Sidejobs during downtime., How do you handle them? Options

[emo samurai]

I was thinking of what players would do as side jobs during downtime. How would an assassin make money on his own to match the hacker and the enchanting magician?

[Konsaki]

Tournaments that befit your current skills. Payouts if you do great on your skill rolls.

[Thanee]

Well, you didn't get all the bio on your fake SIN for nothing...

Bye
Thanee

[emo samurai]

Huh
Thanee
?

[knasser]

I assume he means that one avenue for creating fake SINs is getting hold of someone else's biometric data - hands, eyes, that sort of thing.

Of course he could just mean identity theft the more direct way. "After little Peter's parents were killed in that freakishly suspicious accident, the nice people from that charity organisation came to look after him and took him away. So sad he didn't have any other close family."

Meanwhile, "little Peter" is running some interesting payments through his accounts and there was that odd purchase of a AK-97 Assault Rifle.

[Glayvin34]

As the Hacker I've been looking for more "paydata". Seems the shadowtalkers have it coming out their asses, but my character couldn't blackmail a kindergartner.
Last run we extracted some guy from a Bioware firm, and we thought to steal a bunch of deltaware and associated specs on our way out. We got a little extra cash for the specs from Mr. J, and our GM asked us if we had any method of storing the deltaware until we could sell it (you have to roll the same availability to sell as to buy). That didn't work out as well.
Most of us come up with strange little personal runs to do on our downtime. Our cram-addicted Mage flipped a few (fluid?) ounces of cram for extra nuyen. The Troll gunbunny killed some guys and had me (the Hacker) crack their SINs and steal their money. The GM gave us 1000 nuyen for that.
All of our "downtime" runs have been a single combat session perhaps with a single role-playing scene. The players typically get around 1000 nuyen each or a specific item that they were trying to get.

[emo samurai]

All they had was 1000 nuyen? Your GM's cheap as hell.

[Glayvin34]

[emo samurai]

You should run for me. 20000 :nuyen: on the first run.

I mean, seriously, you showed a deep understanding of the game world, and he rewards you with drek. If you stole a credit card # for 1/4th the effort in RL, you could buy a car.

[Glayvin34]

Yeah, I'm the reigning rules Nazi, so he listens to me and I might try to finagle some runs with better payoffs. To his credit, it's not like the book gives much in the way of compensation guidelines. I've seen more than a few threads on the boards trying to figure out how much a team should be paid.

[Eugene]

[Thanee]

[eidolon]

Well, to answer the post title question, I usually just run them.

If, for example, the hacker wants to take a job on during downtime, I'll come up with a little data steal or the like, and start running that.

Then, I'll try to come up with stuff for the other team members to be doing. Generally, once one side-job gets started, the other players will want to be doing something, whether its story development or a money-making side job.

As any GM knows, the best way to come up with stuff to run is to listen to, or flat out ask, the players. "Well, you know you've got three days before that next run, but you're already done with the planning, so is there anything your characters would want to do in the meantime?"

Then, all that's left to do is track "time" so that they don't miss the run. (Unless, of course, they miss it through their own actions, which is just more story development.)

Mmm. I need to start running again, and soon. I'm suffering withdrawal.

[JackRipper]

As mentioned above, every character sort of falls into a niche as far as their role. Rigger can be a cab driver, sammie body guard or club security, etc. As a long time player of (now called) Hackers I've never had an out of work bit-cruncher. Yes, mostly my own self started side jobs but hey, to through a little reality into our fantasy game. Someone who sits around waiting for the next 'big score' shadowrun probly lives in a rat infested dump, drinking cheap soy-beer in a stained wife beater. Holy shit, my next PC concept lol.

As a fellow player and as a GM I find that what the PC does between jobs helps broaden the character. Sitting around waiting can mark you as lazy, while sitting around drinking all day in a one room rathole, checking messages or calling your fixer from the bar's pay-comm makes you seem a bit of a burnout or just bad luck has hit. Yet another perspective is the guy who blows his ;big score' in Vegas or a resort. I can go on a tirade (wait I have already) but, your down time really reflects what you come off as, maybe not on a oneshot game but, a campaign it shows.

