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Edward
What to spend money on

When I play a full magician I always have difficulty spending my money.

You can only have so many foci before you just cant use them all and even deactivated any astral perceiving security asset will pick your for a heavy focus user.

I had intended to spend a lot on alchemical research (read some scrolls on elemental magic and got some information from a free spirit that got me thinking) but now I have my initiatory group funding me, or at least providing the use of an alchemy shop.

You can only have so many safe houses and suits of armor. At 2 safe houses each with a suite of armor and spare gun and 2 spare sets of armor at home I think that will suffice.

I don’t have the program costs of a Decker, the vehicle costs of a rigger, the cyber upgrade and maintenance costs of a samy or the conjuring costs of a hermetic (I am wuyen).

My previous shaman spent all his exes cash on karma but for this game the GM has limited cash for karma to 2 points a game month

What else is there to spend money on?

Edward
Smiley
Libraries, my man.
Kagetenshi
Branch out. You don't have the program costs of a decker? No problem! For ¥2,000 and .2 Essence, you can be a decker yourself!

~J
mfb
i have the same problem with my adept. the biggest issue, for me, is finding reasons to keep running when he's never had less than 80k in the bank, and commonly has 200k+.
Cynic project
Pick a cause. My charatcer, spend a lot of his money on zapatestias.

So,what does you character care about?Cause they have people trying to make money and change the world along those lines...
DocMortand
Heck...start getting ambitious and spend money to go into political office...or if that is too dirty a vocation, spend money to recruit for the newest gang and create your own fiefdom.

Or heck...save up for weapon foci that are above +1! That'll drain your money REAL fast. Especially if they have reach bonuses. Speciallize in Polearms and go get a Halberd +5. *laugh*
Kagetenshi
QUOTE (mfb)
i have the same problem with my adept. the biggest issue, for me, is finding reasons to keep running when he's never had less than 80k in the bank, and commonly has 200k+.

Not remotely enough to retire on, especially if you've been around the block a few times with regard to runs.

~J
Smiley
I think I'm going to open a bar. Or a dojo. Or an illegal casino with blackjack and hookers.

On second thought, forget the blackjack. rotate.gif
Kanada Ten
Piccaso not good enough for you? Funding archological digs not your style? Arming rebel groups too poltical? Research grants and scholarships a little too heady? Ever wanted your own hospital wing? Penthouses, fast cars, and girls too temporary? Tempels, monuments or underground castels overlooking dark pools where an acient serpent coils deep and sings in the twisted light of the feeding glow bugs a little to melodramatic? Man, chicks love money. Hot tubs, holidays, extrodinary flights to lunar destinations...
DocMortand
QUOTE (Kanada Ten)
extrodinary flights to lunar destinations...

For mages? are you outta your mind? No mage in their right mind would go there just on the off chance something bad happened and they did something astral in self-protect mode...
mfb
QUOTE (Kagetenshi)
Not remotely enough to retire on, especially if you've been around the block a few times with regard to runs.

if he didn't spend so much on cool toys (80k for a ruthenium-coated sneaking suit here, 300k for a force 6 centering focus there), it'd be plenty. i even have him blow cash on things like family vactions fairly regularly. in ~2 years of running, he's made over 800k.
Large Mike
Branch out. That datajack opens up decking and rigging, the two biggest money-grabbers, and if you try hard enough, I'm sure you can fill the rest of that point of essence with something that *really* costs.
Grinder
Use the "karma-for-cash" option from the companion. Workd out fine with my mage as well my ki-ad. The normal ratio was 25,000 nuyen.gif for one point of karma.
Edward
I am looking at Cash for karma (the using cash to get karma witch makes sense to my current dilemma than getting more money). In SRComp. Page 80. it blatantly is not giving me a value except 3d6*100 for amoral campaigns. This would average 1050 nuyen for a point of karma. My GM charges 5000+ depending on his mood. Last time ki used that as a solution to my cash surplus I wound up with to much magic (see my other thread).

