[Killerclown]

I am thinking about getting Shadowrun sooner or later and i already came up with a corp for possible Shadowrunners to bully. Their basic gimmick is that they are a homestyle, diner themed, chain of restaurants called Uncle Arnie's. The company was founded by Arnie Collins, or " Farmer Arnie" as many people call him. Event though Arnie retired as CEO of his company in 2065, he still stars in the famous " Farmer Arnie" commericals, effectively making Farmer Arnie their mascot. The current CEO and chairman is Andy Collins, Farmer Arnie's son. He still espouses the views of family togetherness and honesty that his father believed in public. But, like most CEOs in Shadowrun, he dables in backroom deals and other shady shit.

My question for you guys is what kind of secret's could Uncle Arnie's have that Shadowrunners could pilfer and who would hire Shadowrunners to take on these guys in the first place?

[farothel]

Possible secrets:
-covering up food poisoning in one of the restaurants (just an accident or not, up to you)
-using substandard ingredients.  Look up the horse meat scandal that's been going around for some years (I think it started around 2013) where they had horse meat in beef lasagna in the UK and other places.  In Belgium they had a food scandal in 1999 where chickens were fed food that had machine oil in it and those contained PCBs.  Stuff like that is bound to happen in the Shadowrun world too.  You can even use it as a basis of a whole campaign.  It starts out as a run against uncle Arnie, but after further investigation it turns out to be something much bigger.

Who would hire shadowrunners:
-rivals who are losing market share, from small chains just like them to the big chains who want to eliminate potential rivals.
-if secret 1: anybody who got sick and wants to get even by exposing them.
-a whistle blower who got fired and wants to get even.

[Jack_Spade]

Possible secrets:
- Food sources: Special cheap meat made from sapients is always an option. Secret recipes for various proprietory foods (sauces, bread, GMO yeast cultures)
- New developments for cheaper yet same tasting food stuffs with a miracle filler material - he who gets to market first wins.
- Secret support for specific hate groups through the former CEO - Arnie the Clansman
- Bribes to allow the use of mildly addictive substances in food preparation - super strong nutmeg
- Hidden health code violations covered up through legal and illegal means - targeting people who got sick from eating at Arnie's with gang violence to prevent them going to court (only local franchises - but approved by corporate)

Who hires the runners?
Competitors, local action groups, victims.

[Killerclown]

I might go for both the Racist group funding idea and the nutmeg idea. Andy's main ambition is to become a AA corporation and possibly someday, get a spot on the corporate court. So, you can tell he would probably do anything to get what he wants. He can evn go so far as to borrow money from a AAA corp. I wonder which of the AAA would willingly lend money to him?

[Jack_Spade]

To become an A or AA you need to diversify quite a lot - just being a restaurant business won't cut it.

[Killerclown]

Really?  Andy could start trying to buy out other business in a attempt to make to A status.  A smaller corporation could hire Shadowrunners to get dirt on Uncle Arnie's and Andy himself after hearing rumors that Andy will attempt a corporate takeover.

[Valis]

You'd have an easier time with the running being to sabotage a rival or steal some dirt on them to take their contract as the exclusive vendor for one of the AA or AAA Corp. Plus it also means the Runners need to be careful to make sure there's no evidence linking it to being a rival vendor/the rival involved.

[Killerclown]

Yeah, that idea can probably work better.

