Hi everybody,

I feel it's time again for some (probably stupid and obvious) questions.
It just occured to me that I have no clue about most things going on behind the scenes when a Shadowrun is set up, which is - as I am the GM - potentially fatal.
This whole thing is intendet as an ongoing installment to generally put questions associated with the "johnson-side" of organizing a run.

This first one is about quality insurance: if working on a tight schedule, how does the Johnson assure the quality of the job done?
Examplesituation 1:
The runners where told to sabotage a certain facility and where offered a bonus if they could do so without being caught. How does Johnson know if they have been caught? Sometimes there's isn't an outright carchase ensuing or some immediate reaction. Maybe there's video footage of the run which is broadcasted in the morning news the next day or the day after. He would hardly demand his money back, would he?
Examplesituation 2:
The runners are told to kill a certain person, maybe make it look like an accident or whatever, in any case something that keeps them from bringing the target's head for proof. How does the Johnson know the job is well done? Does he wait until the info becomes available through legal sources (newspaper, private notes, etc.)

My second question would be how to handle data (or other loot) that is not to be handed over to third parties.
Examplesituation 1:
A team is hired to steal some data, whipe the data of the original host, destroy all the copies of it and then bring the data to the Johnson without keeping any copies for themselves.
How is the Johnson going to insure that all the other copies have been whiped? How does he know the runners aren't keeping a private copy to sell it in about a week?
Examplesituation 2:
The runners are told to enter a facility and surgically remove a certain piece of data from a datastore and leave everything else untouched.
How does he insure that the runners have whiped the file and how does he insure that they didn't steal anything for private purposes?

Sure, for both questions there's the possibility that he finds out later and comes back for revenge. However, for some Johnsons, this is not possible (be it corporate politics or - more likely - a limited budget. remember, Johnsons do not have to work on behalf of a giant corporation). And also it's a really undesirable thing and a great risk too. If it was that easy to pull off for the runners, it would be done more often.
Then there's always the magical *reputation hit*. Well, as I said, not all Johnsons are influential in the Shadows and also most Johnsons don't want their runs to be talked about. After all, that's why most of them come to the shadows: keeping it secret. Hardly anyone is going to connect some sold loot or something like that and no johnson is going to hand in an evaluation sheet to the johnson. There's no "johnson's review" magazine in the shadows. The bad rep may get around if you regularly fail jobs or screw partners and fixers but I have a hard time believing that screwing your johnson will get you a bad rep (except with that specific johnson).

So far so good... I hope I didn't make myself look too stupid with...

Quality assurance: The Johnson simply doesn't pay the runners all of the money up front. Generally, most runs pay 10-30% upfront and the rest on completion. If you botch the run, you don't get all or any of your second-stage cash. There may well be a waiting period in there, as well.

Information leaking: The "industry" polices itself to a large extent. Shadowrunners who break the terms of their agreement usually find themselves with a rotten rep and few job prospects. The Johnson can also have them killed in retaliation and not suffer a personal hit to his rep because it'll probably be pretty common knowledge what the runners pulled.

[edit] Rep hits are more powerful than you might think. The Johnson sends a very clear message of displeasure to the fixer(s) who set up the run. This message gets around the shadows pretty quickly afterwards.[/edit]

None, there is no real surefire way of ensuring the mission objectives. Just as there is no real surefire way of ensuring that the Johnson isn't going to betray or otherwise set up the runners.

Well, my problem with reputation are wider spread and I'll possibly open another thread about this since I find it to be very essential and worth discussing.

More on topic:
My Johnsons hardly even pay half of the pay up front, more like 20% most of the time BUT usually the runners call the Johnson the second they complete the job and get out alive. They will then make an appointment with the Mr. J to get their pay. Till now this has worked out and till now the players never tried to screw with their Johnson but now I have a very creative group of players and I believe it's only a matter of time until they try. Is it reasonable for a Johnson to wait a few days or weeks until the dust has settled and he is sure everything happened as ordered?

