[TheHug]

So planning my first real run with a group of new players. They will be infiltrating a tower for a bit of compromising data. Pretty standard stuff, I know, but it's all of our first time playing really, and I've got some plot twists planned in the larger story that I think will be neat.

I'm wondering though, about how/when to bring in a large fight for the players. Naturally, fights are exciting and the players will have some fun doing it. But at the same time, in something like an infiltrate and grab mission, it seems that if the runners do their jobs well, they shouldn't be engaged in a large gun battle. It's loud, visible, and bad PR generally. I actually like the idea of rewarding the players for plotting out the whole mission well enough, and getting just enough luck that no one ever knew they were there.

The problem is with the state of technology, one alerted guard with a commlink means the whole building is on alert, so fights either have to be totally avoided or they are going to get big and serious really fast, and make escape a problem, as well as potentially irk Mr. Johnson, who would have preferred this all handled with a bit more finesse.

How do you guys handle both making security tough and fun to get through, but without the whole building coming down on the runners the moment a die roll goes the wrong way, or when a single guard happens to stroll into the wrong hallway?

Here's my set up:
The offices I set up for the run is two floors on top of a large building. There will be a dedicated security team with a mage ready to pounce on the runners if they get an alert.

 Once getting into the building, the first office floor will probably have a patrolling guard obviously, he's nothing in combat terms, and a stealthy enough character could probably bring him down before he had a chance to call in an alert. But do I launch the whole security team up against the runners the moment he sees them and gets a simple action? That seems a little too intense.

The second floor will have a drone hanging out, but if the team's rigger is quick enough again, that shouldn't be a problem. The wrench I plan on throwing in the team's plans is that the only room where they can access the objective is going to have a watcher spirit on astral, with a command like "wake up security mage if anyone comes in here" They are new players, but the shaman knows he can scout astrally. If he goes in first astrally and gets rid of the watcher, they will be pretty much home free. If they all go ambling into the room at once, the tower security team will definitely be on their way.

So I guess the final questions are, how forgiving are you guys in stealth situations with regards to full blown sec response? Because of instant communication, does one screw up warrant instant and total retribution, or do you let the players deal with groups of enemies at a time? The latter seems a little more dungeon crawly but less realistic in terms of a security response. Do you always try to have some kind of climactic gun battle, or should stealth and careful planning be interesting enough as their own reward?

[beowulf_of_wa]

one option is a light sec team onsite and a heavy team oncall.

one glitch equal total retribution, not normally for me, but it is very situation dependent. high risk + high pay = harsh response, if not instant.

[tzizimine]

The option with the light security on site and heavy hitters on call is a pretty common one. Not every site has the budget to be staffed 24/7 with elite guards, matrix hackers and security mages. And there is a big difference between alerted and responding.


For example, most security guards will have a biomonitor on them. It's not too expensive. It's not rare or difficult to come by and most security forces know that the front line is exactly that... front line, meaning that the most valuable piece of intel the front line can regularly give is when and where they are when the opposition (i.e. your PCs) take them out. Once this happens, the building is alerted, but this does not mean that elite guards start pouring out of every door at once.


If the elite guards are not on site, they need to get there. With Matrix and Astral Projection, this is usually instantaneous, but these are also the least 'lethal' opposition to the group. Their job is to get the intel on what the PCs are doing and relay that to the physical security that is en route and will arrive in XX minutes. The less important the site is, the slower physical security will get there. If you have access to the New Seattle book for SR3, there is a decent table about responses from Lone Star based on the level of contract purchased, with number of IPs/ Turns between:

• Alert (call comes into 911)
• First Response (always remote connection, usually via Matrix, but could be Astrally projecting mage)
• Second Response (remote controlled drone, summoned spirit or MAYBE foot patrol)
• Third Response (patrol car)
• Backup (patrol cars and maybe a helicopter)
• Second Backup (patrol call and definitely a helicopter)
• Repeating Backup (everything including the kitchen sink).

