What else does he want?, Pleasing Mr Johnson... Options

[cetiah]

Edit: Re-wrote the whole damn thing. :)
Edit: Added more assumptions from feedback of posters. Thanks, guys.
Edit: Added a max Notoriety penalty and some basic guidelines.
Edit: Added Karma awards.
Edit: Added less noble assumed objectives.


Okay, so your face has got you a hot new contract with Mr Johnson, a hot media wheeler-and-dealer with ties to the entertainment industry. He wants you to find some people and the objectives seem pretty straightforward, if not quite easy, and he's paying about 12,000 nuyen per objective. Not bad. For a straight mercenary run, that's really all you need to get started.

But it's not enough just to get the cash. You need this guy to like you. You need him to know every nuyen he paid you was well worth it. If this guy likes the job you do for him, maybe you can get a little more pay next time, or maybe the good rep you earn will score you a much bigger deal. But for that to happen, you need to do more than just complete the objective. There are plenty of runners out there who want to earn another 12,000 nuyen per objective. To go above and beyond, to really make the cut, you have to know what it's going to take. You have to know what's important to this guy. You have to know his Priorities.

Priorities are matters of special important related to the Johnson's personality, the agenda of his employers, and the reason he's hiring you. Priorities are not mission objectives; they're not things you have to do - rather they relate to the way you do your job. Higher profile jobs, especially jobs by megacorps demanding absolute professionalism from their hired guns tend to have more Priorities than amateur Johnsons who just need a job done by whatever means possible.

In general, most missions will have 1 to 5 priorities. A Johnson won't usually share the Priority or even be aware of it. In many cases, if the runners don't accomplish Priorities - basically they conducted the run in a way that dissatisfied their employer - then the Johnson himself may have gotten in trouble, and will be taking that out on the runners.

A little legwork can go along way to finding out the Priorities of a given run. Priorities are often related to the circumstances of the run environment, the circumstances over why the run is being paid for or why runners are being used for the mission, or just the general personality traits of today's department manager. Investigation done during the Legwork phase of a mission may reveal one or more Priority about that mission. This usually must be done after the Meet, so there's usually not a lot of time to conduct this investigation, and if the Johnson finds out you're investigating him, he may be quite annoyed.

Each Priority is listed below, along with the Professionalism rating of that Priority.

Intact: The Johnson is extremely particular about no harm of any kind coming to the target of this run. This is fairly common for EXTRACTION or PROTECTION 'runs. Depending on the nature of the target, this can include physical damage, stun damage, mental anguish, or even whether or not the item got wet. (Professionalism: 1)

Paranoid: The Johnson is watching the runners carefully, making sure the runners don't try to investigate the Johnson or his employers. He wants his deniable assets left in the dark. (Professionalism: 1)

Eco: The Johnson is concerned about the integrity of the local site. Significant damage to the site or the release of chemical pollutants will undermine the Johnson's agenda and be seriously frowned on. In general, runners on this mission should refrain from using explosives except when they can keep the collateral damage minimal. (Professionalism: 2)

Focus: The Johnson is particularly focussed on the mission objectives and expects the runners to be just as focussed while on the shadowrun. He demands that the PCs not distract themselves during the run with any unnecessary activity, such as stealing items or causing senseless mayhem. (Professionalism: 2)

Invisible: The Johnson wants no suspicion or media attention being called to the site of the 'run. (Professionalism: 2)

Ghosts: The target must not know he has been the target of a shadowrun. This is especially difficult because it may combine several other Priorities together, as the PCs don't want to reveal any trace of their presence while on the run. This is common for missions requiring PLANTING of items or personnell at the site location or for SABOTAGE missions. (Professionalism: 2)

Silence: The Johnson doesn't want anything traced back to him in any way. All Johnsons work with an assumed level of anonymity, but this Johnson will be especially wrathful if the runners leave evidence of the Johnson's involvement, or worse yet, confess after being captured or arrested. He will likely blame the whole group if this happens. (Professionalism: 3)

Critical: One or more objectives are considered 'critical' objectives. Failure will not be tolerated for these assignments and it is recommended to back out of the mission unless you are sure you can accomplish the critical objectives. The Johnson will be more than happy to hire someone else who may be more confident. Failure will likely get both you and the Johnson geeked. (Professionalism: 3)

