Protection money isn't like you see in bad television. Guys running protection are actually selling protection. From other people like themselves, sure, but it's basically a deal where, if someone pays, then they put the word out that that guy and his business are off limits. If someone refuses to pay, then they put the word out that that guy and his business is fair game.

Protection is how you organize your organized crime.

Shadowrunners do bad things to help worse people do worse things.

It's just that eveyr once in a while an adventure throws in some contrived morality tale to make it look like the Shadowrunners aren't just as inextricably part of the corporate money machine as the Johnsons and Crops they sometimes profess to hate.

You could always make a campaign about managing a terrorist group like the Symbianese Liberation Army.

Sometimes they can actually offer protection from the police too.

But yeah, you try to shake down a protected bar or brothel you'll have some irate people with guns wanting to meet you.

It is far less contrived when the players create the moral gray areas... I have seen Players/Characters turn down a Run because it clashed with their personal ethics. You do not always have to play the total scum of the earth you know... I know that many of my characters have a line which they will not cross... and that line does vary depending upon the character...

Yeah, some 'Runners do "Hooding" jobs. Not all of them, however.

My group did break up a domestic dispute once...

Though I was not talking about "Hooding" specifically, it is always an option. I was more referring to the situation of a Johnson pitching a job, and a Character telling him to stuff it because it crossed the line of his personal morals. And yes, there are a lot of criminals that possess a moral line which they will not cross when it comes to being a criminal... it takes a truly hardened individual for things to not bother him at all; and those types of characters are usually beyond any moralistic point of view whatsoever...

Yup. Child rapists don't live long in most prisons in General Population.

Very True indeed...

Is that because they're a 'safe' target, though? I wouldn't assume benevolence from anyone.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=IkjExJqf34o

There's Dolemite! That IS SR, with physads and pornomancers.

I don't buy it. After the threads on rigger mages, inhabiting dragons and this toxic/blood group being the link throughout all of them? No, something's off.

Ultimately it's up to your GM as to how this campaign would go - You tell him what you and your mates want to do and let him figure it out. I can't shake the feeling that this is a springboard into more headaches.

I am officially ignoring the rules and toxic/blood mage backlash. Who cares?

As for setting up a prostitution campaign, well...

First there needs to be a power vaccuum in an area. The best way to make this happen is to create one. Have the PC's try and take out one of the local gangs that runs hooking. They should do recruiting first, both muscle and sex wrkers so they can fill in the hole seamlessly when they make it. This will get them noticed. Everything grows from that. Competition, extorters and blackmailers, influence peddlars and others will move in and try and carve out their share. The cops, private security, local fixers, other gangs, neighborhood businesses both legal and not, church groups and activists...everything ties together. The thing to keep in mind is that no matter how outrageously disgusting a group may be, if they set up in an area they are a part of that community and will interact with it.

"We want prostitution done right!"

Okay, I thought of a cool idea. There is some established mafia doing prostitution in the city. However they are so well established that they begin to decline. A bunch of nutcases who are all veterans of the Desert Wars decides to take them on using extreme sociopathic brutality and terrorism so they can take over prostitution in the city. There's a campaign!

You are forgetting the "Can I use deformity to get a giant dick instead of suffering from negative modifiers?" thread. That was the first.

Oh so that's why the campaign is headed towards a prostitution ring:

The hugely endowed toxic blood mage is going to use the "services" his harem provides to drain out karma for his ally spirit so he can get himself a dragon to inhabit.

Wow, there really was some logic connecting all of this.

I thought it was pretty obvious where it was heading from the start...

I thought it was two penises, not one large one.

And I'd rather not dwell on that idea too much.

And I've already thought of the idea of using prostitutes to drain Essence from. Not Karma though, as the only possible way to get that Power is by GM-fiat.

And that would break character in their game...how, exactly?

It wouldn't. I'm just pointing out how their game can't exist in the "real world."

Using the methodology for my campaign grande finale for a season opener already shows the scope of their... something.

No, no. I'm repressing that thread, even though it created the greatest bar story never told.

"Help, help! I'm being repressed!" "You and every other slot in the sprawl, fragger."

"Must be some kinda Johnson."
"How can you tell?"
"He ain't got shit all over him."

