The Lifestyle background represents all the components of your character's day-to-day environment, including the resources that go into maintaining it. In some cases this means the character has a steady source of income (but any income above and beyond Lifestyle maintenance must be represented by the Resources background instead). In others, it may mean that the character has a trust fund, a benefactor, or even a sugar daddy. The explanation is up to you - the result is that the character has a home (or several) with various amenities. Lifestyles may also be rented with Resources income, but as with any rental situation, having insufficient funds for the rent in a given month can have unpleasant consequences.... The Lifestyles Background is a permanently purchased stat. (Note, though, that you can optionally spend extra Resources to increase aspects of a Lifestyle - on a rental basis.)
Lifestyles have six stats to which points may be assigned: * Area: This is the quality of the area in which the dwelling is located. A scrubby Dark area will be low, a classy Bright neighborhood will be high. Area level can place certain limits or requirements on the levels of the other stats. * Comforts: Food, clothing, shelter, also including amenities such as electricity, running water, and appliances. * Entertainment: Gadgets, toys, media. This stat covers Matrix access as well. * Furnishings: Everything from your sofa to the real wood paneling. * Security: From tin cans on a string to the cutting edge of alarm systems. * Space: How roomy is your pad? This represents the actual amount of space you are considered to own. Normally this only extends to the building (or equivalent) and its grounds. Stat levels may be set as a single overall value for simplicity, or assigned in different ways. Overall values are represented as: 0: Street - Literally living on the street; few or no expenses; eating out of the trash. Cost: 0nY/month. 1: Squatter - One step up from the street; a jury-rigged shelter, abandoned building or the like. Cost: 100nY/month. 2: Low - An apartment, but nothing to brag about. Just the character and the masses. Cost: 1000nY/month. 3: Middle - Nice house or condo, maybe even real food. Cost: 5000nY/month. 4: High - A high-rise luxury flat, building security and good food on demand. Cost: 10,000nY/month. 5: Luxury - Imagine it, chummer, just imagine it. Cost: 100,000nY/month. In addition, Lifestyles may be assigned Merits and Flaws, which add or subtract a small percentage of cost, and provide certain benefits or detriments. A character may maintain more than one Lifestyle, each of which takes up point value. For example, a character may have one primary home in a good part of the city that takes the majority of his resources, but also keep a secret den in an abandoned building on the outskirts of a Dark area. Lifestyles may also be *shared*, as with roommates. This can be extremely beneficial to characters without SSNs, as well as reducing costs.