Something that came up in yesterdays session.



I always assumed that this implied a big boon for Rigger-Technomancer, since their drones can shut down the wireless link and instead communicate via the Deep Resonance with their Compiler. Now we had the situation at hand, that our technomancer was in a Static Zone and i suggested that he compiles a Machine sprite for his Recon Drone. I ruled that the Teams mesh network is "online" enough for it to work, but one of my players opposed the idea. We concluded the situation different, but i'm still not sure if my intepretation is legal. So i ask you my fellow dumpshockers. RAW? RAI?

I would rule the interpretation as legal. I should note that another freelancer and I have argued over this at length, though, but I think my view is right.

OMG! a ruling that makes TM suck less at rigging??

It must be wrong, make TM suck more not less.

On a more serious note I can see the size of "on-line" mattering but I would be prone to give it to the TM, in all other respects in a dead zone his powers are boned, please let him play the game he came for. Deep Astral questing is when you should really give them the shaft. Seriously, what are they doing there?

Also having them have a machine empathy that works in the total absence (or nearly) of signal is creepy that way I like my TM PC's and NPCs to be creepy. Make the little drone get "lonely", contantly asking its creator if it can come back, not actually disobediant, but scared of the quiet and the dark (lack of other signals), if you want some RP fun.

The only thing to be aware of is that the corps will also know about this work around and they will most likely be abusing it harder (yes I know it takes some work to abuse things harder then the PC's but once you get some practice in, example - Ares only has onE TM on the payroll, but that doesn't matter, he can be in Hong Kong and know all about whats going on in his insanelt daisy-chainned Seattle security node, every top end system that can realistically have a Sprite on guard will have one and once it goes down the panic button gets hit. Suddenly I never want to hack EVO again...).

This has been my interpretation as well, sadly it means we are quickly approaching a point of it being pointless to play mundane hackers/riggers. Maybe there will be some neew cyberware out there to balance the scale int he interim.

The only "hard rules" reason I can see to play a mundane matrix PC (aside from freeing up a butt load of build points) can be summed up easily in 2 words:

Combat Hacker

I think its practically impossible to cram enough cyber-goodies into a TM to leave them good at combat while not murdering their resonence to death. By contrast it is fairly easy to do the same with a hacker or (to a lesser extent due to $$$ problem) rigger. Sure your hacker won't be standing up to the teams Sammi for more them a few rounds, but those security guards are Hyper-Dead and you'll probably give the adept a run for his money (well untill he actually hits you anyway).

That wasn't meant to sound nearly as whiny as it probly came across. I understand a specialized character ™ being stronger then a character with a bit more flexibility (Hacker) I just find myself concerned when things that the hacker flat out "Can't do" start to pile up. Like lets say you allow people to slave themselves to a TM (which by the rules is legal, even if it doesn't make any sense) then by the rules no one can ever hack the teams gear unless they can break that slave link. It's not that in a areana of digital space all but the best hackers will be beat out by a TM specialist who on top of that who can do a few tricks. It concerns me that the TM's keep the hackers from getting to the arena in the first place.

Hehe I think this is funny, this post elicited a "Technomancers suck" response and a "Technomancers are over powered" response. Good job. I play a technomancer myself, and I never thought about this, great idea, and I will be sure to use this in my next game.

I can see the argument both ways.

They are overpowered on the Martix - they have a number of options and tricks a Hacker cannot match.

They are underpowered out of the matrix - a TM is too cost intencive and need all their essence for their job to be very effective otherwise in any secondary role.

Really its the difference between a Mystic Adept and a Mage. the mystic adept can handle all of the mages main duties, but a mage kick their tails at a fair number of those duties and has a few trick they cannot do. The mystic adept though has far more flexablity outside of the "mage" duties.

I don't know... based primarily on the text you posted I think I may have to come down the other way despite the disadvantage to the TM.

The bolded parts below are what leaves me questioning the ability to "shut down the wireless link and instead communivate via the Deep Resonance".



My understanding are the TMs are walking human wireless devices. Wireless is how they commune with the Deep Resonance' If the only wireless link on a drone is shut down, the TM isn't going to get anything from it...it's not online, its not part of the Matrix anymore.

If there is something more in the books that would support the other point of view (the deep resonance being a non-RF 'telepathy' that lets sprites talk to TMs) I would be very interested in knowing about it though, because you all are right that it would be a cool trick and a nice edge tof TMs if it wasn't carried too far.

Very interesting, I had a similar conversation with a couple of my players last night. I was informed that the Hacker is beginning to feel outclassed by the TM, who finally has accrued enough karma to be really good at being a TM, and the Hacker is considering building a new character mid-campaign (something I am not really excited about). This despite the fact that, historically in the campaign, the Hacker has had center stage compared to the TM, and it was only in the last session that the TM was able to accomplish some tasks at which the Hacker failed.

