The network panel

The network panel on a character sheet lists the things on the board a character can break into and take over, and runs what they do: open a real door on the map, kill the lights, loop a camera, or share one with an ally.

For: Game Masters and players · 17 minutes

Some game systems put a network on the board: cameras, door locks, light grids and turrets that a hacker can take over in the middle of a fight. Each of those things is a node, a token on the board with its own stat block. Your character breaks into a node with an attack, and a hit marks the node as controlled (in Ninefold, Owned). Once it's yours, you run its ports, the things it does: a door lock's port opens the door on the map for everyone, a light grid's turns the lights off. The panel is a feature any game system can switch on. This page uses Ninefold, the near-future system, where the network is the Mesh and the panel is the sheet's Mesh tab, and uses its words: Ninefold's panel says Ports, and calls sharing one a Handshake, where a system that names neither shows Controls and Share a control with an ally. To give your own system a network, or a stat block ports, see Networks and ports.

Where it is

The network panel is a block in the Form View (see Form and Canvas views), on a phone too. In a Ninefold game it's the top of the sheet's Mesh tab. Under it are Trace, your Trace as a row of boxes, one for each point of Max Trace, that you can tick in play; Your numbers, with Firewall, Ward, Exposure and Breach; then Rigs and Scripts. The Canvas view doesn't show the panel. It works in a game, on the scene everyone is on: it lists that scene's nodes, and moves with the game when the Game Master (GM) changes scene.

The panel, part by part

Part	What it shows
Meters	The numbers the system watches, in Ninefold Trace and Heat, each with its value against its maximum, such as 3 of 6, as boxes or a bar. A meter changes colour from half full, and again when it's one short of overflowing, with 1 to go, or full, with Full.
All / Owned	With four or more nodes, at least one of them controlled, these switch between every node and only the controlled ones, each with a count.
Node tiles	The scene's nodes, nearest first (by name when you have no token on the scene). Each shows its name, then what a break-in must meet, such as Breach 14, or Owned (yours), or Owned by another; how far it is, Next to you or such as 6 squares away; and Granted to you when an ally has shared a port on it with you.
The detail panel	The node you last picked: its state, what a break-in needs, its Ports, your break-in actions and scripts, and sharing.

A tile you don't control has an empty ring. A controlled one is filled, with a link. When a node becomes controlled while the panel is open, its mark closes into the link and a pulse runs along the tile once.

With no nodes on the scene the panel says No Mesh nodes on this scene (with your system's name for its network). Players also read Nodes the GM puts on the board show up here.; the GM reads Place a node's stat block as a token. If your character has no token on the scene, it says You have no token on this scene, so distances are not shown.

Which tokens are nodes

A node is any token on the scene that isn't a player character, bound to a stat block that has ports or that can be broken into. In Ninefold that's every node from the Ninefold Adversaries pack (the Security Camera, Door Lock, Checkpoint Gate, Ceiling Turret, Light Grid, Alarm Panel, Lift, Server Core, Street Kiosk, Autocab, Comms Relay and Med-Dispenser), and its people, drones and the Warden, whose wired implants and systems have ports of their own once they're Owned, such as a guard's Optics: Blind, an enforcer's Arm: Seize and Legs: Hobble, a drone's Toggle, Peek and Retarget or Rewrite Order. The GM can change a node's Firewall from its token (right-click it, then Edit Enemy), and the panel uses the new number.

A token the GM has hidden isn't on a player's board, so it isn't on their panel either: they can't see it, aim at it or share a port on it until the GM shows it. The GM's panel lists hidden nodes too.

The GM places a node as an enemy from the creature library and moves it to where the real thing is on the map, since a port reaches out from its token: a Door Lock reaches the doors within 1 square of it. See Enemies and the creature library and Playing Ninefold.

Take control of a node

1. Click the node's tile. Its panel opens.
2. Under the node's name, the panel says what a break-in must meet, such as Breach: 14 or more, against Firewall 4. In Ninefold that's 10 plus the node's Firewall: a Breach is checked against the node's Firewall, never its Defence.
3. Click your break-in action, such as Breach, or Pivot in Ninefold. It's aimed at that node's token and rolls exactly as it would from the sheet. In Ninefold the pool builder opens, headed with the action's name, such as Breach: add any Edge dice and click Roll, or Cancel to stop with nothing spent. Once it rolls, the panel says Breach rolled against Office Door Lock: the result is in the chat. After a Cancel it says nothing, because nothing rolled.

