So the last run we were sent on went pear-shaped, and the group ended up with a dead rigger, less than 700 nuyen in profit per person, three ransacked hideouts- and three dormant sukuyan in sealed metal crates.

We're in the process of finding new hideouts, but I'm wondering...how much are those vampires worth?
Who do you even talk to about selling that sort of thing? Tamanous?

I'd say Tamanous is one option. Another would be that some governments collect bounties on the infected. Another option might be programs doing research into how their product affects/effects the infected. (Biotechnology Corporations, ParaBiology Programs.)

I'd say Market Value is going to vary based on a lot of factors-how many other people are selling vampires? What condition are they in? Etc....Since I don't know what kind of power level you're looking at your particular table I'd start out high-ball. (At least the take you'd clear on a good run, maybe more.)

Can't you put them through a meat grinder to produce telesma?

Ascalaphus - you would be a perfect addition to our table with that comment.

-Tir:)

Chain them out on the rooftop to see if they sparkle?




-k

From Running Wild. Looks like I did give you a fair price.

Only 3k for Dzoo-noo-qua? You might as well get a regular job.

If you can get them in job lots from a helicopter, it adds up.

As with many things the trick is to buy in bulk.

Wonder if they have bounties in Alaska? The Palin family would be all right.

...

Yes yes, I know, "The Special Hell".

But still, some of those numbers should have one additional zero at the end. Vampires and Nosferatus in any case.

Oh, really Irion? Who do you think made sure those prices stay so low?

Why do you say that? For all the publicity they get, the Infected (all of them, from vampires to ghouls) only make up about 0.1% of the population. The vast majority of those are ghouls (better than 90% are ghouls, though I haven't actually sat down and hashed out numbers on that just yet). Of the remaining non-ghoul Infected, the bulk are Type II. There are more loup-garou than there are vampires, for instance.

Okay, assuming that 90 out of 100 Infected are ghouls, and 8 or 9 out of the remaining 10 are Jarka-Criscione, that leaves 1% of the Infected to be Type I.

Assuming a population, worldwide, of about 7.14 billion (which I calculated out using some UN and US Census Bureau projections on rapidly declining population growth rates and the known mass die-offs during the VITAS pandemics), that gives us 7,140,000 Infected worldwide. Of that, 6,426,000 are ghouls, and the remaining 714,000 are vampires, loup-garou, etc.

One out of 10,000 Infected being nosferatu, as mentioned in Running Wild, by the way, means there are fewer than 1,000 of those monstrosities worldwide. About a dozen of those HMHVV-Ia victims (maybe) are mutaqua. (The real numbers, by the way, might be worse than Dr. McAllister thought in Running Wild). That 714 comes out of the 71,400 Type I victims in the world.

I don't know that I lowballed the bounties, but I don't think making them much higher, given the rarity, was really warranted.

OOC: I was also asked not to make them too high by my developer.

@Patrick Goodman
Well, I guess there are still people out there who pay much more for a living test subject.
But still, with this bounties there won't be any bountyhunter...

(The one for guhl is ok)

Bounty Hunters in Shadowrun pursue targets other than the Infected.

Hey, man, whatever the market will bear. Someone wants to pay that much, let them.

Good thing I wasn't trying to create a lot of bounty hunters, then, isn't it?

If you're lucky, enough to pay for the dead rigger storage.

I would personally expect the rarity to make them worth -much- more.

But I guess it depends on the reasoning for the bounty. If the reasoning is just to get them out of existence with minimal cost, it's fine. But I'm sure there's people who would love a real vampire to put on display, or experiment on, etc, whether alive or dead, and in those cases the fact that there's under 1000 of them in the entire world makes them hugely valuable.

On intested of those bounties (and probably the main interested from the governement and the corp's side of the fence) is that whenver one of the critters got trashed in the barrens or other crappy area, the locals will cash the bounty and doing so inform teh governemetnthat htere might be an infection problem rahter than just brudning/dumping/whatver teh corpse and let the problem fester unknown.

I a crop of boi=unties starts poking up in one place, then it's time to seriously investigate the situtation with all necessary means.

With that sort of aprroach, the bounties are into a mean of eradication but more of surveillance, to be informed about infected showing up. In that interpreation, hte low bounties works. And keeping them law prevents of proliferation of wanabee hunters more likely to get infected and carry the disease back into 'civlized' areas than to solve the problem.

The government is not in the business of hunting down the Infected. Their rarity says that they aren't as much of a threat as, say, bugs, so they aren't worth that much. They're a nuisance; you just don't see them that much. That they're worth up to 15 grand tells you that once they do show, they're worth getting rid of.


Bingo.


And I'm sure those private concerns would be willing to pay a pretty penny for them. That's a private matter, not one for the government (which set the bounties quoted in Running Wild). The government's just not going to pay that much.


Nosferatu are 1 in 10 million metahumans walking the planet. Maybe. The government doesn't consider them on a par with, say, Osama bin Laden, which is what a lot of people here seem to think they're worth.

That's cool. As I said, whatever the market will bear.

But the stuff I was asked to write doesn't reflect the myriad private concerns that might want to have a vampire test subject. They reflect the kinds of bounties the government pays for eradicating a feral hog or some such critter. Vampires pay more than feral hogs, but if you're a bounty hunter out hunting down vampires and nosferatu, you're not going after the government bounties anyway. You're going after private or corporate cash, and that was way beyond my mandate for the RW article.

