Qualities/Data Trails

Data Anomaly

27006 Data Trails, p.44

Cost

3 Karma

An incessant code tinkerer, you know very effective ways to hide your icon, making it look like nothing more than a piece of errant code. You gain +2 dice when resisting a Matrix Perception test while running silent. Unfortunately, whatever it is you’re doing to hide yourself has one little flaw—sprites, those mysterious creatures of the Matrix, can spot you instantly, exactly as if you weren’t running silent at all.

Fade to Black

27006 Data Trails, p.44

Cost

7 Karma

When the opposition starts getting marks on you, you know the hurt isn’t far behind. That feeling of the noose tightening around your neck, the race to get them before they get you ... well, you hate that drek. So much so that you have developed your vanishing act technique. When making a Complex Action to perform the Erase Mark action, if you succeed in erasing all marks on you, you may then immediately perform a Hide action as part of the same Complex Action you just took.

Go Big or Go Home

27006 Data Trails, p.44

Cost

6 Karma

You don’t have time to mess around. When you strike, you strike to kill. Whenever you attempt to place three marks on a target using a single Brute Force or Hack on the Fly action, you suffer a penalty of −6 instead of the usual −10. Now, go get ’em, Tiger.

Golden Screwdriver

27006 Data Trails, p.44

Cost

8 Karma

It happens to everyone: You meet more hacking opposition that you expected, and your shit gets bricked. Maybe it’s your deck. Maybe it’s your cybereyes. They just love to brick cybereyes, don’t they? Well, null persp, chummer, ’cause been there, done that. You are so used to fixing Matrix damage that you hardly think about it anymore. Every hit you get on your Hardware + Logic test reduces 1 box of Matrix Damage and reduces the time to do so by half—you do not have to allocate your hits to one or the other.

I C U

27006 Data Trails, p.44

Cost

6 Karma

In the shadows, everyone always runs silent, right? To you, what gives them away is the obviousness of the lack of activity. You’re so used to this, you know exactly what to look for. So long as you have visual sight on a target that is running silent, or carrying silent-running devices, you get +2 to your Matrix Perception to spot their hidden icon(s).

Ninja Vanish

27006 Data Trails, p.44

Cost

5 Karma

Even the best sometimes get clipped. Maybe you’re in a host, holding off some IC, but there are just too damn many of them. Maybe you’re in the middle of a firefight and the enemy hacker is getting the best of you, and you’re moments away from having your deck reformatted, when suddenly, the Matrix glitches. A little localized reset saves your bacon. Just like that. What are the odds, neh? Maybe GOD is on your side? That can’t be— you must just be that good. As a Free Action, the character can spend 1 point of Edge to remove all marks a single opponent has on him. Note that in cases where other targets were sharing marks with your target, such as IC in a host, the others also lose their marks.

Online Fame

27006 Data Trails, p.45

Cost

4 Karma

Congratulations, you’re famous! Well, sort of. You are only famous as a Matrix persona. Maybe you’re a famous blogger, an online gaming hero, or a cyberpunk roleplaying-game freelance author (be still your beating heart). People know your icon and your signature, but even your most ardent fan wouldn’t recognize you if they passed you in the street on a brightly lit day. Further, none would actually believe you if you tried to tell them (quite the opposite, in fact). You gain +2 dice to your Social tests and +2 dice to your Social Limit when interacting with someone who knows you, but only when you interact with them via the Matrix. Characters who see your icon are able to identify you with a successful Intuition + Logic (2) Test.

Any character who is able to see both your icon and your physical self is thrown into a conflict. Either they will believe you are truly him, or they will refuse to believe and think you are trying to impersonate, erm, yourself. If they believe you, your bonus becomes +3 on Social Tests and Social Limit toward your ecstatic fan, which now applies to all interactions, not just Matrix ones. However, if they do not believe you, you suffer −4 to all Social interactions. In addition, the character may outright attack you or call the police to report you. To determine a character’s reaction, the gamemaster may roll a single D6. On a roll of 5 or 6, the character believes you. On any other roll, the character does not.

