On Jack's request, Mel will do an AR Matrix Perception for any/all silent devices on Bai's person.

Ok:
Comp + Int + Codeslinger
13d6: 50 [13d6=3, 6, 2, 5, 2, 6, 6, 3, 5, 6, 1, 3, 2] = 6 hits, reduced to 5 by limit

Icon
11d6: 37 [11d6=2, 2, 3, 2, 4, 2, 6, 4, 5, 6, 1]= 3 hits

It takes 2.5 to 4 hours on average to empty half of the stomach so that gives us about a 50/50 that inducing vomitting will get rid of the tracking device.

Of course, Mel could try and brick it.

It has to be on wirelessly, otherwise the tracking feature would be of no use.

Of course, I'm assuming he swallowed a tracking device and not something else. It would have to have been pretty small for him to eat it without noticing.

Can Mel tell if it's in his stomach?

No - even though you know that it is on him somewhere because of how you narrowed your search area, you don't know where the icon is in the real world - it could be in his pocket, or in his stomach, or sewn into an article of clothing.

You could Mark the item twice and then do a Trace Icon, but that just gives you its real world location - which would be on/in him somewhere, and you would then have to frisk him to find it physically.

I think from a strictly RAW viewpoint, you can't even do what you did, i.e. I believe you have to search for all hidden icons within 100 meters, but it seems silly that you can't narrow your focus, so I allowed you to do so.

As was alluded in IC, aura reading on Bai, and obviously taking a long look for any sign of an active spell/spirits/whatever.

An asssensing of Bai shows he is a mundane, and has several implants, all appear to be delta-grade. All are headware.

His mood seems a mix of nervous, scared, and excited.

Ok - Jack pats Bai down:

Int + Perception + Visual Enhancment 2, normally -6 for the size of the object, but in this case it is halved since you are patting him down.

So 6 dice:
6d6: 25 [6d6=1, 4, 6, 6, 2, 6] = 3 hits

You pat him down very well, but are unable to find the item. (Meaning either someone hid it VERY well on him, or he swallowed it.)

Do you want me to IC post the above? I had left off my IC post with a question to Huiquing about whether I had permission to check Bai for bugs.

I was leaving that up to you - sorry, I should have made that clearer, my bad.

Yes, Huiquing says yes, as does Bai, allowing you to pat him down.

We need a Faraday cage!

More seriously, how do you lose a signal in 2075? Are there zones without wireless where they'd lose the signal (like a place with no infrastructure ala Warrens)? How about a place with tons of noise? Can we insulate a target to prevent anything from getting out, using EM shielding?

I have a jammer [4] that can generate 4 points of noise, Mel can also try and generate noise

Here is what it says in the book: (page 421)

"Because nearly every piece of gear and ’ware is wireless capable, it means nearly every piece of gear and cyberware benefits dramatically from being “meshed” into your wireless personal area network and the Matrix as a whole.
When an item has additional functionality when connected to the Matrix, it’s described under the “Wireless” entry in the item’s description. This functionality only applies when the device has access to the Matrix, which is most of the time unless your gamemaster says otherwise, like if you’ve entered a wireless static zone. If there is a Noise Rating from a situation that is greater than the item’s Device Rating, not including distance, the item temporarily loses its wireless functionality (see Noise, p. 230). These benefits only apply when the item’s wireless mode is on. Your Ares Alpha can’t auto-adjust for the wind direction and speed if it can’t download local upto-the-second weather conditions, and your Eurocar Westwind 3000 doesn’t know the status of the next three traffic lights if it’s not connected to GridGuide. A wireless device is always vulnerable to subversion and control by a hacker within wireless handshake range.
You can defend your gear with a good commlink and a personal area network (see PANs and WANs, p. 233). Even better, defending against threats from the Matrix is part of your team hacker’s job. If she’s not available, you
might occasionally want to turn wireless off."

So, what seems to make the most sense is that if the Noise rating of the area is greater than the Device Rating of the icon, it loses its wireless functionality - i.e. it is no longer considered to be connected to the Matrix, and can't actually transmit a signal, etc.

I have, however, seen it clarified on the official forums that the above paragraph simply means that it loses any "wireless bonuses" that it might get, and to actually block the signal altogether, you need a Faraday cage.

However, the one thing to keep in mind if you rule it such that if the Noise is greater than DR, then it means that the device is blocked from the matrix, is to look at the table on page 231.

