I was looking over the rules for artillery; the only ones I found in CC were mortar launchers. While their range is prodigious, the explosives rules in Shadowrun seem pretty lacking when wanting to deal with lots and lots of enemies. Also, the mortar having an ammo of "1" (ie, has to be reloaded after each shot) is appropriate, but not very useful for my circumstances.
The problem I'm encountering is that almost all Shadowrun arms is precision-based. Even grenades, with the way power drops off each meter, means that any targets not at ground zero are essentially unharmed (let's be blunt; everyone wears armor). Is there anything in Shadowrun equivalent of an M270 MLRS or an M-109A6 Paladin or a strategic-level FAE? The circumstances aren't for a typical run (obviously); this is for a very special case where the PC is outnumbered by hundreds of incoming hostiles.
Full Version: Artillery?
Probably for the same reasons The RPG System That Shall Not Be Named does not have stats for trebuchets and siege rams. While they DO exist in the context of the game world, they would not fall into the hands of regular dungeon crawlers/runners/spec ops/spies/jedi/whatever to justify writing 5 pages worth of rules for. HOw about letting the players roll their gunnery or whatever skill you deep appropriate, and use the Magic GM Powers™ to decide how many die and describe it?
There are rules just below the grenade section that allow you to roll the Power Level of the attack (dependant on distance from detonation) vs. TN=4. Those successes then stage up the damage.
So grenade goes off (15S), PC is 8 meters away so the GM rolls 7-dice vs. TN=4 to stage up the explosion damage. Even as far out as 13m, the GM could score 2-succcesses and raise the damage code to D.
So grenade goes off (15S), PC is 8 meters away so the GM rolls 7-dice vs. TN=4 to stage up the explosion damage. Even as far out as 13m, the GM could score 2-succcesses and raise the damage code to D.
If you need more information on artillery in Shadowrun, look in the SOTA:2063 book. The chapter about mercenaries includes information about artillery, and new rounds that deal damage evenly over their area of effect.
Unfortunately I'm not the GM. I'm one of the players, though our campaign has a significant amount of corroberation betweeen players and GM. Basically, I'm planning a seige situation and want something to throw against the attackers that will do more than just make them laugh.
| QUOTE (GrinderTheTroll) |
| There are rules just below the grenade section that allow you to roll the Power Level of the attack (dependant on distance from detonation) vs. TN=4. Those successes then stage up the damage. So grenade goes off (15S), PC is 8 meters away so the GM rolls 7-dice vs. TN=4 to stage up the explosion damage. Even as far out as 13m, the GM could score 2-succcesses and raise the damage code to D. |
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the opponent is 13m away from a 15S explosion, the power of the explosion is only 2. The opponent still gets to roll his Body + Combat Pool, and in every case I've seen, our opponents will shrug that off like rain. The opponents I will be going against are going to have enough armor such that anything less than a Power 11 is going to be laughed at.
Yep, but should kill any other unarmored type though. Remember Runners are "Special". 
| QUOTE (GrinderTheTroll) |
| Yep, but should kill any other unarmored type though. Remember Runners are "Special". |
Grinder, in our campaign, the average secretary wears 5-7 points of ballistic armor.
Jesus, Lina, what are you playing? "Shadowrun: Ultraviolence?" 
Not quite DrJest. The buildup to this scenario is going to involve a lot of subtly, stealth and guile on my part (and at any time, something could go wrong). This is just setup for the finale when all the enemies converge on a single point. The anticipation is armored vehicles, commandos, and helos. I've already acquired about half-a-dozen ATGMs, an MMG, and a handful of LMGs, but need something that can cover a steep down-slope that is inaccessible to direct-fire.
As DragginSPADE said, definately check out/buy the SOTA 2063 book. There's a mortar and a howitzer there that do naval damage, as well as various kinds of leathal and non-leathal munitions, etc etc. Fun stuff.
I'm sure you could design a vehicle that had one or other mounted on it and was mechanically loaded, maybe just under the "special machinery" catchall.
There's nothing similar to an MLRS as I recall, not in SR3 anyway. But again, you could design a large vehicle with several launch control systems and a bunch of rockets mounted on it. Package it up however you like.
