lategaming

Wired writes about Gallifreyan incest:

“Doctor Who star David Tennant is currently dating Georgia Moffett — the actress who portrayed The Doctor’s daughter in the Who episode of that same name.
Moffett is the daughter of Peter Davison, who played The Doctor’s fifth incarnation. So, she’s a Doctor’s daughter playing The Doctor’s daughter. She’s also the first Doctor’s daughter who played The Doctor’s daughter to date The Doctor.”

Georgia Moffett is insanely hot and, if you haven’t seen the episode, will be returning to Doctor Who at some point in the future. Seeing as she was built 100% from Gallifreyan DNA, you’d have to wonder why the tech used to create her isn’t used to repopulate the Time Lords and, frankly, any other species in danger of dying out.

Or maybe the Doctor likes to be a lone ranger standing on the gates of oblivion and quite likes the fact they’re all dead - and only resents the perennial resurrection of The Master and treats this new ‘daughter’ as an interloper.

Kevin Siembieda writes:
“Erick passed away as gentle as a snowflake.”

That’s how Kay Kozora, Erick’s ‘Beautiful Kate’ of nearly 30 years put it when she called with the sad news. She and other loved ones were present when Erick passed away, Saturday evening, June 7, 2008. A Press Release with more details can be found on the main page of Palladium’s website. These are my personal thoughts.

Yep, Erick makes me smile. Right now, I envision Erick tooling around Heaven, bouncing from cloud to cloud to see who might be available to chat with. I can see him hunting down his old pals, Dan La Flesh and Roger Zelazny, and then grabbing Leonardo Da Vinci, Gandhi, Confucius, a few Roman Emperors, some saints, sinners, and Chinese Geomancers, and sitting them down to play test a new game idea. And when they are done, they’ll take a walk and discuss the I Ching, game theory, nanotechnology and time travel. And knowing Erick, he’ll eventually turn the topic around to, “So guys, what can we do about helping out Palladium Books?”

Erick did a heap of work. Paranoia, Amber, TMNT, Rifts, Beyond the Supernatural. I feel really sad about this and wish my condolences to his family and friends.

Swarmtech is the application of robotics to nanotech principles.

Nanotech is used extensively in molecular replicators - large immobile devices designed to replicate thousands of identical objects - often microscopic in scale which are then assembled by more mundate nanorobots into larger devices.

The most advanced example of nanotech encountered by Human Unity lies within the structure of one of their most implacable enemies, an enemy which regards humanity as no more than resources to be consumed. This is the swarm-intelligence known affectionately as The Ant Hill.

Most of the Ant Hill swarm is macrotech: large, modular and easy to spot. Nanotech devices seem only to be used within the structure of individual machines and, in massive concentrations, within the Fabric - the core of the swarm-intellect. The nanomachines act as the neurons and, in some cases, the chemical message analogs in the Ant Hill nervous systems.

Despite fears of nanotech weapons, there were never any useful or even dangerous examples of nanotech deployed in the pre-history of Human Unity. Natural nanotech (bacteria, viruses) have not caused the apocalyptic plagues described by nanotech detractors and fears of a ‘grey goo’ accident turned out to be media hype than actual possibility. There are also limits of molecular nanotech in the time taken to assemble larger objects. As a result, most Human Unity swarmtech deployments are not true nanotech but involve various devices which may be up to a centimetre in length or microscopic in size.

Some examples of swarmtech deployments within Human Unity space.

Epidermal Moss

Also known as ‘Epidermoss’, this is a nanoscale medical application. The moss, when applied to a living organism, will quickly spread out over the surface of the organism, consuming dead matter, dust, repairing scar tissue, grazing on calluses, staunching bleeding and removing any potentially harmful infestations. The nanobots have a half-life of 24 hours and leaves the skin feeling sensitive and soft - it therefore has limited applications in Human Unity agrarian collectives. Epidermoss is not recommended for use more than once a month and during cleaning, the moss structures can be seen to move across the flesh, giving it a piebald pattern. Debris is consumed as ‘fuel’ and excess is formed into keratin-coated ‘beads’ which are attached to the body using a spider-silk-based thread which may simply be picked or brushed off.

