From: nigel@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: SR: Decking (Was: Re: Shadowrun: Controlling magicians)
Date: 17 Apr 92 06:58:05 GMT
	<1992Apr15.220726.13571@ulowell.ulowell.edu>
	<NIGEL.92Apr15195514@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov>
	<1992Apr16.175113.6175@ulowell.ulowell.edu>
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, USA

In article <1992Apr16.175113.6175@ulowell.ulowell.edu> rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu (The Jester) writes:

>nigel@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov writes:
>>

[paragraph deleted]

>Could you translate this paragraph into English for me?  I'd like to hear
>your opinions, but reading this only gave me a headache.  What do you
>mean?

It means that how you decide the matrix evolved will determine the
nature of the beast.  Knowing the nature of the beast gives the player
an edge...a framework with which to work.

[more deleted]

>As for the Matrix question, let me resolve it.  Every computer is hooked up
>to the Matrix because every other computer is hooked up to the Matrix.  If

Why?  As a player in your campaign give me one rational reason why all
computers are on the net.  Saying "those are the rules" gives me less
than nothing because I can't do anything with that.  There's nothing
to work with as a baseline.  Saying all these systems are on the net
to do XXX I can extrapolate from there.

>you want to give players a hard time and make an isolated mainframe, thats
>your right, but accept that, for the most part, everyone puts their mainframe
>on the Matrix for the same reasons that, in OUR day and age, many people get
>hooked up to Internet or BITNET, or subscribe to CompuServe or other public
>databases.

Great...so we can read news ;-)

[using sneaker net for secure systems deleted]

>The Matrix is not a computer network.  It is, to quote the Shadowrun rules,
>a global telecommunications grid.  Barring physical transfer of information,
>you are going to HAVE to put AT LEAST one node on the Matrix (your SAN) to
>have any contact with the outside world for information exchange.  After that,

Okay...put as many machines as you need on the net to run your
business.  Secure systems (like security monitors, physical plant
controllers or black black black R&D computers) don't need to be
there.  In fact don't put them on any network.

[SAN only guy on matrix...everybody else is local]

>If you actually DO physically transfer data, you're talking about an INCREDIBLE
>slowdown in service speed.  Now, if I were a system designer, and had the op-
>tion of having UPS deliver data to me every half hour, or getting updated
>multiple times a second, I think that I'd go with the latter,despite the risk.

SneakerNet is something of a joke although several NASA POCC (Payload
Operation Control Centers) have gone to the no physical connection to
the net to insure security.  Data transfer occurs only over dedicated
lines (NASCOM) or via SneakerNet when someone runs a tape out to them.

Paranoid but pretty much secure from external threats.  The only thing
you can really do is run out to a NASCOM land line, microwave tower or
satellite dish and muck about there.

No need for expensive Black IC...just a couple of Suns to rn from ;-).

[more deleted]

[decker goes in and wastes system scenario deleted]

>As I said before, if your decker is able to do this with little or no problem,
>there's something twisted with your game.  Sure, a decker should be ABLE to
>do everything you've listed.  But doing it in theory and doing it in practice
>are two radically difference things.

Depends...in basic SR it is much easier.  I haven't tried the VR rules
simply because I just bought it and it doesn't seem to cover going
naked well.  The story was pretty good.

>First of all, he has to bypass the security I put on my SAN (assuming he
>knows where my SAN is).  Oftentimes, this is some of the most disgusting
>IC in the system.  Next, he goes looking for a building floorplan.  Great.
>Where is it?  Assuming one exists on the system, he probably has to do a lot
>of decking to get it.  Now that he has it, how accurate is it?  Its probably
>blueprints from when the place was built, and doesn't take into account any
>changes that might have been enacted since then.

Hmmm....with the old rules you could buy a seriously hot deck and run
roughshod over their standard systems.  Not every corp is going to be
outfitted like Aztec, Renraku and the like...yes finding the SAN in
the first place can be a pain.  Then again if you can find systems you
aren't doing much running are you?  Even against Black IC protected
node with the hot deck the targets are 9s (assuming level 9 persona
chips which isn't quite that expensive) plus hardening.

[more deleted]

>itself.  Oooops...we hit that vault door.  Now, our decker buddy has to aban-
>don his position with the security cameras and visit the vault door.  So our
>cameras, which have been showing static to the security operator for a
>rather conservative estimate of five minutes, aren't going to draw any atten-
>tion?  Maybe we won't trigger an alert, but I'd send a tech into the Matrix
>to check it out.  If the tech finds our decker friend, alert time.  If he
>finds the cameras, alert time, and the cameras get fixed.

Nope...you run a canned utility that replays an empty hall scene over
and over.  No static...hopefully no tech.  Leave the little guy
running in the relevant SPUs and run along your merry way.

>Okay, so we're at the vault door, and Mr. Decker is trying to get it open.
>Assuming whatever's in there is important, the SN that controls the lock
>is going to have HEAVY IC on it.  Furthermore, by this time, perhaps our
>tech has alerted his bosses to the intrusion, and they decided that enough
>bad shit's happened to shut the system down.  Furthermore, they send another

Shutting the system down eliminates all the security monitors and
other goodies.  If you mean take the security computer off the
net...well why did you put it on in the first place?

The SN has more security than your SAN (remember he beat that)?
Plausible..also the decker will eventually roll lousy.

[more deleted]

>>So where's the challenge?  Oh...the security computers aren't on the
>>net.  Why?  Uhhh...it makes the scenario too easy?  

>See above dissertation.

Hmmm...it all depends on how hot your decker is.  The canned "hall way
is empty" number buys the runners a bit of time.  This is a quick in
and out right?  If they don't notice for 5 minutes then you might
already be on your way out by the time they get nervous.  The "hall is
empty" number is simple to figure out...simply take a snip of live
video for 10 seconds and loop back.  The SPU might show a slightly
higher load (for VR players) but nothing horrendous.  Dump the real
live video into ether.

Now there's a couple of ways security cameras can circumvent this.  If
I didn't want this to happen in my world I'd simply say that the
camera runs through a long sequence of random numbers that SPU checks
against the incomming signal (it runs the same algorthim with the same
key).  Deviation from this pattern triggers an alarm...I then leave
circumventing this to the players.  They know how it works (I tell
them the rationale if they make the skill roll).

>Brett Cashman (The Jester)			    	rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu

--
Nigel Tzeng
.sig under construction