Jovian PCs and their scarcity

Tue, 2013-06-11 20:18

#2

Decivre

A grizzled Jovian war hero

A grizzled Jovian war hero that has seen the horrors of the TITANs firsthand, and knows that there is no way that the Jovians could ever hope to fight it even with all of their weaponry. He resleeves to spare his original body, but barely considers himself "alive" until he is put back into it. Part of his deal with Firewall is that he'll never use his own body unless the threat is at his front door. A Jovian scientist who is using Firewall as a means to get access to contraband research in order to expand his understanding and use it to help the Jovian cause. The fork of a Jovian criminal who received the death penalty, who joined Firewall as a chance to live vicariously in a way that wasn't possible back home. He enjoys the life of a sentinel far too much. Jovians aren't all that uncommon at my tables, honestly.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Wed, 2013-06-12 06:27

#3

Matador

Ive played a retired, 64 year

Ive played a retired, 64 year old, jovian hoplight colonel. He retired and after some memory editing he has decided to tour the system and explore transhuman culture. Fire wall contacts him and explains the they have copies of his dead wife and kids backups from when they farcasted off earth. So he starts working with firewall to gain the resources to resleeve them in stable environment. But does he have the nerve too?

—

Hammer my bones on the anvil of daylight.

Wed, 2013-06-12 07:22

#4

Gnothi_Sauton Gnothi_Sauton's picture

One of my players...

... Plays a major of the now gone Navy SEAL:s. He escaped a US Marine sub during the Fall in a rebuilt intercontinental missiles to orbit where they where picked up by a Argentinian Battle Cruiser (who was informed about their attempt to escape Earth). He and his team was an unwilling part of the making of The Jovian Republic and now works within the system to change it. He is political active and argue for a more liberal and open attitude towards the rest of Transhumanity. During play he has gathered quite some influence and followers in the military ranks who put reason before feelings. Of course he has also attracted some enemies who try to take him down. It has proven difficult since all records of his service on earth is either gone or classified. He has a good reputation among the men and the lower ranks which is his strength; "Who is with me?!" He uses Firewall as a resource to information and leaks information about X-risks to Firewall when he realizes that a X-risk is to big bait for the Jovian Forces or the risk is to costly. He even coordinated an attack with Jovian Forces and Firewall without the Jovians suspecting anything. He also supports the Reclaimers movement to take back Earth out of nostalgic reasons since he often dreams of coming back to Ohio where he was born.

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Wed, 2013-06-12 09:37

#5

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

A PC: The overworked customs

A PC: The overworked customs officer who had to check all sorts of ships, keep the bureaucrats and military happy, and try to hide a few bribes... and now has been dragged into some kind of spy plot. Apparently the intelligence people decided that he should play the role of a dirty officer (maybe they know, maybe not - it is stressing him out) and hence function as a double-agent for infiltrating the smugglers in the Jupiter system. All right, that is cumbersome... and then he got saddled with a few creepy "partners" who are very criminal transhumans and uplifts. He is seriously starting to wonder which side he is helping the most.

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Wed, 2013-06-12 10:12

#6

CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture

One of my players had a

One of my players has an interesting character, in that they play a double-double sleeper agent. They were a Jovian intelligence officer, working for TAHI, the Jovian Security Councils hardline intelligence force. However he has been psycho-surgically modified so that all references to TAHI are conflated with Firewall, and vice versa. Basically he is a man who thinks he was a patriot, infiltrating Firewall while performing off site missions for TAHI. In actuality he is technically a traitor, infiltrating TAHI while performing off site missions for Firewall. Any time Firewall is mentioned his ego alterations forced him to conceive the discussion in a frame that would make sense, should he be working for TAHI. That character is actually doing really well, story wise. He has saved the solar system a few times, he is rising up the ranks of TAHI (which he thinks is Firewall), and Firewall is beginning to be less apprehensive about him suddenly melting down and needing to be perforated. The stress is beginning to pick up, though. So sooner or later I can see a showdown happening. The character is fully cognizant of what they are doing, though. He is aware of the lives he has saved in Firewall, he has truly bonded with the other agents that he thinks are on his side. And he has also seen the horrors that TAHI inflict on people, from an entirely unbiased position. I think we are going to have fun when he does finally snap, and tries to piece together his new personality.

