Fixers demystified, About the man behind the scenes... Options

[MrSandman666]

In our series "The most basic questions no one ever dared to ask" (as previously featured in "Hiring a Runnerteam 101" and "Reputations in the Shadows")
this is another installment. This time we are going to dissect the man behind the scenes, the great weaver, the center of the net: the fixer!

Who is he? What makes a good fixer? How does he go about his job? How does he get into the job and what might cause him to go out of it again?

Seriously, I think we all know what a fixer is, but have you really thought about a person like that in-depth?

I'm always trying to flesh out my NPCs as much as possible. Would you think it would be possible for a fixer to run a little store or a bar or something and make shadowy deals in a backroom? How does a fixer build his web of contacts and his rep? What kind of relationships does he have with his contacts? How do the Johnsons get to know him? How do they contact him? How does he earn the money he needs to survive?

Also feel free to introduce some of your fixers and expose their backgrounds as an example (names changed for safety reasons).