'Hey guys... I'm, like, Mr Johnson' *Facepalm*, Not all employers are professionals. Options

[FuelDrop]

I've been thinking about the runner-Johnson relationship, and it occurred to me to ask:
How many of you have done jobs for Johnsons who're... less than professional? Possibly a corporate fellow who's been misassigned by metahuman resources, or someone desperate enough to try hiring runners but who has no idea of the correct etiquette?

[ShadowDragon8685]

The first run my group went on, Mr. Johnson wasn't corporate in any way, shape, or form. He was an elder from the Plastic Jungles.


His name actually was Johnson, which may be part of why the council chose him to be their voice.

[LurkerOutThere]

I run this sort of thing on occasion, a lot of people want to hire shadowrunners for various reasons, the requirement isn't being corporate by any means, just having money or somethign else in trade and some way to find a fixer. Plus even in the corporate sector at the single A and even the AA level there's not always a dedicated "business plan expeditors" department to call upon. So you get guys who have maybe done it once or twice or read up on best practices on some shadow boards and are pretty much going into it as a particularly high stakes merger or contractor meeting.

Personally i would never do a "HR Messed up" sort of scenario, that just strains my suspension of disbelief too much.

[Marwynn]

In a memorable game, a few years back, my character's first Johnson was a 10 year old girl. Corp brat, rich and snotty, but smart.

Heh, I just remembered another one: a school janitor needed some help romancing a teacher. No magic was involved, just very romance-comedy-esque. The things I do for (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) .

[Speed Wraith]

I don't know about Johnson who are unprofessional (clueless is not the same to me as unprofessional), but I really enjoy non-standard Johnsons. I recently had a character of my own as Johnson. Hiring the rest of the team to pull an extraction and deliver a virus to remove her records with her corporate day job.

There is a chance some of my players in my Google Hangout group might refer to Ryna.

[CanRay]

I used one that was right out an idiot. Thing is, it was an act, and none of the players knew or picked up on it.

They didn't get the rest of their pay, either.

[TeknoDragon]

Well, there was this Denver mission...

"Psst! Swordfish!"

[ShadowDragon8685]

Heh, I just remembered another one: a school janitor needed some help romancing a teacher. No magic was involved, just very romance-comedy-esque. The things I do for (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) .

Why in God's name would you need to hire a team of Runners - or even a Runner - to romance a teacher?

[Seriously Mike]

Oh, yeah. Mr Bracca. First, he's a snooty elf. Second, he's a porn director. Third, he's as obvious "rich idiot" type as it gets. "So you have to get that super secret package to an ass-end alley in San Fernando..." *stupid nervous grin*
And once he got his hands on the package, he turned out to be a raging asshole. I believe that my players won't think twice about killing him.

[Midas]

I've been thinking about the runner-Johnson relationship, and it occurred to me to ask:
How many of you have done jobs for Johnsons who're... less than professional? Possibly a corporate fellow who's been misassigned by metahuman resources, or someone desperate enough to try hiring runners but who has no idea of the correct etiquette?

If all your Johnsons are sibilant corporate smoothtalkers, then you are missing a trick. These days my players are worth a lot more money than they used to be, so it is mostly corp Johnsons, but in the good ol'days, I fed them all manner of Johnsons, more than one complete newbs to boot ...

[CanRay]

Why in God's name would you need to hire a team of Runners - or even a Runner - to romance a teacher?

Never dealt with a hopeless person before, have you? They'll try ANYTHING.

That, and they likely saw it on the 'trid and thought it was a great idea.

[Blade]

I've made an adventure based more or less on that concept.

Office Futur 2000 is a small company specialized in office supplies and corporate gifts. It used to belong to Cross and was bought by Ares when Cross went down. The office supplies business isn't what it used to be with people at the office now using only a terminal, so the company is in pretty bad shape.
Mr Andrew Johnson is an Ares corporate executive. He's in charge of the liquidation of that small company. The project has been poorly managed and is way overdue. Mr Johnson is leaving for vacations and would like everything to be done when he comes back, and since he's done a few mistakes himself when handling that thing, he wants it do be done discretly. So he asks his secretary to get people to take care of it. Except that his usual secretary is on maternity leave, so she's replaced with an inexperienced secretary, who just pulled the "contractors" phonebook and called a few of them, telling them that "Mr Johnson is looking for discrete people to handle a liquidation contract".
In French, liquidation is also used to talk about assassination (not sure if that's also the case in English). One of the "contractor" was the PC's fixer.

So the PC are summoned to a briefing in a corporate room where an old guy show them a powerpoint presentation (that I've done live to my players) explaining the situation. The PC's job is to make sure the employees accept the liquidation. Some of them are pretty angry and there's a risk of them slowing down the process, or causing trouble. When the PC realize the misunderstanding and call Mr Johnson, he tells them that he doesn't care, that he's on vacation, and that the money is their if they can take care of that business without resorting to too obvious (or non-deniable) violence.

[Thorguild]

There is a chance some of my players in my Google Hangout group might refer to Ryna.

Ryna is quite the individual. Pays well, though.

Thorguild

[KarmaInferno]

One of the recurring Missions johnsons was a neo-hippie pothead.

"Heey, mon."




-k

[Marwynn]

Why in God's name would you need to hire a team of Runners - or even a Runner - to romance a teacher?

Hopelessly in love janitor meets yak princess with a heart of gold.

It wasn't a "hard" run, but it was fun. I believe our GM made it up just to emphasize the need for legwork.

[DWC]

One of the recurring Missions johnsons was a neo-hippie pothead.

"Heey, mon."

