Hard Wired Island

After creating a character on Hard Wired Island, what would you say to using it concretely in what amounts to a typical story of its Cyberpunk universe? Unlike many games, Hard Wired Island presents violence as a last resort, so the mechanics governing it are no more complicated than those of infiltration scenes, social conflicts or hacking. I thus offer you a succession of scenes mixing all these elements.

The pitch is simple: Aromée meets a somewhat shady prospect for her company, with whom she negotiates a contract. She spends a day preparing, then infiltrates a gang of crooks in order to retrieve information from their terminal. Let us see how the system handles it!

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Negotiation & Preparation

On May 23, 2020, Warui-Kashu Zato meets Aromée Abdala through Abdala Pharma.

From a mechanical standpoint, the meeting's mood is Formal. Aromée tried to take advantage of her Trendy Wardrobe to influence her interlocutor, but fate is playing tricks on her: he is blind. The perfume gets through, but the embroidered tailleur will have no effect on him.

The visually impaired young businessman entrusts her with one of those "sensitive" missions that Abdala Pharma is used to accepting through its special "corporate coaching & communication" branch. Apparently, a group of gangsters affiliated with the New Barons is causing him trouble. These individuals, who claim the bombastic title of "Heirs of the Right Path", allegedly got their hands on sensitive data from Warui-Kashu & Co.

Mr. Zato requires the services of a discreet person to locate the crooks and erase the data from their terminal (or their terminals, as the case may be). The real problem is the timing: this mission must be carried out by May 15, i.e. two days later. Not content with imposing prohibitive deadlines, Mr. Zato tries to appeal to his interlocutor's feelings to obtain a preferential rate - his family business could pay the full price if the information were discovered, and his children would have to give up on their higher education. Aromée retorts that it is precisely wiser to invest the necessary sum to get the best service - pay now to avoid the scandal that will cost more tomorrow.

Faced with these two arguments, the GM proposes an opposed Bullshit roll against Mr. Zato's Cool defense. Since this is a simple NPC, Mr. Zato's defense is computed from his level (2) + 5 + 1 for a particular talent (he is used to negotiating). The Influencer's Big Mood talent gives her a +1 to her roll, but that is all for the bonuses.

• Aromée, Bullshit: [3 + 1] + 1 + 3 = 8, vs 8

A crappy die roll for a result that just scrapes through. Mr. Zato nevertheless consents to raise his offer: he puts a considerable sum on the table to carry this mission through, of which 4 points of cash will come back to Aromée in case of success.

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Working solo and with only one day ahead of her, Aromée has little choice: either she prepares, or she seeks to acquire an asset that could help her. Lacking directly available liquidity, she goes for the first solution. She spends her day exploring the web. Her Verified Account and her followers prove useful to glean as much information as possible about those famous "Heirs of the Right Path", going through the official channel: she remains a business representative, some of her followers are paper-pushers, they can no doubt provide her with a few tips. To do so, the Personal Preparation action allows her a Cool roll, supported by her Verified Account and her Bureaucracy specialty.

• Aromée, Personal Preparation: [4 + 5] (9) + 3 + 1 + 1 = 14, vs 7

The result exceeds all expectations. The Influencer obtains 3 points of personal prep, which she will be able to use to improve her odds during the mission.

As a consequence of her success, Aromée spends an afternoon with Harry, Gilda and Manuela, fans who work in the Foundation Ward administration. Over a coffee, they innocently reveal correctional information about the Heirs.

Infiltration & Hacking

On D-day, Aromée once again relies on her Trendy Wardrobe to dress like a corpo agent, so as to reinforce her aura of dignity and intimidation should the need arise: she gets a bonus in Formal social situations. In addition and with the GM's agreement, the player portraying her suggests using a point of prep for a Flashback:

While conducting her research online, the Influencer discovered that the "Heirs of the Right Path" were in conflict with "The L4 Gangrene", agitated refugees from the Moon. She is precisely waiting for a conflict between the two gangs to break out so she can slip more easily into the Heirs' "hideout", an isolated dead-end alley.

Consequence: the scene gets the Disturbance tag. This peculiarity generates a penalty on shots and makes "fleeing and infiltrating easier". I infer that this is an advantage for the mentioned actions, even if that is not clear in the description. Narratively, one can translate it as the presence of two on-edge lookouts "guarding" the alley, their eyes riveted on their comrades grappling with their adversaries. In short, the hideout is rather poorly protected: its security is 5 (base) + 3 (its level).

