Do SR characters PAY for things?, Why do these criminal mastermind groups use money? Options

[Thorguild]

Character generation gets you a character decked out in the equipment you purchased. But once you've done that and formed a group, why do characters pay for things afterwards? (BTW I only own the SR4 book and Street Magic. This may be dealt with in other books.)

Let's say that you don't mess where you sleep: you pay for your Lifestyle with the cleanest nuyen you have access to. Nobody wants a midnight raid. Beyond that, you need gear. Comlinks, weapons, software, vehicles, clothing, etc.

The team Face and Hacker sit down one night over beer and Thai food and start making notes. They decide that once every 4 months they will make a "shopping trip" Run for the team. The goals are: #1 - Minimum risk. #2 - No, really - MINIMUM RISK! #3 Not paying for much.

Almost everything can be delivered to your door in 2070. Amazon.com has been replaced by the billion other Amazon.com's.

The Face goes to an office building and negotiates with the owner to rent an unused space near the docking bay for a week. He's disguised, of course, with a disposable ID, and has a good story about being an out-of-town salesperson who needs a meeting room and will set up some props delivered from his home office. When he's in he has a professional cleaning service come in and give the entry way to the office a thorough sprucing up. IKEA instant reception area and some generic TAGs with logos on the walls. Total cost: 1000 nuyen. (GM says "Ha! 3000!" Players grumble.) Total cost: 3000 nuyen.

Meanwhile the Hacker does some research. A Fulfillment Center is a giant warehouse that has an amazing system of robotics inside. The purpose of this marvel is to rapidly put boxes full of stuff onto waiting trucks. These trucks then take all the boxes and deliver them to ADHD customers who want everything delivered before they ordered it. It's a moderately tough hack, but not more difficult than a hardened research facility. It takes a little doing, and includes having the face bribing an OSHA official to "borrow" his ID while he takes a look inside. The Hacker pours over the data gathered on the "safety inspection", and gets a nice overview of the model of robot he needs to hack.

A tech has been hired, or conscripted from within the team. He builds a Faraday cage in the back room of the office and gets a TAG eraser handy.

On the second day the Face shows up at the office and prepares the entry way with danishes and fresh flowers, and name TAGS for a bunch of people who will never actually arrive. This is the most dangerous assignment of the Run.

The Hacker hacks. 86,000 nuyen of equipment is boxed and labeled for immediate delivery. It's going to the team's office. The Hacker makes the system think it's a load of fancy paper totaling 250 nuyen.

In 2070 "immediate delivery" means immediate. A truck is ID'd as going near this location and the boxes are automatically loaded by robot onto it. The delivery truck courteously and constantly informs the "customer" of its location as it nears the building, and the Face is ready when it arrives. He waves his ID and invoice number at the delivery bot/guy and authorizes the 250 payment, and a nice tip. "Just set it over there", he says, waving a hand at an empty corner. He's busy, after all. The delivery guy/bot leaves; he's busy too.

The Face hand-trucks the stuff into the Faraday cage and TAG erases everything. The off-site Hacker has been using some surveillance drones to case the area. Are there cops? If yes, a disposable comlink outside the Faraday cage beeps "Way Down Upon The Swanee River" and the Face books it. If no, the comlink plays elevator muzik.

When he's done making the TAG's safe he hand-trucks the stuff to a waiting delivery van he rented ("RENT me by the HOUR!") the night before. The Hacker tells the van to drive, slow and steady, and sends one of his drones after it. The Face gets some industrial Lysol/solvent spray and hoses down everything in the small office. It takes 10 minutes and the smell doesn't have time to escape the doors out into the rest of the building. He consults his comlink checklist to get everything he was supposed to bring, and drops the disposable comlink into a small glass of acid. It'll be gone by the time he's a block away.

The Face leaves and walks or drives away while the Hacker's other drone scans for tails. After ensuring that the Face is safe, it leaves and follows the rented delivery van.

The delivery van goes to an industrial park and drives around for a few minutes to let the second drone catch up, and both drones take a last look for anyone tailing the van. When safe, the van stops and the rest of the team transfers the stuff to their own vehicles. Lastly, they clean the van.

The van drives back to the rental place. The team and the Face drive back to base. Everyone enjoys their radically-discounted items.

This was fun to write! Certainly things could go wrong on this Run, but is there anything structurally wrong about the plan? What keeps teams from doing this all the time? Maybe they need to spoof records for the licenses afterwards, and file off serial numbers.

I suppose the GM could handwave and say that all Fulfillment Centers are hardened better than anything else the players will ever encounter, but that seems a bit mean.

Thorguild