The Player Who Would Be Shopkeep, Your advice... Options

[Gyro the Greek S...]

Hello, hello. In planning for my next upcoming Shadowrun game, one of my players has decided he wants to own a magic shop in addition to being a shadowrunner. Now, he doesn't actually want to tend the shop, merely own it. We are, by the by, using BeCKs for character generation.

The way I figured was, I would make him sink 600,000 nuyen into buying and setting up shop, and he would receive 5,000 nuyen a month (after expenses). Since he didn't take any of the employees as contacts (except for the manager), I figure he will have to deal with some internal theft and shennanery. He also used the lifestyle guidelines with buying his shop to get the highest level of security. I'm going to figure that the local magic users like him and help contribute to keeping the area safe.

I figured his shop would sell such things like telesma and what-have-you, and nothing funky like power-foci and the like....your thoughts?

[Solstice]

We did something like this in our campaign. The character had a shop dealing in curios and collectors items, antiques that sort of thing. Little did he know he had a foci 9 artifact on the shelf...man did the GM wreck havoc with that later. He also did a little firearm customization on the side. The downside to being a runner and owning a shop: many possibly incriminating records to be confiscated.

Sounds like you have the right idea. I can't remember exactly what he had to pay to open the shop but I think it was close or a little more than 600k.

[Backgammon]

Could be interesting to make it a variable revenue source (instead of a 5k flat income). You could make him roll some sort of Business Operation knowledge skill TN 6, modified negatively if he didn't put enough time into it. Hiring competent NPCs would substract from his profit, but free him up some.

[Gem the Troll]

Just one thing...
I'm all about people having ties to the "real world." Owning property and the like is usually good incentive to try being as covert as possible. People who are "legit" are more careful about letting everyone know when they're doing a job. So just that makes the shop worth it for everyone.

[Gyro the Greek S...]

I like Backgammon's idea....I'll talk to the player about it.

Thanks guys!

[GrinderTheTroll]

Reminds me of the old cable-TV series: "Friday the 13th" where they owned a curio shop and hunted rare artifacts and such. If nothing else, it's got potential for some neat roleplaying, storylines and hooks.

[hyzmarca]

Not just rare objects, cursed objects that they themselves unwittingly sold to the unsuspecting public, making every resulting death their responsibility and forcing them to deal with some pretty nasty demonic opposition on occasion. It is a good set-up for a magic-heavy Shadowrun campaign.


The only problem I can see is the temptation to abuse the shop and use it to get some kick-a** foci for litle or nothing. Make sure he knows that the shop has to pay for its merchandise and the value of anything he takes off his shelf will come out of his profits.

You can really screw him over if he goes red one month with rent and small business loans. Refinancing can be a Shadowrun all by itself requiring both a good decker and an amazing face.

If you've never ran Bottled Demon with that group or even if you have, you could use this to put a new perspective on that story. Really, this is just begging for some sort of cursed artifact plot.

[Trashman]

To elaborate on one of the above suggestions:
I would talk with the player about making his character something like a driving force for weird international runs. The character might end up being somewhat close to over-the-top types like Phineas Fogg from Verne's 80 Days. A collector of sorts, not necessarily a discerning one, more to the point of "I like that one, let's get it" and "What do I care that temple's in the middle of Amazonia?". Perhaps even a slightly mad but likeable professor-type with just enough Indiana-Jones-clout to give him an active part in the games.
This should work even close to home. Perhaps the shop acquired some curio the Azzies, Draco, Darke, the Martians, the Republicans want. They organise a run on the shop and now the PCs have to get the load back. Never went to the Azzie Pyramid before? Now is the time and the opportunity!

In any case one would have to forestall any development of the shop into a mere storage fro magical "ammo" the PC can use whenever he wishes. In my experience curtailing the resources of the PCs normally works wonder for good atmosphere and small but enjoyable runs.

[GrinderTheTroll]

Sounds like Indianna Jones, SR style... that would kinda cool , and good excuse to dump runners in more D&D like crypts and tombs from time-to-time.