OK chums, here's little Jimmy. Note from the first - I tossed him off right quick, and he's not intended to be effective or even particularly serious, but he ought to get the point across. The optional rules for "gimp your physical stats to increase da mental onez" would seem nice, but I'm willing to bet the eventual player won't do that, and want to get a sense for how much it matters. And of course there are probably errors around in here somewhere... I've only got a vague idea for the appropriate stats/forms/skills, anyway.

His icon's appearance is that of an average dwarf teen, about 14. Not particularly attractive, but not unusually unattractive. His light hair is cropped close to his skull, and his eyes are very dark - it's difficult to make out the iris from the pupil. He tends to dress in ragged castoffs, and this follows his icon as well.

Jimmy's got himself an aquatic-invertebrates-and-insects motif for his complex forms. Sleaze is generally invisible - perhaps a thin sheen of slime across his body, a slightly wet appearance to his skin... Nothing you'd notice with his Armor up, at least, as it shows its presence as a wavering of the air around him, similar to what you'd see if you were looking at someone a few feet beneath the surface of extremely clear and calm water - a continuous liquid distortion. Attack manifests as a swarm of locust-like critters with tentacles, expelled from his mouth or hands and buzzing their way into the target. Cloak is a cloud of ink which hangs in the air like dye in water, rather than smoke or gas. Lock-on is one or more (depending on successes) long, slender filaments looking alternately like strands of spider silk or sea anemonae tentacles which stretch from Jimmy's chest to the targeted icon; they don't impede the target's movement, but they do help Jimmy keep tabs on it.

You don't even want to know how much fun I'd have with sprites and daemons for this guy.



Anything I missed?

an edge. Home Turf: Innsmouth.

I am ashamed I had to Google to figure that one out.

And now back to teaching Req how to deck.

your choice of Channels shows wisdom. it might be worthwhile to consider specializing your Control channel to Validate, but that's up to you. i can tell you that with those stats and those channels, i doubt you'll have the points for that many skills. your DF brings me great joy, as i didn't realize until just now that DF rounds up, not down.

you should spend your first point of karma on a Satellite Uplink utility, and your first paycheck on a dish and the hardware required to link to a satellite. the Angel constellation is your friend.

Actually, I *think* you're right on the money. Exactly 34 skill points spent if by "Etiquette:Matrix 4, Etiquette:Street 2" you meant Ettiquette(Matrix) 2/4; I presume you put Priority C into skills? Either way you won't be able to get Stealth, Athletics or Pistols until later unless you drop something else.

Notw, btw, this also fits exactly into 123 point buy, as-is, with the added bonus that, once you factor in the reduced cost for Computer 8 and the extra Channel point, a Bonus Attribute Point:Int edge will be absolutely free. But perhaps that's a bit munchkiny?

The only utils I can't see you needing are Lock-on, and with Matrix combat being what it is (specifically your Init from God and the fact that attacks are Simple actions) you probably will never need more than Attack-S. But, I can't see anything you would want in exchange for now, unless the GM allows Medic and/or Restore to actually work for Otaku. Definite second on the Sat Link upgrade, and later maybe a Laser or Radio link plus a transceiver with broadcast encryption-5) for some fun ways to be on-site without actually being on-site.

i would trade Lock-on for Cloak. with 5D, you're likely to not need bonuses to hit; Cloak allows you to escape combats you don't feel you can win, or don't feel like prosecuting.

and keep the 5D, or raise to to 7S'ish. in meat combat, it'd be overkill, but in Matrix combat, both attackers and defenders tend to throw around a lot more successes. i've seen 10D base attacks with 7 successes staged to nothing on a semi-regular basis, by some grade 3 otaku.

Random comment. "Tossed him off right quick" in regards to "Little Jimmy" struck me as funny

I would definately consider build pointing him, either at 120 (technically standard) or 123 (which is what even the example chars use). Dwarf cost much less that way, and is actually somewhat economical.

I thought this was a build-point build. That incorrect?

IA: Int. is definitely a good idea. Int is probably your most important starting stat, as it determines how much you pay for Computers, how many free Channel Points you get, and how many free MP for Complex Forms you get.

~J

Looks to me like it was originally priority, although that is of course equivalent to 123 point buy:

A: "Magic" (Otaku)
B: Attributes (27)
C: Skills (34)
D: Race (Dwarf)
E: Resources (5k)

All I was saying is you can get the 2-pt Bonus Attribute (Int) Edge for free if you *did* make the purely semantic switch to 123 points, because you save two skill points that way.

