this seems incredibly generous. at best, you should be able to sell them for 75% of the value for standard grade (they're used, now, and used cyberware loses value when used). not to mention standard fencing value is 25% +/- 5% per net hit in either direction.

also, out of curiosity... is this presuming standard grade? because standard wired 3 is gonna run into some problems most likely... like the part where you may very well need to be turned into a cyberzombie if you want to keep the rest of your 'ware.

It is unrealistically generous, which was the point. I was expecting magic to trump tech by an insane margin then go 'in a real game this would be even more pronounced! ' instead of which it was fairly close.

When you drop the tech buyback to a more realistic 25 % and factor in a medium lifestyle (-5000 per 2-4 runs) magic wins hands down.
Yes assuming standard grade.

I'm going to make a suggestion:

For payout multipliers from the book, I'd suggest that the suggested combat multipliers (outnumbered 3-1, outnumbered 2-1 profession rating 4, highest dice pool, ect) be used if it's POSSIBLE for the runners to encounter such opposition, whether or not they actually do. Why should they be paid less for having a good idea that avoids the fight?

Because the Mages and Adepts who have the best tools for avoiding fights don't really need the money! If you're playing a Neanderthal character like a Street Sam or a Rigger, you're just gonna go in Pink Mohawk style anyway, right? That's how Magicr... I mean.... Shadowrun works, right?

~Umi

I tend to think of shadowrunners as getting paid on an exponential scale to their quality and the job needed. Conversely, there are a lot less high end jobs than lower end jobs. There are, after all, only so many versions of the Predator VI that need paydata stolen.

So, by the time you get to "I need to break into a secret R&D facility" yes, you are paying very well..but you can hardly count on that coming down monthly.

Then there's the jobs that require talent, but don't have massive risk, and simply aren't worth it to the Johnson to pay out the ass for given the potential reward. They probably come a round a fair bit, and they'll more than cover the rent, but there's still going to be down spells.

Private jobs, PI stuff, hooding, doing a bit of extra merc work for a a syndicate, helping ship a few crates of BTL...basically things that could already be done, but hey, someone needed a little bit of outsourcing...these are always around. Someone always needs something somewhere like this. But its not the path to fame and fortune.

As such I envision the average runner lifestyle going like this:

Month 1: Nobody really needed me. Helped the local gang move a van full of drugs for 1k. Cash is looking kind of low since I bought that new (gear piece) last month.
Month 2: Fixer called me in for a run on a fashion designer...very weird, but 20k to the good. Plus free shoes. had 14k left after expenses, and 12k left after I laundered the money into a banking system.
Month 3: Payday b*tches! Big run on Horizon! 90k, just blew what most people make in a year! Time to live it up! And I have a (gear/contact/spell) I've been looking at for a while too...hihg life baby, high life.
Month 4: Bob is dead and I'm frozen out of my accounts f*ck F*ck F*CK. My fixer is missing, and my KE contact won't take my calls...
Month 5: Think I can surface now..run a few small time things for the Yak. Maybe stay out of the downtown scene for a bit. Maybe put out my feelers? Ok..We're coming back on line here...
Month 6: I was wrong. Moving to Denver by way of fastest smuggler heading that way. God, he's pricey. Good thing I had 20k on sticks...
Month 7: So this is Denver...got a little bit of money, an apartment, and I guess I'd better make myself available.