Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-21-2018, 07:51 AM   #1
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default Current Affairs skill and computers

Hello Folks,
Quick question:

Science fiction stories have it such that a person can have their personal computer search the internet for stories of interest - thereby improving the signal to noise ratio of finding your areas of interest without subjecting one to areas not of interest.

How would you emulate this functionality in your games if you were the GM and what effect might you permit within your campaigns if a player uses such a "service"?

Me? I'm tempted to assign a bonus to the skill equal to the computer program skill bonus adding either +1 or +2 to the specific skill in question. More specifically, the more narrow the interest (only one or two current affairs skill) the +2 bonus comes into play. The more widespread the interest, the less the bonus that comes into play, and thus, only a +1 bonus.

Just curious what the group thinks would be either a better approach if any, or simply ignoring the function of a computer to enhance the process of digging up information as not having an impact.

Thoughts?
hal is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-21-2018, 08:39 AM   #2
Maz
 
Maz's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Denmark
Default Re: Current Affairs skill and computers

Alternatively you could tweak the rules for a Virtual Tutor (TL9) (Ultra tech p.57).

It gives an effective skill of 12 in a skill you do not have and still require you to use the program. But I don't think it would be out of place to use it as inspiration for a program that can run on its own with a Current Affairs skill of 12. This can run while the PC is out doing other stuff. So when he gets home the program can display interesting stuff for that specific Current affairs (depending on how well it rolled... with a critical failure resulting in malware or a lot of spam :D )
I probably wouldn't allow it to benefit from taking extra time though. Not without an AI as well. ...which would be the alternative and fitting to many sci-fi fiction. Where they have a "house AI" that takes care of many smaller things.
Maz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-21-2018, 09:52 AM   #3
Daigoro
 
Daigoro's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
Default Re: Current Affairs skill and computers

It sounds like what the Complementary Skills mechanic from Action 2 (p5) is for. Make a Research or Comp Ops roll first, to get +1/+2 to the main Current Affairs roll.
__________________
Collaborative Settings:
Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation
Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse
And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting!
Daigoro is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-21-2018, 11:21 AM   #4
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default Re: Current Affairs skill and computers

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro View Post
It sounds like what the Complementary Skills mechanic from Action 2 (p5) is for. Make a Research or Comp Ops roll first, to get +1/+2 to the main Current Affairs roll.
Based upon this, and Maz's comment - I almost suspect that what would probably work well is this:

When using an AI agent to surf the web for current events, the AI rolls against a basic skill (what ever its skill might be rated as) and if successful, the player gains a +1 bonus - but ONLY if the player is actively taking the time to at minimum, browse through the material. In other words, much like a google search might pull up hundreds or thousands of entries on any given search item - the user has to winnow out the stuff he or she doesn't want.

Since this is largely for a Sci-Fi setting (Sands of Mars by Ian Douglas would be a perfect example of what I'm talking about) - the idea is that a person who surfs the net on his own and has to filter things on his own, is more likely to find interesting things than someone who doesn't surf the net (assuming the information on the net is valid!). So, grouping it terms of activity:

Lowest: Someone who only listens/watches news programs or reads magazine articles.

Mid range: Someone who does at least the same as the lowest, but adds in personal browsing over a few net sources of interest.

Highest: Someone who has a "net agent" AI that goes through the net, sifts the content, and puts it through some sort of test for relevancy much like a google search.

None of the three ratings above are infallible, and none are going to escape some noise (so to speak) in an effort to get the good stuff.

If anyone is looking for a decent set of books worth reading regards to a fun sci-fi romp, I'd recommend either of the Mutineer's Moon series or the Heritage Trilogy (including Sands of Mars, Luna Marine, and Europa Strike).
hal is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-21-2018, 11:43 AM   #5
Daigoro
 
Daigoro's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
Default Re: Current Affairs skill and computers

As far as software, it sounds similar to G:Cyberpunk's News Daemon program, kind of a cross between a Google search and RSS. It would keep an eye out for keywords and alert the user to any news hits that came up. I guess you can actually do that with Google News now anyway.

