MATRIX & REALITY, What equipment can link the two things? Options

[Luca]

1) From "neuromancer" I remembered Casey being in the Matrix and watching Molly's adventures in the real world through a kind of "window" in his visual.
How can this be possible in Shadowrun?
What equipment/utility/deck hardware do you use to make your decker follow the adventures of his chummers?
Do you use any alternative method? (radio, etc...)
i am not exactly a Shadowrun-virgin but I do not play the game so often (...3 games per year? due to my group addiction to d20...) so, things that might be obvious for others are not obvious for me. SO, please, state exactly what objects and techniques you use.

2)Another stuff. I've noticed the existence of the "Null operation": does it make boring the game of a decker? Furthermore if the decker is watching the chummers from the Matrix (and so often waiting), how often you do those tests?

3) A last question: can Matrix initiative be compared to normal initiative (for example in a real combat which is contemporary with a matrix one) (I think that it is possible).

If you have to answer only one question: PLEASE ANSWER TO THE FIRST!!!!

[JaronK]

1) What about a controll slave operation on a video camera?

2) I dunno, once a minute or so. Just enough to make the decker nervous about sticking around.

3) Yes. Realistically, no, but to make the game simple, yes.

JaronK

[Luca]

Well but in this way you cannot controll all the movements of your chummers. Maybe cameras are not anywhere in the corporate building they are runing through and, more important thing, you cannot comunicate with anyone.....
In SR p.214 under "Interrogations", in the example there is a generic reference to ""...he ehars over the radio that they're trapped..." but I cannot figure out how it works. How can you jack your mind to a radio while surfing the matrix? What rules and what equipment? Any distraction penalties?

[DocMortand]

Well think of it this way - The decker's mind is inside the matrix - so the only way to "see" what his fellow runners are doing are through interfaces that are connected to the area that the decker is in. I.E. if the group is in an area with a vid camera, the decker can "see" them through a control slave node op. Otherwise, the decker can only know what is going on through security tallies - doors opening in certain areas, etc. It is possible to wire into your programming a link to your meat bod so you can receive communications from your group...but I'm not sure the specifics, and you can't see them unless a cam's in the area.

A rigger has more options, however - those nifty little renraku spider drones make for great "Captain's Chair" vehicles as well as being able to fit through tight spaces...

[tisoz]

Check Matrix.61-63 for things that can be added to a cyberdeck for doing what you are asking.

[Luca]

I found in Matrix a couple of things but I have some doubts.
Page 61 AUdiospeakers.It is said that can be attached to a cyberterminal or in a remote location conected by a port interface. WHat does it menas? If I want to have a kinda earphones for the runners, an I use stuff like that? I mean a kind of radio attached to theerasof teh real-world-runners. THe price in page 63 (25-2500 neoyen is non comprehensible for me: why somuch change? How can I decide?)
Similar considerations for the cameras.

[Edward]

I have always assumed that a cyber deck (or RCD for that mater) can use one of its ports to connect to a radio or cell phone and the matrix icon will have a subtle corresponding device. This allows you to stay in contact with your teem from within the matrix, somewhere however it dos say you loose initiative for using something like that.

Edward

[tisoz]

You would need the speaker and microphone to hook into a transceiver or whatever type communication gear the team is using if they are not right by you. There is a transceiver that hooks right into the cyberdeck, and it is half the expense of a microtransceiver.

[hobgoblin]

one could allso allow the decker to access whatever cyberware he have available while jacked in. like say headware radio or phone. another trick is to set up a comlink connection to your team mates before they go in (conference call ;) ) and given that sr cells seems to be able to do video on the larger devices one should even be able to see what the mates are seeing.

what is done in neuromancer however is a bit diffrent. what you have there is a live simsense feed from molly that is picked up by a simsense player buildt into the deck. when casey flips the switch he basicly changes the input signal of his trodes. in sr3 this would mean a simrig and simlink either implanted or worn by the person(s) doing the physical bit, and a simlink buildt into the deck (see matrix, p 63). its a costly solution but would in theory allow the same stunt as in neuromancer.

as for null ops. you dont so much roll em every min or so as roll one when the decker comes out of a wait. like say he hangs around, waiting for the team to call in. the decker declares a null op but no test is rolled until he does something else. then look at the time waited or spent in the null op state and modify the test as given in the text: less then 10 sec, normal. between 1 min and 10 sec, +1 to seurity value, +2 for more then 1 min but less then 1 hour, between 12h and 1h, +4. then add +1 for every 12 hours after that. simple.

