From:	Kurt Rausher <kjrausch@*******.CS.VT.EDU>
Subject:	Decking
Date:	Mon, 19 Oct 92 10:26:14 -0400

>>I agree that it is a fad, but I will also quote Shadowtech:
>">>>>>[Oh, sure I tell you. You tell somebody else. Next thing I
know,
everybody'll be doing it. The phone company won't be able to track anybody's
access. You know what, doc? You may actually be onto something here.]<<<<<
>-The Smiling Bandit <Strikes again!/Ha-Ha-Ha>
"
>This clearly show that The Smiling Bandit is serious;y considering letting his
secret out to people competent enough to access Shadowland (Where this
message was left) because it would really screw with the phone company.
>I also agree that It should be limited to characters with high skills,
Such as Datatorch, whose Computer skill is around 13 base, plus he's specialized
in decking. A decently high computer theory skill should also be required,
such as about 8 or 9, to match the approx computer skill of about 9.
A computer Theory of about 11/13 concetratated in software should be decent
enough to do so. The deck persona chips should also come into play a little,
such
as the deck's masking attribute. Masking is how well the deck's persona can
blend into the matrix, so it should therefore help in disguising the deck from
the
phone company as well, avoiding being 'tagged' with a time/date stamp. An
intrepid decking could still registar himself with a Null Stamp or a
personalized stamp. Over hacking pool should also be fairly high, such as at
least 25+
or being capable of writing a rating 5 flygram (Virtual Realities rules).
>IMHO, hacking pool can also be used as a general rating system for deckers, in
that it takes rating squared in hacking pool dice to write a rating lvl
Flygram. So an average decker can write a rtg 3 or 4 flygram, a very competent
decker is capable of a rating 5 flygram, Etc. The rise is geometric, but it is
a nice approximation. <This last paragraph has mainly been my opinion, slightly
modified by the other deckers I have spoken with.>

>Disclaimer: I run with SR1 rules and use virtual realities for all of
my decking rules. The above is mainly opinion, merely trying to elaborate on
why certain deckers should be allowed to alter their time/date stamps etc.
>Please feel free to ignore or take to heart any or all of it if you wish
any comments will be read and considered. Thank you for your reading time.
>>-Kurt Rauscher <time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the
future.....>