[X] My Assistant

[Dakka Fiend]

I think the OP is asking for solutions that don't involve killing that character. Having him committed to a mental asylum, rewriting his brain or hooking him up on BTLs that let him enact his revenge more or less is it.

Because that guy's a suicidal maniac who's gonna take the entire group down with him and needs to be neutralized - some way or other.

@FuelDrop: BTW have you asked the player what he thinks how long a criminal in the real world would survive if he started telling his buddies he wants to destroy France or the UK with bio weapons?

[SpellBinder]

I think the OP is asking for solutions that don't involve killing that character. Having him committed to a mental asylum, rewriting his brain or hooking him up on BTLs that let him enact his revenge more or less is it.

Because that guy's a suicidal maniac who's gonna take the entire group down with him and needs to be neutralized - some way or other.

@FuelDrop: BTW have you asked the player what he thinks how long a criminal in the real world would survive if he started telling his buddies he wants to destroy France or the UK with bio weapons?

Or Monsanto or Microsoft or Apple???

[thorya]

Considering that it's precisely the sort of shenanigans the megacorps try to pull over each others, I don't think his odds for sucess are very good. As soon as he gets reasonably identified as a nuisance of significant manitude, he'll prorbably get wiped out. Ark Dankwalther style if necessary.

Agreed. I said not necessarily suicidal, but still very likely so. It's the difference between a one in a million chance and a one in a billion chance of survival, because people with way more resources than you are also playing the corporate war game and one slip up means you get annihilated.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Remind him of the tale of Art Dankwalther - who was an immensely wealthy man who, as far as anyone can prove, didn't do anything extraordinarily illegal - he was just openly using his money as a weapon against the corp who screwed him.

And he was good, too. Dodged a dozen attempts on his life through more conventional means and taunted them about it. The CC looked like jackasses.

The entire Corporate Court voted an Omega Order on him. They murdered a few thousand innocent people and destroyed a city block of an entire UCAS city just to kill him, and they said "Yeah, we did it. That guy was getting to be trouble to the corporate way of life. What's that, UCAS? You're not happy about the collateral damage? TOO FUCKING BAD!"


That is the kind of people he's dealing with. Remind him of that, and suggest to him that now would be a good time to retcon the scope of his anger.

[Nath]

The entire Corporate Court voted an Omega Order on him. They murdered a few thousand innocent people and destroyed a city block of an entire UCAS city just to kill him, and they said "Yeah, we did it. That guy was getting to be trouble to the corporate way of life. What's that, UCAS? You're not happy about the collateral damage? TOO FUCKING BAD!"

I didn't remember where the actual location of Dankwalther when he was killed, or the mention of any collateral casualties. Which book is that in?

[hermit]

System Failure, IIRC.

[Irion]

Too bad it wasn't S-K he was after. Wonder how he'd react to a little one-on-one time with the Hans Brackhaus. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smokin.gif)

Otherwise this sounds a little like an Elevator Ride To Hell.

You mean how he would react to a little "dinner for one"...
Would leave the good Hans Brackhaus with a deeply philosophical question:
Ketchup or Salsa?


Anyhow, I think somebody has already hinted at it, but Megacorps are just to big to be taken down in one straight plot. Sure, you can hurt them a little, and a little etc. untill an other corp might take their place. But "THE PLOT" does not exist without alienating big parts of the planet against you...
So unless you are some half godly beeing... (Be it a great dragon or the force 73 spirit of chuck norris) It does not look good for you...

@SpellBinder

Or Monsanto or Microsoft or Apple???

Well, it depends. If Monsanto is hit by bioweapons, they would probably get the blamed for it themselves...
Apple or Microsoft, thats less likely.. Unless you call it something like Virus 8 or iSick.

[FuelDrop]

Another session, and it's become apparent that 'death by failing to take the hint' is likely to be this character's only ending. I mean, no-one likes arbitrary character killing but we gave this guy every reasonable chance to scale down his ambitions, or walk away... or even simply play it smart! But no, he's decided to start using his disposable commlink to search for info on Renraku, the Seattle water system, and propagating bioweapons.

We have now officially never met or heard of this guy before.