But I'm not sure how hard you're expecting this to be- I've found Google can give me what I'm looking for without much difficulty, so I doubt I'm making multiple skill rolls to find stories of interest.
__________________
Collaborative Settings:
Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation
Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse
And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting!

Last edited by Daigoro; 07-21-2018 at 11:46 AM.
Daigoro is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-21-2018, 12:45 PM   #6
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default Re: Current Affairs skill and computers

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro View Post
As far as software, it sounds similar to G:Cyberpunk's News Daemon program, kind of a cross between a Google search and RSS. It would keep an eye out for keywords and alert the user to any news hits that came up. I guess you can actually do that with Google News now anyway.

But I'm not sure how hard you're expecting this to be- I've found Google can give me what I'm looking for without much difficulty, so I doubt I'm making multiple skill rolls to find stories of interest.
It isn't a function of "How hard" per se - hence the use of the supporting skill (from the News Daemon) and the actual retention from the character. In the old days, there used to be a clipping service where people would pay to have someone else do all of the reading of various news papers to get those items of interest to the user of the service. But the user of the service would of necessity, have to read what was clipped to gain any benefits from the service. Likewise, having the news daemon do the same service, but via net information - serves the same function. The difference is - someone who didn't have access to the service (either in the old days or in modern times) will not be as well read OR they will have to take time out of their busy schedule to do it on their own.

So, the solution offered of having it be a complementary skill that potentially raises the person's overall skill seems valid. If a critical failure occurs, the GM would be in their rights to penalize the skill involved or even outright lie because - garbage in, garbage out, is very apt here.

The overall difference here is that many skill levels of programs start at 12. AI's however, can change that overall skill level such that a 12 might not be the best possible skill rating.
hal is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-22-2018, 04:50 AM   #7
weby
 
weby's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Default Re: Current Affairs skill and computers

There are basically two options on how you could use such: either use the computer's skill or have the computer provide a bonus to yours.

If you are using the computers skill, you basically tell the computer what thing you want to learn about and then the computer works and then gives you the +1 on success to your other skill roll or gives you the information you need to go forward in the adventure. An advanced AI based system might even be linked to something like your implant communicator and constantly listen/see what you are dealing with and automatically do searches based on those, thus you might not need to tell it to look for specific things.

If using as help, it would likely speed up the process of finding information by a large margin and give a basic equipment bonus to the skill. The amount of the bonus would depend on the system quality. But even just having the basic program would likely work as well as a wire service today giving +1(characters). Thus if you had that then you could use the UT program quality modifiers on page 25 for better programs so a basic program would be +1 total(as wire service), a good program +2 total and a fine program +3 total.
__________________
--
GURPS spaceship unofficial errata and thoughts: https://gsuc.roto.nu/
weby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-22-2018, 06:05 AM   #8
ericthered
Hero of Democracy
 
ericthered's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
Default Re: Current Affairs skill and computers

Quote:
Originally Posted by weby View Post
There are basically two options on how you could use such: either use the computer's skill or have the computer provide a bonus to yours.

If you are using the computers skill, you basically tell the computer what thing you want to learn about and then the computer works and then gives you the +1 on success to your other skill roll or gives you the information you need to go forward in the adventure. An advanced AI based system might even be linked to something like your implant communicator and constantly listen/see what you are dealing with and automatically do searches based on those, thus you might not need to tell it to look for specific things.

If using as help, it would likely speed up the process of finding information by a large margin and give a basic equipment bonus to the skill. The amount of the bonus would depend on the system quality. But even just having the basic program would likely work as well as a wire service today giving +1(characters). Thus if you had that then you could use the UT program quality modifiers on page 25 for better programs so a basic program would be +1 total(as wire service), a good program +2 total and a fine program +3 total.
I agree with this. Please note that computer operation isn't used for any of the options, except for perhaps installing the software and handling bugs. For day to day use you use the current affairs skill.
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic

Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog

Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one!
ericthered is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:58 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.