After The Mission

Many people think of the mission as a 3 part process:

1) Meet the Johnson
2) Complete the Mission
3) Report success or failure.

That, of course, is the ROOKIE way!

One of the most important parts comes AFTER the mission, because you'll need to do some personal damage control in order to make sure you make it to the next mission.

If the mission is successful, you've probably made an enemy (though he may or may not be aware of who just wronged him). But just like you want your fame to grow so that you can get better paying jobs, high fame makes it easier for a company to find out what running team went on that last run- and to find them.

Likewise, a runner that has plenty of extra cash to spend can come under suspicion by law enforcement. (Odd that after the robbery someone's blowing a bunch of cash!)

The following are techniques ever runner should use to make sure that he's done as much damage control as possible.

1) Launder your money.
You may need to spend that money on legal stuff (like lifestyles). You might be blowing a lot of money, but if the cops think you got that money from your "legitimate business" then what's the harm. Of course, laundering also means paying taxes, so that could mean a 30% decrease to your revenue (10% lauderer's fee + 20% in taxes), but that's a small price to pay to keep out of prison. On the other hand, if you're spending the cash on illicit equipment on the streets, you may not need to worry about that part of your money. (Though a lot of cash spending may help people find you via gather information).

2) Try to deal with your contacts primarily
Sure you might not have a guy who can get you a helicoptor, but if you need to buy stuff you can't get through your friends, you may want to wait a few months. This way time has passed from the robbery to the purchase and it might not bring as much suspicion on you. Your contacts probably aren't going to be chatting about you anytime soon, so they are considered relatively "safe".

3) Know who's hiring you!
If the bad guys do find out about you, they'll do 1 of 4 things. 1) Nothing (let's hope) 2) They can approach you with a do-this-or-else mission. 3) They can hire thugs to go kill you. 4) They can set you up.

If they do nothing, great. If they hire thugs to kill you, that's another issue. However, they can't set you up or approach you for a make-up mission if you don't fall into the trap. Before meeting with a new johnson, do some homework so you know whatever you can about them. You can never be too careful. Of course, you may miss out on great opportunities when johnsons are very secretive and hard to find out about, but if your contacts can vouch for them, or their own reputation preceds them, perhaps a little risk is worth it- just make sure you aren't walking into an ambush. Having a designated person meet with johnsons for you can help a lot!

4) Lay Low!
After a mission, you may want to hide out in a secure place for a little while: it may not just be police looking for you! If thugs can't find you, eventually the company will give up (depending on how big the mission was!). Of course, if you were identified on a mission, this may mean getting a new cover identity!

5) Protection for Pay
Some lifestyle options in other posts provide bonuses to hiding out, laying low, or being safe. Maybe they're a worthwile expenditure. Likewise, burned karma can kill heat on you if it's that big a deal. The bigger friends you make usually come with big enemies too- just watch out!

Remember, the reason they hire shadowrunners is beacause they want someone else taking the risk for the mission, including having "deniable assets" after the mission! If heat never got generated, they'd send employees! Of course, small companies may not have resources to hunt you down, and large companies may have bigger fish to fry- but high profile missions come with high heat- be careful!