#GMing - Lifestyles, How do you handle ongoing costs? Options

[Tricen Morrowsig...]

There are many different aspects of Shadow Run that allows for GM interpretation. Frankly, that's part of the awesomeness of the game. However, I'm curious to see how everyone else handles this particular aspect of our favorite RPG.

~Lifestyles~ Everyone has expenses that need to be handled with some of the nuyen that they get from runs. That cost dramaticaly affects how much cash you grant your runners. The problem is there is no standard time frame as to when runs occur (monthly, weekly, etc.) nor should it. How do you all handle this? Do you stop everyone at the beginning of the game every 2/3 games and say "pay up your lifestyles now" or do you have them pay at the end of every run? Do you have any tricks or tips for the rest of us? Discuss!!!

[Jhaiisiin]

Our GM keeps track of precisely how much time elapses, be it hours, days, weeks or months. As such, we always know when we need to pay up our costs. Without someone, GM or player, keeping tabs on the in game timeline, then it becomes completely arbitrary when you pay for stuff. I've been in groups that have completely forgotten it as well, so they had whatever lifestyle they wanted for free.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Our GM keeps track of precisely how much time elapses, be it hours, days, weeks or months. As such, we always know when we need to pay up our costs. Without someone, GM or player, keeping tabs on the in game timeline, then it becomes completely arbitrary when you pay for stuff. I've been in groups that have completely forgotten it as well, so they had whatever lifestyle they wanted for free.

Ditto... Same with Us...

*Damn... I was Ninja'd*

[Tricen Morrowsig...]

Interesting. That brings up a different issue that I really need to explore. The nature of elapsed time in SR. Keeping track of the hours in game seems justified and keeping up with the days between runs seems doable as well. Here's something I thought about trying out with my players, but have never got around to it.

At the end of each game, ask the players what they want to do with downtime. After that, tell the players how many days it takes to get their next run.

This would work great unless a player decides he wants to lay low or is busy when you want to start the next run. That leaves him with skipping the game (not an option unless he really isn't showing up that day), being forced to join the run (not optimal), or the GM delaying the run till that character is done with the action in question. Thoughts on this?

[Jhaiisiin]

We actually see it done in reverse. Declare how much time is going to elapse before the next run, then ask what they want to do in the interim. It's more metagamey and less realistic, sure, but allows us a little more control over our character's developments so that we don't waste time starting a project we can't stop once it starts.

[Tiger Eyes]

Our GM printed off a 2071 calendar on one page, and crosses off the days as they pass. So every game we start with "Today is Tuesday, May 2nd" or whatever. Keeps us grounded in the setting a bit, too -- when Friday comes around, we're like "Party!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) On the first of the month our lifestyles (and monthly bribes) are due. My GM hands out karma for the previous session at the beginning of the next; that's when he generally says "We're going to let 8 days pass, does anyone want to spend karma/do something?"

And yes, there have been a few times where it gets to be the 25th and we're calling our fixer, looking for any work, because we're short for bribes/rent. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[StealthSigma]

Our GM keeps track of precisely how much time elapses, be it hours, days, weeks or months. As such, we always know when we need to pay up our costs. Without someone, GM or player, keeping tabs on the in game timeline, then it becomes completely arbitrary when you pay for stuff. I've been in groups that have completely forgotten it as well, so they had whatever lifestyle they wanted for free.

I've been trying to keep track of the time that passes and I find that without the GM just saying specifically what day, the passage of time between events is exceedingly difficult to keep track of.

For example, all I know is that the last night we played it was a Thursday in game. I know we're in October and the year is 2073, but I have no idea if it was the 5th, 12th, 19th or 26th. Though that's probably better than a lot of other games.

The reason that I care is because I've been trying to make journal entries that properly reflect when they would be made. It provides two valuable things to me. The first is that I write the entries from my character's perspective, it helps me keep how my character thinks and acts in line. The second is that it lets me reference past events without requiring me to actually remember it.

