Sometimes, getting equiopment for your 'runner can be lot of bookkeeping hassle. Do you track every one of those heavy-duty zip-ties they bought at chargen? If a player forgets to note down that they've got a leatherman, how do you decide whether they've got it? Being hard-assed about random "appropriate" kit suits some groups, but for the more casual ones that don't have a Word template with their standard base gear, rounding out every little "handy item" can be a chore. Similarly, if you don't want to count every nuyen your players spend, or if it doesn't matter, having to knock 5 off for a lunch or a small purchase could cramp the style

So, as an alternative, how about using a "permanent" lifestyle as a "stat", combined, where appropriate, with a skill, versus a threshold based on availability and/or cost. Making the roll means that you either have it or can trivially get hold of it and your lifestyle absorbs the cost.

Street: 0
Squatter: 1
Low: 2
Middle: 3
High: 4
Luxury: 5

I'm sure there are modifiers in the custom lifestyle bits...

So, if Joe Runner suddenly wanted to know if they'd got a reel of duct tape somewhere, they could roll Lifestlye+BK: LARPer (say) looking for 1 success. More successes means it's more immediately available, maybe.

For big ticket items, you might want to add its cost in, say based on the factor of 10 in the price, so an item worth 1000s would have a threshold of 3 plus its availability.

This mechanic could also be used to see whether a runner has an exceptional item associated with a hobby or interest: a character with a low lifestyle wouldn't be expected to have a quality entertainment system, but if they had "BK: C20th cinema - 6" they could reasonably be expected to have accumulated a decent home cinema. The dice can help decide whether they had to hock it a couple of months back to make the rent...

Basically, instead of spending loads of money on itemised kibble, your characters would spend that starting cash on a low-grade lifestyle, but even one who didn't could be expected to have the tools of their primary trade available.

Obviously, this doesn't fit with every flavour of game, but might be a handy shortcut for some.

As a GM the best way to deal with this is anything they want that isn't crazy as long as it is low lifestyle and above is that it is covered by their lifestyle costs. Street or squatter probably has to spend some time and money to get things, but if they were doing that then I as a GM will say "you just moved up a rank for this month and you can get some stuff."

It's like saying do you want to cover the cost of food for your runners for every meal? It is an interesting thought rolling lifestyle, but the thing about lifestyle is there are big price jumps from street to luxury in what you have to pay per month. I mean luxury is 100k a month, high 10k, middle 5k, low 2k, squatter (is like what... 500?), street 0. As a GM I might let their character come in with almost nothing, but it has to fit their back story or else why bother. If runners don't want to deal with the headache of having to scrimp for every little thing I just generally tell a runner to buy a low or middle range lifestyle and I'll let them have pretty much anything you would find in a normal household no questions asked. It's all a matter of how far a GM is willing to go and what the runners are willing to pay.

Personally I find the power of GM handwavium to be the easiest solution, but if I was to use yours I would say roll lifestyle^2. So a street would always roll 0 dice (and it makes sense,) Squatter would roll 1 (also not stupid,) low = 4, middle = 9, high = 16, luxury = 25 dice. Eh? Eh?

I treat lifestyle more generally and just consider whether it's a reasonable item for a character of that lifestyle.

However whether they have one at home vs having one on their person is a different thing. I say to have the items they're carrying listed out, though I may cut some slack. Generally speaking they don't really have that much, so it's pretty easy. If you don't enforce that the players are all to tempted to teleport gear. Got MAD scanned? No they don't have the knife and expensive toolkit today. If instead of getting scanned they needed to stab someone and beat a maglock? Then they had the gear on them the whole time.

Generally they only have to write down what they have on the street and what they take on runs.

I like the Exalted system (dunno where else it is used, if anywhere): you buy a "lifestyle" or Resources stat at chargen, and you can improve that with Karma/Experience. This stat governs all of your purchases - anything with a rating lower than your lifestyle/resources can be bought with a minimum of saving, meaning that you can get it with no hassle, and anything that equals it reduces it by 1 until you raise it up again. You can't buy stuff above your rating without GM fiat, or the appropriate contacts in SR rules. Perhaps a Restricted rating gives +1 to its overall cost, and Forbidden gives +3?

My laundry list usually looks like this:

Wardrobe..........50-10000¥ depending on character
Stuff........whatever money's left at chargen

Stuff consists of Duct tape, bits of string, copper wire, condoms, aspirine, cough drops, a light, a handkerchief and whatever odds'n'ends. GM approves on a case by case practice if X is element of Stuff.

makes me think of how d20 modern did it.

you have a wealth bonus, and each item has a DC. if the bonus is higher then the DC you can get it with minimum trouble (but may get a slight drop in bonus if the item has a high enough DC). if the item has a higher DC then your bonus you roll (or take 10 or 20) and your bonus takes a reduction based on the difference between bonus and DC.

I have a list of stuff I always buy(eye/ear mods, Medkit, Survival Kit, commlink/subvocal mic/skinlink, survival knife, some patches, armor, clothing, music chips and entertainment.) The rest varies by character, from crazy crap to just the bare minimum(of course, weapons vary by character as well.)

But yeah, I assume stuff like duct tape is covered by lifestyle of at least Low or better. The better the lifestyle, the more stuff is covered.

The key is not whether they can afford it, it's how much gear they're generally carrying at any moment.

Ask the player "what kind of stuff do you generally carry when you're on a mission?" If the answer is "I always carry a little pack full of useful stuff like duct tape, zip ties, and a small toolkit." then you'll have an idea of how likely any given object is. He says, "I pull out a sharpie," fine. "I use my pocket fisherman," No. Unless he had answered, "the trunk of my car is jam-packed with shit," and he often heads to the mountains for camping trips. If the answer was, "I travel light. Nothing but my guns and my comm," or "only what I can hang from my utility belt," then no duct tape.

