®

© 2004-2006 WizKids Inc. All Rights Reserved. Shadowrun, Mr. Johnson’sLittle Black Book and WK Games are registered trademarks and/or trademarksof WizKids Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

© 2004-2006 WizKids Inc. All Rights Reserved. Shadowrun, Mr. Johnson’sLittle Black Book and WK Games are registered trademarks and/or trademarksof WizKids Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

“Call me Mr. Johnson. I’m like a fixer for the corps. I know everybody who’s anybodyfrom suit-and-tie boardroom predators to bottom-feeder street-level scavengers. Iknow the best sprawl sites for scoring new talent, exchanging goods withoutinterruption or hiding out from the hit men on your tail. I like to ensure that the peopleI hire can execute a well-planned black ops job and keep their faces from beingsplashed all over the screamsheets. My files on you say that you’re right for what I

have in mind. Interested?”

Mr. Johnson’s Little Black Bookprovides dozens of locations andcontacts for both Shadowrungamemasters and players. For the

gamemaster, it includes a wealth ofsimple adventure ideas and

street encounters that canbe randomly chosen andrun. It also featuresdetailed advice on

setting up and handlingshadowruns, negotiating with

shadowrunners and optionalrules for low and high-levelcampaigns, reputation, prejudiceand more. For use withShadowrun, Third Edition.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

2 Mr. Johnson’s Little Black Book

Earnest Muckraker 41Trid Pirate 42Club Owner 42Club Hopper 43Simsense Star 43

By Any Means Necessary 44Ork Nation Organizer 44Upright Humanis Member 44TerraFirst! Activist 45Terrorist 45Cult Member 46Freedom Fighter 46

Here Come the Suits 47Corporate Headhunter 47Mr. Fix-It 47Mixed-up Middle Manager 48Corp Bodyguard 48Corp Decker 49Corp Scientist 49

Down and Dirty 50Pimp 50Tamanous Member 50Reluctant Ganger 51Joygirl 51Squatter 52Street Vendor 52Ghoul 52

Crime, Inc. 53Yakuza Elder 53

Character Planning 31Obstacles and Opposition 31Getaways 32Getting Caught 32

Aftermath 32Meeting Mr. Johnson

Once More 32Getting Paid 32Loose Ends 34Laying Low 34Healing 34Reputation 34Downtime 34

Gamemaster Concerns 35Incorporating Riggers

& Deckers 35Creating Story Arcs 35Dynamic World

& Consequences 35IT’S WHO YOU KNOW 36

Who Watches The Watchmen? 38Corporate Security 38Rent-a-Cop 38Parasecurity Expert 39Supply Sergeant 39Mercenary 40Security Rigger 40

The Show Must Go On 41Sleazy Tabloid Reporter 41

INTRODUCTION 4ANATOMY OF A SHADOWRUN 5

The Setup 5The Style of Game 5Different Group Possibilities 8Character Creation 10Meet the Team 11Group NPCs 12Bringing It Together 13Stereotypes 13Keep the Game Moving 14

Meeting Mr. Johnson 16Finding a Team 16Types of Johnsons 17Meetings 19Negotiation and Payment 20Wrapping up the Meet 21When Meets Go Bad 22

Legwork 22Contacts 24Online Research 25Surveillance 25The Opposition 26The Road Less Travelled 26

The Run 28The Goal 28Atmosphere 29Location 30Tempo 30

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3Mr. Johnson’s Little Black Book

SHADOWRUN LINE DEVELOPERRob Boyle

EDITINGRob Boyle, Elissa Carey, Jack Graham,Michelle Lyons

ARTArt Direction

Rob BoyleCover Art

Adi GranovCover Design

Jason VargasLayout

Jason VargasIllustration

Dave Allsop, Steven Bagatzky, ShaneCoppage, Steve Ellis, Larry MacDougal,Marc Sasso, Klaus Scherwinski

SPECIAL THANKS TOThanks also to Christian Lonsing andJason Hardy for your input.

Copyright© 2004-2006 WizKids Inc. AllRights Reserved. Mr. Johnson’s LittleBlack Book, Shadowrun and WK Gamesare registered trademarks and/or trade-marks of WizKids Inc. in the UnitedStates and/or other countries. No partof this work may be reproduced, storedin a retrieval system, or transmitted inany form or by any means, without theprior permission in writing of theCopyright Owner, nor be otherwise cir-culated in any form other than that inwhich it is published.

