Commlink Apps, limits? Options

[Prime Mover]

My players are really starting to get into the concept of a wireless world. Forming plans and even daily activities around wireless activity. Few things they've stumbled on that have worked for them.

1. Everyones comm slaved to the teams hacker for added security.
2. Virtual contacts
3. Multiple comms one for work/one public.
4. More virtual legwork.

Something else that I've seen more of lately is the search for Matrix App's to solve problems. Were do you draw the line as far as Apps go. Add a difficulty level? Cost?

Using todays apple apps and services like kgb the players have imagined themselves the ability to have answers/services at there finger tips. I'm all for this and considered making it a browse test but that just doesn't seem to fit.

Or leave it alone and just go with it?

[Backgammon]

Sure, a Browse test is a good idea.

Remember though, that most services like that are legal. So you should roll a SIN check every time they try to use the app (most likely in a SaaS capacity), as well as charging a fee. Neither of those methods are harsh, but it both makes sense as well as add a little risk and cost to balance their decision to download an app.

[Larme]

You can find any publicly available information using Browse, just like you could with google or kgb or whatever (aside: someone actually uses kgb? I thought those commercials were just blowing hot air). Of course, a higher threshold lets you track down things not generally known to the public, like rumors and things within specialty communities like shadowrunner forums. Easy things, of course, probably wouldn't require a test at all. Things that nobody would reasonably fail to find could be accomplished with no test, even by someone without any skill (unless they're uneducated of course).

[Writer]

Prime Mover, what kind of problems are they looking to solve? Mostly, I would think Matrix Apps would provide information, so make their problems more physical or social. If they are looking for information to circumvent one of your plot lines, add another plot line that includes someone tailing the information they are seeking.

If they want to find where a Yakuza safehouse, they may find it, but they may also get noticed and intercepted, during which time, the safehouse may move. Then, they could end up playing whack-a-mole with the city as the board and a "mole" that bites.

Or, maybe the app is download with some IC or a virus, or worse, commercial tracking, which would bypass their spam filters. Firewall is supposed to handle this kind of thing, but when you download the app from "Where's Waldo GPS" ("Finding yourself, anywhere inthe world!"), you also get a legitimate tracker which required external connections. You clicked "Okay" on the app, so your Firewall thinks it is legit. They wouldn't find the "undocumented feature" until they scanned their own commlink, and how often do people really do this? (They will now!) With too many commercial tracking programs running, Response slows down, but the players won't know why until they do a system scan. What if the tracking app has stealth? All this is done in real life, so why not in Shadowrun?

Free apps online aren't always free of hassle. Let them get away with it a few times, maybe nickle and dime them, or just include it as part of a certain level of Lifestyle. Make occasional low level ID checks. Then, throw a bunch of spam their way when they are stalking a target. And, the spam has infiltrated their SIN, so while it won't cause a security risk, it will be amusing and annoying, until they get new SINs.

On the other hand, they could also use this tactic by doing some kind of hack to link a target's SIN to certain spammers, or linking apps used by their target to a subtle virus.

[paws2sky]

Something else that I've seen more of lately is the search for Matrix App's to solve problems. Were do you draw the line as far as Apps go. Add a difficulty level? Cost?

Using todays apple apps and services like kgb the players have imagined themselves the ability to have answers/services at there finger tips. I'm all for this and considered making it a browse test but that just doesn't seem to fit.

Or leave it alone and just go with it?

A lot of it should be handled with a browse test. Just modify the threshold, up, up, up! Also, not everything is available on the Matrix. There will be information that they cannot find. The location of that safe house might very well be available only through word of mouth (or by hacking someone's commlink).

The existing programs are hugely multi-functional. Like, ridiculously so. Look at the description of Edit, for instance, its the ultimate multi-media tool. Pretty much all the programs are like that thanks to the re-re-reinvention of the Matrix and the new "standards."

As a runner, I would never, ever trust a non-standard app from a corp - who knows what kind of malware (spamware, if nothing else) that is built into that thing.¹

Just remember one very, very important thing (that really isn't stressed enough in the books, IMO): The Matrix is NOT our internet, even if it looks somewhat similar. There is no net neutrality. Everything is proprietary. Everything².