Having the Police Procedures and Security Procedures knowledge skills should give the party a chance to know that if things go pear-shaped, they have XX seconds before they should leave and XX minutes before they have to leave.

[Zilfer]

Yeah, I may or may not be having troubles with this myself.

A wetwork mission, went pretty bad because someone gave out the list of people they were trying to hit. One of them on the list was an Info broker.  (So i decided he might get wind of it compared to the others) He was set up to call Lonestar should anyone come looking around for him suspiciously.

First day they tried two people went in trying to get an appointment with him, the receptionist said they had one in 30 minutes, take a seat. (They waited nothing bad yet). At the 10 minute mark she went back to inform Trake the Info Broker of his appointment, and that's when he told the receptionist to call lonestar. She told them it would just be a minute and went back to her job.

Luckily someone was outside down below saw lonestar patrol cars pulling up, called them on the top floor and got them to start leaving. They tried to escape going to the second floor. (obviously watching the "elevetor floor number" they knew where the two had gone.)

One the second floor a security officer approached them saying they shouldn't be here. One with commanding voice told him that he was giving them a tour. Perception check as the lonestar come out of the elevator and they are spotted. So they head over there to them who are pretending to be having a tour now. (I found out commanding voice doesn't last very long but aw well) So Lonestar tells them they are under arrest for possible attempted assassination.

A second lonestar squad(Made the squads 3 each) was checking the stairs came up to the second floor. (One of the players calls their contact in Lonestar, a connection 4 or 5 and loyalty 6. To tell them to draw back. It happens to be her sister so I figure it will take a second to get ahold of the squad but it will probably work.) The one with commanding voice tries to convince the second group of Lonestar with a commanding voice that the first group is the assassins. <.< So the first group sees that and draws guns on them, and the second draw's guns on them. The security guy finally snaps out of the commanding voice (this was when i found out it doesn't last that long).

This is also when they get a call about letting them go. Well they just saw one of them take advantage of controlling people's actions. I'm guessing that's highly illegal in some way or another. Let alone done to Lonestar. xD

So the sister got her sister out of trouble but not the one guy. (I'm going to have a secondary question about him, I may have gone easy on him anyways) He goes to jail gets out the next day after paying bail. The only thing he had on him was a deck of cards so I decided since that was the only thing they could really plant a tracking device on i'd do that, and if he went back to the infobroker on some off chance then Lonestar would know that he was lying about not being there to kill someone.

So, they meet up with the group again and out of the 4 people who's jobs i believe were.... (KE Scientist, Bounty Hunter, Wageslave, and the Infobroker Trake at Info tech) They go after the same one the day or so after? This time however he molds his face with master of a 1000 faces, and goes as himself, with a different "body guard." (another person in the party) Well I was really hoping they wouldn't go back there but since they did and I asked him what he was bringing and he said his cards. <.<

(he's a throwing adept that can slice people's heads off with cards)

So they show up, same deal except this time they are admitted to see him.(I'll note that in this form he's actually the son of the guy that Trake learned from ironic enough) Well they have a conversation pretending to be seeking information on another job they had been offered. The guy is purposefully making small talk, had them talking for about 5 minutes in game time if not more. As he left I tried to drop one last hint to them. (There was no one outside the building at the bottom this time.)

"Have fun at the bars."

The face guy thought it was weird but they headed out and down the elevator where lonestar was waiting. So one of them proceeded to walk forward and handcuffed to the ground. The Adept stood there for a moment. (tried to quick draw a flash grenade and threw it. Not sure if you can but i allowed it since quick draw says pistol sized object) and he runs for the stairs. One on the ground uses distraction to get up shoot the smart gun along his forarm to shoot the cuff's that were put on him and runs for it as well. I believe he got shot once for a stun box or two.

