Aside from the negotiation skill, are there any rules for if a character wants to negotiate with their Johnson to get more money for a run? If the character has more successes in a negotiation test, how does this influence the "starting price"?

Also, I've read the section on racism about 20 times and I still don't understand the first 3 paragraphs. In the makeshift example it gives, a person rolls a 9, which gives a result of 3, meaning 3 racism points. This part I understand, but after that I get confused. It says that if the person rolls their own race to ignore it and roll again until 2 racial biases are indicated. This implies to me that 3 racism points means that the character is racist against 3 races, but ignoring his own race leaves him with 2 races. But then two sentances later it says that a character with racism 3 against orcs would be listed as "Racism (Orcs) +3." This seems to imply that you only roll once for your racism and then however many racism points you had are all applied to that race. I know I must me misunderstanding something somewhere, could someone help me out a bit? =) Thanks again guys.

Sure, opposed test between Johnson and negotiator. Winner receives a 5% modification to price in their favor. So, the Johnson wins and they may get paid less.

I've always thought that was strange, but I've since changed the process to this:

1. Ask players if they wish to negotiate. If yes, continue. If not then you're done!
2. Decide "behind the screen" what the offering price is.
3. Negotiating Player (henceforth NP) and Target (T) roll negotiations. alter offering price accordingly.
4. Now begin roleplaying the negotiations. Have the T offer a price higher than the modified price from the previous step. Let the players undercut it. But, the goal is to have the agreed upon price end up around the modified price from the previous step.
5. If things aren't going your way (players are being beligerent (sp?) or they're insiting on too much money) remember that a Johnson can find other teams. Remind them of that. Or, offer less money but some gear or intelligence. Whatever it takes to keep the game (a) moving and (b) fun. As long as (a) and (b) are satisfied, the players probably will be, too.

Example:
Players are negotiating with their Johnson. I decide the job is worth 2500 per person. They decide to negotiate and their Face rolls negotiations as does my NPC. Their face wins with 2 successes which means the run should end around 3000 per person (or the equivalent when using gear or information as a payment). Then, I'll tell the players that the Johnson is going to pay them 2000 per person. That's right, 2000. The players counter with 4000, I say 2500, they say 3700, I say 2900, they say 3400, I say 3000 and stand firm, they insist on 3300 so I say 2800 and some new gear, etc. Run it like it were real negotiations, too. Talk about your starving kids (if that's applicable to the situation) or the hit you took and why you can't afford more; they'll take about gear, maintenance, life-or-death-situations) and have fun with it!

I can't speak for the racism canon rules, but I generally just decide if I want someone to be racist and if so, provide a 1-4 modification based on how bad. It's often more a roleplaying thing, too. Your johnson hates orks? Then ignore the orkish character. That character talks, stare deadpan at the player and turn back to the Face. The Ork is the Face (it could happen!) then refuse to negotiate with a "Tusker." If it's bad enough, walk out and then send the Johnson's policlub at the players for being "Trog-Lovers" ignore all the well laid plans and just have a good old fashion racially motivated attempted hate crime

Keep in mind that the randomly generated Racism rules apply only to NPCs. Players make their own decisions.

~J

You guys are awesome, thanks for the help.