Part V: The Technological World

For all that certain mages go on about the glories of the Mythic Age, their world is our world, and our world’s full of technology. From car chases to gadgeteering upgrades, that technology comes into play fairly often in a Mage: The Ascension chronicle. The following systems certainly won’t reflect every conceivable use of technology in your game, but they’ll help your troupe address many common moments of technological mayhem.

Vehicle Systems

Until the early 1900s, you walked, rode a horse, or spent lots of time in some rickety contraption that tended to be slow, uncomfortable, and subject to weather conditions. But ever since the inventions of internal combustion, the automobile, and highly durable materials during the mid-to late 1800s, most people have traveled great distances at high speed and think nothing of it. The Technocracy, of course, is quick to claim credit for such innovations. Whatever their origins might be, however, our vehicles are part of our daily lives.

In game terms, characters might find themselves in high-speed chases, drive-bys, tense repair situations, and other sorts of vehicular chaos. And although Mage’s Storyteller System avoids detailed transportation rules (whole games have been built around such details!), it’s worth knowing what happens if you grab a jetpack or hop inside an armored limousine.

Vehicle Traits

For the most part, vehicles are best handled as story elements — characters get in them and go. For those times when the magick meets the road, though, the following Traits define the essential systems for common vehicles.

• Safe/Max. Speed: Safe Speed reflects how fast a character can drive the vehicle in question without risking a wreck; for every 10 MPH over that limit, add +1 to the Difficulty of that character’s operation rolls. Max. Speed is more or less where that vehicle tops out.
• Maneuverability: Certain vehicles handle better than others. Maneuverability reflects the maximum dice pool a character can use when operating this vehicle. (This applies only to the dice pool used for driving, of course... although it’s also hard to seduce someone in the middle of a high-speed chase.)
• Crew: The minimum personnel needed to operate the vehicle. Pass. (passengers) reflects the number of people, other than the operators, who’ll fit into the vehicle under normal circumstances. Cramming is possible, of course, but it may affect the vehicle’s ability to function.
• Durability: The number of health levels it takes to penetrate the vehicle’s body; until that point, damage just bounces off the surface.
• Structure: The amount of damage the vehicle can take before it’s too destroyed to function as more than a block of wreckage. (Granted, Matter and Entropy magick can do wonderfully creative things with wreckage...)
• Weapons: This Trait speaks for itself. See the Combat section for details.

For vehicle repair, modification, hotwiring, and car-stripping rules, see Inventing, Modifying, and Improving Technology.

Stunt Driving

To commit gross acts of vehicular insanity, a roll of Dexterity + Drive (or Pilot, Jetpack, or other appropriate Ability) reflects your character’s skill. The Difficulty for that roll depends upon the craziness of the stunt and possibly the conditions involved as well (icy road, flat tires, shattered windshield, etc.); typically, such stunts start at Difficulty 4 and go upward from there.

Remember, though, that the Maneuverability Trait limits that dice pool, and exceeding the vehicle’s Safe Speed adds to the Difficulty of that roll.

Let’s say, for example, that Lee Ann Milner tries to pull a bootlegger reverse. If she’s driving a sports car, her Dexterity + Drive dice pool has an upper limit of 9; if she’s driving an SUV, drop that limit to 5; and if she tries to do it with an RV... well, good luck with that, Lee Ann!

Botches while driving are bad. Seriously, don’t botch a stunt driving roll.

Ramming and Collisions

In order to avoid absurdly complicated rules, assume that a vehicle ramming a character inflicts that vehicle’s Durability in Bashing damage, plus 1 die for every 10 MPH (14” per turn) that the vehicle was traveling at the time. Thus, a crotch-rocket motorcycle ramming someone at 50 MPH inflicts 8 dice of Bashing damage, but a limo going at that speed inflicts 10.

Certain vehicles inflict additional dice of damage simply because they’re bigger and harder than a character is. The limo in question actually inflicts 13 dice of damage because it hurts to get rammed by a limo. (For additional levels of damage, see the charts below.)

Passengers inside a colliding vehicle take the usual damage, minus that vehicle’s Durability rating; if they’re strapped in, halve the damage they would normally suffer. In many cases, the Storyteller can simply employ the cinematic trope of having important characters more or less unharmed and unnecessary characters incapacitated or killed in a crash.

For additional details about getting clipped by vehicles or the people in them, see Ramming and Slamming.

Drive-By Shooting and Passenger Concealment

Characters firing from inside a moving vehicle suffer a penalty of between -1 (low speed) to -3 (high speed). This goes up, of course, if they’re moving through rough or obstructing terrain (rain, fog, ice, off-road, etc.).

Characters inside a vehicle are typically protected by that vehicle’s Durability. Unless the shooter rolls 4 successes or more to hit zir target, assume that the vehicle protects the passengers. A targeted shot through the window normally adds +3 to the shooter’s Difficulty, although smaller windows (say, like on an armored car) may add +5 or more.

Certain attacks, of course, can easily exceed that Durability rating; in that case, the passengers might take damage from the attack, minus the vehicle’s Durability rating. For typical firearms, just figure that the usual cinematic “car protects the passengers” rule applies; however, for heavy weapons — .50 caliber machine guns, rocket launchers, pulse cannons, etc. — a shot that rolls at least 4 successes to hit and penetrates the vehicle’s Durability has a good chance of hitting a passenger as well. That chance depends upon the size of the vehicle relative to the size and number of its passengers. It’s far easier, after all, to hit one of the two people in a tiny sports car than to hit a specific one of the 30 people in a bus.

