"We're In"

Computer Hacking Rules for Any TTRPG

The purpose of this product is for Gamemasters to make hacking a computer more dynamic and fun than making a simple dice roll while still allowing the character’s skill to play an important role.

Think of a scene from a movie: while allies are in a firefight in the hallway buying them precious time, the hacker furiously works to unlock the docking bay doors or upload a computer virus across the corporation’s network. Or maybe the garbage smashers on the detention level must be shut down before your friends are crushed to paste. You get the idea. Doing this as a single Skill Check diminishes the drama of such a scene for the hacker. This system is designed to preserve that sense of tension while giving the hacker something fun to do on their turn (while the other players cheer them on!).

This system also makes it so a character with a high skill does not just automatically hack their way into a computer system with a single die roll.

Use With Your Preferred TTRPG

This is designed to work with most tabletop role-playing games where success or failure at an action are determined by dice rolls or cards. If the game has a skill system for using computers (or hacking them), use it with that. If the game has no specific skill system but has ability checks, use an ability related to intelligence or problem-solving to make the checks

But there is more to it than just passing a check. Successful checks award the hacker clues to hack the machine. Having a higher skill ensures that a player will receive more chances to break into the system but does not guarantee success, which means you can still keep that tension in the scene no matter how skilled the character's bonuses are on the character sheet. 

Basic Summary

The system works by requiring the hacker to choose the correct coordinates from a grid arranged by alphabetical columns and numerical rows. The hacker rolls Skill Checks to get Clues and must guess once they’ve failed a Skill Check. The hacker is allowed only a certain number of wrong guesses before they are Locked Out of the computer system. Complications can also arise to make the hack more challenging. This is very fast and easy to set up using scratch paper for the GM and the player and does not require much set-up in advance (or you can print the included sample Hacks Sheet).  

You can also modify this system to run a character through cracking a safe or defusing a bomb.