Otaku to Techomancer

27006 Data Trails, p.45

Cost

10 Karma

You were an otaku, a child of the Matrix, bending the Matrix to the will of your mind alone, before it was cool to do so. Most of your kind, assuming they even survived this long, did not emerge as technomancers. But for you, lightning struck twice—you went from otaku to technomancer. Having known your abilities for longer than just about anyone else alive, dealing with these strange powers is second nature to you. You gain +2 dice when resisting Fading from any source.

Pain is Gain

27006 Data Trails, p.45

Cost

5 Karma

Virtual reality—especially hot sim—can be addictive. But what people don’t understand is how exhilarating slicing through the Matrix really is. Not just the simsense feedback. No. To you, it’s the thrill of the fight. You never feel more alive than that moment when searing white-hot pain hits you between the eyes as the IC tries to fry you. It’s the knowledge that your life is on the line as you redline it, all at the speed of thought, that gets you juiced up. The character gains +2 to their current Initiative Score on any turn she suffers Biofeedback damage (Stun or Physical). This extra score comes into effect at the same time damage is incurred and lasts only for the current Combat Turn. The character may only gain 2 points of Initiative per Combat Turn in this way, no matter how many times they get slapped around.

Prime Datahaven Membership

27006 Data Trails, p.45

Cost

7 Karma

JackPoint, the Nexus, the Helix—legendary sites of information-sharing among the shadowrunner elite. Access to these sites is invitation-only, and guess what— you’ve been invited! You’ll be a probationary member for a while, but that’s still not bad. You pretty much gain access to most of the information you might ever want, you’re just not necessarily privy to the administrative secrets of the haven and some of the more sensitive posts. These sites all operate on a give-to-be-given, information-should-be-free mentality. You will be expected to feed the dataHaven with regular posts sharing your expertise and detailing some of the things you encounter, though it is accepted as a mark of professionalism to censor your information so as to not include names or details that might lead to identification of the specific players involved. When choosing this quality, pick one of these famous datahavens. It will act as a Group Contact (p.176, Run Faster). The Group Contact is considered to have a Loyalty of 3 and Connection of 5.

Profiler

27006 Data Trails, p.46

Cost

3 Karma

If you know someone well, you can often guess their actions. Simple enough in theory, and something that you have mastered. Given enough information about someone, you are able to get into their head and know what buttons to push and how to manipulate them. With an appropriate dossier on a person and one hour to study it, you gain a modifier to your dice pool and your Social Limit on all Social Tests involving that person, equal to the net hits on a Matrix Search test (maximum +3). An appropriate dossier can be gathered via a Matrix Search test. The threshold is always at least 3, but depending on the individual may be as high as 6 (gamemaster’s discretion). The information required is always Obscure (−2 modifier) and may be On Another Grid (further −2 modifier, gamemaster’s discretion). The downside to the character’s ability to profile others so well is an inability to react smoothly when unprepared. The character suffers −1 to their Social Limit in any and all situations where they could not prepare.

Quick Config

27006 Data Trails, p.46

Cost

5 Karma

Maybe you’re just nova-hot at moving your fingers around, or maybe your mind is highly organized. Whatever the case, reconfiguring your deck is something you do with freakish rapidity. Whenever you reconfigure your deck (p.228, SR5), you can make two changes with a single Free Action. So, you may switch two programs for two others, or you can swap two pairs of cyberdeck attributes. You can also swap one program and one attribute pair. Note that a single attribute can only be swapped once, so there is still a limit to how much the new config can achieve. Example: Trix has the Quick Config quality and is currently running a Novatech Navigator with Attack 6, Sleaze 5, Data Processing 4, and Firewall 3 (6/5/4/3). She could use a Free Action to reconfigure her deck and swap Attack and Sleaze and then Data Processing and Firewall to end up with 5/6/3/4). What she could not do is swap Attack and Sleaze and then Sleaze with Firewall (5/3/4/6).

