Tell me Something cool your Hacker/TM did, Cool Hacker Stories Options

[chase]

I just started playing a Technomancer. I've run about 4 sessions now and have yet to find anything really cool to do yet! The only thing my skill set had been useful for is opening a door and a safe.

I know I can hack smartguns and drones But we have yet to come in to a situation were is wasn't a better idea to shot first hack later.

So I was hoping to get a few stories of some thing cool your Hacker/Techno has done in a game. The more information the better. I know that a hacker can be a great part of a shadowrun team. I just want to figure out how.

I love the Unwired book. IMO I think it has some of the best fluff ideas in the game. Over all however I feel the hacking rules are some of the hardest to learn and play in the game.

[Bigity]

One time my decker helped complete a run while sitting in his anchored boat using a satlink in stealth mode.

True story.



What can't they do these days really? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[LostProxy]

I rammed a pick up truck into a Force 8 Earth elemental that I had thrown a remote detonated HE grenade into. The truck was some random guys I had hacked and then sent at full speed into it. Pick up truck ramming damage + grenade causing car to explode on impact = GM not even doing the damage. He just ruled that it got blown to shreds.

[Neraph]

I had a player of mine hack a guy's car and stole it. Doesn't sound like much, but it was a really nice car, and they got away scott-clean with it. He ended up installing security systems in it and upgrading its firewall so it couldn't be stolen back/again.

I also had a player who had a TM contact. He got a registered Sprite with some services for a 'run. The sprite hacked the facility they were going in to, edited camera feeds, ended up redirecting the HTR call to a different address, and hacked and then crashed an empty commuter helicopter into a parking lot for a distraction for the group to get away.

This sprite came from a TM who was an oldie's nerd, so it looked like a modern chibi anime character. He would appear by entering someone's AR feed out of the corner of their vision and saying "Yyyyeeeeeeeees?" in a deep and wierd-ish voice (like this guy, only deeper). Once he (his name was Pipp) appeared by doing that from someone's shoulder and they freaked out (startled them) so Pipp fell off the person's shoulder, did the 2-3 second in-air pause thing cartwheeling his arms, and fell into the ground belly-flop style, made the Super Mario entering-a-pipe sound and sank into the ground for a couple seconds. Another time they heard the muffled "Yes" greeting as he came out, feet first, from someone's chest.

The group, when they asked for a diversion from some 'Star that had started showing up (they were on extraterritorial grounds at the time, but the only exit was through "normal" Lone Star grounds), the sprite asked if they wanted him to kill the cops (and his eyes got all anime scary - hard lines and angry looking). When they said they didn't want the extra heat from the bodies, Pipp responded all chibi-big-wet-nearly-crying-eyes with "Good, because I'm afraid of GOD" (a reference to the Grid Overwatch Division, who would definately have traced him if he caused the death of two 'Star officers by hacking the 'grid). He ended up becoming a Free Sprite that the group used.

A bit later the payment Pipp wanted was a registered sprite so he could compile it (IIRC... eat it and gain skills/rating/ect). When he got paid Pipp sat there chewing the other sprite with the other sprite's legs sticking out of his mouth with the big anime happy eyes being vocally joyful at eating - "MmmmmMMMMMMMmmmmmmMMMMMMMmm..." The group was creeped out. And it was awsome.

EDIT: Oh, and when asked how many tasks Pipp owed, or whenever Pipp had to count or show something numerically, he'd always raise one hand with one finger like showing only one thing but his index finger would split into whatever number he needed, kind of like the scene from Bruce Almighty.

[Yerameyahu]

Sounds like the sprite was a vastly more interesting and important character than the PC. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[KarmaInferno]

After hacking a car's auto-nav system to determine were it'd been in the past few days, my decker went around to where the rest of the team, unaware of what I'd done, were interrogating the driver, screaming at him to tell them where he'd taken a passenger.

I walked up to the driver, grabbed his forehead, and closed my eyes for a few moments.

I said, "Hmp. I got what I need, the target's at X location. Let's go."

Then, to the hapless driver, "And you'd better get a doc to look at that tumor. Looks kinda nasty."

I walked off, with both the driver and the rest of the player characters staring at me.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)




-k

[Socinus]

During a run, my Technomancer couldnt do very much because of the security set up where we were so I was back in the hotel room sipping mojitos and looking for something to do.

