The Ends v4.01

[Pixels]

What happens to a Tehcnomancer who is projecting and has their Resonance reduced to 0 by jamming? They just go back into their body, or they're suppressed out of existence until the jamming goes down, potentially throwing them into a perma-coma if they run out of projection time? Something else?)

Almost certainly they just snap back into their bodies. After all, if you put up a jamming field around their physical body they don't go into a coma, they just lose some or all of their crazy Matrix powers. As long as the area remains heavily jammed the technomancer will be unable to get near, barring compiling a sprite with Clarity or turning on the ECCM.

[Lokathor]

If the tehnomancer is jammed while they're not projected, then they're fine, just as a mage walking into a mana warp is fine as long as he doesn't try to Astral <anything> or cast/summon. However, a projected mage thrown into a background count begins to suffer the same as if they'd walked into a background count, and so having the same thing for Technomancers would keep consistency, and not necessarily be out of line either.

It's extremely difficult to heavily jam an area in the first place, if you throw everything you have at the problem and you're a master level runner character you end up with 22 or so dice, which gets you about 7 hits. You can manage 3 more hits if you have +6 from assistance and you throw +6 dice from Edge. Most of the time you're going to get more like 4 or 5 hits on 12+ dice. Clarity (available to Flame, Industry, and Sentry sprites) takes off about 3 or 4 hits.

[JesterZero]

Technomancer Streams do not have a corresponding Drain attribute. Everyone resists Fading with Willpower + Resonance.

-Username17

Frank, this is truly a minor quibble of mine, but if you see this and are so inclined, would you mind sharing your reasoning on this? My thought was that a better way to handle it would be to encourage fading attributes as a point of distinction among streams, and just create an Echo that essentially does the same thing as Centering (which would probably be a popular choice...or at least as popular as Centering is). Since TM's don't really get to use any mental attributes as a dump stat anyhow , this makes it easier for players to intentionally create face/TMs, infiltrator/TMs, and medic/TMs.

If TM's automatically get to throw their Resonance into their Fading Resistance Tests, it would seem that a similar houserule to do the same with Magic would be in order. Which means Centering is useless. Given that Magic and Resonance are the two attributes with no hard cap, I also worry about the potential for absurdly-high dice pools. Granted, Centering puts you in the same boat eventually, but at least it puts you 5-6 dice behind the problem curve.

Anyhow, that was my reasoning process. I'm curious to hear yours. Was this just another one of those fewer-attributes-that-do-more-things is better situations?

And on a completely-unrelated note, you have my undying admiration and sympathy for having to learn Czech as a non-native speaker. I'm going through the same linguistic hell myself.

[Pixels]

If TM's automatically get to throw their Resonance into their Fading Resistance Tests, it would seem that a similar houserule to do the same with Magic would be in order. Which means Centering is useless. Given that Magic and Resonance are the two attributes with no hard cap, I also worry about the potential for absurdly-high dice pools. Granted, Centering puts you in the same boat eventually, but at least it puts you 5-6 dice behind the problem curve.

5-6? Not sure where you're pulling that from. Both start with 11-13 dice to resist Drain/Fading unless they neglect their resistance attributes for some reason. After that, a Mage with Centering pulls slightly ahead, as they don't have to wait to increase their Magic after Initiating for the extra die. Of course, if you don't take Centering as a Metamagic you'll be behind on resistance tests compared to a Technomancer of the same Grade/'Magic' stat - but hey, that's the price you pay.

[JesterZero]

5-6? Not sure where you're pulling that from.

Yeah, that didn't make sense now that I think it through.

Still, I wonder when integrating EotM with SR4 if this is one of those places where EotM gets tweaked to match SR4, or vice versa.

Either way, it's seriously not a big deal. Under EotM rules, initiation/submersion just got a little more formidable, which is as it should be. Under SR4 rules, you can always just pick Logic or Charisma as your resistance attribute, both of which get a lot of mileage and are stupidly easy to boost.

I was just curious about the reasoning behind it.

[Lokathor]

But Intuition is the cool resistance attribute... why doesn't it get more love?

[Pixels]

You mean love apart from Matrix Stealth, Matrix Perception, protection from Lag, more Threading, and counting twice towards VR initiative?