Assembler Eggs

When on the frontier, it can be taxing to provide living quarters considering the limited resources available as well as the intention not to contaminate an environment with foreign materials. Assembler Eggs are small globes of swarmtech assemblers which possess very specific programming on the objects to be assembled. To deploy, the Egg is ‘cracked’ by flicking a switch. This creates an opening from which the Assemblers are poured onto a substrate material. While the switch is in the ‘on’ position, it emits a programming signal which instructs the assemblers to create their objects. They do this by creating a micro-fine lattice (fabric) using Frame Assemblers and then Builder Assemblers collect substrate and build the structure of the object. An object like a chair can be built in approximately 20 minutes. Modular building components, sufficient to create a one room shelter take about 3 hours to manufacture (and then can be fitted together by one human in approximately 30 minutes). When the switch is deactivated, Egg assemblers will immediately cease construction and start to clump into a ball which may be placed back into the egg ’shell’ for re-use. An Human Unity team wishing to create shelters will usually deploy twenty Eggs at once to produce furniture and shelters as quickly as possible.

Assembler Eggs can be re-programmed but this requires a large effort, knowhow and significant equipment. With this equipment, it would also be possible to weaponise this technology.

Smart Objects

Smart objects are the ultimate extension of memory plastic. Smart Objects are often stored in a case that is functionally similar to the shell of an Assembler Egg. It controls the shape and movement of the object. In mechanical terms, it regulates a signal which is received by Receptor nodes inside the Smart Object and instructs the object on the shapes to be made. The case is just for convenience and usually contains a shape manifold - a listing of the programmed shapes which the Smart Object may assume. Unlike Assembler Eggs, the Smart Object constructs only one copy of the item, made out of it’s own materials.

A Smart Object is most often a malleable mass of solid material which, when signalled appropriately, assumes a number of pre-programmed shapes. A common use of a smart object is to provide a utility tool which can dynamically reconfigure itself to be a socket, screwdriver, spanner, hammer, saw, jemmy, rope, ball and any of a few dozen other shapes. Complex devices, including those with hinges, are seldom programmed.

Utility Fog

The science and engineering required for Utility Fog far outweighs the advantages though it has seen some demonstrations for entertainment purposes. If embedded in Utility Fog and with an appropriate amount of preparation, objects can be made to be created and destroyed, levitate in mid air, change shape dynamically and teleport from place to place. They could be used to scrub the air of impurities and, if breathed, clean the lungs. They can emulate almost anything by the continuous creation and destruction of real objects.

Limitations

One of the limitations of Swarmtech is simply one of size. The small size of these devices limits their utility. Swarmtech deployments are not going to be quick, they cannot lift heavy objects and have a range limited by their speed. They are limited by the laws of physics and conservation of energy as much as anything else - they require power to run, they cannot make waste materials simply disappear and their activity is detectable (even simply in waste heat). They are, however, incredibly labour saving, can use almost any matter as substrate for their construction and are practically tamper-proof.

Emotional Machines
While they are not beings of pure logic, Experts cannot claim to have emotions. They do not get angry or resentful, they do not love, they do not show compassion: though they may appear to do so. There are, however, emotional machines. Some emotions come easier to machines than others (Fear, for instance) and it is possible to mistake clever programming in an Expert for true emotions. In cases of greed or embarrassment, the Expert would often respond inappropriately - they are not meant to experience greed, nor can they grasp the context of embarrassment, though they may respond appropriately. Emotional machines are rare because they seek to emulate some of the last remaining unique qualities of natural humans so while they exist and they experience love, happiness, compassion and pity, they also experience envy, greed, sloth and hatred. Emotional Machine player characters may also use remote bodies as other Experts do but experience loss and sorry when the remote is damaged or destroyed.

In Game: A player may choose to play an Emotional Machine and therefore reap the benefits of being an Expert with the benefits of also not having to play a machine with preprogrammed responses to situations.

