Home > The Matrix > Matrix Rules The Matrix We use it every day to read our email, pay our bills, talk to our friends and loved ones. It monitors our money, handles our utilities, and manages the traffic on our streets. Billions of people use it constantly, from the hungry family in Redmond to the CEO in Neo-Tokyo and everyone in between. It is the Matrix, the digital world within a world made of fiber-optic cables, networks, and more data and computing power than has ever existed in the history of the planet. A record that exists today so it can be broken tomorrow. Everybody uses the Matrix. Most shadowrunners have multiple pieces of gear that use it, often interacting with the Matrix without them knowing it. Smartlinks use it to look up local conditions and calculate firing solutions, medkits access medical databases to analyze and diagnose injuries and then recommend treatment, and your clothes and armor use it to detect wear and tear. And tell you when it’s time to do the laundry. Some shadowrunners do more than just soak in information the gear gathers for them. They use the Matrix as a tool and a weapon. They glide through it, bending it to their will, making it dance and spin to the tune they call. Such a runner is called a hacker. There are two kinds of hackers, classified based on how they interact with the Matrix: deckers, who use cyberdecks to access the bones and muscle of the Matrix and twist that structure to their will; and technomancers, who have a downright weird ability to interface and control the digital world without the aid of technology. Hackers play critical roles on shadowrunning teams. They open locked doors, muffle alarms, cancel security calls, unearth buried facts, monitor things other team members can’t see, and keep the heat off long enough for the rest of the team to finish the run. In a scrap, they can take control of or destroy opponents’ weapons and gear. They also play an important role in defense. Every other skilled team in the world has a hacker running interference for them; if your team doesn’t, you’re vulnerable to whatever electronic havoc they decide to bring down on your head. Quick tip: leaving yourself vulnerable is a bad idea. Wireless World The paradox of the Matrix is this: to be an ace hacker, you need to understand it—but no one really understands it. Like so many things, though, the real key is to know more and be better than the next guy. So let’s get you started with a quick overview of the Matrix experience. We won’t start with hacking, because you need to walk before you can run. We’ll start with the ways users—you and everyone else—experience the Matrix. When you jack in and flip over to the electronic world, you plunge into a virtual environment of a consensual hallucination. Everything is rendered in incredible detail powered by a century of digital graphics innovation. Sometimes it seems almost real, but either through conscious artificiality or the difficulty of duplicating the complexities of the physical world, the computer-generated seams usually show. Physical laws don’t apply in the Matrix (unless some jackwad admin programmed them into a host, but those strictures can always be overwritten if you know what you’re doing). You want to fly? Go ahead and fly. And watch the vast expanse of exquisite artificiality spread out around you. Below you, stretching off in every direction, three-dimensional icons of real-world devices light up the landscape like a galaxy of stars in a perfect night sky. The devices that appear to be closest to you are the ones nearest your meat body. Your own icon—your virtual self— is usually the brightest and clearest of the icons. The points of light on the distant horizon, the devices that are the farthest from your presence in the real world, flicker and sputter with the lag of data traveling from the other side of the globe. Hovering above you, massive hosts—tremendous data collections guarded by spiders and IC—float like corporate gods, attempting to see everything and be surprised by nothing. Their custom geometries form a virtual geography that is unconnected to the meatbound map below. The larger ones, the size of cities, belong to the Big Ten megacorporations and are dangerous to enter if you’re not invited. Other, smaller hosts cluster in the neural sky, offering social connections, presenting consumer products, or promising darker pleasures. Between it all are the representations of people, processes, programs, and data that zip from icon to icon and host to host, leaving datatrails of light that fade back into the dim hum of information. The Matrix moves at the speed of light and thought. That’s the view from virtual reality. There are other ways to view the Matrix, but VR is the only way to see it firsthand. And it’s the only way that lets you fly. Matrix Basics Everything in the Matrix is an icon, a virtual representation that allows you to interact with something in the Matrix. Every object’s owner can choose what the icon looks like, within certain limits. An icon doesn’t just represent a Matrix object in an abstract way; it shows you what it is and how to access it. The Matrix is programmed to give users a context to make it easier to work and play; if a tool is hard to use, it’s not much of a tool. There are designers and programmers who deliberately obfuscate an icon’s purpose with confusing design, but for the most part people like to know how they can use whatever they encounter. Most Matrix locations require icons to match certain visual protocols. For example, let’s say you’re in the host for Dante’s Inferno. The Inferno is a popular and swanky nightclub with a presence in the real world (it’s on Fifth and Madison in Seattle’s Downtown), but it’s also got a host that looks the same as the physical club so that patrons from around the world can fly in for a visit at a moment’s notice. So you get to the club’s host, pay your cover charge with a quick transfer of nuyen from your account to the Inferno, and in a blink you’re whisked to your favorite spot in the club. In this case, let’s say you go to the fifth level to enjoy the iconography of angry, dead souls writhing to the beat in and under swampy water. You’re in the mood for virtual food, so you call up a menu. That’s a file, and Dante’s menu appears as a flaming scroll with a fancy script. The programmers and the Inferno know it’s something you’d want to read— and they want you to read it—so they make sure the icon looks like something you’d read, in this case a scroll. The flames feel hot and look bright, but they’re just virtual. If you were somewhere else, like say the Club Penumbra host, a nightclub with an outer space theme, it wouldn’t look like a flaming scroll, but it would still look like something you’d read (in this case, an astronaut’s log book). The whole Matrix is like that. Everything is custom crafted by its owners and is generally designed for intuitive usefulness. The other side of the experience is your software. Some hackers don’t want other programmers telling them how their icons look. So they run software to impose their own visuals on their icons. The struggle to show what you want to show is only one of the battles you’ll fight in the Matrix. Most people, though, don’t bother to fight over iconography, and just let the designers of the Matrix win out. Matrix protocols limit the relative sizes of everything to give users a standard experience they can share. If your icon was a robot version of the Wuxing Skytower, that might seem cool, but if you’re talking to someone with an icon of a dung beetle or something, then communication’s not going to run smooth. To overcome this, personas (people in the Matrix) are kept between dwarf and troll sizes, so what you actually would end up with in the described conversation is a comically small skyscraper talking to a frightfully large bug, so you’re both approximately the same size. Files and devices are smaller than personas (so you’ll never see someone reading a book the size of a great dragon for example), and hosts are larger (much larger in the case of big sites, like the megas’ corporate hosts). Virtual Visions That sets up the size of things, but what do they look like? The answer is a bit more complicated than you’d think. The look of the Matrix depends on what grid you’re on, the programs you’re running, and a bunch of other factors. Luckily, there is a sort of “base version” that forms the foundation of everyone’s Matrix experience. In this base version, the Matrix is a black flatland under a black sky. This virtual plain is lit with the glow of the icon of your commlink (or deck) and other icons around you, one for each device and persona connected to the Matrix. The plain is a projection of the whole world made flat, so the icons get more and more sparse the farther out you look. There are uncounted billions of icons in the Matrix. Devices have icons in the Matrix in sort of the same way that living things have auras in astral space. This could get overwhelming, but some background tech keeps things from getting out of control. The first piece of assistance comes from your commlink, which automatically filters out the least interesting icons. Do you want to know the virtual location of every music player in the world? Right, neither do I. So the Matrix will usually show you an icon for an individual’s personal area network (PAN), not every device in that network (although it makes exceptions for interesting or dangerous devices in that network, such as a gun). Additionally, the farther away devices are from you in the real world, the dimmer their icons are in the Matrix; this is partly because your commlink figures the farther ones aren’t as interesting to you, but mostly because the connection is a bit slower due to the distance. Matrix gear renders the far-off devices and personas as dim, muted, or flickering icons. Also cutting down on the visual noise is the fact that some icons are deliberately hidden from view, such as locks and other security devices, baby monitors, maintenance monitors, and of course people who prefer not to be seen. To understand the uses of virtual reality and how people balance the meat world with the virtual one, let’s look at some typical Matrix uses. Let’s say that you’re in your car, driving home from work, school, or wherever you usually drive home from. You let the car’s autopilot handle the driving and drop into VR to start dinner. Once you check into VR, your car, the road, and everything nearby drop from view, and instead you see the Matrix’s plane of stars. You think about going to your home node, and boom, you go, streaking forward like a comet. As you get close, you see all of the devices that make up your home network, and you head for the one that represents your fridge. The icon for the fridge looks like a small fridge, with a list of the food (which the fridge’s electronics automatically update with what’s actually inside it). You see frozen pizza on the list and decide to go with a frozen pizza. You then reach out to your stove’s controls (appearing as some dials over a warm, homey glow) and fire up the oven to pre-heat to 230°. It’s a bit nippy outside, so you set your drink dispenser (which you’ve made look like a beer tap in VR) to start