So has anyone read unwired?
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So has anyone read unwired?
So has anyone read unwired yet? Thoughts?
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Username17
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It is my intention to give it a thorough and complete beginning to end reading after my final anatomy exam, engage in continued correspondence with some of the people who wrote the thing, and then weigh in properly on what I think should be done. At the very least there's going to need to be an explanatory blurb (the duality of Nodes and Personas is not at all obvious on any number of read throughs).
I may end up writing an overhaul to the Ends of the Matrix rules in response to my findings. But I intend to read Unwired very carefully and determine if indeed there is some meaningful restrictions on Agent Smith that I'm currently not seeing.
-Username17
I may end up writing an overhaul to the Ends of the Matrix rules in response to my findings. But I intend to read Unwired very carefully and determine if indeed there is some meaningful restrictions on Agent Smith that I'm currently not seeing.
-Username17
I just sat down for an hour and my impression so far is that it comes across as rather piecemeal publication.
Many of the new rules seem to come with a fair amount of bookkeeping baggage, and I get the impression of trying to bring back the SR3 decker that sits at home and does his thing while the rest of the team goes out to play.
All the fluff pieces that concern themselves with actual hacking portray the guy who goes at it alone and not one of them shows a team effort in regard to dealing with hacking related stuff.
The Simsense chapter seems nice in bringing back the brainhacking shenaningangs of olden days, but I have the feeling that the parts about skillwires & the chipped workforce while being nicely dystopic, will not be followed up on in future publications.
I have only skimmed the rules regarding servers and nodes so far but it honestly seems like too much of a hassle to keep track of and the program options are inane. There are only two that could meaningfully add to the game: Biofeedback for Databombs that do "real" damage, and Psychotropic which could be fun, only the rules associated with it require you to try to kill someone to install a liking for doritos, or to simply make the black IC even deadlier because it also hits you with your choice of scorched or simsense vertigo for up to 15 BP in negative qualities in just one complex action. Seriously, coming up with some decent examples of stuff to hit a character with, after they introduced Horizon as the new kid on the block to the game isn´t exactly rocket science.
SOTA is covered on dumpshock, but seems a tad hamfisted, just like the "no two agents because faking an ID code is something hackers don´t usually do per second" ruling.
Agent Smith seems at first glance to fall under the more words deeper hole paradigm with lots of hand wringing and assurance that it´s under control, but I´m not really optimistic in that regard.
I think the way to get an army that is big enough for all intents and purposes involves two nodes, and a satellite uplink.
One Node with an R4 agent running spoof 4 and a hacking soft (sub in a shmuck with used R4 skillwires and too much time on his hands if it´s ruled that drones can use technical skillsofts and agents for some reason can´t)
The second node loads the agent you want to disseminate while the agent in node one buys the hits to Spoof a random Access ID.
Newly loaded Agent leaves via sat uplink, and another one gets spawned. While this method only gives you a linear progression you´re still cranking out one agent per second, thus making any proposition to keep track of the doings of individual agents a laughable.
Haven´t delved into the botnet rules yet so there hopefully is a counter hidden somewhere.
Many of the new rules seem to come with a fair amount of bookkeeping baggage, and I get the impression of trying to bring back the SR3 decker that sits at home and does his thing while the rest of the team goes out to play.
All the fluff pieces that concern themselves with actual hacking portray the guy who goes at it alone and not one of them shows a team effort in regard to dealing with hacking related stuff.
The Simsense chapter seems nice in bringing back the brainhacking shenaningangs of olden days, but I have the feeling that the parts about skillwires & the chipped workforce while being nicely dystopic, will not be followed up on in future publications.
I have only skimmed the rules regarding servers and nodes so far but it honestly seems like too much of a hassle to keep track of and the program options are inane. There are only two that could meaningfully add to the game: Biofeedback for Databombs that do "real" damage, and Psychotropic which could be fun, only the rules associated with it require you to try to kill someone to install a liking for doritos, or to simply make the black IC even deadlier because it also hits you with your choice of scorched or simsense vertigo for up to 15 BP in negative qualities in just one complex action. Seriously, coming up with some decent examples of stuff to hit a character with, after they introduced Horizon as the new kid on the block to the game isn´t exactly rocket science.
SOTA is covered on dumpshock, but seems a tad hamfisted, just like the "no two agents because faking an ID code is something hackers don´t usually do per second" ruling.
Agent Smith seems at first glance to fall under the more words deeper hole paradigm with lots of hand wringing and assurance that it´s under control, but I´m not really optimistic in that regard.
I think the way to get an army that is big enough for all intents and purposes involves two nodes, and a satellite uplink.
One Node with an R4 agent running spoof 4 and a hacking soft (sub in a shmuck with used R4 skillwires and too much time on his hands if it´s ruled that drones can use technical skillsofts and agents for some reason can´t)
The second node loads the agent you want to disseminate while the agent in node one buys the hits to Spoof a random Access ID.
Newly loaded Agent leaves via sat uplink, and another one gets spawned. While this method only gives you a linear progression you´re still cranking out one agent per second, thus making any proposition to keep track of the doings of individual agents a laughable.
Haven´t delved into the botnet rules yet so there hopefully is a counter hidden somewhere.
Why? I thought that "The Ends of the Matrix" was good enough.FrankTrollman wrote: I may end up writing an overhaul to the Ends of the Matrix rules in response to my findings.
If you're doing it just because a new book came out, then don't; you can't please everybody, and if one were to alter house rules every time a new sourcebook came out, then D&D would be an incomprehensible puzzle.
