A sequencer can be used to bypass a Maglock. Can they assist with your Electronics skill or do you have to use one or the other?

Also, in the NSRCG program, sequencers are only listed up to rating 4. Any reason for this?

you can use the electronics skill to increase the effective rating of the sequencer.

So they stack? Cool, all I needed to know.

they don't stack. as i recall--i can't find the damn rule to save my life--you roll your Electronics skill, and every 2 successes (no clue what the TN is) adds 1 die to your sequencer's roll.

Wow, that's news to me. The BBB says very little on the matter...

It may be a gamemaster's call, but according to the book, you can use Electronics as a complimentary skill to using an electronic device. A complementary skill needs 2 successes to create one success for the Sequencer, and then the Sequencer must have at least one success to be successful. The target for both tests would be the rating of the mag lock.

hm. maybe that's what i'm thinking of. what's the page number for that?

When using a sequencer the maglock MUST contain a key pad. The sequencer is a code breaker. The Mag Pass key is only for maglocks that have a swipe card. When using either, it is an opposed success test between the lock and the device. The device does all of the work so no complimentary test is allowed.

These devices are for people who lack the skills to do it manually. They don't stack at all.

a-HA! SR3 page 97. the electronics skill can be used as a complimentary skill when making certain device rating tests.

yep.

Maybe you blow some of the dust off it first?

Well, and you also notice things like worn buttons/connectors, and program the sequencer to emphasize those numbers over the unworn ones, going on the assumption that a correct passkey will be pressed more often than a non-pressed one. You might be able to recognize some idiosyncrasies in the particular maglock that could help you flog it into working again, etc etc.

sure, but not when all you have to do is swipe your passkey through the reader.

Sometimes we allow characters to roll 2 skill checks: Once for the maglock-bypass (using a sequencer or forged card key or whatever), and once to bypass the anti-tamper mechanisms (using Electronics). It's usually easier just to make a single roll, though, with or without Electronics as a complementary skill.

eh. my GM discretion sense tells me that using electronics to swipe a card better is silly. other GMs' discretion sense may be less finely-tuned.

Perhaps you missed those two tiny knobs on the maglock passkey

Our tech wiz characters would never use a Maglock Passkey or Sequencer, mostly because too many things can go wrong and in most cases, rolling Electronics + Task Pool enhanced by Microscopic Vision is easier in terms of making the rolls rather than the risky opposed test. Of course, if you are in a hurry, or you aren't skilled in Electronics, then there is need for using the Maglock Passkey and Sequencer.

bah. you just say that because you're jealous of my character's rating 10 sequencer.

So does the sequencer fit over top of the keypad somehow? Or do you need to electronics (b/r) the keypad open to get to the leads to hook up the sequencer? Opinions?

no opinions, just facts from the book. you have to break the maglock's casing, pitting your Electronics B/R skill against the BR of the casing, same as you would if you were going to use the Electronics skill to bypass the lock.

It makes perfect sense to use eletronics as a complementary skill to the maglock sequencer/passkey test. You must imagine that besides being easy to use, these devices have some options of fine tuning for the advanced user. Looking at the manufacturer & model of the maglock may give you some insight at what sequences you want to try first or what sequences you may not want to try. Security protocols and encryption used may restrict your search also. Lastly, you can look at the keypad and see some worn buttons ...

sequencer, yes. keycard, i doubt it. the whole point of the keycard is that it's stupid-proof and fast; all you have to do is swipe it, and the door opens.

I always imagined the card as something like what John Conner used in T2 to break into the atm. A magnetic card hooked into a computer that scans for the correct code.

hm. yeah. the base time for using one is 10 seconds; that's not quite swipe-and-go.

Unless a sequencer gets much worse than they are right now, no electronics test should ever be needed. Its scans the codes for you. Period. Hook it up to the wires and wait. You can't help them in any way. You might require a test just to hook it up right but now matter how good you are, you will never have any personal interaction with your sequencer, no tweaking, no fiddling, no adjusting. It works or it doesn't.

That's my opnion as well.

using the electronics skill with your sequencer doesn't make the sequencer work or not work. it's a complementary test; successes on the electronics roll don't count unless you get a success on the sequencer test. the electronics roll allows you to manipulate the sequencer more quickly, helping reduce the base time of 10 seconds.

For game purposes I'd let that slide. Assuming of course that the sequencer actually won the test. With a complementary test, all you need is one success with the skill to allow complementary successes to work. Your rating one sequencer and electronics of 10 stand a decent chance of opening a rating four lock. For time reduction I might allow it because hooking up the machine might be included in the ten seconds.

That's another thing... without some sort of influence of a PC Electronics roll, there are few reasons for the lower rated tech toys to exist (being outdated, designed to break into a school locker, etc.). Perhaps you can chalk it up to the PC customizing the toy between runs to make it more efficient/effective for certain situations. Under this assumption, you can give a bonus for items that the PCs have owned for a reasonable length of time and that they have specifically "tuned" for any particular run.

Just a thought on why knowledge of electronics can certainly assist you in using a sequencer (not so much a pass card, don't have a book on me right now to remember how "long" it takes to use them). If you gave me in real life a sequencer and a quick run down on how to use it, I could probably follow instructions even with my meager understanding of electronics, but still not be knowledgeable enough to use it to it's ability. Give that sequencer to someone with at least a technical school education, they could figure out how to connect it much faster than me and get the thing cracking. Remember, a complementary skill roll only works if the device scores a success. It's a sticky call on whether or not in an opposed test that would be a net success or not. But in the description they use electronic warfare as an example and almost every one of those tests are opposed. Why use a sequencer if you've got the skills already. Time. If you aren't going in stealth with a bunch of time to waste, you might still want a quick way into an area. That rating 8 maglock can keep you fiddling with it for a minute or two, which could be a minute or two too long.

With electronics warfare you are using it to jam and run intercepts, a very active process where you are constantly involved and practice and skill very much alter the outcome. You are using your experience to control a piece of electronics to do what you want.

The sequencer does not require nor can you offer it any help. All you can do is update its decryption routines (making it a higher rating). Without instuction, no one can use a sequencer at all. Its actually very silly that it requires no skill to use but that is probably just because the designers wanted to give runners with no techwiz a chance.

Trust me as someone who has used them, no one "tunes" a sequencer. It's strictly plug and play.