Tuesday, January 31, 2006
GURPS may actually happen!
I brought the sourcebooks to my last gaming session, and people look really excited. I have a few ideas on how to start the campaign, but until people write up their characters, I'm not going to set anything in stone just yet. I may do session transcriptions on this blog when GMing, but I doubt I'll have the time, what with that whole school thing and all. I'll probably do summaries that happen a little less often, but cover more ground. Or, I may take notes, and serialize the whole thing after the fact when classes aren't an issue. Whatever it is, you may see more frequent updates on here after I start running the game.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
GURPS, Fourth Edition: First Impressions
My order came to me today, and I am now in possession of both books of the GURPS basic set. I've read through the two books, and like what I see.
Character Creation:
Point-based character creation, with points going to stats, advantages/disadvantages, and skills. There's four stats, four derived stats, and then numerous advantages, disadvantages, and skills. Character power levels are based on the amount of starting points, determined by the GM. All in all, the chargen system s compact enough to make character generation easy, but allows for a lot of customization, using templates, and giving the advantages/disadvantages numerous options, either increasing or decreasing their cost. I have yet to think of a character concept I couldn't make
Mechanics:
I'm not going to know until I play, but from the looks of it, many things can be pursued. It has the realism and grittiness of CP2020 quite easily possible if you want it (the max damage from a 9mm pistol is 14, and the average character has 10HP), though with high point totals and cinematic rules, you can make unbreakable characters as well (if you have 300 points or so, it is possible to make a character entirely immortal). I'm going to aim for a point total between 75-100 to start, making the campaign fairly low-powered. I have a lot of ideas for progression, and since I'm aiming for 3-5 character points a session, 10 sessions may be enough for them to have 1.5 times their starting abilities. Should be very cool.
GURPS looks like a great system, and I'm looking forward to running a game with it.
Character Creation:
Point-based character creation, with points going to stats, advantages/disadvantages, and skills. There's four stats, four derived stats, and then numerous advantages, disadvantages, and skills. Character power levels are based on the amount of starting points, determined by the GM. All in all, the chargen system s compact enough to make character generation easy, but allows for a lot of customization, using templates, and giving the advantages/disadvantages numerous options, either increasing or decreasing their cost. I have yet to think of a character concept I couldn't make
Mechanics:
I'm not going to know until I play, but from the looks of it, many things can be pursued. It has the realism and grittiness of CP2020 quite easily possible if you want it (the max damage from a 9mm pistol is 14, and the average character has 10HP), though with high point totals and cinematic rules, you can make unbreakable characters as well (if you have 300 points or so, it is possible to make a character entirely immortal). I'm going to aim for a point total between 75-100 to start, making the campaign fairly low-powered. I have a lot of ideas for progression, and since I'm aiming for 3-5 character points a session, 10 sessions may be enough for them to have 1.5 times their starting abilities. Should be very cool.
GURPS looks like a great system, and I'm looking forward to running a game with it.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Campaign: Tech and Stuff
Well, my GURPS order is terminal now, and will probably ship on Monday. My plans are almost solid enough to play. I have a few plot ideas, but this is open, and I won't address them here. All I'll say is that I have a fantastic idea for the opener.
My tech ideas were very basically described in the terms of the grid, transportation, and a few other sundry things. As far as overall tech level goes, the setting is quite advanced compared to today in some respects, equal or backwards in others. There are a few transhumanist bits I plan to include, though somewhat understated, despite some crazy shit about borgs and such. First, about cybernetics:
Cybernetic "augmentation" did not become too common, with a few exceptions. Sensory implants were the only body replacement type cybernetics that superceded their biological counterparts. Ocular enhancements are common for very certain professions, but tend to be too sensitive for everyday use, where loud noise could destroy parts of your biological ear, as well as weakening the device. However, the implants are extremely popular with the deaf and the hearing impaired. Visual implants are somewhat limited in vision enhancement per se, with the technology to produce 20/10 vision or better existing since 2005 (a Popular Science article exists on this, I'm not joking). What the sensory implants do well is feed new data to the optic nerve, like IR or UV spectra, and grid devices that transmit GPS and other data as well. The implants come in two forms: expensive eye replacements, and slightly less expensive plate implants that are more visually obtrusive.
