/srg/ - Shadowrun General

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>Shoot straight
>Conserve ammo
>Do not buy CGL books
>And never, ever cut a deal with a dragon

Arcology edition
Have you been in one?
Do you come from one?
Hat euch der Arkologiekoller ergriffen?

I'm just starting out, been reading the core rulebook over the course of the last few nights. How important is it to have multiple fake SINs and other such identifiers? Also, if I use priority gen and make a mage, is it pretty much impossible to be effective with only a D in magic? I was looking for someone who -could- use magic, but was much better at normal, physical combat and skills (Perhaps someone who awakened late in life and doesn't really have a grasp on magic beyond a few basic things).

Also, what advantages do aspected magicians have over true mages? I haven't quite got to the magic section yet, but are they worth creating at all?

How much chrome is too much?

When you die of chrome overload. That's too much

>How important is it to have multiple fake SINs and other such identifiers?
Depends on the playstyle of the GM.
In a black trenchcoat game you better have a few R4 SINs to cycle through, along with necessary licenses. In a more pink mohawk game you should be fine with just one R4 SIN
>if I use priority gen and make a mage, is it pretty much impossible to be effective with only a D in magic?
unless you are playing a troll, sure. Remember that special attribute points can be used on Edge and Magic
>I was looking for someone who -could- use magic, but was much better at normal, physical combat and skills (Perhaps someone who awakened late in life and doesn't really have a grasp on magic beyond a few basic things).
MysAd? You can take adept powers and a few spells.
>what advantages do aspected magicians have over true mages? I haven't quite got to the magic section yet, but are they worth creating at all?
they are inferior to full mages. The only advantage they have is that they cost less Karma.
They are worth it if you take Aspected Summoner or Aspected Spellcaster

Without being allowed to play a cyberzombie: 6 Essence worth
With being allowed: 12 Essence worth

>They are worth it if you take Aspected Summoner or Aspected Spellcaster

to be fair, they also can make decent alchemists by the way how alchemy drain works. overcast as hard as you can
Could work on some support style of runner, maybe with a logic tradition and some tech skills. Be some sort of magic "Q"

>they also can make decent alchemists
Chummer, nobody can make a decent alchemist, aspected or not, given that alchemy is FUCKED
you are spending a lot of dice to be able to spend a lot less dice later

Omae, I'm playing as a mage who also has some alchemy skill and me and my group is having a blast with it. Also i have spells too, which helps my character alot.

But some of your argument holds true. Alchemy preperations are ALWAYS weaker than a spell directly cast by another mage. But there are some instances where a preperation can save your day.
Some of my workhorse are Heal, since the other party member can carry it around with them while I'm not there.
Increase reflexes, always fun and even small buffs go a long way.
Fireball, since you can cheese the force of the spell out you will end up with small area high powered pockets of death.
Sense magic. a real help for our street sam and B&e expert.
Sense life: see above.

In general you will want to use spells which either just work, like sense life, spells which are not resisted, like heal or spells which depend on their force, like fireball.

preperation is the key here. Do some decent legwork and plan the whole thing out, also get creaative with the objetcts you use as preperation; flyspies with "Thorn" from FA are alot of fun as fight starter. Prepare the stuff 2-3 hours ahead and sleep the drain off so you can be usefull in the field ans support your team with spells.

>Heal, since the other party member can carry it around with them while I'm not there.
chummer, you do know that you must be there to use them?
>Command: The preparation is triggered by you. You
>must be on the physical plane (or manifest if you’re as-
>trally projecting), have line of sight to the preparation
>(as defined for Spellcasting, p. 281), and take a Simple
>Action to trigger the preparation. You have some con-
>trol over the preparation’s target with this trigger. This
>trigger adds +2 Drain to the creation of the preparation.
>Command triggers are the only triggers preparation with
>healing spells can have.

I'm reading about Troll Republic Black-Forest and I'm super pissed that Freiburg is the capital and not Villingen-Schwenningen. I live here, Freiburg is not even part of the black forest. This is bullshit. This book is bullshit. Fuck these Books, fuck CGL, I will write down 97 reasons why

Not that user, but that's less of a hurdle than you might think. So long as you can draw LOS, you just shout out, "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

The Black Forest is a lot bigger now because magic, and the Troll Republic doesn't conform exactly to the dimensions of the forest. Also Freiburg was too good a name to pass up.

