[hinchy58]

Hey all,

This is my first time posting I have been put into a situation which I am not sure how to handle.

Quick Bio on each Character:
1) Jack - Corp SIN tied to Evo. Has a rating 11 connection boss head of R & D in Australia. He set it to a loyalty 5 for him (Took the quality from Run Faster). This guy is crazy but he is a 'specialist' for the corp.

2) Korver - Former basketball player and now runner to pay for his lifestyle. Has a lawyer friend, connection 4, loyalty 5.

3) Myriad a child born as a result of the last matrix crash 11 years ago and is a Technomancer. He is disguised as a dwarf.

So we normally have a group of 6 players, half the group was away from last nights session so we ran with just the 3 players. So the job was simple, biker gang wants to take over an independent arms dealer operation. Bikers hire the PCs to turn him through whatever they decide to do. But the result must be that the bikers have the operation.

So its set in a middle class suburban area, the front of this operation is a fine cigar store. First gun shot is fired quickly followed by several more. I roll the dice and Knights Errant are going to show up in 5 minutes. So they search some creates and then go into the large storeroom with the enemy all camped up ready to kill whoever came in. Korver stands in the door and is shot by 11 guys on semi burst. Impressively he is still standing.  Jack sees a truck in the room and decides to shoot it with explosive rounds into the gas tank. I allowed this and since it was a full tank I ruled that the stairs which was next to the truck and supporting beams for the upstairs level are now unstable as a result of this explosion (which killed everyone else and injured players).

This huge explosion draws the attention of more Knights Errant patrols so instead of just one or two showing up 8 showed up instead (2d6 roll). So the team then manage to grapple hook their way up stairs and find the guy in his office. Jack who was up there then throws the guy down a story and he sprains his ankle on landing. Jack then takes several minutes to search the office finds some fake ids for the guy, his wife and kid. He gives up then jumps down and they hear some movement in the store front. They don't go and look but they decide to go out the roller door for the truck which lead into an alley way. So they open the door and find themselves facing some Knight Errant patrol (in their obvious uniform).

Jack immediately does a called shot to the head and blows his head off. They get knocked out one by one. Myriad was using an 18F shotgun but it ended up in Jacks hands and Jack was the last one conscious. He eventually tries bolting back through the door and nearly escapes onto the street where more Knights Errant were waiting. Either way he is knocked unconscious by Knights Errant tasers.

So the 3 members of the team is arrested and this is their story:

1) Jacks player is arguing that his corp will send one of their best lawyers to get him out. Either way he is the one who blew up the truck and then killed a Knight Errant cop, with 5 Knight Errant witnesses. I do not think they would let him off that as he is a cop killer.

2) Myriad burns two edge (as the 11 year old child) and says he is there buying illegal cigars and had nothing to do with it. So I expect him to be released after a week or two.

3) Korver might have a difficult time with a lower lawyer but he wasn't the one who killed the cop and he didn't blow up the truck.

So my question for everyone here is. What should their punishment be. If they had surrendered I wouldn't even be asking but since they killed a cop (Jack at least) I don't expect him to get off. Jack's player argues that its Shadowrun so everyone is corrupt. Also that Evo would just automatically get him out because he works for them. With this information what do people think should happen?

[Lighthouse]

Jack should go to jail and make a new character but he doesn't have to. How experienced are your players? Are they new to Shadowrun? Maybe they don't get that getting into a shoot out with the cops is a loose/loose. I would write the next run as a prison break for the rest of the team. EVO may lend a hand in some small way if you see fit. Then it's fun for the whole family. Let us know how this turns out.

[hinchy58]

Thanks, thats helpful. The guys have been playing for a long while. We had another GM do it for 6 months or so. We took a break for 9 months and we started it again with me GMing. We have been running again for another 5 months so they have quite alot of experience. I'll let you know how it goes over the next couple of weeks.

[Mr. Black]

How devious and closed-mouth are you and the 3 players? An option is to set the players up as snitches. I have done it before. The players need to keep from telling the rest of the Crew what actually happened to them. Then let them set up the rest of the team, and let the fun and recriminations begin!

