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Help me flesh out an adventure idea...

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Wed, 2010-05-19 10:23
#1
Cereth Cereth's picture
Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
So I've finally talked my group into letting me run Eclipse Phase. As a gaming group they are a little settled into their ways, so introducing them to a new game is always a challenge. We have a few weeks of downtime before we start our next game, so this will really only give them a taste of Eclipse Phase. They will be playing pre-gen characters. This is an adventure idea I've been working out in my head, and I wanted some help kinda' filling in the blanks, making sure it jives, etc. Any input/advice would be extremely helpful. :) Adventure Background - Firewall has sent them to investigate a rogue hypercorp that has been recently raising some red flags. The agents discover that this hypercorp has been experimenting with seed AI's and TITAN technology. They find a remote research habitat, infiltrate it in an attempt to destroy it, and then the mission absolutely goes to sh*t. They all die in particularly gruesome ways. The adventure begins with them being re-sleeved inside of said remote research habitat with the last 15 days of memories missing. The last thing they remember is that Firewall had a big mission for them...but everything from their mission briefing forward has been erased. They have to piece together what happened to them, where they are, why they are there, and what is going on. I see the adventure being very "memento-esque" with them trying to piece together what happened from the end to the beginning. Of course there will be a nasty TITAN machine loose on the habitat with them hunting them down and they will find evidence of their own grisly deaths throughout. The story behind the story is that the seed-AI being experimented on is contained within the habitat by whatever security measures the hypercorp put into place. This will mean the characters have no communication with the outside world while they are on the habitat. Something that I haven't quite worked out yet will prevent and kind of transmissions to or from the habitat (solar flares or some other pseudo-science babble). The seed-AI decides it needs the characters to accomplish its goals and has had them re-sleeved in the hopes that it can manipulate them into unleashing it from its "prison". A possibility I also thought of is that the seed-AI could have hidden a portion of itself inside each character so that all they need to do is escape the station and the seed-AI could just recombine the parts at a later date and thereby escape the habitat. In this case the only way to successfully complete the mission would be for the characters to self-destruct the station while they are still on it. Anyways, those are some of my thoughts on this adventure...just trying to fill in gaps in logic or stuff that doesn't entirely add up. Also need to come up with some red-herrings to throw them off course a little. A few of the guys are experienced Cthulhu players as well so I want to make it something that will appeal to them as well. Thanks in advance for any input. :)
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Wed, 2010-05-19 15:57
King Shere King Shere's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Its a research station, I would find it strange if they didnt have multiple experiments & projects going on. Or in other words, multiple potential seed AGI. Some of them may be confused for eachother, due same clipart avatars & voices. Some of the "black" experiments & projects arent as dangerous succesfull, other where boxed (labeled to dangerous), Then there are the "white" experiments & projects, that gives a cover for the research station. Hypercorp could also for example research :communication, containment, agriculture, splimes, etc. You could rip the situation start for the main protagonist in Resident Evil movie. As things went apeshit due to the players) their "covers" still held, They were "faulty" regarded as friendly security employees of the facility, and was "resleeved" by the security safeguards. They are now expected to assist with the containment, safeguard & evacuate surviving employees. (tainted survivors not considered to have "survived") The AGIs that decided (for the moment) to ally with the now unwitting players, can have several motivations leading to such a decision. Perhaps its the Security system itself with objective to safeguard the station & Hypercorp (HAL & Red Queen). Its experiments on them (GlaDOS). Its competing against its "brethren" (can still have same objective as them) & uses the players as its "pawns". It went rogue & have a cunning escape-plan (I help them, they help me) . It went rouge & Infected the unwitting players. As there could exist mulitple AGI "loose" they can have diffrent objectives & methods, in addition to "upgrading themselfs"..
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Thu, 2010-05-20 00:58
nick012000 nick012000's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Why do people keep making adventures with Seed AIs when regular AIs would work just as well? They can go crazy too, you know.
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Thu, 2010-05-20 01:19
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
nick012000 wrote:
Why do people keep making adventures with Seed AIs when regular AIs would work just as well? They can go crazy too, you know.
It's what my old gang used to call "the epic effect". The more epic and outrageous the adventure, the more likely people will want to play it and talk about it. You'll see the same thing in every game... everyone will talk about running the Renraku Arcology Shutdown, but how many ever talk about the fun they had playing Food Fight? What're you more likely to brag about... destroying an archlich in his deathtrap home, or defending the keep on the borderlands?
