Hmmm... Originally it was going to be similar in appearance to himself but made up of swirling retro green code. But he may have had to abandoned that when he fled Europe.

I am leaning towards a similar styling, but now looking like an Archangel, with wings and armor made of the same green code, his features would look less like himself and more like typical angelic statues and images, I will need to come
up with some specifics on various programs.

Going to visit some relatives today, wont be able to post again until this afternoon/evening.

Thanks for all the tips, Jack. This will be my first actual decking attempt, so it should be fun and educational.

Sure thing! Since you (the player) are new to decking, here's an idea of what you're probably going to be doing. You're probably going to be running with a -1 Dice Pool modifier between noise, grid, and Hot sim bonuses and penalties for steps 2 & 3. Once you're on the Host's Grid, it should change to a +1 Dice Pool modifier.

1. Hop in to Hot-Sim VR
2. Matrix Perception Test: The Host is running in the open and, in all likelihood, the Club is going to have all of its devices on the same grid as the host, especially if they're slaved. The perception test will identify on which grid the Host is operating.
3. Grid Hop to the Host's Grid. This will make getting MARKs on it easier as you won't suffer public grid or cross-grid penalties. This will probably start your Overwatch Score.
4. Matrix Perception Test: Find the cameras. They're probably running silently. The book doesn't explicitly say it, but I would think one of the items you could pick up on a Matrix Perception test is whether a device icon is slaved to something. If you can't do that, this step is unnecessary.
5. Hack the Host (Hack on the Fly unless you want the Host alerted to your attempt)
6. Enter Host
7. Once you're inside the host, you're considered directly connected to any devices slaved to the Host, which should hopefully include the cameras. If the cameras aren't slaved to the host, you might need to exit the host and find the camera icons seperately.
8. While you're in the Host, you might want to do a Matrix Search for any files referring to the murder the other night (emails, insurance reports, police correspondance, etc).

One nice thing about 5th is that they eliminated a lot of the "nesting" you saw before; if you're in the host, you can search for the "data file" you're looking for and find it, not have to wiggle through a dozen other sub-hosts that it may be hidden under.

I agree with your line of questions Jack; once Paul shows up we can start questioning him, and having Overkill check the feed to see if his story is straight. From a time standpoint, I think it might make sense to have Overkill do his thing first; I may be mistaken but I think he's probably going to be able to do all his hacking in less than a minute (or maybe a few minutes at most), which would account for the time we're waiting here.

-DrZ

The only small concern here would be Overwatch Score. His score is going to start when he hops grid and it will go up every 15 minutes even if he isn't doing anything once it starts rolling. With that said, I wouldn't think our conversation with Paul would take more than 30 minutes or so, so his OS will hopefully stay fairly low. He could definitely do the early groundwork of trying to locate any documents or files related to the murder. Hell, he might even be able to scan through all of the video before Paul comes in since Overkill can presuambly pull any video footage that exists for July 25th, start from the beginning, and fast forward through it.

Oh, when I was hacking I always got into trouble LONG before the OS score became a problem

Turned back on the road by blizzard. Home now.

Any recommendations as far as deck settings, Overkill's Proteus-AG Blitzfurhen (Renrake Tsurugi) is normally set at 6 Data Processing, 5 Firewall, 5 Sleaze, and 3 Attack

My Agent 4 is usually running silent and set up for Matrix Perception tests to keep an eye out for other hackers.

Bummer, this weather is crazy. We actually got frozen rain/sleet/snow here in South Louisiana. Doesn't happen very often and they are totally unprepared. I-10 has been shut down here for over 24 hours now. It's just a little ridiculous.

For your deck, it just depends on the situation. I think your base settings are fine for exploratory work. Once you start hacking, swap your Data Processing and Sleaze values. Oh, I failed to account for the -2 penalty for running silent in my earlier assessment. You may want to consider not running silent, depending on the strength of the host and your confidence in being able to pull off what you want without alerting the system that something is going on. I'd run Browse, Baby Monitor, and Signal Scrub. If you're planning on not running silently, maybe swap Baby Monitor for Sneak to help stave off Trace User actions. It really just depends on how close you're going to get to hitting your ASDF limits with your skills since a lot of programs just increase your ASDF values (which in most cases, just pumps your limits). The problem with the Agent is that it takes up a program slot and you are pretty light on those. You could run Virtual Machine to expand your slots though if you definitely want to run your agent, you just risk taking additional matrix damage.

