I handle Fixers differently then canon but I think that it makes sense. I was wondering what other people think about this. One of the main reasons that I do this is that it increases the number of contacts the PCs need and therefore they role play more.

I have three major changes that I make to Fixers
1) They are not blackmarket central
2) At a certain level they are all Syndicate controlled
3) They insulate the runners from Johnsons, they don't pass them on.

I don't use Fixers as blackmarket central. They only act as agents for runners and whoever they work for. They don't supply anything but jobs to the runners. Each kind of equipment has a whole list of contacts available to supply them. They have to negotiate with a lot of contacts to get things that they want. They usually get a chunk of money for operating expenses from the Fixer at the start but that is it.

There are three major levels of shadowrunner in my games:
Corp - This covers gang up to corporations and is handled through syndicates
Megacorp - This covers Megacorp runs and is handled through corporate fixers
International - This is for prime runners who have heavy active resources in multiple nations.

Corp in my game is not the same as the street level campaign. That would be mostly gangers and below a corp level game. This covers mostly syndicate activity and all those smaller corporations without megacorp level security. All Fixing on this level is sponsered by a Syndicate that protects them.

A Johnson gets in touch with say the Mafia (which in my opinion would be much easier then getting in touch with a hidden freelance fixer). They pass on the word to the mafia fixer who checks this guy out. He finds out all he can before meeting with him on mafia turf with a lot of goons around. They talk and set a price. The fixer negotiates based on what he knows it would normally take to do this kind of job in numbers and overhead. He takes a percentage ahead of time for the mafia. The johnson pays for the whole job - up front. Then he leaves. He has the johnson followed and starts calling his runners.

He would have alot of runners that have mostly come up through the ranks either on the street or through the mafia. They may not be suitable to actually become Mafioso themselves but they make good thugs. They could spend the rest of their time doing more every day stuff for the mafia. He calls them up and they get togther on his turff.

He checks out as much as he can on the johnson and the target and hands that over to the group asking if they can do it. If they can't then he asks whatelse they need or why not. If they need a specialist in something he pulls out his list again and sees what he has. He gives them an offer that may be very low compared to what the johnson paid them. They can try and negotiate at this point.

Then he checks to make sure that the johnson isn't doing anything strange that could signal a doublecross. He keeps in touch with his crews and expects regular updates. Once they complete the run he takes that information that the run occured and everything about it and hands that over to the Mafia Don for them to think about. This could lead to runs directly from the Mafia to take advantage of a weakness the Mafia perceives.

Then the corp that was hit sends goons to try and shake down the fixer about the run but they die when they get too close because the Mafia is protecting him. They find out the Johnson did double cross them and the Johnson is either blacklisted or taken out himself.

Or - You have a Freelance fixer who is so busy doing blackmarket deals he doesn't check out the Johnson first. He doesn't know if the runners are cheating him out of his cut or if he has to settle for the finder's fee that the Johnson gave him. When the runners go to ground after the run the Fixer is the only link that the corp can find so he dies.

Megacorps would have their own teams set up like Inteligence agencies that they trained from youth. They would know everything about them and control all aspects of their lives to make sure that their investment is safe. They would provide all equipment and transportation. They would have total control.
I can't think of a good reason beyond just cannon fodder to use outside resources. The street level runners would figure this out quick and not deal with them. It would take a very successful runner to come to the notice of the Megacorps. Then they would recruit them and bring them in. They would convert them into one of their own and then they would be just like the ones they created.

Above that you have mercs, ex CIA and ex corps that ave gotten so good that they can operate independantly and internationally without being collected or killed by the megacorps.

I know that it changes the feel of the setting in a lot of ways but I think that it makes sense.

Does anyone else agree?

I treat Fixers as the kind of guy that knows lots of people. He personally doesn't keep stockpiles of gear, nor does he initiate work. He is merely the go-between ... the guy people go to when they need to be set up with someone else that can get the job done.

This way, a character doesn't need a massive stable of personal Contacts at chargen just to facilitate roleplaying experiences. He is perfectly capable of going through his Fixer to get in touch with someone that can supply that latest mil-spec gizmo, or find a shadowdoc to implant the newest state-of-the-art cybertoaster.

It just may work out that the character can, through roleplaying, add this new person to their own personal contact list in-game.

Of course, with this method you run the risk of running into less than trustworthy people, at least as far as your character is concerned. If you want more secure lines of communication, or you really need to trust that person putting stuff in your skull, then it might be best to have a more personal relationship with them, illustrated by having them as one of the character's Contacts.

edit: Shit! I just realized that I wrote one paragraph ... two sentences ... about Fixers, and then went on a Contact rant. Suffice to say, it's all relevant to just how you treat Contacts in your game.

