Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Rules and such => Topic started by: Dudeling on <01-15-18/1746:16>
-
I've got a scenario for my players where they are going to be working at odds with an opposing team of shadowrunners. As a twist, one of those runners is a contact for one of my players.
I'm trying to give the player a chance at realizing their contact is involved by letting the team's technomancer possibly notice the decker's marks, clueing him in, and allowing the scene to play out very differently.
My thought is that the decker has been scoping the facilities out in advance, and pre-marking objects (they're supposed to do an extraction, and want to be in and out fast). The rules state that marks only last one matrix session, and disappear after reboot. If the decker is operating off a grid they have legal access to, however, and the only hacking they do is to put the mark(s) in place, how might they sustain those marks for, say, a couple of days, without them simply vanishing and not have it be a complete atrocity of overwatch rule-breaking? If this decker was instead a technomancer, then "Clean" could be a way out of my conundrum.
-
You could use the bootstrap program from datatrails to have a given device automatically invite a mark whenever it starts up. (Bootstrap can be found in Datatrails)
-
Ah, I see, so this decker would have spent time previously in fits and bursts illegally breaking into the devices, formatting them, boostrapping them to invite a mark, so that on next reboot, they could simply add a mark without it appearing as an illegal action, since it was invited? Thus, they could stay in the matrix for quite some time with those marks in place without needing to trigger any overwatch-activating actions?
-
Correct. It's quite a bit of work to use bootstrap, but when it's done there should be no more illegal actions necessary and therefore no overwatch generation.
-
Deep Dives from Data Trails also let you perma-Mark devices in advance. If your team and your GM are in on it, you can have a little inception-style prep run.
-
Awesome, that means I just have to come up with a means of the decker dealing with fatigue for 48 hours, which is pretty simple.
Re: deep dives, interesting, but would be way more work for this run for the decker in question than the pay and risk would warrant. Useful for future use, however. :-)
-
wait wait wait wait you have a technomancer? fly on the wall program cleaner complex form to reduce overwatch score why is this even a question?
-
The player team has a technomancer. The opposing NPC team does not. I was asking so that the players wouldn't be able to call BS.
-
Hey, a followup question on this: is there a way for a technomancer to do something similar? I don't see anything, and the only method I can see is the technomancer using cleaner/static veil and staying up for long periods of time to put the marks in place, etc., but fatigue....
-
The player team has a technomancer. The opposing NPC team does not. I was asking so that the players wouldn't be able to call BS.
Why not? They're just npcs. They are whatever you need them to be.
-
We all like to approach things in our group where NPCs can't necessarily do anything the PCs can't ever consider being able to do themselves (unless the NPC in question is meant to be, say, a super-boss or somesuch). This NPC doesn't fall anywhere *near* that category. As noted above already, it was even a fairly simple mechanism to make it happen. Now I have my technomancer player justifiably asking "if a decker can do this using a program, how can my technomancer do something at least similar, if not identical?"
-
And I just was able to answer that question - submersion and taking Resonance (Program). Considering her TM has not undergone submersion yet, this'll be a fairly straightforward thing is she wants to go there.
-
You could use the bootstrap program from datatrails to have a given device automatically invite a mark whenever it starts up. (Bootstrap can be found in Datatrails)
That is... a really damn good use of the Bootstrap Program :o
Damn, I never realized how usefull this thing is. Itīs funny how easy it is to overlook these small pieces of crunch that actually have huge ramifications. Bootstrap is an absolute must-have for hackers :P
-
Jupp, but don't talk to loudly about it or someone will errata that option out of existence ;)
-
OTOH it may not always be the best idea to leave your contact info left behind in a hacked device.
-
A different angle might be to steal or copy legit user access codes for the host/device in question. Get your marks that way w/o an Attack or Sleaze matrix action.
-
Considering that you can use trace with any old commlink, that danger can be countered with a burner phone.
-
Considering that you can use trace with any old commlink, that danger can be countered with a burner phone.
If you've hacked something to invite a mark from you, a burner phone is besides the point. Your Persona is on record (so that it can invite the mark).
