House Rules - SINs

SIN's (System Identification Numbers)

System Identification Numbers (SINs) were introduced in the UCAS in 2036. Since then, most governments in the world have adopted SINs or something similar and frequently cross-check their databases with each
other.

The key to your SIN is the credstick holding your identity. Credsticks are pen-sized tubes that can serve as simultaneous ID and credit card. There are several different types of credsticks, but only two that are commonly
encountered.

Registered Credsticks

A registered credstick is registered to a specific SIN. It shows any license and permits a person holds. It can also provide emergency medical information, as well as store encoded finger/palm/retinal prints and more. In many ways a credstick is a person's single most important connection to the world.

Registered credsticks come in five separate types, each higher level more secure than the last and capable of handling more funds as a result. Each one requires a minimum balance to be held in the account for that level of credstick and requires the information to be verified stored on the credstick.

An important thing to note is that while the information to be verified has to be on the credstick, it doesn't require information /above/ it's level. The full information on your ID is stored in the SIN databases the Megacorps hold, however.

Quality Minimum Account Balance Verification Lifestyle
Plastic 0 Passcode Street-Low
Silver 5,000 Fingerprint Low-Medium
Gold 20,000 Voiceprint Medium-High
Platinum 200,000 Retinal scan High-Luxury
Ebony 1,000,000 Cellular scan Luxury

Certified Credsticks

Similar to a cash or bearer bond, a certified credstick is not registered to a specific person and is worth the amount of credit coded on it. It has no upper limit and requires no identification to use. As it is encoded by the financial institution that issued it with raw funds, it can be used by individuals other than who it was originally issued to. Banks usually charge a small percentage to create a certified credstick. However, they cannot be used as ID. For these reasons, certified credsticks are the default form of payment for Shadowrunners.

Using Credsticks

In addition to serving as THE form of identification, credsticks are used to transfer money. They contain encoded optical chips that retain the access codes necessary to transfer funds to or from the owner's account, as well as the account's most recent balance information. Certified credsticks connect to the bank that issued their funds for transfer.

To use a credstick, the credstick is plugged into to a credstick reader which then connects through the Matrix to the appropriate financial institution and allows the user to deposit, withdraw, or transfer funds. If it can't connect to the Matrix, it stores the transaction offline until it can get there. The amount of credit available is also on your credstick so
you can't overdraw your account.

If you're using a fake credstick, make an opposed test between the fake stick's rating and the rating of the verification system and consult the following table.

Net Successes Result
0 or less Credstick accepted
1-2 Operator instructed to ask queries of the bearer, mother's maiden name, date of birth, etc.
3-4 Transaction is put on hold breifly while a more thorough check is done, usually 1-2 rating points higher.
5 Credstick identified as false. Police informed, credstick shredded.

Credstick Verification/Background Checks

Rating Cost Notes
0 0 Buying something from Stuffer shack. Groceries. Getting clothes at the mall. No check is required at this level.
1 1 Furniture and electronics stores, restaurant reservations, car rental agencies, or renting a standard Middle lifestyle apartment.
2 5 Low-grade security spot check, checking in to a resort hotel or casino, hiring a limousine, getting a standard High lifestyle apartment.
3 10 Standard Lone Star/Knight Errant ID spot check. Buying a cheap automobile.
4 20 Typical low-grade security firm arrest and booking. Buying a middle-class automobile. Getting a drivers license. Takes 1d6 minutes.
5 50 Typical Lone Star/Knight Errant arrest and booking; getting a Luxury lifestyle apartment. Takes 1d6 minutes.
6 100 Getting a passport. Buying a luxury automobile. Takes 2d6 minutes.
7 200 Often used in arrest and booking for flashy or unusual crimes, like people trying to knock over a corporate facility or being picked up dressed in military armor and carrying heavy weapons. Takes 2d6 minutes.
8 500 Takes 3d6 minutes.
9 1000 Takes 3d6 minutes.
10+ 10,000+ This level of electronic credit checking is basically mythical; this kind of nuyen expenditure starts to get into matters of real detective work instead of electronic cross-checking.

Getting a Fake SIN

There are four typical ways for a SINless runner to get a SIN. The first - get caught. You'll get issued a criminal SIN. Of course, not many runners prefer this method, so they've developed other means.

If you have a good fixer, he can get you a faked credstick through his connections. It's hard to forge a credstick, but possible. Entire shadow groups are dedicated to doing nothing but constructing fake credsticks, creating backgrounds for them, and selling them on the street. This can cost a significant chunk of 'yen out of your pocket for higher ratings, and it's extra if you want faked permits added onto it as well. You also don't generally get to choose much about your new identity, but for most runners, it's the best option.

Buying a Fake ID

Rating Cost Availability Street Index
1-4 1,000 x Rating2 Rating/12 hours 1
5-8 5,000 x Rating2 Rating/72 hours 1
9-12 10,000 x Rating2 Rating/14 days 1
13+ 25,000 x Rating2 Rating/30 days 1

Extras such as permits are generally ten times as much as they would be to get legally.

The third way is to have a corporation issue you a brand new, shiny, unmarred SIN. This doesn't happen very often, usually as a reward for 'meritous service' and typically comes with permanent employment in your new-found friend. Most runners don't prefer this, either, but sometimes they have attractive perks, such as Wired Reflexes, thrown into the deal.

