Now Playing VI

You're not alone

Let me further explain... A trend I've witnessed recently (and realized has been present for quite a while, except I didn't really took notice) is that PCs act like they were alone in the world -- there's nobody in their world except for them, and a few "official" NPCs (major NPCs and contacts, and that's about it). I've realised I've never seen a player go out and search bu himself a new contact directly. Trying to talk to people, get in seedy bars, etc, to find just the person he needs. No, they all seem to suppose the GM will send their way everything they'll ever need...

Of course, this could be my fault -- I might have been too generous upon my player and did give them what they always wanted, but I doubt it. This sure does fit in my "Do something" theory (which I won't even mention again since I've explained it way too often... :) -- players just don'T seem to realize they can do things by themselves.

So you, player, what should you do? You should, when confronted to a difficult problem, wonder if you need help and if you do try to find it by yourself. The easy way could be to call your fixer and ask him to find the guy you need -- but that's the costy and boring way. What you should do is go out by yourself, and do some legwork to find some contacts. After all, you might not have the right contacts to find a frustrated corporate employee to give you some indication on the internal structure of that corp you're planning to hit...

To find these people, you'll have to keep your hear to the ground -- it's not like you'll find exactly who you want in the first bar you visit (you might not even find him in a bar for that matter...). Ask your contacts and people you know (and ask the GM if your character knows) where the type of person you're searching for hangs out. Go there, talk to some people, and try to fit as much as possible in the background of the place. No corp-man trusts a punk elf with a cyberarm with "Down with the Corps!" written on it. Trust me on this one.

What's the advantage of doing it this way, instead of asking your fixer for it? The main advantage is that your relashionship with your new contact will be much stronger than it would be anyway else. If you get to know a guy, he'll be much less likely to double-cross you... The second advantage is that it costs much less. Finding a bar for deckers through your fixer will cost much less than finding a decker through him...

And the most important part of it is, it's more fun that way. So do it.

Ronin

My point with this (since this isn't a Rambling, I'm supposed to have a point...) is that you get two golden rules in that movie:

-If there is a doubt, there is no doubt. If something smells fishy, then something probably is wrong. It means that if you're in a situation where something weird happen, always act as if something bad was about to happen. Doing so will make help you avoid getting in traps you could have avoided easilly...

- I forgot. That's the thing you should say if somebody asks you about whoever you're working with, who gave information or stuff you've got, etc. You should never reveal any information about people and things that are supposed to be confidential or should be. Don't open your mouth for nothing.

Yes, these two rules mean being paranoiac, but no good runner is a good living runner without being paranoid... To live long, don't trust people any more than you have to. And that does include other runners in your team...