Hardware Damage

Mesh gear ranges from cheap and vulnerable motes to durable, self-repairing servers. They are treated just like other objects for physical combat purposes (Objects & Structures).

If a device is physically damaged, there is a 10% chance it suffers a glitch. If the device suffers a wound, it automatically glitches. Additionally, wound modifiers apply to all mesh tests involving that device.

Shock attacks will temporarily disrupt hardware devices. No mesh actions may be taken with or on a shocked device for one action turn. At the GM’s discretion, shock attacks may also sever communication links or inflict extra damage.

When damage exceeds a device’s Destruction Rating, it ceases to function immediately. Anyone accessing the system loses the connection. If the hardware was the home device to any infomorphs, they are effectively killed.

It is sometimes possible to retrieve data, including dormant infomorphs, from disabled devices. At the least, this requires difficult (−30) Hardware: Electronics and Interface Tests.

Damage and Infomorph Riders

For most physical combat purposes, ware incorporated into a morph is treated as the character, not as distinct hardware. However, infomorphs that are using such ware as a home device, such as a muse in your mesh inserts or a fork in a ghostrider module, require special consideration.

Infomorphs do not sleep, so they remain active even when their morph carrier is resting or hibernating. Likewise, they may still act even if the morph is incapacitated or grappled. Shock attacks temporarily disrupt implanted systems, however, so infomorph riders are incapacitated just as the morph is.

If a morph is knocked out by wounds or accumulates damage equal to or exceeding its Durability, there is a 25% chance that any infomorph riders are knocked offline as well. If not, they may still operate while the morph is unconscious. If damage equals or exceeds the morph’s Death Rating, there is a 75% chance the physical damage decommissions an infomorph rider as well. Otherwise, it may remain active, though it will lose power after 48 hours. At the GM’s discretion, significant trauma to the head (or ware location) or other exceptional conditions (e.g., falling into a cryovolcano) may increase those odds or automatically disable the infomorph.

Muses and other infomorph riders have been responsible for saving their injured or incapacitated carriers by reaching out for help on countless occasions.