I have looked through the rules and am still not sure how you would go about hacking a technomancer. Are they treated as there own node? Do they have accounts aother than the one admin? What can you do once you have hacked in? Can you even hack in? Sense they can not store and data other than through an external deivice ,once you have hacked the technomancer , do you have full access to there PANs and can you access the what ever divice they are storing the data in even it has it's own security?

Any help with this would be great, and I if you can think of any other questions I havn't please post them here.

By my reckoning you don't really hack a technomancer, you hack the devices he owns and is interacting with. He'll always have his li'l TM commlink, but you can crash his icon, knocking him out, or feed him misinformation via stealth/spoof/whatever and then do what you will with his devices. Think of it as less about taking over his brain and more about preventing him from interfering.

I'd love to know this too. I'm making my first leap from third to fourth edition (I'll be playing both) and being a Decker fanboy I want to either make a Hacker or a Technomancer, but certain things like this question seem vauge in the book..

Also, does a Technomancer need an image link to view data from a storage device in their eyes, or can they just magically see it?

I don't think you can "hack" a technomancer... You could sniffer their communications, to intercept. Or you could spoof the commands they are sending/receiving to confuse them. But for lack of storage there is really nothing to hack it would be like "hacking" an agent, or pilot, or sprite. Any form of hacking is pretty much towards misdirection of communication or cybercombat. With no storage, they have no internal workings that you could get into. Not to mention that whole "Resonance Realms" idea, that hackers can't get into, but technomancers can. I think the inside of a technomancer's node, is basically one of those resonance realms, you can't exploit your way into it without resonance yourself. Just like you can't spoof a sprite without resonance.

Basically I'm thinking you can do anything with the signal and information around them, but actually getting inside is not going to be possible.

Technomancers have natural AR, so basically you can create your own visuals on the fly to see. The only thing you can't really do is a smart link gun, this requires an actual component. Your GM might allow you to just install it in your commlink though and be able to pull the information from there.

I don't think you'd really need an image link if you're using AR via simsense since it's piping the information straight to your brain via trodes/DNI, for hackers while TMs basically always have simsense available. Of course, this always makes me wonder why you couldn't just use a simmodule and trodes for your smartlink, but then again, I never assume life (or at least the Matrix rules) always have to make perfect sense.

[EDIT]
Man, maybe just one or the other of us should post on this subject, en Nightwalker?

Darn ninjas.

Alright, well I only have one more question. What does a mage see when he astrally perceives a Technomancer? Can they see that they have active Resonance or what?

Rarely. The Assensing Table lists detecting the fact that someone is a technomancer as a threshold of the highest order, somewhere around 4 or 5 hits, off the top of my head. It's possible, but don't count on it without some really good rolls or a character that specializes in Assensing.

To answer the question more directly, no. There's no magical aura for technomancy, although you can tell if someone is by assensing their aura with a well-trained Awakened, as Whipstitch explained. As a side-note, technomancy is confirmed as non-magical.. cellular antenna was the explanation. (Biological "cellular", that is.)

Thanks for the information, hope i'm not stealing the original posters thread. I looked it up, you need five hits to see if their a technomancer, but I wonder what appears different in a roleplay since? Maybe the Aura is effecting the matrix around it? Or something? I'll have to work on it.

Do you know what book this information is in and what not? I want to know as much about TMs as I can before I make one and he runs off and tries to join a magic group, only to be labled and idiot forever, so sad.

...with a very sharp Katana?

...sorry, but that's the way the Short One would approach, it.

Unless your mage has alot of experience with Technomancers, all he's going to see is an anomaly. He probably won't know what it is exactly, perhaps he thinks its some ultra-rare disease, or maybe there's a chemical imbalance. Technomancers are rare, and what he's seeing isn't astral activity, its probably more the cancerous effect of too much cell phone use. Thats the thing with assensing, just because you can see it doesn't mean you know what it is assensing isn't a spec readout of the character. The things that every person has, or that you pick up frequently when you assense you will have a good idea of what they are.

Emergence Fluff, you would probably see a similarity between a Technomancers aura, and a person suffering from AIPS. So if your mage has experience with AIPS patients he'll have an idea of what this is related to, but its not the exact same aura. Like comparing the angry vs raging homicidal auras.

@Whipstitch: You can't expect me to not comment in a Technomancer Thread

Yeah, I'm thinking Astral Perception is less about keen senses and more about an eye for detail and the experience to know what you're looking at when a weird fluctuation in an aura does show up. It's kinda like super advanced palm reading, except it actually works. It's all in the interpretation.

On second thought, I'd better not. You don't want to read this post. You want to go home and rethink your life.

From Emergence, pg 32: "With such radical concepts in hand, we naturally considered a possible connection between a VK’s bioelectrical field
and an Awakened metahuman’s aura, suggesting a mana-related mutation (similar to UGE or SURGE). Adhering to the internal non-disclosure-requirements and security protocols, reputable specialists from the Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research (DIMR) performed an extensive aura scan
on Patient V. The scan dismissed our theory, but did conclusively prove a deep astral scan can identify a metahuman’s virtuakinetic potential."

That's the only spot in the various fluff that I saw something reference Assensing a TM...

Note: This is how I personally GM things, take that as you will.