Devestation: Runners are sent on a mission to destroy as much as possible or kill in as brutal a method as possible. These are usually performed when a Johnson is launching a full out attack against his enemies in the corporate shadow war. Opposition tends to be high and the runners will almost certainly draw media and law enforcement upon themselves during such a run. Depending on the circumstances, runners may be likely to gain Notoriety for participating in the shadowrun. (Professionalism: 3)

Red Herring: One or more of the objectives are wrong for this 'run. The Johnson's initial intelligence is wrong or circumstances have changed. For example, the troublesome employee that the runners were sent to assassinate may have gone to ground and be in a different site entirely, leaving one or more of the objectives irrelevant or misapplied. In this case, the Johnson probably will still want the other objectives done and the PCs attempting to perform their original job to the best of their ability, discerning their new objectives as appropriate. (Professionalism: 3)

Humane: The Johnson needs this less-than-scrupulous task done, but doesn't necessarily want anyone to be hurt. Not all violence is profitable. This Johnson wants a completely non-violent means to accomplishing the mission objectives. Even security should not recieve any physical damage during the 'run. (Stun damage is okay.) (Professionalism: 3)

Deception: For whatever personal or professional reasons the Johnson may have, he is lying to the runners with an attempt to decieve and betray them. Perhaps he doesn't intend to pay them or he is sending them on a suicide mission. (Professionalism: 5)


Assigning Priorities

To assign a Priority to a mission, that Priority must be purchased with Agenda points. One generic agenda point is granted for each 15,000 nuyen of the standard payout. The GM must allocate these generic agenda points between private and public agenda points. For example, a run paying a base payment of 50,000 nuyen will have 3 generic agenda points which the GM can divide as 2 public and 1 private, or 1 public or 2 private, or any other combination that totals 3.

If the GM needs more public Agenda points (to buy Public Priorities), he can buy them by increasing the mission payout by 15,000 nuyen for each public Agenda point needed. Each public Priority costs a number of public Agenda points equal to the Professionalism rating of the Priority. Public Priorities are always announced to the runners during the Meet.

The GM can also buy private Agenda points to purchase private Priorities. These are effectively free and the GM can purchase as much as he likes. Private Priorities are hidden from the runners until they are revealed by the runners' legwork.


Discovering Priorities (Before the Meet)

Before the meet, the PCs can do legwork to find out about the Johnson, who he works for, and what kind of 'runs he tends to favor. In addition, the PCs can also try to uncover the Johnson's Priorities. Each hit scored by the runners during the Legwork phase for this purpose will reveal one Professionalism worth of public Priorities.

For example, if the mission had Invisible and Humane public Priorities and the runners got 4 hits during their legwork, they they discover the Invisible Priority (with 2 hits), but don't have enough hits to discover the Humane Priority (3 more required and they only have 2).

If the runners have discovered all of the Public Priorities and still have left over hits from their legwork, than they can discover Private Priorities in the same fashion. All Private Priorities discovered are converted into Public Priorities. Leftover (or insufficient) hits are ignored.

Discovering Priorities (During the Meet)

All Public Priorities are revealed to the runners during the Meet, whether they've already discovered them or not. If the PCs had revealed any private priorities before the Meet, they are now considered Public Priorities as this information is brought to the table and the payout is re-calculated and offered just as if the Priority was originally public. (see Assigning Priorities)

Discovering Priorities (After the Meet)

There usually isn't too much time to do legwork after the Meet, but if an opportunity presents itself, then the PCs can try to discover private Priorities during this time. Each hit scored by the runners during the Legwork phase for this purpose will reveal one Professionalism worth of private Priorities, if any still exist.


Reputation and Priorities (After the Meet)

In addition to effecting the mission payout, the Priorities can also effect the runner's reputation. If the runner becomes adept at handling the mission objectives in a way that pleases the Johnsons hiring them, their Street Cred increases and they are more likely to be able to find better jobs and generally have better negotiating positions.

If the Johnson was satisfied with the way the players handled their public and private Priorities (even if the PCs didn't know about the private ones), then the runners involved in the run each earn 0.1 Street Cred per Professionalism rating of the Priority.

