 Matrix Actions, What can I do once inside? |
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 Dec 24 2005, 04:00 PM
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#1
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Target  Group: Members Posts: 36 Joined: 21-December 05 Member No.: 8,090  |
Ok, lets say my character successfully breaks into a corporate network, what am I allowed to do.
The Matrix 2.0 chapter gives a lot of generics but no specifics. Can you guys help create a list of non-combat Matrix actions that screw with your opponents. Not only that, it would be nice if you had specific mechanics on how to handle those dice rolls. For Example, a set of mechanics on how to handle the edit program. |
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Dec 24 2005, 05:09 PM
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#2
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Target Group: Members Posts: 24 Joined: 20-December 05 Member No.: 8,083 |
Wow, that is a bit of a list you are asking for there. Most if not all matrix tests are skill + program so the programs really imply nearly everything you can do inside a node. A good list of the programs and their common use starts on page 226.
for example: Analyze allows you to identify nodes, users, programs, and other icons on the node with a computer/hacking + analyze test (this is an opposed test if the icon is running stealth). This will get you access to other nodes (including hidden). Browse allows you to track down files, giving you access to paydata, general information and such. This will also get you access to the security logs. You need to locate the files before you can edit them. Command gets you control of devices hooked up to the node. Maglock doors, cameras, the soda machine on floor 2. Most hardware in a building will be hooked up to a node in all but the most secure buildings so that the status of the device can be obtained. Edit allows you to modify files. Delete your tracks from the security logs, modify the financial report to cover the embezzlement your johnson did, divert that shipment of combat armor to a warehouse were some friends of yours will be waiting. Lots of fun to be had with this command. and so on, and so on. I hope that helped. |
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Dec 24 2005, 05:17 PM
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#3
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Target Group: Members Posts: 36 Joined: 21-December 05 Member No.: 8,090 |
That did help a little but I was looking for rules that focus on what thresholds to assign to each of these commands.
Thanks for trying though. |
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Dec 24 2005, 06:13 PM
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#4
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Target Group: Members Posts: 24 Joined: 20-December 05 Member No.: 8,083 |
unfortunately, thresholds are not given in the book.
Basically the gamemaster decides the threshold. the only thing that can really be done is to set up some general guidelines for determining the threshold, but they would be nothing more then house rules. Under that premise, the general rules I would suggest are as follows: 1) Tests using Common Use Programs (see the list on page 226) only require one success. This is because they are programs legitimate users would use for legitimate reasons. the system would not fight those commands. 2) Tests using Hacking programs (list on 226 and 227) have a threshold equal to (system % 2)[round down] 3) Active alert adds +1 to the threshold, since the system is suspicious of your actions. alternately the rules could be 1) tests done with the hacking skill have a threshold equal to (system%2)[round down] since you are trying to manipulate the system to get things done. A normal user uses their computer skill which reflects using the program in a way the system expects going through all the correct security. 2) tests done using other skills only have a threshold of 1 since you are using the program in a way the system expects going through all the correct security. 3) Active alert adds +1 to the threshold, since the system is suspicious of your actions |
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Dec 24 2005, 07:28 PM
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#5
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Target Group: Members Posts: 36 Joined: 21-December 05 Member No.: 8,090 |
Thanks those rules actually make a bit more sense.
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Dec 24 2005, 07:30 PM
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#6
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,089 Joined: 4-October 05 Member No.: 7,813 |
ermmm... some common use programs should really have thresholds higher than 1, so i wouldn't use your first rule set (or at least, not without some modification).
for example, edit is a common use program, iirc. |
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Dec 24 2005, 07:45 PM
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#7
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,512 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 392 |
In my last run the team's technomancer wanted to arrange it so that this particular marketing manager and his secretary were scheduled to meet with the team's target. The technomancer already had root access to the firm's computer systems (thank you crack sprite) so all he had to do was go in as an Admin and Edit stuff around. I made it an Extended Computer+Edit (variable; 1 day) test. Every time he rolled I rolled the Firewall of the system to represent its/spiders' defense of the system. The more successes he piled up net were how viable it looked when it finally got sent to all the parties involved (marketer, developer, various mid-level managers). Luckily the system critically glitched a Firewall roll so the technomancer raised no alarms and the marketer and his secretary walked right into the abduction the team had prepared so they could take his place.
