In the movies, hacking is mostly about breaking in to things. Sometimes though, hacking is about hacking something together. It can be a machine, a series of machines, or a program to solve a difficult problem.

Real World-Junkpile Wars

Junkpile Wars is a tradition at the Penguicon Linux and science fiction conference held every year in Detroit. Teams compete to build a working computer system or computer network from a pile of equipment donated by local businesses. The heap contains no complete working systems, and contestants are responsible for testing equipment on their own. They are responsible for supplying all of their own software.

I am proud to say that the members of my own Linux User's Group have claimed the prize every year since they started competing. The first year the task was simple: build a working system with a functioning command line. Tasks have become more difficult each year, requiring working web, file or email servers, firewalls, and complete functioning networks.

The modularity of hardware, and the ready availability of free, easy to install and use software means that a full computer shop can put carried on a small motorcycle. A friend runs his networking business that way, a fact which makes me want to quit my day job and come work for him, at least in the summer.

Hacking together software is something of a different matter. A good programmer, especially a senior programmer, can build something functional fairly quickly if it's similar to something that they've done before, and they have access to their old source code. For instance, I can knock together a simple working database application in a couple of hours if I have access to my existing source code, because I've been writing that kind of software for a long time.

When I'm given something new, it takes time to figure out how to represent data, how to process it, and how that data fits with the real world problem that I need to solve. Typically it requires that I spend a lot of time with an expert in the field, so I can use their knowledge to work out the data storage and processing requirements. That pretty well kills the notion of the genius programmer who spends caffeine fueled nights working in solitude to turn out some mind blowing piece of software that will change the world.

It's not that programmers don't work alone through the night while mainlining Red Bull. Before they do that, they or somebody with both social skills and some knowledge about requirements gathering needs to spend some time with an expert who understands the problem they're trying to solve.

In Game

This rapid advance in computer technology means that a skilled character can throw together a working computer system or network very quickly. With relatively limited resources they can actually build a small super computer, again using commodity hardware and software. While I haven't been involved in setting up such a machine, it could probably be done in a matter of a week or two once the necessary hardware was obtained.

You can introduce a challenge in the game if they need to scrounge equipment. Tests against scrounging skills and computer repair or operation are certainly appropriate. Good role-playing opportunities abound in their efforts to secure equipment. In fact securing a specialized piece of equipment can make a good adventure seed if it is illegal, immoral, or currently in the possession of somebody who isn't interested in sharing their toys.

Software is another matter. If your bad mother hacker is attempting to solve a problem in an area where they have knowledge, there's precious little that you need to do in game to resolve the software creation. You might ask for a skill test of their programming, but it's unlikely that the story will hang on that.

It's a different matter if they're writing software to cut the fuel or time requirements for navigating their starship. Unless they also happen to be astrogators or hyperspace engineers they will need to spend some time with people who do have that experience. Skill tests are recommended for the people with the knowledge to impart it to the programmers, failure meaning that they have not imparted sufficient information to be useful. On the programmer side, intelligence, education or IQ rolls are recommended to see if they have managed to understand what their teachers have imparted. If your game system has a long-term task resolution system, this is an ideal place to use it.

Gathering the information necessary to solve a particularly knotty problem also makes for a good adventure seed, providing the necessary information is held by somebody unwilling to share it. Illegal, immoral or blasphemous information increases its value.

Adventure Seeds

A government anti-terrorist cell is attempting to interrupt the actions of agent-provocateurs who want to assassinate a visiting arch-duke, triggering a war between their client-state and the nation of the arch-duke. The problem is that the group's members are unknown, and they have secured their communications using an unknown cipher. Although the arch-duke's security has been upgraded, protecting him from an unknown threat at all times is impossible.

Disrupting the plot will require securing information about the device used to decode and encode the messages, which is of course in the possession of the unknown agent-provocateurs. Messages are delivered via a dead drop. The person who leaves the messages has been followed and his home searched, but he does not appear to be anything more than a messenger. For obvious security reasons, he cannot be brought in and questioned without causing the operation to be aborted and the conspirators to escape, only to strike again.

The player characters will need to follow the person who is ultimately receiving the messages and determine the method of decryption. They then need to intercept the messages, make a copy, restore the messages (to avoid tipping the intended recipient), and decrypt the messages.

For a bit of extra fun, consider having the messages encrypted using Bruce Schnier's playing card encryption algorithm. The encryption and decryption is done via a deck of cards and a slow but easy to work series of steps. The encryption key can be transmitted via information in public papers, such as a syndicated bridge column, crossword puzzle, or racing results. The actual message is written on cigarette paper, rolled into cigarettes with the writing on the inside. In the event a courier believes they have been discovered and can't hand the message off, they can light up a smoke to destroy the evidence.

If the recipient is caught in the act of decoding, cigarette paper burns extremely quickly and leaves no ash which can be reconstructed (unlike stationary or writing paper). The technical challenge here will be that of reconstructing the algorithm without prior knowledge.

This adventure seed work just as well in a historical setting as a contemporary. It can even work in fantasy or science fiction games. If you find yourself in need of a setting, consider Sarajevo in 1914.