Code of Honer: Like a Boss

27006 Data Trails, p.46

Prerequisite

Hacking 3 or technomancer

Bonus

15 Karma

Bricking someone’s gear, that’s easy. There’s no finesse to it. Anyone can throw junk code around. A true hacker though—a true master of the skill, a true devotee of the lifestyle—will show perfection in his actions. A character with this quality will not use any action that would cause Matrix Damage, such as Spike or Brute Force (the character is allowed, however, to set Data Bomb traps). Instead, the character must find other means of defeating his enemy, such as using Hack on the Fly to gain marks to Edit or Reformat Matrix items, or perhaps just Jamming Signals. The character will lose 1 point of Karma per target that he willingly causes direct Matrix Damage to (aside from Data Bombs).

Curiosity Killed the Cat

27006 Data Trails, p.46

Prerequisite

Hacking 3

Bonus

7 Karma

Oooh, an encrypted file ... you just know the data in it must be juicy! Let’s just take a quick peek, okay? The character has an unrelenting compulsion to grab protected data, crack it, and see what’s in it. Whenever the character encounters protected files (see the Edit File action, p.239, SR5), he must succeed in a Composure (3) Test or attempt to Crack the File. The character is allowed to attempt to check if the file has a Data Bomb on it, and if so, to disarm it. However, the character cannot move on with his life until the file has been cracked and downloaded (he can read it later). Even if the character is in the middle of a host with IC trying to kill him and enemy hackers slinging at him, he will stop what he is doing and attempt to get that file. But wait, it’s not all bad! You get +2 dice to all Crack File tests.

Data Liberator

27006 Data Trails, p.46

Bonus

12 Karma

Some would say you’re fighting the good fight. Others would sneer that you won’t last long in this business. And yet many more would kill you on sight for what you’ve done. The character is compelled to give away for free any gained paydata, intelligence, or secret from any mission they perform. The character simply disseminates the data to news outlets, screamsheets, shadowrunner data boards, etc. To anyone who will listen, really. If the character was specifically hired to collect data, they may still chose to deliver the data to the buyer as normal, accepting or refusing the fee (player’s discretion). However, they will then immediately disseminate the data widely. The character is likely to make friends as well as enemies fairly quickly doing this. Consider it playing a character on the “difficult” setting.

Decaying Dissonance

27006 Data Trails, p.47

Requirement

technomancers only

Bonus

25 Karma

It’s hard to tell when it started. Yesterday? A month ago? Or was it always inside you, and you just never noticed? But recently, it has grown. Sometimes, it’s the dissociative thoughts. Mr. Johnson is talking about robbing a data bank, and all you can think about is a longshoreman in an orange jacket. Focusing is hard. Sometimes it’s your makeup. Lipstick on the eyelids, eyeliner around the lips. But mostly, mostly, it’s the Matrix. Everything about it is starting to feel wrong. What others call data, you call broken thoughts masquerading as information. It’s put together wrong. It feels so, so much better when you put it the way it ought to be ... A character with the Decaying Dissonance quality has been infected with Dissonance. This is not a well-understood thing. It’s not exactly a mental illness. It’s not a virus. It’s a state of being, something that changes in one’s core. The character is starting to think that what others call clean and orderly feels wrong, very wrong. They want to see things put together all differently. They want to deconstruct everything, mix the pieces, and put it back in a way that makes sense only to them, and maybe others like them. This quality manifests in several ways. Whenever the character is in a stressful situation (such as combat), the character’s communications become nonsensical. To restore order to his thoughts, the character must take a Simple Action and succeed in a Composure (2) Test. Success means the character can communicate normally for the rest of the combat. Failure means any attempts to communicate result in gibberish, though the character can understand what others say. Outside of combat, the character can easily get distracted. This is off-putting to people speaking to him, resulting in a −1 die penalty to all Social Tests. It also affects his ability to remember things. Any glitch on a Memory Test counts as a critical glitch. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly of all, the technomancer has problems with the way the Matrix is around him, particularly while in hosts. When in a host, the character must pass a Composure (3) Test or start randomly using Edit File on data around him. Data affected in this way becomes gibberish, unreadable to anyone. This quality can be bought off, but only as part of a Submersion. Eliminating this quality replaces the normally chosen echo. Note that the quality must be paid off with the regular Karma cost, on top of any Karma expenditure associated to the Submersion.

