Shadowrun RPG Rules - Physical Security

Matrix Security Overview

• Ambush - Using the terrain of a site to advantage agaisnt runners.
• Cover - Using the terrain avoid being a target.
• Supression - Making your opponents seek cover.
• Traps - Devices designed to alert, slow, capture or harm.

Shadowrun - Physical Security - Ambush

​Local guards know the terrain or layout of the place they are guarding. There may even be specific “chokepoints” or designated ambush points. These will be area where indruders are “forced” to go, and give the defenders a massaive advantage in cover and firing positions. Whenever possible, a security team will use the ambush or chokepoints that are in their area. These may be area specifically designed to provide an advantage to the defenders, constructed for security reasons, or they could by areas that, due to their layout, make natural ambush sites, Whether “natural” or specifically constructed, an ambush site is any place that gives a distinct advantage to defenders that hold the position, while putting the attackers in a disadvantageous position. This includes area where the defenders have good cover while the attackers have none, or where the defenders are in an elevated position relative to the attackers.​

Aside from position, the other key element in ambushes is surprise. A defender that is not aware of an attack is unable to effectively defend against it. While runners use ambushes and suprise more often than security forces, the defenders will look for any opportunity to use the same tacticts against intruders.​

Shadowrun - Physical Security - Cover

Standing out in the open proves nothing except that a person is stupid enough to get themselves killed. The best body armour of all s not getting shot. To this end, security personnel should never be standing out in the open in a gunfight unless they are caught by surprise. If they know that shooting is about to start, the first thing that any security guard will do is find some cover. If there is none available, they will withdraw from that location to a place where there is some cover. Cover has significant effect on the accuracy of shots during a fight.​

If combat must take place in a area where there is no cover, there are some options to create it. Anything that obscures visibility in some form generates the same sort of effect as having cover: attacking shots miss. Creating cover can come from smoke grenages, flash bangs , or with magical effects. Often security personnel will have control over the environment around them. With this control, cover could be created simply by turning off the lights in select portions of the building. This can be used as part of an attack or part of a retreat, as needed. If the security force has some form of vision enhancement or modification to compensate for vision conditions, this technique will be readily employed. Of course the intruders may also have those vision modifications, but the defenders don’t know that for sure and are willing to try.​

Shadowrun - Physical Security - Suppression

When engaging a group of enemies, security teams will work in coordination to gain better positions on the enemy. While moving (advancing or retreating), a team will employ cover fire. This is a tactic where one member of the team fires at the enemy in order to keep them from making effective attacks while other members of their team change their position(s). When providing covering fire, a team member will be firing a suppression attack.​

Shadowrun - Physical Security - Traps

Corporations are always looking for the most cost effective way to defend their property. Security guards are expensive, while inanimate or automated objects are much more cost efficient. If an intruder can be stopped without having to put any expensive personnel in danger, all the better. Traps can take almost any shape or form, and can be intended to slow, capture, or kill intruders that trigger them. The two essential elements of a trap are the trigger and the response.​

The trigger element of a trap is the action or event that activates it. Traps need to be tied to some sort of sensor designed to detect the desired conditions. The sesnor can be something as simple as a trip line or pressure plate, or it can be as complex as an electronic sensor keyed to a biometric database or RFID scanner. When designing a trigger, the defenders need to think not just about when the trap should be triggered, but when it shouldn’t be triggered as well. So, unless the trap is set up to protect an area that no one is ever expected to go, it will need some sort of method to avoid triggering the trap for authorised personnel. This could mean some sophisticated system where the trap’s sensor identifies friend from foe, or that the trap is just not set up when authorised personnel are in the area. The various sensory devices that can be used as part of a trigger are listed under security devices.​

The second part of the trap is the response to the trigger event. This is the business end of the trap, where things happen. A trap response all depends on what the owner of the trap wants it to accomplish. The owner may want to merely delay an enemy or may want to eliminate them. The desired outcome completely dictates the design of the trap, but the possibilities are essentally limitless. Traps can close doors to lock intruders in a certain area, or they can release gas or some other kind of chemical agent. More lethal traps can deploy monofilament trip lines, or activate automated gun drones. Devices that can be used as part of a trap reponse are listed under security devices.​