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cetiah
Edit: Re-wrote the whole damn thing. smile.gif
Edit: Added more assumptions from feedback of posters. Thanks, guys.
Edit: Added a max Notoriety penalty and some basic guidelines.
Edit: Added Karma awards.
Edit: Added less noble assumed objectives.


Okay, so your face has got you a hot new contract with Mr Johnson, a hot media wheeler-and-dealer with ties to the entertainment industry. He wants you to find some people and the objectives seem pretty straightforward, if not quite easy, and he's paying about 12,000 nuyen per objective. Not bad. For a straight mercenary run, that's really all you need to get started.

But it's not enough just to get the cash. You need this guy to like you. You need him to know every nuyen he paid you was well worth it. If this guy likes the job you do for him, maybe you can get a little more pay next time, or maybe the good rep you earn will score you a much bigger deal. But for that to happen, you need to do more than just complete the objective. There are plenty of runners out there who want to earn another 12,000 nuyen per objective. To go above and beyond, to really make the cut, you have to know what it's going to take. You have to know what's important to this guy. You have to know his Priorities.

Priorities are matters of special important related to the Johnson's personality, the agenda of his employers, and the reason he's hiring you. Priorities are not mission objectives; they're not things you have to do - rather they relate to the way you do your job. Higher profile jobs, especially jobs by megacorps demanding absolute professionalism from their hired guns tend to have more Priorities than amateur Johnsons who just need a job done by whatever means possible.

In general, most missions will have 1 to 5 priorities. A Johnson won't usually share the Priority or even be aware of it. In many cases, if the runners don't accomplish Priorities - basically they conducted the run in a way that dissatisfied their employer - then the Johnson himself may have gotten in trouble, and will be taking that out on the runners.

A little legwork can go along way to finding out the Priorities of a given run. Priorities are often related to the circumstances of the run environment, the circumstances over why the run is being paid for or why runners are being used for the mission, or just the general personality traits of today's department manager. Investigation done during the Legwork phase of a mission may reveal one or more Priority about that mission. This usually must be done after the Meet, so there's usually not a lot of time to conduct this investigation, and if the Johnson finds out you're investigating him, he may be quite annoyed.

Each Priority is listed below, along with the Professionalism rating of that Priority.

Intact: The Johnson is extremely particular about no harm of any kind coming to the target of this run. This is fairly common for EXTRACTION or PROTECTION 'runs. Depending on the nature of the target, this can include physical damage, stun damage, mental anguish, or even whether or not the item got wet. (Professionalism: 1)

Paranoid: The Johnson is watching the runners carefully, making sure the runners don't try to investigate the Johnson or his employers. He wants his deniable assets left in the dark. (Professionalism: 1)

Eco: The Johnson is concerned about the integrity of the local site. Significant damage to the site or the release of chemical pollutants will undermine the Johnson's agenda and be seriously frowned on. In general, runners on this mission should refrain from using explosives except when they can keep the collateral damage minimal. (Professionalism: 2)

Focus: The Johnson is particularly focussed on the mission objectives and expects the runners to be just as focussed while on the shadowrun. He demands that the PCs not distract themselves during the run with any unnecessary activity, such as stealing items or causing senseless mayhem. (Professionalism: 2)

Invisible: The Johnson wants no suspicion or media attention being called to the site of the 'run. (Professionalism: 2)

Ghosts: The target must not know he has been the target of a shadowrun. This is especially difficult because it may combine several other Priorities together, as the PCs don't want to reveal any trace of their presence while on the run. This is common for missions requiring PLANTING of items or personnell at the site location or for SABOTAGE missions. (Professionalism: 2)

Silence: The Johnson doesn't want anything traced back to him in any way. All Johnsons work with an assumed level of anonymity, but this Johnson will be especially wrathful if the runners leave evidence of the Johnson's involvement, or worse yet, confess after being captured or arrested. He will likely blame the whole group if this happens. (Professionalism: 3)

Critical: One or more objectives are considered 'critical' objectives. Failure will not be tolerated for these assignments and it is recommended to back out of the mission unless you are sure you can accomplish the critical objectives. The Johnson will be more than happy to hire someone else who may be more confident. Failure will likely get both you and the Johnson geeked. (Professionalism: 3)

