LoneStar as Johnson's?, Probable or not? Options

[JesterX]

I've got some scenario ideas and I want you guys to tell me if it's probable or not.

The basic of the ideas is that Lone Star will hire the runners to perform a deed for them. I know that it's been done before in a published scenario that I don't quite remember the name.... was it Elven Fire?

Anyway, here we go for the ideas I got:

- An unnamed and hard to track Mr.Johnson (secretly working for the Star) hire the runners to fetch a sararyman from another corp. (possibly a AA or AAA). It seems like a standard routine extraction but the other corporation is aware of the extraction attempt and all thing goes bad. However, once delivered, the runners see a TridCast on Newsnet that says that the one of the most wanted criminal (possibly a child molester) has been captured by the Star and they recognize the corpguy has the criminal!

or

- An unnamed and hard to track Mr.Johnson (secretly working for the Star) hire the runners to "free" a prisonner in their own cells (the prisonner is in fact another Lone Star undercover agent that infiltrated a criminal organization). That could be a really good "starter run" because the Star will obviously reduce the dificulty to minimize the lost of his own personnel.

What do you think of it?

[Eyeless Blond]

Addendum to #2: a crimminal group (Mafia or somesuch), possibly a FOF of one of the group's contacts, learns of the job and asks the group to release a few extra prisoners at the same time.

#3: Simple assassination gig. LS wants a cop-killer gone. The man killed the pig on extranational property and is a middle manager there so he's basically immune to arrest and official retaliation, thus the introduction of "unofficial" retaliation.

[Velocity]

My only suggestion would be to avoid the whole 'child molester' route: it's hackneyed and overdone. Yeah yeah, molesters are evil and all right-thinking people hate them, blah blah...

Why not try something a little more nuanced? Maybe the "criminal" didn't do anything extraordinary but she's an Ares exec and, since Knight Errant is the Star's biggest competitor, they like busting Ares' balls whenever possible.

Maybe this exec is responsible for hurting Lone Star in some way? LS may be a big corporation, but they can still hold a grudge...

Heck, maybe the Star is acting on someone else's behalf entirely? I mean, ultimately Lone Star answers to the city of Seattle, right? Seattle is their biggest client... maybe the governor's office needs this exec in custody and--through back channels--orders Lone Star to arrest her. Since LS doesn't want to get caught in the middle, it hires 'runners in order to keep its distance.

[JesterX]

[Eyeless Blond]

Oh go right ahead. Ideas like to be used, after all. :)

Oh, wait, I mean :evil:

[JesterX]

[Eyeless Blond]

Traffic tickets. 1.3 million :nuyen: in unpaid traffic tickets. :D

[JesterX]

[blakkie]

For Lone Star to make the arrest after the extraction and maintain pausable deniability in having bankrolled a kidnapping they would have to make the arrest during a "routine traffic stop" or some such.

[Corywn]

Wouldn't be too hard to track and arrest the runners they used, would it? Pick them up shortly after the heist, "Oh look, it's the guy we're after!"

Course, it's reasons like that I don't like the idea of working for LS.

[blakkie]

[Siege]

The Star is just like any other major corporation - whether its a manager working under his or her own initiative to hire runners or a corp-sanctioned mission, nothing prevents the Star from taking advantage of all the perks of hiring runners.

Another option:

A Johnson hires them to commit a crime, then sets up the runners to get splashed messily on the trid. The catch? The Johnson needs some flashy publicity to boost his annual figures and something to make him look good on his upcoming review.

1. The runners escape the splash attempt and spot their "Johnson" on the trid, vowing to hunt down the vile perpetrators.
   
2. Or the runners are captured and held captive so they can be "killed while resisting arrest" at a politically convenient time, which gives them a chance to escape and figure out what to do.
   
3. Or the Johnson then suggests the runners agree to a deniable "X-Files" mission - in exchange, the Star would make the current mess go way. Otherwise, they take the fall and you know the fatality rate of suspects resisting arrest.

-Siege

Edit: Overplayed, perhaps - but pedophiles invoke a very emotional and often angry reaction, especially from parents.

Exceptionally offensive crimes need to be used - "typical" crimes won't raise the attention of your players, meaning something over the top would be needed to generate the emotional reaction you're looking for.

Or, a manager at the Star hires the runners to "get evidence on a really nasty criminal" and the runners find out later their Johnson wasn't collecting evidence on a vile criminal, but rather destroying evidence against him.

But in order for that to work, the crime would have to be really vile to make the players take a personal interest.

