Making the Corporate Mr. Johnson fresh again, I'm done with the Eurotrash slicksters Options

[martindv]

When it comes to the stereotypical corporate Mr. Johnson archetype, what do you think of? My mind pictures a pharmaceutical salesman: Caucasian, perfect teeth, great body, stylish designer clothes, a fake tan, and a slightly "oh-I-can't-believe-I'm-working-with-you" attitude.

And female, since most pharma corps hire former cheerleaders as reps.

[Gast]

In my games, "Johnson" was slang. You could spot the inexperienced client by the fact that he introduced himself as Mr. Johnson, and the inexperienced runners expected the client to use the name. But professional Johnsons would never use the name.

[masterofm]

Mr. Johnson is more of a term of respect. No matter what anyone says their name is you call them Mr. Johnson out of professional courtesy. Like in the service industry saying "hello Mr./Ms. (enter last name here.)"

For the Johnson I used he was once a high powered Johnson named Archie Langer who used to land big jobs for Ares. However he has actually been fired for excessive use of BTL chips that then began to interfere with his professional life. He has fallen from grace and now lives on the streets. However he has just recently managed to pull himself out of the gutter to try and hire a group of Shadowrunners by an "anonymous third party." Generally the pay is good but he will put your on a suicide mission or at least what would normally be considered one (although he is generally unaware of this as he knows nothing about the actual operation.)

The two body guards flanking him are actually two other BTL junkies that he loosely calls friends, and has paid them a few cred so that he can look a little more respectable. They each sport new black actioner business suits, tinted sunglasses, and pistols (although they don't know how to use them.) All three of them have a data jack implanted in them (the Johnson has alpha while the other two have standard grade.) However despite his brand new suite and slicked back hair if the runners look hard enough they can notice that he didn't quite clean out all of the grime behind his ears. The Johnson also reeks of perfume and soap. Archie used to be a shrewed negotiator, but after a while he will break down after enough pressure is applied and tell the party what is really going on... that is he will try to until his head explodes from the implanted Cranial microbomb that was installed without his prior knowledge smearing the walls and runners with blood, bone, and brains.

[JudgementLoaf]

One of the more amusing johnsons that I have used was actually a ex-military officer of some renown, who after being wounded during a mission was retired for a "desk job". This particular job entailed internal security, and making sure that high tech military hardware didn't simply "fall off a truck somewhere". To this end, he employed runners to sleuth out the locations of stolen shipments and recover them.

[Cardul]

I ran one Johnson back in the day....First, he prefered to dress in a long coat, jeans, steel-toed boots, and a t-shirt, wore mirrorshades, and had a pair modern-tech reproduction Colt Peace-maker styled revolvers. He always tested his runners before he started giving them real work. Their first job was always to make a pick up at a certain deli, and deliver it to him at a destination of his choosing in a certain time frame. They would be ambushed on the way by a rather heavily armed go-gang(uncluding one guy in an armoured sports car with a cannon mounted in the passenger side). This go-gang atually worked for the Johnson, and was recording the whole encounter, to see how the Runners handle it, etc.

The delivery? The Johnson's lunch. What? That deli has a really good proschuttio.....

[Wounded Ronin]

I ran one Johnson back in the day....First, he prefered to dress in a long coat, jeans, steel-toed boots, and a t-shirt, wore mirrorshades, and had a pair modern-tech reproduction Colt Peace-maker styled revolvers. He always tested his runners before he started giving them real work. Their first job was always to make a pick up at a certain deli, and deliver it to him at a destination of his choosing in a certain time frame. They would be ambushed on the way by a rather heavily armed go-gang(uncluding one guy in an armoured sports car with a cannon mounted in the passenger side). This go-gang atually worked for the Johnson, and was recording the whole encounter, to see how the Runners handle it, etc.

The delivery? The Johnson's lunch. What? That deli has a really good proschuttio.....

So, the gangers didn't get mad when they lost some of their own in the firefight?

The team didn't get mad for effectively having been double crossed right off the bat?

[Ravor]

Life is cheap in the Sixth World Chummer, life is cheap. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[CanRay]

Only thing cheaper than life in the Sixth World is a Verbal Contract...

Hey, look at what Shadowrunners sign! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Wesley Street]

Default Johnsons look like "Eurotrash"?

Only the corporate ones. And if you're running an Anglo-centric campaign.

If you're in Japan they all look like Takeshi Kitano. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Glyph]

Life is cheap in the Sixth World Chummer, life is cheap. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

That goes for the Johnson, too, though. Most runner teams that got attacked by people with autocannons, and then told it was a "test", would kill the Johnson without any qualms.

[Ravor]

Assuming that the Johnson is dumb enough to let the Runners know what is really in the package and that he set them up of course. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[Glyph]

I was assuming both were the case, but I may have been reading things into Cardul's post that weren't there. Even so, it's a set of circumstances that would make most runners suspicious.

[Ravor]

Agreed, but I can see a Johnson pulling such a stunt off provided he was careful to only meet with the talent from a position of strenght and to appear to pay extra well, nuyen should go along way towards smoothing any ruffled feathers at being set up.

I do agree that it is risk on the J's part to have such a transparent test, but I think that most Johnsons who intend on working with the same team on multiple missions would send them on a "test run" or two so to speak.

[masterofm]

When you go on a run you expect that someone is going to come after you. That being said the party should still be able to see the double cross if they are good enough.... or have divination - the GMs nightmare.

[BRodda]

So how about you? What kind of new twist on the corporate Johnson have you devised?

It depends on the Johnson. My last Johnson went by Mr. Brakenhaus and he wore his Sader Krupp pin on his jacket. It was his subtle way of saying to the group "If you screw this up there won't be enough of you left to sell."

They still have no idea who he is. The hacker was able to figure out which subsidiary was paying for the job, but that was about it. His Duke Nukem look-alike guard named Hans might be easier though.

I will say that there is a huge difference in my games between a Johnson and an employer. Fat Tony works for the mob and hires out some work to runners, but he's not really a "Johnson". Johnson's are strictly corporate employers.

[Daddy's Litt...]

The plastic johnson's pretty much was see at 2nd teir. The good ones treat us like professionals and usually have an understanding of what they are hiring.

Leo Getz makes me laugh. Someone has seen Lethal Weapon. =)

"What ever you want, Leo gets, Get it?"