The Union of Irregular Operatives, Inspired by the Venture Brothers Options

[hyzmarca]

First of all, this is not intended to be serious. It inspired by the Guild of Calamitous Intent. It is intended to be semi-absurd parody. More than that, it is intended to be a fun addition to a non-serious game.


While many Shadowrunners are purely freelance operatives, health benefits and strictly enforced union shop rules are drawing more and more Shadowrunners to join the Union of Irregular Operatives, an international labor union for freelance spies, thieves, kidnappers, and assassins.

Union members benefit greatly from the collective bargaining power of the group and tend to make more money per run than their non-union competitors while having far higher life expectancies and greater retirement rates.

Due to huge bribes and under-the-table agreements with various law enforcement organizations, as well as recent interpretations of certain clauses of the Corporate Interactions Act, Union members are able to operate with little fear of arrest or lethal response.

Membership Requirements
Membership is open to any established "shadowrunner" or "professional assassin", regardless of previous ties or affiliations, so long they have a clean criminal record, follow union rules, and pay their dues.

Union Dues
Union members are obliged to pay 1000 :nuyen: per month in dues or 12,000 :nuyen: annually.

Union Shop Rules
1) Fixers who vet jobs for Union runners and Union runners for jobs must be members of the Fixer's Guild. Union runners who work with non-union fixers will be expelled with prejudice.

2) Union runners shall not perform in any mission in which non-union runners also participate, including offsite hackers and other overwatch personnel. Violations of this rule can be punished with fines in excess of 1,000,000 :nuyen: or expulsion.

3) Union runners shall not perform any criminal act against or take any non-criminal hostile action against any organization which does not have a prior agreement with the Union allowing such activities. Violations of this rule will be punished with expulsion and extradition.

4)All assassinations must be approved and certified by the Union via the Office of the Comptroller of Politically Expedient Killings before the target is dealt with. Violators may be fined, suspended, or expelled and extradited.

Rules of Conduct
The Conduct Board has full discretion for punishing any conduct violations.

1) Union runners shall not kill anyone other than a certified assassination target, except in self-defense against lethal force, mental violation, or unlawful detention.

2)Union runners shall not use Control Manipulation spells against a person or have a person possessed without the person's express permission, except in self defense against lethal force, mental violation, or unlawful detention.

3)Union runners shall not summon or bind Free Spirits, except with the prior written permission of the Free Spirit in question or with prior permission from the Union via the Board of Metaphysical Affairs, or if such summoning or binding is necessary to defend against the lethal violence, mental violation, or unlawful detention from the spirit in question.

4)Union runners shall conduct themselves in a professional manner and shall not engage in any sort of sexual harassment, forcible rape, or unnecessary torture. Unnecessary torture may be contracted out to members of the Guild of Excessive Sadism. Seduction is permissible.

5)While stealth and deception may be used to gain entry to secure areas, once found out by lawfully empowered security forces Union runners are required to identify themselves as Union members performing a job and present their Union Identification for inspection before continuing the confrontation using non-lethal means.

6)In a hostage situation, Union runners must provide food, shelter, medical care to hostages within the standards of reason. If the Union runner is unable to provide sufficient care to his hostage then he must temporarily release the hostage. The hostage is obliged to return after eating, sleeping, or receiving medical care. If the hostage being temporarily released is a minor child accompanied by a parent who is also a hostage, then the parent must also be released.

7)If Union runners are captured by their Target, then the mission is lost. They must refund employers all fees paid plus penalty but are still entitled to compensation for injuries.

Employer Rules
Violations of Union rules by Employers can result in blacklisting or assassination.
1)Employers may only hire one team of runners for one job.
2)Employers who hire Union runners may not hire any non-Union runner within a year of the last Union job.
3)Employers who hire Union runners may never again hire non-union runners to run against a Union target.
4) Employers are liable for any injury that does not result from gross negligence on the part of the runner.
5) Employers are responsible for all fees associated with assassination target certification.
6)Employers must pay scale.
7)Employers may not deceive Union runners about the true nature or intent of a job.
8)Employers may not kill, threaten, or mind-control Union runners except in self defense against lethal force or mental violation.
9)Employers may not attempt the same mission twice.

Target Rules
Being a target of a Union runner team is actually highly sought after due to their professionalism and Union rules against lethal violence. For smaller organizations, being hit by a union team can even be a badge of prestige, since it suggests that the organization had something worth hiring a Union team to steal.
Violations of the rules by Targets can result in blacklisting or assassination, with blacklisting being by far the most common.

1)Targets may not use lethal force, Control Manipulation, or Possession against Union runners except in self defense against lethal force or mental violation.
2)Targets may not detain a Union Runner for longer than is required to ascertain his identity and the nature of his mission. Targets may not prosecute Union runners for any crimes they may have committed in the course of their duties but may prosecute Union runners for acts of gross negligence and crimes that are unrelated to their duties.

3)Target organizations may be asked to approve the assassination of one of its members. In most cases, both the contracting organization and the target organization are the same and the assassination is a result of infighting, but this is not always true. If the assassination is the result of infighting, then the target organization is required to either approve it or to contract the pre-approved assassination of the Johnson who requested the assassination for an equal or greater price. If the assassination request comes from outside the target organization, then the request may be approved or denied without penalty.

4)If an assassination is approved by the Target organization, the assassination victim's SIN must be amended to list him as deceased before the assassination takes place.

[bibliophile20]

*dies laughing*

Methinks someone has been reading too much Terry Pratchett lately.

[ludomastro]

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

You sir, deserve a cookie; however, all I could find was a :pumpkin:

[Mercer]

This has been bugging me for a couple of days, but shouldn't the dues be more like "1,000 nuyen a month, or 10,000 for the year"? That way, people have an incentive to pay the year in advance, the organization will receive more lump sum payments which with compounded interest should total more than dues collected incrementally. (Plus, if people pay the year in January and decide to opt out in Feb, we still got their cash.) It might even go as far as to let someone go ahead and pay the second year's dues for 5k.

Other than that glaring oversight, good stuff.