Devestation: Runners are sent on a mission to destroy as much as possible or kill in as brutal a method as possible. These are usually performed when a Johnson is launching a full out attack against his enemies in the corporate shadow war. Opposition tends to be high and the runners will almost certainly draw media and law enforcement upon themselves during such a run. Depending on the circumstances, runners may be likely to gain Notoriety for participating in the shadowrun. (Professionalism: 3)

Red Herring: One or more of the objectives are wrong for this 'run. The Johnson's initial intelligence is wrong or circumstances have changed. For example, the troublesome employee that the runners were sent to assassinate may have gone to ground and be in a different site entirely, leaving one or more of the objectives irrelevant or misapplied. In this case, the Johnson probably will still want the other objectives done and the PCs attempting to perform their original job to the best of their ability, discerning their new objectives as appropriate. (Professionalism: 3)

Humane: The Johnson needs this less-than-scrupulous task done, but doesn't necessarily want anyone to be hurt. Not all violence is profitable. This Johnson wants a completely non-violent means to accomplishing the mission objectives. Even security should not recieve any physical damage during the 'run. (Stun damage is okay.) (Professionalism: 3)

Deception: For whatever personal or professional reasons the Johnson may have, he is lying to the runners with an attempt to decieve and betray them. Perhaps he doesn't intend to pay them or he is sending them on a suicide mission. (Professionalism: 5)


Assigning Priorities

To assign a Priority to a mission, that Priority must be purchased with Agenda points. One generic agenda point is granted for each 15,000 nuyen of the standard payout. The GM must allocate these generic agenda points between private and public agenda points. For example, a run paying a base payment of 50,000 nuyen will have 3 generic agenda points which the GM can divide as 2 public and 1 private, or 1 public or 2 private, or any other combination that totals 3.

If the GM needs more public Agenda points (to buy Public Priorities), he can buy them by increasing the mission payout by 15,000 nuyen for each public Agenda point needed. Each public Priority costs a number of public Agenda points equal to the Professionalism rating of the Priority. Public Priorities are always announced to the runners during the Meet.

The GM can also buy private Agenda points to purchase private Priorities. These are effectively free and the GM can purchase as much as he likes. Private Priorities are hidden from the runners until they are revealed by the runners' legwork.


Discovering Priorities (Before the Meet)

Before the meet, the PCs can do legwork to find out about the Johnson, who he works for, and what kind of 'runs he tends to favor. In addition, the PCs can also try to uncover the Johnson's Priorities. Each hit scored by the runners during the Legwork phase for this purpose will reveal one Professionalism worth of public Priorities.

For example, if the mission had Invisible and Humane public Priorities and the runners got 4 hits during their legwork, they they discover the Invisible Priority (with 2 hits), but don't have enough hits to discover the Humane Priority (3 more required and they only have 2).

If the runners have discovered all of the Public Priorities and still have left over hits from their legwork, than they can discover Private Priorities in the same fashion. All Private Priorities discovered are converted into Public Priorities. Leftover (or insufficient) hits are ignored.

Discovering Priorities (During the Meet)

All Public Priorities are revealed to the runners during the Meet, whether they've already discovered them or not. If the PCs had revealed any private priorities before the Meet, they are now considered Public Priorities as this information is brought to the table and the payout is re-calculated and offered just as if the Priority was originally public. (see Assigning Priorities)

Discovering Priorities (After the Meet)

There usually isn't too much time to do legwork after the Meet, but if an opportunity presents itself, then the PCs can try to discover private Priorities during this time. Each hit scored by the runners during the Legwork phase for this purpose will reveal one Professionalism worth of private Priorities, if any still exist.


Reputation and Priorities (After the Meet)

In addition to effecting the mission payout, the Priorities can also effect the runner's reputation. If the runner becomes adept at handling the mission objectives in a way that pleases the Johnsons hiring them, their Street Cred increases and they are more likely to be able to find better jobs and generally have better negotiating positions.

If the Johnson was satisfied with the way the players handled their public and private Priorities (even if the PCs didn't know about the private ones), then the runners involved in the run each earn 0.1 Street Cred per Professionalism rating of the Priority.

If the Johnson was dissatisfied with the way the players handled their public priorities, then the runners THAT WERE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE plus whatever runner is conducting the actual negotiations with the Johnson each have their Street Cred reduced by 0.2 per Professionalism rating.

