N00bi3 questions thread Options

[Bashfull]

I'm fairly new to all this, I confess. When my questions get irritating, please shut the thread and ban my butt. I'm hoping against hope that my questions will be easy to answer and fill someone with both a sense of being an SR guru and a feeling of benevolence for helping to ease me into the 6th World.

Starter question for 5: the pre-generated hacker has upgraded the commlink he purchased. How'd he do that? I can't find the rule anywhere.

Second question: I've got 5 runners, but none of them want to play a rigger. This may make hasty retreats an issue. What would a freelance rigger charge to essentially be a get-away driver? Would it be hourly? A percentage of the final cut?

Question 3: Has someone made a jolly great data base with good handles for random NPCs? I'm trying to be as varied as I can be, refusing, for example, to let myself have lots of vicious sounding ones. I've got a fixer called Catalyst, a gillette called Cinnamon, a few tribals with tribal sounding names (Nope, I don't have a Two Dogs), but I won't let myself have a Cherry or Sugar because they're too much like Cinnamon.

[Konsaki]

A#1 - Pg240 and 321. No rules to create, just each stat has to be bought below the avail limit. IE for chargen no stat can be above R5.

A#2 - Up to the GM, but if it is just a getaway driver job, 10% probably wouldnt be a bad ammount.

[cetiah]

Each game has multiple "sectors" of play based on the character types that specialize in them. This was much worse in SR3 and previous editions, but is pretty manageable in SR4. Anyway, here's my suggestion...

If the runners aren't specialized in a particular sector of play (i.e., riggers for pursuits), it would probably be best not focus on those areas of play. If they have stealth or combat types, for example, they're probably going to try to make sure there is no pursuit. Let them. Allowing the players to focus in their chosen areas is better than inserting random NPCs to pick up the slack.

That being said, one doesn't need a rigger to conduct a good car chase. I recently had a chase between a lone street-sam on his motorcycle against a couple of roto-drones that worked out pretty well and was kind of fun. Of course, he shot down the roto drones and used his edge to insure his survival.

[Bashfull]

Wow, thanks for the speedy reply, Konsaki. Point of clarification: if my player wants to upgrade, does he pay for a new rating, or is his existing commlink upgraded by the amount on the table? In essence, the munchkin suggests buying the cheapest commlink and paying for the upgrade instead of buying a better commlink since in the end you'll pay the same for the upgrade regardless of what commlink you started with.

[Bashfull]

Thanks, Cetiah

The escape thing comes up in another thread, but my :nuyen: 2 worth is this: since we don't have a dedicated rigger, doesn't it make sense for the team to be on individual wheels? Much harder to pursue 5 vehicles going in different directions than one.

[Konsaki]

Just like you can buy computer cases without any guts, IMO you can do the same thing in 2070 for commlinks. If they are buying 8,000 in parts, I would just give them the case for free. People would notice that it isnt an off the shelf thing though.

If they want to upgrade from R4 signal to R5, i would let them sell back the R4 guts for 1/2 the price, so it would cost them 750 cred total. 500/2 = 250, 1000 for R5 - the 250 = 750 owed. Thats just me though, you could charge them the full 1000 if you wanted. or you could just charge them the difference, which is 500. Its up to the GM.

[Konsaki]

[Bashfull]

Thanks, Konsaki. It occurs to me that other team members might also want the old bits (if they'd conceivably fit) for their commlinks. So the trade-in idea is excellent, and as a further option they could sell it (or give it) to another team member.

P.S. Love the manga pic of Caittie. How can a drawing be sexah? I'm feeling a bit dirty.

[Butterblume]

[Bashfull]

I agree about the commlink case, but having said that, the pregenned hacker has a commlink that is upgraded. That means he's paid for the original then paid for the upgrade. Roleplaying wise, a nice touch. Munchkin wise (and I do have a munchkin in my game) it'll get by-passed. I'll use the "it'll be obvious you're a hacker" argument, since the player used a lot of BP for start up cash. He could quite easily have afforded the Fairlight Caliban but I urged against it.

