Sample Templates
Terran-Wide-Web, live (Contact group), CR15, Unreliable, Knowledge Skills-15 [20]Terran-Wide-Web, cached (Contact group), always, Unreliable, Knowledge skill-12 [12] 0.1-1.0Tb
Curated specialty subscription (Contact), CR15, Ususally reliable, Specific skill-15 [16]
Knowledge skills include Area Knowledge+0, Current Affair(every)+0*, History-2. *Note that Current affairs are bounded to the timestamp of the caching of the contact.Notes:
- Anyone with access to the Web has this 20cp advantage. There is nothing special about it.
- When located more than 1 light-second, they must rely on a cached, lower-fidelity version of the Web (see next section).
- Unreliable: The Web is full of garbage (still in 2100), when the check fails, the players discover a lie. When there is a critical fail, the user is exposed somehow to eavesdropping
- Online systems get CR15 to account for the odd glitches in getting a responsive web sometimes.
Structure across the solar system
Each populated locations within 1 light-second share a common World-Wide-Web. Beyond this range, the lag becomes impractical. The cached Terran-Wide-Web is very large and commonly doesn't get updated more than once a week. Smaller webs can get daily pull when within 2 AU, otherwise, the cached version would be (2d6-1 + distance in AU) days old. Sample play
Trespoh is a an SAI looking for a location matching the background of a picture that was sent to it by a client. Trespoh breaks down the background into a number of elements and searches the web for possible matches. This is a very unfavourable (-3) search: the check will be done against Area Knowledge(Terra)-12. The GM rolls in secret a 15, a margin of failure of 3. Trespoh is pretty sure that the background matches downtown Dallas... an half-day 500Cr sub-orbital ride across the world.
I think matched with disads for being shitty at using Web searches this is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteWhy the 1 light sec demarcation? Wouldn't it be a constant stream updating?
Over 1 second means two second turnaround assuming no lag otherwise, that is 2000ms. That puts the line just under the range of the moon. At that point, interactivity is nearly impossible. However, batch queries still makes sense, I think. In the minute range (Mars, for instance), it really makes sense to deal with a 0-lag cached version of the data.
DeleteBeing shitty at looking things up is compensated by having a query/browser that works for you. Remember the days before Google, and how you'd need to be really good to find anything relevant from a search?
Does this Contact cost something to characters, or is it free, seeing as it is environmentally-granted ? The Subscription one should, I guess, but the others ?
ReplyDelete