Change your Persona from what you left via Bootstrap, and you don't get to keep using the invited mark.
-
That's an interesting question: Does your persona get recorded when you receive a MARK without hacking? Public hosts do extend MARKs to anyone.
By that logic, once you received a MARK you'd never be able to hack that host without risking that your Persona is compromised forever.
-
Some argue that programs gained along the Datajack+ implant as usable by Technomancers as they payed the essence and the programs are locked once chosen
-
That's an interesting question: Does your persona get recorded when you receive a MARK without hacking? Public hosts do extend MARKs to anyone.
I don't see how non-hacked marks could functionally work if they were anonymous. Defeats the purpose of even having them if they're not tied to specific Personae. If you're gonna bother to have computer security and restrict users' privileges (e.g. 'use marks' in SR5 parlance) you have to track the users in order to restrict their access/privileges to what you want them to have.
By that logic, once you received a MARK you'd never be able to hack that host without risking that your Persona is compromised forever.
Well if you want to hack a site you also/have previously legitimately use(d), you'd probably be smart to not begin hacking by expanding your authorized host privileges in an unauthorized manner. Just because a host may invite a mark, doesn't mean you must accept it. And if you have one, remove it. Start over with 0 marks, and get them all thru hacking. No reason anything you're doing would be tied to your legit uses of the host that are on record, assuming you're being competent and using Edit file on the security logs after you're done doing your nasty hacking.
-
I think you're over complicating things a bit.
While marks appear to be tied to your persona, your persona is a visual/icon reference. The mark is AFAIK actually tied to the device (commlink or deck) which generates your persona.
In order for your device to be able to access the Matrix is must be recognized - some sort of 'grid mark' like a current day IP address (this is not spelled out RAW anywhere that I know of - but we had a big discussion about it a few years ago and from what I recall this was the general consensus). This 'grid mark' is what is used to trace the device. It is normally fixed, but a hacker can rig the device to make it so that the 'grid mark' can be erased and overwritten. This is the basis for the 'reboot' action - it is not just turning the device off and back on again (such actions must happen all the time as they do today and the legal user does not expect to loose control of their microwave just because their phone ran out of power). The decker sends a command which wipes the 'grid mark' from the device - when it next tries to connect to the matrix the device appears to be a new device and is assigned a new 'grid mark'.
This is also why you lose all your prior marks if you reboot - the marks still exist, technically, but point towards a device which (from the matrix's point of view) no longer exists.
So you hack the device, hit it with the Reboot program to invite a mark to a secondary deck/burner link, then reboot your own deck to lose any Overwatch Score you may have generated. You can now access/control the device as normal using the secondary deck/burner link without generating OS. Rinse and repeat as often as needed.
Should someone become suspicious that a device is not functioning correctly there is always the chance that a security spider might check the device's permissions to see who is giving it commands, see the marks that are not on his own list of who is supposed to have access, and then trace the device giving the commands...so it's not entirely without risk.
-
That makes sense with my understanding of how rebooting a deck resets the overwatch score. If your SIN or Persona somehow remained tied to your deck after a reboot, then regardless of the score dropping to zero, the GODs would still be searching for you.
I'd assume that the icon wouldn't change on a reboot either, so ownership of a mark must be something behind the scenes that is randomized on reboot and not directly connected to your icon. I haven't read Data Trails or Kill Code yet though, so I'm probably missing some stuff that ties it all together.
-
A SIN is just a number string. A Persona is just an avatar to help others interact with you. Your SIN is not implicitly tied to your deck. Your Persona avatar can look like (mostly) anything and you can change the appearance on a whim.
Remember, 99% of the items on the Matrix - much like our own current internet - are devices without persona's or SINS. The Matrix is an evolution of the 'Internet Of Things'. Accessing the Matrix, at least the 'Public Grid', is as simple as turning on your link. Accessing other grids or entering private hosts may require some form of ID which _can_ be linked to a SIN in many cases - if you do it all nice and legal.
But as a Shadowrunner, nice and legal isn't exactly your schtick most of the time now is it omae? :)