Hollywood

Hacking vs. the

Real World
 Introduction
There are a lot of similarities between Hollywood
and a Leverage Crew: there are the Grifters playing the
parts of characters; the Hackers behind the cameras and
in the special effects departments; the Hitters handling
the stunt work; and overseeing it all, the Masterminds
producing and directing. Together, their job is to
present a story with dynamic characters and action,
grabbing and keeping our attention, and ultimately
having us believe in the unreal. Like most Crews in the
Leverage Roleplaying Game, Hollywood is working
on the side of Good, just seeking to entertain and
enlighten rather than right wrongs. And like some of
the best Crews, occasionally they do too good of a job
at convincing us.
Your Hitter can tell you (and probably has) that
guns don’t really work that way, and your Grifter can
(but maybe won’t) tell you that people don’t react to
situations like characters in a movie do. But it’s the way
Hollywood presents computers that tends to stand out
for Hackers, and they may marvel at how such a huge
disconnect exists between what they genuinely do and
ii
what you see in film and television. Not that it’s always
such a bad thing; mystery and misdirection are just
more tools in the Hacker’s armory, provided you know
how to best capitalize on that illusion.
Inside, we’ll help you avoid egg on your face if the
Mark or another Crewmember turns out to know
more than just a bit about bytes.
First, we’ll go over some of the common
misconceptions and cover what you can and can’t do
with a keyboard. Sharing this with the Crew ahead of
time can help avoid having to explain the technical
details in the middle of the Job, and ensure that your
Mastermind’s plans are workable.
Then we’ll take a look at Hollywood’s methods;
you can see how the public perception of Hackers and
technology influences scriptwriters and come up with
your own interesting options for presenting Hacker
activities in your Leverage games.
Finally, we’ll finish off with some new showy Talents
for your Hollywood-inspired Hackers.
 The Silver
Smokescreen
Hackers lead busy lives, so maybe you haven’t had time to
catch up with all the latest cinema releases or seen some of the
inaccuracies portrayed on the big and small screen.
 If keeping current with all your shows is what’s been
keeping you busy, maybe you only cared about being
entertained and you didn’t go looking to pick apart the
details. That’s fair; entertainment is part of what television
is for, after all. To save you from having to re-watch your
The (Over-)Connected World
In the world you see on screen, everything electrical has a
direct line to the Internet and anything with a microchip
can be hacked remotely by anyone with sufficient
skill. We’re almost at the point where every household
appliance communicates wirelessly across your home
network, and your high-tech fridge can already send you
a text message reminding you to buy milk when you’re
running low. A smart Hacker can exploit these systems,
but has to work within his limitations; you could use the
networked fridge to get your Mark to take a detour to the
grocery store, but even the greatest Hackers in the world
can’t use that fridge to listen in to a private conversation
unless they could plant a bug in person. Sometimes
you can get creative, and with a spot of tinkering turn a
speaker into a microphone, for example, but no amount
of code is going to turn that little sensor that turns on
the light when you open the door into a listening device.
Hollywood likes to gloss over these details, especially
when it comes to making things explode. In the movies,
Hackers can explode gas lines and drop electrical cables
on people, all from the safety of their home computers.
This is pure fantasy, using “features” that wouldn’t or
Universal Adapters
If you’ve ever worked with video or audio files, you’ve
probably needed to have a specific media player to play
them, and trying to convert them to use on another
system or program can often be complex enough to have
even the most serene Hackers on the verge of tearing
2 Hollywood Hacking
vs. the Real World
entire sci-fi and action thriller DVD collection (like you
needed an excuse), we’ve put together some of the more
frequent half-truths, myths, and fallacies that might crop
up.
couldn’t exist; you can’t reprogram hardware that isn’t
there. It’s like a Hacker turning your average home PC
into a bomb with a virus—unless you popped some C4
into Nana’s computer, there’s nothing to blow up.
Remote access has one requirement: the system has
to be online. Don’t want a Hacker using the Internet
to snoop through your top-secret files or tamper with
your state-of-the-art camera systems? Don’t have them
connected to the Internet! This is where your Grifters,
Hitters, and Thieves come in: they get you access, either
in person or by hooking up a remote connection.