To put all chances on her side, Aromée plays the passerby frightened by the violence and points at passersby leaving the street, claiming out loud that they are in league with the refugees. The two lookouts grimace with anger and finally give in. They join the brawl - after all, they will only be a handful of meters outside their control zone... if someone passes by, they will notice. Certainly.

• Aromée, Disable Security: [4 + 6] (10) + 2 + 1 = 13, vs 8

The stratagem works, security drops to 6. Time for the infiltration proper, where Aromée takes advantage of the commotion to slip into the alley, up to the Heirs' terminal.

• Aromée, Infiltration: [2 + 5 + 2] (7) + 2 = 9, vs 6

Prudence pays off: she reaches the terminal.

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To Aromée's great surprise, the Heirs have an AI that makes searching for information on the terminal more complicated.

In Hard Wired Island, hacking works like a blend between a social conflict and an infiltration. You must query the network, which has a mood, but accumulating three failures triggers the alarm. Our Influencer does not want to waste time: she first makes an Access roll to make the network more cooperative, then she searches for the information directly on the terminal. Since she has ghosting protocols, she uses a point of prep to employ them. She thus gains one extra chance before being discovered and a boost for her first hacking action.

• Aromée, Access: [2 + 5 + 1] (8) + 2 + 1 = 11, vs 11
• Aromée, Search: [2 + 2 + 1] (4, critical) + 2 + 1 = 7, vs 11

While Aromée does obtain root access, she fails to locate the stolen data's position on Mr. Zato's terminal. Her searches are even recorded in the terminal's logs, so the AI could spot these traces. Pressed for time, Aromée persists: the brawl between the crooks will soon be over.

She makes a new roll, without benefiting from the advantage granted by the Access.

• Aromée, Search: [5 + 3] + 2 + 1 = 11, vs 11

Success: she locates the files, which she erases... not without copying and quickly consulting them. The headers suggest that the Heirs have been hired by Mr. Zato on numerous occasions for "rescue missions" of refugees. It was manifestly a matter of delivering poor souls to a warehouse in Turing Ward, for reasons that are obviously not mentioned. Mr. Zato is therefore trying to double-cross his embarrassing contractors... and the reason for this baseness remains to be discovered. Aromée now tries to slip away, as the brawl has somewhat calmed down. She walks along the alley, hiding from the crooks' sight by gliding from doorway to doorway, but the task proves more complicated than expected.

The GM decides that the security level rises to 5 + 7 (so 12), requiring a new infiltration roll.

• Aromée, Infiltration: [2, 1, 3](5) + 2 = 7, versus 12
• Aromée, Infiltration: [1, 6, 1](7) + 2 = 9, versus 12
• Aromée, Infiltration: [4, 3, 5](9) + 2 = 11, versus 12

Three successive failures. Ouch... things get complicated!

Hostilities & Social Bullshitting

As she tries to exfiltrate discreetly, Aromée is surprised by one of the Heirs of the Right Path.

The sentinel is a "simple adversary", i.e. a minion with simplified rules. We choose the "complex" initiative system to represent the action round: the idea is to add doubt to the action round, since the alternative is to have the NPCs play first, then the PCs.

I therefore start from the principle of using the adversary's level (2) for the initiative roll. As the book indicates, just because an NPC uses the simple system does not mean its threat is low: a +2 bonus still corresponds to a PC's second-best capacity!

• Heir, Initiative: [4 + 6] + 2 = 12
• Aromée, Initiative: [2 + 1] + 1 = 4

Well, the result speaks for itself! The Heir thus opens hostilities, throwing himself at Aromée with his truncheon. Here again, his attack roll uses his generous +2, against the target's defense:

• Heir, Melee: [2 + 5] + 2 = 9, vs 7

As a "kiss-cool" effect, Aromée can be knocked down by the attack. To avoid this sad outcome, she must succeed at a saving throw with her "Tough" capacity, which is 0. Things look bad (28% chance, according to the game's statistics).