If the Johnson was dissatisfied with the way the players handled their public priorities, then the runners THAT WERE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE plus whatever runner is conducting the actual negotiations with the Johnson each have their Street Cred reduced by 0.2 per Professionalism rating.

If the Johnson was dissatisfied with the way the players handled their private priorities, then the runners THAT WERE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE plus whatever runner is conducting the actual negotiations with the Johnson each have their Street Cred reduced by 0.1 per Professionalism rating.

At the GM's discretion, some Priorities may not effect the runner's reputation after a 'run. (For example, foiling a Johnson's deception plan may be more likely to raise Street Cred than lower it.)

[Demerzel]

You'll have some amazingly notable runners after a coupple runs...

[Moon-Hawk]

You might want to consider dividing those Notoriety modifiers by, say, 100 times if you don't want your runners to be household names the first time they leave their apartments.

[cetiah]

This isn't a list of everything that would cause notoriety. It's a list of potential things a Johnson might ask. For example, the Blonde Johnson might require Stealth, while the Johnson With a Brow might require Silence and Deniable, and that crazy Twitchy Johnson is always insisting on Eco, but doesn't care about stealth at all.

And then there might be that one Johnson X, who demands Stealth, Deniable, and Subtle for every freakin' run.

[Jack Kain]

I don't like the idea in the slightest. You make it out to be far to easy to gain notoriety

Those should be by the run not by the Johnson.
If the run involves stealing experimental drugs from a docwagon hospital. Then not killing anyone might be a requirment.

No real runner will ever follow the rule about uncessesary thieft. Extra cash picked up during the run is part of the day to day life. Besides stealing one package from a warehouse means the thieves broke in only to steal that package. But if they steal seven, well then which was the important one?

The witness is to open.
What really matters is if there identified. If security spots them how is that any different then a local. The buildings security is much more likly to turn over what they saw to Lone Star.

The very same Johnson who had the no kill rule for the raid on the docwagon might turn around and not care for the raid on the Vory.

The runners shouldn't know who the hiring agency is anyway, they just know a Mr. Johnson. So the silence looks largly irrelevant.

[mfb]

i think the other posters are saying that failing a few of these secondary objectives will end up giving the runners a very, very high Notoriety score. you might want to consider lowering the amount of notoriety the runners get for failure, or even just apply something like a -5% penalty to their next payoff from that particular Johnson.

i think the basic idea of adding secondary objectives with linked intangible gains/losses is neat, though.

[Butterblume]

Ah, when leaving the premises after the run, the runners stumble across a bus of 40 japanese tourists doing a potty break. Luckily, only the driver is a local resident, so only +1 notoriety.
But, damn, there are 2 japanese reporters and one japanese cop on that bus (+3).
The human, even dumber than the troll, tried cunning and told them, they didn't break in that building, and they weren't hired by the hiring agency(+1+1=+2).

On the way to the safe house, the troll pursued his personal objective and wanted to visit a restroom (+1). The dwarf wanted to hinder the troll because he didn't want to gain notoriety for this shit, so the troll hit him (+1, additional +1 for inhumane treatment of a metahuman).
The troll ducked behind a bush, after stealing the elfs newspaper (+1) and started polluting the environment (+1) with the waste products of last evenings artificial meal (chemical release, +1). This took a while, so the ork lighted a smoke (+1), and when the troll finally was finished, he flicked the smoke behind the bush, igniting the explosive gases (+1).

:twirl:

[cetiah]

I don't like the idea in the slightest. You make it out to be far to easy to gain notoriety

[cetiah]

[Demerzel]

[cetiah]

[Ravor]

Well it is my understanding that the 'rep' rules are meant to only be used for amazing f*ck ups or good jobs, and isn't something that would be gained or lost very easily or often.

However, as for the 'assumed objectives', if a Johnson cared about them at all then I think the best way to go about it is with cash bonus/penalities instead of Karma/Rep. In my opinion whatever 'flavor' provided by the Johnson would largely be from his/her personaity quirks and not based on the org he/she works for as its my understanding that your normal Johnson does his/her best not to let the Runner Scum know who their real boss is, and that you can never be sure if the 'clue' he/she mistakeningly gave you about your real boss was real or just a carefully planted red herring.