Last edited by Jerry on Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Username17
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The key is that The Ends of the Matrix is supposed to be compatible with the Shadowrun world. That means that nomenclature at least is going to want to be reconciled. You get a Resonance Stream rather than a Resonance Song. Fine. If there are rules that are individually worth stealing, I will do so. If I believe that the entire ruleset is strong enough that The Ends is no longer needed, I'll probably abandon the project.
Remember though that Shadowrun is a persistent world. While I feel no compulsion to rectify The Dungeonomicon to Magic of Incarnum, I do want The Ends to be compatible with upcoming Shadowrun books such as Feral Cities, The Monofilament Edge, and Strange Places. Magic of Incarnum took place in basically its own little world, it wasn't really designed to be compatible with Libris Mortis or It's Cold Outside, so I didn't even blink when parts of it weren't compatible with our stuff. But Shadowrun material is supposed to all work together, so I do care if my work doesn't fit with the remaining material.
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Remember though that Shadowrun is a persistent world. While I feel no compulsion to rectify The Dungeonomicon to Magic of Incarnum, I do want The Ends to be compatible with upcoming Shadowrun books such as Feral Cities, The Monofilament Edge, and Strange Places. Magic of Incarnum took place in basically its own little world, it wasn't really designed to be compatible with Libris Mortis or It's Cold Outside, so I didn't even blink when parts of it weren't compatible with our stuff. But Shadowrun material is supposed to all work together, so I do care if my work doesn't fit with the remaining material.
-Username17
Do you have an actual point of non-compatibility between MoI and the Tomes?
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
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Username17
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Honestly, I'm not really sure. Every so often someone comes up with something out of Tome of Battle or Complete Arcane 2 or Races of Fanwankery and combines it with Tome Material and makes something broken looking. Then they come back to K and I and say "Look! This seems broken, what are you going to do about it?" To which our honest response is: "Nothing."Bigode wrote:Do you have an actual point of non-compatibility between MoI and the Tomes?
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Username17
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So I'm unhappy with Unwired. I didn't want to be, but I am. Severely. The Matrix rules presented in the core book were severely jacked up on several levels, and while I sincerely hoped that these core problems would be addressed in Unwired, they were not. Agent Smith, Drop Out, and Hackastack are not only still present at the conclusion of the book, they are that much worse because at the end of the day things that were at least extremely vague and arguable in the original BBB are now completely clear in addition to being broken.
The Matrix Topology and Security sections are most to blame, they paint a picture of adversarial computing which while not necessarily unrealistic, is completely at odds with anything remotely playable. Attackers can increase their computational army arbitrarily, stopping only when they reach the limits of personal satisfaction or funding. Defenders can simply choose to arrange their computational architecture in a manner that their data stores are unhackable without social engineering or a distinct personal failure on the part of the data guardians. This is a state of affairs that is highly analogous to current computational affairs, but it is not a state of affairs which is in any way conducive to having hacker characters who mean anything at all. Worse, the system calls for people to make dozens or hundreds of die rolls on a continuous basis to actually play out anything. The Matrix Perception rules alone would take so long to resolve as to grind any actual game to a complete stand still. Actually playing the rules as written in their entirety is likely impossible - a state of affairs which is all too reasonable considering that at least two of the primary authors have separately confided that they never read the completed manuscript.
I have reservations ranging from minor to severe with every chapter, but rather than belabor every minor point of contention I am going to get right to the point: Unwired is not what I hoped for and I don't know how much of it I can salvage. I suspect the answer is "some of the flavor text." And rather than simply harp on every minor detail that I don't like I am going to expand upon what I already have. I am going to make a second generation of my own Matrix house rules. Probably the completed version will be about twice the length and have a lot more examples. And I'm taking requests as to what people want it to include.
Already on the counter: essentially unbreakable encryption. Yes, I think I've figured out a way to include "realistic" encryption and still have on the fly hacking work. It's complicated, I'll draw you a diagram. If people want me to cover other things, I'm willing to listen.
-Username17
The Matrix Topology and Security sections are most to blame, they paint a picture of adversarial computing which while not necessarily unrealistic, is completely at odds with anything remotely playable. Attackers can increase their computational army arbitrarily, stopping only when they reach the limits of personal satisfaction or funding. Defenders can simply choose to arrange their computational architecture in a manner that their data stores are unhackable without social engineering or a distinct personal failure on the part of the data guardians. This is a state of affairs that is highly analogous to current computational affairs, but it is not a state of affairs which is in any way conducive to having hacker characters who mean anything at all. Worse, the system calls for people to make dozens or hundreds of die rolls on a continuous basis to actually play out anything. The Matrix Perception rules alone would take so long to resolve as to grind any actual game to a complete stand still. Actually playing the rules as written in their entirety is likely impossible - a state of affairs which is all too reasonable considering that at least two of the primary authors have separately confided that they never read the completed manuscript.
I have reservations ranging from minor to severe with every chapter, but rather than belabor every minor point of contention I am going to get right to the point: Unwired is not what I hoped for and I don't know how much of it I can salvage. I suspect the answer is "some of the flavor text." And rather than simply harp on every minor detail that I don't like I am going to expand upon what I already have. I am going to make a second generation of my own Matrix house rules. Probably the completed version will be about twice the length and have a lot more examples. And I'm taking requests as to what people want it to include.
Already on the counter: essentially unbreakable encryption. Yes, I think I've figured out a way to include "realistic" encryption and still have on the fly hacking work. It's complicated, I'll draw you a diagram. If people want me to cover other things, I'm willing to listen.
