[The_Hyphenator]

I'm currently toying with the idea of introducing an AI as a prime antagonist in my campaign. I was wondering if there are any good resources for defining what AIs can do and how they function in the Matrix?

[martinchaen]

For SR5? No.
For SR4? Yes; you'll want to leaf through the Runner's Companion and Unwired sourcebooks for more information.

Note that the information in SR4 is unlikely to be of use for SR5, as the Matrix rules are completely different. You might still be able to use the reference material to come up with something.

My advice; think of what a decker can do, then think of how much you want the AI character to violate or exceed the rules of what you just thought of. That's your baseline.

[Reiper]

For SR5? No.
For SR4? Yes; you'll want to leaf through the Runner's Companion and Unwired sourcebooks for more information.

Note that the information in SR4 is unlikely to be of use for SR5, as the Matrix rules are completely different. You might still be able to use the reference material to come up with something.

My advice; think of what a decker can do, then think of how much you want the AI character to violate or exceed the rules of what you just thought of. That's your baseline.

Pretty much this.

The team I'm GMing for doesn't have a dedicated decker, but I do have a pocket AI that is available to them from time to time that will help them out when there aren't really any other ways to do a mission without a decker.

When I designed him I made him more based off of a technomancer than a decker though.

[Fenix]

I played a technomancer in SR4 and in the last game got a bullet through my meat-sack's head just as I went VR and jumped into a teammate's commlink. The game went on hiatus (that was our "season finale") and when we pick back up in SR5 I'll be playing that character as kind of an AI/e-ghost. The GM has plans for getting my character a new body, so in the meantime I'm just playing a technomancer who never leaves VR. (Can you say hot-sim addiction when I get a new body?)

But that's how I would do it until we get proper AI rules. Make a matrix-based character (decker or TM), and make it fully VR-based. Use AI fluff from SR4 material (AI's don't die, they disrupt similar to spirits unless you destroy their host node. Just as an example.)

[Reiper]

I played a technomancer in SR4 and in the last game got a bullet through my meat-sack's head just as I went VR and jumped into a teammate's commlink. The game went on hiatus (that was our "season finale") and when we pick back up in SR5 I'll be playing that character as kind of an AI/e-ghost. The GM has plans for getting my character a new body, so in the meantime I'm just playing a technomancer who never leaves VR. (Can you say hot-sim addiction when I get a new body?)

But that's how I would do it until we get proper AI rules. Make a matrix-based character (decker or TM), and make it fully VR-based. Use AI fluff from SR4 material (AI's don't die, they disrupt similar to spirits unless you destroy their host node. Just as an example.)

That's actually a similar backstory for Glitch.

Basically he was a really smart teen technomancer, and the nephew of Dana Oaks. He was jumped into the matrix while Dana was driving him to school one day and they got into an accident with a big rig, killing him.  Dana was quite upset, and thought she was going crazy when her nephew began basically haunting her comm link, and now he resides primarily in a cyberdeck. (which is used on occasion when the team needs a decker).

Otherwise I have him playing random practical jokes on people around the city.

[Fenix]

I played a technomancer in SR4 and in the last game got a bullet through my meat-sack's head just as I went VR and jumped into a teammate's commlink. The game went on hiatus (that was our "season finale") and when we pick back up in SR5 I'll be playing that character as kind of an AI/e-ghost. The GM has plans for getting my character a new body, so in the meantime I'm just playing a technomancer who never leaves VR. (Can you say hot-sim addiction when I get a new body?)

But that's how I would do it until we get proper AI rules. Make a matrix-based character (decker or TM), and make it fully VR-based. Use AI fluff from SR4 material (AI's don't die, they disrupt similar to spirits unless you destroy their host node. Just as an example.)

That's actually a similar backstory for Glitch.

Basically he was a really smart teen technomancer, and the nephew of Dana Oaks. He was jumped into the matrix while Dana was driving him to school one day and they got into an accident with a big rig, killing him.  Dana was quite upset, and thought she was going crazy when her nephew began basically haunting her comm link, and now he resides primarily in a cyberdeck. (which is used on occasion when the team needs a decker).

Otherwise I have him playing random practical jokes on people around the city.

Nice. I feel like I remember seeing a Glitch on JackPoint in the books, is that canon? Or a character you created? I know Dana Oaks is a canon character (she's in Splintered State, which I'm running at my table now), but I'm still trying to catch up on SR plot/backstory, I just got into it shortly before SR5 came out haha.

[Reiper]

That's actually a similar backstory for Glitch.

Basically he was a really smart teen technomancer, and the nephew of Dana Oaks. He was jumped into the matrix while Dana was driving him to school one day and they got into an accident with a big rig, killing him.  Dana was quite upset, and thought she was going crazy when her nephew began basically haunting her comm link, and now he resides primarily in a cyberdeck. (which is used on occasion when the team needs a decker).