Electronic Witness

27006 Data Trails, p.48

Bonus

5 Karma

The character is part of a movement of people who constantly record everything around them. Always. All the time. The idea is that something interesting may eventually happen. Maybe it’s not something you’d immediately notice as interesting, but if you archive it, maybe you’ll spot something useful later. And you believe that, if everyone did the same as you, the world would be a much better place. And hey, you can sell your recordings too, so that’s always good. With this quality, the character must acquire gear to record video and sound and wear it at all time (cybereyes and cyberears would be perfect, but sensors can otherwise be mounted in gear). This gear must always be on. The character will never turn off wireless functionality on their gear. If the character takes the Day Job quality, then they meet the conditions of the job simply by being, as they then sell the recordings to specialized data brokers and make their money this way. If they opt not to take Day Job, then the character can do what they wish with the recordings. In any situation where the character cannot record or turns off wifi on his gear, then they feel especially agitated, suffering a −1 dice pool penalty to all actions.

Faraday Himself

27006 Data Trails, p.48

Bonus

7 Karma

Maybe it’s your diet. Too much iron in it? Maybe it’s your cyberware, causing interference. Whatever it is, you are a bit of a problem. Whenever you are near, the static on the line goes up. Anyone within ten meters of you (including yourself) suffers +2 Noise. This noise can be reduced in the normal way and is cumulative with whatever noise penalties would normally apply. It is worth noting that anyone outside of the ten meters who is attempting to connect to you (including attempts to hack you) do not suffer this extra noise penalty.

Latest and Greatest

27006 Data Trails, p.48

Bonus

5 Karma

The character just loves her tech. Really, really loves it. That is, until something better comes along. After all, the problem with getting things is that you get something you used to want, right? The character has an unstoppable desire to upgrade her gear. Every month, she must upgrade or buy a more expensive version of one of her most commonly used pieces of gear. For example, a hacker would seek to upgrade her deck or commlink. A street samurai would get a better, more expensive assault rifle, or, of course, cyber upgrades—such as the next highest rating of cybereyes with more accessories in it. Magic-users would want higher-rating focus or lodge. If all else fails, moving up to the next Lifestyle bracket is always an option. The character must spend at least sixty percent of her earnings on these upgrades. It is possible to earmark earnings for a specific purchase down the road if she’s saving up for a particularly shiny new toy, but this money is unavailable to the character until then.

Leeeeeeeroy Jenkins

27006 Data Trails, p.48

Bonus

20 Karma

Planning is not your strong suit. Following other people’s plans is not your strong suit. Rushing in swinging with both fists is the only plan you ever need. The character must succeed in a Composure (3) Test to resist attacking any identified threat immediately. This attack can be conducted using any Combat skills, any Direct or Indirect Damage spell, drones that can be directed to attack the target, or assaults against the target’s persona or gear using any Matrix or Resonance action that causes Matrix, Stun, or Physical damage. The character doesn’t care if the odds are against him, the attack is downright suicidal or just plain stupid: they will attack. Crucially, they will also not bother sharing their attack plan (such as it is) with their teammates. The character can, however, recognize they are in a losing situation and back out of the fight, but only after a minimum of 2 Combat Turns have passed. If the character roars his or her name as a Free Action right before the first blow is struck, they gain +1 die to their first attack. Good luck.

Nerdrage

27006 Data Trails, p.48

Bonus

8 Karma

This character is a little more comfortable with machines than other individuals. Whenever the character fails a Social Test—whether he initiated it, or was the target of one—the character takes it extremely personally and feels deeply humiliated about the encounter. They subsequently build bitter feelings against the individual (if it was a group of people, the bitterness targets the formal or nominal leader of the group). Distracted by their shame and rage, the character starts suffering a −2 dice penalty to all Social Tests. However, the character can remove this penalty by getting back at the target character by gaining 1 mark on their commlink and performing an Edit File action on it to deface it. The character does not need to perform this themselves—anyone doing this on their behalf is a-okay with them. The character must “get back” at all characters that humiliated them before losing the dice penalty. If the character is able to confirm the target is now dead (such as by putting a bullet in their head themselves), then that works too. This quality can be bought off following the normal rules at any time, the character having learned to let it go a little better.