If the Johnson was dissatisfied with the way the players handled their private priorities, then the runners THAT WERE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE plus whatever runner is conducting the actual negotiations with the Johnson each have their Street Cred reduced by 0.1 per Professionalism rating.

At the GM's discretion, some Priorities may not effect the runner's reputation after a 'run. (For example, foiling a Johnson's deception plan may be more likely to raise Street Cred than lower it.)
Demerzel
You'll have some amazingly notable runners after a coupple runs...
Moon-Hawk
You might want to consider dividing those Notoriety modifiers by, say, 100 times if you don't want your runners to be household names the first time they leave their apartments.
cetiah
This isn't a list of everything that would cause notoriety. It's a list of potential things a Johnson might ask. For example, the Blonde Johnson might require Stealth, while the Johnson With a Brow might require Silence and Deniable, and that crazy Twitchy Johnson is always insisting on Eco, but doesn't care about stealth at all.

And then there might be that one Johnson X, who demands Stealth, Deniable, and Subtle for every freakin' run.
Jack Kain
I don't like the idea in the slightest. You make it out to be far to easy to gain notoriety

Those should be by the run not by the Johnson.
If the run involves stealing experimental drugs from a docwagon hospital. Then not killing anyone might be a requirment.

No real runner will ever follow the rule about uncessesary thieft. Extra cash picked up during the run is part of the day to day life. Besides stealing one package from a warehouse means the thieves broke in only to steal that package. But if they steal seven, well then which was the important one?

The witness is to open.
What really matters is if there identified. If security spots them how is that any different then a local. The buildings security is much more likly to turn over what they saw to Lone Star.

The very same Johnson who had the no kill rule for the raid on the docwagon might turn around and not care for the raid on the Vory.

The runners shouldn't know who the hiring agency is anyway, they just know a Mr. Johnson. So the silence looks largly irrelevant.
mfb
i think the other posters are saying that failing a few of these secondary objectives will end up giving the runners a very, very high Notoriety score. you might want to consider lowering the amount of notoriety the runners get for failure, or even just apply something like a -5% penalty to their next payoff from that particular Johnson.

i think the basic idea of adding secondary objectives with linked intangible gains/losses is neat, though.
Butterblume
Ah, when leaving the premises after the run, the runners stumble across a bus of 40 japanese tourists doing a potty break. Luckily, only the driver is a local resident, so only +1 notoriety.
But, damn, there are 2 japanese reporters and one japanese cop on that bus (+3).
The human, even dumber than the troll, tried cunning and told them, they didn't break in that building, and they weren't hired by the hiring agency(+1+1=+2).

On the way to the safe house, the troll pursued his personal objective and wanted to visit a restroom (+1). The dwarf wanted to hinder the troll because he didn't want to gain notoriety for this shit, so the troll hit him (+1, additional +1 for inhumane treatment of a metahuman).
The troll ducked behind a bush, after stealing the elfs newspaper (+1) and started polluting the environment (+1) with the waste products of last evenings artificial meal (chemical release, +1). This took a while, so the ork lighted a smoke (+1), and when the troll finally was finished, he flicked the smoke behind the bush, igniting the explosive gases (+1).

twirl.gif
cetiah
I don't like the idea in the slightest. You make it out to be far to easy to gain notoriety

QUOTE

Those should be by the run not by the Johnson.
If the run involves stealing experimental drugs from a docwagon hospital. Then not killing anyone might be a requirment.


QUOTE

The very same Johnson who had the no kill rule for the raid on the docwagon might turn around and not care for the raid on the Vory.


Okay, by run then. It doesn't really matter to me. I thought by Johnson would be a fun way to differentiate running for different corps. The point is that running for each corp would be a different experience. Players might even develop a favorite. And it helps turn some of the background fluff into game effects, which I always like to see. But yeah, I imagine each run would be on a case by case basis, but I don't want to see "Stealth" on every run, so I was thinking some Johnsons would be more likely to use it and some would be less. And it would be cool if I had a manageable list.


QUOTE
No real runner will ever follow the rule about uncessesary thieft. Extra cash picked up during the run is part of the day to day life. Besides stealing one package from a warehouse means the thieves broke in only to steal that package. But if they steal seven, well then which was the important one?


