Okay... I need some help here. I'm not understanding something I guess should be relatively simple. I've got magic down pat, but the matrix stuff is blowing my mind.
I'd like to give you an example of a situation and a run, and please, tell me what you think we should be up against, and give an example of gameplay as to how you'd get by it.
The Circumstance:
The Sam is heavy in debt with the mob. He calls them up, begging for a job, because if he doesn't make some money before the end of next week, they're going to come and collect a piece of his Ware to make up for his missing another payment. He gets sent to a guy who has a problem.. he wants his car back. Seems like some gangers are out joyriding in a vehicle he stowed something important in, and if the cops get hold of it, he'll lose his 'important mystery object'. He'll pay two grand to get it back, sight unseen, with a 1k bonus if they return his car in fairly good condition. The Sam jumps at it and pleads with the rest of the company, which agrees to go with.
They're new, and the Adept didn't show up, so they don't have access to personal transport yet.
They take a cab.
1. A data search shows that the car can be tracked onto the highway, going north toward Everett at high speeds. It's flagging all kinds of stuff. (<---- This correct?)
2. Their autocab is directed onto the high-way, and follows their cue north. Once within 400m, the Decker drops into VR, and begins hacking the system. She has to use her Electronic Warfare + Sniffer to lock onto the wireless reciever of the mobsters car, and hack in. (<---- This correct?)
3. After a few turns, she manages, and then needs to use her Hacking + Exploit to set herself up with Security Level permission, with the car's Firewall of 4 she needs 11 successes. (Firewall x2, +3) It takes her two passes in Hot Sim to manage. (<---- This correct?)
4. She locks the driver out, narrowly being missed by only one success on the systems Analyze against her Stealth, and gets in unnoticed, letting the pilotsoft decide that the guys in the car shouldn't be there and pull itself over. (<---- This correct?)
5. Enraged, what turns out to be First Nations affiliated NAN terrorists hop out of the car, and a fight ensues. Rather than gang-bangers, the company now has to deal with four runner-calibur guys , and Lonestar is already on the scene! Cue gun battles, summoned spirits putting people to sleep, and a newly christened 'Monofilament Tomahawk' wielded by a guy wearing an AR chieftains head-dress.
6. The company manages, but only after two of them are knocked unconscious and the NAN Troll is chased off the side of the overpass by two of the remaining three LS officers. The last one is taken out by the invisible mage while he was hauling the KO'd decker into the back of the cruiser... Of course, it's been nearly fifteen rounds, and there were already drones hovering around getting footage, not to mention all the passers by on the highway snapping pictures with their cyber-eyes and selling them digitally in nearly real-time streaming to the news groups who pay top dollar for that kind of sensationalism. Lonestar now has their faces, current SINs, Commcodes, and Biometrics in their hot-memory, on the system feed at their Mainframe. (<---- This correct?)
7. They team grabs the car, gets immediately off the highway, and loses any pursuers in the sprawl, hurrying to get the vehicle to a meeting point where it can be picked up by an agent of it's owner. They get paid, and get away, and get home without further incident, though they gain a sudden 3 points of Public Awareness for the footage. If they were anyone of import, it'd likely go higher. (Sound fair?)
8. Now the issue... The decker wants to erase that datatrail! She need to get into the LoneStar mainframe, find the pictures, biometrics, etc, and erase them. They've ditched their SINs, and already have the mage on the phone with her fixer, arranging a meeting with a rep who can get them in touch with the people who can make those go away.
------ WHAT GOES ON NOW? The decker wants to do this all from home, but this sounds like old-school hacking, with the decker making nine hundred rolls and the team sitting around idly, picking their nose for three hours. Moreover, what do I actually do with this 'secondary run'? Is it possible to salvage them? Does a skilled hacker with 14 dicepools stand a chance to succeed?
How do you handle this as a decker, and what do you expect to run up against? What's reasonable, and what are the mechanics/programs used to get this mess sorted out?
