No, not talking about my Mr. Johnson from hell, but, rather, currency from various countries.

Sure, almost everyone uses the (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) , but a lot of countries still use local currency.

It's easiest to deal with (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) all the time, but Runners could easily get paid in UCAS Blueback Dollars in a big Briefcase (Mixed tens and twenties, non-sequential, old), CAS Brownbellies (Same), or whatever.

Heck, some people might even take Quebec Francs.

And, of course, Corporate Script for the company store (Hey, Weapon's World is Ares, those Ares Bucks work just fine there, as long as you have an Ares SIN to go along with them!).

What say you folks?

Or Blue Sun Yuan, eh?

Anyway, Quebeck uses it's Franc, Europe (sans Britain) the Euro, Britain it's pound, the CAS and UCAS their respective dollars, Aztlan the Aztlan PEso (also official Aztech corp script, IIRC), and there surely are other countries I forget here.

Personally, my more professional runners actually prefer diamonds or gold as payments, unmarked. A lot harder to trace than standard currency or checksticks.

My assumption has been that by the time the payment gets passed to the runners its been laundered and exchanged into nuyen. Frankly, anything else it just too much hassle (in and out of game), IMO.

Besides, only a chump or a rookie deals in currency other than nuyen.

For instance...

We had one Mr. Johnson try to pay us in Fuchi corp script one time. I think the GM had intended us to somehow turn the tables on him and get a much bigger payout because it was corp script, but... We were like, "Tell you what, Mr. Fuchi, I mean, Mr. Johnson, why don't we take your cash, your limo, and not put a bullet in your head instead?"

It was meant to be an idle threat to intimidate him into giving us "real money," but the group spokesman (they didn't call them Faces back then) managed to botch his roll (eight 1s). Instead of getting laughed at, the GM decided that they took us seriously and drew guns on us. The meet rapidly devolved into a firefight with the Johnson and his two muscle boys (street sam and bodyguard archetypes, as I recall).

In the end, we got the limo (sold to a chop shop for about 30,000), the script (traded to our fixer at a huge loss for some gear we'd been wanting), and a pocket secretary full of juicy paydata (the cash from that sale went to groups expenses, including hospital bills for the mage, who caught a burst of SMG fire in the gut during the shootout). Oh, and somewhere in there we scored an Attack-8 Program for our woefully undergunned NPC decker.

...also, at least prior to the '64 crash, paying with hard currency (e.g. banknotes) was still the norm for everyday transactions in the UK (London Sourcebook).

I try to pay my Player Characters in gear and services, rather than money [medical treatment, armour, spells, training]..
..But diamonds, Corp stock, drugs/medication are good payments, too.


I imagine that many places, outside Corpzones or 'civilised' area will use paper money, or even bartering, for gear or services, etc [Neuromancer has hard currency already illegal in Tokyo, while one of the SR novels has a Character literally throwing bundles of cash at a gang to leave him alone].


Tho, considering SR was written 20 years ago with the expectation that the ¥ was going to be the dominant global currency..
..Maybe it should be changed to the Chinese currency, the Yuan, as the Chinese look to be the global leader in just a few short years ??

Also, hard currency has the advantage to not be able to vanish quite as easily as anything electronic (including checksticks). Precious metals and gems even moreso.

Medical services? To accept that from your Johnson requires a level of trust none of my PCs have in Mr. J.

...QFT and from past experience.

Our group just started 4th edition and we never played 3rd, so we're still used to the old-fashioned credsticks. That being said, the campaign I'm currently running has featured corp script and certified credsticks so far. I plan on using favors heavily for one arc I'm writing and trade for several other stories. Hadn't really given much thought to other currency so far and don't really see using it except in a purely flavor-based sense becuase I don't want to use time during a session (or even during downtime) running down fixers to get it exchanged for more accessible cash/cred.

I absolutely still have hard currency in my games. UCAS Dollars, Euros, Pounds. Notes and coins, at one point I even had the Tir issue non-electronic currency exclusively in coin form as part of the "we are an ancient culture" image they were trying to promote. I've had runners paid in all sorts of things ranging from Certfied Nuyen, (pretty ordinary) to Corporate Stock, to gear, to local currency, and even once in exotic aquarium fish (weird stuff happens when you do favors for Triad bosses)

According to the findley book, that's canon ... they do print nuyen bills and produce nuyen coins.


