Investigating the Run & Johnson, do you check out the 'why' of your jobs? Options

[Backgammon]

So the question is: Do you (or your players) investigate Mr. Johnson - try to find out who he really works for, his past record, etc, and do you try to find out why exactly this job is happening - who is trying to screw over who and more importantly why? Or does your group go with the flow, take jobs as they come, and worry about double-crosses or whatever as they come up?

[sunnyside]

I put down "depends."

First off part of the Fixers job (you do remember to give him a cut) is to screen Johnsons. Not neccesarily to show them the door but to tell the players things like "this guy has lost a couple teams", or "word on the street is he once lied in a briefing".

Also a lot of runs have more transperance and can be more readily confirmed than the typical break in there and do something. Be extra careful on those sorts of jobs. Not only because it's harder to confirm what's going on, but also because a dull been-there-run-that premise is more likely to draw GM twists and turns. ;)

[Caine Hazen]

My character usually doesn't, but our face seems to jump on it almost every run. I usually think about after things have gone wonky

"man we probably should checked up on the guy... oh, duck and cover paleskin!"

[Lagomorph]

"Depends"

I think that investigating the johnson is a measure of bad taste, if they find out. It always seemed to me that anonymity should run both ways, they don't want to know you, you don't want to know them.

That changes of course once the "screw the runners" card is played. Then all bets are off and courtesy no longer applies.

[Slash_Thompson]

where's: 'only if the money wasn't good enough'? *grins*

[Kyoto Kid]

...I picked always. One too many times of having characters wind up working for a dragon makes me damned suspicious - especially if the pay is good & the job sounds just a little bit too easy.

[PBTHHHHT]

don't forget if the money's too good also...

Nothing wrong with a little paranoia in a runner's line of work.

[Adarael]

Almost always. I clicked 'depends', but it's more likely rather than less.

[Dashifen]

My players very rarely take any run at anything other than face value. Knowing this, and knowing that they're not interested in being screwed too often, I tend not to do too many behind the scenes machinations. Kind of a shame, too, since Shadowrun is frequently about massive conspiracies and the like. My players tend to become involved in a massive conspiracy and then see it through to the end, not so much because their shadowrunning characters would do that, but because they want to hear more about the story I've concocted. The next campaign that I have simmering on the back burner, though, is going to potentially alter this SOP, though, so I'm hoping my players don't become my ex-players!!

[Jrayjoker]

I voted never, but that is just how my group plays it. I personally would prefer a little more paranoia and professionalism. This ain't a dungeon crawl (usually).

[Backgammon]

I think the thing is that checking out the Johnson and the Run requires ressources - time, bribes, etc, with the risk of tipping off either Mr J or the target prematurely. And the reward for that investment is usually not much... Players expect to get screwed over once in a while, and they figure they'll deal with it then.

But why most people are voting 'depends' is probably because honestly, if your Mr. J is a badly disguised ghoul that keeps saying it's a cakewalk and be sure to salt yourself beforehand, or there's another such reason to assume you're being set up, everyone would investigate at that point.

[Eryk the Red]

My group never investigates the Why, and I really wish they would. They miss out on so much story that way. That's the real reason to do it. Knowing what the hell is going on and being involved with it is so much more interesting than being cold, fearless professionals who leave their emotions at the door and don't want to know anything unnecessary to the job. In fact, I award bonus karma for not being cold and fearless.

[Aaron]

[Abstruse]

I'm starting a new group this weekend...WARNING: IF YOU'RE PLAYING IN MY GAME, CLOSE THE THREAD NOW!!

[ Spoiler ]

I've got what looks like a straight-forward run set up. They find the people who stole the secret plans and bring them back alive so they can be "debriefed" by corporate security in extraterritorial lands. However, I've put a TON of holes in the Johnson's story on purpose. Why bother capturing her alive for one thing? Just cap her and steal back the data.

Well, turns out the Johnson is a VP of Marketing for a subsidiary of UO and his daughter has been kidnapped. He can't afford to hire runners himself (most of his money is stuck in lifestyle and investments that can't be liquidated), so he made up a story for his supervisors about the plans for their top-secret cyberware research project being stolen and the hacker in question having a dead-man's switch. He gets the money from the corp to do it and he plans, when he gets back, to swap the "evil hacker" with a SINless corpse and say she died during interrogation. The runners, of course, will be on UO's (and therefore Aztechnology's, since this game is set in 2053) shitlist for botching the run, and the Johnson will then hire them to break into a UO facility with security pre-notified. Are there holes in this new plan? Yes. But it's in character for the Johnson because he's panicking because he just got his daughter's severed toe in the mail.

Now, if the runners check up on the Johnson, they'll figure most of this out -- mainly when they see that the holo of the "evil hacker" turns out to be the guy's daughter. If they don't, they're going to be screwed and up against a wall.

Why am I doing this? Because it'll be fun. And I've got a cluehammer ready to drop in the form of evil NPC exposition from the kidnappers if they haven't gotten it figured out yet.

The Abstruse One

[kzt]

[WearzManySkins]

[Warlordtheft]

Man, when I took that poll I was expecting it to be 80% always. I always want to know more about my Johnson. There are two things you should keep in mind when doing this though, 1. Be discreet, 2. Don't let it interfere with the Johnson's job.

The third thing to keep in mind is that if the Johnson does screw you over (and it will happen at some point), this may give you some leverage against him/her.

[Crakkerjakk]

I put depends. For me, it depends on how the GM runs things. If in his game a Fixer screens your Johnsons, and they expect anonymity in return, then no, because getting caught will get another team hired to take you out.

If your GM plays it so that the Johnson's expect a certain amount of investigation, then definitely.

For me, the defining factor is risk. How often does the team get screwed? What are the consequences of getting caught prying into your Johnson's affairs? If the answer is almost never and near certain death, then no. If the answer is frequently and nothing more than what would happen when the Johnson tries to sell you to Lone Star... again, then yes.

Obviously, anywhere in between is up to the players.

[Buster]

Criminals working for criminals is always a delicate situation. The very last thing any Johnson would want is for you to know more about him and his situation. But then again, a runner has to do due diligence and make sure he isn't being set up. Maybe some Johnsons freak out about it and other more experienced Johnsons expect you to always check them out to make sure they're kosher. I would expect some to fire you on the spot if they found out you were nosing around about them instead of doing their dirty work.

Probably the professional thing to do (as well as the smart thing) is to find out all about the Johnson before you ever meet with him to discuss the terms of the contract. You don't want to be walking into something ugly (like the cops) and you don't want to be wasting your time after your take the money and the clock is running.