One of my players is asking if he can crack some software before my game starts to save money on buying copies for all of his devices (he's playing a rigger).

At first I considered allowing it but I'm having second thoughts.

Would appreciate some experienced opinions!

The shadow rigger/hacker has a couple of problems:
- legally bought software can be traced to an identity and has copy protection.
- Legally bought software is ten times as expensive as warez.
- Cracked software degrades. Without a couple of connections and/or agents keeping ahead of the degradation is a PITA.

I recommend using the quick and dirty fix from the SR Mission: There is no cracked software. Runners can purchase illegal software through shadowy channels that costs full price but cannot be traced to an identity, has no copy protection and does not degrade (basically that is RAW without Unwired)

If you want to do all that bookkeeping, I see no reason why cracked software could not be purchased during CharGen.

If you forbid it, the player may just opt for one month of middle or higher lifeststyle to get a large portion of his monetary resources in cash and buy the warez right after CharGen.

Now to the problems of the rigger. I'm guessing he wants to crack autosofts. Some of them are limited to a certain category of vehicles or weapons. So unless he has a couple of similar drones, copying might not do him any good.

Just use freeware.

IIRC the GM can arbitrarily decide what software is available as freeware. So you might not get what you want.

Thanks for the quick (and detailed!) response. I feel like I should note that, with limited exceptions, I'm trying to keep things contained to the main the main 4e 20th anniversary book, as some of the players are new to the game and I don't want to overwhelm them with options. I've already realized this is difficult in some cases, riggers being one such case.



I think this is likely what I'll recommend. Less hassle, and still fair.



Also good to note. Thanks!

There is no cracking of software in the main book. If you restrict the players to the options in there, there will be no cracking ever. Funny thing, if players and the GM use the rules from Unwired, matrix activity gets more powerful, if both use Street Magic, magical activities get (somewhat) less powerful.

You can also have the freeware do amusing things like pop up an advertisement for Viagra9000 in his field of view right when he's in the middle of combat.





-k

That's a bit excessive .... baby with teh bathwater and all. There are plenty of good, reasonable, enhance-the-style-not-the-power options in supplements like Unwired.


No, i really doesn't get super-powerful for Matrix users. It gets more diverse.

But, software piracy as it's written? Is more of a headache than it's worth. Take m current hacker - built on 1K karma, so he's no slouch. Every four weeks of game time, he has TWELVE weeks of work to do patching up his software (assuming it's all cracked). Even halving that with a Programming Environment, _and_ halving it again by Rushing the Job? That leaves him with 3 weeks of every 4, spent doing NOTHING BUT PATCHING.

And it's questionable whether or not a GM would allow both methods of halving to be cumulative.

The OP said he would mostly only use the main rule book. So if I were to only use parts of the supplemental books, the cracking and patching rules would be very low on my list.

The diversity alone makes it more difficult to cover all the bases and thus intrusion more likely.

+1

Why? Only The Other Game does weird multiplication. They are different conditions which can happen simultaneously and thus should be applied.

Why? It is perfectly legitimate to do so. As long as you do not mind the increased risk of glitchy software...
If you really were serious about doing the work more quickly, you would spend a Point fo Edge to divide the time by 8 (alnog with Rushing and Programming Environment) so that time frame goes down to 1.5 weeks.

Generally, were I the GM in question, I'd agree with you. But, some GMs might consider that somehow "too powerful", or point to the fact that nowhere do the books explicitly say you can stack both half-the-time effects. I wasn't talking about wierd multiplcation either - I was just suggesting that some GMs might say "you can halve it once, by one means, whichever you like ... but that's it."

Hence, "it's questionable" ... rather than, say, "it's unlikely".


Just my current 1K Karma Hacker-Adept, for example?
Logic 6, Software 4(6), PuSHeD +1, and Analytical Mind +2; that's 15 dice to start with. Roll in an R5 Programming Suite, we're at 20 dice. The odds of glitching at that point are remarkably low.


Same question arises: can you halve the time repeatedly, or not. I would say yes - but, not every GM is going to automatically agree, and the RAW are not explicitly in support of it (only implicitly).

