Any tips or inspiration to help role play hacking? With combat I find it's relatively easy to picture what's happening so I can describe it in more detail, but hacking seems so much more abstract. So, can anyone provide any advice to help keep me from just spouting off lame pseudo sciency terms in hopes of spicing things up?
-Thanks!
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Roleplaying hacking
Wed, 2011-10-19 20:31
#1
Azathoth
Roleplaying hacking
Wed, 2011-10-19 20:54
#2
Rada Ion
Re: Roleplaying hacking
Put everything in terms of what the player sees in the Mesh, with his mesh ID /avatar and everyone and everything else's VR avatars as well. Planetay Consortium mesh node for the Hyper corp council that looks like a Olympian amphitheater, Scum mesh networks that resemble some kind of hippie circus maximus hybrid, or how about the avatars of diplomatic envoys from the local brinker habitat that all resemble those inbred hillbillies form that vintage earth horror film. I suppose diffent hacker effects would have different visualizations as well, lightening shooting from your hackers finger tips, black ooze that permeates the security of that Medusa Shield server etc. I plan on using some crazy stuff like that in my game. I think it is a chance to let your imagination run wild describing the mesh your characters see and experience when they are running data havens or just out for a friendly stroll through the local mesh environment.
I hope this helped.
Wed, 2011-10-19 23:51
#3
Quincey Forder
Re: Roleplaying hacking
I personnally go for the augmented reality angle.
with elements from Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex, Mass Effect and Cyberpunk 3.0's new net.
another good visual inspiration would be the anime Dennou Coil. it strongly influenced my visualisation of the Mesh early on.
Also the reading of Unwired would be beneficial. it maybe for Shadowrun, but this is a goldmine of ideas for EP.
Deus Ex Human Revolution, too
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Thu, 2011-10-20 03:48
#4
Arenamontanus
Re: Roleplaying hacking
I tune it to the player, since they have different levels of expertise and their characters visualize things differently with their software. My computer security engineer player gets a rather abstract description, while the post-orca gets underwater labyrinths and the mythology obsessed AGI sees various chinese heavens and hells. An amateur hacker might see things as the official AR layer depicts them, while expert hackers have their own views.
—
Thu, 2011-10-20 04:41
#5
Smokeskin
Re: Roleplaying hacking
I don't bother.
Take guns:
"You pick up your rifle and a fire a short burst at his chest" is standard.
If you want a more graphical image you might add "..., blood spatter painting the wall behind him."
You don't go "You pick up your rifle and pull the trigger, causing the the firing pin to hit the primer, which ignites the gunpowder that turns to expanding gas, building great pressure forcing the bullet down the rifled barrel, imparting spin that will stabilize the bullet's flight path. As the bullet leaves the barrel, some gas is diverted back and drives the bolt back against its spring, flinging out the spent casing and making room for another round to be pressed up in front of the bolt. The compressed bolt spring now releases its energy and rams the bolt forward, driving the fresh round into the chamber, the firing pin igniting the primer..."
It is boring. It is irrelevant. People know how guns look, how they work (maybe you need to establish how guns work in your game on the reality-to-Hollywood scale).
If you have laser and plasma weapons, you will want to describe them and their function the first few times, but after that, you just fire your weapon.
The same with hacking. Once people know how computers and AR and stuff looks and works, don't bother with much of the details. Concentrate on what people do and what happens.
Adding some color is fine ("your entoptics flare up with warning symbols as the firewall detects your presence"), but other than that, pick up some lingo from here and you're fine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploit_(computer_security)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security#Terminology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulnerability_(computing)#Software_vulnerabilities
"As you find a dangling pointer in the firewall's handshake protocol, you smile, knowing it will let you inject code to bypass the system's chain of trust" might not make any sense, but does anyone care?
This. Very barebones, no fancy stuff. Hacking doesn't have to look like a fairy tale or magic.
Thu, 2011-10-20 05:24
#6
Rada Ion
Re: Roleplaying hacking
Except the argument could be made that these things are in fact metaphors for said concepts. I guess it comes down to how visual or how much sensory stimulation you want your players to have in a mesh/hacking type environment.
Thu, 2011-10-20 05:55
#7
Arenamontanus
Re: Roleplaying hacking
This is very good advice. I use it for a lot of other areas I have no clue about in the game - marketing strategies, parts of physics, exotic social science, military jargon. Abbreviations and plausible-sounding terms make a lot.
By the way, that chain of trust has a fault-tolerant design that traps attack trees and vulnerability scanning in capillary routing. Not foolproof, but will sure slow you down.
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Thu, 2011-10-20 12:27
#8
Azathoth
Re: Roleplaying hacking
Thanks everyone! I like the first suggestion of describing it in terms of avatars and symbols (and I do have a copy of unwired, so I think I will flip through it again.) I don't know why I didn't connect hacking with AR/VR imagery, but it definitely makes it easier to picture!
