If the icebreaker doesn't have enough strength do the subroutines on the ICE occur?

to break the subroutines u have to match the strentgh.

If you don't have the strentgh you cant break the subroutines and they occur, punishing you for the run.

For example the Yog code gate breaker cant break alone a Tollbooth so the end the run sends you home.

signoftheserpent said:

I know there's only one copy of the rulebook in the box, but that's no reason to ignore it. So far, every question you asked you could answer by reading it (or if you have read it, read it more thoroughly). If you don't own the game yet, you can find a pdf of the rulebook in the support section of the website. There's also an FAQ document that answers some of the more common and/or intricate rules questions.

Saturnine said:

I thought everything comes in threes (like with the ark only different). Can you check that please!!!!

Just kidding, by the way…

No need to be rude Saturnine…

Yes, they do in fact occur. This is designed so you could theoretically make a run on a server without any icebreakers, take all the consequences of that run onto yourself, and still manage to steal an agenda as long as none of the ICE you encountered ended your run.

Damocles346 said:

I own the game, read the manual thoroughly and in fact have found this part to be vague as well.

The manual states that an Icebreaker can only "interact" with a piece of Ice on the condition that its strength at least matches the strength of the piece of Ice. What does "interact" mean? To me, that is pretty vague. No clarification for this in the FAQ either.

You could very well interpret it as if the Icebreaker (not having enough strength) is not able to interact with the piece of Ice and thus does not trigger its subroutines.

Doesn't make much sense gameplay-wise, but I have to admit that it's not really clearly mentioned in the manual.

An icebreaker interacts with a piece of ice when

• breaking one of its subroutines
• it modifies it in some other way (Wyrm's strength reduction)

Bypassing a piece of ice (with Femme Fatale, say) doesn't interact with it. Interactions that go the other way (trash program subroutines) are not constrained by strength.

Turbogfx said:

Yes and no. You have the first half right, being that an ice-breaker without equal or greater strength cannot interact with a piece of IC. However, it is not the ice-breaker interacting or not interacting with the IC that causes the subroutines to trigger. It is the act of encountering that IC, as the player, by making a run against the server it is protecting.

By your wording, it sounds like you're suggesting that the rule could be interpreted that, without ice-breakers to "interact" with the IC, you could run on protected servers all day and not suffer "end the run"s or brain damage or traces, and just access cards willy nilly.

IC activates when you encounter it during a run against the server it is protecting, and its subroutines trigger anytime you cannot break them by interacting with it through ice-breakers, or special text, like some H-B IC that lets you use clicks to break subroutines.

(and yes, I know, I'm using the old cyber-punk/shadowrun spelling of IC (Intrusion Counter-measures))

There seems to be a lot of confusion with runs in this game. Maybe I can clear a thing or two up.

When running, and a piece of ice gets rezzed in your face, if it is the FIRST PICE OF ICE encountered this turn you CAN NOT opt to jack out. Approach and encountered are handled together due to this rule. This is is the case UNLES you are playing a card effect that allows you to bypass the ice such as inside job.

Next you are approaching the second piece of ice. The corp can opt to rez it or not. If they do not, you walk on by, if they do, you CAN JACK OUT at this time. Effectively you failed the run due to being unable to INTERACT with it. The subroutines have not triggered. You have ended the run. If you THEN choose to continue, you MUST be able to meet the strength value of the ice or exceed it before you can break any subroutines printed on the card. They can be broken in any order and one at a time. This proscess repeats until either the runner jacks out, Interacts with all ice in the server and gains access or runs out of credits or clicks to continue through the corps defenses.

Just a quick correction about timings.

If the runner delcares they are not jacking out the corp THEN would decide if they are going to rez the ice. The runner loses their opportunity to jack out once the next piece of ice has been rezzed and is now comitted to encountering it.

This is why running in blind is generally a bad thing and is favorable to the corp and not to the runner.

NanoXstatiC said:

This is only true if you are using an icebreaker (but it's true whenever you try to do something to a piece of ice with an icebreaker - including reducing its strength with Wyrm). Breaking bioroid subroutines with click doesn't even require an icebreaker. Bypassing a piece of ice with Femme Fatale doesn't require it to meet the strength.