Full Version: Hacking Example
1. You need to know the AccessID of the vehicle. Once you know that, you can trace the WiFi-node without test. Problem: Your victim might have changed the AccessID, either permanently with a Logic+Hardware test, or per Spoofing the Datatrail, or by installing a Spoof Chip. Getting the current AccessID might involve some classic legwork.
2.
Case A: AccessID unknown: The decker would use WiFi-Scan on the physical location of the vehicle, or hack the drivers commlink, should that AccessID be known.
Case B: AccessID known: You can simply start hacking from whereever you are, assuming that both you and the victim are connected to the matrix. Getting into signal range is only necessary if one of the nodes is not connected to the matrix.
3. The threshold for hacking tests is Firewall+x, not Firewall*2+x. Your threshold would therefore be 7. Note that the vehicle may be slaved to the drivers PAN, and that you might therefore need to hack the drivers commlink instead. Note that the vehicle may have only an Admin account, or a passkey system.
4. She gets an account, but the victims account is not disabled. Once she gives faked orders, the driver will a)work to correct them, and b)figure out that he was hacked, and disconnect the additional subscription of the vehicle node/disable wireless.
5. Stylish use of AR effects! Unwired has environmental AR software called "Body Shop" that would fit this bill.
6. LoneStar is now in possession of a bunch of data. You will have spoofed your datatrails, and faces can be changed, too. The SINs are at least tagged for further investigation.
7. I´d say it´s a temporary modifier to PA simulate the 15 minutes of fame they got.
8. Unwired has rules for stripping the biometric data from SINs that are considered "burned". Deleting all copies of the evidence will be hard, and some can easily be recollected. You could have her infect the LoneStar servers with a worm that corrupts evidence tagged for this crime. (Unwired pg. 122).
Have the local LS office accessible from the matrix directly. Behind the public node there would be an internal node, and security (IC) would get it´s own node. Getting at the onsite data would require accessing the public node with a spoofed matrixID, hacking the internal node, finding the data, deleting the data (admin access for destroying evidence) / modifying the data (security access) / installing the worm (any account type that may load an agent onto the node, likely security/admin). Then she would need to hack the security node that hosts the backup functions (Admin access).
1xSpoof, 2xHacking a Node, maybe two extended Edit/Corrupt tests. I would handwaive hacking the officers PANs (assuming the term decker is deserved), should the players think of that angle.
Spicing the whole affair up is easy - have LS use offline backups, so that the team must either infiltrate the LS facility or find a corrupt cop.
2.
Case A: AccessID unknown: The decker would use WiFi-Scan on the physical location of the vehicle, or hack the drivers commlink, should that AccessID be known.
Case B: AccessID known: You can simply start hacking from whereever you are, assuming that both you and the victim are connected to the matrix. Getting into signal range is only necessary if one of the nodes is not connected to the matrix.
3. The threshold for hacking tests is Firewall+x, not Firewall*2+x. Your threshold would therefore be 7. Note that the vehicle may be slaved to the drivers PAN, and that you might therefore need to hack the drivers commlink instead. Note that the vehicle may have only an Admin account, or a passkey system.
4. She gets an account, but the victims account is not disabled. Once she gives faked orders, the driver will a)work to correct them, and b)figure out that he was hacked, and disconnect the additional subscription of the vehicle node/disable wireless.
5. Stylish use of AR effects! Unwired has environmental AR software called "Body Shop" that would fit this bill.
6. LoneStar is now in possession of a bunch of data. You will have spoofed your datatrails, and faces can be changed, too. The SINs are at least tagged for further investigation.
7. I´d say it´s a temporary modifier to PA simulate the 15 minutes of fame they got.
8. Unwired has rules for stripping the biometric data from SINs that are considered "burned". Deleting all copies of the evidence will be hard, and some can easily be recollected. You could have her infect the LoneStar servers with a worm that corrupts evidence tagged for this crime. (Unwired pg. 122).
Have the local LS office accessible from the matrix directly. Behind the public node there would be an internal node, and security (IC) would get it´s own node. Getting at the onsite data would require accessing the public node with a spoofed matrixID, hacking the internal node, finding the data, deleting the data (admin access for destroying evidence) / modifying the data (security access) / installing the worm (any account type that may load an agent onto the node, likely security/admin). Then she would need to hack the security node that hosts the backup functions (Admin access).