[Jhaiisiin]

I should have mentioned this earlier, and StealthSigma's post reminded me of it. Our GM also makes regular posts recapping runs and/or creating news events. We rebooted our game relatively recently and so he's running us from before bug city timeline on through the current setting. There were a lot of interesting happenings that we wanted to be a part of but never had the chance in the past, so we're kinda going over it again.

So as news happens in the 6th world, he posts about it. As our runs happen, he posts about it. So it not only keeps us aware of exactly when we are, but also when in relation to the SR timeline we are, which is just that much nicer.

[Tricen]

A lot of wonderful information. (forgive the username change, finally figured out my old password). I believe the use of an accurate 2073 calendar would be just the ticket. In fact a quick google search turns up www.calendarhome.com which has a great one here: http://www.calendarhome.com/tyc/. While I am currently involved in a game with a revolving GM every game, I believe putting off Karma rewards till the next game would prove logisticly difficult. Wonderful information!

[Adam]

Quick nerd tip for those on a Mac [those of you running Linux probably already know this (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ] -- open up Terminal [It's in /Applications/Utilities/ but you can just launch it from Spotlight] and type "cal 2072 >> ~/desktop/2072.txt" without the quotes. You get a text file called "2072.txt" on your desktop with a drop-dead simple calendar in it for the year 2072:

CODE

                             2072

      January               February               March
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa  Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa  Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                1  2      1  2  3  4  5  6         1  2  3  4  5
3  4  5  6  7  8  9   7  8  9 10 11 12 13   6  7  8  9 10 11 12
10 11 12 13 14 15 16  14 15 16 17 18 19 20  13 14 15 16 17 18 19
17 18 19 20 21 22 23  21 22 23 24 25 26 27  20 21 22 23 24 25 26
24 25 26 27 28 29 30  28 29                 27 28 29 30 31
31                                          
       April                  May                   June
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa  Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa  Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                1  2   1  2  3  4  5  6  7            1  2  3  4
3  4  5  6  7  8  9   8  9 10 11 12 13 14   5  6  7  8  9 10 11
10 11 12 13 14 15 16  15 16 17 18 19 20 21  12 13 14 15 16 17 18
17 18 19 20 21 22 23  22 23 24 25 26 27 28  19 20 21 22 23 24 25
24 25 26 27 28 29 30  29 30 31              26 27 28 29 30
                                            
        July                 August              September
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa  Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa  Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                1  2      1  2  3  4  5  6               1  2  3
3  4  5  6  7  8  9   7  8  9 10 11 12 13   4  5  6  7  8  9 10
10 11 12 13 14 15 16  14 15 16 17 18 19 20  11 12 13 14 15 16 17
17 18 19 20 21 22 23  21 22 23 24 25 26 27  18 19 20 21 22 23 24
24 25 26 27 28 29 30  28 29 30 31           25 26 27 28 29 30
31                                          
      October               November              December
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa  Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa  Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                   1         1  2  3  4  5               1  2  3
2  3  4  5  6  7  8   6  7  8  9 10 11 12   4  5  6  7  8  9 10
9 10 11 12 13 14 15  13 14 15 16 17 18 19  11 12 13 14 15 16 17
16 17 18 19 20 21 22  20 21 22 23 24 25 26  18 19 20 21 22 23 24
23 24 25 26 27 28 29  27 28 29 30           25 26 27 28 29 30 31
30 31

Obviously, you can substitute any other year!

[Jimson]

Before I started keeping a calendar for my group, after a few sessions, I would have the players pay their lifestyle costs. However, I recently created a 2071 calendar in Excel. This helps keep things more organized, and my players told me it provides more "realism" to the setting. So my advice is to create a calendar.

I also use it to keep track of when Runs happened, how much karma, and nuyen were given. I also keep track of any other important notes that might be time related. I currently have a runner who put out a request for a high rating power foci. I rolled the dice and have it tracked out 10 weeks, so I marked the calendar when it might be available.

Also, I typically either roll 3d6 or 4d6 to generate the days between runs.