You’ll also need the rest of your Crew if you want to
delete all of your Mark’s backup files; almost any company
with a shred of common sense will have backups of their
valuable data in an off-line format. These can be on tapes
or disks stored in a water- and fire-proof safe, often in
a separate location to their main systems. Restoring the
data from these files isn’t quick or easy, but it’s a small
price to pay to ensure that a computer malfunction,
virus, or malicious user doesn’t obliterate your valuable
research data.
their hair out. Trying to get old programs to run on
modern computers can be difficult even if they were
designed for a previous version of your operating system;
some websites don’t even work if you’re not using the
browser they designed it for. So why is anything remotely
technological perfectly and immediately compatible with
every other system in movies? You never see the hero
rummaging in a desk drawer to find that old connection
lead with that funny shaped attachment or encountering
an “unrecognized format” error when they open the files
recovered from the villain’s lair.
That kind of compatibility would be great, and think
tanks of top professionals do exist to draft technical
standards with the aim of maintaining consistency across
the industry, but these are little more than guidelines and
Graphical
Misrepresentation
There are more than a few Hackers who treat hacking
like a big computer game, but there are far more movies
that show hacking as if it actually were a computer
game. Even when it is taken seriously, they show
strange interfaces with complex three-dimensional
shapes pinging about the screen, representing data and
systems. Thing is, a Graphical User Interface (or GUI—
sometimes pronounced “gooey”), is meant for end users,
the customers, so they can make sense of and interact
with something friendlier than streams of code. Even
though some of these systems do exist, most Hackers
prefer using a text-based command line; those flashy
graphics are just a distraction.
When they are using a text-based interface, what they
won’t be doing is typing plain English sentences telling
the computer to launch their hacks. Programming
languages and computer commands are based on human
language (some more so than others), but English
sentence structure is too complex for a computer to
understand all of its intricacies, inconsistencies and
exceptions. Computers have their own languages, using
suggestions. A common design structure is ideal, but it
may be too costly, too time consuming, or simply beyond
the capability of some companies. If they already have an
extensive catalog of software made before the standards
were published, they probably have their own rules.
Change would mean teaching coders the new standards
and potentially redesigning their entire product line.
Also, some companies prefer that their software is only
compatible with their systems, so their customers can’t
easily switch to their competitors.
words from English, but with a rigid structure and a much
smaller vocabulary. You better phrase your commands
the way the computer expects, or you’ll be running up
against nothing more productive than an “UNKNOWN
COMMAND ERROR” with every line entered.
This isn’t to say that work on natural language
processing isn’t coming along; it would be a powerful
tool in making human-computer interaction more
accessible. We’re still some way off from having a natural
conversation with our workstations—even further off
from perfect voice recognition—but even once those
goals have been met, a lot of Hackers will prefer the old-
fashioned methods. Part of this is the pride of possessing
the skills of a “lost” art, another part is precision (machine
code isn’t as subjective as language), but probably the
most significant reason is speed. It was raised in Hitters,
Hackers, and Thieves that good Hackers tend to be lazy
and impatient; if the option is between a complex but
brief sequence of keys against taking the time to type
a full English sentence, that Hacker will be committing
those keystrokes to memory.
The Silver Smokescreen 3
 Keeping Tabs
Computers are often portrayed with their systems laid
out like a map, forcing you to go to a specific module to
interact with it, taking up the entire screen in the process,
and then having to pull back out to work with anything
else. When accessing a network of computers, you may
have to “hop” from workstation to workstation in a
chain before reaching the central server. Screenwriters
probably do this because operating systems visually
separate out applications and systems, but again, this is
to make it easier for the average user to understand.
4 Hollywood Hacking
vs. the Real World
Computers don’t really work this way; with the correct
interface, you can issue commands to different systems
or even another computer from a single command
line. And just as you can multitask writing your sales
reports and playing a game of solitaire by hopping
between different tabs on your computer, so too can an
experienced Hacker use multiple terminals to track and
interact with many processes simultaneously.
 Game Theory
Computer security measures aren’t going to give
Hackers a fair chance; if the scanner monitoring a
network knows you’re trying to gain unauthorized
access, it’s going to cut you off right there and then. It
won’t be challenging you to a game and then throwing
its hands up if you win, saying: “Okay, I know you’re
breaking the law and hacking my database, but you’re so
good at this game, I’m just going to let it slide and not
even bother mentioning it to the authorities.”
And the ticking clock showing how long it will take
for the security system to track you down and freeze you
out? Doesn’t exist. Your access can easily be terminated
on the other end, and your details were already logged
somewhere the moment you started up your connection
and will persist even after you log off. Your only
countdown is the time it takes the authorities to get a
warrant. That’s also why you don’t need to “keep them
Enhanced Imagination
Someone once said “computers are incredibly fast,
accurate, and stupid; humans are incredibly slow,
inaccurate, and brilliant,” which is why it’s a lot easier to
fool people: computers have no imagination. A human
brain can make a creative, intuitive leap and see the
vase in the space between two silhouetted faces, but to a
computer, it will remain as dark shapes.