[Lokathor]

Love that Mages can use. There's no bioware to up Intuition or anything like that. Everything you listed is Technomancer only.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Love that Mages can use. There's no bioware to up Intuition or anything like that. Everything you listed is Technomancer only.

Do you want something to increase intuition, or something to make intuition more useful?

[Lokathor]

I'd settle for the first. It's already pretty damn useful.

[JesterZero]

I'd settle for the first. It's already pretty damn useful.

If you use Augmentation, the Inspiriation infusion increases Intuition by 1. Other than that, it's just the usual suspects of qualities and the Increase Attribute spell that can improve any attribute (as far as I know).

[Lokathor]

Yes, but -1 Willpower as well, which defeats the point really. Intuition Magicians want more Int and Wil for better drain resistance.

I'm tempted to just say that the +Logic Bioware just has versions for the other stats too at the same essence cost and maybe a little more or less nuyen cost (since there's already also +Agility and +Strength biowares). It seems balanced, but I'm not sure, and I always like a second opinion on matters of game balance.

[Username17]

Anyhow, that was my reasoning process. I'm curious to hear yours. Was this just another one of those fewer-attributes-that-do-more-things is better situations?

I didn't want people to be racially profiled in their streams choice. You will never see an Elven Hermetic Mage, and I didn't want to go that route.

-Username17

[Quantumboost]

Question: Can you Ostraka a person's internal commlink to disengage it from the network and force a reset? Or can you only Ostraka a Device that isn't the core of the network?

[Lokathor]

Question: The "Seize Network" action requires that you have handshake to the exact device that's providing the Brain/Hardware interface. If that device is interrupted (such as a trode net in a very mild jamming field) do other parts of the network automatically take over and cover for the device if possible until it's able to resume it's duty? If a person with a Commlink and a Trode Net goes into a mild jamming field and their Trode Net fails, does the Commlink automatically begin sending signals straight to the person's brain (using Braintext instead of EUE) so that the network can be maintained? This seems like it'd be an easy way to open up a person to having their network seized.

In general, can devices maintain a network without a brain in it at all? If a person is knocked out, do their Smartgun and Commlink stay networked? If a person is killed entirely (Overflow boxes full, etc), do their Smartgun and Commlink stay networked?

Are drone attributes generic? Or could a "big" drone add a small drone to it's network to give it better protection?

Can networks be formed using devices that don't have generic attributes, leading to no generic attributes existing within the entire network? How does the network function at that point?

Can a network be formed with more than one brain in it? Seems perfectly logical to allow. Any special rules you think might apply to the situation?

Once a person's network is seized... how can they get it back? If they've got physical access to the commlink and they turn it off, does it drop out of your network, so when they turn it on again they can connect it to their brain again? If a technomancer seizes your network based on an Internal SimModule or an Internal Commlink... what the fuck?

[Lokathor]

Technomancers... Can they do Hot Sim? +2 Response for "no biofeedback filtration" seems like a pretty good deal when people have to use Crash instead of Blackhammer on you in the first place.

[Quantumboost]

Technomancers... Can they do Hot Sim? +2 Response for "no biofeedback filtration" seems like a pretty good deal when people have to use Crash instead of Blackhammer on you in the first place.

Technomancers are made of meat, and are still susceptible to (B) programs. If you can use it on an occupied network, you can use it on a Technomancer. Except specifically Contagious RAS Override.

[Lokathor]

Oh I see, uhm...

Technomancers generate and receive high density signal continuously as if they were themselves commlinks at the hub of an occupied network. They do not generate normal brain waves, and their thoughts can't be listened to or modified by normal brain hacking techniques. They can still be affected by hacking of course, but only in the way that a machine that was operated by a metahuman mind would be, not in the way that a biological organism might be affected. Normal brain text transmissions are basically useless on a technomancer, and thus someone attuned with Resonance or Dissonance has no use for a sim module or the like. A technomancer can add other devices to their network seamlessly, and thus they can read a BTL chip by holding it in their hand or even by simply choosing to access it while it is near them on a table even if they can't make use of a standard BTL player.

That strongly implies that they're not subject to B type programs in general.

[Quantumboost]

Oh I see, uhm...

