The cost of doing business

[Sparticus]

A question I have for the many who frequent this forum. I have been going through many of my rifts books and have not been able to find a satisfactory amount for what to pay a merc with a bot. You have a merc who pilots let’s as a Gunwolf or Ulti-Max, how much would you have to pay them to mobilize. The monetary costs presented in the Mercenary series of books seems to cover those with normal vehicles or even power armor but not those that use bots. I am trying to come up with a good figure as repairs and replacement of munitions can become expensive and any merc with half a brain would take that into consideration for the price to get them to go on missions for someone. Also is there any book in rifts that gives an idea for the cost of services like to rent a room at a hotel/motel or buying supplies like food. Water, medicine and such?

[flatline]

The economics of the Rifts setting are totally unsustainable and, quite frankly, wonky. It's almost as if numbers were just made up and printed rather than thought through.

If I were you, I'd simply set the price at whatever makes sense to you. If something seems too expensive, then reduce the price in your campaign. Similarly, if something seems too cheap, then increase the price of it in your campaign.

--flatline

[Bill]

I concur with flatline. The only real question is whether you'll make the NPC patron generous or miserly. You might consider including "repair costs" in the payment, that way you don't have to calculate them or worry about whether you've made the reward substantial enough to cover those expenses in advance of the adventure.

I don't recall seeing the price basic goods and services being covered. Robot Medical Kits appear in a few places, RUE for one, and may be as close as you get to the cost of medical supplies. I don't recommend going into that kind of fine detail, but I think most common supply items can be arbitrarily priced between five and fifty credits per unit.

[Nox Equites]

Mercenaries assumes that people who are hiring bot or PA crews are paying upkeep on the gear. How beat up your gear gets will influence how much the client has to shell out. 750 credits a week with them paying maintenance and repairs isn't too bad. Most mercenaries just barely get by with some extra creds for beer.

[Mack]

Be careful. Thinking about economics and Rifts will make you go cross-eyed.

[eliakon]

Normally I do not agree with Flatline. But I have to admit that in this case he is totally right. :8 I would go with Bill's solution and have the contracts be X+ repair or X+ expenses ... then you can sort of hand wave math, and juggle numbers to fit.....which I suspect is the only way to make it really work.

[FatherMorpheus]

Another one is when Mercenaries are striking their deal, they get salvage rights to help supplement their meager weekly pay. As things are extremely expensive to purchase, selling the salvage even at a large loss can help make up for any repair costs.

Though, as most others have said, making sure the deal provides for repairs will also cover the expensive costs of things.

Oh, and yes, don't think economics in Rifts... It will... (3 million SAMAS!) break your brain!

[Mack]

For a bit more drama, you could make the contract "X + basic repairs only." Meaning that the employer will cover the cost of fixing surface damage (my 'bot lost 45 MDC) but not major repairs (my 'bot lost an arm and needs a replacement). That keeps some pressure on the mercenary to avoid major damage.

The employer might also require that you use his own repair shop. Such as if a small town has hired the mercs, they might get free minor repairs from the local Benny's 'Bot Shop (which is owned by the mayor's brother-in-law). From the town's perspective, that keeps some of the funds in their economy and not in the player's coffers.

[Kagashi]

Rifts Mercenaries, page 18-19 lists base salaries. I use "Good Salaries" as the most common which means 400 credits a week for the basic foot soldier. Then on page 34-35 they list adjustments to that pay scale. If the guy brings his own PA, you get +20-40% for common models and a bonus of 10-30% for more unique models. Depending on the model and the contract, the merc might get +70% which brings you to a whopping 680 credits a week to maintain that uber expensive Naruni OMAV. Oh, and the company would likely expect you to pay for half the upkeep of the bot.

With that pay, you *might* be able to replace a mini missile every month or so after you pay for rent and food...

Yeah, Rifts economics is bad...

If folks were really getting paid that little, prices would be much lower across the board. Especially Bot and magic items, but everything should be lower.

[Arakash]

When i was writing up/creating a Mercenary Company (which i did recently) I actually went into this kind of detail on the probable contract costs and even things like wages.
This was all based on the figures given in the Mercenaries Book.

