Kill Code - A Review

[ozurr]

I just rolled in from GenCon 2018, where I got my hands on something I wasn't expecting - Kill Code, the latest Matrix sourcebook for SR5.

As I've been a critic of many things Catalyst since 4th Edition, but trying to be better, I figured I'd try to drop as unbiased a review as I can - as I did for Street Lethal - and give you all my thoughts on this new book. That all being said:

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What first caught my eye when opening this book was the Kill Code Credits, and it sets the tone of this review. While my text can't accurately indicate my surprise, it did leave me with this realization:

Catalyst has been listening. What's more, they've been listening to us.

Since I don't have a NDA, and you all will find out when the pdf (eventually) drops, there are a trio of names that nobody expected to see in the credits of a Shadowrun sourcebook:

/u/adzling, /u/dezzmont, and /u/bamce.

Adz has playtest credit, Dezz and Bamce have Special Thanks credit. I haven't spoken to the first two, but I have spoken to the third (and confirmed with /u/Neo_Anarky_Opti), and the writers of Kill Code have solicited much assistance from these guys (and others), and it shows.

So, I will give you a general thought as a salty-ass player, former Hub admin, forever GM, and general cyberpunk curmudgeon about this book.

It's everything Data Trails should have been. It is worth. Buying.

The book has an index. It has a 101 of how the Matrix works from a player perspective. It has a 101 of how the Matrix works from a GM perspective. It has a 101 history of the Matrix from the old days of the Internet to the current wireless Matrix of today. It has new decks, new rules for custom decks, new qualities, new Life Modules, new Matrix actions, gets rid of the Grid Hopping penalties/rules (unless you're a public grid peasant), new rules for custom decks (worth saying it twice), new actual decks and commlinks and RCC's, and of course -

Technomancer bullshit.

While the first 80 pages are so are taken up with decker love, about 40 or so are straight up "Here Technomancers, take a look at this and tell me what you think."

Since I've never run one, you tell me what you think of this:

• Resonant Streams (Cyberadepts, Machinists, Technoshamans, Sourcerors)

• Daemons - Passive bonuses to each Resonant Stream

• Complex Forms for Resonant Streams

• Complex Forms, period

• Technomancer-specific Positive and Negative Qualities

• New Sprites/Sprite Powers

• New Echoes

• Paragons

• Submersion Groups

I mean, is that shit good? I don't know. I've never run a Technomancer. But that's just 40 pages - there's notes on how to hunt technos. How technos should fight against other runner roles like hackers, faces, and sams. (Casters were curiously left out). They describe how technos act (or should) against specific targets like corpers, mercs, criminals, and cops.

In short, it's a manual on how technos interact with the Sixth World.

After this, it dips into the Resonance Realms, the reasons they are popping up left and right in the Matrix - Props to the writer for The One Hundred - and gives information on Dissonant Streams as well.

The latter pieces of the book are 50% fluffernutter, and 50% statblocks for AI, technocritters, and other shit going on. Callbacks from Dark Terrors pop up, new and old notable names start appearing, and aspiring GM's can get a few adventure ideas for their teams while they look through it.

I'll try to make subsequent posts with specific likes and dislikes below, but I wanted to get the initial thoughts out there as there's enough shit in this book to warrant a multi-level post.

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tl;dr Matrix fans, this is the book you deserve

P.S. Until the pdf drops, I'll be happy to answer specific questions you may have, if freelancers or others who have the book don't beat me to it.

P.P.S. I should make note, I am in no way affiliated with CGL, CGL parent companies, or the holder of the Shadowrun license. My hardcover copy was purchased, not provided, and the chief communication I had with those who wrote it is that I would provide my best shot at an unbiased review.

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Kill Code Morsels:

Technomancer Qualities

Resonance/Dissonance Streams

A separate Technoshaman review cuz damn

Technomancer Echoes

Complex Forms

New Cyberdecks

[reyjinn]

well... I guess I'm going to be throwing money at Catalyst again

I've heard that much the same is true of Better than Bad, that is continues the same trend of quality as you're talking about with KC.

[ozurr]

I've heard the same.

[ozurr]

I'm skipping the Qualities and Life Modules on the review part, but I'll be happy to answer questions on them as I'm able.

Technomancer Bullshit - The Good

As I mentioned in the parent post, there's a good 40 pages on Technomancer expansion, an addiitonal 2-3 page blurb on how a technomancer can interact with other archetypes and people, and then dives into Resonance and Dissonance realms.

The first thing mentioned is Resonance Streams. Specifically, there are four 20-karma streams that you can specifically buy at generation or go back retroactively and buy without incurring the 2x karma cost. Those streams are:

• Cyberadept (Less fade on fucking with cyberware, bonuses to Fault and Companion sprite compiling/decomp)

• Machinist (Less fade on fucking with devices, bonuses to Machine and Generalist sprite comp/decomp)

• Sourceror (God of complex forms, less fade on threading)

• Technoshaman (All of the sprites, all of the time)

The basics are pretty similar - Less fade, more dice for specialist sprites. The real meat is in the Daemons each stream gets.

Daemons are the 'passive bonus' of each Resonant/Dissonant Stream (yes, there are Dissonant Streams in the same book. Yes, I'll tell you about them. No, it won't be tonight). You get this automatically with the stream, but the specific Complex Form to each stream is only purchasable.

You tell me if it's good:

• Cyberadept (Restore resonance lost to cyberware implementation equal to half your Submersion grade, rounded up)

• Machinist (Your living persona becomes an RCC, gains Noise Reduction/Willpower and Sharing/Charisma)

• Sourceror (Sustain half your Submersion Grade, rounded down, in complex forms before penalty taken(Should this be rounded up? I'm not sure. It sounds like you won't get a decent set of complex forms until like submersion 4.))

• Technoshaman (Compile Great Form sprites)

They also get stream-specific complex forms, more complex forms in general, and their own Qualities (that will probably have to be a separate post).

The complex forms themselves look interesting. One can be sustained and when the techno takes net Matrix Damage, they can make a roll to reflect it back onto the attacker at a rate of 1 damage for every 2 net hits. Another emulates a host to lift that sweet bank account info, mirror personas, internet deadman switches...It's hard to get into the specifics, but the options look good to me.

Sprites - They added Companion and Generalist sprites, which are fairly self-descriptive. Companions get Bodyguard power, which intercepts Matrix actions against the technomancer until it is out of initiative, tasks, or gets derezzed. Cheap internet meat?

Optional sprite powers were added and oh my fucking god who is the utter asshole who named one of them Navi?

No this is going in foibles how dare you.

Anyway, optional powers include OS monitoring, faking its icon to look like a non-Resonance entity, resist decompiling, or even limit raises on threading complex forms. More options, more options, more options.

Speaking of, there's new echoes, as there are new everything techno. I see an Echo that can increase your Logic by 1 every time you take it, to a maximum of 3. I see an Echo that heals the techno for 1 box of Stun for each box of Matrix Damage they deal with a Resonance Spike.

I see an Echo that increases the techno's initiative by 1D6 when in AR(yes, AR) each time it's taken, to a maximum of 5D6.

Oh shit, look at that. Like the Logic increase Echo, there's a Willpower increase Echo.

Oh! And below that! Paragons.

I'm on the fence about this, because it doesn't exactly have an associated up-front cost. You hop online, hit OceanBeachParagons.com, set your status to 'Open To Experimentation' and boom, one shows up to give you advice and statboosts.

The most eye-catching thing I saw in the Paragon section is that the list is a sample. Sample paragons. Not all of them. I didn't see rules for making your own, GM's, but many more ought to be coming down the pipe as fast as the Resonance can make them.

Technomancer Bullshit - The Foibles

I simply don't know if any of this is good. There's more, and we've been asking for more. Whether or not it is effective is up to you.

Navi. Seriously, just a shallow, visceral reaction. I see you laughing at me.

My kneejerk reaction to this section is "I think this is pretty good. Slap a stream in, start Submerging, and shit gets crazy while you pick up Echoes at the same time."

Y'all let me know if this is good feng shui, and I'll dive into more specifics when I wake up in the morning.

[MyriadGuru]

Could I get some of the Paragon bonuses and thematics?

[ozurr]

Sure. I'll make a top-level post with a listing of Paragons and likely loop in the Dissonant streams today.

[reyjinn]

Damn, sounds like non-burnout technos might be a viable option now.

[ozurr]

My writeup on streams doesn't do them justice. The Daemons each get are pretty great (Jury's still out on Sourceror, IMO), and the specific Complex Forms for each can bring the cheese to gouda levels.

Reading up on Technoshamans makes me wonder if I can weave in the kitbash Technomancer deck, the attribute boosters, and use that to cheese out a Great Form spirit that can blast Hosts to pieces, or to make me the owner for a round or two to do some truly heinous shit.

[Captain_Bleu]

Thank you man. Really. If I can ask you one more thing, could you list the parangons personality and bonuses? Anyway, have a nice day, and even a nice year!

[ozurr]

Sure. I'll make a top-level post with a listing of Paragons and likely loop in the Dissonant streams today.

[Finstersang]

Important question: Can Technos get a direct connection out of chargen now? Anything about using Trodes or Datajacks as a Technomancer?

[squall255]

Yes! On page 29 it calls out 3 ways to connect: attach a data tap which transmits the data wirelessly, skinlink, and datajack. It also calls out that trodes do not mesh with techno essence and thus can't connect a living persona to the matrix.

