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Dangling Carrots for Player Characters

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ImaginalDisc

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« on: <12-28-17/0843:32> »
I'm trying out Anarchy with a group of new players soon, and I love the book. It's refreshing to see a new and narrative take on Shadowrun. I'm just having trouble switching my brain into how I am going to GM this.

Money is the motivator for many mission for the characters, yet money doesn't get kept track of or used for anything in Anarchy.

How am I supposed to negotiate contracts with Johnsons, bribe contacts, and so on without making money important and taking away from the tone of Anarchy?

Why don't PC's loot weapons and gear?

Carmody

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« Reply #1 on: <12-28-17/1124:11> »
Money does exist in Anarchy, it is just folded with Karma under Karma. All important stuff the players want  to buy do cost Karma.
So you should roleplay the negotiation with the Johnson, the result will just be folded in Karma in the end.
Your players should however keep in mind that Anarchy rules does not support keeping track of every single nuyen and bullet.
Salvaging (regular)  weapons and gear makes little sense for me in Shadowrun and even less in Anarchy but if they really want to do so just tell them it pays ofr their bullets and life style.
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Gingivitis

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« Reply #2 on: <12-29-17/0039:39> »
Indeed. Nuyen absolutely exists in Shadowrun.  So do bullets. But you don't track either of them.

When the Johnson says he will pay the runners ¥5,000, he does, but the players write that down as "5 karma" or whatever ratio you want to play with. The players can use Negotiation + Charisma to earn more Karma (maybe +1 or 2 Karma at most).

When the players want to bribe someone, they make a Negotiate + Charisma roll and if they win they successfully bribe a contact (without tracking nuyen). Just like when they want to shoot someone, they make a Firearms + Agility roll and if they win they successfully shoot a guy (without tracking bullets).

For looting: Everything is tracked and matrix marked in SR, looting a weapon is like bringing home a tracking device.  You can think of it like this: it takes 1-2 Karma to pay someone (nuyen) to erase the marks or re-register owners or buy the lifetime of ammunition that comes with each weapon. So they can pick up a CorpSec assault rifle and use it but if they want to keep it for the next run, they have to pay like everyone else.
Shadowrun: Anarchy Resources (GM Screens, Character Sheets, New NPCs, House Rules) at: www.surprisethreat.com

Tecumseh

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« Reply #3 on: <01-09-18/0241:57> »
I allow for a certain degree of realism when it comes to looting. If the characters want to pluck the baseball bat out of the cold, dead hands of the ganger - either as a trophy or for future use against other gangers/baseballs - then I won't charge them for it, nor will I make it electronically traceable by all the ganger's buddies. Go ahead and have your ¥20 bat.

I use a similar approach for purchasing gear. If you want a fake SIN or a magical lodge then you have to pay, but if you want something that could conceivably be hand-waved as something that would come out of lifestyle costs, or shoplifted, or acquired manually - say, some zip ties, or a bag of smooth rocks - then odds are I'll let you have it in exchange for a nice narration.

In both situations there are, of course, limits to how much you can carry, which prevents players from stuffing their pockets with every combat knife and box of NERPS that they can find.