[X] My Assistant

[Buster]

[knasser]

Wow! It's probably too late to head off another diversion into the Agent Smith Army problem. For reasons stated by others, banning sprites or counting them toward a system degredation hurts technomancers a lot.

I think I can deal with agent smith armies without recourse to house rules. I'm pretty experienced with matrix systems by now. What I'd say in advance is that faced with an overwhelming force of agents, most exterior nodes would simply cry for help and disconnect. So if a hacker wants to take agents with him, he's going to have to think carefully about how they're deployed and when.

I think the simplest way to handle this is to say that hackers are limited to one commlink. I don't think that unfairly penalises them as most of us are agreed that the Agent Smith Army is a harmful exploit of the rules rather than a core feature of the hacker's strategy. If a hacker desires more agents than can be run on his commlink then he will have to compromise nodes in order to load them on to it. This is a legitimate tactic.

On the corp side, I will simply be avoiding Agent Smith Armies by virtue of sensible fluff reasons (economics, vulnerability to node disconnections, etc).

One rules clarification - I think if multiple agents assist each other in hacking a node, decrypting, etc. then teamwork rules apply with the Agent rating counting as the skill level for capping, as per RAW. Also, the results of a team hack on a node result in only the primary member of the team gaining access, not all en masse. This is a GM call, but it's how I would run it in my game if it arose.

I think we also have to say that this match is an Out Of Context game. That is to say, it's abstract and there is no tracking down an employee of Corp X and torturing them for their passwords, etc. The contestants show up at the start node with their persona, programs and the allowed prep-time as specified by Buster.

How does all this sound to everyone? I've started on the systems and I should say that they have a little variety in them so not all of them may be what you expect.

Buster - this is an absolutely great idea and it's going to be fascinating to see what people come up with and what approaches turn out to be most effective.

[Jaid]

heh, i'll have to see what i can come up with... based on the poll thread the other day, not too many people think a technomancer can be an effective hacker, so you're probably gonna need as many volunteers as you can get for technomancers =P

[Crusher Bob]

No tries yet?

Ork Hacker adept and face:

400 BP:

qualities (-10 net)
adept 5
codeslinger 10
natural hardening 10

sensitive system -15
uncommon/moderate allergy (munchkinite) -10
moderate addition/hotsim -10

Ork (20 pts)

BOD 4
AGL 1 (increased to 2 with karma)
REA 1 (increased to 3 with karma)
STR 3
CHA 4
INT 4
LOG 3
WIL 3
(100 Points)

edge 5 (40 points)
magic 5 (40 points)

Skills (188 points)
Electronics Group 4
Influence Group 4
Cyber combat 4 (plus specialization of choice with karma)
Dodge 4 (plus specialization ranged with karma)
Electronic Warfare 4
Hacking 6 (plus specialization of choice with karma)
Infiltration 4 (specialization urban with karma)
Intimidation 4
Perception 1

Gear: 22 BP

Stuff:
agent 4 10000

armor 6000
attack 6000
biofeedback 6000
databomb 6000
decrypt 6000
defuse 6000
eccm 6000
exploit 6000
medic 6000
sniffer 6000
spoof 6000
stealth 6000
track 6000

analyze 600
browse 600
command 600
edit 600
encrypt 600
scan 600

all 5 commlink 10000

total: 101600

Adept Powers:
kinestics 5
improved hacking 3
improved cyber combat 2
improved data search 2
improved hardware 2
improved social skill 1

Karma usage:
Agility to 2 (6 points)
Reaction to 3 (15 points)
specialization in hacking action of choice
specialization in cyber combat action of choice
specialization in urban infiltration
specialization in ranged dodge

So, you get:
19 dice (program 6 + hacking 9 + specialization 2 + codeslinger 2) in whatever hacking action you want to specialize in
15 dice (program 6 + hacking 9) in the other hacking actions
14 dice in cybercombat (program 6 + cyber combat 6 + specialty 2) vs your specialty
12 dice cybercombat against others
14 dice in your social skill of choice
13 dice in all the other social skills (including intimidation)
alas, only 9 dice in data search
alas, only 9 dice in hardware
plus 7 dice in software and computer, whatever it is that they do...
9 dice vs ranged combat on full defense
8 dice for infiltration in urban environments
5 dice for perception (plus the tech add ons, if you can afford them)
enough body to wear an armored jacket
1 free point of biofeedback filter
edge 5

With the 25K, you buy a commlink that is six across the board (17K) and keep your 5/5/5/5 as a spare.

Since I dunno what the construction rules are, you can spend that construction time schmoozing some contacts.

[Buster]

[Irian]

No, just really uncommon :-)

[Warmaster Lah]

Very interesting little contest.

Vanilla vs. Magic vs. Teletechnesis!

[Big D]

Don't invite any ally or bound Task AR hackers. :)