This section deals with secrets about the infosphere and hacking, and is FOR THE GAME- MASTER'S EYES ONLY. These secrets can be used as a reward or to spice up the adventures of a jaded turbo-hacker.
Domains
Domains are areas of the infosphere that are distinctive in some way. Turbohackers
have to use their Netlore skill and roleplay to find out what those distinctions are.
Devious GMs are encouraged to spread false rumours about the least-accessible places.
The domains are patrolled by various agencies, but Protocol has final say over
jurisdiction and infosphere law, which is tortuous in the extreme. The general
characteristics of several global regions are detailed below.
Atlantic
Encompassing the entire eastern seaboard of North America plus the caribbean,
this domain has draconian security centered around the financial hub of
New York city and the political core of Washington. Atlantic is very busy
and very dense since it channels all the traffic of the BosWash Megalopolis
and the Delta. Government hunter-seekers abound in the dataspaces, roaming
the research-intensive Boston hub, the design assembleries of Atlanta,
and the corporate simulacrums of Delta Megacity. Computer crimes committed
in Atlantic are severely punished (long prison sentences), and the many old
layers of this domain inhibit efficient searches.
- Major Hubs: New York-BosWash Megalopolis,
Delta-Z,
Toronto, Atlanta, Long Miami.
- Security 8, Complexity 7, Speed 8, Static 5, Force 8
Olympia
Olympia coverage includes all of western North America plus Mexico
and Yucatan. Olympia enjoys a reputation as a thriving domain with
lucrative corporate holdings, but also holds the promise of blood-feuds
between the numerous major Clans that stake territory in the webworks.
Olympia is also heavily infested with databeasties and netspawn which
conspire to eat traffic and attack weak constructs. Visitors have been
warned. Most of the Great Minds in the region have been slaved to
powerful interests, but sabotage activity occasionally liberates one.
Olympia is a dynamic domain, meaning that its boundaries sometimes
shift between Pacifica and Amazonia, as the currents of data carry it.
- Major Hubs: SanFran, Mexico City, Los Angeles,
Monterrey, Dallas, SeaPort, Phoenix
- Security 7, Complexity 7, Speed 6, Static 5, Force 5
Europa
Covers all of Europe to the Ukraine and is probably the densest
computer grid in the world. Europa is a corporate and ideological
battlefield, filled with netspionage and the shifting bulks of
Clan constructs. Despite a heavy government presence hacking activity
is intense and highly profitable as long as the prickly regional
governments do not feel a threat to their autonomy. Overlapping
jurisdictions and feuding bureaucrats make cracking substantially
easier than, say, Apparatus territory. Nevertheless, Eurosekur
operates with a heavy hand, especially against those it suspects
of economic sabotage. Europa is also a good place for surreptitious
banking, hit-and-run attacks, ironclad contracts, and is relatively
free of pestiferous spawn.
- Major Hubs: NeuRand, London, Ruhr, Paris
Berlin, Milan
Rome, Barcelona, Warsaw, Marseilles, Copenhagen.
- Security 8, Complexity 7, Speed 8, Static 5, Force 8
Wildlife
Wildlife is a term used by hackers to denote anomalous and/or unusually active
spawn found in the infosphere. Wildlife can appear in several ways, the most
common being a manifestation of "spirit-like beings" within the hacker's
panorama, but without any corresponding dataflows or constructs being detected.
Wildlife behaves in completely unpredictable ways, from damaging data fragments
containing particular words to restoring deleted files from many years ago.
When you as a GM want to spice up an boring turbohack, roll on the following
table to see if any interesting wildlife messes with the hacker:
| Spectre |
A crude copy of the neural network of a formerly-living person who had their "mind uploaded" to the infosphere. These entities are usually cliches of their former personas and do not exhibit true sentience...only low cunning. Their software is distributed across the 'sphere and so they cannot truly be destroyed. | |
| Leviathan |
A legendary software beast which swallows all the files deleted by mankind since the beginning of networked computers. Leviathan is greedy and constantly hungers for more offerings, and is often so famished that he takes regular files too. Hence the mysterious disappearance of files over time on a regular computer. If encountered, Leviathan will take on the shape of a mind-bogglingly huge (think of teeth two stories high) black shark that rises from the depths. Old usage: bit bucket, black hole | |
| The Sphinx |
Experienced turbohackers who have travelled through the deep corners of the infosphere often report meeting an enigmatic wildlife whose calls itself the Sphinx. This beast has the most annoying habit of asking the most bizarrely technical questions regarding hakspek and dead programming languages. Only true masters or very enlightened net.gurus can possibly answer such ponderous questions as "What is the buddha nature of Frobb?", and those who reply incorrectly as supposedly subject to a terrifying 'Eating' ordeal wherein their whole data identities are erased forever. If such a thing happens to turbohacker, all her personal data will be erased and all data later added about her will mysteriously disappear. This generally has bad implications (no bank account) |
