The runners in my game have found a secluded abandoned house that is to their liking. It's located in an off-the-beaten-path location, but close enough to city amenities that they wish to make it the team's safehouse. I'm already aware of the safehouse rules, but two of the runners wanted to work specifically on a few elements of the house. First and foremost, they wanted to tap into the electrical grid and then turn on the water.

1) We've roleplayed turning the power back on, however they're concerned that it would be noticed eventually by the electrical company and they might send someone out to the house to turn it off or investigate who was monkeying around with it. Are there ways in the game to set-up a physical bypass or spoof of who is using the power? That is to say, deception outside of the Matrix.

2) For the water supply part, the same question would apply about hiding the usage from the city, but also - what skill would one use to work on plumbing? Industrial Mechanical?

3) Anyone have runners in their groups that have done something like this before? Anything interesting that happened or should happen when squatters try to take some ownership of something they don't really possess? I'm all ears for adventure hooks and ideas.

1) Tell them to not be cheap and just pay someone off at both the electrical and water companies. Better yet, put together a mini-run for them to get blackmail material on those someones.

2) Yeah, I would say Industrial Mechanical is the skill involved.

3) Never seen it done before, but would be entertaining.

All utilities is money. As long as someone is paying for it, I do not think that the utilities company will send anyone to turn it off or investigate. Else I think you might have to divert power from a legitimate paying customer, ie that other guy is paying the bills and you are stealing his power. Sometimes this is not too difficult because you should not be using very much electricity or a lot of water and you are tapping off the utilities of heavy industry. As long as your usage compared to the guy you are leaching off is small and do not raise any eyebrows, I think it is possible to hide the actual tap without too much effort.

I couldn't imagine where they came from.

There's RP and then there's mechanics. In the mechanics, its simply a matter of paying the appropriate lifestyle cost. Though typically it means that the 'system' was in place more or less intact and you're just paying for its connection and maintenance. Within mechanics of SR4, this is covered under 'Neighborhood' too. Your location reflects how hard/easy it is to refit stuff. So if you're trying to setup shop in a crappy (crappier) area of the Barrens, it doesn't matter how much money you have, the infrastructure simply isn't there to get water/sewage/electric at decent levels.

In higher rated neighborhoods, its easier simply because the grid is otherwise there for utilities and just needs connection.

Basically you're taking Runner's Companion advanced lifestyle and buying categories to whatever the preferences are.

Spoofing Lifestyles can cover both of these. Unwired for details.

Also, they could just put a generator in the safehouse.

Kind of doing it in a Mage game. Well, more "the previous mages were all murdered, now we're here, buuuut there ain't no wards/power/etc."

I just wanna say kudos for focusing on the small stuff like this. Having runners who are worried about fixing up an abandoned house (instead of just writing off some nuyen for a Lifestyle and calling it a day), who are wanting to build up a team HQ like that (instead of all playing as cool loners who don't socialize except for working together), who are worried about what the cops and authorities might do (instead of just assuming they'll kill whoever The Man sends at them, and take their stuff), etc, etc, etc...good on you, an' good on your gamers.

Oh, I sort of forgot. GURPS Game #1 the players carved out their own mountain lair. Design and such was done in Minecraft due to the 3D nature of the project.

So, I left out the bit that they're all escapees from prison and not only SINless, but possessed of Criminal SINs. As escapees, we've been roleplaying them having to shirk the law, watchful eyes, bounty hunters, cameras, and every other manner of snoop just to scratch out a meager place of safety. This abandoned house is their solace for the time being. I should have mentioned this because they are still stealing goods and weapons just to get up to a playable standpoint in the game. Currently, one of them has a pistol with one clip's worth of ammunition, they have a few katanas from some Kabuki-Ronin go-gangers they murdered, and are still using their bikes for transportation - despite all feeling this nagging sensation that they're going to get noticed soon if they don't lay low.

As they're meager funds run dry, they're forced to do dirty jobs on the streets that challenge their morals. I've introduced fatigue from hunger - which is the first time I've ever done this in a game. And now, some of the basics in setting up the house. We were all aware that they could just buy a lifestyle, but as 40ish year old gamers, we wanted a more visceral game and all opted for the reality filter to be turned up to 10.

Hope that explains a little more about why I'm asking some of these questions.

Their best best might be a Gas Genny in the basement, The gas can be siphoned from cars nearby, as far as water, most properties will live on a main or have their own system like a Well.

Hm, though as 'rules' go, until they gain fake SINs to cover, their SINless factor limits them to like...squatter/low level of lifestyle.

And again, lifestyle qualities will be generally limited by area. If you're living in the slums, you can't really have a mansion unless you do a whole bunch of things to increase the 'quality' of the area.

The 'barrens/z-zone' level area doesn't mean that it doesn't have gangs, it means it doesn't have stable gangs etc, so its constant war, or little fishes getting chewed up by bigger ones. For a modern perspective, its like well....post Iraq invasion, pre-Surge, where US forces weren't really controlling areas, you had a resurgence of ethnic violence/sect violence, carbombs, murders, people disappearing. Now, try building a house in that situation.

Its all well and fine for an individual gaming group to modify/toss rules for a better game experience, but if that's the case it will be more difficult for others to provide a framework, since there won't BE a common framework. Otherwise, if using the rules as your basepoint, its still reflective of the 'intent of lifestyles'.

The game master has to determine if the infrastructure is present for the things the players want to do. And I know I keep coming back to location, but it does sorta matter. There's a reason you don't do a catchwater system all willy-nilly. Especially in a toxic/polluted/etc area. If you're doing it in the Barrens, that's basically acid rain you're collecting. River water in the general area is...bad...hence the SSC being pissed at UCAS. I dunno about the water table allowing for wells and stuff.