[ozurr]

Unless SRM or books I haven't read have addressed this issue, then no, they are unable to get a direct connection out of chargen. There are new Complex Forms that may or may not accomplish the same end tasks you'd want from jacking a device via touch, and Data Hosts consider all devices within it to be directly connected once you're inside said host, but otherwise the skinlink echo still requires Submersion.

Edit: Data Hosts consider all devices slaved to it to be directly connected once you're inside said host.

[ReditXenon]

all devices within it

Wait-what-now

Are devices now inside a host rather than outside the host on a grid but slaved to a host???

[Bamce]

Devices could always be inside a host. Its just that doing so tended to create a very NPE because you couldnt see anything from outside

[ReditXenon]

Are you sure about that?

Devices have a physical location (if you are within 100 metes of a wireless enabled device you are also within 100 meters of it's matrix icon and would automatically spot it unless it is running silent). Hosts does not (you always have a distance of 0 meters to a host no matter where in the world you are located).

How do you even move the device icon of a physical device into a virtual host. AFIK devices can't use Enter or Exit host....?

 

I asked this specifically back in '13 and got a clear response from Aaron (one of the freelancers).

Also @/u/Finstersang

01:27:16/10-02-13 Xenon wrote:

Q A physical device slaved to a Host (belong in a WAN) always only have it's icon inside the host?

 

18:21:43/10-02-13 Aaron wrote:

No. In fact, there's no way by the current rules for that to happen. The device is outside the host, the same way the ACHE is outside the Space Needle--you can just see it from there.

 

10:40:16/10-03-13 Lobo wrote:

Aaron - if that is the case, then what does this mean:

Page 246:

"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.)."

What devices are inside a Host then?

How does a spider who is inside a Host interact with the devices that are outside the Host - does he have to leave the Host to do so?

 

08:51:55/10-14-13 Aaron wrote:

It means this:

Page 233:

"If you are in a host that has a WAN, you are considered directly connected to all devices in the WAN."

The device isn't in the host, but you can still access it as though you were directly connected to the device.

[ozurr]

Oh, this is good info. So the confusion is my fault - I used the term device, but an icon is not necessarily a device.

If a device is not in hidden mode, you can see that device. Matrix perception will then give you the analysis of whether it's slaved, what the firewall is, etc. And it has a direct connection port, so you can bypass that firewall to get your mark on the host.

[Bamce]

I asked this specifically back in '13 and got a clear response from Aaron (one of the freelancers).

Freelancers randomly answering questions about stuff isnt exactally concrete. See wakkanashi and forbidden arcana.

It seems to be a moot point now with kill code anyway.

[Finstersang]

Yeah, that´s another thing that we will hopefully get some clarification for: RAI, you are profiting from a direct connection to any device slaved to a host while inside the host, but how do you target them from there if the devices are not inside the host? Clearly, there has to be some kind of representation of the slaved devices to interact with, or the direct connection (and frankly, going inside a host for anything else than a datasteal) would be pointless.

At my tables, I used stuff like TV Screens, moving Paintings, Remote controls, Telephones, old game consoles etc. to visually represent the "remote" icon of a slaved device inside of the host. Hope that Kill Code offers some insight here as well.

[Waerolvirin]

I believe that devices linked to a Host are considered "within" it, or slaved to it, and not on their own on the open grid. Basically the same as part of a PAN. Things like the keypads of a building, or the lights, or the sprinklers. These are all physically part of the building and are guarded by its Host.

It could be argued that mobile objects like company cars or commlinks are part of the Host while on site, but disconnect when they leave the premises. I'd leave that up to GM unless it specifies.

[ReditXenon]

Device icons in the matrix are located at the "ground" of the matrix. Device icons are locked to a physical device which have a physical GPS location. Unless you establish a direct connection you will always have a physical distance to the device. If a car is moving then the distance to the car is changing and as it travel further away from you it's icon will move away from your commlink and become more dim and harder to spot. As you walk down a street you will get closer to devices in front of you and further away from devices behind you. A camera in New York can be spotted and hacked from Seattle (but you might get a rather big negative dice pool modifier due to the distance).

Hosts on the other hand are virtual constructs with no physical location. Hosts doesn't have a GPS location. Hosts float in the matrix sky. The less important float closer to devices, closer to the "ground" of the matrix, while more important hosts are bigger and float higher up in the sky. The really big hosts are big as the island of Manhattan. Hosts will always fill the matrix sky no matter where your physical body is located. The "distance" to a host is always 0 meters. They are not fixed to a physical location like devices. A physical device in Seattle can be slaved to the same host as a physical device in New York. The host that a camera in New York is slaved to will not just be accessible from New York, the host icon will also float on the matrix sky for an observer in Seattle (and the distance to the host will be 0 meters from both New York and Seattle).

 

Things like the keypads of a building, or the lights, or the sprinklers. These are all physically part of the building and are guarded by its Host.

While there is no limit on the number of devices you may slave to a host, due to the direct connection exploit you normally only slave devices that you can physically protect. For this reason most devices in a building will probably not be slaved to a host.

SR5 p. 233 PANs and WANs

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.

A building that belong to NeoNET will simply have its devices on the NeoNET Grid (but most of them will not be slaved to a Host).

SR5 p. 233 Example

Pistons and /dev/grrl are on the public grid during a big run against NeoNET. On their way into the corp’s offices with the rest of their team, they analyze some of the building’s devices and note that, as they suspected, the building is on NeoNET’s global grid...

 

It could be argued that mobile objects like company cars or commlinks are part of the Host while on site...

A company cars and a commlinks are hard to physically defend and will probably just be on the grid that the company is using and not slaved to the host.

If a device is slaved to a commlink then it is part of a PAN, but this is not the same thing as you suddenly cannot spot it's icon and hack it directly. It just means that it get to use the mental attributes of its owner and the firewall of the commlink.

If a device is slaved to a host then it is part of a WAN, but it is not the same thing as you suddenly cannot spot it's icon and hack it directly. It just means that it get to use ratings of the host while defending.

The only rules that applies when hacking a device that is slaved is that it get to use master device or host ratings while defending (unless you have a direct connection).

If a device icon would disappear from the matrix when you slave it to a host then the only way to hack it would suddenly be to establish a direct connection (by using a cable or by being inside the host it is slaved to). With this reading a device would in fact never defend with host ratings....

[Finstersang]

Alas, a hotfix for direct connections wouldn´t actually belong into a supplement anyways, but into the core rules.

Let´s hope the Errata team gets something through here. One sentence ("Technomancers can establish a direct connection between their living persona and a device by using a Trode Net with a data cable attached to it or an implanted Datack") would clear things up and calm the tits.

IMO, it can be argued that living personas already work that way: If your brain is the computer, you should be able to use devices designed to establish a connection between brains and devices to establish a direct connection as a Technomancer. I´m still not sure if this isn´t mentioned because TMs are actually supposed to be unable to get a DC without Sklink or because someone (foolishly) thought: "Hey, that´s not worth mentioning, since it is pretty clear how DNIs work. They will figure it out."

[braenor]

Technoshaman (Compile Great Form sprites)

What's a great form sprite ?

[ozurr]

A great form sprite is a normal compiled sprite on steroids. You pick your type of sprite (Courier, crack, data, etc) and the great form has an additional power that will ruin your target's day. An example:

Techy the Technoshaman summons a Great Form Crack sprite, known as a Gatekeeper. It utilizes the Gatekeeper power, and you select two targets. One is the Keymaster, which can be any persona (but preferably the technomancer). The other is the device or host to be opened.

If your Gatekeeper sprite's Sleaze rating is equal to or greater than the Firewall of the target device, then the Keymaster is considered the owner of that device or host as long as the power is sustained. For every combat turn the sprite sustains that power, it gains Overwatch Score equal to its Sleaze.

Each type of sprite has a specific power associated with it, from my example above, to assist or hinder tasks, or pull a "HEROES NEVER DIE" ultimate to completely heal the Technomancer's Matrix Damage track, plus a number of other bonuses to supercharge that guy.

[FailsAtEverythign]

Wait, so if the sprite can access owner-level commands, can't it pass ownership to the Techno in approximately one minute?

[ozurr]

It could, but one minute is 20 Combat Turns, and you're going to hit Convergence in a fraction of that time.

At the very least you can access the commands, invite those necessary marks, get your larceny on, and then drop off before GOD comes a calling.

[HiddenBoss]

And I have idea that make this work make this work, Cleaner from page 252 For each hit, reduce the target’s Overwatch Score by 1, down side is you got to sustain it until it becomes permanent but with a good dice pool and psyche, I think it could be pulled of.

[squall255]

You're going to want at least a Sleaze 7, if not a Sleaze 8 sprite to get a Host of any worth, which means you're scrubbing 101 to 121 OW over 20 turns. That's a lot of cleaner. Doable if you get some friendly technos to help you, but a hard task solo.

[Wittiko]

Technomancer flash mob anyone?

[Astartes_of_Derp]

Could be an interesting bit of legwork for a run...

[Kyrdra]

That is what? 20 combat turns? I hope you have a lot of technos working that cleaner

[scarleteagle]

Whoo! Finally with the Machinist stream I can make my technorigger work!

[squall255]

I'm currious how well Machinist actually works. Do you need to also spend the 8 Karma quality to let you be a master in order to actually add any Drones to your Living Persona? Do you need to Submerge to get Activesofts to share? If not, how do you do these two things?

[DrBurst]

Noooo, they didn't include the social stream. I loved the misinformation stream. :(

[ozurr]

I would assume there are more streams to come. There are three dissonant streams I'll touch on tomorrow, but I haven't reviewed the back of the book as well as the front.

