His deck is worth 10x what you're getting paid for a milk run, if you know a good fence.

you misunderstand. running everything wired isn't to keep it safe from matrix attacks. it's to keep it safe from the jammer you're about to turn on to give any attacking hacker a large noise penalty. if you physically connect everything to your commlink, you don't have to worry about their connection to the commlink getting jammed, and the commlink itself won't be jammed unless it's rating is exceeded... therefore, anything you want to be able to communicate wirelessly can still communicate wirelessly, even when you're using a rating 6 jammer.


there's plenty of other useful abilities to buy for cybereyes and cyberears. and on a lucky roll with your gun, better than 5-6 successes is not an unreasonable expectation. heck, using a cyber smartlink lets you use an inaccurate but otherwise good weapon like a defiance ex shocker (best taser for damage) or a slivergun or roomsweeper. or an enfield, which is the best of the shotguns by a significant margin, and which comes with a base accuracy of 4 (which with a fairly easily achievable dice pool of 12 - skill 5 attribute 5 specialization 2, for the sake of argument - you will run into problems fairly often, and even the laser sight will still have you losing hits fairly often).


matrix defense is neither a sleaze action nor an attack action. it is a firewall action, and since a commlink has firewall, you should be able to go on full matrix defense with a commlink just fine if i'm not mistaken (note: i may be mistaken. obviously, like pretty much everyone else here, my experience with the rules is limited).

10x? Try 100x or more. DERF. Nevermind. We're talking FENCING stolen goods "worth", not "actual value" worth.

Just go to webuyanydeck.com

The Full Matrix Defense is listed as one of the Matrix Actions for the non-hacker, page 222.

If the decker fully dedicates to Matrix defense, he should be running Encryption for an additional +1 to Firewall (fun fact: common programs are legal to buy, but they can only be run on cyberdecks, which are restricted).

But really, a dwarf druid, or any mage from an Intuition-based tradition, is going to be nearly as good as the hacker to defend with a comlink in AR.

Has this been confirmed? (The part about only cyberdecks being able to run programs.)

Also:

When does a device count as unattended? Especially in the case of commlinks, i could be advantageous to use the device-rating instead of the owners mental attributes.

As far as the Matrix rules text goes, the only way to run a program is the Free Action described under the "Reconfiguring your deck" header on page 228. The programs description also only refers to cyberdeck, and only cyberdeck have a limit on the number of programs. On the other hand, the Combat chapter, page 164, does list "Load Program", "Switch Two Matrix Attributes", "Swap Two Programs" and "Unload Program" as Matrix Actions (while the Reconfiguring your deck Free Action is clearly said not to be a Matrix Actions).

Here I was hoping that such bullshit would never apper again in the game.

The only up they then have versus googles is Ultrasound. I'd rather take googles; if they're bricked the character is not blind. Cybereyes that are online are a gateway into the world of the blind now, a bad choice if there is any. And that way, I can have the wireless bonus with a relatively low risk, and just reset every minute in case someone hacks the googles rather than bricking them without going blind for a combat turn.


It's a 17 percent chance, with a pool of 12 and an Acc of 5. That's highly optional, unless you purposely choose crappy guns. And you cannot use it on just some random gun either, because the gun still needs the corresponding mod, so it won't help you with stuff you pick up from gangers. Limit mods really don't do that much for you.


You can go on full defense reactively, but you can assign the decker's (in case you use a deck to ward yourself: yours) willpower as added defense bonus all the time. It's the difference between your cyberware already crackling and smoking a bit or possibly preventing Matrix damage entirely because you have a somewhat competitive pool.

Example:

Prism trusts his DR 7 commlink to protect his wares. He did everything right! Wired all his stuff physically to the link, routing the wireless through it as a protective bottleneck, bought the BEST commlink there is, and hence can safely enjoy his smartlink's much-enhanced wireless performance and can shoot like it was 2070! And he has been hired for a run that might not pay well but score some points with a major player in the Seattle scene, and kick some racist ass to boot! Prism hates racists. He also hates Throwbacks, like their fixer, but that fixer pays good money, and has connections, and anyway, he still hates Throwbacks less than racists.

