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03-11-2013, 02:07 PM
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#1 |
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Join Date: Jan 2013
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After Action Report: the Eggshell Campaign
Contents
GM introduction Greetings! As it had been mentioned already, I’m trying to run some THS story/sandbox. Vicky informed me about interested people who are willing to read the reports about GM’ing and playing in this setting. Firstly about my experience. I’ll try to be as short as possible: 4 years ago (and still running this until now) I had been introduced to a game advertised as ‘cats in space with computers’. Our GM began to tell a story about a sophisticated swarm outbreak at ‘Vostok’ station, forcibly including all the earthlings in the ‘Hivemind’, International Blockade Fleet at the medium orbits... and we are tracing the origins of the swarm. Then GM slowly faded out, and I (my character) had been painfully lost in the middle of the dead story. So year after the last session of the unfinished game I tried to finish this with all the alterations previous GM included in the world. For example there were almost no SAIs - only NAIs and LAIs. Well, this had been achieved successfully, but due to some imminent failures and assumptions of an already ‘broken’ world (e.g. there were ‘psy’ traces) it became obvious: I need to run something much more canonical. Also, post-apoc + THS is a really bad combination anyway. So, the current story, started less than a month ago, named Eggshell (this name has more than 2 layers of sense. Most obvious is this: dragons lay eggs :) but you may also think of how you perceive countless billions on Earth while progress and future really advanced by much, MUCH less people on the frontier. Contents and shell, something to evolve and grow...) is loosely tied to Duncanites, Earth orbit and something to find in the hollow but not-so-hostile outer space. I had promised my party that in this story we will not need to visit Earth (at least according to the main plot requirements) and that we’ll be mostly in the Earth orbits (once again remember the name).. But despite plot presence, it’ll be more sandbox than a railroad game, and in the worst case scenario they’ll just miss the final titles, that’s it. :) Below you’ll find first session contents, transcribed by one of my players (many thanks!). Note this is personal intro, so he is alone here. Don't worry, party will come in shortly. Hope it’ll be interesting to read, and due to my style of GMing your ideas and reactions are REALLY appreciated, I tend to forget obvious things to say, and very often a random conversation will ignite my insight. And yes, we have more than this one session already. Dramatis Personæ 1. Richard Caine Richard Caine, reasonably successful general-purpose social interface. Mugshot: vaguely attractive but not particularly remarkable male in the late 20s; always sharp-dressed but not very original; carries a presence of great confidence, and yet clearly doesn’t take himself too seriously. Dirtshot report:
Spoiler:
2. Cherry Hunter Cherry Hunter, Caine’s personal secretary bioroid. Mugshot: attractive girl in early 20s, with dark/red hair, and lips slightly redder than seems possible without artificial pigmentation; generally European face, but with a slight and perhaps even artificial hint of something Asian. Typically wears clothes carefully balancing in the middle of the formal, the comfortable, and the alluring. Almost perpetually cheerful and in good mood. Dirtshot report:
Spoiler:
3. Komatsu Daiki Duncanite teen prodigy of Japanese ancestry; shell and AI whiz. Mugshot: An attractive, tall and slender oriental teen, most commonly dressed in convenient station-issue overalls. Rather adroit, and obviously well-adjusted to freefall. Commonly carries a can of cola or two in a pocket . . . or in hand. Dirtshot info:
Spoiler:
4. Kitsos Laskaris Kitsos Laskaris, linguist/interpreter in training and former grey-collar telereceptionist. Mugshot: a European male in late teens, slightly below average height, but of a sturdy physique. Dirtshot report:
Spoiler:
5. Igor Beregovoy Igor Beregovoy, frontier-seeking cybertech. Mugshot: Dirtshot report:
Spoiler:
Last edited by Clancy; 09-02-2013 at 06:18 AM. |
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03-11-2013, 02:11 PM
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#2 |
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Join Date: Jan 2013
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Prologue I
