Unwired: Not Happy, Taking requests Options

[FrankTrollman]

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.

-Frank