Memory Alpha: Problems/Fixes?

[kaladorn]

SPOILER ALERT: This thread will discuss the details of the Memory Alpha adventure plotline.

In reading the double adventures compendium for CT, I read through the memory alpha adventure. In many ways, it makes for an interesting adventure seed even for non-tournament play (which it was apparently intended for). But I see it as having a problem or two. I want to discuss the problem(s) and their possible solutions.

 

[kaladorn]

SPOILER ALERT: This thread will discuss the details of the Memory Alpha adventure plotline.

In reading the double adventures compendium for CT, I read through the memory alpha adventure. In many ways, it makes for an interesting adventure seed even for non-tournament play (which it was apparently intended for). But I see it as having a problem or two. I want to discuss the problem(s) and their possible solutions.

 

[kaladorn]

Problem:

The adventurer group has had its mind wiped. The ship has been 'sanitized' by the patron's paid technical assistants. The idea is the party is meant to think nothing interesting happened and gradually unravel clues or have their natural curiosity lead them to want to find out where they were even though the ship has been sanitized.

I forsee a problem here in a reasonable TU.

There has to be the technology in the Imperium to make untamperable money. It has to be verifiable as an Imperial Credit. Similarly, transponders and IFF units on ships have to be pretty hard to tamper with and impossible (nearly) to tamper with in such a way as the tampering won't be noticed. I would *assume* that the maritime legislation that is enforced also implies similar technology for log recorders. This would include things like the Captain's logs, the Doctor's Logs, the Chief Engineers Logs, the blackbox recorders for telemetry and navigational data. This would include things like 'who is on the ship', 'where is the ship going, where has it been', and 'what were the official papers/clearances, etc'. of the ship. The implication in the adventure is that the players have to go jumping around the universe to find their paperwork/clearances and even to figure out where they went requires massive poking about in their own computers or odd corners of the ship to find the itinerary info.

These two things don't jibe. This is what I consider a serious problem as the engineering team that the patron has access to probably *isn't* up to cracking the high-tech transponders the Imperium requires ships to have. And that means the players should have easy access to their itinerary, their ship's logs, their clearance papers, etc. Yet the party lacks this data (to make the adventure interesting) and they must hunt it down, while the patron wishes them to have a 'nothing is wrong' sense and just take the money and keep going. There is a problem here.

Subsequent posts will discuss options for fixing this.

 

[kaladorn]

Problem:

The adventurer group has had its mind wiped. The ship has been 'sanitized' by the patron's paid technical assistants. The idea is the party is meant to think nothing interesting happened and gradually unravel clues or have their natural curiosity lead them to want to find out where they were even though the ship has been sanitized.

I forsee a problem here in a reasonable TU.

There has to be the technology in the Imperium to make untamperable money. It has to be verifiable as an Imperial Credit. Similarly, transponders and IFF units on ships have to be pretty hard to tamper with and impossible (nearly) to tamper with in such a way as the tampering won't be noticed. I would *assume* that the maritime legislation that is enforced also implies similar technology for log recorders. This would include things like the Captain's logs, the Doctor's Logs, the Chief Engineers Logs, the blackbox recorders for telemetry and navigational data. This would include things like 'who is on the ship', 'where is the ship going, where has it been', and 'what were the official papers/clearances, etc'. of the ship. The implication in the adventure is that the players have to go jumping around the universe to find their paperwork/clearances and even to figure out where they went requires massive poking about in their own computers or odd corners of the ship to find the itinerary info.

These two things don't jibe. This is what I consider a serious problem as the engineering team that the patron has access to probably *isn't* up to cracking the high-tech transponders the Imperium requires ships to have. And that means the players should have easy access to their itinerary, their ship's logs, their clearance papers, etc. Yet the party lacks this data (to make the adventure interesting) and they must hunt it down, while the patron wishes them to have a 'nothing is wrong' sense and just take the money and keep going. There is a problem here.

Subsequent posts will discuss options for fixing this.

 

[kaladorn]

Fix #1: The logs have been tampered with in an undetectable manner.

Corollaries: Patron has access to incredibly good engineers to do this flawlessly. They can substitute an alternate path for the players ship, leave a blank, or actually leave the original itinerary, but delete any references to the missing crew member. If they blank it, even though you can't tell it was tampered with, the abscence of data is sure proof. If you substitue an alternate itinerary, you are pretty much gauranteeing the players will make at least one jump to a place they haven't been and more in-game time should be alloted. They will then figure out the tampering has happened. If you leave the itinerary easily available, then you must introduce some other friction in the module as you have simplified it somewhat for the players. In any event, the team that did the tampering has to be *very* good. They may, however, have criminal records, so if someone investigates them, the shady ties of some of the employees of the tampering company may come up as a point of interest.

