This article on The Register got me thinking about creating repeat business in Shadowrun. Once you've hit a target, you already have all the maps, security procedures, response times, probably even the guards' first names. It's just a matter of finding another buyer (or maybe the same buyer) once the target has restocked his load of goodies. Rinse, repeat for fun and profit.

Has anyone tried hitting the same target multiple times? Has anyone tried installing back doors in security systems after a successful run? Would this be possible and what would the rules for discovery be?

sounds like something the disassemblers or whatever that one troll biker gang was called do . .
in an stationary target i'd think that there is a PLAN B scenario after the first two attacks *g*

This is not something I've seen a lot of in games, maybe because the instinct is to keep going off doing new things, drawing new maps-- or maybe it was because my old group had a bad habit of levelling targets. (Okay, we did that once. Or twice, if you count the hotel the group blew up in an accounting dispute.)

Its an interesting idea though, and it seems like the sort of thing that would logically come up. If you have to break an installation, seems like you'd want to get people that had broken it before. Or at least interview them. I would imagine SOP would be for compromised installations to revamp their security procedures, probably focusing on whatever tactics the bad guys (in this case, us) used. Or, if a site can't be made secure, probably used for something else. There's only so many times you can pick a guy's pocket before he starts putting mousetraps in there.

Yeah, my take is that there is nothing as secure as an installation that has recently been the target of an attack. The only sane thing to do would be to go through security, find and fix loopholes (if the hacker can find it a security spider can do it to), change security routines that has been compromised, not to mention that any human security will be much more alert and ready for it.

If the runners are stupid enough to think that the same approach will work on a target twice, then they deserve getting busted.

Actually, last time our hacker infiltrated a system by slow hacking, then waited the next night to attack, he found out that the loopholes he had been using were now closed, and a security spider was ready to jump in at the first sign of suspicion. He wasn't sure the system had been compromised, but he took no chances.

The result was that the hacker needed to brute force, which resulted in him being caught by the system. The Spider moved in, but spent too much time trying to find the hacker because of his Stealth 6 program, and once he did his trace had a critical glitch and the hacker managed to log off before being held by an IC. The team then had to brute force themselves into the facility, shooting cameras and SFPs, and get out before the security could react to the alarm.

I'd at least end every matrix run with building a new account and seeing if you could sell it to someone after the run. Its easy enough to do and could make a little extra money.

Off Topic, but FotD brought up a question I was curious about. With a hacker using Stealth...if an alert is triggered on break-in, do you allow the Stealth to still hide the hacker from other IC or spiders in the node on alert or do you say that they triggered an alert in the node and the hacker is no longer safe?

One thing is that, at least in my game world logic, one of the biggest factors that protects runners is the "nothing personal" factor. Yes, large corporations have millions of dollars that they could put towards hunting your punk ass down and killing you. If they really put their resources towards it, you would be screwed.

But if you can evade them for a couple of hours, then whatever you stole is gone. You've handed it over to the Johnson (or he's killed you and taken it). Mr. Johnson is their enemy, not the runners. They could track down the runners to find out who Mr. Johnson is, but he's Mr. Johnson, this is precisely why the runners don't know who he is. There's simply no point in hunting the runners down, because it wasn't personal and it won't do anything to prevent the same from happening again. Their real enemy, Mr. Johnson, will just hire someone else.

Now if you start hitting a corp repeatedly, they just might get the impression that someone is picking on them specifically, and suddenly that whole "nothing personal" effect is gone. You have become a persistent drain on company resources and eliminating you becomes a wise investment. So if you're hitting a place repeatedly, you need to make very sure they're not getting that impression.

The problem with that is the the runners know who the fixer was. The fixer knows a lot more about who the Johnson was. Hence, they really want to discuss matters with the runners.

SR has never used real cut-outs in the hiring process, so there is still serious value in chasing the runners down.

We had to go back to a place we'd hit before in our game. It was a pain. We'd kinda infiltrated a top-secret lab, downloaded all the data on the project, and killed an employee (or 4 or 5). Handed everything over to our boss and he told us it was great, but there was just one other little thing he needed... *grumble*

Needless to say, it was a lot harder the second time around. Since we'd exploited all the security holes we'd found the first time, the second time almost killed us all.

Then, because we have an evil GM, we discovered about 6 months later, in game time, that that facility had yet another tie in to what we were investigating. But instead of following the clue, which would have involved going back into the facility, we said 'screw it'. (And now it is the plot hook of doom, hanging over us...)

Back in the SR3 Missions days, we had to hit a facility both before and after it was built.

If you got in, copied the plans or delivered the message or swapped a forgery for the original or otherwise accomplished your goal *without* leaving traces, then sure. I'm a big fan of GMs rewarding players and PCs for succeeding with subtle clever approaches... although not of GMs making it *easy* to avoid firefights, chases, and other messiness, because those are fun too.