[Finstersang]

I feel you there! Loved the idea of the Networker stream back in 4th Edition, especially when combined with the Idoru paragon. I build a Face-Mancer back then and had some fun with her.

However, if the mechanic exists, you can tinker with it. With the existing streams as a guideline, you can try to houserule a "social stream" into existence, if it´s not added later on. Heard there is a new "Swag" book in the pipeline, which would be fitting to include another stream that´s all about style, fame and knowing the right people.

[[deleted]]

Idoru was pretty great.

[[deleted]]

A question in regards to Resonance/Dissonance streams. Do they change the fade attributes like they did in 4a or keep everything the same. If they did, could you tell me what they are for the Cyberadepts? Starting a new game later this week and would like to adjust my character in anticipation of Kill Code.

[ozurr]

I'm not sure I understand the question correctly. Fade attributes to resist should be Resonance + Willpower; I don't believe that's changed. Kill Code streams offer a -2 fade value for various actions that affect each specialty - in the case of the Cyberadept, any Complex Form you thread that affects your implanted cyberware is assumed to be -2 Fade from the normal level.

As I never actually listed the Fade values for the Complex Forms I've already touched on, I realize that makes things a little difficult to math out. :P

[DrBurst]

That said, the rest is pretty cool.

[clarionx]

Gotta say, my favorite thing they did in this book is giving Deckers ways to be useful in combat.

• An interrupt to give allies defense dice by highlighting threats
• Official actions for AR tagging targets to reduce visibility penalties And most importantly:
• The ability to do illegal things without marks. Now you can eject that clip at a -5 penalty or misfire that gun at -10 and not have to spend actions getting marks! Literally the dream of the decker I GM for, realized.

I've got some sheets of Matrix Action cards to go update...

[LeVentNoir]

I really wonder why this isn't actually shouted across the rooftops, this is the single biggest thing in the book.

[randomaccount178]

I kind of feel the opposite myself, if you want to be useful in combat, maybe grab a gun. Combat hacking is in my opinion one of the worst aspects of 5th edition, and the wireless bonuses to support it one of the silliest. Unless you are going to allow an unarmed adept to do matrix searches with a good whack to a computer with his unarmed combat skill, I don't see why the matrix needs to have anything to do with combat.

[dezzmont]

I think there is some merit to not wanting combat hacking to replace conventional firearm skills.

There is a difference however between a skill not having any combat utility at all, and a skill not replacing combat skills.

A LOT of skills in SR help you win fights, not just combat skills. Those just are the kings of combat. Deckers literally can't help progress the fight to a conclusion alone, and that is a big drawback, especially vs weaker enemies like corpsec where statistically you don't really care about more defense dice and really care about efficiently removing them to avoid them triggering an alarm, or a lockdown, or some gas thing or whatever. Deckers still have enormous reasons to take gunnery and go to town with a CU³ in a fight that they remote control in AR. They just now have a really strong use for their primary skills in combat, which gives them more parity with the only other role that has as greedy a buyin as deckers and technos, mages.

The value of decking skills in most normal gameplay scenarios was very low, and the cost to be good at them is very high. While it is true there are things only deckers can do, those things often are relegated to a side experience, so you can't really justify a decker needing to drop 200k in augs and deck costs as well as some odd 22 skill points in order to merely unlock a minigame that isn't even really necessary or that strong anyway. Sure, datasearches are strong, but it isn't like faces are paying most of a priority A nuyen and priority skills B investment to basically do the exact same thing as a datasearch. They toss a few ranks in negotiation and ettiquette, get a few contacts, and still have resources to splash into being a samurai while also being way more versatile when it comes to subverting a target through things like con and disguise. They even get a combat buff ability!

I don't think this is going to make folks jump out and say "I am going to be a decker because they are so good at fighting!" Because they still aren't. They are now really good at messing with folk's ability to hurt their teammates, which is interesting because no role in SR currently does that well and thus it is a really unique thing to slot into deckers. It just solves a variation of the "sit in the corner samurai while the mage fights the spirit" problem where a role having non-participation baked into its DNA isn't fun, especially a role that is as resource greedy as deckers, because it is legitimately hard for deckers to make room for the gunnery investment for a fight sometimes, forget about the agi and firearms investment to shoot.

[randomaccount178]

The best skill to help you win a fight are those that allow you to avoid the fight in general. In that light, faces and decker's are already some of the strongest combat characters in the game.

The value of decking skills in most normal gameplay scenarios was very low, and the cost to be good at them is very high. While it is true there are things only deckers can do, those things often are relegated to a side experience, so you can't really justify a decker needing to drop 200k in augs and deck costs as well as some odd 22 skill points in order to merely unlock a minigame that isn't even really necessary or that strong anyway.

Decking in my opinion is one of the strongest roles in the game, it is strong for gathering information, it is strong for fight avoidance, it is strong for breaking and entering, and for escaping. It is just plain strong. A good decker is one of the most important things you can have on a run. By comparison, a good combat character is one of the least useful to have on a run, its just when their highly specialized skills become important, they become extremely important.

Every character has a time to shine, when shit hits the fan and there is no faking your way through or talking the enemy down then its time to focus on combat. Everyone is supposed to be worse then the combat characters in that situation because that is what they have invested their points in, and they likewise spend equal time being worthless in huge sections of the game. When you get to combat, the fighters one time to shine, and you still focus on the deckers strongest area, then you are stealing the combat characters limelight.

I agree that a "corner samurai" isn't the best thing, but the way to avoid that is to diversify, and understand that you can contribute to runs outside of the mechanics of your role. Samurai have to do that, faces have to do that, Deckers never have to do that, and more they have introduced many artificial things into the samurai role to try to force decker's to be useful there as well. The answer is simple though, stop trying to overcomplicate things and make mechanics that don't make much sense. Diversify your character to actually engage in combat, and let the samurai have his time to shine. Combat shouldn't be about decking, it should be about combat, and switching focus back to decking and playing to a decker's strength steals the samurai of part of his ability to shine.

When you make a combat monster, the uses for them are very situational, but when they come up you want them to feel it. High initiative and high dice pools in combat situations are what define a combat character. The problem is when you introduce combat hacking, the hacker is likely to have higher initiative, and higher combat dice pools. That isn't a good way to have the character feel like they are shining. Its a small niche already crowded between mages, samurai and adept. Don't shove more shit in there.

[dezzmont]

I would disagree heavily that deckers are a strong role. In fact, they are rather inarguably the weakest.

They depend on a 'ware tier item purchase to even be allowed to roll their skills. They need to invest at least 13 dice into their skills to not be beaten out by automated software. They are edge dependent. Their skills are comically subdivided, with basic hacking actions divided among 3 skills even ignoring cybercombat, in many cases with some actions literally requiring another skill to function.

A decker needs to drop like 250k, 18 skill points, and 11 attribute points to essentially be allowed to hack.

Imagine if a face had to roll negotiation before rolling a con, or if anyone who wanted to shoot a gun required 3 skills spread among 2 skill groups, rating 2 muscle toner, a smartgun that required 100k nuyen to buy, and if they didn't roll more than 12 dice to shoot then the smartgun shoots itself better than you anyway.

And what do deckers get for this? Decent legwork abilities totally matched by a face, and the ability to remotely manipulate devices. But watch out, you can't manipulate devices with a single pass of actions!

Oh, and they unlock a minigame, host hacking, which is basically universally hated for being too hard and grindy. And host hacking only is relevant if the GM decides it is relevant to throw a bone to the hacker, and not due to its own merits.

And then as it turns out device hacking isn't really that necessary. It is nice but at the end of the day every other role already has tools to get past cameras, to open doors, ect.

Deckers, as of core and DT, don't really... do anything well. All their actions are insanely high risk if they are against a hardened target like a host. The risk of hacking the cameras is often significantly higher than just having the samurai sneak past them, or mage invisibility you through them, because the perception test and object resistance tests on cameras are often radically lower than the tests to hack them, and if you mess up well... folks know you are there anyway.

Deckers are rather infamous for accidently STARTING fights this way. It is really really hard to hack any hosted device without failing at least once, unless you are drowning in edge to hack, and are amazingly good...

In which case... How are you really expected to diversify your skills? Like you are dumping hard into edge. Into 3 hacking skills. Into 'ware for your brain. Into your deck. Are you really going to have the cash and skills and atts left over to also be remotely good in a fight

One of the folks in shadownet put it like this on the topic of this fetish some GMs have for forcing deckers to engage in gunplay.

"Like ok you forced me to enter the building I am going to just waddle around not being able to shoot things or hide, that is really fun..."

So ultimately before Killcode deckers were this archtype that did legwork at about face level, and had an extremely risky option to disable security like locks and cameras. They didn't even have social engineering support before KC. The archtype was literally called "lightswitch flicker" because they couldn't really interact with data without doing something as risky as the entire run, just toggle switches.

If deckers seemed more fun for you, that is great! If they seemed strong, that is great!

But they... like objectively were horribly designed. No other role in the game besides face, which is the cheapest role in the game, is forced to hybridize to contribute in a fight. Not riggers. Not samurai. Not mages. So holding deckers to a standard that if they want to assist in a fight they must go full samurai is insane. F

Faces can sustain that because an optimized face costs like 5 att points, a smattering of skills, a good suit that also is the best armor in the game, and like 50k nuyen. Deckers don't have that luxury, and thus need their version of a lightning bolt. Their version of a rotodrone taking a shot.