Shooting the Gas Tank

Movies notwithstanding, it’s pretty hard to blow up a car by shooting at its gas tank. But because exploding cars make great coincidental Forces attacks, it’s worth noting that an attack on a vehicle’s gas tank demands at least 3 successes on the attack roll, and must inflict no fewer than 6 health levels’ worth of damage, before the fuel goes off.

An exploding car detonates for roughly 12 dice of flaming Aggravated damage. Larger vehicles (helicopters, boats, tanker trucks, etc.) can inflict far more. For details, see Explosions in the Environmental Hazards section.

Inventing, Modifying, and Improving Technology

Who says that magick has to look like old bones and musty books? For many mages of the 21st century — of any century, for that matter — the gears and wires of apparently mundane technology can become vehicles for Enlightened miracles.

Even without magick, a skillful mage can improve existing technology, invent new gadgets, or modify one thing into another. The various Spheres can assist such projects, of course, but the foundation of such tasks comes from innovation and skilled labor — sweat equity, not mystic shortcuts. And so, when your Etherite adventurer wants to soup up zir Camaro, or your Hollow One tinkers with a sound system, the following rules reflect the things a smart mechanic can do to apparently mundane tech... with and without Sphere Effects.

As shown on the Art and Science portions of the Dramatic Feats entry and its related charts, the design, creation, and jury-rigging process involves a number of rolls if you want to play it out in game terms. Naturally, a character needs tools, a work space, and the necessary materials before ze can make or update something without vulgar magick. The world’s greatest mechanic still can’t turbocharge an old VW bug without serious investments of time, gear, and grease, both elbow and otherwise. Sure, ze could knock three times on the engine block with a rusty screwdriver, but unless ze’s just trying to make it go like it did before (“You’ve gotta know where to hit ‘em JUST RIGHT...”), zir explanation’s not gonna fly and neither is the car.

Repair and Modification

Modern mages love to tinker. If your character repairs or modifies a vehicle or other mechanical contraption, assume that the task involves an extended roll with the appropriate Attribute + Ability. (Again, see Art and Science on the Dramatic Feats chart.) Suitable Traits include Computer, Crafts (with the appropriate specialty), Hypertech, Science (again, with a given specialty), and Technology. Each roll reflects an hour or 2 of work, with several sample tasks on the chart nearby to give you guidelines for the successes involved in each task.

To determine Difficulties and successes, check the Modification and Repair chart, which can be used for both vehicle work and other mechanical repairs. A well-stocked workshop can lower the Difficulty by -1 to -3, but improvised repairs without proper tools increase it by +1 to +3. Given time and materials, a good mechanic can fix or modify almost anything. Use rolls and charts only when you’re racing against the clock, working with limited resources, or trying to do something that’s theoretically impossible.

It’s easier to work with what you already have than to create something that hadn’t been there before. Modifying your old Saturn, for instance, involves less effort than building a whole new car from scratch. It’s also easier to improve on junk than it is to upgrade a high quality-machine; the better the original craftsmanship, the bigger the challenge you face.

Story-wise, repairs and upgrades demand time, labor, parts, tools, and space, as noted above. Although it is possible for a skilled and powerful mage to gesture a few times and make parts fly together on their own, that sort of thing is spectacularly vulgar.

Jury-Rigging

For quick and dirty improvements — like a pair of machine guns grafted onto your Dodge pickup truck, or some special improvements to make that truck go faster — a successful jury-rigging roll allows for short-term improvements.

After a scene or two, however, those improvements start to break down, causing damage to the machine in question. (“But Captain — she cannae handle the strain much longer...”) In order to keep those improvements permanently, the mechanic needs to make extensive modifications — very probably with a bit of Matter or other Spheres thrown in for good measure.

The Modification and Repair chart shows three levels of jury-rigged modifications and repairs. Jury-Rig assumes a bit of time and materials, Quick-n-Dirty reflects a slapdash job with minimal time and resources, and On the Fly represents the sort of wing-and-a-prayer job you do when the Hordes of Hell are bearing down on you and all you’ve got to work with is the contents of your pockets and the junk scattered at your feet. All three options add to the Difficulty of the repairs or modifications listed above, and all three require more successes than usual.

Inventing Devices

Innovation is the hallmark of brilliant technomancers everywhere. Although it’s not something that comes up often in the heat of battle, any self-respecting machine-mage has a project or three scattered across zir workshop. For times when you want to introduce a new gadget or vehicle to the chronicle, put the following guidelines to good use.

Before you can build some great new thing, you’ll need to hash out the principles, work through the bugs, and tinker with prototypes until you reach a semi-workable design. In story terms, this sort of thing can take months or years of brainstorming, research, and frustration. Game-wise, the Research and Design entries in the Art and Science category of the Dramatic Feats chart reflect the brainstorming process. The Invention listing covers the process of putting the pieces together into something that works, and the Invention chart nearby features guidelines for the Difficulties and successes involved in the process, as well as the successes necessary to complete each step of that process.

It’s worth remembering that a functional invention must still be something that can exist within the Consensus and operate by currently understood scientific principles. A radical invention — like the computer chip in the 1970s — may be possible, but it will require extensive testing, refinement, and propaganda before it’ll be accepted as viable technology. That’s one of the reasons that Etherites, Technocrats, and Virtual Adepts publicize their favorite theories and inventions: popular acceptance makes those creations viable. (See the Attributes and Abilities sidebar SCIENCE!!!) Inventions that defy the current laws of reality are capital-D Devices... that is, magickal items. For those sorts of inventions, see the Cybernetics, Hypertech, and Weird Science practices in The Book of Magick’s section Focus and the Arts, as well as The Toybox. Again, invention requires space, time, materials, and labor. An invention without some serious workshop time is simply an idea.

