Let’s talk about Hacking, shall we?
For those who have run a mission, what sort of moves do you require for Hackers who want to hack every little thing they come across? In particular, what sort obstacles do you put your Hackers up against when they’re attempting to interact with things that aren’t directly connected to a building (with an implied system set up)?
For instance, I’ve got a player who seems to like the idea of hacking Communication devices, Cyberware, vehicles, you name it. The moves in the rulebook seem a little more focused on the Hacker attempting to hack a facility network, but what would the structure of getting into a Communication device be? How about a pair of cyber eyes so an enemy can’t see?
In the case of a Coms Unit/cell phone thingy, they’d obviously have to make a Login move to see if they can crack whatever protection the phone might have on it, right? Would your average Coms Unit or piece of Cyberware have ICE running on it? Would a Coms Unit just have a series of service nodes that required Manipulate Systems rolls to interact with (turn off the unit, send a message through the phone, reroute calls, etc) and a Data Base that you’d Assess or Research?
Hacking moves in some ways go on the basis of a wired world. If you’re playing wirelessly there may be some cognitive dissonance.
Aaron Berger While I’d agree that wireless technology is something each group should discuss and determine if they want it in their Sprawl setting, there are definitely quite a few mentions of wireless technology in the rules manual, so I’d actually argue that the standard would be a wireless world and not vice versa.
If they’re hacking a common com device because they want info from it, I would skip all matrix moves and go right to Research. The hacker is competent at accessing common basically encrypted data. Their hacker-ness justifies using the otherwise secure object as the basis for Research.
Brandon Fincher I don’t see a cyberarm or cybereye being wirelessly hacked.
In case of a comunication device, it might be more likely. Small pieces of comm hardware may come with vanilla blue ICE, while corporate pro cyberware might have more solid defenses.
In any case, the owner of the system may reboot it or simple cut all wireless connections. For a corporate facility, cutting all wireless connections may be a complete mess and a last resort measure. For a malfunctioning implant, it should be easier.
I should also mention that if I feel something is wrong with my tech and I see a weirdo nearby jacked to a cyberdeck, I might just shoot him in the face. Just to be sure.
Alpo _ – yeah, that was my approach to the problem when playing Shadowrun… if someone looks like they’re trying to hack my stuff, they get some burst-fire through their deck. If I can’t see the deck, I assume it’s implanted in their skull, and aim for that instead.
I’m mostly with Jesse Burneko here. The Hacker should be able to get into pretty much any consumer-grade computer simply by being the Hacker. I liken it to current smartphones and the internet of things. How many average smartphone users have some sort of protection on their device or even know how it works? Not a lot. So I extend that to whatever passes for consumer-grade electronics in your setting.
What is this player who hacks everything looking for? Why are they doing it? Are they looking for pay data on every single person they come across? Do they enjoy messing with people’s stuff?
Chris Stone-Bush(null) I’m basing his desire to hack things mostly on the fact that he basically moved his Shadowrun 5e character over to The Sprawl, and he’s accustomed to being able to hack anything and everything in that, so I thought it might be useful to know if anyone had similar experiences where everything was connected wirelessly and a Hacker who loved to manipulate stuff that way.
Assuming it makes fictional sense, the character should still probably hack anything and everything Brandon Fincher. I’ve recently started MCing a three-player game set in the Android: Netrunner universe, and pretty much everything in that setting is wi-fi and hackable. We’ve only done one session so far and it hasn’t come up, but I’m betting people will try to hack smartphones, guns, cyberlimbs, vehicles, etc.
When that happens, I’m going to make a snap decision on how much security that thing has. As I said before, consumer-grade stuff probably won’t require a LOGIN move. The hacker will just get into that off the shelf smartphone because they’re the hacker. If they’re looking for data, that will be RESEARCH, ASSESS or an MC move as appropriate.
If the Hacker wants to mess with whatever system they’re in it’ll be COMPROMISE SECURITY or MANIPULATE SYSTEM as usual. Id count most consumer electronics as either a database or a building service node.
More secure stuff, like weapons and devices carried by high-level corp assets probably would require the LOGIN move. This isn’t so much the user being able to counter the hacking attempt, but the hardware itself being more secure than something off-the-shelf. There probably isn’t ICE on these small devices, but alerts and traces might go off.
Be generous.
(A) Rolls are for when outcomes are in doubt. If it’s an easy score without real risks attached? Throw them the spotlight and let them feel cool. No moves required here. On the contrary, this can serve as the fictional positioning for a Research move.
(B) If they’re doing this where it matters, don’t forget misses can advance clocks. Wasting time screwing around is dangerous.
(C) a single device has neither node nor login. /if/ you’re hacking a single device (e.g., this phone over here with no security and wireless access). If the device is part of a network – either explicitly, like someone’s drone, or implicitly, like someone’s wireless backdoor compromised cyber eye that can only be tunneled into through the network of the Corp that installed the backdoor – then you have to worry about all the login and ICE and etc, because you’re … well, hacking into a Corp network to get at one of their networked assets.
J Stein – also, if the hacker is starting to dominate the game, you can start glossing over the bits that you might want rolls for if it was the hacker struggling for spotlight time…. give them some freebies to get things moving along.
Eh… I’m taking a bit of issue with the “rolls are when the outcome is in doubt” advice. That’s not really how PbtA game work. If a narration triggers a move, you have to resolve that move.
So while the result may be the same thing, you’re not deciding if a player should roll because a miss might be interesting. You’re deciding if and what move was triggered.
Chris Stone-Bush(null) I don’t disagree about “narrative triggers moves,” but PBTA moves are designed /to/ trigger when there’s uncertainty.
As I said, I think the result is the same; a dice roll to resolve a move when there’s uncertainty.