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General Discussion / Mercenary Unit Rating

« Last post by Voran on <01-19-25/0021:51> »

Looking over my older source books, I see for (at least 5e) Mercenary info it'll include things like, "Mercenary Unit Rating" and a number 1 to 10, with 10 being noted as top dog by inference.  But I was wondering, does anyone remember the sourcebook that originally described that err...descriptor?  Was it ever officially hashed out or just a loose narrative 1-10 rating?  Like it doesn't seem connected to "Professional Rating' of its member mercs and stuff.

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The Secret History / House Matrix History

« Last post by liquidmorpheme on <01-18-25/1737:25> »

The players I've been running with for a few years now have been pretty enthusiastic about some Matrix verisimilitude I wrote to make it easier to anchor Matrix plots to plausible grounding, a kind of technical addendum to Matrix history. It adds but does not retcon/alter, so I thought I'd leave it here in case it solves anything for other GMs:

Trinary Bits

We'll start with this first of the major computer breakthroughs.  The quantum revolution added the value of "maybe" to the "yes" and "no" of digital hardware, and the impact on computing and what it was capable of was extraordinary. Of course people had predicted its effect on speeds, encryption, and so forth, but very few people predicted its emergent properties, how it would change the relationship between humanity and machines.

The first programming languages that responded to the change were notable for the inclusion of structures that moved beyond logical function to what could only be called intention or meaning. Developers were not quick to take them up, considering them radical experiments of starry-eyed MIT&T grads, but neuroscientists working them for virtual brain modeling sounded the call when several projects at once reported model interactions consistent with psychology. These were not actually artificial intelligences, these model brains, merely sophisticated assemblages of rules that excelled at their representations of reality. Nonetheless, they grabbed the attention of scientists and coders all over the planet, because importantly, no one writing the models had any idea it was going to happen.

From there things advanced at breakneck speed. With the ability to easily code software that was flexible, natively adaptive and adept at handling ambiguity, coders, hackers, megacorps, and enthusiasts everywhere jumped in. Computer scientists borrowed from materials science and began applying structures suggested by biology to their code. Applications to machine-brain interfaces were immediate and wildly successful. Military applications, when a few of them became known, were absolutely chilling. Protheheuristic programming, as it came to be called, evolved to give us decking and the Crash Virus of 2029, and it was undoubtedly the trigger of sentience in Psychotrope/Mirage, the Sixth World's first AI.

Variable Code

Machine-brain interface's (now called Direct Neural Interface) rise to prominence is due almost entirely to the development of protheheuristic programming's 2.0 moment, variable code [mentioned in the 5E core rulebook, but only briefly]. This time the advancement was not so ubiquitous—grasping the computational engineering behind its foundational concepts was simply beyond most amateurs and even many professionals (much to the pleasure of the megacorps who created it). The goal of this coding paradigm was software that could handle orders-of-magnitude higher complexity without developer assistance, that could even develop itself given the right code seed, and systems integration that could proceed automatically, with fully capable auto-debugging,  and error correction. It worked. Very quickly unintentional computer problems (haha) of every sort, from the macro level to the individual user, became a thing of the past.

Virtual Reality

It came at a cost, though. Code in a constant state of flux, that responded radically differently in system than in the lab, that rewrote itself so fast it could never even be read, was too much for an individual coder to tackle on their own. Enter DNIs, which allowed developers to work improvisationally by thinking through the logic-reason flow of a computational problem, while variable-coded hardware interpreted the data and applied it to whatever transit code schema was operating on that system in that particular nanosecond. Many did their work in VR, to take advantage of virtual metaphors and data representations to help them visualize and think through their mental legwork and logical problem-solving.

The hardware became the key. And the lock. Without tech that could manage the interpretation to and from transit code schema, no user had any of hope of creating in the new digital universe (or of breaking its security). The first decks were merely portable devices for working variable code (later weaponized to a shocking degree by the U.S. government). But no megacorp had any intention of giving away their exclusive control over the digital trough from which the world feeds, the Matrix. And so decks became the province of the elite. And the underground.

Matrix 2070

The wireless mesh of 2070, utopian as it turned out to be, was originally intended as a megacorp coup. It was believed that a Matrix that responded perfectly to even the simplest user, that was as easy as breathing and more accessible than air, would tighten their grip even further over the commercial lives of the masses, allowing commodification of even individual thoughts. To accomplish this, though, it was not possible to keep interpreter hardware out of the loop. The new Matrix would need code transition nodes as part of the global mesh, accessible only under tightly controlled circumstances and at specified permission levels (so they hoped).

