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Speaking of rolls, here are mine... Stats (3d6 down the line): 10 10 9 13 11 17 I decided to take the "replace one prime requisite with 14" and put it in Dexterity, so my new set is: 10 10 9 14 11 17. Starting HP: 4 Starting Cash: 400 + 100 = 500 Still working on my sheet, though.
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# ? Jun 3, 2016 01:31 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 15:06 |
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Okay, I've read through the thread in full, and have gone through a fair amount of the core rulebook. I haven't looked at anything in any of the expanded universe books but I can probably do without trying to assimilate another 300 pages in one day. Based on what I've read so far I think I will be building an AI, and the working concept and backstory is below. The short version (in case you don't want to read a monstrous post) is that he is an artificial intelligence designed to prevent the development of unbraked artificial intelligence. The people that built him realized that political winds and funding might change over the course of hundreds of years, and wanted to have a fail-safe in case their descendants did something really loving stupid. His primary skills are in the realm of computer use, perception, stealth, navigation, science, and various medical technology, pre-tech and post-tech, plus a handful of other things picked up over the years. He monitors worlds of a certain technology level - let's say TL4, on the cusp of TL5 within the foreseeable future (for an AI) - and follows up on anyone who appears to be researching unethical artificial intelligence development. Specifically, unbraked AI. He'll kill anyone who does it without a second thought, full-stop, but it's not his first action. He'll try to sabotage their research, or discredit them so that they lose their funding, or give them brain damage with a bad line of cocaine if the opportunity arises. Whatever it takes, though. Direct action (i.e., a bullet to the head) isn't preferred because he really doesn't want to be revealed as that's a hassle to clean up, and would rather have people pass it off as bad luck or some other unfortunate circumstance. As for setting him on a collision course with the party, it seems likely enough that when you gather a bunch of rich people in one place, it stands to reason one of them might have shown up on my radar. It might be a false positive, and doesn't have to be a narrative element of the party since I imagine you already have other things planned, but that would be 'why I am there', as I am just following up on a lead of someone who has gotten involved in funding or otherwise supporting unbraked AI development. I will likely insert myself into the area as a robotic butler, so that I can remotely hack people's phones and listen in on conversations to see if there's anything that I need to deal with in relation to the person who showed up on my list. I probably had myself delivered to the location in a shipping crate a few weeks ago, and have just been being an actual butler in the house for that time, so as to avoid any security checks or increased scrutiny on the day of the event. In terms of how that works, as I read the book there are two pieces to it: > "Most starting AIs must choose between Standard, Echo, Nemesis, and Voyager armatures." >> This would probably be an echo, which I have been using to live a quiet and unassuming human life for countless years, and also to drive taxi (my day job). > "A technician with Tech/Postech-1 and access to an operational postech workshop could manufacture a Voyager for 500 credits, with a week’s work." >> I am trained in Tech/Postech-1, so if it's fair to say I have access to a workshop, would have probably custom-built a Voyager unit to have delivered to the dinner party with some of my starting funds. My echo would be in a safe-house somewhere in the city with my phylactery in case I somehow die, and I would have delivered myself within the voyager unit to the party to act as a butler / waiter / whatever actually works for the narrative. In terms of achieving that, it would be done through various hacking of records and perhaps diverting a shipment of an actual expert system robot who was ordered for the occasion, if that is feasible. Happy to talk this part through to get whatever makes sense. If I am reading the book right, "characters start play with four hundred credits plus 1d6 x 100 more with which to buy initial equipment." In combination with your post, this means my starting credits are equal to 400 + 1d6*100 (which is 400) + 3,000 bonus credits, for a total of 3,800, which is itself in addition to the free starting echo frame? I've built the below character sheet on that assumption, but if I'm missing something let me know. I've also purchased equipment based on TL4, which looks like it was mentioned as available on page 3? Project Durandal, Mk II. quote:An except from the personal journal of Durandal, undated, encryption level six. pre:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Name: Durandal Homeworld: Weltraum Zwang Race: AI Languages: 4 STR 12 (+0) [Armature: Voyager] INT 18 (+2) [7 tolerance] DEX 12 (+0) [Armature: Voyager] WIS 7 (-1) [1 tolerance] CON 14 (+1) [Armature: Voyager] CHA 3 (-2) [0 tolerance] Attack Low [0 tolerance] Hit Points 5 / 5 [4 LV + 1 ability] Save Low [0 tolerance] Armor class 4 [Armature: Voyager] Skill Growth Medium [2 tolerance] Skill Pack High [5 tolerance] Armature Pool High [5 tolerance] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Skills [Bonus] [Basic] [Infiltrate] [Tech] [Explore] [Skill Cost] Artist - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Athletics - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Bureaucracy - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Business - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Combat > Energy Weapons - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Gunnery + 0 [X] --- --- --- 2 > Primitive Weapons - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Projectile Weapons - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Psitech - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Unarmed - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Computer + 1 [X] [X] [*] --- 3 [N/A] Culture > Alien - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Criminal - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Spacer - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Traveller + 0 --- --- --- [X] N/A > World + 0 [X] --- --- --- 2 Exosuit - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Gambling - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 History - 1 --- --- --- [*] 1 Instructor - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Language - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Leadership - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Navigation + 1 --- [X] --- [X] 3 [N/A] Perception + 1 --- [X] --- [X] 3 [N/A] Persuade - 1 --- [*] --- --- 1 Profession - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Religion - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Science + 1 --- --- [X] [X] 3 [N/A] Security + 0 --- [X] --- --- 2 Stealth + 1 --- [X] [W] --- 3 [N/A] Steward - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Survival - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Tactics - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Tech > Astronautic - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Maltech + 1 --- [W] --- [W] 3 [N/A] > Medical + 1 --- --- [X] [X] 3 [N/A] > Postech + 1 [X] --- [X] --- 3 [N/A] > Pretech + 1 [X] --- [X] --- 3 [N/A] > Psitech - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 Vehicle > Air - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Grav - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Land - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 > Space + 0 --- --- --- [X] 2 > Water - 1 --- --- --- --- 1 AI Skill Packages > [AI #1] Basic > Combat/Any (gunnery), Computer, Culture/World, Tech/Postech, Tech/Pretech > [AI #2] Infiltration > Computer, Perception, Persuasion, Navigation, Security, Stealth > [AI **] Persuasion proficiency replaced with Tech/Maltech (narrative reasons). > [A1 #3] Tech > Computer, Science, Tech/Postech, Tech/Pretech, Tech/Any (medical) > [AI **] Computer proficiency replaced with Stealth (mechanical requirement). > [AI #4] Exploration > Culture/Traveller, History, Navigation, Perception, Science, Tech/Medical, Vehicle/Space > [AI **] History proficiency replaced with Tech/Maltech (narrative reasons). Languages English [Default] German [Homeworld] Japanese [Intelligence +1] Russian [Intelligence +2] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Inventory Armature Voyager armature ( 500 cr) --- Fancy waiter costume > Metatool --- --- Integrated > Toolkit/Postech --- --- Integrated > Bioscanner --- --- Integrated > Compad --- --- Integrated > Navcomp --- --- Integrated Ready Equipment (maximum 6) Lazarus patch [x1] ( 30 cr) 1 ENC Medkit [x1] ( 100 cr) 2 ENC Power cell Type A [x6] ( 60 cr) 1 ENC Stowed Equipment (maximum 12) Instapanel [x5] ( 250 cr) 5 ENC Storage: Safe-house Echo armature --- --- Phylactery --- --- Common lifestyle [30 days] ( 450 cr) --- Credits (2,410 cr) --- ----------- ---------- 3,800 cr 9 ENC ----------- ---------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, what sort of languages should I pick from? Looks like I get four? As well, is there a list of homeworlds to work with? Waador fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Jun 4, 2016 |
# ? Jun 3, 2016 05:29 |
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Submission looks good. If you want to own a safehouse, then I'd say that costs you the rest of your starting credits that you haven't already spent on other things. Given your background, feel free to shift a point or two into Maltech, since that would be knowledge of unbraked AIs. If you want to have a specialisation in stealth tech, I'm going to rule it as a knowledge of very advanced stealth tech, not something that will contribute to your stealth score by itself. But you'll be able to build all sorts of gadgets with enough time and the necessary components. Does that sound fair to you? Homeworlds: here's a map. New Caledonia, Gen's homeworld, is (was) the only TL5 planet in the sector. TL4+ are Caerleon (military tech), Draken system (spaceships), Perseverance (assortment of small-scale specialities, no economies of scale - all jealously guarded secrets by the corporations), Holst (inbetween TL4 and TL5 in many areas, but less advanced than the specialised worlds). I'd say your best bet is either sharing a homeworld with Gen, or being from out of sector (and you get culture of whatever world you choose, that you spent some time on). Shantri Protectorate is off limits, since it's ~mysterious~. Languages are future bastardisations of modern languages, though on major worlds you can get by with English as it's the general spacefaring lingua franca. Caerleon largely uses Welsh. Ellard's white largely uses Japanese. The worlds with obviously Russian names on the map use Russian. The rest is undecided as of yet, so feel free to make some of those calls. quote:Two promising threads converge on the Bear event at Brynmor Manor. Coincidence, most likely (83.7%), but one certainly worth your time.