Heavy Rain or Snow has a Noise Rating of 3. The device rating of drones (which includes most cars, trucks, etc), standard personal devices, and cyberware is 2. This means that if it is raining heavily out, your car can't connect to the Matrix, unless you have a Datajack running wirelessly.

The Commercial Area of a Sprawl has a Noise Rating of 5. That means even if you play with a house rule allowing your commlink to run non-hacking programs such as Signal Scrub, most devices will not work, and I can't imagine everyone in the area being cut off from the Matrix on daily basis, it seems counter-intuitive.

So I am left with the dilemma of wanting Noise to be able to cut someone off from the Matrix, without the current Noise table on page 231 meaning that inside a city no one can use the Matrix.

Personally, my thought is this: not all Noise is equal. Noise from something specifically designed to jam signals, so Jammers, Faraday Cages, Wireless Negation Paint/Wallpaper, etc, if the Noise Rating is greater than the DR of the item, the item loses access to the Matrix (as well as the wireless bonuses obviously).

Noise from Static and Spam Zones, or from the Public Grid, if the Noise is greater than the DR, then the item loses all wireless bonuses. If it is greater than the DR+1, then you lose access to the Matrix.

For example, you've put a Sensor Tag on your target (DR 2), and he is in his apartment in the city, Noise Rating of 1. Not only is the Sensor Tag connected to the Matrix, so that you can access it and download the recordings to your commlink or deck, but you can also use its wireless bonus to monitor the feed in real time. The target steps out of his house and gets in his car, going on a road trip. He drives out of the city into a rural area, bringing the Noise Rating up to a 3. The interruption from the Static Zone interferes with it enough so that you can no longer monitor the feed in real time (the wireless bonus has been lost), but you can still retrieve the data by download if necessary.

An unexpected bit of weather hits the target, a squall blowing in from the coast, bringing the Noise Rating to 4. The connection to the Matrix is too tenuous for the tag, and while it continues to record, so long as the subject remains within the storm, you cannot access it via the Matrix at all.

Or, someone who is down on their luck and can only afford access to the Public Grid, and who lives in the Warrens has a problem. Without getting a Datajack, or running Signal Scrub, they can't even get their commlink to work (DR 2) - and the 2 points for the Public Grid along with the 2 points for the Warrens means that the commlink simply won't connect to the Matrix, the signal is too terrible.

Does that sound reasonable?

Sounds reasonable to me.

For the purposes of our game, very much! I don't think we could come up with anything better without departing too much from the rules.

I just wish the rules were different, or at least the noise table or something... High traffic might give some noise, but not significantly. THe high commercial area isn't actually noisy in terms of static and the like, actually you should be getting an even better line than anywhere else. You get tons of spam, penalties using AR and probably VR too, stuff like that, but not noise, I don't think. These areas have an abundance of users, but an even bigger abundance of powerful servers, normally. It's the dead zones in the Barrens/Warrens that should have terrible connectivity, even though there are next no one connected to the matrix. Also, rain/snow should have very minimal effects on signal strength imo. It's not a TV antenna we're dealing with here, it's the super advanced futuristic matrix.

Mel will go back into VR (hot) and go after that device.

Any change of stats/programs? Running Silent? Are you going to Mark it first or simply Data Spike it?

Silent.

ASDF = 6,5,3,5

Virtual Machine
Signal Scrub
Stealth
Exploit

Mark it once...let me see what its DR is, then decide if I want to Spike it or Mark it again.

Okey dokey - assuming you jump on the local grid just to avoid the noise Penalty:

Putting a Mark on the local Grid
12d6: 45 [12d6=2, 2, 5, 3, 4, 5, 1, 3, 6, 6, 5, 3]= 5 hits

Local Grid Resists
4d6: 8 [4d6=2, 2, 1, 3]= no hits, no problem

So you jump on that grid:

Putting a Mark on the device:
Hacking+Logic, your Signal Scrub and Datajack cancel Noise penalty.
12d6: 41 [12d6=4, 5, 2, 2, 4, 5, 4, 4, 2, 4, 1, 4] = 2 hits

The device resists
Int+Firewall (Remember that since you are not directly jacked into it, it does not use DR*2)
8d6: 32 [8d6=2, 4, 3, 5, 3, 6, 5, 4]=3 hits

Bad roll - sorry

So the owner of the device now has a Mark on you.

