I'm going to be running an SR4(probably; I may still go 3) game and am thinking about doing it street-level with all the PCs being part of a small gang.

The idea I have is to have them generate characters with slightly lower point values and pick a number of qualities for their gang. Each quality would make up for the lower points bringing them up to the right level. In SR4 terms this would be 300 to 350 points.

Each quality would reflect an aspect of their gang and give each PC some benefit. For instance if they chose a quality like Wizkids, then all pcs might get the Magician quality for free.

Gang qualities will generally make the characters more alike and at most I'd only have them pick one or two to help define the type of gang they are in. Is it a gang of corp-kid hackers or street mages? Is it an Orc or Troll gang? Etc. This will mean that the group probably won't come out looking like a well rounded shadowrun team, but that's okay as they are not supposed to be.

Gang qualities will be chosen before individual CG starts.

I'm wondering if anyone here has tried anything similar or has any tips suggestions for feedback for me?

I am also working on a Gang Quality list with 4th ed stats and will post it once I have it in better shape here.

SR4 talks a little about the different gangs, but as I only know the rulebooks and not the fiction others will be able to help out a lot more than I can.

1) The Humanis Policlub are basically the KKK - white humans anti everything else.
2) The Sons of Sauron are an ork and troll, anti everything else gang, apparently modeled after the orcs/uruk-hai from LoTR.
3) There are numerous Seoulpa rings from.... somewhere in the East (I want to say Phillipines or Korea), and are basically just your "average" gangs.
4) There are mafia cells.
5) There are all sorts of random street/biker gangers. The Halloweeners are a good example, as are the Ancients (Elves with a decent amount of magic, IIRC) and the Cutters. Of course, certain cells can easily bring more opposition similarly to a corporation - the organized gangs in this world apparently have a massive distribution network.

And for Qualities: Black Market Pipeline, Guts, Home Ground, Made Man, School of Hard Knocks, Toughness, and Will To Live would all be pretty decent choices for a standard gang and you can get creative for others. For Matrix gangs: Home Ground (for a node), Intuitive Hacking, Latent Technomancer, and Natural Hardening make sense. For an Awakened gang: Astral Sight, Latent Awakening, Mentor Spirit, Spell/Spirit Knack, and instead of just giving everyone Magician you may want to give them their choice of Magician, Mystic Adept, or Adept. For a hard augmentation gang: Biocompatability (for their choice), Genecrafted, and Genetic Heritage are good choices.

You can also feel free to give them addictions and all sorts of different negative qualities that they don't get points for. Genefreak, Cursed, Buggy 'Ware, In Debt (to a mega or a bigger cell of a gang) and Geasa are all interesting things to have a street gang deal with.

I would advise against reducing BPs below 400, but just reducing avaliabilties of 'wares and dicepools. That way you need up with at least a bit more well rounded characters, not just hyperspecialized, but not good at anything else characters.

I think he was wanting to limit BP and give free Qualities, sorta making up for the deficit.

Oh ok, well that makes a bit more sense. I suppose it will depend on the "role" of the character. But juryrigger might be a good one. Home ground is an obviously one, since they'll be defending their turf a lot. Local fame, toughness, tough as nails, and any of the natural resistances. Depending on if you want them connected to a larger criminal organization, you could give them made men or something as well.

Racial Gang - All PCs get to be the gang race without paying the BP cost. Ork/Troll may be combined as a single race. If human is chosen, everyone gets an extra 20 BP to put towards stats.
Awakened Gang - All characters gain Magician quality for free.
Net Gang - All characters gain the Codeslinger and Home Ground qualities for free, as well as a commlink of rating x/x/x/x and y programs at rating x for free.
Rich Delinquent Gang - Characters all start with an extra 50k nuyen and can have availability up to 15 and access to all grades of ware.
Go Gang - All characters gain a driving and mechanic skill of their choice at 4 for free.

Just some suggestions that come to mind.

Thanks.

That's about what I'm planning on doing. I just haven't had a chance to sit down and hammer out the qualities. I may very well steal some of yours as written.

I also have in mind setting this in Seattle 2072 and will probably add area based Gang Qualities (for those skipping around these are qualities for the entire gang not just a single pc) such as ACHEr where the gang is based out of the old Renraku archology, or some Redmond, Pullyaup and other area specific qualities just need the time to make each one sufficiently unique and match game effects to the qualities.

Those are good qualities, but I don't know if I totally agree with all of those benefits.
Racial Gang: Looks good, maybe specify 20 BP has to go to Standard Attributes (a.k.a not Edge ).
Awakened Gang: What about Adepts and Mystic Adepts? I guess you could go a similar route as with the Racial Gang, but instead giving them both 10 BP to use on Physical Attributes (a.k.a. not Mental or Special).
Net Gang: I suck at Matrix. Can't comment.
RD Gang: All grades of ware? Even delta? That seems a little extreme. Beta maybe, but if you rule out alpha for a street-level campaign than you could allow alpha. Also, I think 16 Av. cap is better, because the SCA REDUX thread (not the authority, but I like it) has Restricted Gear reduced to 16 Av. cap, IIRC.
Go Gang: Yeah, that should work. I might go with 3 though and let them raise it if they want.

