I've seen a few different takes on how Shadowrunners fit into teh world here on Dumpshock, some are fairly unique to my perspective. Rather than suggest people have bad ideas, I'd rather lay out how I see the distribution of power/social structure of the shadow world, and invite everyone else to post their takes as well.


At the top are the Megas and other corporations. These are the Apex predators, the entire food chain serves to feed them. Without them there are no actual Shadows to run. Not really anyway. On the other hand, they are also the bottom of teh pyramid, without them as targets, without their money, there is no profit to be had. The metaphor breaks down a bit because of that, but not fatally.

Just under them are the lesser powers. Governments actually fall into this realm. They are not powerless here, just ineffectual. Goverments can hire shadowrunners, but most won't for 'ethical reasons'.... or pride. Government men tend to be very patriotic, very dedicated, driven individuals... or hopeless cynics just collecting their beaurocratic paychecks waiting to retire and start 'double dipping' from their corporate overlords. Governments are often overlooked in Shadowrunning terms, few shadowrunners claim to be former Government men, and rarely does the Fed (or whatever you want to call them) seem to affect the lives of runners in any way. Any obvious way, that is. They can be, however, extremely influential in the lives of people who are not hopelessly caught up in corporation as government thinking... and that is a lot of people.

Fixers are the third tier here. Not because of power, but because of importance. They are the middle men, sure. Powerless in their own right, everyone needs them, everyone uses them. THe Corps don't want their hands dirty, and the fixer is their key to deniability, their expert in things best not known 'in house'. His power comes directly from the corporations that are his bread and butter, not the shadowrunners he hires for them.

Johnsons, while representative of the Corps, are actually fairly low men, totem wise. Like their bosses they tend to be expendable assets. Rare indeed is the CEO or VP of any department who is willing to get hands dirty dealing with criminals. Some former Johnsons, however, rise far in the corporate structure, and often they recall just how much a roll the Shadows had in their rise to power. These Johnsons are the dangerous ones, using Runners for their own personal ambitions, and playing the corporate powergame like masters. Johnsons typically only bother meeting directly with runners after the runners have proven themselves on more anonymous jobs arranged through the Fixer.

Of roughly equal power are the Company Men and the Organized Criminals. Company men are not, in this case, the ubiquitous Corporate Runner types, the Men in Black so often seen when deniability isn't the goal. No, these are the Runners who have risen to prominence working for a single corp, have become some sort of hybrid between company men and Shadowrunners, with their feet in both worlds. They are powerful because they are trusted and even supported by the Corps they work for. To attack them is often to attack the company. No one goes after them personally. They have become assets. What makes them really dangerous is the bankroll the corps can provide for these long standing assets. Deltaware is increasingly common as a reward for additional services, as are expert trainers and expiremental spells cooked up in Thaumaturgical R&D labs.

Roughly on par are the Organized criminals. Generally, most syndicates won't have near the money or power of the corps, and won't have but a few muscle types anywhere near on par with a Runner. What makes them powerful is their numbers and their ubiquity in the communities. IF a shadowrunner has pissed off the Yak, he might be able to handle the thugs that come after him without breaking a sweat, but the moment he enters Yak territory, every eye is on him, and sooner, rather than later some expert killer will ambush him and take him down. Generally the syndics respect shadowrunners abilities while requesting, or demanding, equal respect in turn. A team of angry shadowrunners can tear apart a single syndicate in an orgy of violence, true enough, but eventually they will be brought down in return. Most shadowrunners will understand this clearly, having been, in many cases, former syndic muscle themselves. Syndicates are not beyond hiring shadowrunners themselves, though unlike the corporates, they'd really rather have the work be done 'In House', so to speak.

Shadowrunners are near the bottom. They are the labor, the scum that get their hands dirty. Most shadowrunners have a high opinion of their place on teh food chain, and it is dangerous for them. True, compared to their fixer they are dangerous killers, compared to the meat that the Syndicates toss at problems, they are elite badasses. Compared to teh Johnson, they are experts and badasses both...
What the lack, however, is resources. They don't even really have a bargining position. There is no real organization of Shadowrunners, no official school of training to go to, no secret badges to be earned. If the corp doesn't like the runner's attitude or cost, they'll hire someone else. Anyone else. It might be cheaper to subvert a worker in a rivals secret facility than hire shadowrunners to break in. It might be easier to spend that same money on a Gang and get them to over run the place. Better yet, they could put the onus on the Fixers they've bought and paid for to find them better assets. The Megas don't have to put up with shit from anyone, not even other Megas... why would they concern themselves with a pack of petty criminal thugs with an inflated sense of self worth? They may not care overly much about the life of the disposable Johnson they sent out to handle the deal, but they DO care about their reputation. Scragging a Johnson for no good reason is a death sentence, and it's likely to be other shadowrunners who do the job. There is no honor among the shadows...

