I've been wondering what kind of weapons fellow shadowrunners would use on a mission that they most likely would't survive. How would you prepare for your last mission in hopes to survive it and who would you like to have along to back you up.

A katana, a thin cotton yukata, a backpack full of sake, and a perfect death poem. Ideally, you have your extremely dedicated ambiguous homosexual relationship buddy come with you so you can share sake and die together under a cherry blossom tree with bloody katanas and multiple gunshot wounds. For certain death anything else is superfluous.

A cranial bomb.

Yield: 10 kilotons.

If I'M not going to survive, I'm sure as hell not gonna let them survive, either.

Kind of a trick question. I assume that anybody who was in a position to prep for a suicide mission knew that a suicide mission was a suicide mission in the first place and would just say "No" when offered the job.


EDIT:

He has a really big head.

Gyromounted light machine gun, for sustained firing. Heavy armor, some rockets (maybe one of those Fields of Fire backpack-launchers?), lots and lots of ammunition. Explosives. Some kind of heavy-caliber handgun as a backup. More ammunition. Air support. Vehicles.

Why am I going on this mission again?

Let's just say its a very dangerous mission for a shit load of nuyen. Like 100,000,000

Dudes... you totally missed the one thing that will save you...

Bring a sidekick. In a red shirt. And when he gets wounded, say "Brother! Don't Die!"

Then when he dies, your rage (and the training montage you underwent before the mission) will allow you to overcome any foe.

Seriously.

same thing i've carried on all the other suicide missions...

med sec armor w/BattleTac HUD, personalized HK227, personalized and attuned HK227-S, plenty of ammo (including as much AP and AV as is available), plenty of grenades.

A heavy transport with a 6000 kg load of rating 10 FAE on a trigger linked to a biomonitor.

Granted, it'd destroy everything within two miles of me. But hey, I'd be dead already.



...Or I could just say a remote-controlled anthroform drone that looks exactly like me.

Have to go with mfb.

Just bring the trusty old gear that I've come to rely on, and hope I do what needs to be done. (yeah I know, I'm boring)

The heaviest armour I'm still mobile in, much extra ammo, the gun I'm best with, a backup gun (probably the biggest gun I'm adequate with), and any extra, personal gear (like the swords for the adept, foci for the mage........ the 9 high force spirits + watcher pack for the conjurer... and backup.

The best version of backup being: Saigan, the great dragon that actually likes having the metalhead around, mostly because self directing weapons that are actually capable of making a measurable difference in a fight with another great dragon are so hard to come by...

Note: This backup does not funtion well with the Party Drake, whom Saigan has expressed the fond desire to pluck the limbs off of, charbroil, and otherwise mutilate and destroy.

Truer words have rarely been said on Dumpshock.

Dammit Im sigging mfb again?

Oddly I agree with you though. Bring the same old same old, but make sure everything is clean and shiny.

well, to be honest, i pretty much only wear the security armor on suicide missions. it's just that i've been on several of those, see.

In fact, we're in the middle of one right now!

Fox News would call it a Homicide Mission.

I would bring that surplus Russian chemical weapon.

~J

I think we're generally in agreement that a Weapon of Mass Destruction (And yes, a Great Dragon does qualify) is part of the ideal suicide mission kit.

I once played a prankster character in another RPG who was playing tricks on the various PCs in the group as well as NPCs, just to liven things up and try and teach some lessons as needed. So, if I knew it was going to be my last mission, I'd bring some of that back and have some fun with it.

For example, breaking into a corp? Bring spray paint cans, some fireworks, things like that. Start tagging the place with graffiti and such, flood a floor or two by cherrybombing some toilets, add a skylight to the 43rd floor (by cutting a hole out of the 44th floor). If the place has a lab, replace the eye-wash water with a feed of mace/pepper spray.

As a shaman, I would have summoned as many spirits and watchers as I could control, tons of one use fetishes, foci, etc. I would also have all the weapons that I am competent with. Chocolate. May as well have my last meal be my fave dessert. Tequila. Knowing that I left someone behind that will remember me fondly and toast to my name.

I would just carry more ammo maybe, but probably not. I mean the whole reason to do the mission is to accomplish a goal. Not to die. You are just of the mind that you arent leaveing the mission on your feet. If you are going to load up with junk like spray paint and FAE why even do the mission? You have already set your goal to die looseing your sights on the objective so you are doomed to fail. So I would do the mission as normal, but have my affairs in order for the inevitablity that I wont be coming home. Otherwise you could save yourself a lot of time and climb in the shower with a toaster.

Now that is if my goal isnt to blow a hole in the side of the planet or cause general havock.

Forgot the character that I'm waiting to play.

Suicide mission? He's tracking down his ex and bringing her, his CO, and the rest of his squad.

Reasoning? Give those apprentice gripers something that's worth complaining about, and pay back that CO for making him learn that "detect people that want to kill me" spell.. the ex, well, she became a blood mage (hence: Ex).. and she'd either tip the scales into surviveable, or he'd take her down with him. Either's good.

