[Fortinbras]

I agree. Now if only I can get my players on the same page...

Some of them have never played Shadowrun before, so they're gun shy about the "There are cameras everywhere" and "You are criminals" dynamic, so I have to demonstrate that every time they pull a run, The Man isn't going to try and hunt them down.
Last time I said "If you start in a new city, your pay grade is going to go down by X amount because no one has ever heard of you."
It's working for now, but I don't want to kill that out of the gate by implying that their Johnsons are keeping tabs on their every move.

Two sessions ago, one of my players blew up 100k worth of vehicles because he thought someone was following the group. No one was. I don't have to worry about my players losing goods and services, they do that on their own.

Now if and when they tilt in the other direction and start to get cocky, that's when all those MCT guys they've been pissing off may rear their ugly heads. Until then, I've got to show them Shadowrun isn't 1984.

[Charybdis]

I agree. Now if only I can get my players on the same page...

Some of them have never played Shadowrun before, so they're gun shy about the "There are cameras everywhere" and "You are criminals" dynamic, so I have to demonstrate that every time they pull a run, The Man isn't going to try and hunt them down.

What, they can't afford a balaclava?

Two sessions ago, one of my players blew up 100k worth of vehicles because he thought someone was following the group. No one was. I don't have to worry about my players losing goods and services, they do that on their own.

*laughs* And they think blowing up vehicles is the best way to AVOID attention? !That's exactly the type of activity that draws newsfeed drones like flies to honey!

Until then, I've got to show them Shadowrun isn't 1984.

An excellent reference to prove where the PCs' headspace is at. I think I get it now.

[Fortinbras]

What, they can't afford a balaclava?

I don't think they like Greek food. ZING!

[Charybdis]

What, they can't afford a balaclava?

I don't think they like Greek food. ZING!

*laughs* 
I'll pay that! +1 for you 

[TheWanderingJewels]

Dragons in my game I use the light touch on and only very rarely do they deal in the outer areas of draconic influence. the Frist Adventure, OTOH was a redux version of "Bottled Deamon" and Sonny, the merc had been creeping around since the time for the first appearance of the blasted thing, knew from stories what the thing was, and called in Arleesh to deal with it.

Suffice it to say, She was NOT pleased that her magic didn't kill it the first time, and gave him the drek-eye (she was more embarressed than anything) which has lead to all sorts of sub adventures resulting from that. Arleesh has not been involved in it, but general group paranoia involving dragons has made them go out of they way to avoid attracting attention.

I just ran them through Midnight and things took a very weird turn and went of module (which I'm okay with). Ghostwalker found out about the item they were carrying through 3rd parties and sent some of his ZDF trackers just to keep tabs on them to see where the item would end up, but not interfere. when the team ID'd the trackers, Paranoia went thought the roof for obvious reasons.

I'm considering having Walker invite them to his lair for a friendly interview to get some basic information. He's confident enough that while they won't squeal, he'll be able to put the tangental information together. I'm simply doing this to make the players sweat   

[raggedhalo]

Get hold of New Seattle, the old 3rd Ed sourcebook.  It's got some great stuff about Lone Star's response times and capabilities that don't need much updating for 4th Ed (I just swap around the frequency of astral and drone patrols/cameras) that might help with the "my players are scared of anyone with a pair of eyes" issue.

Edit to add: I also more-than-tripled all the response times in that book, as they're a little on the short side, which didn't really make any sense to me.

[The_Gun_Nut]

Remind them that response times are roughly analagous to RL response times.  Five minutes is pretty typical unless you are unlucky enough to have a Lone Star cruiser pass by at that moment.  Then remind them that combat rounds are three seconds long, and what all they can do in them.

That pretty much opened up a group of mine to the numerous possibilities of freelance resource aquisition (i.e. crime for pay).

[Man Who Walks At Night]

I agree. Now if only I can get my players on the same page...

Some of them have never played Shadowrun before, so they're gun shy about the "There are cameras everywhere" and "You are criminals" dynamic, so I have to demonstrate that every time they pull a run, The Man isn't going to try and hunt them down.
Last time I said "If you start in a new city, your pay grade is going to go down by X amount because no one has ever heard of you."
It's working for now, but I don't want to kill that out of the gate by implying that their Johnsons are keeping tabs on their every move.

Two sessions ago, one of my players blew up 100k worth of vehicles because he thought someone was following the group. No one was. I don't have to worry about my players losing goods and services, they do that on their own.

Now if and when they tilt in the other direction and start to get cocky, that's when all those MCT guys they've been pissing off may rear their ugly heads. Until then, I've got to show them Shadowrun isn't 1984.

What I did, was teach my runners that people (except law enforcement, and to some degree, even them) will only come after them if there is a really good reason.

There is no money in revenge.

Its that simple, Corp A isn't going to blow 3 million nuyen finding them and making their life miserable unless they can earn 3.5 million doing it. A mid-level manager might be upset their run ruined his promotion - but he alone won't have the resources. Its fine to be paranoid in shadowrun, but if they are as paranoid as you describe, then it sounds like a) you have really done a number on them in the past (or someone else has) or they need to calm a little, and think about it as biz, do your job, keep the media out of it, and your usually home free and shouldn't expect strike-teams showing up at their door, because there is simply no money in it, in fact, I have had corps who the runners just did a run again HIRE THEM to go against another corp, since, well, they just proved they are good.