[Meritage]

Dear community,

I just started running a home game.  I've been wanting to run a game for over two decades.  I was around 10-11 years old and into D&D when the game first came out.  I loved the genre but the rules were far to complicated for me at the time.  Luckily, I finally found a group from work to play with, and am having a lot of fun only 2 sessions in.

During both prep and at the table I have run into a few questions.  I thank anyone in advance who could provide answers.  FYI - I am using SR4A, Runner's Companion, and Arsenal.  If you refer to a rule in another book (e.g. Unwired), could you please try to explain it as thoroughly as possible?  Much appreciated!

MATRIX
1)  Is there any way to detect if someone is trying to hack your commlink?  I would imagine that an alert might broadcast something to your PAN, but would you know as the hacking process occurs?  My second question is related.

2) If a hacker succeeds in hacking herself an account on a node without triggering an alert, how can this intruder get detected?  Would IC or an Agent be able to detect that this Icon has a hacked subscription?  What if it is a security or an admin account? 

COMBAT
1) Is it possible to shoot with a simple action and then duck fully behind cover with your second simple action so that you could incur the blind fire + intuition (rather than agility) penalties on your opponents?

2) How do you rule a critical glitch in scenarios with someone who normally has a high, but radically reduced dice pool?  I understand that this is a creative GM question, thus I am asking for experience.  Take for example, someone who normally rolls 16 dice to shoot a pistol.  They are obviously skilled.  Through modifiers, they are now rolling 5 dice and critically glitch.  It's hard to imagine someone who is such an ace accidentally shooting themselves in the foot.  How have you ruled in these situations? 

Thank you for your support.  I'm so happy to be running such a cool game... at last!

[Tsuarok]

So, it's my understanding that if successful, hacking is undetectable, but that if the hacker fails the opposed tests, s/he's caught.  But honestly, I'm not that experienced with hacking.

What I really want to answer is the critical glitch question.  I'd personally look for ideas in the modifiers.  If the problem is visibility, have them hit something they don't want to hit (even just an innocent bystander... she'll later turn out to be the daughter of the head of your neighborhoods Lone Star division), or have the bullet ricochet off something back at them or their friends.  If the modifiers are wounds, it is very possible to shoot yourself in the foot... "as you raise your arm up to shoot, a spasm of pain jerks your arm down and you shoot your foot."  Basically, the reason their dice pool is reduced is the reason for the glitch.

[TheNarrator]

1)  Is there any way to detect if someone is trying to hack your commlink?  I would imagine that an alert might broadcast something to your PAN, but would you know as the hacking process occurs?

Your commlink rolls a Firewall + Analyze Extended Test with a threshold equal to the hacker's Stealth program to detect the hacking attempt. How you have the commlink set to react when it detects one is up to you, as is whether you take any physical actions in response. You could just hard-restart the thing, or turn off it's wireless capability.

[Mirikon]

Also, if you have IC running, the IC would get a test to try and spot the intruder when they logged on to the node. Otherwise, you wouldn't know you were hacked until something visible happened, like the hacker shut down your cybereyes, or you tried to access a file that was no longer there, etc.

[TheVanguard]

Welcome to the shadows, chummer.

MATRIX
1)  Is there any way to detect if someone is trying to hack your commlink?  I would imagine that an alert might broadcast something to your PAN, but would you know as the hacking process occurs? 

There are two basic ways of hacking: On the Fly and Probing your Target. Both attempts may be detected, but the rules differ. See SR4A pg. 235.

2) If a hacker succeeds in hacking herself an account on a node without triggering an alert, how can this intruder get detected?  Would IC or an Agent be able to detect that this Icon has a hacked subscription?  What if it is a security or an admin account? 

If you manage to hack yourself an account, you're not an intruder but a legitimate user as far as the system is concerned. It won't have any reasons to react to you as long as you don't do anything that is not within the account's rights, e.g. shutting down security cameras when you've got a basic user account. If active patrol IC is present in the node, the GM may have it analyze the hacker's actions as he sees fit.
However, this is mainly the reason why the corps still pay security spiders. A human can spot odd things going on where software does not. If you've got an admin account for Aztechnology headquarters you may use it to shut all security features down, but someone in the office will notice and come after you.
 

COMBAT
1) Is it possible to shoot with a simple action and then duck fully behind cover with your second simple action so that you could incur the blind fire + intuition (rather than agility) penalties on your opponents?

Yes, it is, and you get the bonus for Good Cover (+4), too. That's where the rules for destroying barriers, grenades and indirect combat spells come into play. Or you go for the tactical approach and try to get into a better position.

2) How do you rule a critical glitch in scenarios with someone who normally has a high, but radically reduced dice pool?  I understand that this is a creative GM question, thus I am asking for experience.  Take for example, someone who normally rolls 16 dice to shoot a pistol.  They are obviously skilled.  Through modifiers, they are now rolling 5 dice and critically glitch.  It's hard to imagine someone who is such an ace accidentally shooting themselves in the foot.  How have you ruled in these situations? 