Hey sorry if I didn't portray Amy as stupid enough It's something I'm definitely working on and it's a work in progress as I continue playing her. Log 2 and Int 5 (also Wil 6 and Cha 7) is not the simplest combo to figure out. She should be bad at figuring causes and consequences, some linguistic subtleties are way past her intellect, she shouldn't be good at all with electronics, gadgets, tools, critical thinking, deduction of any kind, building something, following precise instructions, etc. Yet, she should be good at observing, reading people, reading situations, expecting the unexpected, fitting in, getting the right message across. All that with low logic. I figured she can wrap her head around things that she's thought a lot about in her life. Conspiracies being a big one. She did have trouble understanding the word "lucrative" earlier Anyway, I'm working on this.

About the getting assaulted, I think charisma is charm and appearance, but if you turn down the charm, and hide your appearance to some extent, your charisma can help you figure out how to look unattractive as well, especially with intuition, I think. She can wear a scarf to hide her face and ears, act with no charm, walk with no grace, as much as she can pull that off, wear sweat pants instead of shorts, stuff like that. And she'll play the part as much as her charisma can get her, since she has no con or impersonation skill.

Nevertheless, I understand the very real danger of the situation. She wants to try it because 1) she has nothing else to do, 2) she wants to help out, 3) she's very independent, and 4) she'll be in her element. She might look like a pretty easy target on first glance, which is bad to avoid being attacked, but makes it easier to repel it. She wouldn't expect to have to deal with more than 2-3 toughs at a time, and she can sort of spot that from afar. She'd try to approach only a very small group or single dealer.

So with all of this said, let's do it.

I'm also playing a low LOG, reasonable INT, High CHA+WIL shaman in my other PbP and am having challenges as well, so I can empathize. It's taking me a little time to get into character as Jack, too. The average mental attributes are pretty easy. I figure I peg that pretty well IRL, but I have to keep reminding myself about his memory loss and what he would know about and what he wouldn't. So far, I am kind of going with him being aware of general concepts, but specifics, particularly personal ones, are beyond him. He could identify a picture of a tennis racket as such, but wouldn't know it was a picture of the tennis racket he used as a kid growing up, etc.

Another option for Amy might be to whistle up a Spirit of Man and have it use its Search power to find more of the the drugs as a Remote Service. The threshold might be pretty high though...

Thanks but I think she'd rather do it the usual way because it's not just about locating the drug. She can get to people that might be of help in other ways as well. Getting into contact with that gang seems useful. Now.. which spirit should she summon for the night and at what force I'll have fun thinking about that. I might go for man and get the search power so that she has a plan B, but that's just too logical

I feel like I'm portraying Grease's 2 willpower pretty well. It is going to come bite him in the ass pretty hard at some point soon; I am hoping I do not get anybody else's character killed

To be 100% honest, I am entirely waiting for the day when you are alone in the room with one of those Crimson Fire pills.

He's pretty much just walking Poor Impulse Control. I am presuming the only reason he isn't dead yet is because he's able to think fast on his feet.

-DrZ

Actually it seems that just about everyone in the crew is doing a good job of RPing their defects and weaknesses, except maybe my character. I don't really have any low attributes to overcome, Str 2 but its not often I would get to show that IC
other than having a hard time lifting really heavy stuff. Otherwise he is well rounded in attributes. At times I question whether I am pulling off having the absurdly high Logic (8!)

My negative qualities may come into play, his Code of Honor most certainly will. He is very reluctant to kill anyone unless he has no choice. He has allergies when outside the city (Wild grass, thought that would be fun for an elf), and a bit of a
grudge against Corporate Mercenaries. (like MET 2000)

Regarding the decking advice, I am pretty confident in Overkill's ability to get the job done relatively fast, I made sure to max out hacking skills and I have that crazy high logic; a base of 14d6 for most rolls. I am thinking perhaps running silent may not
be necessary as long as I don't botch and use the Sneak program as suggested by Jack to keep the GOD squad or any other hackers who may be safeguarding the host from getting a good trace before I am done. If I am inaccurate in my estimation of the
tasks ahead of me, chime on in!

I will post again late tomorrow or Monday morning, with a spell, a summon and an IC post. Obviously, don't wait up since you have your own scene.

I think you'll be okay. Assuming the host is a fairly low grade commercial host, it should have a Host Rating of 3 or 4. That means its ASDF array would be 3456 or 4567. Most commercial hosts probably prioritize DFAS or FDAS depending on management input. If I understand the rules correctly (no clue if I am or not, anyone correct me if I am wrong here), the Host should be resisting most of your matrix mojo with Host Rating + ASDF (usually Firewall). If the above is correct, that you should be dealing with a resistance dice pool of somewhere around 8 to 10.