But that's exactly the point! Suppose the run is try to plant some shoddy gear into an R&D facility. The Johnson doesn't want the runners to be distracted persuing personal agendas, so he's willing to pay extra for some professionalism.

Now the PCs *do* steal stuff. What happens? Does it affect his notoriety? What about his team? Will the team be hired by that Johnson again? Do they get less money? I'd like some hard written down guidelines rather than adjudicating it on a case by case basis as it happens so everyone knows more or less what to expect.


QUOTE

The witness is to open. 
What really matters is if there identified. If security spots them how is that any different then a local. The buildings security is much more likly to turn over what they saw to Lone Star.


Security doesn't count as a witness. Regular joes count as witnesses, as do reporters, trid broadcasters, news snoops, informants, and police officers. The idea was to emphasise the "shadow" nature of some shadowruns. I imagine its important to a lot of corps out there (not all) to keep the public at large completely ignorant of their little shadow-wars.

QUOTE

The runners shouldn't know who the hiring agency is anyway, they just know a Mr. Johnson. So the silence looks largly irrelevant.


Agreed. Do you think a Johnson would get mad if the runners found out though? The source material seems to suggest that runners will usually know, despite the Johnson's attempt at anonomity. In "On The Run", the Johnson actually offers to introduce the PCs to his entertainment contacts. This suggests that anonomity is more of a tradition for some of these people; the Johnsons may know something about the runners and the runners may know something about the Johnson.

cetiah
QUOTE (Butterblume)
Ah, when leaving the premises after the run, the runners stumble across a bus of 40 japanese tourists doing a potty break. Luckily, only the driver is a local resident, so only +1 notoriety.
But, damn, there are 2 japanese reporters and one japanese cop on that bus (+3).
The human, even dumber than the troll, tried cunning and told them, they didn't break in that building, and they weren't hired by the hiring agency(+1+1=+2).

On the way to the safe house, the troll pursued his personal objective and wanted to visit a restroom (+1). The dwarf wanted to hinder the troll because he didn't want to gain notoriety for this shit, so the troll hit him (+1, additional +1 for inhumane treatment of a metahuman).
The troll ducked behind a bush, after stealing the elfs newspaper (+1) and started polluting the environment (+1) with the waste products of last evenings artificial meal (chemical release, +1). This took a while, so the ork lighted a smoke (+1), and when the troll finally was finished, he flicked the smoke behind the bush, igniting the explosive gases (+1).

twirl.gif

These are exactly the type of runners that a well-thought out system for notoriety will guarantee never get hired again. smile.gif

Would you hire them?
Demerzel
QUOTE (cetiah)
Would you hire them?

You're saying you wouldn't hire that group because the troll wanted to take a shit?
cetiah
QUOTE (mfb)
i think the other posters are saying that failing a few of these secondary objectives will end up giving the runners a very, very high Notoriety score. you might want to consider lowering the amount of notoriety the runners get for failure, or even just apply something like a -5% penalty to their next payoff from that particular Johnson.

i think the basic idea of adding secondary objectives with linked intangible gains/losses is neat, though.


Well, okay, I can see that. 5%, 10%, 15%, etc. gives me a built in scaling mechanism too, which is nice. So Eco +5% might be important, but not *as* important as Stealth +10%.

But isn't this exactly the type of thing Notoriety is meant for?

I figure money will be based on actual assignment objectives. If the PCs just want to get paid and don't care about rep, then they can just complete the mission assignment. But if the PCs are concerned about their rep, they may have to be stealthy, professional, and otherwise act in a way that is compatible with the desires of the Johnson.

If you complete the mission objective but you kill everyone in the building and the Johnson's were hoping for subtelty, you earn a bad rep. But you should still get paid, right?
Ravor
Well it is my understanding that the 'rep' rules are meant to only be used for amazing f*ck ups or good jobs, and isn't something that would be gained or lost very easily or often.

However, as for the 'assumed objectives', if a Johnson cared about them at all then I think the best way to go about it is with cash bonus/penalities instead of Karma/Rep. In my opinion whatever 'flavor' provided by the Johnson would largely be from his/her personaity quirks and not based on the org he/she works for as its my understanding that your normal Johnson does his/her best not to let the Runner Scum know who their real boss is, and that you can never be sure if the 'clue' he/she mistakeningly gave you about your real boss was real or just a carefully planted red herring.

