Ideas Are Easy

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Yes, and I'd extend that slightly: a cross-world jump calculation includes several terms which vary substantially over interstellar distances, which both Infinity and Centrum have simply baked into their theories because if your position never alters by more than a couple of AU you can roll that into the uncertainty term and forget about it. So the next step along this path is the calculation per system, as you suggest; the next step after that is the new coordinate system to take this stuff into account automatically.

One slight drawback of this campaign: it gives up the "projectors only work on worlds on the leading edge of history" idea. This was introduced in IW for 4e (which is why Caliph has regressed, and Steel in Lost Worlds is at 2026 – and why there are some dangling references to a timeline called "Transhuman").

Yep, thats the intent. And a big part of the game is the race for these equations. Infinity has better expertise at parachronics, but the Imperium has a larger scientific base. Oh, and the readings infinity needs are in imperium space.

[David Johnston2]

Lost and Found: The characters are members of a very special detective agency that specializes in tracking down mysteriously disappeared people and things. Whether your child has stumbled into a gateway to Narnia or Wonderland, or your spouse been abducted by vampires or turned into an animal by witches, or your priceless artifact or convicted serial killer has disappeared past your elaborate security system, L&F will use a mixture of expert detective work, advanced technology and outright sorcery to track them down and return them or least their bodies. Unless y'know, they're free adults and don't actually want to come back.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by ericthered

why would it need interstellar capability? Terra exists in traveler, doesn't it? You do loose the "No interstellar" Infinity limitations that way, but I'd still keep it small -- it gives infinity a reason to mess around in the Imperium.

In fact, I'd make jumping anywhere other than terra a technology which obviously is possible but that the math for is more advanced than a simple earth jump (certain numbers are no longer constants and must be figured out for each system).

Yes, You'd probably need to give infinity a slight tech boost, but it probably wouldn't be that much, and Infinity's internal security is FAR better than that of the Third Imperium.

For some purposes, eleven thousand planets is more then enough security. If the IISS has it's own black ops dimensional corps set up it can be hidden on any planet with plenty of redundancy available.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by ericthered

why would it need interstellar capability? Terra exists in traveler, doesn't it? You do loose the "No interstellar" Infinity limitations that way, but I'd still keep it small -- it gives infinity a reason to mess around in the Imperium.

In fact, I'd make jumping anywhere other than terra a technology which obviously is possible but that the math for is more advanced than a simple earth jump (certain numbers are no longer constants and must be figured out for each system).

Yes, You'd probably need to give infinity a slight tech boost, but it probably wouldn't be that much, and Infinity's internal security is FAR better than that of the Third Imperium.

Terra exists in Traveler yes. But it isn't at all in Imperial space. Instead it's owned by a bunch of racist paranoids. Nor is the Traveler setting likely to be at all enticing to either Centrum or Infinity in canon. It's a superscience setting with psi powers, far too large for Centrum to absorb or even effectively spy on and too divergent to be relevant to the secret war, far too threatening, occupied and advanced to be a good market for trade or colonization. Even disregarding the ways in which it violates the restrictions on the Infinity setting, the two sides have no reason to go there and a list of reasons to put a big red sticker on it. The Cabal or Reich might have a reason to go there. Not Infinity. At least not the official Infinity.

[jason taylor]

It is the first, well technically the second, Constitutional Convention. The PCs are here in some function, as part of the delegation of a given state. While the negotiations are going on some kind of Evil Conspiracy is designed, perhaps more then one. Possibly both the French and the English wish to know what is going on just for starters. And of course all of the states will want to get as big an advantage as possible and some will be inclined to rather-untoward-methods.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

It is the first, well technically the second, Constitutional Convention.

Reminds me of the board game Credo, in which the players represent factions at the Council of Nicea, and are attempting through various means to gain support for their differing views and get their doctrines ensconced as part of official Christian doctrine (thus making their opponents heretics). That, too, could be done as an RPG.

[Johan Larson]

The Wrong Mission: The players are given a mission that makes sense, but their characters have utterly the wrong skill-set. They are expert sailors who are told to assault a mountain stronghold. They are Navy SEALs who have to help their employer's daughter get into the Ivy League. They are forensic accountants who have to beat a street-gang.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

They are forensic accountants who have to beat a street-gang.

Bleed them of their money and make sure they don't know about it. Or make it look like their boss has been tippling the account of the Columbian cartels.

[jason taylor]

Murder at the Horse Fair:

Such a thing has not been seen before! Not in anyone's life time at least.

All of the Rom Travellers had been anticipating a happy few days of feasting, flirting, and bargaining over good horseflesh when a murder is found. A Kris(court of elders)must be called to investigate. The PCs must find the murderer while keeping the affair away from the prying eyes of Gadje cops who would bring shame on all(of course if the murderer is found then obviously he will be outcast and no affair of theirs and the Gadje can do what they will).

This requires a bit of research on the GMs part but can make a rewarding detective story.

[David Johnston2]

Tell your players two things:

1. This is a science fiction game in which you will be playing in a Reboot/Tron style virtual reality in which you do mind-numbingly boring jobs as programs shuffling data for your oppressive cybernetic overlord. There's a resistance, but most of the population thinks the computer they live in will crash if they cause too much trouble. Malcontents are put into video games where they are condemned to die again and again at the hands of the malevolent "Players" until they break and are either returned to their blissfully boring cubicles, or disappear.

2. It is possible to escape and discover the physical world.

What you don't tell them: They aren't programs. This is more like the Matrix, and they are living human beings who had their memories suppressed when they were frozen and plugged into the planetary computer network to add their brain's processing power to the whole after they were rendered obsolete by automation. The real world belongs to the wealthy, the machines, resurgent wildlife and hunted scavengers who live in the cracks and corners.