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That’s it. Next time we get a TPK, we’re blaming Gobbet. Even if she’s not in the party at the time.
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Dec 23, 2022 07:16
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achtungnight posted:That’s it. Next time we get a TPK, we’re blaming Gobbet. Even if she’s not in the party at the time.
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Dec 23, 2022 08:15
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Big Texas is such a horrible name for a boat, it really is
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Dec 23, 2022 11:23
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some plague rats posted:Big Texas is such a horrible name for a boat, it really is Especially since Texas tried to go independent when the US broke up, promptly got it’s poo poo pushed in by Aztlan to the point where the border is at Austin now (and that’s why Lone Star was founded there), and then went with it’s tail between its legs back to the Confederation of American States (aka the South that Rose Again) for protection to stem the bleeding. In the decades since, they haven’t been able to get their land back. So yeah, in Shadowrun, everything is hosed in Texas.
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Dec 23, 2022 13:14
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GhostStalker posted:Especially since Texas tried to go independent when the US broke up, promptly got it’s poo poo pushed in by Aztlan to the point where the border is at Austin now (and that’s why Lone Star was founded there), and then went with it’s tail between its legs back to the Confederation of American States (aka the South that Rose Again) for protection to stem the bleeding. In the decades since, they haven’t been able to get their land back. The most realistic part of the setting.
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Dec 23, 2022 16:10
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The Texan present says nothing, yet his glare of disagreement speaks volumes.
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Dec 23, 2022 20:55
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some plague rats posted:Big Texas is such a horrible name for a boat, it really is God pissing awful, and that's only partly due to the state of Texas having a... dubious reputation. I'm referring to both the current RL version and the in-universe one according to Ghost Stalker.
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Dec 23, 2022 21:53
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Put Gobbet and Blitz in a team together. Then get far far away. L2 or L3 may be far enough away. Maybe
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Dec 23, 2022 23:37
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achtungnight posted:The Texan present says nothing, yet his glare of disagreement speaks volumes. Yeah, there's a freeze going on and not a single Texas senator has fled the country this time!* *yet
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Dec 24, 2022 00:37
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I'm sure it's just meant to be the sort of 'reference something American' name you might find in another country, but that backstory makes it sound like people referring to 'Big Texas' are likely those trying to reclaim the post-1850 (or 1848!) borders.
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Dec 24, 2022 03:56
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GhostStalker posted:Especially since Texas tried to go independent when the US broke up, promptly got it’s poo poo pushed in by Aztlan to the point where the border is at Austin now (and that’s why Lone Star was founded there), and then went with it’s tail between its legs back to the Confederation of American States (aka the South that Rose Again) for protection to stem the bleeding. In the decades since, they haven’t been able to get their land back. Well that makes it seem like a sarcastic appellation if Texas has actually become considerably smaller
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Dec 24, 2022 06:36
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FoolyCharged posted:Yeah, there's a freeze going on and not a single Texas senator has fled the country this time!* For the record, the senator who did that is not a real Texan (born in Canada), and if my vote counted for more he would not be in office. And we aren’t the only part of the country with a freeze right now. Disappointed my state has issues, but every place does. I still have my pride. On topic, I am also disappointed we can’t change the ship name more than once. I like driving NPCs nuts with such things when possible. [rings chimes in GoW Ragnarok, annoying a certain squirrel]
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Dec 24, 2022 07:19
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I really want to see Dragonfall and Hong Kong crews going after the same target.
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Dec 24, 2022 07:44
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I feel like Is0bel would bounce Blitz from the net in about 10 seconds with a nasty side of dumpshock if they went head to head. I have no idea, though, what would happen if Gobbet and Dietrich went head to head.
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Dec 25, 2022 05:05
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habeasdorkus posted:I feel like Is0bel would bounce Blitz from the net in about 10 seconds with a nasty side of dumpshock if they went head to head. I suspect Gobbet and Dietrich would quickly realize they were being played and proceed to make merry hell for whoever set them up to fight each other.
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Dec 25, 2022 05:16
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Duncan tries to challenge Eiger to honorable close combat and gets sniped from 100M away
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Dec 25, 2022 05:30
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Lemniscate Blue posted:I suspect Gobbet and Dietrich would quickly realize they were being played and proceed to make merry hell for whoever set them up to fight each other.
