[X] My Assistant

[MrSandman666]

Hi everybody,

I feel it's time again for some (probably stupid and obvious) questions.
It just occured to me that I have no clue about most things going on behind the scenes when a Shadowrun is set up, which is - as I am the GM - potentially fatal.
This whole thing is intendet as an ongoing installment to generally put questions associated with the "johnson-side" of organizing a run.

This first one is about quality insurance: if working on a tight schedule, how does the Johnson assure the quality of the job done?
Examplesituation 1:
The runners where told to sabotage a certain facility and where offered a bonus if they could do so without being caught. How does Johnson know if they have been caught? Sometimes there's isn't an outright carchase ensuing or some immediate reaction. Maybe there's video footage of the run which is broadcasted in the morning news the next day or the day after. He would hardly demand his money back, would he?
Examplesituation 2:
The runners are told to kill a certain person, maybe make it look like an accident or whatever, in any case something that keeps them from bringing the target's head for proof. How does the Johnson know the job is well done? Does he wait until the info becomes available through legal sources (newspaper, private notes, etc.)

My second question would be how to handle data (or other loot) that is not to be handed over to third parties.
Examplesituation 1:
A team is hired to steal some data, whipe the data of the original host, destroy all the copies of it and then bring the data to the Johnson without keeping any copies for themselves.
How is the Johnson going to insure that all the other copies have been whiped? How does he know the runners aren't keeping a private copy to sell it in about a week?
Examplesituation 2:
The runners are told to enter a facility and surgically remove a certain piece of data from a datastore and leave everything else untouched.
How does he insure that the runners have whiped the file and how does he insure that they didn't steal anything for private purposes?

Sure, for both questions there's the possibility that he finds out later and comes back for revenge. However, for some Johnsons, this is not possible (be it corporate politics or - more likely - a limited budget. remember, Johnsons do not have to work on behalf of a giant corporation). And also it's a really undesirable thing and a great risk too. If it was that easy to pull off for the runners, it would be done more often.
Then there's always the magical *reputation hit*. Well, as I said, not all Johnsons are influential in the Shadows and also most Johnsons don't want their runs to be talked about. After all, that's why most of them come to the shadows: keeping it secret. Hardly anyone is going to connect some sold loot or something like that and no johnson is going to hand in an evaluation sheet to the johnson. There's no "johnson's review" magazine in the shadows. The bad rep may get around if you regularly fail jobs or screw partners and fixers but I have a hard time believing that screwing your johnson will get you a bad rep (except with that specific johnson).

So far so good... I hope I didn't make myself look too stupid with... :silly:

[TinkerGnome]

Quality assurance: The Johnson simply doesn't pay the runners all of the money up front. Generally, most runs pay 10-30% upfront and the rest on completion. If you botch the run, you don't get all or any of your second-stage cash. There may well be a waiting period in there, as well.

Information leaking: The "industry" polices itself to a large extent. Shadowrunners who break the terms of their agreement usually find themselves with a rotten rep and few job prospects. The Johnson can also have them killed in retaliation and not suffer a personal hit to his rep because it'll probably be pretty common knowledge what the runners pulled.

[edit] Rep hits are more powerful than you might think. The Johnson sends a very clear message of displeasure to the fixer(s) who set up the run. This message gets around the shadows pretty quickly afterwards.[/edit]

[toturi]

None, there is no real surefire way of ensuring the mission objectives. Just as there is no real surefire way of ensuring that the Johnson isn't going to betray or otherwise set up the runners.

[Lantzer]

[MrSandman666]

Well, my problem with reputation are wider spread and I'll possibly open another thread about this since I find it to be very essential and worth discussing.

More on topic:
My Johnsons hardly even pay half of the pay up front, more like 20% most of the time BUT usually the runners call the Johnson the second they complete the job and get out alive. They will then make an appointment with the Mr. J to get their pay. Till now this has worked out and till now the players never tried to screw with their Johnson but now I have a very creative group of players and I believe it's only a matter of time until they try. Is it reasonable for a Johnson to wait a few days or weeks until the dust has settled and he is sure everything happened as ordered?

As for the information leaking / looting: Who will ever know that the runners broke the terms of their agreement? As long as they don't sell the data/loot to the fixer who organized the job for them, they should be fine. Depending on the loot they could also keep it for a while and sell it off bit by bit. Who is ever to know that they did this certain run and who is to connect that loot with the runners and/or the run and who is then to ask whether they where "allowed" to steal it or not? It's highly unlikely that anyone will ever deduct a breach of contract from a few runners selling things. There's nobody keeping the great overview. Everybody involved only sees a small section of the story but never enough to actually get something harmfull for the runners out of it.
Of course it can always happen that for some strange reason the Johnson hears about the 'ware hitting the streets and the only ones able to sell this would be the runners. However, this is only likely when the data is pretty hot (hot enough to cause some excitement in the shadows/corporate world) or if they are dumb enough to sell large amounts of hot equipment over a short amount of time.

[Backgammon]

Question 1
Example1: A "bonus" for not being caught? Not being caught is pretty fragging much a requirement. You get caught, the contract is forfeit. You always get to keep the up front pay, but anything else is up in the air. Work out a new one (i.e. please please don't kill me Mr J, I'll make it up to you). As for knowing they got caught... a good Mr J has his feelers inside the target corp and inside law enforcement agencies. Nothing necesseraly very deep, but finding out if the runners got sloppy should be easy. If he's not certain, but thinks maybe things got sloppy, and can make up 101 plausible reasons to delay paying the runners until he knows for sure.

