This possibility is mentioned in the Ghost Cartels book, but I got the idea when one of my players (used to playing The Other RPG) complained that he wanted to play the good guys - problem is, in the Sixth World there aren't really any good guys. But there are certainly better guys, and worse guys...

Lone Star aren't necessarily the good guys by any reasonable metric - a lot of people here seem to think of them as the Keystone Kops of the Sixth World, but I've always envisioned them as the LAPD of the '90's: corrupt, violent, brutal. In my games, officers get a bonus per arrest (don't know if this is canonical), even if a conviction is never made.

However, there are still some who are cops because they want to help people and do the right thing. Maybe not many, but some.

Come fall, I'll be running my players through Ghost Cartels, and I had the idea of having them play deep undercover operatives from Lone Star, trying to get to the bottom of the tempo trade. There's a lot of cool side effects to this -

• The characters will have a reason to be interested in tempo for its own sake, rather than simply going along with the Olaya cartel for money. One of the weak points of this campaign is that there don't seem to be very good reasons to travel around the world, other than the promise of work - this resolves that.
• There will be a lot of opportunities for moral quandaries - they'll have to do a lot of nasty stuff to avoid blowing their cover. If any of the players are coming into this wanting to play heroic figures, they'll have their notions of heroism tarnished pretty quickly.
• I'm hoping that at least one player will decide to play a corrupt cop - maybe even one that gets addicted to tempo.

My main concern is that the players might try to take advantage of the fact that they have the support of a megacorp behind them. (Is Lone Star AAA? I can't recall.) I'm OK with Lone Star supplying them with intel, especially because legwork has never been this group's strong point, but I'm reluctant to have them requisition equipment. On the other hand, I can't think of a good reason why Lone Star wouldn't support its agents in the field. Any suggestions here?

Other than that, general thoughts or suggestions, both about this campaign idea and about Ghost Cartels, would be appreciated. This is the first time I've run a campaign that was anything other than the standard "group of lowlives doing jobs for money", so it should be interesting.

Tired. But wanted to pipe in: AA.

Money and politics. Sure, Lone Star says they will support their agents in the field, but how far? Equipment costs money and Lone Star is a corporation. They have a budget to make and shareholders or owners (I'm not sure if Lone Star is a public or private corporation) to make profit for. And then there is politics. Maybe there's a high-up in Lone Star that has a vested interest in the PCs not succeeding. Maybe it's as simple as one of them has pissed this guy off in the past and so he wants them to look bad. Or maybe he's on the take, paid off by the Olaya Cartel. Maybe he's not corrupt enough to hand the PCs over to be tortured at the hands of the Cartel, but he's corrupt enough to try to stymie their investigation.

They are working deep cover against a drug cartel. It is reasonable to assume that the Cartel keeps tabs on the runners, and that almost any communication is too risky.

Therefore the officers are instructed to fund themselves out of their pay from the cartel. "Reasonable" recompense and reimbursement from Lone Star will be available after the job is over.

I.E. after the module ends, the players turn over any leftover Cartel pay as proceeds of criminal operations. Then, Lone Star gives the players whatever nuyen the GM feels is reasonable for character advancement as their back pay for the time of the investigation.

"So, Bob, where'd you get that nifty armoured and hidden machine gunned cycle?"
"Oh, uhm, you know, a friend."
"I thought we were your friends, Bob?"
"Well, you are, of course."
"Did you know that our mage Tim can see how much cyberware you have?"
"Oh, uhm, no."
"Did you know, he says he can't see your cyberarm anymore but that there's new gear there. You didn't get your arm upgraded to hold more?"
"Oh, well, uhm, yeah."
"You seem to have a lot of friends, don't you, Bob?"
"Yeah, yeah, I guess I do, doesn't everyone?"
"Tell you what, Bob, we're going to give you the honor of capping the Lone Star officer we caught snooping around last night. We're going to trideo it and send it to Lone Star -- it'll be like us pissing in their faces, won't that be fun?"
"Oh. Oh. Uhm, I don't think that honor should go to me..."
"Nonsense, Bob, just leave the bike here and come on inside with me, the recording equipment's all ready.

"Sir, we found this gadget in Bob's room while you were having your chat with him."
"Well, Bob, looks like that recording equipment will be getting some extra use today, won't it?"

No, you can't really requisition great new gear while deep undercover, especially in a Shadowrun world.

Personally, I can feel for that player as I play "against type" in Shadowrun also. I don't like the we're just doing this for money aspect of the game as I don't want to play in (or run) that type of game, either. In fact, in the campaign I am running now (and in the one I ran in Orlando about 5-6 years ago), I am going away from that; setting the characters up to fight against the "rising evil" in the world. (Read: Horrors!) Not to say that they will be doing everything on the up-and-up, breaking the law is just a factor of getting things done. For me it is the reasoning behind breaking the law, not the act of breaking the law that I have a problem with. I (me, Rand, the one in the "real" world) wouldn't like hanging around witha bunch of sociopathic killers, so why would I take effort to play a game about them - I make an effort to avoid that type of person. (OK, I can't completely avoid myself.... )

Deep cover by it's very nature means the agent does not "surface" unless absolutely necessary.

When you do this run, first have them go through a LoneStar briefing session. Have their boss on the 'Star tell them what their objectives are, etc. Tell them they are to communicate only in 3 ways:

1) Monthly report. Think of a manner that is secretive and won't look too suspicious. Like using a data jack in a particular wired terminal in a public location. That terminal could have a hidden node on it they could connect to and upload the report to. To anyone observing they're just checking their mail (a hacker could tell, but if they're being followed by a hacker then their cover is already compromised likely). They could also receive a report themselves on that node with updated objectives or relevant info.

2) Main objectives / critical info. Things like learning who is behind tempo, major dealers, big deal about to go down, a major attack or confrontation about to happen, etc. Use a disposable commlink and call their supervisor.

3) Emergency / Extraction. They blew their cover, etc.