So what do we need to do to get in there? Go home, ditch all our questionably legal stuff, then try to get through?
-DrZ

I think there is some kind of rail line or something that connects the CAS with Union Station. I would be shocked if there wasn't a public pay locker setup at the terminal where you could stow stuff that you wouldn't want/be allowed to bring with you.

Looking through your gear list, it's possible we may have an issue getting *you* through, given the crap that's on your person.

Correct. You can hop the monorail at Union Station to go to the CAS.

Basically, they use a higher level Scanner - Rating 4 or 5 (meaning they need to get 4 hits on 8 or 10 dice in order to ask follow-up questions, and 5 hits to burn the SIN).

In addition, (haven't updated the CAS specific info to the Dropbox yet), the CAS does not allow you to bring weapons into their sector, without going through a series of bureaucratic hoops and checks, apart from the licensing procedure.

You could also hire a Coyote, but the prices they charge are very high to smuggle you past customs.

Ugh... I guess there are positives and negatives with the SIN deal. On the positive, it isn't an opposed roll, so your SIN can't screw up and roll like drek. On the negative side, it isn't an opposed roll, so we can't use Edge to try to beat it.

Choices, choices. I would feel a bit better if it was a 4. I think it gets kind of dangerous with a 5 versus our SINs. Hmmm... is Grease a SINner? Could he get in using his own SIN without problem?

If cyberware were easily removable, I'd be happy to...

I wouldn't be surprised if there was crap in there that even Jack doesn't know about.

Yes; Grease is a SINner, but he won't mention that to Jack just yet. That may be how I can get in, not sure if we can smuggle you in easily (unless we want to risk burning one of your SINs). Grease would also prefer not to use his real name on the job all that often, unless it can't be avoided.

Btw, according to this handy calculator, http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~bcd/SR/dicerollcalc.html ; if it's a rating 4 scanner it will ding your rating 4 Fake SIN 25% of the time; if it's a rating 5 scanner 44% of the time. It will burn your SIN (with a rating 4 scanner) ~9%, and with a rating 5 scanner 21%.

A thought; I wonder if we could convince this Emily character to meet us someplace in our sector? I haven't thought through the details yet, but if we can figure it out that solves a lot of our issues.

-DrZ

Bear in mind that Grease is a SINner - but it doesn't appear that he has licenses for his restricted cyberware/bioware for his actual SIN.

His SIN would be registered to Henry Morgan, but the licenses are in the names of Henry Moss, Wilson, and Kemble.

Yeah, probably a Cortex Bomb that Lobo secretly gifted me with...


Totally understandable, plus it's supposed to be a Negative Quality, LOL.


Yeah, Jack only has one fake SIN. That seems to be a pretty solid chance of getting dinged. Granted, I think we can probably talk our way our of it if it just gets dinged, but if it gets burned the character is basically dead.


I think I suggested that IC during one of our planning missions, but we didn't have a way of getting in contact with her at that point. She obviously can get in and out of the Hub pretty easily. Hmmm... I don't know if we want to throw anymore money around, but... we could say that we're representing whatever fund Ramirez is in charge of and Mitchell left her a small portion of his benefit. Give her 500 and mention that the investigation is continuing and would she like to give any details that might be helpful, etc...

Quick note: I'm attending a funeral today at 11, so I'll probably be out of pocket from 10:30 to 1:00 or so (CST).

Also (though it is a ways out), I have been called to do my civic duty and serve as a peer for my criminally indicted fellow citizens from February 18th - February 21st). The Courts are a little weird about computers and stuff, so I may be sans internet during those days. I should be able to post in the evenings though.

I think Henry Morgan may be a holdover from a previous version of my background; I think his real name is Kemble, with 2 fake SINs.

-DrZ

Ok - that makes sense. At that point though, we would be checking the licenses for being fake - since Henry Morgan/Kemble doesn't actually have a job that would be able to give him licensing for firearms, bioware and cyberware.

Sorry to hear about the loss

Thank you for the heads up about jury duty - you may not even have to serve, but if you do, no problem.

Ok so for the going limp thing. Does overkill need to be close to the physical camera when he attempts the hack or can he be a few blocks away? If he doesn't need to be too close, I bet we can find a place with a closed booth or a coffin motel not too far away. Otherwise I can think of asking a taxi driver for an unusual run, not going anywhere and just staying behind tinted windows for 10-15 minutes.

The closer the better for noise considerations unless the Apartment complex has a host, then it doesn't really matter as long as he's in an area with an environmental noise rating 3 or lower. Ideally, he would hack it in this sector where the environemtnal noise rating is 1 so he doesn't have to run Signal Scrub. If no host, the closer the better. He could be up to 1 kilometer away and shouldn't suffer penalties for noise if he runs SS.

The deceased was one of my good friend's Dad. I didn't know his dad all that well, but going for support. Thanks!

So long as we're discussing availability, I'm going to be out of town starting Tuesday afternoon the 11th, and back that Thursday afternoon. I will probably be able to post Tuesday morning & evening, Wednesday evening, and Thursday evening.

