So tonight my players were invited for a limo ride with a Vory boss. the encounter was to let them know others were involved in their run and intended to warn them off.

I expected this to quickly degrade either into a pissing match or for the players to brush him off.

Somehow the players exited the car with a begrudging respect for the guy, just business after all.
They kept expecting to see him again later in the adventure so I obliged. Instead of competing they were friendly with him, even saved him during a major Dustup in which he was competition.

Players always amaze me with the things they do and that magic moment when a throw away NPC becomes an integral part of their story is one my favorites.

So any favorite generic NPC's in your games that end up getting their "contract" extended?

I had the same thing happen very recently in an Iron Kingdoms RPG game. I tossed a friendly wandering scholar NPC kid into the mix to basically handle exposition for a new town they roamed into, and they ended up inviting the guy to join their mercenary group as a company historian and all-around smart guy. From Shadowrun games over the years, some of my players' favorite NPCs were a Mr. Johnson (personachipped to talk just like Christopher Walken), an honorable Yakuza soldier (who spoke halting but meticulous English, the way people often do when they've been educated in a language but haven't been immersed in it), a good ol' boy vampire (former Confederate soldier)...lots of guys I've just sort of thrown together with a sentence or two of descriptor in mind, and they've really taken off.

In my experience, this sort of thing mostly happens when I role-play an accent.

I GM'd a group where a Johnson was a spoiled, clueless rich kid who was trying to make it on his own, starting his own gang and marking his territory and all that. His "gangers" all thought he was ridiculous and were only with him for the money or as a favor to daddy or something. He hired the group to do a run, hit on some other rival. I thought the group would either ridicule him, refuse his offer, or do it and never deal with him again. Instead, they ended up taking him under their wing, forming friendships with the others of his group and generally joining the kid's "gang". Didn't hurt that the kid had a lot of money to throw around too.

Took the campaign in whole other directions than I had foreseen...as if that's strange I guess. Players always pay attention to throwaway NPCs/situations, while ignoring carefully crafted ones.

I had a good time RP'ing that spoiled rich kid and his group. Ah, memories

So true!

Quotes from Oro the Unstoppable, an erstwhile adept in the Special Forces of Kazakhstan (He appeared long before the movie!) who showed up in my home games and was inflicted on various RPGA Virtual Seattle teams:

"Hallo! How for you being?"

"Hokey dokey, babeskies!"

"Helicopter focus on me. Was my plan!"

My players like to latch onto the most random NPCs.

The first was a fat ork named Hollywood. Hollywood spoke in third person, wore lots of loud and cheap looking jewelry and clothes, and sounded like John Leguizamo. They hated Hollywood, and went out of their way to harass and abuse the guy. They once devoted an entire session just to hunt his ass down and kill him.

And yet, every so often one of them brings him up in a, "I miss Hollywood," kind of way.

The other one I can think of that kind of exploded was the elven ex-pat Unseelie Court member named Fionne, that one of my players struck up a relationship to. He finds it hilarious that he's dating one of Ghostwalker's secret hands, but then, when you're a guy on the run for having committed terrorist acts in Tir na Nog, lots of things are probably funny to you.

Wu Tang Kane
Physical Adept Triad Enforcer/Bodyguard for the 74 Vipers.
Jet (one of our Prime Runners in Hong King) inherited him when he took over the 74 Vipers.

Dude had some wierd Adept thing that provided him Theme music while he was fighting, fronting, dancing, making an impression, whatever. Was an awesome character. Kudos to Teodio.

There's this barkeep, called Dirty Jim, that runs a shady little pub in the basement of a rundown barrens building. The neon sign above the stairs leading down to the establishment is barely functional, often times reading 'Dry Jim'. Might be because the letters were gathered from different sources, although the owner refuses to comment on that.

Those brave enough to enter find a wretched hive of scum and villainy, where only the most desperate or psychopathic runners would willingly hang out. Surely it's not because of Jim's special, which is basically moonshine made from whatever fell off a truck this week. Jim himself is charming little fellow, dressed in an ill-fitting which was probably white during the turn of the century. He's always offering some work he's heard about for runners willing to get their hands dirty.

Despite the bald spots and his beer gut threatening to burst his Berwick pants, he does not appreciate unruly guests in his bar. There was this incident when the Gianelli family tried to take over the block, and sent some goons to threaten Good Ol' Jim. Let's just say the pub had "Italian Special" the following week.

Oh, there's also a rumor he's a toxic mage. Wouldn't wanna press the issue though... lest you end up as the next "Special".

I had a sprite that was on loan for one run from the TM contact of one of the PCs - the TM was an anime buff so the sprite took a kawaii/chibi form of a guy in a striped long-sleeve shirt. He called himself "Pip," and had a ton of fun little interactions, like showing up in AR so he could talk to people without them having to go VR and reacting to physical stimuli even though he didn't have to. He also would come out of nowhere going "Yeeeees?" For example, at one point Pip came around the PCs shoulder saying "Yes" like the stroke guy and the PC, while expecting Pip but not the method, jerked backwards surprised. So Pip flailed his arms and legs in dead air for a couple seconds then belly-flopped onto the floor and sank into it, making the Tube sound from Mario Bros.

Also, whenever Pip had to express a number, he'd hold up one index finger (like saying "one") but the index finger would split into whatever number he was expressing; for example, when asking how many services they had left.

The character was so beloved in just one session that I ruled when his services were up he went free and became a contact.

The (not quite) name- and featureless ork bodyguard of a recurring fixer is now the mage's boyfriend. He made a pass at her and I never expected her to respond at all. They're together for over a year now

A prime runner assassin archetype originally intended only to put the fear of god into an adept has evolved to a mover and shaker in my game world, because said adept insisted on striking up a friendship and supporting her in her endeavors. It worked out really well and pissed the Seelie court off to no end

"Friendly Joe" the Lone Star checkpoint guard who was a week from retirement popped up a few times in the course of several runs. He had a wife and three kids relying on his income, and donated a sizable portion of his paycheck to the local home for orphaned children of guards who'd been murdered by runner teams. Friendly Joe would, of course, tell anyone in a trench coat that backstory, and subsequently managed to survive the campaign.