Are you jacking out or are you initiating Matrix Combat (which will require Initiative tests)?

Grr. Jack out, then back in and try again.

Ok, so:

Hacking onto the local Grid: (you should have had 1 less die last time, since you are on the Public Grid to start, but it didn't matter)
11d6: 35 [11d6=6, 3, 2, 3, 5, 6, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1] = 3 hits

Grid Resists
4d6: 19 [4d6=6, 4, 6, 3] = 2 hits, so you are successful.

Hopping over to the local Grid, you again try to put a Mark on the icon
12d6: 46 [12d6=4, 2, 4, 4, 5, 3, 4, 3, 1, 5, 6, 5] = 4 hits

It resists
8d6: 27 [8d6=3, 3, 6, 4, 1, 2, 4, 4] = 1 hit

You are successful in putting a Mark on the target.

Just as an aside, the owner of the device is alerted that you attempted to put a Mark on it.

Much better.

Matrix Perception...I want to find out what the last action(s) this device took. Whether or not I get the info, Spike it.

What kind of device is it? Or, I guess, what kind of device does it appear to be in case its protected by a Wrapper program?

Mel's Perception:
13d6: 44 [13d6=1, 5, 2, 3, 5, 5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 1, 3] = 5 hits

Icon Resists
8d6: 29 [8d6=4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 5] = 3 hits

So you get 2 questions:

1) Last matrix Action - Send Message
2) You have one more question to ask

You Data Spike it:
9d6: 31 [9d6=5, 6, 4, 1, 3, 1, 4, 3, 4] = 2 hits

It resists
8d6: 27 [8d6=4, 2, 5, 2, 3, 4, 2, 5]= 2 hits

So you don't damage it, but you don't take any feedback damage either.



It appears to be an RFID tag/Sensor Tag

What grid is it on?

Spike it again...

It is on the local grid

You attack:
9d6: 23 [9d6=3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 5, 4, 3] = 1 hit

It resists
8d6: 27 [8d6=2, 5, 3, 1, 6, 5, 4, 1] = 3 hits, so you take 2 points of Matrix damage

Do it again.

You attack
9d6: 32 [9d6=1, 1, 4, 6, 5, 6, 1, 2, 6] = 4 hits

It defends
8d6: 32 [8d6=4, 4, 6, 3, 6, 4, 3, 2] = 2 hits

So, Base damage is 6, +2 for net hits, +2 for one Mark is 10 DV

It resists:
8d6: 32 [8d6=6, 2, 1, 5, 3, 3, 6, 6]= 4 hits

It takes 6 boxes of Matrix Damage

Now, unbeknownst to you, there is a decker who has been looking for you ever since you had a Mark put on you. I had him roll Matrix Perception to spot you after every action since you Jacked back in, but as poorly as you were rolling against the stupid RFID tag, you were rolling pretty well against him

After this most recent attack, he finally got enough hits to spot you. (You were running silent, so he had to overcome your dice pool of 12.)

He is NOT running silent, he needed the extra 2 dice to be able to spot you, but since he is more than 100 meters from your position, you need to make a Matrix Perception test to see him.

However, prior to that, he does get to make a Data Spike attack against you.

His attack:
Cybercombat + Logic +2 for Hot Sim VR = 11 dice
11d6: 35 [11d6=3, 2, 5, 3, 1, 6, 2, 2, 4, 4, 3] = a laughable 2 hits


Your defense
Int + Firewall = 10 dice
10d6: 25 [10d6=3, 2, 3, 3, 1, 4, 4, 2, 2, 1] = Wow. ok then - I guess 2 hits are enough

His base attack is 5, +2 net hits is 7 DV of Matrix Damage

You resist with
DR (3) + Firewall 5= 8dice
8d6: 34 [8d6=4, 6, 6, 2, 6, 2, 6, 2] = 4 hits, so you take 3 more boxes of Matrix Damage (bringing your total to 5 out of a maximum of 10)

This brings us to a new initiative round:

CT 1, IP 1
Mel = 4d6+8
4d6+8: 19 [4d6=1, 3, 6, 1] = 19

Enemy Decker
4d6+7: 20 [4d6=5, 3, 2, 3] = 20

He will attempt to Data Spike you again
11d6: 43 [11d6=5, 3, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 4, 6, 4, 3] = 4 hits.