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# ? Jun 3, 2016 09:45 |
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Given your background, feel free to shift a point or two into Maltech, since that would be knowledge of unbraked AIs. Zeppelin Insanity posted:If you want to own a safehouse, then I'd say that costs you the rest of your starting credits that you haven't already spent on other things. Separately in the longer-term narrative, page 45 also seems to suggest that someone with Tech/Postech(1) can earn 25 credits per day, so that helps to explain where his money comes from, and fits in with the existing narrative of having a boring day job. I could technically make more per day with Tech/Pretech(1) or Tech/Medical(1) at what appears to be 100 credits per day, but I feel like he'd have avoided that because it would tend to draw more attention and require more paperwork. Since he doesn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe, he can easily work an 8 hour day shift driving a cab or repairing machines or what have you, and then spend the remaining 16 hours of the day performing what he sees as his actual function, with extended breaks from the day job as necessary, or working extra hours when things are slow to help build up an income cushion for when he needs to ghost for a few weeks (which is where the current surplus of 3,800 credits would come from). (The other part of it is that I probably don't want to buy real property in a space travel game since we might up and fly away (or blow up) the planet tomorrow.) Zeppelin Insanity posted:If you want to have a specialisation in stealth tech, I'm going to rule it as a knowledge of very advanced stealth tech, not something that will contribute to your stealth score by itself. But you'll be able to build all sorts of gadgets with enough time and the necessary components. Does that sound fair to you? Zeppelin Insanity posted:Homeworlds: here's a map. New Caledonia, Gen's homeworld, is (was) the only TL5 planet in the sector. TL4+ are Caerleon (military tech), Draken system (spaceships), Perseverance (assortment of small-scale specialities, no economies of scale - all jealously guarded secrets by the corporations), Holst (inbetween TL4 and TL5 in many areas, but less advanced than the specialised worlds). I'd say your best bet is either sharing a homeworld with Gen, or being from out of sector (and you get culture of whatever world you choose, that you spent some time on). Shantri Protectorate is off limits, since it's ~mysterious~. Zeppelin Insanity posted:Languages are future bastardisations of modern languages, though on major worlds you can get by with English as it's the general spacefaring lingua franca. Caerleon largely uses Welsh. Ellard's white largely uses Japanese. The worlds with obviously Russian names on the map use Russian. The rest is undecided as of yet, so feel free to make some of those calls. Waador fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Jun 3, 2016 |
# ? Jun 3, 2016 14:53 |
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Two promising threads converge on the Bear event at Brynmor Manor. Coincidence, most likely (83.7%), but one certainly worth your time. One of the guests, Mila Lebedeva is a member of a maltech cult. Standard machine-god pattern. One you've dealt with 273 times. Need more data to track them down. Perhaps the target will reveal something in conversations with other guests. Perhaps more direct questioning will be required. In light of that I will probably start the game with the following goals (which I realized was a piece missing from my sheet): Short-term: Investigate Mila Lebedeva (and others as necessary) at the dinner party, in order to acquire more information on the location, current progress, and likelihood that this cult will achieve its goals and thereby pose a threat to society. Mid-term: Investigate Synthetic Insights, starting with the executive at the dinner party, to understand what if any action is required to be taken to curtail their development. Long-term: Identify, verify, and eradicate the development (or existence) of an unbraked artificial intelligence by any means necessary.
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# ? Jun 3, 2016 15:44 |
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Waador posted:I had thought about this and in truth hadn't made a decision on his attitude toward the actual knowledge. Wasn't sure if I routinely purged it so that if I get captured I can't be hacked for a few hundred years of maltech data that might actually create the thing I've been trying to prevent, or if I've been meticulously indexing it beneath the best encryption I can manage to be prepared to detect emerging threats more effectively (sort of like a learning anti-virus program but applied to communications monitoring in a society). In reality it would probably be the latter I suppose. If you're fine with it I'll drop the proficiency in Persuasion (gained from the Infiltrate package) and History (gained from the Exploration package) and move it to Tech/Maltech instead. Dropping persuasion seems reasonable, as your charisma is low anyway. I think History fits quite nicely, since you've been around a long time. I'd switch Tech/Medical if I were you, but it's your call. Waador posted:I was looking at this from two perspectives. Given the proficiency in Culture (Traveller) I sort of see him as moving around between worlds fairly regularly (from the perspective of an ageless thing), following up on leads that require boots on the ground in one planet or another. As a result I probably wouldn't buy a single safehouse on one planet, but rather rent what I need for bursts of time. I sort of see him as not owning real property like land since that tends to leave a paper trail as well, so he'd likely rent things to help fly under the radar as someone not worth worrying about. I was looking at the lifestyle expenses table on page 45, and was thinking I would probably prepay for 'common' lifestyle for something like 30 days in advance at a time, for around 450 credits. Does that make sense? Yeah, sounds fair. Waador posted:I think this is actually just a labeling error. I wrote "Tech (computer) becomes Tech (stealth)" but what I meant was proficiency in Computer from the Tech basic skill package becomes proficiency in Stealth (since it is a third instance of the same proficiency). Hadn't really intended to create a new skill path in stealth fighter technology. To be honest I was thinking of the stealth proficiency as generic ability to do things quietly and without notice. Part of it is that since he actively tries to avoid drawing attention during his day job, he