An introduction to Dev Cunningham, master hacker
Transcript by Ian Bird
[00:00:00] [ Dramatic, Percussive Music plays ]
> Mike Rugnetta / G.M.: If you could, just give us like, a two or three sentence description of your character.
> Anthony Carboni / "Dev Cunningham":[ OOC ] Sure. Character's name is Dev Cunningham. He is a - he is a decker, but as he's gotten older he's become more of a face, which means he's a - he's a con man, basically. He's a real grifter, but he's - he's super - he's super charming and he wants - unlike other grifters where it's like, "If you like me this works better." - he genuinely wants to be liked.
> Mike / G.M.: Mhmm.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] So it really bums him out if anybody from one of these old jobs finds out that he screwed them over, like most - most dudes would just leave town and be like "Made it", Dev's like "No but I still want you to like me, even though you - even though I stole from you. Will you still like me?" [ Mike laughs ] "Are we still friends?"
> Mike / G.M.: So Dev is currently on a job in the same neighborhood that the team is -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: - in the South Bronx. What is that job?
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Dev has been hired to - by some real bad dudes, and he is not really entirely sure who they are but he believes that they are Triad. They are, at this point with all their modifications, more shark than human - [ Mike laughs ] - and he is a little afraid of - of what's happened. Basically Dev was hired by these dudes, and the moment he got in, he was like, "You know, I probably shouldn't have taken this job." [ Mike laughs ] He's like, "And I should have known, and - but here I am." But what he likes about the job is it is a job where he can go in alone, which is great because then he can - he doesn't have to worry about interpersonal things, he can just go, get the money - do a little something for himself on the side and no one's around to say like, "Hey Dev, are you doing something for yourself on the side?"
> Mike / G.M.: Right.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] So he's real into that. And what they've hired him to do is to go to this municipal data center in the South Bronx, where there is a physical connection to the matrix. Not a wireless, a physical connection. That's one of the few that are left and he has been sent in because somebody is siphoning data, and he wants - and the Triads, or whoever they are, want to make sure that they are the ones siphoning data, and no one else is.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, I think what it was is your johnson w - let you know that like NeoNET -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: - which is the - it's a Boston-based company that makes all the infrastructure that runs the grid - is somehow siphoning city data.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: And - and he was like, "I want - I want it."
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: "I want - I want in."
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] "Give me that data."
> Mike / G.M.: And he - and he also said like, "And if anyone else is skimming the data, cut them out."
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yep.
> Mike / G.M.: Like, "I want - it's just me and NeoNET and no one else."
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Right. So that -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Sharkboy wants the data, then Boston boys want the data, no one else gets the data.
> Mike / G.M.: No one else gets the data.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Except maybe Dev gets a little data for himself, I don't know. I don't know.
> Mike / G.M.: Who can say, we're not there yet.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ]Who knows?
> Mike / G.M.: So, I had you roll a couple things like, you know, running up to the game, just to see what it is that you figured out. You did not, unfortunately, figure out who the Triad is working for.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Right.
> Mike / G.M.: You did not really figure out what it is that they want the data for.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Did my rolls seem correct? Because it's been a while since I played Shadowrun.
> Mike / G.M.: Your rolls seemed perfect.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Okay, great.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah. You, I think in your meeting with this Triad in Mainland, New Jersey, you got the sense that they're working for something bigger -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: - but you have no idea what.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yep.
> Mike / G.M.: You get the sense that there's something that they're going to do with this data, they don't just want it to have it, but you don't really know what. But, as your johnson said to you, like, they're paying you enough to not care and they're paying you enough to do it - the job by yourself and like, to not fuck around and just go do it. So, they sent you to the South Bronx to figure out what's going on here, figure out how NeoNET is getting this skim of the city data from this weird little building.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: You find yourself, Dev, in front of this building, - [ Outdoor Crowd Sounds start ] - in front of this weird peppermill of like an o - like, old civic architecture thing.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: The sun has just set in the South Bronx. All of the fishmongers from the local - the local fish market are all going home.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: You know -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] All the fishmongers and alewives are done for the day.