It was a disaster for them. Hackers everywhere figured out instantly how to access the nodes, even write them in as proxies for their network routes, in part because too many devices needed access. The mesh had manufacturers everywhere loading permitted devices into products of every conceivable kind. Toasters. Hair pieces. Residential doors. Underwear. Everyone wanted to take advantage of the commercial potential of the new Matrix's responsiveness and usability.

Thanks to extremely poor planning and outrageous greed, hackers (well, at least the non-technomantic among them) were for the first time since the variable-protheheuristic revolution cracking the Matrix—and everything connected to it, including said underwear—without a deck.

Coup Redux

The rest you know. de la Mar and the Corporate Court. Grids. Hosts. GOD. The latest iteration of the Matrix is a megacorp's dream, the ultimate paywalled garden. Not a single bit of it, from its global architecture to the hosted content to the commlinks that access it, is under any real user control. The hosts are all property of the 1%, each one approved by the Matrix's governing body before it's built. User input is form-and-content limited by the iron-clad protocols that dictate even the look of individual icons. No one goes anywhere or does anything meshed that isn't censored, curated, dictated, or signed off on by someone with money and power. It leaves no room for niches or subversive secrets. It is, to the Corporate Court, exceedingly predictable.

And profitable. Turns out the 2070 Matrix was the perfect hook to drag people in, right before sinking them down to the grids. Which are arbitrary access tiers. They tell folks its about bandwidth and load management, but any hacker knows you can use the public to jump to a grid halfway around the world and the problems disappear. Engineered hierarchy. You buy the right to buy what only the masters are selling.

Matrix 2075 Imagined

No more transition nodes, obviously. Decks once again rule the day. What we know about the architecture of it suggests the VR I/O engine (pronounced vree-oh engine for those in the know) is on a layer close to the kernel, if not right above it. Gives every process immediate access to a protheheuristic visualization, punching right through all the other protocol layers for direct interaction. But it's got a powerful gatekeeper deciding what gets to stay hidden and what doesn't.

GOD? No ones knows. Mapping the backbone protocol the thing runs on, whatever they wrote when they trashed 2070, has proven difficult. Hacking's greatest defeat. We can raid files, crack hosts, smoke IC, and still we don't know how to stop Overwatch. How GOD can see and judge everything we do. Why the MARK system plays so fast and loose with permissions (deliberate?). Where the data physically resides. Doubtless these ground rules are variable-coded into the firmware of every machine that serves the mesh to the world, centralization by coordinated repetition, but we have not yet broken through. Something strange happening in the Foundation of the thing. To some it feels like sentience. To some it feels like magic.

Whatever it is, the only thing keeping the underground from disappearing forever is the not-so-humble, massively expensive and dangerously illegal deck, with its hardware to make exploits reality. The Sixth World, if you can believe it, has gotten grimmer.

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General Discussion / Re: Detroit Scenarios?

« Last post by Voran on <01-18-25/0522:36> »

Btw, I was wondering from a few years back, where is Platinum Trollgirls in Detroit supposed to be located.  Did whoever that came up with it as a writer have an inspiration, heh, ala "I know this strip club location in real life, lets put it over here." kind of thing, or something else?  /checks map, if its somewhere Downtown was maybe Legends Strip club the inspiration?

edit: woop nevermind...

looking in the book again, where deadline is saying "basically everything within 3/4th a kilometer of (Ares Tower) is leveled, makes my idea of "Legends Strip club" as inspiration a no go...it's in the destruction zone.  Too close to the Ares Tower it would seem.

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General Gaming / Re: CBR+PNK

« Last post by AlHazred on <01-14-25/1045:58> »

Ironically, I'm not a fan of Storyteller RPG designs. It feels too much like Improv and not enough like a Game to me.

It's a fine line of balance between pure group storytelling and narrative gaming. But I've played in my wife's Blades in the Dark campaign, and it's got enough codification of give-and-take to work. But you do need a group willing to give it a try, and it's not for everyone!

I was more interested in other SR GMs who've gone the narrative route. SR has a great setting, with a lot of excellent lore and detail.

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General Gaming / Re: CBR+PNK

« Last post by FastJack on <01-14-25/0825:59> »

Ironically, I'm not a fan of Storyteller RPG designs. It feels too much like Improv and not enough like a Game to me.