Limb replacement implants do well to help amputees mobilize, but are only dominant in that field because biovat limbs are restrictively expensive. The cybernetic limb generally has response delays that make the legs restrictive, and the arms severely so. Because of the strength of the human body's bone structure, any increase in strength through limb replacement was unlikely to begin with. However, the linear frame and exoskeleton both significantly improve strength, and when connected to neural jack hardpoints, there is virtually no reflexive delay.
Neural jacking has become popular among punks, but the utility is limited to equipment operation and system access. Braindance stimulation and VR are both common uses for equipment like neural uplinks, but operating cars and heavy machinery are the primary reasons people get jacks installed. Also, using CAD and 3d design software is purportedly significantly easier and faster with a neural coprocessor. Hacking and the like can be done with a neural processor, but the only benefit is the slight reflexive increase over using a keyboard.
The big thing that the neural processor opened the way for was cumulative reflex exoskeletal powered armor, CREPA, or Creeps, and also body-borg conversions. CREPA is the main tool of the military and police to show force, since the 8 foot CREPA units are imposing and tough, as well as much more deployable than even the most versatile riot control units. Exoskeletal boost allows a unit to "sprint" at up to 30-40 mph using spring assisted strides, though the armor is to heavy to sustain this, mainly due to the stress exerted on the person inside, as well as the fact that the person inside is sprinting as well inside, only the spring assists increasing speed. The borg units are more interesting, but due to the controversial and dangerous process that is a brain-body transfer, borgs are outlawed by the political and corporate governing bodies. That being said, some exist, or are at least rumored to. Some five or six borg conversions were made by several labs, but the experiments were terminated very early. The story circulated most often was of a military borg that, taking advantage of his .50cal machine guns and grenade launchers, as well as a Chobham/Titanium armoured body, took over the facility used to make him, and made the staff build him 5 additional bodies and a few other gadgets before either releasing or killing them, depending on who tells the story. No one confirms this, but no one expressly denies it either. There is no real doubt that the odd "Truck Stop" complexes exist, and whether they are degenerate orgies of escapist adolescents, communes, or secret labs, they are definitely autonomous zones within middle America, and that makes it hard for anyone to confirm or deny any definition of their existence, since not only do very few people visit and live, but the ones that do aren't generally believed.
All in all, tech has advanced, but the only places you'd really see it would be in communications, and transhumanist areas, like cybernetics and bioware. Astropolis itself is a proof of infrastructural technology, and there are definitely certain advances in agriculture and energy production as well. However, with the exception of such things as Astropolis, the more ubiquitous technological areas have kept up a very similar appearance, even despite a possible underlying overhaul.
My tech ideas were very basically described in the terms of the grid, transportation, and a few other sundry things. As far as overall tech level goes, the setting is quite advanced compared to today in some respects, equal or backwards in others. There are a few transhumanist bits I plan to include, though somewhat understated, despite some crazy shit about borgs and such. First, about cybernetics:
Cybernetic "augmentation" did not become too common, with a few exceptions. Sensory implants were the only body replacement type cybernetics that superceded their biological counterparts. Ocular enhancements are common for very certain professions, but tend to be too sensitive for everyday use, where loud noise could destroy parts of your biological ear, as well as weakening the device. However, the implants are extremely popular with the deaf and the hearing impaired. Visual implants are somewhat limited in vision enhancement per se, with the technology to produce 20/10 vision or better existing since 2005 (a Popular Science article exists on this, I'm not joking). What the sensory implants do well is feed new data to the optic nerve, like IR or UV spectra, and grid devices that transmit GPS and other data as well. The implants come in two forms: expensive eye replacements, and slightly less expensive plate implants that are more visually obtrusive.
Limb replacement implants do well to help amputees mobilize, but are only dominant in that field because biovat limbs are restrictively expensive. The cybernetic limb generally has response delays that make the legs restrictive, and the arms severely so. Because of the strength of the human body's bone structure, any increase in strength through limb replacement was unlikely to begin with. However, the linear frame and exoskeleton both significantly improve strength, and when connected to neural jack hardpoints, there is virtually no reflexive delay.