As for the information leaking / looting: Who will ever know that the runners broke the terms of their agreement? As long as they don't sell the data/loot to the fixer who organized the job for them, they should be fine. Depending on the loot they could also keep it for a while and sell it off bit by bit. Who is ever to know that they did this certain run and who is to connect that loot with the runners and/or the run and who is then to ask whether they where "allowed" to steal it or not? It's highly unlikely that anyone will ever deduct a breach of contract from a few runners selling things. There's nobody keeping the great overview. Everybody involved only sees a small section of the story but never enough to actually get something harmfull for the runners out of it.
Of course it can always happen that for some strange reason the Johnson hears about the 'ware hitting the streets and the only ones able to sell this would be the runners. However, this is only likely when the data is pretty hot (hot enough to cause some excitement in the shadows/corporate world) or if they are dumb enough to sell large amounts of hot equipment over a short amount of time.

Question 1
Example1: A "bonus" for not being caught? Not being caught is pretty fragging much a requirement. You get caught, the contract is forfeit. You always get to keep the up front pay, but anything else is up in the air. Work out a new one (i.e. please please don't kill me Mr J, I'll make it up to you). As for knowing they got caught... a good Mr J has his feelers inside the target corp and inside law enforcement agencies. Nothing necesseraly very deep, but finding out if the runners got sloppy should be easy. If he's not certain, but thinks maybe things got sloppy, and can make up 101 plausible reasons to delay paying the runners until he knows for sure.

Example2: Someone who orders a hit on someone else probably personnally pays pretty well attention to how it's done. If you asked a hitman to kill someone for you, don't you think you'd be pretty tense about how well it's done? He will find a way to know, that's for sure.

Conclusion: the J always has some sort of way to know how well it went down, usually some small insider information. It's easy to get general inside info. Detailled info is another matter, but general info should be enough to gauge quality. Plus, there's always surveillance.

Question 2
Example1: He won't know. Either he'll see it on the market and now have to plan on how to kill the runners, or he won't and all is well. Payback is the only option in case of treachery.
Example 2: Once again, payback. If the orders are *specifically* not to steal other sutff, then the runners should ask for more money to compensate. Else, they can steal all they want. If he paid them not to steal other stuff, and they still do, then once again it's payback time.

Conclusion: Reputation and Payback are the only tools available to Johnsons when it comes to honour.

Typically, I ask for a "mission objectives" list so the Johnson can specify what is and is not required for the job.

Additionally, I ask about any verification requirements, if necessary. Do you really want his head on a silver platter? What grade of silver? Any particular fashion of platter?

And there is nothing wrong with a Johnson waiting a few days for the heat to blow over -- most PCs would wait for that as well, especially if they're moving hot goods as freebies to the job.

A standard Johnson clause might be "contact me a week after completion of the job and we will make arrangements" or he might leave the remaining payment with the fixer to avoid the "wow, Bob's account was short 20% before Jim got whacked and now the remaining 80% just got transferred to...Poppa Doc's House of Guns and Sushi? What the frag?"

And if it's a sensitive job, the Johnson may want to verify the results with his (or her) own intel before confirming satisfactory completion of the job. Granted, the time delay in verification and final payment would be best agreed upon in advance to keep both parties happy. "What do you mean you can't confirm until next year?"

-Siege

20% up front, 20% upon completion of the job and initial verification, 60% upon absolute verification.

Or similar. Time lapses of no more than ten days between completion and payment are probably pretty common.

~J

So fiddle with the percentages. Remember, the J has an equally tenuous hold on the runners should they decide to screw him.

~J

True.

If a team runs off with the money, their rep is fragged. However there's always another desperate sinless out there willing to run for some cred.

The Corps, on the other hand, just can't make a new Johnson overnight. Johnsons that ruin their rep need to be replaced, and that costs time, money, and resources.

Enless the corp specifically tells the Johnson to stiff the runners, the tradeoff between a few tens of thousands verses the cost of ruining the rep of their resource is not good for the bottom line.

Independant Johnsons are a different matter, but the Corps do set the tone and the expectations in the unwritten rules. The shadows exist at their sufferance. The shadows had damn well play by their rules.

Amount of profit is life. Ever hear of stockholders?

And most businessmen won't have massive Negotiations scores any more than most cops would have massive Pistols scores.

~J

True, to a degree. Sure, a corp can replace Johnsons.

