Renraku Arcology in 4th Edition Options

[kjones]

Canon issues aside, has anyone ever tried to "port" the Renraku Arcology to 4th Edition?

The Arcology has always fascinated me, and I have read the 3rd edition module (Shutdown) cover to cover. I've never played 3rd edition, and it's my understanding that porting stuff from 3rd edition to 4th edition is generally nontrivial. However, I think Renraku Arcology: Shutdown is particularly well suited to porting, since it's more fluff than crunch. I realize I could just use the ACHE and have it be basically the same thing, but then I'm left with pretty much the same difficulty - how much information has been published specifically about the ACHE?

The biggest problem, of course, would be the vast difference in the Matrix of 2060 and that of 2072. I'll need to decide whether to upgrade and make everything wireless, or to downgrade and turn hackers back into deckers.

[LurkerOutThere]

I would just go with the upgrade you could even hand wave it as the SCIRE is a cutting edge wireless enviroment (if anything it would add to some of the creepy atmosphere and explain some of how dues does what it does).

[hobgoblin]

could be the hackers would go wired out of risk minimizing. Trying to walk around with a wirelss connection powered on inside such a place could be the equivalent of using raw magic in earthdawn. Basically, deus would be poking around inside your comlink in milliseconds, and maybe even your head (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[DWC]

The implications of the Wireless Matrix within the Arcology under Deus are kind of awkward since without it being driven from the Arcology, the matrix wouldn't even exist in its' current incarnation.

[cndblank]

You can handwave a lot the issues. It depends on if you are using an PC or a NPC hacker.

My advice is go NPC, unless you really know the matrix rules. An NPC hacker is a great GM voice and speeds the game up a lot.
That way if one of your players wants to eventually become a hacker they can work their way gradually to it and both of you will have a chance to learn the rules. The PC can be the combat decker/rigger going on site, while the NPC is the support decker handling stuff on the outside.


For a new campaign, just started right before the Renraku Arcology shutdown happened.

I run my campaign in 2055 and I'm pretty much RAW.

SR4 runs fine that way as long as you don't have a technomacer and if you wanted one, you could work some thing out. Maybe the first point of essence is free so the the otaku can have a data jack.



For my campaign, Hackers are called Decker and need a Deck and a datajack.

I do limited Hot VR to a satellite or fiber optic connection (except for rigging) so wireless hacking is a lot slower.

The rational is that secure data is kept off the wireless and a decker really needs a fiber optic connection to use Hot VR. Wireless is used for convenience but serious work (Credit transactions for one) is done with Fiber optic.

Security Spiders are a form of decker with a control rig. Most corporations limit the wireless connectivity in area's with sensitive data so that it routes through their firewalls

The impact is slight, since the internal wireless traffic goes to their links, is routed through their firewalls (and closely inspected), and then is passed through.

This also cuts down on the Genetech and nanotech that you have to deal with.

The architecture in the Archeology still has Zeus trapped.

The second Matrix Crash will still happen and the 3.0 wireless matrix will allow hot VR over wireless.

[Fatum]

Minding that you can, as previously stated, handwave any hardware configuration you like, you can always say that
1) The whole building is wireless-inhibited, and for security reasons the devices of the building itself are all wired.
2) There's that mad wireless-control system from...what, Unwired, was it? The one that autotracks each node it detects to be running wireless in the building. That leaves the question of how your players would be using their PANs, though.
3) The most logical option, in my opinion, would be just converting the whole thing into wireless. You can still say that the nodes are only accessible within a level because of wireless-inhibiting walls and such, use slaving etc etc etc. Sure it won't be the adventure exactly as written, but since you're moving it to a new ruleset, does it really need to be?

[Dixie Flatline]

Minding that you can, as previously stated, handwave any hardware configuration you like, you can always say that
1) The whole building is wireless-inhibited, and for security reasons the devices of the building itself are all wired.
2) There's that mad wireless-control system from...what, Unwired, was it? The one that autotracks each node it detects to be running wireless in the building. That leaves the question of how your players would be using their PANs, though.
3) The most logical option, in my opinion, would be just converting the whole thing into wireless. You can still say that the nodes are only accessible within a level because of wireless-inhibiting walls and such, use slaving etc etc etc. Sure it won't be the adventure exactly as written, but since you're moving it to a new ruleset, does it really need to be?

As for item 2), you could end-run around that by saying only commlinks that are accessing the matrix in the arcology can get tracked. In fact, at that point it's elementary. If your signal can be detected by 4 or more wireless receivers, Deus can triangulate your location in 3d, real time, much like how GPS works. Make the locational system ignore PANs that aren't linked to the network, being intentional to lower overhead. If it's hardware-enforced, Deus wouldn't be able to get around it (in theory). In fact, it'd be kind of funny to see that some engineer responsible for the tracking system didn't feel like writing all that code, and thus just made a hardware limitation, saving runners' bacon later on.

If you do that, still allow lots of hardpoint accesses. If you're running it back in the 2050's with 4th ed rules, you can fudge it and say that Renraku is using the Arc as a testbed for wireless technology and the wireless adapters plug easily and seamlessly into your deck, and still use the commlink stats. That way you have a tradeoff. You *can* access the matrix from anywhere, but Deus instantly knows your location and movements as long as you're jacked. Hardware jackpoints are far more common and use standard rules.

[Draco18s]

My group's GM is doing it. The Renraku Shutdown book has remarkably little rules in it. All you need to do is convert from a basic description into SR4 crunch.

Or at least, that's what I've been told. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Method]

I think the SR4 rules set supports a lot of the stuff in RA:S better than SR3 did.

But as mentioned above, you'd have to either retcon or hand wave a whole bunch of the canon timeline if your players start asking questions.

[Bushw4cker]

I run 4th edition and my campaign started out in 2058 all the players started out as Gangers in the Redmound Barrens. I used all the rules for 4th edition, the players commlinks where basically like cellphones. No one played a Decker in my campaign, but if they had, I would have used all the 4th edition rules and replaced commlink with cyberdeck and required a datajack to use it, but I would keep all the Matrix/Rigger 4th ed rules the same (I personally think they are MUCH better)

[cndblank]

I run 4th edition and my campaign started out in 2058 all the players started out as Gangers in the Redmound Barrens. I used all the rules for 4th edition, the players commlinks where basically like cellphones. No one played a Decker in my campaign, but if they had, I would have used all the 4th edition rules and replaced commlink with cyberdeck and required a datajack to use it, but I would keep all the Matrix/Rigger 4th ed rules the same (I personally think they are MUCH better)

Totally agree on the riggers.

The Matrix based on fiber optics with wireless for non VR works great. And large Corps are going to want to gate keep what goes in and out of their turf so the breaking area down with anti wireless paint by floor or area makes good sense.

[Draco18s]

I think the SR4 rules set supports a lot of the stuff in RA:S better than SR3 did.

But as mentioned above, you'd have to either retcon or hand wave a whole bunch of the canon timeline if your players start asking questions.

Or not. All that's really happening is you're using the rules set back 20 years. No real handwavium necessary. The only rules difference is wireless technology, which you can handwave with "we have that now." 99% of players won't notice.

Besides, the wireless signal inside the building is going to suck: Deus is broadcasting messages everywhere which will fuck up your wireless signal (as per Jamming). TBH, that's more of a fluff -> rules thing (if Deus is doing all this stuff, then it's going to manifest as radio chatter, which is going to induce noise into a signal the players care about).