[Reaver]

My high karma mage has a magic rating of 23.

Wyrm's mage is even higher.

[Marcus Gideon]

To be clear...

Can you learn a spell without the ability to cast it?

If you are an aspected conjurer, can you spend karma to learn spells to pass on to spirits of man that you summon, without the ability to cast those spells, or is that power for spirits of man unavailable?

Core pg 299 says in order to learn a spell you have to make a Spellcasting + Intuition roll. Since you're an Aspected Summoner, you don't have the Spellcasting skill, which means you cannot learn spells.

[Aaron]

Thank y'all.

Questino about the Jam Signals matrix action.

How long does it last?  Does it last until you do something else with the device, or do you have to spend an action to reroll it every round?  Can you put a rating 1 attack dongle on your metalink, then spend edge to push the limit and get ten hits and let your metalink just sit there jamming like it was a turbocharged rating 10 area jammer that can cover two football fields at full strength, while you're going around doing other stuff?

I think it's just one Combat Turn. I vaguely recall something about it in Rigger 5 (like an updated action?) , but I can't look it up just now as I'm posting from a waiting room (I'd wait until I get home, but I'm bored right now). =i)

EDIT: Nope, I was completely wrong about that. It looks like the dongle + Metalink + Edge is a valid tactic. Seems like it's a pretty expensive one, though, at over 3k¥.

[Blue Rose]

I've spent far more on less useful tricks and come out ahead. 3k and a point of edge for nigh radio silence everywhere for a hundred yards in every direction?  About as subtle as a tactical nuke, but even many deckers will be hard pressed to keep online without a lot of noise reduction.

[Reaver]

Aaron!!

Good to see you back here after a long absence.

[Aaron]

I've spent far more on less useful tricks and come out ahead. 3k and a point of edge for nigh radio silence everywhere for a hundred yards in every direction?  About as subtle as a tactical nuke, but even many deckers will be hard pressed to keep online without a lot of noise reduction.

True, although like most tactics, it depends on what you're going for. Still valid, though. =i)

Good to see you back here after a long absence.

Hi! Thanks! Good to be back.

[Blue Rose]

True, although like most tactics, it depends on what you're going for. Still valid, though. =i)

Oh, absolutely. It's a handy emergency trick to keep in the back pocket, not plan A.

[Zweiblumen]

EDIT: Nope, I was completely wrong about that. It looks like the dongle + Metalink + Edge is a valid tactic. Seems like it's a pretty expensive one, though, at over 3k¥.

Couldn't you do the "Device Modification: Add a Matrix Attribute" to give a Metalink an attack rating for the cost of 2 Spare Parts?

Add a Matrix Attribute:You can add a rating that a device doesn’t have, specifically Attack or Sleaze. When you perform this mod, the rating starts at 1. You can’t add a Matrix attribute to a device that already has that attribute. Remember that all devices have Data Processing and Firewall, even if that information is not listed in their gear entry. The Increase a Matrix Attribute modi - cation can later be added to this modi cation. The number of parts packs needed for this modi cation equals the (Device Rating x 2) of the object being modified.

Human with 7 Edge (since we are pushing the limit and can't re-roll misses you'd want as many dice as possible) Logic 6 and EW 6 is rolling 19 dice.  Not a great chance of 10 hits even with exploding 6s, but definitely feasible.  And the cost would be 100¥ for the meta-link plus either 500¥ to straight up buy parts or scavenge from any device rating ≥2 (ie, anything that isn't a meta-link).

[Blue Rose]

To be clear...

Can you learn a spell without the ability to cast it?

If you are an aspected conjurer, can you spend karma to learn spells to pass on to spirits of man that you summon, without the ability to cast those spells, or is that power for spirits of man unavailable?

Core pg 299 says in order to learn a spell you have to make a Spellcasting + Intuition roll. Since you're an Aspected Summoner, you don't have the Spellcasting skill, which means you cannot learn spells.

Yep. Looks pretty water tight. Thank you.

*Takes notes for some aspected summoner ideas.*

[Aaron]

The biggest thing for me in each of these hacked-together plans for an area jammer is that player characters have to make some skill tests. I'm always in favor of something that promotes active playing.

That and player ingenuity. =i)

[Blue Rose]

Human with 7 Edge (since we are pushing the limit and can't re-roll misses you'd want as many dice as possible) Logic 6 and EW 6 is rolling 19 dice.  Not a great chance of 10 hits even with exploding 6s, but definitely feasible.  And the cost would be 100¥ for the meta-link plus either 500¥ to straight up buy parts or scavenge from any device rating ≥2 (ie, anything that isn't a meta-link).

I generally go with Logic 8-ish deckers, and if that metalink were one of my backup plans, I'd strongly consider a specialization in jamming, and if practical...

Actually, does jacking out of VR reset your device?  If no, then I'd take the hot sim dice if I could, jack out, and let my metajammer run.  That'd make the final dice pool 25 with exploding 6's, averaging to the 9 or 10 success range, skewing high.

If it does reset the device, then it would be necessary to do this in AR for a -2, dice pool of 21, average more like eight.

[Darzil]

Actually, does jacking out of VR reset your device?

Yes.
From Core, pg 240, Jack Out matrix action : "This jacks you out of the Matrix and reboots the device you are using"

[Blue Rose]

But if you did it in AR, you could just cut the feed to your image link and keep it jamming while you shoot things with a shotgun, or use your cyber deck to direct connect to things.

[Zweiblumen]

You can go from VR to AR without rebooting your gear.  But you'll still be online and vulnerable to cyber attacks... admittedly in a very noisy area so attacks against you would be difficult.

[Blue Rose]

Huh.

So, jam from hot sim, go from VR to AR, cut the feed to your image link, leave the metalink running for noise.

And if you get enough hits on the jamming, the problem is not overcoming noise penalties to attack you.  It's having enough noise reduction to get that noise penalty under your device rating so you can go online at all.