We see this all the time in fiction: computers making
imaginative leaps to impossible conclusions, when the
best you can really hope for is a range of possibilities and
their probabilities. The biggest offenders are in police
procedural shows, where detectives run a photo or video
feed through an enhancement program to produce a
sharp and clear result. These programs are so good that
they can pull an image from a reflection in a car window
talking” when tracing a phone call; that’s a throwback
to manual switchboards, eliminated when they moved
to electronic switching mechanisms. Despite this, even
movies and shows set after the changeover in the 1980s
use this narrative device.
If you’ve ever played Hangman or Mastermind, you
know they are lousy ways to protect a password, yet this
appears to be the most popular method in the movies.
The scenes usually are trying to represent brute-forcing
(attempting every possible combination in sequence
until you come to the correct one), which is like trying all
one thousand combinations to open one of those three-
digit briefcase combination locks. In films, a brute-force
crack identifies the password one character at a time, but
having a password system like that would be ridiculously
weak; if briefcase locks worked like this, it would only
take thirty attempts to break in, instead of a thousand.
or even a person’s eye, and some can even rotate the view
or remove objects from an image, making previously
obscured details, such as a number plate, now visible.
Why is this impossible? You have to remember that
any computer image is essentially a mosaic of squares
known as pixels. Particularly high-resolution images
have lots of pixels, but at some level of zoom, any image
is no more than a large series of colored blocks. While
complex calculations may be able to extrapolate some
guesses, the results are far from perfect. If a car number
plate is less than a pixel wide in your image, not even
the processing power of the greatest supercomputer in
the world can accurately determine those letters and
numbers.
The Silver Smokescreen 5
 Trust the Computer
Hollywood hacking not only changes data on hard
drives, but also inside the human brain! At least, that
would explain why some characters blindly follow a
compromised system instead of trusting their own
common sense. Even if every trace of your identity were
changed through the Internet, physical paper trails of
birth certificates and passports would still exist to raise
questions, not to mention people would remember at least
Accidental Intelligence
Despite many brilliant minds struggling to
reproduce the intelligence of very simplistic creatures,
screenwriters seem to think that creating a full-blown
artificial intelligence is no harder than accidentally
giving a computer an off-hand instruction or having
Code Interrupts
When it comes to slinging code, any real world Hacker
that claims to be perfect is either lying or a robot. On the
other hand, Hollywood programmers can sit down at a
computer, fingers flying over the keyboard, and produce
an elegant application that works perfectly the first time,
no dry run needed. Many even manage all this without
ever needing to use the spacebar or enter key!
Coders in the real world spend about half of their
time on testing and debugging their software because it
can easily take as long as writing the code in the first
place. Even if it weren’t for the debugging, coding itself
6 Hollywood Hacking
vs. the Real World
some details without referring to their phone’s contacts.
Computer errors do happen and when they don’t tally
with expectations and memory, people question the data
provided; military personnel aren’t going to just start
shooting because their computer told them to, and your
family doctor isn’t going to forget everything about you
just because you’re not in the database records.
your drone hit by a stray lightning bolt. If it were as
simple as teaching a computer the importance of self-
preservation, computer games would have likely given
rise to scores of technological life forms by this point.
takes time. Writing a program is equal parts science
and art, and just as novelists don’t have a masterpiece
flow out of their fingers in a continuous stream as soon
as they sit at a typewriter, so too will a programmer
have to pause for thought, check reference sources,
and sometimes reconsider and delete lines of code. Of
course, any Hackers worth their screen names are going
to have done most of the grunt work in advance, having
a library of pre-written and pre-tested functions to call
on so only minimal tweaking is required.
 Interpreting
Scripts
Hollywood’s ultimate aim is to entertain, sure, but there
are reasons behind these inaccuracies, and we’ve included
explanations why some occur so frequently. Understanding
why Hollywood misrepresents the Hackers’ art can help
you to decide on how you’ll portray it for your Crew in the
Leverage Roleplaying Game.
 Null Data
As with any Crew, scriptwriters are likely to stumble
if they don’t do sufficient research. And like with a
poorly researched Job, coming up against those who
have done their homework is probably going to lead to
embarrassment. In movies, this crops up as “techobabble,”
collections of technical terms that may sound impressive
to the uninitiated, but don’t make a lick of sense to
anyone with knowledge of that field. The writer may
have searched for appropriate terminology but didn’t
make sure the words worked together in a sentence.
