Steve Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 In gearing up for my Kazei 5 campaign to start later this year, my players will be working for a megacorp as employees instead of being freelancers. They will be troubleshooters dealing with problems for the megacorp, but highly-paid and well-benefitted. Has anyone else run a cyberpunk-style campaign where players worked for "the Man" as employees? What suggestions do you have on what works and what doesn't? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted June 29, 2012 Report Share Posted June 29, 2012 Re: PCs working for a megacorp? One problem is, that you limit the angle's of stuff you can do with them. You also limit the players freedom of development/design - they have to make someone that can work for a cooperation. It's very untypical for a Cyberpunk game to have a fixed Johnson. Especially one that is reliable that he won't double cross them. And they are propably not allowed to take jobs "on the side" or go for personal vendettas. You might need to bring some more dynamic into the coorporate scene. Different people with different agendas, who can all influence the Heroes. Conflicting interests of the higher-ups. I could see it working better if they are only freelancers with "close ties", maybe a few free perks towards that cooperation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted June 29, 2012 Report Share Posted June 29, 2012 Re: PCs working for a megacorp? One problem is, that you limit the angle's of stuff you can do with them. You also limit the players freedom of development/design - they have to make someone that can work for a cooperation. It's very untypical for a Cyberpunk game to have a fixed Johnson. Especially one that is reliable that he won't double cross them. And they are propably not allowed to take jobs "on the side" or go for personal vendettas. You might need to bring some more dynamic into the coorporate scene. Different people with different agendas, who can all influence the Heroes. Conflicting interests of the higher-ups. I could see it working better if they are only freelancers with "close ties", maybe a few free perks towards that cooperation. Christopher touched on the major problems. In my setting I dropped in an organization to deal with these issues. While Terran Galactic Operations is too straight-laced to hire most PC-types directly, their spin-off company Special Projects, Inc. definitely isn't. Special Projects handles all the jobs TGO doesn't want on its own records. One infamous example: when TGO asked Special Projects to shut down a notorious corsair squadron known as the Lacerta Syndicate, Special Projects came up with an "out of the box" solution and hired the whole squadron. They all work for Special Projects now. So in addition to working for the giant corporation's unscrupulous yet very deniable covert operations arm, the PCs also have the option of hiring on with its very own "in house" band of space pirates.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted June 30, 2012 Report Share Posted June 30, 2012 Re: PCs working for a megacorp? Yes, several. It's actually the main gist of most of my Cyberpunk campaigns. There are two main options: 1) They know they work for a corp Make them operatives with a large budget, overall goal, and a few guidelines (mostly: don't make us look bad). Toss them into the field as an independent team with the corporation providing access, materials, money, and a few starter contacts. Then let the players get some free reign, throw some possible enemies at them (rival corps) and see who they go after. Some possible scenarios - one of the "classic" cyberpunk turns is they get the goods, and then get ambushed/betrayed. Well, this time the PCs are the ambushers and/or betrayers - possibly they need to be two places at once, so they hire a team to get some stuff, then later ambush them and take it for their own (if they're smart they make it look like a mutual rival did the hit/ambush and gain favors somewhere) - or just hire a group they ambush and get in good with the robbed company. 2) They don't know they work for a corp Every job they get, somehow, some way, no matter how "freelance" they think they are, is beneficial to their patron company - even if looks like they hit their hidden/unseen/unknown patron. All their intel comes from one source, no matter how many fences and contacts they talk to. Eventually, you hope they catch on to what's going on and possibly try and turn coat on their mysterious puppet master, or ask for a job - in which case return to scenario 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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