[brasso]

Hi, planning on running Boston Lockdown soon, and just wondering what the nanite volume should be for headcases? Also wondering what the starting NV should be if a character gets infected? 1? I'm aware of the modifier table, but can't seem to find a given starting value

Take it easy

[Jack_Spade]

You start at 0 unless you are dosed with a glob of grey goo or have a nanite hive installed/nanite system active/genetech (see Stolen Souls p. 194)
After a week the NV increases by 1 and the fun begins.

Since feeding head cases gain 1 NV per week and lose 1 per month, it entirely depends on when they were infected. After a month you are looking at 3 NV, after a year it would be 40.

[brasso]

Thanks Jack, I was more thinking of the headcases that runners are going to encounter in the lockdown. According to the book (p. 201) the lockdown virus causes hourly resistance tests for the first 2 days. But if the NV is 0, than the lockdown never happened! Even with an NV of 1 there probably wouldn't be many who lost all their willpower. Is there anything canon or should I just roll my own?

[Jack_Spade]

Well, just because NV is 0 doesn't mean the CFD has no dicepool. The MEC (Matrix Entity Concentration) can still add to the roll. People with low Will (1) can get turned immediately after the first failed resistance test which occurs hourly with Boston CFD for 48 hours.

[brasso]

Ok, thanks. So NV = 0 by the looks of it, so they're going to be easy to hack.

MEC has no guidance, just "determined by the GM", but I'm guessing 4 might be reasonable? This is less of a concern for our campaign as I'm not planning on infecting the PCs, unless they get infected blood all over them that is ...

[Jack_Spade]

MEC is analog to Depth, so 3 or 4 is likely realistic - unless you catch a mean fragment of dragon personality or Deus. I'd imagine you can go safely up to 8 with those.