Alright, so, basically, I had a thought for something my players could do ongoing.


Basically, the idea is that a Prime Runner has a successfully Erased Lifestyle he maintains, somewhere reasonably secure but low-key enough to go unnoticed. He's not in Seattle often, and when he is, he may be using a different Lifestyle. Basically, this place is his "the heat is low and I want to relax for a while" place.

The idea I had was that he doesn't want it to be broken into/vandalized/declared vacant by the Home Owner's Association and resold. Normally he would deal with those sorts of things the traditional way - beating up the local toughs and informing them that his stuff is strictly off-limits unless they want to find themselves in the market for a secondhand cyberarm, and bribing someone in the HoA to look the other way. In this case, though, he wants to hire housesitters. Basically, he has a fixer hire my players' group to have at least one person sit on his doss at least four days a week. Keep it 'lived in,' have any maintenance that needs to be done done (on his nuyen, but he still wants someone with gray matter making that call, not an autosoft,) deal with any would-be vandals or break-ins as forcefully as they can get away with, and so forth and so on.

In return, he'll pay them a modest sum per week, and, of course, they actually get the use of his doss and the car that his lifestyle comes with.


Of course, this sort of thing doesn't come without its complications. While it would basically give my players a safe-haven, they should have, as the crew of Serenity so understated it, "some local flavor happening" every now and then - nosy neighbors, pub brawls (it's in Blimey Estates, natch ) that spill out onto the sidewalk and the front porch, bored youths with nothing to do hurling bricks at the windows, the Prime Runner misses a monthly lifestyle payment because he's gone deep cover and they need to either spoof it or come up with it out of their own pockets, and so forth and so on.


This could potentially lead to something even nastier - say that the Prime Runner who maintains the lifestyle is actually Slamm-O, along with his wife and daughter, and guess who comes looking for them to settle his little hateboner grudge? It might be dangerous, but if they manage to outright kill Clockwork* or throw him off the trail, they'd have earned some major loyalty from a major pair of prime Runners.

So, what sorts of complications might arise from such a thing? Go with the assumption that their Johnson are actually Slamm-O and Netcat, so things that might verge toward breaking their cover - thus building up to a confrontation with Clockwork - are fine, but I'm also hoping for plenty of Local Flavor type incidents.


*I'm pretty sure that a vindictive, loathesome little Goblin with a mission in life to capture a mother and daughter and sell them to a corp to have their brains dissected would put even my nice players in a downright murderous mood, so they'll probably try for that one.




So, I was wondering: what would be a reasonable pay for an ongoing job like this? 1,500 a week, perhaps, maybe with hazard pay if anything major happens? I don't want to lowball and come up with "not worth our time" figures, but at the same time, they are kind of getting a free Lifestyle out of the deal, so I don't want to highball it, either.

Well, my rule of thumb is that runners should make enough each month to cover their lifestyle, plus 10%-ish for expendables. Housingis about a third of that (Or half for those with poor budgeting skills!), so, whatever they'd save in rent would seem a reasonable pay scale. (So, if they make 5000 a month, pay 'em 2000 for the job. Adjust up or downfrom the lifestyle of the runner in question.)

I'd say about 1000-1500 nuyen a week per runner with bonuses for dealing with non-regular issues ("local flavor") that come along.

Umm, why pay them anything like that? They are essentially getting the lifestyle for free.

Because they're not gonna do it for nothing, especially once they start getting some Local Flavor happening, and definitely not when a psychopathic little freak of a Goblin shows up and starts wondering if their SURGE'd neotenous elf with the hair that changes color depending on the localized magnetic fields would be worth anything as a research subject to a megacorp.

So that's the lesson. TANSTAAFL

But I certainly wouldn't offer that much to start.

In my opinion something on the line of 1500 a month should be enough as they get to use the place and the car - things like water, power and the like are probably on the owner's tab, which means the residence itself is akin to getting paid a grand or so in saved expenses.

