Before you can wield authority, you need information. You must know what is happening before you can step in and control the situation. The first step to becoming a proper bureau is to get access to Caliber, the Cryptocracy’s shadow surveillance and communications network.
Caliber is no mere collection of cameras, microphones, wires, and wi-fi signals. Such things are disrupted, manip- ulated, and destroyed. Rather, Caliber is a mystical net- work that piggybacks on existing communication systems, granting access for integrated cryptocrats. Call it magical resonance between items of spiritual connectivity. Call it quantum strings using microscopic wormholes to redirect cell phone signals. Hell, for all you know, it’s run by Sin- Eaters covered in the relics of the dead while they dance to the screams of victims being devoured by evil faeries. But it works, and that’s all that matters.
Because Caliber is a supernatural network, a bureau needs more than a user ID and a password to gain access. They need to personally synchronize with the network, becoming a part of it on a preternatural level. Of course, that also means that the bureau is part of the network now as well. A small price to pay for order, you’ll agree.
A vampire pricks her thumb and smears it on the security monitor, which flicks to the desired camera. A mage arranges for the sticky note with the right computer password to fall off the monitor and into his hands. A demon tricks the God-Machine into looking the other way while the app downloads to her phone.
System: A cryptocrat can tap into any surveillance or communications system, as long as they are touching one component of it. If successful, any barrier to acquiring infor- mation conveniently disappears — passwords automatically appear in apps, voice prints recognize the user as authorized, and even text in a foreign language is instantly translated. Such access is receiving only, and the cryptocrat cannot add, remove, or alter any information while using their Caliber access. They can download, copy, or otherwise preserve the information. After the scene is over, their authorization is revoked, and a new roll must be made to regain access.
Cost: 1 Willpower (only paid if the roll is successful)
Requirement: Physically touching one component of the network
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Computer Action: Reflexive
Duration: One scene
Edges
Beasts, Deviants: A chain is only as strong as its weak- est link. The same is true with networks. On a successful Surveillance roll, a cryptocrat with this edge can spend an additional Willpower to turn off a specific camera, microphone, computer, or other node in the network. For the rest of the chapter, any attempt to reboot or activate the node will fail, and any data it contains will be inaccessible. Next chapter, the node will return to its normal operating status, and its data will be retrievable.
Changelings, Demons, Werewolves: These cryptocrats are used to seeing what others don’t. After a successful Surveillance roll, the cryptocrat with this edge can spend an additional Willpower and use the surveillance or com- munication network to see and hear things in the area that wouldn’t normally be visible (e.g., spirits, ghosts, and so on).
Hunters, Mages: Humans naturally observe other hu- mans. It’s a part of their nature. These cryptocrats are more able to use social engineering and intuitive guesswork to gain access to central systems. They can choose to use Wits instead of Intelligence for their roll. Either way, they also gain two additional dice to Surveillance rolls.
Mummies, Prometheans, Sin-Eaters, Vampires: The cryptocrat’s connection to death allows them to access otherwise “dead” nodes of a network. If an aspect of the network has gone offline in the past 24 hours (e.g., battery dead, power turned off, or even destroyed), the cryptocrat with this edge can spend an additional Willpower to recover the last data the node had access to before it was “killed.” It’s the technological equivalent of looking into the eyes of a corpse and seeing its last moments.
Specializations
Invasive: These Remade have an affinity for accessing technology and embedding it in their bodies. After the first successful Surveillance roll, the Deviant can spend a Willpower whenever he wishes to re-access the same system into which he hacked, to gain insight into fresh recordings, activity, or other information picked up by the technology. This specific technology remains permanently linked to the character in this way.
Task Force: VALKYRIE: If it’s one thing the military understands, it’s secure information networks. Task Force: VALKYRIE has access to a wide variety of backdoors, ex- ploits, and technological weaknesses... all for the security of the nation, of course. For cryptocrats who work for Task Force: VALKYRIE, their ersatz access lasts for a story, rather than a scene.