 October 3, 2011 - 5:52am | NOTE: I'm not a fan of the Shadow Run RPG, with its "organ Jacking" and other grittiness, and not sure if the races work for me either. I was just doing a review/edit of the GalactipediaNET article coming out in issue 17 for Larry and got thinking about adventures involving the NET in SF. If a character had a cerebral implant that let him "jack" into the net to access information with his brain or if he had an organic computer (thank you dragon mag) in his head; What would that level of play look like? For one thing he'd have an avatar like in the matrix. Next is what does the net world look like? is it like the matrix or is it more of a glowing flow of numbers and light with destinations that your can go to more or less instantly like like we do with out computers? going to a company's website: there would be a foyer that would be public access but locked rooms beyond that require the right codes. Dealing with a security program might actually be like fighting in the real world except that the PC uses his computer skill for roll for combat since the combat is a graphic representation of whats going on, just presented in a way for the computer techs mind to comprehend. Was thinking that travel on the NET could be handled at the gaming table with a flow chart of the local NET and a flow chart of the site location a computer technician might wish to access. Major draw back of this is that it will become exactly like when a D&D game grinds to a halt while the thief in the party does the sneak into the building and try to steal something routine: the magic user, fighter and cleric are waiting outside in the shadows while the thief performs repetitive move silently rolls and pick locks rolls. Its a massive delay of game for the other players if it takes too long and depending on the thief and GM involved it is likely to take too long. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 3, 2011 - 5:56am | Damage happenning to the character in the NET would be applied to NET stamina which would be the characters LOG when he reaches 0 he passes out. I would not directly take it from LOG since he'll be rolling skill checks with that but just create a temporary STA listing based on LOG. When at 1/2 NET STA the character has a "wounds" penalty applied to all LOG skill or ability rolls. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 3, 2011 - 8:45am | What if jacked-in was just another method of interacting with a computer? Instead of typing and seeing you simply think commands and see them executed. |
October 3, 2011 - 10:09am | or if jacked in gave a big bonus to the character's skill rolls but entailed a danger to him as well making it something you on did because you absolutely had to. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 3, 2011 - 10:15am | I guess programs would also have avatar for the characters to interact with. kind of like Tron in someways though security programs will control access to other programs Comp Tech jacks into and tries to infiltrate a site- on the net it looks like a castle and the security program is a knight, within the castle the servants are a variety of programs who do different things but the information program that the computer tech is after is a princess. Yet at another site the representation of that computer is a post apocalyptic ruined city and etc. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 3, 2011 - 11:02am | Ideas from chat w/larry: A computer NET on a fronteir planet mirrors the real world in so far as it can be mapped by the computers in the real world that are connected to it. so you'd have Port Loren and the star port would be separate "locations" each with a multitude of sites. Star Law, PGC, The Stellar Arms Hotel, Port Loren Public library, Port Loren city systems control would all have sites at port loren. travel to any site is fairly instantaneous, but once there each site will have a look: one is a dungeon, one is the Great Library of Alexandria, one is a western town with sherrifs office, one is a cruise ship, etc. programs and other jacked in techs have avatars and interact with the scenery. navigating the site does not have to follow real world laws of physics- character gets past security into the Wild west sherrifs office and suddenly he's in a sci fi looking maze of rooms within the Star Law computer. He runs into a jacked in Star Law computer tech who first errects a wall of fire behind him then attempts to handcuf or frisk the hacker. fight ensues with combat rolled on each character's computer skill and logic. our brave hacker reduces the cyber security tech to 0 NET STA and he falls unconscious. which in the real world the technician is slumped at his chair and his supervisor knows someone is in the computer system. The hacker has just seconds to dive through the wall of fire find the right room and tear the wanted poster off the wall (wanted poster is a representation of the file he's after and then get out. Except all the other cyber cops are now after him and a chase errupts, represented on horse back through the desert, but only takes a hand full of dice rolls to resolve. if the hacker loses his pursuers he can place the wanted poster in a metal strong box and then unjack from the net The act of placing the wanted poster in the strong box represents completing the download to his computer. should be some real peril to this activity, somehow. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 3, 2011 - 11:29am | If the characters are on a ship the only net is the ships computer net it could represent a rough approximation of the ship or simply a series of rooms or a motor boat on the ocean. jacking in gets you to the vestibule or public area. There are several doors with port hole in them and a uniformed ships attendent. one door is open- this leads to the ships entertainment library which once you're in that room it looks like a dusty old library. each book is a separate computer file of holo vids, games and books. walking up to one door you can look into the port hole and see the ships bridge, the instruments plainy show you the ships location and ETA at its destination. walking up to another door you lookinto the port hole and see that the room beyond is the enviro planet and the instruments plainly tell you that all the enviromental factors of air and temp are other doors are missing port holes like the one to the engine room. the uniformed attendent is the security program and he politely redirects you to the entertainment library when you attempt to open any of the closed doors. a crusty looking ships crew man passes through the vestibule wearing a kilt and has a scottish acsent and opens the door to the engine room and passes through, the security program recognizing him as the ships engineer. while loitering in the vestibule a door opens down a hallway and light spills out, a passenger has jacked into the ships net and goes to the entertainment library to rumage for a holo vid. You consider going down and entering the open door to his computer but dont waiting for him to go back. He walks back pulling a hose. and plugs the hose into a socket by his door. then closes the door. You back track the hose to the "book" in the library, a current action adventure holo vid. You attempt to hack that passenger's computer by going through the holo vid file to enter his computer. fortunately that computer is protected by a rudimentary security program and you quickly find yourself in a dirty ware house. your purusal of the contents of the warehouse tells you that this passenger has been doing some very naughty things that his corporation's security would be interested in but other than evidence for black mail you dont see anything here of interest to you. But just for kicks you leave behind a subroutine that will send a net mail to this guy's boss then next time this lap top is jacked into the corporations site/net that will confess to the thefts of all the company secrets and attach copies of the contents of the warehouse. having found your entertainment you back track and unjack from your lap top and disconnect it from the ships net. Later on you smirk to yourself in the ships dining room as the passenger's computer you hacked demonstrates what an arrogant arse he his, and you nod- he's in for a big surprise when his vacation is over. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 3, 2011 - 5:54pm | That sounds very Ghost in the Shell. I like it that way. Also, not all would have a visual interface of that sort. Some would just look like devices in the middle of the darkness or whatever background color or map is chosen. I think you're on the right track. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 October 3, 2011 - 8:31pm | Sounds a bit like Johnny Pneumonic...which is ironically Keanu Reeve's prior attempt at a Matrix-esque movie. |
October 3, 2011 - 10:50pm | Actually, they're related only by genre. This is more Matrix than JP. JP simply had him unable to distinguish his reality from someone else's memories. /nitpick View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
October 4, 2011 - 11:33am | Truth be told, it's been a while since I saw JP. Given that Ice T or Ice Cube or whatever ice-something washed-out rapper was in it (it wasn't Vanilla, I know that much...but notice the pattern here? LOL), I didn't exactly pay close attention to it. |
October 4, 2011 - 4:09pm | Yeah. The story was better than the movie presented it, but it was a truly "B" movie. Though even in the story, the dolphin was just a wierd, if semi-plausable, touch. (We have no idea why the dolphin brain is so large yet, but we do know that their hypersonics give them the ability to see inside a human like x-rays and they can even identify the exact type of illness a person has and where it's centered though there may be no outward signs or pH imbalance.) View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 October 11, 2011 - 4:08pm | Since Issue 17 Just came out, Can I plug the VRnet in the article I submitted? If using the VRnet, everything has stats based on the program level, and for ease of play everything that a character does in real life can be done in the Virtual world using stats based on the program level of his virual persona. The look of the virtual world can be anything that the Referee can image and would depend on who programmed that area of the Virual Net. Obstacles (anything from firewalls to computer viruses) also have stats based on the program level, and can look like anything from cyber knights in armor to spiky geometric objects or even glowing bits of code suspended in the air. A character who's persona loses virual stamina is shunted out of the Net when his stat reaches 0 and depending on the level of the opponent nasty things can happen to him or his gear, and then there's the risk of Virtual addiction. The system was designed to be incredibly simple but extremely flexible which I think fits well with the format used in the Star Frontiers rules. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
