I guess you and your GM -- or you, if you ARE the GM -- run/s things significantly differently than how it's presented. Typically, you don't bring your four offers to the table; the Johnson (or the fixer) has a price point, the job, a certain amount of information (the lack of which becomes a negotiating point in your favor), and a time frame. You receive these four points, decide whether or not the equation below is in or near your favor, then negotiate for a higher price point if it is. If it isn't, and likely isn't going to be so even if you negotiate a higher payday, then you walk.
( Job + Info ) / Time = Payment
Rarely --
very rarely -- are you going to be able to 'get the parameters of the mission' without saying yes. "Hi, I want you to break into Ludivenko's and dump this toxic sludge into their next batch of Aqua Goo." 'Let me figure out what it's going to take and get back to you in, say, a couple of hours.' "Let you walk with knowledge of my highly illegal desires and attempt to pay you to do it? Oh, sure. Say there, officer, I'm planning on walking over there and shooting that guy in the head, okay?" 'Sure, sir, go to it!!'
This isn't a contract to build a house or an office building. This isn't even (usually) a contract to deliver something. This is a contract to
commit a crime -- sometimes dangerous, frequently heinous, and almost always, well,
illegal. Hell, you just
knowing becomes complicity, and often makes you an accessory to the crime -- because, see, in knowing about it, you (as a good non-citizen) should
report it. Which you don't. This, of course, is
illegal. You really think the Johnson's going to let you walk after giving you details?
...
Returning from searching, well, I can't find it, but basically in one of Steven Brust's Cycle books (Vlad Taltos), Vlad -- a minor crime boss and hitman -- is contacted for a job. He knows that if he asks for specifics -- the guy's name -- he's agreed to do it. SR should, at least in
my never-so-humble opinion, be played very much similarly. If you ask for specifics more detailed than 'we want you to break into an office building, steal a chip, and replace it with our own' -- or whatever is similar for the run you're being offered -- then you're saying 'okay, we'll do it, let's talk price'. And remember, the
Johnson is the guy with the money, and he's the one laying down the offer.
If he gives you any information more than that, your Johnson is a bloody idiot. And if he agrees to cover
all your expenses, he's gonna get canned the very next day. 'Expenses' is what the first payment is about.