You say that like it's a bad thing...

And not to be anymore off topic, but am I the only one who thinks this thread, as well as the dragon inhabiting one, are jokes? I mean I personally remember one time in 7th grade, me and a buddy told this dude we drew the Little Mermaid movie. Everything. Every pencil line, pen stroke, and coloring. He didn't buy it, but we didn't drop it. We thought it was funny. I sort of see a similar absurdity in the claims of a group of toxic blood shamages doing , well, anything. Not trying to be insulting if this is some one's cup o' tea when it comes to Shadowrun, but it sounds like the sort of thing I would think of if I wanted to get a rise out of some people.

Admin/Mods if any of this is out of line, please let me know and do whatever needs to be done with this reply, thanks.

"How do you get a Prostitution Campaign going?" "Well, it IS an election year. You can just run for office."

That's how I read Pg 1 of this thread, up to the warning from admin for publicly stating what they thought.

I think every spellcaster I ever play ever again will be called shamages.


Zing!

The whole thing should still be off-screened as just buying a Day Job quality. Maybe some related 'runs to earn some karma to offset the cost.

And a lot of mental trauma to deal with the nightmare fuel of the creepy Johns and Janes.

sham-wow!

I feel that despite having few formal rules, no obvious endgame and lots of potential ick-factor, a game based around starting a prostitution ring could make for a very engrossing campaign. It is highly dependent on the players and GMs finding a comfort level and storyline they are both interested in. There have been tons of great suggestions about how to go about doing this.

However, when the people starting the prostitution ring are toxic *and* blood mages (and whatever else I have managed to repress) this starts to seem a little implausible. Even one character like that putting himself out in public (like a pimp) is walking a terribly fine line between god-like power over the usual dregs of the streets and being recognized for what he is and having the world come down on his head. The situation is about as plausible as Winternight stopping their plans for world destruction to sling some crack in the ghetto for a month or two. Asking for serious advice on this topic just seems like trollbaiting (or even trolling). If you want advice on a prostitution ring, ask about prostitution rings, don't open with the words "munchkin", "blood", "toxic" and "mages".

But, but, but then how are the Lesbian Elf Stripper Ninjas going to get their JoyGrrls?

Aren't those Synonyms

Buy the two-point contact like the rest of us.

Can't argue with that. And you don't have to worry about genocidal magicians that use other people for their "Mana Drain Batteries"! I love it!

And if you want a discount, just get the Loyalty rating higher.

That won't give you a discount.

The loyalty rating is for how freaky she'll let you get.

I want to know what a rating 6 favor from a JoyGirl would entail (it's equivalent to loan of equipment up to half a mil!). Probably the best god damned night of my life...

I would handle it like a focus. Either the rating drops the price or ups the freak factor.

Resist that account drain or more dice on the *ahem* Sorcery roll.

"Well, it's an extra 10 , but, sure I can call you Dunkie if you really want..."

My my, that's quite a euphemism you have there.

It makes the magic happen, silly.

So that's what the kids are calling it now.

I'm told critical successes can make the earth move.

I don't think he implied that they were. He's referring to the way to OP started:

"I'm don't want to be a munchkin with this thread, but my group of toxic/blood mages wants to start a prostitution ring."

Implying that a toxic mage or a blood mage isn't munchkinning (which it may not be, but is by most people's definition, because toxic and blood mages are supposed to be GM tools).

Sigh
I hear airplanes buzzing the crowd.

No, I was saying they were Synonyms.
A snark at the Magic balance in the game

Derp, I read "those aren't synonyms." Likely because you finished the sentence with a period* not a question mark.

*Or rather, the lack of any punctuation what so ever.

When I can turn a street-level game into a big payoff just by introducing a one-word modifier to my magical opposition, yeah - I'm inclined to say it's a little munchkiny.

I've discovered the perfect game system for this idea:

F.A.T.A.L.


(yes, somehow I've never actually read the rules for the legendary system until today)

...

You know, you're absolutely right. Patty needs to go play F.A.T.A.L. - it has everything the group needs.

I heartily endorse this idea.

Does F.A.T.A.L. have a discussion forum?




-karma