That said, of course I won't use this for every little test, like research. I've also perused the wiki links, and it does give me some jargon to through around to give it the right flavor.
Thanks again!
Thu, 2011-10-27 16:05
#9
thelabmonkey
Re: Roleplaying hacking
I agree that it should be more flavor than substance. I had a hacker playing cat-and-mouse with the muse of an exurget infected ship captain (the virus made her a little batty, too).
What could have been "You used your moxy to flip the dice for a success. You are safe for now, but you have not upgraded your security level."
Instead was described it in terms like "You are dashing down an increasingly narrow hallway, shrieks echoing behind you as she zeroes in on your location. Just as you think the walls will become too narrow to push past, one of your exploits carves a door to your right. You leap through and slam it shut behind you. You can see a bright light pass by, beneath the door frame as she sweeps past."
I don't usually go so far as to describe the VR in detail, but it makes the hacker feel like they are a little bit more "action" and a little less "slouchin' against a wall while everyone else gets to shoot things"
Once a hacker logged into a defunct piece of titan memory core and was treated to "something akin to hacking into a huge malevolent internal organ. Where you expected organized data structures, you encounter throbbing, pulsating mounds of information, sucking at you like quicksand. Make me a save vs Willx3 with a -10 modifier."
Thu, 2011-10-27 18:24
#10
Quincey Forder
Re: Roleplaying hacking
Great description
Personally, I'm inclined to favor the augmented reality.
It keeps the hacker with the group, rather than playing alone for a hour or two (don't laugh, I've seen that happen in Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020)
Also the AR hacking can become a group plot, involving even the not-hacking characters.
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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center]
Remember The Cant!
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Sun, 2011-10-30 07:51
#11
Rada Ion
Re: Roleplaying hacking
Wow AR hacking with entoptic displays always struck me as hard to do or hard to describe I should say, but your comment has inspired me. I never thought about how you can make the hacker character more integrated into the action that way. Thanks.
Sun, 2011-10-30 16:01
#12
Quincey Forder
Re: Roleplaying hacking
There is a nifty anime from a few years ago that gives good ideas for AR hacking
it's called Dennou Coil.
Granted, it's a bit childish, but there's plenty visual inspiration to draw from.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpQ-hBtmPBw&feature=related[/url]
—
[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center]
Remember The Cant!
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[img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...
Tue, 2011-11-01 07:39
#13
Xagroth
Re: Roleplaying hacking
Oh, yes, Dennou Coil is quite interesting and filled with tricks and tips for AR management. Obviously, however, there are two distinctions between DC and EP:
First, in DC everybody uses "ectos" (the glasses, in the series), so it's quite easy to remove them and ignore AR tricks. So even if your morph has mesh inserts, use ectos. By the way, having a Flat or other biomorph without mesh inserts means that you can be hacked only thanks to Basilisks hacks, so it can be an extra layer of security. Of course, it can become quite traumatic for some character so used to AR to suddenly have it one step removed (like being used to walk around the park, and suddenly need to use a vacsuit!).
Second, DC presents a "struggle" between two versions of the AR system, which is the source of the "filtrations" between the black space you can see in the clip and the standard one. In EP, that shouldn't be present (but hey, it can be used as a plot device!).
Anyway, I'd like to add a little point in regards of the difference between CP2020's Netrunners and EP's hackers: in EP ALL characters should have some points in Infosec, and even if they don't, their muses do, so they can all help with hacking maneuvers, unlike CP2020, where the difference could be up to 10 points (and usually tended to be more, considering that a Netrunner would roll one skill more than other characters. In a game with a scale of 1-10 in attributes and skills, and adding a single d10, that can be a world).
Tue, 2011-11-01 07:39
#14
Xagroth
Re: Roleplaying hacking
Damn double post >.<
Tue, 2011-11-01 19:24
#15
thelabmonkey
Re: Roleplaying hacking
an excellent point! Even if it is just poking the security ai and running to kite it away from the hacker, that could give a +10 bonus easy. Plus it allows the security AI the opportunity to potentially track and black-ice a PC for once!
Wed, 2011-11-02 08:36
#16
Xagroth
Re: Roleplaying hacking
That's what ectos are for ^^. In the old CP2020, there were an equivalent item (electrodes, against direct interface), that gave a malus to all net related rolls (or initiative only, I don't remember for sure), but protected against the anti-personnel programs (in that game, offensive programs were divided into anti-program, anti-system and anti-personnel -aside from some more, like intrusion, etc...-; tthe anti-system were used to damage the hardware, the anti-program were for destroying other programs, and the anti-personnel for directly attacking tthe hacker).
