Put together some vacation and a few weeks of change-of-seasons funk, and what do you get? A month and a half without updates. Back to business.

Patrol Arrives: "initial metahuman response" (actually, that would be the Astral mages, but we know what the writers meant), consisting of a two-person squad car in A-zones and above, two two-person cars in B-zones, in C- and D-zones "[…] six to eight fully armored officers in an armored Citymaster with two patrol vehicles and one combat mage", and in E zones they skip the patrol and go straight to the reinforcements (just don't ask what they're reinforcing).

Honestly, the C/D-zone "patrol" seems excessive—I suspect that's a result of implicitly assuming the unit just charges right into battle, because that is a reasonable first combat response for the suggested environment. I'd be inclined to change it to a more "patrol-ish" response and include a note that this response will stand back and avoid engaging until reinforcements arrive.

The times for this case seem potentially very swingy—the response delay is probably on the order of combat turns (worst non-pathological case is probably along the lines of having to put down a McHugh's Burger and beverage, start a car, and pull out of a tight parking space), while the response time could be tens of seconds to minutes. I'm going to have to think more and do some research on real-world response times and patrol densities, but 30 seconds seems like a conservative lower bound. I'll try to come back and tighten it up later today.

~J

My order of response is generally:

Passive alerts (via public cameras, networked private cameras, police cameras, police blimp drones, etc.) if available within the range of the call. Response is always within a few seconds.

Drone reconnaisance. A police drone is deployed to the location. Police drones are stored in drone nests around the city. There's one every block or two in A+ zones, every two blocks in B zones, three in C zones, four in D zones, and deployed by roving patrols or such in E zones. They're standard strato-9s. They'll head to the site, normally taking between twenty seconds and ten minutes for the chopper to take off and get in position. It can be remotely rigged (and fire when rigged) or operate by AI only (and observe/command people to wait for police support).

If appropriate (i.e., it's just domestic abuse or a drug deal, or the bad guys went inside and the strato-9 is peering uselessly through the windows), a patrol car or two is sent. I normally put one cop per car, but two cops in a car in A+ zones makes sense. they take 1d6+2 minutes (per vehicle). B zones it's around 2d6+2 minutes (per vehicle), and so on. In E zones, they're not likely to roll out for something so minor (and if they do, it's an unmarked vehicle).

Astral response, IF they decide it's appropriate, takes 1 minute for A zones, 2 for B, etc. after it is determined that MAGICAL REINFORCEMENTS ARE NECESSARY (again, if appropriate. Mages are more expensive then patrol cops, so I imagine LS doesn't have very many of them, and only sends them out when it's really warranted.)

SWAT response, if warranted, takes about 2d6+2 minutes for A, 3d6+3 for B/C, 4d6+4 for D, and 5d6+5 for E. However, the amount of equipment for raiding A is much different for E. For A, it's the armored van with a squad, and a helicopter backup. For E, it's an APC with plenty of drones and a pair of choppers providing cover fire.

This, but also every patrol car should have a LS Strato following it around on standby or immediate (firepower heavy) backup when a rigger jumps in. This really adds some punch to a patrol car.

Unless referring to SR3, you have the time wrong.

Astral Projection is a Complex action. A mage with 3 passes can project and move 5 kilometers by using a free action, or 100 meters as "walking."

The mage could also just send the spirit, who would be waiting on the astral. One simple action to give command, not complex action (or one to call, then one to command makes no difference).

Most mages would probably be deployed as a result of someone trying to move through one of his wards.


I can imagine an example:

1. Magical threat called in.
2. Mage on call receives message and make a quick decision depending on severity of threat.
3a. Watcher spirit or Max-force spirit given order to investigate location (if warded area),
3b) or mage projects and move up above the city to locate area. Im assuming the mage knows which areas he is responsible for, just as a cop knows where to drive to.
4. Mage + backup moves quickly to the correct area and then starts searching for magical threat(s). Or spirit reports on magical threat (class of magical subject, presence of threat), if needed go back to 3b.
5-7 Mage detects threat, directs Spirit or casts direct stun spell to defeat it, retreats if outmatched to call in a HTMR -team.

Ok as you can see this takes several turns, in which time a normal combat or 3 is over. it is however fast enough to interfere with a team of runners entering a warded facility (might have to spend minutes to find what they want), or even to find obvious magicians or shamans creating havoc on the streets. If you want fast, you want on-site Spirit protection and possible Mages. And a private mage could respond in a single combat turn if his ward is disturbed.


Navigation: By raw "running" imposes a -2 penalty on all action, which includes Perception. Given that the mages are trained to "fly" quickly over Seattle to find specific neighborhoods, they should be able to to this even with the penalty. Flying on street level would probably run the risk of crashing into some ward or getting lost in the blur of living beings (the less life, the easier it is to see anything living or magical in astral space).

The greatest time consuming factor here is the response delay, which might be based on routines, experience, rules and self-preservation. For example, a Lone Star or Knight Errant mage would probably never go to a potentially deadly area without first reporting where he is deploying to (just like a patrol car would call in where they are headed)... and another officer might guard the body and look for suspicious twitching and bleeding