hi hi

Does anyone know if there are rules for acquiring legitimate licenses or permits for restricted gear?

In a run where people are playing as part of a legitimate security firm, it would help to not be arrested for carrying around the tools necessary to do the job. I suppose the security firm could outfit their guards with clubs, but that might not fit the setting.

Odd that you bring that up, but in current products, no.

Now, if we were to see a return of something like the old Security Handbook, I would expect it to be in there. In the mean time, it's going to be up to you and your GM to come up with something.

hi hi

I guess it is odd in the general sense that Shadowrun usually involves doing illegal things, though I suppose I might be forgetting something else as well.

So far the GMs rule is: if its not in the book, it doesn't exist. So it looks like I'll be using tasers and clubs. Thanks for the confirmation though. I'll be a challenging character to make, thats for sure.

Plenty of "R" options out there. And I seem to remember somewhere it was like 50¥ for a legit license with a legit SiN. If your GM is so literal that they don't allow a legit means to get a license for items that are "R", then they're effectively making 90% of the items in the books flat out illegal.

As far as I know, a normal idea with GM's is that you start of with the legit/real licenses as a matter of them being part of your SIN - then, if you want more IN-GAME, your GM can have you RP the transactions out, or just give one to you.

Honestly, I'd imagine getting a legit lisence for restricted gear as a security company would be fairly easy. After all, Knight Errant and the Star are both private contracters, as is Doc-Wagon. However, with that said, because I'm assuming it's a small company, expect to come under fire from insurance every time you even draw the gun, let alone use it. I wonder how much the Star has to pay every year for insurance... ( I know hospitals pay through the nose for malpractice insurance, and then every nurse ( >90%) has their own malpractice insurance as well. That's an assload of money right there.)

Your GM might view things differently but the way I would handle it is that if you have a valid SIN then the gun is "licensed" to you when you purchase it through a legit merchant. If you are working for a security agency then they would most likely put you through a firearms training course, at the end of which they would hire you and provide you with the necessary licenses and permits to do your job.

If you're a civilian then you'd probably have to pay a nominal fee. I'll go with Kerenshara here and say 50¥ sounds just spiffy. Seriously, it should have been in Arsenal but I can see how a legal license on a legal SIN is just plain crazy for a criminal to have. Chalk it up to NERPS.

The only rules for legit licenses I've seen were in Running Wild for having creatures, paracritters, etc.

It's a good question. I have a ghostbuster-y character that is a SINner. He has a legit license for his awakened chameleon (one of the few things you can train to hunt devil rats) but not for nearly any of his other gear.

^ This.

As long as you're a SINner (remember, the norm is that you're SINless thus have no legitimate SIN), you can either assume you have a license by default or that any "fake" licenses you buy are legitimate ones instead. Either option hardly gives a player any advantage whatsoever. If they use the item they have a license for and law enforcement finds out about it, they're going down since its linked to their SIN which you can't just toss over a bridge when the shit hits the fan. I personally go with the former option, asking the player to simply jot down a note next to the item to indicate if they have a legal license or not.

Shadowrun just assumes you're a shady criminal with shady resources, so it doesn't focus on legal stuff very much. Odd as it may be in many, many cases.

Actually, I seem to remember reading that if you buy an R item legally with a SIN, the license is included in the cost of the item. Where things get interesting is with F items.

This one makes sense to me, especially since the extra license cost helps cover the "black market" costs. Anybody remember "Steet Index"?


Most of the "F" legal licenses include the use of said item, so just firing a "F" gun and leaving a bullet behind wouldn't be enough by itself. Using it to commit pre-meditated murder, on the other hand... But a good way around something like that isin the selection of ammunition: Frangible rounds break into tiny pieces on impact. I would say that would impede their ability to find you afterwards... except maybe on a glitch a round remains intact enough? I mean, the things hurt your rolls to begin with and PCs aren't usually too worried about collateral damage to corp property...

Another thought: if your basic fake ID is good enough, there's no reason you couldn't just use it to obtain other totally legit licenses. That will depend on your GM, but ours is of the opinion that RTG 4+ is good enough to get a full legal license for most "R" items. Just bear in mind that the item is now linked inextricably with that ID and if the item gets burned, so does the ID.

I think are perfectly valid reasons for a less than legal person to purchase various things legally, but all of these are exceptions not hard rules.

I'd argue that when purchasing legal things, there's absolutely no reason to risk going through shady channels to do so. Why should I risk being shot by gangbangers or doublecrossed by someone looking to make a quick buck to pay his bookie to buy something I can pick up at Best Buy or Champ's Sporting Goods?

Also something to consider is that in the old artwork, at least nine out of ten people in a fairly "normal" looking crowd was packing heat.

The sixth world is a dangerous place - packing at least a taser, if not a pistol is pretty standard in medium and below neighborhoods, I'd guess.
Only not a usual thing in upper-class places because people have their own bodyguards to do it for them...

I tell my players with a real SIN that all licenses are free with legitimate purchase.

If you have a SIN and don't want a license for that item, then you either carry it unlicensed, or you can purchase a fake license, but then you do start getting into issues of a Fake License tied to a SIN. You also might for example want a fake license in order to purchase an item for some reason even though you have a real SIN.

If it is something small and easy to conceal, I don't even bother getting a fake license. But for things like big drones or vehicles, that can't be easily (or can't be at all) concealed, yeah, a license is necessary. Even if it is just a rating 3 license to get by most of the time and the spoof the signal.