Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => Gear => Topic started by: Archone on <06-06-13/0301:39>
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I'm thinking to have the Leopard Guards as possible encounters in my next session (depending on how things go with the team), or else just keep them in reserve for next time. And I'm thinking about their armor... are there any examples of artwork or descriptions (either canon or just fanart) that I might look at?
Personally, I'm leaning towards giving them stylized light military armor that includes hydraulic jacks rating 5, effectively doubling all jumping distances, plus foot anchors... not only would it let them leap around like crazy and then clamp down for recoil compensation, it would also give them jungle cat feet for some nasty kicking attacks. But beyond that... is there anything anyone can share in terms of appearances or RP concepts for Aztechnology's elite?
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I'd add chameleon coating (I think armor has a different name for it but I forget it) since jaguars are stealthy, or I'd do a few special troopers with that. .
Maybe gecko gloves to allow them to climb too.
If you do a boss type guard, Physical Adept with silent footfall and wall running.
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The old Aztlan source book (2nd or 3rd edition) has some stuff on these guys. Pg 75 if you have the book. Uniform colours are tan and ochre and the stat block for them in the game info section (pg 178) has them wearing medium military armour. The only difference between their uniform and a standard Aztechnology security guard is the shoulder flashes showing the leopard. They are supposed to be about equivalent to the Red Samurai in skill with about half being cybered and the rest being adepts. They tend to guard high security facilities.
The adventure book Ghost Cartels has some Jaguar guards in it if you would like to compare how they load out and operate. I believe the second Dawn of Aritfacts adventure features a couple of Eagle guards taking a stab at the PCs and those guys were also kitted out with milspec armour. Don't remember what type though. All these guys seem to carry Ares Alphas as a primary weapon though.
Sadly no pictures I know of.
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Keep in mind 2 things:
Private 'security' of a corp has no legal right to operate outside of corp territory. Meaning, an Aztech guard on the streets of Seattle firing a weapon is considered an 'armed threat' at best and an 'armed terrorist' at worst and LS/KE will respond accordllingly! So when a corp just 'has to' send their security over the fence, they tend to make sure the bozos are not wearing anything that links them back to the mother Corp: black armor, no Corp logos, etc.
Mil spec armor of any sort is a sure fire way of having HTHR teams show up in a hurry packing enough men and firepower to get the job done, and done right! Even with all sorts of armor mods and chameleon coating, this armor is easy to spot, especially on city streets bustling with people!
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Unless they've done the paperwork and Lone Star's given them the go-ahead to follow you as far as the next person's jurisdiction. It might more resemble a modern-day extradition than bounty hunt, but there's precedent already.
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It heavily depends on situation and the crime comited against corps property, as treaties with the city possibly gives them right to act under some circumstances.
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It heavily depends on situation and the crime comited against corps property, as treaties with the city possibly gives them right to act under some circumstances.
Yes, there is always the exception....
However corps usually don't play well with others in their backyard... KE/LS back yard is the sprawl proper, and they are 'responsible' for the law and order in that sprawl (at least the parts that have the majority of tax payers!!)
Don't get me wrong, aztech cutting loose on a bunch of runners in a barrens isn't going to slot off KE, no matter what the collateral damage is.
Aztech cutting loose on some runners in the downtown core is entirely a different matter! Every round that misses a runner damages property or tax payers! And KE can't have that!!
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The best solution for every runner is to switch to another AAA corp property after the hit. They sometimes may hunt you in the streets of the city. But they will never cross the border of Ares shopping mall :) Too bad Arcology is down, used to be good hangout when on the run...against someone else but Renraku OFC ;D
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KE may be responsible for security in Seattle, but Seattle is not KE property. It is the local government the corps would have to clear it with, and KE would have to be notified, but if it's cleared they can't do much about it - though that doesn't mean that they have to cooperate. And sine it's the government they're dealing with, they probably get away with just about anything. That's why you'd need to hop to another corp's extraterritorial property to lose them.
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The area in question is a warehouse at the Tacoma docks that is Aztechnology property; it's full of cinnibar (a mercury ore that is also, among other things, a traditional ingredient in native american cosmetics since the days of the Olmec civilization) and is leaking the stuff into the water (mercury pollution, thereby attracting mermaids). Depending on how the team goes about it, I was thinking to have a VTOL show up and a unit of Leopard Guards in anime-style powered armor (something like what was seen in "Gargoyles" from the 90s) jump out with HVARs, ready to sterilize the place to prevent any more bad publicity about the pollution that Aztechnology always seems to get linked to.
Though that may not have to happen. The team is actually quite savvy. They may end up finding a solution that doesn't involve breaking into the warehouse in the first place. They've already managed to get hired by two groups to do the same job, and possibly more (And this wasn't even a paying job, when they showed up; it was part of the mage's initiation quest). So we'll see. But does anyone have any pics or references worth sharing, to give me ideas as to what an Aztech guard is likely to wear?
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As I said in my previous post, there aren't any canon pics of these guys. A google search like this one found some stuff you might be able to use.
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=shadowrun+leopard+guards&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nGKyUfOLDcjRiALDyIHICA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1445&bih=857
Basically, these guys dress just like anyone else in Aztechnology security except for a shoulder flash designating them as leopards. If you kit them out in milspec armour, that will be about the only difference. Put whatever you like in the armour to give your players a challenge.
