Idiot's Guide to the Matrix 2.0 Options

[Azathfeld]

[Kremlin KOA]

I wasn't planning to do it to MY organic commlink

[Azathfeld]

[Jeremymia]

Dashifen, I would love to oblige on any of these. I have my own character, he's 550BP though so that's way overpowered. I'll use the stock character if that helps.

[Dranem]

As I understand the rules, I'm going to try to explain how technomancers work in relation to todays society...

Commlink is your cell-phone/pda device. This devices requires a commcode to connect to a service provider in order to get an IP address to access the Matrix, receive e-mail and receive calls.

Technomancer posseses an organic wi-fi modem. The TM doesn't actually have a commcode, or any other form of identity outside of their living persona. They access the Matrix by leaching IP addresses off of nodes and accessing the network for free. As long as they are within range of an access point, they can hack it, optain an IP address and go on their merry way. Hence TM's can't receive calls, they don't have an e-mail or voice mail inbox (outside of the equivalent of webmail) and make calls much how you make a voice-over IP call today.

Though you can hack the devices a TM controls (IE steal a drone from them from Spoofing the signal, assuming ID and subscribing the dron to yourself.) you can't actually hack the TM themselves.
You can however attack their persona and crash their icon, which would effectively render them unconcious as their Matrix and Meatbox damage boxes are the same.

[Dashifen]

I'm mostly ready to go, I just want Aku to describe the M.O. of his character a little to me --- like how do the two commlinks work in tandem. What are his normal program load outs (if any) etc. Also, do you prefer that we put this character on overwatch or a data-steal? Data-steal seems like it might be more interesting for this character since it may involve more danger and, with your character's prowess on the matrix (6 in all programs, tricked out commlinks, specialty for fighting IC, etc.) I can probably try to be a little more creative with the opposition.

[Aku]

My load outs would always be based on need, but would always be carrying stealth and spoof on the backdoor special.

The caliban is, as the excel sheet says, the public commlink, it has a second fake sin (which i forgot when i was making this character by the looks of things) or could also be the sin from the SIN'er flaw, if your character had that. It is used for legitmate purposes only. That doesnt mean that it can't be used in hacking activities, as many vital programs are under "common use" and therefore legal to own and operate, so generally, i'd snope through public areas with the caliban, doing what i can within legal bounds and not arrousing suspicion, and then do the actual hacking with the Back Door Special, which has an entirely different code, and so there would likely be no link between the two.

But that is the extent really of the connection. The first one serves as the hello, yes, i'm here commlink, the other does the hacking. I beleive the spirit of the rules dictate thattheir devices are wireless, i DON'T beleive the skinlink is the workaround that people here on DS make it out to be.

As for what we do,i dont really mind either way, i think the data steal is a more viable option simply because it offers more opportunity to do more things, but perhaps we'd be better off, as the book did, with smaller examples of more every day life, its up to you.

[Magus]

Hey Peeps, Lets keep this thread on track. It is a walkthrough thread for HACKING. Keep the extraneous babble of TM and Hacking TMs out. Let Dash run this thread so that we can all see what he is doing? Huh?

[Dashifen]

Actually, Magus, I want the other side digressions as necessary. This is an Idiot's Guide to the Matrix 2.0, which includes Technomancers and hacking Technomancers. When Aku and I get our tutorials running, we'll be using colors to let people know what's going so that the conversations that don't directly apply to the tutorial will be easily distiguishable from the actual tutorial information.

I don't claim to be an authority on the Matrix 2.0 stuff, either, so I hope that other GMs and players will chime with criticisms or alternate methods as we go along. For example, if I think something is a Data Search + Scan test (what I use for locating devices) while someone else likes Data Search + Browse, they should chime in and explain why. The nature of the Matrix 2.0 beast leaves much up to the discresion of the GM, which is part of what I like.

Now, I'm almost ready to go, but I need to get some real work done today. I'll be back circa 1 or 2pm (central time) to post information about the data steal and the hosts that Aku will be up against.

