Okay, one game I was in ended up with odd effects. Due to the team pulling a few runs with a Lone Star captain as the Johnson, the group ended up on Lone Star's good side. I mean enough of a good side Lone Star helped extract the team from the Barrens during a major battle between the Yaks and several local gangs (Yaks were getting beaten by those gangs on every level and got tired of it).

Now, ignoring the unusual plot, I was wondering how many of you think the PCs can actually get on the good side of Lone Star, such as what happened above. And how you think it will change the game.

If the players can avoid any wanton destruction, death of civvies, widespread media attention, and manage to not so much as look the wrong way at a Star cop let alone blow him, his partner, his car, and his pet cocker spaniel away... then yeah I could see the Star helping them out if they do some runs for them

But what fun is Shadowrun without wanton destruction or random murder?

A lot, if your group gets a good case of the Clevers.

Don't EVER forget, Lonestar is a corp. like any other. Yeah, they're job is to police stuff but just as there's corruption/independent actions in other corps some is there as well. This "diversion of resources" could go unnoticed or disregarded if those conditions mentioned earlier (like media attention) are met. Every division is aware of the actions of others.

I've used LS as a Johnson more than once. Right now, I'm planning a wetwork job...a LS officer is trying to get a pretty sick criminal, but he has powerful friends who keep him protected from the law. So the officer hires runners for some vigilante justice instead...

Another time, the runners were hired to discredit a KE operation. And yet another time, they got a legal bounty hunting license...

I've a run penciled in my timeline which involves a pair of LS officers hiring the PC's to 'save taxpayer's money' after a perp gets off on a technicality. It's part of my 'Sixth World without the cutsey bunny crap' story arc.

Afterall, rapists should be worse off when everyone is stronger than your average ox and carries a large gun.

Except that they have as equal a chance to be stronger than an ox and carry a large gun as everyone else.

If players get on LS's good side, and stay there, I see no reason not to have LS go easy on them. Re: the barrens example, the report might read that 'a group of legally armed citizens were caught up in the gang related violence.' It doesn't mean that they have a get out of jail free card, or can call up a HTR team whenever they want, but as one in game example went:

Me: They're holed up in that warehouse, but they're packing a hell of a lot of weaponry and they've got people watching the perimeter.

P2: One second. *pulls out cell phone* Hey Dave (Lonestar contact that we've successfully helped in the past), it's P2. You know that nightclub massacre that was making the screamsheets last night? We've tracked the guilty parties down, but they're a little out of our leage. You think the Star might want this feather for their cap?

Three hours later, the HTR team arrived. Good publicity for the star (the gang had slaughtered a rival gang and several night club employees, and strung them up in the club kitchen), even better relations with the contact, and we didn't get shot with automatic weapons. It's amusing, and actually kind of nice sometimes, to be faced with a bad situation and be able to call the police.

Yeah, that's precisedly why my character is gonna start hanging out in a 'cop bar' in SeaTac. He's ex corpsec anyway, so they're 'his kinda people' and it'll also help with any relations with the Star.

The one thing I'm wondering, despite the aninosity between the Star and KE, do the beat cops et al hang out in the same 'cop bars' or do you get a 'Star bar' and a 'KE bar'?

And please, no poor jokes about candy/chocolate please :o)

If you are good to the Star the Star will be good to you, up to a point. However, if you are good to the Star and word gets out, less reputable characters won't touch you with a 10-foot pole (unless it involves rolling a polearm skill). There is a fine line between a cop's buddy and a stoolie. Stoolies don't live very long. If criminal contacts think that you may rat them out you'll end up being targeted for some wetwork.

I would have to agree with hyzmarca, theres a fine line to walk when your chummers are from both sides of the tracks. you have to worry about everyone getting paraniod if its let out that you run both sides of the law.

The stoolie thing definitely. Then there's also the fact that any rival security corp worth their salt (say Knight Errant) would probably treat said runners a bit more harshly than normal too, if they knew that you all were in cahoots with an uppity-up in LS. I'd work your team over on that angle if you guys were in my group.

Also, just because that captain is on your good side, wouldn't necessarily mean that all of the force was as well. As is true in real precincts, there are plenty of dirty cops paid out by various factions. A true-to-life cop is going to do what he's paid to do, not whom his commander likes. Nor would it mean that other divisions of Lone Star would see you the same as that captain. Despite the fact that cops can sometimes be the worst criminals out there, they would still see you and your team for what they are... shadowrunners (criminals).

There was a running group I played with that had a bad ass mage who had been around for about two years. The character started with a legal SIN and the player of said mage was a really smart. He managed to go all that time without the character getting arrested or caught on the security camera with his real face on.

Long story short, another character dared him to go into Lone Star and apply for a job. Which he did. The GM figured Lonestar would hire a mage with no priors and freakily high initiate rating. Next thing I know, we're running with a mage whose day job is in the magic threats department of Lone Star!!!

Don't forget that Lonestar is jsut another money-driven corporation with government contracts. It's unlikely that you'll get on the good side of the entire corporation, but if you do enough favors for someone who's high up the chain, then you'll at least get alot of leeway in that individual's jurisdiction as long as you don't step on their toes.