My take on the matrix, Even more house rules Options

[Ddays]

I've read Frank's new rules on the matrix and I think it's great to have actual working rules for the matrix instead of the whatever that's in the core. I'm not very good at making up balanced rules myself, but I do have some conceptions on the basis of Shadowrun technology that I would like to be commented upon, just to see if I'm on track.

Why close circuit is impossible

Ok, close circuit is just silly on a gameplay point of view, we all know this. It's silly to make a character immune to any matrix actions if they just choose to not take a commlink. And while you may argue not being able to use the matrix is a disadvantage in itself, there are really no in game benefits to being on the matrix, only flaws. Ok, communication becomes more difficult, but with astral projection and the like, it's not an impossible barrier to overcome. There are ways to gather info without doing it yourself. Basically, there are no real in game justification by the raw, anything woud have to be made up by the GM himself. Well it may be reasonable to say that without an active PAN it becomes impossible to do things that we take for granted like rent a car or transfer creds, everything there is up to GM discretion, and GM discretion means more judgment time worrying about details that the comprehensive rules should have covered instead of telling a story.

So, I believe that closed circuit/off matrix activity should be sufficiently worse to make it a non attractive option for both the players and the corps. Why the hell would anybody use the matrix for anything but outside information transfer if they had the option not to? Why the hell would a toaster have sensitive trid processing chips for the hotsim hacker when it's clear that there would be no way for it to be economically feasible?

The solution is simple - massively parallel processing. The world of Shadowrun as we know it handwave away issues of bandwidth transfer speeds and memory storage. What I see this representing is an extension of what we already have in the real world, using a network of computers all working on the same problem. What if instead of each appliance having a separate unreasonably powerful processor, every technological object on the entire planet shared processing power using the advanced parallel processing architecture of future. Any time a processor is idle of its own tasks, it gets sent instructions to process from another processor elsewhere. That way, there's no time wasted, and everything worldwide gains a massive performance advantage. Response time and system rating would be representative of a particular devices ability to send out these requests at coprocessing and thread their results into a reasonable whole.

What about signal, you ask? If everything is capable of the data it sends out worldwide, what does signal strength represent? Of course, there would be protocol that stipulates the frequencies of data transfers. Parallel processing requests would be on a different width than significant data communication transfers. And attempts to use either one for the other would either result in no message getting through or be immediately transparent. Signal strength is therefore a measure of practical transmission range instead of the how far your processing requests can go being bounded and rebounded off a multitude of machines with excess free time.

However, this power comes at a cost. That is, to take advantage of the world's processing capabilities, you have to connect yourself to the matrix. To get full processing power, whatever chip you have in your own rig will never be enough, you need the world, and by extension the matrix. So it's not that corps connect themselves to the matrix because they like security risks, it is because that's the cheapest, simplest way to massive processing power. Anything unconnected has access only to its own hardware computing power and suffers a significant performance hit. So much so that it might as well be archaic and worthless in comparison.

Of course, given enough money and resources, you can construct a subgrid that's unconnected to the matrix main. But a closed grid with enough raw processing power to even compare to power of the matrix would be hideously expensive and reserved for the most black of projects, and out of reach for most shadowrunners, I'm talking basements and basements worth of computers. So when you found a submatrix disconnected, you have something special.

This forced connectivity also requires markedbly new security techniques from the ones we are used to. It's now impossible to just "go offline" because once you're offline, you're nothing. So instead of security preventing stray logins, they simply obfuscate any secret and pertinent data with false trails. Encryption is nigh impossible since even the most complex algorithm can be broken quickly with the massive processor power available, so instead of a single complex stream, just send out tons of them. Only the most dedicated hackers have the intuition and knowledge to find out what is what.

Ok, we know why corps don't disconnect, but what about PCs? There I have a harder problem reconciling mechanical necessities and flavor. If I was a perfect GM, I could invent the perfect penalties to being offline (not being to start a car cause you don't have the proper authentication code that was stored in your commlink that refuses to function offline would be a good reason). Something so core to the game should have a strong mechanical link, since working things into storytelling eats up valuable story telling time and I would rather things like this get settled by dice so that I can tell my story. I believe a small penalty skill checks for being without AR aide (like looking up wikipedia on the side to refresh memory, only in a Shadowrun setting), thought I respect the brain hacking idea put forth by Frank as well as the GMs who decide on a case by case basis (you're a better man than I if you can do this).