The GM is going to give him one last chance, which we reasonably expect him to completely ignore, then the gloves come off and we curb-stomp him so hard that people on the other side of the planet suddenly find a bump. Fortunately most of the group are actively trying to avoid getting entangled in this whole mess, so his actions are going to affect no-one but him.

[DeathStrobe]

Another session, and it's become apparent that 'death by failing to take the hint' is likely to be this character's only ending. I mean, no-one likes arbitrary character killing but we gave this guy every reasonable chance to scale down his ambitions, or walk away... or even simply play it smart! But no, he's decided to start using his disposable commlink to search for info on Renraku, the Seattle water system, and propagating bioweapons.

We have now officially never met or heard of this guy before.

The GM is going to give him one last chance, which we reasonably expect him to completely ignore, then the gloves come off and we curb-stomp him so hard that people on the other side of the planet suddenly find a bump. Fortunately most of the group are actively trying to avoid getting entangled in this whole mess, so his actions are going to affect no-one but him.

Well, then, maybe you should create some throw away characters and go crazy pink mohawk and play along.

Or if you really want to save his life. Mind rape spells, or put some trodes on hime and start brainwashing with psychotropic programs. You can see the rules for brainwashing in Unwired. Or if you don't have the time to brainwash him and looking for a more mundane way to do it, knock him out and have a kink bomb installed. Nothing says guarantee co operation like losing your frontal lobe if you don't play with the team.

[ZeroSpace]

Has a AAA megacorp ever truly been destroyed? The only one I can think of is Fuchi, and that took a huge scandal to provoke the rest of the corporate to shut them down.(EDIT: Or not. Took a closer look at Fuchi's entry on the wiki; it's not a corporate take down, there's more to it than that.) To be able to take down Renraku, buddy-boy would almost certainly need the assistance of another AAA to set that in motion, and even then he would be almost guaranteed to be killed before he ever saw any part of the fallout.

Considering how dedicated he is the downfall of Renraku, I see this characters story have a very sudden end to it. Renraku's catering bill is larger than the characters net-worth, including that of all his soon-to-be-former contacts and their contacts. They can absorb the hit of losing tens of thousands of corporate assets (by which I mean employees). If anything, a sudden outbreak of, say, Ebola-Plus is only going to serve to make martyrs out of Renraku. If you really want to warn him off his current track, tell him that.

'Course, I wouldn't mind watching the shit-storm that will ensue from his antics. It's a shame I can't watch it. It sounds like it'll be a popcorn munching session.

[Manunancy]

The GM is going to give him one last chance, which we reasonably expect him to completely ignore, then the gloves come off and we curb-stomp him so hard that people on the other side of the planet suddenly find a bump. Fortunately most of the group are actively trying to avoid getting entangled in this whole mess, so his actions are going to affect no-one but him.

Depending on how it turns out and what known relations your characters have with the loon, there's an entagnlement you might want : snatching and delivering him if he gets a bounty on his head.

Did someone point to him that by his choice of tactics he's going inflict the same sort of grief that he reproach Renraku to have inflicted to him on a whole slew of peoples, many of them don't even have any kind of direct relation with Renraku beyond the 'my cousin's girls sweeps floors in some offices in the Renraku offices'. Odds are he's far enough beyondthe bend that he won't care, but I'd think it's an argument that might get through.

[Tanegar]

the force 73 spirit of chuck norris

What makes you think the spirit of Chuck Norris is only Force 73?

[FuelDrop]

.

Did someone point to him that by his choice of tactics he's going inflict the same sort of grief that he reproach Renraku to have inflicted to him on a whole slew of peoples, many of them don't even have any kind of direct relation with Renraku beyond the 'my cousin's girls sweeps floors in some offices in the Renraku offices'. Odds are he's far enough beyondthe bend that he won't care, but I'd think it's an argument that might get through.

We did mention that, along with the fact that his girlfriend is likely to be in the building he's bio bombing. Didn't seem to get through. Unfortunately there is no bounty on him right now so collecting it may be difficult.

[kzt]

Or Monsanto or Microsoft or Apple???

Monsanto etc do not have armies, police, and large highly skilled teams of commandos. Also, France or the UK are not the right model. They have a less direct way of dealing with these issues then a SR Mega does.

