TYPE: Cyberpunk
SETTING: Android: Netrunner
SETUP: It had been a long week. The local Yakuza boss had paid Kino a high price to keep the riff-raff out of their new servers. Kino scratched his chest through his sweat infused Siphon Corp t-shirt as he shot an eye across the status of the upgrades the cyber-jocks were installing. Kino had lost count of the number of breaches that the system had recorded since the downtime started. He excelled at his job, but it may have been cheaper for Oyabun Eiichi, and a lot easier on Kino’s synapses, if they had just cut the hard wire to The Net during the upgrade. That request was met with a sharp right hook from one of Eiichi’s goons. Kino pressed his thumbs into the tissue connecting his upper and lower jaw. “Yup. Still hurts,” he thought.
Kino’s basement smelled of old cheese and stale cigarettes. He had been awake for almost 48 hours now, and his basement was looking more like a garbage pit than the clean workplace he started with. Kino looked across the room, his pile of Diesel energy drink bottles stacked haphazardly in the recycler. “Felix will clean it up,” he yawned. “Frap! Bad sign,” his thought continued, as he lit yet another cigarette.
The nicotine gave him the pep he needed as he looked over at the clock. Two minutes. This was the real danger time. He knew it, and every runner worth a cred knew it too. This was going to be the point where Kino was going to earn every credit, every favour he had been offered by Eiichi. The number of pings, tracers and breaches he’d been tracking and fending off was going to pale in comparison to what was about to go down. He had seen his firewall take this sort of pounding in the past, and he was confident it would hold.
Kino had been tracking Net traffic in between placing tracer after tracer, while keeping on top of what he suspected was about to occur. He smiled that cheeky grin his boyfriend kept ribbing him about. “It’s a sign of confidence,” he thought to himself. He had done this many a time before, and this was going to be no different. He was the best, and it was time to earn his keep. Suddenly, there was nothing. An ordinary SysOp wouldn’t have picked it up. No traffic. No breaches. Nothing. Kino sat up in his chair like a meerkat and cracked his fingers in preparation. He tilted his head several times feeling a slight crack with each sway. He reached over and flicked his cigarette into his full ashtray, the mound of stubs collapsing, and falling to the floor. On his hand’s return, he grabbed a stim, and slapped it on his arm. He was ready.
In less than a minute, Kino realised that he was not ready. He was never going to be ready. His custom firewall was suddenly ablaze and breaking apart before his eyes. His fingers moved across the keys of his custom rig quicker than any time he could remember. Breach after breach. Wave after wave. Even with a team of hackers at his disposal, he could never have contained the onslaught. His first defense went down, then his second. Every ICE he could muster fell like flies. The attack was nothing short of brilliant. Nobody could coordinate an attack such as this. And then it dawned on him. No “body.” Kino gulped as his mouth instantly dried. His hands whisked across the keys, but he wasn’t sure if what he just realised was going to ever be enough. He only needed a minute, and this was going to be the longest one of those in his lifetime.
SKILLS: Kino is a Netrunner and has been tasked with protecting the computer server of Yakuza gangster Oyabun Eiichi. Kino has an Intellect of 3, and a Computers (SysOps) (Int) of 3. Kino was provided with a sizeable payment prior to the job, with the remainder paid on completion of his task. This has given him some much-needed cash to upgrade his rig which provides him with a single automatic upgrade to his Computers (SysOps) skill. He has made several rolls before while watching The Net for suspicious activity. Kino was successful in the check and spotted the problem before it started. He also rolled 2 Advantages, and so applies 1 setback die to any incoming attacks as he reads The Net’s flow of data. Kino has the Defensive SysOp talent which provides 2 additional setback dice to any check. Since Kino is defending on this occasion, his skill becomes the difficulty for the attacker. The difficulty of the check is therefore:
DIFFICULTY: Since the situation is done in reverse, the attacker must use their skill as a positive in this circumstance. The attacker is unknown, however does have an Intellect of 4 and a Computers (Hacking) (Int) of 4. The system has been ongoing since the servers went down, and the opposition has been monitoring Kino’s response upon each breach. The GM grants a Boost die in that circumstance and flips a Story Point to add an Ability die to the pool. Kino’s player says that his rig has some additional upgrades that kicked in just before the attack and flips a Story Point back to upgrade the difficulty of the check. The attacker has been getting assistance from elsewhere which provides a single boost, plus they have the Distinctive Style talent, which adds 2 Successes and 2 Threat to the dice roll. The final Skill Dice Pool is:
The GM makes the check for the attacker and roll the following result:
So listeners, Interpret This!
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