The Transparent Society and Shadowrunning, How to beat the cameras? Options

[JanessaVR]

Ubiquitous surveillance would seem to put a huge damper on shadowrunning in general. I’m uncertain how many people here are aware of – as the best example I currently know of – the staggering level of surveillance in London. They have not only a very high level of CCTV coverage, but real-time facial and object recognition, as well as even *activity* recognition. Their newest project (green-lighted) involves tracking every car in the city all the time. Speeding, expired registration, stolen car? Forget about them – identified in seconds, nabbed in minutes. Frighteningly Orwellian to be sure, but it’s also proven terrifying *good* in operation as I understand it. Fast-forward 63 years. Try to imagine doing anything illegal *anywhere*. Get caught on camera *once* and you dare not set foot outside your home again – as soon as a camera tags your face, the cops will be on their way.

I’ve chosen to have my PC deal with this as thus: My PC is a mage, living a double life. By day she’s an industrial alchemist, mainly producing Orichalcum. (High Lifestyle, Day Job 2 – 20 hours per week. After some GM negotiations it has been ruled that this exactly covers her High Lifestyle expenses but provides no other “spending/gear cash” – in other words, it’s mainly just background fluff that won’t come into the game that often.) By nights & weekends, she has her shadow career – something she does *not* want to spill over into her real SIN life. How to keep them separate and the law away from her main life in a high surveillance society?

First, she has one very good Contact, a fixer with Connections 6, Loyalty 5 (worked into her background story). Through him, she spends the nuyen to get a Rating 6 fake id as one “Ursula Natalie Owens” (calling all Agatha Christie fans…), who has her general body build but otherwise does *not* look like her. On the way to meet the team when it’s time for a job, she ducks into someplace off the beaten path for a minute, switches off her real id for her fake id on her commlink (Rating 6 everything with Gray and Black IC to deter would-be hackers), and then locks a Shapechange spell into her Rating 6 Sustaining Focus in the form of her alter ego. Going home, this procedure is reversed to transition back to her normal life. If there are any pictures taken during a run that actually manage to get a picture of her face (she’s attired in a full chemical protection suit complete with mask when we make our runs, or at the very least some cheap face mask) then all she’s lost is the Ursula id and can pay for a new one through her fixer contact / friend.

My equipment list is running me 120 grand just for the commlink and the focus, but such are the costs of a double life. Near as I can tell, this should do it, though some fellow players have called it overkill…

Comments?

[mfb]

one thing that ameliorates this in SR is that, for the most part, there are no cops. that is, there's no organization that's out to arrest criminals for the sake of maintaining law and order, except inasmuch as it affect the bottom line. Lone Star isn't going to spend time pursuing every crime that falls inside their jurisdiction--they're going to make enough arrests and convictions to fill their quota and keep their contract with the city, and that's it. if a specific crime is particularly high-profile, they'll pursue it with more persistence because solving high-profile cases nets them high-profile accolades, which turns into more money. but random runner X doesn't have to worry much about getting caught on camera as he's going to the Stuffer Shack, because the likelihood of Lone Star singling him out as someone who needs arresting is low--there's a lot of criminals out there, after all. the same basically goes for the various federal law enforcement agencies. crime in SR is too much of a pandemic to spend time going after low-visibility criminals like most runners.

moreover, many runner crimes occur outside of Lone Star's jurisdiction. the Star could get information out of the corporations or nations in whose jurisdiction the crimes occur--assuming that a) the corporation/nation feels that catching the runners is important, and b) the corporation/nation feels like telling the entire world about how some gutterpunk runners beat their security.

to the corporations, especially, preventing crime is much, much more important than catching criminals. there's a virtually endless supply of criminals, after all--even if you managed to round up all the freelance shadowrunners and lock them away, you've still got all the corporate covert forces and company men. once the crime is committed, the damage is done; catching the criminals won't undo that damage, most times. time that could be spent pursuing runners would be better spend shoring up security and trying to fix the damage caused by the crime in the first place.

that said, if you're interested in that sort of society, you should look up a collection of short stories by David Drake called Lacey and his Friends. the Lacey stories are about a cop in a society that is under constant automated surveillance, and the problems inherent in catching criminals even with that surveillance.

[Demerzel]

I think technology is ruining Shadowrun. I think that in general taking modern technology and extrapolating it out to 2070, and attempting continuously to mold the Sixth World to match this ever-changing future view, is a bad idea. It may even be a Bad Idea™.

Here’s my wish:
I wish the cyberpunk genre, and Shadowrun as a member of that genre, could attain a status similar to steampunk. Where it is accepted that the technology base has diverged from the real world at some point. In the case of steampunk it happens in the steam age then flows on its divergent path from there. Let cyberpunk diverge in the 80’s or 90’s, give it a technology set that is what it is and stop trying to fold in modern details. There are things that exist today in a world of terrorism, nationalism, and submission to authority that is incompatible with Shadowrun in many ways. Let the neo-anarchists of the world continue on the fight against big government and the stifling forces of corporate nationhood.

[Eleazar]

I have a comment. Shapechange cannot be used to work the way you described. It is a spell that can only be used to turn into critters. A metahuman is not a critter. You would have to use Physical Mask to do what you are talking about. Using shapechange like that is considerably broken. Not only do you actually fully assume a new form but you get the bonus from the hits on the spellcasting test. I don't see how any GM would allow this. Is your GM emo samurai?

[JanessaVR]

[Demerzel]

[WhiskeyMac]

That is true but the Physical Mask spell is more up your alley. It only changes your facial features so it goes better with your alternate ID. Same build, same everything but the face. I think it's lower drain as well.