1xSpoof, 2xHacking a Node, maybe two extended Edit/Corrupt tests. I would handwaive hacking the officers PANs (assuming the term decker is deserved), should the players think of that angle.
Spicing the whole affair up is easy - have LS use offline backups, so that the team must either infiltrate the LS facility or find a corrupt cop.
QUOTE (Ryu @ Jan 2 2009, 10:25 AM) 
4. She gets an account, but the victims account is not disabled. Once she gives faked orders, the driver will a)work to correct them, and b)figure out that he was hacked, and disconnect the additional subscription of the vehicle node/disable wireless.
Couldn't the hacker, once in the system, do the same to the driver first, disconnect her, and instruct car to not accept any other communications until told otherwise, so the driver or other passenger would have to hack back in to regain access?
Depends on how account priviledges are set up. I would assume that you need an admin account to jack the current driver out. Safety concerns and all that.
It is up to the GM, but I believe a car's node probably falls under the rules for "basic device" concerning user accounts. Meaning it only has 1 account level (Admin) but the Threshold to reach it is the same as User level. Here's my feedback on each question.
1) This one's really up to you. The thieves may have changed the ID of the vehicle or they may not have had time. If the thieves had changed the Access ID of the vehicle it probably would have made it almost impossible to find. Perhaps if the vehicle had a distinctive "look" of some kind then I would allow a Data Search to be made to see if the vehicle can be spotted on any camera feeds accessible from the Matrix (I imagine in 2070 there are drones covering all the major highways so people can see what the traffic is like and so forth). If the thieves haven't changed the Access ID then I would have run it as a Track test (BBB pg. 219). However, running it as a Data Search isn't bad... perhaps they found the car location by searching the Grid Guide database. Considering they are working for the original owner, he could probably give them the info they needed to perform a search to find the car. Not a bad way to run it.
2) Sounds good to me. If the car's node was connected to the Matrix they could have done it from anywhere, your method is the "direct" Hack way. If the car was running in Hidden mode the threshold on the Sniffer test would be 4. Remember the range for 2-way communication is the lower of the two Signal ratings involved in the communication.
3) As stated before the Threshold is just Firewall + 3. What the Node rolls in response depends on the kind of Hacking the PC is doing. When attempting to break in the Hacker must choose 1 of 2 methods: Hacking on the Fly (fast but not subtle) or Probing the Target (slow but stealthy), rules for both on BBB pg. 221. I'm assuming your PC Hacker was Hacking on the Fly because they didn't have hours to waste. What happens in this case is the Hacker rolls their Hacking + Exploit, they are trying to hit a threshold of Firewall (+3 in your case). Each roll takes 1 IP, or 1 second each (roughly). Each time the Hacker makes a roll, the target node makes a roll with Firewall + Analyze, with a Threshold equal to the rating of the Hacker's Stealth program. The node only gets to make as many rolls as the Hacker makes. In your case the Hacker is rolling until he gets 7 hits, and the node is rolling until they get ? (5 or 6 I'm assuming). If the Hacker gets 7 hits before the node reaches their Stealth rating, then the Hacker is in without raising an alarm. If the node reaches the Stealth threshold, then the Hacker still gets in but an Alarm has been sounded. The Firewall gets a +4 bonus against the Hacker in this case, plus you can start throwing whatever defenses you want the node to have: cut off his connection, launch an IC program, whatever.
4) This sounds fine. I'd run it as a Computer + Edit or a Hacking + Edit test. Possibly opposed by the driver's Computer + Edit or the nodes Firewall + Analyze. Actually this would be better done as a Computer + Command as this is much like issuing a command to a drone; I would do 2 tests. The first is a Computer + Edit to remove the unsubscribe the car from the driver's PAN, and the second as a Computer + Command to order the car to pull over. All well within the Hacker's power once he has access to the Node.
5) Neat. Good details with the AR view.
6) Yup, if Lone Star was on-scene there is probably amble evidence against the runners. They are in trouble.
