How much do I pay the players? Options

[ilikesanta]

I'm a new GM and I'm planing my first campaign. I was wondering how much cash runners usually get paid per job? (depends on the job) Ok fine, here's what I'm asking them to do: They are going to be playing decoy, robbing a company warehouse, while a 2nd Runner Crew (NPCs) pull the real heist.

So how much should I pay my players?

[Muspellsheimr]

Estimate an overall net income of 2,500:nuyen: per Karma earned, post-expenses. This amount is designed to keep the Awakened & Mundane advancing at approximately the same speed.

This does not need to be exact every run, but should average out over a few runs to about the same level. Also keep in mind that 'loot' is part of their income, not just payment from the Johnson. Also keep in mind that this is not The Game That Shall Not Be Named, & it is often considered bad form & unprofessional to loot during a run. If the become known for it, not only will they get worse paying jobs, if they get jobs at all, but the corporations that would normally be pissed at their employers are now also pissed at them.

[kzt]

Also keep in mind that this is not The Game That Shall Not Be Named, & it is often considered bad form & unprofessional to loot during a run. If the become known for it, not only will they get worse paying jobs, if they get jobs at all, but the corporations that would normally be pissed at their employers are now also pissed at them.

But runners should not stupid and ignore things that are begging for a new home. Within limits... Not that I'd know about this but I'm told that stealing the entire mainframe is functionally the same as destroying it, however it does tend to result in your Fixer getting annoyed. But having a mainframe is really kind of cool....

[ilikesanta]

Thanks for the reply, I guess 2,500:nuyen per karma makes sense.

[Cardul]

Well, first: I would not pay the PLAYERS anything...their characters, on the other hand.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

That said, I tend to look at things a bit more flexibly..small runs get 500 Nuyen per PC, high end get more. I base it off the difficulty and expected opposition, adjusted by the personality of the Johnson, and whether or not the johnson is actually planning on paying them, or is planning on killing them at the meet....

[Kagetenshi]

$6/hr. if you provide decent snacks.

~J

[Dragonscript]

Most of my runners do two/three jobs a month so i pay them enough in the first two jobs to cover their living expenses and the third job pays enough so they can buy a new toy or save up for a new big toy.

[HappyDaze]

Also keep in mind that this is not The Game That Shall Not Be Named, & it is often considered bad form & unprofessional to loot during a run.

Small quantities of looting - a couple of firearms or a commlink - are easy enough to deal with. They have their own problems associated - namely getting rid of loot that may serve to link you to the crime - and you probably won't get that much for them anyways. Just keep the immersion level up and players will self-regulate on the kind of looting they attempt.

[Kagetenshi]

Oh god, how did I miss that? No, not looting shows that your first priority isn't money, and if your first priority isn't money then it must be something else, and no one knows what that something else is. That makes you an unknown, and if you're an unknown you're a threat, and threats are better killed off than employed.

The corollary to this is that any Johnson with basic intelligence who gives a job that requires no looting ("no one knows you were there" or similar) had best be paying, both up-front and after the fact, enough to make it worthwhile even after factoring in the risk of never getting the final payment.

~J

[Kanada Ten]

Looting makes it that much easier to trace a job back to the runners, and worse, the runner's contacts. Unless you really didn't piss anyone off (or the point is looting or to obscure the mission) then looting really is a foolish way to get your asses traced from front and back ends. Not to mention that runners shouldn't have time to loot in a lot of cases... However, the easiest way to stop looting is to pay Real World prices for loot. Shit all.

What you pay the runners per run depends on how fast you want them to advance.