Secure Emergency Medical Rescue Services

[Dannyalcatraz]

See also:

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

OK, but again: why would organ-grabbers target people who are clients of the company the PCs work for?

In at least one kind of scenario, they're the competition. Failed contracts means lower market share and damages their ability to charge premium prices.

They may also be going after the poor who can’t afford these services, but, of course, that introduces its own problems. Unless we’re talking a full-on dystopia, disappearing poor people is a detectable pattern that could attract law-enforcement attention. Spreading your harvesting targets across demographics obscures the pattern.

In addition, there’s the QC issue. If you’re running an ostensibly higher-tier operation but illegally organleggjng to supply it, you need decent quality parts. There’s a reason high-end car makers source their leathers from places where barbed wire is illegal- the hides don’t have as many blemishes. Premium clients aren’t going to want organs harvested from cirrhosis sufferers and people who got every illness that passed through because they couldn’t afford healthcare. They’re expecting premium parts. And the competition’s clients are going to be a “herd’ of better quality than average.

 

[MarkB]

In addition, there’s the QC issue. If you’re running an ostensibly higher-tier operation but illegally organleggjng to supply it, you need decent quality parts. There’s a reason high-end car makers source their leathers from places where barbed wire is illegal- the hides don’t have as many blemishes. Premium clients aren’t going to want organs harvested from cirrhosis sufferers and people who got every illness that passed through because they couldn’t afford healthcare. They’re expecting premium parts. And the competition’s clients are going to be a “herd’ of better quality than average.

In a futuristic cyberpunk-style setting, it may be more than just guaranteed quality. Particularly wealthy clients may have bespoke genetically or cybernetically enhanced organs, ones that would cost millions to source from a legitimate manufacturer. In the case of organs that are entirely artificial, they're also free from any risk of rejection.

 

[Jd Smith1]

In at least one kind of scenario, they're the competition. Failed contracts means lower market share and damages their ability to charge premium prices.

For ordinary ambo service, it takes 50,000 people to support a 24/7 service of one crew. Even drastically increasing the price would not make this as an economic way to impact market share.

They may also be going after the poor who can’t afford these services, but, of course, that introduces its own problems. Unless we’re talking a full-on dystopia, disappearing poor people is a detectable pattern that could attract law-enforcement attention. Spreading your harvesting targets across demographics obscures the pattern.

Unless the social standards are far higher than today's (which would make the armed EMTs invalid), poor people disappearing or being murdered will not attract all that much police attention. For instance, on one weekend this summer Chicago had 114 people (nearly all poor) shot, to include two infants. It has not attracted more than routine interest. 600,000 Americans go missing each year; about a quarter are never heard from again. Again, routine. Each year 4400 corpses will be found that will not be identifiable until a considerable time has passed. A quarter of them never will be ID'd.

In an air-car future, where the public will tolerate heavily-armed EMTs using violence to shave minutes or seconds off a 1%er's medtransit will certainly not be inclined to care more about the poor than we do now. So again, grabbing the poor is still your best option. Anything that happens to rich people draws attention. To use a RL example, Paris Hilton's hours-long jail sentence a few years ago received several times more column inches and air time than any death sentence issued that year. Or execution.

In addition, there’s the QC issue. If you’re running an ostensibly higher-tier operation but illegally organleggjng to supply it, you need decent quality parts. There’s a reason high-end car makers source their leathers from places where barbed wire is illegal- the hides don’t have as many blemishes. Premium clients aren’t going to want organs harvested from cirrhosis sufferers and people who got every illness that passed through because they couldn’t afford healthcare. They’re expecting premium parts. And the competition’s clients are going to be a “herd’ of better quality than average.

So you grab young poor people, as I have noted. There's no substitute for youth, and as you say, high-end users are not going to want organs which have seen forty+ years of hard use. Healthcare is damage control; you want to harvest organs of someone who has not lived long enough to fully develop bad habits, and who had never had need of healthcare.

Which could create a situation where the poor would protect themselves from organ harvesting by feigning long-term illnesses....[/QUOTE]

 

[Baba]

Depending on your tastes, you don’t have to focus solely on missions.