¹ I might consider a non standard app provided by a trusted hacker.
² Okay, there are Open Source programs out there, but ultimately they're no different than the commercially available programs, except that their ratings have lower caps. And in role playing terms, the interfaces probably seem less user friendly.

-paws

[Writer]

Paws2sky is right. There is some data that cannot be found. While considering this, I thought about the tv show called Numb3rs, in which mathmatics is used to predict behavior. There could easily be Matrix Apps representing a limited knowledge skill of something like Mathmatical Analysis for a supporting skill check. In the safehouse example, they wouldn't find the safehouse, but they might locate the neighborhood. They would have to start out with some information about Yakuza members or crimes associated with the Yakuza.

Unlike some people on the Dumpshock, I don't mind that Data Search is a separate skill. Sometimes, searching for answers is a matter of knowing which questions to ask. Computer knowledge doesn't prepare a person, necessarily, for this king of thing. Understanding computers doesn't help with social or historical situations, for instance.

Back in the 1980s, a Berkley astronomer discovered a hacker infiltrating non-secure military computers. (The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, by Clifford Stoll) The hacker was in Germany, logging in and out of computers across the country. He managed to pick up plenty of unclassified information and sell it to the Russians. Knowing shipment amounts of ball bearings, aluminum, and rubber are going to a certain location can help determine what is being built. Knowing that you could ASK about ball bearings, aluminum, and rubber when searching for aircraft manufacturing isn't computer skill. It is Data Search.

For the safe house, some research to find restaurants frequented by asian criminals might help. This could be in a not so secure database supported by either law enforcement or an advertising agency. The security on this information might be as simple as a few nuyen. Combined with spikes in business at certain restaurants, short term disappearances of certain persons, and you start to narrow down the neighborhoods.

I might not make players jump through these kinds of hoops, unless they were interested in doing some investigations, but this is the process Data Search would go through, and Matrix Apps could easily be part of that process.

[Backgammon]

Paws2sky is right. There is some data that cannot be found. While considering this, I thought about the tv show called Numb3rs, in which mathmatics is used to predict behavior. There could easily be Matrix Apps representing a limited knowledge skill [...]

Those are Knowsofts

Knowing that you could ASK about ball bearings, aluminum, and rubber when searching for aircraft manufacturing isn't computer skill. It is Data Search.

That is understanding of industrial manufacturing process, not knowing how to query a database

Anyway, overall I would personally favour 2 approaches. Either you roll up "matrix apps" into the Data Search roll, representing the runner using whatever is available to gather information. Going into details of saying you use a specific app to find specific information should not bypass the normal roll - there are already bonuses you can award for searching in a narrow zone.

Secondly, I like the Knowsoft-as-a-service approach (it helps I work in the SaaS industry). Basically, you simply rent a Knowsoft download feed, temporarely granting you a Knowsoft about something, thus gaining Knowledge skill you can roll off of. This requires the SIN check and fee I mentionned before.

[OneTrikPony]

not to hijack but;

do comlink apps like wallspace, miricle shooter, vertual pet and the more utilitarian ones count toward processor load the same way hacking and computer programs do?

[edit] and by the utilitarian apps I mean Tactical software. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Larme]

do comlink apps like wallspace, miricle shooter, vertual pet and the more utilitarian ones count toward processor load the same way hacking and computer programs do?

I don't think so, because they are not hacking programs or common use programs. Basically, they're not Programs with a capital P, they're just software, like personality software or your commlink's built in video messaging program. Only hacking and common use programs count against your limit, other apps like wallspace or virtual pet are just fluff that runs in the background.

[Writer]

I agree with Larme on this one. Most apps are probably like modern day Notepad or Calculator, which, when compared to browsers, video games, or spreadsheets, really don't make much of a blip.

[Kingboy]

[edit] and by the utilitarian apps I mean Tactical software. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I think you'd have a hard time finding a GM that would let you run Tactical AR software without it using some of your commlink/node's processing power...

[Writer]

What kind of "Tactical" are we talking about? Something that analyzes unit movement, or simple communication assist for giving orders or warnings?

[Backgammon]

Tactical AR Software, p.124 Unwired