The problem with rotating Johnsons frequently is that a new Johnson has no Rep. No Rep means less people will do business with him.

So without a good network of contacts, and people willing to vouch for him, how is a new Johnson supposed to do his job?

Presumeably the Corporate Office has a rolodex of names who may (or may not) be interested in doing business with a Johnson.

The Johnson is a relatively nameless face who might be the person responsible for the job originally or he might be a minion who's acting as intermediary for another person/department.

This, of course, is dependent on what view of the Johnson/Fixer/Runner relationship you choose to endorse.

The fixer may actually have no idea what person/company he's doing business with or they might have a long professional relationship.

-Siege

What keeps the runners honest? You screw a J or a fixer, everyone in town knows about it.

What keeps a Johnson honest? A quote (probably butchered) from Neuromancer. "You're Mr. Nobody. You pay to keep from becoming a Mr. Somebody."

The Abstruse One

Hm, well ok... I guess this discussion won't go much further without running in circles. I think we all agree that Johnsons usually don't have a rep (except for the odd neutral freelance johnson who is hired as a middleman). Their job is to be unknown, most of the time. Some corps probably have some prestige-Johnsons, for the odd job when it's ok for the runners to know who's behind it but I think this will be more of an exception then a rule.

So, to sum things up:
A Johnson will usually give some feedback to the fixer or whoever got the runners to him, causing them to get worse or less jobs.
He will eventually keep the payment until he at least somehow has an idea that the job was done right (this idea is so incredibly simple, effective and reasonable I can't believe it didn't occur to me before).
He will, should he be screwed bad enough, search retribution of some kind.
He will start his own efforts to find out whether the runners really didn't steal and sell anything.

Did I get this right? Did I miss something?

"Do you understand your value to the organization Resnick?"
(brief pause)
"You're a sadist. You lack compunction. That comes in handy."

Pretty much sums up most Johnson's as well.

Do keep in mind that not all (not even most) Johnsons are actually professional Johnsons. Sure, the corp will his profesional Johnsons around for when something "official" (i.e. fitting the corporate agenda not something public) needs doing but in the end there are still all the private agendas of the corps, jobs offered by private persons, runs coming from the mob or gangs or some small coprs or organizations.
And in those cases, Johnsons are just normal people who have some shadowy dealings. Most of them probably aren't even good in negotiating with runners. Tthey will be nervous and unexperienced. And most of all they are expendable (well, as expendable as it gets when you have limited personel). Plus they don't tend to have a street rep.

Haliburton is a corp itself. Though it would be kinda cool if it could combine into Ultimate Form Johnson.

~J

Sandman, I think you've got the jist of it here. But I also think that you aren't looking far enough back. You start your timeline at the point where the Johnson has a mission and hires the runners and that's good: you're thinking from the standpoint of your NPC.

I would suggest asking yourself how the johnson gets his objectives. Does the corp have an intelligence arm that feeds him targets for a shadowrun? Does he make it up himself? Where does he get his information from? How did Mr. J know that Scientist "X" wants to change jobs? Why does he know that the new prototype weapon from Ares is really ready (and that it's worth stealing)? If you think about the answers to these questions, it'll be pretty obvious how the Johnson will know whether or not he's been successful.

My suggestion is that Mr. Johnson is a lot like a CIA Officer who's got diplomatic cover. That is, he's at the US Embassy in Country X's capital, but his job title is "Cultural Attache" or "Agricultural Assistance Underadvisor" or something. He's got the benefits of diplomatic immunity: if you touch him, you start a war. However, he's easily traced to the US so he can't do much directly. What this officer can do is convince other people to spy for him: whether through bribery, blackmail, patriotism (a lot of people spy for the US because they believe their government is corrupt) or even just for the power (look at Achmad Chalabi for that). Mr. J runs a network of moles, recruited spies, deckers, mages and analysts. He can ask for an "official" covert ops team if he thinks the job is worth it, but has as much chance of getting it as the US Station Chief in Istanbul does of getting Delta Force to come into a US allied country.

