Hi all, well, I've read the hype. Let's just hope that SR4 lives up to it.
Anyway, onto what the topic is about.

Here's how I visualise the new Matrix system working.

Essentially it's a way of better integrating deckers into the game, although in my opinion at the expense of some other archetypes (notably the high electronics skill security expert, but I'm sure there'll be something for him to do.)

Basically the Matrix now works just like the astral.

You have deckers who are 'dual natured' ie. present in the real world and in the matrix, and deckers who are 'astrally projecting' ie. their meat body is slumped somewhere and they're jacked in.

So when you go into a corp compound and run into a security door the decker 'hacks' the door much in the same way that the electronics skill is used now, maybe even defeating some scramble IC or somesuch at the same time.

Once you're in the research lab the decker can see datafiles floating above the various lab benches, workstations, etc. and can grab them with his grubby little virtual fingers and put them into his cyberdeck.

I'm sure you all get the idea, so I won't belabour it. This raises a number of questions from my point of view.

1) Will deckers just become cyber-mages? Will they use their "Wreck" program against that door, their "Improved Invisibility" program against that sensor cluster and their "Manabolt" program against that IC? I hope not, although it seems likely, as one of the things that hacked me off most about 3rd edition was the way Adept Powers and Cyberware contained so many identical abilities. I like distinction between my character classes in more than just special effect.

2) Presumably deckers present only in the Matrix will not be able to percieve the real world except as it is shown via cameras/sensors, etc. in their immediate vincinity. This could become complicated. I would also guess that they would be far faster than their 'dual natured' counterparts.

3) Will IC now be just like Critters with stat blocks that the decker fights in the same way a normal character would? I presume this will be part of the streamlining. Ie. Matrix/Real World/Magical actions all being based on the same system for attacks/defence, etc.

4)How common will this technology be? Will everyone be able to percieve this new Matrix but only the party decker command it effectively? Or will it be limited to the few people with the neccessary skills to access it? I think the coolest thing would be if everyone could see it with minimal cyberware etc, but that only a few could interact with it.

5) In addition to IC 'Critters' I imagine this will produce a whole raft of new security measures which will probably all be cloned from their magical equivalents... Cyber-Wards, Cyber-Alarm Wards, Cyber-Masking Wards, etc.?

6) Otaku? Three possibilities exist here, all of which have varying degrees of viability...
i) All the Otaku are gone. This is least likely as the guys behind SR seem to like them.
ii) Only Otaku have the power to control the new Matrix in the way deckers controlled the old one. This makes the decker character more 'unique' and prevents anyone with a datajack (or whatever you'll now need) and a computer skill from stepping on his toes. Presumably if this is the correct option the system crash or whatever has resulted in an increase in the numbers of otaku. I'm sure normal Matrix users can still use the new system... but only otaku can 'hack' it. This seems a possibility as it leads to more similarities with magicians and streamlines things further still, also preventing omni-characters who are magician/decker/sammies.
iii) Status quo is maintained. Deckers and otaku both exist and can cut it in this brave new world. Somehow this seems least likely, but maybe I'm way off base.

There are a whole bunch more questions about it, but I'll let some of you ask them now and think about what I've said before I start warbling on again. What do you think? Am I near the mark?

In short it seems like a good way to further integrate deckers into the game, but I hope they are kept sufficiently different from magicians.

Next questions has to be about Riggers... although I imagine in this brave new world the two are not all that different!!!

hmm, quick thoughts,

I think you're probably close to the mark with the 'dual natured' vs. jacked in and 'projecting' (heaven forfend they don't use those terms though.)

1. I'd like to think there will ~less~ reliance on programs, since one of the big complaints about deckers is that there's very little 'skill use' in decking, and more reliance on skill-related hacking. in fact, I'd be a big fan of breaking computer skill up like they did firearms in sr2... maybe do it to sorcery too. (although Magician's may not need more things to spend karma on) Because of this, I don't think that we'll see an analogue develop between programs and spells (or at least, not to the level considered in the question).

