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Old 04-10-2010, 09:40 PM   #31
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Why Germany Matters

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Originally Posted by Sithis View Post
Most law enforcement work doesn't have anything to do with violence, but the larger point is that you're focusing on one of the most stable and progressive places of Transhuman space, so conflicts are going to tend to be about forces working against the status quo.
I didn't find that to be a major concern. My previous THS campaign was set in Montréal, a solidly Fifth Wave city-state and a center of trade between the EU, the US, and Canada, with mostly quite liberal rules about pansapient rights, though slightly less liberal than the EU. The player characters were not "law enforcement" exactly, but were a private investigation firm specialization in informational crimes. I came up with a variety of cases for them to look into, including a private club that met once a month to dine on realflesh being whitemailed into supporting Montréal joining the EU, a woman who was occupying her husband's body via full-bandwidth sensory transmission and a puppet implant wanting to know what had happened to her own body while her husband was inhabiting it, an inquiry into the death of one PC's father in corporate intrigue, a memetic attack on a hardedge singer who was supporting a Parti d'Humanité candidate for the city-state's parliament, and a first magnitude memetic assault on the city with a "kill your children for the good of Earth" meme. A Fifth Wave nation can have conflicts over the movement toward even more advanced technology, for example.

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Old 04-10-2010, 10:41 PM   #32
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Default Re: Why Germany Matters

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What makes you think that training SAIs won't get cheaper, too?
Events and changes that affect the entire setting are considered metaplot, and TS is not allowed to have metaplot.

To avoid charges of constructive xoxing, SAI training needs to be supervised by non-infomorph sapients, and they get paid, so in order to get SAI costs down, non-SAI wages have to go down, but of course lower wages for non-SAIs makes it harder for SAI-providers to compete, so there's no net gain there.

Really, the advantage of SAIs is that they have superhuman capabilities in vigilance (can happily work or train at full human effectiveness or better 24/7), in reaction time, and in life support (they only need a little box with power and data, and otherwise having broad environmental tolerances), and they can travel between most 5W locations at relativistic speeds.
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Old 04-10-2010, 11:31 PM   #33
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Default Re: Why Germany Matters

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I'm not sure that's the best approach to take. In fact, my main aim is to show how campaigns can work if they don't involve lots of violence, since that's the kind of campaign many gamers seem to have the most difficulty with.
well as someone who in high school played in campaigns that went from one violent and encounter to another the change of pace in THS is a refreshing difference!

The other thing to remember (which I am sure that you are already aware of) is that overt violence in an adventure can be still be non lethal. A punch up in a bar, tackling a handbag snatcher, a martial arts tournament etc With GURPS expanded combat rules these can still be pretty 'rules intensive' combat with a significant outcome even though no one is going to die.
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Old 04-10-2010, 11:59 PM   #34
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Default Re: Why Germany Matters

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Events and changes that affect the entire setting are considered metaplot, and TS is not allowed to have metaplot.
It is, however, allowed to have a future - and more to the point, it is allowed to have people within the setting extrapolating current trends for the future.

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To avoid charges of constructive xoxing, SAI training needs to be supervised by non-infomorph sapients
How does that follow? Why shouldn't SAIs be allowed to train other SAIs, as long as they don't start out from the same seed code?

(And frankly, for many skills LAIs are sufficient trainers most of the time...)
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Old 04-11-2010, 01:13 AM   #35
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Well, with all the talk of SAI rights and bioroid reproduction, one obvious conflict is over xoxing rights.

Also, I just realized there's a middle ground. Free private xoxing may be illegal, for legal or suffrage or wage collapse reasons. But what about licensed xoxing, a set quota of informorph population growth, like immigration quotas? Or (also licensed) xoxing-with-personality-modification, to increase the number of skilled citizens and take some advantage of copying, without an explosion of sameness? And obviously such a state might bend the rules for an informorph with *urgently needed* skills, like loyal Arabic or Pashtun translators today.

Which would spark international fears of a "race to the bottom", and more and more xoxing...
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Old 04-12-2010, 01:17 AM   #36
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Default Re: Why Germany Matters

As a general suggestion, what I missed from time to time in THS sourcebooks, are specific conflicts, which provide adventure hooks and not only general conflicts, which provide background information. FW is a good example of this. The author(s) seemed to be a bit too focused on writing a political and futurological treatise (and excelling at that job, that is!), but not so much a roleplaying game sourcebook. Take for example the old 3e GURPS Fantasy. While of course not of the quality of modern THS products, with every region of Yrth it described, it hinted at some specific conflict or mystery going on there, in which the PCs would surely be involved in. I missed stuff like that in books as FW.

So, I´d like to read about the Bioroid Ripper of Braunschweig, the series of Zeppelin thefts in Friedrichshafen, the attempts to sabotage to reconstruction of the Cologne Cathedral, nearly destroyed in an as yet unsolved terrorist attack and the mysterious hauntings at the construction site of Burg Falkenstein, König Ludwig IIs unrealised pet project.

Good luck in your endeavour, anyhow.
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Old 04-12-2010, 04:32 AM   #37
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Default Re: Why Germany Matters

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How does that follow? Why shouldn't SAIs be allowed to train other SAIs, as long as they don't start out from the same seed code?
I suppose SAIs could train other SAIs the way biosapients would, but then you've still got a SAI doing a job that a cheaper biosapient could. If you let them do it the efficient way by transferring information sets directly into the student SAIs, that's essentially a xoxing process, and at some point the student will literally become the teacher. It might even be a memetic crime as well., it's hard to tell without someone willing to commit to a more useful definition of either.
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Old 04-15-2010, 05:19 PM   #38
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Default Re: Why Germany Matters

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So, I´d like to read about the Bioroid Ripper of Braunschweig
Good Lord...



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Originally Posted by sn0ball
the mysterious hauntings at the construction site of Burg Falkenstein, König Ludwig IIs unrealised pet project.
Now, that idea does sound fascinating. If you should learn anything more about it, do keep me posted, please. :P
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Old 04-15-2010, 09:59 PM   #39
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Default Re: Why Germany Matters

I was at one time thinking of writing up Sydney for Transhuman Space.

One issue that I wanted to cover was policing the city in 2100.

Not sure if this necessarily has to go in a cities or country book (rather than its own article), but if you are interested in the topic then I would suggest covering it for Germany.
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Old 05-26-2010, 10:37 PM   #40
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SAIs can be elected to government in Europe right?


A writeup of a popularly elected SAI politician might be interesting.
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