Turn that Reality Filter off!, VR Environments Supterthread Options

[The Monk]

Firstly, I don't want to derail this thread so if I need to move this to a new post please, someone tell me (I'm clueless).

I was thinking that I would convert the Mental Attributes to Physical ones like in Astral Space. Also if someone has the relevant skills, he can use it (firearms, piloting, infiltrating, etc.). Or he can substitute knowledge Matrix games for any skill.

Now, trying to relate what I've been saying to the topic of this post: If the site allows for someone to do all these actions like in the physical, why would someone that hacks into it not be subject to the same rules, such as distance and time?

I can see that a user with administration or security access would have certain rooms or perhaps even planets open to them, but what if you have to board a space transport to get to the administration planet. Does walking or talking for one minute in the Matrix mean that one minute has gone by in "real" time? Perhaps it does not, perhaps the passage of time can be simulated like simsense emotions.

But I can also see that the administrators have their own reality filter turned on so that they do not have to interact with the world the way that users do. To them the administration planet is just an icon that they can reach out and touch, accessing it instantly.

[Draco18s]

Now, trying to relate what I've been saying to the topic of this post: If the site allows for someone to do all these actions like in the physical, why would someone that hacks into it not be subject to the same rules, such as distance and time?

I can see that a user with administration or security access would have certain rooms or perhaps even planets open to them, but what if you have to board a space transport to get to the administration planet. Does walking or talking for one minute in the Matrix mean that one minute has gone by in "real" time? Perhaps it does not, perhaps the passage of time can be simulated like simsense emotions.

But I can also see that the administrators have their own reality filter turned on so that they do not have to interact with the world the way that users do. To them the administration planet is just an icon that they can reach out and touch, accessing it instantly.

By fluff--by which I mean the novel Psychotrope--there is a sense of time and distance, although altered (time being "as fast as thought" or about 10 perceived seconds to 1 real time second), and traveling from place to place in the same node did in fact take measurable time.

I suppose you could use Second Life as a model (the two are very similar in a number of ways) and that your administrator icons are HUD elements that they get and by interacting with them they are teleported from their current matrix location to "the admin planet" as you described (a function that Second Life nearly has--those HUD elements offer landmark 'items' which can be used to teleport and auto-activate, eg. they bring up the "teleport now?" dialog).

I would suspect that these UI controls are stored server-side (so the admin can log in from anywhere and have his tools), which would mean that the hacker who logs in as the admin also has them; similar to borrowing someone's SL login.

[The Monk]

I would suspect that these UI controls are stored server-side (so the admin can log in from anywhere and have his tools), which would mean that the hacker who logs in as the admin also has them; similar to borrowing someone's SL login.

This is also a possibility, and a good one. But my hesitation with this solution is that it makes Reality Filter once again a shaky proposition at best.

But maybe I'm just over thinking it. Allowing security and administration users to forgo the old dungeon crawl is simple and explains a lot. After all, how often is the hacker going to break into a node, mayhem in mind, with anything less than a security access.

Perhaps I'll just house rule that failing a Reality Filter test does not get you that -1. It never made much sense to me anyhow.

[Draco18s]

Perhaps I'll just house rule that failing a Reality Filter test does not get you that -1. It never made much sense to me anyhow.

I am of the same mindset. Failing the reality filter test and getting the node's shouldn't be worse than accepting the node's filter. Getting +1 response for having your own metaphor--because its familiar and you have your own tools available is handy--is appropriate, but not risky.

[Fatum]

I am of the same mindset. Failing the reality filter test and getting the node's shouldn't be worse than accepting the node's filter. Getting +1 response for having your own metaphor--because its familiar and you have your own tools available is handy--is appropriate, but not risky.

Why not keep trying to enforce your metaphor on the node again and again and again until you succeed in the test then?

[The Monk]

Why not keep trying to enforce your metaphor on the node again and again and again until you succeed in the test then?

Seems to me that doing this will invoke the retry failed test rule, and the character will accumulate -2 to dice pool for each retry.

[Fatum]

Okay, so he'd still be rolling some 3 or 4 dice pools instead of one - and possibly without ANY consequences.

[Draco18s]

Okay, so he'd still be rolling some 3 or 4 dice pools instead of one - and possibly without ANY consequences.

-2 cumulative penalty.

[Wesley Street]

Or you could not even bother with the test at all and get a whopping +0!

Why is failing the test worst than not even trying?

I suppose you could interpret the rule that way. My assumption is that the Reality Filter only comes into play when a hacker is facing a metaphor he doesn't fully understand. You're not going to get a +1 bonus or -1 penalty off of a Reality Filter test on the Kong Wal-Mart shopping node because it's already designed for open and easy use and understanding for any idiot.