7) A lengthy shootout in a public place? Giving them a 3 in PA sounds right. They're probably the headline news story of the evening.
8 ) That would be an extremely difficult Hack IMO. Probably the only way I would allow it would be to have the team make a run against the LS Head Office to access the evidence computer directly. LS isn't stupid, I doubt they would have their "evidence" computer connect to the Matrix for any amount of time to allow a Hacker to get in. Your group's Hacker can probably get rid of some of the information on public database and such (like some of the news sites) but there's almost nothing they can do about the Lone Star evidence.
The team has already ditched their SINs, that's a good start. They're going to need to leave their homes and find a new place to stay (new lifestyles all around, losing whatever they have prepaid). The only groups with the kind of power to make something like that "go away" are the megacorps and the major crime syndicates (like the Mob). I think your players' "indiscretion" has given you some great plot hooks for the next few runs. The Mob can offer to "hide" them for awhile and work to make the charges against them "blow over" while giving them some new identities, but in exchange they need to runners to do some things for them. They'll probably ask for some cash compensation for such services as well. Your players will probably lose money on this run as a result of this. However, its a good lesson to learn in being a little more discreet before starting a gunfight. They probably should have directed the vehicle somewhere less public before starting a gunfight.
1) This one's really up to you. The thieves may have changed the ID of the vehicle or they may not have had time. If the thieves had changed the Access ID of the vehicle it probably would have made it almost impossible to find. Perhaps if the vehicle had a distinctive "look" of some kind then I would allow a Data Search to be made to see if the vehicle can be spotted on any camera feeds accessible from the Matrix (I imagine in 2070 there are drones covering all the major highways so people can see what the traffic is like and so forth). If the thieves haven't changed the Access ID then I would have run it as a Track test (BBB pg. 219). However, running it as a Data Search isn't bad... perhaps they found the car location by searching the Grid Guide database. Considering they are working for the original owner, he could probably give them the info they needed to perform a search to find the car. Not a bad way to run it.
2) Sounds good to me. If the car's node was connected to the Matrix they could have done it from anywhere, your method is the "direct" Hack way. If the car was running in Hidden mode the threshold on the Sniffer test would be 4. Remember the range for 2-way communication is the lower of the two Signal ratings involved in the communication.
3) As stated before the Threshold is just Firewall + 3. What the Node rolls in response depends on the kind of Hacking the PC is doing. When attempting to break in the Hacker must choose 1 of 2 methods: Hacking on the Fly (fast but not subtle) or Probing the Target (slow but stealthy), rules for both on BBB pg. 221. I'm assuming your PC Hacker was Hacking on the Fly because they didn't have hours to waste. What happens in this case is the Hacker rolls their Hacking + Exploit, they are trying to hit a threshold of Firewall (+3 in your case). Each roll takes 1 IP, or 1 second each (roughly). Each time the Hacker makes a roll, the target node makes a roll with Firewall + Analyze, with a Threshold equal to the rating of the Hacker's Stealth program. The node only gets to make as many rolls as the Hacker makes. In your case the Hacker is rolling until he gets 7 hits, and the node is rolling until they get ? (5 or 6 I'm assuming). If the Hacker gets 7 hits before the node reaches their Stealth rating, then the Hacker is in without raising an alarm. If the node reaches the Stealth threshold, then the Hacker still gets in but an Alarm has been sounded. The Firewall gets a +4 bonus against the Hacker in this case, plus you can start throwing whatever defenses you want the node to have: cut off his connection, launch an IC program, whatever.
4) This sounds fine. I'd run it as a Computer + Edit or a Hacking + Edit test. Possibly opposed by the driver's Computer + Edit or the nodes Firewall + Analyze. Actually this would be better done as a Computer + Command as this is much like issuing a command to a drone; I would do 2 tests. The first is a Computer + Edit to remove the unsubscribe the car from the driver's PAN, and the second as a Computer + Command to order the car to pull over. All well within the Hacker's power once he has access to the Node.
5) Neat. Good details with the AR view.
6) Yup, if Lone Star was on-scene there is probably amble evidence against the runners. They are in trouble.
