Time Out! is designed as a way for players to step away from the game for a minute and think about strategy and teamwork. Like a coach advising his team from the sidelines, I hope that the people reading this will gain a mental edge as they head back into the game. In each installment I will dispense my sage advise by comparing an in-game situation to a real world situation. Sports analogies will be used often but not exclusively.

There are times when the characters in a role-playing game are free spirits, roaming from place to place and answering to no one. Other times we see the party (or members thereof) playing the part of loyal agents, operating under the guidance of a king, agency director or vampire prince. When you look between these two extremes, we find characters and teams acting as freelancers, temporarily employed, temporarily loyal. You see a lot mercenary-type characters in sci-fi games, Shadowrun for example. There are also space games where the characters own their own spaceship and zip from planet to planet looking for that next paycheck.

There is a close correlation between freelancers in a sci-fi style game and free agents who play professional sports. The issues and problems are often the same. You see character descriptions in books that read like, "The process used to create meta-soldiers is extremely expensive. Often times the procedure is paid for by an employer, the meta-soldier signs a contract agreeing to serve the employer for set amount of time in exchange for the conversion." You see something similar in pro sports where an athlete will develop his skills with the team that drafted him before seeking a better deal somewhere else. In this article we will learn from the sports free agent in order to help our team of sci-fi mercs get the best contracts.

Hopefully the PCs will be given a choice when it comes to finding employment, otherwise they aren’t really freelancers. There are a number of considerations that need to be dealt with when you are approached with a contract. Some people would attempt to simplify the situation, "Work for whoever pays the best." But money isn’t always the chief concern for sports free agents and it shouldn’t always be the priority for our high tech mercenaries either. There are a number of other factors, both practical and intangible, that should be looked at as well.

Winning

In sports, winning and losing is a matter of pride. An athlete might seriously consider taking less money in order to get the chance to play for a team with the potential to win a championship. In combat, losing is often associated with death, injury and capture. Being on the winning side can reduce the risk to yourself. Payment is often based on risk, meaning the high-dollar jobs are likely to be the most dangerous as well. Offering someone a huge payoff is easy when you don’t expect him or her to live long enough to collect. Winning also reflects positively on you as a player, meaning that when your current contract expires, the next one might be more lucrative. Working for someone who gives you a chance you demonstrate your core abilities means that others will get to see you at your best. A team of combat experts who are hired for a tricky infiltration might not perform well. This doesn’t mean that the group is untalented, they simply aren’t able to play to their strength, which in this case is the ability to conduct direct assaults.

Safety

Speaking or risk and danger, consider that a quarterback might turn down a contract with a certain team because that team has a weak offensive line. The offensive linemen are tasked with job of protecting the quarterback. When you’ve got close to a dozen very large men rushing at you with the goal of knocking you down, it feels better knowing that the large men protecting you are up to the job. Injuries can greatly impact an athlete’s career, so personal safety is something that can’t be overlooked. The military uses the phrase “force protection” to describe the job of keeping your people safe. As mercenaries or other specialists for hire, characters might not receive the benefit of adequate protection. It would be advised to accept less money from an employer who offered you armor, training and backup.

Job Security

In basketball, players can get signed to contracts that are as short as ten days. The standard payment for this contract is $8,000, or $800 a day. Sounds pretty lucrative for someone who isn’t likely to do much except travel with the team and practice. However, if you can’t scrounge up at least ten of these short contracts every season, then your income will be far below the level we think of as normal for a pro athlete. Even then, who wants to play for ten different teams every season, especially when the time you spend traveling to different cities and marketing yourself to different teams is all unpaid. Most 10-day players don’t have professional agents to do their leg and phone work for them. When someone in this position gets to actually play, it is smart to go all out and really demonstrate your talents. Hard work and determination can help get your contract extended another ten days. Better yet, demonstrate your usefulness to a team and you might get picked up for the rest of the season.

