Payment for my first run Options

[Grayson7]

Hello, tonight I am starting the first session of my shadowrun game. Basically, this run is going to be fairly simple because I am really more interested in me and the players getting used to the mechanics and the setting than anything else. The runners are expected to intercept a briefcase exchange between two parties. The opposition is not going to be all that tough. I am stuck on what to pay them, namely because there are three of them. I am using the 3rd edition Shadowrun Companion as a pricing guide (even though campaign is 4th edition). It list a base price (bottom line) for the job and in the text it mentions that the price does not take into consideration the number of runners. My question is, how much extra do you add per person on the team? Do you add a percentage of the base cost per person or do you just give each person the full amount?

[ArkonC]

Talking as a GM:
Set a budget for your Johnson and decide how much he'd pay for getting the run done. Don't adapt the pay to the number of runners or how good they are, they get payed for the work, not for being too good for it, or for showing up with more people. Without more info about the run, I'd estimate it around 10 to 15K... Probably closer to 10K unless they do good on the negotiating...
Also remember money isn't the only reward, doing a good job for a Johnson gives you more and better jobs and a happy contact, and also, anything worthwile your NPCs use is now on the PC side of things and can earn a nice extra amount...

Don't pay too much, keep them wanting more...

[Grayson7]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. That sounds like good advice. This game just has so much to keep up with that it is almost overwhelming, lol.

[Crusher Bob]

It's been so long since I've originally wrote this that I don't even remember the original thread:

The math for stealing Americars (or whatever) looks like this:

There are 4 runners in our all singing, all dancing, car theft ring.
Assume that each stolen car is worth 10K Y.
The characters are able to sell it for 40% value (due to having a long standing connection with the fence, or whatever, I mostly picked this number tomake the math easy).

This means that each stolen car nets each of the team members 1000 Y.

The Atlanta, GA crime statistics say that there were 5,756 motor vehicle thefts in 2004.

Assuming the same number of motor vehicle thefts in 207X and that the team contributes around 1% of this figure, then they would steal around 5 (some rounding here) cars every month, meaning that each team member would get 5K Y a month. For a team of 4 shadowrunners, stealing 5 'basic' cars every month is about as risky as a trip to the local 7-11.

So, any run which would pay out less than 1K Y per runner and carries any risk at all is not worth your time.

Next, we'll cover stealing a 'almost new' sports car:
Assume that the sports car is worth 80K, the team can sell it to the fence at only 25% (hey, sports car parts are harder to move than econo-box parts). This nets each team member 5K Y. For a team of 4 runners, stealing a sports car is still not that risky. So, a run that carries only minor risks (will not involved any shooting, but will involve the acutal commision of crimes) had better pay you at least 5K Y.

For most 'exciting runs' where you might have to commit capital crimes, the price had better go up, up, up.

This means that short milk runs, like 'follow this guy around for a few days' should pay out an absolute minimum of 1000Y after projected expenses.

Medium length runs involving a minimal amount of danger (implant listening devices into this guys automobile + low security office) should pay a min of 5000Y after expenses

A typical run involving breaking into a highly secure location and making off with something will start at 10K and go up from there depending on the things like the actual security, the special skills needed by the runner team, the timetable involved, etc.

For a lot of book runs that start something like: "we need you to break into a high secured building guarded by magic/spirits, 10+ armed guards, etc and you go in tonight" the payment had better be 50K+ up front.

Another rule of thumb is the the characters should get roughly 5K Y after expenses for every two points of karma they end up getting. So if its supposed to be a single nights run worth 4 karma, then the pay per runner after expenses should be around 10K. This ratio of karma to Y keeps some semblance of balance between cyber guys and mages.

In general, the Johnson is paying for the job, not for the crew. He doesn't care how big or small your crew is, just wheter you can do the job or not; so all the prices discussed in the game should generally be for the job, even if you price the run on a per runner basis when doing GM prep.

Also note that the Johnson wants to to succeed at the job, so expect him to tell you everything he knows about the job. If he doesn't know (or divulge) anything, that makes the price go up, after all.