Lifestyle and your game., How much of a role does it play. Options

[Machiavelli]

As we started playing a squatter lifestyle seemed to be fun, but nowadays a low lifestyle is the absolute minimum request. If you loot or buy, you can relatively quick gather expensive and for your everydays work required gear. So whatever lifestyle you buy, a lockable room is an absolute must. My current char. is homeless because his home was blown away, but the intention is defintely a medium home with higher-rated amenities. Everything below this makes more trouble than it grants benefits.

[Mardrax]

I've had a character who made his home and workshop out of his trusty rigger vanbulance. It had a bound Machine Sprite more or less permanently living in it, which tended to make rather gruesome offhanded comments about what went on 'in the back.' Especially when group members would ride in said back, which was often.
Ironically, his ambulance was the only place any of the crew had access to high ammenities, which was the main reason our troll vehicle wrecker never pulled a prank like tearing it up. "What? And screw up the only place I can get real coffee? That delivers too?"
It probably would have made a popular off-run crashpad if it weren't for his clientele being mostly Yaks.

Of course, it made for a really helpful tool on runs. A little ruthenium goes a long way towards diguising an ambulance, while an ambulance itself is quite capable of getting into places itself. Having an Orderly on call to pick up and stabilise people is great, while having access to a medical Shop makes those First Aid checks a bit less iffy. Plus, all of those storage compartments and miscellaneous medical gear can hide all sorts of goodies.
It made for a terrible resource-sink though, so it should have.

[JanessaVR]

I personally think the whole "born on the streets, living in the shadows thing" - cue soundtrack "You were born in the city, concrete under your feet..." - has become a ridiculously overdone cliché in Shadowrun. I always go with High Lifestyle as I tend to prefer living a double-life as a SINner. Let any teammates of mine who are foolish enough to want to live in the ghetto or the barrens do so. Not for me, thanks.

[HunterHerne]

I personally think the whole "born on the streets, living in the shadows thing" - cue soundtrack "You were born in the city, concrete under your feet..." - has become a ridiculously overdone cliché in Shadowrun. I always go with High Lifestyle as I tend to prefer living a double-life as a SINner. Let any teammates of mine who are foolish enough to want to live in the ghetto or the barrens do so. Not for me, thanks.

To each their own. My characters, when I'm not GM, are usually middle lifestyle, but I've played all the lower end styles. High and luxury lifestyles just don't appeal to me.

[Paul]

I think it depends on the campaign. In some of higher end games, not necessarily from a build point perspective, the players have assumed the roles of everyone from rich kids looking to explore some excitement, to a corporate sponsored team of paramilitaries who had a lifestyle James Bond would be jealous of.

To me it's a tool. Right tool for the right job, or in this case story. There is no wrong way-as long as you're having fun. I just wanted to see where my game benchmarks, and as usual I see I fight into the spectrum at large, on what I see as the favorable end. Lifestyle plays an important part of our game, but it's not a case of the tail wagging the dog.

[Traul]

It's not only a tool, it's also a goal. Make 10 million Nuyen and retire in luxury. If you don't like the bling, 1 million is enough.

[Snow_Fox]

We are all very much into role playing and having well developed characters so it is a big paret of our games keeping things straight. I remember once playing a game with someone who had a very different lifestyle and our characters cordially disliked each other and went out of their way to annoy the others. It was being played in a club and some of the other people thought they were going to view a cat fight, like they started to move between us, soemthnig that amused the hell out of both of us because we knew we were just playing.

[Saint Hallow]

Depends on the characters, I would think. If you ahve a character with a High/Luxury lifestyle a majority of the time, then why are they shadowrunning? To keep up payments or for thrills?

My character's goal is get enough to earn a permanent High/Luxury lifestyle. Retire & live the good life.

For other folks, it's different.

[Christian Lafay]

One of character is currently rocking a Luxury Lifestyle (Advanced Rules smacked around with a Trust Fund) with his wife (perfect roommate) and still runs the shadows. He tends to fall somewhere between the villain from Ocean's 12 who is just rich and bored and the sniper from RED who just couldn't give up the life. This character's lifestyle is mostly just fluff as far as the story is concerned.

But then there is the other character who spends all of his money on attempting to claim Glow City, block by radioactive block. Again using the Advanced Rules. This character, however, has a lifestyle that both can and has added interesting missions and hooks.

[Saint Hallow]

So, as some folks pointed out, their character's lifestyle is either a goal for them (character development/plot) or something they just have & their goals are something else entirely.