Since somebody bumped this, I just wanted to say I'm glad this had a happy ending! Glad we could be of service, OP, and glad you found ways to challenge your player. Just to recap, I think our basic suggestions were:
- Magic
- Hacking and Matrix attacks (being able to bench-press a truck doesn't help much when a technomancer is fiddling with your commlink, does it?)
- Drugs, gases and toxins
- Legal ramifications
- "Distinctive style" and the general lack of stealth that comes from being an obviously 'wared-up monster.
- Plain old superior firepower (full bursts from automatic weapons, distant snipers, superior numbers, etc.)
Let us know if any of these is particularly effective. I'd personally be interested in hearing more anecdotes. How exactly did the boat-dropping happen, for instance, and what was the outcome?
-Magic: Helped, but the groups mage kept counterspelling like a sonnoffa bitch
-Hacking: Not had a chance yet
-drugs, gases, and toxins: Tear gas to be cute (forced him to flee a room), tranq patches from a martial artist gave him some stun, no toxins yet.
-Legal ramifications: Not so much yet, but the group recently drew the attention of the Coast Guard, so plot hook for later
-Distinctive style: Not yet
I_V_Saur: I did notice the paracritters, and they are going to play a big part in the next campaign
Anecdote: Allow me to recant the end of the last session we had. I'm rather fond and proud of it.
The PC's were chasing after a schizo drug lord who thought he was Long John Silver (from Treasure Island, though not from the Muppet Version). After the PC's invaded his ship (stolen cruise ship) and tore apart the aforementioned problems above, Silver escaped off the ship while initiating the self destruct on the ship. The troll got in the speed boat and chased after him while the group mage got above deck and tried to fling him off the boat with a spell. Meanwhile the group decker got to the cabins cabin and worked to disarm the self destruct while the captains security program attacked him.
After the mage couldn't get enough hits to counter Silver's strength and body, he got creative and scored enough to levitate the captains escape boat from the water. With vision magnification and an assault rifle, Silver shot at the mage and dropped him in two turns. By this point the troll was within 200 meters and closing, so Silver saw him coming and opened fire, this time going full auto and getting a few good hits a couple of times. What was particularly satisfying was that because the troll took the "low pain tolerance" trait since he's so tanky, he was falling apart pretty bad even though he only lost 2/3 physical a turn (and this was resisting 19 damage at a time). When he was closing in but still to far to return fire (his primary weapon is a taser) he hit the deck after he moved the boat to avoid getting hit. This was a mistake as the boat has far less armor then he does and almost sank after one turn of full auto.
Thankfully by this point the group hacker disabled the self destruct, hacked Silvers weapon and forced it to eject the ammo clip. The troll limped the boat to Silver, shot him with two taser darts, and rendered the infamous drug lord unconscious. The PC who was the troll openly said he wasn't sure if he was going to make it, and admitted that once I put some distance between him and his opponent he wasn't so confident in his build. He know is aware that I've wised up as a new GM to Shadowrun, and he, like everyone else at the table, should keep a back up character ready just in case.
And it's thanks to all of you guys that it happened. I don't approve of the flame war, but hey, it did get my thread to be a hot topic.
