Musical Instruments, where do you find them? Options

[Rubic]

As the description, are there any supplements that contain information on prices and availability of musical instruments? I know low-end instruments in real life can be as low as $100, and high-end instruments can be in the thousands (tens of thousands for the creme de la creme). But how would this translate to Shadowrun? Would synths and keyboards be less expensive and more available than a wooden guitar or grand piano? How much would someone pay for a hand-crafted violin from Cremona, Italy? How much would such things affect your performance when playing? How much would it be worth to somebody to deprive their opponent of such a status symbol?

[CanRay]

Pawn Shops and Music Stores might be a good place to start looking...

[_Pax._]

The old "ShadowBeat" splatbook delved into music in the Sixth World. That was a 1E or 2E book, though ...

[AStarshipforAnts]

I've been wondering the same thing, but for live poultry. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Most instruments have crappier, synthetic models that would be widely available. Consider electric violins. Amazon runs them between $150 to about $500. I don't really see plastic and electronics getting more expensive in the sixth world. If I were you, I'd start around that price range and go up.

[Rubic]

We're also absent a conversion for prices from our currency to SR4's. Would $100 = 100 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) , or 1000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) ? It's a bit vague what the sliding scale would be; cheap electronics I could see staying around 1-200 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) ; the real difference would be how much you'd pay for that sort of boost to your skill. Artisan (music) would be situational unless you make it a major point of the character, but a +6 gear bonus would cost more than an R6 Medkit. Top of the line instruments (R6+) would cost more than a new vehicle, and partly be a status symbol. As I don't have access to SR1 or SR2 (and don't know when or if I could even GET access), I can't reference those old costs for comparison.

However, comma, dot dot dot

Considering we have people interested in non-standard gear (for whatever reason), and a wealth of information (if not outright paydata), should we start an informal Dumpshock: Nonstandard Gear thread/supplement?

For poultry, that's egg-laying and/or butcher-ready stock, drones for maintenance/feeding, offset costs from byproducts (fertilizer, chitterlings, down, and feathers), price per pound of butchered meat (varying between sections of the chicken, perhaps go with the cost of a butchered whole-chicken), less the cost of a butcher, ...

[CanRay]

I've been wondering the same thing, but for live poultry. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

My group had to steal a cow once... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[AStarshipforAnts]

We're also absent a conversion for prices from our currency to SR4's. Would $100 = 100 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) , or 1000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) ? It's a bit vague what the sliding scale would be; cheap electronics I could see staying around 1-200 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) ; the real difference would be how much you'd pay for that sort of boost to your skill. Artisan (music) would be situational unless you make it a major point of the character, but a +6 gear bonus would cost more than an R6 Medkit. Top of the line instruments (R6+) would cost more than a new vehicle, and partly be a status symbol. As I don't have access to SR1 or SR2 (and don't know when or if I could even GET access), I can't reference those old costs for comparison.

However, comma, dot dot dot

Considering we have people interested in non-standard gear (for whatever reason), and a wealth of information (if not outright paydata), should we start an informal Dumpshock: Nonstandard Gear thread/supplement?

For poultry, that's egg-laying and/or butcher-ready stock, drones for maintenance/feeding, offset costs from byproducts (fertilizer, chitterlings, down, and feathers), price per pound of butchered meat (varying between sections of the chicken, perhaps go with the cost of a butchered whole-chicken), less the cost of a butcher, ...

Whoa woah there sir. Who said the drone would be taking care of the birds? What do you think my shadowrunners do in their downtime on the commune?


Also, a showbird will cost more than a meat or egg bird. You can buy chicks for as low as $3 these days that are of good egg-laying or meat stock. Being generous, I'd say it costs $50 a month to maintain a chicken or two. The main investment is the coop. That'll range from free (made from found objects) to in the thousands for a high-end Home Owners Association Approved Chicken Mansion. Or we could just say the chicken coop follow the general trend of the 'runner's lifestyle.

