Running for Dummies, tips for players Options

[toturi]

[apollo124]

Since this topic seems to have become "How to stop my social adept players from screwing over Mr. Johnson", here's my contribution.

Pick up your old Shadowrun Companion (Fanpro 25010) and turn to page 52 "How to Hire a Shadowrunner" I know this chapter was copied from an earlier source, but I can't think of what that was right now.

Anyway, this chapter talks about shadowruns from the other side of the fence, from Mr. Johnson's perspective. Using procedures like having a professional Mr. J stand in for you, tissue samples to keep the group in line, and other things.

Hope this helps, or at least doesn't hurt.

[ShadowDragon8685]

[Glyph]

Professional Johnsons should often employ less-than-ethical means to track or manage the shadowrunners that they hire. They are hiring what they consider street trash to do dirty, dangerous work that they don't want traced back to them. So I would have no problem with Johnsons choosing intimidating settings, occasionally resorting to blackmail even when it isn't needed, and so on, simply for flavor.

But you shouldn't need these tactics simply to keep the players in line during negotiations! ShadowDragon8685's first post on this said it best - give the Johnson a hard cap on what he can offer the runners. After all, it's not his money that he's spending. So that keeps the maxed-out faces in check. As for boorish PCs, simply have them suffer the appropriate in-game consequences, although Johnsons will cut them some slack, since they usually expect thugs.

[Sir_Psycho]

[Slump]

All the runners I played went all "borrowed ladder" from gataca -- basically, you clear off absolutly all the dead skin cells and loose hair you can from your body, every morning, and carry around dead skin cells and loose hair (and toenail clippings, ect) to spread around so if anyone investigated, they found traces, but not of you.

One extremly paranoid character even went as far as to have a small reserve tank implanted with a DNI valve to make the borrowed urine actually come out of the appropriate oriface. The materials would come from various one-off deals with squatters in the barrens. 100 :nuyen: for a bucket of piss or a handful of hair was a pretty good deal.

[Garrowolf]

slump that is creative, funny, gross, and disturbing all at the same time. I guess people would be realy careful what they drank out of his frige.

[apollo124]

[bibliophile20]

I know of one group that is so paranoid about ritual sorcery, having been hit with it once before, that they've gone to impressive extremes, including:
Only half the team is physically present for the meet; the rest are there over the Matrix.
Those who go to the meet wear what amounts to a layer of latex and Saran-wrap under their clothes (clothes that are only worn for meets and thus have no reside on them), if they have hair, it's not natural, and, if the mage has assensed that the Johnson has no obvious magical backup, the mage constantly casts this invisible sterilize spell that has no visual effects

[WhiskeyMac]

Mr. Johnson shops around with fixers, not shadowrunners. A Johnson calls up a known fixer on his database and says "I need a team good with infiltration. You got anyone on tap?" The fixer says, "Yeah, I have a few teams that fit that bill. Let me ask around and see who's available." Then the Johnson says, "Excellent, have the team meet me at Icarus Descending, Friday @ 10:30 p.m. sharp. Ask for a Mr. Montebello." *click* Then the fixer runs through their datapad and finds out which team has the best availability and hires them. The Johnson doesn't shop around at the meet. That's just stupid.

[djinni]

[Mistwalker]

Who needs fecal matter.
Just have a very sharp needle get a blood sample when they sit down, some kind of auto-injector.

[Serial_Peacemake...]

It strikes me that jabbing your potential employees with a needle could make the deal go south very quickly. Since the way I see it is that shadowrunners run the gamut. Most have a certain level of professionalism. Others are more or less crazy kamikaze berserkers that happen to hire out their 'talents' for money. All of them are well armed, and usually have reason for paranoia. Even if the needle trick worked say nine out of ten times. Time number ten ends with the Johnson getting shot.

[cetiah]

[toturi]

Are tiny flakes of skin cells sufficient for ritual magic? What if the runners are using Link-me-no-more? For every gimmick you try to get their ritual sample with, you might as well just say,"The Johnson has your ritual samples. No. No. I don't care. Cos I said so."

Actually, on the tenth time, it would end with the Johnson getting dead. But for the rest of the 9 times, it would end with the Johnsons telling the runners everything they know. Remember the GM might be god, but there are a lot more players than GMs and they know where you live. :D

[Ravor]

Well I don't remember if its in this thread or another, but I remember reading something here on Dumpshock that has forever changed my shadowrun universe for all time...

In the world of the shadows, there is one line that no-one will ever dare cross, and that is the Runners and Johnson will *NEVER* try to touch each other, and if either side crosses that line then the other has total right to rape, torture, and then kill the other without fear of lossing their rep.

As for tiny flakes of skin and the minute DNA you could find on someone's glass, even if they are good enough to use as a ritual link which I personally doubt (However, at the moment I'm feeling too lazy to search my copy of Street Magic to check for sure.) you have to remember that unless this is a rush job then more than likely the magical link will have faded before the run has even began.

[apollo124]

Of course getting a cell sample would be tough. Check out Street Magic, the rules on sympathetic links for ritual magic in the advanced magic rules, pages 28-29. You can, with some luck, get a link off of that glass that the runner was drinking from or a symbolic link with a voodoo doll that is made to look like the runner.

Not saying getting a sample is easy or smart, just that if someone wanted to do it, they don't need an actual sample anymore, just stuff like that listed.

[Ravor]

True, you're right, it is possible to get Links from the items that you mentioned, however I think you are missing my main point;

I doubt that a few skin flakes are going to last any longer then a bloodstain so you are looking at having to start your ritual within a few hours plus whatever time your preserve spell and/or refrigerating the sample bought you before it is worthless. So with the exception of an extreme rush job its pointless to do so.

For the wine glass you are quite literally talking about only having a matter of minutes before the link is completely useless, so I don't really see much of a point unless the meet itself was nothing more then a set-up from the start and there never was a job for the characters in the first place.

As for using a Voodoo Doll, yes, but then you are also talking about something that can only be done with Metamagic and at the very least takes a full day per doll.

So yes, Ritual Magic can be a very dangerous tool, and in some cases if the Johnson has done his legwork and managed to get ahold of favored personal belongings for the entire team, or has access to the necessary metamagic and time to craft voodoo dolls of the entire team there isn't really much of anything that the team can do to defend themselves against him, but then you have me wondering what in the nine hells are the Runners agreeing to do to be worth that much effort on the Johnsons part before he even knows whether they'll accept the job or not.

Because unless they are agreeing to something on the scale of Mission Impossible ect then I think it is the same exact thing as simply dropping a Thor Shot on them.

[Thane36425]

[Thane36425]

[Thane36425]

[MaxHunter]

I do things that way too. I mean, street cred, rep for specific kinds of work, etc. Unluckily for some of my players, they got outstanding good rep for a couple bodyguard and security duties and now are called for the most horribly difficult runs. (and their character stats still lag behind their reputations)

Ok course, they earn good money, but it's fun to watch:

Mr Johnson - "The opposition expected is both corporate and government, and it is expected that ultimate measures be taken against you once your cover is blown, of course, we are sure your team will be able to handle that..." (extracted from last run, still in progress)

cheers,

Max

[nathanross]

Yeah, powerfull voodoo mystic adepts that spirit their charisma to 12 and negotiate with 18+ dice do often miss the subtle clues the world gives them while they are masturbating on their own power. Blow and Glow, who coulda thunk?

EDIT: Just realizing thread addressed was 3 pages back.

[kzt]

[fistandantilus4....]

Yeah, I always had problems with body guard runs as well. Always struck me as a lot of waiting, then sudden burst of action, then it's over. Bottle rocket run.