[Zilfer]

I was curious as to the many techniques other DM's use to track their shadowrunners. I understand they can be tracked in a multitude of ways.

I wanted to know exactly HOW. you guys Explain it. Right now I haven't had any one go up against SWAT or Knight Errant, or Lone star because I want to play them efficently like they would be played.

So I know RFID tags are one way but their signal is very low. I introduced this sort of thing to them in a previous session when gang members that survived from their attack tracked them down through small responders. (they through the hint of an NPC were able to figure out how they were locating their hide outs) This was after of course the Mafia Troll's place got shot up in a gun fight.

Also how quick do police respond in Shadowrun? The gunfight in the troll's place I was going to have police(lone star right?) show up if they lingered around too long because of the loud sounds of automatic gun fire. (some of them even went full auto)

Also, if anyone has time to add how they come up with interesting runs, that would be appreciated. I'm going to steal one topic I just read recently about a kidnapping. Kudos to that topic, but I would have never thought of anything like that had I not read the topic. Maybe the more I read the easier it will be.

Thanks for any  comments!

[CanRay]

RFID signals only need to go to the nearest signal receiver.  The CHN in every home and any drones it might be connected to?  Yep, that'll work just fine.

But I've had them shadowed by professionals, observed by advertising blimps, delivery drone vans moving in a complex pattern, and a radioactive isotope that has a long half-life.

[Zilfer]

RFID signals only need to go to the nearest signal receiver.  The CHN in every home and any drones it might be connected to?  Yep, that'll work just fine.

But I've had them shadowed by professionals, observed by advertising blimps, delivery drone vans moving in a complex pattern, and a radioactive isotope that has a long half-life.

Do you give them a chance to be tipped off about it? Like a perception check to notice they are being followed? Or do they just enter their house one day and fine 5 guys packing heat there. xD (that seems cruel to me, but somewhat realistic if they could find the hide out. I'm curious as to how 'bad guys' go about tracking the players so I can slowly suggest how the Players might research their targets and the places they are going. Plays both ways.)

RFID always transmit and when this transmit to something it's picked up and thus gives away the location? If so those things are nasty and I can see my group being paraniod about everything they own afterwards. XD

[kirk]

What CanRay said.

Wrap your mind around what, exactly, the Matrix 2.0 really is. It's big brother to a degree Orwell never imagined. The only reason it's not 1984 is that there is a lot of money attached to all those infobits and everybody simultaneously wants their slice of the money and doesn't want to give others any more than they absolutely have to. No single company was strong enough to do it all, but they were big enough to keep government(s) from doing it either -- after they recovered, of course.

Your home CHN, the road sensors, the sensors in every bit of sidewalk that people tap to watch for criminal sorts and revenuers, the gps feeds, the microtweets from teens and 'news bits' from adults (or vice versa), storefront security cameras watching the streets, and on and on. To get a tiny taste, take a look at all the videos that started popping up about what people were doing when the Oslo bomb went off, and picture it with a hundred times better coverage.

Even if you're turned off, people and cameras near you see you and their smart-traffic sensors start reporting a 'physical null' over here. If the back trail of that null just happens to start where "you" disappeared, well, tracking gets a little easier.

The hard part isn't tracking, it's avoiding being tracked.

[CanRay]

If my group bothered to check, yeah, they'd have had a chance.  But, well, I have no idea why they never do.  Even Pink Mohawks have more of a mindset to at least check for people following you.

Guess it was just a bad game for the group.  Or I was just a bad GM.  Not sure which.

But, yeah.  There's cameras and sensors everywhere, along with Matrix 2.0 that, if you get a signal, it's reading you.  On the bright side is data overload.  Trying to sort through all that much information is going to take exceptional processing power.  Yeah, Shadowrun Computers are powerful, but every clocktick costs time.

So, if you snatch a purse from Jane Q. Wageslave, the cameras in the area will look for the thief's biometrics that they got from the initial snatch for...  Oh...  Ten seconds before it's no longer worth the time to bother, they'd be working at a loss.

Blow up something, you're worth far more.  We're talking minutes, maybe even an hour.

Kill a cop, and the badges say "Screw the suits" and don't stop looking for you.  Ever.  Even if the accountants pitch a fit, well, they'll cite the PR profits.

Vice has a good write-up about this.

[Zilfer]

If my group bothered to check, yeah, they'd have had a chance.  But, well, I have no idea why they never do.  Even Pink Mohawks have more of a mindset to at least check for people following you.

Guess it was just a bad game for the group.  Or I was just a bad GM.  Not sure which.