Unconventional Enhancement

Mages of all kinds (most especially technomancers) can use the Matter and Prime Spheres to enhance the structure and power of a given machine. Using whichever tools and procedures seem appropriate to zir focus, the mage crafts high-density cloth, advanced polymers, cold-fusion batteries, or other innovations to upgrade the quality and functions of a machine ze creates.

In game terms, this simply translates to using Matter 2 or 3 to make advanced materials, Prime 2 to enhance a power supply, or other Spheres to add a bit of extra kick to the device in question. (Correspondence 1, for example, to a pair of binoculars, Forces to boost a Taser’s shock, that sort of thing.) The player makes an Arete roll for coincidental magick, and each success over the first one adds an invisible but helpful boost to the object’s properties. Using the Bustin’ Stuff rules, the mage could add 1 point to the object’s Durability or Structure for each success. Perhaps ze might add to a weapon’s damage dice pool (1 extra die for every 2 successes), reflecting a super-sharp sword, for instance. Ze could also enhance the story-based quality of the item in question to make a car with paint that never scratches, a hat that never falls far from the mage’s hands, and so forth. Such enhancement does not make the item itself magickal — just better than it would be otherwise. For magickal items, again see The Toybox.

Computer Systems: Game Rules for InfoTech

Depending on which mage you ask, a computer could be anything from a sentient entity bound into a material container, to a Technocratic shackle upon the imaginations of humanity, to the last great hope of human transcendence. None of that stuff has any bearing on the following rule-systems, and technological specifics really aren’t important in game terms anyhow. Computer technology and its applications have changed radically within the last 25 years, and any specifics we note here right now would be essentially obsolete by the time this book winds up in your hands. Practically speaking, however, computers are hypercompetent information storage, management, and assimilation systems. That part of the deal hasn’t changed much since the abacus — merely the systems’ methods, forms, and capacities have changed.

From a practical perspective, a character who’s working with computers is organizing and manipulating information. And because reality is, in a sense, information, that computer user invokes a tiny bit of magick every time he taps the interface. That happens whether the Spheres and Arete are involved or not. You can change the reality of your day, perhaps your life, perhaps the lives of people across the world, all with a simple email. That’s the power of the Information Age.

To access that power, a character needs to know how to work the system. Twenty years ago, that skill belonged to a handful of people worldwide. Today, it’s an essential part of daily life for at least a quarter of that same world’s population, and it indirectly influences almost everybody else. The hardware and software change, as do the skills involved, but the in-game Traits remain the same: a Mental Attribute (Perception, Wits, or most commonly Intelligence) + Computer (or, in certain cases, Technology). Any character with that combination of Traits can use information technologies to some degree. What ze can do with those Traits depends upon zir skills, the system, and the task at hand.

Back in the 1990s, all a would-be hacker or cracker needed was a little computer savvy, the proper hard- and software, and a lot of time on his hands. Times change, though, and today’s computer specialists have batteries of skills that help them do their jobs. And so, in game terms, your character should possess appropriate Traits before he goes mucking about in IT systems. Although most folks know how to use basic computer skills these days, the true elite master a wide range of helpful abilities. For the various rolls and modifiers involved in those computerized tasks, see the Computer System Types sidebar and the Computer Systems and Hacking Difficulties charts.

Simple Use

If you’re reading this page, then you already know how to employ a computer’s basic functions: writing, web surfing, cut-and-paste, basic data storage, and other standard IT tasks. In the twenty-first century, a character with at least 1 dot in Technology can do the same, although a character from an earlier era could not have done so. These days, computers are a standard part of the industrialized world, and it doesn’t take special skills to employ their simplest applications.

Employing more advanced tasks — coding, data sifting, Computer Generated Image projects, and so forth — requires at least 1 dot in Computer; for really skillful use of those applications, a specialization is usually a good idea. Under normal circumstances, a character won’t need to roll Intelligence + Computer to handle daily tasks. In high-tension situations, though — swiping data from the boss’s computer, chasing bugs, loading new programs that could crash your system — the Storyteller might require a roll just to make sure you don’t screw things up.

Basic installation for a home-based system generally involves at least 1 dot in both Technology and Computer; that way, you’re not trying to plug the speakers into a USB port, or wondering why a blank disc won’t install the newest version of Word. Again, you don’t usually need to roll for such tasks unless your character’s trying to do them in a hurry or under duress. (“Yes, Mom... I do know what I’m doing, really...”)

Programming, Repair, and System Architecture

A character who’s trying to use the more sophisticated applications of information technologies — advanced programming, program writing, system architecture, elaborate programs, technical maintenance, upgrade design and installation, software repair, etc. — should have at least 3 dots in Computer, plus at least 1 dot (probably more) in Technology. Hardware repair involves at least 1 dot in Technology with a specialty in Computer Hardware.

Outside the movies, such tasks tend to take time... minutes at least, hours more often, sometimes even days or weeks, depending on the scope and complexity of the task. Beyond daily tasks (say, basic repair if you’re a member of the Geek Squad), this sort of thing could require a roll: usually Intelligence + Computer for software application, Perception + Computer for troubleshooting, and perhaps Dexterity + Technology (Computer Hardware) for fiddly physical tasks. Brainstorming and system design (hardware or software) usually require Intelligence + the appropriate Ability, although Wits or Perception might come into play as well, depending on the task. In most cases, these tasks would involve standard rolls for simple feats and extended rolls for complex or time-consuming ones.

