The Chrome Market ยท Chapter 10
Surveillance, Identity, and Countermeasures
Coverage
Every place has a Coverage rating: how closely it is watched by machines.
| Coverage | Place |
|---|---|
| 0 | Wilderness, a dead zone, a safehouse, the inside of a signal bag |
| 1 | A poor district, a back road, a place where the cameras are broken |
| 2 | An ordinary city street, a shop, public transport |
| 3 | A city centre, an airport, a corporate lobby: faces, gait, plates, and phones are all read |
| 4 | A secure site. Everything is read, matched, and kept |
Machines are not people. A talent or a disguise that fools a guard does not fool a camera. Against Coverage, a character needs gear from this chapter, a hacker, or a route.
Heat
A crew, or a character, has Heat from 0 to 5.
| Heat | State | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Clean | Nobody is looking |
| 1 | Noticed | A file exists |
| 2 | Flagged | Coverage 3 and above alerts someone when the character passes |
| 3 | Wanted | Add 1 Bane Die to social checks with anyone official. Coverage 2 alerts |
| 4 | Hunted | Someone is assigned. A response arrives within the scene wherever Coverage sees the character |
| 5 | Burned | The name, the face, and the accounts are finished |
Gaining Heat
At the end of any scene in which a character did something illegal, loud, or memorable in a place with Coverage, that character makes a check against the Coverage rating as difficulty. The skill depends on how the character hid: Stealth for staying out of view, Deception for a false face, Hacking for dealing with the cameras.
| Result | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Success | No Heat |
| Failure | Heat rises by 1 |
| Failure with a Calamity | Heat rises by 2 |
Gunfire in Coverage 2 or more adds 1 Trial Die. Being identified by name adds 1 Heat with no check.
Losing Heat
Heat falls by 1 for each month the character does nothing to earn more. A new identity resets it for anyone who has not seen the old face. Chapter 11 prices a record scrub and a cleaner.
A Universe with its own track for this, such as a Compromise track, uses that track with this chapter's gear.
Identity
An identity has a Grade, 1 to 4. A check on it has a Security, 1 to 5.
- If the Grade is equal to or higher than the Security, the identity passes with no check.
- If it is one lower, the bearer makes a Deception check against the Security as difficulty.
- If it is two or more lower, it fails.
An identity that fails is burned, and its bearer gains 1 Heat.
The Gear
| Item | Tier | Price | Avail | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| False identity, Grade 1 | Near | 500 | Illicit | A name and a card. Passes a glance and a Security 1 check |
| False identity, Grade 2 | Near | 3000 | Illicit | Records behind the card. Passes Security 2: a shop, a landlord, a traffic stop |
| False identity, Grade 3 | Near | 15000 | Illicit | A history, a credit record, and a face on file. Passes Security 3: a border, a bank, an employer |
| False identity, Grade 4 | Chrome | 75000 | Illicit | A real person who never existed, inserted at the source. Passes Security 4. Only Security 5 looks hard enough |
| Burner handset | Near | 50 | Common | A clean phone. Good for a week, or until it is used near a phone that is not clean |
| Cash card | Near | 5% | Illicit | Money with no name on it, at a fee of one twentieth. Above 10,000 it draws attention |
| Dazzle paint and mask | Near | 100 | Common | Add 2 Boon Dice against facial recognition. It is obvious to people: add 1 Bane Die to social checks |
| Projector mask | Chrome | 6000 | Illicit | A film that shows cameras another face and shows people the wearer's own. Defeats facial recognition up to Coverage 3 |
| Gait insoles | Near | 300 | Restricted | Change the way the wearer walks. Defeats gait recognition |
| Signal bag | Near | 40 | Common | Nothing inside it can be tracked, pinged, or hacked |
| Jammer, pocket | Near | 1200 | Illicit | Blocks wireless signals within Short range for an hour: phones, links, drone control, and Smart weapons. It affects its owner's gear too. Using one adds 1 Alert to any system watching |
| Jammer, narrow | Near | 5000 | Illicit | Blocks one named device or link within Medium range |
| Sweep kit | Near | 2500 | Restricted | Finds bugs, cameras, and trackers. Add 2 Boon Dice to Perception checks to find surveillance devices |
| Tag scrubber | Near | 900 | Illicit | Finds and kills the tracking tags in clothes, goods, cash cards, and Tag rounds |
| Bug | Near | 200 | Restricted | A listening or watching device the size of a button. Add 2 Bane Dice to find it without a sweep kit |
| Scanner wand | Near | 600 | Restricted | Finds weapons and cyberware. A Perception check against the Concealable rating, ignoring 2 points of it |
| Scanner arch | Near | 20000 | Restricted | A doorway that finds weapons and lists cyberware with no check. Scanner-Evasive items and bioware pass |