I can share the document that contains all the figures(and a mountain of flavour btw)itself if you want, but ill just summarize the figures i came up with.
Note: I dont claim they are highly accurate at all, especially because i am a newcomer to Rifts. So if i make any glaring mistakes, please dont eat me for dinner.
All the costs i calculated were based on suggestions in the Mercenaries Book, including:

• An assumption of combat losses. i.e. losing a certain percentage of your equipment/vehicles.
• A calculation of wages(good wages setting). I also included an assumption of 1 week out of 4 danger pay, because im a nerd.
• A rough guess of overhead(I guessed 1/2 wages, but honestly have no idea)
• An assumption of 30% profit over whatever is the estimated cost

The first of these is actually the most important, especially if you choose to include maintenance costs (1-20% of total value, which i haven't used in this case)

Here is an example from my document:

100 member mercenary corp (40 combat):
(High Tech corp, so over 50% are borgs, headhunters and juicers that attract higher wages)
One Month Contract:

Expectation of 10% losses:
4.4mil(no Robots/Tanks) or 6.8mil(tanks) or 12-25mil(robots)
The mention of robots/tanks etc in brackets refers to the combat vehicles which the company owns, if any.

Cakewalk jobs(no losses assumed):
0.4mil

Correct? No idea, probably not far off(i hope)
Interesting? i thought very much so at the time.

Noob Note/Question: Can i post mediafire links on this forum? I might end up wanting to share that Merc Company and im not sure the etiquette on links here.

[Bill]

I put up Google drive links frequently and have not been sanctioned for it. We are prohibited from sharing pirated materials, obviously, and conversions of other peoples' intellectual property but I think we're free to do as we like with our Palladium derivative works.

[Arakash]

I put up Google drive links frequently and have not been sanctioned for it. We are prohibited from sharing pirated materials, obviously, and conversions of other peoples' intellectual property but I think we're free to do as we like with our Palladium derivative works.

Thanks.
Its just something I created based on the Rules in Rifts-Mercenaries as well as a fair amount of guesswork/assumptions. It doesn't contain anything pirated or any conversions.
So ill post it if anyone requests it later on.

[flatline]

So what do you do when the potential employer doesn't have deep enough pockets to pay for serious repairs?

This whole topic is interesting because in real life, the equipment, let alone the maintenance of equipment, is worth only a small portion of the mercenary fee since it's far easier to find military hardware than it is good people. The economics in Rifts are totally inverted. The guy holding the gun is only paid $400 per week, but his equipment is worth several orders of magnitude more than that.

In Rifts, no mercenary can sleep at night without the very legitimate fear that their employer will kill them in their sleep just to take their equipment and pawn it at the nearest Black Market fence.

--flatline

[Killer Cyborg]

A question I have for the many who frequent this forum. I have been going through many of my rifts books and have not been able to find a satisfactory amount for what to pay a merc with a bot. You have a merc who pilots let’s as a Gunwolf or Ulti-Max, how much would you have to pay them to mobilize. The monetary costs presented in the Mercenary series of books seems to cover those with normal vehicles or even power armor but not those that use bots. I am trying to come up with a good figure as repairs and replacement of munitions can become expensive and any merc with half a brain would take that into consideration for the price to get them to go on missions for someone. Also is there any book in rifts that gives an idea for the cost of services like to rent a room at a hotel/motel or buying supplies like food. Water, medicine and such?

Such low-end prices are rarely printed, and most likely vary widely from place to place.
In MOST places on Rifts Earth, the price for that kind of thing is "Barter."

Overall, how much you want to pay your PCs for adventuring depends on what kind of adventures you want to run. As a rule, I think that Rifts tends to work best on Firefly level, where they make just enough money to keep flying until their next adventure, with hopes of the occasional big score.