As for strategic level FAE devices (!!!!). Well eh, no not really. The only thing you can do is concoct a really REALLY high level FAE bomb of several tens of tons or more. That should do the trick if you want to wipe out a city or two at once...
A tactical or sub-tactical FAE device would be a bit more reasonable, and is probably what you meant actually, come to think of it. So ignore the above!
I'm sure you could design a vehicle that had one or other mounted on it and was mechanically loaded, maybe just under the "special machinery" catchall.
There's nothing similar to an MLRS as I recall, not in SR3 anyway. But again, you could design a large vehicle with several launch control systems and a bunch of rockets mounted on it. Package it up however you like.
As for strategic level FAE devices (!!!!). Well eh, no not really. The only thing you can do is concoct a really REALLY high level FAE bomb of several tens of tons or more. That should do the trick if you want to wipe out a city or two at once...
A tactical or sub-tactical FAE device would be a bit more reasonable, and is probably what you meant actually, come to think of it. So ignore the above!
There are lots of nasty scatter weapons in SotA63, multiple warhead mines, missiles and mortars along with FAE bombs some new explosives (det cord).
| QUOTE (Zeel De Mort) |
| As for strategic level FAE devices (!!!!). |
I hope i'm in orbit when that goes off......
Psst, FAE is in M&M, and I think there are mine options and whatnot in CC. Check those two, definately SOTA 2063, and Rigger 3 as appropriate. Should sort you out for all your blowing shit up needs.
As DragonSPADE had pointed out the rules you want are in sota:63.
The light howitzer with ICM will make you very happy (4LN over the entire 20m area of effect...)
The light howitzer with ICM will make you very happy (4LN over the entire 20m area of effect...)
I don't own SOTA 2063 or M&M, so I'll have to give them a look. Tactical is probably close to what I had in mind; the intended area is about 20-40 acres or so.
The optional Grenades/Explosives Damage rule on sr3.119-120 allows you to roll half the Power of the explosion against TN 4 to stage up the damage, so the effects are not as severe as mentioned.
Light mortars are simply not very deadly when employed alone and against a large area. The 18D(f), -1/m Damage Code of the M12 with anti-personnel grenades is a pretty decent representation, although one might claim a direct hit should be a bit more lethal than that...
If you do not have SotA63 either but do have R3® and CC, you can use a Medium Naval Gun (r3.88) with the Indirect Fire rules. The MNGun does 33D (AV) + 11 Over-Damage, -1/meter, which should be plenty. For a turreted mobile gun system similar to the M109-family, you'll need to use a Medium or Heavy Caterpillar chassis. If I weren't busy trying to learn compiling a CVS-project with Visual C++ right now, I'd build you a quick example vehicle.
Light mortars are simply not very deadly when employed alone and against a large area. The 18D(f), -1/m Damage Code of the M12 with anti-personnel grenades is a pretty decent representation, although one might claim a direct hit should be a bit more lethal than that...
If you do not have SotA63 either but do have R3® and CC, you can use a Medium Naval Gun (r3.88) with the Indirect Fire rules. The MNGun does 33D (AV) + 11 Over-Damage, -1/meter, which should be plenty. For a turreted mobile gun system similar to the M109-family, you'll need to use a Medium or Heavy Caterpillar chassis. If I weren't busy trying to learn compiling a CVS-project with Visual C++ right now, I'd build you a quick example vehicle.
Light howitzers do Naval damage
As Zeel De Mort implied, no such thing exists as strategic FAEs, since it would be extremely difficult to manufacture a very large bomb which takes its oxygen from the air -- the dispersing mechanism and the agent would have to be very sophisticated to allow the correct uniform mixture of air and agent over a very large area. The (broken) rules for FAEs can be found at mm.113.
An MLRS-like artillery rocket system is not feasible in canon SR3 because of the lack of cheap long-range rockets or missiles. The basic rockets and missiles at sr3.280-281 have a range of only 3km, the 15,000-25,000/missile M-GM Outlaw Block I's and II's reach only 10km away, and the only long-range, surface-to-surface missiles (Sea Saber and Sirocco) are just that and unsuitable for use as artillery rockets. You can ad-hoc a short range rocket artillery system by mounting IWS Multi-Launchers loaded with High Explosive Rockets on vehicle Hardpoints.
