Thoughts? Comments? Completely open.

If you have the skill, the lab and the raw material necessary, of course. Stuff won't be cut or anything, so it'll be a lot easier on you. Of course, most of the more interesting drugs require tropical plants, large bushes, both, half an acre full of colourful flowers (and loads of work) or profound knowledge of chemistry, so it's easier said than done.

It's reasonably easy with cannabis and drugs derived therefrom or hallucinogenic chemicals, which can basically be cooked in the kitchen, with relatively low probablility of you blowing yourself up (so no, no meth). Of course, smells can always give you away. All it takes is one trained dog.

So, it's worth it if you have a shack far off the beaten track, and decide for something that's not gonna give you away as easily as a cannabis plantation or a poppy field (hallucinogenics, X, ect).

And FWIW, it's also quite illegal. Especially in the states, I'd recommend against it for that reason. It'S a somewhat different manner in places where at least some drugs will only get you a good spanking, so to speak, rather than 20 years in an American prison.

Still leaves Alcohol. Mmmmh moonshine.

As a side business in the game, just to clarify. Haha. Or making your own Tranq patches. 'Cause nothing says lovin' like slapping someone with a tranq patch and watching them hit the dirt.

Nothin' says lovin' like some "Home Cookin'"!

If nothing else, having some Homebrew is always a great way to kick back and relax! Especially if you're a Russian Troll and it's the only way you can get drunk!

Or a cybernose.

In Shadowrun, as with real life, making small quantities of most drugs, especially drugs that help runners would cost more than the street price of those drugs. In order to make a profit, or even break even, your going to have to do a lot of it which involves time, risk, and a significant initial investment, not to mention connections if you ever hope to move the stuff. Of course, at that point your a beginning drug lord and not a runner anymore, which really brings this beyond the scope of shadowrun.

See Breaking Bad for more details.

That would of course be bad, all the neighborhood junkies beating a path to your door

Side business? The GM shouldn't let you, under any normal circumstances. The basic rules *are* very abusable, so… he shouldn't let you. Hehe.

Besides, why would anyone want a main job as a runner? Unless the characters are getting overpaid for everything, it's already kind of a side job.

The cooking explosives side of chemistry can be very useful as you avoid asking for several kilos of the good stuff, which should raise eyebrows. Making your own medical drugs with such a char is a fringe benefit as the stuff is readily available otherwise.

Providing recreational drugs for the whole neighborhood means stepping on syndicate toes; IMO not worth it.

Also why you shouldn't mistake Murcury Fulminate for Meth.

And why you really, really shouldn't slot off the guy that's been told he isn't about to live any longer due to cancer. He's even crazier than the sociopathic gangster. And, yes, "Heisenberg" sounds like a really good street name!

Explosives are always good but I've got a thrown weapons blahbity blah character who likes to throw explosives, chems, and drugs at people. It's more "Is the discount four Home Cookin' worth it to throw a patch of K10 on the biggest chummer in sight as a distraction?" Or a Laes or Slab patch.

You could just use the rules for day job, and make them take a contact who their are either cooking for or is dealing for them. Maybe allow them to have small amounts of whatever they are making (If they take all they make, they wont have any to sell).

That way its all quick and clean and tidy. No extra work, no headache, and if they want to go more into the drug dealing/making route as a group then worry about it.

Or if they want to just make small amounts for themselves, simply make them buy it and tell them thats the prices and availability of all the collective ingredients, and if they pass the tests to buy, they succeeded in making it.

Personally though, I would find it easier for a runner to knock off a medical lab for an anarchist or community and keep the extra the johnson doesnt need to sell or use.

Well, not much of an issue with drugs, but cooking your own explosives makes it a bit harder to trace in a lot of ways, especially if you do it in a place you don't stay at.

Professionally made explosives can be tracked to a batch number usually through a variety of means, IIRC. Whipping up your own, however, confuses this backtrail.

Especially if you use something like Black Powder. "Who the FRAG uses Black Powder any longer???" "This guy, apparently. Did we get any feed from him?" "Yes, and we have a facial match as well. To a historic picture of Guy Fawkes." "DAMNIT!"

The facility at 100k enables you to produce even "exotic" stuff. Not counting time spend cooking and aquiring ingredients, you´d need to produce a market value of 111k in drugs to break even. If you go into selling, I´d estimate the actually needed volume at about 500k. The distribution network will take their share, and getting a "marketing permit" is costly, too.

Take a Chemistry Shop at 5k, Black Market group connection for the ingredients, break even after a few kilos of high-grade plastic explosive. If you want to sell a bit on the side, I second the suggestion of Day Job.

This is why I don't give Longbow large amounts of downtime between runs.

Will definitely have my character do that in the near future
He's a latent pyromaniac, after all. Just needs a few new activesofts along the way.

You can also substitute some of the work with well equipped drones, if you happen to be the Rigger or something.
After all, it's not impossible, just going to be way too expensive for stuff like K-10 (I'd count this one as "exotic"). The lower paygrades, on the other hand, are quite useful and somewhat easier to produce.

Or you could Bioengineer a cow to make NovaCoke. Just be warned, she'll be high on her own supply.

There really has to be a better name for the Novacoke that a Bioengineered Cow Produces...

How about Nostrum?

And if you can Bioengineer a Cow to produce it, why not a MetaHuman?

Cows complain less.