I haven't pondered this for a long time at alllll. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Shaidar]

Layn' Down the Blast from the Past... SR2 Style.

MEDIA EQUIPMENT TABLE
Portacams and Cybercams
Fuchi VX2200 Portacam 1,000¥
Fuchi VX2200C Cybercam 1,300¥
Sony HB500 Portacam 2,200¥
Sony CB5000 Cybercam 2,700¥
AZT Micro20 Microportacam 2,500¥
AZT Micro25 Microcybercam 3,200¥
Bionome Tridlink Adapter 700¥

Portacam Bases
Kodak GAC-25 Shoulder Mount 200¥
Cinema Products Steadicam™
Shoulder 1,800¥
Chest 1,800¥
Head 1,800¥
AZT MicroBO StaticBrace
(for the Micro20 Portacam Series)
Wrist 2,200¥
Chest 2,200¥

Camgoggles
Fuchi I-C-U Autocam Controller 400¥
Zeemandt Luxor Monocular 700¥
Sekrit Sistemz No-Sho Camtroller 1,000¥

Cyberoptics
Eyecrafters Opticam Package 20,000¥ (Essence 5)
Dr. Spott Smartcam Implant 10,000¥ (Essence 2)

Smartcam
Smartcam Link 2,500¥ (Essence 5)
Smartcam Adapter 1,500¥

Transmitter Links
Unsecured Transmitter Links
Short-haul 4,000¥
Long-haul 6,000¥
Uplink 1,000¥
Secured Transmitter Links
Short-haul 6,000¥
Long-haul 9,000¥
Uplink 1,500¥

Tridisynths and Mixers
Vertex Netsynth Tridmixer 8,000¥
Fuchi Holo-Edit 7200 10,000¥
Sony TFX-IOOOO Imaging Generator 13,000¥

Pirate Equipment
Electromagnetic Transmitters (Radio/TV/3DV)
Non-mobile 5,500¥
Mobile 7,500¥
+ECM Rating (1 to 6) +2,500¥/rating point
Transmission Sampler 1,000¥
Satellite Injection Uplink Station 1,000¥
+ECM Rating (1 to 6) +3,000¥/rating point
Cable Signal Formatter 2,000¥
+ECM Rating (1 to 6) + l,500¥/rating point

SOUND EQUIPMENT TABLE

BASIC INSTRUMENT PRICES*
Quality Common Rare
Cheap 50¥ 250¥
Average 500¥ 2,500¥
Fine 5,000¥ 25,000¥
*Actual price = Basic Price x Complexity. Electric instruments and synthesizer controllers reduce Complexity by 1.

COMPLEXITY TABLE
Rating Typical Example
1 Bamboo flute, penny whistle, simple drum, triangle, cymbals, gongs
2 Tambourine, western drums, chimes
3 Typical strings, guitars, brasses, woodwinds, Celtic harp
4 Xylophones and vibraphones, pianos and other keyboards, concert harp
5 Pipe organs, calliopes

Synthesizers
Cheap 150¥ + 25¥ per voice. Max voices = 8.
Average 500¥ + 100¥ per voice. Max voices = 16.
Fine 5,000¥ + 500¥ per voice. Max voices = 32.

Autosynths
Skill 1-3 1,000¥ per skill point
Skill 4-5 3,000¥ per skill point
Skill 6-8 5,000¥ per skill point
Skill 9-10 10,000¥ per skill point
Synthllnk Equipment
Synthlink Interface 2,500¥ (Essence Cost: .5)
Synthlink Controller
Cheap 1,000¥
Average 10,000¥
Fine 50,000¥

SOUND SYSTEM COMPONENTS
Acoustic Modulators
Small 8,000¥
Club 15,000¥
Hall 35,000¥