-Username17
Is unbeatable encryption necessary? I mean, we've thrown out all the other sacred cows of modern day computing; do people really want unbeatable encryption? (Which translates to: do people want encryption at all? Because if it's not essentially unbeatable, there's not much point in using it,)
Of course, no modern day encryption is truly unbeatable, because we have not formally proved it. We only think Blowfish can't be cracked short of a brute force attack.
Of course, no modern day encryption is truly unbeatable, because we have not formally proved it. We only think Blowfish can't be cracked short of a brute force attack.
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Username17
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Hacking in a World of Perfect Encryption
“We estimate that we can crack this faster by waiting a few years for comuters to become faster and then starting the project on the new generation of machines.”
Cryptography is a complex thing. But an immutable fact of it is that if you are handed a set of data that has been scrambled by a non-repeating transformation of comparable size, that you cannot decipher it. Not “it's really hard to decipher” or “It'll take you a long time to decipher that” but that in fact you simply can't do it at all. So anyone with sufficient time on their hands and dedication to cryptographic secrecy can make a system that cannot be decrypted under any circumstances. It's called a one-time pad, and while resource intensive it is actually unbreakable. But people generally don't really need codes that can't be broken ever, most people will settle for codes that cannot be broken any time in the next hundred million years. That's the kind of time frame that even the extremely long lived are generally willing to concede that their secrets of today won't matter much once it has passed.
So while it is entirely within everyone's capacity to go out into the street, turn the microphone on super high and record random discordant noise for an hour, then download that hour into their drone as an exceedingly long cypher to get an hour of unbreakably encrypted communications between themselves and their drone – the vast majority of people are willing to accept a less intensive system where their communications are merely unlikely to be decrypted before the sun peters out.
Passing Notes: Encryption, Reception, and Retransmission
“The paper doesn't know what is written on it, but the scribe and the reader do.”
Vaguely Decent Protection: Public and Private Keys
“The algorithms required to decrypt these things are illegal, so no one has them.”
-Username17
“We estimate that we can crack this faster by waiting a few years for comuters to become faster and then starting the project on the new generation of machines.”
Cryptography is a complex thing. But an immutable fact of it is that if you are handed a set of data that has been scrambled by a non-repeating transformation of comparable size, that you cannot decipher it. Not “it's really hard to decipher” or “It'll take you a long time to decipher that” but that in fact you simply can't do it at all. So anyone with sufficient time on their hands and dedication to cryptographic secrecy can make a system that cannot be decrypted under any circumstances. It's called a one-time pad, and while resource intensive it is actually unbreakable. But people generally don't really need codes that can't be broken ever, most people will settle for codes that cannot be broken any time in the next hundred million years. That's the kind of time frame that even the extremely long lived are generally willing to concede that their secrets of today won't matter much once it has passed.
So while it is entirely within everyone's capacity to go out into the street, turn the microphone on super high and record random discordant noise for an hour, then download that hour into their drone as an exceedingly long cypher to get an hour of unbreakably encrypted communications between themselves and their drone – the vast majority of people are willing to accept a less intensive system where their communications are merely unlikely to be decrypted before the sun peters out.
Passing Notes: Encryption, Reception, and Retransmission
“The paper doesn't know what is written on it, but the scribe and the reader do.”
Vaguely Decent Protection: Public and Private Keys
“The algorithms required to decrypt these things are illegal, so no one has them.”
-Username17
Mostly stuff that would make using Ends of Matrix easier for people starting to use it:
- Examples.
- Spelling out drone dicepools.
- Revisiting what happens with IC in a node being run by a live metahuman
- Clarification on the difference between what Forge Credentials gets you as opposed to Jedi Trick
- Right now doors using any type of electronic lock can simply be Jedi tricked, making the various tools and pieces cyberware that allow you to unlock them useless. While far from a major issue, having skeleton keys and fake retinas is part of the genre.
- The Great Sprite Wealth power doesn´t have the same time limit as the free spirit one and since reregistering doesn´t take any cash is fairly easy to milk.
- Being able to just pick one Great form power per tradition isn´t spelled out.
- there´s a amount of small assumptions of rules implicitly still in play from the BBB Matrix chapter (DP to resist Fading coming to mind right now). Stating those would remove the amount of crosschecking required.
- Examples.
- Hacking on the fly in regards to upping program ratings, leads to a decker having most programs at affordably low ratings and upgrading them whenever they get used. This effectively doubles the amount of dice being rolled for every action taken. Our rule at the moment is that upgrading programs isn´t possible and creating a program from scratch takes a simple action. While this reduces the instances of on the fly programming it still doesn´t really solve the underlying issue.
- Elaboration on copying programs. Our rule being that to run a program at full rating in your brain it needs to be customized, which this doesn´t go much faster than just writing the program in question from scratch. Noncustomized programs run at rating -2.
- Subscribing a lone device to your PAN takes how long ? (Complex action being our choice). This comes up regularly in combat due to subverting others drones.
- Examples: Program load outs a starting hacker, a security spider, a shop node, office node and a security node and a cop are expected to have. Integrating the various stealing a car and other examples you gave in the DS thread. How do you go about finding Nodes in your surroundings.
- The missing tenth sprite
- More ways to share progress. Using an example form our last session: Two guards come across our intrepid band of shadowrunners. The Sammies and mages take them out while Rigger intercepts their comm channels. To prevent the the biomonitors from raising an alert he shares this info with the Decker so both can use Impersonate on one of the guards in time. Or similarly The decker Uses Ostraka and Jedi Trick to give the rigger the opportunity to take over one of the opposing drones.
- BTL rules.
That´s off the top of my head. Hope there´s something useful to you in there.
- Examples.
- Spelling out drone dicepools.
