| From: | TopCat <topcat@***.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Runner's Attitudes (content - not flame) |
| Date: | Thu, 3 Jul 1997 17:08:58 -0500 |
>Bob, I gotta ask. What is the point as to whether or not a corp will
>geek a runner that succesfully... runs against said corp?
Good question and I have to say that it comes down to realism for me.
Gaming without any degree of realism with regard to the game setting bothers me.
First off, one of my major points is that they couldn't get through
megacorporate security without an obscene degree of complicaitons. Not only
do they have to get through it once, they've got to do a job once they're
in, and then they've got to get out.
During said time, they *will* be seen and security will be alerted, no
matter if they're gutterpunk street scum or ex-military types or
ex-corporate types, they will be noticed. No amount of stealth successes,
planning, or wearing of black, will get you through a building peppered with
cameras and loaded with security only megacorps can think of and afford.
Now, through some miracle (and this would require no small amount of divine
intervention) all of the runners manage to get out, everywhere they've been
and everything they've done has been recorded. Their faces, if visible,
will be on record. Their body styles and build will be known, their facial
structure will be known if it's a form-fitting mask, their eyes most likely
will be seen, their equipment and style of dress noticed as well. Their
method and skill of operations can be divined from watching security
recordings and their degree of familiarity can be ascertained from that as
well (if one guy seems kind of "off" and the rest look and move like a
precision chronograph, then it's a good bet that the "off" guy was an extra
and the core of the team is X members in size).
Now, also assuming divine intervention, the corp decides not to pursue the
criminals as they escape. What can they do? They can try to get to them
before they give the data or whatever to their contractor. How do they do this?
The corp goes through it's own shadow resources and looks for teams fitting
that description and M.O. that may be in the area and can't be traced back
to any other jobs happening very recently. With the wealth of information
that can be gleaned form simply viewing the security records, there should
be little trouble indeed finding the perpetrators. Grease a few of the
right palms and your runner team is found.
Now that you've found them, what do you do? Hit them hard and fast in the
hope that they haven't given over the data or whatever yet. If they have,
then you save one for interrogation and find out what you can about their
contractor. If they haven't, then your decisive and intelligent reaction to
the situation saved the corporation.
What do you hit them with? Whatever you want. Hit them with your own
troops, shadowrunners, Lone Star (or whatever security service is around,
they need money and you've got money to blow), bounty hunters, or whatever
else you feel like throwing at them. Just make sure it's enough (you
already know how the runners act together from your own security, so you can
gauge from there).
Now, assuming that the divine winds blew upon the runners again and they got
rid of the stuff, what was achieved? You found out what was taken exactly
and for whom it was taken (most likely this'll happen, may require some
backtracking, but it'll happen). You also let everyone in the shadows know
that running against you is a bad idea. Why? Because this team died for
it. Now, fewer people want to run on you and it costs your competitors more
to hire those that will. A couple more teams die and fewer still will run
on you and the price goes up that much more. As fewer and fewer runs hit
your corp, people begin to realize just how safe your corp is. Public
confidence rises, stock price rises, market share rises, and people want to
work for you. Your corp becomes much the better for having adopted this
practice.
Now, there are those that illogically link the killing of runners who run
against said corp and the killing of runners who run for said corp (Ashlocke
for one, that poor guy). Just because I take a strong stance on those who
hit me doesn't mean I'll kill those that hit for me. To do so would be
stupid and corps aren't stupid. Well, at least in my game they aren't.
There are also those who say it isn't worth it to go after the runners.
Read above and remember that the corp doesn't know that the runners still
don't have the data or whatever. Risk losing what could easily be regained
or maybe exercise some overkill in the name of reputation while learning
exactly what was taken and exactly where it went. Not a tough choice for
me, not a tough choice for anyone.
There are those that believe the shadows are a sort of union/brotherhood
that would never turn on each other. I find this simply ludicrous.
Throughout most of the SR products are examples of shadows being used
against or turning against shadows.
There are those who believe that a corp would spend huge amounts of
resources to keep another corp from finding the runners. Runners are tools
to corps and they've got a whole garage full of extras of that particular
tool. If one of the tools breaks, they grab a new one. It's no big deal.
There's no reason to spend that money when there's always another
tool/shadowrunner looking for a job.
So there's the gist of my point. It can be gleaned from all of my posts,
but it looks kind of nice all in one place like this. It's logical, it
doesn't rant or rave, and it presents a very realistic view in no uncertain
terms. Realism is the key throughout.
--
Bob Ooton
topcat@***.net
