[Senko]

Obviously if the group has a reputation or a dedicated fixer its easy. What I'm a little unsure of is how to go about handling first contact between an NPC fixer and a group of individuals just starting oit when both groups ...

1) Don't know each other.
2) Have no indication of whether the person their approaching/whos approaching them is a trap or all talk and no talent
3) If they are any good aren't just going to come right out and say they're a shadow runner, looking to become one because they might be dealing with someone trying to trap them.

So I'm just wondering what are some methods people have used to bring together a group of strangers and start them on their new careers with an NPC fixer?

[Namikaze]

Having someone to make the introductions is really key.  Criminals don't just walk up to other criminals, shake their hands, and suddenly they're business partners.  Someone has to vet the party(ies) and introduce the parties.  This introductory character also serves as the guarantee that things are going to go well, so they're unlikely to do it without getting something in return.

[Reiper]

I usually give a free common fixer to all of my players.

And I like how splintered state handled it, basically start of the first day everyone is arrested and charged with a bogus crime and spend a bit being interrogated for a crime they didn't commit, and are eventually released together.

[farothel]

We often work together, GM and players, to have some common ties between us.
For instance four players:
-player A has a contact who also knows player B
-player A has a contact who knows a contact of player C
-player C and D are actually friends

That way you can get the group together by referral.  "You still need a mage, I have a buddy who knows some mages.  I'll contact him and see."

[firebug]

Shadowrun has the setting establish that runners work in teams, not alone, which helps a lot.  I usually play with the fact that the first encounter I run with the group of new player characters is usually their first "real" job; essentially saying that after this, they will be on the track to being real runners, and should start looking into forming a team and contacts.  When the PCs work well together (because that's the whole point, unless you're playing a game where you want inter-character conflict) they stay with the people they've seen in action rather than take more risks getting a different team member.

It's also helpful to think of how they're ending up together.  Doing what Reiper says makes sense, if only because it says nowhere that each character is supposed to buy their own Fixer contact or else they don't get jobs.  Even if they do all answer to different fixers, part of being a fixer is knowing people and so one might talk to other fixers he knows in order to assemble a team, paying the other fixers a bit of what he's gonna make when the runners complete the job.

[Csjarrat]

for play by posts i usually just start with everyone knowing each other (saves about three weeks of very little happening) or else have the networks of fixers arranging the meet with the johnson.
I find it helps before a game to pull two of the players aside and say that they worked together on a previous run and let them sort out the backstory of that. it gives the group a bit of a skeleton of a team to form around, even if the full team hasnt worked as a whole before the meet

[Senko]

Sorry I don't think I was very clear. I know it can be done that everyone starts together and that after a job they'll tend to work with the same, what I'm after however is specifcally how people would go about bringing together a group of strangers for that first run. That is this is their first job, they don't know each other but for some reason they need to work together. My problem is trying to figure out how to handle that initial meeting (I don't want to hand wave it) and explain just how and why a group of people were brought together and why that NPC fixer (or maybe PC one) contacted them for this work.

I'm honestly not a fan of Reipers bogus arrest approach but that is what I'm after (thank you by the way) explanations of how strangers would be brought together and given a reason to at least do that first job together. Its a lot trickier than in my past games because you aren't playing semi-legitimate beings who could be contacted.

I've been thinking about it for awhile and I'm really coming up blank here on just how to handle that first contact between them.

[SirValeq]

There was a short story in 4th Anniversary Edition core book which might help you. It was about a veteran runner (DangerSensei actually) recruiting newbies. He basically found them on the streets, because they were known for something (a magician, a ladies' man, a driver, a tech etc.) and offered them real jobs for real money. He was doing this for an upcoming reality trid show, but the recruits didn't know it. They thought he genuinely wanted to help them become shadowrunners only because he "owed someone".

[firebug]

It's not "handwaving" if they're just contacted for the same job by different fixers, or the same NPC fixer.  If you think that's "handwaving" than so is having all of the players happen to live/work in Seattle.  They could have been born anywhere!

Each of them wanted jobs, they have a person they spoke to to find jobs, and a job was found for them.  They are the ones who ended up being offered this run.  If you want it to be less "lucky" that all the PCs were contacted for the same job, have a few other NPCs show up and then refuse, or throw in a line with someone saying 'I asked other people, but you are the only ones who've shown up so far.'