I will not be choosing to get cyber ware for this character. However we are going threw brain scan. If it doesn’t leave me with permanent cytological scaring and a fear of all things matrix I may put deuses data jack to good work. Decking really doesn’t fit this character so well.

Rigging requires a VCR, to much essence cost for my taste

Edward
tisoz
See about buying contacts, it is not really canon after chargen, but I had a GM who let me buy them. I needed to write them up and explain how we met, but it was something to do between runs.

Had a Bacchus Shaman who collected art to upgrade his lodge, had a few classic cars, antique weapons (into antiques in general), threw a LOT of parties, and gave a lot of gifts. If his ex-wife tracked him down, she would take care of any excess funds. frown.gif

Make contributions to the rigger for drone encryption so you don't get shot by his (former) drones.

Get a trauma damper to shrug off drain. Street index and surgery costs plus extra docs and magically active docs will eat up some nuyen.
Grinder
Damn! I meant "spend money and get karma". smile.gif
akarenti
QUOTE (Edward)
I will not be choosing to get cyber ware for this character. However we are going threw brain scan. If it doesn’t leave me with permanent cytological scaring and a fear of all things matrix I may put deuses data jack to good work. Decking really doesn’t fit this character so well.


If that doesn't work out, you could always soak some money into deprogramming yourself. biggrin.gif
banditf50
QUOTE (Smiley)
I think I'm going to open a bar. Or a dojo. Or an illegal casino with blackjack and hookers.

On second thought, forget the blackjack. rotate.gif

Oh -Oh. . .you could also open your own amusement park wobble.gif
Dizzo Dizzman
Become a loanshark. You can start with your fellow rigger, decker, and street sammy..."at a special friends rate of a point and a half!" lick.gif
torzzzzz
grinbig.gif

cyber and combat drugs 'It's for winners!'


torz x
Gyro the Greek Sandwich Pirate
Psh.

There's always something to spend money on, especially in Shadowrun.
You just need to get creative.

Like, who says your mage has to be a rigger to have a nice car? Or some nice threads? Or-heaven forbid-a nice place to live for a long, long time. Buy a nice fake ID or five.

Maybe he's a gun nut, even though he's not very good with them. Or he could collect other various strange things....like a BTL collector who doesn't slot. They're like bottle-caps, except if you put them in your head they turn you into a drooling moron!

Anyhow, there's everything and more to spend nuyen on.
Drain Brain
Since the definition of a purchased lifestyle is "investments" to equal the monthly cost of said lifestyle, when GMing I give my players the option of similarly "investing" but without the lifestyle.

Got a spare 100k? Invest it and grab yourself 1000/month free bribe money... and at the end, if you have an emergency (assuming you don't piss off too many deckers) you've still got 100k!
Kanada Ten
QUOTE (DocMortand)
QUOTE (Kanada Ten @ Feb 21 2005, 02:46 AM)
extrodinary flights to lunar destinations...

For mages? are you outta your mind? No mage in their right mind would go there just on the off chance something bad happened and they did something astral in self-protect mode...

A Grade 5 Initiate can withstand the Mana Warp and still cast spells (and on the Moon the Warp is only 8, meaning a Grade 5 would have an effective magic of 3 (still nigh impossible to cast spells with that +8 TN though).
Weredigo
Edward my freind, I think this character needs to start outfitting one of those safehouses with everything they want, Library, Fine Wine, Special Magical experiment room, a Kitchen stocked full of REAL food, some Extremely rare art peices, delicious smokes, Some high mantainance Pet and a Keeper for it, A seceratary, some Maids, a Butler, and a pair of old crotchety guys to keep on the front porch in case of unwelcomed visitors. In Short, start living like Royalty.
The Grifter
What about hiring goons to guard your safehouses? Or a pool to put your enemies in filled with sharks that have lasers on their heads? Man, the possibilities are fraggin' endless!
mfb
the problem with branching out is, that takes karma. that's the basic issue--i've not no karma, and lots of cash.
DocMortand
Heck, Lina in my group is spending her money on building a David Koresh-style compound in Snonomish, getting hundreds of mines and turrets so when he Hunted 4 Flaw people come a callin she can kill them, and then when they send reinforcements blow up the compound so they think she's dead...

