John plays a character with the cybernetic brain implant. He buys a Ranged (Light) skillchip and installs it in the implant.

John's has a 3 Agility and 2 ranks in his Ranged (Light). Normally his pool is 2 yellow Proficiency dice and 1 green Ability die.

The skillchip is rated as 3 skill ranks in Ranged (Light), and 3 Agility. (Please accept this as accurate. John purchased the highly experimental and illegal Arkanian brainware on the blackest black market).

When the chip is used in an Assisted Check, John benefits from the chip's higher skill ranks, and he rolls 3 yellow Proficiency dice for his check. (Once he picks up a third rank in the skill, the chip's Assisted Check benefit will be lessened and become an extra Boost die. But that's down the road...)

During a mission, the cunning Bothan slicer known only as the Hydra sliced into John's brain implant and corrupted it with a virus. Instead of giving John an Assisted Check benefit, the skillchip now engages in an Opposed Check hindrance. The targeting reticle glitches and jumps around and there are double images of the target, making it much harder for John to score a proper hit. (The chip cannot easily be removed; it does not simply pop in and out. Besides, it is the brain implant that's corrupted, not the chip.)

This is my question...

John has cornered the wily Bothan in one of her hidden safe houses in Lessu. The range between them is Short, which would normally be an Easy difficulty of but a single purple Difficulty die to shoot her with his blaster pistol. But the Hydra smiles knowingly. She can tell the sliced chip is messing with him. Her fate is not sealed yet...

Given the skillchip's rating, how does that affect the difficulty of the check?

I feel like the new, Opposed Checked difficulty should be either:

a) 3 red Challenge dice (because the skillchip's rating is, essentially, "assisting" the one purple Difficulty die), or

b) the normal difficulty should be upgraded three times (because of the skillchip's 3 skill ranks), which, in this case, would be 2 red Challenge dice.

An assist in this case would be 2 purple, 1 red (3 difficulty from the chip, upgraded once). It's a weird mechanic to apply in this situation though.

I'd be inclined to count it as setback dice rather than mucking with the difficulty rating since the task itself isn't any more difficult but there's definitely a situational complication.

I was going to say “b)”, but then I read Garran’s post, and now I’m not so sure.

Hope that helps!

Neither, just add setback dice. One per success when planting that virus.

Which should have been a opposed computer vs discipline or computers check btw.

At least that is how I would handle this.

It is in line with other hacking and jamming in the game and as well with the usually way to deal with darkness, low visibility, etc 3 setback dice are on average btw one failure and one threat, that is worth roughly two upgrades minus the 16% chance for despair. How you describe the virus it does not sound like it should increase the despair chance anyway.

Wait, what book are skillchips in?

Wait, what book are skillchips in?

They’re not. This was a hypothetical situation being posed by someone who has knowledge from KOTOR, KOTOR II, SWTOR, or some other related game where such things are a possibility.

Also, as a note, skilled assistance isn't available in combat. The maneuver is called "Assist" and provides a boost to an engaged ally.

Also, as a note, skilled assistance isn't available in combat. The maneuver is called "Assist" and provides a boost to an engaged ally.

Droid Brains disagree with you. Also assistance is using the assist maneuver during structured encounters or combat (p33 AoR). Restrictions in combat still apply.

It would be an hinderance, yes, but since John is already a skill shooter it would be nothing else than a visual trouble, 2-3 Black Dice hoewer strong the hinderance is.

remember the dificult of a task is always the same if not something is changing drastically.

Jumper over 2 meter wide gap has a difficulty of average, there is no differance if it is 10 cm deep or 100 meters. wind or fog will give setback dice but the jump it self won't change it difficulty.

only if a part of the ground is destroyed and the gap becomes 4 meters wide the difficulty it self will change.

here it is the same. It is "easy" for John to shoot Hydra on short distance, the chip messing with his eyes is just an inconvinient hinderance, a setback.

If the ship were direktly used with an targeting-system-attachment in the armor (Dangerous Convanents) it would be a whole other story since then it would also try to move his hands in another direction than he wants... that would be an increase of dificulty the same way if someone else would try to aid Hydra by grapling Johns hands.

This is exactly the sort of feedback I was wanting! Thanks everyone.

I do want to clarify, though, my "b" option does not change the difficulty to a different difficulty, it upgrades it 3 times.

The "a" option is more like how an opposed check works, which is what I'm looking for really. As an example, a standard Negotiation check is used to find an item you want to purchase. In this case, you have a difficulty of 1 or 2 or more difficulty dice to roll against. However, if you are trying to haggle a deal with somebeing, it becomes an opposed roll - your Negotiation vs. the other being's Negotiation (or Cool). The standard difficulty dice is replaced by that person's skill pool.

Just adding a few Setback dice to the standard ranged difficulty to represent the chip messing with John while he's trying to shoot is a very viable option. But I'm not sure it accurately represents just how much the corrupted implant and chip are messing with him. I mean, it's not just some kind of heads-up-display he's looking at and can disregard and take his best guess of a shot, it is in his head. It's in his mind. It is telling him things that are not true, but it feels so accurate, Just as the chip greatly helps him, so the corrupted chip greatly hinders him.

I dunno. Still considering the options. But now I do have an option "c" of simply adding 3 Setback dice to a standard difficulty.

"C" is the option John likes best; without the chance for Despairs, he won't accidentally shoot any of his comrades. The Hydra likes option "a" the best. She also hopes I'll flip a Darkside Destiny Point in her favor as well.

As Brad surmised, this is a totally hypothetical situation at the moment. I'm juggling some ideas in my head for a couple things, and I'm wanting to sort out any non-standard mechanics issues that might pop up ahead of time.

The Hydra should have an appreciated rank of adversary already anyway, so the upgrades come from that side already.

Another option is to increase the difficulty by one per 2 success of Hydra's computer check when planting/writing the virus.

Though I see you favor really an opposed check, I guess partly for narrative reasons. So why not just take the hydras computer skill as a direct opposed check with the hacker and his virus. Add maybe 2 setbacks per range band on top and make the check narratively a fight between the skillsoft and pc. Maybe even replace agility with willpower for all range combat check until the virus is purged. The virus itself might be semi-sentient too …

And that's not a bad idea either for this particular scenario. I might call that option "D."

I do favor the opposed check idea. But I am often wrong.