So, on another site I was able to ask some questions of the Shadowrun Line Developer Jason Hardy. I figured it might be helpful to post the results here, as it cleared some things up for me:


JH: I've put answers below the various questions!

Originally Posted by GiraffeShaman
1. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Grids, GOD, and the G-Men. I love these concepts, but feel a bit starved for information on some of them as the main book focused heavily on shadowruns and not as much outside of hosts. How do you envison the grids? Is there some way around the problem of Street sams having their PAN on the public grid in order to cause deckers a -2 penalty from lag? What kind of things can the G-Men do in the Matrix to track down criminals, especially ones who do things like attack someone then log out immediately to evade GOD? Are the G-Men especially skilled and intense on the Megacorp Grids? Do the corps have any other defenses on the Megacorp grids?

(Answer)

JH: Abstruse was essentially correct in his answer about the –2 public grid penalty--if you're close enough to the street sammie, don't bother worrying about a grid, just go after them directly.

The biggest thing the G-Men do is the Overwatch Score. If someone logs out, they are somewhat handcuffed--that's the nature of the Matrix. Quick hits are the name of the game. They can try the Trace Icon action to find the location of someone as long as they're online, but once someone logs off, it's awfully tough to track them through the Matrix.

G-Men are definitely intense on megacorp grids, even more so on megacorp hosts. More details about hosts and deep runs will be in the eventually forthcoming Matrix sourcebook. There aren't too many other defenses to speak of other than G-Men, but there really doesn't need to be …

2. What's are the best defenses in SR5 from grenades? Just running really fast with the new streamlined movement system?

(Answer)

JH: In general, yeah, I'd saying getting out of the blast area quickly is the best strategy. If the grenade is wireless enabled, you can try to mess with the trigger, but that's risky. Throwing a troll on top of it may help absorb some of the damage, but it makes them cranky.

3. What kinds of things can Technomancers do better than Deckers in this edition? Any future plans for the TMs, especially as it pertains to outside of hosts out on the grids?

(Answer)

JH: With TMs we tried to go for "different" without necessarily being "better." Complex forms have different functions than programs, making TMs operate in different ways. They also have some advantage when it comes to Overwatch Score, but that's only in relation to their particular actions, not when they try Matrix Actions that normally accumulate OS. Since hosts will be more detailed in the Matrix sourcebook, you can expect to see more discussion of TMs in relation to them as well.

4. Since Jackpoint exists still in new Matrix, can we assume there are all sorts of darknets for software pirates and the like?

(Answer)

JH: Absolutely! In fact, the freelancers have had plenty of fun coming up with names of these various secret spots and hacker hideaways. The upcoming season of Missions will talk some about the underground Matrix in Chicago.

5. What are the best defenses for a street sam who wants to remain online? Are there any upcoming technologies to help out online street sams? (i.e. skinlinks, some kind of alternative network, use of a PAN in areas the Matrix can't be reached, and so on) Are online SAMS able to be anonymis through an online service like the Onion Router or the like? Can they be tracked? (That's probaly going to be my players big worry when we play our first SR5 game)

(Answer)

JH: First, don't do anything that accumulates an OS, though that shouldn't be a problem. Second, if you've got a hacker handy, have them slave your devices to them to provide a defensive boost (and get faster alerts about incoming attacks). Third, yeah, you can be tracked, but remember that there are a crapload of PANs out there, so people have to know what they're looking for to find you. And the occasional quick reboot can make life difficult for anyone looking to track you down through the Matrix.

thank you,

Skyscraper the Giraffe Shaman

My pleasure. Have fun!

Jason H.

Adding a post from Abstruse here, since it is referenced in Jason's first answer.

Abstruse: I'm obviously not Jason, but I can help with this one. Grids, GOD, and G-men have been around forever. Grids were used as far back as SR3 (possibly from the VR2.0 rules). Grid Overwatch has been around since the Corporate Courts, so this isn't anything new either. They're basically the portion of the Corporate Court that enforces international Matrix law on the grids. They've been pretty hands-off until this edition though, mostly because it wasn't until now that the corporations decided they wanted to completely lock down the Matrix.

Also, the -2 penalty doesn't work the way a lot of people seem to think it does as an extra decker shield. The decker's probably going to be within 100m which is within handshake range meaning that the connection is now peer-to-peer. That means no -2 penalty from using the public grid to protect your smartlink or wired reflexes.

If your commlink doesn't have a Stealth chip (which would technically make it a cyberdeck), it can be tracked. But you can reboot it easily to end any marks you may have collected. It's no more dangerous in SR5 to walk around with a commlink than it was in SR4A and is actually a bit better for you since you can slave all your wireless gear to your PAN and let the commlink's Firewall protect everything instead of the drekky default one.

