Our group tends to stray a bit from the whole 'Mr Johnson's run of the week' formula for our campaign, as we like to get something new and different every now and then. This goes from a contact telling us 'here's a tip-off, if you act on it then I'll sell the loot for a 35% commission' to brokering peace treaties between rival gangs.
Our GM unfortunately sometimes finds his work getting in the way of his gaming, and encourages players to come up with run ideas and send them in to him so he can modify them and use them.

Now, I've been inspired by the 'how much pay can you get without running' thread to have my character's 'off duty' project get a bit bigger than she can handle on her own so she has to call in the rest of the team. She's the group Face, so the project is likely a scam of some sort.

There's just one problem: I've hit a thought block on what the scam should actually be. I blame the overuse of brain bleach (Is there a help group somewhere?). Anyway, while I work through that I was hoping that the good folk at dumpshock could help me by suggesting the sort of Burn-notice/Leverage style scam a Face character might have going on between runs.

Thanks in advance.

Wikipedia has some lists of various cons, but most of them appear to be 'short' cons, the sort that are over and done with quickly so that the mark has less time to figure out that they're being scammed.

I'd guess you're looking for a long con type deal? If so, then you're probably looking at something big, like a sale of real estate salted with some valuable resource (I'd suggest raw orichalcum ore) that could plausibly be missed during the valuation process. It's also a real and fairly traditional con, and could be extended to a "Kansas City shuffle" type deal, where the victim is meant to think they conned you into thinking that you pulled off a con on them such as a "Swampland in Florida" con, such as selling them a piece of property that is supposedly worthless for a somewhat inflated price that would still be less than what the price would be for that land if the resource were known to exist on that land. Obviously, it is in fact actually just as worthless as one would expect.

In that instance, a mage would probably of help in obtaining the orichalcum and in setting up shop as a local assayer of magical goods (so that the first assayer your mark would be likely to go to would be your friendly mage) and a hacker or techno would be of assistance in doctoring all of the appropriate info about it on the Matrix. Riggers and sams would probably be of less obvious use (though a drone rigger with a good selection of spy drones would be good for casing the mark, certainly) but there are ways to get them roles in your con (perhaps the sam acts angry with you for conning them and pretends to rough you up while the mark is watching some distance away?) so that they can assist.

Admittedly, the basic cons in the scheme I presented are fairly old cons (the newest is probably from at latest the 1930s) but they could certainly be updated for Shadowrun. I mean, you could end up in several runs just setting up various pieces of the con... getting the components to build appropriate sets to help support the con could take some time, and getting enough orichalcum ore is probably going to require at least a run in and of itself.

Your primary issue is settling on what you're actually trying to get. Most transfers will be between banks, which makes it traceable and requires you have someone on the back end to get that cash to the Caymans. If you don't have the networks in the banks, that automatically limits your options to goods which can be easily and untraceably flipped, or which you plan to use directly. In that category, perhaps the ideal currency is data (or software).

Once you've figured out what the desired form of payment is, next you need to look at what your resources are. What can your party accomplish? Who do they know? And how much of a budget do they have for this?

After that you can start putting out a real con scheme.

I think you saw my idea in http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...mp;hl=thorguild.

Trick a legit business into delivering the end products you want (like a TV, clothes, electronics, and other mostly legal stuff) to you under the guise of buying something much cheaper.

Thorguild

One thing from GH2 that inspired me was to gather some street sams and such together to form a legit merc corp. Get discounts on bulk purchases then disappear.

You may even get access to a bunch of goodies that you normally wouldn't be able to get.

How would you pay for this? Well, I suggest watching a few episodes of Leverage to give you some ideas. I'd line up some actual work for some A-rated corps as security, get paid, get the inside scoop of their facilities, and don't show up for work one day. Or translate that into your own runs.

The plan's full of holes, but that just means more fun for everyone involved...

I'll drop this link here, as it aired on Sunday (a repeat) but it's a great show, and the episode is all about subterfuge, lies, scams, deceit, and under cover agents. A whole tangle of them in one room, so much that it's hard to keep stories strait.

