From:	Robert Watkins <robertdw@*******.com.au>
Subject:	Re: Killing in Shadowrun...
Date:	Tue, 21 May 96 21:48:57 +1030

>>When you get right down to it, what is it worth? The other corp payed out
>>maybe 100K Y for the run, maybe more. Call it an operating budget of 250K
>>Y. The target in question was worth probably no more than about 3,4
>>million (gee, as if), and at THAT, it's probably only worth that much for
>>your corp and the other corp. Gee... ONE corp strike team, with magical
>>support, can cost that much. And you STILL won't get your asset back,
>>probably.
>
>One shadowrunner team worth 3-4 million will trash a shadowrunner team worth
>250K in one round or less. Why pay your own guys to do it if runners will
>kill runners for less and still remain deniable?

Hold it... the RUN had a budget of 250K. Not the team. The run is a once
off. And a 3-4 million team might not have any more chance of success
either.

>>Sure, Ares might put several billion into security. However, they've got
>>THOUSANDS, maybe millions, of sites to protect. It's not worth the
>>expenditure.
>
>Many times it will be worth the expenditure, it's not like the runners broke
>in to steal some paperclips and a legal pad.

Did you read the above? Would you really spend 50 million protecting a
site that's worth 51 million?

>>Sounds good so far? But the corps DO want running teams out there. If
>>they didn't, they wouldn't hire them.
>
>Only in an unrealistic campaign would this happen. A cyberpunk world is
>what I play in and what SR is based on. Cash is king and he with the most
>cash king above all. The fluffy usually end up dead, the smart get out
>while they still can, the dumb are coffin filler waiting for their turn. It
>isn't pretty or moral, it's dark and real. But this is how I play. You may
>want a cuddly world of morals and honor. That's your choice and I'll
>respect that.

No, I don't play a cuddly world of morals and honour... but I _do_ play a
world that makes sense.

Look at some scenarios here...
Corp A starts nailing every runner in sight that hurts them. Okay, now if
this is a good tactic, every corp starts doing this. Soon, no more
runners. Nobody would enter the business. Simple? But the corps WANT
runners, amigo. They like nice expendable assets that don't appear on
ledger books and are totally deniable. After all, the shadowrunning
community only came about because the corps caused it to exist. So, logic
tells me that corps DON'T nail every runner in sight.

You want to play that way, fine, it's a valid way to play. But you can't
build a world like Shadowrun around it. All the runners would have to be
closely tied to a corp, just to survive, in which case they are not
deniable, and are just another form of a corp hit team.



--
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()~*~() Robert Watkins robertdw@*******.com.au ()~*~()
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