System Bypass and Subversion

Computerized intruder or burglar alarm systems protect most of the industrial world’s technology these days. From a purely physical standpoint, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) networks monitor many places of interest in the twenty-first century: businesses, intersections, elevators, alleys, traffic intersections, and even — in places like London — large portions of the city. All of this information is stored somewhere, usually in digital format... a format which a character with enough dots in Computer and Security can manipulate.

The modern burglar must understand at least the basic workings of computer-run security systems, and industrial-espionage types should be significantly better than that. Folks who wish to remain unseen (as many mages do) need to know their way around system bypass and subversion tactics. After all, when cameras, heat sensors, pressure sensors, laser arrays, and other such technologies are keeping Big Brother’s eyes on you, mere stealth is not enough.

A character who wants to bypass or corrupt computer-managed security systems needs at least 1 dot in both Computer and the Secondary Skill Security. In most cases, those systems are managed from inside a secured area, so the would-be intruder needs to figure out a way to access that system without setting the security off. Thankfully, the wonders of computer magicks and Correspondence Arts allow a savvy mage to reach control centers that no unAwakened person could access. (See the Black Card/Little Black Box Adjustment.)

Defeating a computerized security system doesn’t always require hacking into it; a smart intruder knows how to bypass a system without messing with it. That said, many computerized security systems have triggers that set off alerts when suspicious events (power surges, sudden cutoffs, unauthorized users, etc.) hit the system. In real life, most of the tricks employed by Hollywood don’t actually work, and though a mage might employ Hollywood Reality to wrangle a computer, there’s no guarantee that such tactics will pay off.

Serious details about security bypass procedures can get too complicated for normal game use. For simplicity’s sake, assume that you’ll use an Intelligence + Security roll, probably extended, to establish a computerized security system. Maintaining or adjusting that system would involve Intelligence + Computer rolls if such tasks have to be rolled for at all.

Bypassing that sort of a system, though, is a bit more complex. In such situations, the Storyteller asks the player what ze’s doing to get around the system, then has zir make a Perception + Security roll to scope out the system, followed by an Intelligence (or perhaps Dexterity) + Computer roll to access or bypass it. For automated systems, this requires either a standard roll (for simple systems) or an extended one (for sophisticated networks). Success grants access, failure does not, and a botch triggers the alarm. For especially sensitive systems, even a failed roll will set the alarms off... in which case the mage should have a good escape plan handy.

Hacking, Reversing, and Cracking

One of the oldest games in computer culture involves breaking into a system, usually to change data and systems to your satisfaction, design new systems and upgrade old ones, create workarounds for annoying obstacles, and generally subvert the existing paradigm. This bag of programming tricks, whether used for good or ill, falls under the umbrella called hacking. Despite its bad name, hacking provides a major component of the IT revolution. If everyone had been content with the systems we had back in the 1960s or ‘70s, after all, we wouldn’t have the computerized world we enjoy today.

On the other hand, the term cracking refers to deliberately breaking a protection code or encryption built into an application or program. Breaking a code or encryption in a video game in order to copy a high-value item and then sell that (perfectly legit, as far as the cracked system is concerned) copy on the gray market is cracking, as is breaking digital-rights protection software on commercial DVDs. In plain English, then, cracking is the process of breaking things.

Cracking isn’t done in a vacuum, though. The character first needs to reverse engineer, or just reverse, the system ze’s trying to crack. Ze needs to know what ze’s looking for in order to crack encryption — ze can’t just jailbreak that fancy smartphone without having done some research and reconnaissance first. It’s easy to... obtain... something like the smartphone ze’s trying to crack in order to take it apart and figure out how it ticks, but some hackers go so far as to buy the same model of ATM or point-of-sale system they’re trying to hack in order to reverse it. Reversing can also apply to programs or applications like firewalls: once the hacker has reversed the program, ze can use the knowledge ze gained to bypass the system’s security measures.

Many hackers draw sharp distinctions between people who pursue excellence through better solutions to the problem (white hats), and those who strive to break what other people have created (black hats). In the eyes of many non-technical folks, hacking is cracking and vice versa. That’s not the case, though, as far as many hackers are concerned. For the sake of clarity and of game simplicity, then, assume that hacking refers to access, innovation, and reinvention (possibly against the original designer’s intentions...), whereas cracking refers to breaking into an established system with destructive purposes in mind.

In practice, hacking is just programming, making changes to digital things. Philosophically, hacking is magick; computer hackers remake the reality they’ve been given in order to make the reality they want. Ideally, hackers also prize excellence and seek better ways to do almost anything imaginable. In that sense, then, all mages are reality hackers. Some are just more attuned to the computer side of that game than others are. (For more details, see the Everything is Data paradigm and the Reality Hacking practice under Focus and the Arts.)

For the game-systems involved in the various sorts of hacking, see Hacking Rules.

Cryptanalysis and Codes

No sane person wants strangers rummaging through zir stuff. The field of cryptanalysis specializes in studying the hidden aspects of computer systems, crafting security measures to protect information, and then working around those measures so you can safeguard yourself while undercutting rival operators. In game terms, the Computer specialty Cryptanalysis helps your character size up potential threats and plans of attack, and the Secondary Knowledge Cryptography helps zir make and break codes for computerized systems.

Twenty-first century computing employs codes of inhuman complexity. Writing and deciphering those codes, even with a computer and badass cryptography programs, can take days, weeks, months, or more. Therefore, a character who’s trying to make a new code or break a complicated one could be at that task for quite a while. Cryptography almost always requires extended rolls — typically with 20 or 30 successes involved, and perhaps even more than that.

