I was able to leaf through the 6th Edition CRB last night, and something struck me as odd where Specializations and Matrix Actions are concerned.
The Cracking and Electronics skills both have specializations available, but how is a player or GM supposed to know which specialization applies to which action?
Take Hacking, a specialization of Cracking, for example: Backdoor Entry is, essentially, a stealthy way to gain unauthorized access to a device or network/host, so this should more than like be a Hacking action. Brute Force on the other hand is an overt attack on a device except you're not trying to inflict damage, rather you're still attempting to gain unauthorized access. So is Brute Force considered Hacking or Cybercombat?
Similarly, Software is a specialism of Electronics; The Control Device action explicitly states that you are remote controlling another device, so this sounds to me like it should be Hardware. But, you are still using software do actually perform the remote control, so it could also be Software.
Immediately I see a potential for lot of confusion, which means GMs have to make table-specific calls for this. This can be frustrating for a player as you have to deal with your specialization behaving one way at one table, and a different way at a different table.
If an official answer exists and I'm just missing it, please feel free to educate me. Otherwise, let's use this as an opportunity to achieve some sort of consensus.
I'll get the ball rolling by grouping the various actions into categories as best I can just based on my gut reaction and a little bit of analysis so that no one specialty has too many actions (i.e. it becomes the obviously "best" pick for a specialization).
Cracking
- Cybercombat
- Brute Force
- Crack File
- Crash Program
- Data Spike
- Electronic Warfare
- Check OS
- Hide
- Jam Signals
- Snoop
- Tarpit
- Hacking
- Backdoor Entry
- Disarm Data Bomb
- Probe
- Spoof Command
Electronics:
- Computer
- Format Device
- Matrix Perception
- Matrix Search
- Trace Icon
- Hardware
- Control Device
- Jack Out
- Jump Into Rigged Device
- Reboot Device
- Software
- Edit File
- Encrypt File
- Hash Check
- Set Data Bomb
Erase Matrix Signature is a Resonance only action, and I have no idea where this one should go. Other than that, this kind of division ensures that no one specialization grants an automatic +2 dice pool to ALL of your matrix actions.
Thoughts?
EDIT:
The following actions have no tests, so don't need to be tied to a specialism:
Change Icon
Enter/Exit Host
Full Matrix Defense
Reconfigure Matrix Attribute
Send Message
Switch Interface Mode