Version 1.0 (February 2006) Based onFirst Printing by FanPro LLC, Chicago,Illinois, USA.

Find us online:info@shadowrunrpg.com

(Shadowrun questions; pleasecheck the website FAQ first!)http://www.shadowrunrpg.com

(official Shadowrun website)http://www.fanprogames.com

(FanPro website)http://www.wizkidsgames.com

(WizKids website)http://studio2publishing.com

(online FanPro/Shadowrun orders)http://del.ico.us/shadowrun

(cool links)

ON THE RUN 93One Shots 93Sit on This 94Moving Violation 96Deliver Me From Evil 97Politics 97Mister, Can You Help Me

Find My Parents? 98Kidnapped! 99The Haunting of

Alyssa Camanack 100Trouble on Fifth Avenue 101What Are You Playing At? 102A Matter of Job Security 103The Big Nothing 104Where the Wild Things Are 105Random Encounters 107Gang Encounters 107Police Encounters 109Racial Encounters 110Social Encounters 111Organized Crime Encounters 112Magic Encounters 113Runs on the Fly 115

GAME INFORMATION 116Running Low-Level Campaigns 116Running High-Level Campaigns 118Reputation 120

Street Cred 120Notoriety 120Public Awareness 121

Prejudice 121Quick Resolution Systems 122

Decking 122Vehicle Combat 124

MR. JOHNSON’S LITTLE BLACKBOOK CREDITS

WRITINGAnatomy of a Shadowrun: Steve

Ratkovitch, Costán Sequeiros andMalik Toms with Rob Boyle andElissa Carey

It’s Who You Know: Robyn King-Nitschke

Where It’s At: Malik TomsOn the Run: Malik Toms with Robyn

King-NitschkeGame Information: Rob Boyle, Elissa

Carey and Steve Ratkovitch,

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTRob Boyle

Ambitious Mafia Lieutenant 53Triad Member 54Family Member 54Bookie 55Shark Lawyer 55

SINless in Seattle 56High Stakes Negotiator 56Troll Street Dealer 56Talent Scout 57ID Manufacturer 57Gunsmith 58Fence 58

Workin’ the Mojo 59Lorekeeper 59Antiquities & Oddities Dealer 59Artificer/Enchanter 60Talislegger 60Wiz Kid Ganger 61Hermetic Academic 61

To Serve and Protect 62Highway Patrol 62SWAT Team Member 62Police Chief 63Metroplex Guardsman 63Forensics Expert 64Prison Guard 64

Essential Services 65DocWagon Paramedic 65Elite Black Clinic Cybersurgeon 65Paramed Shaman 66Firefighter 66Dock Worker 67Taxi Driver 67City Services Worker 67

Contacts Are People, Too 68NPC Gimmicks 69

WHERE IT’S AT 70Sprawl Sites 70

Apartments 70Bars 73City Streets 74Corporate Offices 76Hotels 77Houses 77Laboratories 79Nightclubs 81On the Outside 82Restaurants 83Stores 84Warehouse 86Miscellaneous 87

Set Design for the Shadows 90Neighborhood Generation

Charts 90Location Charts 91

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Mr. Johnson’s Little Black Book is a gamemaster compan-ion for Shadowrun, Third Edition. Though many parts of it will beon interest to players, the primary purpose of this book is toprovide gamemasters with suggestions and tools for makingtheir own Shadowrun games and campaigns more interesting.The only section of this book that players should not read is theOn the Run chapter—you wouldn’t want to spoil the excitementby reading an adventure’s plot in advance now, would you?

This book aims to fill the gapleft by two out-of-print rulebookscreated during the first and sec-ond editions of the game. Thefirst was Sprawl Sites, which pro-vided an array of location arche-types with maps, random sprawlencounter charts andcontact/archetype listings (forShadowrun, First Edition). Thesecond was the Contacts bookincluded with the gamemaster’sscreen for Shadowrun, SecondEdition. Though there is someoverlap, the material in Mr.Johnson’s Little Black Book isentirely new. Gamemasters mayalso find the gamemaster sectionof the Shadowrun Companionand the descriptions of daily lifein the 2060s given in SprawlSurvival Guide useful for bringingtheir game worlds to life.