Of course, as always there will be many exceptions that prove the rule...

[cetiah]

Okay, okay. Cash rewards. Gotcha. Loud and clear. Don't mess with player's rep. :)

Putting aside (for the moment) whether you like the system or not as presented and without suggesting what the rewards or penalties should be (because they'll be changed), does anyone have any ideas to add to the list?

[Butterblume]

No reason not to mess with the players rep, but it shouldn't be that severe :).

[cetiah]

Ummm... you can't get less severe than +1.

...or can you?

You get +0.14 to your Notoriety? Would this work? Would anyone really care?

[Butterblume]

Well, why not +0,1?

Add some mechanic to gain some -0,1 notoriety for a job well done, and I'll certainly check it out ;). (or something like +streetcred, iirc you can burn that to reduce notoriety)

[cetiah]

I was under the impression that a decrease in street cred and an increase in notoriety were exactly the same thing.

And yeah, I'm comfortable with 0.1 increases and decreases, I guess. I was just originally turned off by the decimel numbers. I don't like fractions in attributes. (Yes, yes, that includes Essence.)

But the rewards and penalties can be balanced afterward. I'm really hoping to double or triple the size of the list. And maybe come up with a better name that "assumed objectives".

[djinni]

[mfb]

[Nasrudith]

How about make some noise or terror. In this run they want the runners to capture as much attention as possible. Maybe treat it as the reverse of the stealth, deniable, and to some extent eco. The runners must gather a certain preset threshold of what would normally gain them infamy earns say "attention points" while completing the job. It should be worth more karma since this run if successful WILL bring the cops down on them and raise an alert. Additional compensation should also be in order since it may keep them from being able to safely run or even show their face for a while.

A Lone Star Johnson that wants an area to consider switching to them, or a terrorist who wants you to blow up a landmark would be examples of a make some noise or terror run, they want messy.

Also an additional catagory similiar to eco is humane or mercyful. In this run they want no deaths or serious injuries. Stun damage is okay. Those involved must not recieve more then -2 penalty of physical damage. Sort of like eco but they don't care about pollution just as long as nobody gets hurt. Essentially it is okay to light the whole building on fire just as long as nobody is in it at the time.

[Glyph]

I like the idea of giving each Johnson some quirks about how they like the job done. But I don't like the idea of the players being penalized for doing things they weren't even told not to do. Things like "no witnesses" or "leave no sign that you were ever there" are pretty damn important - a Johnson wouldn't say "Well, when I hired you to break into the warehouse, I just assumed that you wouldn't kill anyone and that you would only steal the one crate, not any of the others." Considering that runners are already considered unreliable and loose cannons, I think most Johnsons will make all of their wishes pretty clear.

I think Johnsons who work with the PCs should develop their own opinion of them, based on how they fulfill the job's objectives. And each Johnson should be different. Also, a Johnson's opinions won't neccessarily be completely fair, unbiased, and solely based on the runners' performance. An eco-Johnson could be repelled by a competent team's mercenary attitude, a military Johnson might appreciate a clean-cut and disciplined team even if they're fairly mediocre, and so on. And yes, some of them may even make assumptions about the job that they don't tell the PCs, but they should be the exception, not the rule.

Notoriety should not depend on how one Johnson feels about them, at least not to the extent that the PCs can gain so much notoriety from a single run. Gaining Notoriety should only come when the PCs do something unusually bad. Of course, some Johnsons might bitch so much over a minor quibble that it does affect the group's reputation negatively. To be fair, the PCs should also occasionally benefit from a Johnson talking them up for how they handled a milk run.

And depending on the job, they could please the Johnson and still gain Notoriety ("What do you mean? We firebombed the orphanage just like the Johnson told us to! He even gave us a bonus for shooting down the DocWagon helicoptor. How come we've gained Notoriety?").

[Jack Kain]

[Moon-Hawk]

Notoriety affects everyone. Something that only pisses one contact off should merely decrease his loyalty rating (or possibly make an enemy out of him).

[cetiah]

[Butterblume]