[Aria]

Hi, hoping someone can offer some suggestions for a pbp houserule...

So, at the expense of some RP potential SRM takes the Stolen Gear hunted interval and turns it in to a fixed amount of damage before the game starts.  Stolen Gear is a potentially broken Quality, I get that, but this does offer some stick to go with the carrot.  As it works in the (as yet unconfirmed) SRM FAQ is fine by me

From No Future, will bounty hunters come after me during a Mission if I have the Stolen Gear quality?
No. However, every X SRM (where X is the number of game sessions listed in the Hunted Frequency column) that you play, you will start the Mission with 1 box of Physical Damage per threshold of the quality. This damage can only be healed naturally. You also start with a box of Stun for every Karma point above the minimum Karma for that threshold.
This damage represents being attacked by a bounty hunter and escaping just before the Mission, and is what remains after applying triage healing methods (such as first aid or magical healing).
Examples: At 1 Karma, you start every 4th SRM you play with 1 Physical Damage filled in.
At 7 Karma, you start every 3rd SRM you play with 2 Physical Damage and 1 (7-6) Stun Damage.
At 14 Karma, you start every other SRM you play with 3 Physical Damage and 3 (14-11) Stun Damage.
At 20 Karma, you start EVERY SRM with 4 Physical Damage and 4 (20-16) Stun Damage.

Here's the rub... I've been playing pbp exclusively for over a decade (scary thought)... so how do I convert Game Sessions or Missions in to pbp time as that varies wildly by posting rates, who's around etc?  The best I can come up with so far is trying to decide how much typically gets achieved in a table top game session or SRM... and even these vary a great deal.  As I understand it a Mission is supposed to be a stand alone run that gets done in a day or two... that's easy enough to convert to pbp as it's a single run.  But a tabletop game probably takes at least 3-4 sessions to complete a run

So options...
1) damage is applied per month real time (not a big fan of this one)
2) damage is applied once ahead of a pbp run
3) damage is applied at intervals during a run (ie before the initial meet, after legwork, after wrap up... or some other timings... and of course dependent on what level of Stolen Gear was taken)
4) something else...?

Ok, I could just not be lazy and I could play out the bounty hunter engagement during a pbp run but that's hard to quantify and means the quality can adversely affect the whole group not just the runner that has it... and there's little enough time in pbp anyway.

Thoughts/comments/suggestions much appreciated!!

A

[Hobbes]

For any home game (pbp or otherwise) I'd play out the bounty hunters.  Missions can't really do that for a number of reasons, time being the big one.  IMO anyway. 

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

If you're going to house rule anyway, I'd strongly suggest changing the bonus karma from 1-20 to 0. 

[Michael Chandra]

If you believe you can't really play up the downside properly, I strongly recommend simply banning it.

[0B]

You could try rolling a d6 before each PbP run (Either in secret or in front of the group). If it comes up as a 6, then hunters make an appearance on the run. You could decide when they show up, then: during the meet, during legwork, during action itself, during pay, or perhaps at a time when the player is isolated from the rest of the group.

This allows you to use the RP aspect of the quality, integrate it into your game, and avoid having it take the spotlight away from other characters (Since it's only showing up 1 out of 6 runs). If you want it more punishing, you could up it to a 5-6, or you could have the hunters harass the character throughout the run.

[Aria]

If you're going to house rule anyway, I'd strongly suggest changing the bonus karma from 1-20 to 0.

I've sort of figured that this is as it's meant to be, and changed my excel generator to reflect that, it costs karma to get the 10000 nuyen, so it becomes an alternative to 'in debt' or simply spending karma for 2k nuyen at char gen.

If you believe you can't really play up the downside properly, I strongly recommend simply banning it.

I don't like banning stuff (which has cost me no end of headaches in the past  ) so finding a solution I can work with is better from my perspective

You could try rolling a d6 before each PbP run (Either in secret or in front of the group). If it comes up as a 6, then hunters make an appearance on the run. You could decide when they show up, then: during the meet, during legwork, during action itself, during pay, or perhaps at a time when the player is isolated from the rest of the group.

This allows you to use the RP aspect of the quality, integrate it into your game, and avoid having it take the spotlight away from other characters (Since it's only showing up 1 out of 6 runs). If you want it more punishing, you could up it to a 5-6, or you could have the hunters harass the character throughout the run.

I like this idea... my only doubts are that pbp is notoriously slow and any combat encounter that isn't furthering the plot is potentially a nail in yet another pbp coffin.  It's why i was originally considering implementing something like the SRM version.  Maybe I just need to do both... you Will start the run with damage and there's a chance based on how much you stole that they'll come again during the course of the run but that needs to be played out...

[0B]

Ah, I see- so instead of combat, you might have them write up a little vignette on how they escaped from their pursuers (Or perhaps you do). Have them roll once to determine how much damage they take, and so on.

Instead of a full encounter, it's more of a "cold open," with 2 posts at most