I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, what the heck does this mean?

I originally assumed "ice" was the way you would block someone from hacking your system, and therefore the "icebreaker" was your skill at hacking, but the way i see them written its like they are physical things.

Example, I have an ice rating of 3, so to hack my system you have a difficulty of 3, but you have icebreaker 1, so its now difficulty 2.

Help please?

x

ICE and Icebreakers are just pieces of software. They are more like equipment for computers than skills. ICE has a rating that must be met or overcome by a hacker. The hackers roll 2 difficulty (purple) with their computer (hacking) skill. They must generate enough success to meet or exceed the ICE rating. E.g. an Ice Wall has a rating of 5. So the hacker would need to roll at least 5 success to overcome it.

Icebreakers are like weapons for hackers. They add their rating as success to overcoming ICE. In the example above if the hacker had a Battering Ram icebreaker then they would only need 1 success to get through the Ice Wall. If the ICE was Hadrian Wall (Rating 8 ) then the hacker with Battering Ram would need to generate at least 2 success to overcome it.

Like any given skill check you still need to generate at least 1 success to succeed at the check.

OK, show while I different approach that I envisioned, it is as I was thinking. One helps you hack, the other defend!

Perfect explanation, thank you!