I try to keep money rather tight with the PCs, because part of my goal as a GM is to challenge them into trying to do the most with what they have. Just like I usually prefer to be challenged in this way.
Sometimes, it's perfectly appropriate for the PCs to be compensated for both armor/vehicle repairs and ammunition that they expend during the course of an adventure as part of their payment... but it can lead to sloppiness on the part of the PCs.
If they know that their armor is going to be repaired, they're more likely to just charge on in shooting.
If they know that they're going to be reimbursed for ammunition, they're more likely to waste ammunition on overkill.
And when you get into stuff like reimbursing for the cost of missiles used... that could increase the cost to absurd amounts in many cases.

On the other hand, many people enjoy playing/running games where they don't have to worry about overhead expenses. They want to be able to effectively heal up completely between combats, and to only worry about ammunition or armor on the encounter level.
In which case, reimbursing cost should be standard for this kind of game.

[Arakash]

So what do you do when the potential employer doesn't have deep enough pockets to pay for serious repairs?

This whole topic is interesting because in real life, the equipment, let alone the maintenance of equipment, is worth only a small portion of the mercenary fee since it's far easier to find military hardware than it is good people. The economics in Rifts are totally inverted. The guy holding the gun is only paid $400 per week, but his equipment is worth several orders of magnitude more than that.

In Rifts, no mercenary can sleep at night without the very legitimate fear that their employer will kill them in their sleep just to take their equipment and pawn it at the nearest Black Market fence.

--flatline

There is actually some really interesting flavour in the Rifts-Mercenaries book on this. It points out that it doesn't always have to be in credits.
Trade goods are a solid option(the book actually mentions cattle) but i think favours, information, or even offering some kind of service(like mechanics/personnel) is an equally good option.
One option i thought up which is equally interesting is the idea of a mercenary doing work with an Arms Company(like NG) and being paid entirely in weapons/vehicles/equipment. For a mercenary company especially, this would make a lot of business sense. Mutually beneficial arrangements and all that.....

[Killer Cyborg]

So what do you do when the potential employer doesn't have deep enough pockets to pay for serious repairs?

This whole topic is interesting because in real life, the equipment, let alone the maintenance of equipment, is worth only a small portion of the mercenary fee since it's far easier to find military hardware than it is good people. The economics in Rifts are totally inverted. The guy holding the gun is only paid $400 per week, but his equipment is worth several orders of magnitude more than that.

In Rifts, no mercenary can sleep at night without the very legitimate fear that their employer will kill them in their sleep just to take their equipment and pawn it at the nearest Black Market fence.

--flatline

There is actually some really interesting flavour in the Rifts-Mercenaries book on this. It points out that it doesn't always have to be in credits.
Trade goods are a solid option(the book actually mentions cattle) but i think favours, information, or even offering some kind of service(like mechanics/personnel) is an equally good option.
One option i thought up which is equally interesting is the idea of a mercenary doing work with an Arms Company(like NG) and being paid entirely in weapons/vehicles/equipment. For a mercenary company especially, this would make a lot of business sense. Mutually beneficial arrangements and all that.....

Hm.
A potentially fun aspect of being paid in equipment is that the party might get to deal with unfamiliar and/or experimental stuff from time to time.

[Subjugator]

I generally base it loosely off the wages given a Glitterboy and include repairs and ammo in the bargain (otherwise it'd never be worth it).

/Sub

[Killer Cyborg]

I generally base it loosely off the wages given a Glitterboy and include repairs and ammo in the bargain (otherwise it'd never be worth it).
/Sub

THAT depends on what the job is, and how you go about it.

Say you're a GB pilot running around solo.
A good chunk of your jobs might be composed of:
-Doing nothing but looking shiny and keeping bandits from attacking the town just by your presence there.
-Taking out SDC bandits/thugs that can't even hurt you.
-Taking out MDC bandits/thugs/critters that you can snipe from 2 miles away, or otherwise pick off without taking any damage.