The "how and why" isn't special, what's happening is an extremely common occurrence in the setting.  Someone needed runners for a criminal activity, runners are being supplied.  The Johnson will tell them a rundown and perhaps give them a small interview so he can decide if he feels confident that they're worth his time, and then off they go.

[emsquared]

Our present campaign, I started out everyone with a free, common Contact - a 2,3 Bartender (so they're all pretty good friends with him). And then set the first scene as they're all just day-drinking in their favorite bar when it gets held-up (the 'tender has a back-room gambling operation that the PCs don't know about). The PCs either voluntarily help him, or are "compelled" to when they themselves become a target of the robbers, and after they handle that, the 'tender asks them to run security for a night of particularly high-stakes gambling (where someone gets pissed off for losing his ass and someone tries to cheat and insert whatever complications you want into that). After those two scenarios, there ya have it. They're meshed, go from there. Runners don't have to be dastardly, hardened untrusting criminals that only get paid to associate with other criminals. They're just people with a certain set of skills and a situation or personality that leaves them little other options for legitimate means of income.

I try to avoid anything as straight forward as "You are all brought together in a room by a common Fixer", something that is seemingly random (and violent ) gives them a chance to RP the getting to know you a little more and has the ability to form stronger bonds with each other. "You shot that robber when he was about to chop me. Thanks!" not just; "we're getting paid to be together, you watch yourself, I watch myself".

[TormDK]

We started up on the Shadowrun Universe not too long ago.

The first PC to present me with a good background story, got to make up the Fixer which I then asked all players to get as their first (and for some of them, only) contact, so that the fixer was the one that brought the team together.

It has the downside of no one trusting one another, but it makes for good table laughs as each PC scrables to try and be professional on their first job, while at the same time trying to look out for #1 (themselves) only.

I do plan on using all their background story details in one form of another, it will be interesting to see once they found out just how deep the shadows go.

[emsquared]

A variation on the random event, but with no free Contact would be:

They're all at one of their regular haunts (one that's a known hive of scum and villainy) when a troup of Lone Stars come in for a shake down, they start checking IDs/Permits, cuffing and hauling away chumps for anything at all (no ID/Permit, questionable association, or maybe something funny came up about their ID or permits while not straight up revealing it as fake) - if PCs resist, great - after the lead stops flying you can stick one NPC in there with them that made it through who has a nearby safe-house or squat where they can all lay low. If they don't resist (or if they fail at resisting - i.e. 'Stars use Stick'n'Shock), they're locked up for a few days, nothing comes of it and when they're released, one of the PCs with an appropriate Contact gets a job from his Fixer and just happens to have met some new chummers with certain sets of skills... This scenario is less controllable and less likely to really work well (without seeming forced) and form bonds, but can work if you know your PCs well enough. I'd lean towards making their be no escape, so they all end up in lock up for a couple nights (then you can have some jail high-jinks ensue, where they could bond together), but just figure out a way so that they all end up in the same place and can't really leave ('Stars everywhere, whatever) and it should work out.

[inca1980]

My team usually has a common fixer that is kind of like the groups manager, like Charlie in Charlie's Angels, or Devon Miles in Knight Rider.  When people want to contact the team they go through the fixer. 

If they don't have a fixer in common I would heavily play up the shadow rumor mill.  Or have a rough and tumble watering hole where the bar-tender, bouncer, waiter, etc.  will nudge the team, look around to see if anyone is looking and then lean in to tell them that so-and-so "been in here askin' around for you, apparently your reputation has started to leak out on to the streets..."

If the team gives the green-light the bartender or whoever will give them an AR contact card.

[mike929]

I am looking at the same situation.

What I am thinking of doing is running the Food Fight adventure from Plots and Paydata.  IT might force them to work together but not an offical run.  The next session, the fixer contacts them.  Ms. Johnson saw the news and heard about the event at the store, and through various means was able to identify them.  She hires them for the first offical run..

Of course, just like in D&D and every other RPG throug out time, this has always been a problem to avoid the same old meet in a bar scenrio for starting them together.

There is also the option of they already know each other.

[Senko]

True but knowing each other, starting off with a Rep is fairly easy to work with hence why I'm focused here on the no rep, don't know each other thorny problem especially since whereas in DnD, Pathfinder etc adventurers are generally fairly legitimate and easy to recruit for a job. Here shadowrunners are criminals and they're not going to approach or admit to that kind of thing easily, its not like you can do a matrix search for Shadowrunner and see half a dozen job adds and a link to shadowlands where runners chat to each other.