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Sun, 2013-06-16 19:23

#7

Undocking

I played as a Jovian spy that

I played as a Jovian spy that worked for Firewall. He had a handful of drug glands and pumped them up to become a killing machine. He believed the technology transhumanity was dealing with would lead down a road to recreate the Fall, so he did everything he could to stop exhumans, expand humanity and limit AI advancement that could reach the TITAN level. Joining with Firewall seemed like a good idea at the time. He was also a clone (forked, who cares). Each of him was on a different station or location so while the party was beamed somewhere, he would generally just update a him in the area and meet up with the PCs.

Fri, 2013-07-26 17:30

#8

nerdnumber1 nerdnumber1's picture

If you think about it, a

If you think about it, a Jovian mindset makes sense. You are a conscious being and copying your mind doesn't move your consciousness. Every time you ego-cast or resleeve, the "you" that chose to upload their mind is destroyed. Now considering the fact that a huge portion of the surviving portion of transhumaninty had to go through this process, vocalizing this philosophical problem makes you an a$$hole. From their military mindset, the Jovian leadership saw the Fall as a giant warning flag about the dangers of technology and thinks that keeping technology dangerous technology (like fabbers which allow children to make weapons that can blow up a habitat) out of the wrong hands. The Roman Catholic Church is not helping progress either. The Jovian "Republic" has many values in common with Firewall, but they just tend to be a lot more cautious about the threats of technology and more willing to sacrifice liberty for (assumed) security than the more anarchist elements of Firewall. They also tend to value the concept of "humanity" more, fearing that we risk losing who we are through modification (which, if you've seen an exhuman, doesn't seem too far-fetched).

Sat, 2013-08-10 23:59

#9

jackgraham jackgraham's picture

I was raised Catholic. I will

I was raised Catholic. I will make diss My People all I want, thank you. That said, my attitudes on the Church are pretty complex, and I would love to see people playing Jovians more often, despite their disadvantages in mechanical terms. The Jovian Envoy character in TH is one attempt to present them with more complexity. I imagine him as having been assigned to the diplomatic corps in part due to subversive theological and/or social attitudes. "OK, Jesuit guy, you're causing problems here on the Continent. *snicker* How about you go try to convert the Iroquois if you're such a fucking badass?" Go rock that ad maiorem dei gloriam shit all you want... as long as it's far away from us. As some folks have already mentioned, you can also use it to play out some weird Mormon-y BSG issues if you want. Even if you're not sympathetic to either viewpoint, it can make for some really interesting roleplay.

—

J A C K G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth! http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham

Sun, 2013-08-11 00:42

#10

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

When "If I had the money"-ing

When "If I had the money"-ing during the kick starter I came up with a villainous group based around the question "what would the Jovians do with their cortical stacks?" . The Jovian Spectres are the infomorphs of citizens who died and were reinstanced to act as agents of the Republic out among the rest of transhumanity. You could have fanatical saboteurs, reluctant spies doing the job for the safety of their family, turncoats who have " gone native" .

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Sun, 2013-08-11 11:09

#11

Decivre

Despite more conservative

Despite more conservative views of the Jovian public, I actually think that mesh inserts and cortical stacks are at least somewhat common. Especially when you consider that a good portion of the population are splicers. This is simply due to tenure psychology; cortical stacks became socially acceptable long before the TITANs came around and scared everyone shitless about the horrors of nanotech, so it's seen as a "safe" technology. To that end, exowombs and cloning are probably still a commonality, while healing vats are illegal or at least heavily restricted. The way I see it, the Jovians are political conservatives in 10 AF, not analogues of modern conservatives. They will look as liberal to conservatives today as modern conservatives do to the Puritans. So while you might see plenty of religious bioconservatives in the Jovian bloc that avoid these technologies because they steal their chance at a glorious heaven, less-religious people in the social order might be completely fine with immortality and reinstantiation (though [i]very quiet[/i] about this view). This may even create a lot of tension in the Junta. I imagine one of the most horrific things that could happen is if someone "outs" you as being okay with transhuman technology.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Mon, 2013-08-12 19:38

