Hey fellas, I’ve been excitedly preparing for a campaign in the future and I wanted to use the Operations Sub Section of Aleph as a potential ally/enemy for the party. However a lot of the units that came with the sectorial in the miniatures game are absent from the sourcebook (I assume because the sectorial was released after the sourcebook). Are there any plans to add OSS careers (Yadu, Arjuna, Danavas etc), gear and statblocks? If not, are there any fan made conversions for these items?
EDIT, Some questions on hacking:
What are the benefits of using hacking programs? If breach effects from programs are applied only after a successful breach what are the benefits of immobilising programs like Gotcha! Over the vanilla breach effects like disabling equipment? Wouldn’t it be more effective to disable their armour and put them out of commission for longer? If using a program requires a standard action how does that interact with attack actions? Are the programs activated alongside an attack in that case?
I’m probably missing something.
Hacking programs are like weapons. When you make an basic InfoWar attack, you’ll note that you inflict 1+2N damage. You don’t even NEED a hacking device to make this kind of attack. Anyone with a commlog can do it. It’s the InfoWar equivalent of an unarmed strike.
Now… when you use a Hacking Device, you have the option of using Hacking Programs (sold separately!) to make the attack, just like a pistol, or a combi-rifle. First of all, you’ll notice that most hacking programs don’t do much more damage than your basic InfoWar attack. Attacking with Blackout still only does 1+2N damage? Bah!
However, Blackout comes with the Breaker 1 quality, which means if you roll an Effect on the damage, you permanently reduce the Security or BTS of the target by 1. If the BTS was already 0… you get another point of damage!
Now here is where Breech Effects come into play. The huge bonus with Hacking Programs is that you do not have to inflict damage to cause a breech! Instead you spend Momentum to inflict the special Breech effect of the program as if you DID cause an actual Breech.
So let’s say there is an enemy trooper ahead of you, and he’s spotted your team. You need to stop his outgoing communications NOW before he calls for reinforcements. You attack with your Blackout program. You roll enough successes to “Hit” but let’s say you roll really bad for damage. You only cause 2 points of damage to the trooper. No problem.
This software is designed to
prevent outbound communication. On a successful
attack, 1 Momentum can be spent to create a
special Breach Effect that disables one piece of
equipment attached to the target’s network.
So you just spend 1 Momentum and you automatically disable the enemy’s comm system.
Now it’s worth noting that what you just did is a Breech Effect, but it does not count as an actual Harm inflicted. So for example, if the NPC you hacked was an Elite, which takes 2 Harms to disable, your Blackout effect does not count against that limit. He is still at “full health” so to speak. Otherwise though, your Blackout effect is treated exactly like a Harm. He can use the Absterge action, or other actions to “heal” the effect, etc.
Some hacking programs are useful to use as attacks even if you don’t intend on using their special breech effects at all. For example, Carbonite does 1+4N damage, and it also has Piercing 3, Breaker 1. That’s a pretty nice hacking program to use against just about anything, even if it’s not a target that you can’t paralyze with the special effect… like for example a security camera or security door that isn’t going to move anywhere.
Thanks @Murrdox! Legitimately very sound advice, I looked up special breach effects and it’s much more clear with how hacking interacts with the other two systems.
I’m sorry to necro this thread, but I had a question related to the contents and this popped up in Google search. I’m reviving it to due to confusion. Murrdox states Carbonite and Blackout have Breaker 1… but they don’t? At least, not on my copy.
Is there a difference between the printed versions and the PDF that I’m operating with? All it has listed is BE (Breach Effect) and a small number to indicate it has a special breech effect, which is mentioned by Murrdox, but nowhere under Blackout or Carbonite does it list Breaker. Some other programs do, but not those two. I’m confused, and slightly concerned that maybe the PDF isn’t updated like the printed version?
Although, maybe Murrdox thought BE meant Breaker… it doesn’t, though, it means Breech Effect.