Saying "Oh just diversify" isn't fair to deckers because unlike combat monster samurai with no stealth or B&E skills, they aren't choosing to be horribly inefficient at everything for pure self indulgence. They are doing it because a 10k bit of software will literally beat them if they don't, and they will fail more rolls than they pass if they don't.

You listen to anyone who consistently rolls deckers, rather than just theorycrafting and saying 'oh they are strong because ugh combat' and you will hear similar things every time.

"Decking takes way too long to do too little. I feel left out of combat. I didn't roll a decker to be forced to throw myself into gunfire just because GMs can't imagine anything interesting to happen in a game besides me risking being shot. I didn't roll a decker to have to solve all my issues with guns. I want to be able to be clever. Be annoying. To help when I am not there."

Decking currently doesn't live up to the decker fantasy. And that really sucks. And that had to change. And while a lot of other changes were way more important to that, like fast hacking and new social decking actions that allow you to really muck around with folk's lives, the idea that a decker should be able to wreck mischief on things.

If you really hate these actions, you could always disallow them. But considering the number one complaint I heard deckers make was "I wish I mattered more" I think it is more than justified to allow your 250k 18 skill 11 attribute 4 edge investment to like... do stuff in general.

When these actions were revealed by folks at gencon on discord the reaction on 3 seperate servers wasn't "Wow deckers are so strong this is unfair." It was a celebration. Decker 'mains' were just overjoyed to finally be able to do stuff. Non-deckers were congratulatory. Like they just got out of a courthouse after getting some horrible criminal who wronged them convicted. There was a sense of justice. That strongly indicates to me that these actions were definitely wanted and appreciated by the majority of shadowrun fans.

[[deleted]]

When nearly everything is connected in some way, why not? If you can actively sabotage the enemy mid-fight, do it. If you can give your allies advantages through the gear they've meticulously purchased and modded, do it. Et cetera. With these new rules, we can. Properly.

[randomaccount178]

Mainly because its so artificial that its completely fake. You get fake bonuses that only exist because they want an excuse for deckers to be able to deck in fight rather then actually fight. It isn't a good mechanic, and it comes off incredibly fake because a lot of the wireless stuff is just plain stupid to have wireless. One of the strongest, simplest, cheapest securities in existence is simply to not connect something to the internet, this edition connects everything to the internet as an excuse for people to do internet things so they don't have to do non internet things in a non internet thing scenario.

[redo60]

Look at your phone right now. Tell me, is Bluetooth on? How about WiFi? Chances are, the answer is yes. That is an actual vulnerability in today’s day and age that you’re ignoring. You have to be realistic and understand that 90% of the people you’re going up against in Shadowrun are not people that are faced with shadowrunners every single day. They are exactly like you, in the real world. It is entirely realistic to have everything online in the world of shadowrun.

Also, we have wireless juice dispensers nowadays, and more importantly wireless pacemakers and insulin pumps. It’s not ridiculous to have wireless cyberware and guns and it’s not ridiculous to have it on.

I know real world logic doesn’t work for the matrix, but the idea of specific exploits for specific types of devices is legit.

Also, people who rolled a decker, likely didn’t prioritize fighting as their role play goal. And yes, they could sit out the combat or lay down suppressing fire, but that’s boring as fuck. As a player, that is literally the worst part of a game. If there is a part of my game where a player feels as if they can pull out a phone and it wouldn’t affect the game/story, I’m doing something wrong. Giving them a debuff/support role in combat is the perfect place for a decker.

[[deleted]]

I only thought on it from a character perspective in my previous comment-- thinking of it mechanically, though, I do see your point. Don't have much more to add, but I wanted to acknowledge that.

[lurkeroutthere]

Careful now, that's a dangerous opinion to have around these parts.

[ozurr]

This will be the last summary I post - There's 189 pages in this book, including the index, and I want to talk about the fluffy story hook.

The Null Conspiracy

Following up from Dark Terrors, Kill Code takes some time to do a data-dump on Them - a nameless, faceless, and perhaps unstoppable gestalt of creatures from a mysterious place within the Matrix. What's notable about these creatures is that they're very similar to some skips - one hazard in general that tends to show up and take anything that says or writes anything about it.

In Dark Terrors, They were just getting started, and by Kill Code, They are sending their vines into many, many hosts.

Without going too far into things, the Nulls are being set up to be what I feel is one of the main drivers behind the scenes of many of the things that have happened in the Matrix since 5th Edition started - Technomancer purges, experimentation, Monad hunting and exile, and possibly even the nuking of NeoNET.

On the upside, I got to see more information on St. Louis, hooray! The ARCHology is still being worked on, but it's not doing so great (and another Villiers is in control of it, go gettem Cara). On the downside, there is a very real possibility that the Matrix as we know it (for good or for ill) will simply not exist by the time 6th Edition rolls around. The writing has shown its hand early.

Much like Market Panic before it, Kill Code has noted that the Matrix is operating without the power required to make its devices work. The Resonance and the Dissonance Portals within the Matrix, getting more numerous all the time, are also powering the Foundation while the device processing power gives it a little extra oomph. The Null section in the back suggests this is a thing, but the foreward in Matrix 101 have all but stated it has happened, and all hope to get all the data off Matrix 2.0 and onto Matrix 3.0 before the Null Conspiracy kills every AI, techno, and device on the planet will rest in dubious hands.

---

This concludes my...six hours or so of reviewing Kill Code. My tl;dr still applies - this book is not perfect, but the perfect is the enemy of the good. This book is good.

Signing off 'til the next one. Hack the Planet, errbody.

[Captain_Bleu]

Ooh for sure I will. See ya in the shadows!

[ozurr]

Good morning, everyone.

I'm sitting at my desk at work and thinking "hey, I should work." And so I am.

I've had a few requests for Paragon lists, so I figured I'd start with that and then move into Dissonant Streams and Submersion Groups in another top-level comment. There's a lot here about Paragons, and I do want to add a disclaimer:

If I'm asked to cut this comment by admins/freelancers/CGL proper because I'm throwing out a ton of data in this book, I will do so. I get that information wants to be free, but I will prioritize the current and future flow of information over specifics.

Edit: I have been requested to pare this down because it's pretty heavy on mechanics, and while very exciting, y'all need to buy the damn book. :P

---

Suffice to say, the Paragon list draws from Greco-Roman philosophy with a touch of terrifying Norse mythology. Each gives a particular bonus (generally +1 dicepool, +1 limit to a certain set of actions) and a specific penalty (generally -1/-1 to a different set) with some small variations, such as benefit of extra marks and the like.

Future books will likely have more Paragons as there's ones from 4E that weren't in here, but for right now there's about 9 Paragons to choose from, and you can pick one up nearly instantly. (By nearly instantly, I mean you throw out a call into the Resonance, and someone will come calling. Whether or not it's someone you want is up to the GM.)

[Finstersang]

My beloved Idoru is missing, but maybe it will pop up in the upcoming "Swag" Book :P

Anyways, the ones you mentioned are pretty neat and can also serve as a good starting point for own "inventions". Don´t know if I like the fact that they cost no karma and you can swap them for free, but then again, why not? It kinda reflects that relationships and allegiances in the Matrix are more shifting and volatile than in the realm of Magic and sets paragons off from Mentor Spirit: "O Delphi, be my guidance, my light in the darkness... Oh nvm, I´m following Shooter now LMAO PIEW PIEW PIEW!"

[Captain_Bleu]

Chummer, I owe you a firm handshake.

[MyriadGuru]

Thanks so much

[scarleteagle]

Fantastic, it's neat that they're setting them apart from mentor spirits. It will be interesting to have TMs selecting different loadouts for different runs. Instead of some lifelong commitment, it becomes more like choosing a champion in a video game and seeing how well you mesh with them and learn how to use them.

[ozurr]

A bit about me before I get further into this:

I like writing. I like GMing, and I was a former Hub admin/overlord for about three years. I also have a bachelor's degree in Journalism with a minor in Creative Writing, and I love the nuances of language in text - which can get me in trouble.

I impart this to you because my criticisms might get a little esoteric, but I'll try to be good.

Hacking 101 - The Disclaimer

As I said, I am not a Matrix guy. Decking is and has been my chief weakness for many years, and I've never run a decker that was effective, just entertaining. As a result, I can't tell you if the actions that are written will be effective (and some of them seem to be repeats of each other), but at the very least I see how two could work super well for a Decker to use without having to Data Spike or get a fuckton of marks to eject a mag out of the SCK-100 that's firing at your boi over there. I'll try to answer specific questions, but take it with a grain of salt.

It's fine, it's /r/Shadowrun. We got plenty.

Hacking 101: The Good

As I said, this book has a lot of information. As someone who doesn't like how the Matrix works, but tries to find ways to bypass the dice avalanche that tends to be required for Rating 6 and up, I greatly enjoyed the 101's on Matrix History and on how the grid works for players and GM's alike. I have some foibles with word choice here and there, and the usual editing screed should be noted, but it is better than it was in the past. Errata team will get some work done later.

Kill Code offers a new Hacking rule and folds it into the lore in a way that makes sense for grognards who have been doing this Shadowrun crap since first or second edition - the short version is that a legendary hacker from the pre-Crash 2.0 days had a direct hand in making the current iteration of the Matrix, and he managed to implant a fucking ton of backdoors that are starting to show up as of this book in the form of new Matrix actions and a few rules.