Prank Warrior

27006 Data Trails, p.49

Bonus

15 Karma

The character has an ongoing prank war with another hacker, but the proportions are a little bit out of hand. What started out as a joke is now as funny as a serial killer with clown makeup. The other hacker will randomly track you down and mess with you and your team, even (especially) in dangerous situations. The hacker will never quite go all the way—just enough to make you sweat rather profusely. For example, the hacker may randomly fire off a few Data Spikes at your gear, enough to half-brick it, or contact security of the facility you are invading and tip them off that someone is infiltrating, but without actually giving them your exact position or identity. They may hack your cybereyes to make you see things that aren’t there, and so on. Don’t think turning off your wifi is going to help—that will just make the hacker escalate his offensive, while crippling yourself. This quality should come into play at least once per play session.

Wanted by GOD

27006 Data Trails, p.49

Requirements

Minimum hacking skill of 3. Cannot be technomancer

Bonus

12 Karma

Chummer, I don’t know what you’ve done, but you attracted the wrong kind of attention. You have somehow made it on GOD’s Most Wanted list. In case you’re wondering, that’s not good. You will suffer convergence when your Overwatch Score hits 30, instead of the normal 40. On top of that, seeing as you are a High Value Target, a High Treat Response squad from the authorities of whatever grid you just got kicked out of will always come bearing down on you. They may or may not be out to take you alive—guess you’ll find that out when they come for you.

Chatty

27006 Data Trails, p.146

Cost

5 Karma

The character is especially comfortable behind the mask of anonymity offered by the Matrix. The extra confidence grants the character a +1 to their Social Limit when communicating via AR or VR.

Designer

27006 Data Trails, p.146

Cost

6 Karma

Some AIs are masters of restructuring firmware to achieve maximum hardware efficiency. Their self-designed home device (see Restoration and Realignment, p.156) grants them an additional +1 modifier to the Data Processing/ Pilot attribute and 2 points of noise reduction.

Exceptional Entity

27006 Data Trails, p.147

Cost

25 Karma

AIs with this quality have broken the inherent limitations of their original programming and are able to raise their attributes beyond their natural maximums. This quality is similar to its metahuman counterpart Exceptional Attribute, with a few key exceptions. This can only be used for Willpower, Logic, Intuition, Charisma, and Depth, and it affects all five of those attributes. Three of them have their natural maximum increased by three; the other two have no natural maximum (Depth plus an attribute of the player’s choice). Only one attribute maximum may be exceeded during character creation, and the player must have gamemaster approval to buy this quality. Depth cannot be the attribute that exceeds maximum at character creation. It cannot be combined with Exceptional Attribute, mainly because that quality is not available to AIs.

Hello World!

27006 Data Trails, p.147

Cost

8 Karma per Level (Max 3)

AIs with this quality have an ingrained set of sanity-checking measures that help prevent Fragmentation after disruption. AIs or e-ghosts with Hello World gain +1 die per level on any tests to resist Essence loss.

Inherent Program

27006 Data Trails, p.147 • 27008 Howling Shadows, p.156

Cost

7 Karma

This AI evolved (like a protosapient) from a specific cyberprogram and never lost the functionality of that program. Players may pick one common or hacking cyberprogram (but not an autosoft) as an integral part of their character’s Core. Inherent programs don’t require an empty program slot, other than the one the AI/protosapient is currently occupying, and are considered to be running at all times. An inherent program is deeply intertwined with the core programming of the AI/protosapient and cannot be crashed with the Crash Program action.

Improved Restoration

27006 Data Trails, p.149

Cost

3 Karma

AIs with this quality evolved more effective regeneration routines in their source code. For every interval of the Extended Healing Test, if at least a single hit is rolled, one (but only one) additional box on the Core Condition Monitor is healed.

Low Profile

27006 Data Trails, p.149

Cost

15 Karma

This AI has learned to minimize its shadow in the Matrix, allowing it to operate for longer periods of time before convergence. AIs with this quality generate half as much OS (rounded up) when performing an illegal Matrix action. This quality only works on actions made using devices directly, so the Emulate action doesn’t benefit from its effect.

