Tag: Chris “HyveMynd” Stone-Bush

////e-IDs:

////e-IDs:

////e-IDs:

So I’m back asking for help again. In our game, set in the Android:Netrunner universe nearly everyone has an e-ID. This often takes the form of a chip implanted in the back of the hand, and is linked to damn near everything: biometric data, bank accounts, social media profiles, net access, health and social security records, etc. You name it.

A citizen can wave their hand in front of a reader to pay for their subway ride or for a coffee at Starbucks. Wave your hand in front of your skyhopper or arcology door and it’ll recognize you and allow access. You can use your PAD (personal access device) to ping an e-ID to get superficial information about anyone you meet. The NAPD can go go deeper; criminal records, home and work addresses, skyhopper registration, etc. These e-IDs are so ubiquitous that not having one instantly makes you look suspicious. All that data is tracked and logged by NBN, but most people have given up that privacy for the security an e-ID offers. Plus, without one, you have no records, can not get any kind of on the books help, and for all intents and purposes don’t exist in any kind of official capacity.

Of course being constantly tracked that way is really bad for a team of operatives. It is possible to wipe an e-ID, or to make a fake one. (It’s also possible to cut out someone’s e-ID to fool the system.) I’m trying to write a custom move for hiding or creating an identity by tampering with that e-ID chip. I’m thinking something like this:

When you modify or create an electronic identity, roll + [STAT]. On a 10+, choose two, and on a 7-9, choose one:

– It’ll hold up to intense scrutiny;

– It doesn’t take a long time to make;

– You don’t need to purchase parts.

I’m thinking along the lines of “better/faster/cheaper” here. I’m also unsure what stat this should be. Thoughts?

////GEAR:

////GEAR:

////GEAR:

Synap Pistol

4-harm, close, loud, ignore armor, non-lethal

So, I was reading through the Worlds of Android book last night while prepping for Friday’s game and guess what? It turns out that synap pistols can do actual damage to people, fry cyberwear, and aren’t always 100% effective. So I’ve made an updated version of the weapon that uses the “non-lethal” tag.

A weapon with the non-lethal tag doesn’t do any physical damage, but the target still adds the harm rating of the weapon to their Harm move roll.

Corporate Fixer

Corporate Fixer

Corporate Fixer

I forgot what led me down this rabbit hole, but I started thinking about Ndebele neck rings in a cyberpunk setting. A Google image search lead me to Sarah Golish’s illustrations, which are absolutely fantastic. (http://akatasia.com/art/sundust-summer-soulstice-collection-by-sarah-golish/)

Synap Pistol

Synap Pistol

Synap Pistol

Also called a Ghandi Gun due to it’s non-lethal nature, the Synap Pistol is standard issue to all New Angeles Police Department officers. The weapon fires a burst of electromagnetic energy designed to disrupt an organic target’s nervous system, causing temporary paralysis and unconsciousness. As the charge also interferes with electrical systems, freezing some and forcing others to shut down, it is an effective weapon against robots and bioroids as well.

It is neither a subtle nor a long distance weapon, however. The bright blue bolts of electricity only have an effective range of ten meters, less if the effect is dispersed by rain or fog. Each shot is accompanied by a high decibel shrilling, affectionately referred to as a “banshee scream” by many officers. There is no way to fire a Synap Pistol and not alert everyone in the area to your presence. But that one shot should take down any target, organic or otherwise, unless its fully encased in an electromagnetically shielded suit of powered armor.

Synap Pistol

close, loud, ignore armor, non-lethal

When you’re hit with a Synap Pistol, roll+Meat. On a 10+, you’re unconscious and paralyzed for a few seconds. On a 7-9, you’ll come to in about a minute.

Shell Corps

Shell Corps

Shell Corps

How would you handle several layers of shell corporations?

The session where I was going to run the Tannhäuser Job got pushed back. Which is good, as I’m still doing prep work. This is only our second mission, and will be the first where the employer is unknown to the players/characters. The Corp that has hired the team is a conglomerate, a collection of numerous smaller corps that all act somewhat independently, but who’s upper management all coordinate through a board of directors to avoid harming each other’s interests.