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Thu, 2010-05-20 02:01
King Shere King Shere's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Playing Dungeons & Dragons without ever facing Dragons & or Dungeons? Satisfying "expected" elements, makes what should have been rare occurrences common place. I agree the "epic effect" is also a contributing factor.
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Thu, 2010-05-20 03:31
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
King Shere wrote:
Playing Dungeons & Dragons without ever facing Dragons & or Dungeons? Satisfying "expected" elements, makes what should have been rare occurrences common place. I agree the "epic effect" is also a contributing factor.
To be fair, even in D&D a dragon is not too common an occurrence. In my opinion, seed AI are better off treated as even more of a rarity. I think their presence should be more akin to dragons in Shadowrun than dragons in D&D... puppeteers that the characters may spend a career never seeing, while unknowingly being plagued by their machinations. Let's face it, the TITANs are super-advanced intelligences far beyond human capability. They have likely granted themselves bodies capable of virtually anything, have access to the most powerful psi abilities, can hack into any system with but a blink... and for all intents and purposes, should be as potent as gods in a face-to-face match. We are talking about the same beings that annihilated 95% of the human race in less than a year. When you think about these things in context, what are the odds that 4-8 Firewall sentinels are going to fare any better than the entire Earth? Even other seed AI without access to TITAN-level technology will be cunning and talented beyond anything that any given human could muster, potentially in his entire lifetime. It's even possible that the most powerful hyperelites and organizations in the system are mere servants for secretive seed AI masters. There may be a number of seed AI still present, but I doubt any of them are foolish enough to make their presence known, especially to the likes of Firewall. I think the biggest reason that people have an expectation of them is because Eclipse Phase is a fledgling product. We don't know what the expectations of an average adventure are to be, nor do we really know what place seed AI should really hold in the setting. Thats what happens when you're dealing with a setting that only has 400 released pages of information. People will have a better grasp once we get more books, and the plot starts to get delivered.
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Thu, 2010-05-20 07:23
King Shere King Shere's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Using "epic" makes them less "epic" & because of that rare occurrences should be avoided. But speaking of the Seed AI threats, I would separate between "lesser", "greater" & "old" (include lesser or greater). A "lesser" seed AI, have not "evolved" enough to be a threat, yet. It needs more time & resources. How long it take for such a type to "bloom" is a uncertain factor thats is different from case to case. Even if it "bloom" that doesn't mean it achieved a "greater" seed AI state, that time. "old" seed AI have established themselves (regardless if it was a lesser or a greater) & most likely quite secretive (helps them survive to become old) Thus thwarting experiments & projects creating these "lesser" seed AI, & stopping the "potential gods" before they matured & bloomed, wouldn't be a insurmountable challenge.
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Thu, 2010-05-20 08:03
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
King Shere wrote:
Using "epic" makes them less "epic" & because of that rare occurrences should be avoided. But speaking of the Seed AI threats, I would separate between "lesser", "greater" & "old" (include lesser or greater). A "lesser" seed AI, have not "evolved" enough to be a threat, yet. It needs more time & resources. How long it take for such a type to "bloom" is a uncertain factor thats is different from case to case. Even if it "bloom" that doesn't mean it achieved a "greater" seed AI state, that time. "old" seed AI have established themselves (regardless if it was a lesser or a greater) & most likely quite secretive (helps them survive to become old) Thus thwarting experiments & projects creating these "lesser" seed AI, & stopping the "potential gods" before they matured & bloomed, wouldn't be a insurmountable challenge.
Chances are that a seed AI's ability to develop will be vastly quick, especially considering factors like virtual time acceleration and its sheer ability to process data. Your best opportunity to stop one with a sentinel group would be before it comes online, when it is just code and inert computer core that can be sabotaged. Once it does come online, it may still be feasible for a team to stop or get under control, but it's also probably more efficient for an erasure squad to take over by that point, just to make sure the job gets done. You can't mess around with seed AI. Hell, using an erasure squad comes off as a very good option when seed AI are involved, even fledgling ones. Not only do you have the opportunity to wipe out all presence of seed AI technology, but also have a perfect opportunity to place the blame directly on whomever is responsible, simply by merit of the fact that they are trying to build seed AI. Public opinion will balloon the issue from there.