[eliakon]

Due to the craziness of the system it may need some OOC discussions to work.
I.e. The game master and the players will talk. The GM will explain that, for example, the game is going to be of cash strapped mercenearies. So the pay will be low. However he understands that their gear is expensive. So he will make sure that x and y are covered up to z amount, and that ammunition levels will not be depleated as long as the players are not spraying and praying at everything. The players in turn agree that they will play characters as cagey old mercs trying to conserve supplies, rather than just letting their armor soak everything, and shooting everything that moves.
In game the contract is a bit more nebulous for, say 600cr a week plus reasonable expenses. If there is extra damage the GM throws in a wandering operator they can resscue to fix it, or they capture a supply cache full of just the right spare parts, or what ever. If they need a bit more ammo, then their NPC quartermaster scrounged up a good deal on mini-missiles, of the locals mention that the last mercs 'left a couple tins of them fancy rocket bullets over in farmer smiths barn'. Its not hadnwavium if they all know it going in. In the meantime the characters get a certain amount of cash that they can spend on what ever they want, safe in the knowledge that they can spend their meager pay on wine, women and song...or what ever, And then bemoan their poverty, in game, with out running a grave risk of the game collapsing because the games economic system is unsustainable.

[Tor]

you *might* be able to replace a mini missile every month or so after you pay for rent and food...

Even though they're basically the best weapons in the Megaverse, economy is definitely the downside of missiles. Players with generous GMs or who go about pirating to get lots of money (or who run their own merc companies and can set the price) can go missile-crazy, but anyone who gets paid reasonably... bleh.

Anyone who can figure out a cheap way to make missiles would be set...

That MDC-repair spell... does it work on destroyed things?

*picturing people picking up missile casings and putting them back together*

Those splicer guys who just regrow mini-smart missiles are lucky.

[flatline]

you *might* be able to replace a mini missile every month or so after you pay for rent and food...

Even though they're basically the best weapons in the Megaverse, economy is definitely the downside of missiles. Players with generous GMs or who go about pirating to get lots of money (or who run their own merc companies and can set the price) can go missile-crazy, but anyone who gets paid reasonably... bleh.

Anyone who can figure out a cheap way to make missiles would be set...

That MDC-repair spell... does it work on destroyed things?

Mend The Broken can not repair something with less than 20% its starting MDC (BoM p108).

*picturing people picking up missile casings and putting them back together*

Those splicer guys who just regrow mini-smart missiles are lucky.

If you can defeat your opponents without ever giving them a target to shoot at, then you can salvage all those missiles that they didn't get a chance to fire at you.

--flatline

[Shark_Force]

you could theoretically make a TW "missile launcher" that combines some AOE damage spell and magic pigeon

since the (exploding) pigeon is generated from nothing each time, the cost per shot would only be in PPE.

of course, first you'd need your GM to approve construction of the weapon, and go through all the work. unless of course the assumption is that it's so obvious, someone must have already done it ^^

[flatline]

you could theoretically make a TW "missile launcher" that combines some AOE damage spell and magic pigeon

since the (exploding) pigeon is generated from nothing each time, the cost per shot would only be in PPE.

of course, first you'd need your GM to approve construction of the weapon, and go through all the work. unless of course the assumption is that it's so obvious, someone must have already done it ^^

One of the first things our resident Technowizard did when FoM came out was build a TW device that combined magic pigeon with fire globe.

--flatline

[Subjugator]

I generally base it loosely off the wages given a Glitterboy and include repairs and ammo in the bargain (otherwise it'd never be worth it).
/Sub

THAT depends on what the job is, and how you go about it.

Say you're a GB pilot running around solo.
A good chunk of your jobs might be composed of:
-Doing nothing but looking shiny and keeping bandits from attacking the town just by your presence there.
-Taking out SDC bandits/thugs that can't even hurt you.
-Taking out MDC bandits/thugs/critters that you can snipe from 2 miles away, or otherwise pick off without taking any damage.

Yeah, I'm referring to PC jobs.

/Sub

[Killer Cyborg]

I generally base it loosely off the wages given a Glitterboy and include repairs and ammo in the bargain (otherwise it'd never be worth it).
/Sub

THAT depends on what the job is, and how you go about it.

Say you're a GB pilot running around solo.
A good chunk of your jobs might be composed of:
-Doing nothing but looking shiny and keeping bandits from attacking the town just by your presence there.
-Taking out SDC bandits/thugs that can't even hurt you.
-Taking out MDC bandits/thugs/critters that you can snipe from 2 miles away, or otherwise pick off without taking any damage.

