[Elektrycerze3]

Hoi!

Cyberdecks and datajacks come with a meter of built-in retractable microfilament data cable, or you can always buy a cable for about five nuyen per meter<...>

So, for 500 nuyen a decker at my table bought a 100m data cable.

Now his character hands one end of the cable to the B&E specialist, who then establishes a direct connection for the decker by plugging it into devices 100m away.

I love my players for their ingenuity =)

Now, aside from the obvious challenges, like guards finding the cable, it seems to be an interesting way for any decker to go about hacking stuff.

So what are your thoughts on that? Is it cheesy? What if the cable is under Invisibility spell? Is it ok? Then why doesn't every decker carry a cable drum?

Thanks in advance.

[Michael Chandra]

100m of cable sounds like a disaster to carry, roll up again, it can get noticed (though would be hard to find if you hide it properly), etc. Invisibility wouldn't work, by the way, since it's simply too long to cover.

[Elektrycerze3]

100m of cable sounds like a disaster to carry, roll up again, it can get noticed (though would be hard to find if you hide it properly), etc.

Well, I have no experience handling anything even remotely similar. I guess you are right.

But what would be the ways for me as a GM to go about it? Someone seeing the cable or tripping over it is believable once or twice.

Invisibility wouldn't work, by the way, since it's simply too long to cover.

Could you please give me a reference? I am sure you're right, but I have to show something to my players.

[Michael Chandra]

It's a claim made in http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=15846.msg278486#msg278486 which doesn't have a full explicit base. It's based on how an Area Spell is limited in Force in radius, the logic is then that a single-target spell wouldn't be able to cover more than an Area spell, so you wouldn't be able to cover an object exceeding in size what an Area spell of the same Force would cover.

I'd have to check Vehicle Mask to see if anything in there might support this though... Okay, Vehicle Mask simplifies it to Body/2 instead, which is usually less but may be more than Forcex2 Radius (for massive vehicles that is.)

[Kincaid]

The logistical concerns would probably outweigh the benefits in most situations, but I'd look into having a small (micro would be too small) drone carry a spool of cable through the cavity of a dropped ceiling.  Your B&E specialist would have to be one the other end of things to plug the cable in, and the drone would almost certainly need to be driven by something other than its Pilot rating, but that might work.

[Ursus Maior]

Let's assume this cable is the diameter of a today's normal fibre-optics cable and weighs the same as they do in SR5, than 100 meters should come at about 1,2 kg.

You would need a small drone, not a micro-drone, to carry the cable alone. The spool might total the package at 2 kg.

[Michael Chandra]

Microfilament cables are probably far lighter.

[Xenon]

it's all fair game, but i don't think they really broke something.
consider the following:


If the device is not slaved to a security host then it would be easy to hack directly from the grid anyway (no need for a cable to do that)

If the device is wireless OFF then it is not slaved to a host (hosts are matrix only). In this case all your B&E expert need to do is to attach a wireless data tap to cable device is connected to. then the decker hack it wireless from the grid; should be easy enough since it is not slaved to a host. (no need for a cable that run all the way from the cyberdeck to do that)

...and if it is a wireless device slaved to a host then you only need to make the physical connection to ONE device (go for a security device that is a lot easier to access, a chain is not stronger than it's weakest link and all that...). Once you got a physical connection to ONE device you can use that as a backdoor to enter the host. then you have a direct connection to ALL slaved devices from within the host (no matter where in the world they are physically located - no cables needed for this)

[Namikaze]

I'd just make one of the patrolling guards trip over the cable and unplug it while the decker's jacked in.  Boom.  Dumpshock, the guards are alerted, etc.

[SlowDeck]

If they put the cable across a patrolled path, there is no reason for guards not to notice. And maybe unplug it out of curiosity.

[Triskavanski]

I don't think that would be a cause of dump shock, unless the decker got unplugged from his deck.

[Sendaz]

When you’re disconnected from the Matrix while in VR without gracefully switching to AR first, you suffer a nasty shock as your sim module kicks out. This happens to hackers so often it has its own name: dumpshock.

  I think having the connecting line cut on you would still qualify for dumpshock as you are snapped back to reality since we are presuming he has no other access to the matrix at that time.

[Whiskeyjack]

I did this in 4th one time with...either a hacker or a technomancer.

Had a sneaky buddy get a small drone to an air vent on a building with anti-wireless paint inside. Since I would have lost the drone's signal, it was attached to a long fiberoptic cable descending and plugged into a transmitter that I had access to wirelessly. I was near-site in a car. Sent my signal from my commlink to the transmitter, through the wire and into the drone inside the house, letting me control it and scan inside for nodes and the people/paydata we needed.

Was pretty fun but I felt bad for all the meatspace people while I was doing it. 

[Xenon]

When you’re disconnected from the Matrix while in VR without gracefully switching to AR first, you suffer a nasty shock as your sim module kicks out. This happens to hackers so often it has its own name: dumpshock.

  I think having the connecting line cut on you would still qualify for dumpshock as you are snapped back to reality since we are presuming he has no other access to the matrix at that time.

you might or might not be correct

however i just want to point out that
you form your persona on the cyberdeck and you are not jumped into the device
in SR5 you don't actually "enter" the "node" you are trying to hack.

by the book you would suffer dumpshock if you were jumped into the device when the plug was pulled
or if the device is destroyed while you were jumped in
or if someone pull your cable between your datajack and your cyberdeck (or your control rig and your vehicle)
or if someone reboot, destroy or brick your cyberdeck (or whatever device you used to form your persona)

[Elektrycerze3]

Michael Chandra,

Thank you for the reference. I see the point made in that topic. I'll remember that for my games.


Xenon,

You definitely helped me reassure myself that he doesn't break anything. Thanks. I had that gut feeling that something might be wrong.

Dumpshock sounds fun, but sadly the rules don't support that cause of dumpshock explicitly...


The problem that remains is that I don't understand the logistical problems involved... The thing is light, a drum with a motor can draw in the cable itself. Guards noticing the cable can't work every time: that might be considered a dick move on my part if I bust the players that way every time.

I want to add some interesting and fun complications to the cable-users, but my lack of real-life knowledge on the matter makes this difficult.