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Message no. 1
From: nightgyr@*********.com.au (GreyWolf)
Subject: GM's and starting deckers POLL (Was: Re: help with decking)
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:05:12 +1100
> Can someone finish this off? I'm not too clear on the combat rules - my
> character kinda started his decking career with an expensive deck, and
> good utilities, so I didn't ever actually get attacked by IC much.
>

If your character didnt get attacked by IC much, then your character played
a lot smarter than the player you described earlier.. and knew when to pull
out, and didnt go after very hard hosts or very well defended hosts.
Proactive IC is always going to find you if you are there long enough, and
its difficult to fight a trace in motion at the same time as a while IC, or
worse, two or more IC of any colour.

**

I have my own question here:

Do GM's out there allow their decker players to start with only those decks
which fit in under the availability ratings, or whatever they can afford? I
have toyed with both scenario's and find that starting characters shouldnt
really get higher than the starting availability else its like giving an
assault cannon to the troll merc. They just have to use the lower end stuff
wisely and work up to the better stuff like any other character.

Its kind of like a Poll... what do you guys do?

GreyWolf
Message no. 2
From: matrix@*******.nu (MatrixRat)
Subject: GM's and starting deckers POLL (Was: Re: help with decking)
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 18:04:15 -0800
> I have my own question here:
>
> Do GM's out there allow their decker players to start with only those
decks
> which fit in under the availability ratings, or whatever they can afford?
I
> have toyed with both scenario's and find that starting characters shouldnt
> really get higher than the starting availability else its like giving an
> assault cannon to the troll merc. They just have to use the lower end
stuff
> wisely and work up to the better stuff like any other character.
>
> Its kind of like a Poll... what do you guys do?
>
> GreyWolf
>

Our GM started with ratings you could afford at first, It made selecting
the target matrix and and if it was an average we were NEEDING to get an
admin account in the first 3 or four rolls absolutely needed. If one of the
2 deckers did not get an admin account within the first 2 o3 three action,
both deckers jacked out and gave it 2 hours to cool down (for red). It did
help that after my first decker died, my next one wasan otaku, which are
under slightly different rules in Matrix. The needing to even get an admin
account to make it easier added to the fun (and having one covering for new
icons(scan actions) while the other continues to try to get the paydata....

Matrix Rat
Message no. 3
From: Gurth@******.nl (Gurth)
Subject: GM's and starting deckers POLL (Was: Re: help with decking)
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 11:02:34 +0100
According to GreyWolf, on Tue, 11 Feb 2003 the word on the street was...

> Do GM's out there allow their decker players to start with only those
> decks which fit in under the availability ratings, or whatever they can
> afford? I have toyed with both scenario's and find that starting
> characters shouldnt really get higher than the starting availability else
> its like giving an assault cannon to the troll merc. They just have to
> use the lower end stuff wisely and work up to the better stuff like any
> other character.

I limit it by availability, but since there is not really any availability
for a deck built by the character, I also allow players to design a deck up
to any specs they can afford. Anything that does have an availability
rating is still limited by that, though -- so if they want to buy their
software, they've got a ceiling at rating 6, for example.

This is not usually a problem in my games, because the "campaigns" never
seem to last long enough for players to get round to upgrading their
decks... :(

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Wat wil die man in hemelsnaam?
-> Probably NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d- s:- !a>? C++(---) UL+ P(+) L++ E W--(++) N o? K w(--)
O V? PS+ PE@ Y PGP- t- 5++ X(+) R+++$ tv+(++) b++@ DI- D+ G+ e h! !r y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 4
From: gte138j@****.gatech.edu (Jeff Stewart)
Subject: GM's and starting deckers POLL (Was: Re: help with decking)
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 07:10:52 -0500 (EST)
On Tue, 11 Feb 2003, Gurth wrote:

> This is not usually a problem in my games, because the "campaigns" never
> seem to last long enough for players to get round to upgrading their
> decks... :(

Do you know how much a new deck costs?!

I'd have to chop up the sammie and sell him to Tamanus, fence the
riggers vehicles and drones, take out a loan against the mage's life,
and beg Lofwyr just to get enough money for a new deck after the game
starts.

Jeff Stewart |
Email: gte138j@****.gatech.edu | Post no bills
Message no. 5
From: Gurth@******.nl (Gurth)
Subject: GM's and starting deckers POLL (Was: Re: help with decking)
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 19:13:58 +0100
According to Jeff Stewart, on Tue, 11 Feb 2003 the word on the street was...

