malek77

I'm thinking that we need to make Modules.

These modules define how to use the basic R.N rules to create the 'virtual world' you want.

Basic Module = semi-realistic, the rules as we've been playing them. Non lethal Submarine-warfare and panic. Net-centric 'terrain'...as in linked nodes. 'User' is the User's profile. Suitable for Neuromancer, or Bruce Bethke Cyberpunks.

Cyberpunk Classic = Reference all the old programs, names and concepts from the MRB. Lots of damage mechanics, and a Grid 'terrain'...given that it was meant to be like Tron. 'User' might be more fully embodied in the Net - and targetting User will impact the personality of the Runner - like losing a psychic battle while having an Out-Of-Body experience. Suitable for Snow Crash.

Ghost in the Shell = Mazes, Drug Mazes, Viral Injection attacks, support AI allies, and User Ghostlines that can be remotely edited. May require a perks/flaws system in the main Real-World rules.

Inception = Sophisticated Drug Maze personality oriented system, that leads into Psyche-Virtualised-Environments that operate on their own internal rules.

Reliability

Malek's Option :

I'm thinking Reliability should be a value in the stat-line, a cap there. So it's not a +3, its the threshold at which you have to start making Crash saves...

i.e. : Your reliability (Rel) value is 3.

If you run 4 programs simultaneously*, you are over Theshold, and must make a Crash save.

You must roll 4+ on a D10 each turn you have those 4 programs running.

If you fail, you get a Blue Screen of Death.

You will then need to reset and reload and log back in etc etc etc...

*. 4 programs simultaneously could be a huge stack of Persistent-Actions, or it could be the four different programs you've run that turn.

So if you [infiltrate//Modem], then [Query//System], then [Edit//File], then [Cipher//File].....that fourth action not only gets a -6 for being the third extra action, it also triggers a Crash Save.

Thoughts?

NB - Please don't post in this thread, there will be an official discussion thread here. Posts here are for official updates/modification history.

Run.Net Beta #1.2

Run.Net is a semantic command-line system for simulating ‘Netrunning’ in your Cyberpunk games.

Actions in Run.Net are created ‘semantically’...if you wish to conceal a User’s presence on a system, you use the Command “Conceal” on the Target “User”, and as a player, you say “Conceal User” in your declaration.

This avoids unnecessary crunch, keeps Netrunning actions as free-form in their meaning as the other skills in the Interlock system, and keeps the system ‘agnostic’ of the hardware background you’re running with.

If you wish to simulate the sense of a particular kind of hardware, we advise you research it for its peculiarities, and then use those concepts in play. A Babbage engine will be immune to EMP - but a Quantum Computer might do something really strange without crashing!

Interface Skill

The Interface Skill represents the character’s ability to manipulate computers.

Interface can be used in the normal system of Stat + Skill + D10 for simple tasks, in the same way you could use Tech + Drive + 1D10 to change a car tire.

But for best results you need to distribute points to the Command & Target lists - let’s look there next.

Command & Target

Commands are functions a User can perform, and Targets are what the commands are performed on.

In this text, we will use the format [Command//Target].

The complete Command & Target List is as follows :

The Command List:

The Target List:

To do any task online, you should combine a Command and a Target in your declaration to the GM.

“I Conceal User, then I’ll roll to Infiltrate:Modem.”

“I want to add a new line to that delivery database, so...Edit Database, and add a new line to deliver a Ninja 750 to my pickup address.”

“Locate Comm on frequencies for mobile devices. I want to find that guy before he gets out of the club.”

But what numbers get rolled?

Interface x 5

Times your Interface Skill by 5. These points represent your familiarity with the tasks and systems of a computer.

System Familiarity Points = Interface x 5

Distribute your Familiarity Points to the Command list, to represent your character’s skill at performing those tasks.

Competent office staff would have a high ‘Edit’ skill. A competent Hacker will have a high ‘Infiltrate.’ A spy might use ‘Locate’ a lot to track targets. A double agent will want ‘Cipher’ to protect their files.

Commands are capped at 5, you cannot go higher. You can roll if your Cmd level is 0 - you're guessing your way through the interface, clicking on menus that look useful, or even pressing F1.

Now, AGAIN - distribute your Familiarity Points to the Target list, to represent your character’s skill at manipulating those targets.

A MedTech installing bionics will want a high ‘Cyber’ to personalise settings for their patient. A Miner using robotic diggers will use ‘Remote’ to control his machines. A Signals Officer will use ‘Comm’ to keep information flowing on the Net-Centric battlefield. And a Netrunner will want to be familiar with User - how someone connects to the net - to kick hostile Runners out of the battle.

Targets are capped at 5, you cannot go higher. You can roll if your Tgt level is 0 - you're guessing how to handle the subject, and picking options that look right.

Why the cap of 5? So that we don't 'break' Interlock by pushing past the normal range of 0..10. When you combine your Cmd & Tgt skill, you are recomposing the Interface skill that was broken into detailed parts, and that is what fits in the normal Stat + Skill + D10 function.

What happens when I level up?

Ding!

Say you’ve gone from Interface 4 to 5.

You now have 5 Familiarity points to spend on the Command list, and on the Target List. Yes, 5 on both.

Actions - Basic

We mentioned semantic command line Netrunning before - what this means is that your declaration of an action has already encoded the Command & Target component of your roll. Succeed and you get the result you want! Fail, and your opponent becomes aware something is going on. Not what, but that something is up.

An Aware opponent will want to determine what just happened if you either failed the roll, or are deliberately not concealing your actions.

They must roll [Detect//System] and equal or beat your roll to know what just happened. On a failure, they are madly digging through screens of information, frustrated by doubt. On a success, they become aware of what just occurred, and can then begin to counteract it.

(This replaces ‘Awareness’ rolls, only in the Net.)

Sometimes, you will need to specify more detail - use brackets.

More than one Action

So you’ve infiltrated, and you immediately want to query that database.

Just roll another basic action, at a cumulative -2 penalty. This replaces the -3 for real-world multiple actions, because the Net is designed with speed and ease in mind.

Want to combine actions? Say you need to get that Sentry Gun firing very fast.

An example might be :

Stack the penalty in the order they happen - it might make more sense to take a Real-World action first while it is still easy to overcome the -3, and stack on Net actions at -2 afterwards.

You may attempt no more Actions than your Interface skill.

Note that failed actions are noticed by other Users as flashing modem lights, grinding drives or lurches in system performance.