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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]
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Thu, 2010-05-20 08:19
nick012000 nick012000's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Decivre wrote:
Hell, using an erasure squad comes off as a very good option when seed AI are involved, even fledgling ones. Not only do you have the opportunity to wipe out all presence of seed AI technology, but also have a perfect opportunity to place the blame directly on whomever is responsible, simply by merit of the fact that they are trying to build seed AI. Public opinion will balloon the issue from there.
And then zillions of internet nerds across the Inner System post pictures of cats exclaiming "This is why we can't have nice things!"
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Thu, 2010-05-20 10:52
Kanada Ten Kanada Ten's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
[IMG]http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3898/suckukvillainchair.jpg[/IMG] "I'm flattered you thought I was a seed AI, Mr. Bond. But as you can see I'm just an ordinary feline uplift. Well... perhaps not so ordinary. Now, Mr. Bond, I'm afraid it's time for you to die. Muhahaha - meow. Oh, how embarrassing. Kill him!"
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Thu, 2010-05-20 11:38
Cereth Cereth's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
I guess it doesn't necessarily need to be a "seed-AI". A regular AI that is dangerously close to beoming a seed-AI would be sufficient I guess. I do want the TITAN machine that is stalking them to be sufficiently nasty...traveling through vents and stuff like in "Alien". I was thinking the TITAN machine could be a combination of several TITAN relics that were thought to be nonfunctional, but when combined turned into a nasty critter. It is of course doing the bidding of the AI. I like the explanation that the characters were re-sleeved by some default security procedure. I was struggling with how to make that make sense. The Research Station diagram I've been working on features eight different "pods" that extend from the main axis of the station and house the various experiements. I like the idea of a bunch of "white" projects disguising the "black" project they had going on.
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Thu, 2010-05-20 14:07
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Cereth wrote:
I guess it doesn't necessarily need to be a "seed-AI". A regular AI that is dangerously close to beoming a seed-AI would be sufficient I guess. I do want the TITAN machine that is stalking them to be sufficiently nasty...traveling through vents and stuff like in "Alien". I was thinking the TITAN machine could be a combination of several TITAN relics that were thought to be nonfunctional, but when combined turned into a nasty critter. It is of course doing the bidding of the AI. I like the explanation that the characters were re-sleeved by some default security procedure. I was struggling with how to make that make sense. The Research Station diagram I've been working on features eight different "pods" that extend from the main axis of the station and house the various experiements. I like the idea of a bunch of "white" projects disguising the "black" project they had going on.
I don't think that necessitates a being of even close to seed AI intelligence. I'm sure something of human intelligence could be a threat... perhaps something twice as smart as a human. Seed AI are hundreds of times smarter than a human, and potentially smarter than the entire race individually. You don't need that level of intelligence to be dangerous... that's like saying "Hey, it would be scary if something really explosive or dangerous were to fly at Earth, so lets make it a couple dozen stars hurtling towards the planet!" Overkill.
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Thu, 2010-05-20 20:30
King Shere King Shere's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
So when have a bad guy gone over the limit to warrant a firewall sentinel investigation & or intervention? Mundane tasks would most often lead to stand down instructions, as the suspects had not done anything to warrant intervention. Most investigations suspects only guilty corruption & regular greed -not extinction threats. After reporting the evil corporations research, the sentinels could receive orders to back down. I dont think Firewall feel like wasting resources & risk exposure to hunting down "petty" threats. [i]"But they are a evil weapon manufacturers"[/i] [i]"Your point? Last time I checked we were not sanctioned arms inspectors, nor moral guardians"[/i] --Back on thread As for preventing communication, the stations antennas could have been sabotaged (by former instances of the players), its in a shadow/darkside of a celestial body -effectively blocking most transmissions, its constructed as a Anechoic chamber to reduce outside interference (testing comunication systems needs "silence") The station is engulfed in the remnants from a exploded spaceship (or several) & perhaps parts of the damage facility. This cloud of radioactive space debree are what causes interference. Something is successfully jamming the station, the jamming sources is either from the inside or outside. The security system enforces radio silence, aside from perhaps a launched distress beacon.
