Greets,

I was thinking on Frank's post and I was also thinking of Unwired (which I have not yet read to the end, but still). I know this is a game, but I also notice that hacking the little gray cells seems to be ominously missing. Any good rules for what kinds of things can a hacker do to mess with the meatware? How about cyberware?

I also was thinking is there a way on getting rid of hacking altogether. Just have it operate somewhere as a narrative device and less as the hacker gets busy the rest go for pizza syndrome. is this possible but still leave in the Matrix? I still find that something as unbiquotous as the Matrix and it still reads as hacker landscape, just now with more noobs.

Another thought I had is that what's stopping me from buying a custom system 6 nexus and run 10 agents off of it all at rating 6? This is something I was thnking of during my Cyberpunk 2020 days when I designed a blackbox which is just a custom built hacking instrument. Of course with everything being wireless I no longer have to even attach it, it can come into the system through the toaster.

-Chrysalis

You really should read it. Lots of goodies, especially the program options and commlink mods. There's also mindbending rules, though they still require the MemTokko huge machinery stuff. No Ghosthacks by default, thank the gods.



Malware, though - virus programs and the like - CAN infiltrate cyberware if you're not careful (keeping your cyber clustered, iced to the max, wired, wireless removed and hidden behind a datajck and/or implant link of high degree and icyness does help though - and cyberware can receive commlink mods too).

Malware can be used for indirect ghost hacking too to some degree. You can attach psychotropic orders to the virus you load into your target's cyber - and as long as the cyber is DNI'd, the malware's psychotropic attack efects the target immediately. No memory hacking or brainwashing though hack, puppet master style, though. SR4 apparently just isn't that advanced (I think it's a game balance thing though). Not sure whether you can't bend Sprite or AI rules to get such an effect, though. IF a CF like that is possible, design yourself an AI with that power and spawning, and it can hand you a program that lets you brainhack.


I yet have to see this for myself, though it WAS possible to integrate decking under 3rd rules too - but as pretty much everyone will have to do a little hacking tio get rid of their datatrails, and decent commlinks and stealth programs being dirt cheap (even moreso with software options), everyone has to do hacking anyway, so it's kinda better integrated on principle.


Nothing. Just keep in mind that agents are not the most subtle things for the most part and have a limited program load - you can work around that with software suites, though, to some degree. Unwired's new autosofts - like Adaptability - work decently against that, though.

Also, buying another one and having 10 lv. 6 agents teamwork their programming autosoft 4 (for which you optimise your nexus, giving the soft a +1 on it's level) to provide you with those pesky updates to your cracked software - or whatever program you feel like you need, for that matter. Of course, this kinda begs the question why not all programmers are unemployed, even moreso now that AIs are popping up everywhere like cockroaches in cheap motels.

And another (a simple commlink will suffice) to prepare and search and clean your surveillance data (link 3/0/3/0, optimised for clearsight, off the grid entirely, running an Agent rating 3 with an optimised clearsight (4+1)).

The possibilities are endless, provided you can pay for the stuff.

1. Cyberware hacking is mentioned in both Augmentation and Unwired and "brain-hacking" is mentioned in Unwired, though not in the same form as in Frank's rules. It's closer to reprogramming someone and it's a lenghty process. I guess you could also hack the commlink of someone who's got a HotSim module and run a BTL on his brain for a quick and short-term brain-hack, but that's still something uncommon.
It's also possible for someone in ColdSim, with regular Simsense signals, but then you'll just be able to affect the target's emotions and sensations.

2. If you want to get rid of the hacking part, just let agents or a NPC do all the Matrix work and decide, as a GM of the outcome of each actions. It's ok if nobody in your group wants to play a hacker, but if someone does, I think there are better solutions to the "hacker plays alone" syndrome. My games don't seem to suffer from it, even with a very active hacker, so I guess it's possible.

3. Nothing, except for the price and availability, is stopping you from buying a high rating nexus with a lot of agents, though I'm not sure you'll be able to carry it for runs (I'll have to check Unwired) and there are places where you need to be physically there (or where it's far to difficult to hack your way in from outside, even for 10 rating 6 agents). Just like nothing prevents you from buying 10 drones and sending them to do the runs for you.

Clustering a couple of palm-sized commlinks results in a decent nexus that is actually portable.

"Now where did I put that old cyberdeck case?"

On the pizza thing. If your players are cool with it I've had great success with queuing rolls and then using that.

Basically just roll a whole bunch of dice and write down what you get on a piece of paper, circling 5's and 6's can help. Also write down your Hackers relevant info.

Then just read through the string of numbers when they want to do something. Reading off the line lets you operate only marginally slower than you can talk. If you're a really good multitasker you could probably go through the numbers as you talk.

As you "use" numbers just put a line through them.

Works great for NPCs as well. Also if you want to make rolls without the players knowing you can just look down.

Unwired has rules for psychotropic effects for IC and for more involved brainwashing style stuff.

I did the math.
A 50 agent nexus custom with all rating 6 OS, Telematics Infrastructure Software, general and hacking software including 1 rating 6 agent comes to ￥160,300. I am sure I am forgetting something. Here's the excel sheet:

http://www.2shared.com/file/3703747/eaf7fc...us_of_doom.html

Anyways this thing would be about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face. I would see it being used for brute force entry.

You can just do what I do in other games even besides SR. Give one player the NPC sheet of the corp hacker if there is one, let the other player play the PC hacker, and you just mediate and let maybe some other players run some IC or agents/sprites.

That's propably what a corp/police botnet looks like.

just wanted to reinforce what dashifen said about brain hacking.

psychotropic IC is alive and well. it only takes a matrix attack action and for the target to take damage from it. the most useful qualities to inflict are things like mania/phobia imo (it is particularly interesting to note that an uncommon trigger, such as 'doing everything i tell you to do when i say simon says while looking at you' is somehow easier to do than a more normal trigger such as 'you prefer stuffer shack over all other stores')

Well yes, but you cannot quite do GitS style ghosthacks like that.

Probably because the uncommon trigger is just that: uncommon. Thus, it's unlikely that you'll have to rewire whole chunks of the brain which would respond to common stimulus and instead you'd make a smaller change to respond to a more focused trigger.

Ironically, I am the hacker in a party that has a troll who carries a sledgehammer as a weapon. He generally goes for the face.

In GitS:SAC all the ghosthacks were into cyberbrains, aka implanted Comms, usually in concert with prosthetic body. The Major essentially hijacked the body from the onboard brain-jar.

I'm not aware of any hacks into non-prosthetic individuals.

Even the episode about "the greatest movie never seen" was still about a commlinked brain.

An Unrestricted Agent would be better, cost a tad more, and the programs if bought cracked are 1/10th the base price. After all, if you're going to get the most awesomest l33t nexus you might as well use it to keep your software patched!

That would make the cost of adding all the virii, worms, and trojans an extra 40,800 nuyen.

Great spreadsheet, sir!