Shadowrun

Shadowrun General => Gear => Topic started by: The Dread Polack on <03-18-19/0214:25>

Title: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: The Dread Polack on <03-18-19/0214:25>
I got the idea of creating a card/sheet to help deckers track their cyberdeck settings, modifiers, etc. quickly. This is what I've come up with so far:

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/28zetbq1ba3p2ng/Cyberdeck%20sheet.jpg?dl=0)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/28zetbq1ba3p2ng/Cyberdeck%20sheet.jpg?dl=0

It's a work in progress. Ideally, you would laminate this or put it in a sheet protector, and use wet-erase markers to track attributes and other variables on your deck or for your persona in general. I also have a set of small American-sized board game cards that you would line up below this card to indicate running programs. They look like this:

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhlv0sla6g7ckb6/Program%20card.jpg?dl=0)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhlv0sla6g7ckb6/Program%20card.jpg?dl=0

For the GM, I'm working on a sheet to track info for a hacking session, including Host info such as Rating, Normal Configuration, and Security procedures. I'll put up a preview when I have it ready. This is more likely to be a printed sheet that can be filled out and thrown away. I might create a series of standard sample hosts of various ratings on half or quarter sheets to drop into this sheet.

Lastly, and also for the GM, I have standard card-game sized cards for all the IC in the core book. These look like this:

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/g2atofhyy1nmpoz/IC%20Card.jpg?dl=0)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g2atofhyy1nmpoz/IC%20Card.jpg?dl=0

These would ideally be placed in sleeves and the GM can mark off damage with a marker.

Anyway, let me know what you think, and offer any suggestions. Especially anything you want added onto the cyberdeck sheet.
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: DigitalZombie on <03-18-19/0447:30>
Oooh thats fancy. Im especially a big fan of the program cards.

Regarding the cyberdeck- wirh Kill code yoy no longer suffer any penalty for worling actoss grids. Only public grid still has the -2 modifier.

Program cards: maybe a small note/symbol showing if its a common or hacking program. Or its use like defensive, utility or offensive program.

I woyld think matrix action cards ala the program cards would be nice :)
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: kainite311 on <03-18-19/1509:37>
That is awesome. Would love to see/use the final product!
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: Dangermaus on <03-18-19/1659:53>
Very nice, would be a great addition to my campaign!
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: PiXeL01 on <03-18-19/1950:43>
Looks great and smartphone sized^^
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: The Dread Polack on <03-18-19/2154:22>
Oooh thats fancy. Im especially a big fan of the program cards.

Regarding the cyberdeck- wirh Kill code yoy no longer suffer any penalty for worling actoss grids. Only public grid still has the -2 modifier.

Good to know. Thanks. Correction made.

Program cards: maybe a small note/symbol showing if its a common or hacking program. Or its use like defensive, utility or offensive program.

The common programs are titled in green, while hacking programs are red. I'll add an icon for it for people who will print in black-and-white.

I woyld think matrix action cards ala the program cards would be nice :)

This occurred to me, but that's a lot of cards and I'm not sure I want to dig through a deck every time I pick an action. Then again, maybe that works better. I'll look into it.
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: kainite311 on <03-19-19/1321:43>
I don't know what your using to make them, but would it be possible to make it so you could fill in the level for Hosts and auto populate the stats and boxes for things like IC?
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: The Dread Polack on <03-19-19/1512:19>
I don't know what your using to make them, but would it be possible to make it so you could fill in the level for Hosts and auto populate the stats and boxes for things like IC?

I'm using Microsoft Publisher, so unfortunately I can't do that.

I'm still learning the Matrix rules, so can you point me to where I can find that information, and maybe I can come up with something?
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: kainite311 on <03-19-19/1847:01>
p. 247
IC rolls Host x 2 for most rolls, uses Host stats for matrix attributes.
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: PiXeL01 on <03-19-19/1921:07>
Never mind
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: kainite311 on <03-19-19/1940:27>
IC use Host attributes, yes - but they aren’t host x2. They are Host Ratingx2, host rating +1, host rating +2, and host rating +3, one of each of these and they are locked

I said -
Quote
IC rolls Host x 2 for most rolls, uses Host stats for matrix attributes.

Guess I am not getting what you are saying I said wrong... IC rolls Host x 2 for attacks (I.E. Host rating 6 rolls 12 dice). IC uses matrix attributes of host (A/S/D/F) which is derived as you stated. I did not include "rating" was all, but you can't possibly conflate host/host rating with matrix stats as they are completely separate entities.
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: The Dread Polack on <03-19-19/2051:23>
It sounded to me like you wanted to be able to enter the "host level" which I assume meant host rating, and it would somehow populate the host's attributes and what IC it was running. Since you were not specific, I assume that there was some place in one of the books where these things were listed for sample hosts.

Does such a thing exist? Your response:

p. 247
IC rolls Host x 2 for most rolls, uses Host stats for matrix attributes.