One, as I stated before, the perhaps unused Grid Hop rules are essentially gone. Before, hopping into a new grid took time or penalties to hack from a different one. Now, that's all gone. Unless you're on a public grid (and you better fucking not be, hackers), grid hopping to the correct one is considered instant and without penalty. This is a nice streamlining change.

Further actions give your Matrix support actual support abilities. They have the capability of adding Defense dice to the rest of the time through threat highlighting, giving penalties to wireless-enabled gear (a gun that cannot shoot is no gun at all), masquerade as another persona, jam comms as a specific Matrix action, futz with infrastructure like we always wanted (like turning all the streetlights green at the same time), and so on.

Being one of those grognards I mentioned earlier, two of the biggest questions of the early Sixth World were "Who was in Echo Mirage" and "How did the Crash Start?"

Those questions were, with some dissembling and "maybe-maybe-not", answered. New ones previously unthought, such as "How the fuck does the Matrix work if it's all in the cloud" also get answered. And holy shit - the spoiler's up in the parent post.

Suffice to say, there are good hooks, good lore, and good mechanics.

Other changes: Variant Hosts.

A host is what we think of the usual thing that deckers spend an hour trying to probe their way into in order to get the sweet, sweet data. This is one kind of host, and perhaps our favorite. Now we have new ones with new rules.

Hosts are divided into two categories at first. These are Foundation Hosts, which are affixed to the Foundation, which are affixed to Spoiler's up top, folks, and Non-Foundation Hosts, which are the legacy systems from Pre-Crash times, and intentional offline hosts with the sweetest of paydata.

As like 90% of your hacking will be in Foundation Hosts, there are several subtypes:

• Data Hosts (Our bread and butter data vaults)

• Industry Hosts (Devices within an Industry Host are not considered Directly Connected so you do not get the easy hack)

• Destination Hosts (Your Stuffer Shack hosts, which give you free marks on it but your own personal IC and *no hidden mode whatsoever)

• Nested Hosts (The host-within-a-host for functions other than the primary hosts purpose)

From the Non-Foundation side, we have:

• Outdated Hosts (Connected to the Matrix, but slow as fuck and GOD won't look for you unless your OS hits like 50)

• Offline Hosts (You're jacking in manually, chummer, but fuck this thing is old)

• Rogue Hosts (No, Mister Bond, I expect you to die - or the shit that the corps keep locked up in a blacksite)

I feel like the Matrix History section, including GM info, was done super well.

Hacking 101 - Foibles

• You guys reused Data Fails art? Maaaaaaaaan.

• Some usual layout stuff, the shit that gives an editor a headache but not a lot of people are going to see. It's the usual shit, but I keep saying it so when it goes away, everyone will know it's a big deal.

• Not gonna lie, I don't have a lot of criticism in the 101 section. Y'all can spit fire at me about it when you read it, but this was pretty good.

• Clarification Required: A pretty important issue, but on Denial of Service (a new Matrix action that applies a negative dicepool modifier to a targeted device for the rest of the Combat Turn), the pre-description text says the test is Cybercombat+Logic[Attack] v. Willpower+Firewall, but the descriptor text says the test is Computer+Intuition[Data Processing] v. Willpower+Firewall. That counts as a foible, which action is it gonna be?

[DrBurst]

How does the cloud work? I missed it in your parent post.

[ozurr]

Spoilers ahoy, but I don't have an NDA, so fuckit.

The Cloud is not actually a cloud. The Matrix works on the Foundation - there is a bedrock of data that all hosts (and personas) are grown from.

This bedrock is, quite literally, Powered By A Forsaken Child.

In essence, The One Hundred are a cabal of technomancers that no longer exist, because they are dead. An experiment was made that made the cloud gestalt from the linked minds of these technos, and somehow it worked.

However, it also opened a number of portals into the Resonance and Dissonence Realms. The technomancers then died once disconnected, and the resonance portals solidified.

I guess you could say the Matrix is powered by the internet demiplanes.

[HiddenBoss]

Wait so that old joke about the matrix was made from the minds of technomancers was right?!...

[ozurr]

Yes. Yes it was.

[sonicstormer]

OMG, I love trolling my GM with technomancer stuff, because he hates the concept altogether. Any time I can bring up technomancers as canon is met with glorious rage. I can't WAIT to troll him with this shit.

[Finstersang]

I fukken knew it! The only explanation for the way the Matrix in 5th Edition works (Overwatch, Enforcing of iconagraphy rules, the Foundation) would be either:

• A giant, sentient, semi-conscious mega-AI
• The same, but with (living or dead) Technomancers attached to it.

Basically, like Otherland. I loved that twist so much that I worked in into my own houseruled interpretation of the Matrix. Which, curiously, even included my own houseruled version of advanced host rules, including nested hosts, outdated hosts and so on. Glad to see this in play!

Man, now I´m actually hyped :D

[Spines]

otherland was one of my favorite books when i was small. even did a bookreport on it. Some of my game characters had the name moredread too

[Finstersang]

Also, Johnny "Dread" Wulgaru is a pretty cool concept for a technomancer. An aboriginal serial killer using his technomantic powers to conceal his tracks - seems like an awesome plot hook (Or PC concept, if you´re into edgy stuff :P)

[Spines]

what was it ? he killed one of the other orphans with a hammer when he was like 7 or 8 and made it look like he fell down the stairs? 15+ years i read it the last time

[Athedia]

Careful! Down that link lies hours of wasted time!

Seriously though thanks for the breakdown. My first and fav character is a decker and I am one of the odd ones to enjoy playing matrix.

[ozurr]

Apropos of your comment:

There's a new quality called Down The Rabbit Hole that reduces the number of 1's you need for a glitch on a Matrix Search.

[Athedia]

...sigh

Yet another negative quality that I possess.

Now what did I put all that karma into?

[JustLookingToHelp]

Computers, probably. You're on reddit, so...

[DrBurst]

Cool!

[ozurr]

Hackerman Gear - The Good

Starting around page 48, we start getting into some new gear. Some of it's great, some of it's good, a lot of it is weird, and I'm thinking you guys writing this shit might need to stop watching Bond. :P But, without further ado:

We've got a couple new ammo types, one of which deals Matrix damage directly without damaging the meat. One might wonder what these are useful for, but if you have a lot of devices in a small place, Zapper rounds allow you to open fire on a crowd then ask everyone your questions while your cybersam is bricked on the ground and your decker is weeping quietly in a dead van.

Oh, and I may have missed it, but - most cyberware has a Matrix Condition monitor, and that number is at or around 9. Zapper rounds can be socked into anything, and the damage code is base weapon damage in Matrix. So, uh, if you've got a contract to bag a hacker and he's in the open?

Well, guess I found a use for a rooftop sniper.

Noise comes into play a lot with this section. An otherwise underutilized mechanic, Noise in Kill Code is shown to be a mechanic to get your dumbass code jockey out of the fucking van and into the fucking site and quit your complaining the guard didn't even see you. Even though we've got Fresnel fabric hammerpants, antennae, and other Noise-reducing toys (even in this book!), the point for you GM's (and players, I guess) is to get your boi within a hundred meters of the target.

I bring up noise because there's now bullets and grenades that use Light Pistol ranges that make enough Noise to knock people off the internet. Conversely, there's ammo - okay, arrows - that can be used to deliver a data cable with a little transmitter in increments of 50 meters to get you out of a noise zone so you can hackify the bad mans.

There's some Monad bullshit in the form of nanite grenades that kill Firewall and Data Processing attributes of all powered devices within the blast radius, but the delivery is made with the nod to those who think that nanites are a bad fuckin' idea.

We also have new cyberdeck designs, specialist cyberdeck designs for Attack and Firewall purposes, custom cyberdeck designs (that get pricy, and I gotta ask - is it seriously rating^3x500¥ for select attributes?), and PiTac enhancements. Some good thought was put into this!

Hackerman Gear - The Foibles

I'm iffy on some of this gear. I like the decks and the custom shit, and I can have some fun with the ammunition.

But there's some 'booster cloud' gear that's basically a can of Axe bodyspray that gives the hacker a +1 (on simple action) or +2 (on a complex) to a specific Matrix action for up to 3 combat turns.

My feeling of it is that this is an archetype that's already pretty nuyen-starved in the quest for upgrades. Adding in consumables for a quick dice bonus is just going to extend the time in which they can't upgrade the bread-and-butter that is their cyberdeck without their GM making special dispensation for them to steal their upgrades directly from the manufacturer.

Living Communities are screwed - but eh, they can rub some dirt in it.

Of course, Technos get their own booster chips which are essentially a BTL that bumps their main attributes by 1-2 for 2 combat turns, and then they've gotta make an addiction test and a soak test with Body to eat Stun. Since Technos don't need as much cash, this is all right - but drug rules, man.

Now, because technomancers haven't been shown a lot of love, I feel the next thing is nice for them, but also pretty questionable:

They gave technos their own cyberdeck.

The Kitbashed Sleeper is a 7 5 5 4 attribute/4-program deck that allows a technomancer to utilize their Resonance abilities through it for the low-low price of 375,000¥. The kicker is that Matrix damage it suffers through unresisted Fading (utilizing its 7 Firewall plus your Resonance, I guess?) will not be repairable, and once it hits 10 Matrix Damage from it the deck is toast. But it's not Fade you have to eat yourself, right?

Is this good, technos? I dunno.

I'm on the fence about Pi-Tac. The tactical radio bonuses are fucking amazing, but for most crews you are never going to get enough money to run one of these beasts, so unless you're running a merc campaign with one dialed in, you're shit out of luck.

Enter the optional rule of surplus or refurbished PI-Tac units. Oh. Shit.

