G-046-Oliver: Crystal Coast Resort, Oliver’s Room

Oliver spends several tasks, and is able to set up what he thinks is a convincing OverNet message server on his laptop and slip it into OverNet via the Resort’s net connection.

However, when he tries to download the Envoy’s mailbox to his fake server… nothing happens. 

So, might be time to spend stars, if you wish?

Game Mechanics

Sorry I didn’t give you  this info up front, but I wanted to give it some thought so I can be consistent in future, so I just had you roll while I figured out how to adjudicate the situation.

So, I thought I’d break the problem down to a series of dependent tasks:

• Set up a fake message server and hook it into OverNet, penetrating the general security
• If that succeeds, access the Envoy’s messages
• If that succeeds, crack messages (1 check per message)

I figure it should be difficult to hack people’s messages, so this feels like a doable thing with some game balance (eg He shouldn’t be able to hack the whole of OverNet with one roll…).

You stated he was being careful to be anonymous.  I thought I’d apply that as an increase in difficulty of -2 to the task, but equally a screw-up means he’s less likely to be caught; for rules consistency I took inspiration from the way Diplomacy works vs Fast Talk in social interactions and also the All-out Defense maneuver in combat.  

So the first task was quite difficult:

• Penetrate OverNet security and pretend to be a message server = -6
• Defensive/Anonymous approach = -2
• Bonus for having read Argyle’s research = +2

Oliver passed that with his 7. 

The next layer is specific to the Envoy, but the task is not as difficult. 

• Being careful to be anonymous = -2
• Bonus for having read Argyle’s research = +2
• He didn’t opt to do any social engineering or research the Envoy’s Mer ID or biometrics for extra bonuses so that’s a flat roll 

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Oliver’s Computer Programming skill is 15?  Note if I am wrong, that potentially makes a difference.

Per the success and failure rules that makes a 17 a Critical Failure.

He hasn’t succeeded on the second task so he can’t proceed to the third.

[Metagame note:  Happy to discuss if you think the above is not a good way to handle this – potentially interesting RPG nerd chat.]

Spending Stars

So, I wrote this a while back on stars, but on review I’m actually not happy with it.  

Without committing to a precedent, I’m going to say he can:

• Spend 1 star * for a re-roll
• Spend 2 stars per outcome change, ie 2 ** to make his Critical Failure a regular Failure and 4 **** to make the Critical Failure a success and 6 ****** for a Critical Success
  • Note:  Because he took the penalty for an anonymous approach, a Critical Failure doesn’t mean his intrusion will be automatically detected, but I’ll say there’s still a chance – if you allow it to stand I’ll roll and the intrusion will be detected if I roll a Critical Success for a highly skilled counter-intrusion program, ie: 6 or less. 
• Also, I’ll say he can try again with a -1 penalty per attempt, or if he can change the circumstances of his attempt in some way

What would you like to do?