The roll lands on one of the system's bands, read against the node's number. A band that counts as a hit puts the system's control condition on the node's token, in your character's name: in Ninefold, Owned, which everyone sees on the token, on a Jackpot, any Clear or a Close. The tile changes to Owned at once, and the ports light up. What the other bands cost is the system's rule: in Ninefold a Close, a Miss or a Crash puts a button for its Trace beside the result on the sheet for a few seconds and on the roll's chat card, such as Take 2 Trace, and a Crash leaves you Pinged. See Playing Ninefold.

A node someone else controls says Owned by another on its tile, and its ports stay theirs. If the GM puts Owned on a node by hand, from the token's conditions, it names no character: every character can run its ports.

Run a port

Under Ports, each of the node's ports is a button with its name, what it costs, such as 1 Trace (or Free), and what it does in a few words. They're greyed out until you can run them: on a node you don't control the panel says Breach it first, and on one someone else holds, Owned by another character.

1. Click the node's tile.
2. Click the port, such as Toggle.

The port runs at once, and its cost lands on your sheet. The panel shows what happened, as chat does for everyone: who ran what on which node (the node named as its token is on the board), and what it changed, such as "Wren Ostrova ran Toggle on Side Door Lock: 1 door opened." Under it, what you paid, such as Paid 1 Trace, now 4, and anything the payment pushed over, such as Heat now 1. A door with a sound plays it for everyone when a port opens it, the GM included.

What a port can do

Kind	What happens	Ninefold examples
A door	Opens, shuts, locks or unlocks the real doors near the node, as the GM's own door tool does, for everyone. Toggle shuts an open door, and unlocks and opens a shut one. A lock shuts the door and locks it. A secret door is never reached.	Door Lock: Toggle and Seal (locks the doors within 1 square). Checkpoint Gate: Toggle (within 2 squares).
The lights	Switches the scene's lights off or on, as the GM's lighting does, for everyone. A torch or lantern that follows a token isn't touched.	Light Grid: Kill (every light on the scene goes dark), Restore (every light on the scene comes back on) and Toggle (every light flips, on to off or off to on).
A condition on the node	Puts a condition on the node's own token, in your name.	Security Camera: Loop (Looped). Ceiling Turret: Retarget (Puppeted). A guard's Optics: Blind (Blinded).
A note for the GM	Changes nothing on the board: chat says what you ran and the port's text, and the GM rules what happens.	Peek on every node, the Alarm Panel's Silence, the Server Core's Dump Data.

A door or light port reaches what's within its range of the node's own square, counted in squares from the edge of that square, or every one on the scene. Only the doors and lights of the scene's current phase are on the board for it.

What a port costs

Each port costs what the system says: in Ninefold, 1 Trace, or 2 for the Server Core's Dump Data. The cost is paid only when the port runs: one that's refused, such as a door that's already open, costs nothing. The cost changes your sheet the way any other change does, so in Ninefold Trace that overflows gets you Burned, as it would by hand: your Trace clears, you take 1 Heat, and every node you held stops being Owned.

Share a port with an ally (Handshake)

In Ninefold this is a Handshake: you let an ally run one port on a node you hold, once, on their own turn, even with no rig of their own. The cost is still yours.

1. Click a node you control.
2. Click Handshake: share a port with an ally (in a system that names no share, Share a control with an ally).
3. Under With, pick the ally. The list is the other player characters on this scene, by their tokens' names. Under Port, pick the port. The panel reminds you: They can run it once.
4. Click Handshake (Share in a system that names no share), or Cancel.

The panel and chat say so, such as "Wren Ostrova shared Toggle on Side Door Lock with Dex Holloway." If no other character is on the scene, the panel says No other character on this scene to share with.

What your ally sees: the node's tile says Granted to you, its panel says Owned by another character, shared with you, and the shared port is live, marked Granted. When they run it:

• it works as if they held the node, and is used up: one share, one run;
• its cost lands on your sheet, the one that shared it, not theirs, and their panel names who paid, such as Wren Ostrova paid 1 Trace, now 4;
• the same goes when the GM runs it from your ally's sheet: the share is used up, and you pay.

A share lapses if the node stops being controlled first, and a share from an earlier hold doesn't come back when the node is taken again.

