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cetiah
I've gotten to the Magical Security portion of my Mission Builder. I don't have a magician in my group, but I want the document to be thorough in hopes that someone in the Shadowrun community might find it useful (and because I will inevitably get a magician at sometime).

I don't have street magic, but a couple of my players do. I'll look at it this weekend, in the meantime could someone tell me if any of this stuff was covered in Street Magic or if there is new stuff I'm missing that I should specifically look for?

I ran with the idea of awakened-plantlife for most of this. I think the idea is a little silly, but if I'm going to have it in the game, I might as well have a LOT of it and assume the corps are getting the most use out of it as possible. I use an acronym M.R.S. (Magical-Response Stimulation) to discuss a particular type of plant life that has a perception value it uses to detect nearby spellcasting or astral bodies (as per normal rules for detecting spellcasting and astral bodies). Usually, the plant does something when it detects magical activity, but certain types of magic can be excluded from its detection capabilities (so M.R.S. Alarms in a hospital might be blind to Health spells, for example).

Biofiber - Okay, this one's straight out of the book. I'm assuming biofiber is cheap and the biofiber growth service is fairly mass-produceable or mass-marketable. That is to say, everyplace with a decent lock on the door will have at least Biofiber(1). The biofiber creates a ward rating from 1 to 6, although mages installing the ward can use their ward-creation abilities to augment it (see below).

FAT Bacteria - This was taken from some old Shadowrun books but I haven't yet figured out how common it would be or what kind of installations should have them. I would kind of assume everyone would want it, so unless it's particularly expensive I can't see why all of Seattle wouldn't be littered with it. It restricts astral movement to "conventional" speeds (as opposed to speed of thought) and modified astral perception like heavy fog.

Augmented Ward (Marking) - This ward is made to leave a distinct astral signiture on any thing that has to pass through this ward. They're fairly common in many facilities and are fairly cheap, though not always readily available. (That is, to say, while even a small warhouse might have one, not EVERY small warehouse will have one.) Wards with this augmentation must be maintained more often with specialist magicians, but the ward is usually +1 or +2 points higher force as a result of the augmentation.

Augmented Ward (M.R.S. Monitoring) - This isn't really an augmentation per se, so much as it is an installation of a large M.R.S. Alarm attuned to the facility's ward, usually placed in the security survelliance room. When the ward is broken, the plant changes color and emits a foul, pungant odor. Treat this as a Silent Alarm security event. Typically, installations that have this will focus a greater priority on the wards, and so their biofiber ward will have a +1 increase to its force rating when the M.R.S. Monitor is attuned. M.R.S. Monitor are common in facilities with at least Average magical security. This augmentation can be installed in such a way that it will ignore certain types of pre-determine magical activity (such as Health-spells in a hospital, for example).

M.R.S. Alarm - These small vinelike plants run althrough the facility, in the walls, underground, etc, as well as along the outside of the walls and overhanging from the ceiling. You can't really kill the whole plant without destroying the facility. Each vine can independantly sense magical activity, and when it detects magical activity or astral bodies, the whole plant (i.e. every vine in every room of the facility) changes color. Treat this as a Klaxon Alarm security event. M.R.S. Alarms are common in facilities with at least Light magical security. The M.R.S. Alarm can be produced in such a way that it will ignore certain types of pre-determine magical activity (such as Health-spells in a hospital, for example).

M.R.S. Seeds - These magically-senstitive seeds don't actually have an effect of themselves, but tend to be easily noticeable as a mana-"hum" when they react to nearby magical activity. Spirits and magically-sensitive or dual-natures critters usually are attracted to large concentrations of "humming" M.R.S. Seeds, so the increased presence of spirits and critters could become a problem of a seed-field is activated. M.R.S. Seeds can be planted in earth, skin, or into biofiber. M.R.S. Seeds are only found in facilities with Heavy magical security or greater.

M.R.S. Sentries - These large plants are capable of sustaining a single spell completely on their own. They can either keep a particular spell permentnantly sustained (until the plant's death) or they cast a spell toward any source of magical activity they detect. As they are large plants, they are easy to kill and difficult to hide. They are rather expensive and have a short lifespan. M.R.S. Sentries are only found in facilities with Heavy magical security or greater.