The Sample Character Archive REDUX thread has suggestions for Street Level characters but that's with Karmagen. Basically it gives them 600 Karma as opposed to standard 750. Figure that into BP as you will, but I think 350 is good. I mean, they're gangers, not just street dwellers, so they have to have some sort of skill.

Area qualities also sound interesting, maybe allowing Barrens characters to take Metagenetic qualities with a cost or bonus of under 15 (No Shiva Arms or Metagenetic Improvement for you, random mutant ganger!) without SURGE.

That's fairly pointless. They'll just use the 20 bonus BP on something else and use their main stat BP on the edge instead.
I strongly considered making it Mystic adept for free, Magician for 5 BP. Maybe Magician for free, Mystic adept + mentor for free, or adept + some quality for free.
Yeah, all grades. It isn't like anyone is actually going to be able to afford any deltaware beyond a datajack, and if they do, they're basically going to be trading in all other improvements to get one or two things at delta. It really isn't a big issue. Most people don't even take advantage of alpha because it is too expensive.
Yeah, was going to have it just be the vehicle skill originally, so with both likely better to lower it to 3.

Ok here are the first of the Qualities I've come up with. I'll be posting more when I get the chance to sit down and write them out. I have yet to fill out all the Qualities listed and there are many I have in mind that I haven't listed yet.


I'm designing these rules with the idea that I'll let my group pick two or three before character generation begins. Each Gang Quality should be worth aproximately 25 bp. Ones that are worth more should have a drawback built in and some that are worth a lot more may count as two qualities.

::General::
Street Wizz

'Trix Gang

Go Gang - A gang that takes to the streets on triked out bikes and rides. All PC members gain Pilot Groundcraft 4 for free, 10,000 nuyen which must be spent on a ground vehicle and the group starts with a Automotive Mechanic Facility as part of their home turf.

Bot Battlers - These gangs are often made up of better off members of society who like to use drones for less than legal purposes, often pitting their drones against other gang members of of those of their rivals. All PC members of the gang gain the Mechanic Skill group at rating 4 for free and 25,000 nuyen that must be spent on drones and drone accessories(GM has final say on what is and is not an accessory)

Salvage Dogs

Smugglers

::Race::
Goblins - All members of this gang are orks or trolls or posers. All PCs gain 25 bp, and must either be an Ork, Troll or a Ork Poser or Troll Poser with the appropriate mods and negative qualities. Posers also must have a minimum of 3 body and 4 strength (5 bod/6 str for troll posers) to pass the hazing rituals required to be in the gang and can never be the leader.

Troll Gang - All members are trolls and PC members gain the Troll metatype for free. As well as 10 bp. This Quality counts as two.

Ork Gang - All members are Orks and look after the local ork community. All PC members gain the Ork metatype for free.

::Area::

ACHErs - A gang who's turf/prison is inside the old Renraku Achology.

You might want to say modifications, sensors, sensor enhancements, vehicle spoof chips, and morphing license plates (and the last two are technically for vehicles and yeah, I know, vehicles are drones because they have a Pilot). Those are the only things I can think of as being "drone accessories" unless you want to include weapons and weapon modifications for them. Which...is dangerous, I think. Maybe make them pay for the weapons.

I like these, though. Cool beans.

You could also have gangers out of corporate citizens if you wanted to, giving them something like ARES gang or SK gang, opening up options for corporate growth in an under the table setting.

Just a quick update

::Area::
##All Area qualities will come with the Home Ground quality for the respective area. A gang may only have a single Area quality. I plan on doing an area quality for most of the major areas outlined in Seattle 2072.

ACHErs - A gang who's turf/prison is inside the old Renraku Achology. All PC members of the gang gain the Close Combat group at rating 2 for free. PC members also gain either the Stealth or Influence Group at rating 2(player's choise). The ACHE alone counts as the group's home turf and due to the limited resources inside the ACHE PCs are limited Availability 8 or lower resources during character creation.

I plan to have that as well but it is low on my list as I've already polled my group and it is not a route they want to take.

Cultists - A gang that is bound together by a less-than-mainstream religion, a.k.a. a cult. Players need to work with the GM to come up with a specific ideology for the cult and figure out the cult leadership. If the cult leader is an NPC that NPC is considered to be a level 3 contact for all PCs. All PCs get +4 edge that may only be spent when working directly on cult activities (GM determines). This bonus edge only grants extra edge rolls and does not increase the number of dice rolled when edge is rolled.