[Maded]

Okay, so your player wants their character to be a member of a powerful gang (as in Los Angeles Ardientes) as a part of their backstory. They decide to take a Group Contact to cover it.  But I'm the type of GM who thinks of this sort of a relationship needs a Negative Quality to cover the gang's influence over the character as well. Here's my thoughts on why.

As a member of a gang, you don't just have buddies you can call on whenever you want to. You've got a wide variety of duties to perform at the behest of your leaders, who expect you to do as you're told when you are told to do it and not screw things up. You've got to protect the rep of your gang, and face off any challenges to that rep. You've got turf you have to help defend. You've got to dodge cops who know your gang's rep and yours, because they are intertwined. And you've got to answer calls to help out your gang buddies whenever they want help with something too. All of this is going to eat into the time and efforts of a gang member trying their hand at the shadows.

So sure, Mister/Miss Player, take that massive group contact. But you're going to have some negative consequences as well that come with the territory. Which is why I tend to tack on the Day Job Quality to anyone writing in a gang-based background. The hours required depend on both the size and the character's status within the gang. And I don't require a SIN with it.

Does that sound like a reasonable approach to you guys?

[UmaroVI]

I think this should probably be Made Man.

[raggedhalo]

Yeah, this is exactly what Made Man (a positive quality) does.

[Zilfer]

I was actually about to ask that because someone in my group took made man, and i was wondering what other things i could do to spice up the game. I haven't really had anyone called up in the middle of a job from their contacts yet but i'm looking to do that soon to give the game a more dynamic world view. Hopefully they don't detracted from the mission's i've been doing.

[Maded]

Ah, never noticed the 30 hrs. required thing on Made Man. That part makes it a little more in line with what I was thinking, definitely.

[Mirikon]

Made Man implies that they are still actively a part of the organization. If they left the gang, but still have ties, then that would be a contact, either with the gang as a whole, or a member of the gang in particular. But I see no reason to force qualities on the person. There are much simpler, far more elegant ways to handle this. Afterall, you never really leave a gang, even if you 'graduate' to being a shadowrunner. The gang will call on you, if they need help, and they WILL expect you to drop everything and help out. If you've read the last two sentences and haven't thought of at least five ways this can bite a character in the hoop, you need to turn in your DM screen.

[JustADude]

The gang will call on you, if they need help, and they WILL expect you to drop everything and help out.

In other words, they act like any other really pushy Contact that's in trouble. Don't help, lose Loyalty and possibly get payback coming your way.

[Tias]

If he is a former member of LAA, he should probably be required to mention why he's not currently Made in his backstory. Is he on good terms with them? If so, he could have Enemies in the form of law enforcement or rival gangs and syndicates. If not? He could be Hung Out to Dry, or maybe the local law enforcements mother corp has his Records on File.

You don't stay in the big leagues without some negative qualities, at least not forever, in my opinion.

[Mirikon]

Gangers do 'graduate' to running. Unless your former gang was a group of crazies like the Halloweeners, you can leave on good terms. People 'retire' from the gang life all the time, though it is like the mob. Once you're in, you never really get out, unless you turn traitor and snitch to the feds. In which case you have a price on your head.

Now, if they left amicably (or at least without hostilities), which is what is implied by them having the gang as a contact, then you don't need any negative qualities. That's just biz. And just like all contacts, this is a two way street. You can get things from your contact, and the gang might call on you if they need some evidence 'disappeared' from police lockup, for instance.

Now if they parted on more hostile terms, then he wouldn't have the gang as a contact, and he'd also likely have a bounty on his head (which there is a negative quality for).

[Lysanderz]

Mirikon brings up a great example.

Riser used to be a cutter right? Now he's a high class hitman, but they are still on good terms last I checked.

[Maded]

I don't think the character is planning on departing the gang any time soon. The backstory seems to be one of familia type stuff. Additionally, there's an eight-pointed star mentioned. So I'm thinking probably a lot deeper level of involvement and commitment than any base gang member. I'm fine with that, but I do think that Made Man needs to be incorporated into the character generation with that noted. Thanks to all those that noted that Quality, I completely missed it

I was planning on using Factions (from Runner's Companion) in this game as well, so I think at least +2 to +4 should probably go into this with LAA in the chargen, as a result of the Mojave expedition and tattooing. It is supposed to be a pretty prestigious type thing from what I'm reading, after all.

Aside from the Ancients, the PSF, Horizon and Aztechnology (well, their rumored involvement with LAA, anyways ), I'm trying to think of any other factions that might have some level of interplay with the LAA. Any suggestions?

And I'll be posting more on it elsewhere later to get some thoughts, but I'll also be incorporating some P2.0 big time in with this game.