[Chaemera]

and my favorite for dealing with runner squads:

"Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across."

Give them an easy way out. You meet many goals this way. The runners don't die, and the corp they're running against loses less men and repels the attack. Something I think most corp security forces would have as their #1 and 2 goals. And it meets other goals as well, but I think you get the idea. I thoroughly enjoy offering my PCs ample opportunities to retreat in safety and failure. The feedback I've gotten from them often is that they enjoy it as well because it makes victory taste that much sweeter when they finally succeed - battered and bloody - because they knew they had a way out, but pushed on anyway. This is actually a recurring theme in many heroic tales as well - it works and feels good as a story aid for a reason.

Just make sure that if the characters succeed at the grab, the security instantly changes it's tactics - focusing then on retrieval of the stolen [whatever].

Me likey. There's a reason that next to my computer there is a two-shelf bookshelf. The lower book is 4e DnD (what we played last) and SR4A. The second shelf is a mix of philosophy, classical fiction, zombie books and writing guides. Amongst them, the works of Confucius, Neitzche, Dante, Machiavelli, Neal Stephenson and Edgar Allan Poe.

These guys always have a solution for troublesome PCs, regardless of the genre.

[Bradd]

I like this too, but unfortunately some groups just don't want to take it, especially if they're accustomed to RPGs (like high fantasy) where failure just isn't an option, because failure means that the big bad evil guy wrecks the world. Some players get so that they won't accept anything less than total victory.

I ran into it last session, when the PCs were trying to foil an assassination attempt. It was a tough fight against smart, well-equipped foes, but eventually they knocked out half of the enemy. The wetwork team knew that if they pressed the fight, they would probably start suffering fatal casualties, so they broke off the fight and offered to negotiate. They were quite willing to slink off with their tails between their legs.

The PCs insisted on unconditional surrender. They weren't content to simply fulfill their mission; they wanted the other team's gear so badly that they were willing to fight to the death for it. Luckily for them, the other team had the sense to slip away unnoticed while the PCs were making their demands. They were bummed that they couldn't make pickup on their fallen allies, but at least they didn't need to deal with the greedy, bloodthirsty PCs.