• Aromée, Tough: [5 + 3] = 8, vs 9

Ouch. Not only does she suffer a minor wound inflicted by the Heir's successful action, but an additional penalty makes her easier to reach in melee, a consequence of her second failure.

In one stride, the Heir rushes at his prey. He lands a truncheon blow on her flank, and the impact's power throws Aromée to the ground.

For her part, Aromée senses well that the odds of prevailing in a physical confrontation are low. She uses a point of prep to boost her die roll, then uses the Soothe social action to calm her attacker. Since this is her specialty, she will add +1, on top of her Cool score, to her roll. Conversely, since she is the target of the hostility, her roll takes a disadvantage. We therefore roll 4d6 (2 base dice, +1 boost, +1 disadvantage) and remove the highest.

• Aromée, Soothe: [2, 5, 3, 2] (7 and critical on the double 2) +4 = 11, vs 7

Bingo! Aromée manages to calm her attacker, the atmosphere going from hostile to indifferent. Note that the kept double "2" offers a critical, which allows our Influencer to activate her Mood Detector implant, confirming her interlocutor's emotional state.

Aromée recognizes her attacker, thanks to the information gleaned the day before. It is

Richard Stefu

, a young conspiratorial family man. With the data retrieved from the terminal, Aromée has little trouble playing on his sensitive string: she straightens up, holding her bruised ribs with one arm, then raises her hand in the air as a sign of appeasement and addresses her attacker by name. The Heir suspends his gesture, frowning, so Aromée carries on. She explains to him that the Heirs of the Right Path's client has played them, that she has what it takes to prove her good faith. "This time is the right one", Richard thinks. Deep down, he always knew he was destined to uncover a planetary conspiracy, that he was

special

. Aromée takes back the lead.

Formally, hostilities between the two characters have ceased. We return to a less structured social conflict, where the Heir firmly awaits more explanations. To return to her comfort zone - the Formal mood - Aromée uses the social action dedicated to improving a non-hostile mood: Charm.

She therefore makes another social roll practically won in advance:

• Aromée, Charm: [5 + 4] (9) + 3 = 12, vs 7

The atmosphere improves, our Influencer regaining that serious, dignified air that gives her the ascendancy over her interlocutors. Time has come for the coup de grâce: bullshitting this poor Richard so that he helps her leave the premises. One last social roll, and the deal is in the bag. She gets a +1 (Formal mood).

• Aromée, Bullshit: [6 + 6] (12) + 3 + 1 = 16, vs 7

Well, there, our Influencer blows up the scoreboard! Not content with following her to the hideout's exit, Richard even buys her a kebab and a coffee in a snack bar a few streets away to discuss the affair that interests them. Technically, the NPC can always attempt an Smart roll against the roll's result to shake off his bullshitesque mystification, but with 2d6 + 2, he will simply never reach the score required to question the undeniable truths Aromée put under his nose. Twenty years later, he will still believe in them!

Pulling herself together, Aromée erases the grimace that accompanies her pain, as well as the fear showing through her gaze. Taking on a grave air, she introduces herself as an Influencer who discovered, by chance, evidence of a conspiracy affecting the whole station. Facing her dumbfounded interlocutor, foaming at the mouth and with eyebrows straight as a board, she concludes her grandiloquent speech. Richard then falls over himself apologizing for having attacked the one who will help him see more clearly in the planetary conspiracy he is about to face. He opens the way for her, keeping an eye on his comrades too busy fighting the L4 Gangrene.

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Impressions

That is all for this little adventure.

The system handles very different scenes with a certain talent, and greatly flatters the characters: while a standard NPC is stronger than a starting PC in the domains the latter neglects, the protagonists shine in their favorite domain. By playing on the characters' strengths, the players have every chance of prevailing. These "strengths" are of a very different nature from those of normal role-playing games: here, you play with your clothes, with the information collected beforehand, with a drone that can take pictures. Just like Coriolis, Hard Wired Island is a specialists' game. In that sense, the system succeeds in the objective it had set for itself.

But this success does not eclipse a few worries. First of all, no need to say that Hard Wired Island will not satisfy the fans of rich, structured combat. It is an assumed orientation, but make sure your players adhere to it. Beyond this design choice, the system's real problem takes the shape of a certain lack of clarity in the explanation of a series of rules. In this respect, the current absence of easily accessible support (read: not on Discord) does not help.