The above advice about using a MNGun for indirect fire is of course meaningless if you can get your hands on SotA63 and the howitzer described there.
An MLRS-like artillery rocket system is not feasible in canon SR3 because of the lack of cheap long-range rockets or missiles. The basic rockets and missiles at sr3.280-281 have a range of only 3km, the 15,000-25,000/missile M-GM Outlaw Block I's and II's reach only 10km away, and the only long-range, surface-to-surface missiles (Sea Saber and Sirocco) are just that and unsuitable for use as artillery rockets. You can ad-hoc a short range rocket artillery system by mounting IWS Multi-Launchers loaded with High Explosive Rockets on vehicle Hardpoints.
The above advice about using a MNGun for indirect fire is of course meaningless if you can get your hands on SotA63 and the howitzer described there.
| QUOTE (Backgammon) |
| Light howitzers do Naval damage |
If that was directed at me: So does the Medium Naval Gun, 11MN to be precise, and that converted to a non-naval Damage Code is 33D (AV) + 11 Over-Damage, -1/m.
And we're back to the farm... Track down 2063, it should cover pretty much everything you're looking for.
I would go for light anty vehicle missiles.
You don’t need to kill all the people, if you kill all there tanks the people will run away.
Edward
You don’t need to kill all the people, if you kill all there tanks the people will run away.
Edward
| QUOTE (Sandoval Smith) |
| And we're back to the farm... Track down 2063, it should cover pretty much everything you're looking for. |
The farm situation got changed because we got a look at the real terrain. The original spot I picked got nixed because it turned out it was way out of town (I had mis-read the grid map) and didn't look anything like the map implied (basically the terrain wasn't farmland, but mountainous forest).
We've moved it from a farm to a house on the top of a tall hill, surrounded by heavy forest. On one side, there's a steep drop (basically a cliff) leading to a major river. I'm setting up MMGs and LMGs on the 3 other flanks, and a half-dozen ATGMs on the top to take down choppers. I have some mines and claymores (and steadily buying more) to plant in the forest, and razor wire around the perimeter and at strategic locations (ie, near drop points into the valleys). However, I'm worried that after they fail the first couple, they'll try to send a team up the cliff, which because of it's layout, prevents any direct-fire. The only thing that can hit that would be indirect fire, hence my interest in artillery.
You could always set Claymores into the cliffs at various places and angles.
Textron Trapdoor Smart mines, p. 42 in CC. Three shots for the price of one. I've refrained from posting to any of these threads about constructing fixed defenses because I'm a firm believer in movement as the only survival trait of a shadowrunner. Runners are mobile targets, fantastically difficult to hit by corporate forces unless they leave trails behind. Once you stop moving, you lose your best hope at survival. There hasn't been an oyster born yet that a starfish can't drill through its shell.
I would use vectored thrust aircraft to cover the cliff but I have an unhealthy taste for Dalmatian drones with overpowered engines fly by wire and 23 points of vehicle armour, they are imposable to kill but may blow up unaided by the enemy.
Edward
Edward
| QUOTE (grendel) |
| Textron Trapdoor Smart mines, p. 42 in CC. Three shots for the price of one. I've refrained from posting to any of these threads about constructing fixed defenses because I'm a firm believer in movement as the only survival trait of a shadowrunner. Runners are mobile targets, fantastically difficult to hit by corporate forces unless they leave trails behind. Once you stop moving, you lose your best hope at survival. There hasn't been an oyster born yet that a starfish can't drill through its shell. |
Oh, don't get me wrong. I agree with this 100% of the time. This is *not* a normal circumstance. The plan here is to compel the enemy to burn as much of his resources as possible. That's all part of the plan. There's an underground tunnel already dug that leads a couple miles off the property, with a getaway car waiting; that's also part of the plan. And yes, the tunnel is deep enough to foil radar or infrared detection.
