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Knot_E_Coyote
I by no means claim to be an expert but I think it would be a great learning experience if we started a Technomancer specific thread with helpful hints for the L337 uber-hackers we play. Spew forth your thought forms my fellow cyber-divers! Technomancers rock but they are often under valued in groups and I don't see why.

What should we cover in the thread? Neat tricks you have thought up, things you have done, any questions you might have about techno and things you would suggest for people making a Technomancer. Lets get the ball rolling. smile.gif

My word of advice is: Make your starting forms the programs you will use most/those that will save your life. As a Technomancer you do not have negatives for running multiple forms at one time. Your brain is capable of much more processing than any deck so you don't have that limitation that hackers have. So take Armor, stealth and protective forms that will save your life. Also a high charisma is a must as that is your bio-feedback filter which you roll vs. dump shock.
krayola red
It's "t3h," dammit!
LilithTaveril
Helpful hint #1: Don't use leet. It doesn't make you look elite. It makes you look like the kind of "hacker" who relies on trids and badly-written matrix games for your knowledge of hacking.

Helpful Hint #2: The reason technomancers are often undervalued is the same reason the otaku were in some cases and in others it's the fact they're basically magicians who affect the Matrix instead of cast spells.

Helpful Hint #3: Remember, you have the same limitations as a normal hacker does. Except, in your case, your ratings are based on you, not a machine and some programming.

Helpful Hint #4: Max Resonance. I don't care how much you sacrifice from other areas. Max it. You'll be thankful for this.

Helpful Hint #5: Take a look at all of the hints for magicians. I know you're not a magician according to the rules, but you operate like one so much that much of the advice for magicians also applies to you.

Helpful Hint #6: Get a dummy commlink. If someone's gun starts firing without them wanting it to, the first person they're going to shoot is the one without a commlink.

Helpful Hint #7: Skinlinks are your friend. While you are fully capable of hacking someone's commlink and replacing the OS with a Disney simflick before hacking their assault rifle and playing around with the smartlink, keep in mind hackers can do the same to your equipment.

Helpful Hint #8: If you see someone on an enemy team without a commlink, shoot them. They're probably a technomancer.

Helpful Hint #9: Don't bother with drones. Frankly, by the time you're done spending BP, you probably can't afford them. Besides, you can always hack drones.
Knot_E_Coyote
I just used L337 to make a joke. I know it's lame.

So very, very lame...
Samaels Ghost
QUOTE
Helpful Hint #6: Get a dummy commlink. If someone's gun starts firing without them wanting it to, the first person they're going to shoot is the one without a commlink.


The abscence of evidence is not the evidence of abscence!

With all the discrete commlink versions out there I'm sure not having a comm visable is way more common than having it buckled to your hip. You could have it in your pocket, incorporated into your favorite jacket, or even implanted. Nowadays almost everyone has a cellphone, but they don't all have it buckled to their belt. Unless you're a hick.
Knot_E_Coyote
I always shoot at the people with least amount of armor first because the guy with an auto-cannon won't be throwing grenades. We have a troll for soaking bullets but very few trolls can soak more than one grenade. Also the lightly armored people may be mages.
LilithTaveril
Samael, that's why you always have someone running a search for commlinks on the enemies. The moment they find an absense of evidence is the moment you know who to shoot.

Besides, you need someone focused on counter-hacking on the team anyway. If you don't have them, you're not paranoid enough.
Knot_E_Coyote
Ok, so that brings up a good point. Should a techno carry a comlink? I'm thinking yes because if you store the data in your head and you die your mission is a wipe. However, if you store it in a comlink the info is less under your control. Do you use a comlink as a data storage device? I think it's a good idea to put your data on a comlink with a good firewall and a better databomb.

Also, is it rude to hack your fixer? We just met a fixer for the first time and I just pinged his comlink to see if he was a moron and left it wide open. If he can't keep his stuff in order we're not working for him. Fortunately for him my cursory examination it proved not to be a pathetic attempt at security.
Samaels Ghost
Credsticks have Device ratings of 6, I'd use one of those biggrin.gif

But seriously folks. A data stick or online storage site is sufficient. No need to blow your hard earned cred on a comm if you're never gonna use it.
FanGirl
Plus, when your enemies catch you, they'll take the dummy comm away and think they've put you at a disadvantage. This will cause them to let their guard down around you, meaning you'll be able to escape relatively easily and gain a reputation as an unstoppable super-hacker to boot.
Samaels Ghost
If they've caught you, you had bettter be MacGyver to get away.
thejadedgm
It really depends on how your GM runs it. Personally, "pinging" your fixer could be consider very rude - be thankful of stealth. Hacking enemy weapons, while this seems cool, should only be done if you have nothing better to do. Hackers can very effectively funnel enemy movement (through control of a building's node if it has a matrix controlled security system) and are crucial to the tactical advantage (if one is to be had). Hacking weapons... well just hope they are smartlinked.