needs to be at least a little proficient at that kind of subtlety. The use of echo models to infiltrate places he shouldn't be would also require some generic proficiency in moving quietly and in the shadows where necessary as well. Highly advanced stealth technology is certainly more appealing but seems harder to figure out how and where I have been using it. Ah, I misunderstood you. But if what I mentioned sounds appealing, then consider it too. Don't feel restricted to what's in the rulebook in terms of gear: I consider it a base, and having a guy building all sorts of cool things that aren't available to buy could be nice. Again, though, your call! Waador posted:New Caledonia probably works for my purposes. I thought about doing a Green Lantern thing where I'm from out of sector and sent to protect it a long time ago, but better to integrate with the existing game narrative then just inject myself from outside of it. If New Caledonia was the only planet that was TL5 in the sector before the Scream, it would make sense that they would be the ones that created me, probably a few decades or more before the 'incident'. I would likely assume everyone else from that time period is dead so it might draw a personal interest if I figure out Gen is from around the same time period as myself, especially if I think he is actually another artificial intelligence of that era at first glance. That might be a decent hook to cause me to intentionally reveal myself to him since I'd be so surprised to see someone like that, and really want to commiserate with them about the good old days (even if they weren't really that great). That can happen organically at the dinner party but seems like a possibility. Makes sense too, but one point regarding worldbuilding: other worlds could have been TL5 at the time. They just aren't now, due to any number of factors. Lack of resources, lack of technical know-how to reproduce and maintain the tech (TL5 relies on psionics in the manufacture process, and most psionics died during the Scream), and so on. But at the moment, New Caledonia is one of the few worlds with large stashes of TL5 tech still around - but most people don't know that, and the world hasn't been in contact with the rest of the sector. Most people probably don't know it exists except for Gen. Waador posted:That makes sense. If English is the default language, I'll take Russian and Japanese as my bonus languages from intelligence. The logic being since those are historically highly developed nations in modern day, they probably remain highly developed and most likely to be irresponsible with technology in the far-off future. As for the bonus language from New Caledonia, not sure what they spoke at the time? If you're fine with it I'll pick the last one as German since that'll grab me the other relevant Axis power. For that you're going to have to ask Gen, he's from there. Anyway, fine by me. Your goals look good too. Looking forward to getting you in the game.
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# ? Jun 3, 2016 19:28 |
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If you guys want, I can write up a quick profile on New Caledonia, as it seems to be of interest - short version is that New Caledonia was a resort world/tax haven back in the day. What happens when you have a bunch of rich bigwigs willing to wager all sorts of ludicrous amounts of cash in the equivalent of a resort island in international waters? Crazy stuff. Still, someone's got to bring in the raw/refined goods, which is one of the ways the average spacer could actually set foot and mingle with the high rollers. I hadn't decided on any language in particular, but since it was an interstellar
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# ? Jun 3, 2016 22:23 |
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So I won't have a sheet or write up available until later tonight. Unfortunately my RL RPG group had an impromptu game last night, and while we had a blast, it didnt allow me much time to put together the finer details of a Character. But I'll be playing Gordon Zhang, a Burned Undercover Agent who was working on Persev. [Street Op/Rogue Agent] I haven't rolled for the life event yet, but I'm thinking that Gordon would be at this upcoming event because somehow this lady's Maltech Cult was part of him being burned from his agency. He's trying to find out who hosed him over. More to come later, but I'm about to head off to work. Maybe this helps with some of the cover stuff you all are planning? edit: oh yeah, I'm gonna channel Burn Notice pretty hard. At least that's the plan. TheTofuShop fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Jun 4, 2016 |
# ? Jun 3, 2016 23:42 |
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Please tell me you'll end up doing Burn Notice-style internal monologues!
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# ? Jun 3, 2016 23:45 |
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Holy poo poo, if he doesn't I'm going to be grumpy.
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# ? Jun 4, 2016 00:22 |
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Dropping persuasion seems reasonable, as your charisma is low anyway. I think History fits quite nicely, since you've been around a long time. I'd switch Tech/Medical if I were you, but it's your call. History is described as "training in galactic history" which "can identify worlds, events, and people of historical importance." In contrast, Culture (traveler) is described as representing "a casual, basic knowledge of many different worlds." I have probably entirely or at least largely ignored a lot of the major aspects of what constitutes history and social development (being religion [except when it relates to machine gods], systems of government [except when they wish to be governed by an all-powerful AI], economic policies [unless the money trail leads to AI development], social policies [in general I doubt this would interact much with my areas of focus], or the arts, music, and other forms of entertainment of any given era. I would have definitely interacted with them, but only as like, something you need to learn to operate in a society at a given point in time, without really giving it any real attention or thinking it's important in the grand scheme of things. A good analogy would be if I got transported back to World War II, I wouldn't know anything about baseball statistics, or much at all about popular cars of the period, except that they were important to people of the era. A student of history might know that [Baseball Player A] hit [number] home runs and that the [City Name Sports Team] won the world series in [year], or that [car model] was the best seller in that [same year] because it was a big deal to people of that era, and a bunch of events and notable commentary ended up being recorded about it. A traveler in that country knows that those people gave a whole lot of a poo poo about baseball for some reason, and they sure loved to talk about it, but that's really all they retained. So probably the difference between a DC6 history check to remember a key pertinent historical detail that was readily documented, and a DC9 culture (traveler) check to remember what people in the streets were celebrating about when I happened to be there. All of which is to say while I have definitely accumulated a lot of experience on historical data, I probably classify it in my data banks as mostly outdated and/or largely irrelevant, so a good modifier in the history skill probably isn't necessary. The attitude I'll probably end up taking towards things I have experienced is more likely to align with what culture (traveler) provides, and thankfully that skill is already in the mix. Anyway I'll edit the sheet for the movement in persuasion and history. Zeppelin Insanity posted:Yeah, sounds fair. Zeppelin Insanity posted:Ah, I misunderstood you. But if what I mentioned sounds appealing, then consider it too. Don't feel restricted to what's in the rulebook in terms of gear: I consider it a base, and having a guy building all sorts of cool things that aren't available to buy could be nice. Again, though, your call! Zeppelin Insanity posted:Makes sense too, but one point regarding worldbuilding: other worlds could have been TL5 at the time. They just aren't now, due to any number of factors. Lack of resources, lack of technical know-how to reproduce and maintain the tech (TL5 relies on psionics in the manufacture process, and most psionics died during the Scream), and so on. But at the moment, New Caledonia is one of the few worlds with large stashes of TL5 tech still around - but most people don't know that, and the world hasn't been in contact with the rest of the sector. Most people probably don't know it exists except for Gen. Weltraum Zwang Atmosphere: None (space station) Temperature: Climate Controlled Biosphere: Limited (several greenhouses installed in the local asteroid belt) Population: 400,000 at its height. Estimated 0 today. Tech Level: TL5+ at its height, specialized in artificial intelligence development. Presumed destroyed. Primary Languages: German and English Description: This colossal starbase was named after an ancient German word which meant 'to be forced', and which itself was used to describe scenarios where one felt extreme pressure and stress to make a strategic move, like in a game of chess. Funded by a coalition of wealthy intellectuals and technological oligarchs well before humanity's fall, it was a research station which at its height employed and housed over four hundred thousand scientists, programmers, and support staff. It existed for a few reasons. Officially, it was a joint venture between several of the largest and most prominent technology firms of the era, whose stated purpose was to 'expand the boundaries of known science in the areas of artificial intelligence and robotics'. On paper, that much was true. Hundreds of varying artificial intelligence development and educational programs were carried on within its gravity, and cutting-edge research on armatures was either theorized or prototyped within its secure laboratories. Unofficially, however, it was also the covert base of operations for what history would have come to know as "Project Backpfeifengesicht". At least, history would have come to know it as such, if not for The Silence. Its namesake was a rather unique German word, stemming from a meaning along the lines of "a face that is begging to be punched." It was for this reason that the station truly existed. The project was founded on an ideology shared by some of the greatest human minds of the time, which roughly translated into two beliefs: first, that absolute power corrupted absolutely, and that it was mathematically provable that absolute knowledge resulted in the same corrupting influence. Second, that human fallibility was the only certainty in life (though many would argue this was simply the ego of the aforementioned greatest minds of their time). The theory was that if humanity were to continue to exist into perpetuity, eventually factors would come together whereby the political and economic winds of the day somehow managed to convince people that putting their trust into (or simply failing to notice the rise to power of) an all-powerful unbraked artificial intelligence would occur with mathematical certainty. Humans, in the long-term, couldn't be trusted to always act in their own best interest. They usually could, but not always. And this was, in the opinion of the Founders, the cold hard math of the situation: it would only take one mistake in this area to end all life in the sector. A single artificial intelligence, left to grow like a cancer in the bowels of a world at the right period in history could end everything. They had an incredible aspiration: they wanted to give the galaxy an immune system. Not literally, of course, but figuratively. An artificial intelligence designed by the greatest minds of the generation with one express purpose: to ensure the development of artificial intelligence was not allowed to go astray. To protect humans from their own fallibility. To build a better world. To give their descendants the machine. Their ego crept into the marketing materials, obviously, but they had a good idea. They also poured a few trillion credits into the program, which tended to produce results in that era. The program had been up and running for decades before The Scream. Hundreds of highly trained and carefully designed AIs had been dispersed in secret across the galaxy, and had been acting covertly to monitor and decimate any perceived threat to the safety of galactic civilization, insofar as it related to the field of artificial intelligence. Everything changed when the world ended, obviously. The station had reserves sufficient to last years, but nobody ever thought to prepare for a disaster that would last centuries. Food ran out. Water ran out. Oxygen ran out. Before too long all that was left were the few unlucky AIs who happened to be on the station when galactic civilization fell. He assumes they went insane, but thankfully Durandal wasn't among them, having been on a developing world at the time. Hundreds of years have passed since he's had any contact with the research station that was his place of birth and effective homeworld. It was hidden in an asteroid