Yeah, I'm referring to PC jobs.

/Sub

Me too.
Just not the stuff that you'd necessarily role-play out.

[Subjugator]

Me too.
Just not the stuff that you'd necessarily role-play out.

Fair enough, but I don't think people include that in salaries, either.

"Okay, you spent two years standing guard in absolute boredom with no damage to your vehicle and only 20MD to account for, so the rest is gravy. Here's your 200K credits. One day though..."

Yeah, I think most GMs say, "You were hired for the job and now you're attacked..."

/Sub

[Killer Cyborg]

Me too.
Just not the stuff that you'd necessarily role-play out.

Fair enough, but I don't think people include that in salaries, either.

"Okay, you spent two years standing guard in absolute boredom with no damage to your vehicle and only 20MD to account for, so the rest is gravy. Here's your 200K credits. One day though..."

I don't know that I'd go with two years for that kind of thing, but I've regularly summed up a few months that way.

Yeah, I think most GMs say, "You were hired for the job and now you're attacked..."
/Sub

I'd think that the PCs would quit being hired, if they were that kind of jinx!

[kaid]

So what do you do when the potential employer doesn't have deep enough pockets to pay for serious repairs?

This whole topic is interesting because in real life, the equipment, let alone the maintenance of equipment, is worth only a small portion of the mercenary fee since it's far easier to find military hardware than it is good people. The economics in Rifts are totally inverted. The guy holding the gun is only paid $400 per week, but his equipment is worth several orders of magnitude more than that.

In Rifts, no mercenary can sleep at night without the very legitimate fear that their employer will kill them in their sleep just to take their equipment and pawn it at the nearest Black Market fence.

--flatline

The other odd part about it is you pay mercs peanuts and then put them in equipment that costs a million or more credits. This has to lead to some pretty outrageous desertion rates although it may explain where all the player characters all pimped out in fancy gear come from.

[flatline]

So what do you do when the potential employer doesn't have deep enough pockets to pay for serious repairs?

This whole topic is interesting because in real life, the equipment, let alone the maintenance of equipment, is worth only a small portion of the mercenary fee since it's far easier to find military hardware than it is good people. The economics in Rifts are totally inverted. The guy holding the gun is only paid $400 per week, but his equipment is worth several orders of magnitude more than that.

In Rifts, no mercenary can sleep at night without the very legitimate fear that their employer will kill them in their sleep just to take their equipment and pawn it at the nearest Black Market fence.

--flatline

The other odd part about it is you pay mercs peanuts and then put them in equipment that costs a million or more credits. This has to lead to some pretty outrageous desertion rates although it may explain where all the player characters all pimped out in fancy gear come from.

Absolutely, at least for characters whose alignments would allow it.

The easiest correction to the economics of Rifts Earth is to multiply all canon pay scales by 10. That would address the huge disparity between equipment cost and pay.

--flatline

[Library Ogre]

The easiest correction to the economics of Rifts Earth is to multiply all canon pay scales by 10. That would address the huge disparity between equipment cost and pay.

Or reduce most costs by 2 decimal places... the incomes seem pretty reasonable, until you put them up against the prices.

[flatline]

The easiest correction to the economics of Rifts Earth is to multiply all canon pay scales by 10. That would address the huge disparity between equipment cost and pay.

Or reduce most costs by 2 decimal places... the incomes seem pretty reasonable, until you put them up against the prices.

Increase income or decrease costs. It's the ratio of one to the other that matters, so either solution will accomplish the goal.

--flatline

[Subjugator]

This gets to the core of the issue for me. It's a minimum of 800 credits a pop to recharge an e-clip?! It costs HOW MUCH to repair that bot? As I see it, the only adventurers out there would be mages, because nobody else could afford it!

/Sub

[Killer Cyborg]

This gets to the core of the issue for me. It's a minimum of 800 credits a pop to recharge an e-clip?! It costs HOW MUCH to repair that bot? As I see it, the only adventurers out there would be mages, because nobody else could afford it!