Amplifiers
Small 100¥
Club 400¥
Hall 1,200¥
Stadium 5,000¥
Superstadium 12,000¥

Direct Digital Output
Built-in DDO +500¥ to base price
DDO Adapter +700¥ to base price

Microphones
Body Mike 100¥
Hand Mike 100¥
Mike Stand 50¥
Mike Boom 75¥

Mixers
Basic unit (4 input and 1 digital-analog output channels) 1,000¥
Per additional input channel +200V
Per additional output channel +500¥
Built-in Polycorder +300¥

Multitrack Samplers
4-track Sampler 1,200¥
8-track Sampler 3,200¥
16-track Sampler 8,000¥
24- track Sampler 14,400¥
32-track Sampler 22,400¥
Manual Control Only Base Price
Direct Neural Interface Control Only Base Price x 2
Combined Manual/DNI Control Base Price x 2.5

Polycorders
Microcorder (3 x 3 x 1 cm) 1,000¥
Minicorder (5 x 3 x 1 cm) 700¥
Pocket sized ( 1 0 x 5 x 3 cm) 200¥
Hand-held (20 x 8 x 4 cm) 100¥
Rack-mount Component 1,500¥
Sprawl Blaster (built-in small speakers) 200¥
Sprawl Fuser (built-in club speakers) 1,200¥
MiniCD Transport Only Base Price/2
ASIST Direct Neural Playback Base Price x 3

Speakers
Small 100¥
Club 1,000¥
Hall 5,000¥
Stadium 12,000¥
Superstadium 25,000¥

I know it is more than you asked about, but the old edition books have some real gold in them.

[SpellBinder]

Yes, the old books do have a fair amount of useful info still.

Taking a page from the old Denver - The City Of Shadows book, IIRC there was a multiple currency conversion chart that had the UCAS dollar at 5:1 against the nuyen. That is UCAS$5 to 1¥.

[AStarshipforAnts]

Grown Chickens: 25¥
Chicks: 4¥
Hatching Eggs (straight run): 2¥
Egg hatching kit: 200¥
Chick Brooder: 200¥
Chicken coop: Free-2000¥
Chicken Feed and water: 50¥/month (free if they are free-range)


Now, finding a place to get chickens alive on the other hand...That'll cost you.

I'm smelling a raid on a factory farm.

[Wakshaani]

As a general rule, you can 1-1 today's prices in $ to 'tomrrow' prices in Nuyen. If there's some gear that you really want to have but doesn't pop up anywhere (Like a Zippo), you can go general and feel pretty safe.

Shadowbeat (Which is now up on DriveThruRPG and other awesome PDF--selling sites!) is chock full of this kind of thing, which is why it remains a beloved book for us old farts.

[O'Ryan]

As a general rule, you can 1-1 today's prices in $ to 'tomrrow' prices in Nuyen. If there's some gear that you really want to have but doesn't pop up anywhere (Like a Zippo), you can go general and feel pretty safe.

It's a 4:1 conversion between USD (both UCAS and CAS, if I remember right!) to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) , and 1.8 GBP to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) .

Rules'd!

...though this does mean a shitty apartment will run you 8,000 UCASD a month, which seems excessive.

[_Pax._]

...though this does mean a shitty apartment will run you 8,000 UCASD a month, which seems excessive.

That's not just the apartment though. That's the whole lifestyle - apartment, utilities, groceries, clothes, hygiene supplies, sub-docwagon health insurance, Trid and Matrix subscriptions, etc.

That, and inflation. Seriously, I remember $0.25 candy bars and $0.10 payphones.

[EKBT81]

That, and inflation. Seriously, I remember $0.25 candy bars and $0.10 payphones.

Yes, definitely inflation. In the SR1-3 books the buying power of one Nuyen seems to be about equal to the buying power of one USD ca. 1990, as far as I can tell.

I'd just use current-day prices for convenience, too.

[Wakshaani]

It's a 4:1 conversion between USD (both UCAS and CAS, if I remember right!) to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) , and 1.8 GBP to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) .

