This week I present the Hacking Mini-Game system. The design goal is to create a side game for Hacker character to play that A) Doesn’t require the GM’s attention B) Removes the Hacker’s attention from anything else going on C) Doesn’t take too long to play D) Is fun.

I’m not sure how I did with it but it held up to some light playtesting. Since this is designed to be a stand-alone element within the game you don’t need any other rules to be able to play the game.

While I don’t have the rules for designing a system yet, the arbitrary method of just assigning numbers works just fine. If you’re interesting in playtesting just assume you have a Dice Pool between 8 and 12. I’d appreciate any and all constructive feedback I can get on the system.

I’m also not 100% sure I’ve fully explained the system here. I need to know if there needs to be any clarifications.

Hacking

Hacking is a small mini-game played by a single player, the Hacker, against a static objective, the System. The Hacker will roll his dice pool and assign dice to various System aspects. Once all of the objectives have been completed the System is open to the Hacker. If the Hacker fails to crack the system before it’s security can respond then the system locks him out, possibly back-tracing his connection, and sounding alarms.

Before we can talk about how the game is played we need to define a few aspects of the system. Every system has two sections: The Kernel and the Firewall. The Kernel has three attributes; CPU, Memory, and Devices. The Firewall has two attributes; Encryption and Authentication. Systems can have multiple Kernels and Firewalls but every Firewall is assigned to a specific Kernel.

Kernel CPU determines how quickly the system can respond to an intrusion. The CPU rating sets how many attempts, or die rolls, the Hacker can make before the system starts to respond. If a Hacker can’t crack the system in a number of rolls equal to or less than the CPU rating, the CPU begins to increase the Authentication rating of every Firewall assigned to it. See Device: Motherboard for details on how quickly the Authentication rating increases. If the Authentication ever increases beyond 10, the system Locks Down. There is no upper or lower limit to the rating a CPU can have.

If a system has a CPU 8, it allows the Hacker 8 dice rolls before it begins to increase its security. If the Hacker needs to roll 9 times, the Authentication of the system increases.

Kernel Memory determines how quickly data can be passed into the system. The Memory rating sets how many dice a Hacker can place into the system in a single round. The dice can be split among any Firewalls assigned to the Kernel, but the Memory limit applies to the total number of dice assigned. There is no upper limit to the rating the Memory can have but all Kernels must have a Memory of at least 1.

If a system has a Memory of 4, it allows the Hacker only 4 dice out of every roll to be assigned to any of the Firewalls it controls. If the system controls 2 Firewalls the Hacker can either pass 4 dice to a single Firewall, 3 dice to One Firewall and 1 die to the Second Firewall, or 2 dice to each Firewall.

Kernel Devices are special attributes that the system has that can work against the Hacker. Devices include things like the Motherboard, Power Supply, Storage Devices, Video Cards, and more. While most systems have these devices there are a few that use them in ways to foul up the Hacker. The specific devices are covered in further detail later.

Firewall Encryption sets how many positions each Firewall has. The positions are slots for the Hacker to place dice. The higher the rating the more dice are required to bypass the Firewall. When a Hacker assigns dice against the Encryption they all need to be the same number. There is no upper limit to the rating a Firewall can have but all Firewalls must have an Encryption of at least 1.

If the Firewall has an Encryption of 6, the Hacker needs to assign six dice of the same number to that Firewall in order to bypass it. The Hacker can swap out dice later, but if the Hacker assigns 3d8s in the first round, only d8s will be accepted by the Encryption on later rounds.

Firewall Authentication sets the minimum rating each position requires. The rating is the lowest die number that the Hacker needs to fill a position. The higher the rating, the higher die is required. As such, Authentication can only range from 1-10. If, for any reason, the system increases the Authentication rating beyond 10 system Locks Down.

If the Firewall as an Authentication of 3, the Hacker can only assign dice that rolled 3 or higher to the Encryption positions. If the Hacker starts assigning 3s to the system and the CPU increases the Authentication to 4 all the d3s assigned are lost.

Devices

Motherboard determines how quickly an alerted system responds to an intrusion. When a Hacker runs out of attempts, meaning they need to roll more times than the CPU rating, the Motherboard increases the Authentication of every Firewall assigned to that Kernel by the Motherboard rating. Every Kernel has a Motherboard rating of 1 unless it’s noted in the Devices at a higher rating.

A Firewall with Authentication 1 and a Motherboard 3 increases Authentication to 4 on the first roll the Hacker makes beyond the CPU rating. The next roll increases to 7 and then to 10.

Power Supply determines how many Firewalls a specific Kernel can support. The higher the Power Supply rating the more Firewalls can be assigned to that Kernel. If a Kernel doesn’t have a specified Power Supply rating it can only support a single Firewall.

Storage convert Hacker dice of one number to another number. A Storage Device is written: Device: Storage 8:3. Which means this Device converts any 8s the Hacker attempts to assign to Firewalls controlled by this Kernel into 3s.

Video Cards can be used by the Kernel to increase Firewall Encryption. If the system has a Video Card whenever the Kernel would increase the Authentication rating on a Firewall it converts the Video Card rating of Authentication increases into Encryption increases. The rating of a Video Card must always be at least one less than it’s Motherboard. Any system with a standard Motherboard (Rating 1) can not support a Video Card.

A Kernel with a Motherboard 3 and Video Card 1 will increase of all its assigned Firewall’s Encryption ratings by 1 and the Authentication ratings by 2 every time a Hacker needs to make a roll beyond the CPU rating.

Intrusion

Now that you know how a system looks, lets talk about how to break into one. The GM will tell the Hacker the various system specifications and then it’s on the Hacker to make the rolls and report success or failure back to the GM. If Hacking is taking place during a high stress situation, such as during combat, every roll is considered one turn.

