[Bladebite]

So my decker player hit me up with a question last night that I don't have an answer for. He is currently working with the Renraku Tsurugi Cyberdeck (device rating 3, attributes 6,5,5,3) which cost him a whopping 214,125 ¥ at character creation. He, like every player, wants to get better gear, but to get a new cyberdeck (let's say the next step up - the Sony CIY-720) would cost him 345,000¥.No runner ever sees that much money in game, especially going off of the rewards rules in the SR5 rulebook. So, how does he get a new cyberdeck?

The same problem would arise for a rigger buying a new RCC. In my opinion riggers are even more expensive, because you're constantly replacing and repairing drones.

No other role has this money problem. Spellcasters only have to dish out a couple thousand for a focus or new spell. Faces use their money for clothes (no offense to any faces out there). So what is a way to get my decker a new deck without making my other players mad? I can't exactly hand him 450,000¥.

A couple options I've thought of:

1. Rob a tech store (hit and run). The team could go in, grab a deck and run. But then the decker has the arduous task of converting ownership, an extended Hardware + Logic [Mental] (24, 1 hour) test. 24 is a huge threshold. And I'm assuming Lone Star or Knights Errant would be breathing down his neck the entire time.

2. Rob a tech store (the hold-up). Make the clerk transfer ownership of the deck over to the decker at gunpoint. This saves the decker from having to do the crazy extended test, but is an employee going to give up a 450,000¥ device, even for his life? What would the corp do to him if he let that much nuyen walk out the door? Plus, transferring the ownership means that the clerk would know the decker's fake SIN info, so that's a burned SIN. Though I guess paying 20-30k for a new SIN is a far cry from paying 450k for a new deck.

3. Rob a bank. Empty some big corporate hotshot's bank account and then use the money to buy the cyberdeck. Problem here is I don't want my players to get the idea that they can just rob banks whenever they want a new big payday. Need a limo? Let's go hit a bank. Need an airplane? Let's go hit a bank. Why did we ever do any other runs? That's not to mention I really don't know how I'd design a bank robbery run.

4. Build a custom deck. Problem - there are no rules for this.

5. Tell my decker - tough luck, chummer. Yes, I know the mage got some shiny new spells and metamagic, and the face got a new suit that ups his social limit and the technomancer learned some awesome new complex forms, but you're a decker so you're out of luck.

6. An inheritance - you have a rich uncle who died and here's his top-of-the-line cyberdeck.

Anyway, I'd love some input on what to do to get my decker a new deck.

[ZeConster]

There's 2 other options: one is the party encountering another hacker and obtaining their deck in one piece (in fact, during one Mission my GM made the enemies toss a grenade at their defeated members to blow up the evidence, to keep the enemy hacker's deck out of player hands), and the other is that the spellcasters and faces could pool some of their spare nuyen to help with buying a new deck, which is a team investment after all.

[martinchaen]

Don't forget designing a run solely to get the hacker better gear from an R&D lab somewhere.

And honestly, that 24 threshold test is nothing in the long run. Grab a faraday cage, or plug directly into the deck if you need to. You'll be spending some time, but look at ritual magic, binding, hell, even good old training time. It takes a moth of dedicated training to raise a skill group. Forget about raising a single skill to 12 for most runners.

The ownership test is on a 1 hour interval; assuming the Decker actually has some decent stats, you're unlikely to spend even single day doing this, and as far as I know there are no rules requiring the deck to be online for the duration.

[Namikaze]

I've also worked out barter systems in the past.  The players might get a few pieces of middling-grade gear, and then trade it all in for one piece of higher-grade gear.  The trick is that they need to find a contact or source that wants the middling gear enough to give up the higher gear.

[Bladebite]

Don't forget designing a run solely to get the hacker better gear from an R&D lab somewhere.

Yeah, I like the idea of making it a run. Have the team in there to grab a prototype something for Mr. Johnson and oh hey, there's a nice cyberdeck. That way the team gets a payday and the decker gets his upgrade. I could also have the decker be Mr. Johnson for the run and pay his fellow players to help him get the cyberdeck. Let's say he pays them 10k a piece, that's still way less than the cost of a new cyberdeck.

