All right, I'll go straight to the point.

I got a question to the GM's around here, how much time do you use to let pass between runs? One week, two? maybe even a month?

You know, on my actual campaign my GM is giving us a run per month and because our new runners are still newbies the pay is just 5k (pretty avarage I suppose)
But then how can we save to buy new gear if we just earn this little?

Of course, my character have a side job(more than one actually), but the GM made a home rule that this part time jobs makes us earn the necesary to pay our life stile(with a limit to high life stile and only if you can justify it) and no more

But, what if my character have a medium, low or even street life stile? what if He does lots of jobs (legal and ilegal) in addition to the runs. Wouldn't He earn much more than necesary to pay his lifestyle and save something?

Well, the real meneaning of this post actually is appart from learn different opinions, see if you can give more ideas of how can I get more ways to give my character the chance to get a hand on new gear or how to make more money with my GM's restrictions

See in the shadows!

ok.. the problem is you have a stingy GM, who dosent want to give you money. you can try to talk logic to him- the best point to use is 'being broke is NOT fun'.

generaly, i would say how often you run depends on the run, and how long it takes. i could see some jobs being done in a single night, other taking a wekk or more, possibly even a month for a long-term job (protect so-and-so, follow this guy and get blackmail material, ect).

offhand, if your gm is stil stingy after you talk to him- smack him upside the head. then talk to him again. repeat as necesary

Write programs and sell them.

OTOH, 5k (each) isn't that little... most stuff isn't overly expensive anymore, and that stuff that is, isn't meant to be bought by novice runners after two months.

Bye
Thanee

I actually run my campaign in pseudo-realtime. We run each wednesday, and the players get any time they didn't use on the actual run as downtime.

So say we start on wednesday and the run takes 3 days, the players get the next 4 days to heal and acquire gear and suchlike.

But yeah, 5k is pathetic for an entire team. Maybe he wants to emphasise that you're starting out and nobody big will hire you until you get a decent rep.

However, since you can just jack a couple of cars and get more than that, it's a bit on the tiny side.

Yeah, it really depends on the run and what the group is wanting to do. My group is only playing 4 hour sessions every other week, which so far has amounted up to 3 runs total. Oddly enough, two of the three runs have been last minute calls and had a time limit of only an hour or two...one happened on a Friday night and the other a Monday afternoon. The other run was actually a little side deal because a couple players couldn't make it to the game, so I had it take place 3 weeks in the past.

Seeing that all the characters are living in a low to medium lifestyle, 2,000-5,000 a month has to be covered...based on where we are at and their contacts, I'll give them a short run (<5,000 per runner) every couple of nights, if they are up for it. That isn't too much of a problem.

The bigger runs, I would probably say are 2-3 times a month, if only lasting a few days.

As for downtime...that all depends on the players and how they are wanting to user their karma. Because we only play bi-weekly, I figured that giving 10 karma per session, plus regular karma based on the adventure and whatnot, gets these characters up to prime runners (250+) in a year (real-time) and that progression works out for everyone. So, its all dependent on the players...if they have enough nuyen to pay monthly expenses and want to take some time off of runs to use their karma, that's up to them.

Research the gear you want. Find out who makes it, where it gets shipped, and what the weakest link in that chain is. Then hire the rest of the party (or just ask them) to help you steal it.

It really does depend on the run. Payment and freqency are determined by difficulty, finesse, and time the run requires. You could have a piddly courier run just across town, and expect a few hundred at best. New runners don't get the opportunity to do something incredible straight out of the box. Small things like delivering messages, courier work, and petty theft can be done daily. Therefore, payment should be small. You can't just expect your GM to throw money your way. Honestly, your runs should cover your lifestyle. What's more is that if you want neat little toys, you have to work for them. Conduct good roleplaying, take appropriate action, be in the right place at the right time, know the right people, and lastly, take a few chances. You can't expect to walk home with that Panther Cannon the first couple of weeks. Hell, I work 45, sometimes 60 hours a week myself and can hardly pay for rent, food, utilities, school, car, car insurance, and anything that would be part of MY lifestyle.

That was deek that said that. Not me.

Besides getting paid for runs, there is also fencing goods, if you pick up and fence every thing not nailed down, your GM will come to DSF and post about how his runners are stealing every last thing, and we can tell him that he needs to pay his players more so that they won't be tempted to steal every last item in a building.

Besides that, play the stock markets, when you figure out what company you're working for and which you're hitting, use that 5k from your last run to invest on what will happen on the current run. Use put options on the company you'll hit as their stock will likely go down (and you'll make money), and use get options on the company you're working for as their stock will likely increase for the work you're doing(and then you'll make money).

Actually, options would suck - options are a price-fix at time-of-issuance...if the stock goes down, it would be cheaper to buy on the open market.

You'd really want to "sell short" - i.e. sell stocks you don't actually own, on the assumption that stock prices will go down, then, when they're cheaper, buy the same number of stocks for a lower price => profit! (this was the deal used at the end of "Trading Places")

Of course - to do this, you'd really need some good contacts in the stock market...and a way to keep them from being investigated for insider trading.

I agree with the two points others have suggested,

loot the enemies from your runs, sell their gear (even getting 20% of their value is still more than you had before).

Steal the nifty gear that you can't buy. Preferably from a corp. Or use blackmail to get it out of a military quartermaster.

...tell Aztechnology about that!

Cheers,

Max