You’re only really going to run into trouble when
someone knows enough about the subject to be able to
question you. A trained surgeon may roll their eyes at the
terminology in a medical drama, but for the rest of us, it’s
just a way of getting from one part of the drama to the
next. Hollywood will potentially have millions of pairs
of eyes and ears scrutinizing their scripts after release,
but at your table, you only need to worry about a half a
dozen or so. If no one on your Crew knows their ASCII
from their LIFO, it doesn’t really matter whether or not
all your jargon makes sense, as long as it sounds right.
When you do have someone with some technical
knowledge in the group, how concerned are they about
technical errors and inaccuracies? Some people are
willing to overlook all the “bad science” and don’t bother
critically analyzing the technical elements; for others,
spotting glaring mistakes completely takes them out of
the moment. Even if people are willing to give a movie
a free pass, they may have issues doing the same when
they are providing part of the creative input, such as in a
roleplaying game.
8 Hollywood Hacking
vs. the Real World
There may be a temptation to assign the Hacker roles
to the most technologically literate players, but this is
something they need to decide on for themselves, as they
may want to take a break from their “day job” or explore
a character very different from themselves.
Whichever Role they take, how much do the less
technically inclined members of the group wish to hear
about the “sciencey bits”? A Leverage game can be a
good way to pass on some pointers regarding digital
security and Internet safety, but most players won’t
want to repeatedly pause for a lecture on the history of
encryption or be badgered about the need for secure
passwords each game session.
How technically inclined is your Fixer? If the answer
is “not very” and you have players who need a very
realistic Hacker role, it may seem that your Fixer is going
to have to avoid detailing the computer systems in the
Job or else commit to a doing a lot of research before
the game. Another options is to pass the task of defining
technical details to the player; let them define traits for
the security systems and sound them out for suggestions
when Complications arise.
A final word on portraying technophile/technophobe
comedy team-ups: they usually work best when
both parties have sufficient knowledge of computers.
It becomes much easier portraying an issue of
miscommunication when the players are on the same
page, even though their Crewmembers are not. Most
importantly, it helps avoid hurt feelings and bruised
egos; if your friends just don’t grok the digital world the
way you do, they might not appreciate being the butt of
such jokes while relaxing at the gaming table.
 Communication Relay
If you’ve ever seen your Crew’s eyes glaze over during
your tutorial on how to use your latest unbelievably cool
gadget, you’ll know that it’s not always an easy task to
share information with the less technically savvy. You
probably shouldn’t stop your game for a full-blown
lecture to get everyone up-to-speed and the same holds
just as true in movies and television. Imagine if you had
to audit a physics class before you were allowed to see
the latest sci-fi blockbuster: not fun. Well, at least not by
everyone’s definition of “fun.”
Hollywood has a few tricks to explain to the audience
what they need to know, but by far the clumsiest method
is the “infodump,” when the script comes dangerously
close to being just like one of those dull lectures. The
worst cases have one character explaining the details to a
second, even when it’s obvious both parties know all the
information.
It can be tricky to determine how computer savvy any
large audience will, but you can expect a wide range of
experience in any substantially sized group, so anything
technical is probably going to need explaining to at least
some of your audience. As we’ve already covered, a lot
of what you would realistically see a Hacker do isn’t
very visual, so the options available to a scriptwriter
are to have a character give an infodump as a running
commentary, or use a visual allegory to explain what’s
going on. This leads to the flashy graphic interfaces;
while a good Hacker may know you just need to tailor
your search queries and pipe functions to filter down
a directory listing to find a specific file, everyone can
understand searching through a three-dimensional
cityscape representing that data.
Chances are, you aren’t going to have the time or
equipment to make swish CGI montages to represent
your hacking in your home games, so your allegories
need to be verbal. Consider real world analogs to the
process you’re describing: “DNS acts like a phone book
for the internet,” or “DDoS attacks are like flooding
a telephone switchboard with crank calls so the real
ones can’t get through.” As a rule of thumb, if you can’t
summarize the concept in a few short sentences, your
best bet is probably to avoid explanations altogether and
just jump to the end results.
