I've been thinking about systems that would let you hack everything you can see. Partly inspired by Graverobber's Guide's latest about a cyberpunk dystopia. Here are some Powered by the Apocalypse style rules I'm noodling around with.
It's really easy to make hacking this weird mini-game which takes everyone out of the world, makes 1 player the Special Time Person, etc. I think Shadowrun's move to wireless hacking is maybe a try at getting away from this, but I haven't actually read anything from that setting made after 1992, other than some video game stories. But anyway, that's my idea - everyone can do some kind of Hack Thing, hacking is generally something that you're doing locally; you're co-located rather than isolated. In the world rather than hiding in your basement.
Implied Setting Blurb
Everything is wired and rewired, injected with nanomachine dust, measured, monitored. But some in the lost corners of the world have learned to twist this panopticon against itself.
Some actual moves
HACK
When you hack something connected to the Aether, roll + hacking.
10+: Gain 3 hold
7-9: Gain 1 hold
Spend 1 hold to make the target perform a fairly normal action for a few minutes.
Spend 1 extra hold to make them do so for longer.
Spend 1 extra hold if they're doing something complicated or dangerous.
So for instance, if you want to break into an apartment, you probably can hack the door lock for a few minutes by spending 1 hold, then jam the door open. You also need to spend 1 hold to keep the security system offline for a few minutes. You could drop 1 extra hold for a much longer period of this simple control - you find or create a backdoor into the system.
REDACT
When you reach out to corrupt a large number of electronic recording devices in the area, roll + ghosting
10+ It's seamless, it's like your not even there.
7-9: Pick one.
You're not identifiable, but you're definitely there.
The records are completely fragged, which is a red flag right now for someone.
If that house you broke into was remote or in a poor area, REDACT is probably unnecessary. In a rich area dusted with info pollen? You probably can't hack your way out of being seen and identified unless you emit a shriek of EM and bend all the camera-eyes and recording dust to your will.
REMOTE VIEW
When you dream through the datastreams to glimpse somewhere far away, roll + warp
SABOTAGE?
When you destroy something beyond repair, or make it destroy itself, roll + break
Stats so far: hack, ghost, warp, break.
It's all very tentative and hot-takey. I kind of think the 5th (and final) move should be defy danger and that this is really just a weird hack of World of Dungeons. I wouldn't want to get any more basic moves than that, really. WoD style Danger Rolls are great for picking up slack.
Thursday, March 14, 2019
I believe women
I posted this all over my social media, but it's worth stating here: I believe women. I believe Mandy. Jennifer. Hannah. Vivka. There's no room for abusers in this hobby. In the past I've linked to things Zak has written; not anymore. Other people have written this up and written up the write-ups.
I should've stood up more for others when Zak was charging at them, and did not. It was easier to avoid him, which was pretty much by design. It was easier, but it helped enable him to do what he did. Hopefully in the future I will do better.
(Same with Sean Patrick Fannon, I was really interested in Savage Rifts for a minute. I'm leaving those old pre-gen character posts up, but I'd encourage people to play something else.)