Dynamic Hacking Encounters

Hacking encounters vary to reflect the hackers’ goals and the target computer’s capabilities. Each encounter includes at least one objective tied to the hacker’s goal (such as secret data to steal or a door to open), at least one countermeasure that opposes the hacker, and often, one or more nodes that create avenues the hackers must navigate toward their goals.

To build an encounter, set the encounter’s Challenge Rating— which sets the encounter’s check DC (page 71)—and decide on an approximate encounter length based on the number of checks required to resolve the key objectives. A short encounter requires about 5–7 successful checks to resolve the main objectives, whereas longer encounters might require 10–15 checks. For each lead hacker involved, add enough countermeasures to increase the number of checks by 2 (for shorter encounters) or by as much as 4 for longer encounters. For each support hacker, increase the number of checks by 1.

Scaling an encounter in this way need not always involve adding more countermeasures but could instead involve requiring an additional success to resolve specific objectives. This way, even if more PCs join the encounter as lead hackers than you anticipated, you can easily adjust the encounter to provide a fairly similar challenge.

Timed Encounters: In Starfinder, successfully accessing a system often affords the hacker time to explore at leisure. While a dynamic hack attempt might include finite countermeasures and a clear win condition, the format also supports hackers clashing with an array of defenses that multiply faster than the PCs can deactivate them. In this case, the goal becomes resolving enough countermeasures to stay safe, accomplish the mission, and escape before being overwhelmed or detected.