We all know that Mr. Johnson really does usually go by the nickname "Mr. Johnson". Just read the "On the Run" adventure.


Now here's the rub. What if, by freak coincidence, two Johnsons decided they wanted a meet at the same club on the same night at the same time. The Runner show up for Mr. Johnson... And get the wrong "Johnson Party" meeting.

And thus, your 100+ Karmic Runners got handed a newbie cakewalk Run, or else your newbie runners got handed a sadistic deathtrap.


Woulden't that be funny?

yes. and yes, it was. Even the players thought so. They were half way through the run when they figured it out. Good times.

Did they complete the Run anyway?

actually yes. It did pay well after all. There was also another time , the meeting was, IIRC , at Matchsticks. There were 4 different "Johnson, party of 5"'s there. Just had some fun while they tried to figure out which team was with which Johnson. Got to meet some other runners, ahve a few laughs.

That's gotta be a neat way to make some new contacts.


You know what would be hilarious? If one Johnson wound up with all four Teams, and they got into a bidding war.

Or better yet, all 16 Runners decided they wanted to stomp the unholy shit out of whatever was bugging Mr. J, just for the unusuality of a 16-man crew.

Why don't they just call him something else? Like Mr. Smith, or, I don't know, Andy Smith.

Heh... how close that is to what happend when I tried that with my group. I had 2 runner groups that basicly bid each other down for the job. Turned out to be a cake walk, but the pay was complete pants.

Because Mr. Johnson is traditional in Seattle. If you want your Mr. J's to be Mr. Smith, go to England.

If you want them to be Herr Schmidt, go to Germany. Really, there was this funny list of euro-terms on the shadowrunrpg website awhile back, but I coulden't find it when I looked.

But the fact that it's traditional is exactly why it should end! You don't tell the restaurant receptionist, a fucking civilian, not to mention everyone in the restaurant, that there's a Mr. Johnson in the house.

Emo, your ideas are too... Radical. To just happen. You're going to need to convince some people. Specifically, these people.

Vinnie? Vito? Leo? Would you please listen to Mr. Emo's argument that the name Mr. Johnson should end, and make my counter-argument for me? I'm late for an appointment.


*Three large men with cyber-arms and baseball bats made of tungsten step forward.*

Besides, Emo. It's a game. We want our Mr. Johnson to be Mr. Johnson, not Mr. Smith, not Mr. Jones, not Herr Schmidt, not Dr. Evil, or anyone else. We want Mr. J.

Yes, we must BAN the name "Mr. Johnson"...

After all, it's for the children...

Or you just have the Mr. Johnsons use their own street names (because they need rep too) and meet in places which don't require reservations and which reek of both fresh and stale urine.

If they were too stuffy to keep this secretive, their own professionalism is in question.

There are Johnson's that go by different names. Braukhaus for example. It's just the norm, like a "john" for a prostitute. Having four Johnsons at once is more of a joke than anything else.

You could make it a little dangerous though. Say, one Mr J was supposed to set up a team that had double crossed his employer, and was sending them on a suicide run. Of course, he'd probably at the least have pictures of them, but it's an intersting possiblity.

There are other names often used. Some even are wiling to use there real names. (for example the run I have planed for my group, he is the manager of the conveneance store he wants to have guarded so there isn’t much point hiding it.

Hans Brachoust (speling) is another one. Strangely he is usually the same metatype as the party face, although manner of speech is the same, and always wears glasses, and his runs never end up harming SK. Although others have started to use the name since the implications where worked out.

Johnson’s usually set up there meats in shadow friendly venues, so it being known is not a big problem, and buy using the common name you make a statement bout how things will follow, IE the team dose as its told and gets payed or blood will be spiled.

And it lets me do nasty things as a PC. Namly when in the first session my fixer called me and told me to pull a team together for a job (and buy chance I found the rest of the party) when they asked for my name I almost said Johnson (unfortunately the GM didn’t look like he could take the stress).

