comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

Neuroleptic: This widget creates a filter out of Resonance to
protect against psychotropic attacks. Add its rating to tests to defend
against programs/complex forms with the psychotropic option.
Rendering: This widget increases the technomancer’s ability
to assemble sprites. Add its rating to all Compiling Tests.
Random Access Memory: A RAM widget acts as a memory
Matrix in which a threaded program (complex form, skillsoft) can be
loaded. As long as the widget is active, it sustains the program with
Resonance energy, releasing the technomancer from sustaining it. The
widget can sustain a complex form with a total rating up to its own rating.
Program options that don’t have a rating count as Rating 1 when
calculating the total complex form rating for the RAM widget.
emulation
Technomancers with the Biowire echo can use threading to
convert skillsofts (in storage accessible to the technomancer) into complex
forms that their neuromuscular system can process. To set up the
emulator, the technomancer makes a Threading (skillsoft rating) Test.
If the program contains other program ratings, raise the threshold by
the number of program options or rating points. If he succeeds, he has
converted the program into a complex form. He can now either sustain
the program as a normal threaded complex form of the same rating
or memorize the skillsoft as a complex form by paying an amount of
Karma equal to the rating (+1 for any program option or program
option rating).
paragonS—virtUaL godS and deMonS
While there have always been rumors of sightings in the Matrix,
urban myths of virtual beings and entities, reported and speculated
about in SIGs by UMP (Unidentified Matrix Phenomenon) geeks, the
public revelation of AI and sprites put all of these eyewitness accounts
in a new perspective. And yet … no one has come up with a satisfying
explanation about these entities that seem to originate from beyond
the normal realms of the Matrix and that technomancers have been
reported to follow or feel inherently connected to.
Named paragons—due to the lack of a better categorization
and because they are truly “peerless examples” of Matrix beings
that seem to be neither sprite, e-ghost, nor AI—they appear to be
native to the Matrix or to resonance realms, layers of pulses and
bytes beyond the normal Matrix.
Some speculate that paragons formed spontaneously and recently,
in the wake of Crash 2.0, from the collective subconscious minds of
Emerging technomancers who were in need of insight into their new
abilities or yearning for a spiritual belief. The truth is, however, that
nobody really knows where these beings come from, or even if they
really exist. Just as magicians have failed to come up with a reliable explanation
of the origin of their mentor spirits, nearly 60 years after the
Awakening, paragons seem to defy an easy explanation.
communion
Even technomancers are divided in their view of and belief in
paragons. While some see them as gods (or demons) of the cyberworld,
created by the evolution of the code and humanity, others
view them as embodied projections of an idea, an image, or an
archetype, something that reflects the nature of the virtual world
and those who reside in it. Others believe that they are actually
sapient Resonance programs, unlike anything that metahumanity
has programmed so far (including AIs). Although these incarna-
Unwired
tions seem to resemble mentor spirits on first glance, paragons are
inherently different and embody aspects of the modern, technological,
and coded world rather than spiritual realms.
Regardless of these differing explanations, interaction with a
paragon, called communion, follows certain patterns. Technomancers
have reported being suddenly transported to a place, unlike any in
their virtual or physical experience, during meditative online sessions.
There, they encountered a being to which they felt inherently
linked that gifted them with deeper insight into the Matrix and its
digital mechanisms.
paragon Modifiers
A paragon can be taken by a technomancer character with
the Paragon quality (p. 37).
In game terms, allegiance to a paragon alters a technomancer’s
behavior and affects how she manipulates Resonance in both
positive and negative ways—reflected by certain advantages and
disadvantages. A technomancer gains bonus dice when modulating
Resonance (through the use of complex forms, skills, threading,
or the use of Compiling) in accordance with the paragon’s area of
influence. On the other hand, the technomancer may lose dice or
become otherwise hampered outside the paragon’s sphere.
These bonuses and penalties are in all regards treated like
mentor spirit modifiers (p. 192, SR4).
roleplaying paragons
Similar to mentor spirits (p. 192, SR4), paragons should be
used by the gamemaster as tool to communicate information and
enhance roleplaying. However, paragons should be portrayed differently
from mentor spirits, due to their connection to the digital
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9
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technoMancers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .