How do you present computer networks in your games? Is it only cable network and the PCs have to plug in somewhere like R2D2 always did or do you allow WIFi networks and so PCs can hack without a need to access some data port? In my games I put also a normal WIFI network, but ruled that it is harder to slice.

There's a starship action that allows slicing another ship's systems. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have to be in contact with your ship for the slicing to happen, so wireless slicing is possible.

I pretty much allow for both wireless and wired traffic. It's easy to throw Setback dice at wireless slicers for environmental conditions. I also would consider wireless networks better hardened against intrusion like you've mentioned, since they are meant for public use.

Since I don't have a really good grasp on in-universe networking technology but I do for our universe, I try to bend what I know of canon into neat, clean little boxes based upon that, but also taking a page form the BSG "no networked systems" paradigm aboard capital ships for the exact same reason they do: you're going to have a hard time slicing systems that aren't connected.

For low-risk/low-reward stuff I wouldn't have thought you needed a physical connection.

In secure facilities (a warship, an imperial academy, a Moff's mansion, a holonet relay, the administrative hub of a planetary governor) my group's been required to find a terminal or access port for slicing attempts. Even then, logging in at one point doesn't always give us access to everything we'd like (there's a little more leeway when you get Triumphs or toss out Force Points). This helps keep the slicer part of the action - they have to sneak/battle their way to a location they can slice from.

I am not opposed to wireless networks in the game but it strikes me that an artificial construct of the size of the Death Star, or an entire planet covered in city like Coruscant with trillions of beings, would be putting out so much EM junk transmissions into the spectrum, that a wired network might not just be more secure, it might be the only way to reliably run a network.

Given the jamming comms lines in the movies there is clearly always something wireless for a Slicer to do though.

This is a tough aspect to the game. Much of what we "know" about Star Wars is still rooted in '70's tech. Little hand held comlinks, plugging into computers to use them, pretty much the overall feel is still a WWII/1970's tech feel.

The game has never caught up to our real world technology standards. He'll they don't even have "smart" comlinks. I am thinking about bringing one into my game called the iComm.

Why do I need a protocol/ translator droid when I can have an app on my iComm that can translate real time for me? (I have one on my iPhone that does it, but I still have to type, but it does say the words in that language.)

Computer tech in Star Wars would be so far advanced and so much more difficult than our own. Every species is going to have their own programming language, algorithms, and match structures. So how much of this do we want to bring into our games.

With Wifi, cloud, shared networks, and everything else we have, this can be daunting to try to run in an RPG.

For me, I will have our modern day equivalents in my game. For smaller scale computer hijinks, they can go into a Starbucks, and hop the free wifi to do some stuff, but fir major corporation or military stuff, they will have to hardware in.

I know the book says you can 'Slice" into a starship. I say no way. A tramp freighter can not slice into a TIE fighter. If this could happen, than the Death Star would have sliced into the X-wings and wiped them out with no problem. At Yavin or Endor.

For me, I add in a good amount of setback dice into the computer aspect. So someone who is not the Slicer can attempt it, but the Slicer can really shine because of those talents that knock out the setback die.

Like others have said, just because you are on a wifi network does not mean you can go anywhere in the world you want to. I can't hack into the US missile defense system from my local coffee shop and start launching nukes at Canada. Not all systems are tied together that easily either. Let's say I want to Hack into the Bank of America systems to create a fake employee as apart of my bank heist, I can't just start shifting money around to my account all of a sudden. These are totally different systems.

So just some of my thoughts about Star Wars computer tech.

I separate data and communications as two distinct individual methods of communication. Then a split it into hardwired (needing a datajack) and holonet (wireless). Then there is security level and access level.

For example, My party is currently infiltrating a prison/ ore refinery to save a group of nobles. I noted what type, security, and access level is in each part of the facility. The refinery has a hardwired comm system (comm panels) that are medium security (2d) with no data transmission out of the level. You can not jack anything beyond a local piece of equipment and the comms do not transmit outside of their network .

The prison level has the same medium security hardwired comms, but also has high security datajacks that give basic control and data within the prison level.

The NCO living has the same comms but also have comm stations that can transmit out to other places like a normal comm system. The datajacks are medium security and has information about all levels of the station but no control. They have limited holonet that is not connected to the stations functions.

Officer and Command level has all the NCO has plus long range transmitters, a hyperwave transmitter in command and control, holonet data (hard security) with control of basic functions, and a datajack system (medium security) that puts you into the main station computer system.

So as they go deeper into the station slicers gain more and more access to what they can do. In the Officer and Command level they can be wirelessly connected to the holonet system with door control, a full map, and heat scans showing personnel movement. I see them being like Jor-El in Man of Steel directing everyone else and tossing boosts around like crazy.

So think about type of access, security level, and what can be accessed in an area and you quickly have it ready for your slicers every question.

Type- Hard comms, Wireless Comms, Hard datajacks, Wireless Data.

Security level- easy to impossible (1d to 5d) maybe upgrade to a challenge die if it has security countermeasures. (ion disruptor in the datajack coupling is nasty for a droid)

Acces level- what can they do at this datapoint. Most systems on a network do not have access to the entire network. They would have department and section of access.

Thanks for many good posts .

I see it as "whatever the story dictates." R2 builder is right--Star Wars still has a lot of 70s tech associated with it (although you could say that "beaming" the Death Star plans to Princess Leia's ship counted as a wireless connection).

Personally, I look at things like the Holonet as a galaxy-spanning Internet, albeit one the Empire has a very tight grip on. The Darknet equivalent in the Star Wars universe might be one of the main tools the Rebels have in coordinating with each other, while pretty much every news source is controlled by the Empire. I also try to draw some parallels between modern-day technology and Star Wars technology. So, while you can access the Holonet wirelessly, you can't really hack into a building's systems unless you can hook up your computer to a hardline terminal. With the Empire, I'd rule slicing into their systems all but impossible from the outside.

That said, I'm willing to bend the rules a little bit. I'm definitely willing to let a tech slice into an opposing ship's system in order to give them a setback die or two on their chances to hit the PCs, and in one game I was going to let one of our tech characters try to trace a slicer by accessing the WiFi system.

The main point is that technology in the Star Wars galaxy is incredibly advanced, from a 1970s perspective. We essentially have a datapad in the modern day, and it looks a lot nicer than the Star Wars datapad does, for instance. Also, our smartphones only come up short because comlinks have the greater range. So you need to play a bit fast and loose with technology. I would say morph character's comlinks into partial smartphones, with the ability to record contact information and alert PCs who is calling who. Give the datapad an integrated camera and microphone, along with an almost limitless data capacity. More to the point, I would say more often than not consider the game/narrative effects of what the player wants to do. Add difficulty, challenge dice, boost and setback dice as necessary, and for the Force's sake, don't be afraid to lapse into technobabble if you need to. After all, Artoo didn't really say what he was doing when he hacked into a system. He just said he would do it and here is the result he was looking for. Sometimes he got a Triumph (Cloud City's computer told him how to fix the hyperdrive), sometimes he got threat (Finds out where Princess Leia is being held, also finds out she's scheduled to be executed), and occasionally he got a despair (Shot by a stormtrooper and malfunctioned on Endor, tried to jack into an electrical socket on Cloud City), but not a lot of exposition was spent explaining what he was doing--just what he was trying to accomplish.

As the Holonet is taken over by the Empire, I assumed that there is some local (covering several systems, sectors) net. For example, Hutt space has its own net, Bothan space and adjacent systems have their own net, but they are not not connected at the galaxy level because Empire blocks the Holonet. This explains why the news travel slow (Luke saying in one book that several years after the death of the Emperor there were still planets who did not know about it), why there are message pods, and why it took months to spread news about the 1st Death Star (great news clips published in SWAJ covering Ep IV and V).

I have a PC super-slicer so I had to work out rules what can be sliced and how - I really wanted to avoid Shadowrun4 situations where slicers could control everything via wireless and be safe locked in their lair. So I expanded on Shadowrun ideas - almost everything is cabled, because wireless access is too dangerous and most buildings have 'anti-wi-fi coating' in their structure.

That said low-level wireless networks are possible, like news, controlling simple droids and machines etc - so the slicer still has stuff to do for example in combat (and slicing action in starship combat).

Hacking into cabled network doesn't mean you have access to everything, though. Some things operate on closed-off basis, need biometric data to access or you can hack from 'hubs' - which have to be infiltrated personally first in order to access the port.

I have a PC super-slicer so I had to work out rules what can be sliced and how - I really wanted to avoid Shadowrun4 situations where slicers could control everything via wireless and be safe locked in their lair. So I expanded on Shadowrun ideas - almost everything is cabled, because wireless access is too dangerous and most buildings have 'anti-wi-fi coating' in their structure.

That said low-level wireless networks are possible, like news, controlling simple droids and machines etc - so the slicer still has stuff to do for example in combat (and slicing action in starship combat).

Hacking into cabled network doesn't mean you have access to everything, though. Some things operate on closed-off basis, need biometric data to access or you can hack from 'hubs' - which have to be infiltrated personally first in order to access the port.

I am afraid of the same thing with my slicer. I think good idea is to make military facilities without WIFI for the main network due to the security measures. So, the officer can still send orders through datapads/comlinks (tablets/smartphones) wireless, but to have an access to the information databanks stored inside the facility, they have to use computers.

Good to keep in mind in our Hubris about ourselves we have been using networked computers on a personal/commercial scale for 25ish years? Computers period for maybe 70 years at best? The Republic is at least a thousand years old and has used them that long, and really they've been in use much longer I am sure. So a lot of this slicing mind set is based on our perspective of computers and networks, which is really in its infancy.

Distances in Star Wars are much greater than anything we deal with in our current world. We have real time communication between star systems, people chatting to ships in orbit or on the other side of the planet without apparent satellite relay networks. And all this without apparent lag - we see low quality and signal degradation, but not people waiting for a five second delay from the Moon to Earth (let alone the far greater distances we often encounter in Star Wars).

All this says to me that wireless communications IS NOT RADIO-SIGNALS travelling back and forth. At which point we enter handwavium rules of physics. What I see as consistent with Star Wars is minimal (or zero) latency, but low bandwidth. Communications appear to be all either voice, or bandwidth constrained holograms. Never huge datafiles or plans for the Death Star. Everything we see is consistent with this.

If you wanted a real world rationale, you could say it's all Quantum Entanglement - instant, but limited. But really all you need to make most of the Star Wars communication tech make sense is this effect. At a stroke you've ruled out heavy wireless slicing. Probably still possible to do the odd thing, but for real work you need a physical connection.

Really, the more you consider this, the more it makes so much of Star Wars make sense. Droid armies receive commands by voice from their commander? Not only is this convenient from an integration perspective with living beings, it would also be hard to have some giant networked mind. The Emperor's hologram to Vader in the OT appearing patchy and shimmery with those horizontal planar lines traversing up it? The technology struggles to transmit that much data.

Once you accept SW tech operates under different principles because it's not radio waves (it can't be given what we've seen about the distances involved), then you just have to accept that the limits aren't distance / latency, but bandwidth. Now everything works.

I divide everything between the local level (planetary, system, sector) and galactic level. Local level is pretty much the internet as we have it. Holonet is galactic and controlled by the Empire and reflects what we see in the films + internet as we have it. Slicing local internet = relatively simple. Slicing the holonet = daunting. Local internet means you can hide your tracks easier = less risk and likely just dealing with local law enforcement and/or Sector Rangers. Holonet = more risk, because one slip up and the ISB and Imperial Intelligence are probably coming after you, within minutes.

I do something similar, with Planetary/System/Sector/Regional/Galactic as my dividers. Sector and Regional (a grouping of sectors) are intermediate levels in my games.

For the Holonet I emphasize that the key difference is that it is NOT decentralized. With the Internet, anyone can register a domain, you can run your own servers, people can set up IM systems between their own systems.

The Holonet may share several of the principles of the Internet but it is OWNED by the Empire. You want to run a news site? You need a licence and technical assistance from the Empire. You want to send IMs? Both parties are connecting to the Empire's computer banks. Much makes sense when you realize the Holonet is not decentralized like the Internet.

I also try to avoid a lot of modern terminology when talking about this stuff. For example I wrote "computer banks" rather than 'server' above. It helps free players from their assumptions.

According to d20 to slice into the Holonet, you have to beat 7 purple dice and have a special transceiver that allows to connect to it in a first place.

For the Holonet I emphasize that the key difference is that it is NOT decentralized. With the Internet, anyone can register a domain, you can run your own servers, people can set up IM systems between their own systems.

The Holonet may share several of the principles of the Internet but it is OWNED by the Empire. You want to run a news site? You need a licence and technical assistance from the Empire. You want to send IMs? Both parties are connecting to the Empire's computer banks. Much makes sense when you realize the Holonet is not decentralized like the Internet.

I also try to avoid a lot of modern terminology when talking about this stuff. For example I wrote "computer banks" rather than 'server' above. It helps free players from their assumptions.

And easy enough to enforce - Imperial technicians staff the HoloNet relay stations and without them there's no significant FTL communication.