Neural jacking has become popular among punks, but the utility is limited to equipment operation and system access. Braindance stimulation and VR are both common uses for equipment like neural uplinks, but operating cars and heavy machinery are the primary reasons people get jacks installed. Also, using CAD and 3d design software is purportedly significantly easier and faster with a neural coprocessor. Hacking and the like can be done with a neural processor, but the only benefit is the slight reflexive increase over using a keyboard.
The big thing that the neural processor opened the way for was cumulative reflex exoskeletal powered armor, CREPA, or Creeps, and also body-borg conversions. CREPA is the main tool of the military and police to show force, since the 8 foot CREPA units are imposing and tough, as well as much more deployable than even the most versatile riot control units. Exoskeletal boost allows a unit to "sprint" at up to 30-40 mph using spring assisted strides, though the armor is to heavy to sustain this, mainly due to the stress exerted on the person inside, as well as the fact that the person inside is sprinting as well inside, only the spring assists increasing speed. The borg units are more interesting, but due to the controversial and dangerous process that is a brain-body transfer, borgs are outlawed by the political and corporate governing bodies. That being said, some exist, or are at least rumored to. Some five or six borg conversions were made by several labs, but the experiments were terminated very early. The story circulated most often was of a military borg that, taking advantage of his .50cal machine guns and grenade launchers, as well as a Chobham/Titanium armoured body, took over the facility used to make him, and made the staff build him 5 additional bodies and a few other gadgets before either releasing or killing them, depending on who tells the story. No one confirms this, but no one expressly denies it either. There is no real doubt that the odd "Truck Stop" complexes exist, and whether they are degenerate orgies of escapist adolescents, communes, or secret labs, they are definitely autonomous zones within middle America, and that makes it hard for anyone to confirm or deny any definition of their existence, since not only do very few people visit and live, but the ones that do aren't generally believed.
All in all, tech has advanced, but the only places you'd really see it would be in communications, and transhumanist areas, like cybernetics and bioware. Astropolis itself is a proof of infrastructural technology, and there are definitely certain advances in agriculture and energy production as well. However, with the exception of such things as Astropolis, the more ubiquitous technological areas have kept up a very similar appearance, even despite a possible underlying overhaul.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Campaign Update
In addition to a textbook purchase, I have ordered the GURPS basic set via Amazon. Ordering that way saved me between 25 and 30 dollars off of brick and mortar pricing, and I should have the books by the end of the month. And, I got free shipping. It was pretty damn cool.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Campaign ideas
I'm having more issues with this campaign...more in the creativity than anything else. I want it to be heavily city-oriented, and I have the basis for this. In reality, it's a stagnation thing. There's a lot to be writing, but with no real starting point, it's difficult.
I have the basic US ideas. Realcorps control most of the property, giving them a lot of power over anyone who wants a roof to live or work in. Techcorps deal with the Realcorps by giving them insider hands in the volatile Intellectual Property market, where patents and technology licensing rights are sold in an open market. The IP market is much more volatile than the stock market, because patents and licensing negotiations are one-time deals. However, static IP rights like design patents, musical copyrights, books, and the like are sold back and forth like stock, depending on end-user demand. This means that musical artists generally have control over their IP shares, forced to wait until their contract expires before they sell the shares. This means that share status is integrated into digital music, making DRM easier and more logical. It also means that older artists who have sold their shares are often very available, since anyone who buys shares in musical property has limited say to its distribution, but also full access to the library from the property creator.
This complete change in the way IP works is due in part to the advent of the Grid, and also the reach of the global access singularity, a social phenomenon where access to information is so fast it is no longer limited by technology. Computers now have smaller hard drives, and much more RAM, since virtually anything can be streamed off the grid. In fact, due to this, one of the easy ways to pinpoint a hacker is by his hard drive purchases. A 100GB drive can fully hold any end-user information you could possibly need, including Gspace, an audio player, wave3D or the like (closed-source 3d engine used to backbone most 3d games), a chat client, and publishing software. Purchases of hard drive space in excess of that often indicate the use of high-bandwidth software used in forced decryption and other computer crimes.