warming the soy base, and since you’re feeling luxurious you hit the controls for chocolate flavoring. Sill in VR, you zip back to your car, which cheerfully tells you that you’ve got another ten minutes, enough time to visit your favorite social networking host. Speaking of hosts, the big hosts are the most interesting spots in the Matrix landscape, and they’re the things hovering above you when you log on. No matter where you go in the Matrix, they’re always up there. One of the critical things to understand about hosts is that, unlike the devices in your house, they are not necessarily the representations of a specific device or location in the meat world. Hosts are part of the Matrix, rather than being a single device, so you can access them from anywhere without worrying about the distance involved. The next important thing to know is that the inside of a host is a lot different from the outside. For one thing, it’s often bigger on the inside than the outside. It’s also a virtual environment of its own, with clear boundaries indicating where it starts and the rest of the Matrix, for most intents and purposes, ends. But let’s get back to the social networking host you decide to check into on your way home. The one you’re going to does not have any particular entry requirements, so you don’t have to endure the virtual equivalent of an entry line. You just zoom to the host, fly over the border, and you’re almost ready to go in. On the inside, this particular host looks like a classy perpetual cocktail party, with a sculpted look that swanky lounges in the physical world would kill to have. Before you go into the actual party, you enter a private changing room, where you can make your icon look more appropriate for the party. Maybe pick out a stylish black suit or a little black dress, then add a tie or neckerchief for a splash of color. Get the outfit and your virtual hair set, and you’re ready to mingle. Or maybe a come-as-you-are sports bar is more your style. That host has booths for visitors that change size depending on the number of people in it, so they’re always full but not too cozy. Or possibly games are more your style, joining your friends for board games, or puzzles, or grand adventures. Or you could go to a cat fanciers’ clubhouse. Or a movie theater. Or a zero-G simulated spacecraft. The inside of a host is limited only by its owner’s preferences and imagination. Those are the general outlines of the Matrix; now let’s dive into what and who you’ll encounter. The Population of the Matrix Every icon in the Matrix is one of six things: a persona, a device, a PAN, a file, a host, or a mark. Occasionally, you might also see a datastream, a transfer of data that looks like a thin beam of flickering, multi-colored light. Datastreams are normally filtered out of your Matrix view because if they weren’t, they’d be the only thing you would see. If you want, you can dial back on the filtering, but the streams pass by so quickly that you can’t tell where they’re coming from or going to without snooping on whatever is sending or receiving them, and that would be illegal (and we’d never do anything illegal in the Matrix, right?). Personas A persona is more or less what it sounds like: a person in the Matrix. A persona is the combination of a user and a device that gets the user onto the Matrix. The fact that the device has a user overrides the device’s normal icon status, turning it into a persona. A persona is usually based on a commlink, cyberdeck, or rigged vehicle or drone, although technomancers are a sort of device-less persona. Persona icons usually look like the people they represent (although who can resist making a nip here, a tuck there, a facelift, and maybe some nicer hair?), sometimes with a splash of style like flashing eyes, hair coloring, or a tastefully understated aura. There are wilder looks out there, but shadowrunners often shy away from them, as they draw too much attention and can be considered unprofessional. On the other hand, sometimes drawing attention is exactly the point, so base your look on however professional (or distracting) you want for the situation you’re in. There’s a lot of variety to be had in persona icons. Just about any creature or animate object is fair game: animals, moving statues, griffins (popular among teens these days for some reason), steam-powered robots, zombies, aliens, just about anything that can walk and talk. The Matrix protocols will stop you from designing an icon for your persona if it isn’t intuitively a persona, so you couldn’t have an icon that is a dust speck, a Greek column, or a cube, for example. They’ll also stop you from making something smaller than adult-dwarfsized or bigger than adult-troll-sized. Devices Device icons in the Matrix represent electronic devices in the real world, from your music player to your commlink to your car and beyond. By default, a device’s icon looks like the object it represents, in miniature if the real thing is larger than a person. It has controls of some kind, often the same controls it has in meat space, but not necessarily. The Ares Mobmaster riot control vehicle, for example, is famous for its unorthodox Roman chariot icon complete with reins to drive the vehicle. Basic Matrix protocols require device icons to provide some hint of their real-life function. A firearm’s icon looks like a weapon (even if that weapon is a tomahawk, like the icon of the Super Warhawk pistol), a vehicle’s icon looks like a vehicle, a lock’s icon looks like a lock, a refrigerator looks like a cold box for food, etc. The restrictions on devices aren’t as stringent as on personas, as long as form suggests function at a glance. PANs Most individuals have multiple electronic devices on them at once, and having icons for each one show up would provide too much visual clutter in the Matrix. Often, what shows up instead is an icon representing an individual’s personal area network. This icon often looks similar to the physical device that serves as master for the network, such as a commlink, but individuals will sometimes choose a design or logo that means something to them (such as sports team logos, Concrete Dreams album covers, or corporate designs). Some devices are not merged into the single PAN icon; if an individual is carrying a wireless-enabled gun—or any other wireless device that might kill you—it will show up separately so that it can be identified rapidly. Unless, of course, the user has gone to the trouble to hide that icon, but that’ll be covered later. Files A file is a collection of data. It can be a film, a song, a book, financial records, an image, a news article, and so on. It can even be a collection of other files (a “folder”). Files have icons that are smaller than persona icons, typically small enough to fit in the palm of the virtual hand. All file icons have a default appearance in the Matrix—a glowing cube or other polyhedron that can be opened to reveal its contents—but few Matrix users are so lazy and uninspired as to leave their files’ icons with such a boring look. A text file might have an icon that is a book, a scroll, a data pad, or even stone tablets. Sound files look like speakers, musical notes or instruments, and so forth, while video might look like a film projector, a trid set, or an old-fashioned movie screen. Again, form suggests function is the rule in the Matrix. Hosts Hosts are virtual places you can go in the Matrix. They have no physical location, being made up of the stuff of the Matrix itself. From the outside, hosts are as big as buildings in the electronic landscape, some of the largest being about the size of Manhattan (a limit imposed by the Corporate Court’s Grid Overwatch Division to prevent the virtual sky from being completely dominated by the mega-hosts). The size of a host and its virtual altitude are related to its importance and influence in the modern world. Your local Stuffer Shack has a host icon that’s roughly the size of the building it’s in, and it sits low to the “ground,” about on the same level as most of the devices in the Matrix. The Atlantean Foundation’s host, on the other hand, floats about a virtual kilometer above the twinkling datascape and is about the size of the biggest skyraker building in the physical world. Bigger still is the Shiawase Mainframe, which is a slowly rotating sphere about a hundred kilometers up and almost twenty kilometers in diameter. The host icons themselves look like just about anything the owners want. If you look up into the Matrix night you’ll see corporate logos, lavish building façades, and constellations of hosts. You might recognize the Seattle ACHE’s ziggurat shape, or the mother-and-child logo of Humanis, or (if you have access) the three orbiting spheres of JackPoint. Inside a host is a completely different story. A host can be (and usually is) bigger on the inside than on the outside. A host’s internal sculpting is internally regulated, so while outsiders’ icons conform to standard Matrix requirements, the host itself doesn’t have to. The host can be a maze, an open space, have strange gravity or none at all, be hot, cold, loud, quiet, and everything in between. Most hosts stick close to reality to make it easier and more comfortable for its patrons, but some offer stranger or even downright bizarre sculpting. Matrix Authentication Recognition Keys A Matrix authentication recognition key, or mark if you’re not a fan of rattling off fancy technological nomenclature, is how the Matrix keeps track of which personas have access to which devices, files, hosts, and other personas. Marks look like, well, marks—small personalized labels or tattoos on whichever icons you place them. Your marks can look like anything you like, as long as they’re small, fit onto other icons, and have some thematic link to you or your icon. For example, let’s say you’re using the icon of a neon green octopus. Your marks might look like neon green sucker marks. If you had a cowboy icon, your marks might look like cattle brands. If your icon were a vintage movie star, your marks might look like lipstick kisses. Normally, marks are invisible to anyone except the person who placed them. To see other marks on an icon (or your own icon), you have to analyze it. Seeing a mark does not automatically tell you who put it there, though. Usually, you can only recognize a mark if you have already seen the persona responsible for the mark, or if you’re familiar with his or her marking style. Marks are routinely invited and given for normal, everyday, legal use of various services. They act as keys, permission slips, invitations, and account privileges on every icon in the virtual world. For example, the Seattle Public Library invites over 50,000 marks per day for its VR books, films, trideos, and other items in its collection. While the great percentage of mark traffic is legitimate, hackers try to get marks illegally to facilitate their own plans. the Matrix: for YOu and Against You It’s important to remember that the Matrix exists to be used. That means that for the most part, the look and feel of various hosts is geared toward being approachable, not putting up obstacles that might prevent people from doing their work or conducting their business. It is a safe environment, with