The Corporate Avenger never liked commlinks. The Man created commlinks to keep the oppressed masses under his heel! He liked decks, which is why he got himself one as soon as FastJack's blueprints were availabe in the dark corners of the Matix. It's a pretty good deck, an equivalent of a Novatech Navigator, and right now he is stalking through a subsidiary of GENOM Corporation, the corporate face of the Human Nation, looking for paydirt and shooting racists in the face. He was hired by the same old-timer, an Ork fixer in the underground with an old-school feel about him and a hate-on for metaracists. The Corporate Avenger things this makes him a cool dude.

Prism and The Corporate Avenger don't really like each other: Prism thinks the Avenger is a paranoid throwback who wasted good ressources on something he can never use, and rather favors his wicked wifi enhanced Smartlink 3.0 and his super-compatible wifi-enabled Reaction Enhancers and Wired Reflexes (he also has two cyberarms). He thinks the deck doesn't pay off, and the BEST commlink he has will protect him like the BEST brand cndoms protect him from STDs. The Corporate Avenger responds with a flurry of slurs and political slogans that Prism completely blanks out. They decide not to slave Prism's devices to The Avernger's deck because hey, Prism can do this on his own!

Herr Uri Suelzer is a security decker working for GENOM, and he really hates three things: Metahumans, Shadowrunners, and untidy places. If he had any say, Seattle would be nuked from orbit the second he boarded a plane out of here, but he hasn't, and so he focuses on making the runners sneaking through the corridors of the facility he's running overwatch for pay. His corporate-issued deck is a Shiawase Cyber-5. Running silent didn't give them a chance: with his pool of 12 (Computer 6, Intuition 6), he easily scores one and knows something is going on. He then starts looking for silent users, and the runners get to oppose. Prism rolls Logic (4) against Herr Suelzer's 12, and Suelzer scores 3 hits against Prism (who rolls 0). It's more difficult against The Avenger; since he has a Deck, not a commlink, he uses Intuition+Sleaze (5+6, for 11 dice), and thus, both roll 3 hits, meaning Herr Suelzer finds Prism, but not The Corporate Avenger.

Herr Suelzer then decides to take over Prism's commlink and mess with him a bit. He knows his icon, and he is within 100 meters of him, so he just directly attacks, noise be damned. His pool is 15 (Logic 8 + Hacking 7), against Prism's intuition+firewall (4+7, 11). Herr Suelzer rolls 6 successes (good thing he priorized Sleaze, he might actualy have run into his Limit otherwise!), while Prism's BEST commlink scores only 3 hits. Herr Suelzer now has a Mark on the unsuspecting Prism. Score! Herr Suelzer has a Mark on Prism's BEST commlink. He decides to spoof a command to Prism's cyberarm: fire pistol in own face. He only needs one Mark for this, and since Prism has slaved his ware to his commlink, has a Mark on the slaves too.

Prism has a second of horrified wonder as his arm, without his doing, raises his Predator V to his forehead and pulls the trigger. He cannot even scream. The Avenger notices, though. He's now on his own against GENOM's security forces and a hostile security decker, and Ghost knows what else.

As can be seen, another massive up of a Deck is the Selaze attribute. With it, you actually have a chance to run silent even facing a decker.

On a side note, according to the Device Ratings table, the Transys Avalon DR 7 commlink is beyond Bleeding Edge technology. Communication, CGL. It prevents nonsense like this.

Nice story, but it doesn't fully comply with the rules:

1. Getting a mark on the master doesn't give you a mark on all slaves (only vice versa).
2. A hacker needs at least 2 marks on a device for a simple action with it (through Control Device). I don't know if a spoofed command really works here: It's not a simple command (like "eject clip" for a smartgun) but a series of precise movements (and since the sam still has complete DNI-control over his arm it's just a (sub-concious) thought for him to cancel the unwanted movement). EVen if the spoofed-command could not be overwritten: What's the dice-pool of the arm vs the sam?

Okay, I couldn't find where it says that. I couldn't find a rule that says master Marks carry over to slaves either, though. Is there even any rule on this?