> Mike / G.M.: Ye - Yeah, they're done for the day.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Great. [ Anthony laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: The - the city is - the - it's like, not too busy. It's just past the sort of, rush hour. And, the municipal data center - you would know this because you rolled this well - has a shift change. And someone has just taken over the graveyard shift, they will stay there for the next 12 hours until seven o'clock in the morning, just basically minding the muni data center. You also rolled well enough to figure out that, for the most part, it is illegal for the employees of the muni data center, especially the ones who are just there to guard the goods, to have ingoing and outgoing messages via wireless communication.
[00:05:05] > Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: This is a wired facility. This is a highly secured facility. [ Crowd Sounds end ] Like the idea is that, you know, it's like an old-school throwback that they haven't updated yet. And so it's kind of quaint and fun, but it also traffics in municipal data, so -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Right.
> Mike / G.M.: - take your job seriously. You, in your expertise as a communications guy - right, like Dev has skill points in communications, infrastructure...
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Like, communications gear, like, he knows about this stuff.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: In your expertise, and using some of the gear that you have on your person, you have figured out, you've managed to grab from the airwaves, some communication coming from a wireless comm that is inside the municipal data center from the one person who's there doing the graveyard shift. They have ordered... a pizza. [ Anthony laughs ] So in the door,
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah, there's like one door that I know of that has a slot that's big enough to like fit a coffee table book or something through.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, you can fit a paperback book through it.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: You can't fit a pizza through it.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] He's gotta open the door to deliver the pizza.
> Mike / G.M.: Gotta open the door to deliver the pizza.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] He shouldn't even be asking for pizza and yet here he is opening the door for pizza. And see, this is the thing. This is why - this is why what I do is not bad. [ Mike laughs ] Okay? This guy knew - this guy - what I'm doing - This is, actually, this is some white hat shit if you think about it. [ Mike laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: You are -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Because what's going on is, this municipal employee orders a pizza during a shift using wireless communication, which he's not supposed to do, and then he's going to open the door? It's only fitting that it should be me on the other side. [ Mike laughs ] He could have gotten it way worse. I'm a nice guy.
> Mike / G.M.: It's true. It's true - you know, of all the people who could eventually be waltzing through that door... I mean, there are much -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] You're lucky it's Dev!
> Mike / G.M.: - much worse people than Dev Cunningham.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] You're lucky it's Dev Cunningham!
> Mike / G.M.: So, you would know that en route, somewhere in the neighborhood -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: - there is a pizza delivery person that's on the way.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Great.
> Mike / G.M.: So I mean, what do you want to do?
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] I mean... I could - I mean I could look at his - I could look at his comm, see where he ordered the pizza from and when, and then just check on that pizza.
> Mike / G.M.: So roll - just roll electronic warfare.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] There it is.
> Mike / G.M.: There should be a thing that just says pool.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah, 11. [ Dice Shaking ]
> Mike / G.M.: I'm just gonna have you try to like intercept what it is that he is sending, and re-roll all of your sixes and add. So if you get a - if you get a six, count it and then re-roll it.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Okay. Whoops. That's a reroll.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. And then keep going. Is that -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] So that's gonna make it -
> Mike / G.M.: Is that six?.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] So that's -
> Mike / G.M.: Six total hits?
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] This is - Yeah, and this is going to be seven.
> Mike / G.M.: If it's - yeah.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] If it's a six. It's not.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, and you counted this one or no?
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Oh! No.
> Mike / G.M.: So, you got seven hits.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] I got seven hits. Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. Yeah. I mean, I feel like that's either at or above your limit. So I think you probably did - [ Mike laughs ] - I think you probably nailed it.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] I found the pizza!
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah. So I think -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Dev Cunningham. Master Hacker!
