Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

I ran a 350 point game, and I may be running another soon that I think I'll tone down to 250. Minimum 150 on normal abilities/stats/racial templates, the rest can be spent on cyber/magic/etc.

I want to run a more street-level game this time around.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Have fun, and tell us how it goes. Were it being run online I might be interested in sitting in and watching - especially how you're handling the various aspects of SR that don't work at TL9 and to see this hacking thing of yours in action but I definitely wouldn't enjoy playing in the version of SR you envision.

Datajacks and such weren't in everyone in SR3, no telling if they are in SR4 - I skipped to the crunchy bits in that book and like Fred I pulled the plug on it because I couldn't wrap my head around the changes they made to the system. Or the short jump they made to technology that was way more than 10 years in advance when they went from 2063 to 2070.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Presuming that this technology includes a fine enough control of induction to send specific hardware-level commands to a remote piece of electronics, there will also be sensors capable of detecting such attempts, which can then generate a precise EM field to disrupt the incoming control attempt.

Or, as with any security software, a simple "real-time scan" process that looks for unauthorized commands and blocks them from executing at the software level.

The border between hardware and software is indistinct even now (q.v. firmware, flash-ROM, etc), and is only apt to become moreso as computing technology develops.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Some elements of SR are TL 9. Weapons, armor, transport, etc. Bioware, cyberware, and computing is generally TL 10. Or at least, TL 10 is available in those fields. I generally make it more expensive, since it's cutting edge. That said, by GURPS UT wireless neural induction fields are TL 11^.

Heck, I'd say guns in SR are actually TL 8 with some TL9 gadgets strapped to them.

But like I said, so long as I think it's fun, I really don't care what the TL is or whether it's superscience so long as it helps me tell the stories I want to in a fun way.

It's counter-hacking back at you. You induce some change, and the software is like "nuh-uh" and changes it right back. And it's widely distributed and redundant enough that you can't just change one thing to get it to stop working.

Well, unless it's connected to you wirelessly and the opponent has a jammer. That's why we drill holes in our temples, to make sure that doesn't happen.

EDIT: Or it's what CousinX said. Either way, it results in a certain style of gameplay. The "how" is up to whatever handwavium will satisfy your SoD.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Yes.
The door is closed?
the street sam put a bullet in the lock.
the physad roundhouse kick the door into next room
the troll smash the door
the mage goes astral and look behind the door
the conjurer ask a spirit to break the door
the rigger detonate the beetle drone that crawled into the lock
the decker override the lock
...
One idea, one skill roll, over.
having the decker play a separate game in a parallel universe is not fun nor easy for the GM. It is much easier to have (nearly) everything connected to the ubiquitous network so that the decker can interact in real-time with it.

Of course, there will be area/items that cannot be hacked. Like there are area where no gun can be smuggled in, area pumped so full of microscopic algae an astral mage will never get in, ...
But those area are exception. or there is no game.

And it even make sense in setting.
Why does the cybereye have matrix access?

-It is cheaper and easier to use a generic multipurpose component than to develop and build a short run dedicated circuitry.
Even today, lots of electronic box contain a generic board with rom, ram, a processor and an usb plug. car, plane, printer and copiers, coffemaker, standalone harddrive,...
It is much cheaper to buy a generic 50$ board and write a small program to have it do what you want rather than designing and paying for a small run of a dedicated circuit that would cost 1000$ apiece.
Even if it would be much efficient and secure.
Obviously, in SR4, the generic components all include matrix access.
-interconnection. If you want your cybereye to interface fully with your smartlink, forget about the biological nerve pathway. too slow. And besides, the move-by-wire system create too much electrical noise. So either you run a fiber optic between them, or you put them both in a (in theory secure) wireless network
-maintenance, upgrade and repair.
Speaking of wich, the runner did register his new cybereye, i hope.
And turned on the security feature, as described p4703 of the user manual(available only in japanese, sorry. And copyrighted, so the translation software refuse to touch it. )
And downloaded the latest software and security update.
And pray that there isn't too many bug in the software.
And if you think that is unrealistic, think of the millions of internet box shipped and installed -today- with unsecured wifi and administrator access by default, and a small notice in the user manual about how it would be a good idea to set up a password.
A few year ago, a phone company even shipped cellphones with bluetooth on by default and autoaccept on by default. So much easier for the user to connect with a car or earplug. Of course, the fact that anyone within a few meters could access the phone memory was a minor detail...
-beside, common cybereye are not designed for shadowrunner.
The people who design them are paid to care about getting great vision, interfacing with as many common augments as possible, smoothlessly delivering a great augmented reality experience, avoiding headache, ... Unless you are speaking mil-spec hardware, battlefield security is not a concern.
-And all cybereyes implanted in a xxx clinic to be used inside xxx archology by xxx workers must have a software back-door so that xxx security can tap in, in the interest of improving everybody security and in the strict respect of all privacy guideline, of course.

