Hey chummer, if you’ve got the cred, I’ve got what you’re looking for!” —random flashdealer
Street vendors, ripperdocs, ponies, skagmen, fixers, and a myriad other different contacts all provide opportunities for your Shadowrunner to acquire the perfect equipment, knowledge, spell, or whatever else you might need for Mr. Johnson’s super important mission. If you’ve got the cred, opportunities abound in the black markets of Shadowrun: Crossfire. As you wend your way through your run, you will have plenty of opportunities to meet up with your contacts and see what wares they have for sale. If you have enough nuyen, then you can do a simple cash and carry exchange. We represent this type of transaction in Shadowrun: Crossfire by having purchased resources go straight to your hand. Your brand new toy is ready to go when you reach your next area of operation.
In Shadowrun: Crossfire, runners are able to visit the black market after they have drawn their cards for the turn. The cards they purchase go straight into their hand, augmenting their capabilities for their next turn. This allows the runners facing particularly stalwart challenges to visit the black market and procure what they need to prevail. It also opens up a multitude of varying strategic options each turn. Do you immediately spend your nuyen as soon as it comes in, augmenting your capabilities as you go? Do you save up your nuyen for that particularly choice piece of equipment? Do you clear random weapons and abilities out of the black market in the hopes that it will be restocked with what you really want? Do you hoard up your nuyen and spend it all at once in a gluttonous shopping spree that will allow you to annihilate all opposition at some point in a future scene? All these options are valid strategies at varying times. Choosing which strategy to pursue in the everchanging landscape of Shadowrun: Crossfire is an important and stimulating part of the game play that each runner must decide upon for themself.
Taking cover in the same sprawl that you are,
—Rob Watkins