It seems like there would be cyber-cafes or something for people to chill out in while they did stuff in VR. I guess coffin motels account for that to some degree. There's a business model here we can exploit! No need to be petty criminals, we can make fat stacks catering to the 6th world cyber clientele!

-DrZ

@Chrome,

You are going to get a long answer to a simple question

Noise comes from basically 2 factors, environment and distance.

The environment is giving him 1 point of Noise. If he hacks the camera directly from within 100 meters, he gains no noise from distance. From 100 to 1000 meters is 1 additional point of Noise. If you move him from 1000 meters to 10,000 meters, it is 3 points of noise.

So, probably the total noise is 2. If he runs Signal Scrub as a program on his deck, it will negate that penalty completely.

However, since the camera is probably part of a Host, and there are no noise penalties when you hack a Host, if he hacks the Host first, and then goes after the video footage, there are no noise penalties from distance, and he can do it from his house or wherever.

The only advantage of hacking the camera directly would be if he actually got right up next to it and ran a wire from his deck to it, this would allow him to hack the camera and gain a mark on it and the Host without having to worry about using the Host's attributes.

Also (as we saw in the QXT hack), it is likely that the footage is actually a file on the host rather than on the camera, particularly since this incident happened even further in the past than the QXT murder.

ETA ...and I'm out. See y'all in a few hours.

Thank you chrome for helping carry us along. Little hectic and blizzardy here today.

So, is there an easy way to discover if the cams are connected to a Host?

Condolences to your friend, Jack.

Yes - Matrix Perception.

Maybe you can just roll it for him? It's just a perception test, and once he rolls he'll wait on your feedback.

Is there someplace quiet near the Casino that Jack and I can review the video?
-DrZ

Good call.

So,

8d6.hits(5)=3

The 3 hits let him know it is part of a host, it is on the local grid, and it is a device rating of 2.

Another Matrix Perception on the host

8d6.hits(5)=1

Tells him it is a Rating 2 Host.

How quiet do you need it to be? I'm sure you can go find a restaurant nearby - or you could even view it outside as you are walking to the station.

It is lunch time, so we could probably stop at a restaurant and grab a bite to eat while reviewing it. Or we can just do it while walking, I'm okay with either. I'm not sure what more we're going to get from the video unless we can try Judge Intentions or whatever to get a feel for whether Sanders was acting suspiciously or not. We can also text Overkill and get the name of her employer, then try and locate a commcode for it and give her a call and see if we can set something up.

ETA: The host is DR 2, huh? I wonder what else is connected to that thing...

ASDF: A-3, S-6, F-5, D-5
Programs: Signal Scrub, Stealth, Virtual Machine- Baby Monitor, Agent 4

I'd think it may be Con? If she was trying to be deceptive, her boyfriend might not have picked up on it, but we might be able to? I'm not sure, I'm spitballing here.

ETA: Well, the "Judge Intentions" section is about your gut feeling if you can trust someone or not. I don't think that's the same as someone running a play, but what do I know?

@Dr. Z I'd say if she were running a con, it would be an opposed test.

Go ahead and roll a Con+Charisma (no bonus from the Pheromones)

@Always,

Ok I am assuming your first 3 actions are:

Hack on the fly against the local grid
Hack on the fly against the Host
Matrix Search to find the video file

So:

First action:

16d6.hits(5)=3

4d6.hits(5)=1

OS=1

2nd Action

16d6.hits(5)=8 - reduced to 7 by limit

5d6.hits(5)=4

OS=5

3rd Action

8d6.hits(5)=2

So you find the file in about 30 seconds.

Where are you actually going to hack in from?

Overkill: You might want to review post #339 in this thread for Lobo's friendly advice on how to handle a file.

Thanks for the tip.

So lets do the Matrix Perception check to look for a possible data bomb

I think we should try the Coffin motel room for an hour idea, is there one nearby?

I'm sure you can find one.

Matrix Perception for Data Bomb

8d6.hits(5)=3

You discover a Data Bomb on the file in question.

Since a coffin only holds one person, is Amy just going to hang out on the bike while Overkill does his stuff? I need to know for our ledger.

Can Overkill also determine if the file had been edited previously and if it is protected/rating of protection? (Since he had additional hits on his matrix perception?)

K, gonna swap Baby Monitor out and put in Defuse, then attempt to disarm the Databomb

Yeah she'll hang around outside near the bike. Hacking never takes very long, one way or the other. She'll ping him with a text message after a few minutes. If there's no answer she'll go check on him.

She can read the daily news while she's waiting. It takes her a while to read long text (articles are sooo long)

Ok,

So - disarm data Bomb

Software+Intuition +2 for Hot Sim VR

10d6.hits (5)=5

vs Data Bomb

10d6.hits (5)=2


So I am guessing that you want to now Crack the File - first you have to put a mark on it:

18d6.hits(5)=7

7d6.hits(5)=3

And now you crack it.

