I have a couple of Matrix questions that my GM and I have been discussing…

Let’s assume that a Decker is Running Silently on a host and Patrol IC spots her…
1. Does she know she’s been spotted?
2. Assuming no MARKS on the Decker, if she crashes the Patrol IC, is she still spotted by the Host?

Let’s change the scenario so that a Spider is on the Host too. The Patrol IC doesn’t spot our Decker, but the Spider does.
1. Is she also spotted by the Host?
2. Will she still be spotted by the Host (assuming that the answer to #1 is yes) if she crashes the Spider?

I think I know the answers to all of these questions; I just want to verify my information.

Here is what I think…
Q1A1: No she has no idea she has been spotted (until IC slaps her).
Q1A2: Yes she is still spotted by the Host until she successfully completes a Hide action.
Q2A1: No the Spider is not the Host and therefore does not automatically share this data. The Spider can take an action (simple?) to share the spotting data. (I have no reference for the second part of this answer, but it makes logical sense.)
Q2A2: She will only be spotted by the Host at all if the Spider takes the time to share the spotting data, once that has happened (if it is possible) then crashing the Spider will have no effect on the Host spotting the Decker.

Can anyone confirm or deny my thoughts on this? If you happen to know page references that would be Awesome!

Thanks

1. I'd agree with no. Because if you knew you were spotted, that mean's it'd work that way for the NPC's as well. Meaning you could never do covert ops in the Matrix because everyone would know they're being watched.

2&3. Hard call. Hosts work differently, because they make IC which are deviceless personas. And that's their only way to interact with the Matrix, not counting sending messages. You can't share marks but hosts break this rule with IC. I think you might be right. The IC is spotting for the host, that makes the most sense. Even crashing the IC, the host has still spotted you and the next IC will know where you are unless you take a hide action.

4. I don't think spiders get a free spot just because the host spotted the decker. Or maybe they do. I'd lean towards no, because the spider is not apart of the host. But I could easily be swayed the other way because spiders might have access to some of the host's systems and protocols.

I think you're probably right on the money.





For 4, my logic runs a little different. If I was a Spider, I'd want to be notified if an intrusion had been detected. It wouldn't be hard for a host to alert me while sending more IC in to investigate. Maybe it wouldn't be a default option, but it wouldn't be hard to set up.