Oddly enough, while I likewise keep fixers from becoming a magical swiss army knife of the underworld, I play them down in almost the exact opposite direction to you. They don't handle Johnsons, but are mainly underworld arms dealers and fences. As with you, they mostly have ties to the Yakuza, or whoever, and normally are full-time members. I will have exceptions, though and some of them are better than others, both in terms of resources and reliability. Jobs come through Mr. Johnson who is a professional "arranger" for the corps. He keeps his ear to the ground in the scene. Shadowrunners do their own marketing for the most part, hence the importance of a good face and players bothering to spend their points on contacts.

I guess any angle can work, so long as you demolish this myth of the Super-Know-Everything-Do-Everything-Deltawear-Bodyguards-Will-Appear-Out-Of-Nowhere-If-You-Try-To-Rob-Him-And-Piss-Off-Your-GM person.

HTH,

-K.

No, but his treatment of low level and megacorp runs is.

It's not a bad take either, though it's not quite How I'd like to play.

The myth of the shadowrunner is that they have both skills that the client can't get on their own, and that their very unreliability is a kind of asset. They are "deniable assets", people who are not associated with the group who needs the job done. What they lack in loyalty and control, they make up in being able to claim they had nothing to do with it, and having far, far less evidence linking them to the crime. Even though runners are a kind of wild card in the deck, all the different factions tolerate it because everyone gets to play it.

Heck, usually a runner is just as in the dark about who their working for and why as anyone who'd want to interrogate them. The same can not be said for a corp-sponsored, corp trained agent. Not that there isn't room for the corp agents, but even Megas wouldn't rely solely on their in-house talent.

Whether you think this is a feasable arrangement, accepting that freelance runners can and do exist is one of the key suspention of disbeleif factors of shadowrun. Others being that simply everyone is a calculating amoral bastard who will resort to hiring criminals to get what they want, That a team of said criminals would be stable enough to maintain teamwork and loyalty for more than a mission or two, and that somehow, nothing ever gets done without the intervention of runners somewhere.

Fixers.... That shady "friend" or aquaintence you know, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy that can get you what you need. They normally ask you to "do them a favor" or "run an errand for them" and in return they give you something or help you out when you need it. To put it short the barter non stop.

Examples: Reporters, Professors, Brokers, Public Relations Specialists, your Barber (hell my barber is my fixer), ect.

People who meet a lot of people and will negotiate for you if need but but stay out of the way and only wants to hear good things. How far they will go out of there way to help you escape trouble is something totaly differant!

I think when making a Fixer you need to ask some questions:

Who is this guy that he knows everyone, or nearly everyone? And if they all know him, why haven't they wasted him? Is he the proverbial bottomless pit when it comes to equipment? Or does he have his limits like anyone else? Is he working for someone, why? How? Do the players know? If not, why? How does the fixer view the player characters? Are they tools, to be used when needed? Friends? Family? Enemies of his enemy?

Once you start answering some of those you can really start fleshing out who and what your fixer is.

My group's fixer ends up being the loathed swiss army knife contact, but I think I handle it well enough that other contacts are equally usefull. While the fixer will get you jobs (which is really just a plot device and not really a benefit, because if the characters weren't getting jobs this wouldn't be Shadowrun, it'd be "Elves with Blue Mohawks and Firearms Standing Around, Bored, in the Future"), he can also get you black market gear and information. What makes him not as good as a more specialized contact is a few things:

He has very little stuff himself, so he's calling his contacts to get you what you're looking for. This means that everything generally takes longer.

The "finder's fee". He's a middleman, and he needs to make money too. Everything is a little bit more expensive from him than if you got it from your arms dealer contact (who could possibly be the same guy Mr. Fixer gets his stuff from). He's another step in the process, and every step costs money.

He makes his business dealing with with nasty corporate, underworld and shadow types. Though this would vary from one fixer to another, for mine this means that he's very cool, very sly. He's an excellent negotiator. (I let the characters roll negotiation to try to get better prices for pretty much any exchange, if they wish to put the pressure on like that.) You're going to have trouble getting anything past him, because he's probably a better negotiator than you. This is enhanced by his likely very high Street Cred (which comes from being known and trusted by so many people).

That's how I keep the fixer balanced. Though that's just this fixer. I could easily see in a different campaign running a fixer whose role is more limited (and I would thus make him a little more useful to the players in that role).

So, did you just give them the 'crappy' fixer for free? If he is a group fixer, it would make some sense to do so and still make him slow, costly and still might not get you what you need. As long as he is getting them jobs though, he is doing his job...

He wasn't free and he's far from crappy. He still gets more use than most contacts simply because he is useful in so many ways. The point is that all else being equal (such as Connections and Loyalty), you'd rather call a specialized contact for help than your fixer. What makes a fixer so useful is that he's the man to call when you don't have a specialized contact. Because he probably does have a specialized contact for what you need. In addition, he's the man who knows the Johnsons, which is something fairly unique to fixers. (At least in my version of the world. Most Johnsons do not build real personal business relationships with anyone in the shadows but fixers.)