Below the Runners, however, lie the street gangs. Gangers are dangerous only to civilians, and even then often only because of numbers. Gangers are tappped by everyone above them in the chain, and often die messily for it. The Syndics use them as disposable assets, and as a recruiting ground, the Fixers use them for muscle of all sorts, teh Corps hire them as low rent Runners, often in large groups. Shadowrunners make deals with them or kill them depending upon attitudes and needs. Gangs only have one real asset in teh Shadows, and that is warm bodies. The money they make tends to get sucked up by the Syndicates that 'own' them, or frittered away on individuals, rather than invested in equipment or training. Some gangs do manage to grow in wealth and power, but they are more properly grouped as Syndicates in their own right, gangs like the Ancients, for example, are run more like illegal businesses, and have assets that normal Gangs can not hope to match.

At the very bottom are ordinary people. Worth mentioning because these people are either victims of the groups above them, or filter their way up the chain into one of the groups over them. They don't really have any power, though in large groups (mobs) they can be dangerous to nearly everyone, though in the sixth world this is increasingly rare as the Corps find ever more clever ways to pacify the masses they leech off of.



Oddballs include things like great Dragons, which can be often grouped with the Corporations (in Lofwyr's case) or as Governments in their own right (Hestaby, with her Shasta enclave)...

Did I miss anything?

Here's my take on it.

In terms of purely temporal power the AAA corps rule it all. These faceless entities have resources the likes of which most people can't even dream. They don't even have to know or make anything, because they own almost everything. They own large chunks of smaller corps, they wield enough governement influence to make any megalomaniac happy. The only thing they have to watch out for is the other megacorps, but the Corporate Court makes sure they play nice on the outside, and they don't want to rock the boat too much, as that will hit profits, and then everyone hurts.

Governments have limited autonomy, but a skilled politico might play various corp pressures against one another. Ultimately the goal of politicos is to gain money and influence while they remain in power. It is in their interests to keep the megacorps happy (as they could arrange for the politico to lose their seat easily) and secondarily to keep the populace happy and sedated (in which they are aided by the megas.

The many smaller companies may have limited independence from the megas, depending on who owns what stakes in their company. They are subject to pressures from the megas and from governments, and may also face pressure from the criminal syndicates, depending on their business.

Criminal syndicates are quite similar to the smaller companies. Despite the demand for illicit goods and services, their market is simply smaller than the corps. They are subject to less influence from the megas (who aren't as interested in their markets) although they may still exert some pressure on smaller corps and governments.

Gangs and other criminal independents fill those gaps left by the syndicates, where the remuneration available from illicit activities does not offset the effort to run them. Many of these street gangs or smuggler gangs are wholly or partly controlled by the criminal syndicates.

A fixer may be affiliated with a syndicate, or he may be independent. The better connected ones maintain a veneer of respectability and may attend charity or arts events where they schmooze with corporate types. If they develop enough influence and usefulness they tend to survive; until they mess up, and then all bets are off.

A Johnson may be anyone. It is just a label used for anyone that wants to hire a runner team; from Joe Public, who wants a crime commited, but doesn't want his hands to get dirty to a syndicate boss, who has a skilled job, but doesn't want to risk his best (and most loyal) people, to a corp man who needs deniable assets. Corps may employ professional Jonhsons, that behave much like fixers, except that they owe more loyalty to their corp. How well connected and thus dangerous Johnson might be should not be immediately obvious to the runners.

Company men, government agents and syndicate mooks simply work for their respective groups and their status depends on the status of their organisation.

Runners who are just starting out will find employment opportunities with Syndicates, local government and smaller corps. As they develop a reputation and more skill they may find themselves working for more powerful syndicates, larger corps and higher level politicians.