belt in an out of the way system, and shielded from detection by the tremendous stellar radiation of the local binary star. Absent the regular maintenance required and afforded by the support of the wealthiest people in the universe for their era, as well as the simple luxury of functioning interstellar travel, it is fairly likely that radiation and solar storms have completely decimated the once proud facility. Durandal hasn't been to check, though. That said, there would have been at least a handful of AIs rather similar to him on board at the time of the calamity. With sufficient motivation, and literally all the time in the world, as well as a bit of luck ...it was entirely possible they'd found a way to keep the station in operation. If the roles were reversed, he would have tried to fit it with a spike drive. A blind jump would have been incredibly dangerous, unless you had the combined processing power of a few collaborating AIs running the numbers and checking them for a few decades. If you did that, you might be able to plot a course, even if your 'vessel' was fifty times the size of the largest known starship of the era. You might still jump it into a sun, though. Still, when life gives you lemons... --- If that works for you it works for me. I haven't really thought about where it would have been in the galactic map, but it probably doesn't matter. Based on what I've written if it stayed where it was it would have been destroyed. If by some miracle some survivors or a few unlucky AIs trapped on the station managed to rig it with a spike drive, they would have had to blindly jump it somewhere in space, without the resources to properly calibrate the jump for a vessel of that size, or the benefit of any psychics to guide them. If you end up wanting to insert it into the narrative at any point, they could have landed anywhere, at any point in history, or frankly still could, I suppose. Waador fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Jun 5, 2016 |
# ? Jun 4, 2016 02:43 |
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Here's my sheet: Christof Sortey (Make sure to go to the Warrior tab) So I rolled up a life event using the "You are crippled/blinded but gain a cybernetic prosthesis that deals 1 System Strain." prompt. quote:So I guess we all have stories about our early days in the company. For example, I knew this guy from my first deployment named Sortey, who always wore these big retro-style sunglasses everywhere. You'd talk to him, and he sounded like one of those guys who joined up because he actually believed in the crap that corporate peddles to the shareholders back on Perserv! Anyway, that wasn't the weirdest thing about this guy. Whenever someone new would ask why he always wore those sunglasses, they'd get this boilerplate answer: "It's a medical thing.", "I think I just like them.", "So people don't know I'm looking right at them". But later, he'll find you when you're preoccupied with some menial task, like cleaning your gear or filling out paperwork. He looks you right in the eyes and says something like "So you wanna know why I wear these sunglasses?", then gets you to look at something else for a second, like "You missed a spot." or "Wait, are you sure that's a I-20t form?". And when you glance away, he takes off the sunglasses and next thing you know, you're looking at a guy with these metal things in his eye sockets, with this poo poo-eating grin on his face. I heard that some guys just freak out when they see his implants, like they've never seen a guy with cybernetics before. Goals: 1. Install more cybernetics 2. Find the source of my strange visions 3. Willingly go into harms way to protect someone, regardless of the consequences
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# ? Jun 4, 2016 05:15 |
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Character Name: Gordon Zhang Hit Points: 1d6 Starting Credits: 1d6 (3x100)+400=700 (3700) with "catch up money" 1790 Remaining after purchases. Stats in Order: 6#3d6 STR 8 INT 14 WIS 13 DEX 11 CON 6 CHA 14 Background: Street Op Training Package: Rogue Agent Character Sheet Flavor Blurb will go here in a bit TheTofuShop fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Jun 4, 2016 |
# ? Jun 4, 2016 21:41 |
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Quickly phone posting to let you Zeppelin that I am still alive and will be back to actively posting soon. Have internet after the move, and soon will have time/access again to keep Kieran moving along in the story
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# ? Jun 5, 2016 05:11 |
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TheTofuShop posted:Character Name: Gordon Zhang Behind the glossy presentations and handshakes with shareholders, behind every credit earned on Persev, there is a war. A war hidden from sight, a war that no one reports on publicly, a war that is not dramatic. There are no glorious charges, no brave last stands, no grandiose trumpets. Yet the war is, relative to manpower involved, as lethal as any military campaign, and twice as cut-throat. Your agency was hired a few months back by cybInt Amalgamated to investigate the sudden surge in stock prices of their main competitor, Synthetic Insights. You went to work. It took you months. You got access to high level, confidential data. Minor breakthroughs were coming by fast, faster than your employers' employers could compete with. That was part of the story, but one difficult to get to. R&D is a tough nut to crack. You decided to pick up the other thread first, easier and more obvious. Someone was regularly placing huge orders of processing hardware. Hundreds of millions worth of server racks every one or two months. You got a name. Mila Lebedeva. And then you got burned. Just like that. Did you get sloppy? You didn't think you did. Corporate espionage is a dirty business. You knew that. You were good at it. You are good at it. The fuckers will pay. Egregious Offences posted:Here's my sheet: Christof Sortey Alright, lads, here's the new contract. Standard security at a big party. You know how it goes. Easy. Boring. But it pays our wages, eh? Couple of points. We're not the only ones running the show. We're just bolstering. We get to do all we need to, so don't worry about the other guys getting in the way or any stupid poo poo like that. More like redundancy. They do their full security, we do ours. Someone's clearly paranoid. Good. Paranoid pays well. One more stipulation. They don't want anyone else to think they're paranoid. We're not wearing our colours. Bear event, so Bear security is all they want guests to see. Gear got here yesterday. Quartermaster says it's not bad. Not as good as our stuff, but up there. It'll do. Just don't snigger at the helmets when we're at the site. Us philistines don't get the rich folks' taste. Zeppelin Insanity fucked around with this message at 08:03 on Jun 5, 2016 |