As far as a commlink goes, to me they are as obvious as a cell phone. Everyone assumes you have one - whether they see it or not.

Technomancers are a rarity, not everyone assumes the guy without an external commlink is one.

A technomancer's best friend is his stealth. This goes for hacking in general. It's a real bear, to hack a system in active alert mode, that +4 dice can really kill ya. Technomancer's can't take damage well, so its best to avoid the fight whenever possible.

Data-Search versus Browse, you are not going to data-search the entire matrix for bulletin boards for your legwork. That's what browse is for. If you happen to have a particular node in mind to do the searching... that is another story.

Just remmeber its ultimately up to the GM, ask him/her how it works if there is any confusion.

As far as being under-valued, any hacker is worth his weight in gold if he can A) get the info B) get the access and C) get control of the enemy nodes/devices/drones.
Knot_E_Coyote
I'm all about the stealth when my friends aren't drawing down on people. *lol*

I was reading over the book and Jaded is right. As a techno you can run browse in the back of your mind just like a com-link can be left scanning for data while you do the laundry. Which I think rocks. I'm not sure how that would work in game, so that brings me to the next subject. What are Complex Forms IC?

I'm picturing them as a kind of post hypnotic suggestion you teach yourself with a lot of practice until you are so familiar with you can trigger and use them. Where as making it up on the fly you have to put a lot of effort into. The forms you know are already in there patterned into your neural network. The stuff you thread makes your brain do things it isn't accustom to, at least until you learn the complex form. (AKA: spend karma on it.)
Conskill
QUOTE (Samaels Ghost)
If they've caught you, you had bettter be MacGyver to get away.

Meh. Improbable escapes from dire situations is a staple of fiction. In that scenario, the dummy commlink just gives the GM a way to rig events so that the PCs escape while pretending it's due to the Technomancer's ingenuity instead of plot necessity.

For day-to-day living, it's always nice to have that decoy running to catch spam and transmit your fake SIN. Nothing worse than walking by the Renraku Arcology and getting fifty kinds of spyware lodged in your brain.
Lazerface
QUOTE (Conskill)
For day-to-day living, it's always nice to have that decoy running to catch spam and transmit your fake SIN. Nothing worse than walking by the Renraku Arcology and getting fifty kinds of spyware lodged in your brain.

*phweeet!*
Yellow card!

Technomancers have no form of storage memory. How can they be affected by Spyware?
LilithTaveril
The same way some computers do. It can lodge inside hidden sections of the OS. That's part of a new discovery for spyware that allows it to get around anti-spyware programs. I think the discovery is a couple of years old...
thejadedgm
So what OS does a technomancer run?

No I disagree, I do not believe they can get spyware.

They can however be flooded by AR Spam. In fact if you have most sophisticated security, availible a 6/6 commlink and a 6/6 firewall/os, you should be able to protect yourself from spyware. AR Spamming though would depend in what mode you are running, not on your security.

The idea that there is nothing you can do against spyware is ridiculous. If Spyware is a problem for you its usually because you are running windows without enough protection. Given the rarity of TM's and how little about them is understood, I think its quite a leap to say they can get "Spyware".
LilithTaveril
QUOTE (thejadedgm @ Aug 22 2006, 08:09 AM)
So what OS does a technomancer run?

The Brain OS.

QUOTE
No I disagree, I do not believe they can get spyware.


I'll certainly agree they cannot keep it permanently. But, there's nothing that prevents spywar from latching onto their datatrail and following them around. They'd have to actively do something about it.

However, that's using today's standards, which amount to jack shit when dealing with SR, where you have programs specifically designed to interface between the brain and technology. The only thing I see standing in the way of spyware and viruses being made using that technology as a base is the fact the people writing the material haven't written anything on it yet.

And, to add to all of this, keep in mind a TM's brain operates like a commlink. Notice how all of the commlink ratings are based on mental attributes? Notice how it states that complex forms are mental algorithms? Give me some time later, and I'm sure I can come up with more, just from the core book.

QUOTE
They can however be flooded by AR Spam. In fact if you have most sophisticated security, availible a 6/6 commlink and a 6/6 firewall/os, you should be able to protect yourself from spyware. AR Spamming though would depend in what mode you are running, not on your security.


Okay, yeah, except there's one problem: You can't get those at start. Not as a player buying a commlink (max you can get is a 5/5 commlink), and certainly not as a stat-dependent TM. In fact, TMs can't get such a setup without submersion.

Now, while that is nice advice, it's not advice that is actually helpful to TMs or starting characters. At least, not without them playing for awhile.

QUOTE
The idea that there is nothing you can do against spyware is ridiculous. If Spyware is a problem for you its usually because you are running windows without enough protection. Given the rarity of TM's and how little about them is understood, I think its quite a leap to say they can get "Spyware".


Or, it's because advancing technology and programming techniques discovered a new method not currently protected by the market. One example of such an innovation was the invention of rootkits.
cx2
A guy seemingly without a commlink could be:

Someone with commlink off, esp if they don't use smartlink or are expecting heavy hacker activity.
Similarly someone set up for skinlinked smartlink
Someone with commlink in hidden mode that the enemy just happened to miss.

Any of these could mean the enemy doesn't notice a commlink.
thejadedgm
That's a good point, but thats not what you originally said. You said
QUOTE
The same way some computers do. It can lodge inside hidden sections of the OS.


As an IT consultant, and an avid Mac user, I have to say not all OS's are suseptable to Spyware. In fact, the more obscure an OS is the less likely they are to be suseptable to spyware as common exploits don't apply. Given that TM's are supposed to be more rare than mages (see the thread http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=14238)

QUOTE

However, that's using today's standards, which amount to jack shit when dealing with SR, where you have programs specifically designed to interface between the brain and technology. The only thing I see standing in the way of spyware and viruses being made using that technology as a base is the fact the people writing the material haven't written anything on it yet.


If a Technomancer or someone with access to one wrote a program to affect TM's - I would buy this. It would be a plot hook and a pretty good adventure (mind if I steal the idea?). But spyware/virii would be made to affect commlinks/nodes - or brain interface - or possibly both. Since TM's are so different, and largely a mystery to the world at large, I think this type of technology would be rare at best.

Technomancer's are a differnet creature all together. They are not humans with commlinks for brains. They are meta's with the ability to perceive and manipulate the matrix with unparrelled skill, one they don't even comletely comprehend, the manipulation of the matrix is a tacit skill to them. Their bonuses and abilities reflect this.

QUOTE

And, to add to all of this, keep in mind a TM's brain operates like a commlink. Notice how all of the commlink ratings are based on mental attributes? Notice how it states that complex forms are mental algorithms? Give me some time later, and I'm sure I can come up with more, just from the core book.


Which is why it is A) a GM's call, and B) their brains function LIKE a commlink, that is to say in a similar manner, not an exact manner. All of this really is depends on how your group interprets TM's. Are they quasi-magical, or are they the next step in an evolutionary model. Personaly, while I wouldn't give them an immunity to say IC/Agents with an attack program, I do give them the advantage of being immune to the viral marketing ads of AR polluted space. It's not game breaking and it makes the class just a smidge more desireable.

As far as the rest - about my advice not being aimed at starting characters, it wasn't meant to be rather it was a general statement. If marketing ads, spyware, and common virii can penetrate everyones commlinks operating in hidden mode and with paranoid security settings - that seems a little unbalanced and would make everyone shut the stupid things off even if you are just going for a walk in the mall.

Seems to me, its largely a GM issue. Does you or your GM run the game that way? If so and you enjoy it great. I however choose not to. Do my players get spam - yes. Do my TM's and Hackers, who run paranoid security, on their comm's? Nope. Makes for good laughs in most situations.

Anyway - you can refute this if you want but before this becomes a flame war, I say leave it to interpretation. Sometimes rules get in the way of fun.
Knot_E_Coyote
TM have brains not hard drives so it would be difficult to put a virus in there. After all your brain doesn't just instantly learn a behavior and rewire its neural network creating new pathways and neural associations. They would need to be exposed many times to stimuli which would implant the thought form that they must report everything they do online to X ip-address. It would be more of a mind control technique setting up a compulsive subconscious need associated with some need for security or some other emotion. So just catching a virus from being on the net would be unlikely.. However if you are a TM who uses BTL sims a lot someone could very easily associate the pleasure you get from the sim with a function your brain uses. So every time you run your addiction your brain sends email to someone alerting them to where you are for example.

