Freelance - Choose your mission

[Skari-dono]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but this seemed like the most logical spot.

I began GCing a Spycraft game last Saturday. The players are playing Freelance, level 5 characters (one Hacker 5, one Soldier 5, and multiclasser Intruder 3 and Faceman 2). The problem is that I don't know much about how the world of Freelance agents works and so I wasn't sure how to make the game work either. Finally, I got an idea.

I made three missions from three different, major supporters and had the players choose the mission they liked best based on the mission's description. I wrote down a mission detail for each mission and an objective detail for each known objective. Of course, the details don't hold all the info, and there are even objectives the players don't know about.

The idea is to keep the other two missions as an optional missions later on, so even if the players pick Mission A they can still do Missions B and C next. When they have finished their mission, the supporter who presented the mission offerst them another mission.

What the players don't know (or at least I hope they haven't noticed) is that all missions are linked together. One mission refers to a specific organization by name, another mission refers only to an "organization" and the third mission mentions a completely different organization that is only indirectly linked to the evil Mastermind.

I'm considering to change one of the supporters from a major supporter to a minor one, so not only will the mission change but also the supporter who suggested it.

By my estimation, the season (assuming we will continue after the mission) will be 10 missions. The three major supporters (or the two major ones and few minor ones) will have offered up to three different missions each, which will all lead to the final mission that will pit the players directly against the evil organization and possibly giving the players a finality to their Subplots.

What do you think? I bet someone has done something like this before (letting the players choose between missions). Sharing would perhaps be in order?

[Aragathor]

Not directly SC but...
Freelancers have most of the time extensive support networks of friends, contacts and so on. Most also have access to a Fixer (not the class but rather the guy who can provide them with stuff).
From my Shadowrun experience I know that most of the time freelancers (in my case runners) need cash and look for work by themselvs, no prompting needed.
My tip:

Try to establish either a single middleman or a whole network of private contacts from which job opportunities might come. If your players don't need cash then bait them with interesting tidbits (like SOTA-grade equipment, new "friends/allies", advancement/training).

[Desertpuma]

Here's my thoughts:

1. Have them in the process of starting up their own organization and as such they could then routinely work together.

2. Play it like they are a crew like in the film Heat and they do jobs together, similar to the above but they are not trying to create an organization

3. They get pulled together like in Ronin where they never met before. At first, this will work and they would end up evolving into #2.

[Skari-dono]

Thanks for the input guys, but when I said I began the first game last Saturday I meant that we started the first mission then. They are already half-way through it

They are their own minature organization; a mercenary group if you will. They have a middleman which they simply know as Middleman (can't remember if I gave him a first name). They all agreed that their middleman was an old Englishman who resembled Michael Cain.

I don't really need any help with the game, although your input is appreciated
I just wanted to share my ideas for my game in case someone was interested at looking it over.

I also wrote down dossier-like information about every single Special NPC they might ask dossier for. It is 2 pages long, with personal information, dates, criminal records (only major or important ones), medical records (again, only important ones) and stuff. I have never done this much work for any game. It was fun, but also driving me crazy(-er)