[X] My Assistant

[DuctShuiTengu]

Right, the problem is you attribute too much willingness to go against professional shadowrunners to even the desperate SINless of the barrens. People who's end goal is to stay alive. 1000 simply isn't enough for much of anyone to risk their life trying to take down a shadowrunner no matter how hard up for cash they are, as it's essentially a suicide op. Plus there's just no reason for the Azzie's to leave this up to intermediaries. So long as the runners don't have another megacorp or similar power protecting them there is no reason why Aztechnology won't send it's own assetts after them or hire other shadowrunners to make the amtter a sure thing.

Maybe it's because i don't run ghetto punk campaigns but I can't think of any of my PC's who knowing someone in the room was worth a measly 1k would draw on them. Because long after that 1k is taken and spent there may be after affects of said run.

However I re-iterate the best thing for the team to do is go to another another power and get asylum somehow OR drasticly change all their appearance facial features, sins etc either way their going to want to relocate for a while to a sprawl where the azzies will have more difficulty reaching them. Like I said LA is nice this time of year, so is Denver now that I think about it.

Hmmm... possibly. Though the 1k figure was mostly drawn at random. Scale it as needed to get the kind of response I described in my post above.

[kzt]

Maybe it's because i don't run ghetto punk campaigns but I can't think of any of my PC's who knowing someone in the room was worth a measly 1k would draw on them. Because long after that 1k is taken and spent there may be after affects of said run.

There really are very few people, other than the USG, who offer serious rewards for killing people. If you are the mafia it's just part of the job, you don't get paid extra for it. There are LOTS of people, real world, who get killed for less than $1000. For example, this morally uplifting story:

[ Spoiler ]

When the Cadillac-driving Q tried to extort Hayes for a portion of his earnings, Hayes threatened to take Q out. Hayes announced: “F—k Q. He doesn’t tell me what to do. This is my spot. I can have motherf—kers shut down this place and shoot the place up,” as a resident later told the police. Q decided to act first. “Baby Girl,” a single mother of four who sold Q’s drugs at Lamp with her girlfriend, put Q in contact with “Speedy,” her “home-boy.” Speedy, a member of a cop-killing gang which operates from the Hollenbeck area in Los Angeles, agreed via cell-phone at 3 am on April 12 to do a hit on Hayes. Speedy put less forethought into the decision than most people expend on the choice of a Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte or a low-fat Java Chip Frappuccino. Speedy (a.k.a. Richard Luna) lived up to his moniker. Barely two hours after receiving his assignment, he had fatally shot Hayes and an unintended second man in the Lodge’s TV room.

Speedy may be fast, but that doesn’t mean that he has no standards. He aborted his first approach to the Lodge when he saw that too many sundry dealers and residents were milling around the common area for him to do his job right. (This lively social scene was taking place at around 4:30 am, in a facility that is supposed to provide shelter for a vulnerable mentally ill population.) Speedy returned, seething, to Baby Girl’s car (Baby Girl having driven him to the Lodge). Everything was “f—ked up,” he said, banging the car’s dashboard. Speedy wanted out and wanted his money, now. Baby Girl (a.k.a. Shanana Flores) called Q back to convey Speedy’s frustration. Q, realizing that he had a perfectionist on his hands, hurried over to the Lodge himself, shooing the residents into their rooms and his dealers off-site: “Get your s—t out of here,” he announced. “S—t about to go down. It ain’t gonna be cool. This will be twisted. Motherf—kers won’t know where this is coming.” Q and the Lamp night manager turned off the security cameras, then Q called Baby Girl to announce that everything was ready to go. Speedy walked back to the Lodge, wearing gloves and a black hooded jacket, and five minutes later sauntered back to Baby Girl’s car, the job completed.

Speedy might with equal propriety be called Dopey, however. He had agreed to commit murder with nothing more than Q’s assurance that he would find $4,000 to $5,000 in drugs and cash on Hayes’s person. Yet the Lodge’s dealers and residents had already ransacked Hayes’ corpse by the time Speedy went to harvest the booty. “There was nothing. F—k that,” he told Baby Girl angrily when he got back into her car the second time. Speedy’s efforts to collect his payment would prove forever unavailing; all that he ever received from Q was $700 in small bills.