And honestly, that 24 threshold test is nothing in the long run. Grab a faraday cage, or plug directly into the deck if you need to.

Yeah, actually I went back after I posted my original comment and did the test with the decker in the SR5 rulebook, and she got it done in 9 hours, no glitches, and no edge spent. So, it is doable.

[pariah3j]

I allowed my decker to borrow the money for his deck - he now owes a bookie; A few weeks into the game(in-game time) he's already sent some goons out to collect, they're expecting at minimum 10k a week till its payed back 

[Zeerust]

I allowed my decker to borrow the money for his deck - he now owes a bookie; A few weeks into the game(in-game time) he's already sent some goons out to collect, they're expecting at minimum 10k a week till its payed back 

As a decker myself, I am not sure this solves the problem.  To me, I would still feel like the cashflow issue is still there - it's just now it's in people demanding money rather than a barrier between me and the gear.

-Zeerust

[RHat]

1-2: Could work, but this is a hazardous precedent to set.  And, realistically, that deck isn't going to be physically in the store because of the likelihood of this event as compared to the size of the market for this product.  So they'd have to hit the place these things are actually kept, or find out when one is coming in and rob the shipment.  That said, do be aware that ownership is possible for the SINless, and thus cannot be contingent upon your SIN.  In other words, number 2 could be achieved without burning your SIN.
3: Dangerous as you note.
4: Yeah, you'd have to make some rules for that.
5: Kind of a non-option, isn't it?
6: Kind of an odd play...
7: This has the same issue as 4, but you might let him use the Hardware and Software skills to upgrade his deck, spending some percentage of the difference on parts.
8: A new deck could be payment for a run; this is also a popular method for getting the Street Sam access to new 'ware.

I allowed my decker to borrow the money for his deck - he now owes a bookie; A few weeks into the game(in-game time) he's already sent some goons out to collect, they're expecting at minimum 10k a week till its payed back 

Doesn't that just make the problem worse, because everyone else is progressing as normal but now he's in the hole and even further behind?

[Charasanya]

One question that remains to be solved is: What happens to the old cyberdeck if you get a new one? Its still a 200+k device, about as expensive as a Cessna C750 and a Rover 2072 added together. Sell it for 20% (40k)? Keep it for backup? Try to find a promising young wanna-be hacker, secure lifelong debt and be his/her sugardaddy?

[Insaniac99]

One question that remains to be solved is: What happens to the old cyberdeck if you get a new one? Its still a 200+k device, about as expensive as a Cessna C750 and a Rover 2072 added together. Sell it for 20% (40k)? Keep it for backup? Try to find a promising young wanna-be hacker, secure lifelong debt and be his/her sugardaddy?

Run an agent on it for teamwork hacking?

[martinchaen]

What Insaniac99 said; never discount the usefulness of having access to more programs and/or Agents...

[Michael Chandra]

Wait a year or more so that you have rules regarding upgrading. The danger with giving them a run to get a new one is that it's unfair to the rest of the party. If a Street Sam wants Muscle Toner 4, or Synaptic Boosters 3, it's gonna take them ages of saving as well.

[martinchaen]

That's why this kind of action would be a mid- to high-tier reward not necessarily exclusive to the decker/rigger, Michael.

The warrior can always use new cyber. The rigger can steal a t-bird. The magician can get his grubby hands on a high-rating power focus or some other high-availability item. The decker can use a new deck. The face... well, there's the old saying that information is gold, right?

[Michael Chandra]

(in fact, during one Mission my GM made the enemies toss a grenade at their defeated members to blow up the evidence, to keep the enemy hacker's deck out of player hands)

Given how the max amount of loot in those two runs would have doubled the nuyen you got from them (so near-70k instead of 35k pp), I regret nothing! You already scored about 5k nuyen each for fencing the loot, on top of 2x15k for the runs.

[Kincaid]

Working for the Man can add up pretty quickly, too.