GM Advice, Technomancer Options

[NorthernWolf]

New Game starting soon, and a character made by a player has me somewhat baffled.

The character is a full-paraplegic technomancer, secluded in a coffin motel and hooked up to a VR system, and fed and changed by whomever he pays. His skills and general abilities, since he obviously has 1-2 in every Physical trait, and 5-6 in all others, are very high.

His intention is to be part of the team by being connected to whats going on via his drone(s), never in person.

I don't want to dissuade an original character idea (his long back story is great), and hes not a player prone to min-maxing, but i guess all sorts of questions come to mind.
What happens if the drone gets shot down? Dead Wireless zones?
How do I find a balance between allowing the character, and dealing with his likely to be excellent and wide ranging talents (10 Skills 8-9, 6 knowledge skills at 10, 10 complex forms Rating 5)?
Hes custom built a Coffin hotel that is InTune (+2 technomancer abils when they are there, ha) and a resonance well, and a powerful Nexus
Is this character even Maxi, or typical?
Wouldnt the corps be hunting him and his top-end skills?

The fact that Im not a rule expert doesn't help, so perhaps this is no big deal. But to me, this screams wrong all over.

As this is my first SR GM stint (First SR game ever also), Any constructive advice is appreciated.

[BishopMcQ]

The concept has come across my table in a few different iterations.

He's going to face a lot of problems in dead zones, or if his drone gets shot up. Anywhere there is jamming or interference basically, he won't be able to go. Hacking the stuffer shack, no problem. Hacking the secret Ares facility to download their bioresearch, screwed. The team will also need to carry a lot of data line taps for anytime a computer system isn't wireless (common for infosec in some situations)

Re: 10 Skills 8-9, 6 knowledge skills at 10 -- Are these the dice pools or actual ratings? Unless you've changed the rules, the cap for rating is 6, and a character can have one skill at 6 and the rest no higher than 4, or two skills at 5, and the rest no higher than 4. If those are dice pools, it's not Maxi. If they are ratings, he didn't know the limitations of chargen.

I'm also left to ask why a Coffin hotel would have all of that--unless there is a huge backstory about a technomancer guild owning and using the hotel, in which case the rates likely aren't going to be coffin rates.

Can you layout some more details?

[Irion]

@NorthernWolf
1. There is a full emerged lifestyle. A coffin hotel does not have life support. For what he wants he need to take the Full Immersion Lifestyle for 30k a month out of unwired page 38.
2. He might want to build up his lifestyle with ressonance well and other stuff... But considering the fact, that full immersion allready cost 23 points, every additional bonus will cost 10k per month and point. (Unless you get over 30 points, now it will cost 25k per point and month). So yes, you should check the rules.

The fact that Im not a rule expert doesn't help, so perhaps this is no big deal. But to me, this screams wrong all over.

Well, your intuition was, good. He is cheating on the lifestyle costs...
Feeding and changing dipers won't cut it. If you are a mean GM you let it go for a few weeks and then announce: Make a body check. Failed? You died of an infection.

How do I find a balance between allowing the character, and dealing with his likely to be excellent and wide ranging talents (10 Skills 8-9, 6 knowledge skills at 10, 10 complex forms Rating 5)?

This is impossible. You are only allowed to have one single skill at 6 (or two at 5). (You may increase the one six skill to seven, if you buy a quality)

[Udoshi]

What happens if the drone gets shot down? Dead Wireless zones?

How do I find a balance between allowing the character, and dealing with his likely to be excellent and wide ranging talents (10 Skills 8-9, 6 knowledge skills at 10, 10 complex forms Rating 5)?

Hes custom built a Coffin hotel that is InTune (+2 technomancer abils when they are there, ha) and a resonance well, and a powerful Nexus
Is this character even Maxi, or typical?

Wouldnt the corps be hunting him and his top-end skills?

The fact that Im not a rule expert doesn't help, so perhaps this is no big deal. But to me, this screams wrong all over.

As this is my first SR GM stint (First SR game ever also), Any constructive advice is appreciated.