Well, drek happens omae. The result of the glitch does not have to be related to the character's actions but may also be caused by plain bad luck. The weapon could jam and become unusable, explosive rounds detonate in the barrel, a software bug in the smartlink might cause it to spam false positives all over your field of vision, the recoil makes you slip on wet ground and you sprain our ankle...
Also, keep in mind that glitches can be downgraded with edge.

[Glorthoron]

Yes, it is, and you get the bonus for Good Cover (+4), too. That's where the rules for destroying barriers, grenades and indirect combat spells come into play. Or you go for the tactical approach and try to get into a better position.

I don't know if this is right, but I won't argue.  It just seems like its a little to simple to allow.  Mind you, if you duck behind cover to give that Blind FIre modifier to your opponents, you too suffer from lack of vision.  Next time you pop up to shoot and he's out of sight, it turns into a cat and mouse game.

[JustADude]

Yes, it is, and you get the bonus for Good Cover (+4), too. That's where the rules for destroying barriers, grenades and indirect combat spells come into play. Or you go for the tactical approach and try to get into a better position.

I don't know if this is right, but I won't argue.  It just seems like its a little to simple to allow.  Mind you, if you duck behind cover to give that Blind FIre modifier to your opponents, you too suffer from lack of vision.  Next time you pop up to shoot and he's out of sight, it turns into a cat and mouse game.

You're trading your second shot of the Pass to duck back behind behind cover, effectively halving your damage output. I'd call that a fair trade for the increased protection.

Actually, I might make it a Simple Action to get into cover the first time, but a free action to duck back into cover you're already positioned behind, since you're just sticking your head and gun out to shoot on your turn.

Depending on the cover, of course, it may be a Simple Action to get your head out there, of course.

As for the cat'n'mouse game... that just adds to the awesomeness, and is one more reason to use micro-sensors, tacnets and camera-drones.

[Glorthoron]

Yes, it is, and you get the bonus for Good Cover (+4), too. That's where the rules for destroying barriers, grenades and indirect combat spells come into play. Or you go for the tactical approach and try to get into a better position.

I don't know if this is right, but I won't argue.  It just seems like its a little to simple to allow.  Mind you, if you duck behind cover to give that Blind FIre modifier to your opponents, you too suffer from lack of vision.  Next time you pop up to shoot and he's out of sight, it turns into a cat and mouse game.

You're trading your second shot of the Pass to duck back behind behind cover, effectively halving your damage output. I'd call that a fair trade for the increased protection.

Actually, I might make it a Simple Action to get into cover the first time, but a free action to duck back into cover you're already positioned behind, since you're just sticking your head and gun out to shoot on your turn.

Depending on the cover, of course, it may be a Simple Action to get your head out there, of course.

As for the cat'n'mouse game... that just adds to the awesomeness, and is one more reason to use micro-sensors, tacnets and camera-drones.

You're right, sacrificing a simple action to duck back in makes sense.  The issue I have with it, and it's just my own inability to accept change, is that that is technically movement, and there should be some kind of modifier.  But I'd be happy to do what you suggest in my games.

If you do allow it as a simple action to duck back in, should you not force the issue that it requires a simple action to pop back out?

or it could be free action to pop out, simple action to shoot, simple action to duck back in.  But I wouldn't allow simple-shoot, simple-shoot, free-duck.

G.

[JustADude]

Or it could be free action to pop out, simple action to shoot, simple action to duck back in.

That definitely sounds like the way to go, there. It's instinctive to pop out, but when hiding you have to take a split second to be sure your feet aren't sticking out or something.

[TheVanguard]

I can understand that this may look like cheating at first. Shoot-and-Cover situations are a serious issue in urban warfare and police and military units get special training about  how to deal with them. That's why we got combat shotguns that can shoot through walls (and why I've mentioned the rules for breaking barriers).

Shadowrun, however, offers many fun and interesting solutions to the problem. The mage in my group likes to have his fire elementals pop out of astral space right behind the enemy, the paracritter hunter has his Neuro-Stun grenades and the close-combat possession type summoner gets himself some Immunity to Normal Weapons, walks through the lead rain and whacks 'em on the head with his hammer weapon focus.
To sum it up, according to my experiences this is something that makes gameplay more interesting, not less.

[JustADude]

I can understand that this may look like cheating at first. Shoot-and-Cover situations are a serious issue in urban warfare and police and military units get special training about  how to deal with them. That's why we got combat shotguns that can shoot through walls (and why I've mentioned the rules for breaking barriers).

Shadowrun, however, offers many fun and interesting solutions to the problem. The mage in my group likes to have his fire elementals pop out of astral space right behind the enemy, the paracritter hunter has his Neuro-Stun grenades and the close-combat possession type summoner gets himself some Immunity to Normal Weapons, walks through the lead rain and whacks 'em on the head with his hammer weapon focus.
To sum it up, according to my experiences this is something that makes gameplay more interesting, not less.

Oh yeah, there's plenty of ways around it. My Missions group's favorite counter to cover was to ask "What cover?" and have the sniper shoot straight through it, using an Ultrasound Sensors to bypass the concealment.

Ah, the joys of rolling 20-dice to shoot Anti-Tank ammo out of a Barrett.