Rolling To Hit

Int + Interface(Command + Target) + Mods + 1D10 vs DV.

Where...

Interface is composed of the values you have in the Command & Target's you have selected for the action.

Mods includes the Speed bonus for the age of your deck

DV (Difficulty Value) can be an opposed roll, or a fixed difficulty from anything like a Software Firewall or an opponent’s persistent action.

Fail, and any hostile Users will know ‘something happened’, but not what. They will become aware at the start of their turn in initiative order.

Actions - Persistent

You may declare an action to be persistent - this is setting up something to run, and leaving it run over any number of rounds.

Every Persistent Action causes a cumulative penalty to your rolls, of -1.

Process Limit is calculated as (CPU Speed: 0-5) + (1/2 Interface round down: 0-5) = PL: 1..10

Exceeding this Limit immediately forces a reliability check against the CPU you are utilizing to Interface with. Failing a reliability check will cause automatic failure of all actions that turn and possibly losing connection to the Net.

Save by rolling 1D10 UNDER your PL value.

//

// There is much doubt about how to make this work, with the 'Reliability' stat.

// Suggestions NEEDED.

//

Other factors which count against Process Limit are: Running additional Programs, or Using additional ICE or any buffering hardware.

Modifiers

Modifiers for Net use will come from Research, Items, and Circumstances.

Research : If your Netrunner had invested time and effort in finding out a real password to access a system, then their Infiltrate roll may simply be a [Login//System] vs DV10, given that such a Login is a legitimate, every day use of the system.

Programs & Items : Your Netrunner may have written special code for the circumstance, automating some part of the attack process, such as a program designed to edit a sophisticated database to conceal the modification. Or perhaps it is a virus that will hide itself in system, and spread elsewhere. The GM will expect some ‘Real-World’ programming rolls to gain a bonus in the range +1..+10, or suitable hustling to buy the program or device.

Items, such as Chinese Military ICE-Breakers, drug-mazes, flip-switches, or AI allies, have conditions to trigger and behaviours defined by the GM.

This is where ICE-Breakers, special viral attacks or mazes fit. When their conditions are met, bonuses will be applied.

Circumstances : A connection to the Net might be laggy or simply very low bandwidth, and apply a GM defined penalty to all actions. A previous successful brain-hack may have left a Runner with a terror of a specific opponent. Sleeping properly and then getting loaded on coffee might confer a +1 for three hours.

Effects

Some programs or actions may have an impact outside Run.Net.

Remote Control :

[Control//Weapon] can put the Runner in control of a Sentry gun, and will need to be followed up with Heavy Weapon rolls in the ‘Real-World’. [Control//Remote] will lead to Ref+Pilot(Drone) rolls.

Anti-User Attacks :

Attacks on a User may have a pre-requisite of successfully [infiltrate//User] to take command of their deck in preparation for giving them a jolt. Depending on setting, [infiltrate//User] may simply mean you take control of their profile on their home system and can log them out - the effect being that Runner is no longer in the Net. Or you may [Run//Program(BrainVolt)] and do 1D6 points of Damage to target Runner.

Breakers, Firewalls, & ZDEs

Fixed Skills :

Firewalls or software with specific functions will have a fixed number representing its performance - such as a DV 20 to prevent unauthorised access. A Sentry gun might always fire at a base of 10 + Modifiers. A station-keeping system on a Drone might have a persistent ‘15’ to its Pilot+Drone rolls to stay in position.

Mega Bonuses :

Customised software, specialised ICE-Breakers, or having detailed insider knowledge could confer enormous bonuses to a Netrunner.

Neuromancer’s Chinese ICE-Breaker could be a +10 to Infiltrate rolls, but would take several turns to activate. A ZDE - Zero Day Exploit - could provide a +10 infiltrate bonus - but only for 6 hours, until the patch is developed.

Speed :

All computer systems will have a Speed stat, which is applied to each action roll. This Speed number will decay as the system ages - a two year old deck is obsolete.

Deck Design

The ‘Deck’ is what comes after the digital tablet. If the interface is DNI cables, and the display is your own vision, then the Deck will have an on switch and a few ports - but no screen, or keys.

Type//Speed//ICE//Availability//Reliability

Type : An ordinary electronic Deck is ‘Basic’. Other options will depend on the game-world - Quantum, Rod-Logic, Neural or Photonic are all options, and the benefits and vulnerabilities will need to be fleshed out by the GM.

Speed : Is a bonus to every roll. Speed is relative to the age of the Deck. The rate at which speed decays will be defined by the setting.

ICE : is the defences for detecting intrusion to that System, with a flat number. Its use causes a -1, as it is a persistent action...serious Netrunners will turn it off, for a value of zero.

Availability : ©ommon - a freely available unit, low priced, consumer model. (P)rosumer - an expensive unit, sold by specialty retailers, higher than average performance. ®are - expensive, unusual, custom made, with unusual features and extremely high performances. (M)ilitary - a militarised deck, not available to consumers, with overtly assault oriented features and specialty connections, unusual security systems and unique interface connections. Also hardened against impacts and environment, with SP/SDP. It can be used as a floatation device in case of a water landing. (E)xotic - equipment at the very bleeding edge of conceivable capabilities. This is the realm of prototypes from highly advanced laboratories or the pet projects of hermetic and insanely driven individuals. The cost and capabilities of such technology will likely both be astronomical.

But why is there no MU?

During Run.Net’s design phase, it was decided that exacting account keeping of memory added nothing to the game. We decided that if a file was big enough to be plot-worthy for its size, the GM can rule extra storage is required - and thus the logistical necessity of extra memory can remain, but without the need to exacting book-keeping.

Reliability : Is a modifier to rolls against the stability of your System. If many persistent actions are running at once, the system may crash. Reliability will help resist this, and may also resist damage mechanics.

D20's have been redeemed by Infinity!

No more will they solely be used for those...other...RPGs!

Should you ever feel like rolling D20's again, do it for this reason, and no other. And ye shall be spared.

...that's the second time I've said 'ye' at you...seems to be a theme here.

D1?

As in 1 & 0, or just a single value regardless?

...wants Binary dice...and a 16 sider with Hex values...and and and a chrome unicorn.

Welcome aboard there Mr Drow...

If your post took an hour to write, we thank ye for the thoughtfulness.

They only thing is that the initiative/turn system needs either rejiggering, or more clarification. But the basic initiative framework is very good, just need tweaking. (I don't like the -2 idea as it means a newbie runner could go crazy negative just hoping for a lucky hit, but a pro will find his piles of experience/skill quickly disappearing. It becomes a mud slinging contest.)

