Downtime, advancement, and wealth

Sprawlrunners uses a fully abstracted resource system, replacing the traditional RPG structure of buying gear and tracking a currency balance with a mechanic called Logistic Points. This works well for some tables, but we found it a little jarring for the characters to have no reason to discuss or negotiate the in-game payments for the jobs they undertake.

The rules in this section consist of several linked systems that work together to nudge the feel of Sprawlrunners a little closer to how Shadowrun works, but still without requiring detailed tracking of the resources each character has to draw on.

1. Advancement tracking is moved from an “advance after each mission” model to “earn karma after each mission, spend karma to advance.” This is very similar to how older editions of Savage Worlds used XP. This helps our table smooth out the rate of advancement, as we play short sessions – and sometimes long missions that span many sessions.
2. In addition to their LP pool, each player has a Wealth Die (see SWADE pg 145). LPs are used to buy all illegal or quasi-legal gear, as before. The Wealth Die is used for other expenditures: bribing a bouncer, paying for a nice dinner, purchasing small/legal items, and so on.
3. When a character completes a mission, they typically receive an in-game payment from whoever hired them. This payment is only used to determine how many Downtime Actions they get to take before their next mission.
4. In between each mission, the players get to use a number of Downtime Actions. These actions can be used to obtain bonuses (including to the Wealth Die, LP, or bonus karma points), advance the character, heal up, and a variety of other useful things.