It would be less a virus and more of a sustained hypnotic command that would have to be reinforced often. So BTL sims would be your best bet for compromising and tracking the TM population at large.

I’ve never played a Technocracy agent in WoD… No, not at all.
thejadedgm
Its called psychotropic IC and it's nasty. VERY nasty and it goes alot further than that...
Valentinew
Despite the fact that the TM in the BBB is not carrying a commlink, I seem to recall that we established (& Bull confirmed, IIRC) that TMS almost HAVE to carry a commlink. This is for two primary reasons, data storage & broadcasting your info so you can actually get around. Unless a TM NEVER enters an area where it is required that your SIN be broadcast, a commlink is an essential piece of equipment...plus it always helps others to underestimate you, if they think you're "just" a hacker....

How hard would it be for a TM to create a hidden data storage cell in the Matrix? This is just a random thought I just had.......
Lagomorph
yeah, I had always assumed that if commlinks were akin to windows os, then TM's were like linux. Very little crossover or compatibility between the two, yet both access the internet very well.
LilithTaveril
Thejadedgm, okay, I'm shocked. I have absolutely nothing in your post I can disagree with or argue with.

That aside, Knot, there's actually already something from SR3 that can affect the brain. As mentioned previously, the psychotropic IC.

Now, as a person who is not a computer expert (keep this in mind for what comes next), I must say that an OS is primarily a user interface and system for which to launch and run programs. Primarily, acting as an interpreter between several different portions of the computer. Thus, many programs today are written to function on certain OS's and not others. For TMs, their OS is their brain. This means anything that does damage to the OS itself damages their neural functions, which is why they do not have separate condition bars while using the Matrix. Thus, a virus or program that would cause a crippling electrical surge in a commlink would cause a TM to undergo a stroke. Only difference is, while a hacker can replace an OS or commlink that is completely destroyed, a TM is left braindead.

Now, after my post earlier today, I came up with an idea for a piece of fluff based on it that affects TMs and may actually explain why they operate like magicians. It occured to me that essense and resonance would be tied because of the brain. Programs intended to created interfaces between the brain and cyberwear simply add more distractions to the brain. Since resonance is measured in whole dice (like magic is), this would cause it to drop whole numbers. Essense would therefor be a measure of how distracted the brain is (6 = no distraction, 0 = so much distraction the brain overloads and shuts down). Bioware adds to this distraction by adding items not native to the body that the brain must keep additional track of. All of this distraction interferes not only with a person's magical ability, but with a technomancer's ability to focus their brain on interfacing with the Matrix. It didn't affect otakus because they never had a direct interface.
Cheops
QUOTE (Samaels Ghost)
The abscence of evidence is not the evidence of abscence!

With all the discrete commlink versions out there I'm sure not having a comm visable is way more common than having it buckled to your hip. You could have it in your pocket, incorporated into your favorite jacket, or even implanted. Nowadays almost everyone has a cellphone, but they don't all have it buckled to their belt. Unless you're a hick.

Add this to the fact that Technomancers are rarer than mages (pegged at 1% of population in late SR3) then most people don't know what a technomancer is or can do.

Basically Technomancers are Unknown Unknowns not Known Unknowns. And you can't plan for Unknown Unknowns. wink.gif
thejadedgm
That's essentaly how I understand it too. However I got this thought. What if the Matrix was a quasi-metaplane? TM's being adept mages that access this quasi-plane without aid and the rest of us created it through technology. What if VERY powerful mages adept at navigating the planes were able to one day access the matrix...

I'm not saying that this is the case - just hypothetical. SR has always referred to the pendulum of magic and technology, that the Great Ghost Dance advanced us prematurely into an Awakening. So what if TM's were supposed to be the conduit that magic, and meta-planar access was supposed to occur through?

Guess we will have to wait till 6th edition to see. biggrin.gif
Da9iel
@Lilith: No.

(Tee hee. Couldn't resist.) Actually I like the sound of your resonance vs. brain distraction (essence loss) theory, but essence loss is not directly tied to DNI. Bone lacing causes essence loss, and there is nothing there to distract the brain. Essence loss is tied in with our true pattern. Essence = 0 is our bodies becoming so far from our true form that a soul turns to its body, tears streaming down its face, and says, "I don't know you any more!" and (while a violin plays softly, slowly) leaves--never to darken the body's doorway again.

Why is resonance reduced by essence loss? Is it really that unbalancing to uncouple them? Has anyone here tried? Did it make the TM too powerful? Coming up with an in game rationale leads here. To be tied to essence, Resonance must be a spirit thing.
Cabral
Well, Essence loss is associated with Psychological disorders (fluff-wise, not mechanically). Perhaps Technomancy is so mentally intensive that the abrupt neurological disorders induced by sudden essence loss disrupts the delicate balance that grants the Technomancer his gift.
Samaels Ghost
QUOTE (Cheops)
QUOTE (Samaels Ghost @ Aug 22 2006, 02:36 AM)
The abscence of evidence is not the evidence of abscence!

With all the discrete commlink versions out there I'm sure not having a comm visable is way more common than having it buckled to your hip. You could have it in your pocket, incorporated into your favorite jacket, or even implanted. Nowadays almost everyone has a cellphone, but they don't all have it buckled to their belt. Unless you're a hick.

Add this to the fact that Technomancers are rarer than mages (pegged at 1% of population in late SR3) then most people don't know what a technomancer is or can do.

Basically Technomancers are Unknown Unknowns not Known Unknowns. And you can't plan for Unknown Unknowns. wink.gif

Glad you caught that biggrin.gif Thanks fo' playing along!
LilithTaveril
QUOTE (Da9iel)
@Lilith: No.

nyahnyah.gif

QUOTE
(Tee hee. Couldn't resist.) Actually I like the sound of your resonance vs. brain distraction (essence loss) theory, but essence loss is not directly tied to DNI. Bone lacing causes essence loss, and there is nothing there to distract the brain. Essence loss is tied in with our true pattern. Essence = 0 is our bodies becoming so far from our true form that a soul turns to its body, tears streaming down its face, and says, "I don't know you any more!" and (while a violin plays softly, slowly) leaves--never to darken the body's doorway again.


Simple. It falls under the same case as bioware does. The brain has to keep track of all of these changes within its body, even without the programming there. As for the soul leaving: Well, you distract the brain enough, you may just change its patterns of thought enough that the connection between soul and body is severed. About like if your computer's OS slowly mutated into something completely alien to the computer.

QUOTE
Why is resonance reduced by essence loss? Is it really that unbalancing to uncouple them? Has anyone here tried? Did it make the TM too powerful? Coming up with an in game rationale leads here. To be tied to essence, Resonance must be a spirit thing.


Not necessarily. Resonance is based, in part, on a very highly logical brain. Look at the fluff about how they store complex forms. Even if my idea is wrong, you have the increasing insanity caused by cyberwear that wears away tne mind's capacity for logic.
Knot_E_Coyote
Can you use a cred-stick for data storage? If so how would that work?
Samaels Ghost
QUOTE
Not necessarily. Resonance is based, in part, on a very highly logical brain. Look at the fluff about how they store complex forms. Even if my idea is wrong, you have the increasing insanity caused by cyberwear that wears away tne mind's capacity for logic.


If it were super brains then scientists would be able to induce Technos. However, that kind of moding to the brain would probably kill a person, hence the story at the begining of one of the BBB chapters (can't remmember which). If you haven't already, read the thread below. And I fail to see, Lilith, how your Essence-Resonance theory has to do with "may actually explain why they operate like magicians"

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=14036
Samaels Ghost
QUOTE (Knot_E_Coyote)
Can you use a cred-stick for data storage? If so how would that work?

I'm sure it accepts info other than cred. It says at one point that you could have other personal info in the cred stick, just like carrying around a wallet.
LilithTaveril
QUOTE (Samaels Ghost @ Aug 23 2006, 03:45 PM)
QUOTE
Not necessarily. Resonance is based, in part, on a very highly logical brain. Look at the fluff about how they store complex forms. Even if my idea is wrong, you have the increasing insanity caused by cyberwear that wears away tne mind's capacity for logic.


If it were super brains then scientists would be able to induce Technos. However, that kind of moding to the brain would probably kill a person, hence the story at the begining of one of the BBB chapters (can't remmember which). If you haven't already, read the thread below. And I fail to see, Lilith, how your Essence-Resonance theory has to do with "may actually explain why they operate like magicians"

I'm glad you said that.

For a highly logical mind, I don't mean a superbrain. On some level or another, to be able to store and utilize the equations that make up Complex Forms, they have to rely on logic. Their entire setup for how they interact with the matrix is primarily centered around people who focus on developping their mental capacity over their physical. Even the sample TM in the BBB reflects this. Keep in mind this is like the kid who can memorize complex equations with ease, as opposed to the kid who has trouble remembering them. How the brain interacts with the Matrix would likely have nothing to do with this.