Great way of spending money, as well as giving the GM a fun one shot run for the hapless enemies!
FlakJacket
QUOTE (mfb)
The problem with branching out is, that takes karma. That's the basic issue - I've not no karma, and lots of cash.

Your GM doesn't allow the optional Cash for Karma rule?
Smiley
QUOTE (banditf50)
QUOTE (Smiley @ Feb 21 2005, 02:38 AM)
I think I'm going to open a bar. Or a dojo. Or an illegal casino with blackjack and hookers.

On second thought, forget the blackjack. rotate.gif

Oh -Oh. . .you could also open your own amusement park wobble.gif

I was wondering if anyone would get that biggrin.gif
Gyro the Greek Sandwich Pirate
You can easily branch out later, and have the equipment now.
mfb
QUOTE (FlakJacket)
Your GM doesn't allow the optional Cash for Karma rule?

this character's already purchased 72 points of karma.

most adepts aren't ever going to run out of adept things to spend karma on. branching out, for an adept, involves putting points in new powers, or learning new firearm skills to apply his Centering: Ranged Weapons on.
FlakJacket
So buy even more. After SotA 2064 there's even more things you have to have now. smile.gif
toturi
Yes, with SOTA 2064, you get even more karma to spend. Centering, Cognition, Masking (buy Mnemonic Enhancer) and you get much skill savings.
Moirdryd
I`ve seen a mage spend hundreds of thousands on getting put into place a serious Mojo center, we are talking orichalcum laced permenant summonoing circles with all the optional extra`s. Permenant wards the likes of which Great Dragons would have a job breaking down and of course outifitting the place with all its own security. I`m not sure WHY he did all this except to spend his cash on and have an easy time summoning but heck, it was fun to create the place with him and what the Nuyen flow.

[EDIT] This was also the result of one of the first ever SR campaigns i ran that was high powered for the heck of it just to play with all the toys in Man and Machine and MITS. All the sorts of things my players wish for now things have become gritty and `truer` to the core Shadowrun themes and style. smile.gif
mfb
yeah, but i feel like it's cheating already to have bought so much karma.
Fortune
As long as you come up with an in-game rationale for such a purchase, why would it be cheating?
mfb
i'm not saying it is cheating, just that it feels like it. to a large degree, i'm my own GM; but because my character(s) interact with other players' characters on a regular basis, i have to be very careful with my GM discretion. to me, the 74 (miscounted, earlier) karma my character purchased feels... i dunno. cheap. i bought them at 1kY each; at the time, that was quite a bit of money. now... not so much. i'm pondering re-buying some of the karma--basically, just discarding a set amount of money. not sure.

i do have a plan for the future, though. i've slapped the char with some enemies that are going to ruin his life. he'll spend a lot of money trying to rebuild, and even more trying to track down who did the deed (and who hired them, and so on). might even end up in debt. we'll see. it's basically a super-fancy cash-for-karma scheme, only i'm okay with it because a) the character will be paying through the nose; b) other GMs will be handling the karma awards; c) it's generating activity that other people can jump in on.
Chibu
QUOTE (mfb)
in ~2 years of running, he's made over 800k.

Oh, i've made that much in the last 3 months. I bought a condo in Munich, to store some gear we got ona run, a Distillery in Hati to supply a party as distraction for a target, (and i invited 2 great dragons) uhm... oh, and i just bought a new car because a girl was complaining about riding on my bike.
hahnsoo
QUOTE (mfb)
to me, the 74 (miscounted, earlier) karma my character purchased feels... i dunno. cheap. i bought them at 1kY each; at the time, that was quite a bit of money. now... not so much. i'm pondering re-buying some of the karma--basically, just discarding a set amount of money. not sure.