It means the PCs will get the equivalent of an extra 2K a month each, which seems pretty good for keeping the place 'alive' and being able to do their own things on the side - it's not a full-time job.

Of course they're probably going top get some extras when they have to deal with troubles out of the ordinary - scaring away a few bored teens who lob bricks in the windows or the hobo who keeps covering the doorstep in vomit and piss shouldn't earn a bonus.

I don't want to offer so little that they decide it's not worth their time to do it. I want to use this as a way of springboarding Blimey Estates into the campaign. I'm going to be running On the Run soon, and I'm thinking of upgrading Kerwin Loomis from a dive bar to an Oyrish Pub. That could make things plenty more interesting - they may have to do some Running in the backyard of the doss they're sitting on. Do they risk getting it some heat by sneaking back to it, or take the long way to their home in Redmond, risking further exposure.

Hrm... Perhaps 750 a week? 3K a month isn't quite enough to add up to a whole Lifestyle on its own, but it's a nice chunk of change to pocket.

Assuming the players are getting some use out of the place (as a temporary hideout, or whatever), 750 is reasonable, if just a little low.

On another note, is this beginning to sound like a gritty remake of Home Alone to anyone? The actual owners of the house are gone, you're holding down the fort, and a prolific criminal is trying to break in.

Bwahahahahaaah!

Before Clockwork shows up, I'm gonna have the Wet Bandits try to hit the place.

They'll wish they'd run into a malicious little psychopathic trapmaking kid by the time my players are done with them, no doubt.

if you're just worried about a hook, then you could also:
A) give a perk that makes it worth it to them (aspected domain, deckers dream crib, w/e) as well as modest pay, as this allows you to take it away.
B) use the stick instead of the carrot. Someone (not necessarily the "Johnson") is holding a threat over their head. Either overt, like a loanshark or important figure, or more subtle, like a contact who wants a favor.

Either way, make it clear that whoever lives their saves 50% lifestyle costs or whatever is appropriate, and they hang on to their old lifestyle. Our crew nearly always squirrels away 2 or 3 lifestyles to save our butts. Just use whatever appeals to your characters besides money and karma right along side the payment.

This doesn't sound like a gig that should pay much in terms of cash, especially if you expect your PCs to keep going on shadowruns while house-sitting. There's a lot of non-monetary benefits, though. They get a sweet lifestyle for free, or at least at a substantial discount. Also, if they're being trusted to do this it means they also have a couple fairly high-Loyalty Prime Runner contacts - Slamm-O and Netcat, the homeowners! You don't ask anyone you don't trust to take care of your home.

A cash payment would be appropriate if the PCs are expected to stop shadowrunning while they take care of the house, which would be a reasonable request if their usual runs have a high chance of bringing down some heat on them. Then, something on the order of $1500 per month per PC sounds reasonable - it's not a lot of money, but they're still getting room and board for free. They still can look for work in this case, of course, but if they're found out it'd probably get them fired and strain their relationship with the homeowner.

Remember, they haven't actually lived there yet. Maybe Slamm-O visited a few times to put things in order, but they're looking at this place as a combination of investment and meatspace tarbaby trap. They've covered their tracks pretty well, but no track-covering is perfect. So if Clockwork does show up, worst-case scenario, he finds that they're not the Runners he's looking for, does something unpleasant to them, and gets thrown off the scent. Best case scenario, the house-sitting team takes unkindly to his pleasant demeanor and feeds him a four-course bullet buffet.

If he doesn't show up, then they covered their tracks well enough, they can dismiss the housesitting team with a "thank you muchly" and a nice hefty bonus and use it for themselves.

Either way, unless my players go to excessive lengths to find out who hired them, they're not gonna know who it was until the end. (Think of it as me setting up some long-term plans to wind up with my players getting NetCat and Slamm-O as high-loyalty Contacts. )



That almost sounds like legitimate work.

They're not expecting (or asking) the team to stop Running in the meantime, they would just like it if they could avoid getting any heat on the house or the car that came with it. Though Slamm-O will tell them to try not to draw attention, he won't actually be too pissed if they get the house or its inhabitants a reputation for being a little weird.