Of course, as always there will be many exceptions that prove the rule...
cetiah

Okay, okay. Cash rewards. Gotcha. Loud and clear. Don't mess with player's rep. smile.gif

Putting aside (for the moment) whether you like the system or not as presented and without suggesting what the rewards or penalties should be (because they'll be changed), does anyone have any ideas to add to the list?
Butterblume
No reason not to mess with the players rep, but it shouldn't be that severe smile.gif.

cetiah
Ummm... you can't get less severe than +1.

...or can you?

You get +0.14 to your Notoriety? Would this work? Would anyone really care?
Butterblume
Well, why not +0,1?

Add some mechanic to gain some -0,1 notoriety for a job well done, and I'll certainly check it out wink.gif. (or something like +streetcred, iirc you can burn that to reduce notoriety)
cetiah

I was under the impression that a decrease in street cred and an increase in notoriety were exactly the same thing.

And yeah, I'm comfortable with 0.1 increases and decreases, I guess. I was just originally turned off by the decimel numbers. I don't like fractions in attributes. (Yes, yes, that includes Essence.)

But the rewards and penalties can be balanced afterward. I'm really hoping to double or triple the size of the list. And maybe come up with a better name that "assumed objectives".
djinni
QUOTE (cetiah)
I was under the impression that a decrease in street cred and an increase in notoriety were exactly the same thing.

And yeah, I'm comfortable with 0.1 increases and decreases, I guess. I was just originally turned off by the decimel numbers. I don't like fractions in attributes. (Yes, yes, that includes Essence.)

don't let your PC's know what their notoriety is let them figure it out (so they don't have the decimal attributes, you just calculate it as "left over")
don't "assign" the points but let them find out in roleplay that people don't like their new rep.
a drop in street cred doesn't mean people don't like you it means people don't really know enough to like you.
Notoriety is "I don't like him, he sits in tubs of gasoline and lights matches"
mfb
QUOTE (cetiah)
But isn't this exactly the type of thing Notoriety is meant for?

certainly, but it seems like this idea might get a group a whole lot of notoriety very quickly, for relatively minor screwups.
Nasrudith
How about make some noise or terror. In this run they want the runners to capture as much attention as possible. Maybe treat it as the reverse of the stealth, deniable, and to some extent eco. The runners must gather a certain preset threshold of what would normally gain them infamy earns say "attention points" while completing the job. It should be worth more karma since this run if successful WILL bring the cops down on them and raise an alert. Additional compensation should also be in order since it may keep them from being able to safely run or even show their face for a while.

A Lone Star Johnson that wants an area to consider switching to them, or a terrorist who wants you to blow up a landmark would be examples of a make some noise or terror run, they want messy.

Also an additional catagory similiar to eco is humane or mercyful. In this run they want no deaths or serious injuries. Stun damage is okay. Those involved must not recieve more then -2 penalty of physical damage. Sort of like eco but they don't care about pollution just as long as nobody gets hurt. Essentially it is okay to light the whole building on fire just as long as nobody is in it at the time.
Glyph
I like the idea of giving each Johnson some quirks about how they like the job done. But I don't like the idea of the players being penalized for doing things they weren't even told not to do. Things like "no witnesses" or "leave no sign that you were ever there" are pretty damn important - a Johnson wouldn't say "Well, when I hired you to break into the warehouse, I just assumed that you wouldn't kill anyone and that you would only steal the one crate, not any of the others." Considering that runners are already considered unreliable and loose cannons, I think most Johnsons will make all of their wishes pretty clear.

I think Johnsons who work with the PCs should develop their own opinion of them, based on how they fulfill the job's objectives. And each Johnson should be different. Also, a Johnson's opinions won't neccessarily be completely fair, unbiased, and solely based on the runners' performance. An eco-Johnson could be repelled by a competent team's mercenary attitude, a military Johnson might appreciate a clean-cut and disciplined team even if they're fairly mediocre, and so on. And yes, some of them may even make assumptions about the job that they don't tell the PCs, but they should be the exception, not the rule.

Notoriety should not depend on how one Johnson feels about them, at least not to the extent that the PCs can gain so much notoriety from a single run. Gaining Notoriety should only come when the PCs do something unusually bad. Of course, some Johnsons might bitch so much over a minor quibble that it does affect the group's reputation negatively. To be fair, the PCs should also occasionally benefit from a Johnson talking them up for how they handled a milk run.

