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Shadowrun 5 Sample Matrix Run "Let's go to the Library" (Revised)

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thinklibertarian

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« Reply #15 on: <02-25-16/1454:30> »
Epilogue

Vixen's unconscious body is found in the park by Knight Errant. She is taken to a prison hospital. Once she has stabilized, some well dressed corporate types arrange for her to be transferred to an undisclosed location. Her criminal charges are quietly dropped.

All is not lost, however. Once they realize she is missing, her friends begin looking for her.

But that is a story for another time...
« Last Edit: <02-26-16/1231:50> by thinklibertarian »

Whiskeyjack

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« Reply #16 on: <02-25-16/1512:43> »
Is the takeaway "fighting IC is dumb and ultimately pointless, especially for a TM" because that's definitely a conclusion I've (again) come to.
Playability > verisimilitude.

Raven2049

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« Reply #17 on: <02-25-16/1644:27> »
think i learned something from this exercise, and you can correct me if im wrong.

When a Host launches an IC (or program) it comes online in the next turn (knew that) but each IC (be it blaster, patrol, killer, etc) all act effectively at the same time during the hosts initiative pass? am i understanding this correctly? if so then Whiskeyjacks comment stands true for both TM's and Deckers. your up against multiple targets all at once and they just wear you down.

also, Vixen screwed up from the get-go when she continued to try to hack on the fly the library host when she failed. or at minimum, she screwed up by not using "Erase Mark" on the mark that the library host planted on her.  the only reason Slicer had the lead on this (as far as i can tell) is because of that first mark. which goes to show you how screwed you are if you arent careful...

an old adage comes to mind for this whole story:

Hacking is like sex; get in, get out, and pray to GOD that nothing can be traced back to you.

thinklibertarian

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« Reply #18 on: <02-25-16/1653:11> »
It certainly is dangerous. In the original version, it was Vixen who got the file. Slicer took a single massive hit that bricked him in one go.

Fighting certain IC is certainly more dangerous for Technomancers, but being able to summon sprites that can act independant of you on their own initiative is a big advantage. With better luck, Wisp could have blasted the IC first.

The thing I got out of it both this and the original version is  "hackers need more edge". At least 4, IMHO.

Of course this is all written from my perspective. I was player and GM. I am going to run this scenario with real players and see how it turns out.

thinklibertarian

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« Reply #19 on: <02-25-16/1829:10> »
It seems I was wrong about IC initiative. Each one is supposed to get its own initiative roll (SR5 p. 247).

If you don't want the extra bookkeeping, you could just use the same for the host and its IC like I did.

Malevolence

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« Reply #20 on: <02-25-16/1919:03> »
Actually, in this case, Vixen's main mistake was going in Running Silent, since it wasn't necessary at all, and alerted the IC to her "malicious" intentions all that much earlier - Slicer was unmolested all the way up until he failed to get a mark on the book while Vixen was hounded from the get go. Granted, since she failed her first mark on the SC host, she would also have had trouble the moment she entered there, so it might not have made a tremendous amount of difference. Her generally low dice pools were also a major issue (10 dice vs. slicers 15 when using HotF). Also, during Turn 5, Vixen was denied her action at 28.


In short, the TM was out of her league.
Speech Thought Matrix/Text Astral

PiXeL01

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« Reply #21 on: <02-25-16/2037:33> »
Wait, with a full stun condition monitor Vixen would be out cold and wouldn't be able to try anything. Being link-locked would mean her persona would still be there and she would probably get killed by the blaster icon.
If Tom Brady’s a Spike Baby, what does that make Brees and Rodgers?

thinklibertarian

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« Reply #22 on: <02-25-16/2055:54> »
Wait, with a full stun condition monitor Vixen would be out cold and wouldn't be able to try anything. Being link-locked would mean her persona would still be there and she would probably get killed by the blaster icon.

At first I thought a full Stun monitor = unconsciousness, but after reviewing the damage section on SR5 169-170, all they mentioned was that stun overflows into physical.

Good catch about the initiative. I took the easy way out and edited the post so she rolled an 18 to begin with. Too big a rewrite otherwise. Thanks.
« Last Edit: <02-25-16/2117:32> by thinklibertarian »

PiXeL01

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« Reply #23 on: <02-25-16/2313:39> »
All editions except this one specify that should a condition monitor be filled your character lose consciousness. Why they have neglected to write it out in this edition is beyond me. There has been a lot of discussion about it in the past but the consensus reached was that full bars mean you are out of luck unless you are equipped with special ware, drugs etc. such as the Pain Editor which states:

Pain editor: This cluster of specialized nervous tis- sue is designed to  alter sensory stimuli. If the pain editor is active, this allows you to ignore all injury modifiers, and you even stay conscious when your Stun Condition Monitor is completely full. You feel no pain—you’re blissfully, dangerously, recklessly unaware of the extent of damage you’ve taken without either performing a self-examination (Observe In Detail action) or being in- formed by a biomonitor (p. 450). While active, the pain editor increases your Willpower by 1 and decreases your Intuition by 1. Additionally, all tactile Perception Tests you make receive a dice pool modifier of –4.