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Actually, if this is going to be in Seattle, the PCs are only going to run into the Eagle Guards that Mantis mentioned; it's well established that you just don't see the Jaguar Guards outside of Aztlan itself. (And no, in this particular case 'Aztlan' does NOT mean Aztechnology.) Which is a good thing; the Jags turn everything up to 11, and you should consider them Superior opponents that the PCs should beat only by out-thinking, out-facing, or out-numbering. I recall a piece in, I believe, 3E that had a Mexican female adept call out a challenge to one of the male Jaguar Guards, which they honored in very samurai manner - truce, etc. Then the rest of the runner team blew the crap out of the Guard team.
Don't get me wrong, the Eagle Guard should be some Very Serious Opposition; IIRC, they do teams of six as well, and almost the only difference is that the Eagles go outside Aztlan. 6s in their three or four primary skills (I'd give only the Jaguars a 7), top-notch armor and weapons, one mage/shaman, two adepts, one decker/rigger, two top-end cyberguys. Most runner teams should still be grease on the wall ... but y'know, these are PCs, so encourage 'em to plan right. 'Right', in this case, is to never come in contact with 'em. ;)
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"A perfect run is one that noone knows you were there.
A great run is one that you don't have to fire a shot.
If you have to employ violence, you didn't plan properly"
Anoniymous shadowrunner.
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Actually, I said Leopard Guards, not Jaguar. I know the Jaguar don't leave Aztlan... I also know that a number of people have pointed out that leopards aren't native to central America. Have they been retconned as Eagle Guards?
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Not that I know of. Most people miss out on the Leopards as they usually just guard high security facilities. In this case they are probably exactly what you are looking for.
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Eagles are specificaly Magic branch of AZT Security forces. Almost exclusively Combat mages. Nasty and fun to play :)
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Here's a mural of the guys SR guys were based on.
http://www.colonial-mexico.com/Central%20Mexico/ixm.html
Also, Medieval Total War Americas (the Cortes campaign) has really great depictions of the various Aztec warriors, including the jaguar warriors. You might try looking at them on Youtube, but I found them a bit hard to make out on there. It looks pretty awsome in the actual game though. Their costumes are ridiculously bright.
Here's another depiction, there's various depictions of them on here:
http://photobucket.com/images/Aztec+jaguar+warrior/?page=1
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I thought I'd let everyone know how it went, and thank you all for your help.
The team basically crapped bricks when the Leopard Guards dropped down. One of the Runners (female ork sammie) had been seducing the middle aged security guard when they showed up and shot up her AND her paramour (on the "leave no evidence or witnesses" plan). She was horribly wounded and the hapless security guard was bleeding out. This left the rest of the team trapped inside the warehouse (and since the initial invasion involved landing directly ON the roof, they were technically still on Aztech property).
The guards jumped down and... I must admit, I waffled. My greatest failing as a GM is my difficulty in trying to kill the PCs. So I reasoned that two of them would fan out to look for others, while the other two dealt with the runners in the warehouse (the fifth one staying on the roof because that ork sammie is, as always, quite tough to kill).
The mage was left seriously injured by their HVARs. He tried using an overcast stunball on them... except I had them all using combat drugs that let them ignore stun damage completely (it was amusing to watch the player's reaction :p ). This also annoyed the Rigger when she used her own weapon of choice - a custom drone that was also a cyberpunk two handed equivalent to Mjolner, Thor's hammer. Hurl it and do physical damage plus the electrical damage, then the drone pilot guides it back to her hand (but only one throw per combat turn). They were forced to use other methods...
But the team persevered. The sammie managed to get halfway to the bus before being met by the drone made for her to churn out arrows (i.e. plenty of regular, stick-n-shock, and explosive tipped arrows, at normal cost but automatically available), bringing her bow with it. Now she had her firepower. The team's hackers, one an elf and one an AI, managed to brain burn the rigger pilot of the overhead VTOL, while four of the leopard guards were finally defeated (the fifth jumping into the harbor to escape, and their unit's support mage flying away before he could be killed as well).
This left them with a helicopter and four suits of slightly used powered armor. These were relocated to a safe place while the sammie and the mage and the security guard were all taken to Seattle General - where Doctor Martha Lowell was waiting and ready. The Lowells being a family of wolf shifters who had had multiple dealings with the Runners in the past; to Martha these runners were primarilly known as "the darlings who rescued my puppies from the research facility where they'd been taken for experimentation." The sammie and mage woke up to find old Ernest Lowell himself playing solitare while watching them (Ernest being a veteran Runner and Adept who can kill with thrown playing cards, coins, whatever), and the representative from one of their two employers showing up to tell them to turn on the news. Aztechnology was announcing a renovation of the docks in an attractive and environmentally friendly update (and carefully not mentioning that they'd been caught leaking poisons into the water).
I know a lot of this sounds high powered (The hammer in particular). But... that was the end of the campaign. The Runners are retired (at least for now); the rigger and her elven hacker boyfriend are likely to get day jobs with lucrative salaries, given their accomplishments. The team acquired a reputation for getting jobs done while keeping the killing to an absolute minimum, and kept on the right side of the law for the most part. And best of all, new campaigns have started - with my players now acting as GM and I get to be a player! (and the same rulings I made for their benefit are being applied towards... my characters. What goes around comes around, chummers...)
Thanks again to everyone for the assistance with setting up for my adventures! ^.^