Awakened Nega-seeds - These seeds are planted through large areas, and provide +1 or +2 resistance to all spells for everyone in their area, equally. Treat this as counter-spelling dice. Awakened Nega-Seeds are quite common in facilities with at least Light magical security, but can not be installed in facilities that make extensive use of magicians (which includes most 'public works' facilities such as hospitals, universities, police departments, etc.).

Awakened Nega-plants - This large plant is usually planted in areas that also contain nega seeds, and increases the effectiveness of the seeds. Together, they add +4 or +5 resistance to all spells for everyone in their area, equally. Treat this as counter-spelling dice. As the nega-plant is quite large, it's easy to kill and difficult to hide. When destroyed, the seeds still remaining, so the counter-spell bonus in the area is decreased down to +1. Awakened Nega-plants are expensive, difficult to grow, and only found in facilities with Severe magical security or greater.

Biofiber Containers - The building and equipment is structured in such a way that biofiber is lining all of the buildings walls, entryways, windows, containers, desks... everything. The rating of these biofiber structures will usually only be half that of the building (usually rating 3) and is limited only to facilities with Maximum magical security.


All of this is meant to be passive security measures, and doesn't include more obvious methods such as patrolling magicians, spirits, and critters.
HappyDaze
QUOTE
Biofiber Containers - The building and equipment is structured in such a way that biofiber is lining all of the buildings walls, entryways, windows, containers, desks... everything. The rating of these biofiber structures will usually only be half that of the building (usually rating 3) and is limited only to facilities with Maximum magical security.

Walls, floors, and ceilings are fine. Windows are questionable unless you have transparent biofiber (you're already engineering a pretty specific lifeform, no guarantee you can get it transparent), and doors are going to be difficult - limit to a few security chokepoints. I'd drop the desk & furniture idea as being unneeded and too expensive.

As for the 'Nega' stuff - much easier to simply impose a background count. There are ways of doing this intentionally and friendies that are aspected to the background count are not penalized.

QUOTE
so M.R.S. Alarms in a hospital

Yeah, you'll find MRSA in every hospital - I'd suggest finding a different acronym.
cetiah

QUOTE
As for the 'Nega' stuff - much easier to simply impose a background count. There are ways of doing this intentionally and friendies that are aspected to the background count are not penalized.

What's a background count? How does one "do it"? Is this something from Street Magic?
I just thought it would make sense that seeds could disrupt the mana in a certain pre-defined way, but seeds seem far too stupid to me to be able to distinguish between friend and foe. Although, I think maybe the seeds can be limited to only disrupting certain types of spells, like only Combat and Illusion spells for example.

QUOTE
Yeah, you'll find MRSA in every hospital - I'd suggest finding a different acronym.

Yeah, I know. But you have no idea how many stupid acronyms I played with in the hour and a half I spent playing with letters. M.R.S. was the only thing I could think of that was short, sounded "official", and was the most descriptive of what it actually did. I'm open to any suggestions you have.
HappyDaze
Astrally-Stimulated Physiological Response

First thing that came to mind.
eidolon
Did they get rid of background count in 4? eidolon is befuzzled.

Background count is basically a place's magical "noise level", and can be distracting to a magician that is attempting to perform magic in the area (represented by numeric penalties to tests). That's really generic, sorry.
HappyDaze
The basic way to make background count is complicated, you'll need to read over it in SM. You can aspect it with Geomancy.

Temporary versions (non-aspected) can be made with the Mana Static Spell. Have these set as an Anchored effect to go off when the magical alarms are set.
ShadowDragon8685
Or just torture a lot of people. That works.
Moon-Hawk
QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685)
Or just torture a lot of people. That works.

If it's an office building containing cubicles then they're doing that already. wink.gif
cetiah
QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685)
Or just torture a lot of people. That works.

Oh, this is sick.

But it gives me ideas...
Moto42 Again
I could easily see awakened plants that generate a background count of their own, naturaly. To fend off dual-natured grazers.

