Ok, you're an all 3's security guard working for some corp.

You have little or no high tech support, no armor, and you may not have a gun.

What creative (and low-cost) things can you and your chummers do to make sure that the next runner team that happens by doesn't geek you (and hopefully gets caught, getting you a bonus, raise, or even a promotion)?

Neuro-stun.

Career change.

Hold up a big sign marked "will turn off eyes, plug ears, and hum loudly for insignificant bribes."

Actual useful guidelines:

Me and my buddies will attempt to push the opposition into a certain direction. We don't actually have to hit anything with our gunfire, we just have to create an incentive for the runners to go into a certain direction. Since I value my life, I will use enormous amounts of cover, and only shoot occasionnaly. Remember, I don't actually have to hit anything.

Our superior knowledge of the facility allows us to know that if the runners go that way, we'll push them into a dead end. SWAT, which of course we called the second we saw that the runners were heavily armed, will be here in a few minutes. We are poorly armed, but They will be Many and Very, Very Well Armed. All we have to do is sufficiently delay the runners, and then SWAT will mop them up.

Also, PanicButton™. No security guard should leave home without one.

Take cover, use suppressive fire, and retreat. Get behind closed doors and lock them -- preferably the doors that the runners want to get to. Try to slow the runners down, but don't be a hero, don't risk your own life, throw your gun down and surrender if you get cornered (you might get lucky and find a team that has a conscience -- make sure you tell them your name and that of your wife and kids), and as the above poster said, WAIT FOR THE HEAVILY-ARMED BACKUP.

But yeah, the cover's important. You're dead if you're int he open. At most, the top of your head and your hand should be exposed (preferably none of the above). And don't just stay in the one position -- if they have grenades, it's only a matter of time before they get one at your feet. And knowing them, they probably have them on remote detonation or timer or something so you won't have time to jump out of the way.

So a shooting retreat is the order of the day. Walls are better cover then desks!

Just from my experience in Gming, players laugh at suppressive fire. a failed role on their part means only an 6M hit from a SMG, or a 8M from a assault rifle. Most 'runners are wearing at a minimum 4 points of ballistic armor, and at least my players were very comfortable having to roll a bunch of 2s,3s, or 4s.

As you make your rounds, make sure you move slowly, making an easily timed circuit, while moving your flashlight around and humming to yourself. While at your post, regularly leave your coffee out of sight, then drink the entire mug. If it tastes at all odd, anounce loudly you're going on break and wander to the bathroom. Invest in a biomonitor and wear it proudly, invest in armor and conceal it, invest in smoke grenades and hide those as well. Otherwise try to make yourself look as incompetent, slow, deaf and stupid as possible.

Keeping your head down, both figuratively, and literally, is the key.

But there are two different questions here.

How do you survive, and how do you help them get caught and get a promotion.

#1 is easier. You hide. You do the minimum required to have satisfied your job requirements. You shouted "Stop! You are trespassing!" then called the SWAT. You don't confront the runners. If they come on you, you freeze. You keep your passkey where they can easily get it. And you keep your comm open at all times once you find them.

#2 is much much harder to do with low lethality. It requires forethought. If your guards just now decide to be effective, when the runners show, it's too late. They should have procedures in place which include meeting points, codewords, and the like. A few low tech options (several desks piled up in an old storeroom for cover) preset will help a lot too.

Stay awake and alert. You'd be surprised how many times I've seen sec guards (and soldiers on watch) fail at these.

at worst, a gaurd is a guy with a flashlight, a radio, and a uniform. the flashlight may double as a club in some cases.

now, you have one guy at your conmmand center. he has a radio, to listen you his freinds, as well as a phone and a panic button. security cameras would be nice, but you work with what ya got. this guy may be the security rigger.

if the guy on patrol sees something, he radios in, hopefully in code. if the central comand sees something, he radios patrol. if someone cant radio, you go to alert, and check for jamming. if there is jamming, call for help.

the entire purpse of the gaurds in this low-budget scenario, is to see things and report them in. once trouble starts, they duck, cover, and pray lonestar/knight errant shows up quick.

from a runners perspective, you just need to avoid the patrols... easy if you can map out their routes... assuming routes dont change. or you can shoot them, and hope that ya didnt make too much noise. if theres enough patrols, in a pattern that changes every night, then sneaking by wont work... the runners can disable a guy, and sound an alert when he dosent check in. basic gaurds can be pretty effective, with some simple panning and basic alertness.

Security Guard tips some old Sec guard told me...

1.) You also have to realize that, as a lowly Security Slag your job is not to repel dedicated intruders. Your job is to patrol a bulding, keep out street riffraf, and alert the proper Heavy Ordinance Teams of a real threat.

2.) If you even get an inkling that something is out of order call it in and get reinforcements. Treat ever Runner team as Bloodthirsty murderers and that they are more powerful than you. Do not engage directly.

3.)Every "True" Runner team in existance probably has a SpellSlinger. Feth! Some teams have two Spellslingers. And fragging Adepts. Stay out of Line of Site! And make sure you are strategicly placed to avoid Area of Effect spells.

4.)Hopefully you have a site commander that can close off access to certain areas and coral the Runners.

5.) Never assume that the Security Cams are on your side, Hackers probably got in and have an eye on where you are in relation to their Runner buddies. The Autoguns are probably under his control too.

6. If they loose Spirits on you Surrender.

I'll be honest... the idea of even an absolutely pissant security guard in the SR world not having body armor and a firearm is laughable to me.