Yep, My 400 BP Hacker character has the same dice pools (15dp), except my Log ic is a 7, and the Skill is a 5.
As for the Glitching, when you rush the job, you count 1's AND 2's in the calculation for Glitch. Much more prevelant at that point.

Perhaps, though I would say that they are just being obstinate at that point. They do have their drawbacks, and really, it is not that big of a deal in the long run. Unless you enjoy Bookkeeping 101 that is.

I'm pretty sure Unwired also says that you can (read: the GM can allow you to) simply convert the patching process into a monthly upkeep cost (assuming you have appropriate contacts, which you should have, anyways, because they are useful ). That always seems the easiest solution to me.

You certainly do not need to write all the patches yourself. You could write some and trade for others (check out "Warezhouse 24" in Runners Companion under Virtual Contacts), or buy a few from a "warez" network (see Unwired under Piracy).

Bye
Thanee

Indeed... Easiest way to handle it.

Again, thanks for the detailed responses, all!

One more point of clarification, if you don't mind!

Software/Autosofts/Programs need to be purchased once for each device you intend to use them on, correct? Is there a page number in the SR4 20th book that makes this clear?

Again, just going by the main book. No Unwired or other books.

If they are legal: Yes.

If not: No, you can copy them and use them on different devices (though, some Autosofts are limited to certain types of devices).

Bye
Thanee

If I'm not mistaken, the main book only deals with legal software, correct?

And do you have a page number for that handy?

Thanks!

Yeah, the software in the main book is legal (as in legal vs. pirated).

Unwired p. 108 (and p. 114) has the rules.

I think the main SR4A book also has a short text that says something about copying software, but I cannot find it.

Bye
Thanee

Actually, the Main Core Book does not make any distinction between Legal and Pirated. That distinction was added with Unwired. The main book does not differnetiate in how you got your software at all. You could have coded it yourself, and yet, you still "Paid" the cost of the software in time and effort, as the starting equipment is not an indicator that you actiually paid money for it. You have acquired it over time, in some way or fashion, and the equipment is valued at the "Price" that you would have had to pay for it if you had purchased it with nuyen.

Patching seemed to me to be an extraneous rule. Why bother patching when you could instead just download a new cracked copy? In fact, that is one of the three options listed for dealing with pirated software patches. It's simple and it only costs 10% of the cost difference between ratings.

Where do you get that? An additional (not yet deteriorated) copy should cost 10% of the legal price just like the first one.

From Unwired....



So to numerically explain.

A Rating VI hacking program is 6,000. You would pirate it initially for 600. When it degrades to Rating V the cost of updating would be 10% of the difference between 6,000 and 5,000 which is 1,000 so 100 to update.

Indeed... Though some Hackers like to use their own Programs instead of trusting some other yahoo who they do not actually know.

I thought you were talking about getting a new copy at the old rating, not upgrading the degraded rating back to the original value. The new copy should be 600¥.

Which is more expensive than getting cracked patches.

Why would you do that, though? It is financially irresponsible.

Because that is what what StealthSigma suggested, but then used the cost for acquiring a cracked patch:

Yes, I know. I just thought there was some text about having to crack software first, before you can copy it (though, no rules were included for how you do that). But not really sure.

Bye
Thanee

Just reading this thread, have to second this.

Basically my advice is to use the Missions Standard - all software can be considered 'cracked' at the default price and just throws out all the bad rules regarding registration/copy protection and the dumb-as-shit SOTA rolls/rules/degredation/patching.

It wouldn't be so bad, really, if the base time to patch a program were "1 day" instead of "1 week". And/or, maybe if programs only degraded at 1/3 the RAW rate.

One of the more interesting houserules i've seen posted here involved squaring all program ratings to get its SOTA rating, and having -that- degrade at the usual rate - rating was only lost as it fell beneath the threshold for the previous rating. So a rating 6 program is sota36 and becomes 5 at sota25.

There may have been a roll to determine how much sota rating it lost as well, and I think that the more modern program won on ties as well.

all in all it seemed neat, and reduced the monthly annoyance of degredation in exchange for more complexity and bookkeeping.