Ok, I have something I was curious about... My GM started us with a lower availability cap of 6 showing that we aren't quite runners yet, but we have the potential and are up-and-comers.
It's a fun idea, since the rewards are definitely bigger, and the spread of gear is interesting, and we're enjoying the game

Now here's my situation and question. I've got a 2 CHA and 1 negotiation (yup, I'm no fixer), but have an armorer type contact at 2/4. I tried to see what he had on-shelf as far as ammo types, and on the rolls ended up with basically anything availability 6 or less was what he had in stock. (regular ammo, stick-n-shock, etc. but no APDS, EX, or EX-ex, etc.)

This got me to thinking... How would I begin toward having places where I can make a call to to get say APDS ammo or EX-ex without having to do the waiting game while my contact works on tracking it down? More as a goal for me to work on as a sideline as we play.

And asking the face to find it isn't really the thought I was looking for. Just kinda curious how I would find a way to get a broad range of decent availability normal runner stuff without having to wait.

I was kinda thinking about trying to develop the Crime Mall as a group contact and using that (being as how I figure that would be a base contact of around 1/12 with Runner's Companion rules).

Now, granted I don't have the nuyen for all the toys I'd like... lol or even the nuyen for a shop... but it's something to work toward in the future.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Pay him extra to get "the good stuff" - basically a premium on top of the base cost.
Ask for compensation in gear + less cash from Johnsons, instead of just raw cash.
Steal whatever "good stuff" your opposition has. Cutting edge weapons, spare ammo, grenades of a rare type? Pocket 'em!
Ask around for other fixers. Offer to do them free favors in exchange for a hookup.

Cheap, Good, Fast . . CHOSE TWO!
As per the rules, just throw Money at it.
I think for every 1.000 Nuyen more you are ready to pay, availability goes down by one or something like that . .
Can't remember, can'T find books.

Stage a run on Fort Lewis. *grin*

it's every 25% price increase offered over RAW it gives an extra die to the avail. roll... max dice of 10... I think



LOL sounds fun

I have done that before..in one game, in fact, my team and I did it so often, the Qartermaster started meeting us at the gate, and just asking what we were there for, since it was going to be cheaper to replace the stuff then trying to stop us...(Stopping us involved replacing the gate, hospitalization for soldiers, replacements of ammo and vehicles....just giving us the gear was just the cost of replacing the gear..)

No creative ideas? LOL every other thread people come up with crazy ways to do things according to RAW, but I'm not deserving of that attention?

Heh, just kidding... was just kinda hoping to get some more ideas so I can have some creative options as well as the basic ones

That just ridiculous, in any half realistic game the army would have just killed the you and the rest of the team.
And there wouldn't even be any dice rolls needed, the whole team is just killed by the army and gm tells you to make new characters and succest that you all take the common sense quality.

*golf clap*

What he said.

However... it brings to mind an interesting idea...

If the players in the group poorly chose their skills/abilities/archetypes, and you can't seem to convince them to expand into the much needed roles... or if they learned enough to start out, but need to re-create or retcon characters to impliment what they've learned... then it's a helluva way to go out. Might even have one or two survive, make a great story for the 'new team' that's called into break them out of jail, and if ANYONE gets away, they'll likely have a dumptruck of great gear to outfit the newbies with

Remindes me of an old AD&D 2nd edition game I played in. Our fighter bit the dust and while the player was rolling up a new character he says to me, "Take my vorpal sword and give it to my next character." So of course being the the nice CN cleric that I was, I took the sword and gave it to his next character. Or at least I thought it was his character. How was I supposed to know he didn't roll a weapon merchant? I mean, the merchant offered me gold for it, it sounded like he was reimbursing me for lugging it around for him. He was a little mad with my mistake but in the end I took the money and bought a platinum holy symbol and some really sweet empty potion vials that I filled with hooch.

I hate when people try to "Pass off gear to my next guy". I don't mind doing the smooth reintegration of the new character, but come on!

EDIT *Let me not derail*

Have you considered grabbing things you don't need and maybe seeing if your contact is willing to trade? Maybe you can ask your gm to have your fixer make up a list of things he needs but doesn't want to pay full price for. If you hook up your contact enough maybe a case of APDS will fall off a truck leaving Ft. Lewis. Never know what will fall off a truck these days when you grease the right axles.

I was being sarcastic... it was mostly a joke in reference to groups I've been part of in the past where the other players were new to it all and ended up figuring out how they'd have made characters if they knew now what they knew then...


But other than that... that's a great idea... it's still a new game, so I have yet to stockpile anything to try to trade off... but my first thought was to get a bunch of decent stuff I don't need, and trade it off for an introduction to a really well stocked merchant, or set of them. Or something along those lines.

Oh I didn't mean it that way, I picked up on your sarcasm, I was just reminded of a D-bag that wasn't =P

Although if you do plan on snagging 'links you pick up along the way, you might look into a small faraday cage so a security RFID can be dealt with later.

LOL already have one built into both of the smuggling compartments in my rover

I hate to derail, but I have to disagree.

Should they kill the characters? Probably.

Should they do so without a roll? Hell no.


There are rules and stats for professional soldiers and military weapons, use them.

Soo . . is availability only FINDING the Thing you are looking for, or is is finding someone who is willing to SELL what you are looking for?
If it's the latter, who says that they have to be willing to sell? Find someone who has what you want, go there, kill them and take their stuff! ^^

A professional soldier isn't too much of a challenge. Agility 4(5), Automatics 3(Assault Rifles), Wired Reflexes 1, Ares Alpha. Nothing a runner team can't handle. Now 200 of them...

I was thinking, more along the line of couple of Apaches.

No, nothing in particular is desired at the moment. We're still far to early in the game to worry about much yet. The GM wanted to start us off as not-yet-shadowrunners, more wannabes with potential, so set the character creation availability limit to 6.

There's just so much out there that I see as normally available, 12 or less, and just want to open pathways to making stuff like that, or even APDS, Ex-Ex, or plain explosive rounds something I can pick up in quantities of more than 6 rounds per week.

Not to mention, the future plans of stuff... workshops (for armorer work), smartpouches/vest so I can reconfigure it into a western style gunbelt with auto-injectors, and future upgrades of bio/cyberware. I'd also like to begin opening the pipelines to better grades of augmentation earlier so that when I have the nuyen I'm not waiting weeks to find it and get it installed.

The character I'm playing is a mildly enhanced (can't do much more than mildly with availability 6) gunslinger who has latent awakening as a quality, and by luck of the draw, I am built to be the firepower for the group. So I figure I need to start having stocked shelves (or places to buy stuff to stock my shelves) as I progress.

Just figured I'd try to figure out some tips and strategies to do that

Thanks for all the thoughts and humor by the way... it's been fun to read as well as make me think about options. I hope to find more as a few more old time players read the topic.