[Senko]

Actually I've just been reading through the older ones unlikely to be played to get a general idea of how it works (theme, nature of things rather than specific rules) and I have a problem with flavour text that opens a mission saying your being paid when your actually not.

[Michael Chandra]

Then ignore it. It's part of the Missions setup, and in some cases it, plot-technically, probably did involve a job happening directly after another, like Dragon's Song does. It's just flavour text. It's only a problem if you want to make it one.

[Agonar]

I two main factors (and some minor ones) determine how much time passes between runs.  The minor factors are things like injuries, healing time, training time, etc., but I have been known to start a run before these are finished, and just add time after the run to the process to complete.

The main factors are
1)  I started my game in the 2050's, with 1st edition mods, and I am working to get through some of the major Lore adventures.  My group is new to shadowrun, and knows nothing (except minor blurbs in the history section) about some of the major happenings in the world.  So, I am picking and choosing some of the ones that drop the biggest bombs in the metaplot.  In any case, the main factor of this is that I skip large periods of time, as I still need to reach the 2060's, etc.

2)  Success/Failure of the previous run.  After Mercurial, their names were pretty heavy on the streets, so a lot of the Fixers with subtle jobs passed them by.  Recently, I had a mini side job to fill a short session.  It was a friendly bet between two opposing high ups in the military.  One was paying off a bet with a tanker truck of beer, the receiving end was waiting to ambush the Runners with a brawl before the beer could be delivered, and then they could all partake in some of the beer together, but one of the Runners had to bring out an assault rifle and threaten the opposition..  So, their Employer (and the Fixer contact that arranged the job)) were very unhappy with them after that, so more jobs and time passed them by.




tl:dr  How they performed on their previous job(s) is one of the main factors in how much time I have pass before someone seeks them out for a job

[BetaCAV]

I would say on a meta-level, one every 3-4 weeks, if the standard rate is 3k each. If they get too rich too fast, they'll just retire to the Carribean League-- which might be a fun prime runners session or few-- but hungry runners take the jobs with less fuss.
If they're getting jobs more frequently, those jobs should pay pretty marginally. There's no shortage of people who can break a window and grab a trid set., after all. If the runners as a group have a specialty, that's going to net them some higher pay in that area, just because it's easier for the fixer to... uhm... sell them upstream.
Of course, It's really going to depend on their fixer(s), whether the job goes to them or someone else.

[OneofSorrow]

I let my runners determine the pace of runs.  They need down time to train new skills, bind new foci or acquire new gear.  If however they aren't in need of training or downtime I just give them a week between runs for them to get a little time to take care of daily lives,  After all you aren't a runner 24/7 and players and characters need time to take care of IC things such as, eating, sleep, or spending time with dependents or contacts to keep them in good graces. 

[SlowDeck]

The GM of my face to face group tried to play it as one run a month.

The group decided to practice firing our new weapons. By going into the middle of gang territory and using gang members as targets. We're now nicknamed the Reapers of Sorrow by the Wichita gangs. The GM decided we need to be a wee bit busier after that.

[Senko]

Poor gangers all they wanted was to learn to be racecar drivers.

[OneofSorrow]

Well I agree that targeting gangers is a one way to improve fire arms I think that ought to get a little retribution from the gangs.    At the end of one of our sessions the GM gave us a month off, during that month I had no skill train and no cyberware but the team really needed gear, so I got with my GM and got to actually plan the groups next run where we robbed a rich weapon collector of various assault rifles, panthers assault weapons and a couple high value pieces of art, foci and other stuff.  Players with down time can be a source of runs at times. 

[ZeConster]

I would say on a meta-level, one every 3-4 weeks, if the standard rate is 3k each. If they get too rich too fast, they'll just retire to the Carribean League-- which might be a fun prime runners session or few-- but hungry runners take the jobs with less fuss.

That seems a bit too harsh, actually - somewhere between 6k and 10k per month, pre-expenses, seems about right to me.

[Reiper]

I do every two weeks.

This gives them time to get almost any gear they want between, and I don't follow the rules on leveling up skills.

When leveling up skills, they can do 1 point for the downtime even if it is raising from a 6 to a 7 because I assume that they are still improving their skill every single week anyways so this is just them putting in the extra time to push over the envelope. And it makes it simpler.

[Michael Chandra]

Would your two-week system still work if you weren't houseruling training times, Reiper?

[Reiper]

Would your two-week system still work if you weren't houseruling training times, Reiper?

It would make training higher level rather impossible for the most part, or at least it would end up taking a few runs to get the upgrade done on top of the karma cost.

[MortimerBane]

I like to do 3 or 4 runs almost back to back then take time off to train and add/upgrade lifestyles etc..  All of my PC's characters are somehow connected (though they may not know it) on a massive 'contact tree' drawn out on a piece of poster board with about 60 names on it.  It looks like something off the wall of the police station in an episode of NCIS!  This allows my players to focus on another set of characters for a time while the first group is in downtime.  I have the group do 2 or 3 'normal' payout missions.  Then the 'season finale' is a high payout run or series of runs.  I often create this run as a backfire to something they did in a previous run.  This finale comes with a high pay-out - enough to pay for upgraded gear and training and to get ahead on lifestyle payments.

I don't really have to worry about how fast the characters make money.  I learned early on the dark side of allowing players to have everything they want/need at char gen.  I want my players to start off with as little as possible.  Even if you chose resources for priority A, your still not starting off with high lifestyle, 3 cars and doc wagon platinum.  Buy up all the foci or cyberware you want, but in the end your character can only start off with a few weapons and a backpack full of stuff.  Players always want new toys... that's part of the fun.  This way they have to upgrade commlinks and upgrade lifestyles and all kinds of expensive stuff before they can even THINK of looking for things like mono whips and assault cannons.  Does that make sense?  It's what I like to call "The Eat Your Vegetables First" rule.  If you want ice cream you gotta eat your broccoli first.  Make your characters fill out a "First things to do/upgrade list" and make them stick to that.  Another thing you can do is make your campaign so frickin lethal that they players wouldn't dare step foot out of the barrens without proper paperwork on everything and a flawless fake SIN.  Make whatever it is they THINK they need an assault cannon for and make it the least of their worries.

Another thing that I still do is base their pay per mission on their lifestyle costs like we did back in 3rd edition.  That way, they are always so worried about stuffing money under the mattress to upgrade their lifestyle that they stop asking to buy the expensive crap that they really don't need anyway.  And if they do you can just give them the, "Ok, you lease a 12 x 12 section of a parking deck from the local go-gang/organ-leggers.  You have no vehicle and no clothes other than the ones your wearing.  You don't even have a bed or a place to store your things and you want to buy a 23k Krime Bomb?"

Ok I'm rambling off topic again...

[Senko]

I assume you give some starting runs in the barrens then so those who can barely afford an R1 Sin can put together the money to buy an R3-6?

[MortimerBane]

Absolutely.  Low life style cost 2k/month so my starting barrens runs pay out about 2k per run.  Now these runs are short and simple so you can do 3 or 4 in a month.  That's 6 to 8k a month to a character with only 2k a month in costs.  That should be enough to buy a lv 2 SIN, a commlink and a toy or two.  Next month he can upgrade those and buy another toy or two.  A few months in the barrens should yield more than enough money to get out.