So what I’m wondering here is how to handle shell corporations. There are several layers of smaller corps between the characters and the Corp listed on the sheet. If the players want to dig into who’s really hired them how would they go about doing that?

I figure the PCs could go poking around the Database systems of the company the target owned (whom they’ve been hired to assassinate) or the first company that hires them (if they find that out). That could lead them to discover who owns each company in the chain, all the way up to the top. Of course each level up they go is going to be better defended.

How many layers is too many though? Too many shell corps to wade through and the players get bored. Too few and it seems like something anyone could have found.

Thoughts?

The Tannhäuser Job

The Tannhäuser Job

The Tannhäuser Job

Working on the details for our second mission (but third session). I asked the group what sort of jobs a team consisting of a Killer, Pusher, and Hacker would take, and was told “wetwork”. OK then.

////MISSION DIRECTIVES:

When you accept the mission, mark experience.

When you decide how to get into the Hyatt Regency Barbasquillo, mark experience.

When you transmit the signed documents, mark experience.

When you transmit proof of Tannhäuser’s “accidental” death, mark experience.

When the mission ends, mark experience.

////END

This is a pretty straightforward job. The team is hired to assassinate Elizabeth Tannhäuser, the major shareholder of a small construction corp after a merger deal goes bad. The fixer knows where the target is staying, the Hyatt Regency Barbasquillo, but Tannhäuser will be there for less than 24-hours. The team needs to get into the hotel, get the target to sign some documents (a will dictating where her shares will go upon her death), then eliminate her so that things look like an accident.

There’s a twist though. The Corp hiring the team is Real Bad News. Once proof of Tannhäuser’s death is transmitted, a second team in another part of the city is greenlit to fire off a few Kawasaki Heavy Industry Type-01 LMAT anti-tank missiles. The attack will obliterate any evidence of shady dealings (including the team), damage a major property of a rival Corp, and get blamed on anti-robot radicals. That’ll allow the hiring corp to look like heroes when they send in the prisec teams to “clean up” the slums the missiles were fired from.

Self-generated Missions

Self-generated Missions

Self-generated Missions

So, it hasn’t happened yet, but just in case it does, how do you handle cred and Getting Paid for self-generated missions? In other words, if the team decides to run an op against one of the corps for personal reasons, rather than accepting a paying job from a fixer, what happens with cred?

Corporate Assets

Corporate Assets

Corporate Assets

So I’ve got, what I think, is an interesting situation with my group: two of the three players are absolutely fine with their characters being full on corporate assets. Not just “yeah, we’ll run missions for the corp if it pays well”, but straight up “we live in corp supplied apartments and are on the books, but not officially” kind of thing.

One character, the Killer, is willing to act against their corp, Haas-Bioroid, provided nothing will trace back to him. But the Pusher is not. She’s​ not willing to act against HB’s interest. At least for now. Meanwhile, the Hacker is the only one who’s not owned and is looking to keep things that way.

At the end of the last session, the Pusher went to Haas-Bioroid and had some dermal plating installed; she took a bullet to the thigh during the mission and is looking to minimize future damage. There are now three owned tags for HB between her and the Killer.

I’m excited to see what’s going to happen when their Haas-Bioroid handlers start asking them to do really questionable stuff, or when they decide they’ve had enough. But for right now, I’m kind of stumped as to what to do with so many owned tags…

Database Sub-system

Database Sub-system

Database Sub-system

Just finished MCing my first game of The Sprawl. Overall it went well and the three players said they had a great time, but there were things I could have handled way better. That will come with more experience.

One thing that stumped me was gathering information in the matrix during the Legwork phase. I ran the Kurosawa mission, and the players discussed hacking into either the arcology or the airport to discover their target’s travel plans. Ultimately they decided to go another route, but it raised a question.

The information they wanted would naturally be in a database sub-system. That means Logging in to the system and then using compromise security on the database sub-system. But I’m not seeing an option to just read the info contained in a database. I’m seeing copy, modify, or delete records as options.

Does that mean the hacker can access and read all info contained in a database once they’re in? It makes sense, but it might be a lot of info to sift through, and I could see act under pressure or tell them the consequences and ask being moves here.

Also, do hackers have to make the login move for each sub-system they access?