16d6.hits(5)=9 - reduced to 7 hits due to limit

3d6.hits(5)=0

Now you want to copy the file, correct?

Sorry - I posted the IC while you were posting this - you can go inside, you just don't get charged anything.

As an aside, I'm alright moving the Jack/Grease thing forward to them finding a restaurant and reviewing the tape. They'd probably want to look at both the feed from Argent, as well as the stuff they took from the Club.

-DrZ

It's just as good, really. She just assumes it's not gonna be long. And reading stuff on her comm' is similar to watching trid in a coffin, so she wasn't gonna pay for that.

Ok - do you want to roll the Con+Charisma, or do you want me to roll it for you?

If we're reviewing the footage together, can it be teamwork? I'm okay with you rolling, doesn't matter to me. Jack has 6 dice, whether we're rolling together or seperate.

Why don't you roll it blind; I don't want to read too much into something I shouldn't be able to know (if that makes sense). Con 5 + Charisma 6.

Ok - I'll make it a teamwork test, IC post to follow.

Indeed, copy that file!

Ok - first the Patrol IC gets some Matrix Perception tests (which I forgot) to see whether or not it sees you performing your two illegal actions.

Two rolls, one for you putting a mark on the file and a second for you cracking it

The IC's perception
7d6.hits(5)=3, 7d6.hits(5)=3

vs your Logic+Sleaze
15d6.hits(5)=2, 15d6.hits(5)=7

Ok, so it will spot you after you put the mark on the file, unless you use your Edge.

If you do, you get to reroll 13 dice, and if you get even 1 hit, it doesn't see you, and you can simply copy the file.

If you don't, then we will handle it like last time, basically we will roll initiative, with your first action being successfully cracking the file, and the first action of newly generated IC (of whatever type) being skipped. Then your second action would be to copy the file, and then you can exit the host.

I am gonna save my Edge, let the IC deploy, and copy the file and leave ASAP. Gonna turn up my Firewall to 6 and drop Sleaze Value for ASDF (6-F, 5-S)

How would Taking the Full Matrix Defense action affect my IP? Would I be delayed for an extra pass?

Also any recommendations for a program to swap out Defuse with?

@Lobo: I am thoroughly enjoying your write-ups for Overkills decking encounters in IC. Wouldn't mind you writing them up like that for the time being, I am more worried about learning the skills around SR decking.

Ok, so let's roll initiative:

Overkill

4d6+8=28

Patrol IC
New IC

4d6+4=19, 4d6+4=22


Ok, IP 1

Overkill 28
New IC 22
Patrol IC 19

Overkill as a complex action cracks the file, and as a free action swaps Sleaze with Firewall
Patrol IC does nothing (since its only purpose is to spot you)
New IC 's first pass is used to manifest.

IP 2

Overkill 18
New IC 12
Patrol IC 9

So Overkill attempts to copy the file

15d6.hits(5)=6

7d6.hits(5)=2

So you successfully copy the file.

Now, the New IC is going to attack you on 12. If you Full Defense, then your Initiative drops to 8, and you do not get a 3rd IP, and the New IC will attack you on 2 (which you will still gain the bonus 3 dice against).

IMHO, don't go full defense, just hope it doesn't hit you and then exit the host on IP 3.

But it is your call - let me know and I can finish the round.

As for Defuses - depends on what you think the new IC might be. Encrypt is never really a bad choice.

I am thinking of waiting until the other group is caught up, timeline wise, before going any further.

Jack- what do you think about the feasibility of getting a fake Lonestar badge? It'd probably help us in our investigation, especially if we want to question Emily Sanders.

Overkill: Rather than directly answering your question, I'm going to make a few suggestions on things to observe to help you make your decision:

1) What is the rating of the Host?
2) Based on the answer to #1, how many IC can the Host deploy? (p. 247)
3) Based on the answer to #1, what kind of dice pools are you facing from IC compared to your own? (p. 247)
4) Based on that comparison, what is the level of danger that you would assess?

Full Matrix Defense means you lose 10 points from your initiative. With the way initiative works (counting down to 0 before subtracting 10 from everyone's score and starting over), it depends on who wins initiative. I put an explanation in the spoiler below:


If you have the free action, I would swap it for something that boosts your defense. Hopefully, you already did the research above, so saying that the Host can only load two IC max is not a spoiler. For that reason, since the Patrol IC is already out, it's unlikely that the last IC is going to be something like Probe IC (since it can't really do anything with the MARKs it places on you). Probably not Trace either since it needs MARKs to make that work. Best bet would be something that hits your Matrix Attributes or just straight up damages your persona. Shell, Armor, or Encrypt would be good.

ETA @ DrZ: I'm good with that as well. A lot of what we are discussing could change depending on what they come up with here (Hell, I think we're still waiting for the Air Taxi to take us to the Hub when this is going down). Fake Lone Star Badges? Hmmm... I don't know. Probably kind of tough, but if they are only for a quick badge-flash, a crappy fake might work. After all, assuming she is really torn up over this deal, she probably WANTS to believe us. Maybe call Chapel?