I made the observation that the Hacker was beginning to be more of a Combat Hacker (she actually drew her pistol and shot up a couple of Yakuza goons in the last session), which is something the TM will never be able to achieve. I have not had the opportunity to speak with the player yet, and I am sure we will hash it out prior to Sundays session, but I will try to steer her towards keeping the character and continue to build upon the Combat Hacker role.

Just seemed very timely to this thread...

The first highlighted sentence is poorly worded, with that sentence alone, I am left wondering if they are referring to the TM or the Sprite remaining online. I think the subsequent portions of the quote make it clear that it is the TM that needs to be online, and after all, a Sprite is either online or nonexistent. I would agree that in most circumstances, if the TM is not online (not able to access the Matrix), they would not have this connection with the Sprite. The situation described in the OP, however, is something different. It seems to indicate that there is another network which the players can access (I am not sure what is meant by 'mesh network'), which is rising above the static that has shut them off from the Matrix. If the Sprite and TM are both connected to this mesh network, I don't see why the TM would have a problem communicating with the sprite.

Agreed, if there is some sort of network which both the sprite and the TM are connected to (even if it a private one constructed just from their team's commlinks and the wireless link of the drone) then they would be able to communicate. And based on the rest of the Sprite-Technomancer Link section, if the TM goes offline, the sprite would continue following its orders and the TM can try to reconnect to the sprite when the TM re-establishes a connection assuming the sprite has not 'expired'. I think the part that made me scratch my head was when the OP said:

"since their drones can shut down the wireless link and instead communicate via the Deep Resonance with their Compiler"

That makes it sound as though a sprite and a TM have the ability to communicate telepathically with or without any wireless connection, which I don't think is legit beased on my reading of the rules. That may not be what the OP was meaning to imply, but that is what I read out of that line.

not the first time i have seen the deep resonance interpreted as a extra dimension...

i think its better to read it as a extra network protocol, somehow hiding in the existing network traffic.

Thanks for the input, i'll think it through and post my results in time.

hobgoblin: Thing is... my technomancer PC thinks that the metahuman Matrix is an extra protocol for the deep resonance. I think that is why i think it is possible.

Aye, personally I would have gone the other way, a character who relies on the 'Trix for his powers should be as helpless in a deadzone as a Mage is in a Mana Void.

I think you read far to much in what you've quoted
.

"through the Matrix", not "through the Resonance", so IMHO no matrix means no link, you need a wireless (or wired) connection to the drone to be able to talk to your sprites.

Seconded. I have always thought that the Deep Resonance was a kind of "gestalt" or "synergistic" creation of the Matrix as a whole. It is not all-pervasive, but only exists in places where the "greater Matrix" exists. Also, to that end, it exists part and parcel with the Matrix and their protocols, not apart from them.

A TM who compiles a Machine Sprite to inhabit a drone can only communicate with it if the wireless capabilities of both are enabled, however the details of that communication would be immune to interception/eavesdropping by anyone but another TM, since the communication exists on a level that normal Matrix users don't understand.

Well here's where that logic starts to break apart TM's don't themselves actualyl broadcast or recieve by my understanding. They have no transmitter of their own to send or recieve in the conventional sense yet are able to practice their abilities. Even in areas with no wireless at all. Why would sprite be any different?

Hmm, tis my understanding from Emergence is that yes they do transmitt, albeit the organic radios aren't really understood yet.

Was reading unwired today, and found the info on mesh networks on p. 199:
Mesh Tags
These RFID tags are designed to be spread en masse over a
large area (spread from drones, airburst from mortars, etc.) so they
may act as micro-routers and create an ad-hoc mesh network in
static or dead zones. They have a Signal rating of 2.

So, getting back to the OP, yes, your TM would be able to communicate with your sprite/drone over this type of network IMHO.

Actually they do... they are biological transceivers... there is a short piece of fiction (in Emergence I think) that describes this in detail... the technomancer is ALWAYS transmitting into the matrix, and actually feels lost if that connection is somehow severed (through jamming, or through shutting it of themselves (which causes discomfort))...

Just because they are biological transceivers does not meen that they can ignore network protocols and such... they still use the same matrix that everyone else does, just in a completely different fashion (biologically rather than technologically), and they have access to the underlying "gestalt" known as the Resonance upon which the matrix is unknowingly built upon...

Keep the Faith

now i find myself wondering if the simsense system is bandwidth wasteful. That it encodes much more then whats needed for the sensory IO. And that this background "noise" is whats powering the TM, and powered the otaku in previous editions.

This very well could be the case... thoguh with no empirical evidence to support it, we will probably never know... You NEVER have enough Bandwidth in my opinion...


Keep the Faith