[firebug]

So, as I've mentioned previously, I'm currently doing a bounty hunting campaign for some of my friends.  Their next target, I've decided, will be to find a hacker who made too much trouble for Knight Errant.

In order to find the hacker's location, it's pretty simple:  Link-Lock and Trace User.  But, finding their Persona is the hard part.  I'm not sure how that can be achieved.

How would someone else handle this?  Simply asking a contact isn't possible (it'd be too easy and they have no appropriate contacts) and I feel like boiling it down to just something like a Matrix Search action is boring.  I want it to be able to require at least one session of play to find their target on the matrix.

I can have the bounty target have some usual "hang outs", but again, I don't want it to be as simple as "go to one, then beat them up when they show up".  That'd just be over in less than an hour from us sitting down to play and isn't very engaging.

Also, one more question:  does being link-locked somehow keep you online even if your deck is bricked?  Because from my experience with matrix combat, it's quite possible that it'll be difficult to Data Spike someone, actually succeed, and not destroy them outright.

[8-bit]

From what I understand, link-locking simply sends keep alive signals to a deck. If that deck doesn't function, it can't stay active. One other interpretation would be basically what happened during Crash 2.0. They are stuck in VR, with no way to get out. Seems like you would be running rampant with e-ghosts at that point, so I find that interpretation hard to believe.

I don't know, for tracking them, maybe you have to go through some corporation hosts and pick up their trail or something (from something they hacked). Finding some files they lifted, or some stuff they erased. Tracing icons and having the hacker drop out of the Matrix for a bit, only to come back because that's where they feel at home. Plus, you can get some interesting plots in there when you poke around in a corp host. Eventually this would lead to either their persona, or actually finding their meatspace body, and arresting/killing them from there.

[Spooky]

Try this approach: they use that method, find the physical location, go there, and the deck has no user. Now they need to do a physical search, and you can have lots of twists and turns for them, quite possibly extending into the next session or two. This is when the tracking skill gets used. And the face gets to interrogate people. If you need some idea of what that entails, watch a couple of episodes of dog the bounty hunter. And just for kicks, they can check the matrix and the persona icon still gives the same location, even though it is traveling around. Maybe it's a technomancer?

[firebug]

Try this approach: they use that method, find the physical location, go there, and the deck has no user. Now they need to do a physical search, and you can have lots of twists and turns for them, quite possibly extending into the next session or two. This is when the tracking skill gets used. And the face gets to interrogate people. If you need some idea of what that entails, watch a couple of episodes of dog the bounty hunter. And just for kicks, they can check the matrix and the persona icon still gives the same location, even though it is traveling around. Maybe it's a technomancer?

Well, I have a character built for the target already, and they are going to actually follow the rules of the game.  They're a decker, so, if the team just showed up at the mark's physical location to find an abandoned deck...  They win!  The decker isn't affording another one any time soon and the team has a deck to sell for at least a few thousand.  After all if the decker had the money to ditch their deck and buy another one, their first one probably just would have been really good in the first place, and if they don't well...  It's gonna be hard when they can't use their main skill set to make money because they need money to use their main skill set.

I don't know, for tracking them, maybe you have to go through some corporation hosts and pick up their trail or something (from something they hacked). Finding some files they lifted, or some stuff they erased. Tracing icons and having the hacker drop out of the Matrix for a bit, only to come back because that's where they feel at home. Plus, you can get some interesting plots in there when you poke around in a corp host. Eventually this would lead to either their persona, or actually finding their meatspace body, and arresting/killing them from there.

The backstory is that this hacker stole data from a KE Host in Chicago, then used the data to steal a combat drone, so looking around a host for clues would work...  But I'm not sure how.  I don't know what a decker would actually "leave behind" on a host that could be traced back to them.  Their marks are gone, and the idea is that via hacking, marks are the equivalent of fake accounts made on the fly, and once they're gone, they're gone.  Otherwise you'd be able to just hack everything once and then just "reclaim" your marks later, you know?  Otherwise, I really like the idea of requiring the players to investigate and search.

Keep in mind, my game is a bounty hunting game, so the PCs aren't runners.  It's not too huge of a difference (largely meaning they are most hesitant to go against corps and they have different contacts) but sometimes it can change things.

Oh, one more thing that may help for people kind enough to offer suggestions:  The bounty is for them to be captured alive, and unbeknownst to the authorities or the players (at least initially), they have a partner who acts as the muscle for them.

[8-bit]

I don't know, for tracking them, maybe you have to go through some corporation hosts and pick up their trail or something (from something they hacked). Finding some files they lifted, or some stuff they erased. Tracing icons and having the hacker drop out of the Matrix for a bit, only to come back because that's where they feel at home. Plus, you can get some interesting plots in there when you poke around in a corp host. Eventually this would lead to either their persona, or actually finding their meatspace body, and arresting/killing them from there.

The backstory is that this hacker stole data from a KE Host in Chicago, then used the data to steal a combat drone, so looking around a host for clues would work...  But I'm not sure how.  I don't know what a decker would actually "leave behind" on a host that could be traced back to them.  Their marks are gone, and the idea is that via hacking, marks are the equivalent of fake accounts made on the fly, and once they're gone, they're gone.  Otherwise you'd be able to just hack everything once and then just "reclaim" your marks later, you know?  Otherwise, I really like the idea of requiring the players to investigate and search.