They also confused Bavaria with BaWü somewhere in there.

I'm okay with the troll republic swallowing freiburg and the breisgau region, maybe even making freiburg the capital... but that VILLINGEN, THE ACTUAL HONEST TO GOD CAPITAL OF THE BLACK FOREST REGION is NOT part of the Troll Republic Black Forest is just fucking bullshit.
I'm fucking mad

>So long as you can draw LOS, you just shout out, "I've fallen and I can't get up!"
Maybe your definition is different, but I'd not call that
>while I'm not there.
For me that would be in another room, which is usually not LOS

>captcha: keep clear point
captcha, I'm expressing my point as clear as I can.

As a mage, can I still have other skills or am I fragged if I don't hyperspecialize? Can I have some running and gymnastics, some blades and pistols, some negotiation and palming? Basically I want to be less-competent Cpt. Malcolm Reynolds with some shamanism.

You not just can, you'd fucking better. A mage should still be able to contribute to the team even when they're not casting spells.

>Can I have some running and gymnastics, some blades and pistols, some negotiation and palming?
user, you not only can, but YOU SHOULD

>running and gymnastics
while the Movement Power and the Levitation Spell might really help with moving yourself you may be in a situation where that is not available

>blades and pistols
Chummer, have you ever heard of the phrase 'Geek the Mage'? Enemy number one is the mage and how do mages usually look? Scrawny, hiding, no weapons.
Get yourself a gun or machine pistol, preferably with FA so you can lay down suppressive fire and not be target number one.

>negotiation and palming
good idea, though usually not as important for mages

Skills everybody should have at least a point in:
Etiquette, Sneaking/Infiltration, a melee skill, a ranged skill (preferably Automatics), Palming, Perception
You don't have to be perfect in them, but you should be well enough in them that you are not a hindrance to the team

Awesome. Awesomeawesomeawesome.

So I'm trying to figure out this Drain business. I get the concept, more or less, that the higher the spell force the higher the chance of taking stun damage, but in application how handicapping is this mechanic?

>a melee skill
When in doubt, always Unarmed with a specialty in Disarms. Whether you're using shock gloves, cyberweapons, or just trying to yank a gun out of someone's hands, Unarmed is the melee skill for people who only want it as an emergency fallback, rather than being a 'melee guy.'

In practice, it's a hard limit on how many times you can cast spells/how powerful of spells you can cast before you start eating severe penalties and risk getting knocked out. It's what forces mages to be strategic and make every spell count instead of just spamming.

Omae, you ever heard of contact triggers ?
Just write, paint rivet that spell on any paper, leather or whaterver stuff your tradition has an hard on over and put that in an troll sized alchemist glove. Now your mundane friends only need to touch them.

Seriously has nobody ever heard of contact triggers, or are they a part of the superior german rulest ?

Put that shit on yo sammys katana, on your gun bunnys crossbow bolts, on fucking ductape and put it in a special notebook.

As soon as any aura comes into contact with it they trigger and boom goes the suprise.

Health spells can only use command triggers

well fuck me, yer right.

Well, nothing stopping me from astral projectng and trigger them from there.

Detect magic, sense life, fireball, thorn are still pretty great spells as alchemy preperation.

Contact triggers are shit unless you're holding them with those special gloves. Too easy to set off accidentally.

The triggers from SG are better

Maybe it's just you who lacks imagination for using them to their full potential ?

>Well, nothing stopping me from astral projectng and trigger them from there.
Except for the fact that you'd have to be told that they are wounded, astrally project (i.e. turn limp), fly to them, manifest and then say the word.
And in the time that you have done so they pulled out the medkit and treated him

What is a biomonitor ?
What is constant radio communication with your team ?
What is mapping out the building beforehand ?
What is astral scouting ?

Shit omae, thinking you can just whip out an medikit during a firefight and doing minutes of first aid instead of having your astrals scouting mage along with you or on the phone to bring you back into the fight in maybe 1-2 initative phases.

Shit taste, stay salty chummer

Alchemy is bad has become a fuckign meme at this point, only because people think that it should be compared to active spells, which is comparing appels to eggs.

