So I have a few questions about nodes, specifically setting up my rigger's PAN.

1. Slaving a device, does it take any extra subscription slots?

2. when a hacker is in your system, you have to find him to attack? what if he's set off your alarm?

3. If you've spotted a hacker, can you "point him out" to your agent(s)?

4. vehicles have a device rating of 4, making their matrix attributes 4. Does their pilot rating of 2 lower their Firewall and System attribute to 2 ?

5. what can you put data bombs on? and does each one count as a running program?

6. If an agent is running on your persona, do you have to run all of its programs as well (eg:2 analyze programs, 2 stealth programs)? should i load him separately on a different node?

7. any other advice or info?

1. Yes. See the table on p. 55 of unwired for more information on what sort of activity requires subscription.
2. Yes. You have to know what icon to hit if you're going to hit an icon. If he's set off an alarm, then it's likely that your system can identify what icon has caused a problem and, if you want to force a roll, I'd make it a test with a threshold of 1 (that is, a roll to not fail) to see if the spider receiving the alarm can find the appropriate icon.
3. Yes. You can do that by issuing them a command to interact with a specified icon (e.g., Attack that guy!)
4. I run it that device ratings are only for those devices whose stats are otherwise unspecified.
5. Yes. The program has to be running and a part of the Agent's payload for it to have access to it. In order to mitigate the need for multiple softwares, I allow both an Agent and a hacker to use the same program as long as the Agent is a part of that hacker's persona. In other words, if a hacker needs Analyze and her Agent does to, running a single copy of Analyze is fine. By the book, if you offload the Agent, then the Agent will need to use programs available to it on the server or take your programs with it (I suppose). Frankly, in four years of fourth edition, no one has ever offloaded an Agent in one of my games. Perhaps that's an anomaly, but I haven't seen it (and that includes running games at local and national conventions).
6. Don't eat yellow snow.

so in your opinion, my agent and I can share armor and attack programs while he is running on my persona? or he can only use programs I am currently not using(but have running)?

By the book, only your or your Agent can use the program unless you're running two copies of it.

However, I think that's dumb and makes Agents crap. Thus, I allow the programs to be shared and used concurrently as long as the Agent is a part of your persona. The second that Agent is offloaded (which, as I indicated has never happened in one of my games, even before I allowed this), then it has to have it's own copies of the programs.

I read it that slaving doesn't take up an "extra" slot, it just "requires" a slot, even if the connection didn't require one before. For instance, slaving and encrypting a connection to a drone still only takes 1 subscription slot, not 2.


Yes, you still need to "find" the intruder. If the intruder set off an alert then I give a +4 Bonus to anyone working "for" the system to find the intruder. If another IC or Agent has already spotted the intruder via Matrix Perception then I would give an even bigger bonus to find the intruder, but it still necessitates a roll, IMO: your Computer + Analyze (+ bonuses) vs. their Hacking + Stealth


Yes, IMO that would simply give your agents a great big bonus in their opposed Perception test, but I would still make the roll.


Don't get too hung up on the "device rating" stuff. Device rating is supposed to be the last fallback if nothing else works. If something has a Pilot rating, use that for all of their attributes. Note that they can be upgraded just like Commlink attributes.


Any file (or even "subsystem"), or the "node" itself can be bombed. Each one counts as a running program, yes.


I allow Agents loaded onto a Persona to share programs with the Persona. If you want the Agent to operate independently with those programs then you need to make a copy of them.

p.55 in unwired says that encrypting only takes a slot for things that don't normally, but it makes no mention of that for slaving.

also, I like the Idea of sharing with your agent in your persona as far as analyze and exploit, but thinking of buying one attack program and 4 or five agents, that attack program fires 5 or 6 times each initiative pass..

Anyway, thanks for all the input. it's helped a lot

All standard vehicles have a "Device Rating" of 3. Security Vehicles have a DR of 4. This is per the Device Rating table in the Wireless World section of the BBB. HOWEVER, the Pilot attribute of the vehicle overrules the Device Rating, more or less.

Say you pick a car with a Pilot of 2. The DR is 3. This means your car's Matrix attributes are: Pilot 2, Firewall 3, Response 3, Signal 3. You upgrade the attributes as normal (upgrading Response chips and the wireless antennas, beefing up the Firewall, dropping serious cred on better Pilots, etc.)

The Device Rating is actually rather important for vehicles, because without them you have NO IDEA what numbers to use when, say, a hacker or rigger is trying to jack a ride, or seeing how far a vehicle can go while still communicating directly with your commlink. The car IS a Matrix node, after all, and all nodes need attributes for the Matrix.

All of this is written in the vehicles section of Arsenal. It takes a little exploring to find the relevant bits, but they're all in there. I remember reading it when I was learning the fine points of vehicle upgrading for my dedicated rigger character.

on 213 in the BBB, the description of a pilot program describes it as a special OS for vehicles and drones, so would it replace your firewall and System ratings? it further describes it as being used in place of System for agents, vehicles and drones..

I always used the Pilot rating for all attributes.

I'm torn, on the one hand it seems to make sense to use the Pilot rating as your system rating if not your firewall, but if every other vehicle on the stree gets the generic 3's accross the board, then shouldn't I?

I've always read it as the Device Rating being the Signal and Response. The firewall rating is, by default, the device rating. The System rating is the Pilot rating. I've generally avoided the issue by boosting the response, signal, pilot, and firewall as fast as possible.

sadly, thats what I really need to do, I kinda screwed the pooch on that with my current character..

It's not an easy thing to do at character creation, because of the Availability on the parts to boost a node to Response 6. Once you get that, it's just a matter of finding the right pirated Pilot progams.

First, Pilot is a kind of System, so yes, System would be 2.

Second, the device rating is used for all unspecified stats, and therefore Firewall is 4. System does not limit Firewall.

Problem: Program ratings are limited by System/Pilot. So the device rating would loose a lot of meaning for vehicles, as it is overridden.

Since the device rating really makes things easier, I´m partial to "fixing" things the other way round and assume that Pilot was upgraded to the best that will run on the vehicles node.


As for dependant agents sharing your programs, I assume that the agents scripts can handle some load balancing, and only have those programs active that are currently needed. (I think) It is implied in one FAQ answer that agents can use programs the hacker has already active, and that those programs simply count twice for system load if both user and agent need them activly.