It was interesting - there have been many discussions about Initiative in Net combat, and from my most recent playtests (me and Companero conduct 'live fire' tests) we've found that a roll-off initiative mechanic isn't needed. It seems strange, but bear with me...

A Netrunner attacking a hostile system is going to invest most of their effort in evading detection.

Assuming they're successful in evading detection, they perform most of their actions unopposed.

When they are detected, it is circumstance the determines initiative.

Did the Runner fail at a task, and expose their presence? If so - the next action is by a Hostile Sysop, trying to stop the intrusion.

Did the Runner simply stop caring about concealment, and deliberately makes themselves known? Then the Runner maintains the initiative.

This may be an artifact of how I GM, but it literally didn't matter, and that surprised us.

I was really looking forward to a legitimate use for the Cool stat...

But don't take my word for it. Jump in a playtest!

Regarding 'The Hammer'.

The two paths we have tested for actions are :

A > Calculated 'APR', derived from skill and Deck speed

B > One standard free action, extra actions at cumulative -2

We found the A option produced 'The Hammer' every turn. A skilled Netrunner was an overwhelming, unstoppable force. We also trialed a 'Breaker' concept, where a pre-set sequence of up to five programs could be triggered in a single turn.

The was a lot of 'retarded monkey' going on.

We needed to get the 'Actions Per Round' down to 1 or 2.

The B option seems to have done this. The first action is 'free', but each extra is at -2.

Given that Cp2020 is a D10 system, and the sixth extra action is at -10, you'd need to be rolling Criticals to succeed at everyday tasks, like editing a text file.

At the same time, a highly skilled Netrunner (one with an Interface of 8!) found they could attempt maybe one extra action if they absolutely had to, and a third if it was simple - but the risk of failure beyond that point was a natural limiter even for a world class character. This is largely a function of the DV (Difficulty Values) she had to beat, and indeed - it was when she failed, and the Hostile Sysop's started to come for her, that she resorted to burnt-earth tactics.

You can read about it here!

There was panic! Chaos! Explosions!

Again - don't take my word for it. Come and help us play test, that you may also see!

Or - hey, you run something for us!

We are considering a definite limit of :

You may attempt no more Actions than your Interface skill.

Note that failed actions are noticed by other Users as flashing modem lights, grinding drives or lurches in system performance.

Re : Netrunning Sets

I like it! Comp isn't so sure, but didn't get to respond.

So. Here's the opposing Theses.

1. "My objection would have been that it doesn't fit into the existing Interlock turn sequence." - Companero

Cp2020 normally goes 'round robin' with actions, and multiple-actions attract cumulative -3 penalties (in 'real-world').

A Set system might cause a 'Hammer' issue in combat, where a high performing character gets 3+ actions before anyone else is permitted a move, and then continues with this overwhelming advantage.

One would assume multiple actions would be banned, else you'd get a geometric increase in the number of actions a high performer could take, relative to an average opponent.

The advantage of going first in Cp2020 is significant - this is a Killer system.

2. "I LIKE it! We should use that for the Combat system!" - Malek77

When I saw the chart, I had this wonderful 'click' moment!

I've always found 'Ladder Chart Initiative' to be conceptually valid, but brain-hurtingly complex to play. I'm a bit Maths averse.

But by basing it on a ratio of lowest common multiple, and creating only one complete 'set', you can produce a small chart, and produce the "Performance Disparity" one would expect to see from a highly skilled combatant steaming through a mob of mooks.

Given that will generally advantage a Player, I don't mind. And it's musical in its pattern.

Also - you could disaggregate going first and going lots. A jacked up Solo might go first, but it might be a Techie with great situational-awareness who does lots.

I would assign characters with the same 'Set Position' numbers to act simultaneously - this would make GMing a mob of mooks easier, since you just have to know when all the Init 4's go, they all go at once, rather than in laborious sequence.

So.

What to do next?

We need more live fire tests, and we need more people reading the rules. I have written a new Beta ruleset today, which is 'in editing', but I'd be happy to send you a copy.

If you feel to GM something, we'd be delighted to get that fresh viewpoint. Use and Demonstrate whatever rules you wish. If you want APR and Sets, use them.

The next Live Fire test should happen tomorrow (+8 hours from now). I'll PM you some stuff.

here's a reprint of a photo I suspect most of us have already seen.

I haven't!

Whooharr! That looks fun!

but you would certainly have the surprise factor going for you conducting an exterior wall breach on the 25th story. How cool would that be?!

Thinking it through, a boarding ramp would need to be very stable. Anything going wrong could toss your cargo. It also leaves the AV right in front of a neat hole through which any internal defenders can shoot straight into its unprotected hind parts.

Now I'm thinking flying-fox style...shoot a harpoon through the glass. It cuts an entry hole and embeds in concrete somewhere. The AV doesn't have to be dead still, the infantry whizz down the line, and then the excitement can commence.

A Horizontal Fast Rope.

Also think of it as a Rescue casualty recovery system - perhaps have the rope from a boom out the back, and you could flying-fox a stretcher to the AV Ambulance.

You could even just use the harpoon as an anchor, so the smashed window isn't used as an entry point, and the harpoon is only a piton for rappelling to a lower location...Vertical Encirclement MOUT, anyone?

...the new engines can warp the decks of the ships from the heat of the downthrust. Now try fast-roping your assault force out of your AV-4 in a tight urban environment

Ooh crap. Hadn't thought of that. Ow.

Helicopters for insertions then!

Unless - could you blow out a scraper window, reverse an AV up to the hole, and then drop a boarding ramp for the troops to run across?

I wonder about this for ultra-dense scraper-cities needing air borne Fire Fighting and Emergency Rescue squads that can't depend on elevators...I keep visualising a Fire Engine red AV hosing foam into a burning office...

Re: MANPADS and ultra-tech genius missiles

I love a shiny super smart rocket as much as anyone not a pilot at that moment, but I'm one of those horrid people on the 'Railgun' side of the argument about the future of air power.

A 3mm Railgun in a bunker or hide, or remote operated from an exposed location, could dominate a hemisphere of airspace out to its range. (10kms? 20kms? Horizon?)

I'm talking about Active LADAR guided, millimetrically precise, servo accurised sniping of aircraft out of the sky...along with TBMs, Artillery and Mortar shells.

The shot itself isn't a $30k missile smarter than you are, it's a $10 hunk of ferrous metal.