1a) If he's jumped into the drone? Dumpshock.
1b) I hope he's prepared for jamming. You CAN get around dead zones, but it involves bringing your own transmitting equipment in various fashions. Its possible but not used a lot.

2) If those are his skill ratings, he's cheating. Remind him of the 'one skill at 6, or two at 5, the rest are 4 or higher' limit for active skills. Knowledge skills? Whatever.
If those are his dice pools, please take a moment to list them out - skills + bonuses + program/cf +ware, etc, and then we can tell you whether its high or low.
Either way, your notation is fishy, please clarify.
Complex Forms and/or Programs at rating 5 are pretty much the standard/bare minimum for a hacker type specialist, though. Those seem fine.

3) Advanced lifestyles are awesome. Make sure to read up on the Resonance Well quality in the book - it tends to attract sprites and stuff, though if there's no negative quality, they shouldn't be too antagonistic or benevolent.
I hope he took his meatbody caretakers as contacts with a high loyalty.
Coffin motel with a catered caretaker does NOT seem appropriate - make sure he has the Entertainment grade to support medical expenses(at least High. Compare/contrast to Full immersion lifestyle, which isn't really included in the RC's customization rules, and the comforts category to support a metahuman caretaker (High+). I can pretty much guarantee you he's coming up short in this area. Enforce monthly payments on his sweet setup.
Unless he has Trust Fund. You can pretty much take care of
Better yet, just post his coffin motel lifestyle so I can audit it.


Upgrading your CHN with your own equipment is perfectly allowed, though. Not sure why he needs a nexus, as technomancers don't really benefit from it. Check if he's using Pirated Software to get a ton of shit free. If he is, consider using the Missions Standard for pirated software instead of the abusable ones in Unwired. Also degredation is a pain in the ass to keep track of.



While this is a cool idea, you're going to have to remind your player that there are areas where wireless just can't reach, and he's going to have to REALLY go out of his way to bring a wireless network into there. Jamming, especially, is going to be a problem. Read up on Jamming on the Fly. Most of the equipment involved are Laser comms, directional antennae, satellite uplinks, Mesh tags(unwired), retrans unit(vehicle mod), Repeater drones(unwired), just so you know what to look for.

If it helps, think of him as an RTS player - areas he can't see with sensors and places with little or no wireless coverage(or lots of jamming) are like Fog of War. (make sure to enforce the Signature penalty for sensor tests against Metahumans BTW. )

Hope that helps.

[snowRaven]

I'm guessing those skills are dice pools, given 5-6 in attributes and 4-6 in skills - that's not all that bad. Starting technomancers are a bit hampered compared to regular hackers, so a full paraplegic who stays in the matrix is a viable 'min-max' I think.

The lifestyle is a bit much, though, with the technomancer bonuses... =/

However, the team will need to have a plethora of stuff to help him get into secure facilities, dead zones etc, like people said.

Since he's a technomancer, he'll take actual damage more often than a normal hacker, and trying to heal damage in that crappy coffin motel won't be pretty...

It's a challenge to both play and GM, so explain that he will likely end up in many situations where he can't go along because of wifi coverage, and prepare him for things like jamming, other hackers trying to shut down the drone, etc.

It may turn out to be quite fun...but it could also get very boring very quickly...

[NorthernWolf]

Thanks for all the input.

Skills: My bad, hes legit, all 3's and 4's, those were adjusted levels. Guess compared to the other PC's, seemed high having so many at 9
Lifestyle:
Cost: 7k/mo
Comfort: Street
Entertain: Street
Necesseties: Low
Neighboorhood: Squatter
Security: High
Qualities: In Tune, Resonance Well

The whole uber Coffin hotel thing is obviously broken.

As for getting around Dead Zones, I get all that. I dont want that to be the issue with making his character work.

Contacts: Didnt take any, Good point Udoshi, that makes sense.

Usoshi: "Upgrading your CHN with your own equipment is perfectly allowed, though. Not sure why he needs a nexus, as technomancers don't really benefit from it. Check if he's using Pirated Software to get a ton of shit free. If he is, consider using the Missions Standard for pirated software instead of the abusable ones in Unwired. Also degredation is a pain in the ass to keep track of."