[Jrayjoker]

Null ops are also used while waiting for big downloads/uploads to complete. If you have an I/O of 300 Mp and the download is 1500 Mp, then I as a GM would make you roll 4 Null Ops (the first 300 Mp are covered by the read/write test IMO). I tweak my security sheaves to account for the fact that I make a lot of null op rolls, so that I don't outright kill the decker for camping out in a system while waiting for chummers to reach the door or for a file to complete.

[hobgoblin]

why roll 4 seperate tests? 1500mp/300=5 rounds. thats about 15 seconds of waiting where 3 of them goes away at the start of the test, then you are left with a 12 second wait. that would give a single null ops test with a +1 to the hosts security if i have read the null operation in sr3 correctly...

[Cray74]

[Jrayjoker]

[Nikoli]

Also, I beleievt he point of the Null operation is to reduce the host camping as it represents the chance of the host detecting the decker as the just sit there. Though I could see a test of some kind to reduce the security sheaf without disconnecting.

[Kagetenshi]

The best way to do 1 is through a Snake-Eyes system.

~J

[Nikoli]

Or, micro-camera on the teammates, and a receiver plugged into a port on the deck. You get the Space Marine C&C that way, especially if you add in the bio-monitors, etc.

[hobgoblin]

if one follow the icon as prosess line of thinking then a prosess that just sits there will most likely be ignored as its not doing anything to harm the system (unless its eating up to much resources). only over time the system may build up a steady suspicion as the prosess never dies and never seems to produce any input or output.

allso, matrix overwatch is the hallmark of the team decker, the null op makes that idea simpler then say a decker that wants to get in and out fast. call a null op and hold until called by the team for some task or other. there is even rules in sr3 for calculateing the number of actions a decker can do in a combat round without him haveing to actualy roll up initiative.

point is that the rules as they stand try to make it simple for the gm to handle the sync between decker and the rest of the team. have the decker call a null op every time he is finished and then let the rest of the team go wild until they need the decker.

[Jrayjoker]

Jane in the box always had cameras on her team in the novels. she sat inside a cube where each wall was an image from her team.

[cleggster]

Also, Molly had the equivalent of a Sim-rig. If you hooked up the output to a satellite transmitter, you could share the simsense reaction on your deck. That way you can see, hear and feel everything she can. As long as you had a free and clear transmission.

[GrinderTheTroll]

[Kagetenshi]

Better yet, it allowed the person with the snake-eyes to "jump back" into another drone in the same network. Couldn't issue orders, but could observe through the sensors.

~J

[GrinderTheTroll]

I dont' recall Case directly controlling Molly in the story, but it's been a while since I've read the story. However, I do remeber him feeling her pain.

Snake-eyes + a Radio and you've got an "RC ninja" of sorts, LOL.

[mfb]

case didn't control molly, he just recieved her sensory input. the snake eyes cyberware is an almost direct translation of that part of Neuromancer.

[hahnsoo]

Snake Eyes cyberware is in Rigger 3, I think, just FYI.

[Luca]

Well Snake Eyes is useless for two reason:
1) IT IS FOR RIGGERS NOT FOR DECKERS. Even the rigger adaptor in R3R is useless because it cannto be used fro networksbut inlt forsecurity CCS.
2) Even if you want to use it is really, really Essence-expensive (but you can substitute sotmhing with non-implated simrig, simlink).
In Any case the FIRST REASON is teh most important.