security built into its operating systems and protocols. Ever since the recent change in Matrix protocols, the structure is monitored by the Grid Overwatch Division of the Corporate Court, who act as a sort of Matrix police force devoted to protecting users (including innocent children, natch) from online predators, piracy, and fraud. That’s the corp brochure version of the Matrix, anyway. The real motives behind the Matrix, particularly its current structure, are profit and control. The megacorporations and the Grid Overwatch Division have been working on “The Matrix Problem” for decades, searching for a holy grail of Matrix design that will let them maximize their profits while minimizing their risks, and they may have finally found something close. The system is set up so that the corps always have the advantage, hackers always are at a disadvantage, and everybody else is stuck somewhere between. One of the keys to the new system is the network of overlapping grids, which need to be understood if you plan on doing any serious Matrix work. Grids If you want to get on the Matrix, you need a grid. A grid is what a Matrix service provider uses to connect you to the digital world. When you connect to the Matrix, you are on the grid of your provider, much the same way an early 21st century cell phone user would be on their phone company’s network. Different grids cover customers in different areas; there are global grids provided by each of the Big Ten and local grids sponsored in part by local governments. Accessing these grids costs money, and each of them presents a slightly different view of the Matrix (although the inside of hosts look the same no matter what grid you’re on, as that’s controlled by the hosts). It’s all still the “real” Matrix, of course, but the icons that belong to your grid’s owner look a bit bigger and more shiny, and the advertising is slanted in ways that benefit the grid’s owners. For example, when you’re connected to the Matrix through Seattle’s local grid, Emerald City, the normally black Matrix sky is tinged a gemstone green, and the hosts that are closely related to Seattle are a bit brighter. NeoNET icons are also a bit larger when you’re using Emerald City, because the main sponsor/owner of the local grid is NeoNET. If you were on NeoNET’s global grid, you’d see much the same thing, without the emphasis on Seattle or the green sky. If you can’t pay for access to a grid, well, you’re not completely out of luck. The corps would never have been able to get away with completely throttling access to the Matrix, so there’s a public grid provided by underfunded non-profits, outdated satellites, and the occasional good Samaritan who’s willing to share a wireless access point or two. The public grid is slow, low-resolution, and unreliable, but at least it’s globally accessible. It’s the Barrens of the Matrix. As you’d expect, the grid you’re on says something about your social standing. You might find notes like “Posted from the Renraku Grid” tacked onto the end of status updates. Corps market their own grids heavily, offering perks and free commlink upgrades every year or two. People on the public grid are viewed as second-class citizens. High-class hosts advertise “No public-grid connections allowed” to show how their clientele are elite. You can “hop” between grids, but which grids you can access depend on where you are in the world. You can get on the public or any global grid from anywhere on the planet. Local grids can only be accessed if you’re physically in the grid’s service area. For example, if you’re on Netzwerks Berlin, you could see and interact with a commlink that is on Seattle’s Emerald City, but you wouldn’t be able to hop to Emerald City grid itself. looking down: Grid Overwatch Division The Grid Overwatch Division, or GOD for short, is responsible for securing the Matrix from hackers and other unwanted intruders, especially the parts connecting the various hosts and users (security with hosts falls more on the heads of the host owners). Each grid has its own sub-division (even the public grid), with its own financing and operatives. A sub-division (referred to as a demiGOD) watches its entire grid, keeping an eye out for misbehaving users and illegal activity. The grids have a warning system built-in, a subtle but telltale ripple that occurs when the automated software detects illegal or unauthorized use of the gird. It’s not much, but GOD is watching, and if they see enough ripples to find and identify a hacker, they can trace his physical location and boot him off the Matrix using the mechanisms built into each grid. This is not to say the megacorps have made nice and are now holding hands singing Kumbayah. Far from it; the Matrix is an even hotter intercorporate battleground than ever, it’s just that the AAAs want to keep their battleground to themselves. While the demiGODs are separate and even competitive (the Crash of the Titans reality trid show is new but surging in popularity), they are still part of GOD and highly cooperative against hackers. They share their information in real-time, often faster than hackers can hop to another grid. Their operatives, called G-men (complete with 1930s-era FBI persona icons), technically only have jurisdiction over their assigned grid, but they can request and receive clearance, authority, and cooperation from the demiGOD of another grid in seconds during an investigation. The G-men investigate cases that aren’t lengthy enough or blatant enough to leave sufficient ripples for the demiGODs to track through standard overwatch alone. They also handle cases where a hacker has been kicked off the grid, supporting any security or law enforcement forces that the grid’s owner wants to send against the hacker in the physical world. Augmented World So far much of the discussion of the Matrix and its collected icons has focused on how things look in virtual reality, but that’s not how most people interact with the Matrix on a daily or hourly basis. Most people who use VR use it to visit hosts, view entertainment, or play games, but a lot of people find the disembodied sensation of virtual reality to be uncomfortable, or even disturbing. The majority of people interact with the Matrix in augmented reality, using their commlink. A commlink is combination computer, smartphone, media player, passport, wallet, credit card, Matrix browser, chip reader, GPS navigator, digital camera, and portable gaming device. And possibly a few other things, if you’ve got a really nice one. It’s got all of the necessary software already loaded, but unlike a cyberdeck it has no space for cyberprograms or other hacking tools. Most models are small enough to fit in your pocket, on a belt clip, or on your wrist. If a pocket version isn’t your style, commlinks are available in a number of other forms, including headwear, glasses, jewelry, cranial implant, belt buckles, and other accessories. Life with a Commlink Your commlink does more than just sit in your pocket (or on your head). It interprets the Matrix around you to give you extra information and capability that can be useful in civilian life and vital in the shadows. This is done with augmented reality, or AR. AR overlays information on things in real-life in a way only you can perceive. Let’s say you’re walking down the street in Downtown Seattle’s shopping district. Your commlink may seem like it’s sitting quietly, but in fact it’s quite busy. It’s regularly communicating with other devices and hosts around you, sharing information about your location and your movement. The other devices and hosts are sending information right back, telling you who else is out there, what stores are having sales, what movies are playing at which theaters, and so on. If you look at your commlink screen, you’d have all that information overlaid on an image of where you are, providing a mini heads-up display. But let’s say you live in the current decade, and you don’t interact with the world around you with just a screen. You may have glasses, or sunglasses, or contacts, or goggles, or cybereyes, or something that puts this information right in your field of vision. Overlaid on the world are icons telling you that shoes like the ones you bought last year are now half off, and there’s a dotted line leading you to the theater showing the sequel to the trid show you thought was wiz, and the people walking down the street are occasionally highlighted by glowing auras—nice blue ones representing your friends, glaring red ones telling you that someone you know and should be avoiding is coming close. You have more than just your natural vision—you’ve got everything in the database you’re carrying with you. The civilized world adapted quickly to augmented reality, mostly because it’s easier than printing things on paper or making signs. Augmented reality objects, or AROs (pronounced “arrows”), are used to show information and decorate spaces on the cheap. Stores have their logos blazoned in 3D above their door, restaurants offer animated menus complete with tantalizing images of their food, street names hover over every intersection, decorators use AR objects to spruce up interiors, all viewable in AR for anyone who has the capability, which is pretty much everybody. The unintended side effect is that things can look a bit dingy when you turn off your AR display, but that’s the price of progress. You don’t have to be an expert to make an ARO. If you want to send directions to your place from the party, you can draw a line on an AR map and share it with your friends. If you want to point out a person in a crowd for a buddy, you can make an ARO highlighting that person and send it. You can choose which of your AROs are seen by which people, so you can keep it private or, if you’re feeling impish, put vulgar AROs on RFID tags and scatter them around town for all to see. Of course, other people can filter out the AROs they don’t want to see, and so can you. Augmented reality isn’t just visual information, either. You can hear audio AROs if you have earbuds or a cyberear. AROs can be tactile if you have a haptic device like AR gloves. Engineers are still working on putting physical scent into AR displays, and we’d rather not talk about AR flavors. On the other hand, if you use AR with a direct neural interface like trodes or an implant, you can use all of your senses to view AR without any extra devices. Most of what you keep on your commlink are files, this includes music, your SIN (fake or otherwise), licenses (also fake or otherwise), maps, email messages, your contact book, AROs, and so on. These files are visible to people who can see your commlink in the Matrix, so most people keep all of their files in a protected folder So where do you store all of the things you want to keep? Pictures from your Aunt Edna’s wedding, credit information, your SIN, every book and movie you’ve bought, all the programs you might want to run—all of it fits on your commlink (or cyberdeck if you prefer). In fact, every device on the Matrix has a massive amount of storage space, unthinkable amounts by early 21st century standards. Your gamemaster might decide that a device is too small or low-grade or a file so massively large that a problem comes up, but such problems