Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.

Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

9 posts / 0 new

Last post

Sun, 2011-11-13 13:25

root

Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

root@Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase [hr] I just read an article on Salon.com about how the international arms trade should be regulated. While this would be good, the premise of the article is a sad joke that seems to completely miss the point that arms trafficking is fucked up and corrupt because it's goddamn [i]arms trafficking[/i]. Weapons get sold where they make the most money: politically unstable tinderboxes for violence. Nothing will ever change that, and trying to regulate it gets back to that whole adage of power flowing from the barrel of a gun. Anyway, this lead me to wonder about arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase. While the post-scarcity economy in theory reduces the need for conflict, and makes simple weapons readily available to one and all, there will always be the leading edge in combat technology. In Eclipse Phase, this may include the antimatter weaponry, but it will also include insidious computer virii, up to and including trading in TITAN source code. There have been a number of good posts discussing nasty EP weaponry, so I won't try to replicate that; I'm much more interested in the culture of arms trafficking. Firewall, by its very nature, has to have lots of contacts in this industry. They make useful contacts for moving contraband, getting access to weaponry when on a foreign hab, back-channel access to the Pandora Gates, and many other devious abuses that players are endlessly creative in coming up with. It also seems very likely that the Jovian Republic will be the largest supplier of weaponry, as they will very happily arm the frankenfreaks so they can wipe each other off the face of reality, but will include the Autonomists, and even unexpected places like the Titanian University (did you know that Sweden is a larger weapons exporter than Israel? That one surprised me). Thoughts? Characters? Scenarios?

—

[ @-rep +1 | c-rep +1 | g-rep +1 | r-rep +1 ]

Sun, 2011-11-13 15:36

750

Re: Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

It may remove the most common, at least in the past centuries, reason for conflict, the access to resources, but there is always that of ideology. Still, that is more a war of proxies and terror then out and out conflict.

Sun, 2011-11-13 18:08

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

Conflicts occur on all scales, from a pub brawl to a world war. This means that arms trade also occurs on all scales - from the guy who sells you a firearm for self-protection to the corp that manufactures the "systemwide proactive mesh countermeasures". Post-scarcity economics means that the lower end of the arms trade is curtailed because of competition from free or open source weaponry. There are definitely more than enough gun nut Brinkers out there with plenty of free time to produce a massive virtual arsenal. Sure, many of the online weapons are so-so or even contain bugs inserted by various Enemies of Freedom and Self Defense (or just griefers who just love the idea of guns that blow up on the 666th shot), but there is not much money to be made selling basic weapons. This is why many of the simpler personal weapons in EP rely on branding and style - who want to be seen with a noname gun when you can brandish a CleaWi Sieben? This is also true for bigger guns. Like most objects they are smart and complex, which means they are more like services than things. Weapons manufacturers sell the licence to use them, customer support, various online services and apps, and access to the warfighting ecosystem they provide (shame about compatibility with competing manufacturer ecosystems). This makes an important form of weapons trafficking piracy: getting illicit access to the blueprints and licence codes that allow weapons to do useful stuff. Conversely, if you report the pirated weapons of your enemies you might get a service cut-off at a crucial point in the battle... It seems that really high density energy storage is hard to do without exotic materials, and this means arms specialist outfits will have an advantage over the homebrews. This is also where authorities can exert more control: it is hard to prevent people from printing sharp or blunt objects, or even gun parts and software, but nuclear isotope batteries and high-performance homopolar generators are easier to scan for and have few everyday uses. And as soon as anybody tries to reduce or control supply relative to demand, the price goes up - now it becomes profitable to smuggle. This is extra true for antimatter, which is likely surrounded by strict rules *everywhere* (the places that were complacent about it are now clouds of plasma). Nuclear systems are also regulated, not just because of some risk but because they can be used to charge up risky materials like nuclear isomer batteries. Generally, there are plenty of very dangerous technologies around, like spacecraft engines and their fuel (consider what happens if metallic hydrogen is allowed to explosively evaporate indoors, or how much a big spacecraft engine is like a particle beam weapon). I have a distinct feeling that any global arms control and security regime for these have failed, but that will not stop local polities to try to rein them in. In conclusion, arms trafficking in EP is less about moving guns and more about accessing blueprints and expertise. The thing to look for might not be the crate of plasma rifles but the weapons engineer who can analyse how to integrate them with your habitat tacnet and adjust them to deal with the atmospheric composition - without him they are fairly pointless.

—

Mon, 2011-11-14 08:28

Xagroth

Re: Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

Eclipse Phase is post-scarcity, yes. But remember, please, that only TITAN tech might (I repear, MIGHT) be able to turn rocks into plutonium. Transhuman technology can rearrange atoms at best, so the bottlenecks are time and raw materials. So I wouldn't rule out wars because of resources. And remeber, resources are not only coal, gold, iron... There are strategical and tactical, knowledge, intelligence, places... Anybody remembers Discord gate? Now, what about arms trafficking in EP? I'd say that there are two kind of smuggles involved here: weapon smugglers, and raw materials smugglers. The first group will provide service to groups and places where installing a CM is not really practical, or where there is no real base for the arms dealers. This could include from providing weapons to Jovian rebels to planting a weapon's cache for a Firewall group in a prearranged place. The second group would smuggle big cointainers full of raw materials for the real arms dealers on-ground to turn into the weapons they sell (it's more efficient when it comes to space), and they can hide some exotic materials inside the big iron block. Antimatter weapons, however, I'd say are something different. Considering where the AM factories are, I'd say that getting your hands into them would be like getting a nuclear head today. Or maybe even harder. As for weapon trafficking in the autonomists space, I'd say that there is none. raw materials market? Sure, but aside from that, and reporting people around you that you are working with some exotic (dangerous) materials, I doubt you need anythig more elaborated. After all, people out there might be investigating new weapons. Or scientific tools. Or whatever. Edit: I forgot to say one more point: I agree with arenamontanous with that the important part of arms dealing in EP is the "consumer support" (ammo, batteries for your railguns, etc...).