Rules'd!

...though this does mean a shitty apartment will run you 8,000 UCASD a month, which seems excessive.

That's the in-game conversion rate for CAS dollars to Nuyen.

The out-of-game conversion is 1:1 to make life easy for GMs who need prices off the top of their head.

"Burger's a dollar, so, Soyburgers are a nuyen. A Zippo's $10? So, a Shadowrun Zippo is 10 Nuyen." Etc etc etc.

Two different things. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Somewhere around here, I put together an in-game conversion chart, so you can pay people in "Ares Dollars" and know how much it would be in Nuyen. I should organize these thing sbetter. :/

[SpellBinder]

That, and inflation. Seriously, I remember $0.25 candy bars and $0.10 payphones.

You too? Dang, glad I ain't the only one around here.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

You too? Dang, glad I ain't the only one around here.

Ahhh, but can you remember the USD $0.20 Hamburger, with all the fixin's? I can , and I really miss those days. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)
Of course, I was not making much more than 6k/Year in income, either.

[SpellBinder]

Heh, I ain't that old.

[MJBurrage]

Currency

Ever since first edition, a Shadowrun Nuyen has had approximately the same purchasing power as a real world US dollar.

So, as noted by others, if you know a real price in today's dollars, that is close enough to the Sixth World price in Nuyen.

Within the world of Shadowrun, balkinization and the collapse of American hegemony, heavily devalued the value of a dollar, so a US dollar of today is not the UCAS or CAS dollar of 60 years from now.

$1 (USA) ~ 1 Nuyen ~ 1 Euro ~ $3 (CAS) ~ $4 (UCAS)

See Nuyen at the Shadowrun Wiki for more detail.

[Rubic]

Currency

Ever since first edition, a Shadowrun Nuyen has had approximately the same purchasing power as a real world US dollar.

So, as noted by others, if you know a real price in today's dollars, that is close enough to the Sixth World price in Nuyen.

Within the world of Shadowrun, balkinization and the collapse of American hegemony, heavily devalued the value of a dollar, so a US dollar of today is not the UCAS or CAS dollar of 60 years from now.

$1 (USA) ~ 1 Nuyen ~ 1 Euro ~ $3 (CAS) ~ $4 (UCAS)

See Nuyen at the Shadowrun Wiki for more detail.

That actually throws the situation into a new perspective for me. Something similar happened in Germany immediately following WWI, with the heavy and unfair penalties levied against their nation. The economic collapse resulted in currency that wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, and the only valued currencies were foreign. Nuyen is technically a foreign currency, meaning UCAS currency (and the UCAS itself in general) probably isn't holding the nation's confidence. Seattle, being so isolated, is probably more invested in the cohesion of their nation than most everybody else in it. With paranoia and the opiate of corporate protection acting as the only forces bolstering their little bubble against the outside threats, it'd just take a little extra pressure, either from without or within, to pop it.

I'll have to work this angle a bit more the next time I GM.

[_Pax._]

That actually throws the situation into a new perspective for me. Something similar happened in Germany immediately following WWI, with the heavy and unfair penalties levied against their nation. The economic collapse resulted in currency that wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, and the only valued currencies were foreign.

..... in fact, I have a paper banknote, from Austria, with a face value of 500,000 marks. Reich marks, unfortunately, so it's LITERALLY not worth the paper it's printed on (in the sense of being spendable). But it's really cool, anyway: I have a bill with a face value of HALF A MILLION. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Rubic]

..... in fact, I have a paper banknote, from Austria, with a face value of 500,000 marks. Reich marks, unfortunately, so it's LITERALLY not worth the paper it's printed on (in the sense of being spendable). But it's really cool, anyway: I have a bill with a face value of HALF A MILLION. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

The historic value of that piece of paper will be much more than the face value of it once scarcity starts to take effect...
...
...
so... Pax... need some deniable assets? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)