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Fri, 2010-05-21 04:47
nick012000 nick012000's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
I'd say that someone [i]attempting[/i] to build a Seed AI would get Sentinel intervention, but the moment it comes on line is when the Erasure squads come into play, nukes fall, and everyone present dies. Then it all gets blamed on the Seed AI they were making, and there's that much more prejudice against AIs.
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Fri, 2010-05-21 05:28
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
nick012000 wrote:
I'd say that someone [i]attempting[/i] to build a Seed AI would get Sentinel intervention, but the moment it comes on line is when the Erasure squads come into play, nukes fall, and everyone present dies. Then it all gets blamed on the Seed AI they were making, and there's that much more prejudice against AIs.
Actually, I think that the ones who will take the biggest flak will be the people building the seed AI to begin with. They should remember the Fall, they should remember the public's belief, and the public will respond with backlash upon discovering that they have continued seed AI research. Hell, I can already see how it would play out. Mere minutes after the lab is antimattered out of existence (and the seed AI is long dead), Firewall social engineers begin to spread reports that a seed AI built by [insert owners of lab here] has awoken and escaped their control. They then begin to decide who will take the rap for cleaning up the mess while panic memes spread across the system. Eventually, further reports come in that the seed AI has been annihilated at great cost, and the group responsible for its creation now has to play PR damage control as they have to explain to the world why in their right minds they would even try to do such a stupid thing. The Mercurials will probably denounce the event as well, since even AGI fear the wrath of the TITANs. It's for this reason that seed AI are kept very secret, including the Prometheans of Firewall.
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Fri, 2010-05-21 07:21
King Shere King Shere's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
nick012000 wrote:
I'd say that someone [i]attempting[/i] to build a Seed AI would get Sentinel intervention, but the moment it comes on line is when the Erasure squads come into play, nukes fall, and everyone present dies.
Well I think thats a given. Though it seems popular for the Sentinels to try to clean up the mess first. (not contradicting Erasure squads intervention) Isnt one of issues that we dont want to use the Epic factor (for example Titans & Seed AI), but still use firewall sentinel teams?
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Fri, 2010-05-21 08:53
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
King Shere wrote:
Well I think thats a given. Though it seems popular for the Sentinels to try to clean up the mess first. (not contradicting Erasure squads intervention) Isnt one of issues that we dont want to use the Epic factor (for example Titans & Seed AI), but still use firewall sentinel teams?
Sure, and there's plenty of scenarios that would require it. Sentinel teams are called into duty for any situation that threatens the safety of the human race. As the book puts it, "these risks can and do include biowar plagues, nanotech swarm outbreaks, nuclear proliferation, terrorists with WMDs, netbreaking computer attacks, rogue AIs, alien encounters, and so on." Many of these things don't necessarily require the direct influence of some seed AI. Sentinels are just as likely to stop radical groups with access to dangerous weaponry, factions overstepping acceptable armament levels, and hackers that threaten the stability of the mesh as anything else. Moreover, sentinels aren't just called to act when a problem arises. Sentinels are often tasked with gathering intel, investigating anomalies to see if an existential threat is even present to begin with, and gaining assets for use by the organization (such as setting up Firewall weapon caches, or infiltrating various groups for Firewall). Remember that the SOP for sentinels is unobtrusiveness. They aim to do as much as possible to ensure the secrecy of Firewall. As such, while they are expected to fight when it is necessary, they are also expected to do everything in their power to avoid drawing undue attention. Being a sentinel is just as much about fighting existential threats as it is about ensuring that no one ever knows. That means knowing when to fight, and when to avoid it.
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Fri, 2010-05-21 09:12
Cereth Cereth's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
If Firewall was already aware with what was going on in the research station they probably would have just sent in an erasure squad. The characters didn't find out what was going on in the station until it was too late and by then their mission had gone to shit. This is where the communications blackout comes in...the dark side of a planet sounds sufficiently mysterious.
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Fri, 2010-05-21 09:58
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Cereth wrote:
If Firewall was already aware with what was going on in the research station they probably would have just sent in an erasure squad. The characters didn't find out what was going on in the station until it was too late and by then their mission had gone to shit. This is where the communications blackout comes in...the dark side of a planet sounds sufficiently mysterious.
