ok story so far, runners meet a lady at a church. she got a call from her husband that told her not to go home, and hasn't heard from him since. Afraid he might be in some legal trouble she turns to shadowrunners(a suggestion from her priest) the runners are paid 2k to retrieve some clothes and such , and also her dog(high class neighborhood and the dog is a hell hound). She also offers more if they can find out whats up with hubbie. they get to the house and manage to make friends with the dog and get her things(It helps that one of the team is a weartiger) the husband has all kinds of samuri stuff in the basement and tutorials on crafting katanas and wakasashis. anyway, they ignore that and catch some Asian thugs coming into the house. One neurostun grenade and a good beat down, and the 2 goons are near death. passing car's spurred the team to put the goons in their own trunk.

and here we are..

what they don't know; Hubby has tried to replace an ancient katana at a yakuza casino with a fake. He was quickly discovered and is now on the lamn. His plan is to bargain the sword to the mafia for protection. Also, the goons in the trunk murdered an old couple to use their car to sneak into the gated community where they are now, and the police are investigating the crimescene down the road.

so I can't decide how the husband is trying to contact the mob, or, more importantly, how they would react. I'm having a hard time trying to predict what these runners might do, although they have shown no intrest in the husbands activities so far ignoring the blatent clues i left. I guess they'll beat the info out of the clowns in the trunk.

A hellhound in an upscale neighborhood? That's like hearing Paris Hilton keeps St Bernards instead of that little lap dog. It's throwing off the player's mind set. You wanted the stuff to catch their attention as the clue right? They see nothing wrong with the military/runner gear because of the dog.

Look if you break into the home of the RL rocker Prince and found a bunch of sex toys and S&M gear you wouldn't be surprised because that is the image he puts out. Find the same stuff in say, Carrie Underwood's home, when she has such a clean image, and it will be a clue.

You need to refocus the team's attention on the man's 'hobby room.' Have them casually mention it to the wife and have her say 'what are you talknig about?" "No I never go in the basement, why would I, that's what I have a maid for." That way you can leave some clue on the work area, like an outlay of the yak casino tucked into a book about katanas- yeah a real book, what the frak? or the maid, didn't she mention that, knew all about the hobby room and "wondered why he got upset when I cleaned in there."

Beating the thugs is no good, they don't know anything. They are not high enough up the chain. They probably aren't even Yak's themselves just muscle or wanna bees. They become a link only back to their fixer. Draw on pulp detective stories here. "Serious man don't hit me know more. I don't know nuthin'. This guy just hired me an' Bertie to put the grab on some suit, you know."

A little more pressure and the team learns how to contact the Johnson-after all once they grabbed the guy they have to know to where to take him and when they meet the thugs Johnson they can TALK, ho knows maybe the Yaks decide to hire the runners to get the sword back even negoiate to let the idiot live owing the yaks a favor. So 2K from the wife, :nuyen:10K for the sword from the Yaks and you develop new contacts with the Yaks.

How to approach the mob? The husband woud have figured this out before hand. You don't plan the heist without planning resolution too. OK maybe you do but that's stupid. And it's your call as to what this guy is. It will be easier if he's that dim because he's still out there if it's planned he's already gone. The fact he had to go on the lam implies that he's the dim bulb planner.

Odds are he probably tried to just walk into a known mob hang out and asked stupid questions and got the ol' heave ho from the made men who were insulted by him "Hey I'm looking for some real connected guys."
"You mean electricians?"
"No, I mean connected guys. dig?"
"I don't know what you're talkin' about chummer, this is just a bar."

If the runners have a mob conact, maybe he saw the exchange. - shown a pic "Yeah I remember him. Gino pitched him into a dumpster behind the "High 5" I think he got out 'fore the city picked up."
Then you figure the husband's getting desperate for funds and to make contact. Should be easy to go from there, the dope is probably drawing from the bank account and being a joint account the wife can see where. "Oh yeah he checked into a coffin motel at ____"

Then it's a race between main Yak thugs who have their own resources and the team, potentially hired by the thug's Johnson, a subcontractor.

