Hey guys we're playing LitB again tomorrow and the runners have decided to try to infiltrate a corporate MCT hospital based in Renton. So far I've decided it is fairly large main building, and an adjacent hospital hotel. The compound has walls with a checkpoint, and visitors and patients are checked for weapons etc. before they enter the area.

Guards are typical security guards, but they also have at least one Spider on standby in case of illegal intrusion (and one hacker recently died because of this, which is part of the story), as well as several IC. The Security node is offline, accessible only in the security room which is guarded by guards, cameras and drones. The main node is accessible from the matrix, but doesen't hold that much vital information or any controls for HVAC, power, cameras and other potentially life-threatening controls.

Most of the hospital is accessible for anyone with an excuse to be there, such as being a patient or visitor, otherwise you don't get further than the reception. Then there are secure areas only open to medical personell, security and the occasional worker/cleaner (supervised by security): These areas include drug storage, doctor work/rest areas and VIP recuperation rooms. There are also a few top security areas: These include the security room, and are only accessible to security and the hospital director and MCT executives.

For magical security patients and visitors are not allowed to astrally project, and all foci must be deactivated prior to entering the hospital grounds, and remain so for the duration of the stay. Many Alarm wards guard the hospital, and at least 2 sec. mages with 2-3 spirits each standby for intrusion. Astral intruders are identified and disrupted asap.


So that's my inital setup, did I miss anything important? Any suggestions? Note that I don't plan to do security room by room or detail security stats, as this is more or less a side quest the PCs have taken on (and it would take forever).

The hospital has held AIPS patients the last 4 years, but they have recently been removed to a more secure location for intensive research into the Virtuakinetic phenomenon. A hacker managed to download these patients medical records, but was attacked by a security spider and flatlined moments later. A Spec Ops team was sent to retrieve his body and commlinks, but found out he was alive. He was taken to a safe house and interrogated until they were sure he had no backups of this information.

The team is not directly linked to the hospital, but the one that sent them has access there.

Some of my ideas:

It would be disturbing to patients and visitors to have obstrusive security. Guards would be discreet and would not carry any obvious weapons.

On the other hand, high rights-based security would not hinder anyone. So there would be tons (especially as this is MCT) sensor-based security, such as cameras, motion sensors, etc, as well as maglocks just about everywhere. In case of an alarm, security would be focused on containment. Intruder's location would quickly be pinpointed and then locked-down by locking all doors. Therefore, the building itself would be designed to have doors disposed in such a way as to easily section off and isolate. Once intruders are contained, actual HTR response would be outsourced to local cops or from another MCT facility, so there would be a response delay.

High-level, you could say that any runners doing a run in there have a high chance of being caught, but very little chance of getting hurt. Working on the runner's side, however, is the fact MCT would probably prefer to let the runners go than to risk collateral damage of any kind to the facility, its reputation and its patients.

Depends on the hospital in small town nearly zero security, in a city armed guards and if corporate hospital a F.ast R.esponse T.eam on call. All hospitals even today have a code system and can go into lockdown or call on employees to respond to problems and threats including trained staff to deal with physical confrontations.

Contain and respond with help only being a call away.

The hospital I work at the guards are unarmed, but the university police station is across the street. That's not counting the typical 2-3 cops in the hospital doing stuff, with many more in the ED sometimes. Every unit locks, there is EAC on the doors, and several hundred surveillance cameras covering the outside and public spaces inside. If we were paranoid you could have the dozens of fire doors close and lock down also. That would subdivide units into 2 - 6 segments. (It would also violate the life safety code )

Other hospitals do use visibly armed security, and you have to have 3-4 armed security at weapon checkpoints to deal with the person who decides to shoot their way in. (We've chosen to not use metal detectors because of the need for the armed security to cover them.) In addition, you have to channel everyone through one or two entrances, as running 6 checkpoints is stupidly expensive.

Buy Firefly. Watch Ariel.

Ariel is such a fantastic shadowrun. So are Trash and The Train Job. Whenever I need inspiration for a run, fire up the Firefly!

Serenity takes place a bit o' time after the Firefly, the TV show.

Chris

Thanks

I have Firefly (and I've watched them a few times), but it is not the same as Shadowrun. Firefly is alot more low-tech (despite the spaceships) - and the hopistal there can work as inspiration but not a complete guide.

Backgammon, I will of course include sensors of most kinds, but the problem is that a motion detector such as a PIR will probably not be activated unless an area is supposed to be empty. Cameras will be almost anywhere, and alot of them will be monitored in the security room.

Security guards will be uniformed, and are used as deterrent for small-time gangers and people making "trouble." They are of course not meant to fight shadowrunners! I'll probably issue them a taser at the very least.

Kzt thanks for reminding me of metal detectors. I plan to have both MAD scanners and cyberware scanners at the main entrance. In 2070 it's probably possible to scan whole vehicles to speed up the process. Of course, ER patients will probably not go through the same security point, and although their weapons will be confiscated en route, getting them in will be the first priority.

ER patents who are ambulatory get checked just like everyone else. That's where the gangbangers show up. If they come in an an ambulance the EMT's will have found and removed just about anything when they do the through check for injuries. And that entrance could be scanned also. Trauma patients have their clothes cut completely off in the ambulance unless the injury occurred down the street, so it's hard to sneak anything in that way.

And EDs are always full of cops. In SR world I'd not be surprised if all the medical staff had biometricly keyed tasers or other ways of telling violoent patients "Bad patient!". I almost said pepper spray, but pepper spray is very ungood to release in the ED.

Well, in 2070 you can conceivably have regions that combine motion sensors and RFID tags. If the motion sensor picks up someone moving along with a RFID, it checks if that person is supposed to be moving there. If he is, no problem. If he isn't sound alarm. And then if the motion sensor picks up movement without a RFID tag, then sound an alarm right away. As such, it is simple to know, at all times, where everyone is and if there is anything abnormal. This kind of setup wouldn't work everywhere, but in a highly controlled environement such as a Corporate hospital, you either have patients - confined to their rooms or talking a healthy, supervised walk, doctors/nurses making rounds or visitors. Everyone of those follows a simple and predictable plan, hence motion sensors are feasible. Motion sensors do not work in an environment where you have unpredictable but legitimate traffic, which isn't really the case in a hospital (aside from the lobby sections).

Runners will need to be spectacularly careful about not tripping an alarm, but it is possible with planning.

I thought about the RFID/motion sensor combo but I didn't think it was possible. Now, RFID chips that turn off motion sensors momentarily I can buy (you could probably do that today), but how can the sensor know how many persons, and which one has the correct RFID tag?

Sure, I can handwave it and say this is science fiction, but they have to make sense within the game world at least. Of course, someone knowing about the sensors could just spoof every one of them I suppose, but that requires access to the data in the security node, which is of course protected by the system.

BTW the PCs plan is to get clearance to the less secure areas, and then get hold of someone with higher clearance and use Control Thoughts or Influence to get further in.