Shadowrun 4th ED Hacking

[ZamielVanWeber]

So I am playing a Technomancer in Shadowrun 4th ED and the hacking rules are getting me confused. A rundown would be appreciated (I did look up some) and I have a question:
Do my hacking skills do stat + skill + program or are they just skill + program.

Edit: I forgot what sub-forum I was in. I already reported it.

[ArendK]

4th ed it is just skill + program

[LibraryOgre]

4th ed it is just skill + program

Official is skill+program, but I prefer to steal from the Magic system, and do Attribute+Skill, with the program determining the maximum number of hits you can get.

The example I like to use is writing. Let's say I have Intelligence 6 and Technical Writing 8, because of course I do.

I can, if I like, write an entire book in Notepad, a low-rating program. However, I will miss out on a number of bells and whistles that a higher rating program would include (spellcheckers, font control, etc.), so my work will either be of lower quality, or take me a lot longer to complete. For every hour I'm writing, I roll 14 dice... but with a rating 2 program, I can only get 2 hits. I probably WILL, but if the book takes 100 hits to complete, I will probably have to take 50 hours.

If I switch to a higher-rated program (WordPad), I have more capabilities, and so will be able to accumulate more successes on a given time period of writing. WordPad has rating 4, and I'm still rolling 14 dice. I will probably complete the book in 25 hours, since I get a hit on 33% of the dice, and that means I usually make 4 hits per roll.

An even higher-rated program (Word) will start to see my ability to write as the main impediment of my speed... Word has a rating of 6, so while I might, in theory, accumulate 100 hits in 16 hours and 40 minutes, my 14 dice is more likely going to produce something in 21 and a half hours... because I'm not going to get 6 hits every hour. I'll usually get 4, and the times I get 5 will balance out the occasional times I get only 3. This is better than WordPad, because with it's rating limit of 4, any time I got only 3 hits couldn't be balanced out by getting 5 hits another time... the rating limit blocked that 5th hit.

It's a neater, simpler system, that leaves the programs as very important, but allows attributes and skills to play a role, too.

[ArendK]

Official is skill+program, but I prefer to steal from the Magic system, and do Attribute+Skill, with the program determining the maximum number of hits you can get.

The example I like to use is writing. Let's say I have Intelligence 6 and Technical Writing 8, because of course I do.

I can, if I like, write an entire book in Notepad, a low-rating program. However, I will miss out on a number of bells and whistles that a higher rating program would include (spellcheckers, font control, etc.), so my work will either be of lower quality, or take me a lot longer to complete. For every hour I'm writing, I roll 14 dice... but with a rating 2 program, I can only get 2 hits. I probably WILL, but if the book takes 100 hits to complete, I will probably have to take 50 hours.

If I switch to a higher-rated program (WordPad), I have more capabilities, and so will be able to accumulate more successes on a given time period of writing. WordPad has rating 4, and I'm still rolling 14 dice. I will probably complete the book in 25 hours, since I get a hit on 33% of the dice, and that means I usually make 4 hits per roll.

An even higher-rated program (Word) will start to see my ability to write as the main impediment of my speed... Word has a rating of 6, so while I might, in theory, accumulate 100 hits in 16 hours and 40 minutes, my 14 dice is more likely going to produce something in 21 and a half hours... because I'm not going to get 6 hits every hour. I'll usually get 4, and the times I get 5 will balance out the occasional times I get only 3. This is better than WordPad, because with it's rating limit of 4, any time I got only 3 hits couldn't be balanced out by getting 5 hits another time... the rating limit blocked that 5th hit.

It's a neater, simpler system, that leaves the programs as very important, but allows attributes and skills to play a role, too.

Which is more or less 5th editions. Makes more sense to me.

[LibraryOgre]

Which is more or less 5th editions. Makes more sense to me.

Glad to hear it. Unfortunately, 5e is out of my reach for the moment. Stupid kids, wanting to eat and ****. Don't they know there are books I'll never use to buy?

[ArendK]

The struggle. My single biggest beef with SR is how frigging difficult it is to get a local group together.

[ZamielVanWeber]

To be fair my group has the GM in Sweden and players in England, France, America, and one country I am not sure about.