They start running up the stairs. Lonestar has a mage on call because they know this guys an adept and with them making a run for it summons a F6 spirit which when it attacks it's not a F2 because the Adept has Astral Hazing. (I got a question about that one two in a minute). So defeated they continue up to the 21st floor.

(Meanwhile a guy they had called while running up the stairs shows up astrally and the mage see's him. He's able to take out the mage, and then travels back to his body. Could have helpped them a bit if he scoutted more I'm sure.)

On the 21st floor I have them make a perception check and they hear the rotor's of a helicopter. (not sure if they have that anymore but you know. ) So they think the guy is trying to escape. (the floor above him is where the guys floor) they go back to the stairs run tot he top and see a helicopter landed with Lonestar only. It was back up to cut them off in a "Pincer". Which is pretty much what happened. I was hoping they'd push for that helicopter quickly. Instead they took cover and killed the guys one by one. (i'm still learning tactics so they got their butts handed to themselves since lonestar had no cover, but then I realized I could prolong the Lonestar's action to shoot them when they popped up out of cover. I also used covering fire once so that if they popped out on the 3rd initiative pass they had a chance of getting hit, since lonestar didn't have any guys with over 2 IP's.) Well when the pilot saw all the guys were dead he took off. (not sure if I should have given them the chance to try and catch it or not but I didn't)  Somewhere before they had finished off everyone in the roof they heard footsteps coming from below. About the time they got the guys on the roof dead they were right on their tail. So they get to the roof with the helicopter pointing light at them and get rushed by guys. 1 person has wings on his armor of some sort but we couldn't find where specifically it was in the books so I just went with it. However one did not have a way out.

So he went down and the other one ran from the side of the buidling after giving two more card throws. The helicopter followed him on his flight now opening fire. Had composure test rolled if he got hit (now that I think back probably not the test you'd roll but iw as thinking it'd require some focus to get through the pair or jaring effect of getting hit while focusing on trying to glide.) Anyways the last one he didn't get a single hit so i asked did he want to burn edge? So he landed in a garbage can to soften the landing and knocked him out. Meanwhile guy on the roof wakes up sometime later, and instead of just putting him away for ever someone comes up to him and offers him to wipe this clean if they can do something for him. So the job is against Lonestar's rival Knight Errant. To steal a prototype Cyberware/Bioware. (Basically the Wired Reflexes type one) So I figure it's going to be hard to do that and Knight Errant will be tougher but hopefully the whole group is together at that point. xD He's released with that mission, or that he'll be killed if he doesn't complete it.


So Astral Hazing as a changling power... would that affect his own Magic Score curiously? I thought it would, he looked it up and says it's like his own personal domain. (don't those increase magic by the background count?) If that is so wouldn't it "Technically" give him a +4? Which doesn't seem like a negative quality however everyone would probably be after him.

brings me to my second question Astral hazing. What type of negative things should happen to this character besides' fucking up his teammates spells and powers. If an Adept goes into this range and loses 4 magic thus 4 power points do they pick which powers they loose? also whta if they are initiatved say 4 times and it goes below 4 magic, and they used initation for Power Points. Do they also loose there because technically it can't be over their magic score?

So do you think for the most part it was handled right or was it too strong. I felt it might have been too strong but then again, I haven't really thrown anything like this against them yet. xD

[The_Dood]

If my players messed up on a standard snatch and grab like you describe my response would depend on the what the PCs could of taken (not necessarily what they were after). If the facility only had some compromising data then:

• the on site response would be limited to containing the fact it was stolen.  You don't need corporate security talking about how they recovered the VP's photos from the last Christmas party but it cost them a few of their friends.
• once the PCs left the facility I would have a team of competing shadowrunnners after them to retrieve the data. If the team is quick about getting to their buyer then he would be the first target for the opposing shadowrunnners.

In my opinion in Shadowrun too much time is spent on planning how to defeat the security measures - just bribe the corporate secretary instead. Completely isolated data should be so rare that it's often not worth the price to retrieve it.