A skillful hacker, however, can turn those odds around. Once the hacker opens the window and gets inside the system, her player may roll Wits + Computer against the difficulty of the system she’s hacking. For each success, the hacker can equip herself with one additional useful item: a gun, a rope, a suit of armor, etc. Each useful item adds one 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 con­ figured 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 widow with a reduced dice pool (again, see Opening the Window), she can use every edge she can get!