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah. Not only - not only did you find out where this municipal employee ordered their pizza from, you have access to the email -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: - or the message that they sent with the link that's like, "If you want to look at the map of where your pizza's coming from - "
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: " - click on this thing and I'll show you that Andre is on his way."
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Love Andre. He's the best. So I go to click and see where Andre is.
> Mike / G.M.: And you can see like, Andre's like, you know, four or five blocks down, you know, and there's a little animation of a scooter with the - what do we want to call this pizza place?
> Taylor Moore / "The Bad Boys": Uh... Bishop's. [ Mike laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, love it. You can - there's like a little floating B -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: - you know with a - with a -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] It's got like a red bow tie and like a chef's hat maybe?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": It's a - It's a Catholic-themed pizza place.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, it's -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Ohh.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, it's got a Roman collar on it.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Oh, okay. Sorry.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah. Yeah.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] My apologies.
> Mike / G.M.: [ Laughing ] Yeah. Yeah.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] I didn't know it was the Bishop's pizza.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Mhmm.
[ Chorus singing "Hallelujah" is interrupted by a sick guitar riff and a person saying "Pizza!" as though you've just collected a pizza in a Playstation 2 era video game ]
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] So, I think what I want to do is I want to - is I want to shut down this scooter.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. Sure, roll... [ Dice Clacking ]
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] This is good audio, right?
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah that's good.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] I keep touching - Here's the thing is you put a giant bucket of dice in front of me, ooh, I love it.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ Laughing ] Yeah.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Ooh.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": That's okay -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Ooh. you're a bad person because you probably do this to your players every week.
> Mike / G.M.: Just - just roll - roll cyber combat.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Roll cyber combat.
> Mike / G.M.: This is not quite right, but we're going to do it anyways, and then Taylor -
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": I would say - Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: And then, Taylor, if you could roll... eight dice.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] So I've got -
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": This is for the scooter?
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Oh, you think it's eight, buddy?
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, yeah, because it's a device - Well, okay.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": A rating of eight for this -
> Mike / G.M.: Four. Four.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] It's a scooter.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": It's a shitty monowheel scooter?
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, roll four dice.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Okay, that's more fair.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah. You're right. [ Dice Shaking ]
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] I'm rolling eight.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Oh damn.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Is that a good scooter? Or a bad scooter? Hold on. Alright, so it looks like - [ Anthony laughs ] - that's three.
> Mike / G.M.: Scooter got two. In the matrix -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] I cut the scooter's jugular vein! [ Mike laughs ]
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC as Scooter ] [ Choking ] I had feelings! [ Mike and Anthony laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: You - You manage - even though it's a noisy environment and the scooter is slightly far away. It's like, kind of hard for you to get - to cross the - to traverse the distance in the, you know, wireless distance between you and the scooter?
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm?
> Mike / G.M.: You managed to kind of push through the clouds of all the wireless and you can see this distant little icon moving and it has essentially no security on it, which seems strange, like a - a scooter company should make it harder to hack a scooter, but -
[00:10:07] > Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] But also, once again, I'm very good.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, and also - and also like, making things harder to hack into, it costs extra money.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Sure.
> Mike / G.M.: That's like, just time that you know, no one wants to spend.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah yeah yeah. He's not driving a Vespa, he's driving like a Baron.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah - [ Mike laughs ]
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] He's driving - He's driving like, a scooter that you can buy on eBay or Amazon.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Uh-huh.
> Mike / G.M.: That's - Yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": For low.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] For low, but it looks just like a Vespa. [ Taylor laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: Oh, yeah, no the -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] That's the thing. It's beautiful. Bishop's -
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Vespa, with a monowheel.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Uh-huh.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": One wheel.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] One - [ Anthony laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: Bishop's has purchased 400,000 of these in the last six months. They're just the cheapest thing that you can possibly get.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: And the person who is riding it, it slowly comes to a halt and they step off and I don't know, they look confused.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC as Andre, the Pizza Delivery Person ] Ah, goddamn it!