The problem is, security codes often require specific sorts of information... usually rather obscure information. Therefore, a skilled cryptographer needs access to research — systemwise, the Research Skill and Library Background, as well as research-based rolls as per the Dramatic Feats chart. The Esoterica Knowledge and its many specialties can be a huge help in that regard, especially when you’re dealing with mage-crafted codes. The Storyteller may allow, or require, complementary rolls with related skills before a code may be written or broken to begin with. And if the character doesn’t have access to the proper information, that code may prove unbreakable.

Social Engineering

A sardonic term for alternative solutions, social engineering refers to hacking a system through the people, not the technology. Bribes, seductions, blackmail, payoffs, dumpster diving, threats, and even physical violence (sometimes called rubber hose cryptanalysis) can secure passwords, reveal backdoors, uncover data, and otherwise compromise a system by going after the people who work with that system.

Social engineering attacks can be risky, as they expose the hacker to personal contact even when conducted through third-party channels. At times, though, they can be quite effective, especially when dealing with heavily secured systems. Mages keep various tricks up their sleeves for such situations, of course, but for hackers with good looks, personal charisma, lots of money or trade goods, or simply an intimidating presence and sociopathic tendencies, the social engineering approach contains useful tools for all-purpose subversion.

Van Eck Reading

Another “side-channel attack” technique involves reading the electronic emanations from IT technology. Although sensitive systems feature TEMPEST-hardening (a security array that protects computer systems from being “read” by outside parties), a non-TEMPEST system can still be deciphered by a hacker with the right gear and the proper knowledge.

As Wim van Eck revealed in 1985, unprotected computers release electromagnetic pulses based on the work being done on the computer in question. Reading and interpreting these “compromised emanations” through what’s called van Eck monitoring requires specific gear and expertise; that said, it’s supposedly easy if you know how.

A mage who understands this phenomenon and knows how to “read” its effects can employ Correspondence 2/Mind 2/Forces 1 to scan and interpret a computer’s van Eck signatures.

The Hacking Difficulties sidebar gives the Difficulties and time involved. A properly skilled mage can read a system’s van Eck emanations even if the system has been TEMPEST-hardened, although that’s a pretty difficult stunt for even the most experienced technomancers. Since no one else can see what the mage is doing inside zir head, van Eck reading remains coincidental unless the scanner starts saying stupid things like, “Well, according to the van Eck readings I’m picking up without any gear...”

Even with technomagick, however, it’s still currently impossible to transmit a hacking program via van Eck emanations, though many Virtual Adepts have tried. At the moment, it’s a read-only technique... though it might not stay that way forever...

Metaphysical Applications

Anyone with the proper knowledge can make a regular computer system do tricks. Certain tricks, though, demand certain specialized systems. And so, the more accomplished computer-mages employ sophisticated machines that accomplish feats no ordinary computer could perform.

Computers as Instruments of Focus

In the twenty-first century, mages across the spectrum use computers as instruments of technological focus. By 2017, IT systems have been a part of mainstream industrial culture for a generation... for many people, a computer provides a more natural focus than, say, dancing naked in the woods. Even the more naturalistic groups — Verbena, Ecstatics, Bata’a, and so forth — have members who employ computer magick. These folks might not be as devoted to transhumanist ideals or hypertech innovation as Virtual Adepts or Technocrats are, but they have no aversion to computer technology. For them, computers — like brooms, swords, and so on — are simply tools, as magickal as anything else in their world.

Even so, computer technology has upper limits. High-end magick overloads a typical computer system and can — in the case of Sphere Ranks 4 and 5 — crash or burn a normal computer. To perform powerful technomagick, you still need a Trinary computer: a system specifically designed to handle hypertech operations, operations (as defined earlier on this page, and in more detail below.)

A savvy computer mage will upgrade zir gear to sustain the tremendous stress involved with technomagickal computer processes. For more data regarding computers as technomagickal tools, see Computers and IT Gear, Devices and Machines, Gadgets and Inventions, Mass Media, Money and Wealth, and other entries under Common Instruments in Focus and the Arts.

Enlightened Upgrades

Y’know how complex programs slow your computer down? Technomagick does the same thing to computer systems that haven’t been upgraded to handle the stress of bending reality. A typical off-the-shelf computer system can facilitate Sphere Ranks 1 and 2. After that, however, it’s time for an upgrade.

System-wise, a technomagickal upgrade requires a combination of mundane tech and Enlightened knowhow. The tech part is simple enough; if you want to reflect it in rolls, assume an Intelligence + Technology (Computer Hardware) roll, Difficulty 7, followed by an Intelligence + Computer roll, also Difficulty 7. These rolls reflect the essential hardware and software alterations.

After that, a combination of Prime 2 and either Matter 2 (to reinforce the molecular structure of the gear), Spirit 3 (to awaken the spirit of the machine), or both will upgrade the system on a magickal level. Roll Arete/Enlightenment + Computer, Difficulty 5. Assume that 3 successes or more upgrade the machine to handle technological workings (rotes, energies, Digital Web access, etc.) up to Sphere Rank 3. For Ranks 4 or 5, you still need a Trinary computer. Sleepertech has yet to reach that level of power.

Upgrades allow computer gear to access and focus the reality-bending powers of Sphere magick. They do not, however, allow computers to access their own magical powers. Machines with that sort of innate power are Device and Fetishes; for details, see Wonders: Objects of Enchantment.

