Ask the Shadowrun line developer stuff

[JM Hardy]

Need help countering a tactic someone came up with on Dumpshock. "I'm a street samurai. I want to protect my cyberware and guns from hackers. I'm making all my gear run silent and I'm stashing 50 RFID tags also all running silent. That means a hacker has a 1/6 chance of finding any of my 10 pieces of gear to hack when wasting a Complex Action to find icons running silent!" This seems as cheesy to me as a Velveeta factory, but I can't seem to find any rules that counter the tactic. Got anything?

Just slap a mark on whatever icon you happen to find. P. 233: "Because of the tight connections between the devices, if you get a mark on a slave you also get a mark on the master." Start marking up whatever slaved device you find, thereby giving you marks on the master, then mess up that bad boy. You don't have to find the right icon--you just have to find one of them.

Jason H.

 

[Abstruse]

Just slap a mark on whatever icon you happen to find. P. 233: "Because of the tight connections between the devices, if you get a mark on a slave you also get a mark on the master." Start marking up whatever slaved device you find, thereby giving you marks on the master, then mess up that bad boy. You don't have to find the right icon--you just have to find one of them.

Jason H.

If they're stealth tags, though, they're not part of the PAN (or else I would've nailed them on device limit). So all your mark is good for is that particular tag since it's not slaved to anything. Only thing we've come up with so far is a spider doing a routine patrol and going apedrek seeing four dozen hidden icons and calling for a THOR strike.

 

[JM Hardy]

If they're stealth tags, though, they're not part of the PAN (or else I would've nailed them on device limit). So all your mark is good for is that particular tag since it's not slaved to anything. Only thing we've come up with so far is a spider doing a routine patrol and going apedrek seeing four dozen hidden icons and calling for a THOR strike.

Rather than going with THOR, you could go with convergence. The Opposed Test for spotting silent running icons is a Sleaze test, which should alert the GODs once they notice the high amount of Sleaze activity going on in a narrow area (even if they don't see it all as a single network). They might elect to converge on whatever they find. Should at least cause an inconvenience--and perhaps a regular need to stock up on RFID tags (okay, they're cheap, but if you keep having to buy them, it could add up …).

Jason H.

 

[RockingHurricane]

Hi, JM. Speaking of wireless, I am still (despite an interesting exchange of ideas with Abstruse) trying to figure out what is the rationale for a runner to go incredibly paranoid about silence and camouflage and sneaking when they have a dozen radio-emitting pieces of hardware broadcasting his position? Why change from the much more quieter (and faster) wired cyberware and weapons? If availability was a problem I am sure a black market would quickly supply those to runners.

 

[Abstruse]

Rather than going with THOR, you could go with convergence. The Opposed Test for spotting silent running icons is a Sleaze test, which should alert the GODs once they notice the high amount of Sleaze activity going on in a narrow area (even if they don't see it all as a single network). They might elect to converge on whatever they find. Should at least cause an inconvenience--and perhaps a regular need to stock up on RFID tags (okay, they're cheap, but if you keep having to buy them, it could add up …).

Jason H.

RFID tags don't have a Sleaze rating so they're not technically performing an illegal action so no OS. Thought of that one too.

 

[JM Hardy]

Hi, JM. Speaking of wireless, I am still (despite an interesting exchange of ideas with Abstruse) trying to figure out what is the rationale for a runner to go incredibly paranoid about silence and camouflage and sneaking when they have a dozen radio-emitting pieces of hardware broadcasting his position? Why change from the much more quieter (and faster) wired cyberware and weapons? If availability was a problem I am sure a black market would quickly supply those to runners.

It's a matter of style and circumstances, generally. Sometimes the wireless bonuses your gear gives you makes it worth it to have them wirelessly enabled. Sometimes, though, it simply is not worth broadcasting your position, so you can shut it down and just go wired.

Jason H.

 

[JM Hardy]

RFID tags don't have a Sleaze rating so they're not technically performing an illegal action so no OS. Thought of that one too.

I think that's a technicality that could be debated.

Jason H.

 

[tylermalan]

Man, wish I had the book so I knew what the hell you guys were talking about.

And so, a more simple question(s). You mentioned that hackers in the matrix use the same mechanics as normal guys outside the matrix. Does this mean that programs got changed around? And you use a program tied with a stat whenever performing an action in the matrix?

 

[JM Hardy]

Man, wish I had the book so I knew what the hell you guys were talking about.

And so, a more simple question(s). You mentioned that hackers in the matrix use the same mechanics as normal guys outside the matrix. Does this mean that programs got changed around? And you use a program tied with a stat whenever performing an action in the matrix?

Yeah, programs get changed. They no longer have a rating, so they no longer add that rating as dice to your test. Instead, they add different enhancements. For example, Armor gives you bonus dice to resist Matrix damage, Decryption gives a +1 bonus to your Attack attribute (which serves as a limit on some Matrix actions), and Fork lets you perform a single Matrix action on two targets.

Jason H.

 

[Abstruse]

Oooh, here's one. Sprawl Gangers (which is the Shadowrun miniature skirmishing game if you haven't read the Year of Shadowrun announcement)...

1) Who is doing the manufacturing on the minis?

2) What scale are you using for them? Are we going to get 28mm pre-paints we can use with whatever we've cobbled together over the years to augment our old Ral Partha minis, or are we going to get more Shadowrun action figures?

3) Any idea on how soon those will be released?

4) Will the miniatures be randomized like D&D Miniatures or Pathfinder Battles, or will they be set units like Dungeon Command?

5) If you don't go 28mm, I will punch you in the face at the first con you're at. Not technically a question, but I have been DYING for Shadowrun miniatures to the point I've bought over $100 worth of HeroClix just to pop them off their oversized clicky bases with an exacto knife and glue them onto 1" bases.