Hello everyone!
Just completed pt. 2 of my (now looking to be 3 session) Sprawl campaign’s 1st episode. I’m enjoying the game immensely, especially now that I’ve got a full group (last session had only two people.) But… I’ve got a few questions. Well, one in particular:
What on earth are Deck Stats?
I MC, and after scouring the book, I did find what I thought explained the stats in the gear section, but it only left me with more questions than answers. It almost seems that they act like hold over matrix subsystems, to use against programs? The Matrix requirements on the MC side seem a little rough as well; I found myself wondering whether or not to force a trace or a move on the decker so they didn’t just breeze through their objective with no repercussions, and how to structure systems from an MC perspective. Both my Hacker and I are a little puzzled about this, and could use some clarifying please.
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By “Deck Stats” do you mean Hardening, Firewall, Processor and Stealth? Those are described on page 136 (in the Cyberdecks section of the Assets chapter). I guess Hardening and Firewall are a kind of hold, but I think of them as ablative armour.
Am I on the right track, or are you puzzled by something completely different?
Right on track. I’m more wondering how they work in relation to the other Matrix Moves. I felt like I was having a bit of trouble making the Matrix dangerous for my decker.
!) How much real computer knowledge do you have?
2) How much cyberpunk writing have you consumed (and I don’t mean Cyberpunk 2020)?
Deck Stats first:
Firewall and Hardening are two numbers that the Hacker can reduced when they get hit by ICE to avoid the consequences. Note (p.137) that the Hacker has to pay to recover these points; they don’t recover automatically between matrix infiltrations.
Stealth is a flat number that the system tries to exceed to trace the hacker. The consequences of Trace exceeding Stealth are pretty high, especially because they are likely to be forceful and directed at the Hacker’s physical body and stuff… which is not their strong suit. If they get traced, I usually maker a soft move as warning, then hit them hard. Shotgun round through the cyberdeck, captured and rigged for cortex bombs, large amounts of harm.
Processor is simply a number that tells the Hacker how many programs their deck can run. Programs are mostly situational modifiers to moves.
So none of those are Moves in the usual sense, but they provide the fictional circumstances for moves to happen.
I did a few sheets covering this s.port of stuff last year for a Sprawl game as the Hacker player in the game had little understanding of computer systems as they were younger than 20 at the time. Having come from a Sysadmin position with NASA I was able to point him in the right sort of direction.
Nigel Clarke I would find value in those sheets if you are willing to share them.
Ugh. Just lost a long reply. Missed my “G+” move.
Hamish Cameron Heh. Google gets to make a hard move on you, right?
Danger in the Matrix:
ICE is exponential. Look at the Trace damage consequences, for example: Blue does +1, Red does +2, Black does +3. Each of those levels of ICE also chooses 1, 2 and 3 options respectively. So if you miss against Blue ICE maybe it traces you for 1. If you miss against Red ICE, it traces you for 2, and destroys a program. If you miss against Black ICE, it can trace you for 3, hit you for 1 harm (so you have to make a harm move) and reduce your cyberdeck stats by two.
So while most characters in The Sprawl take bits of damage here and there and get stuck in unfortunate places, Hackers tend to seem more badass and suffer less trouble… until they roll a miss. Then they get a whole lot of bad stuff at once and that bad stuff degrades their ability to complete the mission.
When a corp successfully traces a Hacker, I tend to give them one soft warning move “there are spotlights playing over your windows” then hit them with a hard move “a corporate kill team kicks down your door, blows your connection and points shotguns in your face.”
Ah, seeing Nigel Clarke’s reply makes me wonder if matrix architecture/geography is the problem here. I should write something more about that.
I’m looking into the possibility of making a few recordings or videos going over aspects of the game in detail. I’ll add hacking to that list.
Christopher Meid They could make such hard moves.
I have put the sheets I did into a G Drive share at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwzePBsqT0NFcFdQX2EwVG1xN1U&usp=sharing
You should be able to look at at least a couple of sheets I wrote up about Hacking and there is a load of system information concerning various corporate and legal systems as well.
I’ve a middling knowledge of computers, and have read almost every piece of cyberpunk literature I could get my hands on. (All of Gibson, Neal Stephenson’s ‘Snow Crash’, etc.) Most of my players are former Shadowrunners, and Matrix rules paralleling that system did come up as well. (For example, if a Hacker logs out and back in again, does Trace refresh?)
Nigel Clarke Thank you for the link!
D Potto The node structure of SR is basically the same as that of The Sprawl. Early Shadowrun, at least. I don’t know what changes they made to the system after they added the wifi stuff in… 4th ed?
Hamish Cameron We’ve all ceased playing Shadowrun, coming out of 5th ed. I’ve been trying to go for a more Gibson esque game, and trying to denote to them that this is, in fact, not Shadowrun is… an interesting challenge.
D Potto Interesting idea. I would say that it would only reset if they spent a significant amount of time away from the system. These are high powered corporate systems with expert systems dedicated to tracing and pattern analysis. For the sake of a dramatic story (at least!) we should assume that “turning it off and on again” doesn’t foil them 😉
D Potto I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on that further. Do you write about your game anywhere?
The first mission is in it’s third and final mission. I’ve yet to do a write up anywhere, but I’ll happily do one here? The only thing that remains is to get paid and deal with the fallout of the mission, I can probably start the write up today.
Hamish Cameron
That would also make sense by comparison with a physical location…. just because you stepped outside and then came back in again, doesn’t mean that security is no longer on high alert for intruders.
In fact, you’re probably more likely to get caught logging in, because the target will be paying much closer attention to access logs and stuff. Under the circumstances, I’d probably just tell the player straight “if you try to hack in again now, you will get traced.” They can still try and bulldoze through, grab the data, and get out before security shows up at their door… but they’re not going to get away with a stealth approach.