To my mind, the Attack Helo of +40 years is above all stealthed, cold and quiet, and flies at less than tree top height for the entire journey.

My view is future helicopters will fight like infantry, dashing from cover to cover while their wing-men provide over-watch.

Police and COIN Helo's will be passive and reactive armoured troop carriers optimised against small arms ground threats, carrying the usual Miniguns and Rockets.

Thoughts?

I figure that if AVs are feasible, then Helicopters would be much improved.

An AV, as described, is a hideously finicky, brick-like, brute-force reliant flying machine. That means a horrendous amount of power to keep it flying, and unless CP was being deliberately daft, infers improvements in turbine efficiency and aeronautics.

The same efficiency turbine applied to a fixed wing or helo would produce an aircraft an order of magnitude more effective than those of today.

Which means you could have blisteringly fast small helicopters capable of mind bending acrobatics, cheap helos of contemporary equivalent performance for 1/4 the cost, or stealthier machines...or super heavy choppers with serious armour and guns.

Obviously, I really like that last option.

The more powerful, the more exact the pilot can be, the faster he can infiltrate, unload those troops and get the hell out. And if my experience of being overflown by Blackhawks in a low slow formation is to go by, that means Future Force can put 30+ fully kitted Marines anywhere that has a flat roof-top irrespective of radar cover and over the head of any conventional 'thin on the ground' infantry force. Bam.

Thankyou Mike - I will do my bestest to protect the upholstery.

OT : Hello, is this thing on? *bomp* *bomp*

Where are we at with Deck 'strings'?

Sony Vaoa Deck

Electronic | 2cpu | +2spd | 4x UDP

- Key+Pointer+Screen Interface

> Software

- Firewall - [Detect//Comm] 18, [secure//CybModem] 18

...where a Runner's I/F cables plug into a UDP slot, and we assume it has an OS that allows standard computer functionality - like email, word processing and a command line.

An attack would have to defeat the 'Secure' value of 18 to get 'root access', whilst it could only hide its nefarious deeds if it had a 'Conceal' over 18. So if they screw up the stealth, the alerts go off an you catch an attack in progress - if they pass stealth but can't get in, that's just funny.

Thoughts?

Happy?

Yes, and omg sorry for the brain explosion...now I am less tired...wow. Um.

Back OT!

I believe software should have fixed numbers - so a Firewall would be bought on the strength of it having a Cmd:Detect/Tgt:Comms value of 20. More for 25. Lots more for 30.

Programs should decay - at a rate of -1 per month, let's say. Patching prevents this while the software is supported, otherwise...

This to represent the constant turnover of exploit, patch, vulnerability, closed vulnerability.

I'd rather avoid rolling for Firewalls - else you have the classic "Uh-oh, I just failed an awareness roll" issue.

If the numbers are fixed it means both the GM can roll for sneaky attacks, and keep them secret, and players can determine exactly what kind of bonuses they need to have a healthy chance of success.

Breakers, aka Sequenced programs.

I want them, but I also agree that having 10 actions going off in a single turn (and possibly countered by an equally apocalyptic response) would be bad.

Perhaps we need think of them running in 'Parallel' with the Runner, so she's not getting 12+ actions per turn, but only 2 or 3.

Option, for you comment and alteration :

Toki is trying to knock a SecDrone out of the sky from above her flat.

She knows that it has a control signal, and an autopilot. The autopilot, she knows from online exploit 'walk-throughs', can be deactivated, causing the Drone to crash. She needs to stop the autopilot getting the message it has lost control signal.

She also has to attack the control signal, which she'll handle herself, because the Human operator will likely fight back.

Thus - she scripts up a Breaker sequence to continually send a stream of identical [Control//Remote] signals so the AutoPilot won't engage. She'll have made one roll for this, and that value will be the one used for all the attacks, and it'll have a Programming modifier on it.

She herself will start with [infil//Comm] to 'breach' the Drone and then [Edit//Comm] to send a false signal to the operator, of looping video.

In effect - she is taking 2 actions per turn. The Breaker will loop its attack each turn after she's hit 'Run'.

Those 2 actions all try and fit into the available Bandwidth cap - as well as the Operator's signal.

Toki's attack proper will be against the Drone's Firewall, which being pseudo-military, is a solid Str 20.

...thoughts? Or am I off topic again... :S

Some references.

Through the dataphones I got us out of the libsys and into CityNet. Now, Olders will never understand. They still think a computer has got to be a brain in a single box. I can get the same results with opsys stored in a hundred places, once I tie them together. Nearly every computer has got a dataphone port, CityNet is a great linking system, and Rayno's microterm has the smarts to do the job clean and fast so nobody flags on us. I pulled the compiler out of Georgie's old man's computer and got into our Net. Then I handed the term back to Rayno.

 

"Well, let's do some fun. Any requests?" Georgie wanted something to get even with his old man, and I had a new routine cooking, but Lisa's eyes lit up 'cause Rayno handed the term to her, first.

 

"I wanna burn Lewis," she said.

 

"Oh fritz!" Georgie complained. "You did that last week!"

 

"Well, he gave me another F on a theme."

 

"I never get F's. If you'd read books once in a--"

 

"Georgie," Rayno said softly, "Lisa's on line." That settled that. Lisa's eyes were absolutely glowing.

 

Lisa got back into CityNet and charged a couple hundred overdue books to Lewis's libsys account. Then she ordered a complete fax sheet of Encyclopedia Britannica printed out at his office. I got next turn.

Cyberpunk, Bruce Bethke

((Hehe - remarkably topical atm, esp. how it ends))

[...]Case triggered his second program. A carefully engineered virus attacked the code fabric screening primary custodial commands for the sub-basement that housed the Sense/Net research materials. 'Boston,' Molly's voice came across the link, 'I'm downstairs.' Case switched and saw the blank wall of the elevator. She was unzipping the white pants. A bulky packet, exactly the shade of her pale ankle, was secured there with micropore. She knelt and peeled the tape away. Streaks of burgundy flickered across the mimetic polycarbon as she unfolded the Modern suit. She removed the pink raincoat, threw it down beside the white pants, and began to pull the suit on over the white mesh top.

12:06:26.

Case's virus had bored a window through the library's command ice. He punched himself through and found an infinite blue space ranged with color-coded sphere strung on a tight grid of pale blue neon. In the nonspace of the matrix, the interior of a given data construct possessed unlimited subjective dimensions; a child's toy calculator, accessed through Case's Sendai, would have presented limitless gulfs of nothingness hung with a few basic commands. Case began to key the sequence the Finn had purchased from a mid-echelon sarariman with severe drug problems. he began to glide through the spheres as if he were on invisible tracks.

here. This one.

