Last night we came across the situation where a hacker who was under my Free Spirit's Guard Power umbrella made his way into a closed network. We wondered whether he would be protected from glitches while rolling Tests in his hack attempt.

One idea put forth was that as long as he was using meat speeds and attributes, he was protected. So, AR, yes protected, but not VR. This was countered by the opinion that his mental faculties were still involved, so he was still protected.

Any thoughts? References to RAW?

On the Matrix, you need the Sprite version of that power. I'd say it doesn't work at all. Magic is arbitrary.

Obviously, this is just a personal decision.

RAW, far as I can tell, doesn't make a distinction between the Guarded person being online or otherwise. "Can be used to prevent a glitch from occurring" - seems pretty straightforward to me.

If you want to narrow the utility of the power, you want the sentence that comes before it, the one that refers to "normal environmental accidents and hazards," and then you get to argue over what counts as a normal hazard. My money is on the technomancer giving you a hard time should you rule that the Matrix doesn't count as such.

Don't have my copy of Unwired to hand, but what (if anything) does it have in the way of a comparable power or ability?

I'm just going by the basic rule that magic doesn't affect the Matrix. The closest you can get is Increase [Attribute] and boosted Adept skills.

Is this a house rule you've decided for your game, or do you have precedent from a rulebook?

Magic doesn't extend into the Matrix at all.

Fortunately, Guard doesn't affect the Matrix. Just like Improved Ability doesn't. Guard affects its target, no matter what actions he's performing. Yes, there's a Technomancer version of the power, too, but that doesn't have much of anything to do with the topic.

I specifically said I'm expressing personal views. OP expressly asked for thoughts.

I agree with you on principle. However, it becomes a little less clear in the OP, as he says in AR, his meat body is still doing the controls, so it becomes less clear as to if the spirit's power is actually working in the Matrix in this instance. It *could* be preventing the user's meat world glitch. In AR, the hacker is doing things in the meat world that effect the Matrix world, but he is not actually in it.

I'm not saying I would rule differently than you, I'm just saying it's a good question, and not clear if you are considering AR, not VR.

the hacker is writing the code with his mind independent of where/what he's connected to. a glitch in hacking is basically a typo or a missklick. I'm pretty sure guard prevents typos

Uhm, so am I. And so is every single person who ever posts here. "In my opinion," doesn't have to precede every single sentence.

Guard works if you're running from guards, shooting a gun, casting a spell, summoning a spirit, or even when recalling a fact with a Knowledge Skill. It's protecting the target from glitches with little regard to what he's actually doing. It won't protect his agents or his programs or anything, but it will keep him glitch-free from anything he's personally trying to accomplish.

I was responding to the question Mr Clock asked of me. Specifically, he asked if I was expressing an opinion, or describing a rule. Facrissake.

I don't think a glitch is necessarily something like a typo. Possibly, but I think it's important to allow for actual mistakes (as opposed to 'innocent' typos), especially because nobody types in 2070. Does this affect the question? If you 'intentionally' make a mistake, that could still fall under what a glitch is.

Some people are comparing AR/VR. In VR, is 'the character' still there? Is the test taking place in the Matrix, or where the magic is? RAW probably says that it doesn't matter, but that's just RAW.

Thanks Yerameyahu. I have a new group for an all-day game in a couple of weeks, and I'm just trying to make sure I'm in shape for it.



Drifting a bit now, I know, but is there a reference for this? I'm just getting a little confused about the whole magic/ Matrix thing. I can understand a spirit not being able to apply Guard to an agent or sprite. These purely technological entities have no aura and no life as the spirit understands it, and may be refused as valid targets for the power. However I don't see how magical effects on a person are automatically invalidated because the person happens to be using a computer, even if it is through full VR. I'd like to understand the reasoning.

No, you're misunderstanding him (because he likes to be misleading). He's saying that Improved Ability and Guard *do work* for normal PC Matrix tests, because they're affecting the normal PC (not the Matrix).

Honestly, the 'no magic on the matrix' rule is a completely unnecessary one. AFAIK, it just means that you can't stunbolt someone's icon. I believe that there's no one stupid enough to ask their GM to do that in the first place, so there's no need for a rule. As you said, an agent wouldn't be a valid target, end of question.

Which I said in the very next sentence after the above quote.

You did. That's how I knew what to reiterate to help Mr Clock here. Full points to Gryffindor. Aren't we all happy?

In Clock's defense, this threw me off a little too. The ability to read sarcasm doesn't extend into the Matrix, even if magic does.

Thanks to everyone for the help!

Hey! That's my line!