[squee_nabob]

I was asked by a new player to give an example of how a technomancer hacks a node. I put together this example to follow RAW as closely as possible. Before I send it to them, I want to get it as correct as possible. To do this, I want feedback from the people on the forums.

This is not intended to make any statements about the rules, just an example of how to use the rules as written. If there are mistakes that need to be corrected, please give me the page numbers where I can look up the correct rules.

Matrix Hacking Example


I want to credit Tsuzua and Umaro for helping to edit this example and for rules corrections.

[raggedhalo]

Heya, just reading through.  It's pretty good, but:

* you can't heal Fading with a Heal spell (just like Drain)
* If you're looking for a particular node, you only need 4 hits (rather than 15 to catalogue all hidden nodes within range)

I haven't gotten all the way through yet, but these are my initial thoughts.  It's a good example, but quite lengthy!

[Mirikon]

Actually, halo, you can heal PHYSICAL drain/fading with a heal spell or first aid. It is Stun damage you can't heal.

[squee_nabob]

Heya, just reading through.  It's pretty good, but:

* you can't heal Fading with a Heal spell (just like Drain)
* If you're looking for a particular node, you only need 4 hits (rather than 15 to catalogue all hidden nodes within range)

I haven't gotten all the way through yet, but these are my initial thoughts.  It's a good example, but quite lengthy!

Thank you for the compliment. It is quite lengthy because I wanted to cover all the bases.

As Mirikon pointed out, you can heal (physical) Fade with First Aid or Heal. Stun Fade damage can only be healed with First Aid.

To have a (4) threshold test, you need to "have a good guess of where the device should be (for example, if your commlink is not detecting a node for Mr. Johnson but you are pretty sure he has a PAN, or where you can see the security drone, but it is operating in Hidden mode)."  (SR4A 230) In my example, they are not in the server room, just a hallway. Perhaps that should be more explicit.

[Lethe]

Actually, halo, you can heal PHYSICAL drain/fading with a heal spell or first aid. It is Stun damage you can't heal.

I don't know about fading, but you can't magically heal drain, not even physical one. Else everyone would overcast and then just heal themselves afterwards..

[squee_nabob]

The source of “you cannot magically heal Drain damage” is SR4A p253 “Note that sorcery cannot heal damage resulting from magical Drain.” No mention is given to Fading, which implies that you can magically heal damage resulting from Fading.

[Lethe]

The source of “you cannot magically heal Drain damage” is SR4A p253 “Note that sorcery cannot heal damage resulting from magical Drain.” No mention is given to Fading, which implies that you can magically heal damage resulting from Fading.

Just wanted to add a quote from SR4A p178, chapter about drain, but yours is equally good. And yes, fading can be healed with magic.

[tzizimine]

And actually, unlike magical healing which doesn't work on either type of Drain, there is a Echo called De-Fragmentation (Unwired, pg. 145) that can be used to heal Matrix damage to his living persona, but not damage that was caused by Fading or Black IC only, giving more circumstantial evidence to the idea that magical healing does work on Fading.

[Sichr]

IDN. I had this opened by one of GM`s Ive played with: Rerolling missess...
The rule says that:

"You may re-roll all of the dice on a single test that did not score a hit."

It is possible to rule that you can reroll dices that did not scored the hits
But
also there is this interpretation that you can reroll all dices, in test that didnt scored hit

So if you did score some hits in the test, you can not reroll misess, but you can reroll whole dicepool in case that you get 0 hits on original roll.
What do you thing? Im not english native so maybe there is something Ive missed in the sentence....

[Black]

IDN. I had this opened by one of GM`s Ive played with: Rerolling missess...
The rule says that:

"You may re-roll all of the dice on a single test that did not score a hit."

It is possible to rule that you can reroll dices that did not scored the hits
But
also there is this interpretation that you can reroll all dices, in test that didnt scored hit

So if you did score some hits in the test, you can not reroll misess, but you can reroll whole dicepool in case that you get 0 hits on original roll.
What do you thing? Im not english native so maybe there is something Ive missed in the sentence....

I've always played it as you can reroll dices that did not scored the hits... but I could see the other interpretation...  maybe...

[raggedhalo]

No mention is given to Fading, which implies that you can magically heal damage resulting from Fading.

True enough, but pg. 243, SR4A, gives us "In game terms, Fading is very similar to the Drain that magicians suffer for their magical activities."  I do realise that that's a bit flimsy, but I'm pretty sure it used to be in the FAQ, although it certainly isn't any more.  Weird.

[Sichr]

IDN. I had this opened by one of GM`s Ive played with: Rerolling missess...
The rule says that:

"You may re-roll all of the dice on a single test that did not score a hit."

It is possible to rule that you can reroll dices that did not scored the hits
But
also there is this interpretation that you can reroll all dices, in test that didnt scored hit

So if you did score some hits in the test, you can not reroll misess, but you can reroll whole dicepool in case that you get 0 hits on original roll.
What do you thing? Im not english native so maybe there is something Ive missed in the sentence....

I've always played it as you can reroll dices that did not scored the hits... but I could see the other interpretation...  maybe...

As did I, well this really puts me in doubts...it is more harsh, well on the other side it should be more fun if played this way. I would rule the second way in my games...at least untill I find it too harsh...

[UmaroVI]

That question about edge actually comes up periodically. Apparently, the German printing has wording that (due to the less ambiguous nature of german grammar) makes it clear that you reroll all the dice that failed to score hits for a test, rather than all the dice on a test if that test scored no hits.

[JustADude]

That question about edge actually comes up periodically. Apparently, the German printing has wording that (due to the less ambiguous nature of german grammar) makes it clear that you reroll all the dice that failed to score hits for a test, rather than all the dice on a test if that test scored no hits.

For clearing that up, I can probably forgive them the Nerf to bow damage.

[Sichr]

Didnt read german version of rules, even if it would be much closer for me to get hardcopy
Well I see CGL is the cannon, and even german translation may be wrong, so IDN if I can take it as granted that this is what autor intended...