- Revisiting what happens with IC in a node being run by a live metahuman
- Clarification on the difference between what Forge Credentials gets you as opposed to Jedi Trick
- Right now doors using any type of electronic lock can simply be Jedi tricked, making the various tools and pieces cyberware that allow you to unlock them useless. While far from a major issue, having skeleton keys and fake retinas is part of the genre.
- The Great Sprite Wealth power doesn´t have the same time limit as the free spirit one and since reregistering doesn´t take any cash is fairly easy to milk.
- Being able to just pick one Great form power per tradition isn´t spelled out.
- there´s a amount of small assumptions of rules implicitly still in play from the BBB Matrix chapter (DP to resist Fading coming to mind right now). Stating those would remove the amount of crosschecking required.
- Examples.
- Hacking on the fly in regards to upping program ratings, leads to a decker having most programs at affordably low ratings and upgrading them whenever they get used. This effectively doubles the amount of dice being rolled for every action taken. Our rule at the moment is that upgrading programs isn´t possible and creating a program from scratch takes a simple action. While this reduces the instances of on the fly programming it still doesn´t really solve the underlying issue.
- Elaboration on copying programs. Our rule being that to run a program at full rating in your brain it needs to be customized, which this doesn´t go much faster than just writing the program in question from scratch. Noncustomized programs run at rating -2.
- Subscribing a lone device to your PAN takes how long ? (Complex action being our choice). This comes up regularly in combat due to subverting others drones.
- Examples: Program load outs a starting hacker, a security spider, a shop node, office node and a security node and a cop are expected to have. Integrating the various stealing a car and other examples you gave in the DS thread. How do you go about finding Nodes in your surroundings.
- The missing tenth sprite
- More ways to share progress. Using an example form our last session: Two guards come across our intrepid band of shadowrunners. The Sammies and mages take them out while Rigger intercepts their comm channels. To prevent the the biomonitors from raising an alert he shares this info with the Decker so both can use Impersonate on one of the guards in time. Or similarly The decker Uses Ostraka and Jedi Trick to give the rigger the opportunity to take over one of the opposing drones.
- BTL rules.
That´s off the top of my head. Hope there´s something useful to you in there.
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Username17
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Right. Examples is the big one.
Thoughts?
-Username17
One thing that I think may help here is the idea of essentially unhackable nodes. The way it works is this: you have a node and it is inside a faraday cage. It has a low density signal cable going to the outside and an I/O device that it hooks up to (an antennae, a camera, or whatever). This essentially unhackable device is profoundly limited, because it is protected by the fact that it only can talk or be talked to via low density signaling. This setup would bypass the Jedi Trick because the interactive medium doesn't make the call to open the door or not, it only sends a low density signal report of a picture of an eyeball. This brings us full circle and makes us care about retina duplication again. But since these things are Low Density only, they don't do Simsense or hacking so they can't take over and become everything.- Right now doors using any type of electronic lock can simply be Jedi tricked, making the various tools and pieces cyberware that allow you to unlock them useless. While far from a major issue, having skeleton keys and fake retinas is part of the genre.
Thoughts?
Sigh. Betcha want rules for Desu as well.The missing tenth sprite
I'll have to wargame that one a bit, but it sounds like a good one.Elaboration on copying programs. Our rule being that to run a program at full rating in your brain it needs to be customized, which this doesn´t go much faster than just writing the program in question from scratch. Noncustomized programs run at rating -2.
Definitely.More ways to share progress.
Yes it does.BTL rules.
-Username17
I´ve thought along similar lines but doesn't that just force you to trick the sensor instead of the actual device? Meaning you still have to obtain a valid retinascan but then tell the camera to send the one sitting in your memory instead of the one its actually seeing.FrankTrollman wrote:Thoughts?
The only way out I see is having the sensor be also encased in the faraday cage so the choice would be to either whip out a drill and insert a cable antenna into the hole, or falling back to cyber replicas or sleight of hand in those cases where you´re being watched. Which would be a MO I´m comfortable with, since the obvious tools still have a use in the hands of nontechnicallyproficient people due to the dice they add to your pools.
Also in the spirit of getting me to actually contribute things this time around a sample rigger. Still needs a bit of work to finish up, so I´ll update when I´ve done that. I´m trying to see If I can write up two differently focused deckers as well. So more stuff later.
Example Rigger:
Contributes in combat via Drones and defends his team by keeping their channels of communications clear, while making the same difficult for the opposition.
Attributes (200 BP)
Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 4
Strength 2
Charisma 3
Intuition 5
Logic 5 (7)
Will 3
Skills (122 BP)
Electronic Warfare 4
Hacking 4
Computer 1
Data Search 4
Pilot Aircraft (remote) 3
Pilot Groundcraft (remote) 3
Etiquette 2
Gunnery 3
Dodge 3
Perception 3
Cyber/Bio
Headware Commlink, Control Rig, Datajack, Smartlink, Skillwires 4, Cerebral Booster 2
Contacts (10 BP)
Equipment:
SIN 4,middle Lifestyle, Honda Spirit, Armor Jacket, Medkit 6, 3x Stimpatch R6, Trauma Patch, Area Jammer R6, Micro directional Signal Booster 5.
(some Pistol, Ammo), 30k in drones
Commlink:
Response 5
Signal 2
System 5
Firewall 5
Programs:
Find Mind 5
Who Is 5
ECCM 5
Impersonate 5
Intercept 5
Jedi Trick 5
Misplace 5
Ostraka 5
Armor 5
Redundant Biofeedback Filter 5
You can find a close by target via Find Mind and track him either using one of your drones or pinpoint his position via WhoIs.
You can listen in on your oppositions communication using Intercept and mess with it by using Impersonate to take the place of one of them.
