Fixer Backgrounds, Who does someone become a fixer? Options

[toturi]

I ran into this problem a while back when I was creating a new NPC. How did he become a Fixer? How does someone manage to know so many people in the shadows? If you are a Made Man, then you know many Mafiosi, many cops, have many Yakuza or Triads enemies but you do not know much Corp types. An ex special ops type will know many commando types, but few on the Corps. An ex Corp will know many corp types (probably only within his own corp).

What type of person has so many contacts that he can become a Fixer?

[MrSandman666]

I would like to use this opportunity to shamelessly plug in this post of mine. It was created in the attempt to clarify exactly that issue. There where some pretty good posts already but I believe it's still worth discussing and I would vote for doing so in the existing thread in order to keep the boards clean and uncluttered (yea, yea, I know it's too late for that ;) )

[toturi]

What I meant was how does someone get into the Fixer business anyhow? They might be former supply sergeants or brothel madames but knowing a lot of people doesn't mean knowing the right people. How many Johnsons were in the military or goes regularly to a whorehouse? How many good runners actually make themselves known as runners? So all you might know is that he's that guy that eats his lunch at your noodle shop.

[Lantzer]

Start small. You know a guy "in the Biz". Over time, you get to know more people "in the Biz". As your rep grows, other folks in the biz hear about you, so are willing to contact you for services.

I see a lot of Fixers as starting out as runners or Johnsons. They are just lucky enough that they were able to gradually move to the middleman position.

Edit: I also tend to have my fixers somewhat specialized. Big Eddie, your mafia fixer can't do the same things as Harry the Gunrunner, who can't do the same things as Robin your metahuman activist. They may all overlap a bit with Joey the Fence.

[Ezra]

Whenever I have played a fixer, I have tried to tie in the contacts to the persons history, and also make it area specific.
For example, my fixer grew up in the bad areas of Puyallup. He never joined any gangs, but had a fast enough mouth to make friends with some of the gangs. He keeps in touch with his friends from school, and is a sufficiently charismatic guy that he makes new friends easily. So as his buddies get older and get into jobs, he is intorduced to their friends, and so on and so on.

So he lands up with a good spread of contacts, who introdue him to others. However, most of contacts will be Puyallup based, and most likely not high-level corps. So there, I would normally give my fixer character a fixer contact, (long since gone) who acted as a mentor to my character, introducing him to people etc.

I agree with Lantzer though.....specialising your fixer into an area of expertise makes sense too.

[Siege]

Becoming a "fixer" is basically networking with people inclined to do you favors or sell you product.

Now, change that to an illegal product(s) and favors and voila - you have a "fixer".

In SR, the generic "fixer" does everything, but realistically, most fixers would specialize or at least be less capable (on average) than fixers who do specialize.

Bit tacks on an extra 5-10% handling fee for dealing with fixers because of the number of hands the good or service has to pass through, versus dealing with a supplier or dealer directly.

You could also assign backgrounds to fixers, giving a flavor and guideline for what they can and can't provide:
Street - drugs, BTLs, small arms
Military - small arms, heavy weapons, mil-grade gear
Corp - information, money, corp goods

And so on. Maybe assign a +2 for locating products outside of the specified background? Idle thoughts...

-Siege

[Paul]

One of my favorite Fixers was a former CAS Intelligence officer who originally started out hiring disposable assetts for the CAS,and keeping an eye on the shadows for his government of choice. When the government downsized his job they also tried to downsize him. He went solo, eventually latching onto Dunkelzahns organization. After the Big D's death he found himself working solo again.

Another fixer I sed ran a pawn shop that flaundered money for the Mob, and occasionally hired outside talent for various jobs.

Still another was a former Russian KGB style agent who took his whole operation rogue.

[CountZero]

My vision of how a fixer might get his contacts would sort of flow like this:

Fixer starts out as someone who gets things for other people. Nothing major, but say someone (a rich crime figure, corp exec, whatever) wants some (illegal) Cuban cigars, he knows someone who can get them. This person would be involved in crime (smuggling). Through this guy, the fixer could then start expanding his network by partly co-opting the cigar contact's contacts. Say a client wants some cocaine, finds a drug smuggler/"respectable" dealer through the cuban cigar guy. That contact can in turn can get the fixer contacts in money laundering, gun-running, and in hired muscle. As the network expands, the fixer will eventually get into contact with "specialists" (Runners). At which point, as he will most likely have already obtained some rich/corporate/both contacts (the client he got the cigars for), should they be in need of Runners for a special job, they have someone to come to.

Then, as the fixer gains a reputation, the number of clients wanting runs performed increases, as well as the number of runners he has working for him (because they want the good paying jobs).

So, in essence, a hotel concerge could be closer to being a Shadowrun style fixer than, say, a bartender, because of the network of contects he could redily put togeather, with a little work.

[Siege]

You'd be surprised at how well a good bartender can build a network of people - particularly in a neighborhood setting.

-Siege

[Prospero]

Another way that a fixer can help get themselves established is by working quietly for a certain oragnization. In a campaign I was in, it turned out partway through that our fixer was working for the Azzies. He'd previously been a runner, so he already had some contants, and had gotten wounded on a run and retired. The Azzies had helped him expand his contacts and fed him equipment/drugs/ whathaveyou. In exchange, he just passed on any info they wanted. Of course, he got killed when people found out, but it was a viable way to get set up as a fixer. :spin:

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

[BishopMcQ]

I actually have a runner who is starting to build up his network and work as a fixer. He has built up a log of contact information for the runners he has worked with in the past and contacts in the family or different organizations. Then when people come to him with a problem, he fixes it for a small fee. All of it has been done through active game play. Obviously this method doesn't work for everyone, but it serves as an example of how someone makes the transition from Joe Runner to Mr. Fixer.