Link for reference: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.ph...developer-stuff

I'm not exactly sure where the two got the idea that being within 100 m of somebody qualifies as a direct connection (which by RAW is only possible via cable), and the idea that used ware should not be available at chargen is...interesting...

That action points initiative system was a neat idea, but thank the gods they didn't stick with it. Thank your playtesters for that, btw.

What, you expected the line developer to actually know what got printed in the rules he was responsible for? Man, that's totally 1990's. Not how we do business today!

That didn't answer the question at all! Unless enemy (corporate) hackers never go after the sam's gear...

Wait wait wait, so you can establish direct connection between various devices over wireless? Why then doesn't wireless-enabled gear get wireless bonuses in a zero zone?

It did answer the question. The answer was "you do not have any defenses other than trusting your decker, because that was the whole point of implementing the system as it is", but he didn't come right out and say that.

So he used political double-speak instead of forthright replies?

I'm guessing that JH wasn't talking about going after the samurai directly through the Matrix when he said "go after them directly." Unless he's advocating running up and plugging a cable into his gear. =i)

You know.. a modified harpoon gun with an invasive hacking tool built in and a trailing cable line......going after the Great White Sammie

Sure. Because shooting him in the chest with a harpoon gun isn't going to suffice to slow him down...

I'm surprised nobody asked him when he expects the first errata to be released - I thought I heard Bull was trying to get one ready for Missions ASAP, but haven't heard anything to verify that.

The Corporate Court was established in 2023 (don't know about the plural form). The Corporate Court Matrix Authority maybe did exist for some time (thought possibly not before the Matrix itself, which would be 2031-2036). The Grid Overwatch Division proper, however, did not appear before the late 2050ies, per Target: Matrix.

"Until now" implies a creation date relatively close to Target: Matrix, which is posted on August 2061. However, the following text mentions G-men who ask to stay at GOD after their initial one year assignment, which suggest GOD operated for at least one full year, which put its creation date mid-2060 at the latest.

Depends, I know a few trolls that would just be a tickle to.

His answer to the -2 from the public grid makes sense, though it's not described in the book. Basically, if you and your target are within wireless range of each other, it doesn't really matter if you're on the public grid, because there aren't any nodes or devices to pass through.

The rule I'd use:

Within Wireless Range: If you're within 100 meters (and thus don't have any noise based on distance), then you don't suffer any penalties for either you or the target being on the public grid, or for being on different grids.

Which makes grids meaningless, since long-distance hacking is heavily hampered by Noise anyway.


He does that a lot.

This is why if I were to choose a super power, it would be to punch people through time whenever they say something false or misleading.

(Meaning: when I hear or read a [politician|news reporter|interview guest] say something that is either obviously false (as in I can plug it into Google and prove it in under 5 minutes) or misleading, I get the opportunity to punch whoever it was who said it, at the time they said it (my fist traveling through space and backwards in time to do so)).

I'd wager you would have very, very sore knuckles very, very quickly. Is Unbreakable Knuckles a secondary superpower?

I wish they'd clarified if I can slave my PAN (with my items slaved) to my decker's deck for security purposes. Makes for less bookkeeping when determining who on the team has what slaved to where.

I assume by your current PAN in this example you mean your devices are slaved to your commlink and you want to slave the lot to your decker's deck.

You should be able to do so, but I think you have to slave all the devices, including the commlink to the Deck, making the Deck the Master device in this setup and thus makes up a new PAN.
Remember they can only slave Deck Device Rating x 3 number of devices. (pg 233). So your smartgun and commlink both are slaved to the Master Deck in this situation, not a daisychain of Smartgun slaved to Commlink which is in turn slaved to Deck unless I am misunderstanding this.

I probably would.

On the other hand, it would be so so very satisfying.

Yeah, that was basically my reading of it. During the whole "we're scared of deckers bricking our stuff" phase the devs seemed to indicate the decker's job is security for the team. Looking at being limited to 12 or so items slaved to a deck (at chargen), I don't see how the decker CAN protect his crew. Best I'm seeing is that everyone grabs a dr 6 commlink, slaves their stuff, and prays. Not sure how the decker reallly helps in this situation.

Then the GM has to deal with the bookkeeping of Sammy 1 has his gear slaved to his commlink, except his arms, the decker's got those. Sammy 2 has a crappier commlink, so 5 of his devices (ware, and maybe gun) are on the decker's link, while the mystic adept just turns his crap off and massacres with spells and adept abilities. Seems like unnessary bookkeeping.

If they could, say, slave their own gear to a commlink, then slave their whole commlink/slave/pan system to the decker's deck, then he/she COULD actually run matrix overwatch on his/her crew. Easier to track too.

