[X] My Assistant

[DocTaotsu]

I have to admit that the only reason I went with psychotropic IC is because it amused me. Logically it would be easier to have them hack his commlink and set his PAN for "Insert Kinetic Poison Here!"

[Zak]

You are right. I was more sniping at the explosive rune/sanity rules. And I am feeling itchy when it comes to overkill black ice on personal terminals/comlinks. I just cannot imagine people using them on their everyday comlinks. Especially not overly paranoid blood mages.

But what Doc outlines seems pretty ok to me. It will hopefully teach some of the players, the tricky part is not to alienate them by it. And he seems to be aware of it. GL, and let us know how it works out.

[krakjen]

Err... The explosive rune/sanity was a joke.
I would NOT want them in my games...

[masterofm]

All I thought was there are better ways though to expose the party w/o using psychotropic IC, because if a player does not get to make a will check to resist it they might gripe about that. They could also make the argument that if he is using a low end comlink and that programs are only as good as the rating of the comlink then that might also be one argument you might not want to deal with. I mean have the agent on the comlink itself basically get eaten and replaced with one that acts exactly like it. Whenever it has the option of jacking onto the internet and transmitting its coordinates. Less GM headaches if the players try to argue, and it is less of an obvious GM fiat.

[Aaron]

Well I wasn't too clear on that. I figured if black hammer works in cold VR than psychotropic IC would probably work pretty well in cold VR as well.

Doesn't Black Hammer only do Stun damage in cold-sim?

[DocTaotsu]

God... let us not speak of d20's "Magic" magic system. It gives me hives.

But yeah... thanks for all the input guys, I'll let you know how it works out.

Course if you all got something else to add fire away! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Snow_Fox]

I like the idea of psychotropic ice but how about after a certain point he wants to start sacrificing team mates?

doesn't seem too out there. The source was supposed to be used by AZT anyway so it would make sense to be loaded up-"It's ok to bleed the people near you, that's what we pay them for" as for dropping dime on them? sure, again this stuff is for good AZT employees. you find you spend too long away from the nest, you want to call home.

Even more fun, chuckles starts using the blood magic and people see him, they might figure he's legit AZT and start to repay grudges. sure he might fight them off but contacts are gonna be pissed if they can't meet without some pin head taking a shot at the mage.

[Starmage21]

Broken or not, the player has to abuse it first before it becomes a problem. Most GMs would just nip that in the bud and just not make it available. If you know your players a little better, you can let em play with it for a minute, and when that notoriety and public awareness start to build up, smack em with the consequences(bounty hunters, or whatever other flavor you like).

***edit***
IF it was me, I'd let em have it, along with the psychotropic IC attached. After all, it was a mage's study, in probobly a relatively secure room(magically and mundanely). Theres no reason his notes and research materials shouldnt be on that commlink, save for him being old-fashioned and keeping it on hard copy.

[Tarantula]

I'm with the "let him read the notes and possibly have it broadcast his location to them" crowd. He can't learn it from them, and if the decker hears about it, he might be able to check over the file and get rid of the tracker.

[Sma]

I'd shy away from using psychotropic IC, on a run that does not involve some mind control theme, or if it wasn't introduced in some other way before. Taking away a players choices, especially in a way that will make him "betray" the rest of his team just doesn't appeal to me.

I'd have the download contain some notes on rituals and recipes and acautionary tale of some dude that got himself killed using the wrong spell. So it could still point the character in the right direction if decides to pursue the matter after you talk it through with the player, or he can flog it off to the Draco Foundation for some extra cash.

[Method]

Maybe a totally unrelated question, but what kind of drone did he use?

I could be wrong, but if the drone isn't designed for hacking and doesn't have an agent separate from its pilot the thing shouldn't be able to hack anything. Hacking would be beyond the pilots normal operating parameters, right?

[DocTaotsu]

To the "screwing the party" going off on your own op to do something way outside your skill set. All during an op that's been all about "Get in get out, don't get caught"?
Yeah, I consider that screwing your team to begin with.

The drone is generic crawler drone #4. It absolutely can't hack but nobody said anything and I just rolled with it. The fact that these HIGHLY SECURE servers suddenly just caved in and handed out info was supposed to be a warning sign.

Guess he didn't catch it.

[Aaron]

If you're feeling merciful, you could always offer him a clue through one of his contacts. Otherwise, it's time to start swinging the clue-by-four. Aim for the head.

[Shiloh]

Depending on the mores of your group and yourself, you could cobble together some tastelessly grisly Blood Magic rites and see if your Mage's researches tend that way. I think something on the 'Link that will call home isn't beyond the pale, but be scrupulously fair about when and where it hooks up from, and if the group's infosec guy has any 'Link hygiene routines that they regularly run for everyone, the trojan should be eradicated either as a matter of course or as a Big Red "OMG, the Azzies know where we were at 13h00 today!" Flag.

Actually, this feeds my commlink paranoia. Best get a "Run link" for snaffling stuff: it doesn't connect anywhere without permission and gets purged into a "killing jar" setup once it gets back home...

[DocTaotsu]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

The moral high ground and the directed fire high ground have both retired their characters in some fashion (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

And we are talking about a mage who bargained for favors with a spirit for the measly price of 6 dead babies.

Appealing to his "better judgment" didn't seem to work either.

The clue-by-four is coming, but I'm willing to give the players a chance to duck or at least roll with the blow and reflect "Maybe that wasn't the best life decision"

[CircuitBoyBlue]

I don't think psychotropic IC is overkill, but I'd make it subtler: have it just make the guy unstable, and have the Azzies send out their kill squads. It'll be a lot easier to track a team who has an unstable member, and rifts in that group will probably start to appear. Bonus: this gives you a "free" run, because it's basically already set up for you.

As for the actual blood magic data, I'd tell the player that under RAW, he can't learn it from something like that, even if it WERE a step-by-step guide on how to learn blood magic. As has been repeatedly said here, it's more likely just personal notes on how to stay consistent with rituals, etc. I'd let that translate to some Arcana skill, though. Just because he can't start hanging out with Bloodzilla doesn't mean the stuff has to be absolutely useless. And it's probably extremely valuable in a monetary sense. Just let the PC wrestle with that choice: Do I settle for the Arcana knowledge, or do I risk the assassins, publicity, etc. that come with trying to fence this stuff to some other crazy powerful weirdo?