#12

jcoltkelly jcoltkelly's picture

Makes for strange bedfellows

The reason players shy away from being a bio-conservative is it'll limit your ability to have sweet guns for arms, combat-aiding neurachem, etc. But also if you refuse to ego-cast it limits the locations you can play. I have a character who's playing a Jovian veteran, but he does fall into the "I'm only working with you freaks because.." category. I think the Jovian republic provides a much more interesting location to play in, rather than characters. One adventure hook I thought up but I'm not able to fit into my own campaign is called: Save The Space Pope! The Pope is planning a once a decade pilgrimage to visit a small catholic community in the Lunar Lagrange Alliance. Firewall revives intelligence that an X-threat of unknown origin is planning to infect the Pope as a means of using religion as a memetic attack vector. The PCs have to both infiltrate the Space-Pope-Mobile and identify and stop the threat while keeping the Jovian security forces from airlocking them. The Pope's best friend is a Talking Pie.

—

- I've only been with the company for a few weeks now, but I've seen shit that would turn you white! - Winston Zeddemore

Tue, 2013-08-13 00:00

#13

nerdnumber1 nerdnumber1's picture

jcoltkelly wrote:One

jcoltkelly wrote:
One adventure hook I thought up but I'm not able to fit into my own campaign is called: Save The Space Pope! The Pope is planning a once a decade pilgrimage to visit a small catholic community in the Lunar Lagrange Alliance. Firewall revives intelligence that an X-threat of unknown origin is planning to infect the Pope as a means of using religion as a memetic attack vector. The PCs have to both infiltrate the Space-Pope-Mobile and identify and stop the threat while keeping the Jovian security forces from airlocking them. The Pope's best friend is a Talking Pie.

You know that another way to stop the Pope from being infected is to neutralize him (unless martyrdom is involved with the memetic attack, I hear it did wonders for this one carpenter-turned-messiah, once). I figure that would be more of a plan 'B', especially considering the political/military fallout.

Tue, 2013-08-13 11:16

#14

jcoltkelly jcoltkelly's picture

Ha ha! And then you'd have

Ha ha! And then you'd have the cardinals all meeting to select a new Space Pope at the same time Jupiter is freaking out about terrorism and cracking down on dissidents, eying Titan suspiciously, etc.

—

- I've only been with the company for a few weeks now, but I've seen shit that would turn you white! - Winston Zeddemore

Thu, 2013-08-15 04:40

#15

fellowhoodlum fellowhoodlum's picture

The one thing I came away

The one thing I came away with the Jovians is that their major issue is resleeving. That is the only thing that is truly verboten to them. Dead is Dead. Like in Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, they may be equipped with stacks but they'll recycle it along with the rest of the body if the person dies. So in my game, they are not opposed to technological upgrades to the body. Anything that does not involve resleeving or uploading to the Jovians may be frowned upon but is no way illegal. Gene therapy for life extension, cybernetics, mesh inserts, etc. would be available to Jovian citizens, the major limitation to them being cost. (Which I expect is would be higher than other places)

Thu, 2013-08-15 10:35

#16

Decivre

jcoltkelly wrote:The reason

jcoltkelly wrote:
The reason players shy away from being a bio-conservative is it'll limit your ability to have sweet guns for arms, combat-aiding neurachem, etc. But also if you refuse to ego-cast it limits the locations you can play.

Bio-conservatism is not some binary concept that you either are or aren't. It's a sliding scale that encompasses many views from ultra-conservative to fairly liberal. This is even discussed to a degree in the Rimward book, where the fact that resleeving facilities [i]do exist in the Junta[/i] is referenced, right down to the interesting parallels to American abortion facilities in the 90s. The Jovian Republic is a broad swath of views, the majority of which sit on the conservative side of the social spectrum, especially in the context of broader transhumanity. It is not a society of hats, where everyone and anyone has the same opinions and views.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Mon, 2013-08-19 22:35