[cetiah]

[Fortune]

[cetiah]

I assume you always have to "throw away the guts" when you upgrade something. When a character upgrades to alphaware bone lacing, for example, do you let him keep the original bone lacing? Do you give him a discount? Generally, I just assume if its possible to salvage (which might take a little bit of work), the chopshop keeps the bone lacing and then sells it used to gangs. They don't reimburse the guy on the table. If he wants to keep his own bone lacing that will be a rather expensive service.

I assume more or less this same principle applies, say, if a player character is upgrading the bone lacing of another player character. The old bone lacing is trash. I mean, it can't even be used for ghoul food like regular bones.

Just like I wouldn't let a character keep his old hand when he upgraded to a cyberhand, and I wouldn't want to be concerned with the inevitable fate of this hand, I'm going to similiarly ignore the 'old guts' of a commlink when it is upgraded.

I believe it's important to be consistent.

And by the way, isn't it more expensive to buy a cheap commlink and upgrade it? I thought I noticed that some of those commlinks and operating systems, especially the upper ones, seem to give you a discount as a package deal... but if you plan to eventually upgrade it, yeah, buy a cheap one and put up with its lower stats for awhile until you upgrade. If its worth it to you to save a few nuyen.

[Fortune]

I disagree with most of what you just posted. I would indeed reimburse my PCs for most cyber they trade in in the course of upgrades, as long as it is salvageable.

[cetiah]

[Jaid]

[ornot]

I have to say it's fairly moot in my opinion. Why go to the extra hassle of accounting all this junk? It would not be at all hard to get a case for a comlink, and it can look like whatever you want it too.

Again for 'ware. If they're upgrading in the game, working out how much money they owed back for their old 'ware is a lot more effort than I can be bothered to put in. They don't exactly have surgery costs, or recovery times and costs. What portion of the cost of the 'ware in the RAW goes towards that? Or do you charge the PC extra to cover those costs?

[Konsaki]

The way I rule it:

Cyberware - You lose the old cyberware as part of the surgery costs
Bioware - You pay 150% of the difference between the ranks if you are upgrading. (Example - Synaptic boosters from rank 2 to 3 would cost 120,000 [80,000*1.5]instead of 240,000 because you already had the prior ranks performed already and they are just building ontop of them.)

[Fortune]

[Jaid]

indeed. just offering them an arbitrary amount as seems appropriate to the situation should be enough, i would think.

[Glyph]

Remember, though, that not all cyberware is something you can remove from one person and install on another person. Things like wired reflexes are done by nanites secreting compounds and suchlike - you can't pull them out with a pair of pliers and staple them into someone else. I could see it for things like cybereyes, cyberlimbs, and other outright replacements.

Also keep in mind that for some 'ware, the raw materials reclaimed could be offset by the extra time and trouble of having to remove the old stuff first, as opposed to simply putting the new stuff in.

[Fortune]

[jervinator]

Time to loot the corpses....

[sunnyside]

Back on the subject of the rigger I'd say it depends a lot on the skill of the rigger NPC, exactly how risky it is for them, and more importantly what vehicle is involved. In shadowrun there is a fairly developed community of T-bird cross boarder smugglers. That wouldn't be cheap. A guy in van on the other hand.

I'd say if you made up the rigger as a PC character with a vehicle purchased with BP they'd want a share of the profits equal to whatever slice a PC gets, and then discount the price by however much the rigger shouldn't have to get into combat.

Of course the rigger will try to get the runners to agree to pay for damages and expensive weapons fired (missles arne't cheap!).

Also remeber the rigger is an NPC with a brain he isn't going to kamikazi he's vehicle trying to save the runners like as not.

[Bashfull]

Right, next n00bi3 question.

My hacker is in a firefight. He's not the best gunfighter, but decides his best course of action is to switch off someone else's cyberware, or readjust their smartlink, or ejct the clip from his pistol. In game mechanic terms, how would he do this? Is it hacking or electronic warfare?