| From: | "Gurth" <gurth@******.nl> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Virtual Realities 2.0 review of sorts |
| Date: | Tue, 28 Nov 1995 11:57:06 +0100 |
impression. I certainly haven't tested any of the new rules yet.
The first thing that struck me a about VR2 is the looks. A very nice
computer-generated image on the front cover, plus 8 more in the color section
of the book (between pages 80 and 81); one opened, it becomes apparent that
this is one of the new-style Shadowrun books. Gone is the familiar menu bar at
the top, to be replaced by a barely recognizable image at the top of the page,
and the chapter title next to that. Artwork is hand-drawn, and not
computer-generated, and I see that they still have this Bergting drawing
pictures. I don't like his style, but that's probably my problem. It must be
said, though, that the books looks very good on the whole.
Next, there's much more than in VR1. That book was 152 pages, of which around
70 contained a short story that was a nice read for one time, but not more than
that. VR2 has 175 pages including the index, but is packed with rules and
fictional articles. Like in Cybertech, chapters containing articles and rules
are mixed, instead of having all the articles in the front and all the rules in
the back of the book. The matrix rules from SRII and VR1 are referred to as
"Matrix 1.0" while the rules in VR2 are "Matrix 2.0." It may be good
to use
these same terms here on the list, to avoid confusion.
Now, the rules themselves. They appear much simpler than the originals, a
welcome sight to someone who's suffered through more than one matrix run when
he said to his players "Let's try this matrix stuff once more, OK?" Gone are
the individual nodes and datalines. They've been replaced by "hosts" which
the decker can break into, in effect each host is what used to be a complete
system with all its nodes. Anything you had to go to a specific node to do, you
can now do inside the host without moving around in game terms. The matrix is
now much more focused to describing what goes on and less on rolling dice to
get things done.
System ratings have been altered, each host still being classified with the
color/rating method (Red-5, etc.) but more ratings (for so-called subsystems)
have been added under the acronym ACIFS: Access, Control, Index, Files, and
Slave. Each of these represents a certain aspect of the host, and the decker
makes tests using these ratings as the base TN. Host ratings are written as
follows: Green-4/3/5/4/3/3, which refers to a Green-3 "system" with Access 3,
Control 5, Index 4, and Files and Slave 3 each.
To accomplish things in the host, the decker must roll System Tests. A good
number of possible System Tests are given in the book, and these consist of
rolling the decker's Computer skill plus Hacking Pool (which is calculatd
differently now) against a TN based on the subsystem's rating.
Programs running on the cyberdeck subtract their rating from the subsystem's
rating to give the final TN. For example, analyzing IC in the host is done by
rolling a Control test -- this means a test pitting the decker's Computer skill
against the Control rating of the host as the TN -- using Analyze. If we take
the Green-4/3/5/4/3/3 host and a decker with Computer skill 5 and Analyze 3,
his TN would be 2 (5 - 3) and he'd roll 5 dice against this TN. All in all much
simpler than under the original rules, if you ask me.
One more note about system colors: a new one has been introduced: ultra-violet.
You won't see these on every streetcorner, and they are basically virtual
worlds. Entering one is much like an astral quest but then for the matrix --
everything in it is real, so your deck's Bod becomes your persona's Body, for
instance, once you're in a UV host. Oh, and the decker takes damage instead of
his cyberdeck in there...
IC has also been changed a bit -- white IC can now hurt you instead of only
interrogating you. The way to classify IC these days is to say that if it hurts
the decker, it's black, if it hurts the physical components of the deck it's
grey, and anything else is white. Killer is white, since it attacks the deck's
condition monitor. Blaster is grey because it tries to fry the deck itself
instead of the software. Black IC has been divided into lethal and non-lethal,
and there are some that cause mental afflictions in the decker instead of
killing him. (How about unconciously leaving behind clues to your whereabouts
because you've been infected by a Judas?)
ICE is triggered different than used to be the case. Each host has a number of
trigger steps, and each time a decker does something the GM notes the successes
rolled. Once a trigger step is reached, whatever is supposed to happen at that
point, happens. It's not so much the decker running into IC when entering a
node, but the system throwing IC at the decker when he's become too "visible."
Designing deckers and cyberdecks is also a major part of the book, and note
that some bits we previously though really useful are now absolutely
unnecessary (or have simply been dropped entirely). Two decker arechtypes are
given, likely as replacements for those in the SRII rules: Decker and Elven
Decker. There's also a Deckmeister contact and his shop -- for ideas on what
this person is, imagine Finn from Neuromancer and you're there.
New programs and options, and rules for writing your own programs (and
the stuff you need for it), as well as how to buy the programs you want.
There's also rules for SOTA (State Of The Art) which, if used, mean that your
nova-hot equipment starts becoming outdated as time progresses... The effect is
that you have to keep investing money and Karma to keep in the major league.
Matrix combat has also been upgraded, although one bit that strikes me as odd
is the number of damage boxes taken by a hit: Light 1, Moderate 2, Serious 3,
and Deadly 6. I keep wondering if this is a mistake by someone...
Also, dump shock has become much nastier -- get dumped from a Red-8 node and
you face 8D Stun damage... One small bright spot is that you can run your deck
in hot and cool modes, and in cool mode you get a -2 Power Level for this. Hot
mode is what we used to call full-cyber decking, that is without a keyboard and
stuff, while cool mode is with your hands on the keyboard. Any deck can be run
in tortoise mode, by the way. Black Ice also has a harder time damaging
cool-running deckers, but hot decks receive +2+1D6 to their initiative while
cool decks don't. Take your pick...
Now, anyone who has seen issue 1 of Shadowland magazine probably knows there's
a preview of VR2 in there, that talks about the Otaku we already know from the
Denver box set. VR2 has full rules for playing an Otaku (these bits were
conveniently _not_ in Shadowland :), and for one they have the racial maximums
altered over those of baseline (meta)humans. -1 Physical attributes and +1
Mental attributes. There's also some revelations about technoshamans in there,
but I'm not going to say what so it won't be spoiled for players wose GM wants
to do an adventure around them... Suffice to say the Otaku don't need a
cyberdeck to run the matrix.
Further sections are a Hacker House catalog update (like in VR1 but with new
programs) and some talk about three typical systems (Ares, Shiseki-Gumo, and
Federal Records) including their security and what they look like.
To conclude, if anyone sees Paul Hume, congratulate him from me for writing
this book. The matrix has become a lot more accessible by it, I think.
--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
I seek a thousand answers, I find but one or two
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Character Mortuary: http://huizen.dds.nl/~mortuary/mortuary.html <-
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