/Sub

Not if they get shot up regularly, and expend a lot of ammo.
But if they avoid getting shot up regularly, and they don't expend a lot of ammo, they can profit quite well.
Especially when there's good looting during an adventure.

[Subjugator]

This gets to the core of the issue for me. It's a minimum of 800 credits a pop to recharge an e-clip?! It costs HOW MUCH to repair that bot? As I see it, the only adventurers out there would be mages, because nobody else could afford it!

/Sub

Not if they get shot up regularly, and expend a lot of ammo.
But if they avoid getting shot up regularly, and they don't expend a lot of ammo, they can profit quite well.
Especially when there's good looting during an adventure.

I'm thinking Undead Slayers and folks with ready access to Armor Bizarre (etc) would do quite well.

/Sub

[Subjugator]

This gets to the core of the issue for me. It's a minimum of 800 credits a pop to recharge an e-clip?! It costs HOW MUCH to repair that bot? As I see it, the only adventurers out there would be mages, because nobody else could afford it!

/Sub

Not if they get shot up regularly, and expend a lot of ammo.
But if they avoid getting shot up regularly, and they don't expend a lot of ammo, they can profit quite well.
Especially when there's good looting during an adventure.

Besides...you're evil. Go to Heck!

[Killer Cyborg]

This gets to the core of the issue for me. It's a minimum of 800 credits a pop to recharge an e-clip?! It costs HOW MUCH to repair that bot? As I see it, the only adventurers out there would be mages, because nobody else could afford it!

/Sub

Not if they get shot up regularly, and expend a lot of ammo.
But if they avoid getting shot up regularly, and they don't expend a lot of ammo, they can profit quite well.
Especially when there's good looting during an adventure.

I'm thinking Undead Slayers and folks with ready access to Armor Bizarre (etc) would do quite well.

/Sub

This was one of the early advantages of Dragons, actually. They never ran out of ammo, and they could heal up damage.
The downside, of course, was that they could be the targets of burst fire.

[flatline]

This gets to the core of the issue for me. It's a minimum of 800 credits a pop to recharge an e-clip?! It costs HOW MUCH to repair that bot? As I see it, the only adventurers out there would be mages, because nobody else could afford it!

/Sub

Not if they get shot up regularly, and expend a lot of ammo.
But if they avoid getting shot up regularly, and they don't expend a lot of ammo, they can profit quite well.
Especially when there's good looting during an adventure.

I'm thinking Undead Slayers and folks with ready access to Armor Bizarre (etc) would do quite well.

/Sub

This was one of the early advantages of Dragons, actually. They never ran out of ammo, and they could heal up damage.
The downside, of course, was that they could be the targets of burst fire.

I think those advantages are still relevant today (even with all the power creep).

Metamorphosis and teleport abilities help mitigate the whole "being a target" thing.

--flatline

[Killer Cyborg]

This was one of the early advantages of Dragons, actually. They never ran out of ammo, and they could heal up damage.
The downside, of course, was that they could be the targets of burst fire.

I think those advantages are still relevant today (even with all the power creep).

Metamorphosis and teleport abilities help mitigate the whole "being a target" thing.

--flatline

Oh, definitely. And with the burst/spray rules gone, they're more powerful than ever now.
They just have a LOT more bio-regenerating competition out there than back when there were only 1d4 Rifts books.

[Dog_O_War]

A question I have for the many who frequent this forum. I have been going through many of my rifts books and have not been able to find a satisfactory amount for what to pay a merc with a bot. You have a merc who pilots let’s as a Gunwolf or Ulti-Max, how much would you have to pay them to mobilize. The monetary costs presented in the Mercenary series of books seems to cover those with normal vehicles or even power armor but not those that use bots. I am trying to come up with a good figure as repairs and replacement of munitions can become expensive and any merc with half a brain would take that into consideration for the price to get them to go on missions for someone. Also is there any book in rifts that gives an idea for the cost of services like to rent a room at a hotel/motel or buying supplies like food. Water, medicine and such?