No, spoof needs only one Mark. Control Device isn't really necessary here, since Herr Suelzer doesn't want to use the arm more than once, and doesn't want to carefully aim or anything. He just needs to put the gun in the general head of the user, which I'd say is covered by spoof. Unless you treat this as an action that needs a skill test; then, yes, Control Device would be necessary. Also, in my original (actually rolled) example, Herr Suelzer did a second hack and scored 3 Marks in the end, but that seemed unnecessary to me, so it was cut.


Actually, since cyberware is a device, it should work by RAW; also, given the arm acts out of the Sam's initiative turn on Herr Suelzer's initiative, he just doesn't get to act on this. Well, I guess a surprise roll could be houseruled in, but as I understand it, surprise rolls happen only at a combat turn's begin.

The only rule I can think of which comes close to that would be under the Matrix Perception heading on p. 235, which as you might guess is about perceiving other devices and nothing more. If you call guy next to you, the call still goes through your provider, and grids are nothing but ISPs.

So Fencing Gear is down to 10% base, instead of 30% base? Have not gotten to that portion of the book yet, so I am curious.
And if you are getting 84,000 Nuyen (10% of the Fairlight Excalibur Deck) for a Milk Run, well, I must be taking the wrong Milk Runs.

Ahem, that's 8400 Nuyen for the Milkrun, since the Deck is worth 10x that ammount.

Fencing via contact is now a set 5% of item value per loyalty rating of the contact. It's actually better to have your Face sell things now, unless you are in a hurry. You run the risk of Johnny Law coming down on you though via glitches and critical glitches.

BTW just found yet another way a deck helps you. The Hide Matrix action is a Electronic Warfare + Intuition [Sleaze] v. Intuition
+ Data Processing test. So that Stealth attribute helps you stay hidden in the first place, then also hide again if caught. And you probaly want good Electronic Warfare skill anyway for the previous mentioned jamming scheme.

Hmmm, having an Attack attribute also lets you erase marks. Yeah, I could easily see having an experienced Street sam branching off into a sort of defense focused Decker. There's a high nuyen barrier of entry though, unless you manage to loot a deck, or get your team Decker's old Deck when he upgrades.

As we established in the cyberware hacking thread, an implant bricked does not stop its functioning altogether, just removes whatever bonuses it gives you.

Also, there is no reason to have your cyberarm's wireless on, even if there is one. And you can't buy a Rating 7 device at chargen.

Ahhh... My Mistake... Math error in the wrong direction. Lack of sleep is devastating.

We used to harvest comlinks from every opponent in SR4 and SR4A for this very reason. So I guess my question is, was it ever gone?

See, we rarely did... Of course, that is heavily dependent upon character concept and play style. Our Gangers would go out of their way to recover dropped equipment, harvest cyber, etc. as that was the only way they ever managed to get the GOOD stuff. Our Pro Runners would never consider such a thing because it opened too many holes in our anonymity.

Of course, if you are forced to perform such actions to make ends meet, well...
Though in SR5, I am sure that any decker will be sorely tempted to take the Fairlight Excalibur from their opposition, if given the opportunity.

Yea we took them because they are readily transportable goods that can be quickly stripped from our opponents. It also took away their communication ability since we rarely used lethal force. We also took care to make sure they were powered down and power cells were removed. Harvesting etc. takes too much time for most pros to bother with.

then, shortly afterwards, since herr suelzer already knew there were two hidden icons that shouldn't be there, he does the exact same thing to the avenger. in fact, if he's feeling up to it, he can just keep doing matrix perception (which is pretty much not going to ever cause him a problem unless he critically glitches) until he spots the avenger, and from that point it's over. in fact, as soon as he realizes there are shadowrunners nearby, security has been alerted, and there goes the run pretty much.

the truth of the matter is, both of them should have had their wireless completely turned off in the first place, not just running silent, if they didn't want to get spotted.

also, it's just a little bit of BS that your theoretical hacker has logic 8 and hacking 7. really? your hacker is one of the most brilliant human beings ever, and has upgraded it with 'ware, and is on the verge of reaching the point where corporations want to extract him, and his job is just a regular security decker?

let's take a look into the grunts listing and see what might be more reasonable.

for example, corporate security (professional rating 2): relevant attributes are around 4. relevant skills are around 3-4 for the most part.