A node user understands the node or he's guessing. One cannot understand something even more... else the reality filter would allow a hacker to achieve ultimate enlightenment off a very well designed public node.

In game it would be more logical and make more sense from a mechanics perspective if Reality Filter tests are limited to secured nodes that untrained or unauthorized personnel aren't permitted to access in the first place.

Your mileage (and rules abuse) may vary.

[Fatum]

-2 cumulative penalty.

Yeah, a -2 cumulative penalty to his attempts to use the Reality Filter.
What a hit.

[Draco18s]

I suppose you could interpret the rule that way. My assumption is that the Reality Filter only comes into play when a hacker is facing a metaphor he doesn't fully understand.

If he doesn't understand it, by RAW if he doesn't activate his Reality Filter he's just as good as he was otherwise. If he wins he gets +1, if he loses he gets -1. It's like, activating your Reality Filter is only partially effective, creating this hodge podge mess of a metaphor.*

*To which I am reminded of one of the (earlier) Animorphs novels where...Jake, Visser 3, and Ak end up in some weird scenario where they each think about their home and the resulting location is this messed up patchwork world with hunks that are Andelite-homeworld, chunks that are Earth, and festering pits that harbor more yerks (and those areas have a poisonous atmosphere that Jake has to avoid--its unexplained why the air doesn't leak out into the surrounding portions).

Man, what's that series up to now, like 53 books?

[The Monk]

The consequence is time spent trying to get your Reality Filter to work. After the first failed attempt, your chances go down that you'll ever get it to work. All of a sudden you are 3 to 4 complex actions that nothing has been accomplished. This is OK if you are probing, but when on the fly, time is of the most important essence (most likely).

[Wesley Street]

If he doesn't understand it, by RAW if he doesn't activate his Reality Filter he's just as good as he was otherwise. If he wins he gets +1, if he loses he gets -1.

As all murky rules are, that's open to interpretation. Using precedent and tradition as a guide, if a hacker doesn't activate his Reality Filter in a node he doesn't understand he's taking the -1 penalty regardless.

[Draco18s]

As all murky rules are, that's open to interpretation. Using precedent and tradition as a guide, if a hacker doesn't activate his Reality Filter in a node he doesn't understand he's taking the -1 penalty regardless.

That would make sense...if they actually said that.

[Saint Sithney]

That would be true of any public node where ease of use is the key. However one layer of security for a non-public node might be a deliberately confusing metaphor; one that only the system administrators and designers understand. For example, a user might have to engage in some Myst-style shenanigans of cranking wheels, turning dials and pushing trees around to be able to browse a set of files. This can be overcome by succeeding on a Reality Filter Opposed Test but if the node's metaphor wins in that test it's hampering the user, which is a win for the node's security.

Really, an obfuscated or confusing metaphor set would only require a player to make a matrix perception test to identify the what's what.
I'm not specifically interested in altering the mechanics of working in simulated environments just now. I just want matrix stuff to be visceral. If you make interesting worlds, then awesome story ideas, like Monk's, will just naturally come to inhabit them.

It also allows for hacker characters to get their full social-engineering set into play. They might have to trick a kidnapping victim out into the open by working their way into their virtual social circle. The whole team could get involved to set up the introduction and then they leave it in the hands of their hacker/face.

[Wesley Street]

That would make sense...if they actually said that.

Nothing in the RAW conflicts with what I've said. And, granted, neither has it conflicted with anything you said. But I simply choose to read between the lines of murky rules and make a logical interpretation within the scope of the game rather than frump about a rule not making sense.

Really, an obfuscated or confusing metaphor set would only require a player to make a matrix perception test to identify the what's what.

Well, yes and no. My interpretation is that the Reality Filter provides its bonus by examining and rearranging the hacker's "perception" of the virtual environment as a whole whereas the Matrix Perception test allows for examination of a specific "item" within a virtual environment, be it a node, ARO, IC, etc. Reality Filter speeds up interactivity with a node, whereas a Matrix Perception test gives the hacker details on what a specific thingy does or what its status is. According to the RAW, a hacker has to be specific as to what he's examining with the Matrix Perception Test.

Your mileage may vary.

[Saint Sithney]

It's pretty easy to assume that a Reality Filter test happens every time someone accesses a new node, and if you don't have a Reality Filter running, you automatically lose.

But, (I think it was Monk who suggested this,) it would make just as much sense that running Reality Filter and having it fail would result in the response loss from misinterpretation due to mixed metaphors.