Trinary Computers

As mentioned elsewhere, Trinary computers have been specially designed, built, and programmed through Enlightened hypertech. Processing a broader band of information and working with “yes/no/maybe/and/or” protocols, such machines have far greater capacities than normal, real world computer systems. Technically, the current state-of-the-art Trinary computers are actually Quinary computers, but that name has not yet caught on among the elite. Even futurists have a soft spot for certain traditions.

In story terms, such systems have been around for several decades, and they’ve become the default computer gear for Awakened technomancers from many different groups. That said, Trinary systems are still rare, expensive, precious, more challenging to use than normal systems, and exceedingly effective at mundane tasks as well as magickal ones. Imagine them as the IT equivalent of a high-end sports car: available if you’ve got the right money and connections, but not easy to use unless you know what you’re doing with one.

Trinary gear used to be the sole province of Virtual Adepts, who treated such machines as marks of elite status within their Tradition. That technology, however, eventually slid out into the technomancer mainstream... partly through trade and sharing, partly through theft and gear acquired from dead or converted Adepts, and partly through innovations by Iteration X and other computer-using mages among various groups.

In game terms, a Trinary computer gives bonuses to its user, inflicts penalties upon anyone unfortunate enough to go up against someone using one (unless xe’s got xyr own Trinary system), and makes certain things possible that a normal computer just can’t do. As the Computer Systems sidebar shows, a character using a Trinary computer system reduces zir Difficulties by -2 when ze’s going up against mundane computer systems. The Trinary system also reduces the time it takes to hack such mundane systems by roughly 2 hours. On the flipside, a hacker who’s trying to access and alter a system that has one or more Trinary computers involved adds +2 to zir Difficulties and adds at least 2 hours to the work time if ze’s using non-Trinary gear. (Two Trinary systems cancel out those benefits and penalties if they go up against one another.)

When focusing magickal Effects, too, a Trinary computer makes certain feats possible. As mentioned above, high-level computer magick is still impossible on a typical computer system; such machines, even now, can’t handle the raw amounts of power and bandwidth required for sophisticated technomagick. Assume, then, that a magickal Effect that involves Spheres 4 or 5 can be performed only with a Trinary computer system.

Quantum Computers

An intermediary form of technology between mundane digital computers and hypertech Trinary computers, the quantum computer employs quantum-mechanical phenomena in order to perform the usual computing tasks. Where current digital technology uses binary bits (0 or 1) that exist in one of two definite states, quantum computers employ qubits (quantum bits) that exist in a superposition of states that allows them to remain indefinite. Essentially, the typical computer says “yes/no,” the Trinary computer says “yes/no/maybe” (and these days, more), and the quantum computer theoretically says “all of the above.”

As of this writing, quantum computing still is largely theoretical. Working models have been built and employed in the real world, but they suffer from a number of physical and theoretical limitations. Physically, they’re huge, bulky, immobile things that require delicate conditions and enormous amounts of space and energy. On the theoretical side, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle limits the quantum application potential of such machines; after all, if someone needs to view the results of a quantum computer’s functions, then that observer probably defines those results and takes them out of a superpositioned state! Tests with quantum computers have shown them to be marginally faster and more accurate than digital machines... but whether that speed and accuracy is the result of quantum-state phenomena or simply better components and conditions remains a source of debate.

In Mage, certain large, high-tech facilities probably employ quantum computers, if only to explore their possibilities and work those possibilities into the Consensus. Complex applications of Correspondence, Forces, Matter, and Prime could compress the titanic devices of mundane technology into smaller, portable machines. Even so, they remain delicate energy hogs with uncertain practical applications. From a rules standpoint, the Storyteller could declare that quantum computers allow a mage to use Sphere Ranks 4 and 5 without employing a Trinary device. Because the Trinary machines are smaller, more portable, and more reliable, however, they currently provide a superior technology to quantum computers.

Given the rapid pace of both mundane and Awakened technology, however, that edge might not last much longer.

Hacking Rules

The basic theory and practice of hacking has been covered above. In game terms, a character hacks a computer system using either Intelligence + Computer (for slow, methodical work), or Wits + Computer (when time is of the essence).

Perception + Computer can help reverse a system or obstacle, and Manipulation or some other Social Attribute + Computer can help a hacker socially engineer a solution... that is, find a workaround by influencing other people to help zir do it.

In most situations, though, Intelligence + Computer does the job. See the Computer Systems chart for specific rolls, circumstances, and Difficulties.

Static and Active Systems

Hackers face two different sorts of systems: static systems, in which a self-contained software, computer, or system has its own protections but no further maintenance, and active systems, in which the normal protections (firewall, security programs, and so forth) are backed up by a system administrator and trace programs. A stand-alone home computer, game, music file, or software program is a static system; in this case, the hacker just needs time and patience — no one’s working against zir or coming after zir if she fails. Corporate computers, financial data banks, government agency systems, and so on are active systems; in such cases, the hacker’s not just working against the firewall but also against active agents who’ll block, stop, and trace intruder access.

Appropriate rolls and Difficulties can be found on the Computer System sidebars.

Cracking/Reversing

Before a hacker can access any system, she has to first reverse it to find its vulnerabilities, or cracks. Once ze finds a crack — say, in an application that a particular network uses — the hacker can then write a clever piece of code that uses the crack to break into the system so ze can play with its contents. Reversing a system to spot weaknesses is really an exercise in digital lock-picking. In game terms, finding and exploiting these cracks makes hacking more effective, and doing so lowers the Difficulty of rolls within the system.