Quote CRB p. 460.

If that wasn't the case there really wouldn't be any point of having it.
If Tom Brady’s a Spike Baby, what does that make Brees and Rodgers?

thinklibertarian

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« Reply #24 on: <02-26-16/0748:47> »
All editions except this one specify that should a condition monitor be filled your character lose consciousness. Why they have neglected to write it out in this edition is beyond me. There has been a lot of discussion about it in the past but the consensus reached was that full bars mean you are out of luck unless you are equipped with special ware, drugs etc. such as the Pain Editor which states:

Pain editor: This cluster of specialized nervous tissue is designed to alter sensory stimuli. If the pain editor is active, this allows you to ignore all injury modifiers, and you even stay conscious when your Stun Condition Monitor is completely full. You feel no pain—you’re blissfully, dangerously, recklessly unaware of the extent of damage you’ve taken without either performing a self-examination (Observe In Detail action) or being in- formed by a biomonitor (p. 450). While active, the pain editor increases your Willpower by 1 and decreases your Intuition by 1. Additionally, all tactile Perception Tests you make receive a dice pool modifier of –4.

Quote CRB p. 460.

If that wasn't the case there really wouldn't be any point of having it.

Great. More unclear rules.

I think I will leave it as is. RAW, you don't lose consciousness if you run out if stun. Pain editir is still useful for cancelling your wound penalties. The second part (about staying conscious) i will treat as (yet another) editing and proofreading error.

YMMV

PiXeL01

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« Reply #25 on: <02-26-16/0829:22> »
The editing error and unclarity is that the accidentally deleted the implications of having a full Stun bar. Even in the quick start rules they explain you go unconscious as well as other places in the CRB as seen in this thread here :

http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=11363.msg220189#msg220189

CRB talks about going unconcious from stun on p. 100 under calculating your bars (how much physical and stun damage you can take before going unconscious). P. 137 under survival and fatigue damage is says if your stun condition monitor overflows and you fall unconscious... And p. 460 the pain editor. So every places it's mentioned.

It would also be strange that four editions (five of you count anniversary as separate) had full stun = lights out.
Also stun weaponry would be completely useless if not. You need 30 boxes of damage to knock an average person out and if you do those 30 boxes then not only is your target out cold, the target is also dying.
Stun weaponry is designed to incapacitate which is impossible if full stun does not knock targets out.
« Last Edit: <02-26-16/0851:13> by PiXeL01 »
If Tom Brady’s a Spike Baby, what does that make Brees and Rodgers?

adzling

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« Reply #26 on: <02-26-16/0937:57> »
yeah full stun = unconscious.

Whiskeyjack

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« Reply #27 on: <02-26-16/1002:18> »
Wait, with a full stun condition monitor Vixen would be out cold and wouldn't be able to try anything. Being link-locked would mean her persona would still be there and she would probably get killed by the blaster icon.
There's not a real reason for the IC to kill her instead of the spider noting "target down" and reporting her location to law enforcement while tracking the illegal stuff she did that get her KO'd in the process.
Playability > verisimilitude.

thinklibertarian

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« Reply #28 on: <02-26-16/1225:59> »
I will concede the point and update the narrative (and pdf) accordingly. Thanks.
« Last Edit: <02-26-16/1239:50> by thinklibertarian »

thinklibertarian

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« Reply #29 on: <02-29-16/1326:28> »
I ran this as a mini-adventure for three hackers this past weekend. Two deckers and a technomancer. I treated it as a competition.

They all ran silently, even in the library, where security is a joke.

One decker did it because he thought of himself as a ghost, as in "ghost in the shell".

The other decker was new to the game, and was so cautious that by the time he entered the SC host, the technomancer was about to leave with the file.

The interesting bit was when the technomancer sicced his fault sprite on Ghost while he stole the file after Ghost had spent the effort in defusing the data bomb and unprotecting the file.

What we gathered from the experience: Deckers should prioritize resources (at least B) to get the best deck they can afford. Ghost was created with skills and attributes before resources, like the archetype in the book, and struggled with the limits imposed by the DR 2 deck.