a more plausible example would have the security hacker throwing about 7 or 8 dice against the 7 + intuition dice of prism. less if he's hacking across grids (which is unlikely, i think we can assume that he isn't dumb enough to eat a -2 penalty when he knows he's safe from overwatch).

that guy you're looking at? he's elite corporate security, as a bare minimum.

why is either person announcing to elite corporate security that there's someone there who shouldn't be? because having wireless turned on, *period*, is announcing that there's someone there. hidden mode only hides you from people who aren't even trying to look. hell, even the professional rating 1 and 2 people can reliably make threshold 1, which is what it takes to notice how many hidden icons are in the area.

Which is why I wish to submit for errata to change the term hidden icon to casual dress icon as that's about what it seems like some days.

It's less ninja black and more off the rack greys.

Those are probaly good stats for a G-Man.

Also you have to factor in things like shift changes and vigilance. Same problem as with magicial security. Some spiders may get lazy and rely too much on their IC and automated systems. Or the most skilled spider may not be there. An intern or the like might be minding the store when the runners hit on the weekend or at night. Constant hardcore spider vigilance is often a sign you are hitting a high priority target like an important research lab.

Which takes us back to the character concept, and appropriate opposition in the world. If you build to unreasonably high DP's, your opposition will tend to not conform to the world paradigm (and have just as high of a DP or higher, because the GM wants to provide a challenge, natch). Just say no, and conform to the world's paradigm. Be satisfied with your 12-14 dice as a starting character and grow from there.

Thiose are just a hint above the stats of the quickstart rules hacker. You know, the one who cannot even get a decent job so he has to run the shadows. BS? Hardly. The BS is you expecting security deckers to be somehow much less competent than Shadowrunners.


... and highly skilled specialists are the same as regular minimum-wage grunts. Right.


So ... your solution to this problem is handwaivium, copiously applied. Gotcha.


Because skinlink became Lostech and most weapons mods are worthless without wireless? Or because this was an example about how a DR7 commlink is wirthless against a security hacker?


Actually, Hidden works fairly well if you have a deck and a sleaze attribute, as shown in the example. The way Hidden works just makes a commlink useless as protection against hackers. Herr Suelzer doesn't even know Avenger's there (though he will as soon as Avenger runs into goons, admittedly).

Wait is that a slam against us shadowrunners and how competent we are?

Teasing

I was wondering. The Matrix Perception only tells wether there is one icon running silent in a 100 meters. Once Suelzer has a mark on Prism's comlink, he can spot it without rolling. If he rolls a new Matrix Perception test to search for icon running silent, would Prism's comlink still appear as so?

If yes, it would be near impossible for a runner to detect if there are "enemy" icon running silent closing in, since the answer will always be 'yes' because of his own teammate's gear.

If no, then Suelzer should roll a new Matrix Perception, possibly as soon as he got a mark and before bricking or hacking Prism's comlink, to simply check if there are more icons running silent around.

ok, first off, one of the pieces of information you can ask on a matrix perception test is if there is an icon running silent nearby. the security decker *will* know that there are icons running silent. it's a threshold 1 simple test. if there was one icon running silent, and it was a shadowrunner, and now when he checks there's another icon running silent, what do you think he's going to guess it is?

secondly, the archetype decker is not unable to get a job because of skill. in fact, no starting shadowrunner is denied a job for reasons of skill, unless you do a completely atrocious job of building a starting character. why the archetype decker is a shadowrunner is not stated, but there is nothing to indicate it's a lack of skills.

thirdly, G-men are the people who are in charge of oversight. they're not in charge of stalking people and making them shoot themselves in the head.

fourthly, if the decker is not a grunt, then why is he doing grunt work? if he's the guy you call when there's trouble, then he's not the guy who patrols an area checking to see if trouble is on the way. if he *is* the guy who's supposed to find intruders and then scream for help, then he shouldn't be engaging anyone. and if you want to stay undetected, given how easy it is to find that icons are running silent in the area, you shouldn't be running any sort of wireless, hidden or otherwise, because you *will* be detected if you've got one running. it's way too easy to spot for it to not get noticed.