If the system had ever rolled higher with its Firewall than the technomancer did with the Computer+Edit then the system would have noticed the odd activity and investigated. This would have blown the whole thing. With the rules being so fluid now you can pretty much make up your own system for how to handle things. I also was very frustrated at first with the lack of guidelines for matrix activities and resonance quests but I am finding that as I get more familiar with the rules you can come up with elegant little solutions like this. |
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Dec 24 2005, 07:54 PM
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#8
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Target Group: Members Posts: 24 Joined: 20-December 05 Member No.: 8,083 |
May I ask why you would want some common use programs to have a threshold greater then one? Taking your example of edit, indeed it is a common use program so I would give it a threshold of one. The reason this makes sense to me is as follows: 1) you have already made it past the firewall. This means you are a user to the system (be it normal, security or admin). Other users, such as the desk clerk, need to be able to efficiently use the edit command to do their job and they may not have a high computer skill. The company may not have a high level edit program either. This means the node can't scrutinize edit command to much. 2) your user types will prevent you from accessing certain files. If you only got in with a user account or even security account, you are not going to have access to all the files. 3) edit, specifically, may require multiple checks to be done since you can only edit small amounts of data at once. Feel free to refute any of those reasons as well as giving reasons for your opinion. |
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Dec 24 2005, 11:51 PM
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#9
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,086 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 364 |
I'd base the threshold off of the complexity of the task personally. Using Edit to make changes to a text document should be simpler than using edit so that the video feed from the security camera pointed at the fire door that the runners are breaking into shows a door that remains closed while the wall clock next to the door still advances properly.
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Dec 25 2005, 01:38 AM
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#10
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Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,589 Joined: 28-November 05 Member No.: 8,019 |
Unless you have preexisting footage of the wall clock working.
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Dec 25 2005, 02:34 AM
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#11
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,086 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 364 |
Even with pre-existing footage, I still don't see how you can call video editing as easy as text editing. |
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Dec 25 2005, 03:01 AM
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#12
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Target Group: Members Posts: 24 Joined: 20-December 05 Member No.: 8,083 |
The ease of video editing depends on the program you have available and what you want to do. Setting up video to loop is fairly easy and basic in today's video editing programs, let alone the video programs of 2070. The example you gave is certainly a difficult one, but it could work with the system I gave. This is a specific extreme case of video editing (although it may be common in a shadowrunner's career). you are trying to edit multiple sections of a video in different ways in a situation were the video you are editing may be viewed immediately by security. Despite the difficulties in this test, it really is hard to fail at editing the video. any changes you make will change something, it just may not be convincing. Actually, the real difficulty in that test is not editing the video, but editing it so it passes the inspection of whomever is viewing it. I would say this would be more accurate as a dice modifier instead of effecting the threshold. Give the hacker a -3 modifier to his dice will certainly make things difficult. What it really does is make multiple successes difficult to achieve, which fits more in line with this test. a glitch means anyone looking at the video immediately recognizes it as tampered. Just passing would be just that, anyone looking at the video who makes a perception test can try to identify it as altered. If you do happen to get multiple successes they would be modifiers to the perception test to determine the forgery. Keep in mind, the original goal of this post is to create a general way to determine thresholds for matrix actions. Extreme cases will always bend rules in nearly any system. |
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Dec 25 2005, 03:00 PM
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#13
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,283 Joined: 17-May 05 Member No.: 7,398 |
Or require 1 hit to edit the footage, but allow the gaurds watching it an Intuition+Perception test, with a threshold equal to the number of hits the hacker got.
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Dec 25 2005, 05:39 PM
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#14
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,512 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 392 |
I still personally really like the extended test way of doing things for situations like this. The more time and effort (more rolls and successes accumulated) mean the hacker has done a more thorough job of tying up all the loose ends (like looping the wall clock as well). The same works in reverse. Everytime the spider looks at the cameras he makes an extended test and if his successes ever exceed the hacker's then he notices something wrong (hey, Jim isn't supposed to be here today, yesterday was his last day before holidays, let me follow up on this).
It also makes things more time sensitive so its not make or brake for the team but instead forces them to get in and out fast. |
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