Skirmisher Publishing is proud to announce the release of “Black Hat Magic,” a guide to the magical equivalents of Hackers and malware like hoaxes, adware, Trojan Horses, worms, and viruses! It is available from DriveThruRPG and RPGNow (10 pages, 99¢).

Advanced computer and magic users share many traits, including their eccentric natures, propensity to recluse themselves, and shared taste for comfortable clothing. It stands to reason therefore, that if the respective users of these arcane skills share personality traits, that they might use their abilities in similar ways as well.

One phenomenon that makes for a fascinating study, but lacks a magical counterpart in any games we are familiar with, is computer malware. This publication explores the various types of malware and, with a little creativity, attempts to describe what the magical varieties might look like, and, finally, provides a “Spell Hacker” prestige class as an example of how to make use of these concepts.