What to do about that accountant player, I can't mug him EVERY week! Options

[hyzmarca]

Here is a wacky idea. Big malls are tourist attractions. People come from all around to shop at big malls and the Seatle Metroplex already has a doozy of an extraterritorial mall in the Renraku Arcology so this will attract some tourist-shoppers.

Now, one could potentially capitolize on this by having a mall that offers things that one cannot get easily in Renraku or anywhere else, for that matter - A Crime Mall for all your illegal goods needs.

Simply secure a space in Glow City, pay off the mafia, the yaks, the triads, and the gangers, set up shop, and advertise. You would have to invest a great deal of capitol, at first, and this would require getting in bed with organized crime. However, when it gets big enough people will come from all across the country just to buy illegal goods from you.

Lone Star won't stop you because they will not go anywhere near Glow City for any reason. The worst they can do is hire some shadowrunners to kill you. The Metroplex Guard won't stop you because many of your customers will have fake SINs and will use those fake SINs to shop at reputable tax-paying establishments. The tourist dollars you bring in are worth far more than the crime costs. The Feds won't stop you because they won't go anywhere near Glow City. The worst they can do is have a military training flight "accidently" drop a bomb on your establishment injuring no one (except thousands of SINless, but they don't count).

[Nyxll]

There were 40 guns stolen from a house up here 2 weeks ago. The police have recovered 4 so far, in 3 different arrests involving people from 3 out of town cities. Some commodities like guns move well, cred sticks and body armour would not move so well. (who wants a dead guy's underpants?) Apparently they have been moved around very quickly and quietly.

[TinkerGnome]

[hyzmarca]

That certainly answers the question about law enforcement response to big illegal arms dealers at permenant retail locations.

[Kagetenshi]

You kidding? That's probably where Lone Star gets half of its gear from.

~J

[ShadowDragon8685]

Half, easily.

After all, why pay retail?

[SL James]

[nezumi]

[emo samurai]

That, and they'd probably get tons of guns just from raids and stuff.

[Shrike30]

[hyzmarca]

That assumes that the Seatle Times editors let the story through, which is a big if. Street level reporters may mave morals and ideals but their superior have politics to answer to. Writing pieces that slam the police ensures that the police will not cooperate on other stories. It is a difference between selling one newspaper one day and selling hundreds throughout the year.

More importantly, the newspaper would face horrific damage awards when the police department proves byoned a proponderance of the evidence that the story is false and the newspaper knew this but published anyway out of disregard, greed, and malice.

Of course, the Star will win this lawsuit even if the story was true because they have their own forensics people and the forensics people can just make shit up. No one would know the difference. They get a warrent to search a system and say that their forensic deckers found this damning paydata that they just made up, no one would be able to prove otherwise.

Of course, the crime guns would be issued to street officers as official policy. Officially , the officiers would keep their munch-tastic Ruger Thunderbolts. The illegal weapons would serve as drop pieces at questionable shootings and would arm the shadowrunners that the Star employs to do things that are so blatently illegal they can't do them officially or so physically dangerous that the Star is affraid to do them. In both cases, the more murders that were previously on the gun the better.

The thing about illegal gun dealers is that they have guns. What Lone Star officer in his right mind would try to bust a cadre of arms dealers? None. It has less to do with corruption and more to do with the fact that they don't want to die.
And, of course, there are the consequences for stepping on the wrong toes and looking better than your superiors. Bigtime criminals will have bribed some people. If you arrest the wrong people who bribed the wrong people you will not get promoted. Instead, you will find yourself performing th emost dangerous and disgusting duties possible if you aren't killed outright. Likewise, busting a bigtime arms ring that your boss has failed to bust for years means a one-way transfer to A-fucking-laska if he doesn't just 'accidently' shoot you in the face twenty times.

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

Thats exactly why LS will preferably fry mid-sized fish. Busting smalltimers having some good deals in a row and upstarts just climbing the ledder from ratshit to dogshit. These are more likely not the "inhouse" fences of the big syndicates, but the "indipendant" guys most runners prefer to deal with (because the former come with more strings attached).
You cant tell me the Star is so fragging corrupt, that they won´t bust any miscreants ever! They just pick thair pray carefully, not to annoy the "honorable bussinessmen" too much, that sponser some of thair superiors. Thats were the accountants of the shadowcommunity come in.
And for the Star buying from illegal armes dealers. Why would they? They have access to more illegal guns, they´d care to use for "special operations". If anything the Star (or better put, some individual Cops) is one of the bigest sorces of weapons for illegal arms dealers. Sure all of these confiscated guns will be destroyed or legaly resaled, only sometimes the bookkeeping is "flawed", so some of the stuff "vanishes".

[Ed Simons]

I note several posters think that Shadowrunners would take reputation hits for looting. My question is why do you think that?

After all, runners commit theft (or worse) on a regular basis. Why would committing a little more theft affect their rep at all?

[hyzmarca]

It is kind of like using your work computer to download porn. Some employers owon't care. Others will be angry that you did your own business on their time.

I would expect that Johnsons would want their employees undivided attention for the duration of the run. Looting means that you are paying less attention to the job you were paid to do.

[ShadowDragon8685]

If they want "Undivided attention", it costs extra. If they want the job done, we'll get it done and pocket any Nice Things™ we find on the way.

We're professional criminals out to make money however we can, not fucking wageslaves clacka-clacka-clacking away.

[nezumi]

If I'm paying you guys $20k a head, plus expenses, you're not going to fart around to pick up a $900 Ares predator that you can then sell for under $100. If I know you will waste time looting stupid stuff, you're not worth my time because you take unnecessary risks.

If I'm paying the $100+k for the group and you come across an excalibur (or really, just about any deck) and pick that up, I guess that's justified, assuming you didn't make a major detour for it. You're not stupid, and if you can increase the income on the run by a margin of 30% or more, that's smart (and ultimately, saves me money). But that isn't the same as looting every AK and flak jacket you come across.

[hyzmarca]

If I pay you to covertly plant a datafile that discredits my biggest rival in the Aztechnology computer system and you loot the X526A super secret prototype resulting in my employeer tracing your actions back to me my employer traces the theft back to me, I'll be pretty angry at you while the priests peel my skin off.

[tisoz]

Have the run be set up by a Johnson against his boss or a rival in the company. Then they are in effect looting the Johnson. He knows exactly who did it and may not be too happy about it.

[emo samurai]

Doesn't Lone Star make its own stuff sometimes?

[hyzmarca]

Lone Star doesn't have manufacturing facilities. They contract out to other corporations. The Thunderbolt, for example, was manufactured by Ruger on a contract from Lone Star.

[Ed Simons]

[DigitalSoul]

Heh, looks like somebody didn't read through the SR3 Shadowrun Companion section on hiring a shadowrunner. I do remember there was some ways that Mr. Johnsons kept tabs on the runners during runs, I don't have the book on me at this time but I think it was a enough to identify the act of looting and give a "hint" that it wasn't approved.

[Ed Simons]

[Ed Simons]

[tisoz]

If he specifies no looting, that will point a finger to an inside job and move the Johnson way up the line of suspects after the job is pulled.

From this line of reasoning, some level of looting is almost SOP. I was getting at the overboard type of looting, taking everything that isn't nailed down. Then coming back with a prybar to get that stuff.