Note : When I edit my text, I use brown color.So it's easier to find the changes I've made
Ok, every GM knows that matrix examples are very very bad. The mechanic doesn't have good example and it looks like the Matrix section is missing 10 pages of clear way to do a matrix run with pictures and examples. Here's some stuff that we decided to do in our game to make it easier to picture the matrix. You can use it or not. This skeleton will be use by our group to make sure we picture the matrix all the same way. When you think about it, a decker or Techno with 8 Logic and max computer skill is suppose to know exactly where he is inside a host no matter if the door in front of him is a pyramid or a tunnel to the abyss. At the end of the day it's the entrance to a host.
This concept include host inside host. At the end, you'll see how we deal with the Overwatch Score (OS).
LV 0 ------------------------------------------GRID--------------------------------------------------
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LV 1 Corporation Public Host
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LV 2 Corporation Employees Host
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LV 3 R & D Host Management Host Security Host
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LV 4 R & D Archives Host Management Archives Host Security Archives Host
Lv1:Company public host
Rating : Low
Priority (+3,+2,+1,+0) : Data Process (DP), Firewall (FW), Attack (Atk), Sleaze (Slz)
Who get a mark ? : Everybody, welcome inside our business
Description :Include all info from the marketing, the services, what you can buy, etc. This is like the main floor of a shopping mall for this business.
Lv2:Corporation Employees Host
Rating : Medium
Priority (+3,+2,+1,+0) : DP, FW, Slz, Atk
Who get a mark ? : Registered personnel only
Description :Include all the system and tools for the casual operation of the business. This is like entering the employee only section of the building. Ex: daily contract, weekly schedule, trucks movement, etc... This is where the hacker wants to go to find out schedule, itineraries, last small and medium contracts, list of distributors, etc…
Lv3:R & D host
Rating : High
Priority (+3,+2,+1,+0) : FW, DP, Slz, Atk
Who get a mark ? : Special group, researchers, R&D people
Description : Include all the system and tools for the R & D to operate. You can also find the corporation secrets, what they are working on, etc… IT’s like entering inside the R&D lab of the corporation. This is where the hacker wants to go to find out what would be the next prototype of cyber deck, the next anti aging shot, etc…
Lv3:Management Host
Rating : High
Priority (+3,+2,+1,+0) : FW, DP, Slz, Atk
Who get a mark ? : Managers, CEOs, Boss, High ranked people in the corp
Description : Include all the system and tools for the managers to do their job (Access to employees personal info, banking & pay, Important contract, Objectives, Strength and weakness of the business, futures missions, administrative actions, political manipulation, etc. If it’s very important and it’s neither Security nor R&D it’s probably here. This is where the hacker want to go to find some current plot regarding the business.
Lv3:Security Host
Rating : High
Priority (+3,+2,+1,+0) : FW, Atk, DP, Slz
Who get a mark ? : Security personnel, Corp Deckers, Corp Rigger
Description : Include all the systems and tools for the security to do their job (camera, pressure plate, security door, Vital system control, drones, etc). This is where the hacker wants to go to support the team that will hit the building.
Lv4:ALL Archives Host
Rating : at least as high as the host it is inside
Priority (+3,+2,+1,+0) : FW, Slz (if hidden), DP, Atk. DP second if not hidden
Who get a mark ? : High ranked individual of each section (EX: Boss of the deckers for the security Archives Host, CEO of the corp for the Management Archives Host, Project leader for the R & D Archives Host)
Description : Contains important data that are no more available for the attached Host. Usually the data is considered history so it is not use for current operations anymore. Note that the Archive host might be online only for a short period of time. For example : Everyday between 23:30 and 23:45, the R&D Archive host is online in order to backup the data of the day. After the backup, it shutdown again until the next day. Another way to make it online is for someone to actually turn on the server that create the host. For example, if the CEO need to recover a blackmail email from a politician that was done 3 years ago, he can physically walk in the room where the server is, turn on the terminal (host is now online), recover the data he is looking for, download it to his comlink and turn off the terminal at the end of the process. Anyone inside the Host would be able to see the new backdoor that pop up when it's online. A Hacker can have an agent inside the host while doing other stuff to alert him when a new door open pop up.
For example :
R & D Archives : Old data regarding R&D projects. When it is not current information anymore, it goes inside the archive. Old project that worked or not, hidden bad result of experimentations, video of mutation on humans, etc…
Management Archives : Contains all old data regarding Management projects. When it is not current information anymore, it goes inside the archive. For example, all old emails of the last CEO, Old list of personnel, old banking info, old business contract, old political sponsorship, etc.
Security Archives: Contains all old data regarding Security project. When it is not current information anymore, it goes inside the archive. For example, every 24 hours the cameras feed is transfer inside the archive.
House rule
Because you have to jump inside multiple hosts we decided to not penalize the hacker Overwatch Score (OS) due to multiple roll vs multiple hosts.
To be able to do that, we have to split the OS in 2 parts :
Part 1 : Jump In action
Part 2 : All other action
Total OS = Part 1 + Part 2
For the same corp (from lv 1 to lv 4 inside the same corp), we take only the highest score of OS against us when we are doing Part 1 actions. For example: When I entered LV 2 Host, the host got 3 success vs my 5 hits. My OS is now 3 (Part 1 = 3, Part 2 = 0 because I haven’t done any other actions). Them I go deeper inside the corp and try to Hack on the fly (HOTF) the LV 3 Security Host. The host got 5 hit vs my 7. My OS is not 8 but it is 5 (highest of Part 1 action plus Part 2 actions). So far I did 2 Jump in action, one resisted with 3 hits and the other 5 hits against me. I take only the highest of both = 5.
Now inside the Security host I do more actions that raised my OS by +11. My new OS is 16 (Part 1=5, Part 2=+11).
I have to go inside R&D host, I HOTF for 6 hits vs the host 4 hits. My OS is still 16 because the 4 hits against me are due to Jump in action which is Part 1 and it is less than my Jump in inside the security host (which was 5). To finish, I enter the R&D Archive host but failed, I score 4 hits vs 8 from the host, my new OS is = Part 1 (now 8 ) + Part 2 (11) = 19.
This way, we can manage multiple hosts without having ridiculous OS against the hacker.
The only thing we didn't talk about is the use of Edge. In the normal rules you have to spend 1 edge to help you when rolling to have access to the entire host. Now you might need to use more than 1 Edge to have the same effect due to multiple Jump in roll, which is a bit unfair for the hacker. One of the solution could be that the Edge used for Jump In is good for all Jumping In action inside the corpo or all Jumping In action for a specific level (ex: Lv 4: all the Archives). I'll keep you in touch with our play testing.
Shadowrun missions: If you take a 5th edition adventure. The actual host given inside the module would be the level 3 security which mean that lv 2 and 1 should be easier.