Anyhoo. The last category of corp is the agricorp, who hold land property used for cultivation, as well as any remaining natural resources, like oil, gas reserves, and forests. The Midwest and Appalachia are almost exclusively held by agricorps, who compete among themselves fiercely for land holdings. The agricorps also have firm hold in Asia, some influence Europe, and certain isolated holdings in Africa, which are being fought fiercely. Due to this strife, as well as nomad activity in the US and Russia, the agricorps field more security personnel than either of the other types, though the realcorps station guards for their more affluent tenants, and the techcorps have large security staff to control and guard labs and complexes.
The corporate structure has created the areas of strife in the world, as well as most of the new conflicts. Africa has become significantly more developed while the Western world was busy recovering from nuclear war. Now united under the Southern Republic, the Pan-Arabian Emirates, and the Central Confederacy of Nigeria, the African nations are resisting any corporate influence, notably throwing out the conglomerates owning Exxon's oil holdings, and DeBeers' diamond mines. The agricorps don't like this, and have been attempting to take these holdings back by force, with little success. The relative unification of Africa has made all three countries formidable opponents, despite infighting and the occasional religious flareup.
South America is notably more fragmented, with most of the national borders dissolving due to corporate interests. Venezuela has the world's largest remaining oil reserve, the Amazon is in Brazil, and Rio is still a bustling city. Thusly, the northern sections of South America were quickly swept down upon by corporations looking to secure resource holdings. Rio is a massive resort town for the ultra-rich, and the rest of the corporate conclaves and their puppet governments are extremely dangerous to foreigners, as the region is sandwiched by independents on both sides. The Argentinians and the Nicaraguans are the two largest independent forces, but 10 national identities, both displaced and also in their homelands, are fighting the corporations stealing their lands and wealth.
The US is fragmented by the nuclear strikes, but everywhere is corporate, save the dustlands and the most inhospitable parts of Canada, which are inhospitable. Asia is similar, with China and Russia used for natural resources and cultivation, and Singapore, Thailand and Japan all developing into massive urbo-archipelagos, cities divided into islands, rather than islands divided into cities. Europe is a little dicier. Britain was ravaged by nuclear strikes, but a lot of Europe is as it was. Many towns went An-Grid, especially those in favorable climates. In contrast, nearly all of the former Soviet republics were bought out by corporate interests, as was most of Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Nuevo Praha is a standout city, being built over 200 miles south of Old Prague's ruins. the city is, like Version City in the US, a mix of "punk and prole". Both cities were built by national planners before corporate interests got involved, so private ownership wreaked havoc on the corp's plans. The two cities are both filled with conclaves, theatres, apartments, and other services owned by small owners. Astropolis, by comparison, has corporate-designed amenties: the famous SL1 meat markets are small-owned, but those and the few other SL1 zones designated for open market estating like that are still corporate planned.
Astropolis in general is corporate planned, the whole city arranged simply. TL1 through TL3 are commercial, corporate controlled stores, malls, and the like. TL4-TL10 is upper-level residential, ranging from modest (TL4, storetop apartments, efficiencies, studio apartments) to ridiculous (TL10, from two-story penthouses to zep penthouses that have 15 rooms and float suspended from gasbags, two miles above the mile-high skyline). L0 is transit, where the lift stations, highways, subways, and exit zones are (the name is deceiving, as L0 is still about 100 feet above the ground). SL1 and SL2 are open control, the last levels with full access walkways and express lift services, and levels that are given to lower expense endeavours (the aforementioned meat markets, as well as single-control bars and restaurants, and certain approved single-control commercial establishments). SL3 to SL5 are also housing, ranging from 3 room apartments at best to 10x10 cubes at worst. SL6 to SL10 are heavy industry, with the upper levels going to manufacturing, and the lower levels going to power generation. With all 21 zones, Astropolis is an arcology in the biggest possible sense. As a result, getting around is not terribly difficult. Only the commercial areas and the first two sublevels have particularly interesting layouts, the rest are buildings and walkways clustered around one of the 50 lift tubes around the city. Every point is within a 2 mile walk to one of the lift tubes, but many choose to use bikes, scooters, and even grav vehicles, though in such a densely built city, grav travel is quite hazardous.
