A note on the use of special forces in Shadowrun
So, your runners have taken the mayor hostage and are holding him in their safehouse until the Johnson can come and pick him up. They don't think they were followed and they checked the mayor for bugs, so they should be safe for the two days they have until the Johnson shows up. At least, that's what they think.
Unbeknownst to the runners, the city keeps a lock of the mayor's hair just in case something like this happens. Using ritual magic or spirits, the FBI was able to locate the mayor. The Hostage Rescue Team, having already been called, is set to roll as soon as the Johnson shows up or as soon as the runners try to move the mayor. So, the Johnson shows and the runners are ready to make the trade. No problem, you think, all the runners have to do is get past the HRT and they're home free. Shouldn't be too difficult, you think. Think again.
A few months later, another team of runners (same players, new characters) is hired by a corp to stop a team of Caribbean League Tigersharks which they think may be observing their operations in the Everglades. If the Caribbean League were to get solid evidence of the corp's actions, it could spell financial ruin for them. No problem, you think. How difficult could that be?
In the first scenario, the runners are dead. In fact, to say they had even a chance of surviving would be inane. Taking the mayor hostage was a stupid thing to do in the first place, and neglecting to proof themselves against magical detection was even more so. Hostage Rescue Teams are trained to do one thing and one thing only: rescue hostages. Sure, the runners are trained in combat. They may even have some pretty decent equipment. But everything the HRT has will be better, and their knowledge of how to use that equipment is specialized and directed toward this particular type of situation. They are good. Very good.
In the second scenario, the runners will probably never even find their quarry. If they do, it is another given that the Tigersharks will kill every last one of the runners. The Tigersharks train in this environment and they know it better than anyone else in the world. More importantly, they know how to use it to their advantage. Like other special forces teams, they have worked and trained together for years, and can predict each other's movements and count on them to be precise.
Now, you're probably sitting there thinking that I'm full of crap and putting way too much confidence in the abilities of these groups. Maybe so, but consider these statistics:
�Since 1950 the British Special Air Service has lost only 114 members, and many of those were training deaths.
�In the Vietnam War, the US Navy SEALs claimed a kill ratio of 200:1, suffering a grand total of 46 deaths.
�The SEALs have performed over 200 casualty-free combat operations since Vietnam (though this is not to say they haven't had casualties).
�British special forces suffered only four deaths in the Gulf War.
�The Australian Special Air Service has only had nine operational deaths since it was founded in 1957. By way of comparison, they have lost 32 men to training accidents.
�At one point during the Gulf War, a team of eight US Army Green Berets held their position against 150 Iraqi soldiers without loss.
Now, if you still believe that your shadowrunning team could perform that well, you may as well stop reading now.
Certainly shadowrunners are not average Joe's. Chances are, they have as much or more training than your average soldier. But that doesn't make them good enough to take on special forces, as the above statistics show.
"But my team has been working together for almost two years now. They've got really good equipment and they work very well as a team." No doubt they do if they've been working together that long. But have they been working and training together every day? No, they work together for a few days at a time here and there. Special forces spend years working and training together. They get to be where they are by being the best at what they do. They survive training courses that take months or even years to get through successfully. Each one of them is a marksman, medic, tactician, athlete, master of stealth, and more. They know what to do without anyone telling them and they have incredible instincts. They know each other's strengths and weaknesses like they know their own weapons. And their equipment will be better than top-of-the-line. Any special forces group worthy of attention has a great deal of its equipment, especially its weapons and communications gear, custom made for its purposes.
Special forces teams will always win in combat against shadowrunner teams because of their superior training and equipment. They will always take the best and most advantageous action for the situation or moment. For these very reasons, special forces should not be used as the primary adversary in an adventure, unless, of course, your goal is to kill off the entire team. Special forces can be used to threaten the team, to capture them alive, to track them, or any number of other activities. They could even be used as NPC's on the side of the runners.
Those of us who have written files for the Shadowrun Military Project have included stats to be used as a sort of guideline, not as a Bible. I do not even recommend strict adherance to the stats we have provided. On the contrary, you should modify the statistics to fit the threat level of your campaign. However, the statistics and equipment of special forces teams should always be better than that of your runners.
Personally, I have yet to use special forces at all in my campaigns. However, I have created a number of characters and NPC's who are former members of special forces teams. Special forces make a very popular former career for Shadowrun characters. Unfortunately, it is impossible to create a starting character who's statistics can match up with those of a special forces trooper. Don't let this deter you! The key to having a good character is not in their statistics, but in your imagination. If you role-play the character right, then it will be a former special forces trooper, regardless of its statistics.
Finally, I ask you to remember the reason we play Shadowrun in the first place, and that is to have fun.
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All materials presented here were written by Byron Cutting, aka Rain Copyright 1997, all rights reserved.
Shadowrun is a registered trademark of FASA Corporation.