>not having the team on biomonitors

You can be the Magic Medicine Ghost at the drop of a hat. If they have a medkit and the ability to use it, they should be doing that anyways, because that needs to happen before Heal

Reposting from last thread

I want to make a orc phys ad, focused on punching & being awesome (total pink mohawk)

His name is Azura Oni, & he wants to fight shit & make himself a legend

I was thinking of taking the berserker mentor spirit & the spirit mask ability from Forbidden Arcana. I plan on getting the best Reflexes, berserk, killer hands & combat sense. Is tnis a good build? What else should i take? What might i need to change?

Would going Oni over Orc be better?

That sound like an mechanical sound concept but it's mostly a rough sketch.

Those adept powers are fine, berserk is a suboptimal but very fluffy, maybe adrenaline rush is more up your alley ?

Initiative is a god stat and the more the better, ALWAYS. For that you want to have good reaction and intuition. at leats three in each, 4 in each would be good.
>Would going Oni over Orc be better?
strictly speaking: no. it's mostly a sidegrade, Ork punches harder, oni hit's more often and talks better.

Some skills to consider: 3-4 dice in computer, you can now assis your groups matrix dude, instead of sitting around and wondering if the pizza arrives soon, can google shit yourself (like a city map) and put some ARO's into your friends AR vision.

Perception: 6-8 dice, makes the difference between noticing some clumsy Ganger behind you and a shiv in your back. Since you are an adept you might want to consider danger sense if you got a good perception.

Con: 3-4 dice so you can assist your face, got something to do while social stuff happens and can lie your way out of a paper bag.

Some skill for your characters expression is always fun. 6-10 dice in an Art or perform skill can really help to flesh out your character and can be a goof way to justify taking the quality perfect time. That'll let you move and target your enemies kneecaps, arms, eyes while punching, istead of generic attack (since you used your simple action for moving)

Go Ogre, Practice fat-fu.

First of all, First Aid only requires 1 Combat Turn per health box you're restoring, not entire minutes. The time taken to project, fly to them, manifest, and say the command word will take longer than your average First Aid test and restore less health.

Second of all, you can do First Aid before magical healing, but not after it, so you should always start with First Aid and only use Heal to finalize it.

And third of all, any runner without a FAK built into their armor hooked up and running on autopilot is a retard who deserves to die.

Alchemy is bad because it has an opportunity cost taking resources away from actually-good things, and people have to jump through hoops trying to justify bullshit niche situations where it would be even slightly useful - and even then it's less useful than the alternatives.

It's bad because it takes time and points away from the things that are good, and it's useless to the point of being borderline-unusable even in the niches where it supposedly serves a function.

There's only one thing that Alchemy needs to be viable.

Binding.

If you could spend some extra reagents and make a second roll to Bind a preparation like a summoned spirit, they would become useful and usable.

You'd spend the Reagents, roll the relevant skill (I'm thinking Artificing) against some factor of the preparation's potency and force, and then your net successes would be added to its remaining Potency while its decay is indefinitely halted.

You could have a number of bound preparations equal to, say, your Logic score - the same way you can have up to Charisma spirits bound at one time, but only one unbound.

And just like that, preparations - you know, the things that are supposed to be planned, prepared, and available to deploy at the right time - are viable, and aspected artificers start to have a niche worth playing.

Youse guys/Y'all ever feature Jackpointers in your games?

...

No. I don't like the idea of company-approved self-insert characters. The only reason I'd include them is so that they get killed.

Fuck you, Bull.

I mean Jackpoint to me just seems like a "League of elitist superheroes", so no not really. To me Jackpoint is just one of many VPNs for Shadowrunners.

What's wrong with Bull? I'm just beginning to familiarize myself with them, so that's not a leading question. So far some seem cool, a lot seem like they would be cool with better writing, but maybe they don't exist outside of how they're written.
Any other "famous" (featured) VPNs of note? I only know of the few listed in Street Grimoire so far.

I might feature Netcat & Slamm-O wih their kid just enjoying a park or something.

Well with mages I'd more assume that a lot of their dealings are done on the astral plane. I mean sending messages can be done easily with Watcher Spirits and you can have meeting places that exist soley on the astral plane.