You do have the option of going on Full Matrix Defense, which adds your Willpower to your resistance (but does drop your initiative by 10), or just roll your 10 dice. Let me know if you will or not (remember that if you score more hits than him, he actually takes damage).

Sorry for the really long post - there was a lot of stuff to resolve!

Full Matrix Defense.

Ok - so 14 dice then:
14d6: 54 [14d6=4, 6, 6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 2, 6, 1, 3, 1, 4, 2] = 5 hits, which means you deal 1 point of Matrix Damage to him.

Your turn now at 9.

My advice would be to try to finish bricking the RFID and then jack out. In order to attack him, you'd have to waste an action performing a Matrix Perception test. With that said, shouldn't Mel have had the chance of FMD against the initial attack? I know you weren't in initiative, so it's hard to say one way or the other.

That was going to be my next action...problem is he's going before I am at 10.

ETA: Sorry...screwed that up. DS the RFID.

2nd ETA: Okay, I'm confused...you rolled initiative, he got a 20, I got a 19. He Spikes, I go FMD, resolved. What happened to his next IP at 10?

You go before him. You only get one set of actions per IP. They changed that in SR5 to prevent the Super-Cyber/Super-Adept from having three initiative passes before anyone else gets to go.

Exactly - basically, if you didn't do FMD, then it goes like this:

IP 1
He goes at 20
You go at 19

IP 2
He goes at 10
You go at 9

Neither of you has an IP 3

With the FMD, it goes like this:

IP 1
He goes at 20
You go at 9

IP 2 He goes at 10
You don't have an IP 2

So, Data Spike the RFID:

You attack
9d6: 37 [9d6=4, 5, 6, 2, 4, 4, 5, 1, 6] = 4 hits

It defends
8d6: 34 [8d6=2, 3, 6, 6, 3, 5, 5, 4] = 4 hits - so again a tie, unable to brick it.

He now attempts to Data Spike you again:

His attack:
11d6: 37 [11d6=5, 1, 3, 3, 2, 6, 4, 2, 6, 4, 1] = 3 hits

Your Defense
14d6: 48 [14d6=4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 4, 5, 3, 4, 3, 2, 5, 2] = 2 hits

So his attack is 5, + 1 for net hits is 6 DV

You resist:
DR (3) + Firewall 5= 8dice
8d6: 16 [8d6=3, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3] Yikes - so 5 boxes of Matrix damage, which will dump you.

I'm really sorry, Orokos apparently hates you I hate when dice get really funky - that is 22 dice and you got 2 hits

So, you now take 6P DV Dumpshock, resisted by Willpower and Firewall
9d6: 29 [9d6=4, 5, 1, 4, 6, 3, 3, 1, 2]= 2 hits

So you take 4 boxes of physical damage and are disoriented for 6 minutes (-2 to all actions).

I'm a little swamped at work - I'm happy to put that all up in IC later tonight, or Mel, feel free to - you never actually saw your attacker, so you wouldn't know what the icon looked like.

OOC brainstorming is always allowed as well.

Well that really sucks... did Mel use all of her Edge? I'm thinking so, but couldn't remember. Too bad he didn't have any noise affecting him. That usually screws us over whenever our deckers try this stuff, LOL.

P.S. I hate to point it out, but if you're dumped because your matrix access device gets bricked, you only roll Willpower since you don't have a functional Firewall. I think it only results in one extra box of damage.

You are correct on all accounts - it does suck, and Mel does indeed take an extra box of damage since she doesn't have a functional Firewall, so 5 P damage.

He in fact did have Noise affecting him - with Signal Scrub and a wireless data jack he was able to reduce it by 3, leaving him with a penalty of 2 dice (3 from distance, and another 2 from the area)

Unfortunately Mel did use up all of her Edge already (I checked that just to make sure)

Probably should have asked before all of this, but does anyone have a tag eraser?

Both Grease and Overkill had Tag Erasers...

That's helpful. Any ideas from anyone? We're pretty much SOL at this point, unless others want to take a shot of frisking Bai to see if (hopefully) the tag is on him rather than in him. I guess we can try to induce vomiting if none of that works.

You still have Sisco's Jammer - with a Rating 4 that might be enough to knock the RFID off-line.

Actually, I just noticed that Sisco has a Tag Eraser. I guess we can give that one a shot.

I wonder if we could have jammed first (except for Mel's deck) and then have Mel hack the thing. Easy to say after the fact, I know...

But yeah, even now jamming sounds like a good alternative.