That and you can add in a Matrix Addiction Flaw, which I'd almost make a requirement for an Otaku anyway for flavor reasons.

actually, it'd be

A: Resources (Otaku, 5kY)
B: Attributes
C: Skizzles
D: Race
E: Magic

just to nitpick.

huh, whoops. maybe i'm thinking of a previous version of the rules, or something.

edit: oh, duh. mixed up the otaku rules with the shapeshifter rules. i knew the Resources-A-5kY thing was in there for some wack-ass char type or another.

Good call on the Etiquette - though I seem to recall you can only buy etiquette as a spec, and that there isn't a general skill. Is this some holdover from another edition clouding my mind?

Yeah, he was priority. BP is better but I wanted to get it done quick-like. I didn't even crack open the Companion, so no edges and flaws. If there were to be any, IA:Int would be right at the top of the list.

I seem to recall 2nd Ed. Otaku did the Resources A thing for creation?

Lock-on went in there mostly because of my weak little hacking pool. It seems pretty clear that otaku need to get themselves some decent cyber quick-like, and get that pool up. 5 ain't much.

how does lock-on help your small combat pool?

i think the etiquette specialization thing is 2nd ed. i know for sure it's not 3rd.

small pool = less dice to roll. using lock-on to reduce target number = more successes. But then, of course, you're giving up an attack to make the position attack attempt, so...

Perhaps I see your point.

with otaku, you've got to worry about defense before you worry about offense.

incidentally, i'm an idiot. didn't see that you'd already grabbed Cloak.

here's some advice on complex forms. they cost 1 karma to get or upgrade, no matter what rating you're going for. therefore, it's in your best interest to get a few forms at the highest rating possible, to start out with; survive on those until you've done your first run, then bulk up with whatever else you need. the total time you end up spending on learning your forms will be the same, but you'll end up spending quite a bit less karma in the long run; lots of small upgrades cost more than a few big upgrades.

Yeah spec. only for etiquette is from 2nd Ed. I only realized recently that it had changed in 3rd (I'm not a good rules lawyer).

eh? he's got Computer 8, meaning he can add 8 hp to any Computer test he cares to wholly overkill on. and soak tests have no such limit on hp use, as far as i'm aware. 'sides, the real use of hp is for allocating to DF--you need 6 hp at least, to get the full benefit of that.

Oops, you’re right

Still, he’s under thirty thousand away from another three hacking pool dice.

~J

well, actually I was looking at HP from the "matrix dodge" and "supressing crashed IC" angle, and it would seem that those 5 would be gone right quick.

Kage, you're alluding to a math SPU?

IIRC, encephalon and Math SPU add task/hacking pool which can be effectively combined in matrix work, IMO. Cerebral booster can help, too, but that's cultured bioware so you have to ask the GM nicely for that piece of gear. And an Otaku probably can't afford it at character generation anyway.

On to the teaching Req to deck part: what type of decking would you like to takle? Datasteal, overwatch, combat scenario, etc. ? Overwatch, with all the slave manipulations that it often requires, may be a pain with your lower slave/index channel, but the DF of 9 should help cover you until you get those pesky 5 successes for interrogative operations.

What we'll do is keep the same format of the Idiot's Guide to the Matrix thread when we're actually posting the tutorial information. Use yellow text to post rolls and/or motivations and then post in normal color the IC action of your otaku. Sound good?

An Otaku can't really afford *anything* at chargen in the way of cyber, except maybe a second datajack. Remember the Resources allocation doesn't actually give an Otaku more cash; it raises the lifestyle of his leeches--I mean tribe.

Maybe the rolls and motivations should be behind spoiler tags, as they are in the other "newer" Matrix thread? The cinematics of the run read much more easily that way.

Okay. So hows this: You're a member of a tribe referred to as the Cron Cats -- a reference to two obsolete software programs used in the early 21st century prior to the Crash. You're tribe eeks a living out on the streets of Denver hiding out in ghetto within the CAS sector. A team has contacted the tribe for help during their run. Seems that they were hired to remove a small figurine from the Native American Museum downtown. Their regular decker was geeked during a previous run and a mutually used fixer hooked them up with you guys.