Wow, sign me up! In our games, we've always had a 5,000 nuyen cost for buying Karma points, with the reverse Cash for Karma varying according to the type of campaign we were running. We're quite stingy on the Karma, especially for those magically active Karma vacuums in the group. I guess that's also why this "free cash" problem doesn't seem to show up either...
Charon
Increase your lifestyle, man, increase it.

SSG is nice for that since it provides lifestyle that bridge the gap between High and Luxury.

If I was risking my life this badly every month, I'd like some creature comfort to justify it.

The "get a cause" line of thought is also good. If all else fail, just decide that your PC piles up the money in prevision for his retirement. If he intends to buy a nice loft in Monaco and then have a guaranteed 200k/year revenue for the rest of his life, he probably needs in the neighborhood of 5,000 000$, (assuming a 1M loft and a 5% rate in some safe investment).

You can still be running for a while to achieve that nice goal.
Edward
I pay 5k+ for karma as well. The gm has instituted a 2 karma purchased per game moth however so I cant get rid of it that way ether. (when he didn’t have that everybody played magicals and we where increasing our karma by 25-75%)

I wouldn’t mind branching out a bit, and I have the karma but decking and heavy cyber fields don’t suite the current character. The archetype is an investigating mage. What kit do you think he should get for that. Obviously it is necessary to keep his decker contact well schmoozed to cover matrix investigations but I don’t like having long contact lists.

Edward
hahnsoo
Get married. Easiest way to blow a lot of money. *grin*
mfb
hm. i guess i could increase his lifestyle. i dunno... i like the idea of playing a low-end white collar guy who makes the ends meet for his loving family by shooting people in the face.

edit: he started out married! with a kid!
hahnsoo
QUOTE (mfb)
hm. i guess i could increase his lifestyle. i dunno... i like the idea of playing a low-end white collar guy who makes the ends meet for his loving family by shooting people in the face.

edit: he started out married! with a kid!

How did he get so much money, then? I can imagine things like Little League fees and other miscellaneous expenses cutting away at his personal wealth. "Dad, I want a Transgorjobot 3000!" "Sorry, son, no dice" "Aww, but you're a SHADOWRUNNER!"
Gyro the Greek Sandwich Pirate
QUOTE (mfb)
hm. i guess i could increase his lifestyle. i dunno... i like the idea of playing a low-end white collar guy who makes the ends meet for his loving family by shooting people in the face.

edit: he started out married! with a kid!

Started out? Dude. That just screams roleplaying opportunities as he tries to keep his night job a secret from his family and they find out/are kidnapped/are killed, with him being a total badass and getting them back/being a total badass and avenging their deaths to every last mother fragger/breaking down and having little to nothing to live for, taking bigger and bigger risks on each run....

I say keep the wife and kid. That adds some real flavor right there.
mfb
well, they already know. he met his wife through the mob. and, well, remember when i said i gave him some enemies that are going to ruin his life?

edit: how much karma does a character get for being the subject of a semi-threadjack?
Sabosect
Meh. Hire a bunch of guys to follow you around and play your themesong. Make them trolls with obvious guns just to add even more to it.
Arethusa
And while you're at it, despite Gyro's suggestion, don't turn her into a pretty action movie tableau whose only purpose in life is to die seconds before our hero can save her, thise fueling revenge and providing convenient motivation and justification for the next two hours of killing. Economy of tertiary characters sucks.
mfb
yeah, i'm not. killing the wife and/or kid would take the character in directions i don't really wanna go with him. or, well, i don't plan on killing either of them.
Eyeless Blond
Well one thing about a family is it's a great justification for trading cash in for karma right there. Send your kid to a good private school; take the wife out for nights on the town; take 'em on a camping trip, etc etc. Karma is really just life experiences, and family's a good way to rack up the character building. smile.gif
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