This is for 2e but the effect on Target Numbers can work for 1-3 easily enough I think. Feel free to take a look and give me any critique or feedback you like, or use it yourself if you guys want.
Reputation System
A Shadowrunner lives and dies by their reputation. It’s what gets them jobs, but more importantly it’s what separates the true veterans from the dime-a-dozen try-hards and wannabes. In game terms, certain decisions, and more usually completed Shadowruns, will result in increases or decreases to the way the Runners are perceived. This is measured by the following stats:
Professionalism: Getting the job done, no matter the circumstances. Though sometimes the details are unsavory, a team known for staying objective will keep getting repeat work.
Violence: Sometimes going loud can be a good thing, other times it’s a liability. Teams known for gratuitous destruction may get repeat work, but it probably won’t be the subtle kind.
Ethics: Ask 3 different Runners if they have a code, and you’ll get 4 different answers. Still Ethics tends to amount to doing more good than harm, immediately and in the long run. Naturally, this is often the hardest for Shadowrunners to maintain and still get paid.
Corporatism: While most Runners might claim they hate the corporations while raising their fists in the air, the fact remains that the Corps are where a lot of the work comes from. This is a measurement of the favourability to Corporate interests a team is.
These 4 stats are not mutually exclusive, nor are they directly opposed. It is still possible to be extremely professional and still have a penchant for violence. Significant Shadowruns and important events and choices typically may result in a +1 or -1 to one or more of the above stats, representing word of mouth, rumour, and reading between-the-lines into the career exploits of the Shadowrunners.
For Example: The team takes a job to destroy a rival corporation’s research data. Completing the job by deleting the data from the servers may result in +1 Professionalism, whereas destroying the servers with explosives might be -1 Professionalism and +1 Violence. Deleting the data, but making a copy to pass on to a neo-anarchist commune would be -1 Professionalism, +1 Ethics, and -1 Corporatism. Etc etc.
NOTE: It is important to record ALL the changes (IE +6/-3 Ethics, etc), because while this results in a +3 Ethics overall, the sum total of all changes is added up as a representation of the team’s career. A team that has +20/-17 Ethics has the same +3 overall, but clearly they have more experience with morally-dubious runs.
Certain factions, corporations, NPCs, etc will value one or more of these things more than others. This becomes important when a team wishes to make use of their reputation to secure work of one type or another.
Leveraging Your Rep: If a Runner is finding a Johnson, Fixer, or other NPC is a bit less receptive than they like, they can attempt to leverage their reputation to their advantage. To do so, take the overall positive OR negative (depending on how it’s being used) and divide it by 2, rounding down. The Runner can apply this as a Dice Pool Modifier on the appropriate test. Threatening a target with violence helps if you have a reputation for smearing the opposition, but not so much if they know you don’t have it in you to cause pain.
Be aware that this can have unintended side effects. Threaten that merchant to give you what you want? Sure, it’ll probably work. Once. But don’t be surprised if he calls his cousin in the Go-Gang to go looking for you afterwards.
Also, as a final note, Leveraging Your Rep assumes you’re using your team’s Rep, not your personal reputation. This is for simplicity, because I refuse to keep track of every single person’s individual social dynamics. I’m a GM, but my masochistic streak only goes so far.