[StealthSigma]

I built a VB app that features a 1x3 grid of calendar months starting at Oct 2073 (it's when we start game play). It's static, but I imagine that I could set it up to have a Month drop down and a year drop down to make it more dynamic...


http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3329/futcal.png for a SS of the interface. Very spartan, but effective.

[Traul]

Our GM doesn't want to bother, so we play in real-time year. We're having a game next sunday, and he will tell us it's summer in Seattle (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

[The Jake]

Our GM keeps track of precisely how much time elapses, be it hours, days, weeks or months. As such, we always know when we need to pay up our costs. Without someone, GM or player, keeping tabs on the in game timeline, then it becomes completely arbitrary when you pay for stuff. I've been in groups that have completely forgotten it as well, so they had whatever lifestyle they wanted for free.

Same. Our in game timeline is progressing rather slowly and they have minimal downtime regrettably at present, but this does aid the tracking.

- J.

[deek]

Funny, for my latest campaign I printed out a 2070 calendar and taped it to the inside of my notebook!

But yeah, I try to keep track of time for the players. With a calendar, I just cross out the day and at the end of each session, I just write down a note of the time and that's where we start the next session.

When the players want to do some training, I just note when they started and then every week, I have them roll and I mark down the successes. Now sometimes, they want a longer downtime, so I just make that happen.

As for lifestyle costs, I make them due the first of each month, although in my current campaign, lifestyle is part of their corporate salary, so they don't have to worry about any extra bookkeeping (and neither do I!).

[Cthulhudreams]

When I was gming, I'd push the date forward at 'plot pace' as well as 'keeping the karma/money balance right' pace.

So if I wanted to suck wealth out of the game, runs would happen with long intervals. If I wanted to add wealth to the game, runs would take place at short intervals.

[Rasumichin]

In one of my current campaigns we're jetsetting somewhere around Southeast Asia all the time anyway, with food and board being paid by whatever faction the group's currently working for and very little downtime between runs, so this is not much of an issue.
In earlier games, we usually just didn't bother with lifestyle costs, either.

However, i could easily imagine running a campaign where lenght of downtime is of crucial importance.
Depends on

-wether there are characters with any kind of crafting skills in the group (conjurers enchanting their own binding materials, hackers doing programming on their own, mechanics modifying weapons and vehicles on their own and so on).

-wether the runners get injured badly, get a lot of gear damaged and so on so that healing and repair times become an issue.

-wether the team causes so much trouble that they have to lie low after a run.

-wether the runners want to conduct a lot of runs in a short span of time.
This also raises the question if so many jobs are available, which may lead to an increase of offers for risky or badly paying runs.

-wether the campaign touches upon any overarching events.

-moreover, time of year may be relevant to determine sunrise and sunset (for summoners) and weather conditions (which may have an effect on how much armor can be worn without risking Fatigue).

Keeping track of elapsed time certainly adds bookkeeping to the game, but considering the complexity it can add as well, this may seem like a rather minor effort.
I'm definitely going to pay attention to this in the next campaign i'm running myself.

[Blade]

We're playing the daily life of the runners. So when the games aren't day to day, it's "do you have anything planned for the next week?"... Because of this, we keep an exact track of time.

[Warlordtheft]

Our GM printed off a 2071 calendar on one page, and crosses off the days as they pass. So every game we start with "Today is Tuesday, May 2nd" or whatever. Keeps us grounded in the setting a bit, too -- when Friday comes around, we're like "Party!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) On the first of the month our lifestyles (and monthly bribes) are due. My GM hands out karma for the previous session at the beginning of the next; that's when he generally says "We're going to let 8 days pass, does anyone want to spend karma/do something?"

And yes, there have been a few times where it gets to be the 25th and we're calling our fixer, looking for any work, because we're short for bribes/rent. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

My currrent PC has run for a year real time. The Group however has been running from November 2070 to May 2071. I give them the date and general weather. Also I have log of each adventure, so I can keep track of how much time a run took, how much time between runs, and ask the players what they are doing down-time (before the run via e-mail).
Alot of the PC's have prepaid lifestyles for the first 6-months or so, so they are running out of that.