So I was going through my SR5 rules helping a few friends make characters the other day and we came across something that I'm not entirely sure is consistent across the book.

In the Character Creation section, one of the characters purchases 4 or so guns, 10 fake SINs and 10 gun licenses (one per SIN).

Later in the book, in the section detailing SINs and Licenses, the wording seems to imply that you need a separate license for each piece of Restricted gear.

My friend was making a sammy, so we totaled up the number of restricted items he had bought between gear and cyber/bioware and came up with 24.

Do you guys do one license per piece of gear, or a general 'gun license' and 'cyber license' or something like that?

Nope. That'd be insane as you'd have to purchase an individual license for nearly every single bullet you buy (those that aren't coded F). Generally I try to mimic real world situations, like a single "Concealed Carry" permit to go along with a license to "Carry Handguns" and the sort.

And licenses aren't strictly for restricted gear, either. If your friend sammy has his/her own car the character will need a license to drive it. Depending on the location, a magician will need at least a license to be able to perform magic openly.

The SIN, license and availability rules are still messed up. Do it your own way.

Historically, we've (me and my group) done it in packages. So you do something like Fake license: Armed Courier (Rating 5), where it covers some of the restricted stuff for weaponry and cyber. We've even done so with the 'class titles', so "Fake License: Street Samurai (rating 5)", or Occult Investigator, or whatever.

We've done things like "Armed Courier allows of Rating 8 restricted or less weaponry to be 'legally carried and used'" or otherwise give 3 qualities of a particular license bundle that it covers.

Bounty Hunter and Bodyguard tend to be popular fake license bundles, for example.

We usually break it out a bit further than Voran's group. We do the licenses by category. You could for example have a license for hand-guns (covering heavy pistols and lighter), a security permit for SMG's and a permit for restricted combat ware (covering cyber and bio ware). A hacker (decker now) might have a Security Hacker license that would cover both her software and deck, but not additional restricted cyberware.

I'd suggest talking with your group and coming up with what seems logical for you and your team.

I've always bought them for weapons and any obvious cyberware, but anything that was hidden from normal searches I won't bother with. In my mind, all of the forbidden items would cause more problems than my unlicensed gear when scanned.

They seem un-necessary to me. It's not like you need to be in the military or private security to have firearms in the Shadowrun Universe so they should just be incorporated as part of your SIN (fake or otherwise).

Yes some people will have heaps of guns while others have none. In the grand scheme of things it's not much in terms of resources but it is a bitch to keep track of and to roleplay.

All until you come across that one incorruptible cop who hauls your ass in for not having a permit for that Ares Predator you're openly wearing on your hip.

Licenses can be as difficult or as easy as you want in a game.

yeah, the reason our GM went with packages is because he didn't want to just handwave that the license stuff is kinda silly to play with in the first place and discard it entirely. I do like that checking validity is a threshold thing now, rather than a dice vs dice check. if you're playing pink mohawk, screw licenses.

Licenses are important depending on how realistic you want your game to be, and how much time your characters are spending outside the barrens/barrio/hood/slums/warrens.

For me, if my characters want to carry a pistol in a AA or AAA security rating area , then they better have a license to do so - otherwise off to jail - the way it works in real life. If they want to carry an assault rifle in those same neighborhoods, they are going to get detained, questioned, and their SIN (fake or otherwise) and licenses are going to get a thorough going over.

If you play a game where all you do is run around and shoot stuff in a crappy area where the Star never goes, then you don't really need them.

This is a good wealth of information, thanks folks.

I'm just going to go with the easier "gun license", "cyber license", "magic user license", kind of thing. It'll make my players' lives a lot easier (not to mention cheaper) and suffice for now. These players are generally new to the world of Shadowrun, so I don't want to make it too complicated for them.