Our group got a new mission last night: we're going to go under cover at an adult film set so that we can plant a program in their computer system that sends their raw footage to a competitor, allowing him to profit from their work while driving them out of business. (The initial offer was 10 grand each for a data snatch-and-grab. I managed to triple that paycheck by convincing our employer that what he really wanted us to do was to subtly introduce the program into the target's system)

Anyway, our method of infiltration is basically getting hired as extras for the shoot... which means that if all goes well and the target doesn't suspect us, he'll be paying us as well. That got me curious:

How often do you guys get to pull scams where the target actively supports/pays for your efforts to rob him?

My players have been through On the Run. They got Nabo's commlink a day early by staging a "delivery" to the site of the stage being set up, complete with invisible ninja robbery of both Nabo's commlink and one of the player's commlinks. They conned him so well that he believed they were innocent victims too, and he not only paid for two crates of rats (and a demon rat,) but he paid for the player's not-at-all-stolen commlink. And, since their links had just been stolen, he paid in credstick, too!

I remember that story from another thread. It's an inspiration to all profit-minded (read: all) runners everywhere, and should be held up as a shining example of not shooting people in the face, for money!

I'm actually impressed by the idea. I mean we've all done things where we're paid to be staff, waitresses, roadies, corpers under cover but I reallyl ike the sound of that. Of course I wouldn't be so eager to get that job myself but still, I really like that.

White Hat Hackers. What makes you think there aren't White Hat Shadowrunners?

I kind of want to read this now. Anyone got a link?

It was the On the Run mission. My players were pushing hard and fast, so they learned they needed Nabo's commlink (or information therefrom) the day before the concert. Rather than waiting and hitting the concert, they decided to go get it then and there, so I decided that Nabo was at the warehouse overseeing the set-up personally.

So they rolled out with a cover story: the Bitter Old Man (Bom) was already a critter trainer, so he assembled two crates marked "Rats" (one of which was marked "For Metahuman Consumption,") and a Demon Rat in a sturdy metal box. He put together an invoice for them, threw them on the back of his heavily-armored Gaz pickup truck (paracritter proof, don't you know,) and drove out with the teenaged elf sitting in the driver's seat looking bored. The cyberninja, on his brand-new motorbike, were rendered invisible thanks to the mage (who was present in the form of a ferret on the truck's dashboard,) and drove up separately, quietly.

The reason for all of this, of course, is that I determined that Nabo's commlink was on the fritz, due to connection issues; it was cutting in and out. It was still serviceable for sending text messages, but calls would drop, and attempts to hack in would be frustratingly useless (in AR) or dangerous (in VR.) So they couldn't just hack what they needed out of it remotely, they had to lay their hands on it.


Bom raised a confusion when he showed up with rats, and successfully conned the gangers into believing he was sincere in that he believed he was supposed to deliver the rats. So they called Nabo to come sort the issue out. Nabo shows up, talks to him, and comes to the conclusion that his manager, Ari Tarkasian (heh,) is fucking with him, because there's been some bad blood between them before. So he decides he'll just pay the man, and yell at Ari, but his commlink is fritzy. Thanks to some judicious Suggestions from Ferret the Mage, he holds his commlink up in the vain hopes of getting a better signal to Bom's commlink to authorize the transfer.... And another to ignore any sounds of motorcycle engines.

Cue the cyberninja, invisible, roaring between the truck and Nabo - with both Bom and Nabo having their commlinks outstretched - and he snatches both commlinks at once with an amazing split-pool Palming roll, then roars off, leaving everyone going WTF.

Another good Con roll later (to convince Nabo that he's as bewildered and victimized as Nabo is,) and Nabo orders his boys to pay for the rats, and pay the man for his lost commlink - and, since he just lost the commlink and can't take an e-transfer, to pay him in credstick.

The Topic sounds kindy like what the Thieves Guild of Ankh-Moorpork is working like O.o