Now, here's the thing: either you agree or you don't.
Honestly, I can't persuade you (even though I'll try), but you either blink, look at the way computers work today, and realize that 'hey, you can isolate a computer system!', or else you can decide that somewhere in 2065-2070 computers simply started working entirely different than the way we know them to work today -- that they're no longer bound by computer logic and code, but instead ruled by rules of connectivity that state that in order for a computer system / host to work like a computer system / host, they must be connected to the Source.
Simply put, that flat out ain't how it is, but look, at your game, you can run it however you want. Me, I'm sticking to simple obvious logic.
i.e. you can't do it if you're not jacked in', NOT as 'if it's not part of the worldwide network you can't do it'.
There are several problems here.
Mostly only because you're imagining them, but let's keep going.
- First, to continue your Astral analogy, there is no "sub-Astral," or "mini-Astral" pockets. That would support the idea that there is only One Matrix, and if a hacker isn't connected to it, they can't hack.
Nor are there 'sub-reality' or 'mini-reality' pockets, unless you consider different continents, islands, planets, whatever. It's a general analogy, not a specific one, meant to draw your attention not to 'the differences in each', but to
states of being and perception. Being a pedant got you into this; being a pedant is what's gonna keep you there. Try not to be a pedant.
- Second, there is no distinction in Shadowrun 5e (that I have found) that there is any differentiation between being "jacked-in," and "on the Matrix." They are synonymous.
Because
in general there doesn't need to be; most networks/hosts need to be accessed
from other physical locations in the world, which means via the Matrix, and so they are considered 'on the Matrix', no matter the barriers and such.
On the other hand, there are
definite difference to being 'jacked in' (aka 'being in virtual reality' (VR)) and 'being in augmented reality' (AR). Are you trying to argue that being 'only' in AR is
not being on the Matrix? Because there's a whole storm right around the corner for ya if that's what you're gonna argue, and I ain't the one what's gonna be bringing it.
- Finally, the 5e product spectrum is full of references to the Matrix as a singular entity. The worldwide telecommunications network is the one, true Matrix. There are no others.
Sure. And we speak of the Internet in exactly the same way, even though there are
clearly hosts and networks that are not connected to it.
So, there isn't anything in 5e that supports anything less than Matrix Actions can only be performed when connected to the telecommunications grid, the Matrix.
Anything else, is trying to push previous editions into 5e. No matter how much better it may make 5e, it isn't fitting to require everyone to possess those previous editions to get the "correct" interpretation of what the Matrix is in 5e.
No, sorry; what this boils down to is an insistence on taking a casual turn of phrase and turning it into a Must Exist This Way hill to die upon. This isn't me, or anyone else, pushing previous editions into 5e, any more that previous editions continued to parallel the at-the-time understanding of computers; this is viewing it with pretty much the simplest understanding of computer network architecture, past and present. 'If you don't set it up to connect, it don't connect. And if its default is to connect, you can probably turn that off.' Never mind that pretty much
every technological object in SR5 is set up to connect to the Matrix;
you can still turn that part off.Every computer except for throwbacks carries the result of the Silicon Glen Matrix 2.0 meeting, because those are the protocols that were decided
and agreed upon by
literally every major computer manufacture and coding company in existence at the time. Are there people who code 'other stuff'? Yeah, probably, but if you don't write your code to be able to handshake with the big boys, you ain't goin' nowhere. Which means that pretty much all code is going to be written to work on the Matrix even if the system it's on isn't connected, because unless the people who run the site are
incredibly paranoid and have thrown a few hundred thousand dollars into having their geeks writing a totally custom OS whose code not only doesn't handshake with the Matrix but
cannot run on the vast majority of the rest of their
own machines, then they
are running code that complies with UMS 2.1 standards.
Period.And that means that the code the decker's slinging is gonna work on that 'offline host', that those seperated computers
are going to form their own 'mini-Matrix' (which when you get down to it
really is just 'any computer running UMS 2.1'), and that thus you can use Matrix actions when you're 'on the Matrix'. Not because it's part of the global Matrix, but because
you're connected to a computer that shares a baseline standard of functionality and interactivity. Which is what aaaaall those computers that make up 'the Matrix' share.
You can't use a Matrix action on a spirit; you can't use a Matrix action on a tree, or the bear climbing down that tree to rip your head off. You can't use a Matrix action on back-to-nature granola-munching elves who hug those trees and detest your technology-using ways; you can't use Matrix actions on these things because these things have no computer functionality, and you can't be connected electronically to them.
Like I said, I really can't persuade you, and god knows if this doesn't do it, you won't be. But please keep it in your home game.