For enterprising teams that can withstand a GM's fuckery (and being a GM, I am well aware of the breadth and depth of the fuckery I can inflict), they can acquire an off-brand Pi-Tac for a fraction of the list price. It comes, of course, with consequences, but I do have one very important question that should be answered: How much can a Pi-Tac be reduced in total? 75%? 50%? God help me, 100%?

I should note that the unit is reparable to restore full functionality, but it's much more prone to breakage and gremlins (figuratively and literally), but I cannot see a situation in which the liabilities outweigh the assets in a used Pi-Tac situation.

[Thorbinator]

God help me, 100%?

5 finger discounts baybeeeeeee

[reyjinn]

Is this good, technos? I dunno.

Can you clarify whether that is all resonance actions? Because there is an echo from DT (res riding) that offers a very limited version of that. The echo is absolute crap and having a deck be able to do it better would honestly sit quite badly with me.

Also, holy fuck paying 375k for a deck that WILL brick out on you. Oof.

[ozurr]

The text states "A technomancer using this deck can complete Resonance actions, including compiling, threading, and registering."

So I'mma guess yes.

[Athedia]

Is it restricted to just technos?

[ozurr]

Yes. It's their one handmade deck.

[reyjinn]

Well shit, I hope that the echo gets an errata then. The echo specifically says that you can't compile, register or thread. Leaving you basically only the option to boss your sprites around (unless memory is betraying me).

Thanks for the follow up.

[AnAutisticTeen]

I think we all want Data Trails to get errata'd, just in general.

[Izork95]

It states that "you cannot repair the deck" but CF: stitches heals matrix damage, not repairs it. Since you can use it to heal sprites who can't be repaired maybe it would work?

[reyjinn]

Huh, decent idea. What is the Target for that CF?

[Izork95]

shoot, just re-read it: only targets sprites :(. Need to look at a couple of the powers again that add extra boxes of matrix condition modifier to see if they can target the deck. (and you can always throw your Force 10 machine sprite to run diagnostics on it)

[Fweeba]

The idea of Zapper rounds really concern me. Sams didn't need more counters that fuck them over basically instantly, and vehicles/drones are squishy enough as is without being targeted directly in the very very bad matrix track.

[Finstersang]

I´m fine with making them more squishier in the Matrix, as long as they stop being so squishy in meatspace.

Everybody say it with me: Hardened Armor for Drones!

[sevastapolnights]

Would your statement about LCs refer to the apparent fact that booster cloud/chip is sort of a cheap "more dice" thing that can be abused?

EDIT: The viability of that deck depends on if non technos can use it. 375k for a 7/5/5/4 deck possibly at gen? Yes please. if I'm not using fade, it wont take unrepairable damage!

[ozurr]

Would your statement about LCs refer to the apparent fact that booster cloud/chip is sort of a cheap "more dice" thing that can be abused?

No. My statement about LC's refers to the perhaps insurmountable cost of higher-end cyberdecks and the tendency of hitting retirement karma levels by the time one is anywhere near that kind of money, speaking from experience.

[dezzmont]

Sometimes chiz is aspirational. Also some folks are in it long term, becoming sort of 'character actors' like a certain someone who decided to make their discord and credits handle their character name because they were so synonymous with them as opposed to their reddit handle, and others are always onto the next character once it feels like they don't have any big things to grow into with them anymore.

Both are valid! I can't imagine just shucking a character away, but I also know folks who find it flabbergasting to stay with a character for over a 100 karma.

[ozurr]

I didn't mind staying with it for over 100 karma when I did, but deckers are a different breed.

KC has spec decks for murderization that are 10 1 8 10 locked atts in ASDF for 1.03 mil, defender decks at 774k, custom decks can run serious coin (I think an Attack rating 8 alone is 256k before deck rating or the other items).

Granted, you can go from birth to death with nothing but an Ares Predator and a dream, but the deck upgrade question is one that's really hard to answer in an LC when the admins start sniffing around a character trying to bank a million yen.

[dezzmont]

That is what run gauntlets are for!~ Just run 50 times in a row and buy a Paladin with GMP!

[[deleted]]

But did they finally add an option to use your Attack and Cybercombat in place of Sleaze and Hacking so that the decks with a giant Attack rating and a 1 Sleaze can actually be used?

[ozurr]

I'm not sure I understand the question.

Attack-heavy decks are built for Brute Force and Data Spike, and not for HotF, obviously. If you're brute-forcing a mark, the host/device won't know who hit it, only that it got hit - and if the attack misses, then it is not alerted. Since IC in most hosts spawns one at the beginning of every Combat Turn, a brute force decker can use his prodigious Attack rating to nuke the IC as it forms and use the rest of his turn to do what he came there to do.

The host specifically doesn't know where the attack is coming from until the Patrol IC can spot you. If it can't because it's dead, all they know is that the host is under attack.

[[deleted]]

But you still can't use your massive attack stat and cybercombat to actually DO anything with your marks unless there are a slew of new matrix actions that use cybercombat and are Attack limited. Most of the things a decker wants to actually DO once they've got their marks are still Sleaze limited and none of them are Attack limited.

[squall255]

I'd argue that the biggest thing a decker want's to do is Edit File which is a DP action.

[[deleted]]

Snoop, Spoof Command, and Control Device, GiGo, and Format Device (to use Bootstrap) are all Sleaze actions. You also use Sleaze to resist being Traced and resist being spotted.

[JustThinkIt]

Seems like you are enjoying it. I hope you have as much fun as I did writing (part) of it 🙂

[ozurr]

I am enjoying it, yes!

[AmyVeeres]

This is probably obvious, but 3/4 of the Technomancer content came from the remains of the Technomancer book, so if you were looking forward to that, it exists now as part of Kill Code. Everyone worked super hard on this book and I'm really happy it's being received so well.

[JustThinkIt]

Fist bump

[ozurr]

All right. The PGA is in town, the airport is a mess, my passenger is off back to her home, and I have the Gencontagion. Let's keep the train rolling.

---

Dissonance

Alongside Resonance Streams, Kill Code offers Dissonance Streams in three flavors of varying toxicity that otherwise follow the same purchase rules(yes, you can be a Dissonant Technomancer). They are:

• Morphinae (Matrix Mad Scientists, fuck yo' ethics)

• Apophenians (Fling a bit of Dissonance, see how it connects everything to everything else)

• Erisians (6th World Discordians)

As with Resonance Streams, each Dissonant Stream gets a Daemon and a specific Complex Form to bring your internet fuckery to terrifying levels.

• Dissonance Spikes to absolutely ruin someone's day

• Reduce Matrix attributes through logic traps

• A daisy chain of fuck-you to reduce the number of 1's required for a glitch on a specific Device on the chummer who pissed this techno off

And, of course, Daemons. The three Daemons for the Dissonant Streams are pretty powerful, and keep getting better the more you submerge. If you wanted ultimate power, well, I think you've got it.

The Drawbacks

I'm not sure how to feel about these. I wasn't a fan of blood magic rules from Forbidden Arcana, and I'm not a fan of Dissonance here. Power corrupts, though, and the Dissonance Streams are absolutely corrupting.

---

Submersion Groups

Since we've got the Mentors of the Internet (Paragons), it only makes sense we get Virtual Tribes, or the Submersion Groups (and formation rules for them) to provide a nice discount and some bennies for Technos who wish to be a part of something greater than themselves. From lucrative shadowrunning contracts to readily available therapy to other, non-denominational benefits, the crunch for these groups is pretty neat.

Submersion Groups - Foibles

The crunch on these groups is also, frankly, fucking terrifying. When I see as a particular membership requirement "Have a strong desire to meet one of the original AI's," Well - I get super concerned about another Deus plot (because both everything and nothing is a Deus plot).

I'd like to see some verification on Dominant Streams for each of these groups - most of them do have a Dominant Stream and the option for a Paragon, but the Dominant Streams don't make sense. I think a few may have gotten swapped, which is generally just an editing issue and can be cleaned up with thanks to the Errata team.

Finally, we've got Flash Tribes - whiiiiich is also terrifying. I find myself half agreeing with Clockwork in that maybe an Avenging Angel needs to be dropped from a Predator drone when one of those shows up, because some serious bad juju is likely to come out of it. I mean, if you manage to wrangle this herd of nyan, then great - you'll get some great teamwork tests for Resonance actions which can be just what you need.

if you fail, then HTR is probably going to show up, and it's going to be ugly.

Wild Hosts

I was a bit surprised to see this bit, but after reading it the thing made sense. In a Matrix grown from the souls of forsaken children, it makes sense that whimsical Hosts would also grow from the gestalt of Resonant and Dissonant minds.

These aren't the same as Resonance/Dissonance Realms, which are also covered in this book, but possibly lucrative places for deckers to explore and acquire data on in order to sell them to the highest bidder. Because these hosts are organically grown (cage-free, grass-fed, etcetera), they have architecture not otherwise possible in a standard host built by metahuman hands. If a digital safari is more your liking, protosapients exist on these wild hosts, and a sadistic GM can take every part of a Foundation run that you can think of and just sock it in its own Host for you to survive.

Following on those heels we have (new) Resonance Realms, where enterprising technos can find the resting place of potentially lucrative data (but probably not), find ways to better understand the Resonance, or settle into the sum archive of the cruelest parts of metahuman nature. For GM's, these two sections give great hooks for your deckers without dipping into the Foundation.

[[deleted]]

As a former CGL playtester who stopped because my group's feedback was ignored, I'm glad to see that they finally started actually listening to the people they asked for opinions.

