Greetings all!

This goes out to mostly GMs but if any players have opinions or stories they wish to share, please chime in.

I've a group of players in a Shadowrun 4e game we're all playing in and taking turns GMing. The campaign started with the group as normal workers for Horizon. I started them all out at 300 BP and let them gain another 25 at the end of each game until at 400BP for normal starting characters.

While the group has done well with this, they're unhappy with their boss. Said boss is the older version of the youngest member of our group aged to 70 years

The party has managed to ditch work in some creative ways including summoning task spirits to complete costumes for up coming projects (said player/boss is into civil war reenactments and cosplay so I thought that'd be a good job for him ). But they've been caught slacking, just not running.

So the group just wants to quit their jobs. Something, in the real world, is perfectly normal. No one took the 40 hours a week level of the flaw so I won't think they have a contract, but according to the rules you buy off Negative Qualities with karma. So what do you all think would be appropriate to happen to those that quit a job at Horizon?

Any and all answers will be considered, and taken into consideration.

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Wacky

Just make 'em buy it off in other flaws.

Hung Out To Dry is a perennial favorite.

I agree with binarywraith. If they can't buy it off with karma, then they'll have to buy it off with other flaws.

Convert the old boss to an enemy depending on how they quit. (For free) then make them pay the cost in others flaws and or karma.

Everyone seems to be in agreeance with "take more flaws" but what flaws would you all recommend.

Enemy and Hung Out to Dry are good choices, but any other ideas? I don't think a karma buy-out would be appropriate in this case.

Thanks to all for the quick feedback!

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Wacky

It's possible to go into karmic debt (awakening as a drake costs 120 karma, "If the character does not have Karma available at the time, the gamemaster collects it as they deem fit from any Karma awards the character earns until the debt is paid off."). Remove the quality, deduct the requisite karma, and if they're at less than zero then they have to earn that much before they can have karma to spend on learning new skills & such.

Not a bad thought, but my quandary stems from the nature of the negative quality. Normally people can quit their jobs. That's why I'm leaning towards other negative qualities rather than a karma cost.

In any other situation, I'd think your suggestion would work well.

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Wacky

Generally this is why I, as a GM, shape Day Job as more of a responsibility that requires them working than a specific job.

If they can just quit and not have consequences, then it isn't worth the flaw points. Same with a job that never affects their ability to run. The job needs to be an imposition to be worth points.

Granted it does take more RP effort from a player, and a good one can really play up the obligation of having a SIN and a real job. It should not be up to a GM to enforce this, however, and if a player's just trying for free points then a different quality should be selected.

In the case of something like a Horizon no-call-no-show then someone could make up a reason why the corp goes after the character (some perceived bit of info the character doesn't actually have?) as a way of getting back for having an extra workload dumped on him/her.

Hell, the characters are working for Horizon. The boss they managed to burn might have the resources to keep tabs on them and when it's appropriate, he leaks info to the 'Runners rivals/police. He can also destroy their credit rating, repossess any vehicles, etc, etc. Generally he can be a big pain in the hoop.

Also, if you go this route, do NOT tell the players what he's doing. Let them figure it out. When they go and waste the little bug, give them no karma and tell them: "Congrats, you have now just bought off your 'day job' flaw. Nothing's free chummers!"... then duck. You might get food thrown at you!

- The boss could give them a bad reputation of some kind, or keep some Dark Secret to use as leverage if needed later.
- Resigning is something that people can do in RL, but in the Shadowrun world it can be more complicated: most corps don't have employment contracts, they have indenture contract. Walking out can be far more complicated. They can get Criminal SIN, because they walked out without fulfilling their obligations, they can be In Debt, because they need to repay some goods or services they benefited from but didn't fully pay back with their job, etc.
- They can be hunted (I don't remember the name of the quality) because the boss is convinced that they left with some valuable/dangerous data.

Those are all great ideas. I think I'll cobble them into something that the players will be upset about in all the right ways...for me of course...

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Wacky

I thought about giving the Prejudiced (managers) or Prejudiced (corporate employees) negative flaw, so as to represent what drove the character out of his previous live. But that might be problematic if the entire team get prejudiced against Johnsons that way.