[kainite311]

So awhile back I ran the Shadowrun Missions Chasin' the Wind. In it there was a Free Sprite named Remo. I thought Techno's couldn't be part of a PAN. But in the adventure it says

"Her biological PAN is still (barely) active. Her formerly registered sprite, Remo, resides in her biological PAN. Remo is a Level 6 Free Data Sprite. He remains out of loyalty to her former self."

Also, wouldn't a free sprite attract the attention of GOD and get squished after a short period of time? And what does a free sprite do in it's s[are time?

Or was all this just meta-plot mugguffin for the story background?

[Marcus]

As Memory services a TM cannot make PAN (Personal Area Network), b/c she/he cannot slave devices to his/her Biological Deck.

A registered sprite, is connected to a TM. So my money says the author just interpreted that being part of the decker biological PAN. I don't really have an issue with that language, if that how the author like to think about it. But I would not take it any further then that. It shouldn't be read to mean or imply you can build a normal PAN with a TM's bio-comp.

[Kiirnodel]

Also, bear in mind that this mission released very quickly after 5th edition dropped. Just like Splintered State there are a few things that are likely based off of assuming a rule or effect would be the same or similar to the previous edition.

[Marcus]

Sigh. I do miss 4th edition TM's. Usually when you see the big bad, you can atleast take moment to marvel at how very deadly their build is, or just powerful it is or something. But PAX in 5th just made me sad, Firewall 12? Like that's your secret deadly power. PAX could get beat up by some gangers with baseball bats. Sure she could decker revenge them real bad afterwards. Was there any other shadowrun master villain who couldn't take some club packing gangers in a street fight?

[Xenon]

What the author was going for was probably the fact that sprites that the TM compile have the same "resonance signature" as the TM, sprites are under the control of the TM, the TM is the "owner" of the sprite, if you track their physical location you end up with the location of the TM and the fact that TMs have a special sprite-TM communication link. However they are not a PAN in the true SR5 sense (in fact SR5 explicitly say that "Sprites are personas, but not devices; they can't be part of a PAN or WAN").

Having said that, it might or might not be able for a TM to slave her physical devices to a high firewall physical commlink, giving her a matrix PAN like any a regular person. Most TMs want to hide the fact that they are TMs and almost all TMs probably have a commlink that can broadcast a fake SIN anyway (also if you have Data Trail then you equip your commlink with a stealth dongle for a sleaze rating to make your PAN harder to spot when you run silent). Some TMs might even get a cyberdeck for the purpose of disguising as a decker rather than a TM.