- Have to admit I dont understand much of that statement. Nexus thing didnt make much sense to me either. He doesnt need one does he? Where does Degradation come in?

Also the drone is a Dragonfly Mini Drone, with a weapon mount, with Ruhmetall SF20 (HMG). Guessing thats not possible? hah

In summary, I think it sounds doable, given the team brings comm equipment as necessary, and I clean up the lifestyle costs?

[snowRaven]

Thanks for all the input.

Skills: My bad, hes legit, all 3's and 4's, those were adjusted levels. Guess compared to the other PC's, seemed high having so many at 9
Lifestyle:
Cost: 7k/mo
Comfort: Street
Entertain: Street
Necesseties: Low
Neighboorhood: Squatter
Security: High
Qualities: In Tune, Resonance Well

The whole uber Coffin hotel thing is obviously broken.

As for getting around Dead Zones, I get all that. I dont want that to be the issue with making his character work.

Contacts: Didnt take any, Good point Udoshi, that makes sense.

Usoshi: "Upgrading your CHN with your own equipment is perfectly allowed, though. Not sure why he needs a nexus, as technomancers don't really benefit from it. Check if he's using Pirated Software to get a ton of shit free. If he is, consider using the Missions Standard for pirated software instead of the abusable ones in Unwired. Also degredation is a pain in the ass to keep track of."

- Have to admit I dont understand much of that statement. Nexus thing didnt make much sense to me either. He doesnt need one does he? Where does Degradation come in?

Also the drone is a Dragonfly Mini Drone, with a weapon mount, with Ruhmetall SF20 (HMG). Guessing thats not possible? hah

In summary, I think it sounds doable, given the team brings comm equipment as necessary, and I clean up the lifestyle costs?

No, a Dragonfly Minidrone would definately not be able to carry an HMG! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif) The drone is about the size of a real dragonfly...

So, change the drone; adjust the lifestyle, and prepare everyone for the most obvious difficulties that may arise during play. It 'should' work.

[Method]

His coffin motel is pure Munchkinism. You need to put some GM smack down on that.

[UmaroVI]

Another thing to keep in mind: hacking into a node requires either a subscription, or mutual signal range. If you don't already have a subcription (which you need a User, Security, or Admin account for, normally), and you're outside mutual signal range, you can't get in.

[Udoshi]

Lifestyle:
Cost: 7k/mo
Comfort: Street
Entertain: Street
Necesseties: Low
Neighboorhood: Squatter
Security: High
Qualities: In Tune, Resonance Well
The whole uber Coffin hotel thing is obviously broken.

In summary, I think it sounds doable, given the team brings comm equipment as necessary, and I clean up the lifestyle costs?

A technomancer just does NOT need a nexus at all, unless they plan on running regular software. If he IS running regular software, chances are its Pirated for 1/10th price, per the usual unwired rules.
Sorry if i wasn't clear. Just listing things to watch out for.

Dragonfly: Yeah lolno. A dragonfly comes with a very SPECIFIC weapon, you can't really modify it.
There IS a way to arm it with something a little better, but I'm sitting on that one. Worth noting: The clockwork dragon in attitude has no such restrictions, and is obviously a dev fluke. Watch out for that one if he takes it.

Your Tm SHOULD be able to use the team's comms equipment as a relay, but as a GM, I would really pay attention to things that can 1) cut them off, and 2) make the team list out which devices the TM has access on to use as relays.
If your samurai lets the offsite hacker use their smartgun's Signal, then they are just asking for it to be hacked, know what i'm saying?
Just tell him to get a rotodrone or lebd-1.