2. deckers that are 'jacked in' as opposed to those who are just 'coasting' along in the real world would need definite advantages, speed should be one of them, either extra resilience or harder tracing should be as well. Bandwidth, security, reliability of connection are all reasons to use a 'hard wire'.

another point- it's probably safe to assume that many 'offline' Sculpted systems would still be viable post crash- although may likely require updating for new protocols, I don't see the companies in question choosing to abandon closed-circuit systems in favor of an open wireless solution. so physical insertion and hard wiring into the network should still be required for some runs.

3.Access to the new matrix should be as simple as it was before for non-experts, simply plug into a local terminal (or mobile terminal like a low-end cyberdeck) and you're in. datajack and small fee for DNI capable matrix terminal should be all that's required. hopefully slipstreaming the matrix rules will encourage the 'everyone's connected' pervasiveness that Target:Matrix and Matrix tried to convey in the opening chapters. ("Matrix is for Everyone" springs to mind).

4. as far as Ice in the matrix, in the old system (Matrix 1.0) Ice worked much like critters did in the real world, they have initiative, relevant stats (although fewer, since decking unlike the real world, doesn't care what 'charisma' a creature might have, since nothing in the matrix targets charisma) and combat ability.

the only real difference was that the majority of IC's capabilities revolved around the power of the overall system.... but this is accurate from a computing sense. the robustness of my Firewall is related partially on the capabilities of the firewall app (rating of program and purpose) and partially on the capabilities of my OS/hardware (network bandwidth, processor tics available for program execution (apparent speed of program), RAM level error checking for robustness, temporary program copy storage, (exectution records, 'inactive' data storage) etc.)

5. 'cyber wards' and similar don't make much sense from a technology standpoint. if the goal is to keep the equipment in a particular room off limits: much simpler to put it on an entirely different network. - if information needs to flow back and forth, then you can use layered security (SAN's, killjars, verified logins, etc) and it makes the most sense for this portion of the network to be a 'secondary layer' behind the overall virtual system running as the 'matrix overlay'. if you're not in, you can't see it. if you are in. all that 'new' information simply becomes visible.

it's important to remember that the matrix you 'see' is only what the system sends your terminal. unlike magic which is natural perception. if the system decides you shouldn't see something. it simply doesn't exist to your reality. Unlike the astral plane and mundane real world, where you passively perceive; in the matrix you must actively perceive. less like sailing ships and more like submarines.


6. as far as otaku. they should either be gone for good, or side by side.
it kills any sort of pervasiveness of technology if you make the only characters capable of decking be special from (character)birth.

Part of the point of technology is that you need knowledge more than talent. anyone in a broad-range of mental-predispositions is capable of understanding computers well enough to use them to hack. what makes modern day hackers/crackers 'special' is their knowledge, not their raw talent.

Anyone should be able to play the instrument proficiently. The best should be decided by skill- not by birthright. requiring all class A+ 'hackers'/deckers/(whatever they call them in sr4) be unnatural pre-pubescent to pubescent children. would kill any connections to plausible future reality the matrix2.0 would have. and once that happens, then what's the point of playing a near future earth game if it's all pure fantasy and none of it is science conjecture?

but then, I'm not the one making decisions. so no one needs listen to me.

edit: edited for numbering to line up post response, added content, edited for clarity.

With the wireless aspect promised for the 'nu-trix,' I would expect nu-deckking to be less like Astral Projection, and more like Astral Perception. I would expect that actual system infiltration would still require the decker to jack in, but (I hope) that the other changes with the decking system will mean that diving in the Matrix will not mean leaving all the non deckers waiting until it's finished.

Couple of quick points;

On cyber-wards and the like. I suppose this sounds a bit 'cheese', however I think it'd be more likely than having to log-on whenever you want to step into a new room or the like. I presume there are still some barriers to access, so I have to imagine something other than the current form of access test.