And for the 'unrealistic' objections to an ubiquitous wireless matrix...
I often wonder why most people accept that a mage can incinerate a foe by snapping his finger, thermodynamics law be damned, but start speaking of ubiquitous wireless, and someone will bring out bandwidth, closed system, concrete walls, ...
It is a 'fantasy' game world. it doesn't have to be possible. It just have to be internally coherent and have an apparently plausible explanation. And even that is optional.

In my opinion.

Celjabba

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

That's not software security, that's hardware security. I'm all for hardware security totally destroying this concept, though I probably wouldn't bother with active hardware defenses.
EM induction 'hacking' is going to be acting at the absolute lowest level, necessarily, since it's directly twiddling the physical hardware. If the only thing you do with that power is plug an unauthorized virtual terminal in, you're really wasting the potential.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Except for one little problem - you have the TL issue (in GURPS) also, you forget, technology is generally pioneered for military use FIRST then trickles down to the consumer market.

The first generation cyberware (what little we have now) aside from some specific things was made to repair battle damage. Smarlink - by definition military hardware, and if we're using the SR description its installed with connections between all the interconnected parts - its not wireless.

I could go on and on, mainly I don't find it feasible - thus I'm not willing to play in a game where its an ubiquitous part of the game and where I have to prepare and plan for it and install stuff that doesn't fit my character in his meat bod in order to stop it from wirelessly hijacking my eyeballs or my gun or any number of other things.

Yes, its hard on the GM to run a parallel virtual world for the decker - but the decker himself is going to need either Compartmentalized Mind or he can only take actions in one or the other; and it takes more than a second to break the security then make the gun eject the clip. In one second I can shoot him in the forehead. OR if he can make it happen in one second, just how many points in this skill does he have? 30? Since the penalties are going to be enormous without compartmentalized mind just for him to function and walk around and talk at the same time much less in a combat situation for which he'll get even more negative modifiers without some form of perk or advantage to mitigate trying to do a complex task on a computer in the middle of a firefight.

I don't equate technology with magic. Technology I can weigh, measure and investigate - thus it has to fit my suspension of disbelief. As much as I dislike the magic system in GURPS sometimes its an entirely different section of its own and is governed by its own rules.

Decker does not = technowizard.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Couldn't you just build a VR model of something and then use sympathetic magic to manipulate it? Then you don't need all this "induction" handwaving; deckers can hack your gun with electronic voodoo.

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

That's the thing. If the item has no normal access channels how is adding software that limits legal access going to improve security?

So, yeah in a world of ultimate computer paranoia (except it's not paranoia if the fear isn't irrational) I'd jack out rather than jack in. I might shoot deckers on sight too.

I think everyone might. Rather than world where deckers and their computers rule I think these sort of ideas would lead to a world where they were burned at the stake like witches.

It may be a problem in future adventures that you can't just use your phone to dial up Google and search for a needed piece of information but it's also a problem if access by non-jacked devices works less well than it does in 2010.

Actually i'd say that it's not just the Shiawase Decision (or lack thereof) that marks SR as an "alternate future history" it's basic things about how computers and networks function.

Incidentally (and I'm not really trying to cause another discussion loop) my question was _why_ do you want this thing? What I got was a statement that you did want this thing and a long list of jump/hoop jump/hoop iterations designed (or perhaps the word is intended rather than designed) to result in the thing you wanted.

Why not just write-off the decker "class/archetype" as unsuited to group/tabletop adventures?

Re: GURPS Shadowrun
 

Sure, if you're willing to spend enough points in the Magery statistic to make it viable and develop the necessary spells in game - then its a form of magic. But as a GM I'm definitely not willing to develop a school that's going to completely disrupt gameplay without any checks and balances.