31 Jul 2020

Shadowrun Thoughts - Mr. Johnson and Chronic Backstabbing Syndrome

It's been quiet around here.  I hate summer.  And record heat and humidity.  It makes doing anything difficult, even thinking.  The heat and humidity just drain you of energy.  Summer sucks.

On to the meat of the post.  A recent thread over at RPG.net, "The worse tropes in modules/scenarios that new writers should really avoid", had me thinking.  Shadowrun and, to a lesser degree, Cyberpunk 2020, especially in published adventures, tended to have the PCs betrayed by their employer in one way or another.  It's not as bad as it used to be, but after the first betrayal, the players aren't going to trust anyone who hires them.  This is a problem.

If you can't trust the people paying you in a corporate environment, that leads to a morale problem.  If independent freelance expendable redshirts realize that they are expendable redshirts, they're going to make sure they can't be screwed over.  For the players and GM, this leads to an escalating war.  For the characters in-setting, at some point, they are just not going to get hired.  Reputation is important; a bad rep leads to jobs drying up.

Rep works both ways, though.  If, say, Mitsuhama has a reputation for killing off runner after every job, no one will want to work for them.  Aztechechnology sort of does have that rep in the in-setting fiction and amongst players.  No one wants to be used as a blood sacrifice to power magic man wasn't supposed to know about yet.  Aztech gets around the problem by not naming everything after the megacorp.  Sure, Aztech is a danger, but Stuffer Shack is just a chain of corner stores until someone digs into the ownership layers to the top of the pyramid.

As a GM, I'd want to keep the "Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal" betrayal moment for the drama.  It's part of the literature.  It works and keeps players on their toes, but players will only let it happen once.  Not so good.  So, if I were to GM again, this is what I'd lay out to players.

The characters, unless I'm told otherwise, are experienced.  No one is going to take a chance on a group of rookies.  A group with a couple of rookies is a different matter; the veterans can bring the rookies up to speed.  Since the characters are experienced, they know where they fit in the world.  They are aware that they have desirable skills that they can rent out to anyone willing to pay.  Most Mr. Johnsons know that if they burn a runner team, their own rep takes a hit, at least amongst fixers.  If a runner team gets burnt, it's because they screwed up badly.  Word will get out about the screw up.  That's why there's a rep mechanic in the game.

If a crew of runners does get betrayed by a Mr. Johnson without being a bunch of screw ups, there'll be two possible reasons.  The first, the runners discovered something that they shouldn't have and now there's a major cover up to do.  Mr. Johnson might also be covered up with extreme prejudice.  If this happens, the PCs now have something important on their hands to figure out how to deal with.  Depending on the players, I may just start the adventure at the interesting part, the betrayal, with the run having been successful.  Killing the Johnson and leaving the body for the PCs to find gives them a start on getting the heat off before it gets too hot.  Alternatively, Mr. J. is running his own racket.  If the corporation finds out, Mr. Johnson may find himself fired and the runners hired to deliver the pink slip.

The other reason for the betrayal is that the Johnson is a rank amateur.  He's going by popular fiction, because of course runners get betrayed in the fiction in the setting.  The good news, Mr. J isn't going to be good at it, bringing goons who aren't in the PCs' weight class.  The goal for the PCs now becomes getting paid and teaching Mr. J a good lesson.

The typical Mr, Johnson isn't going to betray a crew of runners.  There's no percentage in it.  Nickel-and-diming fees, sure; that's part of the dance.  Betraying every crew that they hire?  Word will get out and no one will work for Mr. J.  There has to be a good reason, and not paying a crew ¥50 000 doesn't cut it.

The characters will know this, even if the players don't, so laying this out pre-campaign is key.  It's a way to manage expectations.  When a betrayal happens, the players are ready and know it's atypical.  What helps is having a few normal runs, where Mr. Johnson takes the McGuffin, hands over the credsticks, and drives off in a black limo and nothing happens to the PCs.  (Warnings of a gang moving in to reclaim territory if the PCs stay too long isn't a betrayal; it's life in the sprawl.)

Short version - Mr. Johnson isn't an idiot.  If he is, give signs to the players so they can prepare for the betrayal coming up.  And don't overuse the betrayal plot.  It turns players paranoid.

Today, over at Psycho Drive-In, Bardcore.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, The Untouchables Part I - Robert Stack as Eliot Ness

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