Where actually are the prices for drugs? I never found them.

Heh...

No one would run unless they were paid very well, and having a side job, especially a criminal one can dramatically increase the amount of heat you'd generate, as well as reducing your ability to lay low, which is what I imagine runners do a significant amount of time between jobs.

The police/corps usually don't bother catching runners because it's expensive, dangerous, the runner likely a)doesn't have who/what they stole anymore b)doesn't know enough about Johnson and his agenda to be useful and c)was just doing this on business. If a runner starts making drugs or something, that gives Knight Errant a reason to go after them.

Cows are also less likely to pick up an assault rifle with an underbelly grenade launcher and go, "SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" than a Metahuman while high on their own supply.
Arsenal Page 188. Yeah, strange place to put it, I know.

It'll probably be in the Runner's Toolkit as well.

Looking over that list I can't help but think of a naga runner (I know, I know) who milks themselves for some spare cash. Giggity.

Yeah, but any team with a Naga isn't about to ever be able to go to Quebec.

"Why doesn't she want to go?"

"She says that Naga-Hide isn't a type of artificial leather in Quebec..."

Good point, but with "making" 800¥ an hour they could afford to pick and choose their missions. It's a big world out there chummer, lots of odd jobs. Plus, a crazy naga might like the idea of going. "Let 'em try! Half my cut on this run says they never saw a Naga phys-ad before..."

Maybe the job is getting revenge on some hunters.

Revenge is bad for business, unless someone else is paying for it.

Exactly. Maybe the Nagaraja heard about what you are doing and has decided to fund your righteous efforts by placing a bounty on the bounty hunters.

If the metahuman in question is an attractive female it might be worth the risk when you factor in how much you can charge for a hit direct from the tap . . .

Damnit, now I want to get a bunch of women like this and set up a Milk Bar!

For me and my droogs!

Yet another shadowrunner who found his retirement plan.

Always comes down to buying a bar, doesn't it?

Once again the movie Ronin lays it out for us....

Ambush people with a cup of coffee?

Never walk into a place without knowing a way out?

Hurt someone's feelings, once?

AND having a few friends that just wanted to open a bar, but didn't live so were spared the disillusion.

Making drug isn't complicated: just follow the chemistry rules (SR4A or Arsenal) or just get that implant that let you synthesize a chemical compound.
You might get in trouble with the authorities if your lab is discovered, but if it's just for you and your team you don't really need to worry: the police won't be searching for your lab.

But if you want to make it a business, it'll be much more complicated.

Odds are it will end up being a full-time job, since nagas in the UCAS are few and far between, which can be a serious problem. When the cops have about two suspects to choose from, investigations tends to be quick...

Also you know, when the criminal types decide they want more than you can(or are willing to) provide, things get messy.

In short, the drug trade is nasty nasty business, and something I think smart runners should stay the hell away from.

Dying spares them from disillusionment.


I'll give you a grasshopper for that.

Which is also an issues with Metavarients and other Non-Metahuman Sentients. It gets really easy when you can also narrow down the people they affiliate with...

Such as a Night One that lives with an Elf that size of an Ork.And Shadowrunning isn't a nasty business? They shoot people. In the face. For money.

"OK what do we have, BY ODIN'S BEARD! I heard it was a massive firefight, but this looks like the Second EuroWar! What's the body count?"

"Depends on what you consider a body. We have a few limbs minus the rest, and they were either vaporized with magic or got away and might have survived to a Street Doc. But we're well into the double digits, and might break into the triple if we consider the SINless that got hit by stray bullets."

"Let's not, this is going to be bad enough press as is."

"OK, we're well into the double-digits, with some evidence of a small-scale drug lab that was quickly dismantled. And a closet that is obviously designed for a hothouse, with a strong smell of Deepweed."

"Oh, good. We can hand this off to Vice then and not have any of the major issues fall on us. Go ahead and count those SINless dead. Serves the bastards right after what they did last week."

All the more reason to have good contacts that have high loyalty. Spread the wealth. Add a few links in the chain. Collect your 30%. Hell, take a month off and flood the market with about 400 doses and net yourself almost a 100¥ large. Better toys for the group.

"So, wait, you're telling me that you're Shadowrunning in order to launder your dirty money with equally dirty money, so people don't know you really finance yourselves by making drugs?" "Yep!" "... That makes zero sense." "It also explains why we have Assault Cannons and LMGs while most drug manufacturers are happy with pistols and SMGs." "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that makes better sense."

It's just making use of all available resources to help. Just like using certain acids and nanos (or the Turn-To-Goo spell, ugh) to eat away metahuman flesh and leave the cyberware all nice and untouched for resale.

Or selling the chemical byproducts of an industrial process to produce something else as a product all on it's own. The Corps do it all the time. IRL, no less.

I used to have characters that cooked up doses of drugs for use in gas grenades.

No fun like hurling a cloud of K-10 into the middle of a group.

If you arent going to be in a city for very long, fake drugs are a good way to make money.

"Where the hell did they get ten kilos of baking soda?" "WHY the hell did they have ten kilos of baking soda?"

Day Job, it has it's perks. Ha

"Can we arrest them for Possession with intent to Distribute Baking Soda?" "I don't know, can we arrest them on the grounds that they're a danger by being too stupid for the general populous?" "Nah, prisons are already overcrowded."

Yes. Yes they can.