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Dec 25, 2022 06:13
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habeasdorkus posted:I feel like Is0bel would bounce Blitz from the net in about 10 seconds with a nasty side of dumpshock if they went head to head. I'm not sure, Blitz is supposed to be almost as hot-poo poo as he thinks he is, and he thinks he is ludicrously hot poo poo. His problems aren't that he's a bad decker, but that he makes incredibly bad decisions in every other realm.
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Dec 25, 2022 07:23
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MJ12 posted:I'm not sure, Blitz is supposed to be almost as hot-poo poo as he thinks he is, and he thinks he is ludicrously hot poo poo. His problems aren't that he's a bad decker, but that he makes incredibly bad decisions in every other realm.
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Dec 25, 2022 07:34
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Blitz vs Isobel would probably start to tip in his favor, but then some stupid thing that Blitz did two weeks ago comes back to bite him in the rear end and suddenly they both have to fight off a bunch of Black IC.
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Dec 25, 2022 07:43
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Gaichu senses the approach of Dante and hoes "wait, I'm the dog?"
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Dec 25, 2022 08:15
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FoolyCharged posted:Gaichu senses the approach of Dante and hoes "wait, I'm the dog?" Gaichu is Glory. Racter is the dog.
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Dec 25, 2022 08:18
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girl dick energy posted:Yeah, 'Gobbet and Dietrich fight' is the set-up for a comic book where they team up to beat the real bad guy. And it ends with them at a terrible street food stand somewhere with Dietrich complaining that he's too drat old to eat this sort of stuff any more without horrible consequences and Gobbet gnaws on a chunk of unidentified protein the size of her fist. MJ12 posted:I'm not sure, Blitz is supposed to be almost as hot-poo poo as he thinks he is, and he thinks he is ludicrously hot poo poo. His problems aren't that he's a bad decker, but that he makes incredibly bad decisions in every other realm. Blitz would probably win on the net, right up until Is0bel drops a grenade into the network closet he's running his line through.
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Dec 25, 2022 13:51
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Stroth posted:And it ends with them at a terrible street food stand somewhere with Dietrich complaining that he's too drat old to eat this sort of stuff any more without horrible consequences and Gobbet gnaws on a chunk of unidentified protein the size of her fist. He's scratching her rats behind the ears, she's calling him Uncle Dietrich. They'd be intergenerational shaman besties in five seconds flat. quote:Blitz would probably win on the net, right up until Is0bel drops a grenade into the network closet he's running his line through. This is 100% accurate.
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Dec 25, 2022 17:18
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MJ12 posted:I'm not sure, Blitz is supposed to be almost as hot-poo poo as he thinks he is, and he thinks he is ludicrously hot poo poo. His problems aren't that he's a bad decker, but that he makes incredibly bad decisions in every other realm. This is a very good point. He's really one of the best deckers in central Europe, and still not as good as he imagines. Stroth posted:Blitz would probably win on the net, right up until Is0bel drops a grenade into the network closet he's running his line through. The reason it's unsecured is because Blitz forgot to set up autopay for his meatspace security, and they were happy to tell Is0bel about it in exchange for their back wages.
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Dec 25, 2022 19:41
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Random point, but my favorite detail that I always forget is that Crafty is described as "tall for a human"...and is like 6'5. Google states that the average female height in modern day Hong Kong is 5'3. Every conversation with her as a dwarf is her looming over you. As a troll, you're probably the only person in Heoi who's close to her height.