And depending on the job, they could please the Johnson and still gain Notoriety ("What do you mean? We firebombed the orphanage just like the Johnson told us to! He even gave us a bonus for shooting down the DocWagon helicoptor. How come we've gained Notoriety?").
Jack Kain
QUOTE (cetiah @ Jan 10 2007, 04:11 PM)
But that's exactly the point!  Suppose the run is try to plant some shoddy gear into an R&D facility.  The Johnson doesn't want the runners to be distracted persuing personal agendas, so he's willing to pay extra for some professionalism. 

Now the PCs *do* steal stuff.  What happens?  Does it affect his notoriety?  What about his team?  Will the team be hired by that Johnson again?  Do they get less money?  I'd like some hard written down guidelines rather than adjudicating it on a case by case basis as it happens so everyone knows more or less what to expect.

How will the Johnson know they stole anything extra? He/she wouldn't likly ever find out unless the PC's screwed up.
It has to be case by case, because every run is different. You rules ar akin to forcing the PC's to do things only one way.

Finally earning money on the side is a corner stone of the game. When the PC's take the risk to grab some extra cash they should be rewarded not punished. Unless of course they screw up then they get punished for there gamble.

The hosiptal example, when you gain Notoriety from shooting the doctors you shouldn't gain it because the Johnson told you not to shoot any doctors you should gain it because you shot doctors.

If during a run you cause eco-damage as a side effect during completing the run. You should gain notoerity because you caused eco-damage not because the johnson was ticked about it.
Moon-Hawk
Notoriety affects everyone. Something that only pisses one contact off should merely decrease his loyalty rating (or possibly make an enemy out of him).
cetiah
QUOTE (Jack Kain)
How will the Johnson know they stole anything extra? He/she wouldn't likly ever find out unless the PC's screwed up.
It has to be case by case, because every run is different. You rules ar akin to forcing the PC's to do things only one way.

The hosiptal example, when you gain Notoriety from shooting the doctors you shouldn't gain it because the Johnson told you not to shoot any doctors you should gain it because you shot doctors.


I may have to go back and re-read Notoriety again, but I was using it as a sign of negative dissatisfaction against the runners' professionalism. If they do a good job and the johnson is extremely pleased, the PCs gain Street Cred (or Karma that leads to Street Cred increases). If the PCs do poorly and their employers and upset, then the PCs gain notoriety and never likely to be hired again.

For example, I could easily imagine a Johnson wanting to hire a shadowrunner to break into a high-security hospital and neutralize one particular patient in intensive care. The Johnson's looking for an assassin. If this was done quietly and professionally, no one would even really know or care. If the hospital was blown up and innocent doctors' body parts are showing on the 6 o'clock news than suddenly there's all this media blitz and police investigations and the Johnson's hireups are going to be pretty displeased with him. In this case, this johnson might have a SUBTLE requirement. The Johnson himself may not even realize he has this requirement - because he didn't know the PCs would try to blow up the building or some such thing. A little legwork on the PCs part might reveal some other runners for this corp that got screwed over because the employer wasn't happy with all the noise they made shooting their way out.

I also like the idea that the PCs can go on "Subtle", "Eco", or "Send Them a Message" extractions 'runs and it will be a truly different experience each time (but really only if they want it to be). PCs can even specialize in certain types of runs, or seek out particularly brutal or humane 'runs (or Johnsons) to take.

I think there are enough of these particular types of employers/Johnsons/shadowrunners in the world to constitute a "type". If we have enough of these types, it would be convinient (at least for me, anyway) to pick and choose types that may or may not apply and have built in rewards automatically scale. At the very least, it might help generate ideas or at least make sure I pay attention to details when making the 'run.

P.S. "unless the PC's screwed up" doesn't tell me anything. That means something different to each person. If anything, this whole project is meant to define what "screwed up" means. To one Johnson, "screwed up" might mean they killed someone who was very important to one of their other operations, or it generated too much publicity and now the Johnson has to lay low for awhile or work harder to make sure nothing gets traced back to him. To another Johnson, it means that the runner technically accomplished the mission to destroy the high-pollution prototype, but they also exploded some canisters that spilled a bunch of chemicals into the ocean which defeated the whole point of the run.
Butterblume
QUOTE (cetiah)
In this case, this johnson might have a SUBTLE requirement.  The Johnson himself may not even realize he has this requirement - because he didn't know the PCs would try to blow up the building or some such thing.