The GM tells the Hacker that the system he is trying to crack has the following stats:
Kernel CPU: 4
Kernel Memory:  4
Kernel Devices: Motherboard 2, Power Supply 3
Firewall #1 Encryption: 5
Firewall #1 Authentication: 1
Firewall #2 Encryption: 7
Firewall #2 Authentication: 3
Firewall #3 Encryption: 4
Firewall #3 Authentication: 8

The Hacker will start by gathering up their dice pool. The standard Trait Attribute is Cunning, but others may apply depending on the circumstance. That pool will remain static during the course of the Hacking attempt. Some Hackers may have special Augments, Training or Software that grant them special abilities when hacking a system but those will be detailed in their section.

The Hacker gathers his dice, Attribute: Cunning 4, Behavior: Freedom 3, Reputation: Hacked the Gibson 3, Gear: Tytian VX-3700 Rig 2 – A total of 12 Dice.

It’s suggested that the Hacker set aside a die per Kernel to track how many attempts they have remaining before they reach their CPU limit. Once the CPU limit has been reached these dice can begin tracking the current Authentication level of assigned Firewalls. Once the bookkeeping is finished the Hacker rolls their dice pool and begins the Hack.

The Hacker places a single d10 in front of him, set to Six. After ever roll he’ll tick this die down one point until he’s out of attempts.

To start the Intrusion attempt the Hacker rolls their dice pool and looks at the dice rolled. It helps to sort out your dice into Number Groups, but Skillsets do not limit the number of Groups you can assign to a system.

The Hacker rolls his dice pool and comes up with the following numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, & 10.

Now the Hacker starts assigning dice to any Firewalls in the system. The Hacker can only pass in a number of dice equal to the Kernel Memory for the system. Dice can be split among any Firewalls assigned to the Kernel, but the Memory limit applies to the total number of dice assigned.

Looking over his dice the Hacker places two of his 10s into Firewall 3 and two of his 5s into Firewall 1. This reaches his memory limit and the Hacker can no longer place dice into the system.

As long as non of the Firewall Authentications go above 10 the Hacker can roll again and assign more dice. Before he can roll again the Hacker needs to tick down his CPU counter. If the CPU counter reaches zero this is also when the Hacker steps up every Firewall by its system’s Motherboard rating.

Firewall 1: Two 5s. Firewall 2: Nothing. Firewall 3: Two 10s.

The Hacker ticks his CPU counter down to 3, meaning he still has three more attempts to crack this system before it begins responding. He rolls again, getting: 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 7, & 9. He assigns four of his 3s, the maximum allowed by the Kernel Memory, to Firewall 2 and rolls again.

Firewall 1: Two 5s. Firewall 2: Four 3s. Firewall 3: Two 10s.

Another tick down on the CPU counter to 2 and his next roll results in: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 9, & 10. He assigns another 10 to Firewall 3, two 5s to Firewall 1, and a single 3 to Firewall 2.

If a Hacker manages to assign a total number of dice equal to a Firewalls Encryption rating than that Firewall is bypassed. The Hacker successfully breaks though and it’s not longer a factor. If the Hacker need to roll more times than the CPU Rating the bypassed Firewalls do not increase their Authentication.

Firewall 1: Four 5s. Firewall 2: Five 3s. Firewall 3: Three 10s.

Another tick down on the CPU counter to 1, meaning this is his last roll before the system responds. His next roll results in: 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 9, 9, & 9. He assigns a 5 to Firewall 1, bypassing it, and two 3s to Firewall 2, also bypassing it.

Once the Hacker has rolled a number of times equal to a Kernel’s CPU rating every roll after that increases the Authentication of every Firewall assigned to that Kernel. Normally this increase is 1 for every roll but if the Kernel has a Motherboard the increase is equal to the Motherboard rating.

The Hacker is now rolling again, he still has to score one more 10 to bypass the last Firewall. Unfortunately the system now increases its Authentication. Since this Kernel has a Motherboard 2 assigned to it the Authentication of the final Firewall increases from 8 to 10. If the Hacker can’t roll a single 10 on this next roll the system will Lock Down.

Firewall 1: Bypassed. Firewall 2: Bypassed. Firewall 3: Three 10s.

His final roll results in: 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 6, 6, 6, 8, 10, 10, & 10. He assigns a 10 to Firewall 3 and successfully bypasses the system.

If the Hacker successfully bypasses the entire system the game is over and he reports his results back to the GM. He should also check into what he missed while ie was Hacking, but that’s optional.

Lock Down

When a Hacker fails to bypass a system before a Firewall’s Authentication increases above 10 the system Locks Down. When this happens the Hacker needs to fight the Backtrace, which would tell the system who the Hacker is and where the Hack is coming from. The Hacker makes a final roll but this time uses the Foundation rules. This roll has only one Aspect: Speed. The Hacker simply needs to know if he disconnects in time. The Hacker needs to achieve a Tier of success equal to the number of Firewalls that were not bypassed.

At any point during an Intrusion the Hacker can give up though. The system can’t Lock Down but the Hacker also fails to crack the system. The Hacker can’t gain Reputation, Currency, or Advancement off of the system.

Multiple Hackers

When Multiple Hackers login to a system the simple run rampant. The system remains unchanged but both Hackers gather and roll their full dice pools. Treat the system as operating the same but the Hacker has a much larger dice pool to assign from.

Some systems are even designed with multiple Hackers in mind. If a Hacker gets a look at the system specifications and doesn’t think they can do it alone, the Hacker can disconnect without issue.