Deep enough to fool earth elementals? Nature spirits? Watchers? Astral mages? Because your opponents are going to have them. They're making contingency plans for every avenue of escape you could have.
Satellite based ground penetrating radar reaches to depths of 400m or so, depending on the substrate being imaged.
Satellite based ground penetrating radar reaches to depths of 400m or so, depending on the substrate being imaged.
| QUOTE (LinaInverse) |
| I don't own SOTA 2063 or M&M, so I'll have to give them a look. Tactical is probably close to what I had in mind; the intended area is about 20-40 acres or so. |
What kind of SR do you play that requires specific rules that vary on such a scale where runners would even consider surviving something exploding like this?
Another trick for the cliff is grenades tied with string.
Estimate how far down the climbers are and play out that much cheep twine, atacjh one end to a peg in the ground and the other to the grenade, set a 6 second fuse pull the pin and throw it over the edge.
Usual scatter rules will apply to model things like swing and getting the string length wrong but it is cheep.
Another option is to mine the entire face of the cliff with something,
Of cause there is the question of why they would climb it at all when they could bring in a squad of T-birds loaded with guns and armour with enough ED that you can’t hope to see them coming in to deposit a heavily armed teem in the middle of your compound, ether before or after blowing it to kingdom come.
If they really want you dead a single heavy navel missile will obliterate your encampment
Edward
Estimate how far down the climbers are and play out that much cheep twine, atacjh one end to a peg in the ground and the other to the grenade, set a 6 second fuse pull the pin and throw it over the edge.
Usual scatter rules will apply to model things like swing and getting the string length wrong but it is cheep.
Another option is to mine the entire face of the cliff with something,
Of cause there is the question of why they would climb it at all when they could bring in a squad of T-birds loaded with guns and armour with enough ED that you can’t hope to see them coming in to deposit a heavily armed teem in the middle of your compound, ether before or after blowing it to kingdom come.
If they really want you dead a single heavy navel missile will obliterate your encampment
Edward
| QUOTE (Edward) |
| Of cause there is the question of why they would climb it at all when they could bring in a squad of T-birds loaded with guns and armour with enough ED that you can’t hope to see them coming in to deposit a heavily armed teem in the middle of your compound, ether before or after blowing it to kingdom come. If they really want you dead a single heavy navel missile will obliterate your encampment Edward |
Although I have ATGMs for helos, I'm sure that eventually they probably will do something along these lines. The trick is to make them scale up to that slowly (I've already mapped out a plan, based on some psychology for this w/ my GM), so it's costly for them.
I don't believe that the opposition has easy access to Naval missiles, though of course I could be wrong.
As for satellite radar, I doubt my opposition will have that, but even if they do, the ground is going to be littered with metal shrapnel, mines (and likely wrecked vehicles) when endgame arrives. I'm hoping that those will foil radar. As for Spirits, Elementals, etc, those are things that I will have to deal with personally (my char's a reasonably competent Shammy) by summoning. Again, nothing's guaranteed, but I'm gunning on the likelihood that the opposition won't be expending as much effort in peripheral issues like having their magical assets only doing scans for a tunnel that they don't even know exists when their mundane assets are all getting blown to Kingdom Come.
My suggestion would be to have your mages set up a strong ward over the main building or buildings so no one can get in astrally. Then you set up all of the explosives and mines to operate automatically on tripwires or motion detectors or what have you. Have your decker or rigger set up the defenses to operate remotely using drones or sentryguns to fire from fixed positions within the compound. Then put in one cataclysmic FAE bomb or something inside the inner chamber of the central warded building to explode when they breach all of the other defenses.
Oh, and you and your team need to be someplace else with pizza, beer and cigars while you watch all this happen.
Oh, and you and your team need to be someplace else with pizza, beer and cigars while you watch all this happen.
Just to correct a few things - secretaries do NOT have 5-7 points ballistic in my campaign. Good grief. It just seems that way because all you guys encounter are armed enemies - you don't know what the civilians have for armor because it doesn't matter. So stop exaggerating. 
And yes, Lina, 2063 has what some of what you want, and it's even got availability codes.
