[Tecumseh]

I added knowledge skills and Contacts to my sheet, so I'm tentatively ready to go: https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=27929.msg504713#msg504713

I spent my 3 free Loyalty points on the street doc. With my chargen karma I went for an identity broker / forger that can help us with fake SINs and licenses.

@GM Artisan is now a knowledge skill, per the House Rules. The text says, "These skills, encompassing various sorts of craftsmanship and performances, are counted as knowledge skills." Performance is a separate active skill; is that now a knowledge skill too? So, for example, if I want to be good at drumming, is that a knowledge skill or do I still need to take the Performance active skill?

[Jack_Spade]

Let's look at Lifestyles.

The base Medium lifestyle is ¥5,000. Each additional occupant is an extra 10%. Since there are 1 + 3 of us that makes an extra 30%, for a base price of ¥6,500 per month.

The advanced lifestyle rules from Run Faster have the following ratings for Medium:

• Comforts & Necessities: 3, since we don't have any allergies, this is good enough not to suffer any fatigue penalties
• Security: 3, we should upgrade this to 4
• Neighborhood: 4, a B security rating

We have 4 optional points to spend.

• I recommend putting 1 into Security (making it 4).
• I recommend another 1 point into Grid Subscription so that we're not always on the public grid. This costs an extra ¥50 per month.
• I would put the 2 remaining points into Garage, which covers a vehicle rating Body 5 or higher (i.e. team van). This costs an extra ¥100 per month.

That would make the final price ¥6,650. Four ways, that's ¥1,663 a month per person, which seems highly affordable to me.

Open for discussion!

I'm ok with that distribution, but I always thought the points were included in the base price so you don't need to pay the extras until you go beyond your point limit.
Otherwise we'd have to add the extras first and calculate the 10% per person afterwards: 5150*1,3=6695 or 1674 per person
That's still within range of my character's means, at least for the first month.

[Beta]

Thoughts on a couple of spells that have some utility at force two, some reagents, and maybe seven dice pool?  (magic 2, spellcasting 1, specialization, mentor)? 

Slow levitation beats no levitation, for example.  (Possibly aiming for spells we don't already have coverage on).

[gilga]

Makeover, shape change,  mindlink, mana barrier, physical barrier,  cammofledge(not oposed... hits sre negative dice to observer) , watcher because they can help you in astral combat

[Tecumseh]

@Beta
You want spells that are voluntary and/or unopposed. Levitation is the obvious example, as you cited.

Fashion is another favorite. This can be wondrously effective and convenient.

Spatial Sense (Extended) is a tremendous spell.

Similarly, Catalog is a dynamite spell for a private investigator, but unfortunately it is opposed by Object Resistance.

Fix can be handy in a pinch.

Sterilize, if we've been naughty and need to cover our tracks.

@Jack
I far prefer SR4's advanced lifestyles. SR5's rules still baffle me.

I'm reasonably sure that you do have to pay for all the extras, and it appears that you also have to pay for optional points put into Security like I suggested. Here's the passage from Run Faster:

Not all the points for each lifestyle need to be spent—each point can raise the monthly cost of the lifestyle, so players have to consider the benefits they get and the costs of gaining them. Each point spent on Comforts & Necessities, Security, or Neighborhood increases the Lifestyle cost by ten percent of the base lifestyle. Points spent in the Entertainment category vary in cost; depending on the associated lifestyle, they may not bring in additional costs (see Entertainment, p. 219, as well as the information for each category).

If I'm reading that correctly then that would add 10% for the optional point in the Security rating (which I still think is a good idea), which comes to ¥1,841 per person. Still less than a Low lifestyle.

[Jack_Spade]

@Tecumseh

Damn, you are right - oh well, time to earn some serious money then...

[Beta]

It seems like sometimes when I'm posting on my phone it isn't making it through to the boards.  I'll make to copy the post and check that it has gong through in the future (I've lost a couple of posts now, grrr).

I have my priority D mage doing a decent Traveller imitation, and have most of the character jotted out on a piece of scrap paper -- now I'm just trying to figure out how deeply in debt he needs to be.  I don't think we came to any conclusion about a group vehicle?  A shared Americar would come out to $4k each.  Is that possible for everyone, or is that one level of indebtedness too far?

[Jack_Spade]

If I give up my bike, that's in the budget.

[Tecumseh]

I spent ¥8,500 on a motorcycle. I can give that up and put it toward a team vehicle.

I'd love to get a van (¥30k or ¥35k) but that might be too much of a reach. If we're going to be nation-hopping then maybe an expensive team vehicle isn't prudent. Still, it might be nice to upgrade an Americar with some relatively inexpensive but useful features, like spoof chips and GridGuide Override, maybe a smuggling compartment. The whole thing would be less than ¥20K, so ¥8K from me and ¥4K from everyone else.

I'll probably continue to fiddle with my spending right up until game start.

[gilga]

To get a decent deck 50k+ (with priority E finances) I had to give an arm and a leg, I took in debt 8 (owing 60k, 40k cash), and converted 10 karma to nuyen. I am uncomfortable in kicking debt higher than 8, as I am not sure how likely she is to cover such debt.

Even after all that, I had to plan exactly which hacking programs I needed to use, and which non-hacking programs. I bought like 28 bullets, and 5 reagents... so there is not much of a wiggle room.

What I could do is give up armor jacket, and be left with a social suit/dress. I wanted to have both as I anticipated that we'll visit both places where you need to dress nicely and places without a dress code.

My gun is also, not the cheapest one I can replace my 800$ gun with a cheaper gun.  The most I could skim is like 1500 but anything more requires some big compromises (E.g., not starting with a proper deck).  If I go to the comlink/RCC route -  I can just buy a van or something.

The problem with that route is that my character would not be able to crack files. So the usefulness of the matrix would be to spoof commands and such.
 

[Tecumseh]

If people haven't played with it before, In Debt is a bitch goddess who gives with one hand while taking away with the other. Level 8 should put you in borderline freak-out mode. That's ¥60K of debt with ¥6K due every month, or ~¥8K when you add in Lifestyle. Now I think we can cover that with the GM's guidelines around pay, but that doesn't even take into account paying down the debt, let alone investing in new toys.

At that point we should give more consideration to the GM's proposal of using an NPC secretary to cover holes in our capabilities. However, I defer to gilga's sense of what will be the most fun to play.

[gilga]

I think it is fine, the options of not starting with debt kick me about 50-60 karma backward to reach the starting position of my character. What I am saying, is it is a bitch - but I got a lot out of it. Namely, I got a deck that I can build a successful full-fledged decker on.

I think it is worth the hassle, and either I can convert some karma to money (working for the man) or I enjoy karma advancement (new spells, skills, qualities). I'll enjoy the implications...

[Tecumseh]

Let me shake the couch cushions to see what falls out. I need to comb through my Chummer file again to identify oversights and possible cost savings. For example, I just noticed that I was double-paying for Lifestyle, so that freed up some nuyen. Not enough to cover an Americar by myself, but maybe enough to help cover gilga's portion.

@Beta Let me know where you net out on nuyen and if you can chip anything in.

[Jack_Spade]

I have 6400 nuyen in bike and lifestyle.
After communal lifestyle that leaves 4500 for the car

[Beta]

I was at in debt 3 without a vehicle or weapon focus.  Can go to four and kick in at least 5k to a car (maybe six?  Not in front of my calculations) and will wait on a focus until after a run or two.