Or maybe their fruit's aura is painfull to astraly percieving entities that touch it. (Like hot-peppers)
Wakshaani
A plain ol' Astral Ward is *fantastic*. Toss in a contract for a security mage and Elemental(s) to come by if teh ward is breached, and you're pretty solid for most small to mid-sized areas.

"Huh. Ward at Petrodyne's been breached. Toasty, you're with me." *astral project*
cetiah
You're right Wakshaani, I just don't like the idea that EVERY small-to-mid size area will have this exact setup. I'd like more variation to give my players more incentive to do legwork before runs.

If one used these rules, for example, one COULD pass through a ward, but if it's augmented with marking ability it might be better just to break it. On the other hand, if something is actively monitoring the status of the ward, they'll be an immediate response.

And then there's the fact that i like the idea of Magic Security that is more subtle, not obvious like a ward. With a ward, you know what'll happen if you start slinging spells through it. But what if there's M.R.S. in the walls that will react to your spells? It's kind of the astral equivalent of tripwire and motion sensors.
cetiah
Wow, yeah, Street Magic changed this a lot, didn't it?
Okay, I'm going to have to re-write some of this, I think.
cetiah
Am I right in reading Street Magic that an uninitiated awakened character cannot get through an alarm ward without setting it off? How would starting runners handle this?
Crusher Bob
When adding security measure type thingys, please also write in ways (preferably several) for them to be defeated. Otherwise you risk creating the perfect security system and bringing and end to running.
cetiah
That's what I'm trying to avoid.

If biofiber goes up to rating 10, I really don't know how to get past something at the higher ratings. Maybe my runners will think of something, or the magician will have to wait in the car. I don't know. For all practical purposes, I don't think they'll rise higher than Force 6 in my campaigns.

FAT Bacteria is basically useless. Who really cares? FAT I is more or less just a detection trap, and I don't know what good it does for physical security to know about an awakened intruder anyway, but its a good forensics-type trap I guess. FAT II is good, I guess, but for the purposes of infiltrating a building doesn't really do anything. FAT III sounds so complicated I'll probably never use it.

The Augmented Marking Ward only works if you pass through it. If you break the ward, its augmentation doesn't affect you. Also, there are ways of getting rid of an astral signiture and even if you don't, its another one of those forensics "someone was here" type there, except in this case its more like a "and he's sitting right there" kind of trap. Still, there are ways around it and you have 'till they track you down.

The Augmented Monitoring Ward only works if someone breaks through it. I wasn't aware when I wrote it that whoever made the ward can automatically detect when its attacked or passed through, so I made this ward augmentation so that an alarm will sound (or the equivilent) when the barrier is broken. To get past it, the mage can deal with the increased security or he can attempt to pass through the barrier, which doesn't affect the monitor at all.

There's really no way to get past the M.R.S. Alarm. But you can see it, usually, so it's not like you don't have warning. Plus, there's a chance it won't work since it has its own Assensing skill. Finally, if a character wants to cast a spell 'subtely' I might let him use a Stealth roll to avoid being detected. Not sure... I think higher force spells would be harder to hide. Of course, if the magician doesn't cast a spell or astrally project at all, the MRSA won't do anything.

M.R.S. Seeds can't be detected until they are set off. But they don't do much. They're more like the GM's excuse to toss greater amounts of spirits and critters at the players and have it makes sense, but the players get a warning first when the seeds start "humming".

M.R.S. Sentries are easy enough to deal with. It's a big plant with a sustained spell. Kill the plant and you don't have to worry about it anymore. Runners are good at killing things. I was considering using the "barrier" rules for these large plants so that the runners can't just shoot it, but might have to hack at it with swords or blow it up with explosives or something.

The Awakened Nega-seeds suck, in terms of balancing, because there's not really anyway to detect or avoid them. However, they affect everyone in the area equally which is why this wasn't such a concern for me. Same with nega-plants, although again, the nega-plant can be killed by hack-friendly shadowrunners.

Despite concerns that the biofiber container is too over the top, I see it as a common-sense security measure protecting vital or experimental inventory. It really doesn't matter. It's max rating is only 3 which most magicians can break or get through, and you can always shatter the container if you can get there physically. Of course anyone who would protect their inventory with biofiber, probably included other security measures too...
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