[Valis]

I'd imagine there'd be some perks to that as well, such as access to extremely rare ingredients at Corp events and easier access other stuff to boost the Restaurant up to a food industry A or AA, as opposed to a Corp A or AA. So instead of normal MegaCorp council Arnie's could be after that, a way to the world market as opposed to be restricted to their local continent/country.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

When plotting out the growth pattern for a corporation, always start by considering what their type of corporation's natural growth pattern would be.  For Uncle Arnies, you're looking first at restaurant --> food source --> transportation --> computers to organize everything --> protecting the source and transports -- but you're also looking at restaurant --> advertising --> non-food sales (t-shirts, Uncle Arnie dolls, etc.) --> the Farmer Arnie Hour (entertainment), etc.  This can have several patterns, as shown above, and/or multiple ones at the same time.  In this case, Uncle Arnie's is going to be trying to either develop in-house the utility to do these things, or else acquire a way of doing it either by contract (hire someone to make the toys) or by purchase (buy XYZ Toys, Inc. entirely).  Doing these things can cause shadowruns either as Uncle Arnie's tries to make it easier/cheaper to acquire an asset (threaten the current owners to sell at a lower price), or as someone tries to keep Arnie's from doing just that (rescue a kidnapee, or find evidence of wrongdoing to send to the nightly news and the courts).  These are standard sorts of shadowruns.

The second thing you need to consider is how 'tasty' they look to OTHER corporations.  Uncle Arnie has a great 'Just People' vibe that hooks into the folks in the UCAS and the CAS?  Sounds like a prime target for Ares to snatch up out of petty cash when, at some point, CEO Andy Collins (and board) leverage the corporation just a biiit too far in their attempt to snag either a rival or a useful company.  Again, standard sorts of shadowruns as larger (A, AA, and AAA-rated) corporations try to grab the corp when it's off-balance, or by Arnie's as they try to stave off such a snatch until they can get their financials back in order.

A third thing to consider is 'how are they making it work?'  Is Uncle Arnie's cutting corners somewhere?  Are they putting something 'extra' in the food to draw the customers back?  Or - perish the thought!! - are they squeaky-clean, and the shadowruns getting generated against Farmer Arnie by Pheedhouse Phil (owner of 'Phils Phabulous Pheedhouse', a 24-hours all-you-can-eat buffet that charges not by how much you eat, but by how much you weigh - MOM hates Pheedhouse Phil because they super-over-charge orks and trolls) are happening in order to plant fake evidence of fiscal philandering, put something nasty in the food vat just before an inspection is going to happen, that sort of thing.

And thus you get a whole crapton of possibilities even before they manage to get to A-rated 'National' status in the Corporate Court's listing.

[Killerclown]

When plotting out the growth pattern for a corporation, always start by considering what their type of corporation's natural growth pattern would be.  For Uncle Arnies, you're looking first at restaurant --> food source --> transportation --> computers to organize everything --> protecting the source and transports -- but you're also looking at restaurant --> advertising --> non-food sales (t-shirts, Uncle Arnie dolls, etc.) --> the Farmer Arnie Hour (entertainment), etc.  This can have several patterns, as shown above, and/or multiple ones at the same time.  In this case, Uncle Arnie's is going to be trying to either develop in-house the utility to do these things, or else acquire a way of doing it either by contract (hire someone to make the toys) or by purchase (buy XYZ Toys, Inc. entirely).  Doing these things can cause shadowruns either as Uncle Arnie's tries to make it easier/cheaper to acquire an asset (threaten the current owners to sell at a lower price), or as someone tries to keep Arnie's from doing just that (rescue a kidnapee, or find evidence of wrongdoing to send to the nightly news and the courts).  These are standard sorts of shadowruns.

The second thing you need to consider is how 'tasty' they look to OTHER corporations.  Uncle Arnie has a great 'Just People' vibe that hooks into the folks in the UCAS and the CAS?  Sounds like a prime target for Ares to snatch up out of petty cash when, at some point, CEO Andy Collins (and board) leverage the corporation just a biiit too far in their attempt to snag either a rival or a useful company.  Again, standard sorts of shadowruns as larger (A, AA, and AAA-rated) corporations try to grab the corp when it's off-balance, or by Arnie's as they try to stave off such a snatch until they can get their financials back in order.