Interpreting Scripts 9
 Regular Expressions
Some scenes appear so frequently that they have
become ingrained in our consciousness; so much so
that we have a stronger belief in the fiction than we
do in the reality. Many people expect Hackers to crack
any computer within a minute of sitting down at the
keyboard, despite the fact that their own laptops take
that long just to boot up! When Hackers do manage such
a feat, it’s because they’ve taken the time to do lots of
preparation and research, and ensured they have all the
right tools. Either that or the Marks kept their passwords
on sticky-notes in their desk drawers.
Real systems may sacrifice efficiency to meet the
expectations of their users. A database search of a
fingerprint would be much faster if it didn’t briefly
10 Hollywood Hacking
vs. the Real World
flash every failed match on the monitor, but doing so
reassures the user that the computer is busy working on
the problem; people may even perceive the slower search
as taking less time as a result. The same theory applies to
progress bars and time estimates, despite the frequently
inaccurate results.
These expectations can be a burden on the designers
of real software and systems, but for screenwriters they
give a handy shorthand. Similarly, you can take advantage
of these set pieces to describe a situation to your gaming
group; they may not understand your explanation of a
brute-force hack, but describing the flashing of every
possible code rotating by on the screen is much more
familiar territory.
 Progress Bar
You don’t get to be the one of best Hackers in the
field without having been on the wrong end of a police
investigation or two, so you probably don’t need to
be told that real police work doesn’t quite match up
to what you’ll see in police and forensic procedurals.
That’s because the long waits for lab reports, the need
to double-check and verify findings, and the frequent
inconclusive results that are likely to occur in the real
world don’t make for thrilling television. As with any
drama, the plot should progress forwards with every
scene, and that usually means that a new piece of the
puzzle is uncovered at every step and dead-end avenues
of investigation won’t be shown unless they provide
interesting or amusing diversions.
It’s a similar situation with a Leverage Crew: you’re
all at the very peak of your professions, so the question
of whether you can is usually less important than what
happens when you do. It may seem like it solely falls
to your Fixer to ensure that everything flows from one
scene into the next, with the occasional interesting
Complication throwing a spanner in the works, but the
whole table should work toward the goal of a smooth
and enjoyable game. It’s also important to keep an eye
on the Complications that crop up; they make the Job
interesting, but shouldn’t be allowed to bring the whole
operation screeching to a halt. When and if that does
happen, it’s vital to remove the obstruction and get
everything rolling again as soon as possible; remember
to take the time to reflect on the errors after everything’s
been wrapped up so you can try and avoid similar
missteps derailing future Jobs.
Sometimes, the plot demands that the vital clue not
arrive too early, otherwise the story would be done
before the first ad break; this can be explained away as the
computer needing time to process the data, decrypt the
file, or search the database. There may even be mention
of a backlog of work in the lab, as a nod to realism or
to justify why it’s taking longer this particular episode.
These delays just happen to be precisely the right amount
of time to exhaust every other avenue of pursuit and give
the break in the case in the penultimate or final act. In
situations where there’s a deadline, it can ratchet up the
tension, complete with ticking clock displayed on the
screen.
The behind-the-scenes reasoning for this will often
be that not having investigated the clue early would
have been too much an oversight to justify, but also that
the resolution would be immediately apparent if all the
information had been received straight away. In such
situations, it could be that an early Complication has
been standing in the way of knowing the full story and
only when it is later resolved will the twist be revealed.
For a crafty Mastermind the delay may have been part of
the plan the whole time, as they’ll no doubt explain with
a quick flashback.
Interpreting Scripts 11
 Cool Running
These days, almost everyone loves their stylish and
flashy gadgets. Hackers and Hollywood both twigged to
this early, and both have their huge range of “toys”—in
the case of Hollywood, both in front of and behind the
camera. Sometimes for Hollywood’s on-screen gadgets,
no one truly believes such technological marvels could
really exist, but we’re willing to suspend our disbelief
to enjoy the suave secret agent escaping the elaborate
deathtrap with clever use of a laser-firing fountain pen.
Sometimes, the “Rule of Cool” trumps reality.
How far you can push the Rule of Cool depends on
the tone of your fictional world; “action adventure” is
more lenient when it comes to throwing out the reality
rulebook than a historical drama. Frequent application
Mini Game
We’ve mostly discussed hacking as seen in film and
television, but there are two other areas where you often
see these concepts raise their heads: in computer games
and roleplaying games. In addition to the reasons listed
above, games that include an element of hacking will try
to make it fun and interesting for the player, and might
not share more than a passing nod to reality as a result.
12 Hollywood Hacking
vs. the Real World
of impossibly cool set pieces will lighten the tone of
the final product, but too many may result in out-right
comedy.