The idea that the best mages of the world would be hanging around a VPN for top notch hackers seem kinda strange to me.

But for more VPNs like Jackpoint I'll just say make them up yourself. Jackpoint being somehow unique, aside from the fact that it was created by FastJack (who has definately earned his legendary status), is hard to believe.

Jackpoint would be better if it was just a bunch of anons, like Veeky Forums.

What would be the best way to kill off 2XL? Murdered by trogs?

He's a special snowflake that went so far as to turn one of the things that makes him special into a 10-karma quality that actually penalizes all other orks/trolls by merely existing, so he gave that to us.

>a VPN for top notch hackers
Isn't JackPoint invite-only? It's not like you have to hack your way in. P sure Jack would Hammer the shit out of anyone he didn't want there, decker or not.

Any excuse.

Nigga, a combat turn is an ass long time in shadowrun combat, by the time a combat turn is over your average sammy has killed two people.

Someone who doen't see the value in mundane using magic should try it out (or maybe the german ruleset is less retardet about alchemy, it's possible that CGL was retardet again)

I fail to see how triggering multiple spells per initative pass, without the need to sustain them and all that for free, could be possible be a bad thing.

then again you are comparing apples to eggs, you probably think that i just should keep summoning spirits to do my job and hate fun.

>costst to many resources
Omae i have more points in my "Art: painting" skill than i have in my alchemy, and since (german at leat) alchemy let's me overcast like a madman that's also viable, again, not as strong as spells cast directly and only some spells work for alchemy, but then again, apples and eggs.

At leat we can take some bliss in the fact that he has stats now, so we can kill him.

Does Shadowrun have any stats for pedal-operated vehicles? Bicycles, for example. You'd think that in a setting where people can have tricked-out cyberlegs with poorfag Lifestyles, bicycles would be a big thing.

Well we DO have stats for skates in CF. I would imagen that those come pretty close, talk with your GM about adjustment of the movement modifiers or using the stats for skimmers.

tl;dr No, but for something similar.

Aren't those implant-only? Also, a 50% or even 100% increase of your movement speed is still pretty slow compared to a bicycle.

If the mage isn't physically present, it will take multiple combat turns for him to get into a position where he can activate the preparation.

And if he is physically present, it'll be more effective to cast the healing spell himself anyway.

In both cases, First Aid should be the first action taken, with magical healing being more of an after-battle topping off of what was missed, because magical healing makes you unable to receive further First Aid, while the reverse is not true.

You really have to stretch to find a situation in which Alchemy is at-all-useful, and even in those extremely niche situations, it's still less useful than alternatives because of how crazy weak the spells inevitably end up being.

Now, I don't know about the German rules. Maybe they're different from the English ones - it wouldn't surprise me. The German rules are usually better.

But what we're talking about here are the English rules, because that's the baseline on this prominently-English-speaking Chinese scrimshaw board.

If you aren't talking about those, you're going to need to explain where and how the German ones differ before anyone thinks you're anything other than some retard who's never read a rulebook.

Running faster has Skates you can buy, but without stats.

100 nuyen a pair. (i think)

Like this right? Reminds me that I wanted everyone in the barrens to use bikes for my street scum game at first.

Can't find the rule that health spells are command only in the second printing of the CRB nor in the german rules. Mind to tell me on which page it is ?

see
CRB, chapter on enchanting. In the past describing triggers

Does Broadway still exist in Shadowrun? Considering having my players interact with "Shadowrun! The Musical".

>Befehl: Der Verzauberer löst die Wirkung selbst aus.
>Dazu muss er sich auf der physischen Ebene befinden
>(oder sich zumindest manifestieren, wenn er gerade astral projiziert).
>Das Erzeugnis muss sich in seinem Blickfeld (wie bei der
>Spruchzauberei, S. 279) befinden, und er muss eine
>Einfache Handlung aufwenden, um das Erzeugnis auszulösen.
>Mit diesem Auslöser hat er ein gewisses Maß an Kontrolle, was
>das Ziel des Erzeugnisses angeht. Dieser Auslöser erhöht den
>Entzug bei der Herstellung um 2.

none of that "heal spells can only have command trigger" stuff in the german version.