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Dec 30, 2022 15:18
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Part 26 - What Makes a Man   Racter old friend, or recent acquaintance at any rate, how's the drone doing? Servos, er, running good and all that?   [He shakes his head as if to clear it.]  Anyway, my friend. You didn't come here to discuss the ins and outs of shop maintenance, I'm sure. So, what does bring you here?Seems to have been some mysterious external force outside our control. But other than that, we had some pretty interesting talks last time, about this self-repair system that got snatched by his colleagues at Grishin-Aviakor? Also the whole transhumanist deal our man here seems really into, been chewing on that a bit since last time.  I've been thinking about what we talked about last time. Mind if I ask you a few questions? Feel free to ask them. I will provide what answers I can. About the drone self-repair system that you invented. How did it work? There were three distinct elements to my approach. When these elements were all working in concert, prototypes that utilized the process displayed remarkable self-repair capabilities. This may be a... lengthy explanation. I can skim over it if you please, or I can break it down for you if you're genuinely interested.Hell yeah, let's get into this nerd poo poo proper, no gains like brain gains even in this line of work. Give me the long version. I want to know how this process of yours works.[He shifts his cigarette to the corner of his mouth.] Very well. The long version it is. I've heard of smart materials that operate on a similar principle. They've been around for decades, haven't they? Yes, though they remained uncommon until recently. As I said, my material was a refinement on those earlier designs. It was also only the first part of a system... the synergy between the three was what made the project work. The second element involved the underlying structure of the drone's architecture - the servos, gears, circuits, et cetera. Utilizing self-assembling materials and redundant systems, I created a system by which damaged components could be fabricated and replaced by the drone itself, without any need for human interference.Seems handy, if we could just put together and pop in a new a liver on the spot when the old one takes a bullet, our liver's bullet content wouldn't be as high on our list of concerns. All right, so you have self-healing skin and a self-replacing underlying structure. What was the third part? Finally, the system had a magical component.[The corner of his mouth dips downward.] ...I must confess a certain degree of ignorance when it comes to this portion of the project. I understand some of the theory behind what was done, but the specifics are beyond me. I'm surprised. I thought that this was your process, through and through. Oh, it is... I was the one who recognized the need for a magical component. But I feel no shame in admitting that I cannot understand the specifics. I have a mind for figures, and physics, and the natural world. Magic works according to a different set of principles altogether. Truth be told, it makes my head hurt. Okay. So why did you need this third component? You said that it was your idea. But with magic, we can rewrite the rules, weaken the grasp of those entropic forces to the point that they are rendered negligible. Think of magic as the lubrication that keeps the gears turning. I wish that it weren't necessary, but I am also a realist, and I must confess that it is required for the system to work. And this package of systems is what your former colleagues stole from you - what you need to get back? Yes. Given enough time and resources, I might be able to recreate the first two components of the system on my own. But the magical component is - and will forever be - completely beyond me. That is why it's so important that we recover my research, and the prototype that was stolen. And we *will* recover them. Of that, I have no doubt.Does seems like it'll pop up in the planner sooner or later. Moving on from this topic for now, you seem bigger on the whole transhumanism thing than Gobbet is on questionable food and/or decisions which is a high bar to clear. Let's bounce the ol' philosophy ball between us a bit about that. What do you think that a posthuman future would mean? Consider, my friend: every aspect of Koschei was tailor-made for a purpose. Dreamed up, designed, and built by a singular guiding intellect. You sound awfully proud of yourself. I see no shame in taking pride in my work, and I believe that the fruits of my labor speak for themselves. [Koschei steps forward, the tip of its leg digging into the metal grate that lines the shop floor.] Now, getting back on track... think of the circumstances surrounding your own birth. The building blocks that shaped you into the living being that you are. Your mother and father exchanged fluids - sloppily, no doubt, and with all the mindless abandon that such biological imperatives entail. Whoa, man. You leave my parents out of this.[He raises both hands in a placating gesture.] Just an example, my friend, just an example. Substitute in *my* parents instead - or any other pairing that you choose to imagine - if it makes you more comfortable. The *important* thing is that the forces that shaped you - and me, and the others upstairs, and anyone else you could care to mention - were ultimately mindless ones. Blind, manipulative biological drives that led a sperm and an egg to collide. Add in a roll of the dice and a dash of Mendelian genetics, and here you are. Any attempt to guide the process on a societal level gets branded eugenics and decried as monstrous, for obvious reasons. Biological evolution is full of choice, Racter. We choose who we mate with. That choice helps to determine the traits that our offspring will inherit.Somehow this feels like the most sexless conversation ever had by two people. Very true, but the pool of possible traits that biological reproduction can select for is small. If I wanted to produce offspring with gill slits instead of lungs, I'd be out of luck. In a posthuman future, I would face no such limitations - nor would anybody. We would no longer be slaves to the selective processes that have dictated our development since time immemorial. We would truly become the masters of our own fate.(Alternatively...) quote:
