Okay, starting from the beginning:
Our GM would like to play for a bit, and I've volunteered to organize and run a couple of sessions in order to give him the opportunity.
I've decided that my primary run is going to take the group to Hollywood as outside talent for the purposes of ruining a star's career (I have a backup run idea in case the players don't bite, but I doubt I'll need it).
Here's where I could use some help.
Firstly: I was going to give them a month for the run. Is this enough time, or should I give them more? pay is going to start at 300 grand between them, though I'm willing to let them haggle up to half a mil. The client (though the players don't know it) is a tabloid editor working through a journalist (who's using this actor to get to a rival who supported said actor in becoming a star), while the man behind the man is another actor who's trying to remove the competition.

Secondly: I need suggestions on how the runners might try to ruin this guy so I can plan some NPCs and encounters accordingly. As I see it, some possibilities are
1) Drug scandal. We have a team chemist, so getting illegal drugs isn't an issue if they get access to a lab.
2) Sex scandal. It shouldn't be too hard to work out some way of staging that.
3) Violence scandal. A dose of woad discreetly applied and the guy will flip out in a public place. a drug test will show that he's been doped with something, but if the players get him tried in the court of public opinion then it might still work.
4) Kleptomania scandal. The B&E expert goes and steals some stuff, then plants it in the victim's home. A little fabricated evidence at the scene of the crime, and word gets around that the guy is a thief.
But I'm fairly certain that's far from all of them. What else should I prepare for? (The mission brief is going to include a "No killing unless you can pin it on the victim" clause, if that matters)

The actor in question is playing Edward in a remake of Twilight, and if the players can force them to cover up enough scandals the trid will run over budget and possibly fold.

I'll sic one of my players who's...warped on this and come back to you with his answers.

As far as scandals go, I think you nailed all the big ones. If your group has a chemist, that drug scandal should be really easy. That, of course, depends on whether your players actually think about that. You wanted help thinking like your players right?

Well thats kinda difficult, especially if this is your first time GMing. Fortunately, however, it sounds like this is your group that you play with. Except the GM is playing instead of you. So, in my opinion, this still falls on you. You have better knowledge of your players and their characters' personalities than we do, no? Perhaps if you could give some examples of runs you and your team have done in the past with the previous GM, and how the other players/characters resolved the issues that arose from previous runs.

Don't see why a month wouldn't be long enough. Even including the trip from Seattle to L.A. (assuming your players are starting in Seattle, of course), that should be far, far more than enough time to accomplish the job. Assuming they don't have any contacts in that area, my guess is that most of their time spent there will be legwork. After that.. any of the ''scandals'' you listed are relatively easy to set-up (perhaps except the sex one, unless the Face or another PC wants to volunteer... which could pose problems in itself). Though, really, I guess how ''easy'' it is, is really up to you as the GM.

For your #4 scandal, perhaps it would be easier or more convenient for the runners to plant virtual 'evidence' of theft rather than going and doing a B&E. For example, loading tons of pirated software, kiddie porn, or other nasties into the target's 'link or equivalent device.. then making it public through a smaller run. Hell, if you wanted to get stupid, perhaps you could even accuse them of being Dissonant or a Blood Mage (not sure if the target is Awakened or Emerged, just throwing it out there). I imagine virtual lies are easier to plant and control than more physical ones... and news on the 'Trix spreads quickly. Of course, that's only if you want it to be easier for them. If not, perhaps a sort of technophobia would be more appropriate, perhaps accompanied by the fact that the target is, in all senses, a really good person. That could introduce a moral dilemma for the runners. They're screwing over someone who is a genuinely nice person... perhaps donating most of their profits to charities or working to clean up the L.A. streets... with no thought of PR or compensation in the long-term.

This is Hollywood, remember...

1: Drug use is pretty much accepted among the rich and famous. Short of combining 1 and 3 by convincing him to voluntarily pop Kamikaze (whether or not he knows what it is,) in a crowded area and flip out on people, that's a no-go.
2: Again, this is Hollywood. You're either going to have to out him as a pedophile (ephebophile won't cut it, the kid is gonna have to be like, 13 or less for Hollywood to get full of self-righteous indignation,) or a necrophile or something equally terrible.
3: Violence could work, especially if you can get some juice behind it. An actor flipping out in the middle of a meeting or in public or something will get him drug-tested, though, and assensed, and you bet your ass he's going to play up the "I was victimized!" card if you brainfucked him into doing it. This could backfire and make him more popular, sympathetic with society. On the other hand, if he just gets really pissed off and lays into some girl in a club or something, you could get some scandalization out of it. Bonus points if you can frame it up as the actor playing Edward was shagging the actress playing Bella, and then got pissed at her and started whaling on her. That can and will torpedo the production immediately, can't make a movie if the lovers' actors are physically at blows with one another.
4: Kleptomania gets normal people put in prison, but it's a charming character quirk in an actor. Unless you frame him for stealing something major from a AAA mega or something, like, the target of a Shadowrun, this is a no-go.

