| From: | TopCat <topcat@***.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Runner's Attitudes |
| Date: | Thu, 3 Jul 1997 17:39:20 -0500 |
>On Wednesday, July 02, 1997 11:30, woneal@*******.NET wrote:
>> On 1 Jul 97 at 23:24, Paul J. Adam wrote:
>>> The mere fact that a target is a megacorporation doesn't change the
>>> financial cost of a given run against it, and your fixation that every
>>> run against any megacorp involves a cost of billions is the crux of the
>>> problem here. If the cost is small, the benefit of pursuit is similarly
>>> small.
>>That's half the crux. I get the distinct impression that Bob thinks all
>>runners are pond scum, low-lives, street trash and rank amatuers. He
>>seems to think that there are no professionals in the shadow business,
>>that they are all lying, thieving criminals. That a very limit view of a
>>very diverse group. Obviously *some* runners fit into that category, but
>>there are plenty who don't.
I've no thoughts along the lines that runners are all "pond scum, low-lives,
street trash and rank amatuers". There are professional runners. However,
all runners *are* lying criminals (many thieves) from the lowliest ganger to
the uber-runner living in a penthouse apartment. They're of no use if they
aren't criminal in some way or another (preferably many) and if they don't
lie they could find themselves in deep trouble really fast in the shadows.
To corporations runners are tools: no more, no less. Even if said tool
wears black and a mask and makes a lot of stealth successes and plans things
out, if he walks into a place that has every square inch under a security
camera, he'll be seen. That's just cameras, include all the other security
goodies and even a "professional" runner with the right attitude and a plan
is noticed and security on his tail from the beginning to the end.
Johnathan later posted this...
>Just to make a point about how you get 'professional' runners as
>opposed to gutterpunks, I'm going to give an exemple of how a PC
>could be such a thing, drawn from my PCs
>Team leader: Ex-military, left because his team got the knobby
>purple shaft and were set up to die. Wanted for being AWOL and
>stealing Govt Property (a tactical computer.) Mercing would
>involve too much exposure. Hence, he disappears into the shadows.
So that's a character history. Let me guess, the guy plans things, wears
black, makes a lot of stealth successes and would still be seen if he walked
by a camera? Professional in attitude won't keep you from being seen.
Wearing day-glo wetlook leathers and running around screaming like an idiot
just makes it easier (I wouldn't consider such a person a shadowrunner, I'd
consider them dead). Wearing black still doesn't prevent you from being
noticed. So once again, your point would be?
>Exactly. Read the first section of Fields of Fire. TopCat apparently
>believes that *all* runners fit into the mold that Matador puts them in.
>Even Hatchetman (who is apparently a runner, and should know better, agrees
>with him.)
Far from, but you've deluded yourself to the point where you truly believe
that I do and I don't think you're likely to come back from said delusion.
>But not all runners are like that. My players aren't. They do not wander
>over the wire and aimlessly search the compound. They have a plan. They use
>their brains. Most importantly, they use stealth, magic, and technology to
>defeat security systems. (Motto: Any system can be beaten. Some are just
>harder than others. Remember, security *cannot* be impenetrable. Otherwise,
>whatever it guards *cannot* be accessible.)
Stealth, magic, and tech and a plan can only get you so far when the degree
of stealth, magic, and tech that the megacorps have is so far beyond your
runners abilities as to make them laughable. Can any system be beaten?
Perhaps one part of it, but single-layer security is foolish. You combine
cameras with pressure sensors, motion sensors, physical security, magical
security, matrix security, building layout, fences, walls, locks, doors,
drones, and whatever else to create a security web which no-one can get
through without being detected. So what if a scientist is detected, there's
no reason to shoot him. But if nobody is supposed to be in Room 412 after
7pm and someone's there, then security takes effect. Most security
techniques now essentially become inpenetrable when layered. In 205X
there's so much more to play with...
A good plan and a professional attitude is going to get you by that?
>Now, I will admit that I don't run sessions where they have to penetrate a
>corporate high-security facility very often. It isn't the kind of mission
>the PC's enjoy, and they don't have the personnel to be effective. (No
>full-time decker, for example.) But they can and have done it.
Then you invoked divine intervention of the unrealistic sort in order to get
them through it. Of course, I don't believe in divine intervention...
--
Bob Ooton
topcat@***.net
