Rifter 2's Hacking, Cyberjacking, & Supernatural Data Theft

[Tor]

per the NMI index thread:

Hacking, Cyberjacking, & Supernatural Data Theft Across the Megaverse (Rifts, HU, Nightbane, BTS) - - 27 <OFFICIAL>

I am wondering if anyone knows if any threads exist for consolidating ideas on defining virtual worlds per these official totally-canon rules (not to mention cool OCCs like the Cybermancer or Coalition Digital Reaper, also canon!)

In particular when fighting the machines in Splicers, or the bugs in Systems Failure, knowing more about designing AIs, weapons or tools within the digital scape, it would all be great.

This also makes me wonder, if Palladium could negotiate the rights to franchises like 'ReBoot' or 'Digimon' or .Hack or SwordArtOnline (all supposedly set in digital worlds) which I am not aware of having dice RPGs, if they might make interesting dimension books based on utilizing Rifter 2's rules.

Getting back to the vague purpose of thread... like say you are playing Mutants In Orbit and want to hack ARCHIE-5 or playing Rifts and want to hack ARCHIE-3, I don't know much about either of these entities (or the female personalities of NEXUS in Splicers) so it's hard to know what their capabilities would be when trying to battle them on the digital landscape.

I think that would be a sweet sourcebook if Palladium could stat out a bunch of undefined things on a digital basis. Machine People for example seem like naturals to this.

[glitterboy2098]

i could hope for an update myself.. right now the rules are kinda.. incomplete. not only do we lack details on a lot of different types of programs that logically could be used.. the rules assume that a player's durability and combat stats are derived from their physical world ones.. a Juicer that gets the implant and takes a few computer skills can out fight a city-rat for whom hacking is their whole life.

which doesn't make a lot of sense. to quote Morpheus in The Matrix: "Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place?"

i would like to see updated rules where your cyberjack digital combat stuff is defined by your mental attributes and skill %'s for things like bonuses and damage, and which provides a way to stat up things like viruses/malware, defense programs, search programs, etc..

as far as inspiration goes..
The matrix (first film mainly) has a bunch of good quotes and stuff about rifts type cyberjacking.
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex (both seasons) have some good cyberjacking like depictions.. including a very interesting depiction of cyberwarfare 'from the inside'.. the ghost in the shell manga series (especially Ghost in the Shell 2.0:man machine interface) has some neat ideas in it too.
the film Ghost in the Shell: Innocence has an intteresting depiction of how a GM could mess with player's minds using the simulated environment defenses..
of course, who can forget Neuromancer? the book that started it all.

[Bill]

Haven't seen anything yet. I've planned to expand and detail them for my Southern Federation stuff, but I haven't gotten to that part yet.

One area of Breaux's rules that I think is ripe for expansion is the idea that every skill and piece of equipment used in a virtual world represents a program. He describes how a hacker may make these programs, but particularly for a setting where these virtual worlds are commonly accessed by a large number of users, it seems to me that repositories of premade programs that can be downloaded and customized by hackers. I think that would give players a bit more to latch onto than what's presently published.