Scripts and other tools

A system can name sheet items as tools for its network: in Ninefold, your Scripts, such as Loop and Blind. The panel lists the ones you hold under their own heading, by name. Click one to fire it at the node, exactly as from the sheet: the panel says, for example, Loop used on Office Door Lock.

Some tools run only on a node you hold. In Ninefold those are Loop, Blind, Seize, Hobble, Puppet and Lull: on a node you don't control they're greyed out, with a line such as Loop, Blind run only on a node you hold: Breach it first. Mark, Feedback and Zero-Day can be fired at any node. A script's cost is paid when it runs, as a port's is: each of Ninefold's scripts says Running it costs 1 Trace., and the 1 Trace lands on your sheet by itself.

See through a camera

A camera's Peek port posts a line to chat for the GM to rule on: it doesn't change what anyone sees on the board. To let a hacker really watch through a camera they hold, the GM shares the camera's view from its token:

1. As the GM, right-click the camera's token and choose Edit Enemy.
2. Open the Access tab and click the hacker's player under Player Perspective View. The row shows Viewing, and it's saved at once.

The player now sees what the camera sees as well as what their own character sees. A camera with a vision cone shows only its wedge, and the wedge turns when the GM turns the camera's token: hold Ctrl and scroll over it. In Ninefold the Security Camera sees a 90-degree wedge, with night vision to 12 squares in any light, so a view through it shows the ground in front of it even with the lights out. Night vision counts only with Dynamic fog. RollQuest doesn't end the view by itself: when the hacker loses the camera, click their row again to take it away. See Token vision.

What players and the GM see

	A player	The GM
Nodes	Every node on the current scene that the GM hasn't hidden.	Every node on the current scene, hidden ones included.
Ports	Live on the nodes their character controls, and the ports shared with them.	Live on every node, controlled or not.
Scripts that need a held node	Live only on the nodes their character controls.	Live on every node.
Sharing	On nodes their character controls.	On every controlled node.
Who pays	The character who runs it, or who shared it.	The character whose sheet the GM has open, or, for a port shared with that character, the one who shared it.

Running a port from a player's sheet as the GM charges that character's sheet, and the panel says so above the ports, such as Wren Ostrova pays the cost of each one run from here. A port shared with that character is the exception: the GM's run uses the share up, as the character's own run would, and the character who shared it pays. On a node with such a port the line says so: Dex Holloway pays the cost of each one run from here, but a granted one is paid by the character who shared it. To open a door or switch a light without anyone paying, use the GM's own tools: see Doors and Lighting.

When the network says no

Message	What it means
You do not control the node, it must be Owned first	Take control of it first. A script that runs only on a node you hold says the same.
You do not control the node, another character controls it, and only they can share a port with you	Someone else holds it. Ask them to share.
No door within 1 square of the node, or There is no door on this scene	Nothing for the port to reach.
Every door within 1 square of the node is already open (or shut, shut and locked, or unlocked)	The port would change nothing. It costs nothing.
No light within a range of the node, or There is no light on this scene	Nothing for the port to reach.
Every light on this scene is already on (or off)	The port would change nothing.
The node is already and the condition, such as Security Camera is already Looped	It has that condition.
The node cannot be and the condition	Its stat block is immune to it.
This table's condition list has no condition, so it cannot be put on the node	The game's conditions are missing that one. The GM can check the condition list.
That shared port has already been used	One share is one run.
The sharer's name and cannot pay for the port, so it cannot be run	The sheet that shared the port can't be charged for it, such as one whose player has left the game. Nothing ran.
A light changed while the port ran; try again	Someone changed a light at the same moment.
That token is not on the current scene	The node has gone, or the scene changed.
This scene's map has no size, so distances on it cannot be measured	RollQuest doesn't know how big the map is, so it can't measure a reach. The GM can check the scene's map.
The node has no place on the map	Its token has no position.
That character can already run the port on the node	You've shared it already.
Share a port with another character, not yourself	Pick someone else.
Pick someone on this scene	The ally must be a player character on this scene.
The ally's name and has no character sheet in this game	Their player has no sheet to share with.
That node changed while you were sharing it; try again	Another share landed first.
That node cannot be aimed at from here.	The break-in or script couldn't aim at the node, such as one the GM has just hidden.
You cannot act for that character	You can't change this sheet. See Who can see and change a sheet.

Related

Playing Ninefold · Conditions · Doors · Networks and ports