Cameras, Vehicle Sensors even Cybereyes can be silently compromised by making them lose their data with Misplace, while getting past minor obstacles like most electronic locks and ID Scanners is easy with Jedi Trick.
If the guns come out you can either bring your own drones to bear or take one over using Ostraka and Jedi Trick if you want to jump in, or simply by giving it new orders if you Impersonate the former controller.
Last edited by Sma on Sun Jun 29, 2008 5:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Putting those doubleposts to some use:
Riggers:
DICEPOOLS
Since a rigger is effectively in VR when jumping into a drone he uses his matrix attributes instead of his physical attributes when a test is called for. Jumping into a Drone is a Simple Action. You may still issue commands to other drones subscribed to you network. This is handled by a Logic + Computer Test.
Body - Willpower
Agility - Logic
Reaction - Intuition
Strength - Charisma
Initiative - Reaction + Intuition + Response
When the controlled drone acts it uses it’s Body and Strength (= Body if no separate value is given), if a test is required.
Having a control rig installed gives +2 dice on all actions performed by the drone and lowers the threshold for all vehicle tests by one.
Common Tests
Perception: Intuition + Perception
Sensors: Intuition + Sensors
Attack: Logic + Gunnery
Defense: Intuition + Handling
Full Defense: Intuition + Piloting + Handling
Damage Resistance: Drone Body + Armor
Infiltration: Logic + Infiltration
Maneuver: Intuition + Piloting + Handling
When a drone you are jumped into takes damage you suffer half the damage (round down) in cold sim the damage is stun and physical in hot sim. This damage is resisted by a Willpower + Redundant Biofeedback Filter Test.
Drones:
Common Tests
Perception: Pilot + Clearsight
Identify Target: Pilot + Clearsight
Sensors: Pilot + Sensors
Attack: Pilot + Targeting (appropriate type)
Defense: Pilot + Handling
Full Defense: Pilot + Defense + Handling
Damage Resistance: Drone's Body + Armor
Maneuver: Pilot + Maneuver + Handling
Initiative: Response + Pilot, 2 passes
Locking onto a target
By making a Sensor + Intuition (or Pilot) Test a drone can lock onto a target. From then on all appropriate tests like Gunnery, Perception or Target Identification gain the hits on the Sensor Test as a dicepool bonus. Target locks can be shared across a Network. If the target leaves Sensor range or breaks LOS (if appropriate) the target lock is lost.
Riggers:
DICEPOOLS
Since a rigger is effectively in VR when jumping into a drone he uses his matrix attributes instead of his physical attributes when a test is called for. Jumping into a Drone is a Simple Action. You may still issue commands to other drones subscribed to you network. This is handled by a Logic + Computer Test.
Body - Willpower
Agility - Logic
Reaction - Intuition
Strength - Charisma
Initiative - Reaction + Intuition + Response
When the controlled drone acts it uses it’s Body and Strength (= Body if no separate value is given), if a test is required.
Having a control rig installed gives +2 dice on all actions performed by the drone and lowers the threshold for all vehicle tests by one.
Common Tests
Perception: Intuition + Perception
Sensors: Intuition + Sensors
Attack: Logic + Gunnery
Defense: Intuition + Handling
Full Defense: Intuition + Piloting + Handling
Damage Resistance: Drone Body + Armor
Infiltration: Logic + Infiltration
Maneuver: Intuition + Piloting + Handling
When a drone you are jumped into takes damage you suffer half the damage (round down) in cold sim the damage is stun and physical in hot sim. This damage is resisted by a Willpower + Redundant Biofeedback Filter Test.
Drones:
Common Tests
Perception: Pilot + Clearsight
Identify Target: Pilot + Clearsight
Sensors: Pilot + Sensors
Attack: Pilot + Targeting (appropriate type)
Defense: Pilot + Handling
Full Defense: Pilot + Defense + Handling
Damage Resistance: Drone's Body + Armor
Maneuver: Pilot + Maneuver + Handling
Initiative: Response + Pilot, 2 passes
Locking onto a target
By making a Sensor + Intuition (or Pilot) Test a drone can lock onto a target. From then on all appropriate tests like Gunnery, Perception or Target Identification gain the hits on the Sensor Test as a dicepool bonus. Target locks can be shared across a Network. If the target leaves Sensor range or breaks LOS (if appropriate) the target lock is lost.
Last edited by Sma on Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:29 pm, edited 3 times in total.
More doublepost usage:
The Codesamurai
"I will cut you"
To the Codesamurai the Matrix is a Battlefield. He uses his superior skill to demolish his opposition and takes his loot afterwards.
Attributes (200BP)
Body 3
Agility 3 (6)
Reaction 4
Strength 2 (5)
Charisma 3
Intuition 4
Logic 5 (7)
Will 4
Skills
Cybercombat 6
Electronic Warfare 4
Hacking 4
Computer 3
Datasearch 4
Gymnastics 3
Perception 3
from chip:
Blades 4
Infiltration 4
Throwing Weapons 4
Cyber/Bio
Commlink, Datajack, Smartlink, Skillwires, Cerebral Booster 2, Synthacardium 2, Muscle Toner 3, Muscle Augmentation 3
Equipment
R6 Jammer, Thermal Smoke Grenades, Katana, NinjaGaidenPro Skillchips (Blades, Throwing, Infiltration)
Commlink:
Response 5
Signal 2
System 5
Firewall 5
Programs:
Backtrack 5
Black Hammer 5
Blaster 5
Crash 5
Jedi Trick 5
Misplace 5
Backdoor 5
Taxman 5
Armor 5
Redundant Biofeedback Filter 5
Medic 5
Terminate Connection 5
The Decker
The Decker is as oldschool as they come in an age where code is run in his brain. He foregoes direct confrontation in lieu of casing his target out and striking at an opportune moment.
