I didn't like the average pay charts, either, until I figured out they worked really well with multipliers. Wetwork? 5k each. Bodyguards? Price doubles. He's a magician? Price triples. Make it look like an accident? Price quadruples, etc.

Exactly. That's how I use it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
'I'm smuggling my group across the border to another nation, to infiltrate a corp, steal data, free two people from the company, and smuggle them back. If possible, I'm expected to do a hit on a CEO in the building and frame someone else for it? That'll be...'

My character, Cleric, gets around all this by simply letting the rest of the PCs negotiate for the run, then charging them a certain amount based on what he has to do on the mission. His role is pretty simple: drive group there, wait for them to arrive after the run, and drive them back. Sounds simple, until you figure this may require crossing multiple state / nation lines and involve him evading pursuit, as well as shooting things.

He charges the group per-person. Often makes out with more money than the group does. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

That sounds fine to me, as long as you let the team's face negotiatiate your fee, just like they do with the Johnson.

Sure. If they ever think to. The Face hasn't bothered to try yet. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) So I walk out with better pay than anyone else. Mind you, I don't accept a share of the fee for the run itself, so they get a larger 'chunk' of that. Which means, if they get any extras... bonuses or what-have-you, I don't get any cut of that, nor do I expect it.

Professional, you know? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

What do you do while the team and GM perform the job? Wait patiently until they get out? Watch tv and eat pizza?

Play guard for the Technomancer who is ghosting in, providing her meat support and keeping an eye on things around her body so she's not fragged, keep an eye on external security, eavesdrop in on communications if I can, and keep an eye out for external support coming in to ruin their day.

Someone has to do it.

---

Alternatively, if the GM allows more than one character, I use my back-up character. Though I am more loath to do that, simply because of how that character operates: astral masking + trid phantasm + catfeet + gecko crawl + stealth spells up the wazoo on the entire group. Then there's the IR dampening and other physical things to prevent the PCs from being noticed. Slip in, get the job done, slip out, nobody sees a damn thing.

The GM's been frustrated a few times trying to figure out how to get past the character's 'stealth suite', and has a few times deliberately fudged to have the group noticed. So, I don't use the character on most runs, simply because I know the GM wants there to be firefights, and my character's mentality is 'the run fails if you're noticed'. So, I don't use the character, the PCs get shot at and mowed down and what-have-you, and I sit back with my driver, and wait to see how many people survive.

Are you under the awareness that Trid-Phatasm can only ADD things to a scene, not remove them?

Clearly you can fake this a little bit, but eventually you'll end up with a cube textured to look like the end of a hallway (and someone will notice that the perspective is off).

There's a reason Invisibility is a different spell.

Please submit this character to dumpshock (in a separate thread). We will find your character, capture them, send them to maximum security and submit them to bubba the love troll.

Oh god, he ran a used car dealership once didn't he? My elf had a run in with him. D:

Jim, our old trickster made a gay troll NPC who hit on my elf, who promptly used a chameleon suit to hide and run away (very fast). Had I let the troll violate him we'd have gotten a discount on the camper we purchased (ah, the price of my (charater's) anal virginity. And pride).

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Which one? The driver, or the covert operative? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
I blame 3E for that. I took a look at the covert op character, and just loved the idea of that sort of role. The character who sneaks in and out without anyone seeing a damn thing. Added a shaman template to the concept, to make things a little different...

... then noticed just what kind of hell you can create with illusion and manipulation magic. As soon as the character got initiated, things went downhill from there.

I had a very... interesting... discussion with the GM about two or three adventures he'd run, and how even if the group was 'silent' and 'cloaked', people were still acting as if they sensed something sneaking around them regardless of any evidence to the contrary. No rolls or anything.

We don't use nuyen in our games, only abstract wealth. Saves a lot of calculating.

Inspired by D20 Modern?

No. When I introduced this there was no d20 modern yet. I just had gotten sick of the money management, of juggling mages with samurais and riggers with regards to payouts and game balance, and of the sometimes really annoying negotiating for runs. So, I said "Screw it! From now on, pick your lifestyle, and assume you've got enough to cover it and expenses and most gear. If you want something special, tell me, and we'll work out how it's gotten - through a run, simple purchase, looting, or accident. It gives everyone, GM and players, more control. Players know that if the GM allows them something it'll be ok and there won't be any "and now I'll take it away since it's too powerful!" antics, the GM knows there won't be any gear in game he did not approve, and no "but the rules say I can buy it with this roll" complaints. All in all it lightens my workload and makes the game more fun for me to run.

In a similar way we've done away with karma.

If you read what I quoted, I cut out everything relative to the driver. I want you to post the covert shaman along with the techniques, spells, etc. that he/she uses.

For one, I want to know how you manage to cast all these spells on your team-mates without being crippled by sustaining penalties. Also, there is lots of other ways to be detected other than guards and cameras. Did you have silence sustained to defeat ultrasound sensors? Why weren't astral patrols spotting you? A big one is making obstacles rather than opposition. If some-one doesn't see a trip wire, you've all just set off an alarm even if you're totally concealed. Another good way to set off an alarm is putting anti-tamper alarm systems on all the maglocks you have to bypass, and then layering them near high-security areas, and the probability would be in the favour of an alarm going off, but this is really off topic and I'd like to explore this better in a different thread.

Ok, the way you're handling money and gear is cool, but how does it work out with karma?

People make the character they want to start, no limits other than that it has to be balanced with the group. Any changes afterwards are done by GM approval. There's no "start, and then improve" - people start with the character they want "maxed".

do both, you have the time and you know you wanna show off ^^

Heh. My Covert Ops was 'reset' for 4E for the new campaign, and my driver's a newer character as well. Hmm. Fine, I'll do both. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) The covert I'll do in two modes, to show what he was like before, and what he's like now (IE, 'green'). Take a little bit, I think.