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Stormdrake
A player who is putting together a character for our new 5th edition campaign asked me can they do a long con with the con skill around a data steal in a corporate facility for example? I would assume it is an extended test using con with the interval being hours or days but what should the threshold be or would it be against the dice pool of those on the other side? In either case does this give them extra dice when the run occurs? Does it simply allow them to brush past the human element of security in the building? I like the idea of the long con but as the rules for 5th don't mention the idea at all am trying to see how it would work mechanically. Any ideas?
Thanks
eidolon
Yeah, I'd just use an Extended Test with an interval of either Exhaustive or Mammoth and set the threshold appropriate to the payoff, skill level, etc.

Of course making sure to weave it into plenty of RP. smile.gif
Sendaz
I would get more information from the player before deciding otherwise you can paint yourself into a corner.

A long con will be a series of small cons working together, each with their own rolls and RP required. Scouting the area, casing the target, setting up circumstances to all come together, etc...
RHat
I'd actually use Impersonation for this - after all, what you're actually doing is creating some other person and attempting to become them in the eyes of the mark.
Shinxy
It all depends on what sort of con the player has in mind and how much the group enjoys freeform roleplaying over more structured dice rolling. Just bear in mind that most Shadowruns do have a time limit, so don't let the con just drag out weeks or months or years. Personally as a GM, at the point where the character is contemplating a long con, I would do something to light a fire under their ass and make it clear that the job needs to be done right fragging now. Of course, my game group consists of a bunch of late-20s folks with full time jobs and social lives who have about 3 hours a week max to play, so our adventures by necessity need to be pretty streamlined if we're going to finish a run in one night. YMMV.
RHat
QUOTE (Shinxy @ Aug 4 2013, 07:26 PM) *
It all depends on what sort of con the player has in mind and how much the group enjoys freeform roleplaying over more structured dice rolling. Just bear in mind that most Shadowruns do have a time limit, so don't let the con just drag out weeks or months or years. Personally as a GM, at the point where the character is contemplating a long con, I would do something to light a fire under their ass and make it clear that the job needs to be done right fragging now. Of course, my game group consists of a bunch of late-20s folks with full time jobs and social lives who have about 3 hours a week max to play, so our adventures by necessity need to be pretty streamlined if we're going to finish a run in one night. YMMV.


It depends a bit. A long con is probably best suited to a "montage" situation, or to being something that's occurring separate from the runs in furtherance of the player's other goals.

Or a job could have a longer timeline, and involve some smaller runs - a long con would be well suited there.
Stormdrake
I am thinking that a long con will require an extended roll with high thresholds that if successful will raise the individuals social limit allowing extra net hits to be applied during that run against human elements only. Maybe something like for every day that passes during the extended test the social limit is raised by one? This of course has the build in limiter of the normal shadowrun job having to be done in a couple days tops.
Voran
Hm. An example of a Long Con, somewhat, is the sr4 adventure where you're supposed to ruin the reputation of a tokyo poptart so her label corp drops her and she gets picked up by Horizon. Granted its not a true con, but its reflective of the effort (from a Shadowrun point of view). Basically a series of related operations over time that culminate in success or failure. In the adventure, it 'kept score' for each of those operations, and success was determined by number of points total at the end.

The legwork is also important. Just because a player wants to use "Con" skill alone to accomplish this doesn't mean its actually possible to do so. Tho there are options.

The honeytrap long con. Where you seduce an appropriate resource (say one of their IT guys, their spider, whatever), yknow, you'll be their internet girlfriend, and you lead them on until you finally con them into a 'just do this one thing for me, then we can meet and you finally get to have sex!'. Tho the various corp related resources for SR note that corps are pretty aware of this kinda stuff and do what they can to rope in the needs/wants of their corper pawns.
RHat
QUOTE (Stormdrake @ Aug 4 2013, 08:30 PM) *
I am thinking that a long con will require an extended roll with high thresholds that if successful will raise the individuals social limit allowing extra net hits to be applied during that run against human elements only. Maybe something like for every day that passes during the extended test the social limit is raised by one? This of course has the build in limiter of the normal shadowrun job having to be done in a couple days tops.


Typically, I think the long con is meant to accomplish the goal itself, rather than help in the short con - and there's a pretty substantial difference, as the long con is FAR more concerned with how things are left when all is said and done.
Lionhearted
A long con is more like a run then a skill check smile.gif
Modular Man
I second that motion.
Though it depends largely on what you want to accomplish and whether it's part of your scheme or the very heart of it.
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