are extremely rare. Even if it does, the entire world is wireless, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding an alternate storage location. Shadowrunning with a Commlink Your commlink could be the most important piece of gear you own. It keeps you in contact with the rest of your team, even if you’re scattered across the entire sprawl. You can share information like images, floor plans, and tactical instructions almost instantly, even in the middle of a firefight. It gives you AR displays for your surroundings, not just what other people put there but AROs created by your companions, which come in handy when your shaman tags a mage among the enemy security forces or a spotter drone maps the location of all the guard dogs it can find. A good commlink can also protect your own devices (including your gun) from opposing hackers. Some shadowrunners prefer to go without one, but most agree that the commlink is right up there with ammo in terms of usefulness. The Digital Underground Not everyone is content to surf the Matrix in peace. Some users are protestors, flying in the face of the megacorps’ power over the grids. Some are curious, poking at secure hosts and pushing boundaries that GOD and its demiGODs would prefer remain untouched. Some are angel-headed hipsters trying to find some connection to the starry dynamo of the virtual night. Some want to free the flow of information from its corporate shackles. Some just have a habit of ignoring the rules. All these digital delinquents are known as hackers. In the heavily computerized world of the 2070s, a shadowrunning team can go a long way with a hacker on their side. Hackers can pry at secrets, control devices, and even destroy electronics from a distance, not to mention defend against opposing hackers and spiders. Hackers come in two main flavors: deckers and technomancers. Deckers A decker is someone who uses a cyberdeck (hence the name) to break the rules of the Matrix. A cyberdeck— usually just called a deck—is like a commlink with some extra features. It is a bit bigger than a commlink, about the size of a small tablet or a spiral-bound notebook, or a pair of playing card decks. Its specialized functions and questionable legality make it far more expensive than ordinary commlinks. The cyberdeck has advanced electronics and firmware based on reverse-engineered protocols used in Matrix security. In short, a cyberdeck is the tool you need to be a hacker. A deck can perform all of the functions of a commlink, but its primary purpose is hacking in the Matrix. Cyberdecks have a built-in sim module because they are so often used in VR, so a decker only needs a datajack or other DNI device to make that connection, instead of needing the full sim implant. Deckers are far and away the most common type of hacker. They come to the profession out of necessity, a desire for profit, or a sense of mischief. Or all three. They are heavily dependent on their skills, and they need good gear to make sure their skills shine. They can usually maintain and even build their own electronic devices. Technomancers Technomancers are able to interface both in AR and VR without the aid of a sim module, image link, or any other electronic devices. Strictly speaking, technomancers aren’t magical, but they’re just as mysterious as magicians were after the Awakening. The origins of a technomancer’s power and how she makes things happen are still unknown to science. Like magicians, technomancers make up a tiny fraction of the population of the Earth. Also like magicians, they are generally distrusted and misunderstood, sometimes to the point of paranoia. Not all technomancers are hackers, but to the general public they might as well be. In the media, the word technomancer almost always means hacker, and the word “hacker” means cyber-terrorist. Many national and local governments require technomancers to register with the authorities, even if they have little talent or power. The perception of technomancers is that they are able to control a person’s electronics, reading files at will, breaching every moment of privacy. They say that technomancers can see you through the devices in your home, trace your children, ruin your reputation and credit rating, launch nuclear missiles, drain your bank accounts, and steal your identity. As a result of the paranoia, most technomancers keep their identity under wraps, sometimes hiding their abilities behind dummy commlinks. Technomancers are rare, but they have amazing abilities in the Matrix, doing things that by most reports should be impossible. They use their powers and abilities to bend the Matrix to their will and summon digital servants. They are generally not the figures public paranoia makes them out to be—but they have enough power to make it seem that the paranoia has at least one foot in reality. (Mis)Using the Matrix The first step in hacking the Matrix is conceiving and understanding what you might be able to accomplish. The example below provides a narrative of someone making their illicit way through the Matrix. It’ll show you some of the things that are possible. Once we’ve set that up, we’ll show you how to do the things it shows. There’s a lot that goes on in the Matrix. It’s a big place, bigger than the real world if you include all of the hosts. It’s also a very versatile place. Everybody in the civilized world (aside from a few barely worth mentioning since, you know, they don’t show up on the Matrix) has some basic computer skills. They can surf the Matrix, search for information, send messages to one another, and use basic AR interfaces. That doesn’t make them Matrix experts, and it definitely doesn’t make them hackers. To really walk the virtual walk, you need a lot more. Cracking the MATRIX SPINE The Matrix is a controlled environment, with corporate owners wanting to keep things moving at their pace, according to their specifications. If something suits their goals, it moves through the Matrix just fine, encountering few problems or hang-ups. If it doesn’t meet their goals, they shut it down as fast as they can before it causes too much trouble. Hackers don’t meet their goals, and they are paid to create trouble. They’re the fly in the ointment, the fart in the cathedral, the droog in the milk bar. They’re chaos amidst carefully cultivated order, and they’re fast and nimble if they want to stay free and keep their synapses at their normal temperature. Hackers can get an important advantage with their gear and equipment, but that’s something anyone with a decent pile of nuyen can buy. For the true hacker, it’s not the gear that sets them apart—it’s how they use it. Their quick thinking, their imagination, and their relentless coding skills put them above the competition, letting them dance their way through a Matrix that’s constantly trying to force them to color inside the lines. Good hackers start with good skills (p. 226). Without those, they’re just another idiot who spent too much money on electronic gear they don’t know how to use. Once they have the skills that set them apart, they need the right gear or their skills are going to come up short. Knowing the Matrix attributes and how they can help or limit them (p. 226) will make sure they get the most out of their skills. Armed with this knowledge, they can choose the cyberdeck (p. 227) that’s right for them. The good stuff isn’t cheap. Hell, even the not-so-good stuff will set you back a pile of nuyen, so hackers need to learn how their deck might get damaged and how they can avoid having it turn into a useless brick of plastic and rare earth elements (p. 228). Once they have their skills and gear ready to rock, hackers need to decide how they’re going to access the Matrix (User Modes, p. 229) and how to use the structure of the Matrix to make the right connections (p. 230). If they don’t understand the different grids involved and how to get on them (p. 233), they’ll be behind the competition. They also have to understand what they’re seeing—which icons are devices, which are personae, and why it matters (p. 234). They also need to be able to see the things they are not supposed to see, while also keeping themselves out of sight when necessary (Matrix Perception, p. 235). When it’s time to get down to business, hackers show they’re the alpha dog in the traditional way—by marking their territory. Placing marks (p. 236) on the devices they want to control gets them the access they are not supposed to have. Once your marks are in place, it’s the hacker’s time to shine and take the actions to make the Matrix do the weird and unexpected things their team needs (p. 237). They’re not alone in there, though, so there’s always the chance they’ll have to go to battle against IC or a security spider (p. 247). Hackers aren’t limited to the lives of digital ninja anymore. Hackers can pull out the big guns and blast through the Matrix (p. 238), slamming marks on targets and taking what they want. They can also fry gear in the real world (p. 239), killing drones, destroying weapons, and otherwise fighting side-by-side with their teammates. The final pieces of knowledge they need are the other elements they might encounter online—the hosts, IC, and programs that make life interesting (p. 246). Armed with that knowledge, hackers will be ready to help the Matrix shake off its shackles and become the raw, free flow of data it was always meant to be. Then there’s one more piece of the puzzle. Once we’ve covered how deckers make their way through the Matrix, we need to look at the technomancer side of things to see how they operate and swim in the Matrix that they see as an ocean of data all around them (p. 249). Matrix Skills To do anything more involved than sending email in the Matrix, you’ll need some skills. Specifically, you’ll need the skills in the Cracking Skill Group and the Electronics Skill Group. Here’s a quick rundown of those skills and what they do: Using Computer The Computer skill represents your ability to use computers. Common functions for this skill include editing files, erasing marks, and searching the Matrix. It’s also used in your Matrix Perception Tests, which can be vital in finding that Black IC before it stomps your neural pathways. Using Cybercombat Cybercombat is the skill to use when you’re trying to wreck something or hurt someone in the Matrix. You can use it to damage electronics, break through defensive algorithms, and crash programs. Using Electronic Warfare This skill is about controlling the airwaves, an important ability in a wireless world. It’s good for jamming other people’s signals with a jammer (or even your deck), hiding your own signature, and snooping on other people’s datastreams. Using Hacking Hacking is about cleverly convincing the Matrix to do things it’s not designed to do. It lets you find and exploit weaknesses in digital defenses, and otherwise use finesse in your Matrix mayhem. Using Hardware Hardware describes your ability to build, repair and manipulate electronic hardware. This skill is rarely used in the Matrix, but it encompasses everything that runs on the Matrix—and everything the Matrix runs on. It’s very useful for fixing electronics that have been damaged by Matrix combat, not to mention upgrading your deck or building your