Example2: Someone who orders a hit on someone else probably personnally pays pretty well attention to how it's done. If you asked a hitman to kill someone for you, don't you think you'd be pretty tense about how well it's done? He will find a way to know, that's for sure.

Conclusion: the J always has some sort of way to know how well it went down, usually some small insider information. It's easy to get general inside info. Detailled info is another matter, but general info should be enough to gauge quality. Plus, there's always surveillance.

Question 2
Example1: He won't know. Either he'll see it on the market and now have to plan on how to kill the runners, or he won't and all is well. Payback is the only option in case of treachery.
Example 2: Once again, payback. If the orders are *specifically* not to steal other sutff, then the runners should ask for more money to compensate. Else, they can steal all they want. If he paid them not to steal other stuff, and they still do, then once again it's payback time.

Conclusion: Reputation and Payback are the only tools available to Johnsons when it comes to honour.

[Siege]

Typically, I ask for a "mission objectives" list so the Johnson can specify what is and is not required for the job.

Additionally, I ask about any verification requirements, if necessary. Do you really want his head on a silver platter? What grade of silver? Any particular fashion of platter?

And there is nothing wrong with a Johnson waiting a few days for the heat to blow over -- most PCs would wait for that as well, especially if they're moving hot goods as freebies to the job.

A standard Johnson clause might be "contact me a week after completion of the job and we will make arrangements" or he might leave the remaining payment with the fixer to avoid the "wow, Bob's account was short 20% before Jim got whacked and now the remaining 80% just got transferred to...Poppa Doc's House of Guns and Sushi? What the frag?"

And if it's a sensitive job, the Johnson may want to verify the results with his (or her) own intel before confirming satisfactory completion of the job. Granted, the time delay in verification and final payment would be best agreed upon in advance to keep both parties happy. "What do you mean you can't confirm until next year?"

-Siege

[Kagetenshi]

20% up front, 20% upon completion of the job and initial verification, 60% upon absolute verification.

Or similar. Time lapses of no more than ten days between completion and payment are probably pretty common.

~J

[Backgammon]

[Kagetenshi]

So fiddle with the percentages. Remember, the J has an equally tenuous hold on the runners should they decide to screw him.

~J

[tjn]

True.

If a team runs off with the money, their rep is fragged. However there's always another desperate sinless out there willing to run for some cred.

The Corps, on the other hand, just can't make a new Johnson overnight. Johnsons that ruin their rep need to be replaced, and that costs time, money, and resources.

Enless the corp specifically tells the Johnson to stiff the runners, the tradeoff between a few tens of thousands verses the cost of ruining the rep of their resource is not good for the bottom line.

Independant Johnsons are a different matter, but the Corps do set the tone and the expectations in the unwritten rules. The shadows exist at their sufferance. The shadows had damn well play by their rules.

[Kanada Ten]

[Number 6]

[Kagetenshi]

Amount of profit is life. Ever hear of stockholders?

And most businessmen won't have massive Negotiations scores any more than most cops would have massive Pistols scores.

~J

[Lantzer]

True, to a degree. Sure, a corp can replace Johnsons.

The problem with rotating Johnsons frequently is that a new Johnson has no Rep. No Rep means less people will do business with him.

So without a good network of contacts, and people willing to vouch for him, how is a new Johnson supposed to do his job?

[Number 6]

[Siege]

Presumeably the Corporate Office has a rolodex of names who may (or may not) be interested in doing business with a Johnson.

The Johnson is a relatively nameless face who might be the person responsible for the job originally or he might be a minion who's acting as intermediary for another person/department.

This, of course, is dependent on what view of the Johnson/Fixer/Runner relationship you choose to endorse.

The fixer may actually have no idea what person/company he's doing business with or they might have a long professional relationship.

-Siege

[Abstruse]

What keeps the runners honest? You screw a J or a fixer, everyone in town knows about it.

What keeps a Johnson honest? A quote (probably butchered) from Neuromancer. "You're Mr. Nobody. You pay to keep from becoming a Mr. Somebody."

The Abstruse One

[MrSandman666]

Hm, well ok... I guess this discussion won't go much further without running in circles. I think we all agree that Johnsons usually don't have a rep (except for the odd neutral freelance johnson who is hired as a middleman). Their job is to be unknown, most of the time. Some corps probably have some prestige-Johnsons, for the odd job when it's ok for the runners to know who's behind it but I think this will be more of an exception then a rule.

So, to sum things up:
A Johnson will usually give some feedback to the fixer or whoever got the runners to him, causing them to get worse or less jobs.
He will eventually keep the payment until he at least somehow has an idea that the job was done right (this idea is so incredibly simple, effective and reasonable I can't believe it didn't occur to me before).
He will, should he be screwed bad enough, search retribution of some kind.
He will start his own efforts to find out whether the runners really didn't steal and sell anything.

Did I get this right? Did I miss something?

[Backgammon]

[Backgammon]

[Nikoli]

"Do you understand your value to the organization Resnick?"
(brief pause)
"You're a sadist. You lack compunction. That comes in handy."

Pretty much sums up most Johnson's as well.

[MrSandman666]

Do keep in mind that not all (not even most) Johnsons are actually professional Johnsons. Sure, the corp will his profesional Johnsons around for when something "official" (i.e. fitting the corporate agenda not something public) needs doing but in the end there are still all the private agendas of the corps, jobs offered by private persons, runs coming from the mob or gangs or some small coprs or organizations.
And in those cases, Johnsons are just normal people who have some shadowy dealings. Most of them probably aren't even good in negotiating with runners. Tthey will be nervous and unexperienced. And most of all they are expendable (well, as expendable as it gets when you have limited personel). Plus they don't tend to have a street rep.

[Number 6]

[Backgammon]