Signal Rating, Can you adjust it at will? Options

[Nexushound]

Oi Chums,

So the team is jamming through Puyallup Barrens on there way to a safe house when the Hackers Data Bomb gets triggered. The team always runs in hidden mode when possible but it looks like a Reality Hacker crew has spotted them on the road, Scanned out their coms, and is attempting a hack. So the Hacker says "I don't have time for this!" and promptly tunes his Signal rating from 6 to 0. No more mutual signal range, no problem. Is this possible? Can you adjust your Signal strength at any given moment or are you stuck with whatever rating you have installed?

[Neraph]

You can't change your Signal strength, but you can turn off your Wireless functionality - with only select models, of course.

[deek]

I've always let my players change signal rating with a free action, just like they can change the mode they are running in.

[Nexushound]

Oi Chums,

Thanks for the quick replies. Since I GM the game, and this situation happened a while back, I allowed it. Now they do it fairly often. I can not find RAW that says they can't but that is no reason why they should be able to. I am hoping to get a few different points of veiw on this and will decide on what I hear from fellow Dumpshockers.
I agree with Deek on what Type of an action it is, change linked device mode, but for links I really think that was meant only for Active, Passive and Hidden mode. How ever I don't really see why they should not be able to do it, it has not really upset game balance, if I am really intent on hacking their systms I won't set off the D-Bomb lol. Maybe a hardware modification to allow for signal strength change? They wont be so willing to do it for the whole team as the non-hackers regularly throw away links for new ones. What do you think?

[Yerameyahu]

If the ability to change signal strength unbalances the game, stop allowing it. Until then, I wouldn't worry about it. :/ I could certainly see making it a nominal hardware upgrade, as well.

Anyone with real-world experience care to chime in about whether variable signal strength is something that devices can easily do in 2010? I assume it's not too hard, but you never know. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[suoq]

Drop the dang thing in a faraday cage. If you want a rules reference look up "Wireless Negation".

For houseruling, since I can control the signal strength on my phone and electronics, I can't see why people can't in the future. Likewise, tossing the device in a zip lock and throwing it in a bucket of water should kill any wireless signals dead while not breaking the device.

[Nexushound]

Oi Chums,

I want to clarify the team was not worried about the Reality Hackers doing any real harm, hell they were in Puyallup they had no real need for a Matrix connection at that point and could have easily just turned the "dang" thing off. The real question is can you adjust your Signal strength? I like the idea of a minor hardware mod and may just go with that.

[Yerameyahu]

*Can* you control the signal strength on your phone?

[Nexushound]

Good Question. Cause if you can then you definitly should be able to on your Commlink.

[Traul]

*Can* you control the signal strength on your phone?

The cellphone does it on its own to save battery. It is just a matter of power, like turning the volume on.

[Yerameyahu]

Cool. I assumed so, but electronics is a field where common sense is a very poor guide.

[Wasabi]

When you spend thousands on a phone it might not be... consumer-grade.

:-)

[Traul]

In the Shadowrun setting, signal reduction is probably part of the matrix protocol. With so many devices emitting and limited bandwidth, there has to be some overlap in the frequencies used. If every node was always emitting at maximal power, they would keep jamming one another.

[Yerameyahu]

Yep. I'm convinced. I also (just now) asked an EE I know, who agreed: phones do it automatically and there's no physical limitation to the action. So: in SR, you should be able to adjust the Signal, and probably as a Free action.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Yep. I'm convinced. I also (just now) asked an EE I know, who agreed: phones do it automatically and there's no physical limitation to the action. So: in SR, you should be able to adjust the Signal, and probably as a Free action.

That is how I always ran it myself... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[Nexushound]

Oi Chums,

Excellent. I will allow manual Signal Strength adjustment with a "Change Linked Device Mode" Free Action. No Hardware modification required.

"So let it be said, So let it be written!" ...done. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif)

[Yerameyahu]

*dusts off his hands* Success! Huzzah for Dumpshock.

[Saint Sithney]

Any signal has an amplification rating.
I'd think that all you need is a variable resistor hooked to the antenna, and you should be able to tune the power to whatever distance you need.