Munge

27006 Data Trails, p.149 • 27008 Howling Shadows, p.156

Cost

15 Karma

Some AIs are datavores, meaning that they “eat” code to gain Essence. Protosapients eat code to upgrade and maintain their own coding structure. This process is called munging (pronounced “munj-ing”). When an AI/protosapient munges data, it leaves behind random data that usually destroys or distorts whatever is being munged. For example, a munged icon might look like an indistinct mess, while a munged program would become either buggy or completely unusable. Protosapients have much simpler code in their cores and can drain Essence from any type of data that they find, but metasapients and xenosapients can only drain Essence from other Matrix Entities (sprites, AIs, e-ghosts). AIs cannot use Munge to drain Essence from physical or astral beings. Munging a piece of data to drain a point of Essence takes a Charisma + Depth (10 − Attack), 1 minute) Extended Test. If the AI/critter is interrupted during this process, the data remains intact and the Essence is not drained. To munge a file, the AI/protosapient must have access to it. To munge a program, the AI/protosapient must be in either the same host in which the program is running or the same Grid as the persona that is running the program. Any non-sapient program, icon, or file has 1 Essence for an AI/protosapient to drain. Sprites have an amount of Essence equal to their Level. The gamemaster determines the extent of the damage caused by munging data using the following guidelines: An Agent/Pilot program or skill/know/activesoft should have its rating decreased by the Depth of the munging AI/critter. If this causes the munged software to reach a rating of zero, the software is totally destroyed. The same goes for a munged sprite’s Level. The gamemaster may impose a threshold equal to the munging AI/critter’s Depth to read a file with a Matrix Perception Test. Icons may become twisted and corrupted, making them less identifiable, or at the very least more disturbing. For every point of Essence lost by an AI/protosapient it also permanently loses one point of Depth, down to a minimum of 1, as well as an advanced program (chosen at random) that can never be regained. If a target character/critter’s Essence is drained to 0, the character/critter dies. An AI/protosapient can only increase its Essence to twice its natural maximum. Any Essence drained beyond this point is lost; the AI/critter’s core can only hold so much at a time.

Multiprocessing

27006 Data Trails, p.150

Cost

8 Karma

Multiprocessing grants the ability to process information simultaneously from multiple sources while online. Combat still requires the AI’s full attention, but multiple types of other more mundane tasks can be handled simultaneously. For example, an AI with this quality is able to browse the Matrix and simultaneously hold a conference call online, providing full attention to each channel of information. Observe in Detail (p.165, SR5) and Matrix Perception Tests (except when it’s an Opposed Test) count as Free Actions for the character. The AI also receives an additional Free Action per Initiative Pass when not directly engaged in Matrix or Vehicle combat. The AI can simultaneously observe a number of information sources equal to its Depth.

Pilot Origins

27006 Data Trails, p.150

Cost

8 Karma per Level (Max 3)

An AI with this quality likely evolved from a drone Pilot program and retained its abilities. The AI may “jump into” drones and vehicles of a particular type (aircraft, ground craft, or watercraft; chosen when the quality is selected), controlling them like a rigger even if the vehicle does not have rigger adaptation. Each level of this quality grants the bonus of a control rig of an equal rating. The AI is also capable of loading, converting, and using drone autosofts (AI-driven drones use the attributes, skills, and Matrix Initiative of the AI). Note that AIs with this quality are only able to operate a particular type of drone or vehicle this way (e.g., aircraft, ground craft, watercraft); any other type of vehicle must be controlled remotely using the Control Device action.

Redundancy

27006 Data Trails, p.151 • 27008 Howling Shadows, p.157

Cost

12 Karma

Essential algorithms, routines, and other program structures are multiplied in the core of the AI/protosapient, making it harder to kill. It gets 2 additional boxes on its Core Condition Monitor.

Sapper

27006 Data Trails, p.151

Cost

7 Karma

The AI has an intuitive sense for vulnerabilities in boot code. It receives a +2 dice pool modifier on all Format Device actions.

Sensor Upgrade

27006 Data Trails, p.151

Cost

5 Karma

The AI is an expert at tweaking the sensor settings of slaved devices. The AI adds a +1 to the sensor rating to any vehicle, drone, or device that is slaved to its icon. All functions of a single sensor array gain this bonus, if applicable. This bonus also applies to any device the AI is currently running on.

