[DigitalZombie]

Hoi Chummers,.

As 6th edition sadly wasnt for us, we went back to 5th. BUT I do think 6th edition had some cool stuff in the matrix area, which got me wondering if someone here had ported some of that back into 5th already, or alternatively made some other houserules for 5ths matrix world?

Im mostly looking for stuff to make it less clunky, slightly fewer dice rolls, more intuitively, and/or faster

Reward :3 Karma

[penllawen]

Hello! I have done this exact thing: I backported about half, maybe two-thirds of the 6e Matrix rules into 5e. Here's my doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V-G6O3SOEJuuHBEzpOrTUpT9Owig_GqCUWcPeIZVAx4/edit

(I am at this very second working on further houserules - paring down the action list, removing even more tests, reshuffling a few things to suit my own tastes. But that's early days so far.)

[DigitalZombie]

Noice, Ove glanced it quickly but will take me some time to look at it detail.

[penllawen]

Cool! Don’t be put off by how long it is; the meat of the doc with the rules in is only about 8 pages. The rest is a line-by-line comparison of the two editions.

I’m in the process of moving this to a website and reformatting it for better navigation. Will post a link here at some point.

[topcat]

The easiest hack for speeding things up in SR5 is replacing mark-gaining mechanics with a net success mechanic.  Net successes required for marks are spent, reducing the margin of success for the action.  Let the highest number of marks achieved be persistent.

Example: Decker wants to reboot a device they currently have no marks on.  This requires 3 marks, so they'll need to spend 3 net successes to get the marks.  Their first attempt, they get 2 net successes, which isn't enough to reboot the device, but is enough to get 2 marks.  Their next action, they again get 2 net successes, which is enough to get the 3rd mark and have 1 net success left over to accomplish the task.

Another big time-saver is passive matrix perception.  Hackers get (Matrix Perception Pool)/4 as a passive check to find any hidden device in the area.  No action required, it's just second nature by the time you've earned the right to call yourself a decker or technomancer.  If they want to actively search, then they make rolls and spend the action.

Along those same lines, make Matrix Perception a simple action, just like the Observe in Detail action.

[Xenon]

• Consider treating matrix perception just like physical perception. If there are several silent running icons in the vicinity you directly spot all of them if your roll is good enough (same as perception vs stealth). also spotting all devices that are part of the same network as one single matrix perception test.
• Consider changing matrix perception into a Simple Action, but only if you are using a cyberdeck or a living persona.
• Consider gaining access (placing a mark) per network rather than per icon. If you mark the host you automatically gain a mark on all slaved devices. If you mark a device that is slaved to the host you automatically also gain a mark on the host and all other slaved devices.
• Consider allowing Spoof Command to be taken without having any marks at all.
• To reduce skill-bloat consider merging Cybercombat, Electronic Warfare, and Hacking into one Cracking skill. Computer, Hardware and Software into one Electronics skill. Aeronautics Mechanics, Automotive Mechanics, Industrial Mechanics, Nautical Mechanics and Gunnery into one Engineering skill. Pilot Aerospace, Pilot Aircraft, Pilot Exotic Vehicle, Pilot Ground Craft, Pilot Walker, Pilot Watercraft into one Piloting skill.
• To give hackers a meaningful choice between Hack on the Fly and Brute Force; consider giving Hack on the Fly a base time of 60 seconds to complete

[DigitalZombie]

@Penllawen
Ive digested most of your document, and I like it. I would like to use that in my game,thank you.

I al looking forward for a "player friendly " version too though:) I Think my hacker would be slightly intimidated by the size of the document.

@Topcat and Xenon I agree on the perception part. Capable hackers would have preset their search & surveillance parameters to detect some stuff automatically.

@Xenon I Think Penllawens houserules takes care of the majority here

[penllawen]

@Penllawen
Ive digested most of your document, and I like it. I would like to use that in my game,thank you.

I al looking forward for a "player friendly " version too though:) I Think my hacker would be slightly intimidated by the size of the document.

You're welcome! Glad you liked them.

I'll DM you a link in a second.

[DigitalZombie]

Thanks a bunch!

Quick question. And Im not sure This is a SR6 question or specific to your houserules.
As using Brute force would be the Main method of gaining quick acces to a PAN, would the PAN owner notice automatically? Say you wanted to track some sleazy Bastards in the neighbouring building. You bruge force your way into of their PANs and gain Access to their cameras.  In SR5 the Damage from the brute force Hack would alert the cameras owner. But what now?

And since there are No marks to detect how can you detect that your PAN has been compromised? Other than the inconvinient precise sniper shots you are taking through the thin mouldy walls?

[Xenon]

would the PAN owner notice automatically?

Yes, matrix actions linked to Attack are immediately obvious.

Now that they are aware that you are assaulting their network they can start to look for the offender. If your PAN is running silent then you get to oppose the test.