What Spike has described as oddballs - Great Dragons, Immortal Elves, Free Spirits and the like - are not automatically a part of the system, although they may use their not insignificant powers to install themselves into positions of temporal power. An example is Lowfyr as the CEO of Saeder Krup, or Ghostwalker, who effectively owns Denver's political domain.

I think I covered everything. Any thoughts?

I agree with ornot's analysis. It's pretty much how my campaigns are run, but with two (minor) differences:
1) Fixers - Fixers are more than just the "goto guys" for Shadowrunners. They are information brokers in general, and their services span multiple aspects of society. There are many, many different types of fixers and most fixers are simply freelancers who dabble and broker in whatever information and contacts they can. Need a shadowrunner? Call the fixer. Need a plumber? Pretty much the same resource. Okay, maybe not that conventional, but you get the idea. Their interests should be very diverse and two fixers are nothing alike. I imagine as a natural consequence of this "information brokering", many fixers get involved in underground activities and end up a part of some gang or organized crime mob.

2) Gangs - Gangs tend to filfull the role of Shadowrunners for many standard operations. Need a hit on someone? Need something stolen? Need a deniable asset? The gangs are the first ideal choice. Most gangs get "sponsored" by several organizations from all aspects, while the Powers That Be turn a blind eye toward their existence until they need a job done. Gang contacts are also the people called for much information brokering on the streets, leading many gangs to have fixers of their own (whether they realize it or not) who may have just started out as the local snitch. Gangs fulfill a vital role in underground and shadow operations, and Shadowrunners often come from their ranks. But if you need a *special* assignment done, a real professional group of assassins and infilitrators, who better to know the best people on the streets then those that have made it their own and learned to survive by knowing who can and can't be crossed?

I have to admit, I didn't mean to suggest that fixers only deal with runners, although I tend to see them as being largely on the wrong side of the law. A drug dealer might be considered a fixer say, or a weapons dealer, although I would say most good fixers can get both, given time. Cetiah's description is pretty spot on, from my point of view!

I tend not to think of gangs as being for hire. The smaller ones are more interested in controlling their turf and scoring money from protection or drugs than doing odd-jobs for hard cred. While the larger ones do the same thing as small gangs but on a larger scale, and think of themselves as mini syndicates. Either way, they are quite unwilling to give up their independence cheaply, and prefer to work for themselves - although syndicates will commonly cow them into joingin the syndicate.

You don't have to buy the gang, you have to buy the leader and maybe a few others towards the top. If you're a lieutenant in the Gangster Disciples and Larry Hoover called you up from prison and asks you to do something you'd better make it happen. He doesn't have to tell you why he wants it done, just that he wants it done.

I would agree with the overall power structure, but I think shadowrunners are the wild cards. They may exist by corporate sufferance, but it's not because the megacorporations allow them to exist. Rather, they exist because the megacorporations are engaged in continual covert warfare against their rivals.

Shadowrunners are very dangerous people, who often can influence the course of events by being at a tipping point. In other words, two companies are evenly matched, but when a team of runners steals a prototype, it can set into motion a chain of events leading to one company's hostile takeover.

Usually, they act as part of the semi-acknowledged system, but runners who 'hood can often cause large-scale changes (expose a company's illegal dumping, stop a syndicate's operation bringing in cheap Kong BTL chips, etc.). Some runners will go head to head with a greater power, doing a lot of damage but usually getting taken down in the process.

Smarter runners will look at their target's enemies and coordinate their attacks with those of the bigger players. They have to be careful, though, because afterwards they may need that ally's protection, and wind up being defacto assets of the ally in question.

A shadowrunner's two biggest assets are the ability to set the terms of the confrontation (since they are usually the aggressors), and the ability to strike, then fade into the shadows. However, they also have vulnerabilities. The biggest one is their dependence on contacts to continue their shadowy existence. From fake IDs, to military-grade weapons, to illegal spell formulae, shadowrunners depend on other people to survive, and often their enemies know how to find these people.

The one thing I disagree with is that runners are a dime a dozen. Maybe for the simpler jobs, but not for the more complicated or dangerous ones. My general assumption is that if the Johnson could subvert a worker in the other corporation, or hire a bunch of gangers to do the job, he would have already done so. That's not to say the runners won't have rivals, or that they can name their own price, but if they are professionals, they will have some bargaining leverage.