BTW- My Codeslinger quality is Hack on the Fly

Hello all,

It is Sunday morning and I'm available for a couple of hours.

So:

1) Amy - go ahead and summon your spirit (of whatever type and force) and then resist drain. The Los Mags control the a relatively square area of territory that is bounded by E. 6th in the north and E. 4th in the south, the 225 in the west and N. Sable Blvd in the east. It's about 5 miles from Curtnicks, and will require you to pass through several areas of the Warren, including either through Ghoul territory or Vory territory, depending on which way you go - so my guess is walking is not a good thing

2) Overkill has about 5-10 minutes of decking time should he choose to take it before Paul shows up. So we have two options. One, he waits until Paul gets there to start hacking, in which case I can put up the post for Paul coming in, or he starts hacking and we take care of that for a little bit, and then Paul shows up. Either way is fine with me.

Assuming Jack and Grease are just waiting for Paul, then that's where we are in the story.

Jack's explanation of the Matrix rules are spot on - the only thing I would say is I'm not sure why you would want to hack the cameras at this point - unless you want to control them now to do something with them. Footage of you standing in line in front of the club (should you wish to scrub it) and footage from the 25th (should you wish to review it) would both be out of the camera and uploaded to files within the Host.

Now, some useful information, since Patrol IC is fairly poorly qualified within the rules as to how it actually works, and so here's how I use it in my games.

1) As long as you have a Mark on the Host, the Patrol IC believes you are a legitimate user UNTIL:
a) You perform a Sleaze action that succeeds, or an Attack action that fails.
b) You perform a Sleaze action that fails or an Attack action that succeeds.

Let me go over what would happen in both cases - case B is easier.

If you perform a Sleaze action that fails or an Attack action that succeeds, you have alerted the Host that a hacker is mucking around, and the Patrol IC will perform Matrix Perception tests EVERY ACTION until you are found/leave the Host. (and the not so harmless IC starts to come out to play.)

Easy enough.

For case A, neither a Sleaze action that succeeds or an Attack action that fails alerts the Host that something is going on. However, they are both still illegal actions, and people with Marks on the Host that are legitimate users have no need to be doing those. Therefore, if the Patrol IC sees you perform one of those actions, it will trigger an alert in the Host, and out comes the bad IC. So, if you perform a successful Sleaze or a failed Attack, the Patrol IC makes a Matrix Perception test to notice it. If it fails, no harm no foul, it doesn't continue to make perception tests - basically it didn't notice you doing something bad, and since you have a Mark, it assumes you should be here.

Note that any action that uses Data Processing (or nothing) as a limit is legal - thus you can Send Messages, Edit Files, Reboot Devices, etc and not make the IC suspicious.

The one exception to the rule is Disarm Data Bomb, which uses Firewall as a limit - this also would cause the Patrol IC to make a Matrix Perception, and if it spots you, it triggers an alarm. Why? Because a legitimate user would have the code to disable the bomb to read the file, and not have to hack it.

Any other questions, please ask

One other thought - Running Silent in a host.

If you are running silent in a Host, then the Matrix Perception test that the Patrol IC would normally take every time you perform a successful Sleaze or a failed Attack action doesn't happen. It can't see your persona, so it can't notice you performing those actions.

However, at NO point should any Host allow any of its legitimate users to run silent inside the Host. Which means one of the things Patrol IC should do is be making Matrix Perception tests all the time to spot silent personas inside the Host. Since Patrol IC should have multiple IP in every turn, it means that every 3 seconds it is making at least one Matrix Perception tests to find running silent personas inside the Host.

So, to bypass the insanity of all that

My house rule is that if you are running silent in a host, you still take the -2 dice pool penalty, buy you impose a -2 dice pool penalty on the Matrix Perception test of the IC looking for you after a Sneak or Attack action.

Oh, and with regards to the low Willpower, you might be in trouble there in a couple weeks

You've used Novacoke. That means that in two weeks (11-Addiction Rating of 9) you will need to make an Addiction test. If you can manage not to use again within 2 weeks, it reduces the threshold of the test to 2. You now have to make a Body+Willpower test AND a Logic+Willpower test both needing 2 successes (definitely possible but also definitely possible that you fail one or the other).

If you fail, you now move from being a Moderate Addict to a Severe Addict - and this is where it SUCKS.

If you are a Severe Addict, go into withdrawal unless you take a dose at least every week (or successfully resist another Addiction test with a Threshold of 3 twice, once with Body and Willpower and the other with Logic and Willpower). So, if you don't take a dose for a week, and fail both addiction tests, then you are at -4 Mental and -4 Physical stats AND -2 to all social tests.