Now, what might be coming, that's something else, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Remember the number of Infected working for/with Tamanous...

...in that case, you might get a favor. Or a grudge.

Also, what's the difference between Fomoraig and Fomori, while we're at it?

Just don't bring him here. There isn't a sign in my front yard that says "Dead Rigger Storage" because storing Dead Riggers ain't my business!

Or they make an example of you, so people know they shouldn't mes with T's customer base and personnel...


Fomori are a metavariant and somewhat easier to look at than the average troll, Fomoraig are Infected and look the opposite.

Fomoraig is the retcon name of fomorians, HMHVV-II Infected trolls. They were introduced in SR2, in Paranormal Animals of Europe.

Fomori are a troll metavariant. They're the furry, pretty trolls. They were first introduced, I think, in the SR2 version of the Shadowrun Companion. Fomori are not Infected.

EDIT: Sengir is the ninja.

Really, I think the best bet is to be the nosferatu who recruits shadowrunners to collect people. Then you infect them and send the runners back with a handful of Infected to collect the bounty for. You, as the supplier, take 10% of course. If the heat gets close, you vanish off into the sunset and setup shop a few states over.

Is that healthy?

Tinted windows and it's all good.

Additionally, in 4e the infected aren't as really as tough as they used to be

Working on that bit....

And if that doesn't send a shiver up your back, then Cyberzombie Drop Bears are the least of your concern.

Ray, let's just say that Operation: Desparkle has begun, and leave it at that.

Shadowrun is going to invade the Twilight Universe and beat the living drek out of what they call Vampires?

Bella: "I know what you are."
Ozzy: "Say it. Out loud."
Bella: "...Vampire."
Ozzy: "Vampire? Vampires are pussies. I'm the Prince of fucking Darkness!" - Part Of Ozzy's Intro During His Scream Tour

Well lets not go overboard... don't forget they're playable now too; so juicing up the NPC's would juice up the PC's as well unless you specifically state they aren't (and then explain why)

I don't know Mutaqua are pretty nasty.

Not really. Did you see the part of Palin's Alaska where they had her shooting?

I'm also working on that bit.

I tried.

This sounds like a neat idea for a run:

The runners get a call from the Texas Rangers(cops, not baseball) with a job to track down and destroy a Nos crime boss who's been Infecting innocents and turning them in for the bounty. Can the runners track this lord of darkness distribution and his unholy wholesalers before they too become products on the shelf?

Also, I call dibs on the phrase "unholy wholesale."

How does Shadowrun view the process of creating other infected creature's? Is it an intimate process-as it's so often portrayed in popular media? Or no? We don't really make much use of Infected scenarios beyond Ghouls. But then we lived through the introduction of Vampire the Masquerade, and the ascent of Vampires in popular culture-and while it didn't leave the same sort of sour taste that anime did, it's close to being as bad.

That was such an awesome tour.

Operation: Desparkle is more about raising and firming up the walls between the two universes. A lot. Like, total separation. Forever. I don't like a lot of what's been done with vampires, et al, so I'm working on fixing some of it.

Some will cheer me. Some will despise me. I'm okay with this.


There has to be an immediate, emotional connection for the Infection power to do its thing. This is usually accomplished through abject fear, though it can passion or even the sharing of a really, really good joke that gets them both laughing and enjoying each others' company.

It's widely believed that there has to be an exchange of Infected fluid for Type I HMHVV, even among some of the experts. This is not, in fact, the case, although an exchange typically does take place anyway. It's just not necessary to the Infection power working its magic (if you'll excuse the expression). Is it "intimate" as many sources claim? After a fashion, but it's not an orgy as many popular venues would have it.

That answer your question?

Why am I just thinking of hermit and his claims that Infected are the authors' special pets and totally broken?

And add me to the crowd who will despise Patrick, I like them playable.

Yeah. I pretty much knew what the answer would be. We tend to like our Infected as big bad nasties, so I'm down with making them from a sterner cut.

Two things on this:

1. I'm not positive yet that I'll be able to nix playable Infected, much as I'd like to. That negotiation is ongoing.

2. There's a perfectly serviceable game for playing vampires already. It's called Vampire. We don't need playable vampires in Shadowrun, in my opinion.

While you are rewriting stuff you don't like, go ahead and write Ryan Mercury out of the game as well, or is only stuff you don't like that could possibly need to be changed or ignored?

Not to slow your roll Bigity, but just how would you handle having a say in the game? You'd push my agenda as hard as your own? I mean let's be real here. I may agree or disagree with some of the people writing the game, and their choices-but let's not be a dick about it.

It's more a question of why it's apparently not ok for someone to ignore the trilogy of novels that provides the 'canon' resolution/cause of D's death at their table, but ok to use a position as a freelancer to change something he dislikes.

And I'd say you've got the cart before the horse: There are dozens of games without vampires and ghouls for you to peruse. So why insist on changing SR if you don't like what has been part of the setting since Bug City or earlier?

I think everyone has the right to push his or her own agenda. Thats what everybody does anyway.

There are people who think magic should be weaker, there are the once who think it should stay like it is and there are people who think magic should be different altogether.

You can do the same with Ware or the matrix or basicly anything in PnP.

So yeah, there are people who want Shadowrun more CyberPunk and there are the once who want it mor Fantasy and there are the once who want it more Buffy or more Blade style or anything in between.