fifthly, putting a smartgun system on a shotgun is in fact not using a crappy gun. it is, in fact, using one of the best guns. the enfield combat shotgun outperforms assault rifles consistently. the slivergun is a burst-firing pistol that doesn't have limitations (the only other pistol, unless you count machine pistols, can only burst as a complex action... ie no recoil resets). these are all examples of weapons that are good in most ways, apart from having a low accuracy rating. there is great incentive to use a cybernetic smartgun system to bring these up to an accuracy of 6.

we have examples of people at various professional ratings. regular corporate security is what you can expect to be patrolling in corps; you don't use your *elite* corporate security (which is about where the proposed corporate decker's dice pools fall in) for patrol duty. they are the people you call when the guy on patrol finds something worth calling in. if you don't want to get spotted, you simply don't have wireless turned on. ever. because noticing the presence or absence of icons running silent is extremely easy.

seriously, if you want to go unnoticed and have wireless running, you'd best have your team's hacker actively patrolling the matrix himself before the team even gets close to the facility, because as soon as you get within 100 meters of any of the building's wireless detection systems, your cover is completely blown unless you've got already compromised those systems.

He'll be aware there is *something* going on. He'll not be finding the Avenger by default because the Avenger has a comparable pool to defend, unlike Prism, who didn't.


Ah, so we're back to SR3's very cyberpunk idea of the best specialists taking to the streets because reasons?


Have you even read the Matrix chapter of the core rules? G-Men are not simply doing overwatch. And Herr Suelzer is a corporate demiGOD, whose task is to maintain his corp's facilities' security. Of course he will deal with threats directly if this is more cost-effective than sending a combat team against them for collateral damage and losses in manpower (which have to be covered), if it means no danger to himself.


He is doing the same thing a SWAT is doing - being on site and looking for reasons to deploy. He is not running around the building like grunts, he is maintaining Matrix overwatch over his facility and then responding. Also, he is not supposed to scream for help but to soolve security breaches, either himself (like a Matrix intrusion), or in coordination with ground forces. How do you suppose security works?


All semi-autos are burst-fire weapons now (short bursts but still). And your two examples don't change a thing about the fact that a smartlink flat-out makes no sense for the other 18 weapons in the book. A wifi-enabled smartlink (by RAW, without houserules) makes sense because it adds to your pool and to accuracy, which means you have a decent chance to actually get something from adding to acc. 34% of the time. That's not too regular either.


So who patrols the Matrix in a corp compound then? IC are only deployable in Hosts. Since you cannot enter a host in meatspace by walking 'into it'. Who does the SigSec lifting there?


Well, the there's a host of cybersystems you need not bother with, because you're unlikely gto need them outside of a corp break-in.

On other hand, repeatedly failing to spot a silent running icon would hint either at someone with a very high Logic score and a bit of luck, or having a Sleaze attribute.

Sure, but he can't just hack the Avenger to shoot himself in the head, like he could Prism. Which is the purpose of the example. Whether either character from the example was terribly clever in bringing no Matrix backup is up for debate anyway.

The main purpose of the example was to show a) what security hackers can do to PCs, and b) how the best possible commlink is nearly worthless as defense against security hackers.

By the way, I also think your interpretation of what Spoof command can do is way to nice for the hackers. The cyberarm is not a drone and has no Pilot rating or autosoft. "Shoot the head" is not a command it should be able to interpret. It should not even get the Device Rating x 2 roll drones do get to understand a complicated command.

Then the arm should still have to roll an Attack Test (not sure if it should roll Device Rating-1 or Device Ratingx2) and Prism would still get a Defense Test. After what Prism could still drop the gun the cyberarm holds, and the whole thing turn into an hilarious battle between the hacker and Prism, each using the cyberarm in his own Initative Passes.

At which point you realize that if you play this one straight, a street samurai could give the hacker a Mark on his cyberarm or skillwires so that he can fire in every of his own Initiative Passes and then in every of the hacker's own Initiative Passes with either Spoof Command or Control Device. Even if the cyberware get really low dice pool, the hacker could still spoof Ready Weapon or Reload to help.

The arm has no reason to be online. At all.