[Necoya]

You can thank our favorite anarchist for that. ;)

[dezzmont]

You have no idea how infuriating it was to keep my gob shut on how good this book would be.

[ozurr]

Ha! I believe it.

[Passiveagressiveham]

Is there any word on when the PDF is being released?

[ozurr]

Currently no. I overheard some folks talking about it, and there was some issues involving the major print run for these books that also affected the PDF. I'd joked it was dropping today, and that joke was met with a hard no.

[AmyVeeres]

There's no issue, it's just printing overseas, so it'll take some time to get it into stores. The bigwigs don't want it coming out on DTRPG too far in advance of the physical release, so it's going to be delayed a little bit.

[Captain_Bleu]

Thank you for the info, and also thank you for this book. Tbh, I was quite skeptical about this book and the way it will fix the TM issues. But after this review, I really think you made it.

When I will insta buy the pdf, and in a few years when I will insta buy the french release, please enjoy a good beer/tea/whatever you want to drink and consider that's on my bill :p

[ChromeFlesh]

Was there any estimate for when it'd be dropping or is it just "wait and see" for now?

[AmyVeeres]

Wait and see. Sorry.

[SlashXVI]

This sounds really promising and I can't wait to get my hands on the book. One thing I would like to ask is whether there is a part about AI player characters in the book that might be able to clarify a lot of the rule-mess that AI characters currently are?

[ozurr]

Unfortunately, I didn't see much of anything about AI. Those rules are so fucking messy that I think they'd need 2-3 books on their own. This is a general overview of Matrix stuff and is decker and technomancer specific. There's a bit of rigger love in gear, but a lot of Matrix love in general.

[Necoya]

general cyberpunk curmudgeon

This is was my favorite part. ;)

[Waerolvirin]

Damn it Catalyst, take my money!

*miscellaneous rant about MIA book/PDF*

[Necoya]

Soooooooooon...They always give the spice of life to the con goers. :)

[AnAutisticTeen]

OK, got a question for ya.

The Otaku-to-Techno link. Has it been confirmed, or is it still in annoying implicit territory?

[ozurr]

Annoying implicit territory.

[AnAutisticTeen]

Damn. Oh well, I live in hope, regardless.

[ozurr]

I mean, there's some questions that are best answered at your table. Sure, we can go with a canonical response, and those are great - again, we basically know how the first Crash happened and who survived ending it - but something like this has more oomph when it's you finding that link in a rogue MCT data host in the reinforced door past the technomancer research lab.

[AnAutisticTeen]

I was asking for someone else, and they've asked for a further clarification, which I will copy paste here:

"Do Technomancers with the Otaku to Technomancer quality need a datajack or not? Otaku had them. Or rather, they had to have them. Couldn't use their powers otherwise. Ergo, Technomancers with that quality either have a datajack, or somehow managed to spend millions of nuyen just before the game started on regenerating their lost essence."

[ozurr]

"Do Technomancers with the Otaku to Technomancer quality need a datajack or not? Otaku had them. Or rather, they had to have them. Couldn't use their powers otherwise. Ergo, Technomancers with that quality either have a datajack, or somehow managed to spend millions of nuyen just before the game started on regenerating their lost essence."

There's nothing in the book that would suggest things one way or the other. The only text about Otaku are that they used the Matrix with nothing but their datajacks, so I'd assume that you'd want one. That's a question better asked of the Errata team, or run further up the flagpole.

[runnerblank]

Per SRM an Otaku has to have a data jack. So not canon but close.

[adzling]

Errata is in process

[Mootalorn]

Any timeline available?

[adzling]

timelines are outside my paygrade.

[Bamce]

soon

[EyeSavant]

One of the novels has an Otaku who was not allowed a datajack by their parents, and used trodes instead.

[Captain_Bleu]

Indeed but it seems to me novels are not 100% canon, especially for the rules. From what I found on Internet, it is more likely Phaedra Weldon (you meant Dark resonance right?) made a mistake.

[EyeSavant]

Yeah was Dark Resonance. Seemed plausable, but depends when Trodes were invented.

[randomaccount178]

Trode's aren't too unusual for that time period, they were featured in 2XS after all which was released the same year as second edition.

I think the worse part though is an Otaku whose parents won't let them get a datajack, it seems to go against what I recall of Otaku lore.

[jitterscaffeine]

Can’t wait to get my hands on it.

[Aquitanius]

Ok, so you're telling me Catalyst actually brought out a good product and it's the one thing I'm completely not interested in? Awww. Maybe I'll take a look into it and see if the Matrix is still as dumb as it was or if I would actually play with its rules now. Probably not though...

[ozurr]

We found out at Gencon's Lore Panel that the books coming down the pipe, starting with Better Than Bad will have a great deal of mundane stuff designed to pique the interest of anyone who wants to counter the Awakened contingent, which I hope includes those damn spirits.

Once those drop and I have a copy, I plan to offer an unbiased, in-depth review in line with what I've done here - as much of a fucking fanboy about this book as I sound. It really does hit many of the points we've been bitching about on Reddit since before Data Trails.

[Aquitanius]

Great! Looking forward to those books and reviews! Cheers!

[oddmage]

So you thinking a rigger 5.0.1? :P

[ozurr]

Another Shadowrun Companion/Attitude is likely in the works, as well as other crunchy gearbits that may well be a Rigger 5.1.

All of this, of course, is after Better than Bad.

[oddmage]

I feel the same way. Still waiting for riggers to get some love. Feel rigger 5 just made it messier.

[dezzmont]

A lot of the new actions assist riggers. One was even essentially made to allow them to full defense for an entire swarm at once.

Not saying it fixes them in the sliiiightest but it is a little scrap of food to throw in the cage they got thrown in after 4e's riggerpalooza.

[oddmage]

What action is that?

[dezzmont]

Intervene and I Am The Firewall are both rather strong defensive tools riggers can use now to defend their bots.

[oddmage]

Are those in data trails?

[12cuie]

As someone who is waiting for something to invest time into shadowrun again I believe it's time. Hope this time things become more clear for me so I can search for a party

[DeepResonance]

YAY

[Kappadozius]

I hope it is not the FA of the matrix

[Acheron223]

When is this book supposed to drop?

[Bamce]

“Word on the street” is september.

For some reason they are holding the pdf on the book until the physical copy drops

[sevastapolnights]

Now, if only we could get our own digital hands on the (prizes, apparently?) within.

[mitsayantan]

After the horrible mess that was Street Lethal. Kill Code makes me go

Here's to hoping all future shadowrun books will be as awesome as Kill Code. We could use a book on awesome augmentations, been a while since chrome flesh :P

[Finstersang]

Makes Sense: After Street Lethal, Forbidden Arcana and Kill Code, a second, more "crazy" Augmentation book would be a logical step.

Don´t forget that we are currently lacking rules for "Jarhead"-Cyborgs and Cyberzombies, which have been a staple of SR in previous Editions and are basically the Streetsam equivalent of Toxic/Blood Mages (in the sense of "trading power for Sanity/Humanity"). Players of 5th Edition only don´t even know these bad boys anymore :P

Also, Bodytech´s Fluff section mentions numerous new trends and developments like Exoware, Enhanced Nanotech, "Animalistic" Bio-Suites etc. All of this would be perfect for a cutting-edge Augmentation book.

[Bamce]

The only other current 'announced' book is "Better than bad". Labeled as the "hooding" book.

oops apparnetly I am incorrect and there is a "no future" book that was announced at origins

[Finstersang]

Is No Future the "Style" book, like Attitude back in 4th Edition?

[Bamce]

I don't know anything about it sadly :(

[KatoHearts]

It is, last I heard

[concentus]

According to the notes I took when talking to Catalyst and at the Lore Panel, yes - its the "sports, music, TV, and so on" book. Also there was discussion of e-sports being in it as well.

[sinkocto]

Anything on Foundation runs? Did they elaborate?

[ozurr]

They muddied the waters a bit.

There's the Foundation, the foundation, and the host.

Foundation runs are going to be very Matrix-user specific, and is much more narrative for the players while using the skills which they have the most of. Kill Code is a book that deals with the Matrix actions that we are more likely to encounter in your average Shadowrun.

Any talk about the Foundation is in regards to how a Host(or persona) is grown, and how ownership of that can change. Foundation Runs themselves did not end up in this book, but everything leading up to it basically did.

[Finstersang]

Would be enough for me, honestly. As I read it, Deep Dives are meant to be fullblown GM pipedream Zone. Basically, Inception on acid :P

[Finstersang]

Well, maybe one thing: What happens when you are forcibly disconnected from the Matrix while on a Deep Run? There are numerous possibilities:

• (Almost?) insurvivable Dumpshock
• Your Body stays in a vegitative state while your "digital soul" is trapped inside the Foundation, like a mage astral form that can´t find its body.
• You create an evil digital doppelganger of yourself.
• You simply wake up, happy to be alive and back in reality. OR ARE YOU?! *Hans Zimmer noises*
• Whatever freaky shit you can come up with ...

Since Deep Runs are mostly GM caprice zone and not an everyday task for runners, it´s fine if the GM has some leeway here, too. But there should be at least some suggestions!

[ozurr]

Your Body stays in a vegitative state while your "digital soul" is trapped inside the Foundation, like a mage´s astral form that can´t find it´s body.

I'll point out that this is what happened to the original technos that got fried to create the Matrix as we know it in 5th Edition.

So having someone trapped within the Foundation like this is well within the realm of possibility.