Otherwise I would say Jack is going to prison for life. Even the Big Ten doesn't want the bad publicity involved. An none of them want knight Errant looking the other way/responding slow to future emergency calls. IF somehow Jack gets off, his contact is going to be pissed. The contact had to do alot of work to get him free, and gave EVO a black eye for months. He will lose some of that loyalty (and perhaps some of that Connections, as people aren't going to want to deal with Joe Who Protects Cop Killers. Looks bad in the boardroom...), and be on the hook for the dirtiest of jobs EVO can come up with. And EVO has some really dirty jobs waiting...

Myriad might do juvie time. In the US, this would be until his 18th birthday. Bare minimum would be a couple of years and then parole until 18. But this case is heinous enough to possibly warrant trial as an adult (cop killing and a 18F firearm...), which means long jail time, unless he rats out Jack. The DA would probably then give him parole until 18 with no time served. Or hand him over to Ares Matrix Technologies division for "testing"...

Korver will also get a deal from the DA, rat out jack for reduced time. Plea to various felonies (all that illegal gear and fake ideas, etc.,) do a couple of years+parole, or time served+parole.

None of this is good for the characters. Parole will require criminal SINs, regular jobs, electronic monitoring, and weekly/monthly check ins with their parole officer. All of those will make future running hard. Failing to show up for work, going outside of your electronic tether range, not checking in, telling the DA any lies/omissions he/she can prove*, and committing any more crimes will revoke parole and place them on the Most Wanted list. Which means bounty hunters and other badness.

Remember that if they have been processed, they all now have Criminal SINs... Also they will lose all the restricted/forbidden gear they were carrying. And maybe even any illegal cyberwear, if they are there long enough.

*watch the special commentary on Good Fellas with the actual Henry Hill and his parole officer to get an idea of what this all entails. 

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Being an Evo enthusiast, I'd just say that Evo still has to toe the Corporate Court line: 'you break it, you pay for it'.  Jack committed a crime outside of Evo jurisdiction, against another corporation - Ares.  Ares currently has him in custody.  Evo is going to say, "We didn't know he was a total psychopath.  Please allow one of our human resources officers to attend his execution, so that we may properly close out his SIN."  If the player pushes his C11/L5 contact, then sure, let the guy work some magic to get Jack free - but he's still going to be out of the game as Evo takes him behind closed doors, modifies him, and moves him out of the country, perhaps to one of THEIR experimental gulags.  Out from KE/Ares?  Yes.  Out of trouble / still a PC?  No.  He's asking his contact to back him against an open-and-shut case, and Evo is going to have to pay death benefits, etc. for the dead guy.  So they're going to take it out of his hide.

[hinchy58]

None of this is good for the characters. Parole will require criminal SINs, regular jobs, electronic monitoring, and weekly/monthly check ins with their parole officer. All of those will make future running hard. Failing to show up for work, going outside of your electronic tether range, not checking in, telling the DA any lies/omissions he/she can prove*, and committing any more crimes will revoke parole and place them on the Most Wanted list. Which means bounty hunters and other badness.

Remember that if they have been processed, they all now have Criminal SINs... Also they will lose all the restricted/forbidden gear they were carrying. Acnd maybe even any illegal cyberwear, if they are there long enough.

*watch the special commentary on Good Fellas with the actual Henry Hill and his parole officer to get an idea of what this all entails.

Thanks this helps quite a bit. Jack's player has tried pitching bribing the DPP (DA basically of Australia). I am definitely going to give them all criminal SIN and I do think Jack needs to be removed as a PC. Jack's player is convinced that EVO is an auto get out of jail free card and he will still be used. The Contact C11/E5 owes him one for saving his life on a run. But that still moves him out of the country at least as suggested I reckon. But bribing the DPP, I don't know how much effort EVO would go to do this. What are peoples thoughts on this?

