I was looking at the permanent-lifestyle rule, the one that allows you to get a lifestyle permanently by paying 100 times the base monthly price. While making my rat shaman, Templeton, I bought a permanent squatter lifestyle for 10,000 , half of his starting 20,000 . His squat is part of an ancient sub-sub-basement from a long-demolished building, accessible through a hidden door off a secondary sewer tunnel. He paid a good decker to hide its utility feeds in the bills of nearby businesses; the consumption is so low that no one's ever likely to notice. It's got water, power, and a text-only Matrix feed, space to lay out sleeping pads for half a dozen people (if they're friendly), and several months' worth of ration bars in a box in the corner, as well as a shelf for Templeton's eclectic collection of old paper books.

Every rat needs a bolthole, and this is Templeton's: a place to disappear to when the heat is on, where most folks will never think of looking. It's paid up through eternity, so even if he falls on hard times it'll always be there for him. He tries not to spend a lot of time there, in case someone tails him; usually he'll sleep in coffin hotels, in various squats around the barrens, or on the streets. Rat's not picky.

I typically buy a Squatter or equivalent lifestyle either permanently or for ~20ish months.

~J

likewise my (now retired) Intrusion Expert, Has a 2 room bolt hole, low life style. But with stupidly high security (active at 8/11, 3 Know at 8+). thats where he went if he thought the heat was on. Wasn't a permlife style. But he used it so people was less likly to find his perm high/ near lux lifestyle

Since the SSG came out, I've been more often creating multiple lifestyles for my characters, and it's usually the lower of them, the bolthole, that's permanent...

Wasn't Templeton the name of the rat in Charlotte's web? And yeah, a permanent squatter lifestyle comes in handy now and again. I have a combat mage with a permanent low lifestyle that she uses whenever she can't afford to live high on the hog (which is most of the time).

Eh, I usually don't buy permanent lifestyles but I will devote a portion of my funds to establishing safe houses, boltholes and caches in various places.

Just in case.

Yet another reason to make professional acquaintances that you don't normally associate with.

-Siege

Ever since 2nd I have always made sure to have 2 or more low lifestyle places to use as boltholes and what not thus keeping my middle lifestyle safe & out of involvement.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that you can't buy permanent squatter lifestyles, but I could just be remembering wrong.

Generally, I don't buy permanent lifestyles. Even if my character survives for 100 months (about 8 years), I'm sure that someone I don't like will find my hideouts in that time.

SSG made a recommendation that GMs disallow the purchasing of lifestyles of less than 5 points. That's probably what you're thinking about, Nezumi.

It makes sense... after all, even when you're dumpster diving, you ALWAYS need a little cash to live and keep your gear secure.

I don't know abnout 3rd ed, but 2nd and 1st ed's said you couldn't buy a lifestyle below "Low." After all if you start to have a place with utility leads etc laid on, it's no longer "low" since you have access to those utilities. That having been said we will usually maintain a low lifestyle as a bolt hole and, more importantly for characters who are legal with SINs, a place to keep shadow gear the police might not like.
Armored jacket and a hand gun, ok. Belts of MG ammo, little hard to explain.

I'd thought it was more along the lines of how you could buy a permanent squatter lifestyle, but why would you want to?

These days, I have only one PC who doesn't have at least three or four boltholes. Ironically enough, she was the only one of the team who ended up with more apartments than she began with - she just kept acquiring them from others and saw no reason to let go of them.

The most extreme in-game example might be the PC who is in hock to the tip of his hair for the (dead man's) SIN (alternate identity) + permanent luxury lifestyle "bolthole" he just managed to acquire. It's as close to a watertight fake SIN as can reasonably exist in SR - and I don't know if he's going to be able to ever pay off the balance in-game. When in doubt, play Rich. It's far less likely to be randomly hassled than poor.

Long term storage facilities or even just lockers at train stations or airports also make good places for emergency stashes.

Except that many lockers are either regularly broken into or security monitored (too often used for stashing terrorist bombs - that's why some railway stations have removed them completely in RL), or emptied once every 24 hours, or both.

There are a few things I try to do, depending on the financial situation of the character.

1. Permanent or 6 months Low life style somewhere far away from his home. If he lives in Seattle then the low is in Tacoma. I also stock this place with duplicate weapons armor and ammo, and a backup vehicle, just to be on the safe side.

2. A medium lifestyle in addition to his main lifestyle. Once a run commences this is the place he lives and breathes. All his illegal equipment is stored here. If the place goes down, it is untraceable to him.

3. Main lifestyle, usually a medium. This is his house, where he lives, he normally carries a pistol and some ammo here. I would normally give him some kind of car with a trunk for storage of heavier firepower.

Other good ideas include:

A car parked in long-term parking at an airport or something with weapons, a fake SIN, cash, and maybe a decked cell-phone. In a pinch you can sleep in the car, and you have a way to get a long, long way away if needed.

A duffle bag left with a gang that has no other dealing with you other than to get paid to babysit the duffle. Extra stuff as needed.

The friends abroad edge. I hear the carribean league is a nice place to ride out heat.

Having hints in your main doss as to where a bolthole might be, and having that bolt rigged to explode. It'll get rid of whoever's after you, or at least some of their minions.

I'd never buy a permanent lifestyle. Maybe it's just my GM, but I tend to go through lifestyles pretty rapidly, and if a permanent lease is terminated, the early cancellations fees are murder! (That's if you can get a refund at all.) With squatter, it's only 10K, but I'd rather not lose 10K if at all possible.

It's safer to go with it in smaller increments. Rather than 1 for 10K, I'd rather get 5 for 4 months each for 2000. More places to hide, all of which are totally disposable if they get compromised (just leave, or destroy it ).