own devices. Using Software This skill is about creating programs and other code that runs in the Matrix. It’s good for writing your own programs and analyzing strange code. If you’ve got the guts to try to handle a data bomb, you’ll need some solid Software skills to keep it from going off in your face. Using Resonance The skills in the Resonance Skill Group are only usable by technomancers. These skills are used to thread complex forms and to compile sprites. If you’re a technomancer and want to know how to use your mysterious powers, head on over to p. 249. Matrix Attributes Electronic devices run a lot of different applications, utilities, and code libraries to keep things working smoothly. Rather than list every single program running on a computer individually, the total effectiveness of these programs are described as Matrix attributes. These attributes are used as limits when performing Matrix actions and as part of your dice pool when defending against Matrix actions. There are four Matrix attributes: Attack, Sleaze, Data Processing, and Firewall (abbreviated ASDF). Most devices (including commlinks) have only two Matrix attributes: Data Processing and Firewall. Decks and hosts have all four, including Attack and Sleaze. Every Matrix action is categorized according to the Matrix attribute they fall under. For example, the Brute Force action is an Attack action, and the Hack on the Fly action is a Sleaze action. The Matrix attribute for an action serves as the limit for tests tied to that action. Attack Your Attack rating reflects the programs and utilities you have running on your deck that inject harmful code into other operating systems, or use brute-force algorithms to break encryptions and protections to lay the virtual smackdown. Attack software is high-risk, high-reward, because firewall protocols tend to treat it harshly, doing damage that could hurt your persona if you blow it. Attack actions are good for making quick break-ins, damaging devices, and dealing with Matrix threats in a very fast but loud way. Sleaze The applications making up your Sleaze attribute mask your Matrix presence, probe the defenses of targets, and subtly alter a target system’s code. Sleaze software is delicate, and one mistake will spill the soybeans on you to your target. Sleaze actions are good for intrusions in which you have plenty of time and in dealing with Matrix problems in a slow but quiet way. Data Processing Your Data Processing attribute measures your device’s ability to handle information, datastreams, and files. It is used for Matrix actions that aren’t, as a general rule, illegal. Firewall Your Firewall attribute is your protection against outside attacks. It contains code filters, file checkers, virus detection and eradication software, and other defensive programming. Firewall actions are defensive in nature. The most important role of the Firewall is as virtual armor against Matrix damage. Files & Matrix Attributes Files do not have ratings (although protection on files does, The Edit File action, p. 239). Instead, they use the ratings of their owners when defending against Matrix actions. Cyberdecks If you’re a decker, your cyberdeck is your life’s blood, your all-in-one ticket to controlling the Matrix. It provides you with your Matrix attributes, especially the Attack and Sleaze that are vital to hacking. It also has a built-in sim module, so all you need is a DNI to use it for VR right out of the box. Other important features include a universal data connector and about a meter of retractable data cable, so you can connect to other devices directly. A cyberdeck usually has a small screen for displaying status messages. It is most often a flat rectangle, but it can be just about any shape that has the same volume as a small book; the “hackpack” model, a cyberdeck in a belt pack, is popular for deckers on the go. Each deck has a Device Rating, which determines its Matrix Condition Monitor and is used in a few other rules. It also has a listing for four attributes (called the Attribute Array), but it does not specifically list which numbers go with which attributes. This is because decks are more versatile than your average device or host. You can configure your deck for different uses at different times. There’s also a listing for the number of programs you can run at a time on a deck, although you can have any number of them in storage. Deck Configuration When you first boot your deck, assign each of its four attribute values to one of the Matrix attributes. This covers the various software that you’re running in your deck’s memory. This lets you describe with ratings how much software your deck is currently running for offense, stealth, computing, and defense. For example, let’s say you’ve got a Microtrónica Azteca 200 with the attribute values of 5, 4, 3, and 2. Your plan for the evening is to surf the Matrix legally, maybe play some games, find a movie, or just hang out in JackPoint. You assign your Matrix attributes Attack 2, Sleaze 3, Data Processing 5, and Firewall 4. Reconfiguring Your Deck You can reconfigure your deck whenever you like, rebalancing your software loadout, changing the allocation of Matrix attributes or re-arranging the programs currently available to you. Doing this is a Free Action that you may only perform on your own Action Phase. This is not a Matrix action. When you reconfigure your deck, you can either switch two of your deck’s Matrix attributes, or swap a running program with a program you have stored on your deck that is not running. Additionally, you can load a program you own into a currently unused slot, or unload a program and leave an open slot. For example, let’s say you’re hanging out in Jack- Point and some asshat insults your avatar. You’re feeling surly, so you take a swing at him. You weren’t planning on mixing things up tonight, so at the moment your Attack is 2 and your Data Processing is 5. You’d prefer them to be the other way around, so you take a Free Action to swap the two attributes before you make your attack. With your Attack rating at 5, you’ll be able to land the full force of whatever blow you’ve aimed at the mouthy jerk. matrix damage Each device in the Matrix has a Matrix Condition Monitor. This represents the device’s ability to handle damaging code designed to make the device do things it’s not supposed to do. As a device gets damaged, it overheats, suffers power spikes and dips, shorts out as components start failing, and eventually becomes damaged beyond functionality. The Matrix Condition Monitor is similar to other Condition Monitors. Each device’s Matrix Condition Monitor has 8 + (Device Rating / 2) boxes. Matrix damage is always resisted with Device Rating + Firewall. When a persona is hit for damage, the device it is running on takes that damage (except technomancers, who take it as Stun damage). Unlike other forms of damage, there is no penalty for having Matrix damage until your Matrix Condition Monitor is completely filled. Matrix damage that becomes Stun damage for technomancers still does carry a penalty, though, as does Stun or Physical damage caused by biofeedback. Bricking If the Matrix Condition Monitor of a device is completely filled, the device ceases functioning. This is called bricking a device. Devices that are bricked never fail non-spectacularly. Smoke, sparks, pops, bangs, sizzles, nasty smells, and occasionally even small fires are common features of a device in the process of becoming a brick. If you’re using your deck in VR when it gets bricked, you are dumped from the Matrix and suffer dumpshock (see p. 229). A bricked device is damaged and useless until it is repaired (described in the next bit, Repairing Matrix Damage). If a device is bricked, it stops working: batteries are drained, mechanical parts are fused or gummed up with melted internals, and so on. That said, not all devices are completely useless when bricked. A vibrosword is still sharp, a roto-drone glides to the ground on auto-gyro, a lock stays locked. The firing pin on an assault rifle might not work, but its bayonet works just fine for stabbing smug hackers. And you can’t exactly brick a katana, ne? And don’t panic when your trickedout combat bike gets bricked; it will ride again … if you know a competent technician. Repairing Matrix Damage If you have a device with Matrix damage, you can repair it with a toolkit, an hour of work, and a Hardware + Logic [Mental] test. Every hit you get can be used to either remove one box of Matrix damage or cut the time required in half; the first die spent toward time reduces the time to half an hour, the second to 15 minutes, and so on, to a minimum of one Combat Turn (3 seconds). Bricked or not, the device is off-line and unusable during the repair process. If you critically glitch on the roll to repair your device, that’s it. The device is permanently bricked. You can use it as a paperweight, an object lesson, or (if you need one) a brick. If you glitch, the device can be restored to functionality, but it becomes a bit glitchy (the gamemaster will tell you how at an appropriate moment). Non-Devices and Matrix Damage IC programs and sprites have Matrix Condition Monitors. Like devices, they are unaffected by Matrix damage until they have a full Matrix Condition Monitor. IC and sprites cannot be repaired, but they lose all damage when they stop running or return to the Resonance. Hosts and files can’t be attacked with Matrix damage, so they don’t have Matrix Condition Monitors. Technomancers don’t have Matrix Condition Monitors, either. Instead all Matrix damage they take is converted to Stun damage to their person, but it is still resisted with their living persona’s Device Rating + Firewall. Biofeedback Damage Biofeedback damage is Matrix code that forces your sim module to misbehave badly. It makes your body go haywire the same way that Matrix damage screws up devices. This can cause temporary or even permanent damage to a deckers’ body and brain. It’s used by Black IC, Grid Overwatch Division G-men, and unscrupulous hackers and spiders, although it can also come from other sources inadvertently, like dumpshock or the damage riggers take when their vehicles and drones are damaged. Biofeedback damage is only dangerous when you’re in VR mode. Unless the attack says otherwise, biofeedback is Stun damage if you are using cold-sim VR and Physical damage in hot-sim VR. You resist biofeedback damage with Willpower + Firewall. Dumpshock & Link-Locking When you’re disconnected from the Matrix while in VR without gracefully switching to AR first, you suffer a nasty shock as your sim module kicks out. This happens to hackers so often it has its own name: dumpshock. The Damage Value for dumpshock is 6S if you’re in cold-sim and 6P if you’re in hot-sim. Dumpshock is biofeedback damage, so you resist it with Willpower + Firewall. As if that weren’t enough, you’re also disoriented and take a –2 dice pool modifier on all of your actions for (10 – Willpower) minutes. Remember that if you’re being dumped because your deck just got bricked, you don’t have a functional Firewall attribute any more, so only use your Willpower. Another danger in the Matrix is having your connection link-locked. This is when another persona or device sends