...didn't really answer the question. I suppose I could add a box for "Host Rating" so the Decker can write it down once they've determined it via a Matrix Perception action. After that, they can easily double that on their own to know what IC are rolling against them. As for populating the Host's attributes, they are are Rating +1, +2, +3, and +4, but not in any particular order. I think a hacker still has to take a Matrix Perception action to determine these values, so auto-populating them wouldn't make much sense. I can certain add boxes for the hacker to write them down once determined, however, so I'll consider that.
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: kainite311 on <03-19-19/2103:02>
It sounded to me like you wanted to be able to enter the "host level" which I assume meant host rating, and it would somehow populate the host's attributes and what IC it was running. Since you were not specific, I assume that there was some place in one of the books where these things were listed for sample hosts.

Does such a thing exist? Your response:

p. 247
IC rolls Host x 2 for most rolls, uses Host stats for matrix attributes.

...didn't really answer the question. I suppose I could add a box for "Host Rating" so the Decker can write it down once they've determined it via a Matrix Perception action. After that, they can easily double that on their own to know what IC are rolling against them. As for populating the Host's attributes, they are are Rating +1, +2, +3, and +4, but not in any particular order. I think a hacker still has to take a Matrix Perception action to determine these values, so auto-populating them wouldn't make much sense. I can certain add boxes for the hacker to write them down once determined, however, so I'll consider that.

I was thinking of it from GM point of view using the cards, not for the players to see. Enter the host rating, and it auto populates the init, matrix box condition, attack rolls, ect... on each IC card that you choose to print out to use as scratch cards for tracking IC. Each host is unique in what IC it can have and what order so wasn't implying that part. I.E. You enter host rating 7 and it auto populated all the IC cards as level 7 for quick printing and selection. But I guess in the long run you would still have to populate the matrix stats of the host to truly be able to list the stats. Those are what I meant for auto populate. The stats that are derived from the Host Rating for the IC. In the end it just as easy to just manually fill out the Host card...
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: The Dread Polack on <03-19-19/2223:01>
Okay, I see what you're saying. If this were an online utility, that would be great. One thing I might consider is creating multiple Host tracking sheets for GMs, one for each Host rating, up to 12 (any point it rating 1 or 2?), with some of the basic info listed out for convenience. I think the host tracking sheets are more likely to be disposable, rather than re-usable, based on how I GM.

I haven't gotten to the GM sheets yet, but I probably will soon.
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: kyoto kid on <03-20-19/0408:47>
...definitely would love a set of programme cards. So much easier to reference.

I do like the idea of a deck tracking sheet, wasthinking about coming up with something similar as well. The one suggestion I have is make it a "form fillable" PDF rather than set to a specific deck so configurations can be changed and bonuses applied (like from the Overclocker quality, running certain programmes, installed modules, noise reduction, etc).
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: The Dread Polack on <03-21-19/0216:01>
...definitely would love a set of programme cards. So much easier to reference.

I've attached the complete program cards and IC cards files in PDF format.

I do like the idea of a deck tracking sheet, wasthinking about coming up with something similar as well. The one suggestion I have is make it a "form fillable" PDF rather than set to a specific deck so configurations can be changed and bonuses applied (like from the Overclocker quality, running certain programmes, installed modules, noise reduction, etc).

I don't know how to make a form-fillable PDF yet. I've had enough requests for them that I think I'm going to learn how. For now, this is all I have.
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: kyoto kid on <03-22-19/2358:32>
...yeah you would need a full version of a PDF writer like Acrobat or PDF Xchange to create a form fillable PDF.
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: The Dread Polack on <03-24-19/0344:16>
Here's another file I whipped up. There are a million cheat sheets out there, but I find most of them, graphically speaking, too messy and hard to read. This is a simple list of matrix actions. The first page lists them in alphabetical order, the second by action type.

There's a bit of space on the first page that I plan to eventually fill with some other relevant matrix info once I go through the chapter again. I'm open to suggestions.
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: PiXeL01 on <03-24-19/0403:02>
Here’s all of them from the various books if you want to complete your chart.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lgcOiyN-z6Hxf9ZMGSNCmGA1CkcPfo9_/view?usp=drivesdk
Title: Re: Cyberdeck/Matrix tracking aids
Post by: The Dread Polack on <03-26-19/0231:26>
Okay, here's a first draft of what I'm calling the "Matrix opposition sheet".

This isn't much like the Cyberdeck sheet. It's really meant to be printed off and used once by the GM for an individual encounter by a hacker against a host, another hacker, etc. It's where the GM can track the rating, attributes, O.S., and other notes pertinent to this particular encounter. Honestly, you could just scribble this in your notebook, but I like having a few rules handy (particularly for O.S. and convergence) on the sheet as well. As you can see, there is a column on the side to track O.S. as it goes up and down. There's a section to jot down security procedures, such as what the host/device does once it detects a hacker, and what IC it has and in what order they will load. And lastly, about half the sheet is just lines for the GM to track all the various notes, like the status of any security spiders, what devices are slaved to the host/device, what files are there, if they're encrypted or bombed, and a place to track marks.

Condition monitors for IC aren't on the sheet, since I have cards for that. There's a monitor for any device being directly hacked (GMs can also track that with tallies in the notes section, of course). The GM can also track loaded programs and/or IC with the cards I've created along the bottom/sides of the sheet.

Anyway, I hope you find it useful. It's likely to change a bit, like probably shrinking to a half-page and/or including some tables from the Matrix chapter. I'm looking for any suggestions on what to add/subtract/change in order for this to work better for you. Thanks in advance!