Gathering interest in Matrix-centic game Options

[Troll Bouncer]

Yes, I'm looking at giving the Hackers some needed love.

Interested in playing a Hacker as they should be? Or, possibly interested in brushing up on your skills and knowledge in the Hacking realm?

The rules:
Standard build, 4A rules.

I have all the books, so throw something out and see if it sticks.

Dont need to be a pure Hacker type, but spend a great deal of time in AR or VR (You'd be amazed at how much it pervades meta-life).

I'll be using the Rep system

Cracked software, while cheap will require replacing often (often, is a relative term however in game time)

Hope this is up someones alley and i'm not just wasting space (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[SleepIncarnate]

Just checking, are you gonna allow TMs or would that break this group since most of it is the Matrix? If you are allowing TMs, do they have to be of the streams listed in Unwired or can they make their own and get it approved by you? And not sure what you mean by the rep system. You mean like what they have on JackPoint, or are you talking about like karma building a character?

[ravensoracle]

I am interested in such a game got an idea for a skillwired combat hacker. Haven't put him together yet so I don't know if what I am envisioning will work out but I'll give it a shot.

[ravensoracle]

I tried PM'ing you but it says your messenger is turned off. Anyways here is a character I might submit. I dug him out of some characters I have been working on. He may not be enough of a hacker. You tell me if he'll cut it in your game.

He's been a work in progress in the back of my head for awhile now. He may be the real world backup for the other hackers though. He is an ex-Ares Company Man. I haven't laid out his knowledge skills yet but I was thinking along the lines of counter-espionage. He's addicted to personafix chips to change his personality to fit the mission and relies on hacked skillsofts to fill in for areas the team needs.

[ Spoiler ]

Build Points
Stats 190
Race 20
Edge 20
Skills 126
Know/Lang Skills (27 Free)
Positive Qualities 10
Negative Qualities -35
Resources 50
Contacts 19
Total

Race:Ork
Resources:250000
Essence: .092/6 (4.848 Cyber, .96 Bio, .1 Gene)
Initiative Passes: 3/4

Attributes
Body 4
Agility 5(9)
Reaction 5(9)
Strength 3
Charisma 3
Intuition 5
Logic 4
Willpower 3
Edge 3

Qualities BP Cost
SINner -5
Records on File (Ares) -10
Media Junky Mild -5
Addiction(Mild)(Personofix) -5
Allergy(Uncommon Mild) -5
...(Cayenne Pepper)
Another -5bp Quality
Restricted Gear X 2 10


Skills
*Athletics 1
*Stealth 2
Automatics 3
*Electronics 2
*Cracking 4
Etiquette 1
Perception 4
Unarmed Combat 1

Language
English N
Or'Zet 3

Knowlwdge Skills


Cyberware, Bioware, & Genetech

Total Cost:174,850Y

----Cyberware----Cost 83,850Y/Essence 4.848

Move-By-Wire R2 (Used, Alpha) -85,000Y/Essence 2.88 (Avail 17R) ->Restricted Gear Quality
-Reaction +4, Dodge +2, IP +2, Skillwire System R4


Skillwire Expert System (Used) -1,500Y/Essnece .12 (Avail 7)
-Allows Use of Edge to Reroll Fails on Skillwires


Attention Coprocessor R3 (Used) -4,500Y/Essence .36 (Avail 7)
-Real World Perception +3


Datajack w/Skinlink (Used, Alpha) -550Y/Essence .096 (Avail -)
-X2 One Behind Right Ear, One in lower back


Datalock (Used, Alpha) -1000Y +Encryption/Essence .096 (Avail 11)
-Behind Left Ear


Zeiss SenseSation Line Livecaster Edition (Used, Alpha) -25,750Y/Essence 1.296 (Avail 11)
•Zeiss Uhu-229 cybereyes (Rating 3) with eye light systems, eye recording unit, image link, low-light vision, vision

enhancement (Rating 3), and vision magnification, 3 Additional Capacity Points (Add Smartlink)
• Audiotek Emperor C cyberears (Rating 2) with audio enhancement (Rating 2), damper, ear recording unit, select sound

filter (Rating 3), sound link, and spatial recognizer
• MetaType Sensei simrig
• Nightengale All-Sight radar sensor (Rating 3)