Consider instead what happens if you talking about your serious plan to destroy China, Israel or Russia with bioweapons while living in India or Bulgaria. How long would it take before you suffered an unfortunate fatal accident or simply mysteriously disappeared?

[toturi]

Consider instead what happens if you talking about your serious plan to destroy China, Israel or Russia with bioweapons while living in India or Bulgaria. How long would it take before you suffered an unfortunate fatal accident or simply mysteriously disappeared?

A very long time. More likely they would dismiss you as a crackpot, just like the 10999 others before you.

[ShadowDragon8685]

A very long time. More likely they would dismiss you as a crackpot, just like the 10999 others before you.

Yes, but you're absolutely going on a watch-list. And when you start taking steps to enact your grand scheme, suddenly your number in the "Who gets to be disappeared today" lottery comes up. You're taken away and tortured to see who might have been working with you. Everybody you know, all of your friends, contacts, and family members are taken away and tortured on the off-chance they were working with you, and if they were, who else was working with you. Then all of their close family and friends are taken away and tortured, just to set an example. Those people probably wouldn't know you from Nixon, but they still get to be tortured to death because they unluckily happen to have a Kevin Bacon Number relative to you of 2, with close immediate ties to the person who's #1.

Things may be getting better from the dark pits of the cyberpunk dystopian 50s, but the megacorps still assassinate whole families of people related to someone who cross them. That's not hyperbole or inference, mind you, it's stated outright in Gun Heaven 2 that Saeder-Krupp exterminated a guy's whole family because he tried to knock over a shipment of their new Deathdealer ammo.

[SpellBinder]

I mentioned those corporations because they're big and quite well known. Also, Monsanto has been rumored to hire out 'deniable assets' in the past. And all three are quite well funded enough, though maybe not malicious enough (except maybe Monsanto), to bury a potential lone antagonist like this player's character deep in some obscure swamp on another continent, never to be heard from again if they believe they are well threatened enough by such a plot.

[Faelan]

I have a question, is the player missing more than a few marbles, or are they just intent on being the center of attention?

[FuelDrop]

I have a question, is the player missing more than a few marbles, or are they just intent on being the center of attention?

He used to play D&... sorry, I mean the other game, and I don't think he ever really got out of the 'Go in and kill stuff for fat loots' mindset. In that game killing a dragon or even a god was tough, yes, but it was theoretically doable. He simply hasn't made the mental transition to shadowrun yet.

[toturi]

He used to play D&... sorry, I mean the other game, and I don't think he ever really got out of the 'Go in and kill stuff for fat loots' mindset. In that game killing a dragon or even a god was tough, yes, but it was theoretically doable. He simply hasn't made the mental transition to shadowrun yet.

It is the same in shadowrun. Killing a great dragon or even a megacorp is very tough but theorectically doable.

[FuelDrop]

It is the same in shadowrun. Killing a great dragon or even a megacorp is very tough but theorectically doable.

Yes, but not through grinding up your level and gear until you're able to just brute-force them to death (Unless you're an immortal elf possibly). He's still thinking that brute force, rather than cunning, is his best solution.

And yes, I count a bioweapon attack as brute force.

[Manunancy]

We did mention that, along with the fact that his girlfriend is likely to be in the building he's bio bombing. Didn't seem to get through. Unfortunately there is no bounty on him right now so collecting it may be difficult.

One thing that crossed my mind : you mentioned a biologist in the party. Maybe you could quietly swap whatver he's planning to use with something harmless and easily recognizable, let him try his crap. Best case, he gets nailed by the security, ending the problem as he doesn't strike me as the sort who let himeslef be caught alive (which is a good point form the other player's point of view, a dead elf won't rat them...). If he manages to pull it off, there won't be too much damage and maybe his GF's catching the thing along with hedalines on the oddball cold, gastro or whatever epidimic striking out of the blue all over the place from the Renraku building might get the point through his delusions (it sounds like it's more serious than a mere thick skull...).

