The Great Tabletop Hackaton: Cyberpunk RED, Part 2
After creating both our netrunner and the systems she needs to hack, we can start the actual run.
Run Summary
G0blin Jr. goes in with the physical team, they get past the reception, and as the rest of the team pretends to work she locks herself in the bathroom to try and hack the security server.
We are cheating a bit here, because it turns out you need to be within six meters and within line of sight of an access point to hack the corresponding architecture. I don’t want to actually map the whole office out like I would in a real adventure, so we’re kind of assuming the wireless networks here have the same coverage as in the SR 4 version. They want to track where all guards and guests are at all times so there are security server access points in each room, covering the whole office.
G0blin Junior’s strategy is to be meticulous and defeat each piece of ice as it comes up, to avoid having them pile up on her. Still, even a meticulous approach looks like a brutal all-out-assault here.
Security Server
Junior has no problem dealing with the Skunk ice at the top layer in the first turn. She then uses the Pathfinder net ability to see deeper into the server and rolls well enough to see the whole thing, even past the Password wall. She now knows the exact route she must take - down the left branch to disable the alarm and camera, and all the way down the right branch to unlock the back door and plant a Virus to keep these things disabled after she logs out.
A quick peek at the files on level 3 sees they’re worthless, and then it’s on to the main event: the fight against the Hellhound/Killer pair.
She beats the Hellhound in the contested roll, but loses to the Killer and so loses a program at random: the Eraser. It’s completely destroyed. We’ll be generous and assume she has backed-up copies at home, but they can’t be restored within this run.
Fearing for her software more than for her brain, Junior focuses her attacks this first turn on the Killer, destroying it after 2 Sword attacks.
After that we’re in for a slugging match with the Hellhound. It attacks once per turn but always goes first, with Junior spending her 3 net actions per turn on two Sword attacks and one Zap.
A good roll by the Hellhound in the following turn deals only 3 damage to Junior (thanks to her Armor program), but also sets her on fire. She will begin taking 2 points of damage per turn until she spends a Meat Action to deal with that. And she can’t afford to spend any Meat Actions now.
A series of bad rolls on her part mean she misses her first turn of attacks, so has to take more burn damage next turn. Fortunately the Hellhound fails to damage her, and she can finish it off then. But she needs to wait for another turn and 2 more burn points to be able to put out the fire: you cannot spend a Meat Action in a turn where you spend Net Actions and vice-versa.
Junior is down a program and 20% of her HP so far. Fortunately she doesn’t have any problem going down the Architecture’s left branch and disabling the alarm and camera.
The Skunk at the top of the right branch doesn’t give her any trouble. Turns out Skunks are harmless when fought alone. The Asp in the next level beats the initiative contest and destroys her Armor program, though it goes down to the usual Sword, Sword, Zap combination.
Junior reaches the bottom of the security server, unlocks the door, and spends 2 Net Actions creating a Virus that will keep the security devices off after she logs out. She then Cloaks her efforts and jacks out.
Total time taken for the security server: 19 minutes.
Secret Server
A slightly singed G0blin Jr. follows her teammates to the records room and jacks into the secret server she finds there.
The password is a breeze to blow through, and a good Pathfinder roll lets her see all the way to the bottom of the server. The Skunk is easily defeated by turn 3 of this hack. The Wisp loses initiative and goes down before it can act. The Hellhound wins initiative and further burns out poor netrunner’s brain, leaving her with 17 remaining HP since she has no more Armor program.
She manages to kill it with lucky Sword strikes before it can attack again, but has to take 2 burn damage and spend a Meat Action extinguishing the fire. She successfully IDs the evidence file and copies it. She knows there’s a Killer further down but she’s hurt and down 2 programs, so she doesn’t risk engaging it in order to cover her tracks. Junior jacks out.
Time for this hack: 10 minutes.
The team has fulfilled their mission, but unlike the hackers of every other game, G0blin Jr. decides discretion is the better part of valor. She’s half-dead, down two very important programs, and that office net might have another Hellhound like the two others she jacked into today (it doesn’t, but the doesn’t know that). Plus there’s a chance that a firefight is ongoing in the meat world.
The team leaves with the evidence, but without the money.
Junior deciding to give on the money and just leave is the sensible roleplaying choice. All netrunners are brave folks by definition, but someone who names herself after a goblin would probably not be suicidally brave.
But What If She Was?
What if our Goblin had decided to brave the office network in her present state, after all? What if she had thrown caution to the wind, messaged WITNESS ME to her companions, and dove in?
She would have succeeded in 10 minutes, but just barely. The Asp takes out both her Sword programs, and two max damage rolls from the Wisp leave her with a measly 3 HP before she could derezz it and drain the office accounts.
Junior is probably not making it out of the office if any sort of fight erupts. And if she does a good chunk of that money is going to pay for her hospital bills. Her teammates will probably begin calling her “Crispy” if she survives.
Total Time Elapsed: 29 minutes if she doesn’t go for the money, 39 (and a lot of pain) if she does.
Analysis and Impressions
29 minutes is well within our tolerance for a manageable amount of time, so we can say that CP RED’s system remains fast. It took around 12 minutes for Junior to disable the camera and alarm, which is about what I consider the upper limit on the time you can keep the rest of the team waiting. You could cut to the physical team at that time and go turn by turn to keep everyone moving.
Disabling the door has to happen in the same hack because the system resets when the netrunner jacks out, but that’s an additional 7 minutes so it’s OK. The secret server hack takes 10.
Going for the “easy” office server after being beaten up by the first two does indeed border on the suicidal. It’s fast at 10 minutes, but not worth it. Cutting your losses and leaving is a perfectly rational decision.
Because ye gawds is this system brutal.
Stealth is not a thing in these rules. The closest thing is the Slide ability, but that apparently only works to escape combat, not to avoid it. Most ICE threatens to either permanently destroy your programs or directly damage your HP, and if I understood the rules directly they get a free and automatic hit against you if they beat that contested initiative roll.
So avoiding combat is impossible, and getting out unscathed is extremely unlikely. I feared I made the CP 2020 data fortress too easy, and here I think I made things too difficult by having three decent-sized Architectures generated with the random system. It looks like CP RED wants a single big Architecture per adventure instead of a bunch of scattered smaller ones. If there are smaller ones, they should be tiny with at most a single piece of ICE or Demon, to help preserve the netrunner for the main event.