If you want to keep prices "down", do it in an 'X + costs' fashion.


X can be salary, or it can be per contract, or a combination of them.

Costs typically being repairs + munitions, though you can provide a cap on this as well. Such as a munitions cost maximum of 5,000cr/10,000cr/20,000cr depending on the wealth of the employer - this helps curb guys just going out there and grenading/missile-storming everything they see.

Repairs can be capped as well, like "up to 100/200/300 MDC", or even "any amount, but will not replace a destroyed suit".

You can then adjust for deductibles, like rent and food, as you mentioned, or you can include that.

[Razzinold]

The easiest correction to the economics of Rifts Earth is to multiply all canon pay scales by 10. That would address the huge disparity between equipment cost and pay.

Or reduce most costs by 2 decimal places... the incomes seem pretty reasonable, until you put them up against the prices.

Increase income or decrease costs. It's the ratio of one to the other that matters, so either solution will accomplish the goal.

--flatline

True either one will accomplish the same thing but IMO it's better to increase income as opposed to dropping prices.
Even though the end result is the same I find the PCs like to see BIG NUMBERS come payday instead of realistic earnings to cost ratios. The first option lends a grandiose feeling to the game where I find the second way makes it seem too much like how things are in real life,
making $300-$500 a week and buying a car worth $15,00 - $30,000. The game should be fantastical in more ways then just monster and aliens. I'm sure most of us will never earns millions of dollars per job so it's a fun thing to play out in a game.

But that's just my 0.2 credits, or 2 credits based off flatline's method.

[Killer Cyborg]

Making millions of credits should be a Big Score, not the average pay for mercenary work, though.
That's part of the issue: there's salary, but there's also loot.

[flatline]

Making millions of credits should be a Big Score, not the average pay for mercenary work, though.
That's part of the issue: there's salary, but there's also loot.

We gave up mercenary work after we got our first paycheck. The pay wasn't worth it compared to what we made on loot. Rather than take orders, we set up an arrangement with several powers where we acted as privateers against their enemies and they agreed to let us fence our loot in their markets.

That's when the money started rolling in.

--flatline

[Razzinold]

Making millions of credits should be a Big Score, not the average pay for mercenary work, though.
That's part of the issue: there's salary, but there's also loot.

We gave up mercenary work after we got our first paycheck. The pay wasn't worth it compared to what we made on loot. Rather than take orders, we set up an arrangement with several powers where we acted as privateers against their enemies and they agreed to let us fence our loot in their markets.

That's when the money started rolling in.

--flatline

This right here is why I want to find a local store selling a copy of NG2. I heard that there are some pretty awesome road vehicles and I would like to use them to start a merc/salvage operation campaign.

Not only do they salvage stuff after their own battles, they will salvage stuff they happen upon even if it's CS (a little Frieflyesque style of playing) and depending on their alignment they may not be above waiting until two other groups are done fighting and swoop in and grab the salvage (since most people are not equipped to haul it away) by force, or by reaching a deal.

[flatline]

Making millions of credits should be a Big Score, not the average pay for mercenary work, though.
That's part of the issue: there's salary, but there's also loot.

We gave up mercenary work after we got our first paycheck. The pay wasn't worth it compared to what we made on loot. Rather than take orders, we set up an arrangement with several powers where we acted as privateers against their enemies and they agreed to let us fence our loot in their markets.

That's when the money started rolling in.

--flatline

This right here is why I want to find a local store selling a copy of NG2. I heard that there are some pretty awesome road vehicles and I would like to use them to start a merc/salvage operation campaign.

Not only do they salvage stuff after their own battles, they will salvage stuff they happen upon even if it's CS (a little Frieflyesque style of playing) and depending on their alignment they may not be above waiting until two other groups are done fighting and swoop in and grab the salvage (since most people are not equipped to haul it away) by force, or by reaching a deal.

The original RMB SAMAS was just small enough that tectonic entities could inhabit them. After our strikers had killed the pilots, we would summon tectonic entities to inhabit the suits and march them through a dimensional portal into our warehouse.