Now that's cool ... mind if I borrow that idea? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

It does seem like there'd be some hard currency floating around, given that 2 major crashes have happened. I mean, fool me once, shame on you, and fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me THREE times, and I deserve to have all of my money disappear. Plus, the Tir coin idea is awesome. I can see it having sort of an impact on IE/GD relations, as it becomes vogue for dragons to horde Tir currency for the sake of lounging around on great big piles of gold that are actually easily transferable legal tender (and also if I was a dragon, I'd feel less bad about my claws scratching up some modern currency than I would about defacing ancient 4th world currency, or retrieved Spanish bullion).

Go for it, I probably won't be able to reuse it for a while

OK, all good suggestions and comments!

One of the main Johnsons I'm going to use (The one from Here) is going to have a lot of weird jobs, and even weirder payments.

My first idea... Well, that would be telling!

Which I will when it happens!

Our group regularly takes many forms of payment. Generally, some kind of ¥ value is offered by the Johnson. However, many characters choose to instead require a favor, or some kind of gear. I don't think we've ever been paid in other hard currency.

Once, (actually when working for Winternight, though we didn't know it at the time (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) ) a rigger character of mine asked for better sensors instead of whatever ridiculous amount of payment we were getting. I ended up with rating 9 sensors, and didn't get paid for a few runs, but i was fine by that.

I'm currently working on a Face. And while she does need a decent amount of money to achieve her goals, she will eventually be asking for medical services in the way of getting more cyber installed. And who need to trust a J? My buddy the Tanky the Troll (One of the other PCs) will go to the facility with me. And they can sure try to do something underhanded. But if they do they'll probably lose their hands (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

So, really it's a matter of watching your back. Make sure whatever payment you get is able to be used. If you don't think you can trust the J, ask for a favor instead of payment and follow him home after the meet. Knowing where he lives ensures they keep up the bargain. Especially if the J has a family. He tries to back down and all it should take is a little threatening. Have the face go to the house just before he gets home pretending to be selling something or impersonating a religious fella' and sit around and talk to the wife until he gets there. He'll get the message.

Uhm... Hard to find things are great to ask as payment. Most things are hard to find because the copr doesnt' like to sell them to gangers.

Wow, the Mormons have gotten militant in Shadowrun, haven't they? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

When working in Azania, what is now South Africa, in the past I've had PCs paid in gold Krugerrands. Other times we've been paid British gold Sovreigns, silver Britannias, Chinese silver Pandas minted before the breakup of China or uncut emeralds when working in Colombia. Hell, one time we got paid in antique Sequins by a free spirit with a sense of humour for job in Venice. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Gotten? I thought Militant was their MO (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) (No offense, to any Mormon runners out there (though, they probably think roleplaying is evil anyway )= ))

Well getting your own sovereign city-state within Ute can do that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

No offense taken. It's kind of amusing to see the take on Utah in the 2070's here on Dumpshock

Ah yes, the infamous Brigham Young Transit Line!

Right up there with Steve's Busses!

Same in the AGS.
The German sourcebooks described the Euro (or EC/Ecu, in the older books) as a purely electronic currency while the Deutsche Mark (as color-coded plastic coins) was still used in everyday transactions (especially on the black market).

It's scrip, not script!

Should have thought of this before, but here is a perfect example of Corporate SCRIP (As we've been corrected) that is commonly seen in Canada!

hmm... in my games I've been saying that the corp scrips don't exist... that the corps prefer the use of nuyen which is why its so prevalent. I don't know.... hard currency does have that gritty street feel... I might have to start using some in my games (esp. in the barrens)



P.S. I don't think that the corps would ever give out shares to runners.... runners are deniable assets... those assets get alot less deniable when you start paying them in corp scrips or in shares... plus shares gives you the right to go to sharesholder meetings and to vote... your average corp doesn't really want runners doing that.

Who says it has to be their own Corporate Shares?

Getting 10% of Bubba's Boozehole is still a good deal to a lot of 'Runners, and doesn't connect the Corp in any way, especially when the previous owner was Numbered Corporation AH47772864, and owned by Bubba himself before that, who sold the shares in order to get the operating capital required to restock the spirits when some hoophole Troll threw someone against the bottles behind the bar.

Also, who says that 'Runners can't just turn around, clean the (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) some more, and then buy shares themselves? Frankly, the RoI on the Megas is pretty decent, it is a good investment, and great for Real SINners.