Hacking the Machine Fantastic!

Refactoring hacking mechanics for roleplaying games.

I’ve been deep in Cortex Prime land these days, mostly pushing, pulling, and stretching it for Lifted: Indomitable. Some things fell out that don’t fit the superhero setting but seem nice for cyberpunk stuff. We’re playing around in a cyberpunkish, transhumanism genre set in the middle of two sentient AIs at war. Our take on the AI wars trope.

I think the best game of running the matrix, AKA hacking, I’ve experienced is Netrunner, the CCG. I played many, many rounds of that game as a netrunner and corp. It captured an experience. I’d like that in my TTRPGs where there are hackers, slicers, and console jockeys, a mini-game that captures an experience alongside whatever the other player characters are doing.

It is not because I’m a software engineer that I find many mechanics for hacking the matrix in TTRPGs missing the mark. I wouldn’t want a hard science approach to the mechanics. Basically, IMHO, hacking is a series of gaining a system’s access and control without being detected. Cyberpunk Red has a roll + stats opposed roll. I’m inclined to let that roll set the initial number of “free actions” that a netrunner can take before an alert is raised or another test is made. In Cortex Prime that could easily be the effect die as a counter. I’m torn about whether that number is public or hidden from the player; both create tension.

I’d like a lonely-fun aspect for hacker players built around modding, tweaking their “rig” - a lot like those D&D wizards working those spell slots! The loaded software should be special, name-level worthy warez. They provide “dice tricks” to the hacking tests. Maybe the “Beholder v1.2” warez lets a player know what that hidden action number is? Or “The Devastator 3000” provides a bonus, reroll, extra dice vs. code walls. Cortex Prime calls these SFX and fits nicely in this context. In all game systems, I’d just stat out any non-trivial system as an NPC.

AcmeData, Intl. Network

System: 2D8

Distinction: Likes to use lethal, experimental ICE.

• Sfx: Tracer ICE start at +1 Asset rating.

Let’s begin with a runner crew making a run on AcmeData Corp. The decker is probably riding shotgun from cyberspace. As the physical team sets itself up, ready to cross the rubicon—that hacker had better already have access, or they’re going to get caught by the guards. Meanwhile, the hacker is making access and control tests as needed, filling a support role that makes sure the runners don’t get caught.

“Hey, Case - how about you pop that maintenance door and kill the cams” Molly might say.

Easy enough in Cortex these could be plain tests or contests. In another system, maybe it’s a task roll per action. Easy, except I want the idea of the hacker also keeping a low profile by balancing to keep a small footprint in the digital space of the system they've hacked. They need to avoid sending too many signals or alerting the system, which raises its alert level. Mechanically, this makes things harder for the hacker while still supporting the physical team. In Cortex Prime, we have many options for this: spinning off a challenge or crisis pool, using complications, and even running a stress track for measuring the alert levels. If I’m really nerdy about it, the scale could represent a State of the Art metric that degrades with use. Anyway, I dig this idea of a hacker who is also playing a cat-and-mouse game alone in the machine.

Data grabs, recon, decryption, and other hacks could be a simple task roll - a simple test in Cortext Prime, or if the stakes are higher, a contest or link test in other systems. I think it's as simple as taking a series of related tasks and applying an advantage or disadvantage based on the results of the previous test. Then bring it all together in the fiction.

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Fiona Fancy hacks the cyber-eyes of the security detail on Mr. Target. She’s making her two team members invisible to those goons. I’m calling it three tests.

• Access the devices

• Hack the devices to ignore Jon-John and Gravy

• Remain undetected.

She passes the first test gaining an advantage on the second, which she fails. Her third test has a disadvantage applied, but still successful. What does the result look like in the fiction? Tell me in the comments!

The Gorgon IX Deck.

SotA: D10 Speed: D8 Firewall: D6 SoftSlots: 3

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While I want a separate system for hacking, it doesn’t have to feel bolted on. The mini-dungeon, sudoku puzzle, and nodal maze as system abstractions make me cranky. From a pure software slinger perspective - code hacking ain’t sexy, but I want my netrunner to be!

Play Fearless!