Prologue I January 02, 2103 Batkhan-II space station. The holiday was over, and it was time to get more acquainted with the work opportunities of the final frontier. Cain arrived to the station several days ago. This was something of an New Year’s present to himself: an attempt to go beyond Terra, to try out the life he always admired. Batkhan was something of a compromise, a ‘Duncanite lite’ sort of place - sufficiently libertarian, and sufficiently far from the Big-Brotherly heavy boot of governments, but still not totally severed from the more familiar ways of Terra. And best of all, the place was teeming with job opportunities for a social interface like Cain, particularly given his slightly odd width of proficiencies. Then again, perhaps it is those odd proficiencies, as well as other minor oddities of his background, were the reason behind several barely hidden attempts of microbots to survey his and his secretary’s activity. Legally speaking this wasn’t prohibited by the letter of local regulations: all the microbots were employing audio, ‘seismic’ and other non-EM surveillance methods, which weren’t covered by local prohibitions. Cain wasn’t too bothered about the little fellas - if he really needed to discuss something confidential outside his apartment, he could always fall back on more secure methods than speaking out loud. Besides, they seemed to mostly follow his secretary, not him, even though it wasn’t immediately noticed, given how little time they spent apart. Either way, today it seems that the surveillance was called off entirely. He was splitting his attention between going through contract offers on the station, and familiarising himself with the overall demographics of the station. The local population had a significant majority of infomorphs - 50% of the locals were outright weblife, another 20% were shell-users. Cain asked his NAI to sort the population into interesting groups, and immediately noticed that there’s a team of seven Klusterkorpers working on yet another version of the Tennin (or so rumours say, which doesn’t mean there’s a reason to believe it to actually be true). Cain carelessly drafted an introductory letter, informally ‘saying hi’ and telling that he’s available if they need some help. Not as a deliberate advertisement of services, but rather because he treated ‘Korpers as ‘half-Euphratians’. Somewhat surprisingly, a in a matter of minutes a reply came. ‘Pardon the stupid question, but are we related in some way?’ Okay, that was probably a bit rude on his part, digitally barging in on their lab like that. ‘Sorry. Richard Caine, social interface. “The Guinean” from Euphrates. I suppose I’m neither known nor needed. I apologise.’ There was a delay about the right length for a superficial background check. ‘Actually, you are. We might need about six hours worth of your services. At your base rate,’ there was a hint of regret or embarrassment in the last statement. ‘If you’ve got the time.’ This was a bit surreal. Cain wasn’t exactly expecting to find any associates, even remote ones like the Avatar. He wasn’t expecting to get much of a reply, other than a ‘neighbourly nod’, nor that he would be eventually recognised. He definitely wasn’t expecting that all of the above would happen AND immediately land him a contract that soon. And yet here he was, floating through the near-zero-gravity corridors of Batkhan’s central sections. He looked at Cherry with a very slight hint of envy: she was made and spent most of her early life in the Trojans, and as a result was much more comfortable with freefall movement. Being of Terran origin, Cain was somewhat uncomfortable even with the Lunar gravity of the outermost sections. The corridors looked empty. In fact, there were several open apartments, left as if in a hasty evacuation. While not a good sign, it didn’t give Cain more than a slight worry - the security of the station had a good reputation. Surely if something was really wrong now, this section would be sealed, and/or there would be combat shells all around in less than 50 seconds. The meeting place was an apartment rented seconds after Richard’s agreement to meet the prospective clients. Inside, all the wall-screens were filled by a projection of some uninhabited island. The team looked . . . assorted: three ‘natural’ Tennin, two of them housed in micromanipulator-equipped shells, and another two in military-grade spidershells. Cain decided to be the first one to initiate the discussion. ‘Good time of the day to you. What happened? It seems as if there was a large-scale evacuation in the section recently. And the military equipment isn’t usually deployed lightly either.’ After some consideration, almost obviously spent in a non-verbal conference between the Tennin teammates, one of them replied, in a slightly awkward wording: ‘The question follows. Batkhan’s code states that anyone can be compulsively expelled from the station within one hour without any further argumentation by fiat of the station’s owners or their delegates. Who and why would stage a virus outburst and blame us? We cannot declassify our work in order to prove our innocence, nor can we stop such an expulsion order if the incident repeats itself.’ One of the walls displays a video depicting the panic after the section experiences a simultaneous biohazard alerts in five locations. Other walls display cached pages of messages in the local net stating that, metaphorically, all the world’s troubles are caused by Duncanites-the-plaguebearers. ‘The question isn’t critical, as we only have literally 36 hours of work left to do. Worst case scenario, we perform the expulsion as ordered, but it will cause us to lose some of our latest work.’ Cain was slightly annoyed. This was pretty obviously a memetic sabotage. Crude, yet successful. Memetic. Why does it have to be memes? Back at Euphrates, he got assignments more befitting of a social interface, adjusted for the less conventional talents he had. But ever since he went into freelance work, now and again someone necessarily would treat him as a memeticist. And this was embarrassing, because he never specialised in memetics. Sure, he got the general course and passed the exams, and even had a gradually increasing amount of real-world experience in the field. But it really wasn’t his forté. Oh well, that just means he’ll have to do his best, or find someone he can trust to subcontract the memetic part of the case. ‘I will start looking into it. In case if a repeat alert occurs, how problematic is it to evacuate the necessary equipment within the allotted time?’ asked Richart made a strong emphasis. ‘Everything is as ready as it is reasonably possible without disrupting the work. If only we had TWO hours, we would easily evacuate with no losses. And if there will be no trouble within 36 hours, we will be able to finish the assignment and leave. This investigation is purely optional, but we will be thankful if you do find the time to perform it, Mr. Caine.’ ---------------- Cain spent several hours going over the alert logs, the local net discussions, the emergency reports and the supporting documentation. The viral attack was actually not very harmful. Definitely nonlethal, and not even very debilitating with proper countermeasures (though it would certainly be very bad for a person with no antiviral defences). The most ridiculous bit is that the virus’ code contains an imprint of the Avatar’s trademark ‘signature’. Turns out, the panic meme’s crudeness was due to it being aimed at the less well-off population of the station - 3rd/4th-wavers coming to space in hopes of better life, and sufdering difficulties adapting and educating to the station’s lifestyle (this education de-facto was Batkhan-II's secondary point). With a success rate of a whopping 20% among the aforementioned sub-population. After doing some more digging on the meme, Cain decided to contact the local memetic security chief. The memsec turned out disappointingly underinformed, and perhaps somewhat lazy. Apparently he dismissed the meme as unlikely to take hold at all, as did his underling responsible for the section. Furthermore, for ambiguous reasons, when Mr. Caine started talking of a countermemetic microcampaign, the memsec politely offered a series of arrangement that put him into a secondary position, providing licensed memetic templates, logistic support, and a salary for the work, but delegating the leading role to Richard. Needless to say, Cain wasn’t happy about such a state of affairs. On the other hand, he was unsure if he wants to trust such a person to take the lead; perhaps the delegated authority was for the better. Thus, Cain activated a digital ‘nanodrug’ to help himself focus, and proceeded smithing the words that would soften the blow of the memetic attackers. Having finished all the work, he sent them off to the memsec and went to sleep, only to be awoken some hours later by Prime Minister with a report of the campaign in question. The NAI informed Cain that all is going well: there were some repeat attempts to get around the countermemes, but they failed almost spectacularly. Despite the good news, Cain wasn’t exactly happy. There was reason to believe that the secondary attacks were engineered by some (perhaps as few as three) newbies, while the original mastermind of the attack decided to lay low, possibly waiting for an opportunity of a comeback, or a quiet escape. Richard realised that at this point, very little depended on him until the opponents took the next step. If there was a next step - quite possibly the rival already realised that everyone’s too alerted and there is no point in repeat sabotages during what was left of those 36 hours. All Cain could do was follow the colder leads. He decided that picking another couple hours of sleep wouldn’t change anything. Last edited by Clancy; 03-12-2013 at 06:59 AM. Reason: Prologue I |
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03-11-2013, 03:32 PM
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#3 |
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Join Date: Jan 2013
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Prologue II