Specialists
As chimpanzees and orangutans are to humanity, so are Specialists to Experts. A Specialist is a previous evolution of an Expert and are commonly used for menial tasks. Specialists are sapient (capable of acting with judgement) but not sentient (they have senses but they do not process their perceptions other than stimulus:response). Specialists are used in industry and transport frequently where the ‘intelligence’ of an Expert may actually be a hindrance; this limits them to cargo haulage, piloting vessels, production line control and other such tasks that Human Unity would also not consider for human work. Specialists have no capacity to learn and their programming is not adaptive.

Ghosts
Ghosts are a form of context engine which normally inhabits the mesh networks which comprise the internet as described by Human Unity. Your Ghost is simply a blank adaptive Roach brain which attempts to learn your preferences and intents. When you are not available, the Ghost will attempt to act for you - accepting or rejecting invitations or taking interest in certain feeds due to a record of your past behaviour. They are, in effect, the ultimate P.A.

Roach brain
A ‘Roach’ is a very limited sapient machine designed to perform simple tasks but capable of using judgement to achieve them. They are commonly installed in Expert remote Agents as well as emergency equipment like fire doors and triage drones.

Back in the day, Eamon, Colin and I did spend some time discussing the concepts a long time ago but it’s clear that we had divergent ideas. Some of these were because we knew too much (when you mix biologists and physicists and try to make a far-future sci-fi setting) and some of it was because we were simply different people. I wasn’t entirely happy with their vision of ‘alien races’ and I feel they were equally dissatisfied with my ‘handwavium’ approach to theoretical physics.

Eamon emailed me with some questions about Frontier development as I see it.

Q: What do you see as the general Frontier missions for PCs?

There’s a reason why the Captain of the Explorer is an AI. He can’t beam down to the planet (Ho ho!) The following scenario threads immediately present themselves:

1. mission ’statements’ from Kumbu - this can cover trade, surveillance, colonisation
2. SPR - humanitarian ‘rescue’ mission (from Saving Private Ryan)
3. Free exploration (’boldly going’)
4. Escorts for other vehicles
5. encounters with other vehicles, weird phenomena, unexpected aliens
6. espionage/combat - very special circumstances, political maneuvering

Q: I was wondering if there’s room for freelancing, or at least hiring space on starships. It would give the possibility of being dropped off in a system with a few systemships, do you job and go home (save for Factor X which messes things up and produces Adventure!). Or dropped off at Station X, or on Planet Y, or Asteroid Z.
Of course, you don’t need to be a freelancer for these missions to occur. Modular starships could easily achieve the same effect.

I don’t recognise this as being part of the setting per se, due to the immense cost of running a starship and limited access to Keyhole drives. Another category could be similar to the ‘mission ship’ game we played briefly, the Halo effect…players find some ancient tech which is flippin’ class.

Also - remember that HU is post-scarcity. Trade exists but in a barter system. There is no universal credit, no gold-pressed latinum….

Q: Are starships so expensive to be solely owned by governments? Can conglomerates/individuals ever hope to own them?

There are no comglomerates or super-rich in HU. The USA, probably still the strongest of the non-HU Earth nations, could potentially field something to this effect.

Q: Are there any chances of encountering ‘rogue’ ships.

When you’re MEANT TO BE the only bipedal humanoid species that speaks your anglicised dialect of Swahili (or a Swahili-ised dialect of English) for 200 light years, every other ship is a potential rogue.

Q: Taking a step down, the same question for systemships - everything from tugs to shuttles to asteriod prospectors. Who/what can own them?
“Who moves the cargo around Frontier space?” would be another way of looking at it.

Specialists - single purpose AIs, a hundred times less capable than an Expert AI. Why would you put a short-lived human through months of babysitting a rock?

Q: Do we have spacestations, mining stations, research bases, space colonies…etc in Frontier?

Yes, but again, these are not commercial interests within HU space.

