# Surveillance, Identity, and Countermeasures

*The Chrome Market, Near-Future Weapons, Cyberware, and Street Tech for Exodus NDS. Source: https://exodusnds.com/sourcebooks/chrome-market/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 |