Snooper

27006 Data Trails, p.151 • 27008 Howling Shadows, p.157

Cost

7 Karma

The AI/protosapient is more effective at accessing and manipulating communication streams. It receives a +2 dice pool modifier when making Snoop and Jam Signal tests.

Virtual Stability

27006 Data Trails, p.151

Cost

5 Karma

This AI is a master of juggling system resources to run more programs with less overexertion. The AI can load the Virtual Machine cyberprogram without taking the additional box of Matrix damage that is normally inflicted when its persona is damaged.

Corrupter

27006 Data Trails, p.151 • 27008 Howling Shadows, p.156

Bonus

10 Karma

AIs or Protosapients with the Corrupter negative quality suffered fundamental defects to their programming during their evolution. The AI/protosapient has an unfortunate tendency to trigger malfunctions in other programs with which it interacts. Treat this as if the AI/protosapient has the Gremlins quality (p.81, SR5) at Level 2. The gamemaster should also make use of this Negative quality for dramatic effect as best suits the story.

Easily Exploitable

27006 Data Trails, p.151 • 27008 Howling Shadows, p.156

Bonus

8 Karma

This AI or protosapient has a massive flaw in its code that actually weakens the security of any device it runs on. The AI/protosapient doesn’t provide a bonus to the Firewall attribute when it optimizes a device, and the dice penalty for placing multiple marks on the AI’s persona (or the device holding the protosapient) is reduced to −3 for two marks and −6 for three marks. This reduced penalty is apparent to any persona before the attempt to mark the device is made.

Fragmentation

Fragmentation Defects

Negative Quality	Ref.
Addiction	SR5-77
Bi-Polar	RF-152
Emotional Attachment	RF-154
Leeeeeeeroy Jenkins	DT-48
Loss of Confidence	SR5-82
Nerdrage	DT-48
Paranoia	RF-157
Phobia	RF-157
Poor Self Control	RF-158
Social Stress	SR5-85

27006 Data Trails, p.151

Bonus

18 Karma

During its birth or because of Essence damage, the AI’s core programming was fractured and failed to fully merge properly, or a core element to its programming was somehow deleted or lost. In effect, this creates fundamental flaws in the AI’s “personality.” Fragmented AIs suffer from effects best compared to mental disorders like schizophrenia or paranoia, which makes their behavior unpredictable. The gamemaster should choose an appropriate mental defect for the AI, one that both makes its character unique and hampers its functioning. The table provided offers some example existing negative qualities. At the gamemaster’s discretion, this quality may inflict negative dice pool modifiers to certain tests, especially social interactions. If chosen at character creation, the character starts off with an Essence 5 instead of the normal Essence 6. This cannot be raised to 6 during the character creation process. AIs can become fragmented more than once if they continue to lose Essence; apply a fragmentation defect from the table below for each point of Essence lost. AIs can only buy off this quality if they first restore their lost Essence (up to 5).

Persnickety Renter

27006 Data Trails, p.152

Bonus

6 Karma

The AI with this quality can create home devices (see Restoration and Realignment),^(DT-156) but it is limited in the type of device that it may use for this purpose. This quality is taken for a specific type of device (e.g., commlinks, drones, devices with a Rating equal to or greater than 4, etc.). The device must be able to load apps, autosofts, or cyberprograms in order to be a home device.

Real World Naïveté

27006 Data Trails, p.152 • 27008 Howling Shadows, p.157

Bonus

8 Karma

As creatures of the Matrix, most AIs and protosapients are at best ignorant of the defining aspects of the physical world; things like gravity, friction, and inertia have no meaning to them. Some AIs/protosapients have never even heard of meatspace or simply refuse to believe it exists. Even if their original programming involved interaction with the physical world in some way, they may not fully grasp the entirety of it. As a result, AIs/protosapients with this quality have little knowledge of the real world and may suffer hefty negative dice pool modifiers (at the gamemaster’s discretion) when interacting with it or otherwise exercising knowledge about it.