Prologue II January 03, 2103 Batkhan-II space station. Cherry woke up and immediately checked the network. Prime Minister reported that Richard was still asleep. Must’ve been up at night again. Cherry considered it somewhat weird that despite having a lifetime license for the software that could cut his sleeping hours in half, Cain rarely resorted to actually using it. Morning exercises. Tea. Shower. Breakfast. Clothes. Mirror. Schedule check. Ready to work. A notification came that Richard woke up. Right on time. She leisurely prepared another breakfast, put it on a tray, and, upon receiving another notification, went for the elevator connecting their apartments. A different distance from the centre of the station was the only meaningful difference between apartments, and even that was hard to notice without a gravitometer. And Richard always made a point of providing equal levels of comfort for the two of them. Cain was already sitting at the table. She replied, and put down the breakfast tray in front of him, and picked a small plate with cookies off it for herself. ‘Morning, chief. Net-fling kept you up late?’ asked Cherry with a mischievous smile. Of course it was nothing of the sort - she knew full well that Cain never enjoyed it over VR, though she had only theoretical understanding of his reasons. Something to do with with not feeling the partner want him, which sounded borderline superstitious in Cherry’s opinion. ‘Yeah, our politician friend took a sudden interest in me in the middle of the night,’ answered Cain with a straight face, then silently prompted Prime Minister to set up a conference for reviewing dossiers. Only after Cherry started checking the files did Richard allow himself to smile. It wasn’t even much of a joke anymore - just the sort of social game they occasionally played on each other over the years. Cain’s files were in a bit of an organised chaos. It was more-or-less clear that after examining all the logs and trails, he decided to have an audience with some of the higher-ups on the station regarding the incident. These included the local LAI responsible for quarantine measures, which Richard discarded almost immediately, the ‘chief of the level’ SAI, and, immediately above it, the Elder Council - six Ghosts in some sort of Cabal, the founders of Batkhan-II. As a matter of principle, the SAI chief went by a 30-digit number instead of a human-readable name. Apparently it considered such measure needed to prevent appeals to friendship, connections, familiarity or the like. Cain proceeded to examine various documents and logs related to the SAI chief. One did turn out to be quite an interesting find: an order (signed by said SAI) to reduce security levels across the section, roughly a week ago. The order was supposedly justified by the need to facilitate immediate delivery of medical and nutritional supplies from the EU. There were several logical disconnects, starting with the fact that there wasn’t much in the way of urgency, nor did the security reduction do anything to facilitate the delivery. Or the fact that the security reduction lasts by this day, and is only due to be lifted tomorrow, when the delegation leaves (even though the delivery itself is complete). The delegation in question was some Christian-related sect with a strong PSR memeplex, providing cheap medicine and evangelism in one package. While there do seem to be some signs of black PR and other dirty tricks up their sleeves, it wasn’t something completely out of the ordinary. After examining and organising the above documents and information sources, Cain expressed his desire to request an audience with the Elder Council. Gutsy. The Elder Council consisted of six people. In a way, their demeanors could be described as Business, Law, Connectivity, PR, Humanity, and Life/Self-Preservation. By now, their personalities partially juxtaposed, like a hive mind of sorts. After much consideration, Richard decided to request an audience with the Law - L. A. Jason, an American-born judicial consulter who was Ghosted in the 70s, and was a once a known proponent of treating bioroids as a Special Population (Chinese-style), as opposed to indentured servants. He sent an audience-requesting letter, and was soon invited to connect to a private Digital Realm. Cherry and Cain entered a virtual yard of a mansion, with fountains and a garden. And of course, where there is a Digital Realm, there’s at least one surreal detail. In this case, it was a bottomless well, with the starry night sky instead of water. The garden was filled by at least a dozen minor avatars representing service weblife. Mr. Jason’s avatar looked like a slim old man with short hair. On a hunch, Cherry decided to take the initiative. She greeted the American not in English, but in Chinese, both in terms of language and etiquette. From the corner of her eye, she noticed a hint of confusion on Richard’s face. Sure, he could understand Mandarin, and even follow the nuances of social protocol without flinching. But unlike the many other onlookers, Cherry could see that the move left Cain completely off-balance socially. And yet, after all the complexities of their greeting and Mr. Caine’s introduction were over, Mr. Jason very politely pointed out a couple things that are to be done slightly differently in such a situation. Meanwhile, Cain fully regained his composure, and was ready to take back the initiative. ‘Allow me to make a request, not out of selfish motivation, but rather as a humble representative of laborious and responsible scientists.’ His formal tone and attempt to replicate her humble politeness in a more Western manner was, at first sight, rather exaggerated, but it seemed to pay off. The host seemed slightly embarrassed by Richard’s chutzpah of just asking for an audience like that, yet also intrigued by the visit, and glad that the guest decided to repent by showing respect so formally. ‘Thank you for visiting me in my solitude, my far-off guest. What news do you bring?’ ‘Not good, alas. I did not want to disturb such a high-ranked person, but even the first steps of my investigation on the behalf of aforementioned respectable people have already caused me to doubt the legitimacy of events caused by the decisions of the next lower-ranked person.’ Cherry took a step back, letting Cain fully handle the situation, yet remaining clearly in sight. In a way, she blended into the background, becoming just another pleasant sight in the garden for Mr. Jason to enjoy. Yet actually she was requesting the service weblife’s permissions to read logs regarding previous visitors to the courtyard. ‘So, the time of changes has finally arrived. Who of the subordinates was damaged or behaved inappropriately? Have all the steps of the stairs been tested? What happened in the outside world?’ ‘The matter concerns mostly local security, but the problem might lie deeper. Perhaps somebody is willing to manipulate the letter of the law with malicious intent. Here is what I know.’ Mr. Caine’s further reply was long, listing all the nuances of the investigated incident. He was probably being fed ordered data by Prime Minister, and definitely sent some of the documents over the connection. He seemed to paying special care not to disparage the memsec, despite the latter’s dubious professionalism. Finally, Richard concluded his monologue, ‘I went over the heads because I was rather puzzled by such a justification of the security level decrease, which coincided with the time of sabotage.’ Jason went silent for a minute, contemplating the information, then looked Richard into the eye. There was a file transfer, which Richard accepted. As it turned out later, the file contained a dossier regarding Isaac Klimov - a memetic terrorist, originally aligned with the TSA but ultimately went renegade/freelance, and happened to be condemned in one of Jason’s last cases before leaving for Batkhan-II. ‘Young man,’ said Jason, ‘you are free to act as you see fit. But do not forget to report the outcome - I’m interested in knowing it.’ While this wasn’t obvious from looking at either of the two men, Cherry noticed that Cain was slightly uncomfortable, as if he was just sent on a fetch quest of some sort. ‘I thank you for your attention, and hope that the people responsible for security will from now on behave responsibly. I will be on my way, performing my duties.’ The connection was terminated. Cain was sitting at the table and scratching his head, unsure what to do next. Meanwhile, Cherry was finishing the last of the cookies. She didn’t like seeing him stumped like that, but it wasn’t a reason not to enjoy the other good things, even minor ones. Last edited by Clancy; 03-12-2013 at 06:59 AM. |
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03-12-2013, 06:52 AM
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#4 |
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Join Date: Jan 2013
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Prologue IIIa
Prologue IIIa January 03, 2103 Batkhan-II space station. Caine and Hunter disconnected from the Elder Council’s subnet, and were replenishing energy and nutrient supplies. PM: Mister Caine, there has been a notification that the non-aforementioned yet implied agreement to investigate the SAI underling problem is in fact in force, and you should regard it as such. Caine: Yes, Prime Minister. Caine: A full report for the client is in order. PM: I hereby transfer a package of files, including but not limited to the logs of our recent audience and the data receive therein, to the representative of Avatar Klusterkorp. Should I proceed? Caine: Yes, Prime Minister. PM: Mr. Caine, the clients are sending a reply. They demand that you investigate the source of the attack, explaining that not the attack itself is important, but rather the reason thereof. Caine: [with a non-standard internal expression] Yes, Prime Minister. And that means there is a need to scan the local net for any signs of entities or other phenomena related to the dossier we got on the audience. PM: I’m thinking about searching the local web. Caine: Good, Prime Minister. FYI, an actual second attack is unlikely. Only the source and cause are of relevance. PM: I figured there is a person identified as a member of Klimov’s organisation. Caine: Is he known as a memeticist? Is he physically here? PM: Indeed. Though you should be informed that he is currently no longer a member of said organisation. Should I continue the search in passive mode? Caine: Yes, Prime Minister. PM: Victor Kirov is a memeticist, itinerant advertising specialist, with good work experience, and has undergone complete rehabilitation as far as issues of terrorism are concerned. Known personal traits include bisexuality, intolerance towards slavery. Supposedly undergoing vacation paid by his own funds. Do you need more information? Caine: No, Prime Minister. Not yet, at least. PM, we need a secure channel to our clients, in order to inform them about our suspect. PM: Oh, I know how to do that. Is there anything else? Caine: No, Prime Minister. I’m off to lunch with Cherry, but I do want to be informed of any worthy news, but not of the daily email sort. PM: News so far: 1. Outside world is now informed regarding the attack in the station’s core. Though the interpretation is such that the news does not cause any panic. 