Punching his way into the sphere, chill blue neon vault above him starless and smooth as frosted glass, he triggered a sub-program that effected certain alterations in teh core custodial commands.

Out now. Reversing smoothly the virus reknitting the fabric of the window.

Done.

 

[...]

 

'Do it, cutter,' Molly said.

Case flipped to cyberspace and sent a command pulsing down the crimson thread that pierced the library ice. Five separate alarm systems were convinced that they wer still operative. The three elaborate locks deactivated, but considered themselves to have remained locked. The library's central bank suffered a minute shift in its permanent memory: the construct had been removed, per executive order, a month before. Checking for the authorization to remove the construct, a librarian would find the records erased.

 

 

[...]

 

He withdrew the line through the library ice. It whipped back into his program, automatically triggering a full system reversal. The Sense/Net gates snapped past him as he backed out, subprograms whirling back into the core of the icebreaker as he passed the gates where they had been stationed.

'Out, Brood,' he said, and slumped in his chair.

Neuromancer, chapter 4

Motoko 11 : "Sure seems like today isn't my lucky day. Too bad...I wanted to take a more gentle approach and get in here through the normal channels."

 

In image : Company LAN terminal, Hardened Barrier & Surrogate Reset Box, Decatoncale Terminal

 

Penguin Minion 1 : <Want me to activate the Body Armor virus?>

M11 : "Not 'til I tell you. We're working back from the point where they called in the Police Attack Force...got the satellite settings?"

Pen 1 : <Deploying along three axes of route arrays...standing by with all types of attack barriers!>

 

Pen 1 : <There are 17 satellites above HQ. How do you want to connect the company's internal routes to the Decatoncale?>

M11 : "We'll deploy with maximum ordinary threshold. Set a 0.5ms gap for pursuers."

 

"...I want a backup with full functionality! (and watch out for any compound viruses!)"

Pen 1 : "Yes'm."

M11 : "Give top priority to the system's new area settings!"

 

Levitating above the spherical 'Level-9A InterGate, amid a cloud of software readouts, attended by a waiting flock of 6 Penguin Minions.

 

M11 : "Good Afternoon, Decatoncale."

Pen 1 : <Gosh I don't think this AI's got a built in greeting function Ma'am...>

M11 : "Inject the Motoko file system...set up an advanced combat capability with eight arrays. As soon as they break through, run new versions in randomized sequence...Stand by!"

"For the Decoys, set mazes in triplicate. Maximize CPU processing load. Assume we're facing multiple enemies and disperse the sets...split up into four groups and activate threshold triggers! Link to all know Satellite Systems!"

 

Now hanging before a CG map of LEO, dense constellations of equatorial satellites crowd the 'SAT MAP' sky, towering stacks of mazes and viruses project onto possible trace routes...ready to overwhelm any pursuers.

 

M11: "Twelve Sat-Man Brains suppressed! Standby with Hyperthreading on Four Major networks!"

Pen1 : <UMMC Sone-Sat Clear!>

Pen2 : <All Homing Mines with Virus arrays loaded are active, Ma'am!>

 

M11 : "Do a final check of peripheral security!"

Pen1 : <Alarms are operating on all Fiber Optic networks with shaft access.>

Pen2 : <Action control viruses injected into security personnel are now in operation.>

Pen3 : <Maintaining Disconnect with Motoko M2 Decot!>

 

Motoko M2 : Name of the other Motoko Decot (decoy robot), the one who has been stopped by security. Possibly for her illegally high hem-line.

 

 

Pen1 : <Full range of attack barriers are operational! No functional conflicts!>

Pen2: <Traps using Donor Pigs from Meditech Plant Number One now on active standby!>

M11 : "Give me all known information on this case. "

Pen3 : <Mine-decompression arrays now on active standby!"

M11 : "Initiate trace on Police reporting routes."

Brain-hacked police sysadmin 1 : <They're using Public Terminal LP2568...I have identified a specific user and am checking...Virus Detected. Doing a reverse probe on the Comms path...public terminal CP9712, at Megatech's Industrial College.>

Pen1 : <I've broken through the Barriers...now connecting with user and Data-Mining his brain...appears to be a random access via multiple paths. All trace records have been deleted, and they're impossible to recover, due to multiple overwrites of Hard E-Brain residuals.>

Pen2 : <No E-Signature registered.>

M11 : "Give the time lag in response on each contact, there's a high probability they're using Net78 Satellites, in the Southeast Asia-Pacific region. [...] The more time goes by the more the broadcasting areas shift...hmm. The source must be in motion...Along this course...with no constraints from Landforms! Hook me into the Air Traffice Control system for the entire area!"

Ghost in the Shell : Man-Machine Interface, 7/11.

((If the Minions are really good they may get to do a structural analysis on Motoko afterwards!))

In writing this up, there's two glaring points.

1. This is Submarine warfare - sneak and shoot.

2. A competent netrunner is a mission commander.

Motoko11 there has a swarm of AIs, Decoy-Robots, Cebot micro-drones, and - if she were on work time - an army of PA suited Security troops.

Yes, there's a place for bad kids fax bombing and faking up credits, and so far, Run.Net does that really well - off the cuff stuff - like meddling with a shop's register, crashing someone's vowel-Phone, & up to Spook stuff like physically entering an office to D/L the contents of a target HDD...that and flat out Hacker Duels, which is bloody fantastic, and deeply cool.

But it shouldn't stay there.

Things are going to get heavier - and with the Netrunner linked to every Unit on an operation, they go straight past software duels into Tactical Command.

The Cyberpunk kids were using physical access, Cmd-Infiltrate/Tgt-System...in a RL take on an FPS infiltration mission.

Case was playing an RTS Stealth mission with Molly, where you have one unit vs an installation - after 9 days of accumulating Programming skill rolls for a job of DIFF 130+. On the day, all he did was press 'Run' at the right time.

Motoko 11 was Playing StarCraft AND trying to trace her opponent's location so she could fake a rage-quit by crashing their modem. She wasn't coding - she had AI's to code for her on the fly, chopping up viruses and building mazes so pursuers would fall into mini-simulations of the net, to misdirect them and waste their time while they hoovered up virus chunks that would coalesce and eat their system and leave their runners in a puddle of urine when their brain decides it's now a pig.