The other thing was concerning my 'otaku only' view of deckers. Which in the cold light of day seems quite harsh, but in the event of this scenario perhaps the 'system crash' or the new system creates a whole bunch of new otaku of varying age ranges and the like... making them not common, but not rare enough that you wouldn't have one in every SR team!

Magical security works in the same way... less than (way less than if you believe the books) 1% of guys are trained to any decent level, but every team (just about) has at least one awakened guy!

oh I agree from a game-balance standpoint that making them 'special' wouldn't be a big issue, mages have proven that.-

one issue I would have is it forces you to decide at character creation, limiting your 'buy-in' options post-creation to just Street-sam and rigger (if even, since rumor has it that rigger/decker are blending) and a few of the various 'gadget dependent' archetypes, like covert ops, B/E specialists, etc.

the other is increasing the paralells between magic and matrix to that level might be going too far from a flavor standpoint. It's one thing to unify the mechanics- it's another entirely to make them the same conceptually. Matrix mimicing Magic doesn't seem plausible to me, from a 'suspension of disbelief' standpoint.

Machines aren't bound by the physical constraints of a 'forced' overlay- (the astral plane is by definition overlaying real world) I think it would best be implemented by mimicing the convienent parts while consciously not implementing anything that would require clumsy and easily subverted (what happens when you log out and try to log in 'behind' a barrier?- magic wards can be built to detect mundanes passing through, because you can cease transmitting entirely with respect to the matrix, because magic is by necessity tied into your life-force- you can't do some of the same things) technology.

Again, because what is there to your client is only what the systems tells you is there (including those things you convince the system to let you know about) security can better be accomplished by omission than by blockade. A large Firewall and Secure but accessible SAN 'screams' hot data. A dead zone says: this is a broom closet; a bathroom, mundane plumbing; We keep the circuit breakers box here physically, but the controls are in the matrix in a more logical (security? maintenance?) place.

A virtual machine hiding the 'real' laboratory system says:
This is a lab, but it's not really in use- so nothing is hooked up. move along.

A firewall over every piece of sensitive tech says: "steal me!"

I will say: whichever ever of us ends up being closer- I'm looking forward to the solution either way, I probably won't even try to house rule it for the first few months since I believe that there must be some logic in any core ruleset anywhere- but it'll be tougher for me to believe that the base world they mixed with magic is a plausible future earth if the only people with any skill in computing were lucky SOB's who were born with the spark to do it unassisted.

I also agree with you about 1%(maybe) being capable of real matrix security- with how new the architecture (~5years) it could even be 0.1%- the ~first~ graduated class of IS/CS/CoE/EE majors trained entirely post-crash will have *just* entered the working world. I think where we disagree is where that 1%(or less) should come from.

edit: grammar.

Actually, one other thought was the idea of gargoyles, from Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Basically, people who are wired in have hypersenses on just about everything they scan.

Yeah--My thoughts, of which I've mentioned it at least a couple of times.

They already give IC constructs critter statblocks. On every UV host they have stated IC on. I don't thing it would be a great leap to say that Matrix 2.0 would be on the same level as SOTA hosts 10-15 years ago.

Ooh. Cain-- good call. That would be slick. I can just imagine the Johnson prepping a team for a meet: "And make sure your decker is turned off, or no deal."

I've said before that it sounds very, very cybergeneration - which I didn't think worked at all. It came across as a very forced attempt to restructure the net as "now the net is part of the real world, so the decker is right there with your party".

Mobile, I get and am happy with, pervasive, likewise, but adopting a forced spatial equivalence, I'm just not convinced they'll be able to pull it off in a convincing fashion.

There are different ways of addressing Augmented Reality in sci-fi so I don't see why there wouldn't be different takes in RPGs.

Cybergeneration is indeed a possible reference (although the tech base is significantly different from SR), but so would be Peter Hamilton's two different approaches in the novels of the Night's Dawn trilogy and the new Pandora Star, Stableford's Architects of E-mortality and even Eliss' Ocean comicbook.

Fear the Doors corporation

I'm just waiting for Microsoft to find some way to try an sue his arse off for that...

Good comic, by the way, recommended reading.