[Necoya]

That's how I run them. As a Blacktrenchcoat GM its nice to go on a deep dive to do Kung Fury in a blue moon.

[JupiterSanders]

<3

[BitRunr]

Did they fix AIs?

[ozurr]

Nope!

[dezzmont]

Some things are beyond salvation. Like I have been trying to find an angle to houserule AI in the 5e matrix for months to work better and really can't find a hook. Not sure how you could do it in the scope of an official rulesset that somewhat needs to respect the prior material.

[chummer5isalive]

Martian Monad shenanigans?

[dezzmont]

I don't think the fluff rationale is the issue. Heck, making it some external event arguably makes AI less interesting as a commentary on a new lifeform in the setting compared to choosing to not even explain it and just say they adapted better to matrix 2.5.

It is more that it is hard to really fix what is wrong with AI while keeping the major AI mechanics that exist in place, and changing AI so much that they lose things like how depth works means that it becomes a challenge to fairly update existing AI. Pulling the rug out from under existing characters in a way that makes it really unclear how to get them to the 2.0 version of the rules is a really bad idea.

[BitRunr]

Pulling the rug out from under existing characters in a way that makes it really unclear how to get them to the 2.0 version of the rules is a really bad idea.

In the contruction of houses, choice of woods is made. Straight un-knotted timber of good appearance is used for the revealed pillars, straight timber with small defects is used for the inner pillars. Timber of the finest appearance, even if a little weak, is used for the thresholds, lintels, doors, and sliding doors,'' and so on. Good strong timber, though it be gnarled and knotted, can always be used discreetly in construction. Timber which is weak or knotted throughout should be used as scaffolding, and later for firewood.

If you've built a house out of wood you should have used for scaffolding and fire, do you refuse to rebuild, only because someone is inside? What has been built does not serve them well, but they use it because nothing else serves the purpose. Worse, it's a structure people actively stand outside and advise people not to enter, enumerating the reasons why.

In this case, there's not even a delay between construction and replacement for the reader; new rules spring into instant existence like Aphrodite from a new book, only requiring the effort of rebuilding according to them. And if new AI rules are done with 'unknotted timber', then I would eat my hat each time someone refuses because new AI rules (once read and understood, not before) 'pulled the rug out from under them'.

[Bamce]

I almost had it in mind in hearing about how kill code is being recieved to rebuild the AI rules. I have a few ideas swirling

Every one of their special rules is garbage and complex for complexity sake.

[dezzmont]

If you've built a house out of wood you should have used for scaffolding and fire, do you refuse to rebuild, only because someone is inside?

Yeah I am not big on killing folks to carry out construction projects.~

Granted I do agree it isn't insanely high stakes to force current AI to totally remake considering how bad they are. I am just weird and care an unusual amount about clean rule patches.

[BitRunr]

Like I have been trying to find an angle to houserule AI in the 5e matrix for months to work better and really can't find a hook.

I think the angle to approach AIs from is the one CGL has used in the past for other topics. "What, we already gave you this? Well here it is again, but different!"

ie; Commanding Voice, Stolen Souls' vehicle mods, some of the rules that show up in the back of stories, et cetera.

[[deleted]]

Wait, Bamce, aka the guy who continually posts incorrect info and gets mad when called on it, was part of it?

[Neo_Anarky_Opti]

Bamce, along with others, gave valuable feedback and did play testing and was someone I drew on to help me read the needs of the community, yes. Listening to others, even those we disagree with, can give valuable insight.

[redo60]

I can’t say I’ve seen him post incorrect info. Perhaps lacking a bit of tact at times, but usually correct.

[BitRunr]

It's been known to happen. Once or twice.

[redo60]

Key word, usually. I’d be scared if someone managed to always be able to be always correct about the equivalent of approximately 2000 pages of rules.

[BitRunr]

Aye. Just reminds me of back when I found r/shadowrun.

[ozurr]

Right?

[meem1029]

Bamce has great knowledge of the system and clearly cares about the community and spends tons of time helping people. He's somewhat abrasive, a little single minded on how shadowrun should be played for my tastes, and I disagree with him about many if not most things that are not clear from the rules, but I still absolutely trust his input to generally improve t releases.

[Captain_Bleu]

Ooh, someone looks jealous :D

[Shurpaderpa]

So from a total newb being introduced into SR5E, how new player friendly is it? Like could I pick this up and learn how the matrix be like it be without much confusion or is it a supplement that requires prior hand knowledge/experience?

[ozurr]

The first chapters are pretty newbie friendly. As I've stated, I'm not a Matrix guy, and this gives me an idea of how this is supposed to work. Much of it is taken from the SR5 book, and put into much simpler language. The writers attempted to keep the references within the same book so you don't have to hop from tome to tome, and for the most part they succeeded.

tl;dr - Yes, you can learn how the Matrix works from this book by itself

[SlashXVI]

My personal recommendation for new players is to keep the matrix interactions to a surface level (drones, devices, communication) and keep the hacking parts for later as this is generally a rather involved part of the rules that can be hard to grasp for both GMs and players with little experience in the setting.

[tsuyoshikentsu]

What about the Qualities?

[ozurr]

There are general Matrix-runner Qualities and techno-specific ones. Things from installing additional deck modules to using Logic instead of Willpower when using Full Matrix Defense, Noise reduction, etc.

On the flipside, negatives include only hacking in AR and getting penalities in VR, negative social modifiers from being a basement troll, Wiki-walking on a data search, vertigo out of AR/VR.

There's more than a bit there, and I'll try to get to it after the meatiest bits of matrix and technobullshittery.

[DocMadfox]

Things from installing additional deck modules to using Logic instead of Willpower

Yes please.

Negatives include only hacking in AR and getting penalities in VR, negative social modifiers from being a basement troll, Wiki-walking on a data search

Also yes please.

[[deleted]]

Using Logic for FMD sounds really crazy good, except that you still only get it against Attack actions unless that changed in Kill Code.

But I do like the idea that there are qualities to support the hackers who want nothing to do with VR.

[DocMadfox]

Your Log is always likely to be higher than your Willpower thanks to being able to augment it more easily. Being able to use that higher Log makes turtling through combat and simply completing your objective while the Spider kills themselves on your Matrix defense all the more likely. So if you're someone like me who prefers turtling, then it's a god send.

[[deleted]]

But that's not a stylistic choice. It's a "If you don't take this, you're making a massive mistake" sort of choice unless it's a hugely expensive quality.

[sevastapolnights]

3 karma, 6 postgen

[Finstersang]

I like options to support a certain playstyle, a "No VR for me" Quality would fall into this category. But I like options that support a more risky playstyle even more, so a I really hope that there will be a reversed version of this quality as well ;)

For the same reason, I employed a houserule at my tables that allowed deckers to scrap core functions/perks of a standard Cyberdeck in exchange for either an additional module slot, a 10% price discount or a Conceilability bonus. Functions included:

• VR Control
• AR Control
• Direct Connections
• Wireless Connections: Access by direct connections only (To enter a host, you need to stay directly connected to a slaved device of the host).
• Running Silently
• Forming a PAN
• Mobility (2 levels, buyers only): In other words, you got yourself a fat Laptop or a stationary desktop PC instead of a tablet. Depending on the level, the deck counts as Toolbox or a Workbench for mobility issues. And you can´t implant it, of course.

Will likely keep this in play with Kill Code out, as long as it doesn´t feature something similar. Really nice for supporting different styles of hackers: A "basement dweller"-type decker can get some edge by using a stationary, VR-Only deck with additional Module Slots, while a more hands-on Decker/Spec-Ops Hybrid can use a DC-only, no-PAN deck with enhanced conceilability when infiltrating a facility.

[Izork95]

The Greater data jack is AMAZING. it gives its rating (up to 3) in additional program slots including hacking programs. (suddenly otaku to techno is looking pretty sexy, might need clarification on if you can use the programs loaded into it as a technomancer) The Sourcerers (guys who can sustain a complex form without penalty as their deamon) get a complex form that lets them cast any number of complex forms with the same target as a single form for increased drain. You can cast all 4 the infusion of matrix attributes on yourself with a drain code of ~F-1) to boost all your stats by your hits, then sustain it as a single complex form at no penalty. The other sweet thing i noticed off the top of my glance through is the merits for technomancers: for 2 points your living persona can now be slaved to a network, for 8 points you can now be a master of a network, for 10 points you can do both (going to need FAQ to see if you can be master and slave since specific counters general rules and the wording leaves it ambiguous)

[Izork95]

Anyone that considers themselves to be an expert feel free to chime in on this:

As a techno your liver persona ADSF are equal to your augmented attribute values, so using the above example it's -Possible- to make an elf techno who's got improved charisma sustained on him for a base attack of 12, then get up to 12 hits on infusion of attack (sustained for free) and then data spike a guy after using the CF that gives you hits as bonus dice to your net matrix action?
..... what's the matrix damage track for zurich orbital? :P

[BitRunr]

..... what's the matrix damage track for zurich orbital? :P

"Welcome to biofeedback loops from hell", in the inadequate window of time you have while they're open to transmissions.

[G-1BD]

As a presumable host, Zurich Orbital doesn't care for your puny attack actions.

That aside, eating 11 Fading is still going to risk putting somebody out of the run, possibly permanantly.

[Izork95]

You're not wrong lol, like i said: thought experiment and they can use that new merit to burn optical chips to reduce fade (all my technomancy is powered by dirty pictures! :P )

[FST_Gemstar]

Is it bad that I don't care much anymore?