Edward

Then there's the occassional Johnson who's last name really is Johnson. I think there was one in Corporate Punishment. Not sure if that was the book, but I know there was at least one in a canon adventure. And I believe it was a Ms.

Wonder if she ever has runners show up at her table when she's just out for dinner?

I've had a doppleganger Johnson send us into a Lonestar sting. We had decided it was really rude for anyone to use astral durning meetings, and the GM (with his first game) decided to test that out. I missed the chance to use Detect Truth on the J, which I still don't know if I would have (if astral scanning is rude, then so is that). But when we arrived at the warehouse, ye ol' Detect Enemies lit up the place like a Chirstmas tree on fire. Worst part is that we almost beat them, but the building was wired to explode in case of just such a scenerio...

My Johnson's usually have a code word or require a specific set of actions before revealing themselves. This also gives the runners and the J a chance to inform each other of interference (say, if the code response was "I like bananas" but the Johnson says, "I like shooting stars" then the runners know to excuse themselves from the meet and full a fade).

Here's a twist, a Johnson hires a group of runners to gank the runners going to a rival Johnson's meet, then take their place...

Not bad, but I think it'd be better if they were breaking up a MoM rally.

~J

Doesn't all of this rely on the assumption that Mr. J would be sufficiently lax on doing his job as a handler that he wouldn't know who the runners he's supposed to meet look are?

BTW, as far as the "Johnson, party of n" goes... Even better if you are escorted to the table only to find some civilian(s) waiting for the rest of their party?

"Hey, you're not my Uncle Leo."

Nope, BUT we have replaced a group to get a line on their Johnson. Yes it was convoluted but the other team was clearly working against use so after arranging for them to have an accident, we showed up in their place-prior to that the Johnson had only met them on the matrix for security but at that point we/they were to turn over stuff to him directly.

When the hell is thios book coming out? And I don't mean the e-book.

I once had the PCs get signed up for a run with a paradrop insertion because the Johnson mistakenly thought everyone knew how to use parachutes when they didn't. Those were funny times.

Just picked up On The Run today.

...actually pulled something similar off.

[slightly revised from the earlier post for clarification]

Having one of my players use the name of my cybersnoop character, Lana Lane, as an alias during a previous run (even though his character would have known nothing about her), I decided to have a little fun with him and the team.

Since this player also participated in the "Rhapsody in Shadow" arc, I set up a scenario of mistaken identity. The session opened with news that Leela (the star NPC from Rhapsody) along with several associates showed up in Seattle for a week.

The team received a call later that day to meet a Johnson at the Club Penumbra who had a job MR "J-ski" (who I mentioned spoke with a Slavic accent) wanted to hire the team to watch the twin daughters of a Russian shipping mogul who was also visiting Seattle at the time. Since none of the PCs had any language skills even remotely related to Russian or Croatian, they immediately believed he was working as one of Leela's assistants & wanted a little more muscle to help protect her during her visit. Not once did the players mention any names and I naturally was not going to volunteer any info. At the club, Leela and her friend Tracey also happened to be present as were the Russian twins. After the initial details were discussed (I mentioned that Mr. J seemed to be in somewhat a hurry to close the deal and wanted to keep things very hushed) the runners asked Mr J. who they were supposed to shadow (from a "safe incognito distance" according to his explicit instructions) He pointed to the dance floor below where all four girls were dancing at the time. The runners agreed to the job and Mr J left.

True to form, the they made the incorrect assumption and at first and shadowed Leela & Tracey for nearly three days. Meanwhile, behind the scenes a plot was set in motion where the twins they were supposed to watch (a Russian version of "Paris & Nicole") were to be kidnapped and held for ransom by the local Red Vory. To add a bit of a distraction it was also March Madness and Seattle was host for one of the elite 8 matchups (one of the runners in the group also has a gambling addiction).

The ruse almost worked until they finally put 2 & 2 together during a benefit dinner (where Leela was the guest of honour) when something didn't seem to feel quite right and called Mr J.

Talk about soy egg on their faces. It was priceless.