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General Gaming / CBR+PNK

« Last post by AlHazred on <01-13-25/1208:41> »

So, I backed the Kickstarter for CBR+PNK Augmented a while back, and hadn't had the chance to look over the rewards until recently. It's an extremely light RPG (lighter even than SR:A) based on the Blades in the Dark engine by Jon Harper. One of the supplements for it (they're called plugins) is called +Weird, and it's specifically for adding supernatural elements to the game; it really feels like you can run extremely rules-light, narrative-based SR with this engine. The game itself isn't geared to campaign play -- it's for running a group of elite runners, called in for One Last Job with a Big Payoff (what can possibly go wrong?) -- but there's another plugin called CBR+PNK: re.SERIALIZED for adapting it to campaign play.

I've been digesting it but haven't had a chance to try it at the table yet. Has anybody else given this game a try? I'm particularly interested if anyone's run it with the +Weird plugin and if they felt it was an appropriately ShadowRunny experience. I know people who have always been intrigued by the lore, but are leery of any complex games. I was hoping to draw them in with CBR+PNK.

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Holostreets Products / Edge Card, Status Cards, and Lifepath Cards

« Last post by FastJack on <01-06-25/1840:13> »

Now up on Holostreets!


Edge Cards
Lifepath Cards
Status Cards

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General Discussion / Re: It's quiet... Too quiet...

« Last post by Michael Chandra on <01-03-25/0745:12> »

There's also a bunch of servers where you click an emoji to pick certain roles. Speaking of, avoid the EMP checkmark in the rules channel. It EMPs your server access as a bot-trap.

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General Discussion / Re: It's quiet... Too quiet...

« Last post by DeathStrobe on <01-02-25/2218:35> »

(although I just went to the Discord and saw the general CGL channels but not the SR ones?  But it looks like my Discord may be messed up somehow, that might just be me)

SR channels are opt-in, right?

How does one opt-in to these SR channels on discord? I only see the general CGL stuff

Welcome And Info category, server-info-roles channel, has a Game-line roles at the bottom.

I didn't realize that things that look like buttons are actually buttons in discord. I just thought they were weird emoji or something. Just goes to show how much I use this.

I mostly don't like discord because it's not open internet indexable, meaning all the knowledge just stays hidden inside the wall garden. But eh, if people be talkin' about the shadows, I love to be talkin about it too.

Thanks Michael for the crash course on discord.

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Rules and such / Re: [6e] Matrix Device stacking questions

« Last post by KarmaInferno on <12-29-24/2123:10> »

Late response, but:

1) Yes, any number of devices can be placed in a PAN under a single primary device. They don't technically even need to be physically near each other, just registered to the PAN. You can NOT pick and choose Matrix Attributes from any and all devices under a PAN - you pick one device to be Primary, and only that device's matrix attributes matter.

2) Commlinks provide Data Processing and Firewall, but do not "stack" with anything. Commlinks are basically smartphones except the interface is AR or VR. They are used for day to day communication and public data lookup. They are not really suitable for hacking. They can run Basic and Commlink programs but not Hacking or Rigging programs. The "Autosoft Host" Basic Program can allow an attached Agent Box to use loaded Autosofts or Skillsofts - more on this below. With a Control Rig, they can be used to rig a single vehicle or drone.

Rigger Command Consoles provide Data Processing and Firewall and are used for commanding fleets of vehicles. They are useful but not required for Riggers. They can run Basic and Rigging programs but not Hacking programs. The "Emulator" Basic Program can let the device run Commlink Programs. With special programs, they can emulate Attack or Sleaze but only for specific tests, like "Run Silent, Run Deep" adds a Sleaze rating but just for defending against Matrix Perception.

Cyberdecks pair with *Cyberjacks* and ONLY Cyberjacks. Not Commlinks, not Rigger Command Consoles. The pairing provides all four Attack, Sleaze, Data Processing, and Firewall matrix attributes. Cyberdecks combined with Cyberjacks are really the only device that can be used to hack. They can run Basic programs. Cyberdecks are also the only device that can run Hacking programs. The "Emulator" Basic Program can let the device run Commlink Programs. The "Autosoft Host" Basic Program can allow an attached Agent Box to use loaded Autosofts or Skillsofts - more on this below. With a Control Rig, they can be used to rig a single vehicle or drone.

Agents are semi-smart programs that can do some hacking on their own. They can only be directly loaded into Cyberdecks, but can also be loaded into Agent Boxes and be attached to any device. They are, however, still limited to actions the device they are attached to, so an Agent Box linked to a Commlink is fairly useless except as possibly a personal secretary.

3) Currently there are no limits on number of Program Carriers. So go nuts. Note that they do not change what types of programs their attached device can run.

-k