I might suggest that they're likely to try to out him as a bigot. Very little torpedoes an actors' reputation faster than going off on an anti-Semitic rant, or maybe an anti-Meta rant. If he's working for Horizon, getting outed as a bigot would get him fired immediately, and he might or might not ever find work in that town again.

Your answer lies in what he is playing. Vampires & such are highly disliked & even so far as hunted by some, so gather evidence to out him as a real vampire (not just playing one on TV). a few doses of Renfield can give him many of the properties of Vampirism. Something like this I imagine can really kill his career in a hurry.

Planning for every possible outcome only tends to result in a lot of extra work.

Imho opinion you should focus on setting the stage.
Who are the major NPC's surrounding the target?
- what makes them tick?
Who is the target?
- What makes him tick?
What are the surroundings?
- What are the major locales you excpect to be used

Keep a backup list/repurpose NPCs (not much more then names) for when the players decide they wanna meet the street bum near the set or the maid working the mansion.

The rest is just going along with the ride and see what your players come up with, if they turn out blank you can gently nudge them towards one of the contingencies.

But that's just my 2¥, overplanning more often then not result in players taking a completely unpredicted direction either because they're being clever... or stupid. Regardless "Yes and..." is generally more fun then "No".

I love my players. Here's their ideas.

We could make a bipedal drone that looks like him then stage a series of crimes and terrible behavior, we could make him out to be a pedo, we could make him out to be a closet zoophile, we could frame him for a horrible murder and potentially tie it to organized crime, we could, if he has any living female relatives, kidnap them and artificially inseminate them with his seed then leak a rumor of incest to the press and get them to demand paternity tests, we could obtain a sample of his dna then find willing fan girl psychos to artificially inseminate and demand child support, we could make him out to be a runner by putting illegally obtained corporate data on his comm, etc. Kidnap him and then just take over his life for a few days then leave him naked and intoxicated in a children's park to take the rap for everything.

Sex scandals will just keep causing hilarity for everyone else involved unless its way over the line like, "My brother and I have a baby together all Claudius style." Honestly, I would go with making him look like some forbidden magic user. Plant evidence to suggest that he is using the crazy aztec magic. Another way to go would be to suggest that the actor is actually another race (troll or orc or what-have-you) and has been surgically altered to appear human in order to get acting gigs. Or better yet, make him look like a terrible racist and snob. No body likes a racist snob.

I'd hate to piss off your mates...
and oh, everyone but runners and dragons loves Aztech... Good PR does that

The focus on artificial insemination threw me off a bit, I won't lie. And replace aztec magical tradition with blood magic and boom! Profit! Or, could toss toxic in there instead...

Remember, there's a bounty on them.

Honestly, all you'd need to do to ruin someone's fame is get a decent look-alike of them with a personachip of them (if not the person themself - but security would be tight on them) and make them do very dubious things on trideo. Watch some episodes of TMZ for inspiration.

All of these replies have made me realize that I've phrased the initial mission poorly for my players, as what the client wants is for the actor to be ruined in a succession of tabloid-worthy scandals, rather than a single killing blow to his career (The Johnson works for a tabloid, so they're going to want to make as much money back from their investment as possible).

Thank you, I almost ran into an absolute disaster from making the mission brief ambiguous. Good save!

Any ideas how I can phrase the job in the initial meeting that'll make it clear that the client wants the target ruined in a series of newsworthy public scandals, preferably without him spending more than a few days in jail before he goes down (He can get life in prison for the last one for all we care, but spending too long in jail before that will reduce the number of scandals they can squeeze into the month). No killing unless they can frame the victim. And the brief shouldn't let them work out who their employer is if possible.

You may want to allow more than one month if a series of scandals is what you are looking for. It would look suspicious if suddenly a lot of things started to pop up in the news, I'd say shoot for more like 3 months (IMO).

-D

I'd phrase the job as 'make a good tabloid recurring star - but don't go overboard and tank his career. I want him under the limelight, not carted off in disgrace' - but take care to have the Jonhson soun as if his boss has a gridge against the target and want to string the punishment to keep them away from gfiguring he's working for a tabloid.

I've got an entire section of my Style Over Substance book (link in sig) about how to attack someone's reputation

I don't find it necessary to figure out beforehand what the PC would do. You will easily improvise on it.


However, your pitch lacks of a "complication".


I'll explain: If they do something wrong, things will get complicated and interesting because the star's staff will actively oppose to their schemes. Then, yes, you'd gotta think out carrefully and beforehand about how they could stop them (I feel confortable in doing it during the game, but if your not, your right to think about it now).

BUT:

If they do everything right (meaning, their plans are good enough and hence, the star's staff cannot oppose to them), they'll have the staisfaction of having been great, but in no way will your scenario be a great one.



Now say you keep the same pitch. The Johnson wants of course to know every scheme early in order to cover his tabloid story. Ofc the PC will know soon who's M. Johnson.