7) A lengthy shootout in a public place? Giving them a 3 in PA sounds right. They're probably the headline news story of the evening.
8 ) That would be an extremely difficult Hack IMO. Probably the only way I would allow it would be to have the team make a run against the LS Head Office to access the evidence computer directly. LS isn't stupid, I doubt they would have their "evidence" computer connect to the Matrix for any amount of time to allow a Hacker to get in. Your group's Hacker can probably get rid of some of the information on public database and such (like some of the news sites) but there's almost nothing they can do about the Lone Star evidence.
The team has already ditched their SINs, that's a good start. They're going to need to leave their homes and find a new place to stay (new lifestyles all around, losing whatever they have prepaid). The only groups with the kind of power to make something like that "go away" are the megacorps and the major crime syndicates (like the Mob). I think your players' "indiscretion" has given you some great plot hooks for the next few runs. The Mob can offer to "hide" them for awhile and work to make the charges against them "blow over" while giving them some new identities, but in exchange they need to runners to do some things for them. They'll probably ask for some cash compensation for such services as well. Your players will probably lose money on this run as a result of this. However, its a good lesson to learn in being a little more discreet before starting a gunfight. They probably should have directed the vehicle somewhere less public before starting a gunfight.
QUOTE (Malachi @ Jan 2 2009, 05:33 PM)
It is up to the GM, but I believe a car's node probably falls under the rules for "basic device" concerning user accounts. Meaning it only has 1 account level (Admin) but the Threshold to reach it is the same as User level. Here's my feedback on each question.
The rule you give is for pheriperal nodes. I could see cars that fall into that category (old-tech cars with "strap-on" navi), but fully computerised cars should fall under standard nodes, and use standard rules.
The information Ryu's given me has been extremely helpful in learning to understand how the Matrix works, and I really must thank him again.
Thanks!
The group decided to go on a self-employed run and tackled the run they failed two weeks prior, clearing out some 162s (Armed and intelligent ghouls!) who had bunkered down in a closed nightclub. They've been observed, but they left town the day after. They've got a Troll Adept with them now (Body of 9, Will of 4. Can virtually ignore the drain from Enhance Attribute 4!), and they got a cherry job working for the ShadowRunner's favorite friend of all time.
Aztech.
They got shipped into the New Mexico desert to clear a magical research facility from a small 'problem' that got loose. An awakened, tailored derivative of the HMHVV that has turned all the security-gassed employees in the facility into shambling, flesh-eating zombies.
Yes, I am blatantly stealing.
Thanks!
The group decided to go on a self-employed run and tackled the run they failed two weeks prior, clearing out some 162s (Armed and intelligent ghouls!) who had bunkered down in a closed nightclub. They've been observed, but they left town the day after. They've got a Troll Adept with them now (Body of 9, Will of 4. Can virtually ignore the drain from Enhance Attribute 4!), and they got a cherry job working for the ShadowRunner's favorite friend of all time.
Aztech.
They got shipped into the New Mexico desert to clear a magical research facility from a small 'problem' that got loose. An awakened, tailored derivative of the HMHVV that has turned all the security-gassed employees in the facility into shambling, flesh-eating zombies.
Yes, I am blatantly stealing.
Your welcome. (I like what you are writing about your campaign btw. 
)
Some of the thanks should go to Aaron; It can never hurt to mention his Cheat Sheets and Hacker Cards.
)Some of the thanks should go to Aaron; It can never hurt to mention his Cheat Sheets and Hacker Cards.
TOTALLY!
Aaron, thanks a millions. We're all over those cards. They've made our hacker very happy, and given me a good starting point, instead of leafing through the book nearly every time she wants to do something. She insisted we print them in color, so we've got little linux penguins bouncing around the gaming table every time the air-conditioner gets turned on.
Aaron, thanks a millions. We're all over those cards. They've made our hacker very happy, and given me a good starting point, instead of leafing through the book nearly every time she wants to do something. She insisted we print them in color, so we've got little linux penguins bouncing around the gaming table every time the air-conditioner gets turned on.
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