If the item they're asking for is borderline for whether they'd be carrying it, have them roll edge.

And I think you do need to ask them how they're carrying their gear. Where's your assault rifle? Slung over my back. Where's your katana? Slung over my back. Where's all your miscellaneous gear, like your plastic restraints, stim patches, commlink, special commlink, duct tape, extra clips, maglock sequencer and your AR spraypaint? In my backpack. Okay, so where's your rating 6 medkit? That's in my backpack too. Dude, those things are the size of a backpack. Uh... a really big backpack? Okay, fine. You're crawling under the fence, roll agility. I shouldn't have to roll agility, the gap is two feet. Yeah, so are you. Now infiltration, minus 2. Ugh.

Personally, that's more of how I do things - weight isn't that important, but where something is is.
Once you start being vaguely realistic about where things are carried, they start carrying a lot less anyway.

In CP2020 characters generally own about what fits into a dufflebag, or car back seat, and carry less than that.

Nothing like having all players been in the military to introduce some common sense into "what do you carry, and where".

Or having people who've done Live Roleplaying or Paintballing.

But as can be seen from too many of the threads here, reality checks are rarely welcome.

If they're at home, I'd base it on lifestyle (whichever category makes the most sense). If it's in the field, they have it if it's a fairly common item and they specifically packed a "utility bag". Otherwise, roll Edge.

And never forget the A1, Primo, Super-Fly, Double-Dong, best of the Bestest peice of 'runner gear of all time. One of my players has introduced me to the phenomenal power of...The Duffle Bag Full o' Duffle Bags.

The sheer volume of lootability has increased 100-fold and our commlinks are filled to bursting with monies of our scrounging. Fear this Duffle Bag o' Duffle Bags (literally how it's put on his character sheet), GMs for it is , evil, evil, EVIL!

No, more evil that that even!

Tremble and stuff! MWAHAHAHA!

Remember that part of your Lifestyle is credit rating.

Tracking things like Public Transit Fare, cups of soycaf and your bar tab really shouldn't be necessary -- they get charged to (one of) your lifestyle's credit and absorbed in the lifestyle costs.

I *do* require laundry lists of things a character carries on a run, though. Having 3 rolls of duct tape at the house is absolutely no use if you are trying to pack armored jackets over the hole that was just blown in the window of your Citymaster.

Edit: Typo fix

As do I! I am particularly anal when it comes to my character's equipment lists, and I figure if I can do it, then so can anyone else.



Damn right! I've been doing that for a long time, starting with a large sack of large sacks way back in basic D&D days.

My latest runner carrys a smart daypack with the basics in it and well as its side pockets filled with the comanly needed items. his pistol clips of ammo toll kits. If he thinks some thing might be handier than what ever he'll move it about. but as he is stealth based he carries very little beyond two guns and his tools and antidote patches he as a pocket or two with those for fluff reasons (he keeps venomous spiders and uses nasty capsule rounds). And a ceramic knife and stun baton. He will invest in the cavaty escape kit as it has every thing you might need to brake in to a place and is hard to find woth only one needing replacing it should be worth its wight in gold. I base him off how much I would carry when climbing a small satchel and belt pouches are the best you can normally pull off but add in his spider slik gland he can haul things up after him.

and thats how i would explain the nickle and dime way that a registered program gets updated

Not so much a laundry list but I have one recurring fixer recurring who always gives my PC's a small shoebox containing.

1 .45 automatic. (no smartlink)
2 boxes of ammunition.
4 days' concentrated emergency rations.
1 drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills.
1 miniature combination Japanese phrase book and Bible.
100 dollars in UCAS currency.
100 dollars in gold.
9 packs of chewing gum.
1 issue of prophylactics.
3 tubes of lipstick.
3 pairs of nylon stockings.

I've always been amazed at some of the uses that found for that crap.
BTW: A cookie to anyone who gets the reference.

hmm, sounds a bit like the starting kit that sla industries have for their agents...

Too bad that kit doesn't come with a radio so you can hear the "abort and turn the hell around" signal, eh? Hehe damn Ruskies and their love of surprises.

I'd have to agree with most of the others. When GMing I generally want a list of what will usually have on them at any given time. I generally assume this list to be 'everything I own' unless the person says otherwise. While this is nice for them because it is assumed they have all of their stuff, it is also bad for them when it assumes they have their weapons when a weapon check comes across.

As for a night on the town, I take that with the character's lifestyle. Read in it, it says full well that it includes price of renting a car/bus fair, food, entertainment, etc. Why should characters lose just because they want to RP one of these cases? Now, if they have low lifestyle and are living it up in a fancy bar I might charge them, or I might inform them that they've blown their 'entertainment budget' for the month. Now, a street character on the other hand is going to be paying for every last thing they do that might cost .

Edit:
This also means that if character wants 'object x' and 'object x' isn't something particularly special or outside the means of someone with their lifestyle, then they have it... at their house.

List of emergency equipment read out shortly before nuclear apocalypse by Major Kong (Cong?) to his B52 crew in
"Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"

Great film!

EDIT: The players' dropship pilot in my Battletech campaign is Slim Pickens.

I've been back and forth over this problem with various groups over time, usually the closer the group the less hassle this problem is, and vice versa.

I used to solve this problem by taking about 3 times as long gearing my characters out, and handing the GM an intricate detailed list of every single item (and yes I do mean every single item) my character owned , and where it was all located. This made dealing with gear hell but it used to get the GM's off my back.

Since those days the group I usually play with tends to be a bit more flexible.