From: rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu (The Jester)
Subject: SR: Decking (Was: Re: Shadowrun: Controlling magicians)
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Lowell Computer Science
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 17:51:13 GMT

In article <NIGEL.92Apr15195514@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov> nigel@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov writes:
>
>Not at all...there are many other ways that the Matrix can come about.
>Each one has different implications on how the world works and why.
>Understanding how the things work gives you and edge...which is what
>SR is all about.  If you don't care then stick the topic in your kill
>file.

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?

>I don't accept bogus concepts (like putting every ^&%& computer on the
>net) any more than I accept that a crossbow in DND cannot kill a high
>level fighter or that a light pistol stuck to your head and fired
>can't kill you in SR.  The question in many cases is why all these
>systems are on the net...once you get an answer that sort of works you
>then have the opprotunity to decide which systems make sense to have
>there and which systems don't.

I'm not going to try to breach the AD&D topic, but if someone waltzes up
behind you with a light pistol in my game, points it at the back of your
head, and pulls the trigger, you're dead.  We don't care what kind of armor
you were wearing (unless its a helmet) or how many Body dice you have.  If
you were stupid enough to get put in a situation like that, you deserve to
die.

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
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.

>>I don't see the background as being contradictory or false.  The story told
>>was simply that computers got advanced enough so this beast called the Matrix
>>exists and flourishes.
>
>Right...explain why all systems are there if they don't need to be?  A
>PC exec may simply say...my corp isn't going to be on the net except
>for one node.  Everything else gets SneakerNetted over to the local
>cluster once an hour...this advantage in being decker proof gives the
>corp a great advantage over the opposition.  Espcially when those
>idiots put security computers on the friggin net so some coyboy can
>pat them on the head and totally nullify millions in security hardware.

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,
I can trace you through the phone lines to your local cluster.  In my opinion,
the ONLY node that actually exists on the Matrix IS the SAN(s) of a system.
Everything else is remote, and connected by datalines.  Think of the SAN as
your modem, and the rest of your system as your desktop or laptop, and you
begin to get the idea.

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.
This is why Corps invest in security software: it keeps out nasty people who
want to pillage the system.  This is also why you put the nastiest security
software at the most vulnerable points in the system: the SAN(s), the CPU, and
very important Datastores and SPUs.

>>If any one of these little problems are rearing their heads in the first
>>place, you have a very twisted way of gaming.
>
>No...it merely means that we have players who have two brain cells to
>bang together.  Example from above: players must break into super
>secret facility...pretty standard SR scenario.  Decker goes in and
>gets floor plan.  Why not...all the computers are on the net...it says
>so in the rules.  Decker goes in and tells security monitors in
>section A to ignore you.  Once again...that pesky security computer is
>on the net.  Runners trapse though doging the occasional human guard.
>Ooops vault door.  Well...the vault door computer is on the net
>right...says so in the book.  No problem.  Door opens.

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.

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.

Now, assuming our decker bypasses these little problems, he goes back into
the Matrix to provide cover for his buddies.  So now we go off searching for
the security camera Slave Nodes.  I'd probably have them directly linked to
a security SPU, heavy with IC.  Then the SN(s) themselves probably are a
fairly high security rating (Orange or Red), so the test to turn them off
isn't going to be easy.

Now, again making the bold assumption that nothing has gone wrong to date,
we find our intrepid Shadowrunners dodging security guards inside the complex
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.

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
decker into the system to hunt down our cocky decker friend.  And Corp Security
is probably breathing down the neck of our Shadowrunners who are physically
inside the complex (it would be safe to assume that they sent someone to
investigate why the cameras weren't working on the outside, and, after the
runners took care of him, his buddies got nervous and sent a posse to figure 
out what happened to him).

Now, if our runners take these (ahem) minor details into consideration,
including the fact that the initial system penetration might have been
noticed, so the system might have been beefed up or the number changed
by the time you get back, then I'd let them go ahead with their plan.
If it works, wonderful.  If not, they get splashed.  That's the nature
of cyberpunk genre games: if you fuck up, you die.

>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.

>The fun for a lot of players isn't the shoot'em till they stop moving
>but in solving the problem in new and interesting ways.  You can't do
>that unless you have a decent amount of info.

Right.  But just because they want to solve the problem without resorting
to fighting doesn't mean you don't make them work for it.  If anything,
make them work harder.  Gunfights are the easy solution to a problem,
but are seldom a permanent one, or they lead to another problem.

>'Sides...who are you to judge whether or not our form of gaming is
>twisted?  I happen to think that twisted campaings are more fun than
>the more mundane hack and slash anyway.

When I said "twisted," I was referring to your statement that you have
these reality problems and players are taking advantage of the game.  In
two years of weekly Shadowrunning, I have NEVER encountered ANY of the
problems that you mentioned.  And I happen to think that the group of
people I game with are some of the most creative, imaginative, and
intelligent human beings I have had the pleasure to know.


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

"There's a place I like to hide,
 A doorway that I run through in the night."		- Geoff Tate
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