Personally, I think a black operative with training would steal another character's net ID, do his job, and then retreat, burning the ectos he made with that ID.
Personally, I would buy the blueprints for ectos and gray boxes without any doubt.
Fri, 2011-12-02 12:31
#17
Erenthia
Re: Roleplaying hacking
There are basically two suggestions in this thread, and not much that I can add except to say that both are valid approaches (even in the same game) depending on the circumstances.
The more illustrated and evocative approach using VR/AR should probably be reserved for appropriately dramatic situations. Say your player is hacking deep into a hyper-corp VPN to retrieve incredibly vital data. Something like that should certainly include the whole group and could even be an entire session.
Sometimes however, hacking really [i]is[/i] like firing a gun. A player with Mental Speed and perhaps even an alpha fork of himself riding in a ghost module could very reasonably make a hacking attempt against his enemies cyber-brains or mesh inserts to shut-off their hearing, sight, etc during combat. This needs to be quick so as not to detract from what the other players are doing.
—
The end really is coming. What comes after that is anyone's guess.
Fri, 2011-12-02 14:30
#18
kaijupanda
Re: Roleplaying hacking
I'm a fan of the AR/VR train of thought. I agree it's a great way to keep those players active and involved with something interesting then sitting on the sidelines while everyone does other things. However, I don't feel it's necessary every time. I reserve such fluff for relevant endeavors. Do you need to describe a grocery store every time a player makes a beer run?
Mon, 2011-12-05 08:04
#19
Xagroth
Re: Roleplaying hacking
That involves rules degradation to keep it smoothly (it's the same as physics do with models, after all). I'd suggest, in that regard, to do the following IF IT WILL GO WITH THE FLOW OF THE GAME (so it should be an exception, not a routine):
- Attacker rolls infosec modified by his usual bonuses, with the malus from doing it quite hard. I suggest to note this number previously (for example, base infosec + ghostrider/multitasking teamwork, minus the malus from rushing the action).
- The defender rolls infosec with the relevant modifications (cyberbrain if applicable, bonus/malus from his firewalls level compared to the attacker's exploits level, possible teamwork if he has also ghostrider modules).
Decide with the rolls who win and with how much advantage (Margin of Success, critical, botches, etc...).
- Attacker wins and defender fails: The attacker can do ONE thing per MoS he got (visual illusion, auditive illusion, etc...)
- Defender wins and Attacker fails: The defender detects the attempt and cuts it out. He can, of course, retaliate.
- Both fail: defender don't detects the attempt, the attacker didn't find a "door".
- Both success: The attacker can do one action per 2 MoS over the defender's base before the defender can turn off his "wi-fi".
Essentially, this works a little like Dominate in the old Vampire: The Masquerade. You could make your target shoot at one of his comrades, for example.
Mon, 2011-12-05 09:17
#20
IgnisMundo
Re: Roleplaying hacking
Storytelling VR hacking is, in my experience, a magnificent pain in the rear.
Coming from SR3 to EP, via SR4, I may be biased from the headaches of "But my VR looks like Gundams fighting unicorns on floating islands of purple ice!" but to my experience VR hacking will demand a completely different adventure planned along with the original setting and will, since hacking "in those days" took insane amounts of rolls, keep most of the players waiting while that one player plays away in his own little world. (I compare it to mages going on spontaneous astral quests in the middle of adventures.)
The system involved has been wonderfully streamlined in EP (Thank you!) leaving but one problem for me.
The "creativity" aspect.
Sure. It's fun to let the players loose once in a while in the off chance I haven't been gunning for a certain "feel" to the setting.
But I have often started describing a scene of dark, damp alleys and flickering lasersights from lurking snipers only to have to switch to describing the above mentioned scene to the groups hacker. Thereby not only killing the suspense and mood but also harrassing its children and kicking its dog.
Now, sorry for ranting but I _really_ needed to get that one out of my system, on to EP.
It is my impression that EP has made alot of those problems discreetly go away. If they players find themselves in Simulspace, I have most probably planned for it to happen and since they are all probably on the same server its obviously not a problem planning for its setting. Besides, there aren't any advantages to hacking in Simulspace compared to AR since they're, to my knowledge, somewhat separated.
In AR I stick with simple descriptions, applying minor symbolism where applicable. But most often, my players and I have watched the same anime or cyberpunk movie so a simple que is usually sufficient to summon entire interfaces. Otherwise we take a minute or two comparing visions and then roll with it as best we can.
On the other hand, my players keep "fiddling" with their AR interfaces in character all the time when taking notes or making phone calls or whatever they think of doing, so hacking in AR comes pretty naturally since the interfaces are always part of the description.
So, if I am to summarize this jumble of nonsense, it would boil down to:
Keep the AR as part of your environment even if they aren't hacking and save simulspace for those special occaisons.