IC

ICs are simply static defenses of a particular system and cannot be moved or transferred. They are there or not there in defense of a system, and a single system can't have more than one IC. IC can't team up because there's nothing to team up with, technically speaking, no system can have more than one active at a time. IC work by creating a environment hostile to the hacker. Of course, if IC can only defend against intrusions against a network, how will corps punish the ones who do get away? Agents. Agents use a specialized network protocol that allows vigilantism on the Matrix. Basically, they turn the IC of the current network a hacker is in against a specified user. The agent takes over for the IC in the network, so there's no problem with IC with multiple Agents and so forth and so on. Why aren't agents and ICs independent agents? The basic framework is similar enough to the point that having 2 is simply redundant. Human hackers, even the most basic, are smarter than ICs to a point. Unless you have true AI, you're not getting artificial agents to team up and gangbang a hacker. Which is exactly why megacorps research AI, having a true AI means you get to go agent smith and win at the matrix. It's unfortunate that the ones we do have pretty much go off on their own agendas.

So there you go, there's my attempt to reconcile the Shadowrun matrix. Any ideas or suggestions? Am I totally off base?

[Aaron]

Seems like it would be tough to have runs that were away from technologically advanced areas if the team include cybered folks.

[kzt]

There are a lot of silly aspects of SR matrix and history that just don't make a lot of sense in any rational way. This is one of the things that causes such huge issues with trying to write rules, as the brain dead "duh, lets crash the world computer network again, and destroy all the data again, just like we did last week" that is a recurring plot device in SR is just not very believable. It's about as believable as SR saying that everyone decided that since fires are rare that nobody is going to provide fire extinguishers or sprinklers anywhere, as well as abolishing all the fire departments.

If you really want to maintain the nonsensical sacred history where there these bizarre world shattering computer disasters keep happening and nothing anyone can do can stop them you have to resort to some pretty outlandish ideas to make it work. This isn't a bad one. Franks is perfectly logical as another way. Me, I prefer to just ignore the idiocy.

[deek]

I will argue with the OP that there are no RAW benefits for being on the matrix. There is a sidebar encouraging +1 to +3 AR modifiers to characters that use it (pg 208). I think many GMs and players overlook the intention of this.

I normally default to giving my players a +2 bonus to all tests that could incorporate the added AR information in the given test. That's basically a free specialization for almost all your skills...which is a pretty big bonus.

So with my players, no one is really wanting to miss out on those AR perks and keep their commlink on all the time!

[Nightwalker450]

Also overlooked or maybe GM's just don't look at it is that your commlink holds your identity. Not having a commlink is equivilent to running in hidden mode which in any upper district will be looked upon as very suspicious. Of course any decent runner usually has 2 commlinks one for the broadcasting of SIN's and their runner link as a seperate one always in hidden. Also you would always be paying by credstick, now this works for black market goods, but you also have lifestyle costs to pay which above Squatter will need an identity to link to. Operating wirelessly and open is the way to lay low. Unless you want to be one of the only people in Seattle without a commlink, and stopped by every security person on the street because you don't have a SIN or at least you're not broadcasting it, and you're paying for your Big Mac's and your rent, and your toilet paper with a cred stick. Most of the wireless activity is flavor, all you have to do as a GM is handle the reprecussions of being SINless.

[deek]

Yes, that is a very good point. Not having a commlink and broadcasting puts you in the minority AND actually draws more attention to you...

I'm glad you mentioned that!

[FrankTrollman]

[Whipstitch]

If you do your job right as a runner you do your illegal stuff via credsticks and barter just like all the other scumbags who have a vested interest in staying anonymous. Your commlink is for fake IDs, travel directions, btl porn and ordering burgers.


...


I wish we could delete these posts. When I first started opened the post window Frank hadn't replied yet and now it's all rather redundant.

