Sysop

You ran a bulletin board out of your garage — a modem, a stack of floppies, and everyone in the county who mattered dialling in after midnight. If there is a working computer left in Knox County, you can make it talk to another one.

A garage BBS at night: CRT, modem lights, and a stack of floppy disks. — Plate III-A. — The prize is not the beige box. It is a BBS the settlement can sit at.

Spec	Issued
Creation cost	−6 (Burglar / Smither tier)
Effective start	Computers 5 · Electricity 2 · Computer Whiz
Granted trait	Computer Whiz — terminals are faster; long sessions barely bore or tire you. Do not buy the trait again; the twin already has it.
Already known	Program Timer, Noise Maker, Remote Mk1–3, Opto Sensor, Proximity Mk1–3, Build Makeshift Computer
XP source	Crafting in the Computers tab, plus the terminal loop (newsgroups, training software). Skill books multiply; they do not grant the first point.

Who this is for

A group who wants a settlement with a pulse after dark. You are expensive. You skip a week of magazines. In exchange you can put a working RuckNet terminal on claimed dirt while a PC Repair Technician is still cutting blank disks from VHS. If you intend to walk Louisville alone for a month, pick a cheaper start and find a Sysop later.

// FROM THE FILES — RUCKNET

Before the quiet, Greene County had more garage boards than churches on Sunday. RuckNet is what is left of that habit: the same midnight crowd, fewer phone lines, and a house that lives or dies on whether the box stays on.

How to play it

Survive first. Computer Whiz does not stop a bite. Water, a bag, a melee, a house on the edge of town — First Hours still applies. Electricity 2 is a gift for generators later, not a licence to fight.
Loot electronics with intent. Desktop computers, VHS tapes, speakers, scrap electronics, a screwdriver. You are not a Scrapper; you still need their leftovers. A friendly E-Waste Recycler is the correct neighbour.
Cut disks, then wipe them. Cut Blank Disks From VHS Tape is ungated — anyone can start the skill that way. Wipe Training Disk wants Computers 1, which you already have. The settlement’s training library is a renewable floppy economy: write software, copy it, wipe it, write it again.
Build the terminal. Build Makeshift Computer is Computers 6 / Electricity 2. You start at Computers 5 with the recipe already known; one level of crafting or terminal work and you can place a real BBS (the desktop-computer sprite the Network recognises). That is the occupation. Everything else is garnish.
Stand the box up inside a claim. RuckNet is message boards, newsgroups, and games over a modem whose speed is your Computers skill. You are already fast. Put the machine where people can sit, not in a boarded closet only you have the key to.
Stock the arcade and the sensors. Arcade cabinets (Dr. Oids / Kaboom) want Woodwork 4 as well as Computers 4 — bring a carpenter, or be one on the side. Remotes and proximity sensors are your PvE gadgets: noise, timers, trip lines. Program them; do not hoard the recipes as identity.

The Computers ladder

Skill	What opens
0	Dismantle Desktop Computer; Cut Blank Disks From VHS Tape
1	Wipe Training Disk
2	Program Timer — you already know this
3	Handheld Game, Noise Maker, Proximity Mk1
4	Remote Mk1, Opto Sensor, arcade cabinets (plus Woodwork 4 / Electricity 2)
5	Proximity Mk2 — you spawn here
6	Remote Mk2, Makeshift Computer (Electricity 2, which you have)
7–8	Proximity Mk3, Remote Mk3

Operator’s note There is no magazine gate on Computers recipes. Skill alone decides. The county’s ordinary Electricity magazines are a different path to similar gadgets with different inputs. Neither path obsoletes the other. Your advantage is the terminal, the disks, and starting already over the wall.

First week, if you do it right

Day 1: live. Day 2: VHS + a desktop, or a Scrapper’s bag. Day 3: disks. Day 4–5: enough Computers XP to 6, then the makeshift box. Day 6: a claim, or a friend’s claim, and the machine on a table people walk past. After that you are infrastructure. Charge for copies. Sit in the BBS. Let the Merchant hire the bodies that guard the room.

Caution Technophobe and Two-Finger Typist are mutually exclusive with Computer Whiz. You cannot take them. Do not try to refund points by buying a downside the character cannot suffer — the sheet will not offer it.

Pair with E-Waste Recycler for parts, PC Repair Technician as the cheap second terminal-sitter, and anyone who can found a settlement. Read Workshops for the rest of the skill, and Territory before you plant the box in a field with no walls.