keep-alive signals to your deck (or other device) that force it to cancel any attempt to leave the Matrix. If you’re link-locked, you can’t use the Switch Interface Mode, the Enter/Exit Host, or the Reboot actions on the device your persona is using (probably your deck). You can escape with a successful Jack Out (p. 240) action. Successfully jacking out usually means suffering dumpshock, but at least you’re free. Any persona, be they agent, technomancer, or sprite, can be link-locked. Usually, if you fall unconscious in VR, your commlink or deck automatically switches you to AR. If you’re linklocked, you remain online and in VR. IC typically doesn’t care whether its target is conscious, so it will probably keep attacking you. Spiders are a bit smarter about it but no less ruthless, and they have a lot of options when you’re helpless and stuck in the Matrix. Either way, it’s nasty, since you can’t defend against actions when you’re unconscious. User Modes When you interact with the Matrix, you can do it in one of three modes. In augmented reality, or AR mode, you deal with reality directly, and you use your meat body to interact with the Matrix through AR overlays. In virtual reality, or VR mode, your body goes limp and your only sensory input comes from the Matrix. Basic VR mode is cold-sim, meaning you interact with the Matrix primarily through sight and sound. In hot-sim VR mode, your have the full Matrix experience, involving all of your senses as well as your emotions. You can perform Matrix actions in any of the three modes. Augmented Reality As we’ve described, AR is normal living in physical space with an AR heads-up display. You can see the Matrix if you like, either by creating a virtual window or display screen and viewing it like a camera, or by overlaying device and host information on your normal vision. Your persona can go anywhere in the Matrix using this view. You can even enter hosts, although your icon will appear jerky and slow compared to a VR user in the same node. When in AR, you use your normal Initiative and Initiative Dice. You do not take biofeedback damage, like from the attack of Black IC. If your attention is really focused on your AR display and not your surroundings, your gamemaster may impose a –2 dice pool penalty on any Perception tests you make to notice things going on around you in physical space. Cold-Sim Virtual Reality In cold-sim VR, you’re meshed with the Matrix through simsense filters. This means your brain is protected from dangerous signals, but it makes things a bit slower for you because all data is analyzed by your sim module before it reaches you. Your body relaxes and your meat senses are blocked, as though your body were asleep. You see the Matrix as though you were really there, soaring among the icons. In cold-sim VR, you use your Data Processing + Intuition as your Initiative, and you get +3D6 Initiative Dice (remember that any enhancements or bonuses cannot take you past the maximum of 5D6 Initiative Dice). Whenever you take biofeedback damage, it is Stun damage. Hot-Sim Virtual Reality Hot-sim VR is like cold-sim VR, only the filters are off. You are flooded with simsense signals that can even affect your limbic system, so you can not only see, hear, and touch the Matrix, but you can feel it. Hot-sim uses the same simsense signals as better-than-life chips, which makes it dangerous and even addictive (p. 413), but you can’t get a closer, more intuitive connection with the Matrix. When you are in hot-sim VR mode, you use your Data Processing + Intuition as your Initiative and you get +4D6 Initiative Dice (remember that any enhancements or bonuses cannot take you past the maximum of 5D6 Initiative Dice). You receive a +2 dice pool bonus to all Matrix actions, and you take biofeedback damage as Physical damage. Making Connections The Matrix is a different environment, one that runs parallel with the real world while being deeply connected to it. When you’re flying through the virtual night, there are some things that work a bit differently than they would if you were flying through the physical night. Aside from gravity, that is. Noise Noise is the static on the wireless Matrix. There are a lot of things that can mess with your signal, like nearby electronics, natural and artificial dampening, and even cosmic background radiation. It may seem as if traffic in the Matrix is instantaneous, but ask anyone who has played an online game with someone a few continents away—there is a noticeable delay compared to playing someone next door. When decisions are being made in the blink of an eye, every speed difference matters. The farther you are away from an icon in real life, the harder it is to communicate with it, whether your intentions are harmful or benign. Noise can be reduced with noise reduction, which can be provided by a few different pieces of hardware and software (see Street Gear, p. 416). The most common source of noise is distance from your target, but there are other causes, as listed on the table. There are also spam zones and static zones to deal with. A spam zone has so much traffic (often commercial in nature) that everything gets processed slower. Static zones are areas with either a lot of electromagnetic blockage (like an underground tunnel, labyrinth of sewers, or ruins of a steel office building) or far away from civilization (the middle of a desert, the north pole, adrift in the Pacific, etc.). To figure out how noise is affecting you, start with the noise level from real-world distance to your target and add the noise level from any other applicable situations, then subtract any noise reduction you are using. Any positive noise level you have left over is a negative dice pool modifier to your actions. Noise never applies to defense or resistance tests. Illegal Actions Some Matrix actions are illegal, making them more risky than legal actions. The Matrix was built with security in mind, but of course they couldn’t make it hacker- proof. The list of illegal actions is pretty simple: all Attack and Sleaze actions are illegal. The risks that go with them depend on just what you’re trying to do. If you fail an Attack action, your target’s security software rejects your code, corrupting it and sending it back where it came from. If it was normal data, then your system could check it for errors, but in this case it’s some pretty vicious stuff designed to avoid Firewalls. For every net hit the target got on its defense test, you take 1 box of Matrix damage, which you can’t resist. If you fail a Sleaze action, the target’s Firewall software detects the intrusion and places a mark on you. A device immediately informs its owner, a host launches IC. If the target already has three marks on you, it doesn’t get another, but it still does the informing and launching. Overwatch Score and Convergence The greatest ninjas in the world can’t walk through the desert without moving some sand, and the best hackers in the world can’t hack the Matrix without leaving tiny clues to their passing. GOD and the demiGODs are on the lookout for these kinds of clues, but luckily the Matrix is a really big place, with plenty of places to hide. They’re good, though, and they’ll get you eventually. The more hacking you do, the easier you are to find. When you start using the Matrix after a fresh boot, you’re as pure and innocent as the driven snow (at least as far as the demiGODs are concerned). The moment you perform an illegal action (Attack or Sleaze), you get an Overwatch Score, or OS, that your gamemaster uses to track how much evidence you’ve been leaving in your wake. When you perform an Attack or Sleaze action, your OS increases by the number of hits the target gets on its defense test. The Overwatch Score also increases as time goes by. If the demiGODs have time to analyze your activities, they’ll notice traces of your passing and will start to get closer and closer. Every fifteen minutes after you first start tallying an OS, it increases by another 2D6 (rolled by the gamemaster in secret). When your Overwatch Score hits 40, the jig is up. The nastiness that follows is called convergence. The grid’s demiGOD converges on your trail, and then the fun begins. First, they hit you for 12 DV Matrix damage, which you resist normally. Then they force your persona to reboot, erasing all of your marks and dumping you from the Matrix (causing dumpshock if you were in VR at the time). As if that wasn’t enough, they also report your physical location to the owner of the grid you were just using and the host you were in (if you were in a host), so you might have to deal with some real-life security forces coming to track your ass down. Your gamemaster keeps your Overwatch Score a secret from you. You can use the Check Overwatch Score action or the Baby Monitor program to keep tabs on your OS. You could just wing it, too, if you’ve got a good memory (and the gamemaster is nice enough to tell you how many hits your targets get. Which, honestly, she shouldn’t be, but we don’t control everything). Of course, G-men, security spiders, IC, and other users who are officially sanctioned by GOD never rack up an Overwatch Score, even if they’re really misbehaving. Such is life on the Matrix. And in the meat world, too, come to think about it. Convergence does something slightly different in hosts (Host Convergence, p. 247), but once you poke your head out the demiGOD hammer will fall. Direct Connections Devices have a universal data connector, which is the global standard for connecting devices together for power and data exchange. If you have a cable, you can connect to the device directly. Cyberdecks and datajacks come with a meter of built-in retractable microfilament data cable, or you can always buy a cable for about five nuyen per meter (some devices, especially those installed in buildings, are connected by cables to mitigate noise). When you use a direct connection, you ignore all noise modifiers and modifiers due to being on different grids or the public grid. It’s just you and the device. Some devices don’t have wireless capability. Usually this is because the person who bought the device couldn’t afford one that was less than ten years old, or because they thought they’d be more secure without wireless. These devices are called throwbacks. Throwbacks can’t be accessed by wireless connection, so they can’t be controlled remotely or get a wireless bonus for being connected to the Matrix. They still have universal data connectors, so you can connect to them (and hack them) by jacking in directly. PANs and WANs If you want extra protection for some of your devices, you can slave them to your commlink or deck. Your commlink (or deck) can handle up to (Device Rating x 3) slaved devices, becoming the master device in that particular relationship. The group consisting of your slaved devices plus your master commlink or deck is called a personal area network, or PAN. Slaving gives a weaker device some added protection. Whenever a slaved device is called on to make a defense test, it uses either its own or its master’s rating for each rating in the test. For example, if your slaved smartgun is the target of a hacker’s Brute Force action, it would use your Willpower or its Device Rating, and its Firewall or