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0928hm.html

[LurkerOutThere]

And that story proves what exactly? Just because there is one guy dumb enough to take on a soft target doesn't mean there are many people willing to take on Shadowrunners (who by their very definition are hard targets for as little as 1k. Yes in the whole of human history I can come up with somneone dumb enough to support any argument, that doesn't mean it's what happens at the whole

[kzt]

It took ONE phone call and less than 6 hours to find someone who would do this. For less than $1000.

[Orcus Blackweath...]

Anyone ever see the Warriors? 1980's movie. Aztech can afford some phenomenal rewards. They could practically announce to the world a value for the runner's heads, and laugh as the world explodes with every petty criminal and established runner team tries to collect. I could see the whole thing being a rolling firefight as the runners try to find a safe place. The ultimate crowning irony cqwould be when their NAN contact decides to try to off them himself to collect.

[Orcus Blackweath...]

Ooooo just occurred to me...


If one of the players dies, there could be another mad scramble as the different groups fight over the head. Each group wanting to be the one to turn it over for the bounty. Every contact the players have would either be dead as one group or another tries to get useful info, in hiding to avoid that faite, or actively trying to cap the players himself.

[LurkerOutThere]

No he got less then 1k, he was expecting quite a bit more. As I stated before the reason the 1k figure isn't reasonable is partially because shadowrunners are hard targets and partially because the sort of people that would be willing to kill people for a grand in the first place don't have the means to get near the targets, let alone throw away their lives trying to fight them. Your article doesn't even prove your own point, whatever that was.

[Orcus Blackweath...]

No he got less then 1k, he was expecting quite a bit more. As I stated before the reason the 1k figure isn't reasonable is partially because shadowrunners are hard targets and partially because the sort of people that would be willing to kill people for a grand in the first place don't have the means to get near the targets, let alone throw away their lives trying to fight them. Your article doesn't even prove your own point, whatever that was.

Mixed bag here, I have to agree, there are morons willing to kill someone for $10 in crack. They are not going to be sent to kill elite delta force team members and such. That being said, the characters are not going to be in their usual haunts, or they will be dead quickly. This could provide an opportunity for some of the also rans to play with the big boys. Aztech will either do the job themselves or make a large offer. This will be a point of honor, to show that you do not double cross them.

[cndblank]

As always it is your game.

IMHO you should lower the scope a little to keep it manageable.

Going after the runners with a full AAA's resources would only prove that the Azzies were behind it to the NAN (and everyone else).
Also some goody two shoe runners could be an asset if they were wanted to frame another corp.

So the question becomes how damming was the evidence and could it all be blamed on a rogue research head (who is likely dead or they could be trying to protect a valuable asset by blaming it on someone else)?

And how much are the Azzies willing to spend to make a point has to be a consideration especially when the runners didn't even know it was an Azzie op.


This sounds to me like some sort of internal Azzie office politics.

1) their Johnson would have used reliable Azzie resources to clean up if the operation was traceable back to them.

Either someone inside the Azzie was free lancing (to sabotage a rival perhaps) or trying to clean up the matter without attracting attention from higher up. Perhaps they screwed up and left data that proved the Azzies were running this.

So either they are Azzie and didn't want to use company resources (or at least explain why they needed them) or they are not Azzie and wanted something that required the lights be turned on.


Either way in this case, the Exec behind Mr Johnson is unlikely to have access to the full Azzie resources.
Also assuming he wasn't planning to leak the data (and blame the runners).

He would have to explain why he knew who had leaked the data.

He could however using resources already assigned to him to clean up. Not all of whom would know why the exec was after the runners, but companymen don't ask a lot of questions.

Say the exec has one or two companyman in on his extracurricular ops (perhaps including the Mr Johnson?)

Well they could quietly clean up some loosed lipped runners. Make an example out of the fixer (assuming the exec can afford to waste a Shadow resource like a fixer (perhaps the fixer could ID the companyman/Johnson and through him reach the exec)). Or require the fixer to make amends.

Have the fixer trash the players for being unprofessional.

And two comanymen could be a real pain even if they were being extra careful to not leave any traces. plant a bomb here, snipe a little there. some advance drone work there, post a bounty anonymously, Drop a dime there, and use the runner's faces and MO for a crime there.


What if another exec wants the runners found so he can prove that his rival was playing fast and loose.