2. As a consequence of recent events, Mr. Caine is being invited to a netvidchat (not particularly remarkable one). Should I send them a reply? 3. EU is sending a small fleet towards the Gas Giants, though they didn’t make a public statement of purpose, aside from vague ‘scientific research’. 4. SAR is recruiting spacers with underwater experience for the ‘millennium ship’ project. 5. A new job offer is open for system administrators on this very level. PM: Also, the clients transfer the agreed-upon sum of money to RC Interfaces Inc.’s account. Their departure is without incident, and they are happy with what you managed to discover. Hunter and Caine were discussing the audience. To be specific, Hunter was explaining her seemingly irrational choice to pick a foreign approach as an expression of respect not only towards the face of the Council, but towards everyone, and apparently it worked. Meanwhile, Caine was casually examining the local AR, occasionally taking a look for something interesting, but without any clearly defined search criteria. His attention was quickly attracted by the many v-tags mentioning (as it was later revealed), in very fuzzy terms, the memetic incident between him and the rival(s), and asking for contact. He sent a pointer for Hunter to call attention to it, and then carefully watched two other entities whose attention was piqued by the tags, and who proceeded to interact with them. Hunter half-turned her head towards the RW coordinates of one of those entities, but keeping her eyes sideways on Caine. ‘I foresee a spanking.’ Caine raised one eyebrow, and Hunter continued, ‘Either someone wants to throw you out for your barroom brawl, or they’re merely showing interest that way.’ Caine: PM, it is in our interest to download the accessible contents attached to those tags, but not run or trigger them except in an virtual/offline sandbox. PM: I can do that. Executed. Minor potentially malicious scripts isolated, very low-risk ones. Acquaint yourself with the received information. Caine: Yes, Prime Minister. PM: I’m registering a broadcast pointer sent by one of the people you seem to be paying attention to, stating that it indeed perform the trigger of a tag attachment like the one you examined. Extremely likely the results of malicious objects in action. What should I do next? Caine: Nothing, PM, leave them be. We don’t want any trouble . . . yet. PM: Update, aforementioned entity has been denied further access to the public wireless network of the whole sector. Therefore, options of examining said entity no longer available. Caine: It is in our interest to, if possible, look into possible correlation between entities in the physical world and in the AR/public net, to see if we can identify the location of the disconnected entity. PM: I’ll think about it. There was a power outage several subsections from here? Is this what you’re interested in? Caine: No, Prime Minister, not quite. Disregard. New interests: check whether the Klusterkorpers’ rent of their apartment/lab space has expired. PM: No, but it expires in less than an hour, and they will be out of contact range in about two. Caine: Good, PM. Interested in establishing an audience with them. Caine spent a minute or two asking them for permission to use their room’s network connection. The security and anonymity gains from such a trick were negligible, but Caine clearly informed me that it is in our interest to perform such a trick. Having been granted permission, Caine contacted the address provided in the salvaged part of the tag’s attachment. The connection was proxified on the other side, but clearly led to the Elder Council’s administration. On the far side of the connection, a virtual chat room is accepting entry requests. The topic at hand is marked as being related to an unauthorised memetic skirmish. There is an explicit notification that killing and arresting are not planned in the context of this investigation. Caine sends the request, and soon the trio is participating in the hearing. Last edited by Clancy; 03-12-2013 at 07:00 AM. |
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03-12-2013, 06:52 AM
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#5 |
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Join Date: Jan 2013
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Prologue IIIb
