House rule: discretionary funds Options

[James McMurray]

Can you save up to buy something over the course of several time increments (months I assume)?

How do runners get paid?

Is there a limit to how many times you can roll beyond the -1 die per attempt? In other words, if you get to the point where you can repeatedly hit the threshold for buying a Scorpion with no problems, can you then buy 15 Scorpions in one month?

What are the effects to your resources if you rent something and return it in a hundred smoking pieces? Can you rent to own?

Is this only used after character generation? If not, how does it tie into normal chargen for buying starting gear?

[Cynic project]

Okay let's start by saying this. A lot of things int he book are priced in such a way that really make no seance. Bullets for one, but also minor things like cloths, and wire cutters. As said above you are not as good as you character in what hey do. You are not the man who know tatics on a level that people would really use in gun fights, and no movies don't help. You do not hae he time to think very liltte detail and piece of gear you character will need.

My point? One the amount of bullets you have in your safe houses or in storage..Well it doesn't mater. You as a play say I am putting say 2k for bullets.THat is right you area hard core crimal, and you can store up all the ammo you want. I don't care.I do care how much you bring with you. WHy don't I care how many bullets you have in your safe house? It is simple if you really need that many bullets you are dead anyways. I don't care how dytopic the world is if you are going around shotting tens of clips worth of ammo you are pissing off some big players and they ill get you.

Two, how many of you have really,and I mean really broken into a highly guarded and proteched building? How many of you really think anyone is going to do such a thing for so lilttle pay that the tools they need for said job would even be factor of the profit? So, if I am being paid to break into a Lab and for whatever reason I don't have wire cutters, or say pry bar or whatever stupid tool I need for the job, I am going to ask for enough money to cover that as well as the risk. SO no you will not get a shadoruner to do BE for so liltte of money that they will have pinch pennies for prybars,ski,masks and or gloves.

Note that some tools will cost a lot but said tools are tools that can be used over and over and can be thought of as part of the payment.

Now big things that is another story. So as a good rule to go by, if you can go to the store, pay in cash today and not get any odd looks today the item is not worth noting on your character sheet, or at least bothering to count out it's cost in nuyen. Now that being said if your character is poor,out of his normal area, you can keep track of the small things.It is just on the whole you only need to worry about what you character can carry cause for the most part if you character really needs something he will most likely have enough money to get, it is another thing if he can get it on the RUN

[James McMurray]

[Cynic project]

[James McMurray]

We prefer a slightly more bean-county method in our games, otherwise that'd be what we'd do.

[Cynic project]

Um then you should try something on par wth dramitc editing from Adventure, you can find it in D20 dventure or Aberrant

[James McMurray]

I don't have any of those, can you give a brief rundown? Is it a setup where you let the players add bits to their environment, such as grabbing a brick off the ground in a fight in an alley when the description given by the GM doesn't mention any bricks? If so I don't know how well that would work, since it's pretty rare to find the crowbar you forgot to buy sitting right next to the window you need to pry open, then finding the keycard sequencer sitting right next to the lock. ;)

[hyzmarca]

[James McMurray]

I thought of another question: how does it work if two people want to combine resources to buy something?

[Cynic project]

[James McMurray]

Stabbing people in the face always makes things better. After all, the world is a rosier place when you've got a smile on your face. ;)

[ornot]

On many levels James, you scare me.

I tend toward a median. I don't get really anal about book keeping. I ask what major stuff, heavy stuff or illegal stuff the characters are bringing. I assume they have 6 or so clips of ammo (any more would get kinda heavy and my players mostly use pistols, nice and concealable at least compared to a panther cannon!) but if they want more they can tell me they're bringing it.

I don't sweat the small stuff and I let them have anything they might reasonably have. Say they need an organic solvent to clean a microchip so they can read it, the face might pull a bottle of acetone (nail polish remover) from her make-up kit. Or perhaps they're in a dark, dark place and they've broken/lost their torch, the deepweed smoking rastafarian shaman can pull out his trusty bic lighter.

[James McMurray]

I'll take that as a compliment. :)

[Cain]

I agree that adding detailed rules is largely unnecessary. If someone forgets something really egregious, you should let them have a limited amount of ret-conning, especially if it's a minor detail. For example, I always see players forget to buy clips for all the ammo they're purchasing. Given how cheap they are, I find that it's not worth the time to track clips and ammo, and I give them clips for free.

Another thing is to use the toolkit appraoch, where a given package will contain anything basic they would reasonably need. For example, someone with an Electronics B/R toolkit will have a set of wire clippers. This approach gives a very clear yes/no answer to the players, if the issue of specific items ever comes up.

[Brahm]

[Brahm]

BTW, what about using an Attribute Test of Resource + Logic to see if the character has with them a gear item not listed on the character sheet? No Lifestyle bonus unless you are at home. -2 Die penalty to the pool if you are not in your vehicle. -4 Die penalty if you are onsite during the run (not in your vehicle). Threshold set by obscurity of the item.

EDIT I doubt this will keep players from putting obvious stuff on their inventory list. Oh, and it isn't retconning. It is just determining whether or not the item was there all along but the procurment didn't come up at the table. ;) As such you are only allowed 1 test per item, no retesting.

[James McMurray]

The problem with not being able to save up is that you've now left behind a realistic setup. A character who could not afford to get some shiny new cyberware would be able to save up for a few months and buy it, by eating lots of Ramen and ditching his high maintenance girlfriend. Unless I'm missing something in your system he'd have to do that by raising his entire financial status, leaving him more capable afterwards instead of less.

Perhaps instead of refreshing dice when they're paid by the J they gain dice. They could then save those extra dice for a single test, and buy something that's normally above their station.

[Brahm]

[Crusher Bob]

Well, note that some gear will have to be custom made for you, like your high grade cyberwear, so you'll just have to steal some other really expensive thing, and then trade it for your high grade cyberwear.

[Brahm]

[James McMurray]

The additive dice option could get big pools, but you can always add a cap to it. One problem I have is that refreshing dice for payment means that someone with an already high resources is effectively getting paid more for the run, because his .33% chance of a hit is worth more money than the other guy's .33% chance of a hit.

Have you had a chance to crunch any playtest numbers? I'd like to see them.

[Brahm]

[James McMurray]

Ah, it's just now sinking in. I don't think I could get behind a system that was meant to gather resources but didn't work for buying things. I'm still curious to see the final product.

[James McMurray]

[Brahm]