The Ends v4.01

General questions, debates, and rants about RPGs

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Sma
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Post by Sma »

First off now that it´s done :Great Work!

Niggles on the heels of compliments

Shouldn´t Satellite Routing be an optimized defense against whois as well ?

Brainscan lost it´s mechanics (formerly logic +datasearch vs. firewall +will +signal defense)

Pin Drop seems like it would fit better into Communications.

What is your opinion on adding a few of the Unwired Echos? I have in mind:
Biowires
Merging Mind over Machine with Immersion for a flat +2 for the Control Rig Equivalent
Nabbing the E-Sensing table for Listening
Multiprocessing & Mesh Reality sound fun but would need an overhaul work under The Ends.

Also are sprites merged into a drone supposed to be treated as pilot (having to roll to move) or a rigger (simple action to shoot burst, move for a free action)?
Last edited by Sma on Mon Aug 04, 2008 12:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Username17 »

Brainscan lost it´s mechanics
D'oh.
I posted in your other Matrix thread (it's a sticky currently) but wasn't sure which one is active.
This is indeed the active thread, the other one is the one from last year. Hopefully we'll have a swap of which one is Sticky in the near future.
Wouldn't you need a Faraday suit instead of hat?
Yeah. Yeah you would.
What is your opinion on Geasa for Adepts?
Adept Geasa is pretty much straight across a power-up that is there because some Adept powers cost too much. Personally, I think it goes too far for characters already buying powers that are awesome and doesn't go far enough for powers that are overcosted. The hope is that dropping costs across the board by 25% will kind of balance out when some but not most of the powers cost twice as much as can be justified.

Personally, I'd rather just throw down the individual overcosted powers.

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Sma
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Post by Sma »

I can have a PDF out this night (no pictures though) but it won´t be done using latex and I don´t want to step on Surgo´s toes.

I´m also working on a 2 page cheat sheet, containing the pools and oneliners for matrix actions, veracity, background, programs and ranges.
Some spelling mistakes

Some spelling mistakes:
And it also means that Hackers have have to be able to be able to do their job

BTL signalling doesn't mean that they aren't

An interesting side effect of the the mere existence of the RAS Override signal

estimate that we can crack this faster by waiting a few years for comuters to become faster

transfer mechanism is truly 100% safe: unscrupulous men can get microtranceivers very close to your trode set and rebroadcast the precious unencrypted

although of course hackers and spammers spend a considerable ammount of effort in tricking or forcing other networks into

speed tube from your archology to the airport,

world and get on a high speed tube from there to another archology. On the flip side

Z zones; he'd need to drive it through non-gridlinked ares where

are not wiritng badly, merely differently

to have little effect on world wide software piracy,

entirely willing, even eager, to fight to the literal death over the vagueries of interpretation

technomancers get the same speed bonuses from their virtual reality that norma matrix users

same way that regular biological intelligence. However, the practical limits of these intelligences is not well understood

data management are an ever hungry Mamon which hungers always for more power

Response is a measurement of hardware's ability to react to commands and ...rest missing

believe in a universal and perfect math composed largely or entirley out of irrational

Sprite can function as a teacher. Resonance formula are crazy nonsenical segments
Last edited by Sma on Mon Aug 04, 2008 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Username17 »

While I believe that vagueries is indeed a word, other spelling mistakes have been addressed.

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Orion
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Post by Orion »

It's spelled "vagaries"
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Post by Manxome »

Except that "vagaries" doesn't mean what I think Frank meant there.

A few minutes of Internet research suggests that "vagueries" is not currently commonly accepted as a word, but that a substantial number of people use it anyway. (See for example this and this, which are hardly authoritative, but the first things I found.)
Sma
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Post by Sma »

Since I didn't hear back here's a link.

Mind you I have no idea about layouting, but it should do for offscreen reading.

If there's anything you want me to change, like attribution on every page or something, I more than willing to to do that or just kill the download (which will happen automatically after a while of inactivity)
Last edited by Sma on Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Surgo
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Post by Surgo »

Not really stepping on my toes at all, as I literally cannot do one right now.
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Post by Username17 »

Looks pretty good, but I think it's missing a bit on the equipment section.

Interesting note: I got banned from dumpshock for that, so I won't be updating it any more over there.

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virgil
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Post by virgil »

You got banned from dumpshock for making an intricate house-rule document for the Matrix, or am I mistaking something?
Last edited by virgil on Tue Aug 05, 2008 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Put a greatsword a maul and a greataxe in a room and ask them to take their pick
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!
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Post by ludomastro »

Frank,

Sorry to see that you are gone from DS; however, glad to see that you are still out there in cyberspace.

-----

Your rules have grown on me since my first reading. I even believe that the brain hacking bit adds to the setting. Any on-line games you are aware of that will be using your SR houserules anytime soon?
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virgil
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Post by virgil »

You got banned from dumpshock for making an intricate house-rule document for the Matrix, or am I mistaking something.
Come see Sprockets & Serials
How do you confuse a barbarian?
Put a greatsword a maul and a greataxe in a room and ask them to take their pick
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!
cthulhu
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Post by cthulhu »

Nah, he got called on calling aaron a tool and saying the matrix rules written by him sucked after aaron accused him of deceitfully manipulating arguments.