We were supposed to follow but not kill a specific target, so I decided to have some fun. Using a FlySpy, I found the guy in the gym exercising and hacked into his cyberware suite. He had a balance augmenter and cybereyes. I set his balance augmenter to randomly reprogram calibration every five seconds and then deactivated his cybereyes. At the same time I hacked into the exercise bike he was on and started randomly adjusting the resistance. He leapt off the bike only to go crashing into the floor. He did manage to pick himself up, but not before banging into every wall in the place.

It's a baaaad idea to have me play a Technomancer and get bored (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CanRay]

After hacking a car's auto-nav system to determine were it'd been in the past few days, my decker went around to where the rest of the team, unaware of what I'd done, were interrogating the driver, screaming at him to tell them where he'd taken a passenger.

I walked up to the driver, grabbed his forehead, and closed my eyes for a few moments.

I said, "Hmp. I got what I need, the target's at X location. Let's go."

Then, to the hapless driver, "And you'd better get a doc to look at that tumor. Looks kinda nasty."

I walked off, with both the driver and the rest of the player characters staring at me.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
-k

Beauty, KI! Hopefully they don't think you're one of those evil mind-raping TMs or Magicians now, however. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[DMiller]

After hacking a car's auto-nav system to determine were it'd been in the past few days, my decker went around to where the rest of the team, unaware of what I'd done, were interrogating the driver, screaming at him to tell them where he'd taken a passenger.

I walked up to the driver, grabbed his forehead, and closed my eyes for a few moments.

I said, "Hmp. I got what I need, the target's at X location. Let's go."

Then, to the hapless driver, "And you'd better get a doc to look at that tumor. Looks kinda nasty."

I walked off, with both the driver and the rest of the player characters staring at me.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)




-k

AWESOME!

I love it!

-D

[Tiralee]

Our Decker has the highest bodycount of our varied teams (Due to a stupid number of successes on his part and a series of horrible ones on behalf of gridsec, the metro traffic devision and every damn smartframe anti-intruder software that the cannon splatbooks insist that Seapple PD carry) after he hacked the traffic grid and reversed the traffic-flow.
...And raised drawbridges, sent a busload of nuns and kids into the sea, sent the rookie local traffic cops into Z-zone barrens, that sort of thing.

(In game, I had a body-count update every 30 minutes or so. The table giggled each time)

And he dropped a rotor-drone onto a crack house/blood spirit summoning lair. (SR3, so well before Drug CrtThe explosion and subsequent ammo cook off did a number on the block, but we escaped pretty handily. Did I mention he aimed to drop the drone on the ring of 'Star waiting for magical backup?

So sad...
-Tir

[Neraph]

Sounds like the sprite was a vastly more interesting and important character than the PC. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

That was a number of sessions over a handful of months with one session a week and I didn't talk any about the characters, just the sprite. The sprite was a direct result of the player's TM contact, so it was the pertinent information. IIRC Pipp is a R6 Crack free sprite.

[Makki]

We're in building with two surveillance drones flying around not yet spotting us. I hack one and make a ramming attack towards the other. Both crash.

[Neraph]

We're in building with two surveillance drones flying around not yet spotting us. I hack one and make a ramming attack towards the other. Both crash.

Similarly, the hacker in one of my groups hacked two flying recon drones for the facility they were on and had them ram the helicopter that was the HTR... One hit and made the helo crash, the other missed and the hacker made sure the crash command was still active. The drone then crashed into the wreckage of the helo.

[Halflife]

In terms of Hacker-ish things I trapped a megalomaniac AI in the node of a military command computer through careful timing of an Edge boosted Nuke coupled with my Face activating a botnet DDOS via a script that I had steganographically hidden in porn trid footage on his commlink.

In one of our runs an individual had briefly kidnapped and installed an experimental nanite-based stirrup system in some civilians and was using them to commit crimes and my carefully timed and aimed jamming devices were the only thing that stopped our gunbunny from tearing the "innocent" civilians to shreds.

I always found that the epitome of being a hacker was control over the situation and an absurd amount of pre-planning, backup-planning, and as much information as possible.



Also, I once chucked the beating heart of Rasputin into the mouth of a rampaging paracritter in the Crypt of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[CanRay]

I always found that the epitome of being a hacker was control over the situation and an absurd amount of pre-planning, backup-planning, and as much information as possible.

Also, I once chucked the beating heart of Rasputin into the mouth of a rampaging paracritter in the Crypt of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Deckers/Hackers in Shadowrun: You're Batman, with a firearm. That's how you gotta play it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Miri]

IIRC Pipp is a R6 Crack free sprite.

So.. does it use dope.. smoke reefers? Whats it on man? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CanRay]

IIRC Pipp is a R6 Crack free sprite.

So.. does it use dope.. smoke reefers? Whats it on man? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Well, it's a Crack Sprite, so likely NovaCoke. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Blog]

Needed to capture a vehicle (or rather the occupant inside); bad thing was some yaks also wanted the occupant. I hacked a van and sent it to ram into the people that were trying to cut the doors off (being careful to not hit the target vehicle)... Well there was this razor wire fence that the vehicle had to go through first. The sprite worked its magic and go through with ease, but a good sized chunk of the fence got stuck on the van as well. We were not sure how the rules worked for using a fence as a flail on a vehicle but needless to say most of the people that didnt get out of the way of the speeding vehicle/flail were not in good shape.

Other time we wanted to get a janitor off of a secure transport (shift exchange bus between archology and the facility) We figured a janitor would have the best knowledge of interior floor plans to mind probe. The plan was to have a small accident (emphasis on small) and have him just disappear for 15 min or so then turn up nearby while there is still confusion. Vodoo shaman had a spirit ready to jump in and provide Armor and protection to him, I hacked the bus, threw a sprite in and told it to crash it. In hindsight I was not very clear in my instructions as it tried to crash the vehicle to the best of its ability.... Needless to say the small accident turned into a meat grinder, lets not forget that it went through a barricade and support structure for a residential complex... The janitor barely survived, we got our info then unfortunately had to execute him as there is no justifiable way to have had him survive considering the meat paste everyone else was.

I never meant to be a mass murderer.... things just usually ended up that way.

[CanRay]

The Hacker in our group found out about a "Back Door" into Lone Star security (I ran in 2070) that was in every squad car. So, the group had the idea of getting him into the back of the squad car (Easy enough, he was wanted on International Espionage charges), cut a hole between the back seat and the front of the squad car, and get a microdrone to carry a datacable to the port in the car's terminal. He pulled it off greatly, literally with both hands cuffed behind his back!

One problem: How to distract the cops after he's in the car. Too bad a critical glitch on a "Street Gang" knowledge roll told them that the Halloweeners would be great in that role! ... They decided it was cocktail hour.

Suddenly, it became a race to get through the back door before the biomonitor in the cop's outfits/cybernetics reported them as unconscious or dead and locked down the vehicle!

Tension gripped the table as he got the hack done just in time for one cop's last bumpity-bump of the heart, and dumpshock kicked in.

[Prime Mover]

One of my players routinely hijacks autocabs to use as street level missiles. Loves to hack security riggers and feed them seriously messed up sensor data. When a run starts going pear shaped he'll make sure 9-11 gets swamped with officer down calls on the other side of the city.

[squee_nabob]

I played a TM to prime runner and my 2 best stories are:

1) Anytime I walk around in my Wuxing Hussar drone, and pwn people with a Lonestar Flash Flood Water Cannon. I explain they are “rioting” and then paste them. It always makes me giggle. It’s also bullet resistant.

2) Once I went on a Resonance Realms search to find a Free Sprites Source Code so I could register him, force him to go to a node, and then destroy the device generating the node.

[Neraph]

One of my players routinely hijacks autocabs to use as street level missiles.

Three words: Grid Overwatch Division.

[HunterHerne]

Three words: Grid Overwatch Division.

All hail G.O.D.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

All hail G.O.D.

Always Remember, G.O.D. is Watching...

[chase]

Thanks for all the good input!

One thing I haven't been doing is treading, I really should be doing that more often.
I love the resonance realm and submersion stuff in the books. I really hope they do more with the dissonant Technomancers as some kind of bad guys/group.

Like so much of shadowrun it's just cool as hell.

Also what happen to Puck? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)