Balabanto wrote:Let's assume the PC's are not stupid enough to run in without the appropriate ID cards and fingerprint checks.
Let's not forget that a single psi can make them think "These aren't the people you're looking for." Jedi Mind trick still goes a long way.
Even CS officers don't get to keep PPE batteries. You're correct. The lie only needs to be believable. You seem to be forgetting one important fact. 75 percent of the CS can't read at all. What, you're going to show them your paperwork? Good luck in getting someone to understand it. The rules and regulations for such an organization where 75 percent of the people can't read are going to be slipshod at best, no matter what the technology is. You have to do six months of recon and exploit the security holes.
The other thing is once all these smoke bombs go off, the streets will be FILLED WITH PEOPLE, panicking and shooting each other with World Bizarre while the wizard casts Id Alter Ego and departs. Remember, you're dealing with a state where hatred of D-Bees runs rampant. Anything that suddenly looks like a monster is going to be the subject of massed small arms fire.
The long stretches of time are pretty easy, and psionics don't have to conceal themselves in CS territory while they're wearing Coalition colors. You really underestimate the amount of resources available to a group of mid-high level characters in this game.
If the entire city is bloated with smoke grenades and the streets are filled with people, what you will have is a massacre followed by a massive witchhunt, and total chaos and confusion. Technically, you could even do this WITHOUT the uberwizard, but a lot more people would die. "Attention, I have planted ten thousand bombs in Chi-Town, I suggest you evacuate" is also a possibility. Usually, when this happens, the guard in all but THE most secure locations becomes light while they devote troops to locating the threat. Plus, if you can actually plant ten thousand bombs (Not as hard as it looks), you have to have ten thousand guys disarm them all.Typically, most governments will move their top personnel OUT, especially a fascist one. Prosek has to have a secret way out of the city, just like the President of the US has a secret way out of the White House. And we know that Prosek WON'T be using teleportation or any of that stuff unless he has a really dark secret.
Personally, I kind of like the idea that Prosek is really some form of hideous dimensional monster with a very good trick, or a robot, or something of that nature, but canonwise, it's not true.
No plan is foolproof. In the end, every secure location can be compromised. And the more secure people think it is, the better the chance that a small group of people can slip in and do a great deal of damage.
Hypnotic suggestion requires a master psionic in the group now, and any psi-stalkers or dog boys you encounter are likely going to save. That and every use of it would flag that user to a pretty good range to every psi-stalker & dog boy in the area. Psionics do have to conceal themselves while in CS territory, unless they have an implanted, scanable security chip & tattooed barcode on their neck - wearing a uniform isn't nearly enough.
Because most CS soldiers can't read, they're going to follow their routines every time. In a military where most of the soldiers can't read any written orders, they're going to clearly have some method of compensating, unless you play them as the most incompetent military superpower in history. Having standard procedure being nearly sancrosanct works for this: average soldiers know what they're to do in almost every situation, and anything outside of those standard situations would be refused. Any soldiers who break standard procedure would be restrained, or shot if necessary - the CS has to worry about mind control & shapeshifters being used against their own troops after all. If you showed them your "written orders" allowing something that never happens, that alone would make them suspicious - in an organization where most people can't read, no one's going to be handing out written orders.
Getting ten thousand smoke bombs into a fortress city is ludicrous for a player group, let alone ten thousand actual bombs. What, did the emperor forget to close the screen door again? Even supposing you somehow managed this, the secure levels of Chi-town, where Prosek & the high ups live, is designed to survive a nuclear bombardment of the fortress city. Where would be more secure than that - his cabin in the woods?
Also assuming you could actual manage to get smoke bombs into the civilian areas of Chi-town - why would the streets suddenly fill with people? Inside MDC buildings is much safer than being out in the street, and if the people think they're under attack, they know there's nowhere to run - it's a fortress city, meaning totally enclosed. And you seem to be ignoring the fact that World Bizarre has a tiny area of effect for large scale use. With any realistic level character, you'd get a small section of one level of Chi-town effected by it. Chi-town isn't a standard city - it's a multi-level, enclosed environment. If there's a serious problem on one level, I'm certain the CS would simply seal it off from the other levels until they can send in military units in force to sort things out.
You've said that characters, given time, can plan for all these problems, but they have no way to get the information needed to make the plan work in the first place. Without first getting into Chi-town, they've got no access to its layout, its security, and its military defences. They aren't going to be able to fake military clearance of a high enough level that would get unrestricted access to the fortress city, and that's where all the resources they need to make a plan like this work are - the people they'd need to talk to/bribe/threaten, the samples of the security tech they'd need to duplicate or fake, etc. Without those resources they've got no way in, and without a way in, they can't get access to those resources.
- If I never hear real world military buffs complaining about Rifts weapons technology again it'll be too soon
- Rifts isn't Warhammer 40K. Try to remember that.
- In vino veritas, and I am hammered!
Clone him! The two would destroy each other because they could not stand the other's assumptions of superiority!
