Guards, Soldiers, Übersoldats, Cyberzombies, ... Enemies in other words! Options

[FlakJacket]

Try looking at this and this. Should give you some ideas on how to use the Barney's. :)

[Fygg Nuuton]

first, stay away from the terminators, bad cobra BAD.

next, use the security deckers to relay information to the guards, who are throwing smoke grenades, normal grenades and being smart, they will do anything not to die today. after all, this is just a job. guards will surrender if outnumbered, call for back up, throw a grenade and retreat etc.don't have 3 guards standing in the middle of the hallway shooting randomly. have 2 hide around corners, and maybe 2-3 more trying to get the jump on the runners. have a guard hit the alarm, then make all hell break loose, red lights flashing, sirens blaring all distract the runners, and give them a sense of urgency which could make them make mistakes. have lonestar or equivilent be ready outside if the alarm sounds, or if a guard calls them. dont be like "oh no jim died, i must avenge him!" real guards are like "jim died, im getting the hell out of here, and callin the police!"

this isn't quake, where everything must die, remember that. getting hit by 3-4 tasers will suck alot of ass for a runner

[Solidcobra]

"Your players will probably go through your NPC's like papiere-mache, a situation which often leads to PC vs GM power escalations that rapidly get out of hand"...... :eek:
GOD! AM I THAT GUILTY?

[Kagetenshi]

For anyone reading the link Flakjacket posted, remember that while the tactics given aren't bad, the bit about thermographic vision and bleed-through is absurd unless the walls are practically see-through with normal vision, too.

~J

[Glyph]

In addition to the rules for switching targets, remember that combat spells only work against targets that the spellcaster can see. If a guard is crouching behind a barricade, powerball won't affect him.

Also, if they are attacking the front gate, remember that it will be designed to repel intruders. For example, you could have four big spotlights glare down on the runners. The guards have no darkness modifiers, while the runners have to deal with both darkness and glare. Or maybe at the first sign of an attack, they seal the gates and sound a general alarm.

For security guards, give them an armored jacket, and a heavy pistol, a submachine gun with decent recoil compensation, or a shotgun firing slugs. Give them a Body of 5, a Combat Pool of 6, and other stats around 4 or so (these aren't mall or airport security guards, after all - they work at places where being attacked by people with guns is a real possibility). Give them a skill in their primary weapon of 5 or so. And don't have them stay bunched together! You will find, if your group doesn't kill 8-10 of them on their first initiative, that a group of security guards can be quite a threat.

[Crusher Bob]

Personally, I think Glyphs numbers are a bit over the top, remember that a skill of 3-4 represents a 'professional' level of training. I'd expect most 'good' guard to have:

Stats: straight 3s, with maybe B4 or Q4 or S4
Guns 3-4
Beating people op 2-3
Add in a smartlink and boosted-1

With most 'rent-a-cops' having straight 3s for stats and skills in the 2-3 range.

The 'average' combat-wombat runner with 5s and 6s in both stats and skills is supposed to be an exceptional specimen...

In a small unit situation, surprise, speed, and overwhelming firepower usually do wipe out the other side. There are some tactics that reduce these 'shock effects' like bounding, defense in depth, and reaction training, but most guards don' tend to get that sort of training.

[Kagetenshi]

Liberal application of shotguns with stun rounds can ruin a runner's day in a relatively low-security area. Remember the massive TN subtractions of shotgun spreads; even if they're only doing damage with a power of 2, they're doing 2S damage with a large number of successes to back it up.

~J

[CanvasBack]

Ok, my presumption at this point is Cobra's runners are not hitting AAA megacorps, and perhaps not even their shell companies or fronts.

But even if they're knocking over liquor stores for kicks, every business in the 2060s assuredly has some form of surveilance/security camera. Not to get elitist, but these runners seem really, really sloppy. So, if they're used to going through sec guards like kleenex, let them. If they manage to get out of the complex before Lone Star gets there, so be it. The follow up investigators will look at the electronic recording of the dirty deeds and plaster their faces all over North America's Most Wanted (or just local news, if you don't want to glorify their actions). After that, their reps are ruined and they're a Citymaster away from being taken in dead or alive. New Seattle has a good system for response times and stats for the cops BTW.

If you are using AAA mega's, you've been too soft. No need for the cyberzombie. Corp strike teams should probably come in after the team "deals" with the second set of regular security. What you do for these guys is make them essentially from scratch as you would a PC, but not bothering with resources, the corp gives them their stuff. They should be about equivalent with your PCs and have about the same Karma pool. Heck, your tissue paper guards get at least one karma pool too. Save it for when they're trying not to die. :dead:

P.S. Not to shill, but the GM screen for Shadowrun happens to be very handy. Much better than most of its type I would say.

[Crusher Bob]

Revenge is not economical. Why send your strike team out when you can either:
1 hire the team and send them against people you don't like
2 hire the team and then double cross them
3 a combimation of 1 and 2 at the same time...

The most this is going to cost is around 50K, just getting your strike team to your location will cost that much.

[Person 404]

Option 1 could end up costing a lot more than 50K, assuming the runners were good enough to defeat your (excellent, right?) security.

I'd say that except in cases where the runners know too much to be left alive, going after them is really more a deterrent factor than a personal thing. If Mitsuhama manages to frag everyone who majorly torques them off, runners are going to be reluctant to run against them. Of course, I don't see strike teams being used in anything but a very small fraction of cases, for a number of reasons, economics among them.

[CanvasBack]

I don't know. You guys seem to figure strike teams are only operating like special forces assault units. Generally, I simply envision them as a SORT located on sensitive sites. Which is not to say that elite strike teams aren't sent out on dangerous corp war type stuff, it's just that the whole point of having shadowrunners around is to deflect the cost and blame away from your company when stuff needs to go down. That is the advantage of using shadowrunners. In any case, there should be something between say Renraku Red Samurai and dip-stick corp security patrolman. Note: Should the runners get off site and out of the extra-territoriality zone, it's more efficient by and large to sick Lone Star and or the FBI on them after handing over the relavent security feeds. Of course, a company's SORT is probably trying to prevent the team from leaving in any manner other than feet first.

[Orient]

Regarding security mages, I've found that they seem to be most effective operating on pure defence. Assuming the mundane security guards are engaging intruders, a security mage maintaining an Astral Barrier spell will keep any intruding mages from popping off security guards too quickly. Teaching a facility's sole security mage astral barrier isn't very expensive, but if the facility has a bit more money to throw around, they could have permanent astral barriers set into place that are attuned to the security mages. The astral equivalent of defensive architecture.

Also, I agree with CanvasBack about the GM's screen - it *is* worth getting.

Getting to know the combat modifiers will be your biggest advantage. Make sure defence has the +4 partial cover bonus, and if security outnumbers the shadowrunners, use burst fire - every three rounds coming at a target modify their Dodge TN# by +1. It seems at first glance that this would mostly benefit the fast-moving samurai, but the security guards should be relying mostly on cover to protect against incoming fire. Even a few leftover guards should burn any targets of their remaining Combat Pool pretty quickly.

And it doesn't even increase the security budget by too much....

[katiegreen]