Maybe I'm hyperventilating - but Can You SEE the GLORY that is the Runner's BIRTHRIGHT?

And to handle all that terrifying, heady, high-end 'Earth as Chessboard' stuff, all we need is a mechanism for triggering events. It should be hard, it should take research, and if you screw it you'll be straight back to brain-VS-brain duelling. But it could be so freaking EPIC!

...can I have Breakers, pleeeeease?

CAPITAL idea!

Seconded, it's a smashing idea - Run.Net should indeed have its own section.

(Maybe we need, generically, a 'New Rules Chapter' section, where if there's enough member votes, up it goes as a locally official rule-section?)

I think its a GREAT idea to require Programming skill in order to set up ICE Breakers.

Thought/Concept : What Is a Breaker?

In my current conception it is either :

1. A device, with a number of UPB ports, that runs a sequence of programs in order.

2. A scripted chain of software activations, like a macro, first running one program, then activating the next with the results of the first.

3. The floating robotic penguin minion of one of Motoko's daughters.

The first is to run with the Gibson feel, that to me always resembled an Atari or Sega with specialised military hacking cartridges. This provides a nice tactile 'black box' to plug in to 'get the +10 bonus'. Something to smuggle and hide.

The second is kinda RL, and clarifies where the programming is needed - if the data coming out of one stuffs up the next, your whole chain of events fails. There's also the point things could 'branch'.

The demands it makes are that you 'test' sequences of your breaker (like Case, making runs) to find out how the target responds, and build up to the full sequence by the usual process of in-game activities to build up an attack bonus.

The last is what Motoko 11 has - intelligent, self programming, Breaker AIs that she can command do go do tasks. This is ultra high end stuff.

How should we represent this?

Re : Automation

I need a sense of how 'Always-On' automatic systems work - what does a Deck's Firewall do when it detects an attack? What numbers does it use to oppose or attempt?

Firewall as Two Shot breaker (Scan followed by a Trace) makes sense, but it does turn everything into Breaker-VS-Breaker escalating fight.

What Case did was make numerous runs against the target system to scope its responses, the attack itself was fully automated, with him shepharding the breaker on its way in.

My most recent thinking on Breakers is that arranging one should require Programming rolls, of escalating difficulty the more you try and sequence (because each step must be right, or all the following ones will fail!).

Software today can set off wild chains of consequence, & controlling this writhing beast of interacting settings is the skill of system optimisation. We need to account for it somehow, particularly in the pre-emptive sense of setting up defences.

Any thoughts?

I suppose we could crank the Risk/Reward ratio - make each stage of a breaker at a cumulative -2 to Pre-Script successfully, but make a failure really nasty...

I worry that dropping them altogether kills the very real advantages of automation.

it only simulates the real-life annoyance of a trip to RadioCyberShack™

But isn't that kinda fun?

I love the idea of trying to jam an M203, laser ranger, and Red Dot sight onto a P90, simply for the clicky viscerality of envisaging all those cool gadgets in one place.

I want Deck design to feel similar. Like Lego. I want it to express Ethos - is this Runner an ascetic, relying on his mind? Or is he a gear-freak, with widgets and dongles all over, shielded behind impenetrable complexity?

The sense I get from limiting the number of slots is that it will force strategic selection of options - but perhaps there is a better way.

Either way, we're very close to something elegant and fun. I am well pleased.

Re: Alternates to 'slot'

'Slot', as a word, has become a signifier of a pointer towards a scale-less concept/component of functionality...in the collateral hallucination Comp and I inhabit. Hence Psi's confusion. My apologies.

Thus, other options.

UPB : Universal Parallel Bus. A character iteration on USB.

(I was thinking - you could have devices of 'n' bus width, with the first 4 pins working like conventional USB to setup file transfer, and thus install the protocol that can then make use of the much wider array. Ah, dreams. That one day printers might have their software within, rather than on separate CD. Sigh.)

Socket : Encourages visualization of a physical connection, which is what we want for peripherals.

Interface. I/F. : Could get players to dream up creative ways of daisy-chaining devices and themselves into some larger function. Implies that Humans are as 'swappable' as memory or a webCam - the operator is just the 'Rapid Heuristic Wide-Context Decision' component. Make interface cables mean more than just connecting humans to machines, but the conduit of all informational integration...

A terabyte is only effectively infinite if you're talking about modern sized programs, and files. With each level of memory advancement comes a corosponding level of bit-depth, for instance HD video.

I concur!

In game mechanic terms, I was envisaging that the GM would either ignore the memory issue, or issue a fiat ruling that "You require additional memory space" and the player then has to buy an external HDD and plug it in to D/L the <Macguffin File of Awesome>.

We neither end up accounting for every MU, nor lose the strategic significance of giant files that take a long time to D/L.

(ps: if I'm writing funny, I've been reading this and this at the same time...)

Interfaces as peripherals go into slots.

My thinking was to include in the stat-line the standard means of controlling the system, since it must at least have one way of being controlled, and I assume that's built into the case, and is thus represented on the stat-line.

One could argue a standard tower system today is all 'Slots' and no built in, and you could leave a blank in the stat-line. We're hoping to make it as user friendly as a Gun data-string.

We've just now been considering if a System needs a Firewall stat : representing the DV infiltration rolls will be made against, and a Scan trace back attempt. Conceptually equivalent to SP/SDP.

This has raised the spectre of 'Breakers' again, with my idea of a Firewall being equivalent to a 2-slot Breaker, Running the Firewall and then triggering a Scan to trace the attack.

1. Cmd:Secure + Tgt:System; (20)

2. Cmd:Detect + Tgt:Comms; (15)

I'm favouring fixed numbers (instead of using a CPU 'Int' stat and rolls) to accelerate play, and avoid filling the game with semi-sentient NPCs needing ridiculous software skill-buffs to compete.

This makes 'fixed' systems an immobile target, easy to use, but still hard to attack.

Maybe this is, like, Patient Zero...and it's, like, infectious and stuff and soon there'll be millions of plague ridden threads shambling up to strangle and smother the live threads with their dusty ideas and ancient names, hollow voices echoing from the past of things long forgotten...

All those covers are by Stephn Martiniere, a brilliant French artist/illustrator. I actually bought Brasyl because of his cover... <.< >.>

...It also turns out he worked on Stranglehold, the John Woo game based on Hardboiled, which I loved...