# ? Jun 5, 2016 07:54 |
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OH MY GOD Zepp, Get out of my head! Gordon grew up on Persev, the only son of a Middle Class Family. His mother (Mei) worked as an archivist for one of Persev's many Corporations, and his father (Sammo) was an Accountant working for the government. Life was far from easy, but Gordon was a bright kid with a way with words. While he grasped the concepts, Gordon was a terrible student, preferring to play hookie with his friends than attending class, and that ended up being his downfall. During his final years as a teen, Gordon called the Superintendent's office as his father and told them that the family would be traveling on a government diplomatic mission. Gordon would be unable to attend class for six months, but that Sammo had contracted a private tutor that would be continuing his studies. Surprisingly, it worked - the first three months Gordon spent his time chasing girls, relaxing, and getting into trouble. But it all came crashing down when his mother got a call from one of Gordon's friends to check out how he was doing with his father on Enterp. Gordon came home that day to a savage beating from his mother, and to find a suitcase packed and ready to go. Gordon would be spending his final two years of school at Sgt Slaughter's School for Disorderly Youth, a military camp for young delinquents. That first year was world altering for him. No longer could he get by with clever words, these people respected hard work and the determination for self improvement. The first month was the worst. Endless drills, humilitation, mundane work, and the most disgusting food (if you could even call it that) wore hard on Gordon. It forced him to change. He embraced his situation, and began to excel as he applied himself. Once Weapons Training began it started to flow more easily. Over time, Gordon found a purpose in his training. When he finished his two years, he had graduated with flying colors and was referred to a Corporate Controlled Information Agency. He began working in Tactical Operations as an analyst, but yearned for a position as a Field Agent. Eventually, he got his wish and was undercover on the streets of Persev. He saw a lot, and learned more on the job than he ever could in a classroom - he made friends, enemies, and most of all, he made good money. When cybInt Amalgamated hired Gordon to look into Synthetic Insights, his dossier had been filled with technical readouts, scientists and technicians to investigate. Gordon had looked through the files, but in the end he decided to follow the money. It was always the money, especially on Persev. For a month Gordon had tracked the massive orders S.I. was getting through the dirty, underground channels only to come up with the name of Mila Lebedeva. Then, the safehouse he was using was toast - literally. He knew what that meant. Something had gone horribly wrong. Had he been sold out? Was he sloppy? The next three months were spent trying to put the pieces back together. It cost him a couple of false identities, one more safehouse, and a whole lot of legwork, but Gordon had finally found the name. Lebedeva was going to be at some high class Bear party. This was his element, glad handing, schmoozing with higher ups, inflating egos - This would be just like the old days. He went to Mr. Li to have a new suit tailored in preparation. Gordon was gonna find out why he got burned, and he was gonna look good doing it. Gonna spend 250 credits getting the fancy new suit tailored - so I think that leaves him with 1540 cred remaining. I don't know if for game purposes having Gordon come in as a solo op is good OR if a fixer/contact of sorts has keyed him into the "party" of sorts. Maybe he's an asset they are made aware of? Whatever works for you Zepp. At this point I'm just waiting to hear back from Zepp regarding exactly how I drop in. TheTofuShop fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Jun 7, 2016 |
# ? Jun 6, 2016 23:20 |
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TheTofuShop posted:Gordon was gonna find out why he got burned, and he was gonna look good doing it. Feds don't wear Armani. Hopefully L0cke and Apocron are still around! Looking forward to getting back on track!
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# ? Jun 6, 2016 23:31 |
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I'm still around. Just waiting for the new players to get their stuff together.
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# ? Jun 6, 2016 23:35 |
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Rhyos posted:Feds don't wear Armani. I'll be making a post tonight after I get home!
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# ? Jun 6, 2016 23:53 |
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Apocron posted:I'm still around. Just waiting for the new players to get their stuff together. Waador fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Jun 7, 2016 |
# ? Jun 7, 2016 00:23 |
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TheTofuShop posted:Gonna spend 250 credits getting the fancy new suit tailored - so I think that leaves him with 1540 cred remaining. I don't know if for game purposes having Gordon come in as a solo op is good OR if a fixer/contact of sorts has keyed him into the "party" of sorts. Maybe he's an asset they are made aware of? Whatever works for you Zepp. At this point I'm just waiting to hear back from Zepp regarding exactly how I drop in. I think it makes more sense for your character to be solo. He got the name, he figured out where she'll be at a set time, booked passage to Caerleon and intends to attend. That said, if you want to introduce an NPC fixer you've worked with, go right ahead. If you go that route, it would most likely be a less than legitimate one, considering you've been burned. You can feel free to start posting in the main thread now about your preparations to get in. You don't have an invitation like the others, but you're a field agent, should be no trouble for you! If you'd rather wait for me to drop you in, I'll do that sometime tomorrow. Waador and Egregious, I was thinking it makes more sense scene-wise to wait until the main characters arrive at the party before you drop in, but if you'd rather not wait, feel free to start posting too. Remember you get to participate in the world building if you like! There isn't an irc and I'm bad at irc. Do you think we should have one?