But, yeah.  There's cameras and sensors everywhere, along with Matrix 2.0 that, if you get a signal, it's reading you.  On the bright side is data overload.  Trying to sort through all that much information is going to take exceptional processing power.  Yeah, Shadowrun Computers are powerful, but every clocktick costs time.

So, if you snatch a purse from Jane Q. Wageslave, the cameras in the area will look for the thief's biometrics that they got from the initial snatch for...  Oh...  Ten seconds before it's no longer worth the time to bother, they'd be working at a loss.

Blow up something, you're worth far more.  We're talking minutes, maybe even an hour.

Kill a cop, and the badges say "Screw the suits" and don't stop looking for you.  Ever.  Even if the accountants pitch a fit, well, they'll cite the PR profits.

Vice has a good write-up about this.

Vice? I assume that is a member here. Could i get a link?

[kirk]

Vice. It's a sourcebook.

[CanRay]

Vice? I assume that is a member here. Could i get a link?

Sure.

[Zilfer]

Ok, so how do most go about searching. Do they just search the "Google" equalvent or do they actually hack into video feeds and try to track someone's path they took down the street by switching camera's. (If so that sounds highly illegal in itself. XD)

[Crash_00]

Well the easiest, in my opinion, way to keep from being tracked is what I like to call the disguise method. Leave the house disguised, change disguises away from house where there aren't cams, live the day doing what you want, change back to original disguise where there are no cams, and return home. Rinse and repeat, but remember to change your disguises often.

For RFIDs there are always tag erasers to fry the little buggers.

[CanRay]

Ok, so how do most go about searching. Do they just search the "Google" equalvent or do they actually hack into video feeds and try to track someone's path they took down the street by switching camera's. (If so that sounds highly illegal in itself. XD)

They'd set up a search with the biometric parameters through the camera systems they control.  (Note that statement:  "That they control.").

The main thing that prevents Shadowrun from turning into a really advanced Nineteen-Eighty-Four is that there isn't one central centre for the cameras and such.  Lone Star isn't about to share camera feeds with Knight Errant anytime soon, for instance.  And Ares and AZT are fighting this week, so they aren't talking either.  And so on.

Likely, traffic cameras are owned and maintained (Poorly) by the city/state and their feeds are part of the contract to the Security Company that's providing Law Officer Service.  Said Security Company will have their own cameras and sensors as well.  And subsidiaries.  And, maybe, if they're on talking terms, other corporations in exchange for other provisions, but with restrictions.

Oh, and public domain items, like social networks.  Fraggin' kids and their CommLinks with recorders posting things online for all to see, "LOL, Sdwrnrs pwn'd bi KE!"

[Zilfer]

Well the easiest, in my opinion, way to keep from being tracked is what I like to call the disguise method. Leave the house disguised, change disguises away from house where there aren't cams, live the day doing what you want, change back to original disguise where there are no cams, and return home. Rinse and repeat, but remember to change your disguises often.

For RFIDs there are always tag erasers to fry the little buggers.

I guess they can't really tell that it's YOUR house with that method. If you become John Smith every time you leave that house and John Smith returns at the end of the day. An interesting Idea i'll keep for my character.

Yeah, how well do those Tag eraser's cost? <.< and are they illegal. I'm willing to bet they are.

To CanRay: For the "youtube" type things. Do you mean they can possibly track you from what people record and upload onto the Matrix? That'd be quite a feat i think to find that in a massive amount of communication out there.

[CanRay]

All depends on how much work they want to have done.  Get a facial recognition or raw biometrics scan going to all the sites, and you'd be amazed how fast it can be to find someone.  All goes down to processing power and bandwidth pipeline.

So, just make sure you're not worth too much clocktime or pipe laying.

...

I probably could have worded that better.

[Crash_00]

Tag Erasers are on Pg. 330 of the SR4A core book. They cost 150¥ and are (F)orbidden, but are attainable by starting characters (Avail. 6). They only work on RFID tags (not chips), but I believe one of the other books has an "EMP" style gun for frying RFID chips.

[Zilfer]

Tag Erasers are on Pg. 330 of the SR4A core book. They cost 150¥ and are (F)orbidden, but are attainable by starting characters (Avail. 6). They only work on RFID tags (not chips), but I believe one of the other books has an "EMP" style gun for frying RFID chips.

I believe my friend actually got that EMP gun. He used it on someone with bioware to fry all of it. No idea I wasn't the DM that night but the one who was DMing let it slide and destroy the bioware. I believe I had read somewhere you roll the EMP blast against the rating of the Bioware or something like that and which ever gets more hits wins. >.> My question however that I didn't mention because i didn't want the one hit with it to die was.... since the bioware was inside the person's brain/nervous system. Would that do physical damage? and/or kill them?