Indeed it does. If you wish to really play up the horror feel of the scenario, I'd suggest hinting that they really are being played with... when they wake up, make sure they notice newly-added implants, or even that they have been shuffled about in their bodies. The AI might also wish to play with their emotions. The little girl they save from the "torture room" may in fact be a delta fork carrying a backup of the AI, to be uploaded into a new system when the players help them escape. Even more interesting might be if they [i]don't[/i] know their mission. They wake up and notice a message detailing that the laboratory is about to be destroyed, find a means of escaping, then find an archived message that [i]they sent[/i] detailing how they actually called for an erasure squad to destroy the lab with themselves in it, knowing that their escape could unleash an existential threat. Play up the "we just screwed the world" feeling, to boot. :D
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Fri, 2010-05-21 13:15
King Shere King Shere's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Decivre wrote:
Sentinels are often tasked with gathering intel, investigating anomalies to see if an existential threat is even present to begin with, and gaining assets for use by the organization (such as setting up Firewall weapon caches, or infiltrating various groups for Firewall).
Focusing more on this would be more ideal then. As extinction threats are epic, arnt they?
Cereth wrote:
The characters didn't find out what was going on in the station until it was too late and by then their mission had gone to shit. This is where the communications blackout comes in...the dark side of a planet sounds sufficiently mysterious.
In addition, they should have done intrusions & caused damage, that now come back to haunt them. Some of the surveillance, The communication equipment & distress beacon was purposely destroyed (by their formers). Repairing some of those systems may give them clues & reveal their guilt. For example a smashed videotape with recordings of their missdeads. Not the safe thing to repair & have the "friendly" security system display.
Decivre wrote:
If you wish to really play up the horror feel of the scenario, I'd suggest hinting that they really are being played with... when they wake up, make sure they notice newly-added implants, or even that they have been shuffled about in their bodies.
Another addition is that the computerized voice could insist on calling them the name of their covers. If they behave oddly the security system may voice concern over re-sleeving trauma. I see a situation where they have multiple of "allies" that now assists them, gives them tactical information & suggestions on how to deal with the ongoing catastrophe. Aside from others ordering them around & messing with their heads. The unaware confrontation between enemies or between culprits & victims is also worth exploring. They stumble across their secondary victims. A "civilian" girl, earlier ones killed her parents (too clever scientists). .
Decivre wrote:
Even more interesting might be if they [i]don't[/i] know their mission. They wake up and notice a message detailing that the laboratory is about to be destroyed, find a means of escaping, then find an archived message that [i]they sent[/i] detailing how they actually called for an erasure squad to destroy the lab with themselves in it, knowing that their escape could unleash an existential threat. Play up the "we just screwed the world" feeling, to boot. :D
What they remember from their original mission may have been to investigate the whereabouts of a missing item from a excavation from a disaster area, (fall disaster, titan tech) But that memory could also have been from a previous mission. Enemies on the station can also be former "allies", kill systems that [i]they unleashed[/i] with the tasks of ensuring the mission & clean up. Sucessfully stopping the selfdestruction & kill bots, are also a "screw up".
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Fri, 2010-05-21 13:25
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
King Shere wrote:
Focusing more on this would be more ideal then. As extinction threats are epic, arnt they?
Depends on the threat and how its handled. A crow who spends his entire time studying the exsurgent virus in a Firewall lab is constantly dealing with an extinction threat... but I would hardly consider his daily activities to be "epic".
King Shere wrote:
Another addition is that the computerized voice could insist on calling them the name of their covers. If they behave oddly the security system may voice concern over re-sleeving trauma. I see a situation where they have multiple of "allies" that now assists them, gives them tactical information & suggestions on how to deal with the ongoing catastrophe. Aside from others ordering them around & messing with their heads. The unaware confrontation between enemies or between culprits & victims is also worth exploring. They stumble across their secondary victims. A "civilian" girl, earlier ones killed her parents (too clever scientists).
That could be fun. It could even play with their sense of identity. Give them subtle hints that one of them is, in fact, the AI disguised as one of the PCs. I would even recommend telling one of the players to roleplay as if they are the AI, only to later reveal that the AI only programmed him to believe it.
