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It's Like a Host Town in Here

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Jayde Moon

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« on: <02-04-19/1044:02> »
Quote from: Hobbes
Most Missions seem to have ghost towns for Hosts so hackers stick out.

Hosts usually don't have their own write - up in Tell it to Them Straight and it's left to the GM to flesh out the description.  What can we do in Missions to bring the Matrix more to"life"?
That's just like... your opinion, man.

Marcus

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« Reply #1 on: <02-04-19/1147:38> »
Legwork/Google phase- emphasize the use of matrix as THE primary source.

Discord equivalent net the pc links to fascinated instant communication also allows gms to use this as plot point.

AR discussion knowing people online vs face to face. False facing. Chases based upon spotting the right persona.

Have the cops walk up and know each person by name based upon their active ID.

Chat or phone spam at critical plot moment. If a character has dependent or day job have them call the pc.

Would you like to know more? Tags or it's moral equivalent.

Datahaven- early adventures link pcs to a campign specific data haven, keep it coming up. Have meaningful data come from it. As well distractions. Several relavent contacts active and conversant. Fictionalize and add faction missions linked to the data haven for data haven rep.
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Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #2 on: <02-04-19/1202:01> »
If wishes were fishes and SRMs had unlimited space:

It'd be neat to see a "Tell it to them Straight" for not just the physical world per scene but one for each of the 3 worlds of SR play.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Jayde Moon

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« Reply #3 on: <02-04-19/1211:23> »
Marcus, what would that look like in a module?
That's just like... your opinion, man.

Hobbes

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« Reply #4 on: <02-04-19/1527:02> »
Example the Host in Amber Waives of grain gets a good description of the Matrix Sculpting, but I was left with the Impression that the only Personas wandering around in there were IC and Spiders. 

The Castle themed host in season ....6?  The abandoned duplex, the two missing families...start of the Alter Boy story arc... whatever that one was.  Again, nice Maxtrix sculpting, but just window dressing because there was just IC in there.

I'd have to flip through more missions, but active hosts with actual "Typical users" would be nice.  Maybe even ones that are handing out Mark Invitations?  The CMPs have a few good examples, mostly when you're hitting Hotels for some reason.  But I think even in the Sin City series in Vegas one of those had a "Secret Security Host" or some dang thing, that was just a plot device to put the things the PCs wanted to hack behind another layer of Security.  Sorry, can't recall the specific CMP.

Anyway, description of the sculpting and what some of the Personas are doing, what the Avatars look like, Hosts that are being used by people to do stuff.  Because they should be.  Hosts cost a lot of Nuyen (I would think) and should be full of activity.  Otherwise whatever is in the Host, should just be kept offline.  Let wage slaves walk on down to the secure room and hand in the updates on a chip, or whatever.  Run the security through land lines into an old school room full of monitors.  I would think a couple miles of cable would be cheaper than a host, and far more secure. 

Hosts should be busy.  Data is only good if it's being updated constantly and used by some other process.  Customer Service Agents (digital and human) should be having conversations and manipulating files.  Researchers should be updating data and running simulations.  Security should be flipping through the CCTV Channels.  Customers should be interacting with other Persona or files, or just hanging out in some cases if it's an entertainment sort of business.  You can totally enter a Host in AR.  I would suspect that it's pretty common for office workers and most customers to do just that.  Unless the corps are springing for full on recliners for their wage slaves.  Hosts are Noise free and accessible from anywhere in the world.  Unless it's a secret black site silent host, it should be poppin'.  Otherwise it's not worth the Nuyen.

Fade

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« Reply #5 on: <02-04-19/1707:12> »
I think it has more to do with there being more physical players at the table than Matrix active ones. I'd really like to see deeper descriptions of these as well, but then again, we run into a huge amount of Boxed-Text bloat, which was already an issue in previous years.

If we had a table full of deckers, or if everyone sees it by default, it would be more appropriate in the "Tell it to Them Straight" section. ARO's are often described in passing, but not elaborated upon.

A separate section for the host regarding sculpting is usually what we see. Should it have more flair? Sure. Is it practical and will it be used at the table in a strict 4 hour slot where there is only 1 decker at the table? I think SSDR hit it on the head with this one.