All this assumes the group can't do a ritual spell search for the husband. If they don't think of it, the yaks did.

How does this help?

Unless the husband has an immediate (or perhaps friend of a friend) contact in the Mafia he's going to have to ask around, possibly even coming across some alternative options in the process. This kind of word on the street is just the kind of thing that standard legwork can dig up, especially if the guy isn't very experienced in working the shadows.

Any organisation that considers the Yakuza a threat and/or rival is going to want to get their hands on both the sword and the thief. I would expect a syndicate like the Mafia to welcome him with open arms, confiscate the sword and then use both him and the sword for maximum bargaining power. They'll either be handed over as a sign of good will or traded for other commodities.

How the players get from the start of an adventure to the end is largely (mission parameters allowing) up to them. If they take an inefficient and vision-lacking approach then not only will success be less likely but you should also deny them a karma point or two that they otherwise would have got from being more professional. Give them opportunities but no more.

Hope that helps.

The crime scene down the road? Not an issue, except as added pressure on the thugs to talk. "You talk to me and beat feet, or I call over the cops and you get to have a long talk with the nice boys from KE and a long sit in a grey bar hotel where I'm sure they wouldl ove to conduct nanotech experiments on such an obvious mental defect like you two clowns."

Of course two minutes after they beat feet you drop a dime on them anyway so they can't warn the Johnson you're coming or that they failed.

I'd suggest you drop more hints. If they decide to beat the snot out the goons, and by the sounds of it you think they will, mention peculiar characteristics of the 2. Missing finger joints, intricate tattoos covering their upper body , have them start off in Japanese...the works. If they still don't get it, suggest one of them make a common knowledge roll. What do you know, character A has recently watched a recent trid on asian gangs and these guys are pretty clearly Yaks. Or have one of them accidentally name-drop during the "interrogation". " We don't know anything! The oyabun tells us to bring this guy in and we do it!"

As for the mob, I assume if he's going to them he has some kind of in. I think it would likely be very foolish to give them leverage on the competition without some kind of assurance they aren't just going to exchange him and the sword for something they need more. Maybe the guys' brother is a soldato or something.

I assume he's working at the casino, probably in a management position. It bars prior contacts with the mafia (escially family ones, the yak would never have hired with such links). He probably has some experience of organized crime, but ll of it will be the yakuzas.

Though he might have overheard a name or three from yakuzas discussing the competition, which might be enough to get in touch : getting in that bar he heard about and ask to meet such and such guys.

As far as how the maffia wil react, in my opinion probably not in a nice fashion. I'd have them snatch the sword (cool trophy to brag about), then ship hubby to some convenient place to prod him about the casino's security for a little impromptu robbery and any other useful information he might know. Idealy leaving pointers to frame another of the yak's ennemies for the hit. Once done, time for a swimming lesson with concrete flippers. A dilapidated warehouse close to the waterfront will do nicely for that.

Keep in mind "blatant hints" to the GM may be "totally opaque" or "completely irrelevant" to the players

thanks for the input folks,

I got a couple directions to toy with now. The team is a bunch of blunt instruments. no hacker, no mage, A face that doesn't talk much. its been a little tricky.

Just out of curiosity what's the average age of the group? high schoolers are going to have less life experience to draw on than 20 or 30 somethings. Just trying to get an idea of how 'blunt' they might be. At 16 I didn't have the mental quickness I have now a...few years later.

Now thats what I call a clue!


You don't say?

Please keep us posted; I'm curious to see how this plays out.

She lies, she isn't a day over 19

My husband, who has known her since high school, would say: "19 and the rest." And I am not saying how much more. She knows where I live.

we're all late 20's early 30's, sad to say I'm the latter. its just me and 3 players, one phys ad, one ex swat cop , and one face thats more of a fixer, he has like 60 bp's in contacts. so some of the "bluntness" is just good role playing, the guy playing the face I need to have a talk with, I don't like telling people what character to play. but he doesn't really talk much. I'm not expecting him to actualy be a smooth talker, i'd settle for a "i'm gonna use my con skill to get this guy to talk"