King Shere wrote:
What they remember from their original mission may have been to investigate the whereabouts of a missing item from a excavation from a disaster area, (fall disaster, titan tech) But that memory could also have been from a previous mission. Enemies on the station can also be former "allies", kill systems that [i]they unleashed[/i] with the tasks of ensuring the mission & clean up. Sucessfully stopping the selfdestruction & kill bots, are also a "screw up".
Exactly. I might even recommend Tarantino-ing the scenario. Have them play themselves making their escape, then afterwards do a massive rewind and roleplay the events leading up to it, where they trap themselves in the lab and try to destroy it. Fun times to be had.
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Mon, 2010-05-24 14:26
Cereth Cereth's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
I ran the first part of the adventure last night and we had a real good time with it. I thought I'd share some of the highlights that occurred... - After waking up and getting their bearings, the girl playing the "hacker" attempted to access the station's mesh only to find the access blocked. She determined that somehow someone had hacked in and disabled MESH access. She then unknowingly had to make an opposed roll against herself to try to get through, since she was the one who had hacked in and disabled it 3 days previously. I laid some subtle hints about her recognizing the techniques used and that she felt whoever did it was really good. This gave me a private little chuckle...she failed the first roll. - After stumbling around for a while and finding some gnarly scenes of death and dismemberment, they heard some eerie sounds of metal scraping on metal and couldn't pinpoint a direction. They had a feeling they were being stalked by something and it amped up the tension nicely. The sound was the TITAN relic stalking them by traveling through the air ducts. - The group eventually comes across a group of survivors and find out from them that the survivors believe they were attacked by Jovian Terrorists. The group surmises from this that their initial mission from FIREWALL must've been to stop the terrorists. They then begin to plan how to finish that mission. This was a nice little twist that I hadn't even intended. - The hacker character eventually gets onto the station's MESH and detects the presence of the AI. She starts poking around for information and starts looking at the AI. In a particularly awesome moment she says aloud at the table, "I wonder if I can communicate with it?" Immediately after she wonders that, she hears in her head "Hello, Elise." It really creeped out all of the players. The brief conversation she had with the AI heightened the tension. - They found a woman in a room covered in gore, crouched in the corner whimpering. They proceeded to take her with them as they set out to try to escape the station. She's got a delta copy of the AI in her head as someone else suggested. :) - I ended the evening on a cliffhanger as one of the characters find a headless body dressed differently then the other bodies they had found. The character recognizes the gun in the bodies' holster...it is his. It made for a pretty good "Oh Shit" moment. Anyways, I'm looking forward to finishing the adventure next week and throwing some more curveballs at them. :)
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Mon, 2010-05-24 17:07
Cereth Cereth's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
I had a regular player that was unable to make it last night and I have an idea how to incorporate him into the adventure. I'll have him play a character that is in fact the "Delta" copy of the AI...the group finds him in the station and he claims he is also missing 15 days of memory. I'll have him roleplay the AI pretending to be a member of their group...we'll call him "Bob". The members of the group will have implanted memories of "Bob" and will just think he is another member of their group. Of course after they escape the station and feel as though they have accomplished their mission, during Firewall debriefing they will make mention of "Bob" and Firewall will inform them that no one named "Bob" works for Firewall. By that point "Bob" will have disappeared and they players will have another "Oh shit" moment.
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Mon, 2010-05-24 17:37
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
ohhh I love it!! what did the AI sounded like? male? female? childish? old? it would have been really freaky if it was a female child voice "you're all gonna die here." (the Red Queen in Resident Evil)
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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...
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Mon, 2010-05-24 19:18
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Cereth wrote:
- They found a woman in a room covered in gore, crouched in the corner whimpering. They proceeded to take her with them as they set out to try to escape the station. She's got a delta copy of the AI in her head as someone else suggested. :)
Actually, I recommended that the girl [b]is[/b] a delta fork of the AI. Seed AI are far too vast to place within a morph, so the only way for them to enter a morph is to make a very limited delta fork. Granted, even their "very limited" delta forks are still extremely intelligent in comparison to normal egos. What she's actually carrying (in her mesh inserts, or perhaps a storage drive inserted into her body) is a complete backup of the seed AI itself, that she will take with her out of the lab and place in a new computer system. You might even want to hint that the girl is a fork in some ways. If they find some sort of X-ray, or pass through one, one of the players should note that the girl has a cyberbrain, but also that she doesn't seem to have any mesh inserts online (she's actually keeping them shut off, so no one can enter and find the seed AI data). Later, they might find a surgery room with a largely intact brain that looks like it was removed rather recently. Hilarity ensues. :D
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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]
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Mon, 2010-05-24 19:36
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Decivre, you are my god! your wicked ideas are pure genius! the horror there doesn't just come for the gorey aspect but the impication of what was done to that poor girl. I the brain still alive? if yes, that's even worse! that chick is good for a few years in psychosurgery after that! knowing the tastes of my players, if I was to play that scenario, in a simulspace inside the cyberbrain, they'd find the Queen (the seed AI) in red leather sitting on a throne with the girl tied, masked and bound in latex bodyglove (not my taste, but my players like this kind of thing, and since I'm the kind who spoil his players with the visuals, they might like this!) I really, really liked the part with the AI calling the hacker by her name that oughta have freaked her to the core!