Neither extreme, nor any given point on the axis
between “cool” and “realistic,” is the “correct” way. It’s
important that your Crew and Fixer agree on your play
style. If one of your players pictures the Job as a gritty
crime drama, they are going to be put out if you whip
up a functioning laser sword for your Hitter to use. As
you’re playing the Leverage Roleplaying Game, players
familiar with the show are probably going expect a
similar tone—fairly light-hearted fun, a touch of comedy,
with a strong grounding in reality—but don’t make too
many assumptions without asking.
For your own games of Leverage, feel free to go
with whatever works best for your group, be that a
perfect simulation of technical principles or knowingly
disregarding every notion of realism. Everyone should
be at the game table to have fun, just as they would when
going to see a movie; so as long as that’s happening,
you’re well on your way to stealing the magic of the silver
screen.
 New Talents
These new Talents can add a little Hollywood flair to your
hacking scenes. And they’re not even all for Hackers.
 As Seen On TV
You’ve spent countless hours watching every movie
featuring hacking and every show with a computer in
it; less so for the entertainment and more to understand
how the media portrays technology. You know that
even the most knowledgeable person can be influenced
by what they watch, and you make sure you’re ready to
capitalize on those mistakes.
Role: Mastermind
Activation: You’re involved in a Contested Action
relating to computers or technology and the Fixer
rolls an Opportunity.
Effect: Add a d6 to your roll for the remainder of the
Action. If you describe a mistake your opposition
made, step it up to a d8.
Babble Baffles Brains
Sometimes you don’t have to be able to walk the
walk, as long as you can talk the talk. You’re an expert at
confusing people with a string of jargon and acronyms,
or giving the appearance of being more proficient than
you really are by using appropriate technical terminology.
Role: Grifter
Activation: You are unsuccessful in a Face Action
where you are playing the part of a professional in a
technical field.
Effect: You may reroll your attempt at the Face Action,
this time including your Hacker die.
I Was Going Slow For
Your Benefit
The hack is taking too long and it seems certain
that you’re about to be discovered in the midst of your
illicit activity, but in the final seconds you point out that
you were taking your time to lecture your Crew on the
finer points of your craft; you could have had this thing
cracked ages ago if you had been so inclined.
14 Hollywood Hacking
vs. the Real World
Role: Hacker
Activation: You are making the last roll in a Timed
Action that includes your Hacker die and only a
single beat remains.
Effect: You may keep three dice for your result, but
you do not receive Plot Points for any Complications
from the roll.
Here’s One I Compiled
Earlier
Whether or not you were a Boy Scout, you took the
“Be Prepared” motto to heart, at least when it comes to
software. You have libraries full of subroutines and data
drives packed with applications you have written to
cover just about every conceivable situation.
Role: Hacker
Activation: You trigger a Flashback to reveal a time
consuming technical process that you have already
completed or put into motion.
Effect: Add your Vitality die to your roll and include
one more die in the result. If you are already using
your Vitality die, add a d8.
Welcome to My
Virtual World
You know the average user won’t be able to grasp the
technical details like you can, so you spend a lot of time
crafting foolproof user interfaces so simple that even a
chimp could use them. Or your Hitter.
Role: Hacker
Activation: Another Crewmember uses an Asset that
represents a gadget, computer, or program supplied
by you.
Effect: The Crewmember may roll your Hacker die
instead of the Asset die.
 Credits
Writing: Photography:
Craig Payne Page i: Hardison infiltrates the airport’s Control Tower © 2011
Leverage 4 Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1: Hardison working his magic from inside Lucille. © 2011
Editing: Leverage 4 Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Sally Christensen Page 4: Parker and Nate infiltrating the Department of Defense.
© 2010 Leverage 3 Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Development: Page 7: Hardison is hacking history. © 2010 Leverage 3 Holdings,
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Page 9: Parker goes undercover. © 2010 Leverage 3 Holdings, Inc.
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Page 10: Nate and Hardison find an improbable ally in Trevor, a
Daniel Solis kid on the field trip Nate and Parker hijacked. © 2011
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Based on the LEVERAGE Roleplaying Game by Cam Banks, Page 11: Working with Chaos proves even more difficult than
Hardison expected. © 2011 Leverage 4 Holdings, Inc. All
Rob Donoghue, and Clark Valentine with Tiara Lynn Agresta,
Rights Reserved.
Matt Forbeck, Stephanie Ford, Laura Anne Gilman, Fred Hicks,
Page 13: Elliot and Hardison look over the map. © 2010 Leverage
and Ryan Macklin 3 Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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