LA campaign, who has some experience and tipps? Options

[Makki]

I might start a new regular group and I'm strongl drawn to the City of Angels in Corporate Enclaves.
I wonder whether you have some tipps for us as GMs and players.

a few specific questions:
Should we make Pito rating be purchasble with BP?
Is the Fame positive quality recommended/mandatory/replacing question1?
There's a lot of SURGE down there. I guess being a freak wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing there? Thinking of being recognizable and interesting...

[Seriously Mike]

Should we make Pito rating be purchasble with BP?
Is the Fame positive quality recommended/mandatory/replacing question1?

As a separate quality, I don't think so. However, it may be justified by a high enough rating contact or Fame (if you have the Fame advantage, you were most probably invited to Pito already). Just remember, Pito is as much of an advantage as it is a royal pain in the ass. Here's some thoughts on the topic.

There's a lot of SURGE down there. I guess being a freak wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing there? Thinking of being recognizable and interesting...

Not sure. I'm not too big on SURGE, and I certainly haven't read a lot about it.

[Emperor Tippy]

The first question that you need to answer when thinking about starting a Shadowrun game is what kind of game do you want to play.

Do you want a street level game where the players rarely need to burn guns, SINs, cars, and drones; the main opposition and employment comes from street gangs and organized crime, and the law is non existent?

Do you want to run a game where the players are a prime runner team that won't get out of bed for less than a 100K retainer, even the most basic run burns 50K worth of gear, everyone is professional, Z-Zones are acceptable targets, and the main opposition is mega corps and other powerful, legitimate, entities?

Both are fully acceptable SR games but both have very different feels and operate very differently in all ways but mechanics.

For example, the Street team (in LA) is likely to go all in with the reality TV running idea while the Prime Runner team is likely to go far out of their way to absolutely ensure that not even a trace of their existence hits the air waves and most of their business is from clients who want actual shadow runners and not jumped up action trid stars.

Once you have decided that question you can really get to work on the specifics.

[Makki]

well, Emperor Tippy, if it were the latter, I probably wouldn't play an LA campaign. There are better settings for professional trench coats.

I probably want some technomancer prodigy as an NPC team member, who can live-edit my camera feeds...and the Erased quality.