Heya, long long time no post.


Anywhoo I was going over some character creation the other day with some friends and I seem to recall from somewhere in the back of my mind that I had heard of modified life style rules.

Basically something other then the 1,000/5,000/10,000/100,000 tiered system that is currently set up in Shadowrun. I'm not sure if it was a sourcebook or a fan-based webpage that detailed optional rules for more detailed lifestyles (and different payment structures) and was hoping someone could point me to the way.



Cheerfully,

Nephyte

There's a bunch o' stuff in Sprawl Survival Guide in relation to this, basically replacing the arbitrary low/med/high thing with an equally arbitrary but more detailed mechanism of rating your lifestyles in terms of security, space, neighborhood, etc. It's actually pretty cool if you're into more complexity.

FYI, both the stuff in the SSG and the lifestyle rules posted somewhere previously were written by Gurth--the SSG version is a revised and expanded version of the posted version.

I gotta start paying more attention to the credits in my books...

I remember there being a point-system for lifestyles, where you had more control over what kind of lifestyle you ended up with after allocating points to different aspects of lifestyle. Can anyone tell me what book that was in, or what page that was on?

I believe that WAS Gurth's lifestyle. He posted it twice on the ShadowRN mailing list (once on his own and another because I asked). It was either last year or earlier this year (sorry but my WestPAC deployment kinda blurred the line between 2002 and 2003.)

ShadowRN. I decided to unsubscribe after three years when my unread mail started to reach the 15000.

Oh it's a lot better now.
You're luckly if you hit 10% of that in a month.
Wait... 1500... take off another 2/3. (about 500 on a good month. Though it's mostly OT)

SSG's system is also point based. Basically, you pick all the options you want (different options have different point values), add all the points up, and then you consult the chart and come up with the cost of the lifestyle. Then you can take edges and flaws that raise or lower the costs. It's really cool and probably one of the best reason to pick of the SSG if you're not into the whole backgroun info aspect.

The Abstruse One

If you don't have the "Lifestyles of the Sprawl", just fake it.

My group has never bought the "lifestyle is all inclusive" perspective. It covers a place to live, rent, basic food and home entertainment, plus basic utilities.

The runners can always drop extra cash -- maglocks are a one-time purchase and not a long-term expense that automatically raises lifestyle cost.

-Siege

Unless you're leasing them from your friendly neighborhood security company, with a 30% discount for their BusinessHours ™ monitoring service, and all servicing, upgrades, and installation included free!

--K

True, but c'mon -- how many runners really want a private security company involved in their affairs?

It could make looting the bodies afterwards really complicated.

I would imagine a popular after-market tweak would be the automatic cell call, something along the lines of <southern voice>"Oh help me, help me...Ah'm being pillaged and looted..."</southern voice>

-Siege

Without some kind of security company monitoring your system, you're likely to find that your apartment is completely looted before you can get there. Or that the booby traps have been set, etc.

Any security system can be defeated given sufficient time. To stop that, you have to find out when someone is probing your system and stop them before they figure out how to get past your safeguards. Or you could rig bobby-traps, but that's likely to backfire on you, too.

The same thing applies to security companies monitoring the alarms --

1) They call you
2) They call Lone Star
3) They dispatch their own assets

And, as you pointed out, any security system can be bypassed given enough time, resources and motivation.

You will never be able to keep out Renraku cyberninja or Tir Paladins or Sioux Wildcats. Nor will you stop plot-specific penetrations.

What you can do is deter the casual burglar or would-be thief. Check out the prices for Class 8 maglocks. Now, check out the prices for maglock passkeys.

Professionals who are inclined to crack the lock are probably chasing a guaranteed payoff and not the "what might we find" of apartment hunting.

Edit: And the automated distress system would let you know if someone's probing your security system, whether you respond or not. Provided, of course, they don't interfere with the distress call.

-Siege

The costs in the SSG are only partially oriented around a building's physical security measures. The costs you are really paying for are those of building access control (in the case of apartments) and security patrol coverage (houses) which keep the criminals away from the house entirely.

What you throw in on top of that makes it harder to bust in to, of course. However, some punk kid with a crowbar can probably get through a rating 8 maglock faster than you can get across town in rush hour traffic. Without electricity, maglocks might as well not be there, and I assume shorting one out has much the same effect (the rules in the book are all geared toward getting past the maglock without triggering an alarm).

