Computer Rules (Hacking and usage) + Robotics

[Beholder]

Greetings,

I would like to know if the previous rules of Traveller were heavy on computers with rules on how to hack. And if the new t20 will contain rules to this effect.

Also, Are robots and cybernetics part of the usual setting and if yes, will the t20 cover these subjects.

Beholder http://rpghost.com/rpgzone


[This message has been edited by Beholder (edited 08 November 2001).]

 

[DrSkull]

Were they heavy on computers? No.

Did they have heavy computers? Yes.

Rules for hacking? I always found the Broadsword or Cutlass to be most effective.

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Dave "Dr. Skull" Nelson

 

[hunter]

In T20 there are some basic rules for 'hacking', the rules touch on available cybernetics, and there is an entire system on designing vehicles and robots.

Hunter

[This message has been edited by hunter (edited 08 November 2001).]

 

[tjoneslo]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DrSkull:
Rules for hacking? I always found the Broadsword or Cutlass to be most effective.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I always prefered pikes, but then everyone thought I was weird.

 

[DaveShayne]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tjoneslo:
I always prefered pikes, but then everyone thought I was weird. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Pikes are good in massed formations. For individual combat they get one chance to hit and then your opponent has passed the point/blade and is begining to rain blows down upon you. At which point the pike is just getting in your way



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I am increasingly of the opinion that RPGs are by the nature of their creation subjective phenomenon. due to the interaction between game designers, game masters, and game players all definitions, rules, settings, and adventures are mutable in acordance with the uncertainty principle as expounded by Heisenburg. This is of course merely my point of view.

David Shayne

 

[kafka47]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hunter:
In T20 there are some basic rules for 'hacking', the rules touch on available cybernetics, and there is an entire system on designing vehicles and robots.

Hunter

[This message has been edited by hunter (edited 08 November 2001).]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Very cool. I hope that the Robots rules will be updated to make them more than automated vaccum cleaners...

 

[Uncle Bob]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DrSkull:
Were they heavy on computers? No.

Did they have heavy computers? Yes.

Rules for hacking? I always found the Broadsword or Cutlass to be most effective.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You have to remember that the rules are essentially the same as CT, which used a reasonable (but conservative) extrapolation of 1975 information technology. I think they can be forgiven. The robot rules were c 1980, when we had just figured out that autonomous operation was a lot harder them we had thought.
In 1975 the IBM 360 was the big dawg, usually filled a large room, and cost several million dollars. Today a more powerful computer that will fit in your briefcase costs about $1200.
In 1975 cutting edge hackers got to use amber text monitors hardwired to a mainframe (the rest of us used teletype machines, and our computer center had one (1) monochrome amber graphic monitor). If the mainfraim was on the internet, you were using a command line for access and ftp to get files.
Remote access? I remember 100 baud modems the size of a shoebox that you set the telephone handset inside (after you dialed). If the computer you wanted to talk to had one too, the sysop would answer the phone and and if he knew you were authorized he could drop the receiver into his modem cradle. The modular jack hadn't been invented, and commercial phones were all rotary dial.

I had forgotten how medeival it was.

 

[aramis]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Beholder:
Greetings,

I would like to know if the previous rules of Traveller were heavy on computers with rules on how to hack. And if the new t20 will contain rules to this effect.

Also, Are robots and cybernetics part of the usual setting and if yes, will the t20 cover these subjects.

Beholder http://rpghost.com/rpgzone
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Computer hackinng has never been a major factor in traveller; the only hacking rules I recall in canonical non-periodical sources are in TNE, and are simply for the psionic power of Machine Empathy.

Neural Interfaces, etc, exist in TNE, but since they are not part of the mainstream technologies, they got kinda glossed over.

The closest to hacking rules in mt was in a few tasks in some adventures: use computer and intrusion, difficulty varies by security. Treated as all or nothing.

T20 doesn't yet contain any hacking rules, but is close enough to SRD that any other set of hacking rules for D20 should be able to be grabbed.

Also, remember that the massive nets of today and of cyberpunk will exist only on a fraction of imperial worlds; some don't have the infrastructure, some can't build the infrastructure, others won't build it, and still more can't keep the infrastructure safe from the elements. Plus, no net extends beyond a single system. A Cyberpunkish VR net may exist on some worlds, but definitely won't on others.

And as for heavy computers: Many have postulated that the ship's computers are build from micro-vaccuum-tube designs. (These do really exist. They are big, hot, and radiation resistant, draw huge ammounts of power, and are not particularly slow nor fast.)

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-aramis
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