Onto the big one: Lifestyles. Advanced Lifestyles are awesome, you should read up on them, though here's an easy reference:
Comforts: Nice Things, Freebie Household Drones, Metahuman Staff at high levels
Entertainment: Cannot go more than one higher than Necessities!, Free Matrix Service Provider(msp), parties/dates/future cable TV/. Freebie vacations and some medical bills at medium+
Necessities: Food/water/clothing/shelter. Quality of living as well as Size! Free nice stuff at higher levels. Real food access at middle +
Neighborhood: Can Drastically limit levels of other categories. Determines quality of neighbors and general security/police response time, as well as nice things around your house, as well as the amount of sin-checking to get home.
Street: Comforts must be Low or worse. Squatter: Comforts must be middle or worse. Low/Middle: no restrictions. High: Security and Necessities must be middle or better. Luxury: Security and necessities must be High or better.
Security: Threshold for breaking into anything, quality of security, intricacy of security available and presence of guards. Magic support at high+
ALL Categories limited by the rating of your fake sin + 1. No Sin = 7LP or less.
Note: Lifestyle qualities 171: Qualities cannot change the level of lifestyle. The points factor into cost, but it cannot turn a medium lifestyle into a luxury one for better starting money.
Important Sidenote on Limitations: page 153: Limitations are there to prevent unbelievable combinations(luxury entertainment in a z-zone). It encourages GM's to enforce or ignore limitations as they see fit. Its important to keep in mind if you want to do something interesting - like stat a lifestyle for an on-site security guard at a luxury level lifestyle, but that can't afford all the nice things his employers can.

Additionally:
Central Home Node(CNH) and Home Management Software Suite quality dependent on Necessities. CHN CAN be upgraded, but restrictions on upgrading beyond necessities +1.
Housedrones: Comforts
20Lifestyle Points or more: Includes lease and maintainance on 1 standard car/vehicle.
25 LP +: Two vehicles, and a chaffeur.
Workshop: Shops need middle necessities, facilities High.

Your technomancer will need to follow all/most of those restrictions in his lifestyle.

However. I would stat his INTENDED La-z-boy decker house like this:
Perfect Roomate (his caretaker) +2lp (possibly Living with Parents to represent caretakers needs and social lifestyle)
Black Hole 1 -2lp: His caretaker cleans shit up and always puts it in the wrong place, but it always turns up. Even if he is parapalegic, he has drones to move stuff around.
Comfort: Squatter to Middle. This is reasonable to tank, for an e-addicted disabled technomancer.
Entertain: Low-to-High depending. Caretaker should be covered by perfect roomate regardless of level (warning: possible GM exception to necessities)
Necessities: Sorry, but disabled people need MORE things, not less. Middle at least if he wants consistent power for his Nexus. High may be pushing it.
Neighboorhood: Low or Middle, depending on how under-the-radar he wants to be.
Security: High (sure, why not)


Keep in mind that Spoofing a lifestyle CAN raise the quality of a category by 1 for a month, but does take time and effort.
As I've mentioned before, Trust Fund is a -fantastic- quality. He should easily be able to get an internet-cripple home within Medium, and, if you're feeling generous, you could even re-fluff it as 'instead of a trust fund bank account, you're using technomantic hacking to keep your home, so don't get caught or it might go away'.
Its what I would do, because it saves you the hastle of dealing with it, and 10bp is a reasonable cost for the benefits he is getting.

[Udoshi]

Another thing to keep in mind: hacking into a node requires either a subscription, or mutual signal range. If you don't already have a subcription (which you need a User, Security, or Admin account for, normally), and you're outside mutual signal range, you can't get in.

You can get around this. I know you can make Edit tests to add or change subscriptions, and I believe unwired added support for hacking through the matrix.

Also mutual signal range is kind of easy to extend with repeaters and other things.

[UmaroVI]

You can get around this. I know you can make Edit tests to add or change subscriptions, and I believe unwired added support for hacking through the matrix.

Also mutual signal range is kind of easy to extend with repeaters and other things.

You can make Edit tests to add or change subscriptions - once you're on the system to do it. If you don't have an account, you can't get in to edit it.

You can extend mutual signal range with repeaters, yes, but not infinitely. It does mean that there's an upper limit on how far away you can be a remote hacker.

I am unaware of anything in Unwired that lifts the mutual signal range restriction. Can you cite that?

[NorthernWolf]

Awesome. Great ideas, thanks for the input.

Ive given him some more guidelines, and some other ideas on how to make this work.

I think I will bypass the "Mutual Signal Range" thing for this character, make it a special ability or something, though will put a limit on it.

If they are leaving the country, he may need to join them!

[Udoshi]

I am unaware of anything in Unwired that lifts the mutual signal range restriction. Can you cite that?

Sure.

4a 224:
To connect to a node (aside from the one on which your persona is running ), you must subscribe to it. A subscription is a two-way communications link through the Matrix. This is a steady link that can be maintained for extended periods of time. You must subscribe to a node if you want to “travel” to it in the Matrix, which means that you must be able to either connect with it directly (with a wired connection, or when within mutual Signal range) or by establishing a route through the Matrix network.

It would be kind of silly if EVERYBODY had to be in mutual signal range ALL THE TIME to do ANYTHING. The setting behind the scnes would break.

Adding subscriptions can be useful if you've already penetrated part of someone's network(like a smartgun), but want to connect to a specific node(like their commlink). It might not always work, but if you can initiate the link from one end, you can open paths for yourself. You can also use them to spam peoples Response down.

[Udoshi]

I think I will bypass the "Mutual Signal Range" thing for this character, make it a special ability or something, though will put a limit on it.

The biggest thing a Technomancer can do is use the Technomancer/Sprite link that they use to send orders to communicate and jump messages/send information/talk across gaps.

Sprites as chat relays are kind of awesome. Look up Resonance Shortcuts in Unwired.

[Midas]

New Game starting soon, and a character made by a player has me somewhat baffled.

The character is a full-paraplegic technomancer, secluded in a coffin motel and hooked up to a VR system, and fed and changed by whomever he pays. His skills and general abilities, since he obviously has 1-2 in every Physical trait, and 5-6 in all others, are very high.

His intention is to be part of the team by being connected to whats going on via his drone(s), never in person.

I don't want to dissuade an original character idea (his long back story is great), and hes not a player prone to min-maxing, but i guess all sorts of questions come to mind.
<snip>

As this is my first SR GM stint (First SR game ever also), Any constructive advice is appreciated.

I know you want to work with this PC to allow him as a paraplegic virtual technomancer, but I would think long and hard about it before you do, especially as it is your first GM stint and doubly so if you are not fully conversant with the technomancer/matrix rules. I would also check with the other players to see if they have a problem with the stay-at-home hacker, after all their arses are on the line while his is not (except for avoiding traces, which he should be fairly good at).

Wifi-inhibiting paint and z-zones will prove a problem to him, so the player needs to know there are some runs he just won't be able to take part in, either that or you just ignore those problems to his benefit.

You have had some good advice from other posters re lifestyle etc. If you do let him run with it, read up on the jamming and signal rules and work out in advance how you are going to challenge him in-game. Good luck!

[UmaroVI]

Sure.

4a 224:
To connect to a node (aside from the one on which your persona is running ), you must subscribe to it. A subscription is a two-way communications link through the Matrix. This is a steady link that can be maintained for extended periods of time. You must subscribe to a node if you want to “travel” to it in the Matrix, which means that you must be able to either connect with it directly (with a wired connection, or when within mutual Signal range) or by establishing a route through the Matrix network.

It would be kind of silly if EVERYBODY had to be in mutual signal range ALL THE TIME to do ANYTHING. The setting behind the scnes would break.

Uh, that says you can SUBSCRIBE to nodes by establishing a route through a Matrix network. I agree with this. If - and that's a very important if - a node will allow you to subscribe to it, you can subscribe, and THEN hack it once you are already there. Also, this is why people don't need MSR all the time to do anything - if they are legitimately using a node, they can subscribe to it without MSR.

[NorthernWolf]

I know you want to work with this PC to allow him as a paraplegic virtual technomancer, but I would think long and hard about it before you do, especially as it is your first GM stint and doubly so if you are not fully conversant with the technomancer/matrix rules. I would also check with the other players to see if they have a problem with the stay-at-home hacker, after all their arses are on the line while his is not (except for avoiding traces, which he should be fairly good at).

Wifi-inhibiting paint and z-zones will prove a problem to him, so the player needs to know there are some runs he just won't be able to take part in, either that or you just ignore those problems to his benefit.

You have had some good advice from other posters re lifestyle etc. If you do let him run with it, read up on the jamming and signal rules and work out in advance how you are going to challenge him in-game. Good luck!

Yeah, after extended talk and discussion, the Player agrees the concept is somewhat broken, and seems like a little too much trouble for both of us. It really came down to simply being what he thought to be a cool concept/story, rather than trying to maximize anything.

Thanks again for all the input, it has helped point me in the right directions for rule reading and what not.

[Sengir]

Another thing to keep in mind: hacking into a node requires either a subscription, or mutual signal range. If you don't already have a subcription (which you need a User, Security, or Admin account for, normally), and you're outside mutual signal range, you can't get in.

A rule which is best totally ignored, because otherwise you just made everything without a public account mostly unhackable (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[UmaroVI]

If I might suggest a similar (but more workable) concept, consider a vanomancer - ie, a technomancer who lives in vehicles and rarely leaves, like Mr. Ng from Snow Crash. Buy a van and a walker drone with a Rigger cocoon, come along for runs in those.

[UmaroVI]

A rule which is best totally ignored, because otherwise you just made everything without a public account mostly unhackable (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Public accounts actually don't give subscriptions. It means that unless you already have a user account that you got via social engineering or the like, you need to actually physically travel with the team to hack stuff. I'm not honestly convinced this is a bad thing - Hacker World was one of the less fun parts of SR1-3, and this does neatly solve it.

[Sengir]

Public accounts actually don't give subscriptions.

Of course they do. A subscription means your Persona is present in that node, and vice versa, so public accounts HAVE to involve subscriptions (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

It means that unless you already have a user account that you got via social engineering or the like, you need to actually physically travel with the team to hack stuff. I'm not honestly convinced this is a bad thing - Hacker World was one of the less fun parts of SR1-3, and this does neatly solve it.

Take 50 commlinks and daisy-chain them via cable. The first in the chain connects to the matrix, the last to your server, the others just to their neighbors in the chain. The result is that your server now is unhackable unless somebody hacks all 50 commlinks one after another...

[UmaroVI]

Of course they do. A subscription means your Persona is present in that node, and vice versa, so public accounts HAVE to involve subscriptions (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Unwired p52 "User Access Rights" disagrees with you.

The most important privilege normally granted via user access is one slot on the subscription list.

Take 50 commlinks and daisy-chain them via cable. The first in the chain connects to the matrix, the last to your server, the others just to their neighbors in the chain. The result is that your server now is unhackable unless somebody hacks all 50 commlinks one after another...

There are various ways to deal with a slave-chain, such as Spoof.

[Sengir]

Unwired p52 "User Access Rights" disagrees with you.

And now read what Unwired says on Subscriptions and how they relate to entering a node. Page 55f (jeez, I know that page ref from memory (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ).

There are various ways to deal with a slave-chain, such as Spoof.

Where did I talk about Slaving, again? I was talking about wiring Commlinks together such that each one only has mutual signal range with the neighboring (Comm-)links of the chain. If you rule that only devices in mutual signal range are hackable, a hacker has to root Commlink one to get mutual signal with Commlink 2, then Commlink 2 to get mutual signal with No. 3, then No. 3...

[UmaroVI]

I'm not sure what you intend to reference on UW 55. That explains some things you cannot do without a subscription; one of them is enter a node in AR or VR. Yes, that is true. Ergo, you cannot enter a node in AR or VR with only a public account; you need at least a User account.

Oh, I thought you thought you had discovered the slave daisy-chain. That's actually much easier to hack and contains an enormously pointless amount of wasted money. Here's how you hack it: walk up to the server, put in an optical tap or wireless adapter, hack it.

There is a sensible form of that setup - you have a server with signal 0 or a wired connection to one other thing, then the other thing has normal signal; the 48 other commlinks in the middle are redundant. This is an example of how you can make the hacker actually have to get off their ass and come with the team on a run. This is why it is a good thing.