[Gustovness]

Hey guys, I'm doing my first ever GM game and I'm halfway through putting it together with people submitting their completed characters.  I want the story to start off with none of them knowing each other but they end up on the same team due to having the same fixer and the fixer having to throw together a team on short notice.  My question is this: Should I have forced them to include this fixer into their contacts at character creation? The mission scope will be under 24 hours so there won't be too much use for fixers or prolonged information gathering; the fixer is only there for the RP purpose of pretty much bringing everyone together.  Is that ok?

[Gustovness]

oh, also, how do fixer's get commission? How's that's work?  If the Johnson says they'll pay 10k to the team, is that AFTER the fixer's cut?  How's it USUALLY work?

[Netzgeist]

Give them all this common minor fixer as a free contact; in this way, you are not penalizing them in any way and are also giving a little something for them. Having to pay for a resource you will not use is not cool.

About the fixer's commision, I usually consider this to be a deal made between Fixer and Johnson, and so the characters don't need to bother about that (and will usually don't know about that). Well, you are talking about how it usually works, and here I can only bring examples for the few games I played. If you take the missions, the fixer's cut is something that is never discussed, so it's implied that has already been dealt with or is not something the characters should concern themselves. The only game I played that one fixer directly intervened and asked the character directly for a fixer's fee there was some RP-reasons for that particular fixer try it - and  yet, he would receive nothing more than the "unknown but pretty much high enough" fee for that particular job.

[Gustovness]

thanks!

[Xzylvador]

Runners don't neccesarily have to have the same fixer to get hired for the same job. In fact, if it had to be done that quickly, asking several fixers for "a decent runner" can be quicker than asking for a full team.
It's quite possible for a Johnson to know dozens of fixers. While it can certainly be easier for the Johnson to just call one fixer and ask for a full 'team', depending on the job the Johnson might decide that getting different runners from different fixers has a better chance of keeping the job below the radar and out of underworld gossip.vSometimes just the knowledge that a certain person has hired a team with a certain specialization could be enough to tip off other interested parties that something's going on.
Of course, if it's the same fixer for story reasons, then yeah, I'd also recommend giving them the contact for free. It's not like these things get cheesy or overpowered. Since you're in direct control of everything this fixer knows or does, it's just another tool you can use to help tell your story.

And yeah, for the fixer's fee thing Netzgeist is right. Mr.J's and fixers pretty much alwaus deal among themselves independently from the runners. Negotiating for a correct fee -preferably one both sides are satisfied with- can be tricky business enough without a third party involved.