As someone mentioned Leverage is an excellent source of information regarding scams, but more specifically Sophie & Nate, they are the most common "faces" for the team. One episode recently shown the other evening had Nate Ford conning a Judge to get money for his client, though he just as easily could have been conning the money for himself or his team. Now naturally you'll want to tweak things to your characters style, but as a Face I wouldn't be surprised making several identities that you use for different cons.

You could run a modeling/acting/singing agency scam. It's perfect for a face character. Set up an office and a fake portfolio of sim stars that you manage. Set up a fake matrix site. (just gave your hacker something to do) You hold "auditions" with people that think they're talented. No matter how terrible, tell them how great they are and how far you think you can take them. Lead them on, get another player to show up as a "megacorp" producer (get your mage or infiltration guy to do this with your street sam acting as a body guard to lend authenticity) and claim that they're looking for talent when the mark is waiting and can overhear. Get another player to show up as a happy costumer (hacker maybe?) and talk to the mark while they're waiting about how great it has been. Then get the mark to agree to a contract, but they'll have to pay the "legal fees" (~250 nuyen to you) and your "management fee" (~250-500 nuyen). If they're not biting, you could offer them a slightly cheaper contract, where they won't get to retain the rights to their music/act/etc . (I thought you were a "serious artists" they usually like to have creative control, but if you're willing to give that up, it's easier for me.)
Set up a fake studio and charge them for studio time (assure them that you're covering half the price, because you think they're so talented and that they'll go far, ~50 nuyen an hour), editing (~50 nuyen) and then distribution fees to get their samples out to the big media corps (~200-300 nuyen). Do this to many people, then in a month close up shop and skip town. That's about 1000 nuyen a mark for about 4 or 5 hours of work (after the initial set-up of the office and studio). If they're still buying it at this point, assure them that you got them a big gig in Tokyo or something, but that you'll need some money to book their air fare, translator (come on, real stars don't use a crappy piece of software) and for promotional costs. (again you're covering the majority of this, but you want to make sure they're committed, they'll get all of this back when they get paid after the gig)

For your GM:
Possible complications-
You rip off the wrong person and they want revenge. Maybe a guy that's the nephew of a crime syndicate boss.
You run into someone with real talent and maybe you should give them a leg up.
An actual producer shows up looking for talent (or a fake one, looking to scam your scam in true leverage style)
Someone finds out about it and wants a cut of the take, or they're reveal the scam before you can get away.

Edit: If they're still buying everything, put them in touch with a "really good doctor" that did (insert famous sim-star)'s work and usually if very exclusive, but he owes you a favor. This doctor can perform bio sculpting, give them silky skin, put in diet ware etc. that will make them look perfect before their big debut. Or course, you're not going to actually do any of this work, but it doesn't mean that you can't get half the money up front. But this is more set-up.

Wasn't that the plot to "The Music Man?" I'd sign for that, just to see what that kind of scam looked like in 2070.

1. Stroll into some backwards looking backwater town in the barrens.
2. Exclaim the the local bar having pool tables will be a cancer upon the youth.
3. Piss off town mayor.
4. Convince town residents that their children will be better off if they play instruments.
5. Romantic interlude.
6. Dance on the tables of the library.
7. Mayor goes "HAH HAH!" like Claptrap.
8. You take 24 hours to show all the kids how to play their instruments.
9. Kids start recital with you as director. To all observers who know anything the children cannot play their instruments and sound horrible.
10. Mayor and parents are thoroughly impressed because they've apparently never heard a single piece of music in their entire lives and thus are unable to recognize that what they're hearing is utter crap and that you were blowing smoke that whole time.
11. Lead kids out of school.
12. Kids magically transform into extremely competent marching band in addition to cloning and replicating themselves to a much large number of children and instruments that were previously present.

Sound about right?

Off the top of my head, I'd say you're looking at a Boeski, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros, and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever.

There is also the more traditional casting couch scam to be run here....

Hustle

"You can't cheat an honest man."

http://leverage.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Cons_and_Scams

Help y'self.