your commlink’s, whichever is higher in each instance. If a slaved device is under attack via a direct connection (as through a universal data connector), however, it cannot use its master’s ratings to defend itself. There are risks to slaving devices. Because of the tight connections between the devices, if you get a mark on a slave you also get a mark on the master. This happens even if the slave was marked through a direct connection, so be careful about who you give your slaved devices to. This doesn’t work both ways; if you fail a Sleaze action against a slaved device, only the device’s owner gets the mark on you, not the master too. There are also wide area networks, or WANs, with multiple devices slaved to a host. A host can have a practically unlimited number of devices slaved to it, but because of the direct connection hack you rarely see more devices than can be protected physically. If you are in a host that has a WAN, you are considered directly connected to all devices in the WAN. Only devices can be slaves, masters, or part of a PAN. In a WAN, the slaves must be devices, and the master must be a host. Grids You need a grid to access the Matrix. The grid you’re on changes the look of the Matrix slightly, and it also can affect your interactions with other icons. There are three kinds of grids in the Matrix: the public grid, local grids, and global grids. Grids on a Run On a typical shadowrun, you’ll only be dealing with one or two grids, aside from the public one. Most likely, there will be the one you’re typically on (probably your local or public grid) and the one that your targets are on. It’s usually fairly obvious which grid your objectives are using. All the devices and people in a Shiawase facility will be using the Shiawase global grid, for example, while a thrill gang is probably on the public grid, and local law enforcement on the local grid. Different grids have different demiGODs that monitor traffic and keep an eye out for security, which occasionally causes a bit of lag across grids. When you’re attempting a Matrix action against a target on another grid, you take a –2 dice pool penalty. If you want to avoid this penalty, you’ll have to hop to the target’s grid. If you have access to the grid you want, you can just use a Grid-Hop; otherwise you’ll have to get your access by the Brute Force or Hack on the Fly Matrix actions (p. 237). Note that this penalty doesn’t apply when you’re inside a host; it’s only imposed when you’re out on a grid. The Public Grid The public grid is the Matrix’s Barrens. It provides the world with just enough access to let the corporations claim that the Matrix is still free. Data traffic from paid global and local grids is given priority over information flowing to and from the public grid, so connection times are slow and unreliable. As a result, all Matrix actions are performed at a –2 dice pool penalty when you’re using the public grid, even in a host. Local Grids Local grids are available within a specifically defined physical area, such as a sprawl or county. You can only access a local grid if you’re accessing it from the service area, usually the geographic area with which it is associated. For example, the Emerald City local grid is only accessible as long as you’re in Seattle. Outside the sprawl, the Salish-Shidhe ChinookNet becomes the local grid. You can still access things on the Emerald City grid, but you’re now working across grids. Each local grid is usually provided by a AAA or AA megacorp, though the advertising is a bit more muted than you’d find on the more commercial global grids. Global Grids There are ten publicly known global grids, one for each of the Big Ten megacorporations. As you’d guess by the name, global grids are accessible all over the world, even in orbit out to as far as two thousand kilometers from the surface of the Earth. These grids are full of advertising and marketing. Each has its own demiGOD, and those groups share security information and Overwatch Score data freely. The megas don’t agree on much, but they all hate hackers. Devices and PErsonas Devices and personas are the movers and shakers in the Matrix. They’re the only icons that actually do things (except hosts, which do things internally, but let’s stay focused). The difference between the two is that devices usually do things in the real world, while personas do their thing in the Matrix. Devices A device in the Matrix is any wireless device in the real world. Toasters, power tools, vehicles, firearms, fire hydrants, street lights, ear phones, sales and inventory tags, doors and locks, commlinks, pet collars, office equipment, snow blowers, thermostats, drones ... if it’s big enough for a microchip, it’s big enough to house enough computing power to be a device. And if it’s a device, it’s in the Matrix. Devices have a smaller-than-person-sized icon in the Matrix. They also have three ratings: a Device Rating and two of the Matrix attributes, Data Processing and Firewall. For most devices, the Matrix attributes are the same as the Device Rating. When is a device not a device? When it’s a persona! Persona Personas are the “people” of the Matrix. Some personas are actually people, users and hackers who are connected to and using the Matrix. When a person uses a device to connect to the Matrix, the device’s icon is subsumed by the persona’s icon, so it’s basically gone from the Matrix until the persona jacks out. You can only run one persona at a time; switching requires you to reboot both the device you’re currently on and the device to which you want to shift your persona. Some personas are agents, performing tasks on behalf of their owners. Agents running alone on a device replace the device icon the same way a living user does. If you’re running an agent along with your persona, it appears with its own separate persona, even though you’re using the same device. Each IC program has its own persona. IC programs are not connected to devices because they’re only found in hosts (thankfully). Technomancers have a living persona not attached to any device. A technomancer’s persona exists in the Matrix as long as they’re awake, unless they deliberately jack out. When a technomancer compiles a sprite, the sprite has its own persona, too. Matrix Perception The Matrix has a lot of stuff in it. Cars, blenders, light switches, advertising RFIDs, hosts, and everything wireless and/or electronic. You need to be able to find your target in the galaxy of icons before you can start affecting it; finding an icon this way is called spotting it. Lucky for you, the Matrix is very helpful in finding things for you. You can automatically spot the icons of devices that are not running silent within 100 meters of your physical location. No matter where you are in the Matrix, your commlink or deck (or your living persona) only has its own antenna for wireless signals, so this distance is measured from your physical location no matter where you are in the Matrix. Beyond this distance, you need to make a Matrix Perception Test (p. 241) to find a specific icon. For all intents and purposes, there is no “physical” distance to any host in the Matrix. You can always spot a host from anywhere on the planet without a test, assuming the host isn’t running silent. You can always keep track of your marks, so you can spot an icon you have a mark on without a test, no matter the distance. Spotting Duration Once you’ve spotted an icon in the Matrix, you continue to spot it even if it initiates silent running. There are two ways you can lose an icon. If the icon successfully uses a Hide action against you, you lose it and need to try to spot it again. If the target reboots or jacks out, you also lose the icon. Running Silent You can switch your commlink, deck, other device, or persona (including your living persona, technomancers) to silent running. This reduces your traffic to and from the Matrix, but it doesn’t stop it entirely. Running silent makes it easier to avoid detection, but harder to use the Matrix as a whole. Switching to silent running is a Simple Action. Running silent imposes a –2 dice pool modifier to all of your Matrix actions due to the processing power needed to cover your tracks. If you’re trying to find an icon that’s running silent (or if you’re running silent and someone’s looking for you), the first thing you need to do is have some idea that a hidden icon is out there. You can do this with a hit from a Matrix Perception Test; asking if there are icons running silent in the vicinity (either in the same host or within 100 meters) can be a piece of information you learn with a hit. Once you know a silent running icon is in the vicinity, the next step is to actually find it. This is done through an Opposed Computer + Intuition [Data Processing] v. Logic + Sleaze Test. If you get more hits, you perceive the icon as normal; on a tie or more hits by the defender, it stays hidden and out of reach. Note that if there are multiple silent running icons in the vicinity, you have to pick randomly which one you’re going to look at through the Opposed Test. Marks can’t run silent because they’re already pretty hidden, but all other Matrix objects can be switched to silent running by their owners. Noticing Hackers An icon or host might detect you if you perform an Attack or Sleaze action on it. The exact way they can detect you depends on what you’re doing to it. If you succeed with an Attack action, your target becomes aware that it is under attack by another icon, but it doesn’t automatically spot you. It will most likely actively search for you on its next action, although it will almost always alert its owner to the attack and (if it’s a host) launch IC, depending on the owner’s preferences and the gamemaster’s judgment. If you fail with an Attack action, you are not noticed, because you failed to affect your opponent (though note the damage effects of rejected code coming back to you, Illegal Actions, p. 231). On the other hand, if you succeed in a Sleaze action, you do not increase your visibility. If you fail a Sleaze action, however, your target immediately gets one free mark on you (or its owner does if your target is a device). This means it spots you right away, along with the whole owner-alerting and IC-launching thing. recognition keys Want to get into a club where you’ve already paid the cover charge? Show the guy at the door the stamp on the back of your hand. Want to get into a foreign country? Show the border guards the visa stamp on your virtual passport. The Matrix works the same way. If you can show a device or host or whatever that you have the right mark, you can go where you want to go. In Matrix lingo, “mark” is an acronym for Matrix authentication recognition key, which is part of the protocol that devices, personas, files, grids, hosts, and so on uses to identify legitimate users. Only personas may mark icons. When you’re hacking things, putting your mark on it encourages that thing to recognize you as legit. It’s no guarantee—just as a sharp-eyed border guard can nail your visa for being fake, and hosts are sometimes not fooled by your hacked mark—but the more marks you get on something in the Matrix, the more likely it is that you’ll be accepted as a viable user, or even an