Otherwise I have him playing random practical jokes on people around the city.

Nice. I feel like I remember seeing a Glitch on JackPoint in the books, is that canon? Or a character you created? I know Dana Oaks is a canon character (she's in Splintered State, which I'm running at my table now), but I'm still trying to catch up on SR plot/backstory, I just got into it shortly before SR5 came out haha.

The Glitch I'm using isn't canon, I just made a backstory for him. I modified Splintered state's 2nd run a bit and had Ork Underground, Knight Errant, and Dana Oaks working together to get the team in to get the information (I have an entire sub plot going with it actually about Brackhaven actually facing impeachment that I keep teasing them with). The team had lost their Technomancer (the character walked out on the team and retired after discovering who they were working for, which fit the character background). And since the building that they had to get the info from almost absolutely needed a hacker to help infiltrate, I made up Glitch as an AI to assist in the mission, and he makes cameos now and then. I had Dana Oaks give them the cyberdeck that he now haunts for the run to do all of the hacking and such once inside, and made up his backstory just in case someone tried digging in on why the DA was carrying around a cyberdeck that had a slightly crazy AI residing in it.

Its funny though, the team often wants to contact Glitch, they know their best effort is to go through the DA to get into contact with them, and that the DA owes them a favor, yet nobody is willing to simply call her up and ask to connect to him.

[Fenix]

Haha nice. We actually ended last session with them in the building, they have a technomancer, but she's saving up for the actual data grab (she took scorched, so only does heavy lifting when she has to). They took the Project Freedom offer and accepted Tauren's offer  to come along. Problem is, his rolls are too low to be of any use in the security hub, so unless they get him close enough to fiber in, he can't do much. Luckily the mage figured out he could just sustain invisibility on him and be mostly in the clear.

My old character will be making a cameo in another couple runs, so I'm eager to see both how this VR only thing works out and how he plays in SR5.

[Reiper]

Haha nice. We actually ended last session with them in the building, they have a technomancer, but she's saving up for the actual data grab (she took scorched, so only does heavy lifting when she has to). They took the Project Freedom offer and accepted Tauren's offer  to come along. Problem is, his rolls are too low to be of any use in the security hub, so unless they get him close enough to fiber in, he can't do much. Luckily the mage figured out he could just sustain invisibility on him and be mostly in the clear.

My old character will be making a cameo in another couple runs, so I'm eager to see both how this VR only thing works out and how he plays in SR5.

My team went all leverage style on that mission, it was fun. I actually mapped out a bunch of floors, yet they just had Glitch kill the cameras in the stair well (well loop them) and then they fast repelled down to the data floor. And with a good edge check the security guards were on a different floor when they started searching the data rooms, and got the right room on the 3rd try.

[Fenix]

My players are doing some goofy stuff lol. The mage used Control Thoughts on a guard early on to get a keycard, not realizing yet that they only had very specific access. He did it in a hallway with cameras and tried to tell the guard "you'll forget this ever happened." I later explained that Control Thoughts implants conscious thoughts in the target's head (Inception style) and "forget that" isn't really something that you can consciously do. Between that and the camera watching him hand over a keycard, Security knew something was up and called the wage-mages downstairs to send up a spirit for an astral sweep. I gave the mage a chance to notice the spirit and tell everyone to get off that floor, so they did. They went down roughly ten floors, cast Invisibility on Tauren and had him go camera to camera hacking, then tried to use an elevator (that they had no access to since the card was for a different set of floors).

Basically I gave them a pass on that one to keep from sending in security with 40 floors still between them and the server. I face-palmed a couple times. Let's hope they get to the server room next game without tripping too many alarms lol.

[Reiper]

My players are doing some goofy stuff lol. The mage used Control Thoughts on a guard early on to get a keycard, not realizing yet that they only had very specific access. He did it in a hallway with cameras and tried to tell the guard "you'll forget this ever happened." I later explained that Control Thoughts implants conscious thoughts in the target's head (Inception style) and "forget that" isn't really something that you can consciously do. Between that and the camera watching him hand over a keycard, Security knew something was up and called the wage-mages downstairs to send up a spirit for an astral sweep. I gave the mage a chance to notice the spirit and tell everyone to get off that floor, so they did. They went down roughly ten floors, cast Invisibility on Tauren and had him go camera to camera hacking, then tried to use an elevator (that they had no access to since the card was for a different set of floors).

Basically I gave them a pass on that one to keep from sending in security with 40 floors still between them and the server. I face-palmed a couple times. Let's hope they get to the server room next game without tripping too many alarms lol.

Yeah our face tried going in the front door scouting out the place with an idea like that, and swiped the a card from an employee.

Her edge check roll sucked so she found out that basically she had swipped the ID card from a Barista and had access to the Starbucks in the building.