[Cynic project]

In the future who is to tay that camera footage is trusted as much as it is now?50 years ago you take picture of a man holding the head of his ex-wife and you see mobs go after him..You do that now it would get shout of photo shop...

[hyzmarca]

[sunnyside]

Note that spells will show up in the astral and you may have trouble with wards.

Nanopaste disguises and the like are possibly easier and harder to detect.

That's my take on operating then. If you ever get truely revealed you may want to look to surgery.

[JanessaVR]

Yeah, well, I find it ridiculous to say that a spell that can transform you into a different species altogether can’t do something as trivial as alter your appearance, so as far as I’m concerned – it can. And seeing as my GM isn’t this excessively picky, that shouldn’t be an issue at the gaming table, either. Moving on…

[JanessaVR]

[Eleazar]

The problem is, is that your version of the spell is considerably broken. It effectively works as an attribute upgrade spell without having to sustain 4 increase attribute spells. Under you version I could increase all of my attributes by 4 and suffer from little to no drain. Unlike increase attribute which only raises one, under yours I am increasing all the physical attributes. A spell that did this would have a much higher drain than F+2. Not only that but you are completely changing into that new form which can't be resisted like an illusion can. It also doesn't require to to go over any object threshold to beat any device sensors. Force 1 would beat everything. So with a Force 1 you only suffer one more point of drain but you are more effective than the Physical Mask spell and get a +1 to all physical attributes.

If that isn't extremely broken I don't know what is. This isn't about being "excessively picky" this is about changing a balanced spell into a broken one. Maybe if you brought up this problem to the GM and gave him the relevant posts made by myself and others it would be an issue at the gaming table. I can't believe this doesn't seem the least bit dubious to you.

Whatever, it's your game. House rules are allowed, but I advise against this one.

[Xenith]

Broken? No more than increase reflexes.

Seriously, you get the AVERAGE stats of said race with a bonus depending on successes, not that broken for a temporary spell. If they abuse it, its GM smackdown time (via similar abuse or just saying "NO.") Or you could even rule that it can't change anything beyond "superfluous" physical appearance if you change into a metahuman. The ultimate disguise spell with, of course, a high drain. Physical mask can be detected as an illusion, Shapechange would not.

Its a unique usage of that spell. Don't get all bent outta shape from originality. The rules don't cover everything.

[Thane36425]

What happened to all the cameras?

After years of abuse by the "watchers" the people finally strike back. Groups pshycially attack cameras to the cheers of the crowds while others fight politically, making the the politicians back taking them down. This is helped by the fact that many pols get caught doing things they would not like known by the cameras. Add to this the constant threat of hackers breaking in and altering data and scandals whre the watchers edited or deleted video themselves to make cases or protect offciers in brutality cases. Also, there is the expense of all those cameras, computers and humans watching it all.

Eventually I think people will get tired of it all, especially as abuses, false identifications of faces and activities. Maybe not in England though. They seem Hell bent on becoming an Orwellian nightmare.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Why in Frell's name would you go Shadowrunning if you have an Orichalcum bisuness? Or even work for one?

Ramp up to full-time, and you'll make literally millions.

[JanessaVR]

[eidolon]

[JanessaVR]

[Thane36425]

[Thane36425]

[hyzmarca]

There is still the issue of it being irresistible, but that can be houseruled, too.

Back to the topic at hand, the actual facial recognition software in use today is very craptastic and ineffective. The problem with extrapolating facial features from pixels is that there is a huge amount of variation in the pixels a face can create depending on things such as angle and lighting. Current facial recognition technology cannot not handle even small differences in viewing angle or lighting with any reliability. "Activity Recognition" is pure BS unless we are on the brink of being destroyed by a rouge AI. It just cannot be done without Strong AI.

However, SR does have effective facial recognition. Shadowrun also has Strong AI and it is far more common in SR4 than it was before. But total surveillance societies are very rare in Shadowrun. In situations where surveillance is a given, cameras can be hacked and disabled or fed edited video. With the wireless Matrix, this is much easier than it once was. The ability to hack cameras so easily makes it kind of pointless to actually spend money on them except in secure areas.

Also, one should remember that most Shadowrunners are SINless and operate out of socially abandoned barrens areas, where there is no police presence.

[Glyph]

I think that while surveilance may be ubituous, there are other factors at work. Megacorporate extraterritoriality and infighting keeps databases fragmented. The ease of editing things such as video makes them more suspect. Did someone anonymously tridmail you vid of a team of runners fleeing your facility, or did the runners themselves send you altered footage that will send you on a wild goose chase? Furthermore, with no central authority or organization, and cameras everywhere, things often get lost in the overwhelming flood of information.


On top of that, there is really little need for security. People with SR questions should consult the most authoritative source for their questions - ANIME! If you watch Najica Blitz Tactics, you will realize that an operative who has a cover identity as a high profile corporate researcher, and who usually uses non-lethal rounds, has no need whatsoever to cover her face on covert operations.

[JanessaVR]

[Garrowolf]

I have IDs on datachips. You want to change the ID just hot swap the datachip.

Then there is a picture with the ID in the database. If you are picked up by a survellience camera then it will first ping your commlink for your SIN. Then it will check your face in the database against the picture on the camera. If there is nothing attached to the ID it moves on.

Basically it would find a bad false ID quickly but it doesn't look beyond the initial comparison without reason. You could have the same picture on 20 different IDs and the system wont realize it right off the bat.

Now if you go into a secure area and they are suspicious then they may start with a facial recognition search. They get 20 hits and the system asks for more specific information to isolate the "right" person on the database. They don't necessarily know that you don't have some other people that look like you but they are suspicious at this point. Now if you have plastic surgery listed with a few of these for repairing damage to your face then that could help explain why several look the same.

I don't know a perfect solution to this but that might help.