...you have to have something to go on to suspect any ONE of them to try to spot.
For example, you can't just go "I wanna try to spot Mr Johnson's persona." You have to have a commcode. Or a message that was sent to you. Or even an idea of what his persona looks like because you remember seeing his persona in AR at the meet. You have to have SOMETHING to go off of.
Agreed.
Sounds like we disagree as to whether a mark that the persona places counts as something you can fairly go off of.
Agreed.
I read it as while the act of placing a mark on another icon is illegal (and can be used to spot the offender if it was successfully placed there with an attack action or if it was failed with a sleaze action) simply having a mark is not (but you can still back trace the owner of the mark with the action we are discussing in this topic).
SR5 p. 248 Patrol IC
While the act of placing a mark is an illegal activity, the act of simply having a mark is not. Once you have the mark, you are considered a legitimate user.But I don't think there is any strictly Right or Wrong here =)
(We just resolve it in different ways, and that is also fine).
I tell you what... any game I GM it's absolutely fair game for the Spider and/or Patrol IC to start trying to spot you (and subsequently trying to mark you and Trace you) if the host's nature is such that a new mark is odd. They gonna see it sooner or later, it's literally only a matter of time.
First of all, in 5th I typically don't require that you run silent while hacking a Host.
DT p. 69 Avoiding the watchful eye of GOD
Most importantly, look like you belong. If you’re going into a crowded host, for example, why run silent? That’s a great way to call attention to yourself, oddly enough. Just let your icons move with the crowd of others, and make sure your actions are so smooth that they don’t call attention to you.In SR5 I would typically have Patrol IC take a perception test at intervals given in Data Trails, and if the last action used was an illegal attack or sleaze action then it knows you don't belong and alarms go off. But if your last action was a legal data processing action then it does not - and it will believe that you are just another legit user.
If you successfully land an attack action I will have Patrol IC take Matrix Perception each action, looking specifically for you, while the Host start to launch IC every combat turn (and if you are not running silent by then it will automatically spot you).
If you fail a sleaze action then the Host will automatically both Spot you, gain a MARK on your Persona and it will start to launch IC every combat turn.
SR5 p. 236 Noticing Hackers
If you succeed with an Attack action, your target becomes aware that it is under attack by another icon, but it doesn’t automatically spot you. It will most likely actively search for you on its next action...If you fail with an Attack action, you are not noticed, because you failed to affect your opponent...On the other hand, if you succeed in a Sleaze action, you do not increase your visibility. If you fail a Sleaze action, however, your target immediately gets one free mark on you (or its owner does if your target is a device). This means it spots you right away, along with the whole owner-alerting and IC-launching thing.In 6th edition I typically instead require that you always run silent while hacking a Host. And that it will be immediately obvious that you don't belong in case you do get spotted. In which case alarms will go off.
Alarms will also go off if you take an attack action (no matter if you are successful or not) or if you glitch a sleaze action.
If alarms go off then Host will start to launch IC and Patrol IC will spend actions trying to spot you (in case it doesn't already).