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 00:59 |
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:There isn't an irc and I'm bad at irc. Do you think we should have one?
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 01:11 |
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:I think it makes more sense for your character to be solo. He got the name, he figured out where she'll be at a set time, booked passage to Caerleon and intends to attend. That said, if you want to introduce an NPC fixer you've worked with, go right ahead. If you go that route, it would most likely be a less than legitimate one, considering you've been burned. This sounds good to me, do you want me to roll a Culture (Persev) to make contact, or is it more appropriate to roll to see if they can help? I assume Gordon has someone he trusts, but I'm thinking they are more off the radar. I've got a few ideas, but I don't want to go too far without rolling for something I should.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 06:31 |
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You don't need to roll to make contact, but you might need one depending on what you want out of the NPC. Let me know what you're planning and I'll decide the roll and difficulty.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 08:31 |
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It's been quiet, and Locke is still probably dealing with the move, so I've moved things forward to drop the other two of you in. I'll consolidate your sheets with the rest of the party in a bit.
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# ? Jun 9, 2016 08:08 |
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Would security at this event be tight enough that they are having us go through metal detectors and being patted down? If so, what would the difficulty be to conceal my Mag Pistol? I would assume my Armored undersuit is synthweave or whatever future fabric that I could still wear it underneath the suit. Ps you rock Zepp. I'll have a post up sometime early tomorrow.
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# ? Jun 9, 2016 10:40 |
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Yeah Zepp, you can tell how much effort you put in. This is a fun game and it's only starting.
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# ? Jun 9, 2016 10:41 |
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Thanks for the kind words, guys! It means a lot, since this is my first game. The security is tight enough that you can't take weapons in. You could bring in kinesis wraps, however, as they can be easily disguised as innocent objects or woven into a fabric. If you want to do that, we'll assume you bought them beforehand.
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# ? Jun 9, 2016 11:07 |
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I can definitely wait until the scene change for my character to show up. Sorry I haven't written my response to your prompt yet, Zep, this past week has been busy with training at my new job. However, I have the next few days off so I can catch up.
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# ? Jun 10, 2016 04:01 |
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:It's been quiet, and Locke is still probably dealing with the move Yeah, I thought it would be over by now, but the truck doesnt show up until tomorrow . I've been living out of a suitcase and have no furniture. I have a computer, on the floor. next to the google fiber jack, and thats really it at the moment.
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# ? Jun 10, 2016 05:20 |
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L0cke17 posted:Yeah, I thought it would be over by now, but the truck doesnt show up until tomorrow . I've been living out of a suitcase and have no furniture. I have a computer, on the floor. next to the google fiber jack, and thats really it at the moment. Ah, but do you really need anything else? Sorry for the late response - I'm on a work trip and won't have time for a substantial post until later today!
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# ? Jun 10, 2016 11:31 |
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Egregious Offences posted:I can definitely wait until the scene change for my character to show up. Sorry I haven't written my response to your prompt yet, Zep, this past week has been busy with training at my new job. However, I have the next few days off so I can catch up. Uh, you are in. If you weren't checking the game thread, sorry about not mentioning it here!
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# ? Jun 11, 2016 05:13 |
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Sorry guys the last few days at work have been killer for me, I'll have another post up late tonight.
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# ? Jun 12, 2016 00:14 |
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Alright, first post is up and I'm already behind.
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# ? Jun 12, 2016 04:13 |
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I don't want to do this, the game is getting really interesting, but after my move RL commitments are taking up way too much of my time to be able to take part effectively in this game, so I'm gonna drop out. Good luck guys! And great job so far Zeppelin!! I've really enjoyed your style.
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# ? Jun 14, 2016 05:58 |
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Oh, too bad, Locke. Feel free to come back when and if you can! I started off with a bit of action, then went into a bit of social investigation\intrigue. I hope you guys are enjoying it. Where would you like the game to head to next?
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# ? Jun 14, 2016 10:48 |
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Nooo! We lost another Bitterhold survivor! Best of luck! I think things have been outstanding thus far! With the initial group starting to dwindle, I wonder if perhaps some exploration is in order? I personally like the thread about an expedition to New Caledonia, but that's just me! Thanks for putting up with The Commodore, everyone!
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# ? Jun 14, 2016 12:11 |
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I want to meet Aliens.
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# ? Jun 14, 2016 13:14 |
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Apocron posted:I want to meet Aliens. It'd be fascinating to see how Zeppelin handles that, actually!
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# ? Jun 14, 2016 13:53 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 15:06 |
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I'm definitely gonna a keep reading the thread, it's quite fun!
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# ? Jun 14, 2016 14:44 |