These are not, by any means, the one true way to play Frontier but they represent the feel that I am aiming for. I think the genre I’m aiming for is under-represented in gaming as well as elsewhere. With the recent release of Traveller by Mongoose Publishing and the Thousand Suns rules from Rogue Games, the ‘Imperial Sci-Fi’ genre is well represented. Frontier is, to a degree, post-Imperial, neo-liberal in politics, transhuman in terms of taking what I see as practical and almost renaissance in outlook.

In our BRP-based Runequest game, Michael has asked a few times for rolls on ‘Gloranthan Lore’ and ‘Human Lore’ so that we can remember items from our own cultures. Because we’re all grotesque combat monsters (with the exception of Jim’s character), we’ve all spent maybe 10-20 points on these skills. Pretty feeble really but not surprising due to the way the BRP system works.

In writing for Frontier, I’m aware that there will be people who are on the peripherary of Human Unity, some who are embroiled in society and some who represent the pinnacle of society. My theory is that this takes time and effort and might best be represented in two ways?

1. Skill - the knowledge and time invested by the character in realising their citizenship.
2. Quality - the result of the time invested with applied knowledge.

For instance:

Chera Nyumba was born in a small village in Africa, in an area formerly known as Zambia. She lives with her husband and their three children. While the children are at school, Chera and Enzi work in their fields, collecting their crops. In the evenings, they watch and listen to the news feeds and Enzi tells the children stories until they fall asleep. Chera is interested in the environment around her as much as it affects her family and work. Chera is a Competent Citizen; she is part of her community and a functional, productive member of society.

Kesho has taken the skill “Citizen” at Professional. She grew up in the shadow of Kumbu and after her school years travelled through the Western European Expanses and the Americas. She now works with two Experts and four humans in the Explorer Crew Selection committee. For her leisure time, she enjoys sex and researching Explorer Disruptive Element reports. Kesho contributes to her community less than she contributes to Human Unity as a whole.

A character who has the Quality ‘Citizen’ is likely to belong to a family that has a reputation within Human Unity. By virtue of their heritage, their citizenship is seldom questioned even if they have not shown the character of their forebears.

A character who is within the Explorer Division should have Citizen at Competent or better. If generating an Explorer crew, give them Citizen at Competent for free but permit them to swap it out for any level higher. There is no way a character could be part of the Executive Team of an Explorer without this skill at least at Professional.

Description		Difficulty
Be able to name the metropolitan centres of Earth or rhyme off the first items Traded. This knowledge is typical for school children to memorise.		No dice
Prepare a presentation on Human cultures including those outside of Human Unity or know the likely location of the nearest Expert.		1d
Name all of the Governing Experts or Master Experts that exist or detail the best process for the Kumbu archives.		2d
Recite the laws and customs of Human Unity from memory or remember the primary missions of Explorer vessels in Human space		3d

I feel that with the introduction of ‘free skills’ we start to get a better feeling of the society. It acts like a “general education”, a little like the BRP skills as well as the BRP-based “Know” roll which you find in Call of Cthulhu. The existence of baseline abilities like these (other than the generic 5% Human Lore in Runequest) indicate the presence of established education and, by inference, a more advanced society. In a primitive society, there may be a rich oral tradition but very few games model this particularly well - then again, a ’shaman’ is going to have this oral tradition and a player character Shaman is more likely to place points into ’shaman-like’ skills.

Some other games have provided copious amounts of information in an attempt to get the players to use the rulebooks as reference materials. Skyrealms of Jorune, Tekumel and Blue Planet spring to mind here. This has some pros and cons. Some of us, like me, really enjoy reading setting material and are considerably less willing to read rules materials. On the other hand, some people just can’t handle the huge volume of background information that a game can produce (and if you don’t believe me, I’ll give you the metric weight of the material Michael reproduced for our Glorantha game and, yeah, our characters should know this stuff!). How do we strike a happy medium? Provide good detailed background about your setting and also provide a way for the more casual gamer to intercept it - this latter point is made a lot easier by having fiction, audio books, movies, maps and other ‘props’ available.