A third thing to consider is 'how are they making it work?'  Is Uncle Arnie's cutting corners somewhere?  Are they putting something 'extra' in the food to draw the customers back?  Or - perish the thought!! - are they squeaky-clean, and the shadowruns getting generated against Farmer Arnie by Pheedhouse Phil (owner of 'Phils Phabulous Pheedhouse', a 24-hours all-you-can-eat buffet that charges not by how much you eat, but by how much you weigh - MOM hates Pheedhouse Phil because they super-over-charge orks and trolls) are happening in order to plant fake evidence of fiscal philandering, put something nasty in the food vat just before an inspection is going to happen, that sort of thing.

And thus you get a whole crapton of possibilities even before they manage to get to A-rated 'National' status in the Corporate Court's listing.

That is a great idea Wyrm. I can definitely see Farmer Arnie having his own tv show in the Seattle area. Also, Pheedhouse Phil sounds like a interesting client for Shadowrunners. ARES buying them out would be a interesti9ng plot point and I can see Andy blackmailing Shadowrunners to help him avoid that fate, especially if they did a run against them before. What do you think of the idea of the first run against them being a run to gather dirt on Farmer Arnie and his supposed use of funds he earned after retirement to fund various Human supremacist terrorist groups?

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Just as an FYI, Kclown, you don't have to quote the whole thing, especially if it's the post above yours. 

As a tip from a storyteller, limit the number of twists you put into a plotline, no matter the length.  I personally wouldn't put Uncle Arnie on the 'human supremacist' bandwagon; you already have a potential Humanis guy in Pheedhouse Phil, who charges trolls twelve times what he charges humans (and elves, but let's not get into that), just because they weigh more.  Okay, and eat more too, but let's not get into that, either.  When you make a person, a corporation, a corporate culture, make sure it resonates entirely and wholly - start either with the 'good guy' ("I'm Farmer Arnie, just wantin' ta feed folks right!") or the 'bad guy' ("Come on down to Phil's Phabulous Pheedhouse, where you can tuck the whole family up to the trough!!")  Sure you can make 'Mister Clean' into a secret slimeball, and the greasey snake-oil salesman is actually honest 24/7, but ...

... isn't that exactly what the kiddies (players) are expecting??  'Everyone in Shadowrun is dirty, nobody is what they seem, so be careful and look for the dagger this guy's gonna try to stick into our backs.'  "This guy is too clean, we gotta dig deeper to find out his links to Humanis / the Bugs / the Infected / the Toxics / the Elven (or Dragon) Conspiracy / etc."  SR has plenty of other people to play that card with - Lofwyr, Damien Knight, Arthur Vogel, whomever.  Throw them a good guy for once, and keep giving them the choice of either passing up some really spectacular paydays for going after him, or else feeling like the drekheels that kicked the puppy by taking those jobs.

So let Pheedhouse Phil try the blackmail, be the card-carrying Humanis member (or, better, the non-card-carrying Human Nation guy whose cheap food carries miniscule amounts of sterility drugs, or a binary type that is only formed by eating those combinations that their five- or ten-year observations have shown to be especially favored by local orks and trolls), be the creep who always tries to have an angle, a backup plan to stab the PCs in the back, a trump card to make sure they pay for doing something wrong.  And Uncle Arnie's, even as the company struggles to maintain its independence from 'standard' corporate shenanigans by Ares, Aztechnology, and the like, is essentially locked in a to-the-death struggle with Pheedhouse Phil's.  Who knows?  The PCs may start out by doing runs for Phil, then find out that Arnie is as honest as he claims, and wind up basically becoming Company Men for Uncle Arnie's ...

[Killerclown]

Good point. Perhaps I will make Pheedhouse Phil the racist douchebag and make Uncle Arnie's the pretty much clean. Andy and the board will probably hire Shadowrunners to pretty much try to ruin Pheedhouse Phil and to possibly protect themselves from a upcoming corporate buyout from Ares, Aztechnology or Wuxing.  Also, Farmer Arnie himself is retired as chairman and ceo but, he is still the company mascot and still has his popular tv show, The Farmer Arnie Hour.