This post has been edited by Whipstitch: Dec 19 2007, 06:12 PM

[Kyoto Kid]

...this is why I miss the old Cyberdeck. You only needed to turn it on when you were going to crack the matrix. Otherwise, for daily routine stuff there was your cell phone, PS and credsticks. :grinbig:

[Cthulhudreams]

KK is a classic example of the mentality Frank and whipstitch are driving at - she openly admits to using her commlink as a cellphone for all non hacker characters :D ;)

[Whipstitch]

Yeah, I would rather think a lot of the old school runners would be torn between KK's and Slamm-O's perspectives: the less tech savvy types are horrified by how vulnerable the wireless world is while the skilled Hackers realize the world is their oyster as long as they don't tip their hand too early. And the real paranoid guys probably have plenty of sleepness nights because they realize that one person with bad matrix security habits knowing too much about them could be enough to blow their cover and get them killed. Suddenly FastJack's never meet anyone in the meat policy makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

[Kyoto Kid]

[kzt]

But they pretend it really hasn't, and never follow through on the various obvious secondary effects....

[Ryu]

The wireless matrix is everywhere. Everyone participates, willingly or not. Even if you don´t carry a comlink, there are security cameras and whatnot recording your presence. If you have cyberware installed, you are traceable by your ware.

The game got indeed more complex because everyone has to consider matrix security issues. The effects are not thought through so far, else BioFeedbackFilters would not be an expensive hacking program, but a common program that gets started as soon as a DNI connection is established.

I do think that one can live without SIN, if the campaign stresses the outsider aspect of the running community. Yes, you can´t go shopping in downtown without SIN. But you can stay in Redmond all the time, leaving only for running purposes. Z-zones become the habitat for criminals. On the higher end of the payscale, discarding a SIN after the run is certainly feasible. And for paranoia, you do not need to discard the whole comlink, you just need to change your personal identification number for the matrix. An electronics specialist would certainly do that for you, and charge no more than the 100 bucks you where used to.

Consider each corp to keep its data private. LoneStar offers a SIN-checking service - for its customers - but does not get data on your exact purchase because your SIN is checked. Data is money, and sharing gives money away. Complete integration of databases would kill SR. But as long as you do not have a central SIN+payments account, the SIN is only invalidated and dangerous if it becomes flagged as criminal. LS can only trace you via transactions verified with LS, as opposed to KE, Minuteman Security etc. Multiple SINs + multiple security providers + living in a bad area of town = some form of anonymity. The hardships one has to go through to achive that are a form of Neo-Anarchism IMO. Privacy is a privilege one has to work for, while the wageslaves tell you that they don´t care. Don´t need to care, even.

[Nightwalker450]

Personally I like the SIN paranoia. Playing the Specialist of the group I am very much about covering our data trail, and as a Technomancer in 2070, I'm extremely towards hiding my mark on the world.

I was a go between at the beginning with multiple runner teams contacting me for information the Johnson had forwarded me. Once I had joined a team, and collected Nuyen from a few other teams which I gave false data to, I changed my commlink ID, and number.

I have registered my Rating 1 SIN into databases where I needed access (he's now a student at Seattle University). I have intercepted someone's pan signal they used to access security doors, and then loaded it into a cheap commlink that was discarded during the run (also contained a video feed that was patched into a wired security camera to cover for us).

My second rating 1 SIN now has one point of notoriety due to Lone Star being sent to the squatter hole where I was living. Now I am paying for 2 squatter life styles using 2 different ID's (hence the multiple rating 1's). So if I have to run out the back door of 1, I'm not spending a few nights on the street till I get another.

Our Face is currently looking for yet another Rating 1, and a Rating 6 SIN for me. The rating 6 one I won't use yet, but start hacking to build more data trail, and spend some nuyen also in the process. My GM will allow me to boost the rating on this every so often (weeks, or months...), and when it reaches a rating 10, it will be considered a new identity for me. My technomancer has a real SIN, but hasn't used it since he ran away 4 years ago.

[Kyoto Kid]

...but this is exactly what I'm talking about. There are really no more "shadows" as we knew them. In a sense the Commlink also functions like an aircraft transponder. You show up as an unidentified "blip" on the VORTAC's scopes without a code & next thing you know there are two F-16s vectoring in on your tail. Relating to the game, it doesn't matter if your expensive forged SIN reads Adolphe Menjou or Howdy Doody. You're seen on candid camera, your location is pinpointed via your commlink and here comes the Star welcome wagon (or worse).

Yeah I guess that could be considered dystopian in an Orwellian way of thinking, but if I always wanted that level of paranoia for my characters, I'd play Paranoia (which by the way is actually a pretty amusing game).