I'm just getting into Cyberabad days. It's Cyberpunk, but not as we know it - its blisteringly hot and foreign and deeply cultured. A giant theme running through it is the manipulations of AI actors in a TV soap, vs the curiously Crusaderish 'Hamilton Act' driven anti-AI Americans...

River of Gods is astonishing. Never read anything like it. Improbably well executed. I'm jealous of his 'compressed prose' style...the immediacy, the internal view of the character's thinking. He's also dreadfully cruel sometimes. They're intense books.

++quick edit++

Just finished Cyberabad Days.

Disturbing, amazing, deep, weird, plausible, horrible, beautiful...this writer is making it very hard for the others, how can I ever enjoy a book shallower again?

** !! I was bullied at school !! **

I've been thinking of 'Robust Solutions' to the issue for ~21 years.

The good news is that the more technology advances, the more humane the treatments can become...

1) How can a netrunner be hurt?

2) How much damage will that do?

3) How will that damage be applied?

4) What could possibly mitigate/modify that damage?

Damage from software depends on DNI implementation. I figure it might be possible to induce a state of Depression, Self Loathing or Futility that you could compel the targetted Netrunner to self-harm or total inaction.

If you screw up though, they'll realise they're being manipulated and probably experience an epic surge of anger...which is where the battle will be won or lost. If they can manage their emotions, they'll become very effective. If they fail, the amygdala will be drowning in cortisol and all logical function will cease...they'll just attack rabidly.

This 'approach' to Netrunning has the effect of making Netrunners either very Zen or deeply, randomly, eccentric as they process a traffic jam of memes. Their personality might be malleable or altered. Prolonged exposure to mental distortion from Netrunning might leave their emotions dangerously scrambled.

The internet alone has similar enough effects now. Viral videos anyone?

An effective 'futility' attack might cause a Netrunner to swear off 'Running permanently.

A Netrunner who is well used to it all might have a COOL:10 along with an 'anti-solipsist' psychology wherein "Only Interaction Exists, there is no I. All the Decisions in the World are already made, the ego is merely the unzip that translates the compressed idea into physical action."

In Game Terms :

Emotional Attacks would alter the COOL, INT and EMP stats.

Induce a hysterical feeling of helplessness by taking over their deck, create a localised 'dream' state, and put them in a nightmare where they are struggling to manage the combat but can never give up.

Cool -4, INT -4, EMP -4.

Then pump them 'suggestions'.

Image : Zombified 'Liberty Leads the People'

"You are the Rot at the Core of Civilization - a thief, in league with murderers, gorging yourself on the carnage of revolution. You don't want to win, you want to die."

Then hit them with slow mo edits of Happy Families at Xmas/bday party etc...

"...you can't win love, family, safety, through murder and instability..."//static cuts to rebel atrocities.

Think how overwhelming a movie on a big screen is compared to a 3:4 TV set.

Think how much more effective a full sensory replacement in high resolution is, when the receiving brain is in 'dream mode' where the logic of the idea dominates, on top of a sense of frantic combat they are slowly, inexorably losing.

Sustain this for a few turns, and the Netrunner will start thrashing about, crying, tear their plugs out and start head-butting the floor...that kinda thing.

Go negative COOL, and you could assume they start hurting themselves. -10 Cool, and they attempt suicide.

Distraction Attacks : Liberty's perfect breast there reminded me - apparently sexually attractive images can induce functional blindness for 0.6 seconds. This is analagous to the time an action in Run.Net takes. Subliminally 'flash' a 'Runner, and they could lose an action.

You might be able to sustain the effect with either very 'potent' or targeted imagery.

Something 'appealing' but disturbing, in an emot-attack context, could revulse, distract or terrify a Netrunner. This might generate one of their random fixations - they could randomly become convinced that the enemy will rape them if they get captured, and so they're scared to go online again.

Do note that these effects would have limited duration - they're like a minor car crash, scary, you'll be shaking and wigged out at the time...but three weeks later you'll be 90% as you were before.

Ok - here's what I'm thinking.

It comes with several assumptions.

1. Direct Neural Interface - your DNI is effectively a New Sense (input) and a New Limb (output).

2. That the way memories are generated is similar person to person, even if stored differently.

3. That Memes are Memories that encode a rule.

4. That the motor-cortex around the DNI could be artificially put into a Beta wave/sleep state.

Memetic Damage, and how to develop it.

If I were an "Intelligence Contractor" licensed to use 'robust' means, and had no conscience left, I would attempt the following.

Implant a Detainee with DNI, with full sensory link-up...aka braindance.

Generate a limited environment wherein the 'rules' were a bit different to normal. For instance, breathing freely required conscious maintenance of a 'rule/belief'. Eating and Drinking are 'bought' by performing simple actions...like answering a simple question. ("What is your name?")

I would also subject the Detainee to various stimuli - a gigantic spider simulation, drowning, a shaking crashing plane, a swimming pool full of pig offal and live squid, vertigo, a respectable looking man licking a goat's stomach, or someone urinating in public.

I would map the paths for fear, revulsion, helplessness and disapproval.

I could then connect those Responses to whatever Stimuli I liked - I would connect a decision to not answer a question to vertiginous helplessness, and associate those groups the Detainee considered 'supportive' of their 'external hostile actions' with revulsion and disapproval.

Habits take 21 repetitions/3 weeks to form.

Then I'd start politely asking the Detainee for help on various topics they found...offensive, and reward them with an entire new, sophisticated and healthy lifestyle. ie: out of the gaol, and into a community where they have a job...thus transforming an enemy of the state into a happy, enfranchised member of a small community, in total contradistinction to those murderous anti-<national> bad guys over 'there'.

This process produces lots of interesting data...

The Neurology of sensation, and memetic uptake would be laid bare, or at least manageable, by such processes.

By suggestion, one could identify topics a target associated with a list of sensations...you could probably read it from the DNI, by changes in impedence.

By using the DNI to 'jam' ordinary motor cortex function around the DNI implant, I would put the Netrunner into a localised dream. Only a part of their brain would be dreaming, and sending out appropriate signals...a good dream...

"Sure, the mission's going fine...fine! Yeah..."

...and so I have their Brain for the time it takes to create a Dream Scenario world, like that 'simple room', where the rules make sense of something, and disobedience is revolting or fearful.

While they're spun out in dream world, they aren't attacking, and I'm implanting whatever perks or flaws I can jam through the available bandwidth.

Pro-DRM memes for failed attempts at cracking media - the Player has to make self-control rolls for 3 weeks afterwards or must buy stuff to 'legalise' their collection.

