QUOTE (Fatum @ Jan 15 2013, 03:43 PM)
So you had six full round actions against two on IP 1. Fairly balanced, sure.
Except the drones weren't in evidence immediately - the first few characters to move forward, used up tehir actions
without seeing them (they were Rail drones, up high on the wall - directly over the entryway the PCs used, and thus, BEHIND the PCs who first entered, and anyone else who came in after them.
Not so incidentally, this deprived the PCs of any immediately-useful cover.
Plus, you just clearly admitted that
several 1IP characters can out-do one or two 2- or 3-IP characters. Suddenly, 3IP
per PC doesn't seem quite so absolutely necessary, now, does it?
QUOTE
The runners are not robbing a bubblegum warehouse. And a corporation does not have tens of thousands of crucial locations that are likely to be a target of a run.
Yes, actually, each major corporation
does have tens of thousands of locations that are
potentially the target of "criminal activity". Each of which requires more than one (or two, or three) security guards. The ones with fewer sites to protect, have commensurately fewer resources with which to equip their security personnel.
QUOTE
And for those not covered by IP 3 security details, there are always HTR teams.
Sure, absolutely. HTR teams that won't be on-site for at least a couple minutes. HTR teams that can potentially be diverted and distracted to OTHER locations, thereby increasing the response "lag time".
All of that is included in that "can".
QUOTE
And yeah, a corp can afford 50k a man: that's just 10 monthly wages, based on Day Job quality. Alternative costs, as already pointed out, are hundreds of times higher.
50K per security guard, for a workforce on the order of 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 such guards? Sure, it is
possible, at all.
But it is not
reasonably affordable.
The better use of the money is, no initiative boosters at all. Just have a network of Rapid Response Teams who
do have all the whiz-bang 'ware. And the security guards on site? They are there to DETECT a serious threat, not to stop it.
Gigantic savings, with only a minimal loss of efficacy. And to the corporations, remember that the bottom line is
EVERYTHING.
...
Yes,
some sites - the most sensitive, the most deep-dark secret filled, the ones with Delta clinics (or worse, Cybermancy "clinics") ... yeah,
thosewill have crews of 3IP combat monsters on-site as the standing security team - probably with high-grade initiated magical support, too.
But the
Fizzy-Fruit Soda bottling plant that your Fixer just sent you in to sabotage sothat their new flavor's launch gets delayed by a couple weeks? Not so much.