[krayola red]

You can always take a side job as a cop. ;)

[Konsaki]

Bounty hunter. 8) :cyber:

[Slithery D]

Just do a Data Search for 'esc-- Oh. Sidejobs.

[Wiseman]

Well, side jobs can help develop character, but they're criminal shadowrunners for a reason. The big payoff.

If they wanted to work as a wage slave for the corp or some other mundane side job, they'd probably wouldn't be runners.

Some SINs might require a little side work to keep up the front at least and anyone can buy/sell whatever in downtime. But when you say sidejobs I tend to think of non-risky mundane money making tasks, and I don't really want to roleplay Harold the janitors nightly mop up.

If you mean sidejobs like drug deals, data steals, a little con or fraud..well I think those are what lead to and comprise runs. I mean even something simple as slinging a bag of deepweed could get messy and you might want backup.

Say the edgy hougan punk you were dealing it to tried giving you a manaball for payment, until you ungently reminded him why he shouldn't point at people. And it just so happens that he has an overly protective mother.

When the game is on and everyone is at the table the only side-job we think of is the one we have to go back to come monday.

[Jaid]

[BookWyrm]

Back when I played SR3, my character had a 'day job' as a Contract Courier. I should find my original template, convert/update it to SR4 & post it.

[nezumi]

[Tiger Eyes]

I thought downtime was for spending money & karma... We call it 'housekeeping' and just say, "hey, I'm gonna spend all my money on new shoes and can I use some Karma to learn how to scuba dive?"

Sideruns, in our game, are for when we want to earn money or repay favors or meet new contacts and direct our own runs (as opposed to GM planned runs). We roleplay them to the hilt - they are fun and lucrative. Like this weekend's game, when our team was waiting for new orders from our employer. We decided we needed to meet a new fence in our new home town. So we researched and found a fence in our field (artifacts), then we planned a theft of some nice items, then once we had the stuff, we called an old contact for a 'letter of introduction', met the new fence, sold the stuff, and voila! we have a new fence.

This took our entire session... we do this every couple of sessions. But not roleplaying it would have been extremely sad... plus I doubt our GM would have let us earn 780,000 :nuyen: if we just rolled some dice for downtime activity. ;)

[Drraagh]

The Fencing Rules existed in SR for a way to sell stuff that you got on a run that you don't want. It's where looting the bodies and taking everything that's not nailed down (and some things that are) pays off.

Consider, as an example of the standard sort of Shadowruns I've seen. The lobby scene in the Matrix. People slaughtering guards like they were targets at a shooting range. Now, pick up their guns, perhaps organleg them for any good cyberware or organs if you have a storage system, take their phones, badges, etc and sell them as smaller items. They would be clean since their user is dead, after all. No worrying about it reported stolen.

Now, as for side jobs, people have covered a lot of them, and in a tt group, you could either have runs on non-standard TT days for some of the side jobs, or take a break and run some on the standard days. As for jobs, well, anything that's of your skills. And don't think just the 'class' type, but things for the skills your character has. Perhaps your rigger has been watching CSI and getting into forensics and such; they could hire out as a PI. Or maybe your samurai has been picking up survival skills and such, with a high athletics, he could become a skydiving trainer or mountain climbing instructor in his downtime.

Yes, you could sell drugs, jack cars, roll people for their credsticks and hack them and most of those are good for any character type. And maybe your sammy works as a bodyguard or your decker as a SIN creator. But don't forget about your other skills as an option for adventures if you like RP versus being full time killers and thieves.

[Grinder]

[Dranem]

Downtime things my runners do:

My bodyguard is a bouncer for a bar, works out at a gym regularly, and does occasionaly contract bodyguard work.

My adept, thanks to a few profitable runs, owns her own martial arts dojo, where she teaches street kids the art of self defence.

My hacker runs a small electronics shop and underground hacker shop. Outside of that he's an avid gamer and spends a lot of time in online games.