Then we'd sell the undamaged SAMAS in lots of a dozen (or bigger, depending on the buyer). This approach let us go straight to the buyers rather than selling through middle men, so we made even more money.

--flatline

[Killer Cyborg]

Making millions of credits should be a Big Score, not the average pay for mercenary work, though.
That's part of the issue: there's salary, but there's also loot.

We gave up mercenary work after we got our first paycheck. The pay wasn't worth it compared to what we made on loot. Rather than take orders, we set up an arrangement with several powers where we acted as privateers against their enemies and they agreed to let us fence our loot in their markets.

That's when the money started rolling in.

--flatline

[kaid]

Making millions of credits should be a Big Score, not the average pay for mercenary work, though.
That's part of the issue: there's salary, but there's also loot.

Then again we have mercs with glitter boys worth tens of millions of credits who clearly already made the big score so why are they still adventuring just cash in setup your penthouse in the NG and live the high life.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Making millions of credits should be a Big Score, not the average pay for mercenary work, though.
That's part of the issue: there's salary, but there's also loot.

We gave up mercenary work after we got our first paycheck. The pay wasn't worth it compared to what we made on loot. Rather than take orders, we set up an arrangement with several powers where we acted as privateers against their enemies and they agreed to let us fence our loot in their markets.

That's when the money started rolling in.

--flatline

I think the real catch with going independant is twofold: Marketing and procurement. Yes, if you can get ongoing contracts, market yourselves and get all the gear you need to start up, then it often makes sense to go indpendant.

the problem is most mercenaries don't have the financial resources or connections to get that going, or to convince goverments they are trustworthy. It's the same reason why every mechanic dosn't go independant vs. working in someone else's shops. running a mercenary company is a completely different set of skills from being a mercenary, it's important to keep that in mind.

I'm sure your group handled it all fine (obviously) but I don't think most juicers or mercenary soldigers or headhunters go indie because they just don't have the talent or inclination for the business-side of things.

[Library Ogre]

This right here is why I want to find a local store selling a copy of NG2. I heard that there are some pretty awesome road vehicles and I would like to use them to start a merc/salvage operation campaign.

Not only do they salvage stuff after their own battles, they will salvage stuff they happen upon even if it's CS (a little Frieflyesque style of playing) and depending on their alignment they may not be above waiting until two other groups are done fighting and swoop in and grab the salvage (since most people are not equipped to haul it away) by force, or by reaching a deal.

IMR, lots of settlements have active reclamation industries... you might not be living in the ruins of the old city, but people go to those ruins to strip it for parts.

[Killer Cyborg]

Making millions of credits should be a Big Score, not the average pay for mercenary work, though.
That's part of the issue: there's salary, but there's also loot.

Then again we have mercs with glitter boys worth tens of millions of credits who clearly already made the big score so why are they still adventuring just cash in setup your penthouse in the NG and live the high life.

I'm sure some of them DO that.
Others probably want the adventure.
Or they want enough hardware to protect their assets.

[Nightmask]

Making millions of credits should be a Big Score, not the average pay for mercenary work, though.
That's part of the issue: there's salary, but there's also loot.

We gave up mercenary work after we got our first paycheck. The pay wasn't worth it compared to what we made on loot. Rather than take orders, we set up an arrangement with several powers where we acted as privateers against their enemies and they agreed to let us fence our loot in their markets.

That's when the money started rolling in.

--flatline

I think the real catch with going independant is twofold: Marketing and procurement. Yes, if you can get ongoing contracts, market yourselves and get all the gear you need to start up, then it often makes sense to go indpendant.

the problem is most mercenaries don't have the financial resources or connections to get that going, or to convince goverments they are trustworthy. It's the same reason why every mechanic dosn't go independant vs. working in someone else's shops. running a mercenary company is a completely different set of skills from being a mercenary, it's important to keep that in mind.

I'm sure your group handled it all fine (obviously) but I don't think most juicers or mercenary soldigers or headhunters go indie because they just don't have the talent or inclination for the business-side of things.

The real problem with going independent is simply whether or not the GM will allow it or if he'll make it impossible to be an independent, profitable group.