[Ratboy]

I'm a new GM in need of some guidance (so let me know if this should go into the GM forum instead).  Looking at a typical scenario...

Mr. Johnson contacts a fixer to get hooked up with a deniable resource (team).  Fixer contacts team and arranges a meet with Mr. Johnson.  Mr. Johnson and team negotiate a price.  The run is then completed.

So, how is payment typically handled?

Does Mr. Johnson pay a fee for the fixer to find a team?  Does the team pay a fee to the fixer for finding them a job? Both?

And for the actual transactions, I've seen many places where Mr. Johnson pays the team directly at the end of a run. Does Mr. Johnson then pay the fixer his cut directly?  Is the team expected to contact the fixer and pay him from what Mr. Johnson gave them?

If Mr. Johnson pays a finders fee, is it done up-front or contingent upon successful completion of the run?

Any help would be appreciated!

[Daddy Warpig]

Who pays the fixer?

Teams looking for work can hire out Fixers on retainer. Typically, they act like literary agents, they only get paid if and when the team does, usually around 10%-15% of the fee.

Johnsons might also hire Fixers, in that case he pays a fee. Fixers get paid from both ends. Lucky bastards.

So the answer is "both, in different circumstances."

[bmoham]

Recently there was a related discussion here:

http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=7891.0

[Ratboy]

Thanks!

[Glorthoron]

Fixers might charge a fee to the runners if the runners don't have a fixer and need one, especially if the fixer has never heard of them.  This would probably only happen if your players are foolish and decide to make their characters independantly and not communicate with the other players, and no one gets a fixer because they think everyone else will.

"Yeah, sure I can get you some work.  But why would I?  I've got other runners that I know and trust to get the job done right.  I can keep your names on file, and contact you if something comes up that my usual runers don't want.  However, for the right incentive, I might be willing to send something a little more lucrative your way."

[All4BigGuns]

I said this the last time something similar came up, but I feel it's best to pretty much assume the Fixer was paid by the employer. Anything else is just trying to create yet another money sink to try and keep the PCs from really being able to make anything, in my opinion.

In the case where they forgot to get one or no one did because they thought one of the others would, there is not a problem in the world with just giving them a free Fixer contact (a decent one with at least Conn 4, Loy 3). Honestly, that should be a given anyway with how important that particular kind of contact is.

[Glorthoron]

I said this the last time something similar came up, but I feel it's best to pretty much assume the Fixer was paid by the employer. Anything else is just trying to create yet another money sink to try and keep the PCs from really being able to make anything, in my opinion.

In the case where they forgot to get one or no one did because they thought one of the others would, there is not a problem in the world with just giving them a free Fixer contact (a decent one with at least Conn 4, Loy 3). Honestly, that should be a given anyway with how important that particular kind of contact is.

End of streak . . . . I don't agree.

I think you are, at that point, setting a precedence.  You've just told your players that they don't need to ever purchase a fixer as a contact, because you're nice enough to give them one.  It's a reward for stupidity. 

However, if you have told them ahead of time that they will all start with a free fixer, who is techinically the one who brought them together, that is fine too.

Another reason this situation might come up, is if the players decide that the heat in their home town is too much and they need leave town and start up in another city.  If this case occured, and it was their choice to do it, I see no reason for them to have to deal with the consequences.

[Glorthoron]

I always give a free Fixer, but contacts are ridiculously expensive in my opinion. (Pretty much one of the only things I do miss from earlier editions--the possibility of 1 million in resources with contacts just costing money with a simple three levels).

True, but one million isn't necessary anymore.  Gear isn't as expensive as it was in earlier editions, and I know you've said that you were happy about that.

And the 3 level cost for contacts was nice and simple, but there was nothing preventing a person from spending 100,000 nuyen and having Damien Knight as their Friend for Life.  SR1-3 contact levels were, IMO, always assumed to be just street level contacts.  Now you can have higher level contacts, you just have to accept that it will cost you more in life to get them.

[All4BigGuns]

I always give a free Fixer, but contacts are ridiculously expensive in my opinion. (Pretty much one of the only things I do miss from earlier editions--the possibility of 1 million in resources with contacts just costing money with a simple three levels).

True, but one million isn't necessary anymore.  Gear isn't as expensive as it was in earlier editions, and I know you've said that you were happy about that.

And the 3 level cost for contacts was nice and simple, but there was nothing preventing a person from spending 100,000 nuyen and having Damien Knight as their Friend for Life.  SR1-3 contact levels were, IMO, always assumed to be just street level contacts.  Now you can have higher level contacts, you just have to accept that it has cost you more in life to get them.

A little more would've been fine, but it was taken too far, in my opinion. No way in heck will an agreement be come to on this line, so I'm hopping off of it now.

[Wakshaani]

AGreed with the above: In general, the Fixer is paid a Finder's Fee by the Johnson and that money's never seen by the 'runners. Better for everyone that way. Avoids a money sink, and shows that while the Fixer probably knows the Johnson, he has a reason to not reveal too much ... he's on the payroll, in a way. Fixers burning Johnsons results in unemployed Fixers, and vice-versa. The Code keeps things on the up-and-up. (Well, most of the time.)