Mr. Johnson usually knows if the job has been botched. He'll know because whatever intelligence network told him the job had to be done in the first place is probably there after the run. Of course, this could be tricky for him. For example, if the runners manage to shoot the security guard that Johnson has paid off he's lost his confirmation. Then he has to wonder: Did the runners know that guard X was his man? Was he followed to the Meet and survielled there so that the target corp made the runners a counteroffer? So factor this stuff into Johnson's thinking. If the job is unusually hard to detect, maybe he'll even request that the runners' bring along a more trusted "company man" along. That man may even be a shadowrunner (not part of the team) who has a needed specialty and who isn't meeting the Johnson for the first time like it seems. Either way, be creative and be ruthless. It's all shadowrun in the end.

That's a good point there... I'm pretty sure this'll bring up some more questions as I think about it but for know I'll just accept it and play with it for a bit in my mind. I definately think this will help coming up with new stories and creating more detailed runs and NPCs.

When you only have one man inside, you order a Shadowrun, sans-casualties.

Yeah, the price jumps, but hey, its worth it to keep Osama's toweldresser on the payroll right?

A lot of it will depend on the job requested.

The more detailed and complex the job, the more likely it will go to a proven Fixer that has a track record with a given employer -- at least enough to establish a modicum of trust.

If it's little more than grunt work, the fixer is working his way up the food chain like anyone else and has to hope like all hell he's not getting hung out to dry as an expendable asset.

Provided, of course, on which corporate perspective you choose to endorse in your game.

And some runners would take most jobs with little or no questions asked -- even working on the fixer's line of, "Well, I know jack about the Johnson, but he's contracting these job specs. Interested?"

-Siege

Ok, lets get this straight....

If Corps are going to burn runners on a regular basis then where does it stop?

Unless all the corp ever wants is punks to do general damage or violence then you need the confidence of a Fixer to find 'the right people for the job'. If a fixer gets a rep for setting up runners with non-paying Mr J's or worse gets a rep for having the runners they hook up disappear and never be seen again, then that fixer won't get many runners wanting to do business through them.

Also, if you are going to burn the runners you may as well burn the fixer to avoid paying him too...

And your disposable Mr J may as well get burned by the Corp, save paying him, and he *definitely* knows too much to simply pay off, so a swift killing is in order... better hire out some runners to do it... D'oh! A never ending cycle of hiring Mr J's to arrange the whacking of their predecessor...

Basically, everything in SR boils down to trust and reputation. The Corp has to trust it's Mr J not to simply go to Lone Star (or its Rival Corps) and simply expose the Corp's criminal activities etc. Mr J has to trust that the Corp won't just whack him after the run to tie up loose ends.

Mr J has to trust that the Fixer isn't really a cop, and actually can find the right people for the job. The Fixer has to trust that Mr J isn't a cop, won't whack him to tie up loose ends, and will actually pay up per contract (and pay the runners too, within reason... see above)

The Fixer has to trust that the runners he finds aren't cops, and are up to the job in question. The runners have to trust that the Fixer isn't a cop, and hasn't set them up with a bad Mr J, or for an impossible mission (dum dum der da dum dum der da dum dum der da diddle deee diddle deee...)

Frankly, If corps weer to screw runners more than 1% of the time then the chances are that no group of runners/fixers etc would get any chance to build up a rep for being good at their job enough for a corp to hire them in the first place... unlees, as I said at the start, the Corps only ever want to get cheap street punks to do general thuggery.

If you want to hire professional runners with professional skills to do a professional job for you then you have to treat it just like any other business transaction and pay up.

Sure, the PC's might be the sort that attract the 1% of bad runs more often than an average NPC crew will, but even so anything over 1 in 10 runs where the Johnson deliberately screws the runners would be unbelievable to me.

Even if the runners and possibly the fixer managed to get screwed and live to tell about it, there are always more runners hungry for nuyen.

Which means a pretty hefty amount of fodder to cast about and a rumor mill only covers so much.

-Siege

I don't think a Johnson screws with his runners for fun and personal amusement.

One of the better examples is mentioned about the Johnson who sacrificed a team of five years for a solid position at Ares.

Shadowrunners are an asset like anything else -- an expendable asset. If, by their deaths, they can achieve the desired objective -- whoops.

Assets, pawns -- whatever you call them, they are means to an end and will be used accordingly.

-Siege