Electrical power is potentially easier, I mean theoretically you could just take a whole bunch of Suncells from junked cars and set that up as your own sunny-day power supply, maybe a windmill or something. But at the same time, in a crappy zone, the more you're upgrading your place, the more it becomes noticeable to others, and potentially draws unwanted attention.

well, as you said, location matters, sun cells are useless in Seattle, & I mean completely useless you get sun rarely ever in Seattle lol

Fugitives? That should turn the 10 Karma Criminal SINner quality into a 25 pointer.

Being on the run makes this a lot harder.

Electricity: You can steal power from somewhere. Where is the closest place that actually has electrical power? Is it next door or on the next block? Be aware of any smart grid functions that would give you away, such as directly plugging in a device that talks to the grid to tell it about wattage and power saving settings. Also be aware that your cables might be found, stolen, followed back to your safehouse, or whatever. Try to be discreet and don't use too much power.

If you go with the generator, you need to first find one, and then hunt for fuel. Don't forget to have a place for the fumes to go out of the house, and consider ways to make it partially soundproofed.

Water: This one is probably easier if the house is still on the water main. Just do what the water man does and unlock and turn on your water. If the plumbing is broken or non-existent, then you need a plumber. You'll need a working way to get warm water unless the city provides that, but I don't think it's done that way in UCAS. In the meantime, see how local street people get their water.

If you can without getting picked up by the cops, research the likelihood of the owners dropping by, or in which gang's territory the house is in. The biggest problem for the moment might be other squatters finding you.

You don't need full bright sunshine to get power out of suncells - even a crappy cloudy day will still bring some juice. But you"ll need more cells to get anything usefull. If you're only using the place for short periods with plenty of empty time, you'll need a lot of batteries (maybe ripped from electric cars), but it can work.

In my opinion your best bet would be to find a fuel-cell powered car and rip outthe fuel cells and cracking unit (which extracts hydrogen out of a more standard fuel like natgaz, butane or ethanol) to use as a generator. Considering the power usage of car, you'll have way more than enough to run a house and it's appreciably quiet which helps with detection compared to an lower-tech ICE-engine powered generator. Of course, odds are you'll have to scrounge some way to convert the current to house standard as it's unlikely a car's electric motors uses it.

That's going to be a soemwhat complex setup and reliability isn't guaranteed, but it's relatively cheap when doen with stolen/scrounged parts. Of course, you's better have someone with tech know how and tolls at available.

Note that there's probably some dedicated equivalent on hte market to power places like secluded vacation spots or the lik, but the price tag (in cash or effort to steal) is probably way higher.

Location is next to Picnic Point Park in the Seattle area. Found it on Google maps. Had the look of the type of park that would easily become abandoned. In our story, it became the stomping grounds of the Kabuki-Ronin gang and where the runners pulled themselves out of Puget Sound. So, it would be in the Mukilteo/Everett area. Access to water main is a yes. As is electricity. One of the runners is a scientist-gone-terrorist and is already expressing interest in looking up a solar option.

Just a by-the-way though, since this was brought up, having lived in the Seattle area I can tell you that there are several solar companies that retro-fit homes for solar panels to feed energy credits back into the system. So, despite the numerous cloudy days Seattle gets every year, solar is still viable.

No one thought up the generator idea.. I think mainly because they stole Yamaha Growlers from the Ronins and didn't think about how to transport something of that size around town.

For the time being, I'm going to leave them to their respite. They've earned some breathing room. They're all very proud of their defenses and solace in their new flat. I like the ideas of run-ins with other squatters though. Should present an interesting problem with them not wanting to draw attention to themselves.

I lived in Everett for 12 years myself, grew up there, in an average week you could count the sunny days with half a hand lol. Yes its an option, but the solar will come more slowly than other area down south where you have more sun & less rain.

as far as transport, pretty easy to find some lowly orcs doing some groundskeeping in Seattle, they will sometimes have small trailers that can attach to most vehicles, something like that should be all around the Seattle area.

I'm sure every single one of them was the week I vacationed at my grandparents' places (one set was in Everet, the other in the NW suburbs).

Heck one time flying into SeaTac I overheard a guy mention that it's always raining when he visits Seattle and I said, "That's ok, I'm the harbinger of rain. Every time I come to Seattle it stays sunny and then I take the rain back home with me."

It was sunny all week.

And it rained at home when I got back.

Every summer this happened, almost completely. I think I can count on one hand the number of times it rained when I was visiting my grandparents on one hand. Mildly overcast? Sure. Frequently, but not oppressive and dark, just not blue. Bright and sunny, just diffuse.

oh don't get me wrong, I love the rain, it always had a calming effect on me, it just happened that, other than during the summer, every other season was more wet than dry & the sun peeking out was a rare occurrence, I actually recall one year, we broke the record of days without seeing the sun, was something like 120+ days without sun.

Ditto. Could use some right now, too. Can't sleep; old emotional wounds.

Everett is nice. From the game perspective, the area can be squatter-low, with some middle lifestyle rating. Unless 5th drastically changes it, the area is experiencing squatterstuff, making it a good location for safehouses and stuff.

Heh when I was living in Tacoma for school and work (little under 10 years) I was pretty sure I ended up getting Seasonal Affective Disorder, especially coming FROM Hawaii.

realistically, thats the real Everett I lived in, cheap housing, lots of blank area such, but at least the drainage was good lol