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Understand that this is not a matter of the local Guardia, no matter what country it's happening in, no matter what level of government you're talking about; Knight Errant is a wholly-owned and -operated subsidiary of Ares - a AAA corporation, just like Evo.  An Evo citizen (Jack) has just murdered an Ares employee (KE officer - also possibly an Ares citizen) in front of a dozen witnesses (most of them also KE officers, therefore also Ares employees, and thus possibly also Ares citizens), and was subsequently captured by the aforementioned Ares employees.  That means he's going to be sitting in a KE/Ares holding cell until KE/Ares decides what to do with him.

Bribing the friggin' DPP ain't gonna do jack shit; it ain't Australia's jurisdiction.  This is a Corporate Court matter, or at least a matter governed by the rules and regulations laid down BY the Corporate Court.  This is the destruction of corporate property (Citizen/Employee, One (1), Knight Errant subsidiary of Ares Macrotechnology) pure and simple, and Evo is going to have to pay for it.  How they choose to pay is up to you - either the 11/5 contact pays through the nose, or goes to Evo and puts his life and career on the line and Evo pays the tab, or (IMO most likely) Mr. 11/5 goes to Evo and they decline to pay the tab, he CAN'T pay the tab, and so Ares does whatever they want to him (up to and including implanting a cortex bomb), while Evo rescinds his SIN on the one hand and Ares tags him with a Criminal SIN on the other, along with other nasty 'you fucked up' shit.

That, personally, is where I'd go - let Jack continue to be played, but let him know that his corporate masters are gone, he's lost major pull with the exec (11/5 goes to, perhaps, 11/3 - because going to the wall for him, even unsuccessfully, is going to have a Negative Impact On Your Contact's Corporate Relationships), and if he torques KE/Ares off, you-as-GM will simply tell him he's gone kablooie.

[Leevizer]

Alternatively, you can have the EVO contact work some magic to get him out of prison, make sure the player and the character knows how HUGE of a favour this is and then make sure that the player know he OWES him. Possibly the contact OWNs the character now. Then, propably at the most inopportunate moment for the runners, the contact calls back the huge favour and it's going to be big, tough, epic and amazing, which is good for a Shadowrun.

If your players are alright with the criminal SIN/removing characters from play thing then yes, you can go along with that. But if you're going to drop that as a surprise to the players or they won't agree to it, you have a chance of breaking your entire group there. I'm not saying that punishing your players is wrong, but from what I've understood we are talking about a somewhat new group with a somewhat new GM going over their heads and now having to pick up the pieces.

And no, you should not say that it was all a dream and start the next session fresh.

[Reaver]

Going to side with Wyrm on this.

To put this in perspective, this is the same as if an Aussie citizen walked into a U.S Federal building, on U.S. soil and shot domeone and was captured.

Doesn't matter who that aussie citizen was, there is NO way the americans are going to let him go, not even if the PM of Austrialia asked. And really, they wouldn't ask. This is a pretty open and shut case. Jack could be EVO CFO's favorite bedroom playtoy, and it still isn't going to matter. The damage to EVO's rep would be too great, the bribes too large, for such an unimportant asset of EVO (and make mo mistakes.... citizens and employees are assets. With a final dollar value attached to them.)

Just cause you know someone, doesn't mean he can help you....

[brasso]

Pretty much agree with all the posts here. But if you wanted to give Jack one last roll, you could line it up so that the cops who came by were on the take from the arms dealers, and were looking out for their investment. Initially, things are going to go as posted. However, it could be that something that Jack saw in the office didn't quite add up - maybe it was a name or number of one of the cops - evidence which ties KE to the arms dealers. Or maybe, they see the KE having a heated conversation to one side, and pointing up at the office, or perhaps some of the weapons in the storehouse haven't been "processed" and are fresh from the Ares factory. It wouldn't be hard to imagine KE, a subsidiary of the world's largest arms dealer, somehow being in bed with local distributors.

It would be up to those runners who aren't in prison to investigate and chase down the leads, while those inside (not a KE prison, surely) dodge assassination attempts from the guards and other inmates, while getting protection from the gang that hired them, while their lawyers try to get them out.

This should not be an easy option, as that would probably send the wrong message. But it could lead to some interesting intrigue. If the KE cops are connected to the arms dealers, just how high up does it go? In the police and in Ares? And if so, which corporation would pay for the story to get out? Lone Star maybe?