We're In! The Flavor of Hacking

Welcome, Commander. 
It has been a while since my last journal, as I have spent my time producing, printing, cutting, sorting, assembling, counting, and shipping 50 Rogue Angels prototypes. Most of them are now in the hands of reviewers - meaning that we will soon start to see content pop up, with the majority landing on the Kickstarter launch date (4th September).  

Today's post will be a closer look at another mechanic in Rogue Angels, the hacking. I will dive deeper into how the mechanic came to be and share my thoughts on what it brings to the table. I hope you will enjoy the read :)

Simple beginnings

Like other advanced dungeon crawlers, I wanted there to be more than just baddies to fight. With a sci-fi universe to tap into, it was a given that there had to be some consoles and doors to hack, some electronics to fry and explosives to detonate. For this purpose, I created the "activate action", which allowed the players to interact in a non-violent way. 

As you can see on the middle card above, it was a simple activation value given to a non-combat card, allowing players to open doors, crates, or consoles. Objects had a certain value, which could be reached by activating it over one or more actions. 

Below you can see a shot of an early prototype where both enemies and objects have hitpoints. 

This worked for a long time, even the first couple of months into 2021 when I was slowly moving onto the Tabletop Simulator version. Then one day, I played with a fellow hobby designer friend, who had a lot of praises for the game, except the doors. 

"It feels like yet another door. Just a different type of enemy where you have to reduce its value to zero. I am not sure how you should change it, but I feel it should be something different, maybe its own mini-game?"

This statement left me thinking and grumbling... ​​

A Thematic take

Finally, three months later, in May, I had a solution. The interaction bag. It seems obvious now, but it was a really tough nut to crack, as this mini-game or interaction mechanic had to fulfill a few requirements. 

1. It could not be a puzzle where the solution would get boring/easier over time. 
2. Players should be able to check and understand their own progress. 
3. It had to create tension, like when you see hacking taking place in movies.
4. Components should be at a minimum and be easy to handle. 
5. Some characters have better hacking skills and should be at an advantage when performing interactions. ​​

Hacking in Rogue Angels

In short, players can interact with objects by playing certain interaction cards. The value these interaction cards provide (including bonusses and/or dice rolls) allow players to draw that number of tokens from the interaction bag.

The goal of a successful interaction/hack is to collect 3 tokens of the same color from the interaction bag. The bag contains 8 red, 8 blue, 8 purple tokens, and 4 white ones acting as jokers. 

You draw random tokens 1 at a time and may stop at any point. Once you stop you must pick a color to keep for the interaction. If you have less than 3 of a color, you leave the chosen color at the object, allowing you or other players to continue the interaction on subsequent actions.

If you want a more thorough explanation and examples, you can dig into the rulebook here.

Thematic explanations

Now, the above is not a complete explanation, as I also want to talk about a couple of thematic explanations here. 

The reason you must draw 1 token at a time, is that you are only allowed to draw 1 white token per action. Should you ever draw 2 or more white tokens, the entire interaction with the object is reset and the action cancelled. 

In practice - this means that you may have to push your luck, if you are performing a high value hack but draws an early white token. 
In universe - this means that the enemy's security system has discovered your hack and is shutting it down. 

Another thing to add to the explanation is that once you have successfully hacked a door or console, you leave the tokens used for the interaction out of the bag for the rest of the mission. 

In practice - this means that players slowly gain insights into the probabilities of drawing certain colors, based on the colors already taken out of the bag. 
In universe - this means that the more hacking the characters perform, the better they know the enemy's system.

What does the mechanic bring to the table?

The mechanic has since the introduction received a lot of praises for its thematic implementation. It also creates a cool sense of tension, as it provides some output randomness mixed into otherwise planned actions. Players can mitigate the randomness through proper utilization of characters' hacking abilities, color choices, and planning. 

On top of that, the interaction bag/concept has also opened up a lot of design space:

1. It is now possible for me to punish or reward players by altering the content of the bag during a mission, or to increase or decrease the difficulty by demanding 2, 4 or 5 matching tokens instead of 3. And it can all happen with a thematic setup, like if the enemies have been alerted to the characters' presence etc. 
2. It can also be used for NPC interactions. In a later mission drawing a white token will have the NPCs flee. ​
3. It is used in search missions, where you have to place the tokens drawn on the map, resulting in different events. 
4. The tokens are also used in some missions where players have to solve different types of puzzles. 

And this is just to name a few. I am certain that this will expand further as the story and project unfold :)

Thanks again for staying with me and reading my thoughts on another mechanic in Rogue Angels :)
Now it is time for you to share your thoughts on it. Do you like its implementation? Have you tried anything like it in other games? Can you see any other way these components can be utilized? 

If you want to check it out in play - head over to the Tabletop Simulator mod here. 

May you have a great week and thank you :)
Best regards Emil