I have a situation I'm looking at...
When a player resists and records a basilisk hack for later experimentation, what are the likely results?
1: Can the player keep it secret (assuming he makes sure to use it sparingly and pops the stacks of any witnesses, which will eventually lead to discovery anyway)? Or is it guaranteed to leak out whether or not the player is careful due to basic sousveillance?
2: Once the secret is blown to Interesting People, what kind of force should the player expect to face coming after him? Will the response be more along the lines of Guanxi, the ultimates or some twisted hypercorp security wanting the hack for themselves, or Firewall and Ozma hitting the x-risk alarms?
3: How dangerous should I make the hack itself? Should I whap the player with an infection for messing with this?
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Recording Basilisk Hacks (spoiler section warning)
Sun, 2010-04-04 07:12
#1
Ramidel
Recording Basilisk Hacks (spoiler section warning)
Sun, 2010-04-04 11:44
#2
Decivre
Re: Recording Basilisk Hacks (spoiler section warning)
[list][*]Sure he can. So long as he keeps it hidden amongst his files, and potentially even encrypts it, it does not need to be known. Granted, if someone finds out, or if he decides to use it, there may be hell to pay.
[*]Could be a mix of any. For the most part, expect those who know to make first attempts at it. If those attempts become known by other groups, they will likely investigate the reasoning, which will lead to them finding out about your basilisk hack as well.
[*]Visual and audio basilisk hacks only infect someone if they see or hear them respectively. If they successfully record it without doing either, or succeed in the test that checks if they are affected by it, then they will be fine.[/list]
—
Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age.
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Mon, 2010-04-05 06:06
#3
Arenamontanus
Re: Recording Basilisk Hacks (spoiler section warning)
Some polities might have added secret programming to *muses* that if they observe certain kinds of crimes they must report it (such as handling exsurgent tech). However, I suspect that Firewall would "correct" those backdoors when people join the organisation.
I would happily allow my players to record it, and then wait for them to slip up. Then Interesting People would show up.
I think the hack itself may be safe, but it was after all produced by a malign superintelligence. It might have planned on the chance of a recording and added a bit of viral code that gets activated on replay. Just a small spore of exsurgent infection appearing in the gear of the characters, slowly bootstrapping itself towards its full COG 40 glory...
Of course, that eruption likely occurs just as the Interesting People arrives:
(from outside the door)
"Mr Anderson, we have reason you are hiding dangerous technology in there. Please open the door and cooperate."
(fighting with the flickering fractal tentacles that are erupting from all household devices)
"Nonono... everything is... ugh... fine in here. Nothing to hide. Just trying to do some spring cleaning..."
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Sat, 2010-05-01 05:42
#4
Checkmate
Re: Recording Basilisk Hacks (spoiler section warning)
I like how they try to write it like it's some uber advancement that the TITANs made, even though the process they describe is nearly identical to what less-than-savory organizations have been doing for decades to try and brainwash people. [i]Especially[/i] in fiction.