You and two of your tribemates are to infiltrate the museum's host, which you have determined can be done through an access node within their public matrix host. The two tribemates are running interferance as they run around the public host redecorating things and generally causing mayhem. You, on the other hand, drew the short stick. You get to deck into the secured system and are tasked with finding and removing all records of said figurine as well as one other task to be detailed below.

The figurine is named Drawn Moon. It shows a female figure hands clasped above her head. Since the awakening an illusion of a full moon has appeared above the figurine. It is unknown how this illusion is projected or created. The piece is on the fourth floor of the museum and is located underneath an omni-directional camera with 8 feeds watching 360 around Drawn Moon. The team has also asked you to cut three of those feeds so they can get in, grab the piece, and get out. Then you restore the feeds. A flaw in the security: the camera does not look at Drawn Moon, but rather the space around it. The team is, therefore, confident that if they can avoid being seen, they'll be able to defeat the other non-matrix security systems surrounding the figurine.

So, you're job:

1. Cut 3 of 8 feeds to the omni-directional camera on fourth floor to protect the team.
2. Locate and remove all electronic records of the figurine's existence as a part of the museum's collection.

The team is going to remove physical evidence of the figurine from the site as well. The hope is that without the records to legally prove their possession of Drawn Moon, the museum coordinators may not be able to take follow-up legal action. May not be accurate, but hell, that's their job.

Sounds fun.

Do we know anything as to the location of the museum's host? Is it within the same LTG as our current location? A different LTG on the same RTG? Does Denver have a Denver RTG, or are the individual sectors within Denver parts of their host-nation's RTGs?

In terms of jackpoints, I presume we'll be working from a dataline tap somewhere in the CAS sector ghetto. I'll try not to bother much with the physical security thing; we're otaku after all. In the interest of safety, though, I'd like my tribemates to do their decking from another location - they're almost guaranteed to get traced and I don't want the heat coming down on me when they do. If it is possible to login from somewhere in the same LTG as the target, I'll do that. And if I can come up with a buddy to watch my meatbod (just to keep the bums off me) I'll do that too. I presume there's no safe way to go in from within the museum, so I will have to spend some time on the grid...

So I'll find me a good locale at least a few blocks from wherever they are, and plug in. Regardless of location, I believe I start with a Logon to Host operation. That's a standard system operation: a Computers(Access rating of host) test, modified by my Access channel, which is 5. My Computer skill is 8, and just for the hell of it I'll toss in a couple Hacking pool dice, bringing me to 10.

The rolls are: 1,3,3,3,4,4,5,7,10,11. I presume that's good enough for the public grid.

After some searching, Jimmy and T-Bar manage to locate an old, disused fiber-optic junction box behind an abandoned convenience store. A bit of fiddling and the dataline tap is in place. Jimmy settles himself against the building wall, and uncoils a datacable from its storage case. With a final admonition to T-Bar to watch his back, Jimmy plugs the cable into the tap, and twists it to lock it home. The other end slips easily into Jimmmy's temple datajack, and the world dissolves into the electronic reality of the Denver Matrix.

over to Dash...

Well, this seems to have died pretty quickly...

Yeah, that was seriously dissappointing. I've never had an opportunity to run an otaku, mostly due to the rampant munchkinism in my play group, and I was looking for some tips.

I do believe that Dash has a life outside of DSF. I'm sure he'll pick this up again next time he's logged in.

Looking forwards to that myself... the funny thing is, that for all my years playing SR I know very little about the mechanics of decking. the cause of this, of course, is 1st and 2nd ed (the latter pre VR 2.0), when playing a decker was such an antisocial thing to do that we always delegated it to NPC's and creative GM'ing.

I'm back. I was on vacation to see my fiancee for the weekend. Sorry about that. Forgot to post that in this thread.

-------

As the Denver LTG spawns itself in your vision, it feels like the arms of a loved one welcoming you home. You traverse well know data lines as you move throughout the grid. The architecture of the grid itself is a representation of an old mining town complete with a saloon, gambling hall, and house of ill repute all representing different public service grids for the City of Denver. Other buildings all conform to the general architecture with a few notable exceptions: the public site of the Aztechnology grid is, as usual, a large representation of the Aztec Temple of the Sun in Tenochtilan and a number of the other AAA Megacorps have displayed their influence over politics of the FRFZ by modifying their grid icons in some way or another. Oddly anachronistic is the aluminum siding clad split-level house that represents the Ares Arms local branch.