Indeed, especially since it has no Wireless Bonus. *shrug*

he'll be finding prism (edit: this should have been the avenger) either physically or in the matrix, whichever way doesn't matter for the most part. after all, if we're going to have BS professional rating 5 matrix security, then we're going to have teams of BS professional rating 5 physical security. the avenger is going to get shot in the head regardless, it's merely a matter of who's going to do the shooting (if we accept your interpretation of spoofed commands, which as has been pointed seems unlikely... unless prism had previously set up a "shoot self in head" protocol for some reason).



best? not remotely. that said, there's plenty of reasons a skilled individual could wind up in the shadows, particularly when you consider that the megas are profit-driven, and have no problems with screwing people over if it makes them money. they'll screw over deniable assets when possible, because they didn't have to pay for their training etc, but if you become an inconvenience because you have or gain a conscience, or because you don't take orders well, and so on... well, they may not care about you any more.



right, he's a professional rating *5* equivalent. that's equivalent to the elite corporate security in terms of dicepool. do you have elite corporate security sitting around in hallways randomly just in case a shadowrunner comes by and needs to get a high velocity lead injection?



ah. so presumably you *do* have squads of elite corporate security just hanging around in the hallways with machinegun nests set up in case a runner wanders by. because this guy is absolutely patrolling the network like a grunt.



yeah, actual burst fire is much better than semi-auto bursts. especially now that their poor wording is being made more clear by freelancers, that simple actions not spent shooting will reset your recoil compensation... making it very undesirable to spend every complex action burst-firing. furthermore, it doesn't need to be amazing for everything to be useful... it is great for some of the best weapons out there (in terms of dealing damage). mostly because missing really really sucks.



who else would do it? well, how about a professional rating *2* decker, much like the professional rating *2* corporate security team that would actually be patrolling the physical location. and those professional rating *2* types tend to have a dicepool in the 7-8 range, which is generally more than enough to successfully detect that there are hidden icons and call in for bigger guns to help out.



most of them don't need wireless to function. the ones that even have wireless bonuses will often not need that wireless bonus to be useful.

Rating 5? You take that from where? Besides, hiring ONE professional person means you can not possibly hire other, less well trained people for other branches of your security? The mind boggles, Jaid. You're really trying too hard here.


That makes flat-out no sense. Or are American college grads joining the Cartels in droves?


No, they're on standby to deploy to hotspots. Like Herr Suelzer does. There's IC for real Matrix security as an equivalent to corp goons. What Herr Suelzer does is keeping a virtual eye on the upper grid 'aether', much like a security mage does, because IC cannot do that for him. Hence, the corp needs one (1) Herr Suelzer. Or do, in your bizarre world, the corps only hire squads of Magic 2 mages that physically patrol because otherwise it would be an inconvenience to PC mages?


No. You presume wrongly. I have them on standby somewhere in the facility, to be deployed in terms of a breach to overwhelm intruders. Like American police precincts use SWAT teams, see.


Uhm, seriously? Because hiring a team of level 2 deckers costs the corp more and can do less? In my world, corps do not optimize facilities to be runner b&e friendly, you know. They will hire someone who can go toe to toe with real deckers, and use IC to keep tehm busy in hosts until the real decker logs in. Same as grunts are used to contain a threat and the HTR team is there to mop them up.


Your and my definition of "useful" are clearly not the same.

People like Kevin Poulson, Kevin Mitnick, George "geohot" Hotz, and Andrew "weev" Auernheimer are all real-world examples of people who took their technical knowledge and used them outside of the corporate world. Arguing that highly-skilled people *always* go out and work for The Man is nonsensical right now in 2013, let alone in 2070.

I openly admitted to my father not that long ago that the idea of working for the Italian Mob was one that tickled my fancy. In a romantic kind of way, nothing that I'd seriously consider.

(In these parts, I think the entire membership is like 11 guys, 9 of whom are in jail, so...not exactly the best prospects, but I was speaking more generally)

Not always, but mostly. Your examples are exceptions, not the rule. And for each of them there are a thousand scroipt kiddies and wannabes and adventurous college students, and a thousand faceless analysts at The Man's secret polices. Even given the weeding out of many script kiddies with the New Matrix, how likely is it that Shadowrunners are the best of their profession, then, and how likely is it that their opponents are? Especially since many runners seem to have jumped ship, like The Dodger's story suggests.

