So does anyone have their players doing things besides shadowrunning? A couple of the characters in the group were talking a bout getting an auto mechanics facility and possibly an armorer facility and I was wondering if anyone has their characters running a chop shop or something like that? How do you run it? Just a building that nets them some money every couple of weeks and have ganger contacts bringing in cars, characters cutting them up on the down time and selling the parts through another contact. Set the occasional run around stealing some fancy car or hunting down some goons who broke in and stole a bunch of stuff or possibly collected evidence to sell to the police.

Also what other sort of money making businesses do your characters have?

We were a legitimate security firm. We did cyber and physical penetration testing, security analysis, system design, bodyguarding. It's a lot easier to buy AV rockets or level 10 maglock sequencers when you can just call up the manufacture and submit a PO. We also had a firm rule that we would never run against a customer or former customer. (Or against Aries or a KE client due to high level contacts there.)

First of all: What is a PO?

Second: Well, one of my players' Chars is working Part-Time in a Bar. (The "Cathode Glow", if you read or run the "On the run"). She gets like 5 bucks an hour, so it is not very much, but she can affort her squatter lifestyle

Well when I get to play my Mages tend to go through a Talismonger to provide Warding Services.

PO probably means Purchase Order.

I am encouraging my players to have "offtime" jobs. I said that anything which doesn't involve doing "run" like activities is ok. Gives me a great chance to have their characters mundane lives, cross their "night lives".

Jobs so far taken:

Bouncer for a bar
Auto Mechanic
Gambler
The mage assists others in the group for a 20% cut.
The face man is a lounge singer.

They roll the skill they are using and pay them X amount per hit. To be applied at the start of each game.

It's usually not much, but every little bit helps.

One of the players in my group just made a weapons specialist who happens to have an armorer facility, legal sin, and all that wanting to set up a (at least pseudo) legit business.


I am curious, how much money should be rewarded to him on average for said place? I know special runs and such can net him more but what about day to day (or week to week for that matter) pay?

I like his character concept and want to reward him well if he plays it right.

First thing to do is figure how much time they can actually put into their work. A typical runner needs to spend time keeping up on their skills and being trained, recovering from wounds, and having fun (so don't let them work more than 40 hour weeks off time. It isn't that realistic for runner type chars, despite the players wanting to work them like slaves)

Then just think about how much someone would get paid doing that job for that much time. You might even be able to look it up on the net.

Also for a singer or such they actually have rules for that way back in 1st edition "shadowbeat" which is a great sourcebook.

Why the hell would characters that have well enough paying jobs be running the shadows? Maybe small, not very dangerous runs like investigations and stuff, but why would they ever consider doing anything where they might get hurt, or hurt others?

Our characters tended to play the stock market on throw away fake sins (1 sin per transaction, never use the sin again), especially if they ended up doing a run and they knew exactly who it was going to affect. Do put options on the company thats going to tank (put options are selling stock before you buy them). Then when the stock takes a hit from the run you just did, you "buy back" the stocks at a reduced price and have made a ton of money.

If you're already doing something completely illegal, you may as well add insider trading to your list of crimes

Well I've always assumed that the majority of Runners either can't or won't conform to 'normal society' so that is why they remain in the Shadows after they've aquired enough loot to retire...

I also figure runners have something in their past (at the least past runs). That keeps them in the shadows regardless. Any runner that's killed a security guard or something like that is looking at life imprisonment if the star ever connects the dots. They may also have enemies in the backstory or stuff like that.

It's fun roleplaying but legitamit jobs have a tendency to get blown. Nanopaste disguises help a lot in SR4 towards giving players a shot at that on the side though. Assuming the job is the kind where you can just no show up for a week now and then. On the other hand all of the SR4 voice recognition, aura tracking, RFID tracking, easy DNA scans leave a lot of room for ones cover to suddenly be blown.

I wasn't quite thinking legit businesses, but other illegal activities besides running that the players might engage in.

Our group's downtime is spent training skills...which if you take a look at RAW and the Errata, takes quite a bit of time. I allow players to train up to Logic in skills simultaneously, so its not as horrid.

So, I would certainly allow day jobs, but then they lose the ability to train during their downtime...40 hours a week on top of running lives...I just don't buy it unless they are financing a business or have a clone:)

I generally discourage this as anything more than a hobby for a character. I'm running Shadowrun, not a business sim (though a rule/content book on running businesses in the 6th world would be fine by me). That said I do allow interesting concepts to play out if they present themselves.

I had a player who took the dayjob merit/flaw and wanted to work for Lone Star. I allowed that. He did data entry (decker character) for the forensics department. He managed to use it to his benefit a couple of times, but spent more of his time keeping the two worlds he lived in from crashing down on him.

In 3rd edition I used the dayjob merit/flaw regardless of the business or the legality. You spent the necessary hours at work, you got the money listed. End of story. Everything else was role played. If I ran a storyline that was specifically centered around your job, then you had the chance to gain some additional reward or punishment from it depending on how the scenario played out.

One of my Adepts is based off of the Harlequin style clowns.(He is a throwing adept) and is a dwarf. He runs around in makeup contantly. His partime job is childrens parties.

I had an infiltration specialist who's dayjob was a professional mark. He would walk around looking all easy to mug, and collect bounties when he did get mugged. Picked up alot of untraceable (to me) weapons that way.

Again, my lack of 4th Ed knowledge is showing, but there was a 2nd/3rd Ed flaw called Day Job that ranged from -1 to -4 which provided additional income, but was really a flaw...I mean say you're stuck on a run where you're having to hole up somewhere for an extended time. How are you explaining that to the owner of the club you bartend at? Do you call your supervisor at Ares to tell them you can't come into work because you're in traction while your new wired reflexes heal? How are you going to explain to the receptionist the bullet wound in your hand and stab wound in your shoulder? What do you do when the brother of the gang leader you flatlined three months ago barges into the middle of a meeting with the senior programmer? It can make a nice character trait if the decker is in a rush to snag the VP of a Renraku subsidiary because he's going to be at his desk in fifty minutes or he's going to get written up AGAIN.

The Abstruse One