Mon, 2011-11-14 09:56

King Shere King Shere's picture

Re: Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

I would put my chips that its the black/red market as the main contraband supplier -considering the surplus of ruins & wrecks. Titan conflict took place in the entire solar system, and prior to that there was some military space conflicts. With 99% of the population dead as a result of the Fall & the post war society, thats alot of second hand stuff that needs to be redistributed.

—

[img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/tc_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/exh_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/argo_userbar.jpg[/img] [i]"To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult."[/i] Plutarch

Mon, 2011-11-14 10:43

Myrmidont

Re: Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

Firewall's illegal (in most places) status makes for some interesting adventure ideas with regards to the weapons trade. A cell established in a PC-controlled area will probably have to obtain weaponry illegally at some point. However, later, the cell might learn the same dealer might be trading fissile feedstock to extremist groups or trying to move into the TITAN artifact trade. The right thing to do might be to shut the dealer down - but she has helped them before, and if she stays open for business she'll be a resource in the future. Gun dealers do so hate to be bullied, and tend to be unfortunately well prepared for "midnight home invasions gone wrong". In addition, if she doesn't meet the local demand for WMDs, maybe someone else - someone the players have no control or prior dealings with - will.

—

Mon, 2011-11-14 12:00

root

Re: Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

root@Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase [hr] We also shouldn't forget that arms smuggling includes morphs and egos. Maybe you end up paying someone to install a ghosted morph facility with a passive transponder near enough to your target that you can ego-cast in without having to lug your highly illegal meat shell through real space. The "insertion" may take months or years to get right, but for the most part the insertion risk is gone. If the locals were going to catch the insertion, it would be the smuggler they caught, so the players are in the clear (unless the locals decided to 'not notice' the installation so they could capture a live ego for interrogation). This might count as the "services" part of the trade.

—

[ @-rep +1 | c-rep +1 | g-rep +1 | r-rep +1 ]

Mon, 2011-11-14 17:58

UnitOmega

Re: Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

I have a PC who is an arms dealer in my current EP game. On Mars. Before we started playing, I asked him stuff like who he sells to, and where he gets his product, so we could discuss it. Basically, he acquired his stuff via the old fashioned "fell off a truck" method, buying surplus or discards from legitimate arms manufacturers cheap or for favors, then selling them in small amounts via anonymous drops, mostly to small time gangs, or people interested in extra-legal protection. Remember that the Consortium is all about trading in your rights for stability, so I'm sure their conceal carry laws are probably pretty tight about what kind of stuff you can own, and we all know most fabbers are restricted from arms. So personally, I see, at least in PC settlements, a lot of bottom up arms dealing, being sold by one man operations or gangs like the Moderates to either other criminals or just citizens who live in places where, say, they might want that little extra protection.

—

H-Rep: An EP Homebrew Blog http://ephrep.blogspot.com/

Tue, 2011-11-15 07:35

Xagroth

Re: Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase

root wrote:
root@Arms trafficking in Eclipse Phase [hr] We also shouldn't forget that arms smuggling includes morphs and egos. Maybe you end up paying someone to install a ghosted morph facility with a passive transponder near enough to your target that you can ego-cast in without having to lug your highly illegal meat shell through real space. The "insertion" may take months or years to get right, but for the most part the insertion risk is gone. If the locals were going to catch the insertion, it would be the smuggler they caught, so the players are in the clear (unless the locals decided to 'not notice' the installation so they could capture a live ego for interrogation). This might count as the "services" part of the trade.

In fact one of the most used "morph smuggling" options is the so-caled "dutch wife": a package with enough materials & energy for a one-use assembly hive to prepare a synthmorph inside a one-use healing pod (gatecrashing pg 159), a reception system for the ego (about 150 or so Km, with a quantum-level encryption key). The cost, of course, is the same as for the base mod +10.000 (extra fees for trasnporting the package to dangerous zones might be required), plus all the extra goodies you wanna add later (weaponry, implants, etc...). The system is guaranteed to hold for a month (a surplus of 1000 creds will extend the llifespan to up a year), and is prepared to install any kind of other receiver you want to use (from a planetary-level comm system to Quantum-Entangled). Defense drones can be acquired apart, but the "cage" were all is packed will be covered with ECW goodies, an ablative shield and a descent system capable enough to land at the given coordinates from high orbit (it will look as debris, the margin of error is up to the GM, but usually lower than 10%). Oh, and the system will conceal itself by excavating a little and coveering itself with local materials (usually dirt and rocks). And, for obvious reasons, no biomorph or pod can be used with this system. But it's still a compact and reasonably safe way to land into hostile territory. Just leave the hive enough time to build the moph. Oh, and the more paranoids can install a "panic signal" that will trigger if the cage is moved. Which led to some of these being discovered after a quake or cometary impact on Mars moved the area where they were resting. Who knows who placed these there?