administrator. Still, security-minded Matrix operators will often have agents or even spiders constantly using Matrix Perception to look for unauthorized marks on sensitive icons (and like security guards in the meat world, these are the people who tend to get taken out first when shadowrunners come calling). There are three ways to get a mark on an icon. The first is the legitimate way: the icon invites you to add a mark. For example, when you pay the cover to get into the host of Dante’s Inferno, the host sends you an invite to mark it so you can enter and join the party. The other two ways are by hacking, both Matrix actions: Brute Force (the loud way) or Hack on the Fly (the sneaky way). In the Matrix, whether in AR or VR, putting a mark on something is usually a very literal action. You approach the icon of your target and slap your personalized mark on the thing. Most passers-by won’t see your mark; it takes a Matrix Perception Test to see that kind of detail. When you put a mark on something, your mark appears on the target icon. Your mark is only visible to you (without the aforementioned Matrix Perception Test). You can choose its look, as long as it meshes with your own persona icon (per Matrix protocols). For example, if your icon is a house cat, your mark might look like a small paw print. If you appear as a ninja in the Matrix, your mark might look like a shuriken buried into your target. You can put multiple marks on a single icon, up to a maximum of three (unless you’re an owner; see below). Different Matrix actions require different numbers of marks on your target. Marks only last a single Matrix session and are deleted when you reboot. This is rarely an issue for most devices because they almost never need to reboot, and when they do the hosts and other services usually have a standing offer, so re-marking them takes seconds. Hackers, by contrast, reboot regularly to avoid detection by GOD and the demiGODs, and they don’t exactly get permission to place most of their marks. If the demi- GODs converge on a hacker (perish the thought), they erase all of the hacker’s marks in the process. Your marks are specific and connected to your persona and whatever you’ve marked, so you can’t just give them out for others to place or transfer them to other people. You can give other personas permission to mark devices you own with the Invite Mark action (p. 240). Owners Every device, persona, host, and file has an owner. This is a special relationship that offers special privileges. Each Matrix object can only have one owner, but you can own as many Matrix objects as you like. The owner of a device, host, persona, or file can always spot it in the Matrix. For all intents and purposes, owning an icon is the same as having four marks on it. Owning a device and being its owner aren’t necessarily the same thing, although they usually go together. Ownership, at least in the Matrix, is something that is registered with both the device (or other icons) and the grids, so it’s a bit more involved than just putting a “Property of [blank]” sticker on it. When a commlink is at the store or in a warehouse, the commlink’s owner is its manufacturer (although sometimes stores get ownership of their goods before the buyer does). When you buy that commlink, the store or manufacturer transfers ownership to you. Corporations and governments use this registration system to keep track of their equipment. A security guard’s weapon might be in her holster, but its owner is the corp that employs her. This makes it relatively simple to track down thieves, deserters, and looters—at least, the ones who can’t hack what they steal. The owner of an icon can intentionally transfer ownership to another persona in a process that takes about a minute. If you steal a smartgun without transferring the ownership, the gun will still behave as though its owner is the guy you stole it from (which can lead to complications if the owner comes looking for it). That means changing ownership is a high-priority action any time you steal a wireless-enabled item. You can illegally change a device’s owner with a Hardware toolkit and an Extended Hardware + Logic [Mental] (24, 1 hour) test. A glitch on that test results in the item sending a report to the authorities. Changing ownership of a file is somewhat easier. Your best bet is to use Edit File to copy it (the copy’s owner is you) and then delete the original, again with the Edit File action. Note that you can’t change the owner of a persona or a host. So sorry, chummer—you can’t steal an entire Stuffer Shack with a quick hack. Matrix Actions As you’ve no doubt guessed from the name, Matrix actions are only available in the Matrix. That’s not to say that they’re the only actions available in the Matrix. Matrix actions are special because certain rules apply to them, like noise and the Overwatch Score. This section is a list of Matrix actions. This list covers a lot of the rules for handling what you can do in the digital world, but of course they’re not the only things you can do in the Matrix. If you want to try something that isn’t handled by these rules, like tweaking your icon to imitate a fashion trend or creating a distracting VR display out of datastreams, your gamemaster will let you know what kind of test you should attempt. When a defense test calls for a Mental attribute, use the owner’s rating. Even if she isn’t currently defending or even interacting with the device, her previous interactions and settings affect the defense test. If a device is completely unattended, the Device Rating stands in for any Mental attributes an icon needs but doesn’t have. For example, a device that an owner sets and forgets, like a door lock, uses its Device Rating in place of Intuition as part of the defense pool against a Control Device action. Programs Programs (technically cybeprograms if they’re for the Matrix) are files you can run on your deck. While a program is running, it makes your deck better or gives you more utility. You can’t run more than one program of the same type on your deck at once (and no, changing the name of one copy of a program to run two copies doesn’t work, chummer). You get the benefit of a program while it is running on your deck; as soon as you end it or swap it out for another program, it stops providing those benefits. Your running programs appear as icons connected to your persona. As with all icons in the Matrix, the actual look of the program is customizable, but its look is generally tied to its purpose. A Hammer program might look like a hammer, a tommy gun, or a spiked baseball bat, but it can’t look like a pocket watch or a trivet. Program icons are generally small in size, but the shape can be anything you think of that is thematically linked to its purpose (and approved by your gamemaster). Programs come in two categories. Common programs are ones that are pretty harmless and available most everywhere for hobbyists and Matrix professionals. Hacking programs are more dangerous and illegal to buy, own, or use without a license. Agents Agents are autonomous programs that are rated from 1 to 6. Each agent occupies one program slot on your deck. Agents use the Matrix attributes of the device they run on, and their rating (up to 6) for attributes. Agents also have the Computer, Hacking, and Cybercombat skills at a rating equal to their own. An agent runs as a program and can use programs running on the same device as them. You can have your agent perform Matrix actions for you. When an agent is running, it has its own persona (and icon). An agent is about as smart as a pilot program of the same rating (Pilot Programs, p. 269). Any attack on an agent damages the device on which it is running, rather than the agent itself (which is, after all, merely a program). This means that if you’re running an agent on your deck, you and it share the same Matrix Condition Monitor. Hosts Hosts in the Matrix are like a mini-Matrix on the grid. From the outside, it is a large icon, often sculpted to look like a building or some other place you can actually visit. Most are floating above the Matrix’s virtual airspace, but some are tethered to physical locations, mostly stores, clubs, local venues, and other places that are heavily associated with a particular site in meat space. The virtual space inside a host is separate from the outside grid. When you’re outside of a host, you can’t interact directly with icons inside it, although you can still send messages, make commcalls, and that sort of thing. Once you’re inside, you can see and interact with icons inside the host, but not outside (with the same caveat for messages, calls, etc.). When you enter a host, your persona actually enters the host icon. This can be through a door or other portal, but some hosts let you just pass through its outer skin. The inside of a host isn’t limited by its external size, and it usually ranges between the size of a large house and that of a large metroplex. The higher the host’s rating, the bigger it tends to be, but that’s not a hard-and-fast rule. Each host is on a specific grid. Like the rest of the Matrix, a host can be accessed from any grid. Hosts are part of the Matrix, so once you’re inside a host, the grid you’re on doesn’t really matter. The Grid Overwatch Division tracks traffic to and from a host, which means it’s still watching you when you’ve entered a host, though it does not closely monitor what you do there. Hosts don’t have to depend on GOD for protection. A host can run intrusion countermeasures, or IC, to defend itself. These programs are personas that seek out and repel or punish hackers. IC is ruthless and efficient, with the personality of a heart attack and the mercy of an empty clip in a firefight. You can fight off IC, but the host can always spawn more, so you can’t really win against IC. You can just hold it off long enough to get things done. Host Archives Hosts have areas called archives that hold files that aren’t in use. File archives are deep in the host’s code, inaccessible to the average hacker. If you want an archived file, you’ll have to convince someone who already has a mark on the file to bring it out of the archive first. Host Attributes Hosts have a Host rating. Unlike the ratings of devices, the Host rating ranges from 1 to 12. Hosts also have all four Matrix attributes: Attack, Sleaze, Data Processing, and Firewall. The ratings of these attributes are usually (Host Rating), (Host Rating + 1), (Host Rating + 2), and (Host Rating + 3), in any order. For example, a Rating 4 host might have Attack 5, Sleaze 4, Data Processing 7, Firewall 6. A host’s attributes are shared by itself and its IC programs. Host Convergence GOD doesn’t track personas inside a host, but it still keeps tabs on the traffic to and from the host. This means your Overwatch Score doesn’t change when you enter a host, and it continues to accumulate while you’re in the host. If you’re in a host when you reach convergence, you’re not burned and dumped like you are out on the grid (Overwatch Score and Convergence, p. 231). Instead, the host gets three marks on you and starts deploying IC. If you leave a host after convergence, the grid’s demiGOD converges on you immediately. You’re better off just jacking out from the host.