[Nomad Zophiel]

Can Notoriety be a negative number? The rules seem to imply that having the right positive qualities can push it below zero. Presumably a negative Notoriety would subtract from Intimidation and act add (a like positive amount) to Street Cred in appropriate situations.

[Kot]

I don't think so. It would be kinda stupid, as it would work as anti-Notoriety, which is already covered by Street Cred.

[FastJack]

I don't think so. It would be kinda stupid, as it would work as anti-Notoriety, which is already covered by Street Cred.

+1

Agreed, any thing that would reduce Notoriety below zero, I'd house-rule the negative to Street Cred and vice-versa.

[Doc Chaos]

I don't think so. It would be kinda stupid, as it would work as anti-Notoriety, which is already covered by Street Cred.

+1

Agreed, any thing that would reduce Notoriety below zero, I'd house-rule the negative to Street Cred and vice-versa.

+2

[Kot]

I'd go with that one too, Jack. Though i don't have that problem - two of my players have characters with Notoriety 2* and 4. The rest will probably also have some.

* The shaman-guy is called 'Lucky'. He has: Bad Luck, Addiction, Gremlins (2) and Cursed (1). The shaman-girl has: Addiction(OCD actually), SINner and Spirit Bane. There's also the mafia-hitman samurai, who's addicted to... yoghurt. It's a leftover of my ancient free-form shadowrun one-shot in which his character was saved by a spilled cup of yoghurt, which caused the NPC who almost killed him to slip and fall of the roof.

[Bradd]

On a related note: There's a cool rule in the Dawn of the Artifacts series that when your Notoriety + Public Awareness is 10 or more, you start showing up on national Most Wanted lists, and you get your photo posted in post offices, train stations, banks, etc.

[Nomad Zophiel]

Public Awareness is what actually got me thinking on this. It specifically states that Public Awareness can not be a negative number. There's no need to say that explicitly unless Street Cred and/or Notoriety (which PA is derived from) can be a negative number.

[Bradd]

GMs can adjust Public Awareness independently, if the PCs are especially careful or reckless about sticking to the shadows. However, they can't reduce it below zero.

[Mercer]

Public Awareness, Street Cred and Notoriety are just weird.  Let's say you're a cautious, professional runner.  You do some jobs, you get some karma, your Street Cred goes up.  Cool.  Now, as it goes up, your Public Awareness starts going up.  Pretty soon, the cops are going to have a file on you because your Public Awareness is getting too high.  You need to buy down your Street Cred so you need the Notoriety, so you have to start doing crazy, irresponsible things just so the cops won't know who you are.  Any system where you're throwing the mayor under a bus on live 3v just so the cops will know less about you is working on some pretty strange assumptions. 

And yeah, you can Rule Zero it (and should, early and often), but that doesn't make it any less weird. 

[Nomad Zophiel]

Actually public awareness is (Street Cred+Notoriety)/3. Raising either one raises Public Awareness. And remember, if someone is aware of you because of your Public Awareness score then they most likely get the reaction modifiers for both Street Cred and Notoriety. So if you have 30 Street Cred and no notoriety you're at a +10, even with Knight Errant beat cops because they know that you may be SINless but you're helping keep the streets safe.

[Chaemera]

Actually public awareness is (Street Cred+Notoriety)/3. Raising either one raises Public Awareness. And remember, if someone is aware of you because of your Public Awareness score then they most likely get the reaction modifiers for both Street Cred and Notoriety. So if you have 30 Street Cred and no notoriety you're at a +10, even with Knight Errant beat cops because they know that you may be SINless but you're helping keep the streets safe.

I hate to disagree with you, Nomad, but RAW, the equation is:
Public Awareness = ROUNDDWN([Street Cred + Noteriety]/3) ± GM Adjustments

And is limited to positive numbers, I forget how to represent that mathematically (more to the point, in a web-text box)

Public Awareness is the sum of a runner’s Street Cred and her Notoriety, divided by 3 and rounded down. Public Awareness can never go below 0—a nobody is still a nobody, in or out of the shadows. For example, a very successful street samurai with a Street Cred of 7 and Notoriety of 2 would have a Public Awareness score of 3 (7 + 2 = 9; 9 ÷ 3 = 3). At the gamemaster’s discretion, any exceptional efforts the character has made to keep her profile low and activities secret can be used to reduce this score. Likewise, if anything the character does is intentionally or inadvertently splashed on the news, the gamemaster should increase the score accordingly.

So, for Mercer's characters that are getting high Street Cred, if they keep themselves professional and quiet, their PA doesn't need to rise linearly with their Street Cred. It should still rise, there's no way of avoiding all attention, but it can rise slower at the GM's discretion. Or faster, if you like doing trid interviews.

[Fizzygoo]

Public Awareness = ROUNDDWN([Street Cred + Noteriety]/3) ± GM Adjustments

And is limited to positive numbers, I forget how to represent that mathematically (more to the point, in a web-text box)

[Begin game show host voice] Youuuuuuu PIPE it! |ROUNDDWN([Street Cred + Noteriety]/3)| ± GM Adjustments [end game show host voice]. As |x| = absolute value of x. In excel it would be ABS(ROUNDDOWN[(Street Cred + Noteriety)/3].

[Kot]

You, my friend, are deviously evil. <laughs>

[Chaemera]

Problem with your math, Fizzygoo, shown via example:

Street Cred = 0
Notoriety = 0
The character's live in a hole in the middle of no where, avoiding all contact with the outside world, so the GM decides that the public is less aware (-2 to Public Awareness)

Public Awareness = ABS(ROUNDDOWN[(Street Cred + Noteriety)/3] +/- GM adjustments)
Public Awareness = ABS(ROUNDDOWN[(0 + 0)/3] - 2)
Public Awareness = ABS(-2)
Public Awareness = 2
So, the GM deciding they are less visible causes them to be more visible when using ABS.

We're talking about limits, not absolute values, so in excel (or other spreadsheets), it'd probably be an IF...THEN system:

Public Awareness = IF(ROUNDDOWN[(Street Cred + Noteriety)/3] + GM adjustments>0,ROUNDDOWN[(Street Cred + Noteriety)/3] + GM adjustments,0)

IF format is IF(Test, Return if True, Return if False)

[Nomad Zophiel]

Well, I tend to assume that +/- GM's Call is built in. My point was strictly that raising Notoriety does not inherently lower Public Awareness. So there's no point in going out and being bad to counter your Street Cred.