The Tag Eraser will be tricky to use - it has to be turned on within 5 millimeters of the device for it to work. (Which is basically right on top of it).

The Jammer should work (assuming the RFID tag doesn't have a DR of 4 or higher - just make sure you turn everything off so he can't try and trace your stuff.

Can you explain the last part? The rules aren't very clear. For instance, in order not to jam all of our own stuff, the jammer needs to be wireless ON. How would the decker locate that? Is device type and location sufficient information for spotting purposes? Does the fact that the device is moving screw that up?

Good question - basically, as far as I understand it, you have 3 choices:

1) Turn all of your own devices wireless off (including the jammer). You have no Matrix icons for the decker to trace, and with the jammer increasing the Noise to 4, it should knock the RFID tag offline, so he can't use it to track you.

2) Just turn the jammer on (but leave the wireless setting off), which jams everything in the area. None of you (that I can think of off the top of my head anyway) has anything that has a device rating of 4), which means it will knock all of your stuff offline, plus the RFID tag, and since the jammer is wireless off, then the decker has nothing to track.

3) Leave all of your wireless stuff on, leave the jammer wireless on, and then start jamming using the wireless bonus of the jammer to exclude your stuff from the jamming, which means that all of your stuff is connected to the Matrix. It will knock the RFID tag off line, but since he has a fix on your location (he knows exactly where you are until the RFID tag goes offline), he can do a Matrix Perception test for any jammers within 20 meters of the RFID tag, or any commlinks, any jammers, etc, and if he gets a hit, he can then Mark that device, and then perform a Trace action on it and now your stuff becomes something he can track.

Does that make sense?

About the fact that the devices are moving - it does affect it, to me because it affects the search parameters.

He will have to say something like "Looking for a jammer within 100 meters of point X" and if you get out of that area before he successfully completes his Matrix Perception test, then he can't find you.

The problem is that with Mel's deck bricked, you have no Sleaze attribute for any of your icons, which means it won't be difficult for him to find one of your icons on his first test, and since he is going 2 to 3 times per Combat Turn, that means he will more than likely find it within a second of having to check, which may not put the van outside that radius. And since you are on a fairly quiet country road, there aren't a lot of other hidden jammers that he has to choose from.

That's the part I wasn't sure about, although I think we've discussed it in the past. There really isn't any support for it in the rules, but there also isn't anything saying it doesn't work. With the "piece of information" deal being as vague as it is, I can definitely see it working that way. Plus it makes things more playable.

Easiest thing is to reboot all of our gear, turn the jammer on wireless enabled, then turn our own stuff on, assuming the decker hasn't already been doing a bunch of Matrix Perception tests to spot the rest of our gear. The decker already had Mel's bricked cyberdeck spotted.

IMO, I think it wouldn't be bad to just allow a decker to do the "Locate Icon X within Y meters of Icon Z" assuming Icon Z has been traced already. That should be a benefit of taking the time to Trace an Icon. Otherwise, the movement thing should probably come into play.

I agree, the "piece of information" is so vague as to be almost useless. I think it could entail any or all of the following (and there could be more):

A specific type of device
A device slaved to a device you already have identified
A device with a specific Mark on it. (i.e. Someone could look for a device that had someone else's Mark on it).
All devices within X distance of point Y



I think, and this is just me, the best thing is to shut off all your gear and keep it off, and jam the RFID tag.

You have to assume that he has at least some of your stuff Marked, (Not Mel's deck, since it is bricked, it lost its connection to the Matrix and is no longer visible to him.) so you have to shut off all of your devices.

If you turn them back on**, it will give him a chance to Mark them again, even with the jammer active. The jamming doesn't actually even affect the enemy decker, since he is not within the area of the jamming, so he doesn't take any penalties. The description says it only affects devices within that area, and since that the Matrix is not an overlay of the real world, his deck, a km or more away, is not affected by the jamming.

If you do that, have everything off, and then jam the RFID tag so that it is off the Matrix as well, unless he has some other method of monitoring your van, he won't have any way of tracking you, since his only reference point is the last known location of the RFID tag, and if you get back into the city, he can't realistically say "Find all jammers within 10km of point X" (Point X being the last known transmission of the RFID tag). Well, he could, but he'd never get enough hits to find yours realistically.

**I mean immediately after the reboot. If you wait until you have travelled a distance, then it should be fine, see the above paragraph)