Technomancers generate and receive high density signal continuously as if they were themselves commlinks at the hub of an occupied network. They do not generate normal brain waves, and their thoughts can't be listened to or modified by normal brain hacking techniques. They can still be affected by hacking of course, but only in the way that a machine that was operated by a metahuman mind would be, not in the way that a biological organism might be affected. Normal brain text transmissions are basically useless on a technomancer, and thus someone attuned with Resonance or Dissonance has no use for a sim module or the like. A technomancer can add other devices to their network seamlessly, and thus they can read a BTL chip by holding it in their hand or even by simply choosing to access it while it is near them on a table even if they can't make use of a standard BTL player.

That strongly implies that they're not subject to B type programs in general.

Hrm. Yeah. It outright says that Jingle ("modifying thoughts"), Brain Scan ("listening to thoughts"), and Find Mind ("do not generate normal brain waves") do nothing. Later it mentions that they are specifically not affected by RAS Override as well.

I guess the key for them being/not being affected by any (B) programs at all is the phrase "only in the way that a machine that was operated by a metahuman mind would be". I'd been interpreting it such that they were effectively an occupied network - meaning that you could get a Black Hammer or Sieze in there and mess them up. But I could see the other interpretation, where they're treated as a non-orphan device and wouldn't be susceptible.

That should probably be clarified either way.

[Lokathor]

A Proposed New Program based on an idea that I think I got from the official matrix rules but that I can't seem to locate now that I'm interested in looking it up again. Anyways, it's like Blackhammer, but against drones.

• Dronehammer
  Type: D Range: S (LOS) Time: CA
  Similar to the principals of Blackhammer, this program forces a drone's parts to send electricity flowing in the wrong direction, overloading circuits and such. Drones have a limited amount of redundancy against all that, but eventually they just fail. This being an attack program and drones not having skills, the Drone resists with Firewall alone (no defaulting modifier for not having Electronic Warfare or Cyber Combat). If a user is jumped into the drone they make a defense roll as normal. Any net hits are added to the program's rating and the drone soaks that much Physical damage with Body + Pilot + Hardening (if a user is jumped in, use their appropriate Piloting skill if higher than the drone's Pilot rating). Note that a crashed drone has an effective Pilot of 0 in this case. Again similar to Blackhammer, excess damage does not go into the drone's overflow boxes and cause it to explode or any such thing. Disabled groundcraft and watercraft come to a stop, disabled aircraft probably crash (unless they're a blimp or something).

Edit: Added hardening as a soak roll bonus.

[Lokathor]

Question: I may have asked this before and forgotten I asked it: In the core book you can code your own software and build your own devices. The parts for devices cost half price of the device you want to build, and the software just takes ages to code up. Can you do the same thing under EotM?

[DarklingPerhaps]

I just registered to say this book is amazing. You completely fixed that whole part of the book and made hacking actually something I wanted to do rather than something to ignore and handwave. I feel like the matrix attributes and matrix actions sections are backwords but their information is well-written, clear, and actually works. As a GM I found the practical theory part of it very informative for enhancing my game world. Thank you Frank!

[Korwin]

From the other House Rules section:

Alternate Costs

Skills: Skills cost way too much in the standard rules. I can draw you a diagram, but basically I think it's pretty obvious that if you spend 10 BP for +1 to some of your Agility related skills when you can spend the same 10 BP for +1 to all of your Agility related skills, then something is rotten in Denmark. My solution is to halve the costs of all skills. This puts us at:

• Skill 1-6: 2 BP/rating.
• Skill 7: 4 BP
• Skill Groups: 5 BP/Rating
• Specializations: 1 BP each.
• Knowledge Skills: 1 BP/Rating

How would (or Would you) use the Learning Nanites with this advancement method? (In the german Augmentation its on page 115 under Lernschub)

[Lokathor]

Yes, On the subject of BP Advancement:
[*]Would you allow a player more than one skill at 7?
[*]Would you allow more than one stat to be pushed up to "racial max +1" for 20bp?

[Username17]

Yes, On the subject of BP Advancement:
[*]Would you allow a player more than one skill at 7?
[*]Would you allow more than one stat to be pushed up to "racial max +1" for 20bp?

Yes.

How would (or Would you) use the Learning Nanites with this advancement method? (In the german Augmentation its on page 115 under Lernschub)

The Learning Nanites are a crude kludge for the fact that skills cost too damn much under standard rules. So if you fix it at the level of not making the skills overcosted in the first place, you don't need them.

-Username17