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Hacking

Someone please tell me about hacking in the Traveller's universe. Do any of you have special house rules concerning hacking?
 
I like using a cutlass for some good old fashioned hacking, although a broadsword might be better.

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Dave "Dr. Skull" Nelson
 
No kidding. All my favorite characters had the "Blade" skill.

Now that that is out of our system...

Hacking in the Traveller universe mostly doesn't exist. Remember, the game was first published in 1977. In those days, hacking was called "phreeking" and it was done on the phone system, not computer networks. Personel computers were a rich nerd's hobby and none of the famous hacker attacks had happened yet.

So, to be true to the genera, we assume that for the most part computer security works AND any really IMPORTANT information is on isolated systems.

On the other hand, IMTU everyone has a Pocket Computer about the size of Palm Pilot with the whole New York Public Library stored on it. The Pocket Computer has a voice interface roughly the same as the bridge computer from the original Star Trek. As GM, I use it as a plot device to pass info on the the party.

It also makes finding good Varger resturants easy, and can display walking directions.
 
The Traveller Adventure had one side bit with a hacker, actually. He had specially designed and built "black boxes" for an anti-corporate run IIRC.

Hacking in the current sense requires the same kind of net to hack *in* (or *from*, depending on how you look at these things). Some Traveller worlds will have info networks similar to the modern Internet, but most will likely be a bit more localized. Actually, I see R2D2 as a good model for the Traveller universe hacker: He isn't stealing data from a continent away, he's sneaking in through an internal connection to make the facility do what he wants...
 
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