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Rules: grapple and hack

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Thu, 2015-07-09 21:29

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

Rules: grapple and hack

I have a player who wants to hack in combat, preferably with Access Jacks and direct connection. How feasible is this? Subduing and grabbing doesn't seem to hard, but is there a reason why this wouldn't work? He intends to sleeve inside a Reduced Size trait Arachnoid morph to sneak around and leap upon robots and synths and hack them (Ghost in the Shell style). Secondary concern: he used Transhuman's package system and chose: Earth Survivor (3 PP), Feral Uplift (3 PP), Singularity Seeker (1 PP) and Assassin (1 PP). What does someone with those packages look like?!

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Exhuman, and Humanitarian.

Thu, 2015-07-09 22:04

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

Someone I would sleep with a

Someone I would sleep with a gun under my pillow if they were in the next room. definitely not completely sane by transhuman standards; will have odd habits and probably some rather unsettling desires the benefit to a direct connection is that a few steps of the hacking process can be bypassed but it relies on the hostile morph in question to have access jacks. second this is going to potentially give some nasty penalties trying to keep that physical connection as the target will be actively trying to shake off the player, arachnoid form factor will help with it somewhat

Fri, 2015-07-10 15:56

Trappedinwikipedia Trappedinwikipedia's picture

The problem I see is that

The problem I see is that physical access to the access jacks doesn't bypass the firewall. Sitting on a morph for the 1 to 10 minutes that a standard intrusion attempt takes isn't very feasible without getting the jacks unplugged. Brute forcing could reduce the time to two actions turns, much more doable, but that requires 90% time reduction, which requires significant investment. You're dealing with a fundamentally inhuman botched uplift, depending on what it is, it could be a literal wolf in sheep's clothing. Add in Singularity Seeking and professional killing and you're dealing with someone who probably can't function in normal society very well.

Fri, 2015-07-10 17:24

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

He dropped "Profession:

He dropped "Profession: Assassin" to "Profession: Scavenging" and decided that the Assassin package represented less professional murder and more of the sneaky, combat related skills he would need to sneak around Earth or other Quarantine Zones. He intended to be a hacker, and wanted to skip the Mesh/wireless hacking element, thus wanted to replicate that feat of hacking that has shown up in all of the GitS franchises (subdue and then plug into their necks thing). So that sort of hacking is unfeasible or at least not effective?

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Exhuman, and Humanitarian.

Fri, 2015-07-10 18:16

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

I'd say risky

Fri, 2015-07-10 18:34

Trappedinwikipedia Trappedinwikipedia's picture

It works, and its pretty much

It works, and its pretty much the only way to break into a cyberbrain. It just takes a while, so subduing them would be important. A freezer would probably be fairly ideal for that, but its not the only way. It does bypass many of the most difficult to bypass security measures (complex ID requirements and encryption) but the firewall is still a problem.

Fri, 2015-07-10 19:39

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

Would carrying a suitcase

Would carrying a suitcase full of KAOS AI help?

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Exhuman, and Humanitarian.

Fri, 2015-07-10 23:36

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

I'd put it in a specialized

I'd put it in a specialized barrier module like the major sometimes uses. kinda cross between a ghost rider and hardware firewall

Sat, 2015-07-11 03:47

Trappedinwikipedia Trappedinwikipedia's picture

A KAOS AI could perform the

A KAOS AI could perform the hack, which would allow the character full action use while breaking the firewall occurs. It could also be used to assist during the hack (a muse could as well, and the help would stack) making it easier, and likely, faster. Pricy, but it would definitely help.

Sat, 2015-07-11 16:57

#10

Praxis Cat Praxis Cat's picture

I would say both unfeasible

I would say both unfeasible and uneffective. First, if they have a gun and he's bum rushing them, he's going to get hurt (already a -10 from a probable wound). Hacking a cyberbrain has a -30 penalty, and since he's distracted if in combat, that's another -20. So he's at a -50 penalty. He can use a moxie to negate that penalty, sure, but then you're spending moxie on something that he wants to do on-the-reg. Then there's additional problems. Every action turn that he's hacking, he has to repeat the grapple attempt AND reroll for his hack. Then you get into even more difficulties: If they have a buddy, he's not going to be able to effectively move, and I wouldn't grant him fray, so he's literally a sitting duck to take more damage (more wound penalties). If the character has eelware, that's another place where your character goes wrong. Or they can set off a grenade and blow both of them up. A Kaos AI could help, but it's [Expensive] (at 20,000 I think), and only gets a +10. If he wants to use multiple, I would make him pay out 60,000 or 3 Level 5 favors.

Sat, 2015-07-11 17:41

#11

Trappedinwikipedia Trappedinwikipedia's picture

You could also spray them

You could also spray them down with a freezer to make access easier, and I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to just copy a single KAOS AI 3 times and run them all. You'd probably need to give them some time to folk properly to help one another but it should work I think.

Sat, 2015-07-11 17:46

#12

Praxis Cat Praxis Cat's picture

You can, but I would rule it

You can, but I would rule it as them having prioritization problems / not being all able to handle tasks with the same efficiency, as a game balance thing. You'd also need somewhere to put them, like 2 or 3 ghost rider modules or ectos hanging around.

Tue, 2015-07-14 08:57

#13

ThatWhichNeverWas ThatWhichNeverWas's picture

Once again you fail me, Brain.

I can't remember the name, but isn't there a set of Plugs which disable Synthmorphs when pluged into thier access jacks?

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In the past we've had to compensate for weaknesses, finding quick solutions that only benefit a few. But what if we never need to feel weak or morally conflicted again?

Tue, 2015-07-14 11:27

#14

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

There's a black bag I know

There's a black bag I know offhand. I suspect the player, an avid crunchy-game player of Pathfinder and the like, expects to fight giant robots more than he will. He may be disappointed as I haven't gotten a single giant robot encounter prepared for the eight episodes I am have charted out (of which they are about to do #2 this Thursday).

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Exhuman, and Humanitarian.

Tue, 2015-07-14 13:50

#15

Trappedinwikipedia Trappedinwikipedia's picture

The disabler is what you're

The disabler is what you're thinking of. Turns off things with cyberbrains while attached.

Tue, 2015-07-14 16:02

#16

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

He will want to get those

He will want to get those then. It sounds like hacking someone while on their back is not a good strategy.

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Exhuman, and Humanitarian.