#17

nerdnumber1 nerdnumber1's picture

Decivre wrote:jcoltkelly

Decivre wrote:
jcoltkelly wrote:
The reason players shy away from being a bio-conservative is it'll limit your ability to have sweet guns for arms, combat-aiding neurachem, etc. But also if you refuse to ego-cast it limits the locations you can play.
Bio-conservatism is not some binary concept that you either are or aren't. It's a sliding scale that encompasses many views from ultra-conservative to fairly liberal. This is even discussed to a degree in the Rimward book, where the fact that resleeving facilities [i]do exist in the Junta[/i] is referenced, right down to the interesting parallels to American abortion facilities in the 90s. The Jovian Republic is a broad swath of views, the majority of which sit on the conservative side of the social spectrum, especially in the context of broader transhumanity. It is not a society of hats, where everyone and anyone has the same opinions and views.

The Jovian military is perfectly willing to allow resleeving for THEIR people. The military leadership restricts it mostly for practical purposes of being the strongest game in town, and they like the religious propaganda since it makes people less likely to break their restrictions or rebel. Jovians still are more likely to be nervous about resleeving than almost any other background. I wonder if Firewall has ever resleeved a dead, valuable, bio-conservative, Jovian Sentinel from their stack into a clone body (grown in secret), and claimed that he had only been seriously injured instead of killed. An easier method might be just to psycho-surgically alter them until they aren't that bothered by the resleeving. Then again, maybe they will just get over being resleeved against their will on their own (and if they don't, you can terminate them and try one of the above afterwards).

Mon, 2013-08-19 22:47

#18

Decivre

nerdnumber1 wrote:The Jovian

nerdnumber1 wrote:
The Jovian military is perfectly willing to allow resleeving for THEIR people. The military leadership restricts it mostly for practical purposes of being the strongest game in town, and they like the religious propaganda since it makes people less likely to break their restrictions or rebel. Jovians still are more likely to be nervous about resleeving than almost any other background.

I don't know if that's really the case. Rimward implies that there are public resleeving clinics, and they are often the target of assassinations and such. If resleeving were restricted to military only, why the hell would their security be so low as to have common crimes occur around them? I'm not disagreeing that Jovians are the most nervous around that technology (save for some brinker habs and a few other colonies that might have more conservative views). But it seems more a social taboo than a legal one. Like abortion in the southern US.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Wed, 2013-08-21 18:18

#19

davethebrave davethebrave's picture

An interesting initial story

An interesting initial story arc restriction would be to open the first session wandering Liberty as a major anarchist deep cover operation is blown by the Jovians and have the Republic on the highest of high alerts, full lock-down. How would your average party manage? Or, conversely, let the players know that's going to happen and see how many make Jovian characters! If they all made Jovian PCs, I bet you'd see a lot of diversity as the players struggle to differentiate themselves from each other. As you said Decivre, biocon has a sliding scale, and so does the Republic itself. Maybe the party face is a liberal politician who just lost his bid for re-election because his experimentation with X-casting his first term backfired in the hands of opposition spin teams? Again, liberal for the Junta might be pretty conservative by Consortium (or even LLA) standards. And what about overhumanist Ultimates? I wonder how many Ultimates are in Republic territory...and I wonder if the left and the right alike hold their fascism in disdain (and use their own righteous attitudes about the Ultimates in their midst to pooh-pooh the idea that they're somehow the solar system's "fascists"). There's a lot to play with, I think, in a campaign that forces people to remain in the Jovian Republic, at least from the onset. It also gives a party a more nuanced view of the Jovians and bioconservatives going forward into the system at large.

—

Yours, Dave the Brave

Thu, 2013-08-22 12:55

#20

Baalbamoth Baalbamoth's picture

careful what you wish for...

during character creation one of the players said something like "you don't wanna be a jovian they cant use morphs or AGIs" I replied with "you don't need morphs or AGIs if your sitting on a pile of old nukes large enough to blow up half the solar system." later one of the players passes me a note asking "how many CP would an undetectable briefcase nuke cost?"

—

"what do I want? The usual — hundreds of grandchildren, complete dominion over the known worlds, and the pleasure of hearing that all my enemies have died in highly improbable accidents that cannot be connected to me."