By that point there may be a bounty on whoever did the deed, so you can now cash on his head. Maybe send some documentation on the bioagent substitution nd whatever intellingence he acquired on his target to justify 'we were his pals so we didn't rat him, but we took step to minimize the damage'. Thouhg you're still technically accomplices to th fact and that leads to problems.

Asfar as money goes, in my opinion your safest bet would be to wait until he's almost ready and has compiled a good ntelligence file along with his bioweapon, then you nail him, go through a fixer to inform Renraku there's a threat against them (It's beter if you primed the piump first by spreading convincing rumors they're in someone's a error attack coming their way)and that they can get all about for a modest fee. Then you send them the idiot, his biowepons and all his files (properly scrubbed of what you don't want to be known) with a nice ribbon on the package and an maybe a nice letter on the 'we waited to be sure the guy was serious about it and worth a reward line'. Logically, Renraku wil give a reward.

A safer option would be to figure someone trying to win favor with Renraku and sell him the aforementionned package. Odds are a fixer or the like won't have Renraku level pockets but will be safer to deal with. You get some cash, he gets a good mark with Renraku, everyone's happy (well, one won't be hapy, but as he'll probably be dead, his opinion doesn't matter). His GF might be pissed, though once she know he planned a biowarfare attack likely to put her amongst the collateral damage, she's likely to mellow a bit.

Oh and what exactly does she do for Renraku ? If she's got links with Renraku it's odd that he doesn't include her into his pet hate. Or his he lying through his teeth and remorelessy using her as information source and possible delivery system ? (infect her without her knowledge with the bioagent and let her spread it around the Renraku office. And her whole neighborhood, but he doesn't strike me as the kind who would care...)

[Draco18s]

He used to play D&... sorry, I mean the other game, and I don't think he ever really got out of the 'Go in and kill stuff for fat loots' mindset. In that game killing a dragon or even a god was tough, yes, but it was theoretically doable. He simply hasn't made the mental transition to shadowrun yet.

Tell him, out of character, that what he's trying to do is pick a fight with a rank 100 deity as a level 3 commoner.

[Mach_Ten]

And yes, I count a bioweapon attack as brute force.

in all honesty, let him try it .. and when he hasn't thought through / controlled everystep of the plan.
have it blow up in his face

i.e.

1) getting hands on bioweapon sample
a) Synthesizing the sample into weapons grade ?

2) not getting on the naughty list, immediately, for having it
2a) currently every sample of anything bio-engineered is controlled and recorded, in 60 years that level of paranoia will be immense

3) transporting and securing said bioweapon, how ?
3a) keeping it a secret that he has it from EVERYONE in the world !

4) mishandling the container and effectively suiciding downtown,
5) (if he gets past 4) getting it past security in the lobby or via the post office, every scanner and chem sniffer on the planet should be going off

and for every point above and beyond, there is somewhere the other players can be profiting, by informing other corps of the plot and selling information about the impending shock to the stock market.

They don't need to be involved, to be involved .. but for the GM it is a nightmare trying to effetively run 2 groups of activities untill he implodes and takes a city block with him.

[Sir_Psycho]

If he actually has a bioweapon, he is one glitch (or even a failed test) away from infecting the whole team if they are anywhere near him. It would be totally reasonable for the whole team to go as far away as possible and not give him a forwarding address.

Other actions I would consider totally reasonable after leaving the fool to his own devices:
-Calling KE or the Star and tell them the guy has a bioweapon. See how many combat rounds he lasts against a Firewatch team in hermetically sealed combat armour with spirit support.
-Telling the Yakuza the guy has a bioweapon, although depending whether the Yaks in question are loyal to Mitsuhama, this actually might be a better delivery method for the weapon.
-Posting to Jackpoint/ShadowSEA/Shadowland/The Nexus with everything you know about the guy and the weapon. Some-one will view this as a problem. If it is a HMHVV strain, I can see either Hannibelle or Martin De Vries taking it upon themselves to kill/eat him. Those two even have stats ready to go.
-Send him a care package with a "best of luck, chummer" note. The package is filled with White Phosphorous.
-A rotordrone with a belt fed MGL-12 grenade launcher tasked to pay him a visit.
-A sniper set up a few blocks from his safe-house, either hire on or do-it-yourself for the personal touch.