Hiya...

Quick question...how do you run your groups fixers? Do they get a cut of profits of a run, or does the Johnson pay them directly? Or is it both? I've also saw "Mr. Johnson's Little Black Book" listed on some rpg store sites, but no one seems to have them. Has this been released? Has anyone seen this? I'm really, really new to SR, having never played it before, and finding myself running it. Can you all provide some do's/dont's, insights, etc to setting up campaigns and such? Any bit o' wisdom you can offer on Fixers, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

R-W-S

A fixer has nothing to do with a groups runs directly IMHO. A Johnson hires the PC's not the fixer. Technically according to sr3 a fixer is a contact that specializes in getting fake ID's, although he can get other information and equipment as well, for a price.

I've always run it such that fixers get a sort of finder's fee from Mr. Johnson. Fixers get money from runners through contact upkeep, adding a bit to the cost of goods/information they gather for the runners, and taking a cut of the profit from anything the runners want to fence.

Edit: BitBasher, check out page 257, SR3

"When a corporate Johnson needs runners to steal a rival corp's latest invention or poach away a top research scientist, nine times out of ten he goes to the fixer."

That, combined with the fluff text from a good number of published runs, indicates pretty clearly that fixers *are* often directly involved in getting jobs for runners.

And a lot of adventures talk about successful fixers setting up their own runs - johnson tells fixer what he wants done, fixer hires runners, pays them, and keeps whatever money's left over.

Fixers get you what you want. Some of them are Jacks of all trades whilst others specialise in certain areas, sometimes in people. They're basically a connection service as far as I see them. The fixer keeps in contact with a large cross-selection of runners and teams so when a Johnson comes to them saying I need some people for doing X or with skill-sets Y and Z, they give the runners a call and pass on the Johnson's contact details. Or if the fixer wants more personal security, then they simply pass the details/offer on to the fixer and he deals with the runners in the Johnson's place without them ever meeting.

Some fixers simply take a small introduction fee to set up the meet, and it's in their interests to pair up the right people 'cause if runners keep passing on runs then they get a bad reputation. If the Johnson is the shy type and has the fixer deal with the runners, then they obviously take a higher fee and/or possibly even a slice of the fee. But of course in that case, the runners would never know if the fixer was skimming off the top of the payment so that's where trust comes in.

Sometimes I use the fixer as a cut-out and safety net for the runners. He double checks the Johnson's credentials and make sure it isn't a suicide run, etc. If the Johnson goes straight to a runner or a runner team, it is because he knows the team well. Kinda like you requesting a certain doctor, instead of just any doc. In such a case, the runners would be cautious about working for him, especially if it is a new Johnson they don't know about.

Giving a Johnson you've worked with before secure contact information like a 2060's equivalent of a Hotmail e-mail account or a pager number could be doable. Of course this cuts the fixer out of the deal and loses him a commission. This means he could react in a number of ways.

You get on well with your fixer, and they're fairly successful with a large business then I can't see them minding such a small fee. Smaller ones, or ones with the Vindictive flaw though... I could see a small-time fixer that fairly new-ish runners could be using getting bent out of shape over them 'taking' his money as he might see it.

Mr. Johnson's Little Black Book is "Upcoming" following Shadows of Europe. So we'll see it next year some time

Of course, not everyone is the same or operates in a likewise manner.

Hotmail isn't that anonymous -- given enough incentive and motivation, someone could track down the IP accessing that account and track down the real-time location.

-Siege

I've played with many GMs over the years and in my experience that blurb's description is the exception rather than the rule. The theory seems to be that Johnsons work through fixers to find runners because they don't have the contacts themselves. Usually Johnsons are portrayed as non-streetwise wage slaves who just want to get the meet over with as soon as possible "before one of these psychos starts shooting".

It has occurred to me that Johnsons might almost be as expendible as runners. If a link is somehow made back to a J the corp can just claim that they never authorized his actions and sentence him to twenty years in the electric chair. Sure it's pretty weak, but as long as you've picked the right idiot for the job and been careful about your (and his) record keeping you'll probably scrape by.

I have always played that jobs come from anywhere and everywhere.

Sometimes a johnson contacts the group directly, but normally only if someone has him as a contact. Sometimes it is a fixer. Sometimes it is anonomous email. Keep people on their toes. Though the occational Johnson comes along that develops a good working relationship with the runners that is the exception not the rule.

My players never accepts jobs from anonymous Johnsons. The only Johnsons they work for are the ones they know where they live, where their families stay, where their children go to school. The fixer they accept jobs from make sure that any attempt to double cross the PCs are dealt harshly. The organisation in question is usually persona non grata for long enough for their stocks to drop a few percentage points.

Our GM sets up almost everything through a Fixer, and he gets 10% of the base run price. We do not deal with Corp Johnsons we don't know, and since Only our Face has any Corp Contacts, that limits us. Our Fixer is Lvl 2, so we trust him pretty well, so it's pretty great. He does all the legwork, and we do all the HARD work. We prefer to remain anonymous, and we prefer the Johnson AND corp hiring to remain anonymous, that way there are less strings, and less chance of getting caught. Even the runs we have taken off Shadowland are set up through our Fixer...

Ah, in SR terms you mean.

Well yes -- between public libraries, internet cafes, tapping datalines for decker hookups and outright home invasions to use internet connections, there are always ways around the traceback feature.

My crew used to break into a restaraunt chain to do online business and have munchies.

-Siege

In places like Hong Kong it's even easier. Local telephone calls are free and a lot of stores/restaurant will let you use theirs. For quick audio only calls it's not even worth bothering trying to trace them.

The impression that I always had back from 1st edition is that a Johnson is anyone who is hiring a runner team. That Johnson is just sort of a slang name that has come into use over time. In reality they could be Fixers, Sarariemen, Made Men, Gangers, or even just Pedestrians. If you need a job done and you're hiring runners, you are a Johnson, no matter who you are in "real life".

Fixers are used for hooking people up with things or other people. If Johnson needs to higher some deniable assets and does not know where to find some he or she would go to a Fixer. Johnson can also do the research themselves and contact Runners on their own.

Johnsons have typically been portrayed as the Corporate liason between megacorp and street/criminal activities. The "big dick" as it were.

I would imagine former Johnsons for various mega-corps might even go freelance, representing various clients outside of a megacorp structure.

From a strictly analytical point of view, a Johnson could be considered a corporate-level fixer. (S)he knows who to talk to to get this good or that service from the gleaming halls and cubicle lands of Megacorpia.

-Siege

For all those teams out there that only use an exclusive fixer or Johnson. How does it feel to be another cog? Albeit an invisible cog.

Diversify or die. when your one and only gets burned so do you.

Just a differing outlook I guess.