I've been thinking about using the rules on pages 120 & 121 involving Street Cred, Notoriety and Public Awareness. Not for my existing group's set of characters, but for the new round of lowbies that they'll be making here shortly. The main reason being that implementing this rule with a group of 260+ Karma characters makes for some amazing social modifiers when it comes to Street Cred. If anyone is using this, how is it working for you?

The rules for Notoriety seem a little less abstract than Street Cred and even Public Awareness. As they're founded more on the Edges & Flaws of a character, plus their actual exploits, this seems to be something I'm more prone to have little difficulty with. The only area where I see this having a weak chink in the armor may be where finding the difference between it and Street Cred come into play.

Public Awareness is about as abstract to me as Street Cred, although it makes sense in a general sort of way. Where I find this ruling to be troublesome is when characters who have maintained a tight lid on their identities suddenly find themselves on the lips and ears of every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the street. Thoughts?

i used them twice, for my 200+ karma character, negotiating for street gear. i got exactly what i wanted, and i got it fast, so i guess i was pleased. i dunno, though. there's not enough of a downside to those rules, for me. the basic ideas are okay, they just need a lot of tinkering before i'll use 'em again.

I think there needs to be an errata for the Public Awareness rules. The calculation is fine (the more you run, and the more bad rep you have, the lower the TN for people to know who you are), but the explanation of 15+ and 20+ public awareness being "more famous" is inaccurate unless the Public Awareness value is actually just the sum of Street Cred and Notoriety instead of 20(?) minus the sum of the two.

The first time I saw those rules I figured it must have been some misunderstanding. I don't use them personally, I just like to play it by ear, usually in the form of some sort of discount for players that keep up a good rep (and a hike for those who don't)

Haven't had time to get this online with all the PDF stuff, but here is:

MR. JOHNSON’S LITTLE BLACK BOOK ERRATA

Version 1.0
Date: 12/22/04

Changes are not yet reflected in any printings.

p. 121: Notoriety
At the end of the second-to-last paragraph, add the following in parentheses:
“(This has no impact on calculating Public Awareness, below.)”

p. 121: Public Awareness
In the second paragraph, change the second line to read:
“A character whose Public Awareness is 5 or less is well known among those who keep an eye on the shadows; the name of a character with a Public Awareness of 2 or less is a household word, and may even have sim or trid characters based on his exploits.”

Ah, good. Thanks for the errata, Adam. *scribblescribble*

thank god this finally got an errata...i pulled a lot of hair out over this, for anyone that remembers my post when the book first came out...

works a lot better now, although i'm still unsure about being able to "repent" so easy by buying off Notoriety with Street Cred....and how this ties in with Public Awareness...

what do you mean when you say:
"This has no impact on calculating Public Awareness..."

for example, here is how i understand it (based on the errata):

Take Sam, a normal street samurai. He has, as in the book, a SC of 11, N of 2, and PA of 7 (20 – 11 – 2)

If he continues to do shadowruns and is a “good boy”, he’ll eventually reach a SC of 15, N of 2, and PA of 3 (20 – 15 – 2)


At this point, not only is he well known (with a PA TN of 3, he is actually going to be almost instantly known), but because his SC is 15, he is also considered well respected….so, Sam decides he has become too high profile, and he no longer is getting jobs because everyone knows him – he has not stuck to the shadows enough…


The next day, Sam decides to go on a killing spree and kills one innocent random person every hour for 3 hours. Thus, his N goes to 5 (assuming he earned 1 point of Notoriety for each innocent he killed).


Anyways, he now has a SC of 15, N of 5, and PA of 0….He's on every news station that night...no problem!! He just needs to burn 10 points of Street Cred to get rid of the 5 points of Notoriety!

Here is where i'm confused now:
Now he is at a SC of 5, N of 0, and PA of 15!!!! Now, the TN to know him is 15, even though he STILL has an overall career Good Karma of over 150, but no one will know him (that did last night on the news when his PA was 0), and his Street Cred assures that he’ll only get jobs of a level he got 10 years ago when it was still early in his career – oh, and he’s totally wiped the slate clean of ALL his misdeeds…

what am i missing???

We have decided in our group (who have been using a variation of these rules ever since SR1) that the more months you stay off of shadowrunning, the less your reputation becomes, allowing people to effectively retire if they'd like.

any houserules i come up with will deal with the negative effects of throwing your street cred around (greater chance of being tracked down for your exploits), as well as ways of reducing your street cred and/or public awareness.

**Note, i dont i have the book this is an opinion only**

I think one of the easiest ways to deal with this might just to be make it non instantaneous. Maybe start with base time of 1 month/ SC burnt. reduced MAYBE by thenumber of succeses rolled vs a TN of the difference between PA's? so that the sam would have a TN of 8?

the only thing i'm not sure of, is WHAT the test would be?

thoughts? complete gibberish?

this is where.. buying, dating, and providing good stories tips to a news field reporter... helps.. she can keep your face off the news =)