Unless there are options I'm missing.

More than likely, anyone going after your PAN is going to be nearby, where your hacker can engage them.

Guess I didn't consider that. A reactive defense instead of actual protection.

If I were GM, I'd allow exactly what you suggest, Remnar. Slave stuff to comlink. Slave that to deck. Multiple layers of protection. That's the smart way to do it, regardless.

I don't recall anything in the rule book that forbids it, I'm not sure chaining your devices into slave/master relationships affords multiple layers of protection. For starters, each device in that daisy chain is directly accessible. If your chain goes stuff -> commlink -> deck, then the stuff doesn't get access to any of the deck's ratings, and if an attacker gets a mark on your stuff, it gets a mark on the commlink, and since the commlink is itself a slave, the attacker gets a mark on your deck, too.

there's a limit to the number of things you can slave, if i remember right.

allowing slaved devices to have a separate list of slaved devices would mean that there is functionally no limit, because the number of slaved devices you can have per device rating is not less than one, which means that each slaved device can have it's own slaved device extending out indefinitely.

or, in other words, i don't think a slaved device can also be a master, because that would mean that there essentially is no limit on how many devices a single device can slave.

So daisy chaining does NOT work, making decker defense impossible (or severely limiting the amount of gear mundane characters can carry). Gotcha.


Why? Even without noise reduction, he can be anywhere within the same sprawl as you are (he'll still have better Matrix attributes than you do, especially sicne the local net defense doesn't work either). That's the proverbial needle in the (big) haystack.

You make that sound as if grids were currently meaningful in any way

Well, let me rephrase that to "even less meaningless than my previous understanding of the rules made them." Happy now?

So it boils down to realizing you're being hacked... then either turning off your stuff (easier with it all slaved to a commlink) or hoping your decker can somehow find and attack/biofeedback the guy before your gear gets bricked.

Yeah, I think if my old group was still playing we'd just toss the whole hacking gear/ware thing and say all bonuses are on all the time. Hackers can do other stuff in combat.

The clouds part, and the sun shines through...

Yeah, well that was my initial thought right away, but I was hoping that there was a RAW work around that made sense. i.e. the decker having some type of system akin to counterspelling (though that's weaker now too) for hacking attempts. The slaving to the deck system works kinda like this, except the device limit makes it more trouble than its worth.

Though, for the GM who doesn't really care about this stuff it can just be a non-issue, corpsec and mercs don't waste time hacking gear as long as the PC's don't either, everyone wins the game of simplicity.

I've been out of actually playing games since early 4th, but as a guy who used to play primarily deckers, I'm trying to get this all straight and shiny in my brain.

no, just the amount of stuff they should have online. many things don't really need to be online at all. even if you could slave everything, you still wouldn't want most of it online.

So if you want useless smartlinks and wired reflexes that cannot communicate with cyberware they'Re directly attached to ...

So if you want useless smartlinks and wired reflexes that cannot communicate with cyberware they'Re directly attached to ...

Yeah, My opinion is that hacking cyberware is really dumb, and as such, none of mine will be on the Matrix (What Matrix Bonuses? You must be smoking something). Now, Comlinks will be online, of course, as will 'Decks and Tacnets (to a degree), but Cyberware (Most Cyberware anyways)? Really. Bad. Idea.

Yeah, I think I'm going to have to generate a sample team, get their gear sorted and figure out what's what on a typical "run" scenario to see just how much stuff really NEEDS to be protected by the decker, what can probably be protected by a commlink (who wouldn't get max DR out of the gate?) and what is most likely to be just shut off all the time.

Mostly it'll just be guns, essential cyber (eyes and wired reflexes mostly?) and maybe a few fiddly bits here and there.

A bit more. Cyberears, cybereyes - keep in mind apparently add-ins count as separate node! - wired reflexes/reaction boosters, commlinks, smartgun gun add-ons, laser pointer add-ons, guns, grenades if you use airburst, vehicles, drones, VCR cyberware, datajacks (curiously need wireless too), rigger control decks. Other stuff can probably be activated in situ, but you cannot spend a complex action activating every piece of your gear in combat. Given a traditional 4-man team, that strains the deck's slaving limit significantly.

But there is a simple, elegant solution to that. Setting a device priority list. Basically, cannot slave commlinks to another commlink, only to a deck, and decks cannot be slaved to anything (except maybe a nexus in another book). This adequately allows a decker to protect their team, without infinite daisy chaining.

Yeah, I'm thinking that what I'd do is have the most important/damaging ones be slaved to the decker, the rest will just have to go through the teammate's commlink. So it'll have to be some type of priority list of what is most important/potentially damaging down to what is useful.

