[Palladion]

Scene: The runners need to hijack an autopilot vehicle en route and get it to a warehouse without setting off suspicion or damaging the vehicle (they need to return afterwards).

I wanted to run this by and see if the flow sounds correct...

1. Runners catch up to vehicle somehow. (Probably another vehicle, but I can see being carried by spirits...)
2. Decker hacks/marks the vehicle. Vehicle Defenses are generally Pilot (as Willpower, etc.) + Device Rating (as Firewall).
3. Crack File/Snoop to disable or silence the alarm system.
4. Control Device to stop vehicle/unlock door (for manual control) or Edit File to change the navigation data.
5. Abscond with the vehicle, maintaining the hack (Snoop for telemetry) until they can power off the vehicle at a safe location.

Complications include Noise (force the decker to plug into the vehicle directly), bad driving conditions, and upgraded Matrix defenses (equivalent of Encryption for Firewall, etc.). Another way to approach the hijacking is to mark the host (much more difficult) controlling the drone, Spoof Command to change the navigation data.

I feel like the scene is not challenging enough. I do not want to over-complicate it, but I want something interesting. Without throwing a huge combat in (that is the next scene), how would you add/modify to get a more memorable sequence?

Thanks for the help.

[Crunch]

1) Make use of the chase rules for phase 1.
2) Have it happen in a high noise environment so that the Decker has to be very close to hack the vee.
3) Make the Driver a Rigger, and make him good. That should complicate both the chase and the hacking attempt. Unless it has to be a drone this is going to be your best bet for adding difficulty (especially if the high noise zone covers a limited area and is preventing the rigger from signalling his security team...)

[TX_DM]

I tell you what I'd do, just for this one scene, I'd roll the deckers'  hacking dice for him and where he couldn't see.

Since he's clinging onto the side of a speeding truck, his primary focus isn't on the deck, it's in holding on and not dying.

I would pause a little after every hack roll, and then I'd say something like,

 "It seems like your edit file/control device is working, but you really won't know until you hit the overpass at the Interstate. Roll to keep your grip."

I do this sometimes for my players and it really helps to build suspense. Especially when they ask "What did I roll?" and I just smile cryptically and say "It's not what YOU rolled that you need to worry about, it's what the OTHER guy rolled."

It keeps it fun.

[deek]

For 3 above, your Snoop will get you the owner icons (or multiples if they all have access to the vehicle) and then you would need to Spoof to turn the alarm system off (once you know at least one icon that is allowed to do that). Other than that, your flow looks reasonable.

[Malathis]

Random road hazards could make things intresting, Pot holes, homeless person pushing a shopping cart, someone opening a car door into trafic, wild life if the area is right, mundane critters if you just want a hazard, para critters if you want to add a bit more excitement but not full combat, and don't forget about the storm that just started even though the weatherman said it was going to be a clear sunny day, even in 2075 they still havn't figured out how to predict the weather accuratly.