See, I think this question is inextricable from the question of how you run Johnsons. If you have professional Johnsons running around, then you'll play FIxers differently (and more realistically to my mind). I go way back to 1st edition where you bought a Mr. Johnson contact and he was a professional middleman. I mellow this somewhat in my game to give a grittier feel, but he's still the person you want to know to get jobs. There is the corp world and there's the street world, and then there are those valuable people who live in both. Mr. Johnson might have a street background but joined the corp years ago, maybe he's that rogue employee who likes slumming it and consequently his managers have come to approach him for little arrangements outside his normal job. Maybe he's an ex-police chief, undercover agent, the rich but rebeliious son of a mid-ranking executive or the Mafia member who frequents the same posh venues as the corp middle management and picks up jobs over drinks of real wines.

At any rate, a professional Johnson being distinct from a Fixer makes more sense to me, and that's going to be the critical difference between people's views on Fixers, here.

Hell, Chicago. Your Barber is your fixer, My MOTHER is mine. I'm constantly surprised who that woman has cleaned houses for, and how willing people are to do favors for their housekeeper.

I treat fixers like agents. Everyone knows how sports agents primary goal is to get work for their client. Secondary jobs, are keep them out of jail, get them stuff when they need it on the down low (like drugs, hookers, etc), etc. The agent does do much except get work for their client and know lots of people for the other stuff.

In my games (running or playing) I treat my fixer that way. I expect them to get me work. But filter out the crap jobs or crack pots as much as they can. Pass along the best work they can find. Now if I need a special item or sell something on the black market, they are not the sellers but they know lots of people (higher the CON rating the bigger the spread) that might do something like that. And they get a cut to cover their butts and that is how they get paid. Getting items is always better going through a contact of that type. Like if I need a new SMG or grenades or SuperSquirt, I would contact an arms dealer. If I dont have one of my own, I would go through one of my teams contacts. If none of that plays out then I might go to my fixer.

Now if my players go to their fixer for "everything" this will strain the relationship (thus lowering the LOYAL rating). But if they use the fixer for more "agent-like" things and keeps away from the misc crap work, then there is not hit on their loyalty. For instance my off my characters wanted a membership to an exclusive club. She went through her fixer which was the right thing to do. Now if she was going to the same fixer for pistols, commlinks, grenades, etc that would be different.

Once in a while when you hit your agent up for the non-normal-agent stuff, that is fine. It is when you go to that well over and over and over again.

just my opinion....
dog

Yeah, but I'm pretty sure he will get annoyed after you order a few tools you need, but only cost chump change. Say, you need 100 rounds of ammo, thats almost worth nothing and your fixer gets paid crap for getting it. Now if you are buying expensive junk, like a Fake SIN rank 4+ /w licenses, it can net him some good cash.
It also depends on how well you RP it out, or if you cant RP, roll on your ettiquite tests, to determine how he takes your request for a small order that really isnt worth his time. Remember, he has more clients than you to deal with and he might ignore your request to deal with a more profitable buisness transaction.

The fixer doesn't have to do all the work for you, even 100 rounds of ammo is fairly easy:

Call fixer - "Hey, I want some EX explosive ammo."

Sure, I know a guy who sells it. Go to Vinny's Bar on a Wednesday and talk to Carl. Ask him for three shots of Hairy Orc. He'll ring his bar rag into some shot glasses. Slam all three and say "That stuff is explosive!" or alternately "That stuff really peirces your gut!". He'll ask if he can get you anything else and you'll tell him how much you need. He usually keeps a dozen boxes or so behind the Zima.

You: What do I owe you?

Fixer: Don't worry about it. Just don't complain if he charges more than normal.

No, but if you have to do more than visit the bartender before or after business hours and wave some cash in front of him, it's not worth the trouble.

Aw, come on, I'd do it just for the fun of going thorugh all that silly code phrase junk. I don't want to work with a fixer who doesn't make the experience FUN.

mpstly fixers arrange for you to meet a johnson.
They know people to get gear from, but they are specialized in what they can or can't get.
They know other peolpe, for knowledge skills, but are really really reticent ot let you have anyones link #. they know othe rrunners, but again getting them to let you in on their stable of runners aint easy.
ad to the original poster, it sounds like all missions are hounded down through the mafia etc, whereas I tend to run my fixers (which everyone gets the group fixer for free) more like the agent achetype someone mentioned. I'll definitely have to do the secret phrase thing.

@dog xinu: I'm sure my doctor would be more than happy to give stock tips for a fee. More likely he would be happy to hook me up with a broker he know through his practice for a fee. Money makes the world go round!