Ok, I ran my first mission today, we ran through 1 legwork run and then B&E data steal. For the most part everything went good but the player who decided to play a hacker bailed last minute and changed characters. So improvised with some things...

Anyways, I was wondering if any of you could give me some help building a Combat Hacker/Hacker to support my group with I'm going to run him myself as a support NPC only missions he is needed or when the characters call him basicly.

Though im still fresh to the rules governing hacking so any help or examples would be great, Pre-gens suck... and Im still trying to get the hacking rules down so any help would be appreciated, Presently the group consists of a Gunny, Covert Face type, and Gunner Doc.

Thanks.

Just use a rating 6 agent with rating 6 programs and a response 6 comlink. It's just as good at hacking as almost any hacker and it makes a great NPC.

Combat hacking doesn't work that well. Where hackers shine is in the leg work, pre planning, positioning, evasion, and evade parts of the run. He hacks into Lone Stars system the day before and uploads a little program that will make sure no calls reporting a run at the runners target get through. He hacks GridGuide to make sure that they don't have traffic problems on the way to or from the run. He hacks the power station and shuts off power to the target during the run. He clears the data trail.

(19 BP of gear): fairlight caliban w/ Response 5, Os 6/Firewall 6; All programs rating 6 (analyze, browse, command, edit, encrypt, reality filter, scan; armor, attack, biofeedback filter, decrypt, defuse, eccm, exploit, medic, sniffer, spoof, stealth, track)
standard datajack, skinlink and a hot sim module.

its a good bit of gear, and you can use the rating 6 programs when the reality filter works. it also saves time and money when you do upgrade the response to 6. now just add in the cracking and electronics skill groups at 4 each, and you have your core hacking down for only 99 BP. the rest you change to fit the character you want to build.

Actually it's cheaper to buy the Meta Link and the just buy a rating 6 response chip once the game starts. 8,100 , 11,100 if you get a Signal of 6 as well.

Hey thanks, those are both good, and Teulisch you just saved me like a huge headache from going over all that stuff lol.

I'll figure something out, I was thinking of running the hacker from the background and when something needed to be hardwired and done in the meat, having someone just hardline it to a comm and let the hacker remote access the comm and then feed through the hardline. Not sure if that is something that can be done but i did it anyways today, didn't have much time to prepare with the sudden change of mind.

As I said, just have the "hacker" be an agent on a comlink. For a hard connection you just plug in the comlink and thats that.

Kewl, Thanks again that helps until i find another player or if he decides to change his mind again, he tends to do that sometimes.

Dear gods! We agree!

The last run I GMed actually wound up a cake walk courtesy of the hacker, who spent several hours probing various local networks, and wound up with backdoors in virtually every enemy system. It wasn't helped by my appalling rolls to spot the intrusion. Consequently they had all the background info they needed, a clean run to and from the extraction site, and could interfere with pursuit to the extent that they were lost within 3 rounds. However, in combat the hacker is next to useless.

You dont need to hack in to run a Crash OS action. Nothing like having those drones chasing you shut down for a full round to restart because their systems were overloaded DoS style.

There is a hacker and a technomancer in the book. Not min/maxed or anything, but playable. Even the gear is already bought and paid for. Just a thought.

i disagree. that technomancer is nowhere near playable.

I agree. That technomancer is nowhere near playable.


A fast and simple approach for NPC hackers is that you can have an effective rating of 5 in everything, assuming a -1 mod on a response 6 setup. So all you really need for your NPC is a list of DP-modding augmentations. You may want to decide at what price the NPC is willing to provide programs for your team.

NPC technomancers will usually suffer from the GM not knowing what they can do in a given situation. A TMs main trick is "breaking" selected matrix mechanics by boosting (1) program rating beyond goodness - you have to figure out which.

Thanks again for the help guys, appreciate it. I'm still hoping to get another player to play one, I might have a someone who is interested and wants to play one, if not then i will just use the hacker as a contact maybe and stat him up with the suggestions above.

My other thread on Help with story arc, If i can't find a hacker as a PC then i will just role play the hacker into the arc as dieing on a mission and was left behind or being killed for knowing to much, and leaving it to the players to find a hacker to support them, contact/GM supported NPC.

I know this one, but respect Ryu's wishes. Although there are a couple of others that are nice to have silly high at various points. Once you get how to thread, TM hacking gets silly good on a reasonable build. Shame it takes almost all you BP/Karma.

That's a terrible thing to do to someone like me whose only experience with anything like TMs is reading Technobabel. Mercy for the newb? I could use a little clarification on what you mean by this.

You can improve one complex form by a)threading, and/or b)a Support Operation service from a registered sprite.

You can:
- boost your Stealth CF for hacking on the fly (This is the one I was speaking of.)

You can also:
- boost your Spoof CF for important faked orders (Rarely "worth" a Support Operation service, but threading is basically free.)
- boost your (offensive program) CF for extreme combat, as the CF rating goes both to dice pool and damage value.
- boost Command to munch out a drone dicepool in combat (A warning. timing mistakes on this one will be expensive.)

The limitations are the dp penalty for threading anything but the program you are activly using, and the time constraints on the Support Operation service (both the registering and the service duration).

That sounds a bit ominous.

Support Operation services are short. Once combat starts, you need to give your sprite the order to enhance your Command CF - so you won´t fire any weapon during the first pass. You will also not be able to take command of the drone. Then you only have a single-digit number of turns before you loose that super-CF, or spend yet another registered sprite service.

If you try to pull this off against competent opposition, by the time you are combat-ready, your drone is already destroyed. Correctly timed ambushes are a noteable exception.

Thanks Ryu, every little bit I get brings it more into focus.

Thread and Assist Operation on Stealth CF and a sprite with suppression does wonders for hacking on the fly.