The museum's public host is located in a building that represents an old wild-west freakshow often made popular by the likes of Barnum and Bailey and, in the late 20th century, Mr. Ripley of Believe It or Not! fame. The building itself is dank and dirty, promoting the mysterious nature of the items within. As you enter the grid and move around, it is clear that the virtual space within the building is much larger than the space outside. Moving through the "museum" you notice the icons of other legitimate users of the museum's public grid. According to the information that you were given by the physical team, an access point for the museum's private grid should be found within the public grid's office room. Now you just need to find that....

To search for a system access node, Jimmy will have to perform a Locate System Access Node (SAN) operation on the LTG. For most purposes, this should be very easy to do, unles the SAN is protected by interesting or nasty things (i.e. scrambler IC, vanishing, etc.)

After locating the SAN, Jimmy will need to perform another Logon to Host operation to move from the local grid into the museum's private grid. IIRC, your security tally from the local grid carries over into the private grid. However, I often house rule this away since I don't often use the decking rules for the LTG but rather see the LTG as something like the internet where everyone is effectively a legitimate user even if they've spoofed or stolen an account to gain access; once you have access, you're validated, so to speak.

So, give me a Locate SAN test as well as a Logon to Host roll. The former is vs. the LTG's Index subsystem (I think? Confirmations for me while I'm at work) and the latter is against the PLTG's Access subsystem.

Req has brought up the key difference between Otaku and Deckers in the post above. Deckers use Operational Utilities while Otaku use Channels. For you SAT types, Operational Utilities:Deckers::Channels:Otaku .

This major differences is definately a pro-Otaku thing, IMO. Consider this, if a Decker wanted to have a -4 to all tests involving the Index subsystem of a host, that decker would need to purchase the following operational utilities: Browse, Scanner, Analyze, and Evaluate at rating 4. This would take up 144 MPs of space on the Decker's deck. Not too bad, but bounce this up to a rating 6 for each utility and you use up 314 MPs. Talking and for a rating 4 "suite" it costs 28800 and 64800 for rating 6. Granted, the average decker starts with Priority A in resources (or the equivalent for BP or BeCKS) but an Otaku gets the exact same benefits simply by alloting 4 points to their Index channel at character generation which can later be increased to 6 for a total of 16 karma. Not too shabby, in my opinion.

Plus, Otaku channels (and complex forms, but I'll talk more about them when Req gets a chance to use one) are not vulnerable to Tar Baby and Tar Pit IC and other similar utility-targeting IC programs (i.e. Hog). These IC programs "steal" utilities from a deck's active and somtimes storage memoryor otherwise decrease a utility's effectivness. Otaku don't have such things and therefore, these IC programs are ineffective against Otaku.

This has been an informational post. I'll get back to Req's rolls either after the Presidential Debate or tomorrow from work (bad me).

Quick question - did someone say there was a decker's version of this thread? (Doing a search for Matrix on this board would, I feel, be an exercise in futility).

Several, actually. The most recent is here. There's an older one which went through an entire simple datasteal but slowed to a halt halfway through the next, which was a rather complex Matrix Overwatch job. Dunno when or even that that one'll ever get back on track.

I'm also really sad that Talia doesn't seem to be coming back for the Infiltration Challenge thread; that one was really cool.

Back to the Run

You come upon an office room with a number of icons, probably bots, that seem to be performing a number of record keeping tasks. A few icons move quickly in and out of the room and as the node opens for one of these icons, you slip in, manipulating the data trail of your icon to match that of the one you're following.

Once inside the office, you see that the archtecture of the new grid is very different from the previous. Standing at the base of a tall tree, the grid is identified as the City of Denver Education and Outreach Center (CDEOC) Grid which includes operations for a number of different educational centers within it including the host for the museum. Each host within this grid is identified by a treehouse within the huge plant before you. Standing here you can see over a dozen treehouses for schools, theaters, gymnasiums, etc. Heaving a sigh, you get read to get to work.

As you do, you suddenly hear the "Ride of the Valkyries" playing in the back of your mind. That's the signal that your two tribemates have begun to redecorate the node you just left in an attempt to draw active matrix security away from the secured museum host and out to the public one.

At this point, Jimmy has successfully infiltrated the PLTG for the City of Denver Education and Outreach Center within which is the host for the Native American Museum. He'll need to find that host within the grid before being able to tackle finding/deleting the records on Drawn Moon and dealing with that pesky camera.