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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...
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Mon, 2010-05-24 23:43
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Quincey Forder wrote:
Decivre, you are my god! your wicked ideas are pure genius! the horror there doesn't just come for the gorey aspect but the impication of what was done to that poor girl. I the brain still alive? if yes, that's even worse! that chick is good for a few years in psychosurgery after that! knowing the tastes of my players, if I was to play that scenario, in a simulspace inside the cyberbrain, they'd find the Queen (the seed AI) in red leather sitting on a throne with the girl tied, masked and bound in latex bodyglove (not my taste, but my players like this kind of thing, and since I'm the kind who spoil his players with the visuals, they might like this!) I really, really liked the part with the AI calling the hacker by her name that oughta have freaked her to the core!
Actually, the gore might still be horrific, but it will have a delayed effect on the setting. The players may come to the realization, after finding the brain, that the blood that girl was soaked in may have in fact been [i]her blood[/i]. If you really want to put the nail in, and make sure the players know something is really wrong, make sure the cortical stack is still attached to the removed brain... if one of them gets curious and decides to check, they may finally get a real revelation when the ego they are talking to turns out to be a little girl. Bonus points if no one is watching the "girl" when they come to this realization, and she disappears with a creepy little laugh. Also, remember that seed AI are ridiculously intelligent. Genius doesn't even begin to explain how vastly beyond our mental capacity these beings really are. As such, minimize the number of errors that the AI really makes. Every second to us is potentially a lifetime's worth of computing cycles in which it has been able to formulate and simulate plan after plan of how it thinks this all might pan out. If there is any possibility of failure, expect the seed AI not only to have a backup plan in case, but possibly to formulate its plan so that "failure" was a part of it. Maybe it wants them to find out that he is the girl, maybe it wants them to believe it can be beaten so easily.
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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]
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Wed, 2010-05-26 11:13
Cereth Cereth's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Here are the "plans" for the research station I made as a handout for the players. Feel free to use it for whatever purpose you might have. :) Phoenix 7 Space Station by ~Cereth-Roh on deviantART
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Wed, 2010-05-26 15:45
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
I've seen and commented ^^ I'm still in awe! how did you do it?
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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...
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Thu, 2010-05-27 10:52
BlackHat BlackHat's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Wow, love the blueprints - just like the ones from the adventures.
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Thu, 2010-05-27 20:11
King Shere King Shere's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Great work, the exterior schematic looks quite nice & professional. (made me impressed enough to google on it) Looks like the 3d model is a PED Cargo Tug for Google sketch up. I think your usage of it as a space station, looks "better". http://purpletiger.com/index.php?pageid=sketchup - With that shape, I think The artificial gravity will make long downward shafts into the research pods. The engineering bay looks like its the largest portion of the station. --- Bobs muse could be the escape seeking seed AI, and have a girl avatar. Hidden in plain sight so to speak. Bob the person is just used as a cover and made into a almost genuin innocent (still fake), either brainwashed or constructed. Perhaps a Beta "spoon" (word play on spoof & fork) of them, with some of their expertise scooped up, to give him the correct behavior & frameset.
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[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
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Mon, 2010-07-12 16:36
RalphusMaximus RalphusMaximus's picture
Re: Help me flesh out an adventure idea...
Why is it everytime I think of a machine stalking my group, AIMEE from Red Planet always pops up in my mind. :P
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“Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons.” Popular Mechanics, March 1949
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