Other than that...keep the banter up, you guys. You're just giving me ideas.
And yes, Lina, 2063 has what some of what you want, and it's even got availability codes.
Other than that...keep the banter up, you guys. You're just giving me ideas.
Investigate the possibility of rigging dumb-fire, single shot mortar tubes or fixed emplacement drones.
Once you start dropping mortar rounds into an area, most people will expect more incoming, not less and will begin reacting accordingly. By the time they figure out that the five or six rounds falling is it for the barrage, you can be in place for Phase 2.
Particularly if the rounds seem to be coming from different points.
What kind of defenses/sensors will the target have?
-Siege
Once you start dropping mortar rounds into an area, most people will expect more incoming, not less and will begin reacting accordingly. By the time they figure out that the five or six rounds falling is it for the barrage, you can be in place for Phase 2.
Particularly if the rounds seem to be coming from different points.
What kind of defenses/sensors will the target have?
-Siege
| QUOTE (Siege) |
| What kind of defenses/sensors will the target have? -Siege |
Defenses? Hundreds of meters of electrified razor wire, 2' of cinderblocks and steel plates against all the walls of the compound itself. Spiked concealed pits at certain locations. About half-dozen Heavy guns (LMG, MMG) and ATGMs, and about 20-ish Mines and Claymores (buying more steadily) along with independent generator and fuel. No sensors yet; those are still on the shopping list (avail codes make these a bear to get) as are the turrets to make these guns useable.
OK, new epithany...
The new territory is in a forested area. Such areas always have lots of wood and kindling around it. If someone could think of an accelerant that doesn't have a give-away odor, would it be conceivable to have a sprinkler system prepped in advance? So once the siege begins in earnest, sometime between the "waves", start the sprinklers, then when there's enough crunchies trying to work their way into the forest, launch a half-dozen WP dumb rockets to start the conflageration? Silly idea?
Of course we wouldn't spray the area around the compound itself, but even so, we'd likely have to evacuate shortly after pulling this step off I would think.
The new territory is in a forested area. Such areas always have lots of wood and kindling around it. If someone could think of an accelerant that doesn't have a give-away odor, would it be conceivable to have a sprinkler system prepped in advance? So once the siege begins in earnest, sometime between the "waves", start the sprinklers, then when there's enough crunchies trying to work their way into the forest, launch a half-dozen WP dumb rockets to start the conflageration? Silly idea?
Of course we wouldn't spray the area around the compound itself, but even so, we'd likely have to evacuate shortly after pulling this step off I would think.
The answer to your question is wonderfully obvious: naval weaponry. Choose something that isn't a railgun, and you get an area-effect weapon that'll clear out thirty meters or more.
~J
~J
Lina - some of the mortar/howitzer rounds in SOTA63 have Light Naval damage. Just thought I'd let you know. Of course FINDING them ain't gonna be easy...
Of course FINDING them ain't gonna be easy...
Ahhh, I misunderstood - you're defending the afore-mentioned installation from attackers, yes?
Kidnap x number of people equal to your party. Stash them in the compound. Shroud the room with earth and ivy to bar astral snoops.
Fill the compound with car-sized bombs.
Use drones and automated weaponry to provide enough resistance to draw hostiles in, then detonate the explosives.
Another trick - leave powered down drones in the forest in anticipation of hostile forces. Once the hostiles have passed the drones on the way to your base, activate the drones to take the attackers from behind. It's called the "Midtown Defensive."
Drones will also be a pain - any smart attacker will make use of them to recon your defenses and provide expendable, strategic attacks. Consider some serious ECM/ECCM warfare.
-Siege
Kidnap x number of people equal to your party. Stash them in the compound. Shroud the room with earth and ivy to bar astral snoops.
Fill the compound with car-sized bombs.
Use drones and automated weaponry to provide enough resistance to draw hostiles in, then detonate the explosives.
Another trick - leave powered down drones in the forest in anticipation of hostile forces. Once the hostiles have passed the drones on the way to your base, activate the drones to take the attackers from behind. It's called the "Midtown Defensive."