Let them set 2 or 3 schemes (depending how enthusiastic they are about making the schemes) and then, break it up:

The Star makes a press anouncement that Tabloid X is trying to ruin his career and that he will soon give the press a proof about that and attack the Tabloid in justice. Include a few facts about the PC scheme that proves the star really KNOW that the tabloid did it.
Let Johnson call them panicked, half accusing them of treachery. Let them convince Johnson they are not guilty.

Now, they have to find who made the treachery, clear the evidences, face the Star's runners who were engaged to kill them, and create a last evidence that proves the star "lied" about Tabloid's involvement in his scandals (while the story is under heavy scrutinity).



That should make it more difficult (and less of an walk-over)

Like it was said before, in Hollywood everyone does dope. Miley Cyrus once outsmoked Woody Harrelson. Angelina Jolie did "60 Seconds" near-permanently high on coke. Kevin Smith wrote shitloads of scripts while being totally baked on weed. Not to mention old drunks like Nick Nolte and Mickey Rourke.

Hey, wanna borrow my slightly-used thirteen-year-old Cambodian bunraku girl? Because other than that, you're not going to do much here. Hollywood's full of sluts and horny douches, and nobody cares - trawl unofficial Hollywood gossip sites like Crazy Days and Nights and you're going to be surprised what sort of shit these people pull. Especially with their fans and groupies.

Bah, that one's pretty common too. Celebrity violence outbursts happen all the time, from obvious types like Mickey Rourke and Chris Brown (the bar fight between Chris Brown and Drake was pure insanity, they made something like 1 million bucks worth of damage) to supermodels and teen idols.

Lindsay Lohan does it all the time and nobody in the media cares. Seriously, she's a drunk-ass, thieving Republican crackwhore whose career is a nosedive, SO WHAT.

Furthermore if the star's backed by some Entertainement company like Horizon or Ares Entertainment, you can be sure they'll be able to spin most scandals into something profitable for them.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but they'll have to be very clever... and in the end I think that Johnson would rarely count on runners to come up with the plan, unless one of the runner is known to be good at that sort of thing. I think Johnson is more likely to come up with a way to ruin the celebrity's reputation and then ask runners to make it happen.

Thank you for your kind replies.

Firstly: I'm going to up the time to three months, as suggested. It'll let the crew have time for a more long game view. (considering that our GM generally throws missions at us and says 'you have a day', I'm sure the group will enjoy having some time to do things properly.)

Secondly: I've worked out my complication. The employer's rival editor will be spinning everything they do into a good light, so to succeed they'll need to take him out of the picture. once he's gone their boss becomes in charge of spin control and their work starts bearing fruit. Also, I estimate a 50% chance that one of the characters will do something that sets the group back at some point, or gets focused on the wrong part of the mission, or player error will complicate things.

Thirdly: Considering how many people have pointed out (Quite rightly) that fatal flaws for anyone else are just 'characterful quirks' for actors, it'll be interesting to see what they come up with to nail this guy.

All in all, it's shaping up to be a lot of fun. I'll probably post the results at some point. thanks all for your help and support.

Not gonna lie. When I first read the topic I thought it said "Help me like my players," which would have also been an interesting thread.

There aren't enough shrinks in all the world...

Let it be known that there'll be less money for hazardous things done to the target. When their money is on the line they'll pay attention.

EDIT: One of my GMs does this actively. On certain missions he'll set a number of karma/cash, and he'll have a list that'll detract from the karma/cash rewards for specific things, most notably killing people who don't need to be killed. It goes a long way towards curbing collateral damage.

The more I think about it, the more I think that you can't completely ruin a big celebrity's career with scandals. I can't name any celebrity that had his career destroyed this way, unless the scandal led to long prison time or rehab, so that nobody cared about him anymore when he got out.

Did anyone read this and think of the book Helter Skelter? Suggesting to players that they can get away with murder probably means they will choose that path, depending on the players.

You don't need to ruin it, you need to make good scandal tabloids of it.

I think David Hasselholf public alcool problems make a good tabloid story, as Paris Hilton's sex tape, Tiger Woods "Sex addiction", Hugh Grants' prostitute fellation... and so on.

Nothing you wouldn't recover from but yet, sales a lot of stories.


psss: hey, you, I know...Yes I know. You watched Paris's sex tape don't ya

didn't the Scandal with PeeWee Herman ruin his career?

That pretty much launched her career. I have no idea why.

Pretty much, yes. But it was great for the tabloids.

No actually I didn't. I find such things deplorable.


And the Kardashians. They were unknown until the mother marketed her daughters sex tape. Talk about SR in our times...

Which one, child porn or jacking off in a movie theater?
Also, Paul Reubens just grew old and couldn't pull the Pee Wee Herman look any more.

Uh oh! Something I have to inform myself about...

...ya know, to gather ideas for Shadowrunner of course...