[brasso]

Hi guys - my PCs are ploughing through this quite well, just looking ahead to Threading the Needle. There's probably a 50/50 chance they'll duck out (they'll already be rich by then!)

But if they go ahead, then as far as I can see, it would be best done by just a decker. I can't see that there's much for anyone else to do. From a GM's eye view, here would be the plan:

Getting In/ Getting Around

It appears that pretty much every problem here is a matrix problem, the most pressing being on the roof:

#/ Hack the turret – Hack on the fly vs 15 dice, then Control Device
#/ Hack at least one camera – As above

Once on the roof, the decker can direct connect to a camera/ the turret, into the host, and prepare the way down to the 10th floor (loop cameras, open maglocks, disable the infrared grid, etc)
The limit here is time – even if they come out of direct connect (but stay in wireless), and start to walk around, they still need to worry about convergence, adding 2d6 to their OS every 15 minutes.

Getting to the 10th

This is quite tricky – either walk down 45 floors of stairwell (fatigue rolls anyone? Also remembering that niggle about convergence)
Or, take an elevator to the ground floor, then switch elevators to go back up to the 10th.
My concern with the second option is being seen by guards, standing around in front of the elevators.

Offline Host

Rating 7 Host: Patrol rolls to find them running silent every 2D6 turns (p. 86, DT)
Matrix Search, threshold of 4: Takes 1 minute (p. 241, SR5) ie. 20 turns, possibly halving this with 5 successes
Therefore (on average), the Patrol IC is going to get about 2 chances to find the decker.
(I'm assuming that the merciful GM hasn't decreed that the data be archived!)
The decker then, needs to make about 1 or 2 rolls to avoid being seen, assuming that they get the 4 successes for the search roll straight off the bat. If they don't then it could get nasty...

Has anyone ran this? What are the experiences? And have I got the plan/ numbers right or have I missed things?

Thanks in advance.

[Lighthouse]

Make it archived then they need to get someone to retrieve the data.

[Fizzygoo]

I just finished running Splintered State about two weeks ago.

The hacker in the party is a technomancer that is (or was at the time of the mission, not sure what he increased during downtime) focused/spec'd more for cybercombat that actual hacking. Knowing this before hand I boosted Tauren to be more skilled than written, and pre-rolled the known hacking "encounters" and the technomancer was there for support should cybercombat arise (it didn't).

Convergence didn't happen as the group planned on taking stairs (and I did have them make a Fatigue roll for it) so there was the initial meddling with the cameras, put on loops in the stairwells, and then log out and back in when they reached the 10th floor.

Since it was all largely behind the scenes I tried to present opportunities for the PCs to make mistakes or embrace combat but their Stealth rolls were good and they didn't fall for the bait of waiting out the wandering guards and what not. So from my perspective it was a cake walk, from the players'...they were pretty stressed during it and I count emotional response from the players a win

Later, things got complicated and I got to throw some lead (and grenades) their way though

(We podcast our sessions, and Splintered State is the Shadowrun episodes 15-22, which are episodes 41-44, 46-48, and 51, link in my tagline below, episode 47 (Shadowrun episode 20) is where Threading the Needle starts.)

[brasso]

Thanks for the response

It kind of helps to have another gm's perspective on a scenario when you're planning it out.

[Ganggreenkhan]

Fizzygoo could you post a link to your podcast?

[Fizzygoo]

Check the footer/tag-line/fine-print of my posts for the podcast's links.