So essentially, you want us all to be... what? Robots? No. I suspect that there must always be some biological component to metahuman life. A degree of randomness, the possibility of mutation... these are good things, and even if we could shed them entirely, I suspect that we shouldn't. Then let's say that you're right. At what point do we cease being human, and become something else instead?[He shrugs.] Whenever we choose to define ourselves in that way. "Humanity" is an intrinsically human concept. If we decide to rebrand ourselves as a different species, that is our decision to make. I strongly suspect that nobody else would care. There are other forms of intelligent life out there, Racter. Dragons, for example. They might care. Perhaps. But for the sake of our continued development, that's a risk that I am willing to take. We cannot limit ourselves out of fear of what others might think.When it comes to dragons, it's maybe not so much concern about what they think, but what they decide to do once they're done thinking.  We have placed such unnecessary limitations on ourselves, my friend. It fills my heart with sorrow to know what we could be, but are not. I would see those limits stripped away. Peeled back and discarded, for the betterment of all. In the future that I foresee, we will open our eyes to the possibilities that surround us. Bodies reshaped to thrive in the deep ocean and the depths of space. Bodies inspired by nature, or the human imagination, or both. Bodies that can be used, and shed, and used again, inhabited as their wearers see fit. The timely realization of such a future is what drives me forward. It is the cause to which I have devoted my life. And, thankfully, it is inevitable.[He tips his cigarette, sending ash spilling down onto the metal floor.] ...Assuming, of course, that we don't destroy ourselves first.Sadly that might just be the least realistic assumption in this whole spiel so far. Speaking as something of a magic person though, there's at least one obvious barrier that traditionally gets in the way of these kinds of part replacement projects. There's a hard limit to the fusion of man and machine. Doesn't your vision of the future require us to get past that? You're speaking of the essence limit, and the problems associated with essence loss.[He releases a plume of smoke from the corner of his mouth.] Yes, of course, it will be a problem. But as with all problems, a workaround will present itself. Of this, I am certain. Are you basing that on anything, or are you just taking it on faith?[He smirks at you.] No, my friend, I am not taking it on faith. My beliefs are rooted in my own observations and experiences. But I would encourage you not to take my word for it. Instead, broaden your thinking; I am confident that you will reach the same conclusion on your own. For the time being, let us leave the matter at that.That's pretty vague for such a fundamental issue. But maybe today's plate is full enough already without getting into debating the nature of essence right this second. So, in this posthuman future that you're trying to bring about, what role would a drone like Koschei play? A similar one to the role that he plays now, I imagine. He was designed for a purpose, after all. That said, I can see the techniques that went into his design and fabrication having much broader-ranging applications. You're pretty attached to that drone of yours, aren't you? You've even assigned it a gender - you keep calling it "him." Yes, of course. Koschei is very close to me.Just no drone sex on our boat please, it echoes a lot here and people might get uncomfortable.  You might accuse me of anthropomorphizing my little companion. Assigning human characteristics to him where in fact there are none. Truth be told, there is much more to Koschei than meets the eye. But that is a different conversation... one best suited to be held for another time. If that's what you want.[He nods.] It is. I have work to do, and I'm sure that you can find better uses for your time than listening to me prattle on.[He gestures toward the hatch in the ceiling.] And with that, I'm afraid that I must ask you to show yourself out. We can continue our talk at a later time. All right, Racter. We'll talk later.[He turns away.] Good night. Never a light conversation with that guy and his grand visions, sometimes feels like we accidentally ended up hiring the main villain of a different story on our team. Then again we are going to have a chat with an amoral murderer ghoul we invited to the team next, so guess that's just the vibe we're rolling with in this squad. Whatever gets the job done, end of the day.
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Mar 4, 2023 12:29
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I loving love Racter. Again, not someone I would want to meet in real life but his convos are always so FASCINATING.
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Mar 4, 2023 14:07
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AceOfFlames posted:I loving love Racter. Again, not someone I would want to meet in real life but his convos are always so FASCINATING.
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Mar 4, 2023 16:07
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Yeah, Racter is IMO the most interesting party member because of how he views the world. I do find it funny that he says "well, of course eugenics are monstrous" as if he accepts that's an argument he won't win... and then turns right into "but what if we could do techno-eugenics?" e: also, always happy to see an update in this thread!
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Mar 4, 2023 16:50
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habeasdorkus posted:Yeah, Racter is IMO the most interesting party member because of how he views the world. I do find it funny that he says "well, of course eugenics are monstrous" as if he accepts that's an argument he won't win... and then turns right into "but what if we could do techno-eugenics?"
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Mar 4, 2023 17:22
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Xander77 posted:At the risk of whirling off into the ether, as genetic manipulation becomes commonplace we'll have to rethink what eugenics mean (is it no longer eugenics if we're designing children by individual parental choice rather than a higher mandate?) and how to treat them. But those parental choices wouldn't be happening in a vacuum - there'd be social and cultural pressures informing them. In Shadowrun news, Racter good. Lucky Strike didn't deserve him, honestly.