Situationally useful gear will just have to be off until needed.

Though, DR 6 commlinks aren't exactly a cakewalk to hack either, so hopefully they can last long enough for the user to reboot and dump the bricking attempt.

alternately, carry a jammer with you everywhere you go, just low enough rating to *not* shut off all your toys (run all your cyberware through a datajack connected by a wire to your commlink, since it's all low rating by default. in fact, if you wire all your gear directly to a high rating commlink, the second you think you're getting hacked you can turn on your high rating wireless jammer to give your opponents a large penalty to hack you, although obviously you wouldn't want to run that all the time given it's like painting a gigantic target on yourself....)

your own commlink should be able to protect, iirc, 18 devices if it's rating 6. that, plus your attribute, plus giving a -5 penalty to any attacking deckers means that you could actually wind up getting marks on them when they try to hack you...

There's definitely things I'd put on a "Never connected even if Hell freezes over" list. Things that no bonus is worth it. Eyes, Ears, grenades come to mind.

One of the better defenses is simply repeatedly rebooting. This would only might be a problem in combat.. But works fairly well in the stealth/lurking part of a run, when some Corpsec spider might surprise brick you. Might cost you a bonus in an ambush situation in meatspace though, so it's a tradeoff.

Prime runner street sams will probaly start buying cyberdecks.

Or grabbing decks of deckers they've scragged.

Oh, crap. Now after the intro/milk run its the "track down some poor decker, geek him and take his deck so our samurai is protected" run.

SalvageRun™

a deck is actually not very good protection. a rating 7 commlink is relatively cheap (and by that, i mean it is cheap relative to the cost of a cyberdeck), and provides 7 dice defense. a rating 7 cyberdeck is... well... it doesn't exist yet. a rating 6 cyberdeck will run you over 800,000 nuyen (also, it's much harder to find).

for the cost of the cheapest cyberdeck on the market, you can buy 3 commlinks. also, those commlinks are perfectly legal, so getting them is just a matter of having money and going to a store.

commlinks are less money and provide much better passive protection for your team. your street samurai isn't going to be doing much of anything offensively with a cyberdeck most of the time, and as such it is largely wasted on him. give any extra decks you find to the decker to run agents from, or sell them to buy something useful.

Floor presents!

Running Silent is where it's really useful. Logic + Sleaze to not be found with Matrix Perception tests. There's probaly some hacking programs a Street Sam might benefit from, like Sneak. It is expensive though. Might be good for a high logic and technical Techno-Sam though, especially if he wants to dabble in hacking. And the Sam Probaly doesn't care about the -2 on Matrix actions, because he's not hacking, just trying not to get his stuff hacked.

I was forgetting Commlink over rating 6 as well. Might be a good option.

Yeah, the expensive deck thing does create an old problem GMs used to have with expensive foci. If your NPCs are using the good stuff against the players, it's something that can potentially get looted, thus massively infusing wealth into your campaign if you aren't careful.

And then those killer GMs that are done in by their own murderous ways, as the team of runners loots the dead decker's 800,000 cyberdeck.

I don't have time to dig up the rules right now since I'm working on this week's column and I have to dig through all twenty friggin' pages of Kickstarters to find ones that don't completely suck...but the specific thing I was referring to with the 100m thing is that, within that distance, you're using the internal antenna on your deck to connect to the device rather than connecting through the grids. So you're still susceptible to Noise issues, but NOT to the Public Grid penalty specifically. If you're in a spam zone or the middle of the jungle, you're still going to get those penalties because your deck is still either overwhelmed with pop-ups for the SoyYum Push-p0p Treatz!™ cart or the signal can't get through all the trees/walls/whatever blocking it.

But your deck is directly connecting to the device in question because your deck's antenna can pick up the wireless signal from that device. It's not a true "direct connection" (you need to plug a cable in for that), but it's the best words I could find to describe what you would do. They unfortunately turned out to be game terms that mean something different. Hope that clears things up, and please note that I'm not involved with the game in any way, shape, or form other than I've had the PDF for about three weeks now due to getting an advance review copy and I've been going over it ever since then.

By RAW, this is no different from disabling wireless on your wireless-dependent cyberware. At least, there are no rules for slaving a device non-wirelessly.


Then best just don't bother buying vision and aural enhancement, because it does nearly nothing for you without wifi boni (yeah, it gives a Limit bonus, awesome, especially if your pool is too small to get anything out of that).


The deck will let you use your willpower for defense against Matrix attacks, and you can just run firewall on the highest attribute. That's, with the best deck, 9+WP+INT, versus 7+INT for the best commlink. A substantial difference.