Workplace drama! Someone on the other shift is making your life hard, your boss is making your life harder, you’re trying to mentor a hotheaded rookie, and you are having an affair with a colleague.

Family life! Your spouse wants you to get a less dangerous job, your sibling is giving you grief about the politics of your job, you run into a friend of your kid during a mission, and he’s a threath to your client.

The job follows you home! Unarmed, in the grocery store, you are recognized by one of the people you shot at yesterday.

 

[Richards]

As for the organlegging scenario, it might not be a case of "I want my organs from a rich guy, who can afford to have a bunch of security that will make harvesting his organs a lot more difficult than if I picked on those less well off" so much as "I want my organs from that one specific rich guy because he pissed me off" or something. Maybe he stole the guy's girlfriend and he's never gotten over it, and since she makes a big deal about how much she loves her new, rich husband's eyes the jilted guy decides he'll have those eyes for his own. Or maybe the rich guy previously harvested the organs of a family member of the client, who's decided if his little sister's heart is going to be a part of someone else's body then it damn well is going to be his. Or maybe the client is a deranged fanboy who can't imagine anything better than to have a part of the body of the famous musician/actor/artist/whatever he practically worships grafted into his own body, so he'll actually be a part of him forever. It wouldn't likely be a scenario that happens often, but I could see it working now and again over the course of such a campaign.

Johnathan

 

[LordEntrails]

I can just picture this triggering additional response teams.... And teams responding to teams in need....
And teams from the same company in bizarre firefights with with, essentially, their co-workers....
Until it spirals into a complete "WT* is even going on here??" situation of just dueling medics. Each squad possibly more heavily armed than the last (how heavily armed being determined by individual policies)....

"All units, this is a general dispatch. Be advised that we have heavy fighting in and around Docking Bay 93. Extensive property damage, fire, and large caliber weapon use reported. We have no idea who or what started it, but there's presently at least 17 EMT squads all trying to kill each other. Maybe more.
Standard procedure. Cordon off the area, evac any civilians, keep the fire from spreading, wait for the smoke to clear, and then arrest anyone left standing. ID & track anything leaving the area, but DO NOT ENGAGE. We'll see 'em at the hospitals.
Billing code for this one is: MetroRosponse#12:SAT2am9520#DB93. Companies to be billed TBD, but likely the usual suspects."

I absolutely love this!

 

[LordEntrails]

But it's an RPG, so the only suspension of belief bar is that of your players.

Yep Not an attempt to simulate too accurately.

The 'getting old' challenge is the tough one, as your campaign is going to consist of a series of unconnected firefights.

Originally I thought of it as a concept for an intro into to a regular sci-fi campaign. Where through this the party gets recognized by someone (corp exec or gov official). So depending upon how well it goes, certainly no more than a dozen of these sessions.

For a worse PR case: You shoot your way into a social gathering gone wrong in order to rescue one of your clients, only for another client to get caught in the crossfire - and there's no second team on-station that can get there in time to save that client.

That's kind of what I was thinking with the Mafia Wedding. Its also part of the reason you can't always go in shooting, diplomacy and persuasion can be just as important. "Hey, we just need the one body. Just let us get the one and you won't have to reload or even open your own med kit."

Sounds like you are running one the alternative campaign ideas for Shadowrun with DocWagon.

Never heard of DocWagon, but will look it up. Idea actually came from a benefit idea in FrontierSpace. And was thinking of running it using FS rules in a Star Frontiers campaign. But have also been wanting to run Cyberpunk too, so... shrug don't know where it will end up.

The job follows you home! Unarmed, in the grocery store, you are recognized by one of the people you shot at yesterday.

"Hey nothing personal, I was just doing my job Bob!"

 

[Jd Smith1]

Originally I thought of it as a concept for an intro into to a regular sci-fi campaign. Where through this the party gets recognized by someone (corp exec or gov official). So depending upon how well it goes, certainly no more than a dozen of these sessions.

That would be a clever intro.

 

[LordEntrails]

but would people stealing organs target individuals wealthy enough to afford such top-end health care?

FWIW, I think you guys are working too hard on this concept. It's easy, wealthy patron likes slumming it and gets jacked by someone who doesn't know who they are. So, you get to head into a drug den or slums or other rough neighborhood.