Prologue IIIb There are five avatars present in the courtroom: A humanoid avatar of Kirov. A white hexagon, representing SAI-administrator 8-LLADMTSALB-II-812087CyberInterface A butterfly, representing Jeanny Marisque, the memsec. An old man with pale white face and hair, representing the united Cabal of the Elder Council A table with Caine and Hunter sitting at it, representing our trio. The Council informed everyone about their good-willed disposition towards those present, and offered the non-AI visitors a virtual cup of coffee. Caine: ‘Good time of the day to you. Thanks for an intriguing invitation.’ Council: Accepted. Before we begin, we would like to announce, that we strongly disapprove unauthorised memetic operations - but we would like to let everyone tell the story from their side. Given how the invitation was handled, you ALREADY know what this is all about. Caine: ‘I... we do. However, I, for one, am quite surprised that as the official delegate of your local memetic security manager, I’m seen as performing unauthorised operations.’ Caine: PM, it is in our interest to assemble and send all the contracts and attached documents signifying the delegation of authority and permission to act. PM: Oh, I imagine I can do that. Council: Richard, we have nothing against you. However, we suspect that someone corrupted our specialist, and we intend to solve this issue related to this operation. [Transfer of technical data regarding the logical disconnect in 8-LLADMTSALB-II-812087CyberInterface ] The communication within the court fell to silence for a minute. Council: Nonetheless, the level of suspicion towards you is minimal. Caine’s avatar nods and wait. 8-LLADMTSALB-II-812087CyberInterface: Mister Caine is not related to the corruption, due to being insufficiently capable of defeating my security measures. Council: Administrator, we need to accept that your statement overestimates your security measures. We sadly inform you that you are being temporarily suspended, until further security upgrades are deemed sufficient. This, however, does not deprive you of the right to witness the rest of this hearing. Council, voiced for the first time: ‘Mr. Caine, please try to disprove following statement: You and comrade Kirov are in an alliance with the purpose of destabilising the state of affairs on Batkhan.’ Caine: ‘For one, I lack the motive. My relationship with Euphrates and, by extension, the Klusterkorp, mean that it is highly undesirable for me to destabilise locations that can act as research platforms away from strict Terrestrial regulations, among other things. Plus, I can not come up with a way in which my activity would be destabilising, as opposed to actually resisting the panic-inducing campaign. And it was under the oversight of your employee. Do you deem my answer satisfactory?’ Council: Accepted. The Council proceeds to verify all the documentation signifying the cooperation between Caine and Marisque. Council, to Caine: Accepted. Conclusion complete. You are no longer required, but are free to stay. As for you, Jeanny, it is appropriate to give you a warning, in that such initiative without informing the higher authority during or after the decision is not a proper form of conduct. Suddenly, Jeanny Marisque and 8-LLADMTSALB-II-812087CyberInterface are disconnected from the room. The Council proceeds to ask Kirov a long series of questions on the topic of the attack, immediately taking measures to prevent any attempts to spread the suspect’s memes during the interrogation. Caine appears distracted half the time, surfing the net, while the other half points out nuances of the log that should be bookmarked. Of these, - the signs that Kirov is not malicious, and is better described as a scared WellIntentionedExtremist; - that Kirov is definitely at least as good a memeticist as Caine, and likely actually better (but perhaps unlucky); - even after all the filters, it is totally obvious (to Caine) that Kirov truly believe every single things he evangelises, even though his reasons/methods and those of the 5-waver wannabe brutes’ differ drastically. - in addition to a condescendingly/pityingly hostile disposition towards Duncanites, Kirov sees pantropy as evil, and wants to prove it, or at least get the financing needed to prove it. Further, the Council’s interrogation becomes harsher, as much as the circumstances allow, trying to find the basis of his fears. Kirov seems quite prepared to resist all their approaches. In two hours, the Council declares its decision: ‘Expulsion within the hour.’ Before being disconnected, Kirov sends an archive of some sort to Caine. The Council does not interfere. And then, the room is dissolved and everyone is disconnected. ------------------------------------ Caine watched the video feed as the vac-shells moved a single human in a spacesuit outside the airlock, putting him into a semi-stable orbit around the station - definitely not presenting any risk in addition to the quarter-day or so of life support in the suit. Caine: PM, I’m not sure whether this is aroundabout way of a death sentence, or merely a rude way of asking someone to buy a ticket home. I’ll assume the former. So it is in our interests to find if any ships around the station are willing to perform a semi-emergency pick-up along the way from the station. PM: There are indeed ship captains offering such contracts. The optimal choice will require a placement of a collateral worth $3,000 in case for some reason the designated client will not pay for the service on his own, such as arguing it based on already having a rescue arrangement already in place. Should I request such a pick-up? Caine: Yes, Prime Minister. It would also be proper to inform him that this isn’t some sort of heroic mercy, but more of a display of respect towards an honourable opponent - to inform him of the collateral, but let him decide for himself whether he considers the correct sum to return. Oh, and it’s unwise to accept anything other than a lowercase-only plaintext message from mister Kirov. Aaand, it would also be nice to send the Avatars an update on the investigation, if they’re still in beam range. PM: I can do that. The Avatars are sending their thanks, expressed in a microtransfer of a half-thousand dollars. Caine: Yes, Prime Minister, microtransfer indeed. ----------------------------- January 04, 2103 Batkhan-II space station. PM: Are you fully awake, Mr. Caine? Caine: Yes, Prime Minister. Any news while I was asleep, and not of the daily email sort? PM: Your investment into the salvage/rescue industry has yielded an annual return rate of 24.3% (6% over less than 24 hours). I suggest such a high number is indicative of fraud, pyramid scheme or the like. Caine: No, Prime Minister. Anything else? PM: Yes, Mr. Caine, there is a potentially high-risk/high-reward contract offer from a different group of Tennin. ...and so concluded this intro session. I'm awaiting your opinions. Last edited by Clancy; 03-12-2013 at 07:17 AM. |
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03-13-2013, 04:17 AM
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#6 |
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Banned
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: a crooked, creaky manse built on a blasted heath
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Re: After Action Report: the Eggshell Campaign
This looks pretty cool.
Will the forthcoming Dramatis Personae include just a single line or a few words on each of the characters, or will it have paragraph length entries? Full stat blocks might not be necessary for forum purposes, but some game mechanics stuff included with story stuff wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Certain social or mental Advantages/Disadvantages might be listed, for example. Telling us in clear terms what everyone is would also be good, since not everyone is human. Something like: John Jones, Baseline Human, Wealthy & Charitable, (additional brief notes on relation to other characters, goals, etc.) Just as a side question, how exactly did the “cats in space with computers” figure into the precursor to this game? |
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03-13-2013, 05:16 AM
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#7 | |
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Join Date: Jan 2013
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Re: After Action Report: the Eggshell Campaign
Quote:
This game is totally different of that 'Unity' game I played years ago and still GMing. I just tried to say the following: my first character played in this amazing setting was 'almost-psy' Felicia III :) But this current game doesn't interact with the past in any way |
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03-13-2013, 01:55 PM
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#8 |
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Seattle, WA
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Re: After Action Report: the Eggshell Campaign
I look forward to reading through all of this in detail in the near future. I've just been really busy (ok ok, I was playing BF3, but Endgame just came out!).
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-apoc527 My Campaigns Currently Playing: GURPS Banestorm: The Symmetry of Darkness Inactive: Star*Drive: 2525-Hunting for Fun and Profit My THS Campaign-In the Shadows of Venus Yrth--The Legend Begins The XCOM Apocalypse |
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03-20-2013, 08:22 AM
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#9 | |
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GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Playing Against the Trend: Non-Villainous Anti-PSR, Reactionary etc. Characters
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03-20-2013, 08:42 AM
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#10 | |
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GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Playing Against the Trend: Non-Villainous Anti-PSR, Reactionary etc. Characters
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The AI is even more secondary for Richard, since if he needs a fully sapient assistant, he'd rather ask Cherry. |
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| actual play, after-action report |
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Linear Mode
