From: aahz@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (no relation)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: SR: Decking (Was: Re: Shadowrun: Controlling magicians)
Date: 17 Apr 92 07:36:58 GMT
Organization: Threat Management, Inc.


In article <> rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu (The Jester) writes:
>In article <> nigel@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov writes:

[ Warning: This has wound up being a reply to both of these. ]

>>I don't accept bogus concepts (like putting every ^&%& computer on the
>>net) any more than I accept ... that a pistol stuck to your head and fired
>>can't kill you in SR.
>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.

1.  Be sure to throw in dermal armor.
2.  Be sure the person gets enough success to stage it up to Deadly.
	They probably will, esp. if samurai, but you never know.
3.  Just to nitpick, it's not always stupidity.  Picture a PhysAdept with
	nothing but autosuccesses in Steatlh.  Heck, picture stun gas.

>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.

Actually, I think that everyone would hook at least *a* mainframe up to the net,
but not all of it.  In general there's no reason for every system a company has
to be on the net.  In particular, I can't think of any good reason for the
computer controlling security cameras to be plugged into the main Matrix.  Now,
it *will* be on a matrix local to that company, and if the decker gets to jack
in onsite the corp is hosed, but at least the decker has to sweat a bit.

>>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.

Bzzzzzt.  The second the SneakerNet kicks in, so can the decker.  They
can hit the rest of the system, they might have to wait a while, that's all.
And hell, I'm sitting halfway round the world, I've got the patience.
Just Do It  :)

IC should be for 1. the node(s) hooked into the Matrix and 2. for when
a decker jacks in onsite.

Oh, and any corp that can afford to have only one system on the net can't
be that important, and probably isn't worth breaking into anyway...

>
>The Matrix is not a computer network.  It is, to quote the Shadowrun rules,
>a global telecommunications grid [more deleted]

Yup.  The Matrix sprang into being the second the first phone was hooked up.

[ long disseration deleted ]

>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.

_none_?  _ever_?   lucky bastard  :)

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

Aahz