So they have two sets of Azzies after them. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Vic Steeltusk]

Well we knew it was Aztech, not from the start but all the security uniforms and hardware were stamped. And after the ghoul shaman was captured we landed on the pyramid in the stealth heli to drop off the shaman and some info before being dropped off at another location to head home.

I will most likely contact them myself and plead my case that i had nothing to do with the backstab and offer the entire timeline on full simsense (from time of being dropped off on the run to current time) as my evidence to be reviewed and also let them know theres another copy that will make it to the NAN and others if something unfortunate befalls me. I will also let them know i am still their man for the right price. This should cover my ass sufficiently considering it implicates them fully from the bottom up and would screw any type of coverup they had in mind. My character is fairly professional as much as he looks like a big mean ganger boss and wouldn't pull something like this unless the price tag was gargantuan. He knows his place.

[Tachi]

Well we knew it was Aztech, not from the start but all the security uniforms and hardware were stamped. And after the ghoul shaman was captured we landed on the pyramid in the stealth heli to drop off the shaman and some info before being dropped off at another location to head home.

I will most likely contact them myself and plead my case that i had nothing to do with the backstab and offer the entire timeline on full simsense (from time of being dropped off on the run to current time) as my evidence to be reviewed and also let them know theres another copy that will make it to the NAN and others if something unfortunate befalls me. I will also let them know i am still their man for the right price. This should cover my ass sufficiently considering it implicates them fully from the bottom up and would screw any type of coverup they had in mind. My character is fairly professional as much as he looks like a big mean ganger boss and wouldn't pull something like this unless the price tag was gargantuan. He knows his place.

And to seal the deal, all you'll have to do is kill her yourself... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dead.gif)

[kzt]

And to seal the deal, all you'll have to do is kill her yourself... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dead.gif)

No, some things just need the personal touch....

[darune]

From what the OP descripes it sounds to me someone at aztec screwed up bad. As cndblank (and others) mentioned in the thread, the mission would risk being compromised by using deniable assets instead of using loyal assets. So even if the johnson had the best intentions to pull it off and get the job done, he (probably) screwed it up by hiring runners. So it doesn't changes much if the runners were told to act descreetly or not.

At least that is what i deduce from what the OP tells. The one about Mr. J wanted to get the info out seams a bit far fetched (the runners might as well have not leaked the info) unless he wanted to leak it himself, and it presents interesting options.

So why is Mr. Johnson not doing is job well enough ?

One can think of some possible reasons...

to name a few:

1) addiction making him do hack work and perform badly.
2) or could be because he is under a lot of stress
3) internal rivalry
4) in the pocket of someone else (other Corp, NAN?)

Yet another motive using deniable assets could be he was trying to hide the op. eg. from upper management for some reason.

In any of these cases the johnson will want to sever all connections pointing back to him being the mind behind it. Upper management will be looking into it. Maybe he was running his own department inside another department or some such.

This could be a good springboard for another run or aftermath.

[cndblank]

I was thinking maybe the site's core/mainframe went off line during the alert and he needed it turned on (so it could be remotely accessed.)

This works well for a rival (exec R) who wants to frame the exec in charge (Exec C) of the site. Exec R has the Mr Johnson hire the deniable assets while making it look like Exec C did it. Mr J just knows he got the right authorizations from Exec C's office. Once the site is lights on, Exec R can use a backdoor and leaves evidence of Exec C incompetence and gets a copy of the research paydata. He can even subtly sabotaged the paydata to throw the project behind even more making Exec C look doubly incompetent. Then has his team of hired runners make a public deposit of the survivor back at the pyramid.

Shoot exec R can even make it look like the runners pulled the paydata (reduces questions of who stole the the paydata when he sales it to fund his next "promotion"). That would be a great reason for the Azzies to come down on them trying to get the pay data back.

Making an example of runners that betrayed them would just be a bonus. And of course Exec R would want the runners dead just to prevent any interrogation from raising any questions about did they really take the paydata.

You could even have an ally of Exec C helping them or hiring them to catch exec R (or extract Exec C to another Corp).

[Cardul]

And to seal the deal, all you'll have to do is kill her yourself... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dead.gif)

No, no....all he has to do is bring her to the Johnson....I am sure her heart will make the sun rise (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Tachi]

No, no....all he has to do is bring her to the Johnson....I am sure her heart will make the sun rise (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Hehe... Good point... I forgot about that... or... One brand-spanking new blood spirit coming up... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)