[JesterX]

I don't see why LS would arrest their "deniable assets" especially if they did the job correctly and they can be used in the future too.

[blakkie]

[Trax]

The group I am in once got hired by an LS Officer. She wanted us to go after a real scumbag that killed a friend of hers. He was also one really sick person, he makes pedophiles look tame.

She wanted him dead and to make it obvious that it was no accident.

After we disposed of him in a very messy way, she contacted us again. He operated a bunch of freighters and one of them had evidence of his crimes but it was in International Waters. She provided a contact with a stealth boat to get us close enough to board. It turns out that the freighter is being operated by Tamanous. By going to the bridge we were able to take control of the ship, divert it into UCAS water, and to save the evidence I activated the ships defences, which included automated turrets, and nerve gas.

Of course, once you divert the ship you need to get away quickly because Lone Star will be all over it soon.

On the Trid-news she claimed that the freighter had sailed into the UCAS water after apparently being attacked by "pirates" (It helped that we used a lot of grenades to destroy rooms and the bridge), etc.

[PBTHHHHT]

[ShadowDragon8685]

Sometimes to catch a criminal, you need the best criminals around. It dosen't hurt that Lone Star, like all other corps, are inherantly crooks. Not, that is, to say that you won't find starry-eyed cops and even grizzled veterans who take their badge more seriously than thier pay check. Those are the guys you wanna work for, if you're a Shadowrunner with a consience. You get to take the tough jobs on the 'Star's payroll, rolling over obvious bad guys with superoir firepower. Plus, if you need gear... I've heard say that the easiest way to get an LS Strato-9 is to steal one. That's not true. The easiest way is to tell your Lone Star buddy "Y'know, we can do this, but it'd be a lot easier if one of those Stratos you guys love so much just happened to 'fall off the back of the truck' and 'be sent for maintenance', where they declare that it's been banged up too bad to be salvaged and just 'throw it out', right?"


:)

[Siege]

Killing Runners

Honestly, it would depend on the Johnson - is he a forward thinker? Does he ever think he'll need to hire runners? Does he think these runners are skilled enough to keep their number, or are they just faceless, expendable minions that can be pulled off the shelf on an as-needed basis.

There are any number of reasons why a Johnson might dispose of a runner team - particularly if the Johnson is using them as a scapegoat to make himself look better.

-Siege

[Ed Simons]

Of course, attempting to dispose of Shadowrunners can backfire. It's not just the obvious problem that the runners might fight back successfully. Even if you do kill them, their bodies are evidence that needs to be carefully disposed of, or it could lead back to you. And you can't be sure you got all the runners, not everyone sends the whole team to the meet.

Then there's the fixer - dead runners can't be used by him for future jobs. If Mr. Johnson whacks the runners, he's hurting the fixer's business. If Mr. Johnson wants to use that fixer again, he'll find price going up and quality of personnel going down. If the Runners were one of the fixer's better teams, he probably won't work with that Johnson again. But he might sell some info about Mr. Johnson.

[frostPDP]

I once did a run where the PCs had to dress as Knight Errant officers and take down terrorists.

The run went well, considering it was about the first I'd GMmed. So it wasn't terrible. Nobody really got hurt, the enemies were dusted and a half. Never have an adept who rolls 30+ on initiative when playing "you go, then -10 and you go again, then again, all before the guy with no cyber who rolled a 2."

Yeah. Two full-autos and most terrorists were KIA.

The reason this job was such a big deal was because Lone Star had waffled and Knight Errant sent in the operatives because the building's security contract was up for grabs. Lone Star was afraid to go in, so KE took the risk and got the contract. The PCs got some cash and karma.

And Knight Errant jackets.


Now, KE could have offed them after the job was over. Just set up a back-alley ambush and count the Runners as "fleeing terrorists who put up an armed resistance." They decided not to, because it would take a lot of firepower to do so and would wreck the already strained plausibility of KE's involvement.

[blakkie]

[Snow_Fox]

[Siege]

As professional careers go, shadowrunners rarely survive long to look at the big picture.

I suspect there are mercenary fixers willing to set up jobs and Johnsons willing to deal with fixers serving up expendable runners.

In a business of anonymous faces and deniable assets, word of mouth will only go so far for newbies in the biz and assets trying to make enough of a rep that other professionals will acknowledge them.

-Siege

[JesterX]

[JesterX]

I really like the ideas going on on this topic. You guys are really pros and it shows... ^_^

I think that the Shadowrun Community should work something together.

Publishing a collection of runs, anyone?