He is unsurpassed improvising when the need arises.
Attributes (200BP)
Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 3
Strength 2
Charisma 4
Intuition 5
Logic 5 (7)
Will 3
Skills
Dodge 3
Cybercombat 4
Electronic Warfare 4
Hacking 4
Computer 4
Data Search 4
Hardware 4
Software 6
Con 1
Etiquette 2
Leadership 1
Negotiation 1
Perception 2
Cyber/Bio
Commlink, Datajack, Smartlink, Cerebral Booster 2
Commlink
Response 6
Signal 2
System 6
Firewall 6
Programs
Backtrack 5
Find Mind 5
Jingle 5
Denial 5
Seize 5
Impersonate 5
Intercept 5
Taxman 5
Master Control 5
Jedi Trick 5
Backdoor 5
Misplace 5
Redundant Biofeedback Filter 5
Terminate Connection 5
Obscure 5
Armor 5
The Codesamurai
"I will cut you"
To the Codesamurai the Matrix is a Battlefield. He uses his superior skill to demolish his opposition and takes his loot afterwards.
Attributes (200BP)
Body 3
Agility 3 (6)
Reaction 4
Strength 2 (5)
Charisma 3
Intuition 4
Logic 5 (7)
Will 4
Skills
Cybercombat 6
Electronic Warfare 4
Hacking 4
Computer 3
Datasearch 4
Gymnastics 3
Perception 3
from chip:
Blades 4
Infiltration 4
Throwing Weapons 4
Cyber/Bio
Commlink, Datajack, Smartlink, Skillwires, Cerebral Booster 2, Synthacardium 2, Muscle Toner 3, Muscle Augmentation 3
Equipment
R6 Jammer, Thermal Smoke Grenades, Katana, NinjaGaidenPro Skillchips (Blades, Throwing, Infiltration)
Commlink:
Response 5
Signal 2
System 5
Firewall 5
Programs:
Backtrack 5
Black Hammer 5
Blaster 5
Crash 5
Jedi Trick 5
Misplace 5
Backdoor 5
Taxman 5
Armor 5
Redundant Biofeedback Filter 5
Medic 5
Terminate Connection 5
The Decker
The Decker is as oldschool as they come in an age where code is run in his brain. He foregoes direct confrontation in lieu of casing his target out and striking at an opportune moment.
He is unsurpassed improvising when the need arises.
Attributes (200BP)
Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 3
Strength 2
Charisma 4
Intuition 5
Logic 5 (7)
Will 3
Skills
Dodge 3
Cybercombat 4
Electronic Warfare 4
Hacking 4
Computer 4
Data Search 4
Hardware 4
Software 6
Con 1
Etiquette 2
Leadership 1
Negotiation 1
Perception 2
Cyber/Bio
Commlink, Datajack, Smartlink, Cerebral Booster 2
Commlink
Response 6
Signal 2
System 6
Firewall 6
Programs
Backtrack 5
Find Mind 5
Jingle 5
Denial 5
Seize 5
Impersonate 5
Intercept 5
Taxman 5
Master Control 5
Jedi Trick 5
Backdoor 5
Misplace 5
Redundant Biofeedback Filter 5
Terminate Connection 5
Obscure 5
Armor 5
Last edited by Sma on Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:24 pm, edited 3 times in total.
-
Username17
- Serious Badass
- Posts: 29894
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Well, ideally the sensor in that instance would not have the choice over whether the door unlocked, it would just send low density signal pictures of what it was looking at. Essentially passing a note back to the real computer to decide whether it was looking at a good retina or not.Sma wrote:I´ve thought along similar lines but doesn't that just force you to trick the sensor instead of the actual device?
So you could trick it, but not with Jedi Trick. You would need to supply a picture of a valid retina and either display it to the camera or insinuate it into the camera's output. So the Hacker can still get through this (provided he has a picture of a valid retina), but a street samurai can just as easily by changing her eyes to match the picture.
-Username17
I´ve missed mentioning all three sample characters are humans with edge 5, so there´s enough points left to make them metahuman, or to add skills/equipment. also all of them have piad for the follwing starter package:
SIN 4,Middle Lifestyle, Honda Spirit, Armor Jacket, Medkit 6, 3x Stimpatch R6, Trauma Patch,
Apart form the rigger they´re pretty much done. He just needs his drones (rotodrone and doberman with LMG, Stormcloud, ferret and fill up with flyspies).
They´re supposed to show two different ways of building a decker that will play different from each other and won´t significantly step on each others toes even when in the same team.
The Rigger is just that. He doesn´t explicitly deal in matrix activites but there´s enough overlap to cover this archetype as well.
SIN 4,Middle Lifestyle, Honda Spirit, Armor Jacket, Medkit 6, 3x Stimpatch R6, Trauma Patch,
Apart form the rigger they´re pretty much done. He just needs his drones (rotodrone and doberman with LMG, Stormcloud, ferret and fill up with flyspies).
They´re supposed to show two different ways of building a decker that will play different from each other and won´t significantly step on each others toes even when in the same team.
The Rigger is just that. He doesn´t explicitly deal in matrix activites but there´s enough overlap to cover this archetype as well.
Continuinig my tactic of throwing stuff upon the wall in the hopes of something sticking.