It's 20XX, people. Everybody has guns.

You're thinking of Vegas.

~J

Nah, most people in Vegas don't have guns. The casinos throw you out.

They must make a dodge test, but nowhere does it say that they actually have to spend any pool on the test—they can autofail it if desired or necessary.

~J

SR3 P113, "Dodge test":

By my read: the heading is "Dodge Test". The section, in its entirety, describes what to do to make a dodge test. The first step is to decide whether to use pool dice, and if so, how many. It is an integral part of the dodge test—you aren't deciding whether or not to make a dodge test, as part of making the dodge test you decide whether or not to roll any dice.

~J

Beyond what the rules say, you just can't force characters to dodge. They can stand there all they want.

I used to be a security guard on the nightshift. Shudder. Anyway, we were just there for insurance purposes and to Detect. That's all - we weren't armed
Something bad happens and we call the cops, simple as that.

It occurs to me that there would be a hell of a lot of anti-crime ex-security guard vigilantes out there. I can see it easily from all the guards having thier friends and co-workers killed by shadowrunners. Or having your arm blown off by some punk with a roomsweeper while all you were doing was trying to make a living.

Hey hey hey, you were trying to call the cops while all he was doing was trying to make a living!

It's all about how you look at it

~J

Except that you're legally allowed to be there, and he isn't....

It's not a particularly grey issue.

wear a panic button, wear your armor, wear a bio monitor. I also find it hard to believe that with things like movies about Shadowrunners, that someone that actually wanted security woulnd't give them a gun and the basics. If they're just there for insurance purposes, the guard should know that ,and wear a sign saying that incase a sniper points a rifle at him.

"Oops, never mind guys. That guards just there for security purposes. Just go take his commlink and tell him to sit under his desk until we're done."

Of course, in such a perfect world, people would wear their signs that say "I'm Stupid" too. They should really require those on PANs.

This thread about security guards has made me think about the games I've played in where I've seen PCs attacking not just the guards but also the employees of the facility they're raiding. My PC, when I wasn't GMing, would carry at least one or two weapons loaded with stun darts or whatever for 'taking out' civilians, and still keeping them alive. Since, they're just doing their job and not much of a threat. If I need them to do something for me, or if they make themselves target, it's a different story.

Anyone ever play the game Stolen? The guards there were fairly well connected, and you could stun them but not kill them. Maybe not like the game some people play, but then the guards will call for backup, go on alert and try and hunt you down before going back to their post. The Metal Gear guards are the same, but those you can also kill.

However, what got me with Metal Gear was why didn't guards notice when one was missing because of patrol routes or slacking, or whatever. I kill guard A who crosses path with guard B, C, D and E. You'ld think one or two of them would talk about how they never saw Guard A and be curious about it to radio in or whatever.

But as for guards to survive, using the same advantages as PCs, like cover, armor, magic (I can see a magic or adept guard, maybe even one who pretends not to be magical to lure PCs into a false sense of security), some cyber/bioware since all of it isn't an arm and a leg and some might be covered as part of their contract if they work with a big company. But if you're outgunned, don't go rambo-ing the PCs, since the game is usually slanted to PCs for that. Unless you want to create guards like a PC as opposed to the default human attribs.

I have worked as a Security Guard in several different fields.

Covert Cash-In-Transit. The idea is not to be detected by 'runners' in the first place. You wear plain clothes, you dive an unmarked vehicle (usually a 2 door rice burner), and you carry the money in an ordinary bag or backpack. While driving, you take a different route as often as possible, or what it more likely (particularly given the state of the industry and employer expectations); you race from one pickup site to the next along main arterial roads, only deviating if you detect pursuit or if in search of a parking space that wont get you a hundred dollar parking fine. Really lucky CIT drivers work in pairs and have someone to watch their back and mind the car (and the cash inside it) while they do the next job.

Armoured Cash-In-Transit. Threat and defence is the idea here. Minimum two vehicles, often three, the armoured truck or van and one or two 'chase' cars. Each 'chase' car has one driver, the truck has a driver and two guards, one up front, one in the back. The truck never turns its engine off. All guards are armed and in uniform. One chase car will arrive at a pickup site five minutes before the truck turns up, and radios an 'all clear' back to the truck. When the truck arrives the chase driver joins one (or more) of the guards from the truck in dong the pickup (or dropoff). Once the job is complete, they will head for a secure repository, where the entire truck will drive into a secure dock and will be unloaded in safety.

If attacked, most have orders to just hand it over. The money is insured. Well that is the theory. Insurance policies will usually cover a guard to carry $20,000 without a gun or $50,000 with a gun. If they are carrying more than this, then the insurance policy will not cover any theft and the security company will have to pay for any losses. As a point of interest, the majority of all CIT theft is actually commited In-House, either by the higher ups to help balance the books, or by the poorly paid and poorly treated guards themselves.

Dunno where I was going with this, so I'll stop here and try to make sense of it tomorrow...

Never retire. When you want to stop working, just don't show up for work from that day on. You only get killed when you are 2-3 days away from retiring.

Also, never knock up your wife and tell your co-workers how happy you are, and how things have never been better... You might as well just shoot yourself and be done with it.

To add to that, between when you propose to someone and the time that you've not only married them but finished the honeymoon, etc., don't go to work. It's just begging to be diced up.

~J

"Such happy people"