As I mentioned in my Decking article, my group recently had a discussion about the Matrix.  Despite being one of the best versions of the Matrix to date, there are still times when it just seems to take forever.  In my game, what happened was that the team was given a job, sort of immediate action needed, no time to “plan.”  They had to steal a shipping container that was being loaded onto a truck.  They were about 2 hours away from the docks where the truck was being loaded, so the player of the Decker decided to flit on down in the Matrix and try for some surveillance.  

He first started going right for the Universal Oil Host, because that is who owned the dock all this was taking place on.  At which point, like I recommend in my previous article, know the desired result.  He wanted to get access to cameras, so I offered him the suggestion of looking for other cameras that might not be protected by a Rating 6 Host.  Which he found, and decided to hack.  Okay, Rating 2 Cameras mean 4 defense dice.  Much better than the 15 or so that the Host would have been rolling.  The problem came into the time consuming nature of rolling to get a mark a few times.. and then OS increasing as time passed while they were driving tot he location, and the Decker deciding with a 32 OS that he didn’t want to risk waiting another 15 minutes, so he rebooted, and then we had to start over again.

The end result was that after 2 hours of game play, people felt like the Decker had been monopolizing the game for most of that time, and had very little to show for it, since much of the time was eaten by failures, re-rolls, and reboots.  So, after discussion, we came upon a few ideas that we are going to try.  They are pretty much built on optional rules already in the Core Rule Book,

First – In Situations that are not involving Combat, Hosts, significant risks or dangers, Marks will be ignored.

When it comes down to it, Marks tend to just slow things down.  The Decker is going to try a few times to get a Mark, and the moment they fail, they are probably just going to reboot, and try again.  It’s a time sink, especially if all it is going to take is a few re-rolls for the Decker to get the information he needs.  This is also important when it concerns information that will help the story progress.  The group needs to hack a the video cameras along a route to monitor traffic, and if they fail to accomplish that, then it’s going to delay the game.  At times like this, it’s more important that the group get the info they need, instead of how they get the info.  So speeding things up a little and letting the Decker actually accomplish what he’s supposed to do are a good thing.

In non-combat situations, or situations where there’s little to no risk or retaliation, then there is little point to slow things down for Mark acquisition.  Just let them Edit File to copy something, or Reboot the vending machine long enough to try to jack a Soy-Fizz Soda without the security notifying anyone.  Having to stop and go for the 1 to 3 marks, hack again, wait, reboot, hack again..  they are pretty much rolls that really don’t have to happen.  Now, I say Non-combat situations, unattended devices, etc.  If there is a chance that someone will notice, and there may be repercussions, then you should take the time to go through the process with Marks, especially if it is during a Combat Turn, where other Players will be participating as well.  Also, Marks often provide bonus effects to some matrix Actions that will be used more in Combat Situations, so you don’t want to deny those to your Decker.

Second – In Situations that are not involving Combat, Hosts, significant risks or dangers, Hits will be purchased by the GM.

Just as taking the time to make the rolls to acquire Marks can slow things down, so can the GM’s dice.  In the situation in my game, the Decker was rolling 10-12+ dice, sometimes with an Agent assisting for extra dice, against my 4-6 dice depending on whether it was a Rating 2 or 3 device.  And despite sometimes him rolling double my dice pool, luck was on my side.  However, it was information that they kind of needed to progress the story.  So again, it just slowed things down.  He’d roll to try to Mark it, and he’d get the first Mark, then fail on the second several times, and then OS would increase, so he’d reboot, start again.  Wasted time.

This is just for the GM.  The player should still be rolling his dice, since we still want the chance of rolling glitches or critical glitches.  How this works.  Please stick to the Device Ratings charts in the book on page 234 (around where they talk about Grids), 356 (Wired Security in the GM section), and repeated again on 421 (in the gear section).  I am looking at page numbers in one of the first errata’d PDFs, your pages may vary by 5-6.

When you look at these charts, you notice that most “common” devices out there are very low Rating.   A lot are Rating 1 devices, which cannot buy a hit to defend themselves.  Rating 2 devices can buy 1 Hit, etc.  Hopefully your Decker can roll better than a few hits.  So he should be flying through those Rating 1 or 2 municipal traffic cameras, or most maglocks.

Again, this is for out of combat situations, or when facing low-end, or unattended devices, or situations where there is little to no risk.  If the group wants to hack into the Rating 6 commlink of a Street Sam they just geeked, the rolls are unnecessary.  The Sam is dead, he’s not going to counter-hack the Decker.  In a situation like this, I’d even say just give them what they want without any rolls, since they’ll eventually get into it.  Come to think of it, If the player can buy twice as many Hits as the GM in these low-risk, no consequence, non-combat situations, then I say just go with that.  They are so much better in these circumstances, that there should be little risk of Glitches.

Even though the device will be buying Hits, you (the GM) should still secretly roll the appropriate dice for OS purposes.  Just because you want to speed up the game, you should still give them the chance to have GOD converge on them.

Third – If the situation is not involving combat, or actively being on a Run, then you get one chance to remotely hack a Host.

When I say not actively being on a run, that means mostly legwork, information gathering, or times of investigation.  Times when time isn’t critical for the success/failure of the run, or when there’s little to no consequences towards the failure/success of the run.  If your group is in danger, and time is of the essence, or especially when everyone has rolled initiative, and are taking their actions in order, then you can commence these actions like normal.

When you try to hack a Mark onto a host, it often defends with many dice.  If you fail, it gets a Mark on you, and at this point, you often reboot instead of erasing Mark, and the like.  It’s often the easier thing to do.  However, according to page 49 of the Core Rule Book, Trying Again after you fail a test comes with a cumulative -2 penalty.  What this means is that you are now attacking that Host with fewer dice.  And we can spend several minutes of you Hacking, failing, rebooting, and trying again with fewer dice.  Or we can just limit your attempts for sake of saving time.

So, the One Chance is not set in stone.  If time goes by, and the group does other things, and the Decker comes across some information (possible entry codes, or possible back-door exploits) that puts him in a Superior Position (+2 dice) to Hack the Host, then let him try again.  This is addressed in the Trying Again entry, “if the character takes a sufficient break from trying, they can begin the task again with no penalty.”  But if the situation has not changed, then this means the Decker needs to get to a device slaved to the Host’s WAN, and hack in directly, thus bypassing the Host’s defenses.

So that’s what we came up with to try to help speed things along, and help your Decker shine in places where he’s supposed to be Wiz.  Please share any questions or comments below, and anything else comes up that needs to be added to this list, it shall be revised.