Meme Hacker (Transhuman Space to d20)

[Achan hiArusa]

Kaleidoscope Century

Against my better judgement I started reading Kaleidoscope Century and got the "modern" definition of memetics. The whole idea of an Artificially Intelligence mind virus that rewrites human personalities is both fascinating and horrible. I have a feeling that until Toxic Memes comes out that the Incantation system from Urban Arcana may actually be helpful. It would probably be based on Craft (meme) and Knowledge (memetics)

Kaledioscope Century is a interesting read, just a little bit more disturbing than Orbital Resonance.

 

[Unseelie]

Kaledioscope Century is a interesting read, just a little bit more disturbing than Orbital Resonance.

Yes, yes it is. It's the darkest of the four books, but as it deals with what is almost the death of the human race, that's somewhat understandable.

I see a number of things that seem to be consistent in Barnes' books thus far: it wouldn't take much for the world to go to hell in a handbasket, sometimes people have to do some pretty horrible things to survive, and lastly, humans are survivors.

That's not to say he's dystopic...

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Joshua Quare

He's a guy that is kind of hard to like or dislike. He seems to relish any opportunity and then feels bad about it afterwards (some of the time). Sadi seems to have less problems with guilt, but not totally. At any rate since I read Orbital Resonance first, I really, really don't like Randy's mother (especially that comment about Melpomene). And I got a good laugh when I found out that Joshua was responsible for the whole duck pond incident.

The Ribofunk site was interesting, but I do have some problems with his reasoning. Though cybernetics hasn't developed to the point of a Gibson novel, it is still an active research field. And punk isn't undead, its far, far worse, it has been tamed by the alternitive record industry.

 

[JPL]

The Ribofunk site was interesting, but I do have some problems with his reasoning. Though cybernetics hasn't developed to the point of a Gibson novel, it is still an active research field. And punk isn't undead, its far, far worse, it has been tamed by the alternitive record industry.

Well, once it's domesticated, it's no longer punk. It's Green Day or something like that, I suppose.

I don't know enough about science to judge some of the conclusions of the Ribofunk Manifesto, but I like his style.

Cyberpunk is at that weird point where it's no longer fresh and not yet retro. Gaming versions of cyberpunk are particularly tired.

Back to the original question...as presented in Toxic Memes, memetics is the art of idea propogation and manipulation turned into a science, with both theoretical and practical applications. d20 Modern, as an action game, tends to approach everything from the standpoint of combat. In a reasonably realistic setting, the most that your Ph.D. in memetic engineering will do in fight is give you some insight into what's driving the angry mob...you might or might not be able to use that knoweldge to your advantage.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Ribofunk and Leadership

I think that style is the problem. What I liked about THS was the lack of style. It doesn't have the attitude of Cyberpunk or even the biopunk of Kromosome. Its the style that dated Cyberpunk faster than the technology or music. I think he is more trying to capture the feel of cyberpunk while updating the technological and musical style of the world. He is still trying to create a world of style over substance. The problem is that style changes with time.

If the memetic could find the leader, then the sniper could take out the leader. This could easily require a crowd to make a Will save (or morale check, something that is strangely missing from 3e or 3.5e). And if its an idea and not a leader, the memetic may be able to disarm the crowd and avoid a fight (gasp, avoid a fight in d20, what's the point).

 

[Heretic Apostate]

the Alternity Books (Players and GMs guide and Hardware)

If you have the Alternity books, buy the Dark Matter campaign book on either svgames or rpgnow, then download the web enhancement on Wizards that converts the Dark Matter creatures into d20 Modern...

Well, it looks like they're in the Menace Manual, with the reasoning behind the designs in the Web Enhancement.

Still, it'll get you able to play an X-Files/freaky type of game using d20 Modern...

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Alternity

Heretic Apostate,

You underestimate my fanboyness. I don't have to buy the Darkmatter .pdf file, its sitting on my shelf. I bought the thing at B. Dalton when it came out. The only Alternity Sourcebooks I am missing are the Star Compendium and the Lighthouse (neither of which I wanted at the time).

Anyway, thinking about Dark Matter:

The Sandmen are kind of memed. If in THS a sentient nanotech swarm were created then a Resuna-like meme could be spread in a vector method just like the One True (instead of being an implant) was during the Meme wars (as you can tell, I am halfway through Candle). If any one who wants to run Sandmen should really read Candle (the only problem I had with the Sandmen in Menace Manual is that the powers from the template should have been based on Hit Dice to correspond to the skill levels in Blood Music from Darkmatter).

Anyway, on the surface Resuna and the One True don't seem so bad (I expected those people were just mindless robots because of Joshua Quare's perceptions, but then again it is Joshua Quare we are talking about), its only after you dig that it starts to get a little creepy.