[Inca]

It should definitely require a hardware test with some tools to add a mod to it that would allow you to tune it. I bet someone could allow me to adjust the signal rating on my cellphone, but i sure as hell don't know how to do it...Motorola designed the device so I would tinker with those types of things. Remember, in SR consumer grade stuff is almost exclusively aimed at the corporate wage-slave lifestyle, and there's nothing the corps hate more than secrecy....so i'm sure there's no hardware knob on the commlink which allows the user to change the frequency. I'd also allow it to be able to be changed through software hacking...because there are definitely programs on the commlink which would have access to adjusting the signal rating for battery and power save features, so i'd make it a hacking+software (3) test or something of the sorts and then once you succeed the hacker could write a little quick script with logic+software(2) to let an average user modify it with a free action.

[Yerameyahu]

Right, so anyone with a smidgeon of skill and 10 minutes can permanently alter their gear for Free-action control of Signal; why bother requiring a roll? Sounds like something that would be available for free in the App Store, 2070 version. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Inca]

Right, so anyone with a smidgeon of skill and 10 minutes can permanently alter their gear for Free-action control of Signal; why bother requiring a roll? Sounds like something that would be available for free in the App Store, 2070 version. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Anyone with a smidgeon of hacking skills? How many people have a hacking skill? Let's say you have a hacking skill of 4 and a software skill of 4 which are both considered the skill level of a veteran hacker... that's a dice pool of 8...on a threshold number of 3 that is approximately a 50% chance that they'll fail on the test and won't know how to hack the signal rating of the commlink. Now let's take the novice with a little more than a smidgeon of skill...hacking 2, software 2...that's a dice pool of 4 that's 90% chance of failure on the test. That's what the dice are there for....so that players feel like they at least have a chance of doing cool stuff and problem solving....if as a GM you feel that they really shouldn't be doing it...then give them DP modifiers or change thresholds so that it's next to impossible...and then they still feel like they had a small chance....and if out of some miracle they make it, then you yourself as a GM feel like they deserve it because luck like that doesn't come everyday. Very rarely do I ever invoke the "you just can't do it"....and that's mostly to save time or to keep sessions from getting derailed or unbalanced to the point where it's not fun.

[Mooncrow]

Anyone with a smidgeon of hacking skills? How many people have a hacking skill? Let's say you have a hacking skill of 4 and a software skill of 4 which are both considered the skill level of a veteran hacker... that's a dice pool of 8...on a threshold number of 3 that is approximately a 50% chance that they'll fail on the test and won't know how to hack the signal rating of the commlink. Now let's take the novice with a little more than a smidgeon of skill...hacking 2, software 2...that's a dice pool of 4 that's 90% chance of failure on the test. That's what the dice are there for....so that players feel like they at least have a chance of doing cool stuff and problem solving....if as a GM you feel that they really shouldn't be doing it...then give them DP modifiers or change thresholds so that it's next to impossible...and then they still feel like they had a small chance....and if out of some miracle they make it, then you yourself as a GM feel like they deserve it because luck like that doesn't come everyday. Very rarely do I ever invoke the "you just can't do it"....and that's mostly to save time or to keep sessions from getting derailed or unbalanced to the point where it's not fun.

It's more like anyone with a smidgeon of computer skill can figure how to adjust the multiplier on their processor. It may take a little bit of looking, but it's not hard in the slightest.

[Yerameyahu]

Not hacking: Software or Hardware (with Logic). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) You were incorrect to suggest Hacking, that's all. My point is that people don't jailbreak their own phones, they download a slick little app and press go.

[Jaid]

Right, so anyone with a smidgeon of skill and 10 minutes can permanently alter their gear for Free-action control of Signal; why bother requiring a roll? Sounds like something that would be available for free in the App Store, 2070 version. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

yup, seems like the most sensible way to handle it to me. it should pretty much only come up for someone who is unaware in computer skill. or someone who has gremlins.

[suoq]

It should definitely require a hardware test with some tools to add a mod to it that would allow you to tune it.

Current Real Life asjusting the transmit power of my wireless: I pop open DD-WRT, change the Transmit power, and save.

In an AR world with massive computing power, how hard can it be to find this setting and adjust it?

"Open Settings. I want to adjust my signal strength".
"Certainly. What setting do you wish?"
"50 feet or so"
(1 millisecond of calculation)
"Completed"

Real Life example: http://i34.tinypic.com/2hrd9w8.jpg <- look for the box that says TX power [100].