Make the idea of cyber-crime subtly fear inducing, causing a 'morale' penalty when they go online, an ineluctable fear of screwing up online which prevents them hacking effectively.

Auto-Toxic memes that encourage over-confidence - so they'll still attack, but they'll do so irresponsibly, making it easier to track them.

Coded behaviours or statements, that could be scanned for to spot the identity of the Netrunner I counter-hacked but could not physically locate.

An irrational obsession with some pop culture artifact - Hello Kitty Cola, rubber bracelets...or something 'coded' so I could spot them again.

A fear of isolation, so they'll activate GPS tracking in their phone "So their friends, who are worried about them, can know where they are."

Welcome to MY WORLD...

Recently, fuzzy images were extracted from the minds of people thinking of those images. They were impossibly blurry, but show promise.

Imagine extracting the Mental Imprint of My mental landscape, with its visuals, (lack of) sound, and general emotional state...and transmitting it.

The 'Runner with the Stronger will would impose their imaginary world on the other. The effect would be that the weaker falls into a 'dream world' generated by the other's mind.

This, it goes without saying, would be a frightening, random, and strange place.

In experiencing it, vividly, it would have the kind of effect lucid nightmares have. You could wake up heaving and trembling from a night terror. You could get PTSD from things that didn't happen to you. And if you were plugged into my head, you would probably come away with a depressing opinion of reality so dull Marvin the Robot would look like Shirley Temple.

...or, it could be an awesome online RPG...

I intend to use this concept in a one-to-many broadcast sense for Propaganda purposes in the 'Retropunk//Potato Smuggling' game, where extremist Gaian obsessives compel their plugged in audience to feel mortal horror at the idea of 'flame weapons' and 'flame vehicles' and whip them with feelings of ungrateful guilt regarding the state of the (dying) Earth.

Exposure to the system 'pushes' memePlexes onto the mind, that are subsequently supported by the entire surrounding community being similarly affected.

(Slightly Off Topic - does anyone know what's in the middle of the Pentagon? Y'know, the Pentagonal donut hole in the middle. Landscaping and plastic garden furniture? )

...er, my bad...

I keep thinking of dude with-a-million-fingers as American. Dammit. Confused now. Will have to rewatch...

Gits...heh...not sure if thats only funny if your from the UK...or possibly an Aussie too.

Damn! The Decapitalization Nazi has struck again! I expressly typed GitS!!

*s*

Besides the fact that the American's frequently play the role of the antagonist doesn't mean they are going to be in every plot in the GitS series (after all political nessecaty has cause some stranger things to happen in the past). Beyond that American presence was small in the GitS series, and first movie (I haven't seen the second one yet).

I get the impression its a remake of the original Ghost in the Shell movie, in which case the Puppetmaster is an American intelligence AI that runs amok.

Regarding Innocence - unless you've read the original GitS comic series, it won't make much sense. If you have read it, it will all seem horribly familiar. It's a style exercise, and its got that dog that crosses over from everything else (Avalon, original GitS) in it..so its major league wierd. I hope they can do better.

Suddenly I'm wondering, if it is a remake...the nudity...the exploding gore...Motoko ripping herself apart on a hexapod tank...the Puppetmaster 'shell' being interrogated - what are the censors going to make of that? It'll be heading straight at [MA], possibly <R>, and then someone will realise the young Anime market they're targeting might not be allowed to (though certainly capable of getting to) watch it.

Production I.G. Enters Negotiations for Live-Action Ghost In The Shell

posted on 2007-01-18 13:39 EST

Production I.G. meeting with movie studios in Hollywood to develop live-action film

Animation company Production I.G has received permission from Kodansha to act as an agent to develop a live-action film with a Hollywood studio based on Ghost in the Shell.

 

Negotiations with American entertainment companies have not been a strong point for Japanese Anime and Film studios in the past. However, hopes are high that a project involving Ghost in the Shell would be more successful due to the significant number of people in the American film business who are fans of the series. The size of the North American fanbase for Ghost in the Shell is also a factor.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/

I raise an eyebrow.

How is an American made movie going to cope with the badguys being Imperial Americans?

Who on Earth can play Motoko? Psycho-combat-goddesses I've seen before, but Motoko's figure and fashion sense are something else...then again...imagine the psychedelic hacking scenes from MMI in live action...

There seems to be a bit of a demographic shift on in the site. Amazingly, it seems V3 reminded a lot of people that CP2020 still exists...

We've got a lot of newer posters, and some day when I have time, I'm gonna have'ta get some more Forum games going for them...not limited to, but including an idea I have about how to run V3...I'm sure fun can be had from it that isn't lampooning the dolls...

So yeah, nuts as ever. Welcome back/Welcome aboard...

The ATRV grinds on ahead...whir, whir, whir...

...

"Dammit!" Jason hisses. "Buggy's dead. Last telemetry...is fog. What is it with the UK?"

Grumbling about weather, he tries to do a 'spectrographic' scan of the tunnel end, pumping whatever information he can out of the light.

(Natural or artificial? Sustained or irregular? Yellow/Orange cast means filament bulbs, green cast = fluro, blue = arclights or daylight. Flame produces irregular and low-freq' oranges. High moisture content in the air absorbs IR, dust occludes...?)

In vacant tones, as his lens' buzz and twist :

"Um, in other news, according to the Map - that light at the end of the tunnel what's lighting our life is in the centre of someplace 'Bishops Park', and if this blob on my map's anything to go by, just near a castle..." mock British accent "...Fulham Palace - noted for its botanic gardens and moat, and conveniently not 300 yards from the children's School and a 'Craven Cottage's Fulham FC'."

Replacing one accent for the laconic duck sound of his native Strihne - "So's I'm wonderin' if that School's lost any pupils lately, and just how serious the footie yobs are.

That, and last time I lost signal, buggy was bein' chewed on by an escapee from The Ring."

Readies knife and stick. Tenses up. Half-brow furrowed.

(Bishops Park Sat' Map - is this the place!? ...it doesn't have dungeons, does it? :S)

"Oh frikkin 'ell...Forward ho.

D'ya think I should tape this on..." makes like attaching K-bar to stick. With duct tape. As a short pike.

...

ooc: assuming forward movement, will 'clear' the immediate entrance of the next tunnel mouth with torchlight and a scan, then get the ATRV on ahead of point again.

Or carry it if the ground's so rough he can't. Strapped to his backpack, watching backwards.