> Do you know how much a new deck costs?!

In my last campaign, one-fiftieth of what they cost according to the SR
rules. This meant that the two PCs who'd got a deck did indeed upgrade them
after one or two adventures already, and that has lead me to think that
although I like these reduced prices, I don't like the ease with which it
is possible to increase the deck's ratings to really high levels...

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Wat wil die man in hemelsnaam?
-> Probably NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d- s:- !a>? C++(---) UL+ P(+) L++ E W--(++) N o? K w(--)
O V? PS+ PE@ Y PGP- t- 5++ X(+) R+++$ tv+(++) b++@ DI- D+ G+ e h! !r y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 6
From: jzealey@***.edu.au (James Zealey)
Subject: GM's and starting deckers POLL (Was: Re: help with decking)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 09:22:15 +1100
GreyWolf Wrote:
> If your character didnt get attacked by IC much, then your character played
> a lot smarter than the player you described earlier.. and knew when to pull
> out, and didnt go after very hard hosts or very well defended hosts.
> Proactive IC is always going to find you if you are there long enough, and
> its difficult to fight a trace in motion at the same time as a while IC, or
> worse, two or more IC of any colour.

Yes and yes. My character started as a rigger, and in an early run, one
of the pieces of gear (in a published run, no less) was a Fairlight
excalibur with a screwed up persona (ie - instead of being 12/8/8/8/8,
it was 12/4/3/1/5 or something). I didn't start using it until I'd
learnt to code, and had boosted it up to 12/6/6/6/6, and grabbed some
utilities for it. Even then, I'd take a long time to do legwork and be
tricky about it - like repeatedly pinging a host until I got a feel for
what it's rating was, then letting it cool off. Using satellite hookups.
Using the old access/validate/logoff/logon routine. Running in "masking
mode" all the time. Typically I'd leave the system at the first sign of
real IC (ie - stuff which did damage), which would usually take quite a
while.

I only got hit by really heavy stuff ONCE, and that was when the GM had
misheard me, and I never actually met the IC. He thought I'd managed to
enter the system, but I'd failed for the third time in a row - I think I
was needing to roll 12's, with a utility at 6, making the hosts rating a
red 12 or something - I tried a couple more times after that, but by the
5th go my security tally was attracting heat even in the green host
the trapdoor was in.
Message no. 7
From: loneeagle@********.co.uk (Lone Eagle)
Subject: GM's and starting deckers POLL (Was: Re: help with decking)
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:59:47 +0000
At 12:10 PM 11/2/2003, Jeff wrote:
>Do you know how much a new deck costs?!
>
>I'd have to chop up the sammie and sell him to Tamanus, fence the
>riggers vehicles and drones, take out a loan against the mage's life,
>and beg Lofwyr just to get enough money for a new deck after the game
>starts.

Not true.

If you save, write your own software and you're clever it's more than
possible to upgrade your deck.

We've discussed this before but it should be possible to pay enough to the
appropriate people to get them to miss a deck in a shipment, much less
than the price of the deck itself if you need to.

I speak as the player of a character who bought an Allegiance Sigma after
character creation and later upgraded to a Kraftwerk 8 and as the GM who
sold a player on a Fuchi Cyber-9 knock off (same as a Kraftwerk, -1
response increase, + reality filters to make up the deficit for 300,000).


--
Lone Eagle
"Hold up lads, I got an idea."

www.wyrmtalk.co.uk - Please be patient, this site is under construction

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Message no. 8
From: shadowrn@****.net (Mike and Jill Johnson)
Subject: GM's and starting deckers POLL (Was: Re: help with decking)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 21:33:38 -0700
At 11:02 AM 2/11/2003 +0100, you wrote:

>I limit it by availability, but since there is not really any availability
>for a deck built by the character, I also allow players to design a deck up
>to any specs they can afford. Anything that does have an availability
>rating is still limited by that, though -- so if they want to buy their
>software, they've got a ceiling at rating 6, for example.
>
>This is not usually a problem in my games, because the "campaigns" never
>seem to last long enough for players to get round to upgrading their
>decks... :(

I've always limited to the fact that they can either write their own
programs or build their own deck. Whichever route they choose they are
still limited to availability and they have to have the skills required to
do the tasks.

Pugwhan

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