Well first of all your street cred is not 4-5....it's only 1. I did a whole post on street cred before.
Yeah, just like most other things in this game, things should depend a lot on luck with rolls, and better stats at something equates to better luck with those rolls. The idea is that if you have a good charisma, you have a better shot at getting a little sidework. Then, you can just make a ward for someone and it just lasts a few weeks....no sustaining, no Karma...reread the part on wards. But the point was to abstract the side jobs process that I thought I'd introduce specifically to reflect that thing you were talking about about making wards for people and what not. It's some money man...i was just trying to help out in a way that makes sense. Brick's saved up a good amount...cuz he's made certain choices....you've all made choices. You decided you'd run over to Zach to help him out when you guys were in that apartment....it cost you some nuyen getting shrapenel out of your butt....you could have run the other way with Brick....but then at the same time you gained favor with your spirits for the altruistic move and that was reflected in terms of Karma.....but that job was a good payday anyways....last job wasn't, there will be more jobs.....some lucrative, some just ordinary...and maybe even some come at a loss if you royally screw up. Another example: you bought binding materials but you didn't have a high binding skill....what did you think was gonna happen?? You failed the binding test and blew 2000nuyen. That's not my fault dude, that's your fault. You'd be 2000nuyen richer if you hadn't done that. That's betting 2000 nuyen on a 50/50 chance man....not a smart move. So are you really just frustrated cuz I don't give you enough nuyen to recover from foreseeable mistakes?
Ok, so why don't you go get a job as a bodyguard and see how long that criminal SIN of yours holds out in the application process. You guys mabye aren't low-life thugs....but you're definitely people who can't be part of the system because once you're outside the system, it's a rat race to try to get into the system. Trust me man, i've got close family that has to deal with being outside the system in this country and you can't just decide..."hey i'm gonna be a bodyguard, hey i'm gonna be a nurse." At every little turn you don't got the right paperwork to even get your foot in the door....so you gotta hide and keep your head low and do jobs other people don't wanna do.
So i mean, i'll let you give it a shot if you wanna apply to be a body guard. But I warn you....if you refuse to do stuff which is against your code of ethics....either you do it or get fired. Either the fake SIN passes the scan it's gonna get every single day, and as soon as it doesn't pass, you're busted and a 6000 nuyen fake is burned.
I just don't see how this doesn't seem realistic to you. I mean, even if in an absolute moral sense, shadowrunners aren't criminals or low-lifes....but from a corporations perspective...they're the most dangerous thing on the planet and since corporations rule the world and make all the laws....shadowrunners definitely are criminals in their eyes.
As you can see, depending on your guys decisions and rolls, your guys paydays can vary a whole lot.
I don't have a problem entertaining ANY ideas you guys have and considering them. LIke if you want to become a bodyguard, i'll figure out how to do it in order to make it realistic and feasible in the context of the team. But if you roll bad....don't blame anyone. You could have gotten two jobs on that 3 Cha roll with a decent probability. Then you'd roll for the ward and probably gotten like 200-400 nuyen. Since i give you good Karma, use it on your skills. Then you can start gathering your own binding materials ....crafting your own foci. That's why the Shadowrun developers developed those rules. I'm telling you man, half the rules in the shadowrun books just are useless if i give you much more money than i'm giving you now.
@Xzylvador:
As a side note, check out "spoofing life" in unwired.
@Brick:
Yeah, the side jobs are for anyone.