True, you don't have to throw out the commlink with the SIN, but those SINs don't come cheap and by the availability rules, are not all that easy to find when you do have to dispose of them (rating 4 is 12F - that's a lot of time you have to lay low while your fixer is trying to scrounge a new one up for you). And what if your doss is in a C or B neighbourhood? How do you get by until your shiny new SIN chip arrives? This is just one of the secondary effects kzt and Ryu alluded to that really hasn't been covered all that well.

My frustration is that now every character almost has to be a matrix based character just to get by in day to day life. If I want to mess with the matrix I run a Decker or Matrix Specialist. If I just want to shoot people in the face, blow up a building, or toss a Toxic Wave someone's way I should only need be concerned how much ammo I have in the clip, how many Kilos of C-12 will be needed, or whether I can shake down the Drain and stay standing.

Dealing with datatrails, subscriptions and SINs seems more like playing Papers & Paychecques than Shadowrun IMO.

[Ryu]

I think there is a more workable interpretation of RAW. The SIN is only checked on a limited number of occasions. And I do not recall that all personal matrix codes have to be registered to a SIN. So you can well have as many personal matrix codes (the equivalent of a web adress) as you want. So have a "black" matrix code from Jackpoint or some other shadow organisation that misplaces trace orders for you.

Bank accounts are linked to a SIN (only usually), so again organised crime is you answer.

The "only" occasions where your SIN is checked is whenever you buy something, and then the check has to turn up something bad. Here is my beef with the system: rating 6 SIN vs. rating 1 scanner. 1/3 (scanner hits) * (2/3)^6 (SIN doesn´t) = 3% chance of failure for best fake SIN vs. worst scanner. On a fairly common test. Why does a selling corp care for my SIN enough to check the data I transmitted??? I suggest it does not unless legally required. Or have the scanner ratings go higher, but use the SIN rating as a threshold for the scanner, instead of the RAW opposed test. Yeah, I like ratings as threshold.

[Kyoto Kid]

...so in effect, a non matrix savvy character pretty much needs a Matrix Specialist as a contact provided there is none on the team Actually theShort One (#76 rah..spirit of...and all that drek) does have one at a loyalty rating 6 (9 BPs) from the last campaign as the GM was pretty tough on her relating to her commlink use.

I do see electronic purchases being tied to a SIN in 2070 just as they are in RL today. The account has to be registered to someone, even if it is a fake ID. Where do you think all that junk mail and spam comes from. Someone, many someones, out there have your name, your address, your phone number (if you still have a land line) & your Internet ID. They get it from Credit/Debit card purchases, magazine subscriptions, Cable/Sat television subscriptions, Internet service subscriptions. Did you fill out that warrantee card for that 60" plasma screen? They got ya. Heck, I exclusively do WiFi, am careful what sites I log onto and I still find myself deleting at upwards of three dozen or more Spam messages from my Gmail account daily.

There are companies today in the business of brokering personal information for marketing purposes. I don't see it being any different in 2070, in fact it might be an even bigger industry as (with the exception of ludddites and squatters), everyone's personal biz is somewheres on the matrix. If the marketing agencies can get this information, so can others with more dubious intent. Again this is something pretty much glossed over that would be a hard reality with a matrix system as proposed in 4th ed.

Yes the entire hacking/matrix system is a mess with nothing really defining it. This part of the game has probably seen the largest percentage of houserules being adopted to try & make some sense of how things would work. The sad part is the most important sourcebook they need to release Unwired, is still a long ways off on the schedule

Part of what I am getting at also involves comments made about how someone who is sloppy (or in the Short One's case inept due to her Dain Bramaged quality) at matrix security. For example, where does she draw the line on matrix related skills and gear? Does she need to drop several thousand on upgrading her firewall to rating 6 and/or adding IC/Agents to her commlink because she is the supposed weak point if someone hacks the team?

The bottom line for me is what they really needed to do was make wireless use three tiered. For the average Joe/Janie wageslave, the commlink would be more akin to a cellphone/Ipod combo (or the could just have kept the old Pocket Secretary and added a wireless banking feature to it which I believe it may actually have been able handle anyway). These devices would be kept as simple as possible and the service provider to would handle all the security matters for their customers. For Matrix Specialists their link should have been more on par with a souped up Notebook or handheld. Finally, for "in the field" communications there is still the Transceiver/Micro-transceiver.

