I need some help from the board members. I need to create a character, and won't be able to read my own copy of the Companion for a few days. I am working from memory where that book is concerned, but I am unable to remember a few edges. I am trying to decide on some edges involving a character's superior contacts and connections, his ability to get in touch with good people and get ahold of god equipment. I am unable to remember the effects and point values of well connected, friends in high places, and pirate family. Which one is it that lets a character start out with equipment above the availability limit? Also, are there any other similar edges, relating to contacts and ability to procure equipment, which I am forgetting?

Connected is a 3 or 5 point edge. Choose a type of merchandise and with the 3 points, you can always sell or always buy that type for the best price. For the full 5, you can buy and sell.

Friends in high places is 2 points. It's basically a level 2 contact somewhere high up and they'll help you as long as you're not compromising them. Within reason.

Pirate Family is a 3 pointer. You have family at multiple ports and they'll either give you a hand or annoy the hell out of you.

As for the higher availability at chargen, I think what you are looking for is the old SR2 Edge, SotA, which came in 2 levels. It doesn't exist in SR3 canon.

I believe it should more correctly be rephrased "You have family at multiple ports who will annoy the hell out of you and maybe occasionally help you out of a situation they probably got you into."

~J

Indeed. That's much more honest about the Edge.

I'm thinking, next Shadowrun game I play in instead of GM, I'll take the Pirate Family edge just for kicks...

It becomes especially amusing when you're somewhere landlocked.

Darn straight.

Nothing can be more humorous/amusing than meeting members of your extended family all over Seattle, and anywhere else you might go.

It's enough to drive you crazy.

A run involving a gang of pirates in the desert of Utah could be funny.

Yeah, I can just imagine two pirates in Utah going "I thought there was a beach around here somewheres..." And the other nodding and saying "Yarrrrr."

Hmm...do I even want to bring up the mind-boggling concept of Mormon Pirates?

There might be a story there though. Mainland pirate contacts who are working some deals with smugglers and whatnot... I can see it... sort of.

Land pirate to truck-trailer: Strike ye colours! Prepare to be boarded!

Actually, I can totally see land pirates - think Mad Max.

Actually, when I was young a guy came to our school showing us the wide wide world of advertising and he showed us a rejected ad for 7up that involved a bunch of land pirates trying to take over a 7up truck. Mad Hijinks later, the last pirate is on top of the truck when it goes through a low bridge.

Back to the present - "Yarr, there go me booty."

Not hoping to win the A.L. Award for responding to a joke post seriously, but T:SH pretty much opened it up (Hell, personal fiat opened it up) to be something which could be easily transposed to land for smugglers, or even people in sufficiently large and diverse metroplexes (e.g., Los Angeles).

So, question: do smugglers count as pirates for the sake of the edge? Considering that the publishers differentiated the two (slightly) with their own books, do the two count as the same thing?

You could have them pirating about the Great Salt Lake... "Yarr, the treasure floats up after you drop it... quite handy it is."

My mind is blank when I think of what you just said.

I see no problem with the idea of including overland smugglers and their supporters. Smuggling across NA will require stops along the way--ports of entry are ports of entry, whether they're on the water, the Sioux-UCAS border, or DFW--and there are smuggler haunts and havens (hence the title of the book) where you'd expect real or effective "families" os smugglers and their social infrastructure to remain. T:SH makes it pretty clear that there is a whole section of the shadowbiz where they gather intel on border crossings, fence, operate haunts and clandestine repair shops, and every other manner of activities which have corresponding eqv. in, say, Carib piracy.

I'd just rename the Edge appropriately. Smuggler Family, (Specific) Organized Crime Family, Gypsy Family, etc.

All you have to do is think of Brad Pitt's family in the movie "Snatch" and you have the gyst of it. They can be any ethnicity, as long as the relations are as complicated as the gordian knot.

And they are not above shotgunning the organized crime pig breeders.

"Dags."

Yeah. I like Dags.

What if you adapted the pirate family edge so that you were a member of a larger organization that you had actually agreed to join, rather than merely been born related to? For example, maybe your runner also sidelines as an agent for a terrorist group, foreign rebel army, or spy agency, or is an FBI Snitch. In this case, you would actually be committed to help out your "family," but they would also be committed to helping you out. What sort of point cost would that have associated with it?