When assensing, just as a mage sees dark spots in a person's aura where sections of her body have died off it is possible to see a heat wave emanating off of TMs. The distortion, similar to a mirage, pushes out from the technomancer's astral form and is difficult to see. This may be an unknown to the mage at first, especially during the events of Emergence. As more information comes out, those that are on the cutting edge of magical research disseminate the information (Magic Background Academic Knowledge check). Slowly, mages network with each other and as they share their experiences, an understanding and recognition of VK/TM appearance on the astral becomes more prolific.

As far as hacking a TMs brain, it works similarly to breaking into any node. Most nodes for technomancers are sculpted and show the individual's outlook on life. Analyzing the node gives back mixed reports as some information comes back (rating, lack of alert status) but data searches to find access logs report a null finding. Similarly, analysis of sprites shows a complex program similar to an agent but large pieces of the code are missing.

SR4 pg 183

5+ hits on the Assensing Table will reveal the fact that the subject in question is a technomancer.

Whats all this about technomancy being non-magical? What ever do they rely on the magic stat and have there abilities dampened by invasive implants for?

Or are you perhaps only saying that the actual manifestation of their mysterious link to technology is by some aberrant biological manifestation of their bodies and not the actual warpage of manna?

And would that mean that their entrance to whatever wireless jackpoint would be unaffected by background count as would the majority of their activity in the Matrix due to the fact that their persona which is the extension of them working the actual magic is far from whatever background count anomaly that they are theoretically mired in?

Perhaps a reference where you read about this interesting bio-antenna? Pardon me if I am asking for a reference to the obvious, I will begin my own search forthwith and edit with a reference myself should I stumble upon it.

They rely on the Resonance stat, not Magic, and you can't have both Resonance and Magic.

Funny that. I believe that Screamin Demon is saying that Resonance is just a fancy name for Magic.

Personally, I wish that the Powers-that-be would just admit that Otaku/Technomancers are just another form of awakened character and be done with it.

Just because one can assense technomantic ability does not make it magical. You can assense diseases, emotions, implants, none of which is magical.

Technomancy is not magic. It is sure as hell not natural, but it is not the ability to channel mana to enforce changes in reality (aka magic).

Ah, yes. Indeed you are correct, Fortune. I've only been around the block a few times in the month I've been running SR4, and I had it quite clear in my mind that Technomancers were very much awakened. I've been spending most of my time memorizing combat rules and studying the uses of skills, spells, and weapons. Far more important to the daily happenings of game then the nuisances of those crazy 'Awakened Deckers'.

But it makes some kind of sense that they are not Awakened. Gives them an air of strangeness and mystery. Newness that sometimes old systems lack. Now that I know they aren't awakened I am actually suddenly more interested in them...
So the answer would be of course they aren't effected by background count any more then your average street sammy (Excluding the occasional deluge of various Ranidae). Beg your pardon for my ignorance, I will certainly study the subject before I comment on it again.

What puzzles me now though is if they are not awakened, why on Earth can they not also posses a magic stat? Other then game balance of course, how do they explain fluff-wise that Technomancers are both not awakened, and yet not capable of being awakened?

about the only concern from a game balance viewpoint is that anyone who tries to make a TM/anything else is going to implode from a lack of BP/karma. this is especially true when you pair it up with something as karma hungry as all of the awakened types are.

of course, that's not so much a balance issue as it is a fun issue, but whatever.

but hey, to look at it from the other side of the coin... why not disallow it? now we have this question to consider, and speculation generates interesting stuff

I was thinking of Black Hammer myself.

Huh... I always figured Resonance was the inverse of Magic. Almost to the point where a Resonance of 5 was actually a Magic of -5. A magical vacuum that leaves one machine-empathy enabled. Just my personal interpretation; mind you, I've only ever read the technomancer stuff in the SR4 Core Rules one time, when it first came out. Technomancers are still rumors to my group's PC's.

TM/Otaku are the product of AIs messing with human brains, no? I mean, they're analagous to awakened people, and sprites are analagous to spirits, and all of that, even to the point of using the same game mechanics, but big deal.

I thought I remembered someone saying that TMs were a breed of non-magical, awakened. Will research and see if I'm just crazy.

[Edit: Here's the post I remembered. Not an open statement, but a strong hint at the possibility...]

To hack a TM I would say, a woodchiper is best. but for those that want a personal touch their is always the good old combat axe

This joke has already been done in this thread, you were beaten to the punch. Late. Lose.

The important point regarding hacking a TM is that they cannot store data on their living node. There is nothing there to really hack into, and seeing as they can't store any data, its reasonable to say you can't load your living persona onto their node either, no icons, nothing that requires actually being on their node at all.

All you can really do is crash it, which has already been said.

Nah, go into AR and black hammer their ass.

One would assume that that is just a very permanent crash...nothing more.

Well, I have one last question. Considering that TMs are moderatly rare, how should a player character or NPC act when they meet one? What do you think would go through their mind and what might they say? Essentially, how does society view TMs?

Front Sight, Press....

Pick up emergence.

That depends on what the local bounty is, whether the runner intends to collect on it, etc. Some runners will feel for TMs, having gone through their own night of rage and discrimination, others will only see the threat offered by a new unknown and want to capitalize on it or destroy it.

IMC it's called the Posession metamagic or Posession spirit power...