So in another thread there's a discussion occurring on who pays for what. So in your group who pays for what? Is there a team fund? Do you reimburse the team for expenditures? Ammo? Drones? Do you evenly divide up the take?

There's three fair ways to do it.

1.) Everyone gets an even split and pays for all their own expenses. This really tends to be the most common.

2.) Johnson pays all expenses. Even if your group had the sheer natch to get them to agree with this, your take will probably be smaller thanks to this.

3.) Expenses come out of the take and the rest is evenly split.


2 and 3 encourage PCs to be wasteful. Use all the bullets/grenades/etc. that they can. The downside to it is that combat gets pretty crappy when it's just assumed that nades will be thrown off the bat. 3, however, isn't as bad as 2 in that regard. Players can at least talk to each other about throwing all the money away.

I tried a rigger once, and had to have a High lifestyle just to have extra nuyen to be able to replace drones that got destroyed. If I ever try it again, I'm going to try asking the Johnson about getting reimbursed for any drones that get destroyed.

In our game, we have two styles of missions. We have our contract missions which we have agreed to work with one particular Mr. J towards a particular goal. This Mr. J provides each of us with a retainer fee of 10,000/mo. Additionally the Mr. J provides us with a operational budget for each run that we can use to requisition materials for that run. Any items not consumed -may- be repossessed by Mr. J. Likewise, if we have a 20,000 operational budget and only spend 15,000, we do not get to keep the 5,000. The third part, when it comes to runs, Mr. J also pays each runner the same amount for the run rather than a lump sum that we have to distribute.

The second style of mission is the traditional fixer method which has a lump sum. My character has received one of these so far to smuggle some guns. In order to maximize my profit, I've only informed team members which would make it a milk run. I don't have the driving skills to do a getaway if it should be necessary, so I made sure the driver is in on the deal. Instead of splitting the money 5 ways to 2,000 each, I'm splitting it 2 ways to 5,000 each. It's really the way I have to look at it, my character almost exclusively uses bioware over cyberware so I need to eek out as much nuyen as I can where I can.

Got to agree with AndyZ for the most part. Everyone gets the same share generally. This is often because a Johnson says "I'll give each of you 10k" instead of "I'll give you guys 50k". Now, there are some expenses that I consider team expenses and that should come out of a 'group fund' or be paid evenly by each member. The biggest of these includes money required for legwork.

The only other thing I would consider team expense would be things that are specifically required of the mission, such as explosives for blowing up a building or a suicide drone that is supposed to act as a diversion (Which does not include a drone that simply gets destroyed during the normal course of a run, or a rigger who decides to use suicide drones as part of his SOP). Medkits would not fall under this, but Medkits would generally fall under a 'Pay back the guy who saved your a$$' (For the same reason that I wouldn't count medical bills for getting injured as part of group expenses)

I believe that including anything more than those things as team expenses unfairly burdens those that are conservative with their resources as they have to cover the expenses of those who are using their resources in a more blase fashion.

Including anything else also gets into the question of when do you consider something a group expense and when do you consider it personal?

I mean sure, ammo used to kill enemies is obviously beneficial for the entire group, but then again, so is the sammy getting better reflexes. Sure it sucks to lose a drone as a rigger, but it also sucks to have to burn bound spirits as a mage.

If you just divide the money evenly then everyone can manage their own resources as they see fit. If the mage wants to go crazy summoning spirits, he can, but if he wants to be smart and only use them when needed, then he gets to make more money.

I admit that to some extent this might cause people to be overly conservative, with the sammy not wanting to use his really good ammo because it is so expensive, and the rigger not wanting to risk his shiny new drone, but I think that generally the desire to succeed at a mission far outweighs stinginess of resources.

While we currently tend towards these three choices, we have at times used "unfair" methods of dividing the "loot." Has any one done this, be it for IC reasons, or not?

I've -never- played a character that has kept any sort of gains from the rest of the group *cough cough*
I've also totally never accepted a contract to kill another team member.
Get that Emotitoy out of here!

We've done things a number of different ways, depending on the GM or the team or the Johnson. One of the ways we've liked the best requires a little more dividing, and assumes that the Johnson offers a lump sum for the job (happens most often for an established team of runners).

The Johnson gives X amount of money up front. Out of that up front pay, a portion is divided evenly between the team, with a seperate chunk of change set aside for the needs of the run. That cred goes to things like bribes, medical needs, gear requirements ('cause who doesn't need more gecko gloves!?), vehicles, and the like. If a player has things they want for their particular niche (cyber, programs, foci, etc) it usually comes out of their cut, since the assumption is they'll be keeping it after the run.