If you take the dose to allay the withdrawal, not only are you still at the -2 to all social tests, you have to take another addiction test in 2 weeks, and if you fail that you go Burnout.

If you let it get to Severe, and want to kick the habit, it will require you to not take Novacoke for 9 weeks, and then spend 40 karma. (And during those 9 weeks, if you fail any of your Withdrawal tests, you are going to have the -4 to Mental and Physical stats for the rest of the 9 week period).

Just rereading one of your earlier posts on decking, and noticed this portion. I had thought we were hacking through the cameras to find a shortcut into the area of the host the footage would be in; but is seems this would indicate that it isn't even needed versus just getting into the host normally and finding it myself.

The only reason I mentioned the cameras was on the off chance they weren't connected to the Host. Although, now that I think about it, I guess the files would just be floating next to the camera icon in that instance.

The only advantage you get from hacking the camera is if you were able to run a wire directly to it. In that case, it only defends with its own device rating which is a lot lower than what the Host probably has. With the way that the Master-Slave relationship works, if you hack the camera, you hack the Host as well.

Correct. You would be accessing the host and then using Matrix Perception to find the appropriate files.

Viewing them would not require an action. And upon further reflection, scrubbing your friends out of the file is probably not a viable option, since each Edit File action allows you to change 3 seconds of video feed, and they were standing in line about 10 minutes. So unless you wanted to do that action 200 times - it ain't worth it

Stay away from drugs kids!

My preference is too have overkill do his hacking first since it is self contained and makes sense to have a sidebar to the story while we wait.

DrZ

Isn't the Novacoke threshold already at 2? If he doesn't use again from now until his test, wouldn't the threshold be reduced to 0? (-1 per week of not using)

The Addiction rules are not written with the greatest amount of clarity, so I wanted to make sure I understood them.

I am good with this as well, in case we're polling opinions.

For future reference, could he just delete the video files rather than trying to edit them?

Agreed that they are not written well, and make you hop back and forth from the Negative Quality Section to the Addiction section to be able to use them.

Sorry - you are correct, the threshold is 2. For some reason thought it was a 3 for Novacoke

However, if he uses in week one, then a full week goes by, the threshold is reduced by 1.

Now the second week goes by and he still doesn't use - however, he has to test that week, because the test takes place every 11-Addiction rating weeks - meaning he still has to take the addiction test with a threshold of 1.

Which means it is a lot safer for him, in that two 5d6 tests needing 1 hit are much easier than two 5d6 tests needing 2 hits.

Let's take your skillwires as an example. Let's say you use them today. In six weeks, you will be forced to make a test. If you don't use them for those 6 weeks, your threshold will be reduced from 2 to 0 - meaning no test is necessary. If you use them again in week 4, however, that brings the threshold back up to 2, and then even if you skipped using them in week 5, you'd have to make the test in week 6 at a threshold of 1. I believe the intent of the rule would be that the usage in week 4 also necessitates another Addiction test 6 weeks from then.

Yes - I'm thinking that each file would be 1 hour of video, starting and ending on the hour.

So since your footage would have begun after 10'oclock, deleting it would be one action.

Bear in mind that the files will probably be protected, which means cracking the file first, which means that you are going to alert the Host you are there. (Since Cracking a file is an Attack action, and that means you set of an alert if you crack the file.)

One other correction, Novacoke has an Addiction Rating of 7. I think you were just looking at the wrong line.

As far as your last sentence, that seems like a lot to track, but go for it if you want, LOL! I tend to read it as a bit more streamlined, if unrealistic. Then again, under the RAW, a ridiculous number of people would be burnt out from soykaf in little to no time so who knows?

That annoys me in SR5. There is pretty much no way to get in and out of a Host and do anything hacker related with files without alerting it. I guess a TM might be able to, depending on whether on one's viewpoint about whether protection works against CFs or not.

Isn't the way to deal with that just to drink more soykaf? Because I'm pretty sure I'm fairly addicted right now..

I was not a fan of the "3 second edit" aspect either when I was running.

"I'll be part of the team, erasing our traces as we go through the facility!"

Felt more like "Here is a minigame you have to win every time, or all your friends get murdered!"

Well, drinking a cup of soykaf a day can pretty reasonably kill an average person in a fairly short period of time if they don't stop (in SR from burnout).

Edit - deleted while I think about this.

Well, that was probably a cheeky little addition they added without thinking it through all the way.