Sample Run Part 1:
After sneaking onto Mitsuhamas sprawling Tenochtitlan campus the target building supposedly containing their extraction target lies close. Time for a last checkup. While the wizboy decides to take a nap to check up on astral threats, Derek decides to scan for any last minute surprises. Momentarily boosting his signal output he analyzes the reflections distorting the ambient radio flows. It seems all is just like their prior reconnaissance implied. “Two meatbags and a couple of drones.”
Derek uses his Find Mind Program rolling Logic + Datasearch (Analysis) this is opposed by Firewall + Signal Defense. Getting two net hits (notice that hits not net hits are capped by the programs rating you are running) he identifies two metahumans running PAN´s, the buildings node and the three tracked drones patrolling in the building. Had he scored 4 net hits he would have gotten caught enough stray data to get all the Matrix ID´s, noticed that the Building security spider is providing Signal Defense to all occupants and would have gotten enough data to determine the status and type of the drones.
Leaving the program in sensing mode for a while, he adds the positions of guards and drones to the teams map. After the mage gives them his ok they sneak towards the door where Derek quickly subverts the cameras and sets them to display a continuous loop of the last 3 minutes, while discarding any more recent material.
Using Misplace he rolls Logic + Hacking (Exploit) versus the building nodes Firewall + Signal Defense, getting a net hit. To restore the lost footage a security spider would have to succeed on a Logic + Computer (Operations) test with a threshold set by the net successes of the roll discarding the data.
The door is a simple keypad affair and not even shielded against any remote chicanery so a quick series of carefully chosen bursts of primes convinces the lock a correct keycode has been entered.
Derek uses his Jedi Trick program rolling Logic + Hacking versus the buildings Firewall + Signal Defense getting a lucky three net hits.
Sneaking past the guards and drones is comparatively easy since their positions are known and so they make their way to the third floor without any problems, disabling the sundry security cameras as they go. While the team waits in a stairwell for one of the drones to pass, Derek decides to use the time set up a routine that will allow him to enter the building systems proper if the need arises.
He uses his Backdoor program rolling Logic + Hacking versus the building node´s Firewall + Signal Defense and scores a net hit, allowing him to get into connect with a free action at any time. This takes 15 combat turns, since he doesn’t want to spend any of his hits to reduce the time.
Tricking the final door into opening this run nearly seems too easy as the street samurai silently slips into the targets home to knock him out and drag him to his new home, Derek takes a checks his AR displays to see if all the ceiling camera is still turned off, only to be greeted by the very open eye Mitsuhama chose for his AR imagery staring right back at him.
Derek glitched his last attempt at using Jedi Trick to open the door, so his cover is blown. The security spider noticed the door opening without anyone going through and started checking the recent logs and events. She rolls a matrix perception check using Intuition + Datasearch (Perception) +3 for having a simsense rig, versus Derek’s Hide Check using Intuition + Hacking (Hide) (he set his commlink to appear as a background datapacket before the run and took the usual steps to hide his misdoings during the run), getting 2 net hits. So she notices her systems have been tampered with and rebooted the closest camera, while alerting the guards and setting this levels drone on an intercept course with orders to shoot any nonfriendlies. The hits on a Logic + Computer (Command) set the threshold for any action that tries to confuse the drones autopilot.
Taking a quick look at the feed provided by his locator program Derek notices the guards converging on the team, he barely acknowledges the samurai coming back with the target thrown over his shoulder. “Seems like our little game is up. They´re coming for us. ” Sending a quick activation signal to his and the shamans autoinjectors he starts to feel the Jazz hit his brain and his heart beating a staccato rhythm. The way the drones and guards were coming closer there is no way of getting out of here without a firefight and if the spider started calling reinforcements all bet would be off. Time to hunker down and take care of that, in the hopes that the other two could buy enough time for him to finish. He throws himself through the door towards the plush carpet while diving into Virtual Reality fast enough not to feel himself hitting the floor.
Using a Complex Action to switch to VR, Derek starts out in Handshake Range of the Buildings Node. Since he set up a Backdoor earlier, he can take his remaining free action to switch to Connection Range.
Derek finds himself inside the crew quarters of a pre turn of the century submarine, but instead of going with the corp standard imagery of a well run ship the spider seems to have changed the metaphor to a sunken ship with the floors being askew, kelp obscuring some hatchways, barnacles covering most of the open surfaces and instead of runners taking notes around the ship swarms of fish signifying datapackets. The meaning of the weakly flickering red bulbs set above the hatches wasn´t hard to guess though.
Upon entering the Node Derek gets a free Perception check using Intuition + Datasearch (Matrix Perception) +2 for his Sound and Display Link. He would have to beat the threshold of any hidden or disguised icons on his with this test. Getting one hit on his test is enough to get the basic layout of the node.
Up Next:
Cyberpitfight to the death!
Sample Run Part 1:
After sneaking onto Mitsuhamas sprawling Tenochtitlan campus the target building supposedly containing their extraction target lies close. Time for a last checkup. While the wizboy decides to take a nap to check up on astral threats, Derek decides to scan for any last minute surprises. Momentarily boosting his signal output he analyzes the reflections distorting the ambient radio flows. It seems all is just like their prior reconnaissance implied. “Two meatbags and a couple of drones.”
Derek uses his Find Mind Program rolling Logic + Datasearch (Analysis) this is opposed by Firewall + Signal Defense. Getting two net hits (notice that hits not net hits are capped by the programs rating you are running) he identifies two metahumans running PAN´s, the buildings node and the three tracked drones patrolling in the building. Had he scored 4 net hits he would have gotten caught enough stray data to get all the Matrix ID´s, noticed that the Building security spider is providing Signal Defense to all occupants and would have gotten enough data to determine the status and type of the drones.
