Shadowrun
Shadowrun Missions Living Campaign => Living Campaign Discussion => Topic started by: EinBein on <03-20-15/0803:17>
-
Hej folks,
I have little experience with SR5 and have only played SR3 a couple of years ago and thus especially the new matrix gives a lot of new things to think about...
I'm planning to run SRM04-00 "Back In Business" with my private SR5 group, and in one of the first scenes the runners have to infiltrate the Mulvihill Hotel in Seattle. The Mission gives not many details about the security measures of the hotel except for a security spider (and SR4 hotel node) and a bellhop who can disturb the runners.
How could standard door locks look like? Security door locks? What level could the host of a mid-range hotel have? How does a decker infiltrate the recordings of the cameras? I've read it is much easier to erase the recordings than to edit them (which takes a lot of time...)?
Any suggestions especially to give the players a challenge that is not too easy but also not to difficult to handle?
-
Hi
If I remember the scenario correctly the hotel is in a relatively nice part of Seattle. As such, the locks are most likely a centrally controlled maglock system with passkeys keyed to specific doors - such keys would either be physical cardkeys or a code sent to your commlink.
Most missions assume a default device rating of 3 unless the description of the device says otherwise, so these would likely be rating 3 maglocks that can either be bypassed with the hardware skill or hacked by a decker.
For the hotel's host - it's pretty much impossible to convert SR4 nodes to SR5 hosts. I would just go with a rating 3-4 host with some non-lethal anti-intruder software.
Now for the cameras - assume that the cameras are connected to a centralized datastore/control system, and is most likely accessible through the matrix. You have three choices in how to deal with the cameras: disabling, spoofing, or messing with the data after the fact. Security specs with good hardware skills can do the first two, a decker can do all three.
Choices one and two are good for runners, three is not something a runner team should consider unless they find out about the cameras too late and/or did something criminal or stupid in view of a non-disabled/spoofed camera, and need to do some damage control after the fact. The main reason that method #3 is not a good one to rely on by default is that runners can't be certain that they got everything - something might have been copied off-site, perhaps by the security spider. Also, destroying files after the fact is a good way to get caught as the spider may be on the lookout for someone coming back to destroy evidence.
So you are really only left with two choices - disabling or spoofing. Disabling is easier - either hack the host or intercept the transmissions from the cameras to the central system and just turn things off. The big problem with that is that this will probably be noticed quickly - especially since there is a security spider at the hotel - but it might just get them enough wiggle room to do what they need to do.
Spoofing is a little harder, since then you're replacing the live video feed with something pre-recorded - you basically capture the same view that the camera has while no one is there, then you feed that view back to the camera making it think it's recording while it's just looping the same thing again and again. This requires some gadgets for the hardware approach or a stealthy decker for the host approach, but is much less likely to be noticed than say, turning the cameras off, or leaving them on and going back to delete stuff later.
In this mission I believe they need to get into a specific hotel room, so in that case they probably only really need to deal with one or two cameras on that specific floor.
Or they could just not bother as it's not a huge security risk to hack a rating 3 maglock and search someone's room, even if there is a camera in the hall. Unless the occupant of the room complains (which she won't do unless they mistreat her somehow once they find her), or they massively screw up with the maglock, the hotel has zero reason to be combing through video recordings for extra-suspicious people
They could even go the super low-tech approach of a baseball cap, a pair of shades and a jacket that can be turned inside out for a different look. No technical skills needed except to deal with the lock and near-zero possibility of getting caught if you keep your head down and don't look at the cameras.
R.
-
Great reply! Thanks!
-
I've prepared a flooplan and was sure to need the advice above to its full extent, when the mage decided to fast talk and mind control the reception girl in believing him being the brother of the victim who had to urgently get some medicine for his sister out of the room...
I - and the dice - decided to let him succeed, because to finish the full run in only 8 hours was nigh impossible anyways. We nearly managed it in the end without too much haste, but have to finish the aftermath next time.
I can't imagine how anyone could finish one Mission in the suggested 2 hours?
Attached is my floor plan for anyone to use.
-
The suggested period for Back in Business is actually 4 hours, not 2. Also, to finish the mission in 4 hours, you will usually skip over most or all of the "pushing the envelope" parts, as they are optional and only used if you know you have time to play them.
R.
-
yeah, they expect you to play the Shadowrun Missions brand missions in four hours apiece. That being said, I found I had a lot of fun running those missions for my group in 2-3 separate four hour sessions by taking my time and actually using almost all the "Pushing the envelope" sections. Each of the missions took a lot longer to play, but it gave each of the missions a lot more personalization and I had my runners doing a lot more to earn their money and karma.
This was all back before SR5, so I didn't need to convert anything for it. Since you're already not playing it as official SRM no matter what, you can play it however you like.
-
I've used no "Pushing the Envelope" section in this first run. But as SR5 was completely new to us, we had to interrupt a lot to find some remote rules sections (I'm still struggling with how the different levels of drone control work, but that is a matter for another thread)...
It was a lot of fun though, as we took a bit more time to roleplay in the slow phases in the beginning of the run.