AACK. Now I feel like an idiot. I was totally looking at Kamikaze instead of Novacoke.

Ok - so Grease, you are much better off than I thought you were. Ignore my previous post. Here is the REAL way it works.

You take Novacoke. In 4 weeks you would need to take an addiction test. Assume for argument's sake you did not already have an addiction. If you didn't take it for 4 weeks, you are good, no Addiction test necessary.

However, you have a Moderate addiction, which means 2 weeks from now, you are going to go into Withdrawal.

Let's assume you want to try and kick the habit. You make 2 withdrawal tests (since novacoke is both physically and mentally addictive), and if you pass, you continue on your way with no penalty. If you fail, you are now taking those lovely -4 penalties. Two more weeks go by. Assuming you didn't fail your initial withdrawal test, and haven't taken any more Novacoke, make another Withdrawal test (for both physical and mental). If you pass, you still take no penalties, if you fail, you now have those penalties. If you manage to go the 4 weeks without taking any Novacoke, you can spend 18 karma to buy off your addiction.

If you can't buy off the addiction, and you don't use Novacoke ever again, then every two weeks you are going to be forced to make those withdrawal tests until you can scrounge up enough karma to buy it off.

If you continue to use Novacoke, because of the Addiction Threshold and Rating, you can get away with using it about once a month and not have to worry about getting more addicted, but that will mean that you will have the potential to go into withdrawal about once a month.

With regards to the 3 second edit

I agree with you both on this - I'm just not sure the correct line to draw to fix it.

Should it be 6 seconds? 1 minute? I'm not sure at what point it swings too far the other way.

Bear in mind, removing someone from a video feed is much trickier than simply rebooting the camera, or if it is on a swivel, moving the camera to another angle where it can't see your friends.

With regards to the Crack File issue While I agree this is annoying, there really is no way around it given how the rules work. If you get a mark on the Host, which is not that hard to do, you can now have the run of the place and delete all of their files without them having any way of knowing.

I've actually toyed with making Crack File a Sleaze action, however, just to ameliorate this problem.

Oh also, Jack is going to grab three beers for the group so they don't look out of place. I can post that IC if you'd like, just let me know how much I need to deduct in nuyen.

Gents: Drink at your own risk, alcohol is addiction rating 3/2.

Well, if the Matrix Perception check the IC is doing is "What is the Last Matrix Action Taken By This Icon", a flurry of deleted files might be suspicious. I do think allowing Crack File as a Sleaze or Attack action would make the most sense.

I think we can remove alcohol and soykaf from the addiction ratings for our game just for simplicity's sake

Depends on what you are buying. Prices are per drink.

Synthbeer - 5
Real beer - 8
Hard Liquor - 10

You can spend more if you want top shelf stuff - let me know if that is what you want.

At some point will be adding an Excel sheet to the dropbox so we can keep track of expenditures.

Cool. Everyone's getting the cheap stuff. I've been tracking it on my character sheet so far, but an Excel would be nice. I'll deduct 20 nuyen dropping a small tip.

Ok guys - will be offline for a while, as I am finishing up my weekend here in Baltimore and then a 4 hour drive back to NJ.

Will be online late tonight.

Have a good time!

Can Overkill post his first Matrix post and make his initial Matrix Perception rolls?

This is fine with me, since it segways away from you two and getting it done first gives us info for the following scene with Paul.

Unless everything goes horribly wrong and we need to book it out of the Hub.

As far as drinks at the bar, (Great analysis of addiction ratings, btw) looking for imported beer if they have it. (American beer is too much like sex in a canoe, f*cking too close to water. In Drave's eyes; Germans take their beer very seriously)

Will not be on until later this evening, today is game day at my house.

My brother is running a SR campaign set in the early 2060s, an alternate timeline in which Dunkelzahn does not sacrifice himself and survives to become president. He is
using a modified d20 Modern system and is completely skipping in-game decking, just running a decker NPC who is more of a plot tool to get us by the tech stuff. I have
mixed opinions on this point as tech is such a critical obstacle in the SR universe. He runs it more like a traditional D&D session anyways, SR is just the setting.

Cool with me. I think it's reasonable for us to take the weekends a little light, since we have you know, other stuff in our lives.

-DrZ

Sorry, got you swill. Considering you're probably going to be too unconscious to drink it, I figured it didn't really matter.

On a side note; I remember reading something in the Matrix section about being able to protect your guy's wireless gear from getting hacked by slaving them to my Cyberdeck and letting you use its Firewall Rating.

Just thought it would be something I could do to help the group.

Go ahead and post whatever you need to IC.