Version City is a mix of neighborhoods, ranging from sprawls, to industrial/commercial areas like The Docks, to corporate areas like Bohemia, and its 'Punk counterpart Bedford Heights. Each has its own flavor, and as a result, Version City has some very interesting things in it.
The Coast was bought corporate pretty early, but its massive and old developments make it hard to control in that way. Areas have been built up pretty densely, and some feel like suburbs, but all are under varying levels of corporate control. The areas with less influence tend to have less police influence as well, and therefore more crime. An interesting sub-area are the communities around the gigantic Harbor Mall, one of the few shopping centers in the world that attracts nearly all economic strata. It's big, and hard to control, and as a result, the surrounding area is a big punk haven, anti-authoritarians looking to undermine the corporate image at its epicenter. The mall is clean, well guarded, and visually appealing, but both the scale of it and the way it integrates into the surrounding community makes it impossible to completely stop the crime that does take place.
There you go. My bit about the world. That feels much better. Next time, I'll write a piece on the technology level of this place, cover the guns bit (which everyone loves) and I'll be just about ready to write the nitty-gritty when I buy the GURPS basic set.
I have the basic US ideas. Realcorps control most of the property, giving them a lot of power over anyone who wants a roof to live or work in. Techcorps deal with the Realcorps by giving them insider hands in the volatile Intellectual Property market, where patents and technology licensing rights are sold in an open market. The IP market is much more volatile than the stock market, because patents and licensing negotiations are one-time deals. However, static IP rights like design patents, musical copyrights, books, and the like are sold back and forth like stock, depending on end-user demand. This means that musical artists generally have control over their IP shares, forced to wait until their contract expires before they sell the shares. This means that share status is integrated into digital music, making DRM easier and more logical. It also means that older artists who have sold their shares are often very available, since anyone who buys shares in musical property has limited say to its distribution, but also full access to the library from the property creator.
This complete change in the way IP works is due in part to the advent of the Grid, and also the reach of the global access singularity, a social phenomenon where access to information is so fast it is no longer limited by technology. Computers now have smaller hard drives, and much more RAM, since virtually anything can be streamed off the grid. In fact, due to this, one of the easy ways to pinpoint a hacker is by his hard drive purchases. A 100GB drive can fully hold any end-user information you could possibly need, including Gspace, an audio player, wave3D or the like (closed-source 3d engine used to backbone most 3d games), a chat client, and publishing software. Purchases of hard drive space in excess of that often indicate the use of high-bandwidth software used in forced decryption and other computer crimes.
Anyhoo. The last category of corp is the agricorp, who hold land property used for cultivation, as well as any remaining natural resources, like oil, gas reserves, and forests. The Midwest and Appalachia are almost exclusively held by agricorps, who compete among themselves fiercely for land holdings. The agricorps also have firm hold in Asia, some influence Europe, and certain isolated holdings in Africa, which are being fought fiercely. Due to this strife, as well as nomad activity in the US and Russia, the agricorps field more security personnel than either of the other types, though the realcorps station guards for their more affluent tenants, and the techcorps have large security staff to control and guard labs and complexes.
The corporate structure has created the areas of strife in the world, as well as most of the new conflicts. Africa has become significantly more developed while the Western world was busy recovering from nuclear war. Now united under the Southern Republic, the Pan-Arabian Emirates, and the Central Confederacy of Nigeria, the African nations are resisting any corporate influence, notably throwing out the conglomerates owning Exxon's oil holdings, and DeBeers' diamond mines. The agricorps don't like this, and have been attempting to take these holdings back by force, with little success. The relative unification of Africa has made all three countries formidable opponents, despite infighting and the occasional religious flareup.
