From:	Paul J. Adam Paul@********.demon.co.uk
Subject:	Heavy Armor
Date:	Fri, 26 Feb 1999 22:31:15 +0000

In article <19990226173713.5711.rocketmail@******.yahoomail.com>, Elling
Polden <thorondor_sr@*****.com> writes
>Problem here is that this goes bouth ways. Lets take the ole Buldog
>Stepvan BC. It is a unrestricted civilian vehicle, costs maybe 60 K,
>and you need armorpiercers to even harm it. Any runner that is not
>stupid would get one, and tadah! they are prety close to unstoppable.

Nope. Lone Star get the plates, or just have a Condor drone above it.
Watch it, follow it, and when it stops at a residence a SWAT team in
milspec armour (which Lone Star are licenced to wear) armed with Really
Big Guns go in and take out everyone who was driving it, with a few
ATGMs into the Bulldog to be sure it doesn't start driving around
shooting people.

You carry big guns, you get a big response. It becomes extremely
worthwhile to take you out.

>And if you dont get a StepVan you can buy similar protection for your
>family car for 6250 Nuyen. No police partol (Maybe exept for in
>Aztland) has the firepower to stopp it if you use runnflat tires.

If you're shooting it out with the cops, you're in so much trouble
already...

Sure, you can blast past the cops. But you're _wanted_. You're known.
You are no longer anonymous. And that's the end of your useful
shadowrunning days.

>More
>effective armor causes a kind of a inflation in weapons. Not because
>players are munchies, but because they have to get bigger guns to
>survive,

Why? Why not be more picky about their fights?

I grew up playing Traveller and Call of Cthulhu, which are to RPGs what
Rainbow Six is to first-person shooters: guns _kill_, firefights are
dangerous and best avoided, and gunplay is a good way to die.

> and the GM must bring in bigger guns to be a threat to the
>runners.

Nah. All you need is to have the work dry up. The idea of shadowrunners
is that they're inconspicuous and deniable. Employers don't want too
much noise... unless they're hiring sacrificial decoys to draw fire.
Johnsons want teams who don't draw heat onto them.

Big guns and lots of noise is _bad_ for business.


--
Paul J. Adam