Mr. Johnson’s Little BlackBook starts off with Anatomy of aShadowrun, which guides thegamemaster through the stan-dard process of hiring the runnersto commit a crime, step-by-step.It also provides a ton ofgamemaster advice for handlingother elements of a Shadowruncampaign, including character creation, incorporating deckersand creating a dynamic and fluid setting. This is the whereyou’ll find the bulk of practical advice in the book; we suggestthat all Shadowrun gamemasters read through it carefully.

The second chapter, It’s Who You Know, delves into con-tacts. Over sixty different contacts are detailed, from all walksof life. The contacts are grouped together by type (corporatesecurity, media, underworld, magical, etc.), with attributes,

skills, gear and plot hooks listed for each. The first three contactsin each category are expansions of a single contact archetype—rather than include a generic Mr. Johnson, for example, we havea corporate headhunter, Mr. Fix-It and a mixed-up middle man-ager. Each contact includes a short write-up explaining who thecontact is and how they might interact with player characters.This same chapter also includes suggestions for giving each ofyour NPCs a “gimmick” to make them notable.

Where It’s At is devotedto locations. Over forty distinctplaces are described, brokendown by category (bars, citystreets, laboratories, etc.). Ratherthan generic archetypes, eachlocation is given specific details,but they can easily be placed injust about any locale or evenmodified slightly to be a sepa-rate and distinct place. A quickneighborhood generation sys-tem is also provided, allowing agamemaster to roll up a quicklocation on the fly, as well as alist of location gimmicks for giv-ing each locale that unique feel.

The next chapter, On theRun, features a dozen shortadventure plots for gamemasterswho need to put together a quickrun with no preparation time. Asection of short random encoun-ters follows, for gamemasterswho need a short and quick sce-nario to throw at some charactersin the midst of a run, or betweenruns. A system for randomly gen-erating shadowruns on the fly isalso included.

Wrapping up the book,Game Information, starts off with

rules and guidelines for running low-level or high-poweredShadowrun campaigns, including alternate character creationsystems. This is followed by sections on using reputation (bothstreet cred and notoriety) and prejudice (expanding fromracism based on metatype to include numerous other factors).The book wraps up with rules and advice for quickly resolvingdecking runs and vehicle combat so that they are faster andless complicated.

4 Mr. Johnson’s Little Black Book

INTRODUCTION

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5Mr. Johnson’s Little Black Book

ANATOMY OF A SHADOWRUN

amemastering any roleplaying game can be a challenging task. While Shadowrun source-books aim to provide gamemasters a host of events, characters, locations and plot hooks,putting these ideas together along with some of your own design is not always easy. TheShadowrun Companion offers guidance on how to create and run enjoyable games, but

there are many issues still unexplored, ranging from portraying a believable Mr. Johnson toeffectively incorporating decking and rigging without the other players feeling bored orcheated. In this chapter, we attempt to walk through the entire process of running aShadowrun game/campaign, step-by-step. This advice is designed to help both experiencedgamemasters and newbies create memorable games, and to assist in satisfactorily jugglingand resolving the most common problems that can occur.

THE SETUPLet’s be frank; gamemastering is a tough job. Not only must you have ideas and be able

to adjust things on the fly, but you must be a good facilitator and administer to your player’sneeds. If you don’t already have a group of players, you must first find or assemble one. Youmust determine what sort of game the group will play, referee your players’ character gen-eration, incorporate the characters into the game, give each character equal time and so forth.If you don’t coordinate effectively, you can quickly be overwhelmed; if your players growfrustrated, no one will enjoy the time they spend playing. Careful consideration of the fol-lowing advice, however, can nip many potential problems in the bud.

THE STYLE OF GAMEThe first step when designing a campaign is to decide the style of the game. You should

get the players’ input before forming too many ideas, so that they’re interested and invest-ed in the setting and the campaign. The more you tailor the game to incorporate your play-ers’ wishes, the more it will satisfy them. Additional advice in this vein can be found on pp.103–4 of the Shadowrun Companion, in case more help or inspiration is needed.

SettingThe game’s style is partially predicated on its primary setting, or home base. Your cho-

sen setting will determine what important figures are present and the extent of their influ-

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