Developing an AI antagonist

[ZeroSpace9000]

I've got a story arc that I'm working on, and as you may have guessed from the title the antagonist is an AI. I have never used them before, and as such need help understanding AI creation rules, specifically getting the power level right.

I want something that has only a little power, an AI that relies more on craftiness than brute force. Of note, I want the AI to be a metasapient, as it evolved from an agent program loaded with psychology knowsofts.

Any and all help is, as always, appreciated.

[LibraryOgre]

Some of what you're saying implies that this is for Shadowrun, yes?

I'd lean towards the AI simply being an exceptional decker/hacker (as appropriate to your edition), but without a body. So, if he needs to see your team, he hacks into a nearby camera and watches. Wants to talk to them? Hacks their commlink... or a nearby speaker. He uses his psychological knowledge to manipulate people, from simple things like "Fake orders from a superior" (liable to be followed without question) to gathering money via Nigerian Prince scams.

[ZeroSpace9000]

Correct; Shadowrun 4A. Would've put a more visible tag for that, but that's not an option for mobile. I'll see if I can fix that.

Also, I do have a reason for making it an AI proper, and not just a person, namely thematics and story stuff. I know what I want to do narratively speaking, I just need some help understanding AI rules.

[Mutazoia]

Correct; Shadowrun 4A. Would've put a more visible tag for that, but that's not an option for mobile. I'll see if I can fix that.

Also, I do have a reason for making it an AI proper, and not just a person, namely thematics and story stuff. I know what I want to do narratively speaking, I just need some help understanding AI rules.

I think Mark was saying that you should just design and run your AI as a decker of the desired power level. It would still be an AI, thus you would not have to worry about physical stats.

Since you are designing a special AI, you can pretty much ignore any AI specific rules, since most would probably not apply to a truly sentient/unshackled AI. You can hand-wave what you need to in order to make your antagonist work they way it needs to.

[ZeroSpace9000]

...

I need some help developing a computer/hacking minded antagonist. In the past when I've used Matrix stuff, it's been reduced to a singular dice roll, due to pre-4e Matrix being to much for me to do with another player. I have used it some in one of the 4e games I ran a while ago, but I'm not super familiar with it. Are there any good handbooks or idiot's guides for this? Any thoughts on using basic Matrix stuff to streamline the build for an AI?

Alternatively, anyone willing to help me understand the AI rules to build a statblock? I understand the basics, I just need help establishing the desired power level.

[LibraryOgre]

I don't have enough of a hand on the AI rules to help you there, unfortunately. Personally, I used a different system for the Matrix, one where you rolled Stat+Skill, but you were limited in hits-per-action by the rating of your program, and limited in the ratings of your programs by the abilities of your commlink (which also helped with your defense from cyberattack). It's more akin to the system used for mages and spells, but I think it was a good one that made more sense than the core matrix systems.

(My favorite example is writing a paper. In theory, you can write a long paper in Notepad, a rating 1 program. But you'll be slowed because it doesn't have a lot of features of a higher-rated program... no spellcheck, no font differences for sections, no integrated footnotes/endnotes, etc. Doable, but harder, so it's going to take you longer to do. Upgrade to Wordpad, and you've got a few more options; you can easily delineate sections with larger type and the like. Upgrade further, to Word or another professional word processor, and you can do all sorts of things that aren't really possible in Notepad... more of your hits get used, because they're not restricted by the program's limitations).

[ZeroSpace9000]

By any chance, do you have a link to this Matrix rewrite? Something that I can read over myself? At present, I'm looking at continuing to develop this story arc, brushing up on how the Matrix works by the book, then converting that into an entirely different framework by hand.

[LibraryOgre]

I don't, because I largely made it up. ;-)

IIRC, I made the key attribute of a device System. It was your maximum program rating, and your maximum number of simultaneous programs. Most things remained the same, but you wound up rolling Logic + Skill a lot... Logic was big, but Reaction could be called for when dealing with Cybercombat.

But, it's been a number of years since I did anything like this. Another option might be to eschew the usual rules and write him up as a Technomancer.