That's an interesting consideration.

I assumed that a maglock would have a secondary power supply to avoid failures due to power loss.

But how many players pause to consider the door and door jam the maglock is attached to?

If it comes to that, break into the apartment next door and go through the wall.

Edit: And you thought KS: Architecture was a silly skill
Edit 2: And what B/R skill would you really use to install a troll-resistant door/door jam?

-Siege

Unless maglocks change drasticly, and I have no reason to believe they would, the current setup is that the maglock itself is just a magnetic coil on the doorframe side of the device and the door itself is either metal or has a metal patch where the maglock joins it. The control hardware furnishes some voltage at all times to keep it locked. When the power stops, the door unlocks. Generally, this is accomplished when the controller meets some condition and gives the go ahead (ie, sends a logical low to the device instead of a high). Touching those two wires together would make the lock disengage, as well. And stabbing a crowbar through the wall a few times would do that rather nicely

Of course, the resulting popping and fizzing of electronics would set off alarms, but it opens the door With optical technology being prevalent, it's possible the maglock has become one enclosed unit with the logical controller right on the maglock housing (since the optical tech is not so vulnerable to magnetic interfereance), but the backup power integrated with the package is probably minimal.

Again, fascinating.

I thought it was a glorified deadbolt with computerized operations instead of a key working the tumblers.

-Siege

Depending on the quality of the maglock, it can include mechanical clamps, etc, for attempt-to-defeat protection (generally forcing the door). Here is an example of a maglock which uses a mechanical clasp as well.

I'd say that you can still physically defeat most systems, but the difficulty rises greatly with the quality of the lock and the wall material. Most appartment complexes aren't going to harden the walls sufficiently to stop a hooligan who has half an idea about busting a maglock (and what ganger doesn't know how to do that one?) open.

I vaguely recall some mention of maglocks above rating 3 being a variety that are inherently locked and require a power source to be able to open. There are a few physical ways to accomplish this, glorified deadbolt being one of the simplest.

This could be in the old Neo Anarchist's Guide to Real Life, some other book, or just a house rule from the last time I was in a group that tried to deny power to a maglock.

I'd be very interested in a page reference on that. It does make sense to a significant extent, considering the relative unreliability of the power supply in SR. However, saying "maglock" without a lot of caveats like that doesn't do a whole lot for making it secure. Glorified deadbolts are not, by definition, maglocks, for instance.

The likely case is that higher rating maglocks have a mechanical clasp, etc, that engages when the lock is closed and requires a different power circuit to disengage.

Getting back to life styles, I have a question about safe houses. To set one up should players treat them as life styles for the sake of cost? A player wants to get a cargo crate (like you would find on the docks) out fit it with the basics (bed,nuke,ref,chemical toilet,matrix connection) then have his connections in the dock yards keep it stashed and move it around periodically. My thoughts for simplicity sake would be to treat it as a low level life style. Any thoughts?

Umm... Bitbasher, every maglock I have seen does not include a mechanical locking mechanism (and I only included the latching one I found on the net as an example). The locks you are talking about are not, by definition, maglocks (from magnetic lock, ie, locked with a magnet). They are called, alternately, electric strike, electro latch, or electromechanical locks (as opposed to electromagnetic locks).

The maglocks I deal with on a semi-regular basis (airport perimeter security) are generally on gates and they do not function well without power. Most of the security doors themselves, particularly inside the facility proper, use an electric strike lock of some sort, which involves the magnetic or electrical release of a normal locking mechanism.

To a large extent, the "maglock" rating in SR is centered around the authentication device (keypad or cardreader) and doesn't appear to be geared to the actual lock itself. The bolt assembly is heavy and not inexpensive in terms of resource requirements to produce, so many lower rated maglocks probably are what I just described. High rated maglocks probably aren't maglocks at all, but rather use an electromechanical release system for a bolting assembly.

I will defer to the experts on the maglock debate.

As for StormDrake's question, yes -- safe houses are generally treated as secondary lifestyles.

As for turning a shipping crate into a domestic cubicle...I'd say no. Installing all the things required for such a thing would be almost cost-prohibitive. And the cost of keeping your contact continually moving the crate around would be just silly.

A self-contained toilet, for example? And a matrix connection requires a connection to a hardline -- no cellular network links. He'd be better off just making friends with the manager of a local coffin motel near the docks. (IMHO)

Points for originality though.

-Siege