South America is notably more fragmented, with most of the national borders dissolving due to corporate interests. Venezuela has the world's largest remaining oil reserve, the Amazon is in Brazil, and Rio is still a bustling city. Thusly, the northern sections of South America were quickly swept down upon by corporations looking to secure resource holdings. Rio is a massive resort town for the ultra-rich, and the rest of the corporate conclaves and their puppet governments are extremely dangerous to foreigners, as the region is sandwiched by independents on both sides. The Argentinians and the Nicaraguans are the two largest independent forces, but 10 national identities, both displaced and also in their homelands, are fighting the corporations stealing their lands and wealth.
The US is fragmented by the nuclear strikes, but everywhere is corporate, save the dustlands and the most inhospitable parts of Canada, which are inhospitable. Asia is similar, with China and Russia used for natural resources and cultivation, and Singapore, Thailand and Japan all developing into massive urbo-archipelagos, cities divided into islands, rather than islands divided into cities. Europe is a little dicier. Britain was ravaged by nuclear strikes, but a lot of Europe is as it was. Many towns went An-Grid, especially those in favorable climates. In contrast, nearly all of the former Soviet republics were bought out by corporate interests, as was most of Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Nuevo Praha is a standout city, being built over 200 miles south of Old Prague's ruins. the city is, like Version City in the US, a mix of "punk and prole". Both cities were built by national planners before corporate interests got involved, so private ownership wreaked havoc on the corp's plans. The two cities are both filled with conclaves, theatres, apartments, and other services owned by small owners. Astropolis, by comparison, has corporate-designed amenties: the famous SL1 meat markets are small-owned, but those and the few other SL1 zones designated for open market estating like that are still corporate planned.
Astropolis in general is corporate planned, the whole city arranged simply. TL1 through TL3 are commercial, corporate controlled stores, malls, and the like. TL4-TL10 is upper-level residential, ranging from modest (TL4, storetop apartments, efficiencies, studio apartments) to ridiculous (TL10, from two-story penthouses to zep penthouses that have 15 rooms and float suspended from gasbags, two miles above the mile-high skyline). L0 is transit, where the lift stations, highways, subways, and exit zones are (the name is deceiving, as L0 is still about 100 feet above the ground). SL1 and SL2 are open control, the last levels with full access walkways and express lift services, and levels that are given to lower expense endeavours (the aforementioned meat markets, as well as single-control bars and restaurants, and certain approved single-control commercial establishments). SL3 to SL5 are also housing, ranging from 3 room apartments at best to 10x10 cubes at worst. SL6 to SL10 are heavy industry, with the upper levels going to manufacturing, and the lower levels going to power generation. With all 21 zones, Astropolis is an arcology in the biggest possible sense. As a result, getting around is not terribly difficult. Only the commercial areas and the first two sublevels have particularly interesting layouts, the rest are buildings and walkways clustered around one of the 50 lift tubes around the city. Every point is within a 2 mile walk to one of the lift tubes, but many choose to use bikes, scooters, and even grav vehicles, though in such a densely built city, grav travel is quite hazardous.
Version City is a mix of neighborhoods, ranging from sprawls, to industrial/commercial areas like The Docks, to corporate areas like Bohemia, and its 'Punk counterpart Bedford Heights. Each has its own flavor, and as a result, Version City has some very interesting things in it.
The Coast was bought corporate pretty early, but its massive and old developments make it hard to control in that way. Areas have been built up pretty densely, and some feel like suburbs, but all are under varying levels of corporate control. The areas with less influence tend to have less police influence as well, and therefore more crime. An interesting sub-area are the communities around the gigantic Harbor Mall, one of the few shopping centers in the world that attracts nearly all economic strata. It's big, and hard to control, and as a result, the surrounding area is a big punk haven, anti-authoritarians looking to undermine the corporate image at its epicenter. The mall is clean, well guarded, and visually appealing, but both the scale of it and the way it integrates into the surrounding community makes it impossible to completely stop the crime that does take place.
There you go. My bit about the world. That feels much better. Next time, I'll write a piece on the technology level of this place, cover the guns bit (which everyone loves) and I'll be just about ready to write the nitty-gritty when I buy the GURPS basic set.
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