Drones will also be a pain - any smart attacker will make use of them to recon your defenses and provide expendable, strategic attacks. Consider some serious ECM/ECCM warfare.
-Siege
As well as some rating 10 jammers, darn near nothing can beat them reliably.
Yes Siege, we're defense. Some of what you're saying is what we're already doing, though I hadn't thought too much about ECM/ECCM. I'll have to add them to the shopping list.
Alternatively Docmortand, if avail codes don't go my way, I could just pay the party's demolistionist to build several bombs similar to what we used against Zeus (aka, the "Tim McVeigh maneuver") stash them under cover at various strategic parts of the terrain with radio detonators and wait for them to gather, then blow them up that way.
Alternatively Docmortand, if avail codes don't go my way, I could just pay the party's demolistionist to build several bombs similar to what we used against Zeus (aka, the "Tim McVeigh maneuver") stash them under cover at various strategic parts of the terrain with radio detonators and wait for them to gather, then blow them up that way.
As for defending the cliff - give ground! Evenly spaced holes about a meter back from the edge, filled with your choice of high explosive, detonated when the attackers are half-way up. Take a look at rock quarry operations.
A few hundred cubic meters of rock heading your way - look out below. Soak that!
Options - link only a few charges together at any one spot, blow only the ones you need to. Second, third, etc. lines of charges spaced further back - don't go too far, you'll change your cliff to a jagged slope of rubble.
Hope you do well.
A few hundred cubic meters of rock heading your way - look out below. Soak that!
Options - link only a few charges together at any one spot, blow only the ones you need to. Second, third, etc. lines of charges spaced further back - don't go too far, you'll change your cliff to a jagged slope of rubble.
Hope you do well.
| QUOTE (LinaInverse) |
| I was looking over the rules for artillery; the only ones I found in CC were mortar launchers. While their range is prodigious, the explosives rules in Shadowrun seem pretty lacking when wanting to deal with lots and lots of enemies. Also, the mortar having an ammo of "1" (ie, has to be reloaded after each shot) is appropriate, but not very useful for my circumstances. The problem I'm encountering is that almost all Shadowrun arms is precision-based. Even grenades, with the way power drops off each meter, means that any targets not at ground zero are essentially unharmed (let's be blunt; everyone wears armor). Is there anything in Shadowrun equivalent of an M270 MLRS or an M-109A6 Paladin or a strategic-level FAE? The circumstances aren't for a typical run (obviously); this is for a very special case where the PC is outnumbered by hundreds of incoming hostiles. |
Lina, you don't need those silly toys..Just whip out your trust dragon slave.
Unfortunately, unless you know where the staging area is, you'll have to plant the explosives where you know they will converge after the attack commences.
Ground zero. As I noted before, you probably won't want to be anywhere in the vicinity when you fire off the carbombs.
Have you given any consideration to magical defenses from spirit/elemental attacks?
-Siege
Ground zero. As I noted before, you probably won't want to be anywhere in the vicinity when you fire off the carbombs.
Have you given any consideration to magical defenses from spirit/elemental attacks?
-Siege
| QUOTE (Siege) |
| Have you given any consideration to magical defenses from spirit/elemental attacks? -Siege |
Yup, that's my char's job. She even has an alcove to step out of the house (dug below ground level so she won't be exposing herself) so she can summon stuff with a Domain "outdoors". As each spirit is killed, she'll pop out a new one. I'm kind of anticipating, based on the opposition, that they are going to be more mage than shammy, so while mages do get multiple elementals, I'm hoping to wear them out via attrition. At the very least, I should be able to keep their spirits busy enough not to have the freedom to roam, scout and cause secondary troubles.
Lina has a topographical map of the area that I pulled off of World Wind. If you're interested in seeing the defensive area, do a search for Devil's Butte in the Seattle area (I think it's still technically in Snohomish County, but I don't remember off hand.
Good staging areas include the base of the butte between Snohomish river and the butte, and the other side of the slope. There are a few ravines and such if I'm reading the topography correctly...and there would be great ambush points. The side nearest the river rises from 100 to 600 ft at abouta 70-80 degree angle of climb - definately no picnic.