Anyway, I've been working on a document for it. Large description of the house itself, my script for them getting the job, and (soon) a random events table.

Sounds like a grea idea!

I would price it at a round 1,000 newyen / runner / month plus use of the house and car (although the latter not for runs). I would also have the house-sitting offer fall into the players' hands, preferably via a contact they do not want to mess around/owe big time.

If your PCs are anything like mine they will be suspicious as hell, but hopefully you can twist their arms to take the job on. If they don't bite, I wouldn't force it on them or try to bribe them with more money, but put it on the back burner so they can hear about another runner group bragging that they got a sweet money-for-nothing house-sitting job in due course. (And then you can offer it to the PCs again when this other runner group have to get the hell outta town after a run gone badly wrong.)

A few ideas for flavour encounters:

1) The local gang stops by asking the new tennants for "insurance money"
The amount shouldn't be much (I would pitch it about 200/month). If the players pay up and pass the message onto their contact, Slamm-O will happily reimburse them. If they don't, expect a war of intimidation/petty vandalism that will hit their pockets harder. If the PCs take it to the gang, then it's time to rumble.

2) Visiting AI
An AI who wants to get in touch with Slamm-O stops by leaving cryptic messages via household appliances. Especially if one of your PCs is using the house's nexus, it could challenge the PC to a cyber-duel a la Matrix II pointless fight scene ("You have to fight a man to know a man."). Afterwards the AI expresses disappointment - "You are not the person I am looking for." - which should give the PCs a hint to the profession of the house owner.

3) Walking wounded
A badly bleeding person is carried by two friends to the door, having just got shot in a drive-by or fight outside. If the PCs can administer first aid/Heal and then get the victim to a street doc they will live. If the PCs refuse to help, they will die on the porch and the friends/fiancee will bear a grudge against the PCs for their antipathy.

I'd have to adjust that one, since I wrote this place up as being a neighborhood which is actually decent to the point that the typical sort of Seattle street gang doesn't exist for more than two weeks before the Peelers haul 'em all before the dock and put the fear of God (read: Hollywood Correctional) into 'em...

Still, I could see some entrepreneurial youths attempting to play it off like the usual protection money racket, as if it's part and parcel of the neighborhood, hoping that the newcomers won't realize they could just call the cops and have them all ran off. So if they pay it, then more's the fool them; if they don't, the kids might try to do some vandalism to convince them to pay up, but if they react the way they'd react to uppity bangers in the Barrens (Spirits and lots of them,) they could be in Deep shit.




Ooooh, I like this one...

It also sets up a surprise ally when and if Clockwork shows up to turn the place into a Downtown Militarized Zone. Nothing ruins a droneswarm rigger's day faster than having an AI fabricate claims on and usurp control of his drones like he's a bitch duke in Crusader Kings V getting picked on by an Immortal Elf Holy Roman Emperor hell-bent on world conquest before 1366.




Hrm! This could be interesting, since the police would investigate something like that in their precious little gated community. The PCs might be torn between pretending not to be home (not my problem) and getting some heat in exchange for doing the right thing.

One comment about teh street numbers - I'm not sure of british numbering covnentions, but in France, 221 would be between 223 and 225 - one side of teh road sues even numbers the other odd numbers.

That's the way it is in America, too, and quite likely in England as well.

They just didn't care. They probably Did Not Do The Research when they laid the place out and went with something counterintuitive and alien to Seattle that they made up on the spot because that's how they imagined foreigners would do it.

Hm.... If they're actually expecting Clockwork to strike at the house, then maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. In this case, the runners should be paid to lay an ambush .

It's one of those things. He might show up, because he's a persistent little force of elemental malevolence, but they have actually done everything in their power to make sure neither he, nor anyone else, can find out that it's theirs.

The players are needed to sit on the doss and insulate it from Local Flavor primarily. If a psychopathic goblin shows up and is dealt with, well, they'll be happy to pay a bonus.