Matrix System Examples - Grid Guide

December 1, 2023 - 7 minutes read - 1374 words

Books Used in this article.

A lot of cyberpunk revolves around crazy new technology. In almost every system imaginable, this includes some kind of virtual reality system that people have become obsessed with. Part of this is due to the escape it offers. A paradise outside of the nightmare society has wrought with shifting laws to allow for hyper capitalism. Regardless of why, it leads to characters who want to enter this world and most importantly, take on the counter cultural heroes known as Hackers, Deckers, Phreakers or the likes.

Shadowrun offers amazing experiences to be had when it comes to the Matrix. Part of the excitement comes from how these systems work. Something I believe that not many people really understand enough to truly get all of the enjoyment out of it. I’ll be giving several examples of craft systems in this post. I’ll try my best to explain why these systems are designed this way and perhaps hopefully save some GMs some time in ensuring that some common systems accessed we have some deeper thought put into their generation instead of randomly created.

Grid Guide

Grid Guide is an often used system for auto nav and car charging. One of the more interesting things some deckers come up with, is that it can also let you override auto nav commands, find peoples billing addresses if you find their car, potentially even cause their car to pull over and kill the engine. Due to this vulnerability, GridGuide for me has always been an Orange or Red system. I’ll go with Orange for this example.

High levels in Slave and Files due to those two things being the most dangerous aspects of their system for their consumers. I usually also put a Scrambler on the Slave Node as well, since again it’s super dangerous for them to lose control over that aspect of their system. The IC loaded by Grid Guide systems won’t play. They will load more specialized IC geared directly to first finding their prey and then directly ending them.

One thing I always consider is pushing back the shutdown phase. The IC on any given system should be enough to really thoroughly punish a decker. Shutting a system down (especially something as huge as GridGuide) is the kind of thing that makes the news. So I pushed it all the way back to Step 50. They will need to think they are under a full scale assault before they will actually flip the switch. That being said, they will absolutely ensure they throw everything they can before shutting down. Since lives are on the line, once the system goes into active alert, the gloves come off and they stop trying to cripple the decker and start trying to kill them.

Actions Deckers may find intriguing on this system

Find current location of specific vehicle / Listen in to a vehicle’s internal mics / Monitor vehicles location/heading/etc.
- [Locate Slave] p. 217 - SR3
  - 5 Successes needed if they just have the rough description of the car
  - 4 Successes needed if they know a specific detail about the car (dents, custom upgrades, etc.)
  - 3 Successes needed if they know the plate or VIN number
- [Monitor Slave] p. 218 - SR3
- 1 Success needed to find the location of the vehicle. This would also allow them to get information about heading, speed, charge, etc.
Issue a new autonav command / Turn off autonav / Disconnect vehicle from GridGuide Power
- [Locate Slave] p. 217 - SR3
  - 5 Successes needed if they just have the rough description of the car
  - 4 Successes needed if they know a specific detail about the car (dents, custom upgrades, etc.)
  - 3 Successes needed if they know the plate or VIN number
- [Edit Slave] p. 216 - SR3
  - 1 Success needed to take control of the vehicle. Since GridGuide is linked into the Autonav of a vehicle, it will allow the Decker access to begin to stealthy lie to the vehicle. This means changing things in the background silently. For an alert driver this may be difficult to pull off. You’d end up getting into a battle with the driver themselves, constantly turning things on and off as the driver is doing the same attempting to regain control over the vehicle. For a driver that isn’t paying close attention, this will allow great control over the vehicle, changing the feeds of vehicles sensors to ignore guard rails, yellow lines, that sort of thing. Also just changing the route or silently disconnecting the car from recieving power so you can slowly drain the vehicle of power to strand the passengers.
Add / Upgrade / Delete GridGuide access for an Account
- [Locate File] p. 217 - SR3
  - 5 Successes needed if they just have only sporadic details about the person or their account (first and last name, phone number)
  - 4 Successes needed if they know a specific detail about the account (Corp the Citizen belongs too, driving record information)
  - 3 Successes needed if they know the plate or VIN number of vehicle registered or Account Number or SIN of Account Holder
- [Edit File] p. 216 - SR3
  - 1 Success is needed to alter the file. This would allow the decker to upgrade an account to a premium account, remove accident histories to reduce payments, alter the vehicle the account is registered too, etc. Whole new accounts would require the decker to first get a copy of a legit record, then make whatever changes they want, then upload the new copy. You can also copy a file on the server and then make an edit directly against the copied file.
Get Vehicle’s travel log to find patterns/routines of a specific account holder.
- [Locate File] p. 217 - SR3
  - 5 Successes needed if they just have only sporadic details about the person or their account (first and last name, phone number)
  - 4 Successes needed if they know a specific detail about the account (Corp the Citizen belongs too, driving record information)
  - 3 Successes needed if they know the plate or VIN number of vehicle registered or Account Number or SIN of Account Holder
- [Download Data] p. 216 - SR3
  - 1 Success is needed to download the log file. This would be considered pay data so since this is an orange system would be 2D6 x 10 in Mega Pulses. This is a very common plot hook or makes a great little run for a decker for side projects for extra cash for utilities/upgrades/etc.

Extra Security

This example below is a more “basic” example. When you want to switch it up or make it even more difficult. This kind of system would have deckers monitoring the system constantly. They may be alerted when the Scramble IC is deactivated or crashes.

Here is a stat block for such an advanced Sysop for a system like this.

Game Statistics
B Q S   I   W C  E    R
3 5 3 6 (7) 6 5 3.6  5 (6)
INIT: 5 (6) + 1D6, Matrix INIT (pure DNI): 7 (11) + 1D6 (3D6)
Dice Pool: Combat 9, Hacking 5 (10), Task 2
Karma Pool/Professional Rating: 3/2
Active Skills: Computer 6 (Decking 8), Computer B/R 3,
Electronics 4, Etiquette 4 (Matrix 6) (Corporate 5), Instruction 2
(Decking 4), Leadership 4, Pistols 4, Small Unit Tactics 4 (Matrix
Tactics 6)
Knowledge Skills: Decker Tricks 4, IC profiles 6, Matrix
Topography 5, 5 others at rating 5
Bioware/Cyberware: Cerebral booster 1, datajack, encephalon
2, headware memory (150 Mp), math SPU 3
Gear: Transys Highlander cyberdeck, various programs Ratings between 6 and 9. 

Programs to consider:
Scanner - For finding deckers
Validate - For invalidating users
Triangulation - Finding users in the real world
Track - Finding users in the real world
Armor   - Combat!
Cloak   - Combat!
Lock-On - Combat!
Attack-S- Combat!
Medic - Healing from Combat Damage

System


ACIFS: 
orange-8/12/12/11/14/14

Always Loaded IC: 
Scramble-7 attached to Slave Nodes

Step: Event
4   : Scout-6
9   : Trace-8
14  : Passive Alert
19  : Tar Pit-7 (Spoof Utilities)
23  : Blaster-6
26  : Sparky-8
30  : Active Alert
33  : Tar Pit-8 (Sleaze Utilities)
38  : Black IC-8
43  : Black IC-9
47  : Black IC-10
50  : Shutdown