“Loose” creds.
How liberal are you in providing cred other than what the players stake in the mission? Obviously there is paydata, but greedy characters (particularly those with financial directives) may be looking for other valuable objects to palm and sell into the seedy underworld.
On top of this, missions can get quite expensive to finance – especially if you are hiring help or procuring specialized equipment. This to say nothing of the serious loss the players take if they get paid in a useless currency or if they fail the mission – on top whatever they have already paid for hired help or equipment.
As I think about it, leaving more loose creds in the game world feels like it gives me more freedom to have their employers screw the characters over without feeling like the MC is screwing the players over. I also think it gives a better “hard scrabble” feel to the team if they are constantly scavenging and scrounging.
Others have any thoughts on this?
Also, it’s worth remembering that “cred” covers both traditional monetary “credits” and a runner’s “street cred”. Things can be acquired with both.
You can use “loose” cred as a Hold when it comes to acquiring information or an item for the mission to give the player +1 Forward or something like that.
Yep. Of course, in game terms, you can also get street cred for providing quality items to a fence.
Trung Bui I guess, but I’m thinking about airburst rounds or hiring a crew. These things cost creds (at least by the book), and I don’t think you can reasonably fast talk anyone into giving you their services for free.
Maybe you can convince your employer to cover expenses, but that’s also something that’s not really covered by the rules-as-written.
Junk Addy You can abstract as necessary. Of course there is going to be a price, but it doesn’t always have to be reflective of currency.
Trung Bui I guess. But those things are very clearly priced in the book.
I’d rather not hack the system on this if I don’t need to – there is enough to keep track of, and then I need to think about whether I am making mechanical changes that are going to start impacting the flavor of my Sprawl.
I’m not married to the mechanics. But I care a lot about the flavor.
Junk Addy Flavor wise making unwise loans available to the players is a must I think.
It doesn’t even have to be credits. Maybe their contact just happens to have what they most desire in a crate that “fell of the back of a truck”. And of course the contact calls in the debt at the worst time, or the goods are being tracked by a nefarious third-party (or even the original rightful owners), or they are cheap knock-offs and malfunction at a crucial moment, etc.
I think having the players being in deep debt/indebted, but not dirt poor is actually more interesting in the long run.
Omari Brooks I like that idea.
But I’d also like the players to be able to afford equipment for the high-octane missions they take on, and (occasionally) to be able to afford big upgrades like new cyberware.
The characters aren’t meant to be civilian dirt farmers (just think about the fact that they are running missions against megacorps, the most well-resourced organizations on the planet – or, mechanically, look at the mandatory cyberware and the size of their harm clocks).
I want to make cred progression reasonable without turning them into gods. Spending 8 cred on dermal plating and another 2 to go under the knife should not be impossibly out of reach for the players. I’m not saying that one mission’s earnings should be enough, but given the number of things that can go wrong on those two rolls, it also shouldn’t be a “once-in-a-campaign” event.