[Nightwalker450]

[Ryu]

I get that my SIN is transmitted because it is possible once you check identity to verify payment. But that should not result in a check of my background. Every SIN I buy should work for cursory examination, as I pay for the right pictures to be inserted. A Disguise test may be called for, but the SIN itself should hold water, as Data Requests should go to one database, as cross-checking has no benefit if the bill in question is paid.

[Kyoto Kid]

...I'm not saying that when you buy a pack of smokes and a 40 of Spud Lite at the corner Stuffer Shack a red flag goes up at the local Star precinct. That is only a possibility if you have a criminal SIN. However if someone in the department had suspicions about the character for whatever reason, they could very well use this data to trace your movements, maybe see where you frequent the most and deduct where you might be the most vulnerable.

However this is not the main reason I dislike the wireless matrix and commlinks. What bothers me is the "you don't have it turned on, you must be a menace to society" mentality. Again, it is a metahuman transponder, which sends out a beacon saying "I'm here". You're downtown, you turn it off just for a little peace & quiet, and there's a beat cop or Star drone in your face telling you to turn it back on. Beforehand, you could pretty much blend into the surrounding crowd, and as long as you didn't act suspiciously, nobody was the wiser that they may be standing next to the perfect killing machine. This to me is was the beauty of Shadowrun.

This is what I am referring to when I say the whole wireless scene "takes the shadows out of Shadowrun." It's no longer about simply blending into the woodwork while in plain sight.

[Karaden]

I'll throw my 2 :nuyen: in here.

First off, Kyoto, you seem to be drasticly underestimating how willing places are to give out their data. Sure, Lone Star could -in theory- track your every movement by using the large number of cameras and logs of transactions and such, but there are a -ton- of reasons they dont.

First off, this is the reason you have more then one SIN, sure, they can find out where Jimmy the Kid hangs out, but they don't know that Jimmy the Kid is also Bob the Bruiser, Harold the Hippy, Chris the Coolguy, and a half dozen other people. So sure, they can find out where 1/10th of you spends alot of time, but that won't do them much good.

Then if they want to see what Jimmy the Kid buys all the time (Which once again is going to be about 1/10th of what you buy all the time) then they'll have to first figure out the places he frequents, then they'll have to requsition sales data from those places (which most people arn't willing to give up without a fuss) which will take a few days.

Then what? They know Jimmy the Kid's favorite brand of chips, wow, they are sooo close to catching him now.

And tracking everything with cameras? Yeah, good luck getting dozens of stores, appartments, and corportations to just hand over their security feeds. If it was a national crisis it might happen... in about a year.

Tracking the person with their Commlink? They have to know who belongs to what commlink first, they can't just go "Oh, yeah, let me pull up the exact location of Jimmy the Kid." They first have to find him, then log his commlink ID (which he can change every couple hours or more without much trouble), and then (after they've found him) they can keep track of him, so long as that commlink is turned on. Nothing stops him switching to a different commlink that now says he is Bob the Bruiser, or heck, just changing the ID and related SIN on his current ID.

And as for keeping your commlink on in public areas? I don't really see so much of a problem with this. You said part of the appeal was 'blending in in plain sight.' well, the commlink is just another form of plain sight. You just have it on, set it to not throw stuff up on your sight link unless it is from someone you know, and you can ignore the spam. They scan it and ID you in almost exactly the same way they would look over your face. They arn't going to check your SIN extensivly, they're just going to see if it is criminal or not, and if it isn't they go on. If your face isn't that of a registered criminal they shrug and move on.

You act like the commlink is an omnipresent tracking device that everyone and their brother can use to instantly and effortlessly track anyone in the world. Tracking someone with it is -hard-. And may even require hacking into it (don't quite remember). You act like having your commlink on in an area is holding up a sign that says "I am a runner and am going to shoot people." but it isn't any different then standing in a crowd -not- wearing a ski mask.

Whew, huge rant, sorry Kyoto, don't hate me.

On to the SIN itself and how it deals with scanners, I like that. The way SINs are now it is far far too easy for a scanner to pick out a false SIN (especially when SINs only go to 6 and scanners go to 10) Strait threshhold seems a little high however. Perhaps threshold is = to half of rating (round up) and it is still an opposed test, so the scanner needs to get net hits vs the rating equal to half the rating.

This would make rating 6 SINs a very good investment, requireing top notch scanners to pick out and lower SINs at least have decent ability to not be detected.

