[Lysanderz]

Alright, so just so I can get some ideas of what my players may be doing to respond to such an event:

How do you handle a hostage situation when you're tasked with getting as many hostages out alive?

4th floor building, 3 stair wells, Windows, fire escape

GM Notes: 2 Stair wells rigged to blow when the doors are opened, AR advertisements and shades are up on the windows, Fire Escape leads to an industrial door that triggers an alarm when opened. There are no wards in the building, but the hostage takers have an actively patrolling Force 5 Guardian spirit.

How do you save lives?

[farothel]

A social adept who talks the hostage takers into coming out (and disengaging those bombs). 

[Lysanderz]

A solid tactic, though I believe there are social modifiers in place here that will make that route difficult (Definitely not impossible).

-No communication would be face-to-face (Not sure if this is a penalty)
-Targets are hostile (-4 penalty last I checked)
-Targets have the Upper hand in the situation (-2 modifier probably, just like if they were armed and you weren't)

So you're talking at least -6 if not a little more. Still, a viable tactic if Jack feels like cooperating.

[Tecumseh]

Before formulating a plan, here are some questions I would ask as a player:

Do we know where the hostages are in the building? Fourth floor or elsewhere?

Are there any entry points via the roof? Is the roof accessible, via surrounding buildings or Levitate or ___?

Is there an elevator (and, thus, an elevator shaft)? If not, is it an ancient building? Is the fire escape internal or external?

Any underground entry points, via an underground parking garage or the sewers?

You could toss some Watchers on patrol if you want to complicate things further.

[Lysanderz]

I don't plan to make it much more difficult than it already is unless I see a MAJOR hole in security. To answer your questions:

No sewer entrances or underground parking garages

There are window accesses

4th floor is the top floor, schematics show roof access (Unknown to the players, this is the Target's Ideal escape path)

Elevator shaft available, but the elevator is being kept in place after damaging its mechanical components done by the Targets

Fire Escape is External. The building was probably built around the 2040's, making it old but with its electronics being constantly updated. Like most TV stations.

[Raiden]

If there is a hacker in the group I would be making sure he has full schematics and layout of said building if at all possible :3

[emsquared]

-No communication would be face-to-face (Not sure if this is a penalty)

Renders Tailored Pheromones and Kinesics useless, pretty big deal.

How big is the floor/area the kidnappers and hostages in? Are they in multiple rooms? How many kidnappers? How many hostages?

The biggest job of the Face wouldn't be to get them to outright release all hostages, but to just improve the situation. Release some hostages (women and children), build good will (get them water, food, smokes, etc.), be a distraction, mitigate anger when the Spirit is nuked or other counter-measures are taken, and of course, depending on what the hostage-takers want, negotiating those terms, i.e. buying time. During that time, the Caster and Hacker should be doing recon on the building, he'd probably even be given Admin access to the system if asked. After all the ground that could be made there was used up, It'd be worth trying a hostage-swap thing, dress-up a couple well-chosen Runners (Awakened, Hand-to-Hand guy, cyber-gun guy, etc.) as "every-day people" if possible, pose them as high-value members (CEOs, etc.) of the organization which is being victimized; "they'll get you results" "they feel they are the ones who deserve to be the object of your anger, don't want their people to suffer" or whatever spiel might appeal most to the motives of the villains. Whether or not that works, the Hacker should be able to silence the alarmed doors and disarm the explosives if they're triggered wirelessly, after that send in a precision extraction team (stealthy with silent weapons) which in combination with the inside men would be the best bet, this would all be preferable to a coordinated lights-out/gas grenade/flash-bang/spirit summoning/snipe any exposed hostiles attack, IMO.

[Tecumseh]

I once ran a similar scenario for a group. Their approach was to buy a ton of gas grenades and toss them down the ventilation shafts on the roof. Buying all the chems put a dent in their profits but they were willing to do it.

My group likely had more time to prepare than yours does, so they had the luxury of tracking down grenades they didn't have on hand. And the building in question was smaller - 2 stories versus 4 - so they were reasonably sure they could blanket the building uniformly.

If they glitch, or buy off-brand chems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis

[Lysanderz]

Well the run is taking place during the tempo riots so you're entirely correct that they won't have a lot of time. A police contact of theirs is going to ask for the favor since the police are busy dealing with the other crazies that Tempo has produced. I am hoping it will make for a challenging but not impossible run.

Still... tear gas is a GREAT way to go.

[Mirikon]

Step 1: Hacker to disable the alarms.
Step 2: Mage + Spirits to take out the spirit on the astral.
Step 3: Slab/DMSO splash grenades through the windows.
Step 4: Street Samurai through the window (Gecko tape gloves, y'know) with assault rifle full of SnS, to mop up anything still standing after the Slab

[Lysanderz]

I'm totally okay with that progression. It forces the team to rely on their respective skills and do their jobs well. Of course there are always risks, but that's just a part of the game.

[GiraffeShaman]

The Face can negotiate to exchange himself for a hostage. Not a full win, but it betters the situation. He can use his up close powers and you have a man inside.

[Tecumseh]

It sounds like a fun scenario. It requires planning and a tactical approach but the time constraints put a limit on overthinking the legwork. I enjoy stealthy characters so I would have a lot of fun sneaking around for recon and/or silently dropping the hostage takers. (Presumably under a spirit's Concealment power to counteract the Guardian spirit on patrol.) But, yes, there's a good balance between the skillsets required to effectively complete the mission.

[Lysanderz]

So we see how it should be done,

Who can find a way to totally frag this scenario beyond the conventional?

[Tecumseh]

Oh, there are lots of ways. What flavor of game are you playing? What shade is your mohawk?

1) If you're playing SpiritRun (presumably with bound spirits), then you have them manifest simultaneously and engulf / stunball / elemental attack the terrorists while the team's mage pops the Guardian spirit on the astral.

2) The players agree to all the hostage takers' demands. The hacker splices together whatever data streams necessary to convince the terrorists that their demands have been met, the mage uses Trid Phantasm to have them see whatever they want to see, the face cons them all into submission. Do the terrorists let the hostages go, make a new round of demands, or what? Are the players contracted to pursue the terrorists (via the roof escape previously mentioned) or is their job done once the hostages are free?

3) The hacker / technomancer hacks the terrorists' comms and sews discord among them with various feigns and misdirections so that they no longer trust one another and eventually implode.

4) It turns into a siege / waiting game. The players arrange for drugged pizzas (or pizzas with anchored spells, whatever) to be delivered, knowing that the terrorists have to eat eventually (presumably after the vending machines have been exhausted).

5 to ∞) Simultaneous sniping. Fastball special (the troll throws the dwarf through a second story window). The team poses as a news crew to interview the terrorists about their demands. Etc.

You should transcribe your players' stream of thoughts while planning and post it here after you play.