[Zilfer]

Well, they decided that Megacorporations weren't the only ones that could destroy other companies to drive up market prices.  And they crashed the stock on the wrong company.

It was a Mafia front, and the group's Mafia Contact, who only spoke in a whisper before, called them up, freaking out, and they had to steal a cow.

Am I missing something? o.O' was the mafia front a cow business? or does cow stand for Company Operated (insert word with a W)

Lol that's an awesome thought, I'm going to name something kick ass C.O.W. Plus 1 for you for making me think of that. xD

[CanRay]

No, it was a cow.  The meanest, nastiest cow around.  Cow #42 with an Agricultural Company that the group bankrupted, and it was being audited.

The cow had, however, a deep, dark, illegal secret.

[XelosUchiha]

You guys have given me a whole lot of good ideas here.

I think what i'm going to do is an extended test, something like (20, 1 month) to show that he has to have a long term commitment and needs to net 20 hits before he makes a profit. Then I can just scale how much he makes by how many months it takes him to make it. If he gets it down quick, i'll say he went for the big bang for his buck, came out lucky, made a lot of money and all the drama that goes with that. The longer it takes him, i'll say he played it safe and slowly raised a small sum. I think that might be a good way to do it.

[CanRay]

Now, to taunt you even further:  What was the secret of Cow #42???

[FastJack]

Now, to taunt you even further:  What was the secret of Cow #42???

Her brother was a chicken?

[Julius Q Enderby]

Lol that's an awesome thought, I'm going to name something kick ass C.O.W. Plus 1 for you for making me think of that. xD

Anyone read/remember that parody of all RPGs, H.O.L? It's pan-galactic government was named Confederacy of Worlds, or C.O.W.

Now, to taunt you even further:  What was the secret of Cow #42???

Sure, I'll bite: What was the secret of Cow #42? And, was it specifically Cow #42 (instead of, say, #4 or pi or the square root of -1 for instance) out of homage to the great super computer Deep Thought (I think) from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series? And finally, a cow heist has great potential for a run, mind if I plagiarize you?

[CanRay]

Sorry, forgot to mention on this forum:  My personal random number generator is broken.  Whenever I need to come up with some generic random number, it always comes up 42.  Every.  Time.  Don't know why.

And go ahead, steal cows.  The cost in beef alone is worth the risk and difficulty.  Although, if your group is made up of a bunch of city folks like mine was, the sheer stupidity that can happen when dealing with livestock can be quite hilarious.  (I learned a bit from my Uncle, who had a Dairy Farm before he switched to FankenCrops.).

And that's without the issue of dealing with the special nature of Cow #42.

I also have a story about Cab #42 and the Cabbie that owed a poker debt, and what happens when you critically fail a perception test.  But that's for a different thread.

[FastJack]

Sorry, forgot to mention on this forum:  My personal random number generator is broken.  Whenever I need to come up with some generic random number, it always comes up 42.  Every.  Time.  Don't know why.

What's six time nine?

Google's Calculator comes up with 42 here too

[XelosUchiha]

Sorry, forgot to mention on this forum:  My personal random number generator is broken.  Whenever I need to come up with some generic random number, it always comes up 42.  Every.  Time.  Don't know why.

What's six time nine?

Google's Calculator comes up with 42 here too

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

[FastJack]

Anyway, back on topic:

The Stock Market (real world & fictional) is about people's confidence in the business, nothing more, nothing less. If people believe in the business, they will buy stock in the business, else they will sell stock. This, of course, leads to speculators and others that use psychology to manipulate the market to their benefit.

Economy deals with the rules of Supply and Demand and how one affects the other and how different markets interact (Gas prices go up, cost of bread goes up). There is no "way" to predict a stock will rise or fall, no surefire method to make money off the stock market. If he wants to play the market in the game, have a bit of fun with him and have him hear about a job to run a job against a cookie company. Later on, have the run at the cookie company wind up causing the value of some of his stocks take a dive.

[CanRay]

I've outright stated to my group that the Black Market price of Corporate Scrip is based on a variety of complex issues like stock performance, advertising, information posted on Black BBSes/Forums, and how well the corp is doing in Desert Wars.

The last confused them for a moment, then they shrugged and went, "Yeah, makes sense."

[StarManta]

I would suggest treating it as a Day Job and leaving it at that.

[JoeNapalm]

Sorry, forgot to mention on this forum:  My personal random number generator is broken.  Whenever I need to come up with some generic random number, it always comes up 42.  Every.  Time.  Don't know why.

What's six time nine?

Google's Calculator comes up with 42 here too

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

I never could get the hang of Thursdays.


-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

[Trenchknife]

I've thought of doing this many times as a player and a GM in several different systems.  I've always stopped myself b/c I never wanted money to be as easy as a skill roll.  I'm not playing Slots...The Dice Game after all. 

I understand why you'd like to make it available for the character as he's spent all those build points on doing it.  You're idea of stretching it out over months is a good idea.  Just begin thinking about what you'd like to do if/when he glitches or rolls a critical glitch.  My recommendation for the first result would just be that he loses all the money he staked.  If the character critically glitches I would make him lose an additional 25% of the stake for each extra '1' over some set number.

For example, let's pretend we set the number at 3.  Player has 10 dice for his roll (and I would NOT allow his spells to pump up the stat as we're talking about MONTHS of time here wherein he'd have to have it pumped up the ENTIRE TIME to matter.  Moving on...player rolls....   (1,1,1,1,1,1,1,4,2,3).  That's a definite critical glitch.  Since he scored seven '1's that's 4 over 3.  This means that he would lose double the amount he initially staked.  This is all too easy in the investment world...ESPECIALLY if he short sells.

Course, he's a 'Runner.  If he loses he can always dump his SIN.  That just makes it more fun if whomever he owes money decides to find him and collect. 

[The Cat]

While slightly outside the scope of the original question, Runners do have a good reason to own a very diverse stock portfolio and that's information gathering.  They'll legitimately receive periodic reports on what the company is up to with info that doesn't generaly make it into common knowledge on the streets without needing a contact to find the info.  Beyond that, if they manage to build up shares that have votes, they can gleen valuable intel from how they're courted and by whom for proxies on their votes.  If they can manage to build up a signifigant amount of stock, in the whole percentages, either individually or through a closed investment group, they'll be able to pull in even more valuable intel.  Situationally, they can also build up signifigant holdings in smaller businesses that have regular dealings with much larger ones, pulling information from there and even gain legitimate access to facilities they'd be barred from normally.

I forget which book it is, but there's also mentions of a "shadow exchange" for the SINless, which is very useful for dealing in the markets and gaining information access like the above.