Cyberpunk skills

[Happy Fun Ball]

Okay, so I'm rolling up a computer expert, and I want to know how cyberpunk works in this game. What are the Cyberpunk specific skills for computers, or is it just "computers?"

I'm thinking things like "Firewall penetration," "Cyber body," "ICE programming," "Encryption (which could fall under Mathematics)," "Database infiltration," etc. Is there VR avatar access to a cyberspace world, or is it just using a computer in the RW?

I want to kit this guy out with some creamy computer skills.

Anyone have any advice on the matter?

[logan9a]

Unfortunately, all games are limited by the GM.

And this GM has limited computer knowledge - so we have to plan for that.

If I wanted to make a hacker in my own campaign (and keep in mind that computers are in some places and not in others and in still others may be totally alien) I would probably have:

Accounting (hobby)
Forensic accounting (write in but it does come up more than many suspect)
Computer use general
Computer use hacking
Cryptography
Electronics build/repair
Lockpicking eletronic
Operate heavy machinery (hobbyist, for super big computers that have weird shit or moving them if you are in the 1950's)
Repair mechanical (for when you need to weld the case back together?)
Physics/Advanced Math
Security systems lore

Note this is just for computers - not cyber arms and such. But honestly, between 'cyber malfunction' coming up fairly regularly during combat on the cards and some other stuff unique to this campaign which can strip out all cyber in someone's body, I'm not sure how much the PC's will want to mess with that sort of thing.

Also, keep in mind that unlike in cyberpunk books and such, bad guys in my campaign are often smart enough to 'air gap' shit. There is no good reason for door locks in a building to be on an external internet - that's just horrible security. So they're not.

I think that if someone had all of those skills at hobby level they might be able to pull off some emergency hacking when necessary (if they have the HERO Points) but it's a lot of different skills to be good at.

And again, only works in very advanced tech places - and sometimes only somewhat.

The best skills IMO are ones you can do everywhere. Like stealth, for example.

Keep in mind that a 60% cap is on everything for new players (that's total) and that if your learn is higher than the base on the new sheet, you get the skill at your LEARN rather than what it says on the sheet for the base.

[Happy Fun Ball]

You don't have people "breaking" encryption in your campaign with anything less than a quantum computer, right?

[logan9a]

Oh sure. They've done it with a laptop. But not that often. Is this realistic? I have no idea. Never try to talk computers to a non-computer guy. Just be ready for them to randomly explode like in Star Trek. Yes, really. It has happened. Even laptops tend to die so often that in past campaigns the PC's have bought them in bulk.

But honestly, cyber cowboys and such long ago I determined was an NPC slot because otherwise it inevitably breaks 'Logan's Rule 2': keep the party together.

[logan9a]

I really do think 'having some hacking is a good idea' but making it the focus of your character will lead to massive frustration. You have been warned.

[Happy Fun Ball]

Yeah. That's actually impossible. They haven't figured out how to break commonly used encryption in anything less than several hundred years on current hardware.

But there are ways to compromise a machine that already has the keys on it, and can be tricked into giving an investigator access, so consider it that.

If you have an encrypted hard disk without an operating system, you may as well use it as a paperweight because you aren't getting usable data off it.

If they figure out how to make quantum computers work, that may, theoretically allow us to break encryption more quickly.

[logan9a]

Feb 9, 2018 16:34:07 GMT logan9a said:

I really do think 'having some hacking is a good idea' but making it the focus of your character will lead to massive frustration. You have been warned.

I think of everything I said in my last two threads, this one is the more important.

[Happy Fun Ball]

Yup. 40 in hacking it is.