It would be nice, but it probably wouldn't be used all that much.
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Jayde Moon

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« Reply #6 on: <02-04-19/1738:00> »
I don't think a 'Standard Users' line is burdensome and it reminds GMs that there are folks besides the decker in there.
That's just like... your opinion, man.

Hobbes

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« Reply #7 on: <02-04-19/2022:12> »
"Personas using the latest in Horizon Avatars lounge by the VR pool interacting with other Personas, presumably clients or other managers.  Cabana boy Agents bring file updates sculpted as exotic drinks, while Personas using stock avatars interact with file Icons or speak in private chat clusters."

"Mitsuhama Executive Icons walk gracefully overhead on a glass ceiling, decked out in cutting edge VR business fashion.  Conservative sararīman icons toil away in rows of virtual office desks, while dozens of Agents flitter around sculpted as Origami birds and dragons."

"...the stores Host typically has a few customers arranging deliveries.  The Patrol IC is sculpted as a large friendly dog and casually sniffs each Persona as they enter through the door.  A store clerk pops in from the back occasionally to assist a customer or process the delivery orders that have been placed."

Little throw away lines so the hide in plain site by blending in would work.  There are several times when, yep, this is an isolated Host, nobody should be here, you're going to stick out if you don't run silent. 

Marcus

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« Reply #8 on: <02-04-19/2116:44> »
Marcus, what would that look like in a module?

Which Part?

I'm guessing the Datahaven-

So early in a series the parties Johnson is actually a member of the datahaven. The job is hacking adjacent, beatup some SAM that stole a guy deck and get it and some special chips back. During the mission the team get contact by two other NPCs. Each of these 3 NPC represent a faction, that make up the datahaven. (I don't think I need to spell it out, but of course you could use any number of factions, 2,3,4 whatever is workable). Each of NPC makes each of the PC's an offer and gives the faction pitch saying when they get the deck back they can handover one of the special chips to them (The faction NPC). Each PC gets to make a choice and join a faction, by ether not turning over the chip and joining the first faction, or by turning it over to one other 2 NPCs and joining that faction.

Then how does the datahaven work? During leg work the PC can basically roll their datahaven faction rep as contact of that rating, which gives a result written from a table in the mod. The data returned is of course bent toward what the given factions motivations is, and of course information value varies. But while they do this, they also get PMed a faction related mission, from the NPC head their faction. Something that per-feral to the main mission but requires some level skilled roll to complete, but does NOT irreparably disrupt the primary mission. Success on the mission raises their individual faction rank. Which gives them more dice on the faction info roll etc etc. Faction missions are intended to be secret. Player of the same faction can work of course work together to complete their obejctive. 

Faction missions are a handout attached cut out on each mission. (The details of this are changed but over all this would be like faction missions from PFS.)

Each faction would have it's own spin on what happens in the given season, but it would help sort of unify and tell the story of each individual season, as missions advance. If you wanted to get really creative you could put special password locked parts of the forum that players can access and lets them chat fellow members of their faction. something along those lines.

We love shadowrun b/c we love the datahaven discussions. That's what injects the matrix into every single book, just have to find a way to make that work in every single mission as well.

« Last Edit: <02-04-19/2121:33> by Marcus »
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Marcus

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« Reply #9 on: <02-04-19/2128:06> »
Factions raiting could do other things, grant bonus to availability rolls to find certain types of gear.

Say one doc has a cyber doc on the pay roll, so they can help you get better ware.

Another faction has talismonger and can help get foci.

A third has weapons dealer and can you get that Gun you have been after the whole time.

you get the idea.
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Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #10 on: <02-05-19/1130:00> »
In looking over No Future I realized something.  In the pre-missions days adventures used to conclude with a pair of handouts representing local news coverage following the shadowrun, one for the "runners failed" and one for the "runners succeeded" contingencies. Not only did they communicate the immediate fallout of the characters' actions, they also had leaders for unrelated (and often humorous) stories that helped bring the setting to life. I really miss those.

I'm not sure how feasible it is in the tight SRM product format, but I'd love seeing those again.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Marcus

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« Reply #11 on: <02-05-19/1617:09> »
Don't get me wrong I'd love for that to happen. But it's to many small moving parts. Factions atleast give players a level of indvidual feed back, some sort of personal story development and, a Sense of belonging. It increases paperwork a little at the table. But it's worth the time and some variance in the runs.

It also  would help In legwork. Everyone could at least roll something.

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