Attempting to access any computerized system—whether a desktop computer, a Grid site, or a robot’s brain—without authorization is called hacking. When you hack into a system, your visit is called a session. Once you stop accessing it, the session is over. You can go back to the system in the future; when you do, it’s a new session.

Several steps are required to hack into a system:

This step is optional, but prudent. By making a Computer Use check (DC 20) before beginning a session, you can alter your identifying information. The check requires 1 minute and cannot be made untrained; you can take 10 but not 20. This triples the amount of time a trace takes to track , giving you much more time to find and negate the trace or end the session before the track is complete. The alterations last until you end your session.

There are two ways to do this: physically or over the Grid.

You gain physical access to the computer or a robot’s “brain”, or to a computer connected to the network. You might sneak into an office or break into a network junction and tap into a communications line (whether wired or wireless). If a target system is not on the Grid, this is the only way to access it. Gaining physical access to a target generally involves more time, skills, and skill checks and does not automatically get you past any Portals or Permissions checks, but does grant a +2 bonus to all Computer Use checks to hack that system. Many “deaf” systems (those not connected to the outer world) do not require Portal checks (such as logins) for basic access, but if they do, you must succeed at a Computer Use check to gain access.

Reaching a target via the Grid requires two Computer Use checks. The first check (DC 10 or higher) is needed to find the site on the Grid, as described in the Computer Use skill. The second check is to defeat the node’s Portal DC, as described in this chapter. Once you’ve succeeded at both checks, you’ve accessed the site.

However you get access to your target site/system, you usually start your session in a default node within the domain, a kind of entranceway.

Once you’re in, you need to find whatever it is you came to learn, get, alter, or destroy. Whether your interface is a monitor and keyboard or the newest, shiniest gridcaster, most sites and systems have a default login or starting point. It may look like a room with lots of doors or a menu or directory, but either way you’re probably going to have to search to find anything worth all the trouble you went through to hack your way in. The more specific or restricted your target, the harder it’s going to be to find. And remember that every Computer Use check you fail to overcome Portals or Permissions DCs has the poten-tial to alert the Admin.

Some systems are more user-friendly than others. Depending upon the architecture of the site and how much you know about it, your search may involve pressing a button on a virtual elevator (clicking your destination on a menu) or wading through thousands of directories and folders (searching through rooms in a sprawling complex of interconnected office buildings). The Find File application of the Computer Use skill is your best tool here. Making a check to find your way in a system allows you to choose which (door, telepad, folder, menu option, etc) to which you currently have access will bring you closer to your goal (which has to be relatively specific, of course).

Most systems have additional file (or application, etc.) security. This may take the form of additional Portals or barriers to defeat, Permissions DCs to access or run programs or files, defensive programs, and/or even an active system Administrator and other agents. This is where the gridgrrlz and gridboiz are weeded out from the true gridrunners. The virtual world has even a greater variety of challenges than the physical one, as the mounted piles of mindscraped ‘runners, fragged shadows, and burnt out gridcasters can attest.

Finally, you can actually do what you came to do. If you just want to look at records, no additional check is needed unless the data is encrypted. You can also usually download data, though that may require some time—from rounds to minutes, depending on the volume of data—to complete. Altering or deleting files requires yet another check against a Permissions DC, and other actions are covered in the preceding section.

Whether your run was successful or you crashed and burned, sooner or later, all sessions end. To normally exit from any site to the datastream is a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity and can be interrupted.

To summarily end your session and your run, disconnecting your computer/gridcaster/etc., is a move action called Bailing, which provokes an attack of opportunity and cannot be interrupted. Bailing sux, however, and has potential dangers, not the least of which is a possible reduction of the gridrunner’s Reputation (at the GM’s discretion).

A shadow who is detected by a system administrator can also be ejected from a site, or Booted. Only the system administrator or an assistant empowered by the Admin can boot a user, and an target shadow can attempt to resist. Being booted leaves the user adrift in the datastream and potentially, lost.

Finally, an unlucky ‘runner can end her session by being reduced to 0 hit points by shadow combat or some other virtual hazard.

However it ends, once your session is over, any Portals you unlocked and Permissions you gained in a site “reset”. If you had a clean run—meaning you went undetected—alterations you made inside the site may still be there if you return, depending on the details and at the GM’s discretion.