Yeah, that's a good point. 2075 Matrix protocols are harsher on the hacker, but really good at cleaning up and leaving no traces. I'm not sure what else to add, hopefully others on this forum can help you.

I guess the only real way would be legwork, Matrix stalking, and social engineering to try and get into the circles the hacker is in and find their favorite places, etc. Not really new information, but that's all I got. Sorry 

I hope you find the answers you seek, and that your game goes well (sounds like a really cool concept, to be honest; props to you).

[PiXeL01]

How a out tracking him through the people he sold the information to?
Have them track down a limited list of potential clients, scout them out/interrogate them and then track him to his usual areas. Or get a physical description and track him through that.

Better yet have him be an expect for a certain form of data theft and have them set a trap for him, possibly within a faraday cage so he has to go there with his team.

Or have an NPC track him but they are on a timer to reach his position. Racing against time they'll lose initially but can pick up his trail from there.

[Namikaze]

Have the target go to a hacker party or a hacker-centric Matrix club, and have one of the runners infiltrate the party and make contact.  Then your team's hacker can hit them with Link-lock and Trace Icon to find their physical location.  They'll have to hold off the hacker (or incapacitate him) while the rest of the team finds the poor sob's meat.

[Csjarrat]

have the data turn up on a datahaven with a commcode attached to an encypted file for the payment.
This gives your runners somewhere to start, though its obviously a burner comm that the hacker uses for a one-time payment.
The burner comm can be traced to a dumpster in a shitty part of town with a nearly-dead battery. Your decker and face can get to work chatting up the locals and hacking the local cctv camera network to trace his movements.
Chuck in a ganger encounter for the street sam and a go-gang encounter for the rigger and you're all set :-)

[TheDai]

You could go for a more "cinematic" style and make him an overconfident prick. Let him announce somewhere, when and where he will strike next.

Obviously, this can be used against him and the rest will be history. But would be also "standard plot" for every crime series / film with a criminal believing himself to be a "mastermind".

[ZeConster]

You could go for a more "cinematic" style and make him an overconfident prick. Let him announce somewhere, when and where he will strike next.

So something like this?

April Fool. When the moon splits in half, I will come to visit the origin of the name of the jet black star at the calling of the waves.

[Spooky]

Of course, the deck they find in my scenario isn't his good deck, it is just powerful (i.e. cheap junk) enough to hold his icon and relay A/V feed to a matrix place he can monitor from. Means finding the deck is just step one. Step two is finding where the deck came from, and following the trail through however many more steps you want to run. Course, since this is his old icon, finding his new one can be quite a challenge.

[firebug]

A lot of good suggestions. The set up is thus:  Hacker has been causing small time problems in Chicago for a while, but then decides to "make a name for themself" by hacking into KE's local host and then with the data they got, stealing a combat drone, and then bragging about it so people know they're the one who made it happen.

The target kind of is the overconfident kind.  A novahot decker who feels like they can do whatever they like because it's Chicago and they're one of the relatively few with a deck and hacking skills.  So, they probably will just be hanging out at their usual host...  Maybe the Host'd be difficult to find?  What're the chances there's a silent host for hackers in Chicago?

I could maybe have some intruigue by having the bounty talk shit, but the PCs will be at a disadvantage for two reasons:  One being that they can't just brick them or else they'll not be able to trace them, the other being that starting a fight in the host will launch IC at both of them, which can screw stuff up.  Maybe if it all goes well, the player can talk the target into a duel on the public grid.  Also, I realize I could tweak Spooky's advice, since link-lock isn't permanent, it's possible for the target to eventually break out and shut off, giving them time to run somewhere else if they need to.

The PCs consist of a Norse Mystic Adept (Dragonslayer as Thor for mentor), a combat hacker with two cyberarms with high agility, and a big ol' troll with combat drugs, a Krime Wave, and bone lacing.  By the way.

About my host idea...  Would this make sense?  A high-rating host that's mysterious and always running silent.  If you can find it and put a mark to enter, then they let you in normally next time.  It's high-rating both to seem exclusive and so the IC is that much more deadly.

[Csjarrat]

seems plausible but high rating hosts would be expensive, think about who funds it and why. what purpose does the host have? is it a hub for information batering perhaps, or a datahaven?
who polices it?
once you've got that figured out it'll give a good framework of what kind of security they'll have, what the sculpting will look like and what the ambient traffic in the host will be as well

[firebug]

The cost would be the hardest part.  Maybe a information brokering host paid for by a crime syndicate?  If they could pool enough money to get a rating 6 host.  Which is on the level of "local police", so, I think it wouldn't be impossible.  Or it could be funded by a corp, secretly, as a kind of "foothold in Chicago's renewing matrix presence".

No clue about the sculpting.  Maybe something classy like "1920's Speakeasy".  But then I'd definitely have to say it's owned by the mafia.  It'd just be too perfect.

[Shaidar]

Personally, I'd contact KE and enquire about setting up a "Honey-Pot" style Matrix lure and wait to Link-Lock/Trace with the more Meaty members of the team in an "acquired" Boeing Commuter mobile for the shoot/tranq and scoot.