From flashlife-request@kpc.com Thu Jan 28 02:01:21 1993
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Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 02:01:16 PST
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Subject: Flashlife   V3 #10
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From: Carl Rigney (moderator) <flashlife-request@kpc.com>


Flashlife  Thu, 28 Jan, 1993   Volume 3 : Issue 10

Today's topics:

  Universal Brotherhood - Alternative		(S. Keith Graham)
  Broken Toys					(Earl A. Hubbell)
  Availability and Street Index for Spells?	(Jonathan T Drummey)

[Volumes 2 and 3 are available for anonymous FTP from ftp.kpc.com
in /pub/list/flashlife, along with a few other items of potential
interest.  No ice, either. --CDR ]

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Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 23:09:12 EST
From: vapspcx@cad.gatech.edu (S. Keith Graham)
Subject: Universal Brotherhood - Alternative

Has anyone contemplated (or run?) UB as the "background module"?  I.E.
Written up all the bad guys and stuff, and had the players discover
everything in the information pack on their own?

It seems to me to be a much more playable (and potentially hellish)
adventure...

Though of course, if you do run it, you should do it with characters
that are designed to be "written off".  (The character that generated
the "info-pack" had a 100% mortality rate.)

It just seemed to me to be *so* well written that it would make a
wonderful basis for an adventure.  (And I just can't imagine giving a
team the entire package.)

	[ I agree completely.  I just can't see dropping that data
	  dump into the player's laps and stopping the game dead
	  in its tracks while they read it for the next several hours.
	  Much better to let them discover it for themselves. --CDR ]

Keith Graham
vapspcx@cad.gatech.edu



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Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 17:47:43 PST
From: earl@alumni.cco.caltech.edu (Earl A. Hubbell)
Subject: Broken Toys

This is just some notes I jotted down once while thinking about stereotypical
cyberpunk societies, and so is a little rough - but the flashlife people
might be interested...

		Broken Toys

	"They needed a body.  The salvaged IFF had a 50 percent chance of
working, and if it failed, the guy on the line would be dead.  Badly dead.
The stolen specs indicated that Smartwire 7E looked for IR, shape, sound. 
So they didn't question Slick when he returned with "Mandy", who even
smelled human, and came from some autofac catering to the very strange."

Consider the stereotypical cyberpunk society, in which wealth is incredibly
stratified, and so too the technological capability - the truly rich can
afford technology beyond anything the street can dream of...

But there's a consequence of this - 'hi' level 'garbage' may be uneconomical
to repair/salvage...it may be thrown out, or sold for an exorbitant price
to a lower level.  And the reasons for considering it 'garbage' may be
as simple as fashions changing, having nothing to do with the 'functional'
nature of the device.

So at the lower levels of the stratified society there should be a fair
amount of hi-level equipment that is dysfunctional in assorted ways.

1) The hi-level cybered - obsolete, or not worth the trouble to repair.
'Salvaging' them (murder for cyberware) is probably not worthwhile - gives
a bad rep, costs to cover up, etc...better to turn them loose and let
the street take care of it...and maybe get useful data from it.

2) Hi level equipment - subtle, multifunctional, smart - 
A) Breaks in software - the software may be more expensive to fix than
to recreate - especially if, say, the documentation has gone missing,
the original programmers have vanished, and 6 months of technology
has passed it by...

B) Stuff drifts to the streets - inadequately patched, higher functions
disabled...smartguns that are lighter, tougher than anything on the
street, but sometimes fire based on criteria only they know...high
performance, but temperamental engines...

3) Uses for things that are not normally uses:
Today, we have water pumps made from PVC pipe and tires, ovens from
scrap metal, people who salvage >mines< from battlefields to sell
for metal in the poorer sections of the world.
Imagine much larger differences in wealth, immediately adjacent...

A) Model airplane autopilots driving cruise missiles, EMP devices
from discarded maser ovens, mass drivers from discarded kinetic energy
storage devices, timers from broken toaster ovens, voice recognition
circuitry from lamps stolen for voice triggered mines...

4) Psychological breaks - people who can't deal with it, or devices
sophisticated enough to have 'moods' - researchers who cracked under
the strain, autopilots that flashback to wars, cyberdecks with personality
imprints, homicidal smartguns...

5) Hi-tech items may be extensively customized - for someone else's
peculiarities - maybe impossible to remove - but if the device is
useful enough, someone may want to buy it.  

6) Or, the worst problem - it sounds great, but is subtly useless - 
doesn't interface with anything you have, does things you don't want,
or don't need...

	"It looked like a wiring duct had exploded inside the bulldozer.
Condensation dripped from something wrapped in tape, and the ammo looked
like the beer cans from which it had been made.  The compact computer
running the whole show looked as alien as a flying saucer parked by
a jeep.  El Jefe's tame engineers would build something a tenth the
size, gold plated, and working at the push of a button - but this
was good enough for the big surprise we had in mind..."

	Suggestions?  
							-Earl



--------------------------


Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 22:55:48 -0500
From: jtd@world.std.com (Jonathan T Drummey)
Subject: Availability and Street Index for Spells?

Reading the discussions on rec.games.frp about who's got what grade of
initiation and what force spell and what god-awful amount of karma was
spent on the character in question caused a small brainstorm the other
day.  I run a relatively low-powered campaign and the sight of Grade 4
Initiates as PC's makes my blood curdle, so I thought, what about
putting together Availability codes and Street Indexes (sic) for spell
formulas?

I envision something based on the the spell's Force, Drain Category and
type - combat, detection, health, illusion, and manipulation.

I don't have any numbers, but I think it would be a quick solution for
some of the GM's out there who are having problems with PC's who can
toss Fireballs without second thoughts...

Comments?

--
jonathan drummey
jtd@world.std.com



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End of Flashlife
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