Okay, so I am running a 4th ed game, starting up tomorrow, and one of the players is a technomancer. Okay, that's fine, but I have a few questions about technomancer mechanics that aren't mentioned in either 4th ed base or Unwired.

Note: we are NOT using SR4A, mainly because none of us have the books and we don't want to all spend a bunch of money to get the books.


1) Do Technomancers load/quit their 'complex forms' just like Hackers must with their programs? If so, doesn't that make technomancers far worse than hackers, because hackers have the option of buying ergonomic programs? (From Unwired.)

2) Hot/Cold Sim. Do technomancers have the option of running hot or cold sim, just like hackers, or are they always running hot? Also, in the book, it says hackers run the risk of of getting an addiction to simsense if they run hot too much, is this the same for technomancers?

3) I understand that Resonance is the ability to see a beautiful order in the chaos of the matrix, some underlying beauty, but what is dissonance? And what kind of technomancers 'choose' (or use) dissonance over resonance? And if I wanted to make an evil, dissonance-based technomancer NPC, then are there any special rules for that?

1) Uwired includes rules for TMs to either thread program options, or just add them to Complex Forms.

2) Technomancers are always in Hot Sim when in VR. Since it's a natural brain function, I'd give them a pass on the hot VR addiction.

3) Dissonance is toxic resonance. Check out the Matrix Phenomena section of Unwired for the rundown on Dissonant streams, echoes and paragons.

IIRC technomancers do NOT have to load/unload their complex forms. They represent a TMs inherent ability to manipulate the matrix so they aren't loading them from anywhere.

If you haven't seen it, check out:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...mp;#entry804857

It is an action-by-action writeup (posted by a dev) comparing a technomancer and a hacker competing to take over a drone. (Its the mechanics behind the fiction for the SR4A book's hacking chapter). It might help illustrate some of the differences in how the two character types work mechanically.



Like DWC said, technomances are always running Hot Sim in VR. As far as the addition goes, I wouldn't apply the formal addition rules to them since existing in that environment is 'natural' to a technomancer. On the other hand, based on the fluff (and rules IIRC) cutting a technomancer off from the matrix can have effects similar to forcing someone with a mild to moderate addition into withdrawal. At the very least, it would be like taking someone who has lived their entire life with the background noise of a large city and taking them out into the country and watching them 'weird-out' because it is too damn quiet at night.

I mentally rewrite Dissonance, just as I mentally rewrite Toxics. I mean, by canon they're just insane. I say "fuck that retarded shit".

what others said in recap: TMs don't have to load their complex forms, they are always available. TMs in VR always run in hot sim.

now number three, which is the more-open-to-interpretation question:

first off, i would argue with your opening assertion that resonance is the ability to see order in the chaos of the matrix; while this may be a perfectly valid answer for the majority of "norms" who, at least in the shadowrun universe, are still spoon-fed technology on a level that they don't understand, for those who understand the underlying structure of the matrix, it isn't really chaotic at all (note that i will probably say something contradictive of this statement about four sentences from now, but bear with me, it's all part of the process of understanding).

assuming that the same logic underlying the way computers work today still exists in the SR universe, the way computers interact with each other is not chaotic; it is actually based solely on logic, even if that logic is working on orders of magnitude that are hard to intuitively understand for the majority of people. if you are familiar with even basic calculus, you should know that the relevant aspects of large-order mathematical calculations (these calculations being the computational processes that are hard for most non-CS people to understand) can be expressed as either higher-or-lower order equations with little extra bits of information that can't really be known once you start to transform the function that you start with; these extra bits of information (and i am using the word "bit" here in a purely NON-computer way, as in, not related to the state ((state meaning 0 or 1)) of the transistor in a computer system that represents a bit) can often be DISREGARDED in calculus because of the way in which higher-order equations LOSE or GAIN variables depending on how they are manipulated.

now, when you take some aspect of a computer's functioning that is represented by an equation like this, say:

Ax^3 + By^2 + Cz + D

and start to manipulate it mathematically to express equations of a different order, you could end up with:

(1) Ax^2 + By + C
or
(2) Ax^4 + By^3 + Cz^2 + D(v) + E

now compared to the original equation, given only the result of the transformation, we have either lost our reference to the values of D and z [in the case of example (1)] or gained v and E [in the case of example (2)].

OKAY THE MATH PART IS MOSTLY OVER NOW SORRY,
but to me, what Resonance is and what makes TMs so special, is that, these mysterious and hard to define variables don't actually either DISAPPEAR or APPEAR FROM NOWHERE, despite what it may appear to those not well-versed in the terrible world of complex mathematics. To put it another way, which ISN'T so terribly complex to understand: when you round 2.2 (two and two-tenths) down to 2 (two) and use the rounded value for further calculations, that .2 DOESN"T just disappear and become irrelevant; instead, the existence of that extra .2 affects EVERYTHING that may have potentially been influenced by it's initial state of 2.2 instead of the further calculations based on solely 2, and so by being "tuned in" to everything ELSE going on around the specific mathematical function that is relevant to whatever computer process a TM wants to attempt, she can tell what those "missing" variables in an equation are and be able to solve it without having to delve into the realm of processor-intensive work that a regular computer would be forced to do in order to figure out just what the heck is going on (which is a process that, at least to me, is essentially akin to creating something out of nothing). Resonance is essentially the matrix version of the butterfly effect; NOTHING can change without the act of changing it having an effect on something else.