Leaving the program in sensing mode for a while, he adds the positions of guards and drones to the teams map. After the mage gives them his ok they sneak towards the door where Derek quickly subverts the cameras and sets them to display a continuous loop of the last 3 minutes, while discarding any more recent material.
Using Misplace he rolls Logic + Hacking (Exploit) versus the building nodes Firewall + Signal Defense, getting a net hit. To restore the lost footage a security spider would have to succeed on a Logic + Computer (Operations) test with a threshold set by the net successes of the roll discarding the data.
The door is a simple keypad affair and not even shielded against any remote chicanery so a quick series of carefully chosen bursts of primes convinces the lock a correct keycode has been entered.
Derek uses his Jedi Trick program rolling Logic + Hacking versus the buildings Firewall + Signal Defense getting a lucky three net hits.
Sneaking past the guards and drones is comparatively easy since their positions are known and so they make their way to the third floor without any problems, disabling the sundry security cameras as they go. While the team waits in a stairwell for one of the drones to pass, Derek decides to use the time set up a routine that will allow him to enter the building systems proper if the need arises.
He uses his Backdoor program rolling Logic + Hacking versus the building node´s Firewall + Signal Defense and scores a net hit, allowing him to get into connect with a free action at any time. This takes 15 combat turns, since he doesn’t want to spend any of his hits to reduce the time.
Tricking the final door into opening this run nearly seems too easy as the street samurai silently slips into the targets home to knock him out and drag him to his new home, Derek takes a checks his AR displays to see if all the ceiling camera is still turned off, only to be greeted by the very open eye Mitsuhama chose for his AR imagery staring right back at him.
Derek glitched his last attempt at using Jedi Trick to open the door, so his cover is blown. The security spider noticed the door opening without anyone going through and started checking the recent logs and events. She rolls a matrix perception check using Intuition + Datasearch (Perception) +3 for having a simsense rig, versus Derek’s Hide Check using Intuition + Hacking (Hide) (he set his commlink to appear as a background datapacket before the run and took the usual steps to hide his misdoings during the run), getting 2 net hits. So she notices her systems have been tampered with and rebooted the closest camera, while alerting the guards and setting this levels drone on an intercept course with orders to shoot any nonfriendlies. The hits on a Logic + Computer (Command) set the threshold for any action that tries to confuse the drones autopilot.
Taking a quick look at the feed provided by his locator program Derek notices the guards converging on the team, he barely acknowledges the samurai coming back with the target thrown over his shoulder. “Seems like our little game is up. They´re coming for us. ” Sending a quick activation signal to his and the shamans autoinjectors he starts to feel the Jazz hit his brain and his heart beating a staccato rhythm. The way the drones and guards were coming closer there is no way of getting out of here without a firefight and if the spider started calling reinforcements all bet would be off. Time to hunker down and take care of that, in the hopes that the other two could buy enough time for him to finish. He throws himself through the door towards the plush carpet while diving into Virtual Reality fast enough not to feel himself hitting the floor.
Using a Complex Action to switch to VR, Derek starts out in Handshake Range of the Buildings Node. Since he set up a Backdoor earlier, he can take his remaining free action to switch to Connection Range.
Derek finds himself inside the crew quarters of a pre turn of the century submarine, but instead of going with the corp standard imagery of a well run ship the spider seems to have changed the metaphor to a sunken ship with the floors being askew, kelp obscuring some hatchways, barnacles covering most of the open surfaces and instead of runners taking notes around the ship swarms of fish signifying datapackets. The meaning of the weakly flickering red bulbs set above the hatches wasn´t hard to guess though.
Upon entering the Node Derek gets a free Perception check using Intuition + Datasearch (Matrix Perception) +2 for his Sound and Display Link. He would have to beat the threshold of any hidden or disguised icons on his with this test. Getting one hit on his test is enough to get the basic layout of the node.
Up Next:
Cyberpitfight to the death!
Last edited by Sma on Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
Isn't my first response as a rigger to make all my drones that I don't jumpi nto like this, except with a removeable cage bit so I can connect up hi def if I need to patch or something. I could even make the machine remove it so I can transmit the 'engage high def!' bit and then jump in.FrankTrollman wrote:
One thing that I think may help here is the idea of essentially unhackable nodes. The way it works is this: you have a node and it is inside a faraday cage. It has a low density signal cable going to the outside and an I/O device that it hooks up to (an antennae, a camera, or whatever). This essentially unhackable device is profoundly limited, because it is protected by the fact that it only can talk or be talked to via low density signaling.
-Username17
But on either side of that the drone is uncrackable.
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Username17
- Serious Badass
- Posts: 29894
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
The idea is that if you only give them a low density feed, then they are making all their tests with their pilot checks. Essentially identically to if you just gave them an instruction set and painted them up with WiFi blocking paint.cthulhu wrote:Isn't my first response as a rigger to make all my drones that I don't jumpi nto like this, except with a removeable cage bit so I can connect up hi def if I need to patch or something. I could even make the machine remove it so I can transmit the 'engage high def!' bit and then jump in.FrankTrollman wrote:
One thing that I think may help here is the idea of essentially unhackable nodes. The way it works is this: you have a node and it is inside a faraday cage. It has a low density signal cable going to the outside and an I/O device that it hooks up to (an antennae, a camera, or whatever). This essentially unhackable device is profoundly limited, because it is protected by the fact that it only can talk or be talked to via low density signaling.
-Username17
But on either side of that the drone is uncrackable.
And yes, I don't see it as being especially possible to stop people from covering their drones with WiF blocking paint if for some reason they don't think that they dynamically want to give new instructions to their drone. The ruleset should take into account that people can and will do that - because they can and will.
-Username17