[kzt]

Umm, no.

Storage is essentially free. Databases are hence unlimited in size. Computers are insanely powerful, able to do work in seconds that takes millions of years for current computers. Gridlink is everywhere that controlled traffic is. Gridlink is essentially controlled by the cops. Gridlink wireless picks up everyone on the street and can track them. Gridlink cameras cover all the intersections and crosswalks.

In fact gridlink can track you within a meter or two on public streets. They can track your travels back for months. They can see when a SIN first appears in a town. They can notice that a SIN disappears from the network and another one reappears in about the same spot. They can notice that this SIN isn't behaving like 99.5% of SINs. They can match your face with the SIN you are transmitting and match it with the one in the databanks. They will notice when it matches another SIN and when the same face matches multiple SINs. They can spot all the SINs located with you and direct the cops right to you as you blithely stroll down the sidewalk confident in your anonymity. And it takes them NO effort to do this.

[Karaden]

That is obviously a difference in how you play the game then. If Lone Star is as effective as you've just mentioned then it is impossable to so much as walk down a street without instantly being busted.

The very fact that fake SINs exist prove that this isn't the case. If Lone Star could keep -perfect- track of -every single- SIN in the city, know absolutely everything it does, know where it is 24/7, then Shadowrun is impossable. Fake SINs would be impossable to maintain and impossable to get: "Hey, bob here hasn't bought any food in 5 days and nothing shows that he has much at home, must be a fake, lets go get him." "Hey, who is this guy that we have no record of existing before about a week ago?".

I mean if you run it like you just described it is -utterly impossable- to do -anything- remotely illegal in anywhere even remotely watched. They would have video feed of every movement you made. So if you really want to run it like that... well you arn't playing Shadowrun, your playing Paranoia.

Besides the fact that the existance of shadowrunners is instant disproof of what you said being correct, here are a few other things to consider:

Cameras cost money, LoneStar is a corperation, corperations like to make money and don't like to spend it. Thus LoneStar and noone else is going to pay to have millions of cameras plastered everywhere so they can see every last square inch of everything. Even high security corperations only have limited camera coverage.

Lets say that LoneStar does have the 500 billion cameras in Seattle that you seem to think they do. That would require a good chunk of the earth's population to monitor all of them. Part of the problem with having infinite data storage is that you have -a ton- of data to sift through. Sure, I bet that somewhere you show up on some camera that they have access to, but that would require searching through millions of camera feeds. You can assume that AI is helping out here, but it can only do so much, and you still need a person to actually sit down and look through a good portion of that feed. So sure, about 1 million man hours later you can find where someone was, but by then you've long since stopped caring.

The same thing goes with SIN tracking. Ok, maybe they can track you down with your commlink, but they have about 2 million+ people to keep track of, and picking out the -one- that they actually care about is going to be hard.

Your definetly -way- overestimating what security can do. Think about it for a few seconds, try planning something illigal in the sort of area you describe, and you will find it 100% impossable, since they will know who you are, where you are, what you are doing, what you have done, and likely have a good idea what you are going to do, can capture incriminating evidince with ease, know exactly where you live, and dozens of other things.

The fact that the game Shadowrun exists means that the cops are NOT that good! It is as simple as that.

[kzt]

I'm assuming that they have the same traffic cameras I see on every traffic light in town. Not to mention things like red light cameras. I'm not even talking about the London, DC, or Chicago level of surveillance, just the traffic cameras. And there will be London level of surveillance cameras.

And you don't have to have ANYONE watching them. You have computers that have unimaginable processing power, as shown by the fact that they can break cryptographic systems that would take millions of years to break with current computers; and break them in seconds. So they do image analysis in real time of thousands of cameras. Hell, ONE commlink could do this for thousands of cameras, and there is that much processing power embedded in each camera. Each camera has the same vast bandwidth as a commlink, which allows it to search through the files to find out who everyone in the picture is, and then the massively distributed system can track them as they move out of the field of view as the system can track the commlink. When they see or notice something interesting they get someone's attention.

If you assume a real surveillance network like London, DC or the full planned Chicago one (where you get filmed hundred or thousands of times a day) then it's even easier. But the commlink is what makes it trivial to keep track of you, and to notice when you do something odd electronically.

So, yes, the idea that you have shadowrunners in this world is hard to handle, isn't it? That's the point of KK's rant....