[GiraffeShaman]

Personally, I like to leave those discussions to Mr. Barrett with his APDS and his Ultrawideband Radar.

Hilarious.

[Beaumis]

@OP: You might want to read (or reread) the section "Be Smart and Don’t be Greedy" in the companion, page 27. I took the liberty to quote the most important part that basically addresses your issue directly:

Nothing rats you out like trying to hock some Red Samurai
armor you snagged on your last run. At that point, you’ve made
nailing you to the wall a matter of keeping face for the Reds—and
you’ve probably PO’d your last Johnson.

Basically, if he feels the need to stick his fingers into the pie, he shouldn't be surprised if he gets burned. Corps rarely do revenge, but they do save face every day all day long. What's more, Mr. J. isn't interested in runners that will make trouble more likely. They are called shadowrunners because they stay in the dark. If he keeps tiptoing into the light, don't be afraid to hit him with the big hammer.

[Ghoulfodder]

I'm currently on Mission 2 of Season 4 and I thought the timed element of it was superb fun. My GM even got out a timer on his Ipad and made us do our planning in real time. Gave a real sense of urgency and excitement to it.

Try a run with a break in where the Johnson gives you a specific time limit to get in and out. And leaves no time for extra looting because you've got to fly to get it done in time. You could try using a real timer and pausing it whenever there's combat.

If they go marginly over in time but only by seconds, fine just drop their pay. If they go significantly over, they miss their meet with the Johnson and end up with hot goods and no pay. Or just get caught by overwhelming force as most the security team returns from the distraction the Johnson had arranged.

Obviously it's only a one off win. But it might help.

[I_V_Saur]

I'm currently on Mission 2 of Season 4 and I thought the timed element of it was superb fun. My GM even got out a timer on his Ipad and made us do our planning in real time. Gave a real sense of urgency and excitement to it.

Try a run with a break in where the Johnson gives you a specific time limit to get in and out. And leaves no time for extra looting because you've got to fly to get it done in time. You could try using a real timer and pausing it whenever there's combat.

If they go marginly over in time but only by seconds, fine just drop their pay. If they go significantly over, they miss their meet with the Johnson and end up with hot goods and no pay. Or just get caught by overwhelming force as most the security team returns from the distraction the Johnson had arranged.

Obviously it's only a one off win. But it might help.

If you do well at a job, you're likely to be asked to do a repeat. If one Johnson notices he can get actually decent service out of this otherwise bum team that keeps on snagging trophies, by setting a time limit, then guess what every other Johnson who hears about it is going to do?

Reputations work this way. Jobs that the party is good at, they get more of. Jobs they screw up on, they don't get. Ever again. Early in their careers, they have some leeway, as nobody knows them well enough to pin a job set to their name, but later, breaking out of the mould requires burning your rep and starting anew.

[FenrisFrost]

If I were you I'd just make half of what he takes end up being worthless. You'd have to be subtle, but I don't think it's unreasonable for this data to require high level matrix authentication or it bricks once it leaves the host, or for the run to be timed and there just isn't enough wiggle room for that kind of thing.

[Shaktari]

  I have a question for the OP, and i apologize if it has already been asked and answered andi just missed it, but what type of resistance have they been facing? Are thier runs primarily again only A rating corps or AAA rating corps? Are they going against low level gangers or the yakuza? also who are they doing the runs for? answers to these questions can help you decide to retaliate with in story limits if at all.

  I know ran into the same problem when I first started doing runs and a good portion of the probelm was that the players coulndt wrap thier minds around exactly how powerful an AAA corp can actually be. Most people just picture walmart of mc dondalds and theyfigure take whatever youc an get whats the worst they can do. I had to explain and eventually demonstrate to my players that this wasn't the case. It cost them a PC and burned all their contacts in Seattle but they got the point and were more...cautious in Boston.

[Sielle]

Ok, I don't usually condone this type of think, but sometimes, it just has to be done....

This is what I call a "F**K over Waldo" run <evil grin>

<SNIP>

I so want to play in one of your campaigns.   When I read the first post this was exactly what I was thinking along with the scene from Johnny Mnemonic where he's told by his Hacker contact "Get off my board, man. You are too hot! You're a hit waiting to happen!"