I think most groups would agree that you need some level of group fund to take care of things, I think the big thing that varies from group to group is what gets covered under this 'slush fund'.

"gear requirements" is particularly vague... gecko gloves should be a personal expenditure in my opinion (Unless for some reason the run requires everyone to have a pair in order to get from point M to N).

Our group tends to use advance money to pay for bribes and such (although not always). But if there is none we tend to evenly divide the pay at the end.

Our group then has in character resources that do not necessarily get divided. Our mage is a pack rat. He would pry the fillings from the teeth of small children if they were not paying close enough attention (the little buggers should take better care of their teeth obviously). My Technomancer is always on the lookout for some juicy paydata while on the run, and whether I share proceeds depends on my mood. Some of the characters have day jobs, and get extra income from these.

Then comes the fun part. Frequently our runs are speculative. We get no cash, as we are working for ourselves (or one of the players is paying the group to accomplish some goal of his). Whatever the payout might be for a speculative mission may only be in the extras we manage to eke from them. There is always discussion when one of the characters expends a lot of cash for the good of the party, and on several occasions, we have split the costs.

My group uses method 3 because our rigger just said "I won't buy this stupid weagon on my own because usually YOU guys use it!"
From there on, we also split the costs of ammunition (which our streetsams liked) and programs (which I liked). The big advantage is, that nobody is pissed when a run fails.
The expensive drone crashed? No problem, pal, we'll buy a new one!
Guards are attacking and we just blew them straigt to hell, wasting more ammo through missed shots than any imperial stormtrooper? No problem, we'll just buy new bullets...

I'm lucky, my players generally build characters that have no qualms about divvying up the take evenly, as well as being pretty good about making sure big ticket expenditures come from the groups total take before they divvy things up. My group is also pretty good about making sure Mr. Johnson doesn't have a problem with them snagging anything that isn't nailed down while they're on the job-some employers can accept collateral damage, some prefer a quieter calmer environment.

Sometimes, like Orcus, my team will pick their own objectives. Those are the hardest runs for me to lay out as a GM, but the best fun!

10 nuyen an hour is how we roll

My groups tend to insist on "per teammember pay" be givin as the final lump sum as the agreed cost for the Run. Otherwise I think they believe I'd dock the GROUP pay if one of the team member cannot get paid (is dead)

(Keep in mind I'm mostly an SR3 player outside of SRM) One thing that I've found tends to help in my groups is the consensus that the vehicle is everyone's responsibility. Even for a drone/vehicle rigger hybrid, the vehicle tends to be the biggest and most expensive outlay, as well as being something everybody uses and is responsible for. If the rigger can do the maintenance themselves, they don't have to pay for a share of the parts (since they're saving money on a mechanic.) That tends to save money for either the drones or cyber upgrades in the long run.

Of course, if the mage is wallowing in dough there's generally very few qualms about pitching in for additional fire support in my games, so...

I'm not sure, but if the Johnson is too agreeable to the demands of the runners, I get a bit concerned.

Johnson: "Of course I can pay your expenses."
Face: "We want you to deposit the pay into these 5 accounts."
Johnson: "Not a problem. Anything for such gifted runners."
Face: "And I want a date with Holly Brighton."
Johnson: "Hmmm I think I have her comm code right here... You boys bring back those scales from Loffwyr's lair, and I will meet all of your requirements."

...Hey, as long as the J's up front about it involving breaking into a Great's personal lair. Doesn't even have to say which one.

The way i run things the Johnson will usually want to minimize contact with the runners as much as possible to eliminate a paper trail. Unless the Johnson themselves (or their fixer proxy) has brought a group of strangers together they will also pay the team one lump sum. They will usually offer an advancedthe percentage depending on a number of factors and also subject to negotiation. For my players usually the face does the most of the negotiation (the shadows see the team as "her" team and she's usually the POC for fixers and Johnsons who arn't contacting one of the runners specifically)

Now I have started having certain sweeteners to be offered based on the contested negotiation roll

1) Restricted Gear (Usually in leiu of pay)

2) Covereage of certain itemized expenses (ammo, fake sins etc)

3) Access to resources (armorer, mechanic, martial arts teacher, talismonger etc)

FInal payment is generally either held in escrow with a trusted third party ( a fixer or establishment) or just paid outright by the Johnson. In rare cases where the Johnson is someone like the team's long time fixer he'll pay them in advance or they'll agree to work for him on credit if he can't get the cash together right then (this team specializes in short notice jobs).

I figure a lot of business done in the shadows will be done either via certified credstick or a barter system.