go like the program suites:

Basic Kit (newbie friendly, no gear porn)

Pro Kit (For people who like to go a step above)

Pro + kit (because F*** your ambush!)

Various specialist kits (built it yourself, chumm-grk!)

We're not really missing the point. We're pointing out that a Fake SIN probably shouldn't be considered part of a "starter kit" due to the cost. An R1 Fake SIN is nearly useless for anything realted to running. It will allow you to buy stuff "legally" and maybe even pay rent but good luck having it do anything more than that given the way ID scanners work.

With that said, here's an equipment "go bag" for 2,591 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) that covers a lot of bases. Add a main weapon and main armor and you're good to go. You might even be able to squeeze in an R1 Fake SIN and Squatter lifestyle if you worked it right.
Survival Knife: 100
Spare Clip (x4): 20
Regular Ammo (x50): 100
Flash-pak: 125
Armor Vest: 500
Meta Link w/Electronic Paper & Subvocal Mic: 155
RFID Tags (x10): 1
Datachip (x10): 5
Standard Credstick: 5
Contacts w/Image Link: 225
Combination Lock (R6): 60
Metal Restraint: 20
Flashlight: 25
Respirator (R6): 300
Survival Kit: 200
Medkit (R3): 750

Indeed... I like me some Kits. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

what? No military style multipurpose toilet roll?

Sandpaper on one side, toilet paper on the other and woe to the lowly recruit who mixed them up...

From my new character template file, with a few tweaks to get an exact round price.

$20k for:

• Lifestyle Low (1 month)
• Fake SIN rating 2
• Primary Commlink rating 6
• Disposable Commlink rating 1
• Credstick (gold)
• Biomonitor
• Medkit rating 4
• Survival Kit (includes knife)
• Respirator rating 6
• Docwagon basic contract (1 year)
• Armor Jacket

Only the fake SIN is illegal/restricted on this list. Players will still need to pick out their own weapons, vision mods, vehicles, augmentations, and get licensees for those items if they want them.

Thanks, that looks like a good start.

Remember this is meant to be for the stuff that players are going to be less excited about buying. They'll pay attention to the big shiny assault rifle and kick ass augmented shades and motorbike or their deck and the programs and agents. Depending on the player of course. This is more to make sure they have some of the basic necessities that won't immediately stand out as either important or fun to a first time player.

It's all the rest of it that they're not going to be paying much attention to. So not the flashy gear they'd use all the time on their run or use as signature pieces. But the nitty gritty boring detail.

I do agree that hitting the 5k limit WITH a SIN that's worth a damn is nigh on impossible. Even the worst device ratings are rolling 2 dice vs a threshold of 1 or 2 for a rating 1 or 2 SIN. Just going shopping should trigger problems (advertising is near constant, tailored to your SIN so they have to check your SIN to work out which customer category you fit into for the targeted ads...just walking down the street could compromise a rating 1 SIN!)

Thanks so far guys!

It's a little OT, but I probably wouldn't have complications from basic shopping unless you're trying to purchase restricted gear. While I am sure the constant ad spamming is scanning for SINs to match with targeted ads, I'm not sure if they're really making much of an effort to verify the SIN matches the person in meat space.

Oh, I meant to add a crowbar to my kit. It's an extra 20 nuyen.

Then let's call the Basic kit "The Tenner," 10k limit to take care of Rating 4 fake sin and licenses, and other barebones stuff that would otherwise be overlooked.

10k might be a better number then.

But you'd be stuck at a rating 3 SIN for 7.5k.

Leaving 2.5k for the rest.

Rating 3 SIN 7.5k
Meta Link Comm 0.1k
Capacity 1 Glasses 0.1k
--Image link 0.025k
Survival Kit 0.2k
Rating 3 Medkit .75k (so it's portable as >rating 3 is handheld case)
2x standard credstick .01k
2x standard data chip 0.01k
Micro Tranceiver 0.2k
Survival Knife 0.1k
Clothing 0.02k
Armour Vest 0.5k
2x Spare Magazine .01k
50 regular ammo .1k
Colt America L36 .32k (cheap, disposable, smaller magazine here is an advantage as you're throwing away fewer bullets if you do toss it and haven't had a chance to empty it)

That's Y9945

No room for licenses though and it really needs at least one for that disposable pistol (I think that's the only thing that's an R for availability). More are needed in general though for anything else the player gets. It also means you're out on the street.

Could ignore the firearm and bullets entirely and assume the players will pick that up on their own, same too for the armour vest, the survival knife could get dropped too (the survival kit comes with a knife, I assume not suitable for a real fight but for general stuff).

It looks like it's possible to get basic kit for less than 5k though, it just won't include a SIN...

What about replacing the gun with a tazer? Tazers are street legal and use the same (pistols) skill.

So we're looking for a "Go Bag", basically? 10K (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) limit?

SR4A Ruleset, FYI.

False SIN: Rating 3 - 3000
False CHL: Rating 3 - 300
Two Credsticks - one with 555 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) and the other Certified with 2000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif)
CMT Clip commlink running Vector Xim - 500
Knife (STR/2 P) - 20
Ares Predator IV (5P AP -1) - 350
Weapon Light /w IR Filter - 265 *can be used separately from the pistol*
Three Concealable Holsters (Knife, Magazines, and Gun) - 225
Silencer/Suppressor - 500
Two spare magazines - 10
Fifty rounds regular ammo - 100
Armor Vest - 600
Two spare sets of clothes - 200
ScottEVest Convertible Jacket (Jacket to Vest) with a gazillion pockets- 150
Smartglasses: Rating 4 (Thermal Imaging, Low-light, Flare Compensation, Smartlink) - 850
Good Sleeping Bag and Sleeping Pad - 200
Motion Sensor so you can actually sleep with a bit of security from squaters - 50
Ridiculously tough and pocketed rucksack/duffle bag to carry it all in - 100

And that's me at 10K (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif)

Edited my Go Bag post above. Keep in mind that the above kit is for a pretty vanilla character. As the augmentation goes up, you can feel free to tweak it to meet the needs of the character in question.

Thanks.

But this is for SR5 and I thought the inflation of costs made direct conversion across the divide pretty damned hard. 10k in SR4A goes a long way further than 10k in SR5?

Biggest discrepancy will be your SIN's. Most of the other things are pretty comparable.

Boston has a lot more wild animals, for example.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)




-k

I disagree. Any starting sin is worthless for running in that context as unless you are getting a check from something worthless it will beat a rating 4 sin far too frequently. All you need your starting sin for is broadcasting a sin. Until and hell even after you can get a rating 6 sin you really are relying on your decker for any non-random security check. You just aren't going to gamble your 8 dice against its 6 dice. Rating 1 sin, a bit of con or negotiate will get you past basic random checks in non-secure areas along with a small bribe. Hey when you can aford a sin that actually matches your basic details that is sweet and it can probably pass the random check on its own. Until then, rely on your decker.

A basic sin should come with lifestyle costs IMO. Your additional fake out security checkpoints SIN would be an additional cost.

No arguments here. Sadly, it does not work that way. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)