[Magus]

Point

[Azralon]

[Dashifen]

[Azathfeld]

[Moon-Hawk]

For a Techno, severing their wireless connection with the outside world is, what, the Techno-pseudo-magicky equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and going "LA-LA-LA I'M NOT LISTENING"??? Hmmm, probably best not to think about too much.

[Azralon]

[Azathfeld]

[Azralon]

[Dashifen]

Okay, I'm going to get this party started. Since this is primarily a tutorial thread, I'm going to gloss over all of the in-game details like legwork, money, friends, contacts, co-runners and what not to get right to the hot-n-heavy matrix action. Hopefully no one minds the railroading that has to happen to get us to this point, but if people really want to see people role play legwork, I suggest reading one of the forum games in Welcome to the Shadows.

Also, I'll be editing the beginning of this thread to include links to the posts that begin any specific scenario (like this one) so if you ever want to jump right from the beginning of the thread to a specific scenario you will be able to do so.

I should have stated this before, but I didn't. Since the RAW for SR4 does not include any cybercombat modifiers at all, I've usually decided that the applicable Melee Combat and Defense Modifiers (in the combat chapter, pages 148 and 151 respectively) apply to cybercombat in order to make things a little more interesting. However, since this is a tutorial, I'll forgo this house rule and stick to what's written. Incidentally, if anyone can show me where it says what modifiers apply to cybercombat, I'd appreciate it.

It's a rainy day in Seattle. Well, it's always rainy in Seattle, but that doesn't bother our intrepid protagonist, Aku. Aku has been hired to break into a corporate network and grab as much paydata as possible. The corporation is an advertising organization, and some preliminary legwork seems to indicate that Horizon is behind the run. Perhaps looking for an easy way to steal customers from the competition? What ever the reason, it doesn't matter to our protagonist, he's just in it for the cashy money.

Investigating the network via contacts and matrix searches has indicated that others who've tried to hack them have encountered some extremely stiff resistance in a node that appears to be a relatively classic chokepoint. Aku has been able to determine that there are IC programs active and ready in the chokepoint, but the existence of a security hacker is unknown. Apparently, there is another, less-secure node past the chokepoint, but if anyone's hacked that one, Aku didn't have the time to track them down.

We pick up with our amnesiac hero testing the advertising corp's defenses....


@Aku:
Let me know how you want to break in to the system. Don't be shy on the mechanical explanations, either. Also let me know if you're going to shoot for security or administrative access to the chokepoint. After you tell me which one you're going to hack for, I'll tell the audience what the higher levels of access provide a hacker for this tutorial. Note that administrative access in my games does not allow you to turn off IC programs. Also, while I assume you'll be doing this via VR, let me know if you're not and, if so, are you in hot or cold sim?

@Everyone:
During a normal game, the GM wouldn't be giving any of this information away for free, but since this is a tutorial and I want to help you all get inside my head (:eek:) I'm going to let you in on all the gory secrets of the host's setup, defenses, and the rational for those defenses.

The chokepoint is set up as a kill zone to trap and detain/eliminate threats to the corporation's system. In addition, the system is without any wireless communication capabilities at all. Instead, in order to access the system, you have to have a wired connection. How does Aku have that connection? I don't know, nor do I think it's important for the purposes of this tutorial. If you need a hook, assume that he's got friends who helped him get into the building and he's stashed himself in an office while they watch for security guards.

The attributes for the host are 6/6/0/6 (System, Response, Signal, Firewall). It's running the following programs:

• Analyze 5
• Data Bomb 4
• Encrypt 5
• Agent 5 (three times)

The encryption and the data bomb are used to secure the other network hidden behind this chokepoint. The data traffic in and out of that other network through the chokepoint is encrypted for security and the data bomb protects the virtual connections from one system to the other. For this run, the encryption may not matter because it'll be more important to determine where the traffic is going rather than what that traffic is, but it makes sense that a security conscious organization would encrypt their traffic regardless. The analyze program is available and set to run scans of the system and also helps to detect intrusion.

