I’d like to ask a question about a specific Move (Access + Interface) and also follow up with a more in depth question about hacking networks.
As I understand in general, use of a Move (and rolling dice) typically signifies that at the end, when all is resolved one way or another, your player turn is done. Time to move on to the next person. (Move Chains are the exception to this).
I think I’ve been running something wrong with my players.
On Player Bob’s go, he rolls Access + Interface to initially “get inside” the target computer system. Bob rolls 10+. All good.
Bob then says “Now that I am in, I want to do that thing with the system” and Bob immediately rolls again Access + Interface to try and do that thing”.
I see two errors here…
I think I should have stopped Bob after the initial and successful attempt to access the interface. Bob’s rolled dice, so time to move to the next player ?
The other error, is, I don’t think Bob needs to roll Access + Interface again to do the thing he wants inside the network, because he already has access. I think he needs to do Face Adversity / Get Involved / Assessment to do the thing he wants, is that right ?
However, as I noticed on another read of the rules (P25), it says “A successful Access gives one complete privileges over the content in that cluster”, so does Bob even need to make a second roll to do that thing, if he has complete access ?
Whilst we are talking about SectorNet, what are folk’s take on it ?
I kind of envision a galaxy spanning PWW (Planet Wide Web) as appropriate to the campaign.
In both of my campaigns, it exists in all the known and colonised planets.
Access is via wireless, or hardpoint/terminal if available, wherever you are. Within reason.
Reason being :
Any ship, of any type will have sufficient arrays to always be connected to SectorNet if desired. They are just nodes after all. If you met a surprise alien civilisation who have just popped up in the campaign world, never been met before…they are not on SectorNet. They have their own tech.
Any colonised planet with settlements will have SectorNet in all but the most remote locations. It’s no big deal to have a sat dish on a shack roof, in the middle of the forest.
If you happened to be in the forest / somewhere remote with your “deck”, and the dish on the roof was broken, now you are in trouble. No deck has enough juice to uplink to a satellite. Best fix that dish, or crank up the power on the deck…consequences. If your flyer is nearby, just uplink to that instead..boom…SectorNet. Seems legit ?
A bit about hacking now…
So let’s say the player wants to hack Evil Megacorp (EM)
It seems reasonable they exist on SN. But protected.
So, player wants to hack in to their network…
1. SectorNet is easily accessed by everyone. It’s just the PWW.
2. Player Bob makes Access + Interface to get in to EM network
3. Player Bob wants to do that thing. Drain all their accounts and bankrupt them immediately. Face Adversity + Interface. Bob succeeds. Bob has just destroyed a Faction. At least in the short term. Bob could have wiped off his Debts instead. Or all manner of massively game breaking things. Is Bob “playing in the spirit of the game” or just being a douchebag to the rest of the table ?
Final question if I may ?
Corporate Military jet about to drop a ton on bombs on you.
1. Log in to SectorNet
2. Try and access EM network with Access + Interface. Success.
3. Tell GM “I want to screw with the targeting on the jet”. Face Adversity + Interface. Success 10+
4. GM says “Well done, at the last moment the bombs fall short missing you and the crew on land”. (I guess for a partial, the bombs fall short, but take out some collateral)
Seems legit ?
Thank you !
The game is amazing, and I’ve run 6 sessions now. A fellow GM has now purchased it, and I know of another GM who is going to give it a try too 🙂
There is no “player turn”. The spotlight shifts when it shifts. Part of the job of a good GM is knowing when to follow through with more moves and when to shift to other players.
As for Access itself, it’s used to open up secured systems. If the system is public or unsecured, you don’t need access. You probably want Face Adversity to get some data undetected, or Assessment to find some information they can use.
What the SectorNet is depends on your fiction. In one of my games, the SectorNet was specific to each planet, with data accessible once you are in system, but with less layers of security as you get closer.
Once a character succeeds in an Access, they “own” that terminal, and thus can do anything they could do on their own machines, and the machine won’t fight or interfere. In most situations, this means they don’t have to roll again to Do A Thing because there’s no opposition or danger. The Computer Is Your Friend, Citizen.
If they need to really dig through a TON of data, then I might call for an Assessment using Interface as a follow-up, but most surface stuff is entirely open and truthful.
If they want to use the terminal as the vector for an attack, then that would be a separate Move: their Access has converted this formerly hostile/protected terminal into a weapon/tool.
(Note that there are some extra shennanigans a Technocrat can pull when they Access a terminal; they can put in a freebie Program (if/then statement) and/or they can disconnect and lock out everyone else.)
As for the SectorNet: Check the new Technology Chapter for Far Beyond Humanity for detailed SectorNet gameplay.
There are about a billion Threats that a character would have to overcome to even get near the combined bank-accounts of an entire Faction and be able to wipe them out simultaneously (ICE, Firewalls, deadlocks, human Admins, AI admins, seekers, etc). It would require insane coordination from another Faction’s worth of people to even hope to pull it off.
[Edit] It would be the climax of a long campaign, but that would be one hell of a campaign.
Thank you Sean. And I loved the Paranoia reference 🙂
Instead of using your deck as an attack tool, what if I was using my deck to gain access to the net, to find a military network, and then hack a jet?
1. Gain access to SN…automatic
2. Locate military organisation and hack in.
Access + Interface
3. Now technically I own the system, but as it’s a Move that has consequences, does it seem reasonable to do FA + Interface to mess with the jet?
Thank you.
That one is down to believable fictional positioning. A character can’t just Access anything from anywhere, in the same way that they can’t just shoot the CEO of a faction from wherever they are in the world. They usually need to lay at least a little ground-work before attempting a highly valuable target.
Realistically, military systems would not be connected directly from the SectorNet, and they certainly wouldn’t be marked out.
With larger networks, characters would have to target vulnerable clusters and infiltrate that way, eventually making their way to the cluster that allows them to do what they wanted.
They may require excessive time, leaning on contacts, bribes, blackmail, and other such clandestine activities, just to set up the Access attempt.
“2. Locate military organisation and hack in.
Access + Interface” is a very abbreviated summary of the amount of effort needed to attempt something like that.
That said, if it serves the story better to have a planetary military network with home-wifi-password levels of protection, then you can and should absolutely go with a simple Access+Interface to control that Jet.