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Aw, geez, buddy. What happened there?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC ] Whoa hey, look, I don't want any trouble, Okay? Just like, let me be, I'm just - I'm just working here. Leave me alone.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Oh no no no, man. I just - I just saw, it looks like - it looks like you broke down or something. Are you okay?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC ] No it's these fucking scooters, man. We just got them like two months ago and they don't really work.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] What is - Is that a Vespa?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC ] Well, I - I think it's meant to look like a vintage Vespa?
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Oh, okay. I thought maybe that was your Vespa from home. Look - you look real cool on it.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC ] No, I would not buy this. This is not my bike man. Let me tell ya. [ Mike and Anthony laugh ] No, I'm working. I'm trying to deliver these pies!
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Yeah?
> Mike / G.M.: You can see that he's got a little like, you know -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah he's got one of those -
> Mike / G.M.: Fla - Flappy thing -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] One of those hot bags.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] Yeah, and there's - there's - you can see a couple pizzas inside of it.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Well, if - I mean, once - once again, I'm not - I don't want to, you know, you seem stressed. I know how - I'm kind of a mechanic. I can help out if you want, or I can call some help. Are you - are you okay? Are you good?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC ] I - God, I can't afford to call anybody, but you, wait you're - you know scooters?
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Yeah, I know scooters pretty well. I mean, I mostly work on real Vespas so who knows what's kind of going on under this thing, but I can take a look at least.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC ] It's not pretty but it's like a real - it's one of the new like, monowheel bullshit, you know, things. Could you take a look at it?
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Yeah yeah, let me take a look at it real quick.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC ] Aw, man, this is such a huge help. Thank you so much, I just got this job, it's the only thing between me and losing my house.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Please te - Yeah, tell me everything about you. [ Taylor laughs ] Let's keep going. Let's keep this interaction going.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC ] Well why don't you take a look at the scooter. I -
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Yeah, I'm going to take a look at the scooter.
> Mike / G.M.: I wanna say -
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC ] I just want to let you know the stakes for me, personally, are sky-high.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ IC ] Great. [ OOC ] I knock out the kid. [ Ka-Pow ] [ Mike laughs ] He's just a dumb kid. I knock him out.
> Mike / G.M.: 'Kay.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] We go to look under the - it's fine. We go to look at the scooter and I just knock the kid the fuck out.
> Mike / G.M.: Mkay.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] He's a kid.
> Mike / G.M.: I'm not even gonna make you roll for it.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yep. Throw him in a dumpster. [ Mike laughs ] He's gonna be fine. [ Taylor Yelps IC ]
> Mike / G.M.: Prop him up against a - a wall.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Yeah yeah yeah with a big cowboy hat -
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] - and a - and a cigarette like, hanging out of his mouth. [ Mike and Taylor laugh ] And so he just looks like he's a cool guy leaning up against the wall.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, he's just a drunk - [ Anthony laughs ] - Yeah, he just - he just - he just, listen, he hit the fish sauce a little too hard. [ Taylor laughs ]
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] And then - yeah. And so then I'm - I'm going to get on the scooter and I'm gonna head over to deliver my pizza.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, great.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ OOC ] Rad.
> Mike / G.M.: Scene. [ Dramatic Percussive Music starts ]
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ OOC ] Rad!
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] Want to give you... some of those dice back. [ Dice Clacking ]
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ OOC ] Oh that's too bad though.
> Anthony / "Dev": [ OOC ] I thought that the kid's life - [ Taylor laughs ] - I thought it was really interesting. And I was really I was really pulling for him. It sounded like he was going to tell me about what was going on and like his job. [ Fading out ] He said that - he said the stakes were sky-high I was gonna say -
[00:13:18] [ Music ends ]
[ Transcript by Ian Allen Bird, @ianallenbird on Twitter ]