This short supplement introduces an expert class called the Runner... but no athlete, he. Forget running-and-gunning, this runner is a 'netrunner' scampering along the information superhighway, getting into all the places he should not and copying (or destroying) that which others might wish to keep quiet. For profit or through ideology, it matters little. But he is not the traditional hacker lurking in his Mom's basement, this Runner is adept at physical infiltration as well.

All the usual information necessary to plan, build and play a character are provided. Intelligence is the primary attribute, but closely followed by Charisma and Dexterity. The Charisma is important because his core ability is Social Engineering - the art of getting information out of people rather than their computers (how else do you find out passwords without doing a brute force attack?) that is too often forgotten in fictional portrayals of hacker types. One, especially, of the class attributes is rather neat too - it's called Twitch and gives defence and initiative bonuses based on spending too much time dodging virtual bullets when playing first-person shooter video games!

There are plenty of other neat features, as well as notes on playing such a character, good feat and gear selections and a few new feats that ought to come in useful.

My main Spycraft character is a hacker type who's generally happier in the van maintaining contact with the rest of the party via headsets. This might just tempt him out...

Return to Agent X: The Runner page.

Reviewed: 29 January 2015