... The Dodger's story is literally as exceptional as they come.

Not always, but usually. The corps have a much tighter grip on the market in the 70ies than now, so the vast majority of the really well-paying jobs are there. Not all the competent specialists will be hired by the Man, but most of them will be.

If this is going to the developers, why did you all nerf critical strike so badly? This has essentially made the unamred build obsolete, since the street sam can do this job better now, and the sword adept is head and shoulders better now. I know fists are free, but the cost trade off is no where near the power level that the unarmed got gutted with.

Maybe making it level 3 max a better fix, but only +1, that is way way harsh.

The only way I can figure it is since Unarmed has no limit they thought this was the best way to make it even. You can still get a bunch of +die for unarmed, but right now it basically requires full cyberlimb replacements and is thus generally not usable for Adepts.

I hadn't realized that 'runners had become the rule rather than the exception.

Why do the megacorps *need* anyone with top-level technical chops (outside of R&D)? The Matrix *literally* works FOR THEM to protect their interests. On the other hand, the very nature of the New Matrix ensures that the only people who are going to be able to last for long as a Matrix-based 'runner is going to have to be among the best hackers around.

(This isn't even factoring in things like the social structure of 2070. Here in 2013 I can get a job at Microsoft, Google, or Samsung for my skills and knowledge, but the megacorps of 2070 tend to look within themselves for their talent. You can be the best natural hacker around and have next to no chance at landing a high-paying legitimate job if you were born SINless in the Barrens.)

That was what Jaid said (and you corroborated).


Just because the label says "it works for you" doesn't mean it works for you. The corps need top-level security because that security will be up against top-level people (runners). Exactly BECAUSE the new Matrix weeds out the script kiddies. You don't need masses of Matrix goons, you need one guy who's up to speed.


No, they don't Shadowrun is not SLA.

That's not entirely true, yes the majority of the drones come from the ranks,. but the corps also realize that drawing from a single pool leads to stagnation.

Corporate head hunters regularly keep an eye open for talent, more than one young cub who was facing a string of charges for hacking has been offered a way out by signing on with a corp who dangle the twin carrots of getting out of jail and a chance at a 'better life'. Not every SINless is a hardened runner laughing at the system, most are just trying to get along by any means possible and the offer of an identity and job can be tempting.

Not to mention an actual wage and decent (well, less crappy) housing. And prospects, however diffuse, of a career. And if someone shoots them it'll be illegal because they'll be SINners!

Unless you are being shot by your own corp.


This is often referred to as 'downsizing'

See also Interdepartmental Actions.

Although it's true that comlinks are by fare the most efficient, one thing to remember is that with decks, it's firewall you should look at, not device rating. Deck firewalls go as high as 9. RCC's also have firewalls that go higher than comlinks, but although they are cheaper than decks, they still are more expensive than just using a comlink for defense.

Note: This also got me thinking about trying to deck with multiple decks, with one running agents and slaving devices, and the other for more offensive purposes.

We must be mis-interpreting each other, because I am absolutely not arguing that 'runners are super common. I'm saying that there are plenty of real-life examples of exceptional people *not* going along with the pack, choosing to use their skills for their own ends. Hell, if Steve Jobs and Woz went with the point that you've been arguing (that exceptional people look for lucrative work with The Establishment) there would have been no Apple Computer as we know it and the entire idea of a mass-produced personal computer might be considered absurd.

YOU said that all of the examples I gave are "exceptions", and my response is that 'runners ARE EXCEPTIONS. You ask "are American college grads joining the Cartels in droves?", and my response is that *some* do.




Convergence is the game mechanic by which innumerable highly-skilled computer security experts using top-of-the-line tools attack the people operating against the interests of the megacorps. They're so good that they don't even need to roll dice to do things against a hacker, they just DO THEM. All a corp *needs* for security is someone competent enough to keep an intruder busy while GOD and IC take care of things for them. Yes, they may have some badass Director of Matrix Operations who jacks in Plage-style if things get out of hand, but it's a waste of talent to have someone at the top of their field sit around in a host to see if someone unauthorized comes in.