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Mar 4, 2023 18:13
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Xander77 posted:At the risk of whirling off into the ether, as genetic manipulation becomes commonplace we'll have to rethink what eugenics mean (is it no longer eugenics if we're designing children by individual parental choice rather than a higher mandate?) and how to treat them. Ask any children who feel forced to conform to their parents' expectations. Eugenics will make it all the worse. That said, Recter's transhumanism discussion has me thinking in a way games haven't since Deus Ex.
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Mar 4, 2023 21:33
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Kanfy posted:
He actually gets this right. I believe the HBS Shadowrun games take place a while before the 'present day' of the TTRPG, which is why he seems to be extrapolating a possible but not guaranteed outcome (if you're being generous to him) or just taking this on faith (if you aren't), but by the latest era of Shadowrun they've managed to figure out ways to get cyberware and bioware's essence costs down significantly, with Gammaware cutting down essence costs by 60% (at admittedly fairly ruinous prices), cyberware 'packages' being able to cut that down further, and things like adapsin and neonatal genetic modification (prototype transhumans) also letting you integrate more augmentation into someone at admittedly significant prices. But with all Deltaware and a cyberware package, I think you can literally replace all four of your limbs, armor-plate your head and torso, load up with the highest grade wired reflexes, and get all the other doodads you want while still maintaining an essence above 0. Given how expensive cyberzombies are, I suspect that gammaware might end up rendering cyberzombie tech into a dead-end technology. Sure, cyberzombies get a bunch of magical kickers that a gammaware fullborg doesn't, but the gammaware fullborg doesn't have nearly as high of a risk of deciding to just will themselves to death, doesn't need nearly as much psychological and magical care and maintenance, and most importantly doesn't need the nasty magical bits, which probably ends up making it way less expensive overall. There's also stuff like full cyborgization where you just transplant a brain into a life support system and that leaves the subject at 0.01 Essence. Now, if they can find some way to renew essence lost to longevity treatments, Racter's dreams would be very close to realization.
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Mar 5, 2023 08:13
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MJ12 posted:
For various reasons, I suspect that even in the 2080s, they are further away from achieving that than Montgolfier was from the people who built the Concorde ... and I used that comparison deliberately.
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Mar 5, 2023 08:24
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Racter wants the good bits of Eclipse Phase. To be honest, I do too, but I'm realistic enough to know that technology like that will never be anything other than a toy for rich people, in any universe.
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Mar 5, 2023 12:11
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Just posting to say I’m glad this is still going on.
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Mar 5, 2023 17:11
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The update made me want to play again and I found out RIP android port
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Mar 5, 2023 17:41
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Racter up in here accidentally thinking up the setting of Altered Carbon.MJ12 posted:He actually gets this right. I believe the HBS Shadowrun games take place a while before the 'present day' of the TTRPG, which is why he seems to be extrapolating a possible but not guaranteed outcome (if you're being generous to him) or just taking this on faith (if you aren't), but by the latest era of Shadowrun they've managed to figure out ways to get cyberware and bioware's essence costs down significantly, with Gammaware cutting down essence costs by 60% (at admittedly fairly ruinous prices), cyberware 'packages' being able to cut that down further, and things like adapsin and neonatal genetic modification (prototype transhumans) also letting you integrate more augmentation into someone at admittedly significant prices. Though we should note that getting your essence below iirc 2 or so starts to see pretty severe problems crop up on the mental/emotional side of things. It can get a lot worse than what Glory was dealing with. Most interesting of all is they figured out a (ruinously expensive) method to restore lost essence. Though it requires you to forego any augments lowering you to that point and doesn't recover essence lost to Lionization treatments.
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Mar 6, 2023 14:33
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paragon1 posted:Though we should note that getting your essence below iirc 2 or so starts to see pretty severe problems crop up on the mental/emotional side of things. It can get a lot worse than what Glory was dealing with. I think my first character my friend made for me in 3rd Edition (so like 2 editions after the rules most referenced in this game) was a Street Sam with like 0.18 Essence left after all the ware (dermal armor, hand razors, cyber eyes, smartlink, bone lacing, wired reflexes, etc)? But it was literally my first ever RPG character and I had no idea how to roleplay them. So I think I wound up attempting to do what I thought was a mirrorshades operator type that didn’t care for the lives of anyone who they encountered except if they made themselves useful to him? Didn’t work out too well, but the mindset isn’t all that different from what’s your prototypical runner (or corp security for that matter) archetype, I guess.
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Mar 6, 2023 15:14
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