Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Cryptography
I've been playing Transhuman Space over a year, and, as stated by others, THS is very unfriendly towards characters wanting to play cryptologists, since its encryption TL significantly exceeds its cryptoanalysis TL.
Which kinda encourages sending tactical-level information straight through radio without second thoughts: interception is never a concern, only moles and other 'extracryptic' things.
Now, for a campaign where both were TL9, I once planned a character specialised in real-time tactical decryption. It was barely doable with a sufficiently large portable quantum computer available in the setting and significant Time Spent penalties. The campaign never took off.
I'm also currently GMing a campaign where cryptoanalysis TL slightly exceeds encryption TL (there's no strategic encryption, though tactical encryption is semi-viable), and while there hasn't been any decryption work to speak of, it does seem to significantly change the level of carefulness about what stuff people dare to send over radio/wires instead of personal meetings.
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