The fourth way is to make your own. Some deckers have a shot at this - at least for lower rating IDs. First off, you have to get a blank credstick of the proper color. Lower colors are easy to get on the street, higher ones aren't. Note that the color doesn't have to reflect it's rating. In fact, lower colors often are higher rated because they require less valid information.

Blank Credsticks Cost Avail
Plastic 1,000 2/24h
Silver 10,000 3/48h
Gold 50,000 5/4d
Platnium 200,000 8/14d
Ebony Yeah, Right

The credstick is the easy part. Once you have that, you have to start hacking government or megacorp databases, starting with the issuing agency. The higher rating, the more databases you need your information entered in. These databases are general of very high security levels - you can expect average Orange-8 hosts at a bare minimum in the back-woods third world
servers. Trying to create a fake SIN issued by Mitsuhama yourself is a good road to suicide, unless you start thinking outside the box.
The information you enter into these databases becomes your new identity. It doesn't have to be correct. For example, a good fake SIN might not have your real fingerprints on file, so that any crimes you commit and leave fingerprints at won't be pointed back at you. However, doing this limits the color of credstick you can use. If you have to use a fingerprint to access your funds, you have to have your actual fingerprints on file.

Rating Hacked Databases Needed
1 1
2 3
3 6
4 10
5 15
6 21

If you want any extra things added on, like passports, permits, or other interesting pieces of information, you'll have to hack the issuing organization. Expect tough drek.

Upgrading a SIN

Fake SINs appreciate with time. The longer it's used, the further back its credit history goes, and the more valid it appears to checks that scan archives, looking for people who 'appear' out of thin air. After a number of months of everyday use equal to the rating, you can upgrade your Fake SIN by one point. After many years, a fake SIN might be the same as a real one.

If that's too slow for you, however, you can hack more databases to improve the rating. Just take the difference between the current level and the next, and that's how many databases you need to hack into to upgrade it one point. For example, to turn a rating 4 SIN into a rating 5, you'd have to hack 5 databases.

On the other hand, if you perform rather spurious money shuffling transactions to try and conceal shadowy income, it's possible to degrade your SINs quality quite rapidly as you draw the attention of organizations
like the IRS. Be warned.

Forging a SIN

It has been in effect, but not yet posted until now, that we are using the SIN forging system from the Sprawl Survival Guide (SSG) (PG 125), only sans the edges and flaws. Since the addition of the SSG SIN forging rules, it has become necessary for a system to hack permits as well, to streamline the otherwise painstaking and tedious process. This will be an outline of the process.

Forging SINs: To forge a SIN, you need a number of apprprate contacts equal to the rating, or suffer a penalty of +1 to the TN, and +10 days to the base time. The target number is determined by taking the desired rating of the SIN and doubling it.

Lame Deer needs a new fake SIN to go with his new identity, so he's gonna call up some buddies, grease some palms, and forge himself up a new ID so he can get himself one of those swank high lifestyle apartments. He's going for rating 4, not too hard, but solid enough to fool the scanner in the managers office. His four contacts, a stuffer shack manager, a KE officer, a car salesman, and an insurance salesman all band together to tack on a fake datatrail, making the SIN seem used and natural as possible, while the decker creates the core information of the SIN. The base time it takes is the rating*10 days, plus appropriate mods for missing contacts. There is also the matter of cost for bribes and supplies. It's rating*rating*100. Real SINs and criminal SINs are considered Rating 10 for alteration purposes.

In a nutshell:

TN: (Rating*2)+(+1 per missing contact)

Base Time: (Rating*10 Days)+(+10 days per missing contact)

Cost: (Rating*Rating*100)

Forging Permits:

Permits may only be added to an exsisting SIN, and is a separate process entirely. The SIN check ratings in +Theme Denverlaw Permits2 are added to the TN when creating a forged permit, the base TN is the rating of the SIN. You will also need a lot of appropriate government contacts to pull this off, IE: Border contacts, LS/KE officers, military personel, secretaries, corporate deckers, and any other contact that can REASONABLY be used. A number of contacts equal to the rating of the SIN and the SIN check is required, for each that you lack, add one week to the base time and +1 to the TN. Simply put, calculating TN goes as follows:

TN: Sin Rating + Sin Check Rating + 1 per missing contact

Base Time: Rating+Permit Check Rating/2 in weeks + 1 week per missing contact.

The cost for paying off contacts is (Rating+Check Rating)*(Rating+Check Rating)*100 =Y=

Example: Lame Deer has a rating 4 fake SIN, and wants to forge a security permit for it. He has 8 contacts appropriate to the process, an Army recruiter, a Border Patrol officer, a bank manager, a beat cop, another decker, a KE Sherrif, an Aztechnology wageslave, and an Ares wageslave. His TN is a base 10(Rating 4 SIN, Rating 6 SIN check), and he needed 10 contacts to keep it that way. Since he has 2 missing contacts, his TN will be 12.

His base time in weeks would be 5 (Rating 4 SIN, Rating 6 Sin Check/2), but the lack of 2 contacts will make his base wait time 7 weeks.

The cost would be: 10*10*100=10000 yen. Quite a deal, considering it's the same cost legally without the dangerous envelope pushing SIN check.

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