Good staging areas include the base of the butte between Snohomish river and the butte, and the other side of the slope. There are a few ravines and such if I'm reading the topography correctly...and there would be great ambush points. The side nearest the river rises from 100 to 600 ft at abouta 70-80 degree angle of climb - definately no picnic.
How quickly could you put your hands on layers and layers of ballistic glass?
LOS:
-Siege
LOS:
- Line of Sight
- Lots of Spells
- Legions of Spirits
-Siege
How motivated are the attackers? What resources do they have to commit to the attack? What are their objectives?
-Siege
-Siege
Assume REALLY motivated. I think Lina is going to start a new Mob War and then draw the Bigios to attack her. *grin*
Whether they decide to call in favors after the first hit team is another matter, of course. Depends on "honor", "pride" and other smacks to their machismo, of course.
Whether they decide to call in favors after the first hit team is another matter, of course. Depends on "honor", "pride" and other smacks to their machismo, of course.
| QUOTE (LinaInverse) | ||
Yup, that's my char's job. She even has an alcove to step out of the house (dug below ground level so she won't be exposing herself) so she can summon stuff with a Domain "outdoors". As each spirit is killed, she'll pop out a new one. I'm kind of anticipating, based on the opposition, that they are going to be more mage than shammy, so while mages do get multiple elementals, I'm hoping to wear them out via attrition. At the very least, I should be able to keep their spirits busy enough not to have the freedom to roam, scout and cause secondary troubles. |
Of course having a "detect spirit" triggering a high power ward AFTER the spirit is inside would be fun. *grin* Not to give you ideas or anything...
Which begs the question, why are you playing defense?
If you know the identity of the attackers, why let them take the initiative and attack first?
-Siege
If you know the identity of the attackers, why let them take the initiative and attack first?
-Siege
| QUOTE (Siege) |
| How motivated are the attackers? What resources do they have to commit to the attack? What are their objectives? -Siege |
Basic setup: My char is hunted by the Biggio mafia family. Rather than just wait around for them to find her and cap her one night, my char wants to take preemptive action.
Right now, they don't know about her and even if they did, their motivation would be strictly to "clean up loose ends" (ie, professional, not personal). My character wants to, over the course of months or even a year or more, set the Biggios up for a fall, so that her family (she has family ties to the Finnigan crime family) can retake Seattle. To do this, she wants to study the overall organization, frame the Biggios against other enemies (ie, Yaks, Triads, etc), attack their financial streams, using phony identities, hiring out other gangers, etc.
Yes, very dangerous. Yes, very risky. Yes, at any time, she could get found out. In fact, getting found (preferably later than sooner) is part of the plan.
The Biggios would eventually find that the person who's caused them (hopefully) so much pain and torment is hiding out in a house in the hills of Snonomish. My GM fully agrees that the first (and possibly second) group of assassins are probably going to TPK (in fact, I'll be GMing the defenses, and our PCs and Docmortand are going to be the "players" protraying the capos). At that point, it gets tricky; as I discussed with Docmortand, using the "boiling water and the frog" technique, I need to ratchet up the compounds defenses slowly, just enough so that they think they can breach it, but not so much that they give up, call Lone Star, and just let the military take over. Psychologically, I need to play on the Mafia's perchance at machoism and reputation (ie, if they can't take down 1 lone person, then they lose respect). Part of this may involve radio taunts (ie, "Die Hard"). However, while this is going on, a secret call to the Finnigans (she has a High lvl Friend) will tip them off that the Biggio's holdings should be "undermanned". Whether they can seize the opportunity or not, I have to leave to chance.
The endgame would be the final assault, using as much of the Biggios resources as they can get their hands on, to finally overwhelm the defenses (hopefully so much, they make the Finnigan's opportunity easier). In addition, the whole compound is going to self-destruct at that point. I plan on leaving a body (or bodies if I can get my teammates to help) in the rubble for them to find, while we sneak out underground to an awaiting getaway car. Chances are, I would like low for a while (maybe even leave town) and let the city warfare sort itself out and hope that my "family" ends up on top when the dust clears.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.