DEAR GODS that was long-winded and probably confusing, and i haven't even started talking about Dissonance yet...

so how i just described Resonance was basically "chaos theory of the matrix" (except I already said it WASN'T chaotic, because it is all ordered and everything, even if it doesn't SEEM like it), which makes describing Dissonance a lot harder for me following this chain of thought, because what is the opposite of "finding order in what seems to be chaos?" the obvious answer would be "finding chaos in what seems to be order," but i personally can't really express what that might be. if we assume that *I* am not crazy (and this is probably not true but i can't really say for sure), then any attempt i would follow to actually specify and locate "chaos" could only ever take an ordered approach, an act that in its whole i feel would be wholly paradoxical; as soon as aspects of chaos are identified, they immediately acquire an order, at which point they cease to be any part of chaos, and then become invalid.

as Heath Robinson said, by canon, Dissonant TMs are "just insane," and really, that's probably the ONLY way i could describe them. here, of course, i would use the term insane in as much an objective sense as i possibly could, acknowledging Resonance (sanity) and Dissonance (insanity) as two sides of the same coin.

for me, when it comes right down to it, they are both doing the same thing, but Resonant TMs see a falsehood and seek out the truth, while Dissonant TMs see a truth and seek out the falsehoods that created it. since they both still work on basically the same system in-game, i think that i will stick by this one for a while.

CAVEAT: math lovers feel FREE to rip me apart on this one, because i do NOT know anything about mathematics, i am just very good at doing it.
CAVEAT 2: i pretty much thought this whole post through my fingertips, so it is the first time i have tried to put my personal feelings about resonance into actual words. i KNOW that it is sketchy, full of holes, and quite possibly wrong on every single level.

Shuya, thanks for that math refresher and let me reword what I meant to say.

Resonance is the ability to look at a Jackson Pollock painting and say "ooh, pretty." It may LOOK like chaos, but everything is there because the laws of physics said that the paint drop ended up there because of the sum of all forces and yadda yadda yadda. So, in essence, you look at a single channel of information about some telecommunications company, and you can see what is going on. You zoom out, and look at, say, 100, and it looks like chaos even though they are all operated by logic. To the normal hacker, it looks like a jumbled mess. To a technomancer, they form some sort of pattern that looks pretty or spiritual or whatever.

I am asking about dissonance. Do these guys that see the minute flaws in every data transfer and point to that as a reason the world is flawed? Or do they just see the beautiful picture that 100 (or 1000, or 10 000) channels of information provide and say "Well! That's gotta go!" ???

hmmmm... well, i would say that to get a dissonant technomancer, basically combine a troll, a flamer, and a spammer into one, and add a heaping helping of this, plus some degree of actual competence when it comes to computer hardware and software to allow them to be even worse.

they pretty much just have a compulsive need to make life suck for everyone they come in contact with on the matrix. except that while a regular troll/flamer/spammer (which, honestly, are all probably the same person anyways, but whatever) would be doing that just to get their jollies, a dissonant TM does it because they get their jollies *and* it's a power trip that actually increases their power. that's about it.

how is that opposite the resonance? well, it really isn't. but hey, if i was a resonant TM (or really, anyone who isn't a dissonant TM) i would certainly hate the little SOB's, so at least that fits, right?

ROFLMFAO

That's it, I've got to make an NPC dissonant technomancer who's icon is Denis Leary, and has an ARO linking that song to himself.

Technomancer's also don't have a Matrix Condition Indicator like a hacker running a commlink does. A hacker can always toggle over to AR and reboot his software(okay, maybe not in a useful amount of time, sure), but a technomancer gets hit right to his stun track by regular Attackware - no black ic required. So a tm gradually builds up wound penalties on the condition indicator until he finally goes face-down unconscious when he crashes, quite literally so - minor penefit, a TM's living persona crashes when they're knocked onconscious. This makes all the difference if your cyber opponents intends do knock you out out with Blackout - and then Trace you, find you in meatspace, and do horrible things to you. On the downside, you're out for at least an hour if this happens - thats the interval for a Healing test.

Plus they know how which tiny string they have to pull to change that whole pattern into somethin they want, although it will look like just another bunch of chaotic randomness to normal users.


As far as my understanding of toxics and dissonance goes, they are just drawn to conditions which are hostile to normal humans and the complete antithesis to human life as we know it. Problem is, they learned to gain power from these hostile conditions, and try to expand them.
How toxics/dissonants see normal metahumans differs, some see them as failed creatures which have to be culled, others want to convert them (williing or not), and again others just don't care how the rest of the world would get along in the wasteland they want to create.