I take it, you aren't a parent or have much to do with children wobble.gif.
cetiah
QUOTE (Glyph)
Considering that runners are already considered unreliable and loose cannons, I think most Johnsons will make all of their wishes pretty clear.


Ah, I guess this is a stylistic difference. In my campaign, I assume the runners are hired for being professional troubleshooters. Whatever the Johnson neeeds, the runners have a team to handle it. If the Johnson is happy with the work, the PCs get a reputation for being able to solve problems and more and more Johnsons are likely to hire them and pay them more. When their Street Cred gets high enough (total of 10 or more), the PCs can pretty much choose from a list of runs, selecting some, turning down others. Until then, they take what they can get and try to build a rep for themselves.

I personally would never hire someone for a delicate blackop operation if I thought they were going to be careless, unreliable, or endanger the mission by persuing their own side-goals during the most dangerous parts of a 'run. Unless, of course, I absolutely had no choice or there was no better competition out there. But if your average Street Cred is 3, you don't get to be unreliable or loose cannons. If you want to eat, you have to be the best at that price.

The runners' job is hard. If they want to build a rep, they have to make some pretty outlandish promises. And then they have to deliver. Same with the Johnson, really, if he wants the best runners.
cetiah
QUOTE (Butterblume @ Jan 11 2007, 03:34 PM)

I take it, you aren't a parent or have much to do with children wobble.gif.

Huh? The runners aren't children. (confused)
Bashfull
I reckon any Johnson who wants a professional job done should be professional himself. If s/he has requirements, they should be stipulated. If you are a service provider in any setting and your customer has requirements, they should let you know. If not, they take their custom somewhere else. Remember, if you're bad-mouthing runners, you're also admitting that you hired them to do a job, and it won't take long for people to work out which one. Notoriety works two ways.
cetiah
QUOTE (Bashfull @ Jan 11 2007, 04:17 PM)
I reckon any Johnson who wants a professional job done should be professional himself. If s/he has requirements, they should be stipulated. If you are a service provider in any setting and your customer has requirements, they should let you know. If not, they take their custom somewhere else. Remember, if you're bad-mouthing runners, you're also admitting that you hired them to do a job, and it won't take long for people to work out which one. Notoriety works two ways.


Yes and no. In a business environment, there are constant disputes because of misunderstandings or miscommunications and these tend to get settled in court. Say computer tech professionals who get hired to fix a computer and end up formatting that computer, deleting sensitive data. From their perspective, the data was destroyed anyway since it was inaccessible. It might never have occured to "the Johnson" that this computer expert would have to delete data - he is not tech savvy and just assumed the computer tech would raise a magic wand and fix the problem.

With Shadowrunners, these disputes are settled with reputation instead of a legal courtroom. For example, if you're sent on a mission to retrieve a scientist's safebox and you do so, the Johnson's not going to be all too happy when he gets the box and finds out its empty. Even though he didn't want you to know what was in it, he's likely to take it out on the runners if he can. Hell, he might just SAY the box is empty anyway and try to jip the 'runners. The point is that a little legwork on the part of the players could have prevented this whole catastrophe. (This is an example of the Red Herring priority.)

Also, it's part of the nature of the setting and the game that runners take the blame for anything that goes wrong. If the Johnson makes a mistake, the runners can't just say "oh well, it's your fault". The runners get blamed. Hard. It would be nice if we had rules for that sort of situation. The whole thing with Johnsons concealing information about their runs is also kind of common in the setting material, whether or not it makes sound business sense or fosters healthful business relationships. I think my PCs would cry foul is meeting with Mr Johnson was like ordering DSL service.
cetiah
Okay, I re-wrote the whole thing. I think it runs a lot smoother now and is a little more clear. Also, money is a factor now to further promote legwork. Let me know what you think. If you have any more ideas for additional Priorities, let me know so I can add them in.
Ranneko
I like it, it seems like a good set of rules, and doesn't have the large notoriety gain of the first version.
Halloween Jack
About the "Paranoid" one: If Mr. Johnson doesn't want to hire runners who check out his background, he can look forward to hiring nothing but total schmucks.
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