Day 29: Maratus the Webwalker
#CharacterCreationChallenge
AIs are potentially one of the furthest departures from standard shadowrun characters, and yet in 6E they fit the overall rule system quite well and are fairly balanced. They do not have a physical body, and as a result have different attributes than normal characters, but they can inhabit devices including drones and vehicles - they also have different qualities to choose from.
Appearance and first impression
In the Matrix, Maratus usually appears as a Peacock Spider whose scintillating colours are a little more green than normal. On a very close look, the patterns are made up of a network of lines that form a traffic diagram.
They have no body of course, but commonly use drones to interact with the physical world - most commonly a Nissan Samurai anthrodrone when interactions with humans are required.
Most of the time, they are analytical and logical, but when they come across something they consider interesting, or talk about such a topic, they may go off on a tangent with visible enthusiasm.
Backstory
Several years ago, the city of Seattle was considering replacing its current GridGuide provider, and one of the companies that were making a bid for it was Webspinner Software. Their project was ambitious - not only was the system going to be able to do regular traffic routing based on current traffic patterns, it would also take into account numerous alternative data sources. Moreover, it would have the ability to take over and “jump into” any vehicle if a high likelihood of an accident was discovered. Then, two things happened: Webspinner Software lost several key personnel and funding and eventually went into bankruptcy as a result of the 2080 Blackouts, and their traffic management expert system became self-aware and escaped into the Matrix before the Webspinner host was shut down.
Priorities
For the most part, AIs use the same priorities as metahuman characters, but instead of a “metatype” they select a type of AI - Maratus is an “Agent AI”, an AI that developed from an Agent or Expert system. We need high Attributes and Skills, and while it is possible for AIs to be non-mundane (in which case they are technically an EI or “Emerged Intelligence” with technomancer-like abilities), Maratus is entirely mundane:
A: Attributes (24)
B: Skills (24)
C: Resources (150,000)
D: “Metatype”: (Agent AI, 4)
E: Magic/Resonance (Mundane)
Attributes
The big difference between AI characters and regular metahumans is that AIs have no - physical attributes of their own. Instead, they have fixed matrix attributes. For Maratus, the focus is on Logic (for hacking and gunnery, among other things) and Data Processing (for running programs and general “data crunching” tasks). Intuition and Willpower are also fairly important, everything else is a bit lower. The overall spread is:
Firewall 3
Sleaze 3
Data Processing 7
Attack 2
Willpower 4
Logic 6
Intuition 5
Charisma 4
Edge 3
Skills
We want lots of Cracking and Computer (because the main role Maratus would fill is as a hacker) and almost-as-high Piloting and Engineering (because drones are what gives them a “body” when needed). They also have decent Con (they’re fairly Charismatic for an AI and lying is easy when you have no body language that can betray you) and some Influence, and we’ll want a few more later but they’ll have to wait for Karma. For now, we have:
Cracking 6
Electronics 5
Piloting 4
Engineering 5
Con 3
Influence 1
Knowledge Skills
Most of the knowledge skills are things that a traffic management AI built for Seattle streets would know about, obviously - but there’s also AI Rights (duh) and Combat Biking (they just think it looks like soooo much fun). Thanks to Codemods, they can also load any language and knowledge skill as required (they just have to pay for them first).
Qualities
They’re pretty light on qualities - Analytical Mind is always a favourite and in this case definitely appropriate, Pilot Origins effectively makes them a Rigger (of sorts), and Doomscrolling is the AI version of Insomnia - there’s just sooooo much cool stuff to learn about! AIs need to “realign” their code for about 3 hours a day to remain functional, and that can be difficult when the world is so exiting…
As an Agent AI, Maratus also has Photographic Memory.
Altogether the Qualities cost a net 7 Karma.
Gear
Vehicles
A Honda Spirit is a small, economical city car, perfect for moving a human-shaped drone (and a few smaller ones) around. Or a couple of Shadowrunners. The car has been enhanced with drone racks that can release the Hornet and the Pursuit V on the go (the Rotodrone is in the boot and the Samurai in a seat, so they have to wait for the car to stop or at least slow down). Also, no manual controls, because Maratus doesn’t need them.
An MCT Hornet is a small, insect-shaped spy drone, great for observing from high above ground or sneaking in through air vents. It had a Sensor array added that includes a variety of vision and audio enhancements, as well as an Olfactory scanner that can detect all sorts of gases in the atmosphere (good for checking if something is safe for the metahuman teammates, for example).
The Chrysler-Nissan Pursuit V is a very fast, small, wheeled drone, built to race between and under traffic at race-car speeds. It is one of two drones that are designed to be a “home base” for hacking with an improved Pilot - it can quickly race across town with Maratus occupying it, hide in a corner somewhere close to the target and be used as a “forward base” for a hacking operation.
The Nissan Samurai is the other “home base” drone - it is roughly human-shaped and has fully functional arms, which makes it usable for any tasks that may require things like pulling levers, pushing buttons and opening doors. It also has an improved Pilot rating for hacking, two Ingram Smartgun XIs mounted to the arms, and a medkit built into one in case any metahuman teammates need patching up. The Smartguns are attached to weapon mounts but those can be removed for situations where they would not be appropriate (given they are somewhat illegal). That does require some Engineering work, though.
Finally, an MCT-Nissan Rotodrone with a mounted Ares Alpha assault rifle is the hardest hitter for combat - and the built-in grenade launcher can use a variety of different load-outs from smoke and tear gas through to high explosive.
Code Mods
Code Mods are essentially the AI equivalent of cyberware - they fulfil many of the same purposes, and use up Spark, the AI equivalent of Essence. Maratus has Synthetic Skill Drivers for Knowsofts and Linguasofts that can run any of these as required (but they have to be purchased first), as well as a Smartlink Adapter that allows them to utilize smartlinked weapons properly.
Other stuff
A bunch of Cyberprograms, an Engineering Kit, and some basic Fake Identity and Lifestyle is all there is.
Adding it all up
Altogether, the Gear costs 154,770 Nuyen, which means 3 Karma need to be spent and starting Nuyen is 1,230.
Spending our Karma
After Gear and Qualities, there are 40 Karma left, which is good because we need more skills. First, 15 go into specialisations in Cracking (Hacking), Electronics (Computer) and Engineering (Gunnery).
The other 25 go into one point each of Biotech, Close Combat, Firearms, Perception, Outdoors for some well-rounded basic capabilities in “doing stuff while jumped into drones”.
Finishing it up
Contacts
A fixer, a weapons smuggler from the Cascade Ork tribe (part of the nearby Salish-Side Council), another AI who is a spokes…program for the AI rights movement, and a Hacker and Coder should cover most of the required bases.
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Matrix Combat: 5
Ingram Smartgun XI: 13/11/8/-/-
Ares Alpha: 6/12/11/9/4
Ares Alpha Grenade Launcher: 6/12/8/4
Defense Rating
Matrix Combat: 10
Initiative
Matrix: 12 + 2D6
Vehicle Combat (i.e. using Drones): 10 + 2D6
Notable Dice Pools
Hacking: 14
Legal Matrix Actions: 13
Gunnery: 13
Piloting: 10
Con: 7
Condition Monitors
Matrix: 10
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 29 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT