So I've posted several places how much I hate the mechanic as it stands. I understand why it was created, but believe that a little GM fiat, or even a social contract with the players, could have gone a long way here instead.
That said, I'd like to enhance ownership to make it workable. I'd like to approach it from an angle that does not rewrite the rules, but perhaps makes some assumptions in interpretations.
For example (let's refer to the mechanic as ownership®):
Rules
- The owner of an icon can intentionally transfer ownership to another persona in a process that takes about a minute.
- As ownership® is "registered with both the device (or other icons) and the grids" (SR5, pg236) ownership® can only be achieved on devices that are wirelessly enabled.
- "You can illegally change a device’s owner with a Hardware toolkit and an Extended Hardware + Logic [Mental] (24, 1 hour)" (SR5, pg237) ownership® is in some part controlled by a chip.
- Since ownership can be legally transferred in minutes or illegally in hours, some hardware change is required to illegally change ownership, but that change must be indirectly, not directly, related to the owner's SIN. A serial number makes the most sense here.
Assumptions
- A SIN is identity. Without a SIN you do not have an identity. A fake SIN is only fake identity and will break down under intense scrutiny eventually.
- Ownership® can only be held by someone with identity. Possessing something does not equate to ownership®.
Proposal:
- When a device comes online, the grid pulls the serial number and checks itself, then [manufacturer's registry?, central device registry?, grid registry?] for a match.
- Finding none (an unregistered device or a device with a fake serial number) the grid allows registration of the device owner by SIN.
- If found and a matching real/fake SIN is provided, the grid then allows ownership (and if desired, transfer of ownership).
Support for Proposal
- This proposal provides supporting details toward simple ownership transfer and the need for a toolkit and hardware to illegally transfer ownership.
- Supports losing all your stuff when your SIN is burned.
Holes in the Proposal
- Lacking any other game defined method for establishing identity, the SIN is used as the game system default.
- As a SIN can be faked, it should be assumed that a stolen/hacked SIN could be used to illegally transfer assets using the legal method.
- Fails to take into account that a fake serial would/should be immediately identified by the registry. This could, in turn, cause the manufacturer to stop providing support for the device software.
in the end, hacking the owner's comlink and simply directing their comlink to change ownership seems simpler and at lest.