Our team of freelancers might also take job security seriously when looking at a potential gig. Obviously they aren’t looking for a permanent position, or else they wouldn’t be freelancers. However, the team should consider the length of an assignment before accepting, particularly if they have to provide their own gear, travel expenses, medical treatment, etc. If you’re not careful, a job might end up costing you more than you earn. Being able to keep coming back to the same employer over and over again gives you a level of job security while still keeping flexible.

Intangibles

There things that you can’t quite put your finger on when deciding who to work for next, and these things are just as important as risk vs. reward and other factors. Respect is a key element, PCs who work for an employer who constantly disrespects them are on the right track for a potentially violent falling out. Their can also be friction between the team and the full-time employees that they fight alongside. If the characters are mercs who are hired as part of a professional army, there is a natural tendency to view the PCs as outsiders, unprincipled and unreliable. A similar situation could exist on a pro sports team, where the veterans are resentful of a free agent who comes in on a huge salary only to leave again as soon as it’s convenient. It is also possible that some characters might have moral qualms with a mission handed down to them by their employer. Now, in this business, having moral qualms is usually a sign that someone is in the wrong line of work, however, it can still be a problem that comes up in the game.

When intangible elements don’t click, it’s usually best just to walk away. There is little the PCs can do to change the situation if they aren’t respected, if they don’t get along with other operatives, or if they don’t like the types of jobs they are being assigned to. Once an agreement has been made, it’s hard to back out. Mercenaries and outlaw operatives don’t get sued for breach of contract, they get contracts taken out on them. Switching sides is a possible out, one that provides the team with a modicum of protection and at the same time gives them an opportunity for revenge against their previous side. However, the other side might not be receptive to a former enemy, and may have good reason to question how reliable the PCs will be.

Why Me?

We always think of terms of, "Why do I want this job or that?" An equally relevant question is, "Why do they want me?" In sports, the question usually has a simple answer. They pick want a particular player to fill a vital role, shore up a weak spot or boost crowd appeal. They may want someone to get beat up so that a star player stays healthy.

The reasons people have for hiring mercenaries, freelancers, or whatever, are more complicated. Hiring mercs may be a fast way to bolster a weak military, in this case the PCs would likely act as instructors and unit leaders, charged with whipping raw recruits in line. An alternative would be a game where the team is hired to perform special operations or other functions that the regular forces can’t perform. In the case of a nation state hiring a large number of mercenaries, it is reasonable to assume that they will be used as cannon fodder. It is also reasonable to assume that the mercs will resent this and desert as soon as possible. In any of the above scenarios there is a question about your side’s ability to win, considering that hiring foreign soldiers is usually a sign of desperation.

Mercenaries get used a lot in civil wars, coups, and instances where an outside power overthrows a sovereign government. Other dirty jobs include assassination, espionage and terrorism-for-hire. They are hired as local scouts during invasions and clandestine operations. Intelligence agencies use contract operatives in instances where they don’t want to put their own people at risk and can’t legally involve the military. Getting caught by the enemy means that your employers will deny knowing you and being tried under local law as illegal combatants.

The number one source of employment for freelance agents and mercenaries are jobs as "security contractors" protecting the interests of a corporation in dangerous territory. These contractors are technically security guards but they are heavily armed and can be utilized in an offensive capability. Corporate espionage, sabotage and the like require the use of outside specialists as well. In your typical cyber-punk RPG, the PCs will probably have a few contacts or clients who feed them work one mission at a time. Most often these employers are megacorporations involved in a high stakes game of economic warfare, a war punctuated by outbreaks of real warfare conducted by hired guns. The activities undertaken by the characters resembles intelligence work and can have a decidedly criminal bent to it.

Always beware of the client who wants to send you off on a suicide mission, set you up for a fall or only calls you when there’s a mission his regular people are afraid to go on. Look into a potential employer’s motives before meeting to talk about terms and price. Remember, no matter what the offer is, you can’t spend it if you’re dead.

All right, now get back in there and play!