Now, as for how this would explain the effect on magic: It works under the theory that the brain acts as an interpreter between the soul and the body. That explains, in part, why animals don't react well to cyber. For metahumans, the distraction and resulting alienation between the brain and soul would reduce the person's capacity to utilize mana. As their capacity to utilize mana lowers, so does their capacity to cast spells. With both resonance and magic, it is primarily how the cyberware and bioware affect the brain that causes the issue.

Now, I'll admit I may be wrong. I'll admit all of that could be worthless bullshit.
laughingowl
QUOTE (thejadedgm)
As an IT consultant, and an avid Mac user, I have to say not all OS's are suseptable to Spyware. In fact, the more obscure an OS is the less likely they are to be suseptable to spyware as common exploits don't apply.

exploiting the OS, yes (hacking the PAN of a TM is going to be interesting for a non-TM).

HOWEVER: exploiting common API (modern CGI/JAVA/FLASH/etc) is possible. If the TM wants to be able to view most of the 'net... they have to process the common APIs. Vulnerabilities in said common API will still allow spyware to propagate.

Now it will likely be considerably less (not 100% identical implementations of the common API, or while using the 'common api' the vulnerability is actually at the OS level, but there are 'spyware' (the simplest just a tracking cookie logging how many time you've been to said site and what you've viewed on said site, easy to stop yes, but 'technically spyware').

Now no 'storage' means the OS is much much harder to corrupt, but 'spyware would still be possible. Mostly mimicking 'worms' rather the viruses.

The spyware would have a very hard time permanetly corrupting the OS, however, it could bug/track the current 'session'.

Visit Megacorp X and until you 'reboot' (or possibly a simpler 'restart web services' not a full reboot) it is entirely possible the Megacorp X, know every ARO you've followed for the last few days/comm-call given taken, etc (traditional spyware: (actual data harder to get, but 'where/what/who you've talked to much easier to pull generally).

Peace
Cheops
QUOTE (Samaels Ghost)
QUOTE (Cheops @ Aug 22 2006, 03:22 PM)
QUOTE (Samaels Ghost @ Aug 22 2006, 02:36 AM)
The abscence of evidence is not the evidence of abscence!

With all the discrete commlink versions out there I'm sure not having a comm visable is way more common than having it buckled to your hip. You could have it in your pocket, incorporated into your favorite jacket, or even implanted. Nowadays almost everyone has a cellphone, but they don't all have it buckled to their belt. Unless you're a hick.

Add this to the fact that Technomancers are rarer than mages (pegged at 1% of population in late SR3) then most people don't know what a technomancer is or can do.

Basically Technomancers are Unknown Unknowns not Known Unknowns. And you can't plan for Unknown Unknowns. wink.gif

Glad you caught that biggrin.gif Thanks fo' playing along!

No prob. Just keepin it real.
thejadedgm
QUOTE (laughingowl)
QUOTE (thejadedgm @ Aug 22 2006, 03:19 PM)
As an IT consultant, and an avid Mac user, I have to say not all OS's are suseptable to Spyware. In fact, the more obscure an OS is the less likely they are to be suseptable to spyware as common exploits don't apply.

exploiting the OS, yes (hacking the PAN of a TM is going to be interesting for a non-TM).

HOWEVER: exploiting common API (modern CGI/JAVA/FLASH/etc) is possible. If the TM wants to be able to view most of the 'net... they have to process the common APIs. Vulnerabilities in said common API will still allow spyware to propagate.

Now it will likely be considerably less (not 100% identical implementations of the common API, or while using the 'common api' the vulnerability is actually at the OS level, but there are 'spyware' (the simplest just a tracking cookie logging how many time you've been to said site and what you've viewed on said site, easy to stop yes, but 'technically spyware').


You are of course making several assumtions - so like I summed up my post original post - It is a GM call.

As Lillith pointed out modern tech has nothing really to do with fantasy/future tech of Shadowrun.

Also the point was specifically about the OS not the API. Again it's a GM's call however you want your distopian future.

Modern resources and methods do not apply. So great, in your world TM's get Spyware, not so much in mine.

Whatever preserves your fun great. As pointed out by my players constantly SR can be as non-technical (looser rules) or as technical and rule crunching as you want.

Your game - your rules. Arguing why or how spyware works, is pointless.

Whatever you do have fun.
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