All in all, pretty funny.
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Post by Username17 »

virgileso wrote:You got banned from dumpshock for making an intricate house-rule document for the Matrix, or am I mistaking something?
More complicated than that. One of the current writers flipped out at me and did one of his passive-aggressive flame fests. Since I have nothing to lose anyway, I just straight told him that hs flames didn't offend me because he was a bad game designer and called him out on chapters he wrote that weren't good. Then he did some more passive aggressive grumbling and implied that I wasn't going to be on Dumpshock anymore and then I was banned. So basically it comes down to "Aaron is a whiner in addition to being a bad writer."
Ludomastro wrote:Any on-line games you are aware of that will be using your SR houserules anytime soon?
These rules were completed as of Saturday, and it's Monday now. So a lot of people have not even read them through yet. That being said, I know some people were trying to get me to run one again, and some other people were trying to organize one. Not sure where that's at at this point.

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Post by CatharzGodfoot »

FrankTrollman wrote:Interesting note: I got banned from dumpshock for that, so I won't be updating it any more over there.

-Username17
Wow, I didn't think they'd take your intro that personally (although no one can accuse Frank Trollman of being overly politic, at least on the internet). You really have a knack for getting on game designers' & forum moderators' bad sides.

[Edit]
FrankTrollman wrote: That being said, I know some people were trying to get me to run one again...
Giant Martian Hell lobsters!
[/Edit]
Last edited by CatharzGodfoot on Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Username17 »

Double Post Day Celebrations Continue!

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Last edited by Username17 on Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Roy »

He's not afraid to tell it like it is. Most people don't like the truth. Particularly when it involves calling someone on their incompetence. *shrugs*

Edit: Wow. This forum is glitching hard. Thought I'd have a double post to fix. Apparently not. Or the mods are really fast. Either is good for me.
Last edited by Roy on Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sma
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Post by Sma »

New and and improved PDF.

The cheatsheet will still take a while since there's only so much room on two pages.
Last edited by Sma on Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Username17 »

Celebrating Russia and Georgia going to war, I did a big update fixing a number of typos and text malfunctions.

Special thanks to Brent, because it is better for a reader to be too picky than not picky enough.

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CatharzGodfoot
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Post by CatharzGodfoot »

FrankTrollman wrote:Celebrating Russia and Georgia going to war, I did a big update fixing a number of typos and text malfunctions.
What's up with that, anyway? It seems like Russia would be pretty much within rights, except they've been bombing Georgia itself. Blatant flexing?
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Post by Eyeless Blond »

Within their rights? Russia's invading Georgia with tanks and heavy artillery, and bombing major parts of its infrastructure. It's a full-scale invasion, without even the trappings of ultimatum or diplomacy over WMDs like the US had with Iraq. The pretext is so flimsy as to be laughable, too: the area "in dispute" is basically a bunch of separatists whom the Russians have been financing for over a decade now. The Georgian government is finally, finally sending in people to put down the rebellion, and the Russians send in a wave of "peace keepers" in a bid to take over the country.

Georgia is betting on NATO coming to their rescue; Russia is betting on Western apathy, so they can rebuild the Warsaw pact. Let's see who wins.
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Post by Username17 »

That's the thing though: the separatists have been running their own shit for over a decade. The fact that they are financed and encouraged by Russia is interesting, but doesn't really change the fact that people are in 5th grade today who were born in a region that had its own government and did not salute the Georgian flag ever in their lives.

Russian troops have been occupying that land for years, and Georgia bombing them now is pretty shaky. Russia won that fight a long time ago. Georgia invading now is essentially a new invasion. They apparently think that NATO will back them up now that they've started a real shooting war. Russia just has to knock them out fast enough that NATO declines to get involved.

The real question is why Georgia thinks that someone will come to their rescue with a war they started this year when they didn't think that they could get away with a war that that they started last year. Or any year since they elected a government dedicated to reconquering their land all the way back in 2004.

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Post by ludomastro »

Downloaded the PDF. Nice job to whoever did the layout.
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Post by Gelare »

Say Frank, I've got a question about Taxman.
Taxman
Type: B&D Range: H Time: CA
Taxman causes the user to become a seemingly legitimate data request. If successful, the target system begins sending requested files to the Taxman. The Logic + Hacking test is opposed by Firewall + Willpower + Signal Defense (if any).
Now, since the range is Handshake, you don't actually have to be connected to the system you're trying to hack to use this program. So what you can do, apparently, is point your commlink at the mega-ICed top secret research server and tell it to send you highly classified MacGuffin data, and no matter how many times you have to roll to make it actually stick, the IC can't do anything to you since you don't have an open connection to the thing. Is there something I'm missing, or is this for some reason intentional?
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Post by Username17 »

That actually is intentional. It's an attack which operates on a different set of rules from other hacking attacks. A device can defend itself by ramping down its own Signal range or data bombs, and it can't defend itself using IC packing crash programs.

Several hacking programs actually have similar end goals and work differently. The concept is that each Hacker and Technomancer will actually have some subset of the total number of programs available, and run their primary attacks differently one from another. While one Hacker will sneak an open connection with a Backdoor to download important files, another will attempt to forge requests to have the important files emailed to him with Taxman. Hopefully that kind of distinction ill help alleviate monotony when there is more than one matrix specialist in a group.

---

That being said, I'm personally just one man. And I literally can't run through every possible combinatorial of different program setups in my head and even less so in actual games. So it's entirely possible that I made a mistake somewhere and left something really broken without noticing. If so, I would really love for people to bring it to my attention, and I'll try to get it patched up.

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