[Reaver]

Ok, I don't usually condone this type of think, but sometimes, it just has to be done....

This is what I call a "F**K over Waldo" run <evil grin>

<SNIP>

I so want to play in one of your campaigns.   When I read the first post this was exactly what I was thinking along with the scene from Johnny Mnemonic where he's told by his Hacker contact "Get off my board, man. You are too hot! You're a hit waiting to happen!"

lol, My dance card is pretty full ATM

Got my 2500+ karma group (characters started waaaay back in 2nd edition.. that got ported and played to 3rd... and then into 4th.. and soon to be 5th edition.

And I got my "Rook" campaign... they are basically at 50-100 karma.. and still getting used to SR in general... this week's topic: "The Matrix, and how it f**ks you" (complete with adventure, and learning guides!)

[Shadowjack]

I'm sure this guy is a real nuisance but stealing extra stuff is very realistic, especially if it's quite valuable. I would suggest you give more consideration to what kind of things are lying around after a run, and how easy it is to take them. The higher the value, the greater the chance that someone is coming asap to get you out of there, and that threat could be larger than everyone that just got fragged. I like to instill a feeling in my games that the clock always matters, you can't just sit down and have a picnic, then head out an hour later. Police, other shadowrunners, elite security, even military could be coming if you hang around too long. Once this player puts the group at risk on multiple occasions while he's trying to steal a little extra, they might just intervene for you.

But I agree that you should just find a new group, having someone that really irritates you while you're trying to enjoy yourself is just not ideal. One thing I've learned in life is that people don't change until they decide to themselves. You can't ask him to change, he won't. You can either work around the problem with techniques like the one described above or you should leave.

[trunglefever]

Once this player puts the group at risk on multiple occasions while he's trying to steal a little extra, they might just intervene for you.

I actually had this talk with my players regarding a certain person and they all agreed that if that player was turning into a security hazard for them, they would have no remorse in "taking care of the problem". Some of them have even started contingencies of selling him out to a corporation should he get too "unprofessional"

[RHat]

Once this player puts the group at risk on multiple occasions while he's trying to steal a little extra, they might just intervene for you.

I actually had this talk with my players regarding a certain person and they all agreed that if that player was turning into a security hazard for them, they would have no remorse in "taking care of the problem". Some of them have even started contingencies of selling him out to a corporation should he get too "unprofessional"

That...  Could get bad.  Talk to the player, not to everyone else behind his back.

[trunglefever]

Once this player puts the group at risk on multiple occasions while he's trying to steal a little extra, they might just intervene for you.

I actually had this talk with my players regarding a certain person and they all agreed that if that player was turning into a security hazard for them, they would have no remorse in "taking care of the problem". Some of them have even started contingencies of selling him out to a corporation should he get too "unprofessional"

That...  Could get bad.  Talk to the player, not to everyone else behind his back.

We HAVE talked to him before when it came to other games and this one as well. He does the same excuse of "I'm just role playing". I don't anticipate him doing anything crazy, but it's a pretty hardcore group of players and they all end up working for the same goals (in this case: money), so if someone is preventing that, they might just opt to leave him out of a job once and have him do his own thing. And we have spoke to him before regarding the enjoyment of progressing a story and not doing something that would absolutely halt progression, sometimes people are just stubborn. Will it happen? Probably not, but I will offer him ways out in-game to not get fragged by his fellow PCs.

[Crunch]

Be aware that with this kind of thing the difference between character conflict (which is all right) and player conflict (which isn't) can get sort of blurred.

[RHat]

Well, just make sure he's looped into the other discussion - otherwise, you WILL just create more problems.  Remind him that the role-playing argument can be used to justify actions against him as well if his actions should be to the detriment of the team.

Whenever player characters are taking action against each other, it MUST be absolutely understood that the conflict is purely in game.  It is not possible to have an in game solution to an out of game problem.

[trunglefever]

Certainly agree with you there and it is something I will be keeping in mind if and when the issue comes up. It's not a huge predominant problem, but sometimes I can see that look on other players' face when this guy says he wants to do something and they all say, "Why...?"

Either way, I do appreciate the words and advice.