Reversing a system or an application takes weeks of work downtime — often with additional materials like passwords gained from the Social Engineering described above. To create effective crack-exploitation code, the player makes a single Intelligence + Computer roll, Difficulty 8. If that code has been created to access a specific system and do specific things, the Difficulty is only 6, but the code will work only within the system for which it was designed. Each success on the roll lowers the hacker’s Difficulty by -1.

The character can also write security software to protect zir own system. In this case, the rules are the same, the roll is the same, the Difficulty is 7, and each success rolled by the software designer raises the Difficulty of other hackers by +1 Difficulty (again, per success) when they try to access zir system.

Static System Access

Hacking static home software or breaking into such computers is comparatively easy: the player makes Intelligence + Computer rolls until ze gathers enough successes to do what ze wants. Although ze may be working against the clock to hack that computer before someone comes home, there’s no active agent working against zir while ze does so. A botch rolled while hacking a static system, however, locks that system down. From that point on, the hacker has been shut out indefinitely.

Active System Access

Many commercial active systems are absurdly easy to hack if you know how — reverse one and you might as well have reversed most of the rest of them too. The ubiquity of computer technology these days makes it impossible to guard all systems as well as they were protected a decade or two ago. Although the commercially available casual protections are far stronger than they used to be, a skilled hacker can still break into email servers or company data with little trouble.

Accessing a secure active system — like the ones in governments, corporations, Technocracy Constructs, and so on — is far more difficult. There, folks are expecting trespassers, and they’re ready for you. Developing or exploiting a crack for a Technocracy Construct is nowhere near as simple as hacking Facebook, but because almost every piece of important information is online these days, few secrets are truly safe from a dedicated hacker mage.

To access a secure system, the intruding player makes an initial Intelligence or Wits + Computer roll to get past the firewall. Failure at that point blocks the attempt, and a botch indicates that the intruder has been discovered. The Storyteller might choose to adjust the Difficulty of that roll based on the character’s preparation, reconnaissance, and reversing.

Opening the Window: The Hacker’s Dice Pool

The number of successes you score with that initial roll becomes your dice pool for future rolls in this system. If you get 3 successes, for example, then you have 3 dice to roll once you’re engaged beyond the firewall. This reflects the window you’ve got to work with. The more you open the window, the more freedom you have inside.

A player could decide to spend more time hacking zir way in. System-wise, ze makes an extended roll, rather than a standard roll, to open the window further. Each roll reflects 1 additional hour spent finessing the system. This way, the hacker can attain more successes, and thus get a bigger dice pool to work with.

Taking time is risky, though. A failed roll during that attempt crashes into the firewall, and a botch alerts the sysadmin, as detailed below. For each hour the hacker spends working at the firewall, the player must make another Intelligence + Computer roll. The more time you spend working within an active system, the greater your chances of getting caught.

Backdoors

Once inside a system, you can create backdoors: bits of code that provide shortcuts past the firewall for later access. Using a backdoor cuts way down on the time and risk involved in getting into a system again. In game terms, a backdoor requires an Intelligence + Computer roll based on the Difficulty of the system you’re working against. Once installed, a backdoor lowers the time and Difficulties of future access attempts.

With or without a backdoor, a hacker has limited time to find what ze wants to find, do what ze wants to do, and get out before someone spots zir. Scanning programs and sysadmins perform regular searches for intrusion attempts; the more secure the system and the more sensitive its data, the more frequent those searches will be.

Security Software and Sysadmins

Almost every computer system these days has security software to deflect and detect intrusions. In game terms, this software adds to the Difficulty of hacking rolls inside the system, and raises the amount of time you need to work inside that system (see the sidebar chart).

Depending on the system, its owners, and its contents, this software can range from the virtual equivalent of a cheap car lock to the elite protection of a watchdog pack. As far as a serious hacker’s concerned, all forms of security programs are essentially speed bumps, meant more to slow and discourage violations than stop them cold.

The cold stops come in from sysadmins and trace-and-countermeasures programs. If the software is the speed bump, then these parties are the cops. Once every 1 to 12 hours, live sysadmins and security administrators perform walkthroughs for backdoors and trespassers. (The more secure the system, the more frequent those walkthroughs become.) If a hacker trips an alarm — that is, botches a roll once inside the system — then the admins and trace programs will come gunning for that trespasser immediately... at which point, the chase is on.

The Chase, Pit Bulls, Tagging, and the Visit

Should a player botch — or even, in certain systems, just fail — a roll inside an active system, that player and the Storyteller play out the chase. Both parties roll their characters’ Intelligence + Computer in a resisted roll.

• If the sysadmin gets more successes, then xe catches the hacker — usually ejecting zir with an identification tag on zir computer. With 5 successes or more over the number needed to beat the hacker, xe can send a nasty virus or trace program back into the hacker’s computer, or else detain zir in a virtual lockup. This sort of thing is more cinematic than realistic, but it’s a good way to make a player sweat... especially if ze’s been trying to hack the Technocracy.
• A successful sysadmin can also hack the hacker. With 5 successes or more, that sysadmin has gotten access to the intruder’s own system; at that point, the Storyteller becomes the hacker, and the player becomes the sysadmin, defending zir system against the party ze had originally tried to hack.
• Technocrats or other high-tech mages and Night-Folk might also have pit bull countermeasures: smart programs that act to trip and catch trespassers. If the system has such programs, then the hacker’s Difficulty rises by +2 during a chase. In story terms, the pit bulls slow zir system down and give the sysadmin an edge. (For potential pit bulls, see Memophores.)
• If the sysadmin wins the chase, then the Storyteller also makes a secret roll to find and purge the backdoors the hacker had implanted in the system. The player should not be told whether or not those backdoors have been found — that information is for the Storyteller to know and the player to find out. And if the sysadmin does tag the trespasser’s computer, then it’s probably just a matter of time before boys in blue or Men in Black show up to pay zir a visit...
• Should the hacker roll more successes than the sysadmin, then ze remains free and untagged inside the system. If ze scores 5 successes or more above the number ze needed to beat the Storyteller, then ze’s got free access within the system for 1 hour per success. If ze wins by only 1 or 2 successes, though, the chase might resume at any time. If ze wants to keep working within the system, then ze’ll have to work fast.