There are three types of IC agents in the system: an attacker, a tracker, and a hybrid of the two:

• Attacker: Blackout 5, Armor 5, Analyze 5, Attack 5, Stealth 5
• Tracker: Exploit 5, Stealth 5, Analyze 5, Attack 5, Track 5
• Hybrid: Exploit 5, Stealth 5, Attack 5, Armor 5, Track 5

The MO of the host is this: if the intruder gets in, the tracker and the attacker are both set to try and detect new icons logging onto the system. Lacking the Analyze program, the Hybrid is there to act as back-up for one or the other as necessary. Notice that the IC is all running Stealth, so their icons will not be apparent at first glance when logging on. A Perception test will be necessary to see them.

If an intruder is detected, the IC will immediately inform the host which will go into active alert mode. this increases the firewall of the host by 4 (see p. 222) and will also notify the corporation's matrix security. They'll dispatch a hacker to investigate who will arrive in the node in 4d6 combat turns. This gives the security a response time of between 12 seconds and a minute which could be an eternity in the speed of the matrix.

The Attacker is armed with Blackout and will attempt to render an intruder unconscious while the tracker attempts to determine his/her physical location. If successful, the IC will inform security of that location and then begin to go ape in the intruder's node copying information and crashing programs willy-nilly. The hybrid is a passive IC agent which will wait and see what happens to the other two before attempting to fill in the gaps as necessary. It will also work to deal with Agents that the intruder brings with him/her when infiltrating.

If the attacker IC is dropped in combat and the hybrid agent is unavailable, then the system will attempt to terminate the connection with the hacker. If security has yet to be notified at this point, then the host will do so as well.

'Course, none of this may matter if Aku is able to avoid detection.....


Now, usually I don't write all that out ... well, the IC are three of my standard IC agents that I use. I'll write up more about the other host if or when we get to it. I've made this host harder than I usually do in a real game, which could come back to be a problem for Aku, but then again he's a better built character than the Technomancer that plays in my RL game. Lacking a lot of practice with SR4 due to its young lifespan so far, I've had some trouble balancing opposition. Let's see how I did this time. As always, comments, questions or concerns are appreciated :)

[Divine Virus]

Here is how I see it.
1) Technomancers have a PERSONA, not a comlink. the statment about organic commlink is the book is an analogy to help those struggling with the idea. The have the stats of a commlink (system, response, firewall, and signal) so that they may function within the matrix as PERSONA. It is called a Living Persona after all, not a Living Commlink.
2) Technomancers are like a wire tap. when you patch into a cable, the current brings you to whatever node the cable was leading to. Now that the Matrix is wireless, they catch a wi-fi current and ride it to the nearest node. Whenever they jack out, or reboot, to reentre they just catch the nearest wi-fi current and follow where it leads, then go to where ever they wish from there.
3) when a technomancer "suscribes to a device" what they do is keep a copy of their Living Persona in said device, just like accessing multiple nodes.
4) Technomancers are unhackable.
I think I covered everything.

[Azathfeld]

[Dashifen]

True. Actually, that might be better, then at least you could communicate with the network while inside the building in a wireless fashion. WiFi blocking paint/wallpaper/building materials easily block such a low signal from the outside, and the employees on the inside get the added benefit of sitting down at their desks with a "laptop" and not needing any wires. Either way works for me and is, ultimately, unimportant for this situation.

[Azralon]

BTW, I tossed an email to Rob Boyle (info@shadowrunrpg.com) just now asking if TMs are supposed to be considered nodes or if they're supposed to be immune to hacking.

[Azathfeld]

Good call. Hopefully, they'll get the new FAQ up soon.

It's strange; I don't think I've ever seen a game's forums have so little official presence. I'm not sure whether that's better or worse, though, than the opposite choice. Also, I guess these are unofficial boards, but there's an awful lot of traffic here for no one at FanPro to be paying attention.

[Dashifen]

They pay attention, they're just largely busy, probably. Plus, I think it's to our benefit to work out such things anyway. Then they can sit back and watch our solutions and work them into future printings and or errata. Just like any good GM lets the players write a certain percentage of any run through their paranoia :)

[Azralon]