I am currently writing a new adventure for my players and next week begins their 5 session countdown to get the job done. I imagine that 4 of those session will be spent on gathering information, getting things from contacts and fulfilling favors to said contacts in exchange.

I am a fairly new GM and we are all fairly new to the system and setting... In order to plan better for things, I look at how my opponents would do something and how I would react... In this case my opponents are the players and the situation is legwork.

I was wondering what kind of things do regular runners do legwork on so I can prepare a better response then, "I will get back to you on that next session."

One of the more obvious things that any runner should do legwork on is security. Magical security and Matrix security as well as Physical security. With their contacts helping them they can look into the schedules of any personnel that may work there, blueprints of the building (and possibly surrounding buildings if they really want to be thorough), the response time on any law enforcement in the area, possibly gang activity in the area if necessary, and quite a bit more. A lot of what you have to answer depends on how creative the runners themselves are. For instance, they could see about getting into the facility through sewers, from the rooftops of nearby buildings, or your basic B&E. Their resources also have to be taken into account. If they have a sniper then they may want to see where the best position for that sniper may be. Their hacker may want to test the security of the place before the run goes down or he may decide it's too risky because the security may be increased if he is caught. They may even consider having a "Tailchaser" performed to decrease the risk of law enforcement catching them. The more that they want to be sure this run goes down according to plan, the more legwork they should do. My best advice would be to just think of as much as you can to cover and see what they come up with. The more you are prepared for the easier it will be and if they happen to bring up something you didn't think of then keep it in mind for the next time they do legwork. Don't be afraid to improvise either. If they ask a question you haven't already thought of then you may just be able to give it a moment's thought and come up with a suitable answer.

The actual run that they are doing makes a difference as well. If it's a Datasteal then they may want to go heavier into Matrix security than the physical. To make it more difficult you can always do fun things like put the wallpaper that blocks wireless signals into your facility (I'll get back to you with a page number on that). If they are doing an Extraction they may need to find out exactly where the personnel or object that they are extracting is within that facility for simplicity's sake. A Wetwork would require more precise legwork. Things like where and when the hit will go down, if there are decoys because an assassination attempt has happened before or they're just paranoid, the bodyguards that may or may not be present, the likelihood that he'll be killed outright on the first attempt. Maybe they're doing a Structure Hit in which case blueprints would be a must. If they don't want casualties then when the best time to set it off would be so no one gets hurt and it's just big and flashy, not to mention expensive.

Another part of this is that you may want to figure out what favors the contacts are going to be asking for in advance. Then think of any legwork that they'd have to do for those favors if you want them to be completed before the original run. If they decide to turn to other contacts to get the legwork on the favor for their first contact's information. Then the favor that may be required for that contact in turn.

A very large part is knowing how your players think. If none of them even consider the possibility of another entrance then the front door, then having blueprints of surrounding buildings would be useless for them. You may even decide to get all of this material prepared and *nudge* them in that direction to get them to use all this nifty material that you thought up for them. Or you may get all of this material prepared just to have them decide to do something that you are totally unprepared for. If that ever comes up a good GM would figure out how to think on the job instead of coming up with some strange excuse to funnel the players into doing what he/she wants them to.

I've tried to be as helpful as I can and cover as much as I could think up but if there is something you want more details on or that I didn't cover at all feel free to ask. Good luck with your sessions!

I'd love to help you, but could you give a bit of background on
- What the mission is about? This determines to a large degree what kind of legwork is called for.
- What the PCs are? Major skills, tactics, powers and contacts..