Things to bring along on a suicide mission:

1) Immunity to EVERYTHING
2) Very High Essense/Force
3) Weapon that no-one else is Immune to.

My GM has hinted that my character, a Technomancer, is starting to get mixed up in a bunch of epic stuff involving the 4th AI. I suspect that she's eventually going to have to go into the Matrix and have a big dramatic Final Battle™ with the rogue intelligence.

For this Battle, she'll bring the toughest sprites she can compile, some Psyche to pop right before she goes full VR, a bunch of stim patches (as well as one Trauma patch), a high-quality medkit, and a logical friend with plenty of medical knowledge to sit by her meat body. Once she starts taking a beating, the friend should start slapping on the stim patches so she can keep fighting effectively for as long as possible; if the beating is really bad, the friend should use the medkit to heal her.

Also, before she does battle, she'll leave a box with her fixer and instruct him not to open it unless she dies in the conflict. Inside the box will be a recording of her saying goodbye to her parents (who have no idea where she is or what she's doing), along with instructions to the fixer on how to send the recording on to Mom and Dad.

1. Military grade armor, no doubt. Install muscle toner if you have to. With ruthinium. And fire resistance, insulation, Enviro-seal, etc, etc.
2. Flash paks. Smoke grenades. Pepper Spray. Nausea Gas. CS Gas. etc. Neurostun gas. Anything that can push up enemy target numbers on a large scale.
3. Anchoring foci (which, iirc, even mundanes can trigger with the appropriate anchored detection spells -- and sometimes still good for casters due to the fixed drain level).
4. Laser guided missiles and mortars from remote drones.
5. AV ammo galore. (especially on a sniper rifle -- good for all non-immune targets!)
6. Hire mages to bind many elementals (great form preferably) for your use.
7. Great form spirits are good too, if you can get them summoned in the right time frame. (Great form confusion > *)

... other stuff, I suppose, but that's a start.

It would depend on what the mission is, really.

I'd have to go with a truck fill of surplus russian nukes outside the site, the detonator linked to a biomonitor, and then you go in and ask for your objective nicely, pointing out what will happen if you don't get it.

That could be the idea of one of my players. Seems he has a brother-in-mind on the other side of the globe. Scary.

Two dozen chilli dogs with the works, three 128 ounce Big Gulp Slurpies, four MGL-12s, one sleezy joygirl sidekick, one sexually ambiguous best buddy, a recording Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh and a supped-up hotrod with flames painted on the sides.

The recording is most important, since it allows you to make a really bad pun by singing along and mispronouncing Granada.

"Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, here I am at Camp Grenade-a." Kaboom.

The original question doesn't make a lot of sense. One should bring the gear that is most appropriate to the type of job or goal that you want to accomplish, not based on whether or not you expect to survive.

The only difference that I can think of is this: If you can accept that you won't survive, but still need to accomplish the goal that badly, you can save the hassle of dragging along anything you might otherwise use to escape.

But really, a "suicide mission" could be anything from "get close to a prominent figure in public and kill him," in which case you might just want a fake ID and a plastic knife, to "travel through this toxic wasteland to shut down this ritual sorcery site, thereby contaminating yourself to such extremes that you will die of multiple cancers before Christmas," in which case I might want some other stuff.

A van full of exploding stuff.

Which I actually used in that last mission for the old Virtual Seattle campaign. Rammed the final bad guy's car sideways as it was fleeing, jamming it against a wall so they couldn't get out. Rolled out of the back of the van with a Dragon ATGM, moved to a safe distance, and lit up about six campaign years worth of stockpiled ammunition, explosives, and assorted other things that go BOOM.

Then dropped the launcher, lit a cigarette, and walked off into the sunset.

Best campaign end I'd ever been in.


-karma

Two dozen aerial combat drones subscribed in pairs with mounted LMGs /w APDS ammo and the most powerful external speakers I can mount without a loss in function. The speakers will be playing Ride of the Valkyries at full volume.

Three packs of Players, a 40 of CC, two grams of cocaine, five bowie knives, a Ruger Super Redhawk with 60 rounds, a Pancor Jackhammer with 30 slugs, a rocket launcher with 3 AV rounds, 3 HE grenades, 2 CS gas grenades, an ATV four-wheeler, and an armour-plated leather jacket.

lawyers, guns and money.

Oh, come on. Someone had to say it.

I know that having a meat shield on your Run is handy, but aren't layers too... Snively? Why not a novacracked-up joyboy who tried to do something you didn't want him to do?

Because nobody is gonna miss the laywer?

Because people are naturally terrified of lawyers.

i'm glad at least one person got it.

1 Revolver, 1 Bullet, 1 Buddy. Play until someone wins

Enough karma / edge to Hand of God.

Any good runner should gave that already.

Dude, there is no set karma cost for HoG in SR3. It simply resets all of your karma stores and karma pool back to 0. You're better off burning everything before HoGing.

I thought I remembered you having to have at least one karma pool.

Maybe. You'd still benefit from burning all but 1.

You do have to have at least one karma pool point for HoG, yes.

~J