----Bioware---Cost 76,000Y Essence 1.92 (.96 Halved)

Muscle Toner R4 (Used) -16,000Y/Essence .96 (Avail 19R) ->Restricted Gear Quality
-Agility +4

Cerebral Boosters R2 (Cultured) -20,000Y/Essence .4 (Avail 12)
-Logic +2

Synthcardium R3 (Used) -15,000Y/Essence .36 (Avail 11)
-+3 Dice pool Modifier to all Athletics Tests

Mnemonic Enhancer R2 (Cultured) -15,000Y/Essence .2 (Avail 10)
+2 Dice pool modifier to Knowledge, Language, and memory-related tests, +1 dice pool bonus to Instruction Tests where

the user is the subject of the instruction.

Sleep Regulator (Cultured) -10,000Y /Essence .15 (Avail (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)
3 hrs of sleep per night, can stay awake for 48Hrs


----Genetech----

PuSHed -15,000Y/Essence .1 (Avail (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)
+1 modifier to all Logic Based Skills

Other Gear and Lifestyle 75,150Y

Background

[ Spoiler ]

1. What is your characters Sex?

Male

2. What is your characters physical size?

5'10" about 190lbs, Strong Athletic build, not overly muscular but really toned

3. What is the color of the characters Hair, eyes, and skin?

Hair: Black, cropped short, usually died or hidden by a wig.
Eyes: Shades and colors vary due to cyber eyes
Skin: Caucasion with a hint at Native American, but varies with makeup

4. What is the character's general appearance (i.e., How does he dress, etc.)?

Kristof is normally very crisp and clean in his appearance. His mode of dress changes with the venue he is operating

in but it tends to have a military precision to whatever he wears.

5. Where was the character born (City, State, Hospital Name)?

Seattle, UCAS- Private Clinic

6. What is the characters date of birth?

27 June 2060

7. What was the character's family life like?

Kristof was raised in a "normal" wage-slave household, his father and mother both worked as non-descript

lower/middle management in the corp. Kristof had about as good a childhood as any. He played sports, though he never

excelled. He was a good student, though not top of his class. His parents actually got along and loved each other.

Overall his childhood was unremarkable. His father enjoyed taking him to a shooting range on occasion for sport

shooting.

8. Has the character begun his own family?

No, He doesn't feel that he is secure enough to have a stable family life for any spouse or children.

9. Where or how was the character educated?

Kristof was educated in a corp sponsored school. While not head of his class he was smart and diligent enough to be

chosen for advance placement classes.

10. Has the character ever done anything else for a living?

Kristof began his career as a member of a HTR unit for the corp. His exemplarary service record led to him becoming a

special operative/"security consultant" He was what many shadowrunners would call a "Company Man", specializing in

dealing with security threats. He always did what was needed of him by the corporation he worked for.

11. What are the characters beliefs on church and state?

Kristof doesn't consider himself a religous man, seeing organized religion as a way to control others. He sees the

neccesity of government, whether corp or state, as a way to maintain peace and order.

[LurkerOutThere]

I'm interested although sleep's questions more or less mirror my own, I love all things matrix related.

[Troll Bouncer]

To answer sleep's (and Lurkers) question, I'd like to stay with Hackers. TM's are a different animal all together. I want to focus on Hackers and their need for the next big 'code' or 'warez' that frankly a TM has no need for. That need is the link all Hackers share amongst themselves, the bridge between isolationist if not antisocial type personalities. I'll use the movie Hackers as a visual reference, it was code and warez that made them gravitate towards eachother (their culture).


I'll try to fix the PM problem, I'm currently unable to alter any of my personal settings including signature or avatar at the moment.

[LurkerOutThere]

The answer on that score I believe is just to post more, there's a threshold set to keep out spam bots. I'd actually been messing around with the concept of a heavily cybered TM who operates like a hacker except for summoning the occasional (low powered because of his low resonance scores) sprite. Would you be willing to accept sucha thing?

[Troll Bouncer]

It strays away from the Hacker game concept I originally had hoped to play out.

[LurkerOutThere]

Ok that's fine, although it occurs to me your going to end up with a bunch of very very similar characters as there's only so many ways to make a hacker character.

