Cetiah's Hacking Rules, Speeding up hacking with house rules. Options

[cetiah]

Pirate TRID Broadcasts
Updates: 0


I thought this deserved its own subject. As it stands right now, my rules above don't allow a trid pirate to work very effectively, unless we assume that he just uses a bunch of CommRATs. (but what fun is that?) I figure we need some rules on "trid pirate" hackers and so players who want to play trid pirates can use these rules.


Let's say Tom Broadcaster has some juicy paydata he wants to distribute across Seattle. Why is he doing this? I don't know. Why do pirate broadcasters do anything? They're weird freaks, but Seattle wouldn't be the same without them.


For the trid broadcaster, we're going to have to assume Intercept Signal is an extensive test. This means if he spends the whole day (or whatever the 'time interval' is for your campaign) performing this task, he'll add his hits from a Logic test to his access results.

First, Tom must roll to access the signals. This is an Intercept Signal Test, a Complex Test of Electronic Warfare + Logic, limited by the sum of his Sniffer programs. This test has no threshold. Count up his total hits. We're going to call these hits, his Publicity.

Next, Tom must roll an Edit Test, using his Hacking + Logic, limited by his Edit program. The number of hits scored is the maximum amount of paydata that can be sent in his pirate transmission before it is successfully terminated by the Matrix.

For each point of Publicity (the number of hits scored on the Intercept Signal test), the message has reached 1 person per point of the trid pirate's Signal rating. (# of messages received = Publicity * Signal)

If the trid pirate chooses to extend the test, he can add any resulting hits from his Logic test(s) to his Publicity.

If the hacker glitches any of these tests, then local authorities have traced his Signal back to his physical location and possibly made some deductions to establish his identity. (If using my Social Engineering rules, the trid pirate gains a TAG.)

Furthermore, if the trid pirate rolls any 1s on any of these tests, then local authorities have come closer to establishing his identity/location. (If using my Social Engineering rules, the trid pirate gains a 'mark' for each 1 rolled. Ignore these marks if the trid pirate glitches (and thus gains a TAG).) A trid pirate operating with [Stealth] I.C.E. and a Stealth Chip can ignore a number of marks equal to the [Stealth] rating, however, some trid pirates purposefully neglect to do this since it prevents the message from being recorded by anyone recieving the comcall. Trid pirates who choose not to use [Stealth] programs are commonly referred to as "martyrs".

The paydata is now worthless (and effectively deleted). Each point of paydata "sacrificed" in this way improves the trid pirate's Street Cred, as if he had gained one point of Karma per paydata sacrificed.

If the trid pirate is just trying to get a message out, "Frag the cops!", then use these rules but assume 1 Combat Turn worth of interaction per paydata. At the GM's discretion, the player may roll a Leadership+Charisma test as part of the broadcast signal, but the maximum number of hits scored is limited to the number of hits scored on the Edit Test. Each hit on the Leadership+Charisma test could be treated as sacrificed paydata, in addition to any other effects determined by you and your GM.

[cetiah]

Added the Control Rig and Machine Merge operation action to throw riggers back into the game.

[cetiah]

In my later post, Cetiah's Identity Rules, I refer frequently to an attribute called 'heat'. This replaces the 'marks' references here.

Any references to 'gives the hacker a mark' should instead read 'increases the 'heat' attribute of the hacker's current identity".

Although I haven't mentioned it here, a character can only use one single identity for any given site on the same day. This is mostly to restrict a character from 'switching identities' every time a camera sees him during a run, gaining a heat-distribution advantage that makes no logical sense. I'll try to discuss it in the identity thread.

[Meriss]

Good lord Fan Pro give the girl/guy a job s/he earned it! Nice work Cetiah