Hacking rules inspired by B/X thief skills.
To hack, choose one of the following Hacker Skills and roll Xd6, where X is your cyberdeck’s Clock Speed. If the value of any die is within the skill’s success chance (1-in-6 by default, improved by programs), the attempt succeeds. On a failure, you alert the system and countermeasures may be dispatched to disconnect you.
You have direct access to any networks that your deck is plugged into, typically through a server or desktop tower. A wireless connection or remote access provides indirect access instead. Direct access provides a +1 bonus to the success chance of hacker skills.
- Penetrate servers (PS): Safely gain access to a system. If the roll fails, the intrusion is detected and countermeasures are automatically deployed. If the hacker has a passcode, they may automatically succeed at this roll.
- Search (SR): Locate a file within a system, or locate specific content within a file. This may also be used for search engine queries (only once per query) or to detect traps on a specific file (only once per file).
- Identify devices (ID): Identify the location and type of all active devices within wireless range of the hacker’s deck, or all devices connected to a network to which the hacker has access.
- Wipe data (WD): Destroy data on a device. A hacker may only destroy specific files or subsystems if they have first located them with Search; otherwise, they must wipe the entire device at once. A hacker may also use this to attack hostile programs and other hackers; a successful Wipe will disconnect their target.
- Move unsurveilled (MU): Prevent oneself from being detected by active surveillance systems. To cloak a group or large object from detection, roll at -1.
- Bypass locks (BL): Access a password-protected device or electronic lock without knowing the passkey. Biometric locks are accessed at -1 for each biometric required. A hacker can only try this skill once per lock.
- Clone credentials (CC): Copy data from a nearby device such as a smartphone, a keyfob, a credit card, or a server. On a failure, the data is not copied, and on a failure by more than 1 the device’s owner will receive a notification that a cloning attempt has occurred.
- Remote control (RC): A hacker may attempt to send a spoofed command to a device on a system to which they have access. More complex commands require multiple RC attempts.
- Decrypt or recover data (DD): Roll this to remove encryption from a device or a file. Some especially secure files require multiple Decryption rolls. After a failure, further attempts require a more powerful deck or program. This skill may also be used to recover lost files (only once per device).
- Cyber defense (CD): Roll this to remain connected to a network during a disconnection attempt. On a failure, you are kicked from the system and your access point is burned. If they had indirect access, they now require direct access to the system. If they had direct access, they need to find a new access point.
A cyberdeck’s Clock Speed determines the number of dice you roll to Hack, and it can host one program at a time for each mB of RAM it has. Program cassettes must be loaded into the cyberdeck before the mission begins. Programs increase the hacker’s success chance on specific hacker skills and may improve those skills’ effects.
Also, a single-level rework of the Hacker class for Deck-and-Blade games (c.f. Phlox's post re. the recent Cloak-and-Sword revival).
Hacker
Start with an outdated cyberdeck (2 mB RAM, Clock Speed 1), two random program cassettes (+1 to a random Hacker Skill), a big pleather coat, a cortical datajack, a stack of blank CD-ROMs, Python for Dummies (18th Edition), and a pair of mirrorshades.
h4xx0r.sk111z: You can use Hacker Skills. The first time you would alert a system, you may Scoff and choose not to alert it instead.
Author's Note: I know a lot of the original Cloak-and-Sword fanbase scoffed at the complexity of Scoffing mechanics, but I think it was very flavorfully integrated into Deck-and-Blade. The real issue with Deck-and-Blade's original Decker class was, as always, the ludicrously-complex hacking rules. Cyberpunk RPGs really never change.
jack_in;zone_out: You may use your cortical datajack to connect your brain to your cyberdeck, allowing your deck to use your neural clock cycles as additional processing power. Increase your Clock Speed by 1 when connected this way, as you are digitally incarnated in the cyber-space of the network you’re hacking. During this process, your meat body falls insensate, and if you are forcibly disconnected you must save vs. unconsciousness.
Rumor on the Deep Net has it that some next-generation intrusion countermeasures can access, rewire, and wipe a jacked brain as if it was nothing more than a file system.
l33t5p34k3r: You can always cloak your words in gibberish that non-hackers find unintelligible. When you do this, older generations will either pity or fear you.
www.honoram.ong/thieves: Hackers see themselves as console cowboys and cyber-samurai, a round_table() of digital knights serving corporate lords, living and dying on the bleeding edge of a bloody age. Other hackers have e-Sprit for you. This functions as Esprit, but is only prioritized over reaction rolls in cyberspace, LAN cafes, and hacker bars.
scriptKiddy: You are a proficient programmer. As long as you have no criminal record, you can always abandon the hacker’s lifestyle and take a job as a chipped and burned-out corporate drone. If you do, retire your character.
