From:	Waffelmeisters <evamarie@**********.NET>
Subject:	Re: I don't know Jack...
Date:	Sun, 31 May 1998 05:04:41 -0500

> I don't know Jack... (Jett , Sat 18:35)
>
> Hmm, yet another Stupid Question...
>
>
> Is Shadowland accessable with a tortoise deck? My decking knowledge is
> pretty low, but I'm working on a short story that requires a character
> with no datajack to get into Shadowland (the character, FWIW, is heavily
> cybered: wired flexes, cybereyes, headcomm, all the bells and whistles).
> IS this possible?
>
> --Jett

Ah, the troubles of the cyber-phile. One of the few upgrades Mongoose
actually got is a data-jack (mostly for controlling gear like radios,
not decking).
Shadowland is just a Matrix loacation, so sure, its accesable by
tortise. By Vr2.0 rules, its not even hard to find. But if you DO hit
any trouble, chances are you won't stay online long with a tortise (at
least you won't take dump-shock). Whether Shadowland runs security
against users or not is up to the GM. We REQUIRE deckers to hack in
past a randomly genrated host, the link being setup as a "backdoor" in
some unsuspectng (but usually unhappy) host. You might want an
"escort", if that host isn't just the local grid... the system is
probably already running a little hot... Shadowland itself is not
always that friendly, either ; can you say FLAME WAR, with real flames?
As to whether you have to "hack" shadowland, I'd say yes, but make a
lot of it REALLY low security (like a crappyphone system), with other
users the main threat (and not much of one to REAL deckers-rmeber,
shadowlandis beloved of prot-deckers around the world), with "restricted
comment" files and such on tougher hosts (IE, anything you or I read
takes some real skill to get to). Remember, suposedly "Shadowland" is
HUGE, an entire PTG, at least; what we see in books is just "the good
stuff". Matrix Ettiquite tests for general information are often just
searches on Shadowlands "data havens", the virtual equivalent of
dumpster diving, in areas of very low security (and interest to other
deckers). Intersting fact; the Denver Nexus can trace its roots to
pre-crash internet systems... apparently, the components of "shadowland"
wer NOT affected very much by the crash, it just lost all its
connectivity and went "off line"for a while.

-Mongoose