Sat, 2013-12-14 21:56

#21

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

Jovian Async

I imagine the Jovian Republic would have quite the extensive customs facility at the periphery of the system. A huge problem for them would be screening for exsurgent infected foreigners. Even the "benign" Watts-MacLeod virus would be an unacceptable risk to the entire Republic. So how do they screen for infection? Have at least one async with the new sense infection sleight living in nanovirus-tight quarters with a connected workstation that sits him close enough to scan newcomers. They probably live well by Jovian standards since they're a valuable asset but also isolated and feared as they're infected. I see moving them around would be like handling a radioactive Hannibal Lecter! As extra insurance, EMP grenades and plasma torches would be a feature of any living space they lived in. Whether the async is an ally or obstacle, victim or accomplice depends on how you want to spin it.

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Sun, 2013-12-15 22:11

#22

thebluespectre thebluespectre's picture

In my game…

One of my players is a Jovian private eye following a serial killer across the solar system (ah, Enemy Disadvantage…). He's a Fall Evacuee, so he has plenty of good reasons to neither afford or want high technology. He's just a guy with tons of Moxie, an overpriced masterwork heavy pistol and a Smart Dog instead of a Muse. Seems to work so far.

—

"Still and transfixed, the el/ ectric sheep are dreaming of your face..." -Talk Shows on Mute

Sun, 2013-12-22 22:10

#23

Aurell1an

I've always assumed...

...that what we hear about the Jovian Republic is an idealised version of what they want to be happening, Chinese propaganda style. "Yes, we're totally bioconservative, please ignore the 8 foot tall man with clanking arms who just guided you here." and so on. Anyone with enough money and influence in the mid-to-upper echelons of a system like the Jovians' can get whatever they want, and probably flaunt it openly (if not *too* openly) among their peers. Kim Jong Il loved Western brandy and pornography. Osama Bin Laden died surrounded by the latter. American senators can get hookers of either gender by the busful with a few phonecalls. Celebrities snort mountains of cocaine over the course of a few years, and rarely get caught. Translated into EP terms, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that those with certain talents or connections, say a genius researcher or the baron of a minor moon, can be quietly poured into an illegal morph, possibly with mods out the wazoo. Of course this would make him in the thrall of the government, but that handily prevents him from defecting... ...in theory, anyway. As for a non-typical character... meet Susanne Rodriguez. Spoilered due to length.

Spoiler: Highlight to view

Susanne was born only a decade or so before the Fall, and lived in Buenos Aires until it was reduced to grey slop. She and her family managed to escape off world using the political connections her father had accrued through a career as a spin doctor (and their entire life savings). They found themselves in space, suddenly with nothing to their names except the clothes on their backs. But the Republic is benevolent, and recognised daddy Rodriguez as a man of standing, and so they were provided for. It wasn't plush, but it was more than most people got in the Fall. As a teenager Susanne showed promise in standardised problem solving exercises, and she was enrolled into a military academy as a potential foot soldier. She blossomed, and excelled beyond all expectations as a scout and agent of subterfuge, including one memorable occasion where she posed as a Lieutenant 15 years her senior at an inter-platoon officers' party, simply to make her objection to being given a poor mark known. Susanne's excellence, however, came with an asterisk. While she professed to love her government, and her God, and her brothers and sisters in the fight for humanity (yeah, the Jovian military makes you go waaaay hardline and weird), she also had ideas and interests that were disturbingly progressive. At age 19 she was declined for a promotion simply for having once suggested using a Guardian nanoswarm to protect against the Watts-MacLeod strain. So the Rodriguez family was left in a bit of a bind. They had a daughter with an excellent brain, an unhealthy amount of curiosity, and embarrassing politics. The solution was simple, however: send her away. Operation Voyeur was hatched: a long term mission to inspect the worst, weirdest, most dangerous places in the system, and to report back to her father at regular intervals. And then she stumbled upon a genuine x-risk, was contacted by Firewall, and the rest is history. She can be played as anything from a morbidly curious model citizen to a wildly rebellious progressive born in the wrong place and making up for lost time now she's free.

—

Discontinuity is a lifestyle choice