-k

[ Spoiler ]

And was also the frontman for a Neo-anarchist, anti-corporate terrorist cell. Admittedly, the worst of them had split from his group, but he was still looking to destroy an entire city's way of life in a fit of adolescent rage.

[Wakshaani]

I shorthand the non-professional Johnson as "Mrs Smith", who is usually both the Johnson and the Client, since they don't know that there's supposed to be a level between them and the 'runners. They're usually desperate and bad negotiators, and some Shadowrunners prey on them simply becaus ethey can, but most don't even have all that much money to begin with.

It's always weird to plunk one down at a table and have the PCs go, "Look, her'es what needs to happen. You need to keep your money and not hire people like us. Go home, settle down, and don't do anything stupid." but then they see them try to hire someone else and, with a sigh, decide to get involved after all.

Tis a GREAT thing to have in your bag of tricks.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

One of the recurring Missions johnsons was a neo-hippie pothead.

"Heey, mon."


-k

"Hey, aren't you Peace Man? I know you."

[CanRay]

One of the recurring Missions Johnsons was a neo-hippie pothead.

"Heey, mon."

-k

Detective Tosh Athack, worst, Johnson, ever. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

So far, I've only had one group that liked him, and that was because he was willing to hang up on the REAL Johnson who WAS trying to screw the 'runners!

[ShadowDragon8685]

Hopelessly in love janitor meets yak princess with a heart of gold.

It wasn't a "hard" run, but it was fun. I believe our GM made it up just to emphasize the need for legwork.

Heh. Actually, I can see that, especially if life has a way of throwing screwy curveballs in his way any time he tries to make a move, and he decides to hire some professionals to run interference on life's little curveballs; like having the big cybertroll intercept the mugger sneaking up behind them on a date and inform the guy politely that he wants to go home and rethink his life, or at least go to another street and rethink his choice of targets.

I shorthand the non-professional Johnson as "Mrs Smith", who is usually both the Johnson and the Client, since they don't know that there's supposed to be a level between them and the 'runners. They're usually desperate and bad negotiators, and some Shadowrunners prey on them simply becaus ethey can, but most don't even have all that much money to begin with.

It's always weird to plunk one down at a table and have the PCs go, "Look, her'es what needs to happen. You need to keep your money and not hire people like us. Go home, settle down, and don't do anything stupid." but then they see them try to hire someone else and, with a sigh, decide to get involved after all.

Tis a GREAT thing to have in your bag of tricks.

My players are wonderful saps, and they understand that what gets you the most karma the easiest doesn't always get you the most nuyen. They seem to prefer the Karma, so they'll do jobs even when the pay is less than stellar. As long as they figure they can make rent, they're good.

[Marwynn]

Heh. Actually, I can see that, especially if life has a way of throwing screwy curveballs in his way any time he tries to make a move, and he decides to hire some professionals to run interference on life's little curveballs; like having the big cybertroll intercept the mugger sneaking up behind them on a date and inform the guy politely that he wants to go home and rethink his life, or at least go to another street and rethink his choice of targets.

It was pretty funny to be honest. Our Mage didn't have Trid Phantasm, but did have Physical Mask... so he sustained one on himself to look like the yak princess and stay visible to her guards while they snuck out on a date.

Our face ran interference with the rigger, and my character had to do a balcony scene. You know, when the princess is in her home and the lovestruck guy is shouting/singing sweet stuff at her. Only my character was larger than the bushes around her house and had a Charisma of 2.

Also, I shot her pet cat. We managed to make it look like it was her yak suitor who did it, but yeah "catslayer" was my character's nickname for a long time.

[Speed Wraith]

Why in God's name would you need to hire a team of Runners - or even a Runner - to romance a teacher?

You didn't play Dragon Age 2, did you? So much face-palm with the whole high-level adventurers and big names in the city trying to help the head of the Watch get a new man.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Also, I shot her pet cat. We managed to make it look like it was her yak suitor who did it, but yeah "catslayer" was my character's nickname for a long time.

Come on, you can't drop a bomb like that and leave us hanging!

Why did Catslayer slay the cat?

[Marwynn]

Do you remember "There's Something About Mary"? When they drugged that little dog?

I had taken precautions, buying my character capsule rounds with DMSO and a pet tranquilizer. The cat hates everyone, so the plan was to dose it slightly to make it more agreeable. It was my fault, really, I had taken to naming my guns and brought both my Ares Predator IV (Greta) and my sawed-off T-250 (Gretchen).

My GM even asked me twice when I said "I draw Gretchen and use a simple action to Take Aim" and the other guys didn't even catch it. So I hit the kitty with Ex-Ex.

The scene was supposed to be the janitor escorts the yak princess home and the kitty, high as heck, takes a liking to the janitor (we sprayed him with something so the kitty'd be attracted to him). Instead, she sees the various smears that used to be "Maki" I think.

Thankfully, our Rigger was a somewhat decent hacker and spoofed a message from her yak suitor (typical guy, trying to move on up in the yak world by marrying the boss' daughter). It was a premature "I'm sorry your cat died" message. She stood him up and went on a date instead with the janitor so yeah... she drew the conclusions from there.


EDIT: I feel like I ought to write this mini-adventure out.

[CanRay]

My GM even asked me twice when I said "I draw Gretchen and use a simple action to Take Aim" and the other guys didn't even catch it. So I hit the kitty with Ex-Ex.

The Boondock Saints comes to mind when Rocko hits the table with the Beretta cocked and loaded...

That said, naming guns is a pretty normal thing. Well, I think so at least. My group is kind of weirded out by it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)