Gang meeting (gone wrong) help needed

[Madeiner]

Hi there.
I'm DMing a cyberpunk campaign and for the next mission, which i want to be a very straightforward one, i'll have my players act as bodyguard for a johnson.
The johnson needs to meet another johnson in person, for a data exchange.
I want stuff to happen at the meeting, and i want a fight.

However, there's only 2 scenarios i can think of, and neither of them is interesting enough.
1) It's a trap, or the johnsons don't get along. Somebody shoots, or the police intervenes. Pretty cliche. Want to avoid.
2) It's not a trap. Everything goes fine. Not interesting, can't do this. I want a fight.

Can anyone suggest me a twist, some other interesting event or something that can shake things up, lead to a fight, without being completely predictable?

[Beige]

well, does no-one else want the data? the meeting itself can go without a twist if getting there is a headache and a half for the players, with them eing haried and hounded at every turn

could also pull the od switcharoo - escort the johnson to his target location but find existing signs of a scuffle and no-one there, then need to find what happened to the other guy to give him info, maybe even pull of daring rescue for the big fight?

[Herobizkit]

Third party, jakked Street Samurai zoinks in and snatches the chip. Becomes a recurring villain/foil as each party blames the other for the theft.

Really cement that the Super Samurai is Better Than Average. He could consider himself as a Robin Hood.

[hymer]

well, does no-one else want the data?

i agree. Introducing a third party is very likely to liven it up. It can also be someone under cover in either gang, or someone blackmailing or otherwise forcing the hand of someone.

[theNater]

One of the other johnson's bodyguards is twitchy and prejudiced against a group that includes one or more of the PCs. The PCs need to control the situation well enough that the twitchy bodyguard doesn't freak out and start shooting until the deal is done.

[ElChad]

Have the meeting go relatively smoothly, the Johnsons meet and start to make the exchange. Suddenly another Johnson arrives demanding what is going on. It turns out that the first group the party met caught wind of the exchange and hoped to snatch the data your Johnson is trading. Suddenly there's a Mexican standoff, play this out as if this is the main event, do a lot of talking, make the players feel like they can negotiate themselves out of this. Everyone could be convinced to just back off, no harm done.

If they manage to get this moderately resolved, have another group from above appear to try to get the data themselves. Depending on how the negotiations went, it's 3 groups on 1 laughing it off, or a manic 4 way fight against three wildly different opponents.

[Braininthejar2]

Someone from a different sub plot that the party failed to neutralize, shows up, guns blazing (has a grudge against either of the parties.) As everyone tries to disappear before the cops show up, someone snatches the chip in the confusion.

[JustIgnoreMe]

One meeting in Shadowrun I will never forget was the time when, part way through the meeting in the back room of a nightclub, the Johnson and one of his assistants fell down dead while talking to us. His remaining assistant thought it was an attack, and the matter started to escalate. It later turned out that the back wall of the nightclub was on a public street, in a plaza popular with the local elf community. A human-supremacist mage had gone there and cast a Slaughter Elf spell, which caught not only a large number of the people he could see, but also the Johnson and his assistant that he couldn't.

So my idea: the meeting is going fine, and then suddenly someone on one side drops down dead. Neither side has anything to do with it, and it's nothing to do with the mission, but see how crazy things can get while the party are trying to work that out.

Reasons for suddenly dropping down dead depend on your cyberpunk world, but true accidents can be anything from a sudden brain aneurysm, a stray bullet from a firefight two blocks over, a deadly allergic reaction to something at the meeting (that ring of clear liquid on the table wasn't condensation from a glass, it was a new street drug), a cyberware glitch, or anything you like. Alternatively, whoever drops down dead was killed deliberately, but not because of anything to do with this meeting.

[Sinewmire]

There's an important moment in HBO's Rome, where two large and dangerous gangs are facing off - one is trying to get to the senate building, which is surrounded by another gang, Pompey's men. They want to make a show of force and make sure they don't "try anything". Both want the same thing - Antony's gang to reach the senate.

Thing is, last night, one member of Antony's gang was gambling and drinking, and got into a fight with two brothers, one of whom was killed, so one of Pompey's men sees the killer of his brother in Antony's gang, and goes for him in grief and fury.

Violence instantly erupts as both sides surge forward to protect their men - all due to a stupid drunken brawl the night before.

[LibraryOgre]

As others mentioned, a third party getting involved (or even NOT involved, just adjacent and troublesome) can be a good monkeywrench to throw. Gang shows up and starts getting rowdy... they don't even have to be getting rowdy at the obviously armed and dangerous, but if you're bodyguarding, some armed punks getting drunk and loud is going to be worrisome.

Another third party that might screw things up is Lone Star. Your post says Johnson, your subject line says Gang meeting... those are going to draw two very different responses from the Star.

[GungHo]

Never accept an invitation that contains the words "gang meeting". It's always a hit or a set up. The twist would be for nothing significant to happen. In fact, it's worth doing just that to mess with everyone's minds. They'll be convinced the whole ride home that they got alien abducted or something.

[Storm_Of_Snow]

Law enforcement or a medical extraction vehicle passes nearby with sirens on full - going somewhere else but someone thinks someone might have sold the meeting out.

A Corporation's been after one of the involved Johnsons in order to get them to work for them, and when they get wind that they're going to be out from under their employers sight, they send a recruitment/extraction team in to get them, and won't take no for an answer. Said person's perfectly happy where they are/ wouldn't work for the "hiring" corporation for anything/ will have their family killed if they leave.

Someone forgot to pay off the local street gang/organised crime syndicate who's territory the meeting's being held in.

The Johnson the party's escorting has another agent the party don't know about, who's covering the meeting as a sniper, but one of the other Johnson's bodyguards is an enemy of theirs. Or their cybernetics/jacked weapon gets hacked and a third party uses them to assassinate the other Johnson.

The Johnson they're supposed to meet has had something come up and they can't make the meet, so they sent an associate - naturally, the player's patron get suspicious.

[TheYell]

However, there's only 2 scenarios i can think of, and neither of them is interesting enough.
1) It's a trap, or the johnsons don't get along. Somebody shoots, or the police intervenes. Pretty cliche. Want to avoid.

OK have a fight because the johnsons get along too well. One of them wants to defect and join the other.

If its your johnson defecting, your party has to survive an attack by the bodyguards, capture the enemy johnson, and punish/capture your traitor.

If its their johnson defecting, your party has to overcome the other bodyguards and protect two johnsons.

[Friv]

The meeting goes perfectly, but someone spots the trade and tries to hit the players while they're escorting the Johnson home, on the assumption that anything that was traded is worth stealing. They launch a big, smoky diversion while they try to kidnap the Johnson, and the players have to fight them off.

The attackers have no affiliation with either side; they're a bunch of street thugs who thought they spotted a golden paycheque.

[Madeiner]

Law enforcement or a medical extraction vehicle passes nearby with sirens on full - going somewhere else but someone thinks someone might have sold the meeting out.

Thanks everyone :) I ended up using this one. I think i managed to make them feel the tension. As soon as i mentioned sirens at around 1km, they all started shooting. I later mentioned the sirens kept getting closer for a while and then farther away, onto their intended destination... :D