[Troll Bouncer]

To be honest I'm not a fan of the TM's, but that is only out of the years (and I mean...years) I've spent playing a decker.....erm, Hacker. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Troll Bouncer]

I actually disagree on that. Its like saying two street sam's or mercs are to alike. Each can have its own tweaks and pitfalls.

[Troll Bouncer]

Cant edit either yet lol

It's also like saying TM's are all alike, when in fact we know they arent.

[LurkerOutThere]

Well all TM's would turn out similar, the different streams would allow at least some varience among traits/builds. With hackers because traits are more or less irrelevant your basically going to see everyone having the best program ratings they can get (especially stealth) and then the big question will be what collection of ware or magic do they use to boost their abilities.

[ravensoracle]

There will be some variance in a all hacker game. There are other roles they will have to fill.

[Troll Bouncer]

I'm not so worried about filling roles as I am expanding on the role Hackers usually have in a game. Most are relegated to searches and exploits for the team and usually given the brush off for 'behind the scenes concerns' such as spoofing their lifestyles etc. I'm offering the ability here for Hackers to immerse themselves in the role, and the culture that is alluded to in references throughout the books.

[SleepIncarnate]

Which TMs are a vital part of as well, as shown in Emergence. Let's face it, TMs, while rare, are a massive topic of speculation for the unemerged just like magicians are a topic of speculation for mundanes.

[crizh]

If you're sticking with no TM's I have a hacker build lying around somewhere that I never got to play 'cos the game dried up.

I don't recall the ground rules he's built on but I'm sure he could be trimmed down and keep the basic concept intact.

edit.

Mataglap is here.

He's built on 450BP for a slightly different style of game so he'd need trimming and tweaking but you get the general idea. He's a stealth-centric hacker-adept.

[SleepIncarnate]

While we're on the topic, are you only allowing the core 5 metatypes, or are you also allowing all the metavarients, HMHVV victims, dragonlings, AIs, etc from the Runner's Companion?

[BlackHat]

I'm certainly interested, but it looks like there is a lot of interest already (between refreshes at work, the topic appeared and there were 17 replies). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[SleepIncarnate]

Don't rule it out completely, I haven't thrown my hat in the ring yet, and most of the posts are from the same couple people. There were 3 in a row from Troll.

[BlackHat]

Not ruling it out. I'm interested (and interested in hearing the answers to these question), and if recruiting officially started, I'd probably submit something. IIRC there was a thread in the Shadowrun section not too long ago related to this idea, and bumping it with a link to this thread might get more people interested.

I guess, what I was getting at was if the question is, "Is there enough interest to get a group formed?" the answer seems to be yes, even before I said "me too". That's all.

[BlackHat]

THIS is the thread I had in mind. I was actually in this section - so most of the same people would probably see this thread too.

[Troll Bouncer]

I'll say yes to all metavarients and the HMHVV types, with the foreknowledge that AI's require a decent write up on its beginning program and its 'birth', as well as pointing out care must giving to the home node. I'll also be putting a cap on the number of AI's, but HMHVV it up as much as you'd like lol.


And, I do believe we have enough interest in recruiting at this time.

Anymore questions for me?

[BlackHat]

A few

1. Do you rule that Sprites/Agents/AI's etc get the +2 VR bonus to things they do, or not? IIRC, the rules are not clear, and I've seen a lot of threads debating it. Probably best to just get it out there.

2. You mentioned cracked software - which I assume most people will go for (since the tracking rules for legal software are no fun for hackers) - but at char-gen would you want us to pay the full price for software, even if its cracked, or would you have us pay 10% of the full price (which is what it would cost to get warez software, or wahtever) (Unwired 94)

3. How do you feel about the optional rules regarding open-source or freeware? (Unwired 110) I generally assume this option is off the table, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

[Troll Bouncer]

1. I'll have to consider that one carefully, so I'll get back to you on that one.


2. You'll only pay the 10% for it, but paying full price means you dont worry about degrading performance.



3. I'm not against it to be honest. You're Hackers after all, but you'll need the contacts (or advanced contacts) to keep the codes current. Hell, this option puts you more into the culture (roleplay) aspect of being a Hacker so I'm all for it.


While we're at this, you'll be paying full price for your lifestyle at creation. After that...Spoof,Spoof,Spoof!