Access and Alteration

As mentioned earlier, computers store, manage, and compile information. Hacking, then, involves doing stuff with that information. Whether the hacker wants to add data, grab data, lock it down, corrupt it, or whatever else, the roll is the same. For each half hour or so spent inside the system, the player rolls Intelligence + Computer to perform the desired tasks. Again, time equals risk, and botched rolls (sometimes even failed rolls) alert the sysadmin.

A variety of tasks have been listed on the Computer Systems chart. The more extensive and complicated the task, the longer it’ll take and the higher the Difficulty will be.

Sloppy Filing

No two users employ a computer the same way. People tend to label and store data files in methods that make sense only to them. Many systems have specific formats and protocols for labeling and storing data files; some people use them, other people don’t. A person who’s trying to access those files often winds up digging through folders, trying to find what ze’s looking for. That sort of digging takes time — often lots of time.

The Sloppy Filing modifier reflects data that’s been stored in unusual, haphazard, or nonsensical ways. A hacker who wants to access that information needs to spend more time finding it and has a more difficult time finding it at all.

Hacking in the Web

Life imitates reality, especially when mages are involved. The process, then, of hacking an active computer system from inside the Digital Web often looks like a cyber-noir thriller filled with twisting corridors, thick fog, and black-leather-clad figures moving through heavy shadows in a desaturated, blue-lit landscape. Then again, depending on the folks who configured the system and its protections, that task might play out like a trip to Jurassic Park; a Wild West ghost town; a labyrinthine pagoda packed with samurai and ninjas; or a chase through an Arabian Nights-style bazaar, pursued by sword-swinging vizier’s guards.

System-wise, an inside job plays out like a rollicking adventure movie. The setting for that adventure is a C-Sector tailored to reflect the system designer’s tastes. As the adventurer moves through a landscape that reflects the system ze’s hacking, ze finds zirself eluding guards (security programs), escaping traps (security protocols), deciphering puzzles (encryption codes), battling monsters and bosses (attack programs and sysadmins), grabbing treasures (the data), and generally living out a video game movie that might kill zir and zir friends... probably just online, but possibly for real.

In the case of holistically-immersed hackers, the game could definitely kill them. As with other forms of combat and injury, everything virtual is real when you’re in the Web. A holistically-immersed trespasser uses zir normal Physical Attributes, Abilities, and whatever gear ze happens to be carrying at the time. Considering what ze’s about to face, that may or may not be a good thing...

Look, Feel, and Constraints

A system’s look and feel depends upon the Constraints placed upon that sector by the people who designed it. Thus, the intruding character tends to find zirself, as the saying goes, trapped in a world ze never made. Logging into the system, our hacker gets cast as a hero in some outrageous action scenario of the Storyteller’s choice.

For obvious reasons, ze starts off at a disadvantage — no weapons, no armor, perhaps 1 or 2 useful tools, probably dressed in the clothes on zir back, and perhaps (in a really vicious system) not even that much. The hacker’s limited dice pool (see Opening the Window in the Hacking Rules section above) reflects the innate disadvantage of an intruding visitor in a hostile system.

Useful Goodies

A skillful hacker, however, can turn those odds around. Once the hacker opens the window and gets inside the system, zir player may roll Wits + Computer against the Difficulty of the system ze’s hacking. For each success, the hacker can equip zirself with 1 additional useful item: a gun, a rope, a suit of armor, etc. Each useful item adds 1 die to the hacker’s dice rolls while inside that system, assuming that the item fits that sector’s Constraints. Let’s say, for instance, that Eboz the Virtual Adept hacks his way into a system configured to look like a steampunk maze. In such a setting, a key would be useful, a wrench would be useful, and a pair of goggles would be useful. A Kevlar jacket, on the other hand, would not fit the system’s Constraints, so it would not count as a useful item.

In practical terms, the useful items merely add to the hacker’s dice pool. The associated bullets, armor, lock-opening capacity, and so forth simply reflect the hacker’s improved ability. Inside the Digital Web, however, they look and feel like props for the adventure in question. And considering that the hacker comes through the window with a reduced dice pool (again, see Opening the Window), ze can use every edge ze can get!

Game Systems

In terms of rules, the Storyteller and player can either run through the hacking process using the normal hacking rules presented above, or else play it out as a normal adventure, using the appropriate Traits for the type of access ze’s employed to enter the Web. (For details, see Digital Web Systems.) In the first situation, narrate out the hacking job as if it’s an adventure; in the second case, just run through it normally, considering the adventure to be an elaborate computer simulation.

Instead of Dexterity + Brawl rolls, an astrally immersed hacker employs Wits, Perception, or Intelligence + Computer in order to get things done. Other Abilities might come in handy, too — say, Enigmas in place of Intimidation or Cryptography for Streetwise. Under either rules option, however, failed or botched rolls lead to icon death; the trap snaps shut, the guards shoot you, you mis-time your leap, and so forth. For obvious reasons, then, hackers hesitate before trying to bust a system from the inside out.