Netrunning (the "Matrix")

“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...”

— William Gibson, Neuromancer

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A node is a specific area of the Matrix – the equivalent of an old internet page. There are five types of nodes: public, private, restricted, control, and personal. Public and private nodes can be accessed from almost anywhere. Restricted, control, and personal nodes require the netrunner to be within a specific range of the node.

• Public Node. An area with free access. Such as city information systems.
• Private Node. An area that requires a registered account and a password to access (such a corporation, government or university system). Usually, anyone can create an account on a private node.
• Restricted Node. A highly protected area that, in addition to requiring authorized accounts and passwords, has more sophisticated security system (such an ICE), that can harm, or even kill, the user who tries to force his entry. The authorization to access a restricted node belongs only to system’s administrators (such as heads of government departments or senior business executives).
• Control Node. A location within the Matrix which allows for the control of a real world device. These can have security measures similar to a Restricted Node or may be accessed from within one.
• Personal Node. Your personal node can be accessed only by those you allow and while you are in it. If someone tries to invade your personal node, you will know immediately. Personal nodes have limited environment processing capabilities; usually they can be infinite white spaces, data halls with gates to your most accessed nodes, or a dive in crystal clear water. Its 'your' space...

Moving Between Nodes

Upon entering the Matrix, you are in a public node that serves as a virtual reproduction of the city. All the private nodes connected to the city are represented by a gate – a portal to a destiny in another node. When you cross a gate, you make a jump and appear in the node to which the gate leads.

To move to your personal node, you can use an action to issue a mental command to your neural interface, and then a gate to your personal node appears within 5 feet in front of you. This personal gate can only be seen or crossed by you and by those you allow. To leave your personal node the process is the same, but you can create a gate to a public, private or restricted node that you have access to. You can immediately expel anyone who is on your personal node through a similar mental command (this also requires an action).

Entering restricted nodes and control nodes is somewhat more complicated. Only restricted nodes with the lowest level of protection have permanent gates located within private nodes. It is common for only authorized characters to be able to open gates to a restricted node. The process to create this gate is the same as for creating gates to a personal node, with the difference that the person does not choose who can see or cross the gate – anyone with the same authorization can see or pass through it.

Jumps

When you move through the nodes of the Matrix, you make a jump. During the jump, you seem to be speeding through a brilliant tunnel of information, along with any other 'creatures' that cross the same gate as you. Those 'creatures' with faster interfaces disappear from the tunnel in a flash of light and emerge on the destination node first than those with slower interfaces, unless they voluntarily want to take longer jump times (if they are fighting a pursuing AI, for example). The jump time depends on the quality of the connection being used and the physical distance to the destination node (example below).

Node Security

There are four levels of security for private, restricted, and control nodes: low, medium, high and maximum.
These levels indicate the DC for the Intelligence check with hacking tools to perform a series of activities within the node (such as invading the node without a registered account or password; passing through the ICE defense without alerting it; creating a fake entry authorization; breaking data encryption or cleaning the history of activities in the system as well as the defenses normally found in it, according to the Node Security table below.

Hacking Personal Nodes

Personal nodes can also be invaded just as private or restricted nodes. Class D and C neural interfaces have DC 15 to invade (medium security class B and A have DC 20 to invade (high security and S class has DC 25 (maximum security). It’s not common for normal people to keep ICE on their personal nodes, but those who control important information prefer to have more protection at their neural interfaces.
From the moment you break the security of a node, or when you enter into a fight against another user or ICE, you are engaged in Matrix Combat.
The Matrix combat works the same way as normal combat (following the rules of initiative, turns, movement and actions), but with a few exceptions.

• Instead of an attack roll against AC, the users make an Intelligence check with hacking tools contest.
• Instead of losing hit points, the user who accumulate three failures in a Matrix combat is kicked out or, if it is an ICE, is temporally disabled (unless the ICE is permanently deleted while disabling). Being disconnected in this way is not the same as being kicked out of a private node. In this case, you wake up in the real world and need to reconnect if you want to go back to the Matrix – and go all the way back to get where you were at the moment you have been disconnected. Any special programs or technomagic active on you are lost and you will need to run then again if you want them back.

Magic in the Matrix

The Matrix was not developed to simulate the effects of most spells. In addition, spellcasters aren’t much accustomed to virtual reality to use their magic within the cyberspace, so a spellcaster cannot cast his spells while he is connected to the Matrix unless he has a feature that allows him to cast spells through devices connected to a network (such as the Online Casting of the Technomancy tradition). In this case, use the normal spell rules to affect a creature within the Matrix, and its effect will be transferred to the target’s physical body.
ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics) programs are completely digital entities created to protect the nodes in which they were inserted from the invasion of unwanted users. Unlike noncorporeal artificial intelligence, ICE programs do not have self-consciousness and only do what they were programmed for – fighting intruders.

While searching for intruders, the ICE does not manifest itself on the net. But when someone fails on an ability check to bypass the security of the node, or cannot hide an unauthorized action taken inside the node, the ICE appears as an entity in the Matrix and starts to fight the invader as if it were another user (see the “Matrix Combat” section).

While Matrix combat is usually nonlethal, those who venture into the darkest corners of cyberspace – seeking secrets from corporations or powerful individuals – may encounter ICE programs capable of causing very real damage.

There are three ICE classifications based on the risk they represent.

• White ICE. (INT: +4, Hacking Tool Prof: +3)
  • This class of ICE is the easiest to deal with. On its third success in a Matrix combat, the White ICE immediately disconnects the target from the system.
• Red ICE. (INT: +5, Hacking Tool Prof: +4)
  • The Red ICE is capable of damaging the user’s neural interface, burning their physical connections. On its third success in a Matrix combat, the Red ICE burn's the targets connection, dealing 14 (2d8+5) lightning damage to the target and immediately disconnecting it from the system.
  • The Target's neural interface equipment is now damaged and cannot be used until it can be repaired with a successful DC 15 ability check with engineering tools and half of its cost in replacement parts.
• Black ICE. (INT: +6, Hacking Tool Prof: +5)
  • The Black ICE is the most dangerous type of ICE, capable of dealing psychic damage to the target with its attacks in the Matrix. On each success in a Matrix combat, the Black ICE deals 15 (2d8+6) psychic damage to the target. In addition, the Black ICE can keep the target inside the Matrix to continue punishing it (depending on original programming), even after having three successes in a Matrix combat. The only way to escape the pursuit of a Black ICE is by defeating it or by voluntarily disconnecting yourself.
  • If it desires, on its third success in a Matrix combat, the Black ICE can burn the target’s connections, dealing 15 (2d8+6) lightning damage to the target and immediately disconnecting it from the system.
  • The Target's neural interface equipment is now damaged and cannot be used until it can be repaired with a successful DC 15 ability check with engineering tools and half of its cost in replacement parts.

Another way to interact with the Matrix, besides fully immersing on it, is to use an augmented reality device (AR) – such the display glasses. In this case, you stay awake and don’t lose the awareness of your surroundings, watching the Matrix through holographic windows that can be minimized or closed at any time. While you are with a video transmission maximized in your field of vision, you suffer disadvantage in Wisdom (Perception) checks to perceive your surroundings.