I'm just going to tape preperations on my teams weapon grips,
prepare tape with fireball force 8 (and put it on drones, doorknobs and similar stuff),
all while beign usefull, not having to sustain spells, keep my mind free for spellcastig and my body free from drain.

I've never seen it mentioned by I don't see why it couldn't be a niche/local thing.

Theater District
This section runs South from West 53rd Street to West
43rd. The Eastern boundary is formed by Sixth Avenue, and
Eighth Avenue to the West. First run theatres line Broadway—
the famous “Great White Way,” so named for the theatre marquees’
dazzling nightly light and AR displays. Horizon has
gained ownership of several theatres and has been working
to incorporate some of their new media techniques into the
theater scene from emotive tracks for musicals to re-releases
of shows with live simsense feeds. Primarily hosted to cater
to the local population, the theatres work with their global
media partners to draw in guest actors and entice tourists.

That's from Manhattan - The Rotten Apple, from Shadowrun Missions Season 3 for 4e.

VPNs aren't just for hackers. It's canon that there are numerous shadowsites for just about any interest group, including mages. It's a lot safer and easier to log into Magicknet and get to the underbelly than it is to risk sending your astral form halfway around the world to try and meet with a bunch of other astrally projecting mages.

The astral plane is actually pretty shitty for two people to meet, because there's a lot of inherent dangers in it's use, and it's hard to secure (people might notice a bunch of spirits hanging around a deserted warehouse). It would need to be a very important meeting between two people who know and trust each other, which is not what VPNs are for.

Yes, invite-only. It's a clearing-house for top-tier runners to trade tips and info, as well as network. Anyone who runs the shadows can get an invite. No word on how beings like Hestaby and Ehran got in, but presumably they piggybacked over from Shadowlands and FastJack wasn't dumb enough to say no.

>No word on how beings like Hestaby and Ehran got in
Well if the /srg/ memes are anything to go by it's because he has a long term plan to bang the dragon

Continue to enjoy your superior German rules as usual, Chummer.

I hope that one day they will be translated, so everybody can enjoy superior german craftmanship again.
also enjoy Shadowrun and won't have to suffer CGL any longer

Are there any rules for playing ghouls in 5e? I know there's some data for them in 4e's runner companion, but I was hoping someone ported some rules over for the newer edition.

yes, in run faster

Thanks, friend.

Don't do it omae.

Veeky Forums in the sixth world. Have you done it?

See

I'm not asking whether it has been done SOMEWHERE. I'm asking have YOU done it? Do YOU have Veeky Forums in any form in your SR game?

...

I dont never has had a SR game :(( I'm trying to read thru relevant books first, is tall order, only 3 down

I'm thinking of putting together an adept with Shapechange (via adept spell) and going Beast's Way. Any suggestions on how to put it together and optimize it so it isn't total shit?

What book has stat blocks for horrors, and are there horrors that your average base level party could kill?

None, and no.

>What book has stat blocks for horrors
Earthdawn 1e

Not even, like, cute little baby shoggoths or equivalent?
Are there any books that deal with horrors at all? Even just in fluff?

I was thinking of letting normies equip qi foci with a rank up to their willpower plus 1. Do you think that might upset the balance any?

>Are there any books that deal with horrors at all? Even just in fluff?
chummer, we won't be seeing horrors until like 500e
Remember, each cycle lasts for 5400 years, with mana going up, peaking after 2700 years and then going back again
Our cycle started in 2012, the current year is 2078. We are a measly 66 years into the cycle. The horrors need the mana levels to be high enough to enter, meaning that most likely they wont enter until like 3400 A.D. (halfway into the upswing). Though this is just guesswork. Nobody knows how much mana there has to be for horrors to enter our world.
And from our perspective the last chance for horrors to exist here at all is over 5500 years ago. Only the Dragons and the IEs even know what a horror IS.

And to clarify: What I mean with cycle here is half-periods, worlds where either there is mana or there isn't. SR plays in the sixth world. Earthdawn in the fourth world. At the time of SRs creation we were in the (mana-less) fifth world

That quality only applies to orks/trolls born already their goblinized metatype, former humans who goblinize later still automatically have a human-length lifespan.

Unless I misread.

Okay, okay.
But what about that one little mishap with the bug spirits? Wasn't that related? Where can I get my hands on one of those?

You are truly a benevolen/tg/erman.

It's possible that HMHVV is related to the Horrors in some way, and that the virus actually turns the victim into an extremely weak Horror (such that they barely qualify). I can't remember the book that mentions this, try the ancient files.

Basically, don't be fooled by how human-like vampires are. As the mana levels increase they could become a huge liability.

>But what about that one little mishap with the bug spirits? Wasn't that related?
Okay, so imagine a ravine, got it?
Make it deeper and wider, wide enough that you can MAYBE look to the other side and scream commands, but not much else.
This is the gap between our world and the realm of the horrors.
Now imagine if the sides of the ravine are moving in a periodical pattern. That's the mana cycle.
The more mana is in our world, the closer the edges of the ravine are to each other.
Horrors need it pretty close to cross into our world, which is why they only come over when we are closer to the peak. It's also the reason the horrors gave DHC the instructions for the GGD, which had the nice side-effect of accelerating the mana cycle.
But other beings don't need it to be that close to enter our world. One type of these beings is the Bug Spirit. They aren't horrors, they are the precursors to the horrors.

Dayum. Guess I'm gonna have to have a word with my mage about his backstory.
So, are there stat-blocks for bug spirits and the like?

Yes, they should be in Street Grimoire
No, allowing Bug Spirits in any form is a DUMB idea

Why is that? Too powerful? Or the make the story too fucky?

Because they do not serve humans. Period. They don't co-exist worth a damn. If your mage has bug spirits in his backstory, it better be about killing them or running like hell instead of as a contact.

Okay now this depends on multiple factors.

Where does your capaign take place? this is an important factor for the form you want to change into. Also what you can change into depends on your body, so a troll can't change into an eagle.

I assume you want to punch/claw things dead, so the bone bioware might be your thing, to make you more killy and harder to kill.

Also some more informations on your character concept.

Oh he's not dumb enough to try to work with them. He is dumb enough to try to fight them, though.
But also, his backstory involved fighting horrors, which, at the time, I didn't realize was a stupid idea.

Oh. You should have fun with that. Play Russian Roulette with his contacts, have one of them get inhabited.

If I hack someone's skillwires, can I puppet their meat body around akin to the Control Actions spell? Or maybe activate their slotted skills at an inappropriate time (Swimming during a firefight?)

Have you ever played a session that started in the barrens and later became about shadowrunners?

>see OP pic
>suddenlywant to play a Bioshock/ Shadowrun mashup
>now want to workout a SR version of big daddy - straight forward 0 essence, cybered up troll? or something more unique?

You can probably enable and disable skills at bad times, but depending on what else they have you're probably better off getting a personafix on 'em and running.

Kudos on taking a Sustained spell with Adept Spell. That's the only correct way to do it, yet I always see people taking instantaneous Combat Spells with it.

Big Daddys are cyberzombies. The process which keeps the big daddy variant of cyberzombie "alive" causes great mental degradation, but they're able to survive for far greater times without needing maintenance.

There's an argument (especially if you have a good amount of Edge) for taking a direct mana spell so that you can punish the guys that usually would give you troubles.

>If I hack someone's skillwires, can I puppet their meat body around akin to the Control Actions spell?
No. The closest you could probably get is forcing the Skillwires to take an action for which they have a proper Activesoft loaded.

So, for example, if they have a Pistols Activesoft loaded, you might be able to command them to aim and fire their pistol at something. If they don't have Pistols, then tough shit - you can't use Command to make a device do something it's not already equipped to do.

>Or maybe activate their slotted skills at an inappropriate time (Swimming during a firefight?)
Yeah, that's more like it.

Your best bet, though, at that point? Is to upload a custom personafix to whatever is in control of their PAN. Of course, that only works if their DNI device (usually a commlink) has a hotsim module installed.

I recommend all hackers have a custom slave personafix saved on a device somewhere to uploaded to improperly-secured opponents should the opportunity present itself. It's the best way of turning a Security Spider into an unwilling accomplice, or turn a cybered-up meat-troll into your private bodyguard for the rest of a run.