Rules

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 he’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.

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 adven­ ture 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 she’s hacking, she finds herself 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 her and her 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 his normal physical Attributes, Abilities, and whatever gear he happens to be carrying at the time. Considering what he’s about to face, that may or may not be a good thing…