Fix #2: Tampering, but in a detectable manner.

Much the same as #1, except it requires less competence on behalf of the tamperers, gives the player's engineer and computer guy a chance to take a hack at detecting the tampering, but is otherwise pretty much the same.

Fix #3: My logs are gone! My clearance paperwork is gone!

Immediately noticeable, and therefore placing the ship in a position of legal trouble. The Captain would obviously have to answer for this. The ship would have trouble if it was ever inspected by the SPA or system navy's enforcing Imperial Law. Of course, when the Captain was called to account, there would be many odd questions like "where did it go? how did you lose it?" which a mind-wiped Captain would have a tough time answering! So this might add to the complexity of the adventure, but it gaurantees the players won't be fooling around looking for a Rift Route because they'll know from the outset that something is wrong and that they need to find out what happened (or at least procure a fake set of log entries/clearances and somehow get them inserted into their ship's black box so they can be 'legit' if they are stopped/inspected).

Anyone have any idea how else you might address this situation?

 

[kaladorn]

Fix #1: The logs have been tampered with in an undetectable manner.

Corollaries: Patron has access to incredibly good engineers to do this flawlessly. They can substitute an alternate path for the players ship, leave a blank, or actually leave the original itinerary, but delete any references to the missing crew member. If they blank it, even though you can't tell it was tampered with, the abscence of data is sure proof. If you substitue an alternate itinerary, you are pretty much gauranteeing the players will make at least one jump to a place they haven't been and more in-game time should be alloted. They will then figure out the tampering has happened. If you leave the itinerary easily available, then you must introduce some other friction in the module as you have simplified it somewhat for the players. In any event, the team that did the tampering has to be *very* good. They may, however, have criminal records, so if someone investigates them, the shady ties of some of the employees of the tampering company may come up as a point of interest.

Fix #2: Tampering, but in a detectable manner.

Much the same as #1, except it requires less competence on behalf of the tamperers, gives the player's engineer and computer guy a chance to take a hack at detecting the tampering, but is otherwise pretty much the same.

Fix #3: My logs are gone! My clearance paperwork is gone!

Immediately noticeable, and therefore placing the ship in a position of legal trouble. The Captain would obviously have to answer for this. The ship would have trouble if it was ever inspected by the SPA or system navy's enforcing Imperial Law. Of course, when the Captain was called to account, there would be many odd questions like "where did it go? how did you lose it?" which a mind-wiped Captain would have a tough time answering! So this might add to the complexity of the adventure, but it gaurantees the players won't be fooling around looking for a Rift Route because they'll know from the outset that something is wrong and that they need to find out what happened (or at least procure a fake set of log entries/clearances and somehow get them inserted into their ship's black box so they can be 'legit' if they are stopped/inspected).

Anyone have any idea how else you might address this situation?

 

[far-trader]

Just a form thought here. You started the thread with a bold spoiler alert but that is less obvious in the general view, maybe add it to the thread title.

As to the rest, I applaud the work, even though I can't comment on it or help (don't have the material). I know I've had to do it for more than a few games over the years. Carry on, somebody will be glad for it

 

[far-trader]

Just a form thought here. You started the thread with a bold spoiler alert but that is less obvious in the general view, maybe add it to the thread title.

As to the rest, I applaud the work, even though I can't comment on it or help (don't have the material). I know I've had to do it for more than a few games over the years. Carry on, somebody will be glad for it

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by kaladorn:
There has to be the technology in the Imperium to make untamperable money.

Why? There isn't any such thing today.

I think a better way to phrase that would be, "There needs to be a method available to make counterfeiting difficult for those without extensive skills." Once that is achieved, you cut the vast majority out of the loop. Actual counterfeiting by the skilled and motivated probably can't be stopped, although the quality of what they produce will vary wildly. Especially by a good hacker who can break into a datastore in a bank and create currency by simply adding in numbers (and then withdrawing it before the bank can reconcile the numbers).

Paper counterfeiting of Imperial credits probably isn't widespread . . . at least, not as a percentage of total monetary crime.

I'd imagine far more time is spent by criminals using TL-15 equipment and techniques to counterfeit lower tech world's currencies. They would then take these, launder them to acquire legitimate local currency, buy Imperial Credits with the legitimate local currency, and then be gone.

Originally posted by kaladorn:
It has to be verifiable as an Imperial Credit. Similarly, transponders and IFF units on ships have to be pretty hard to tamper with and impossible (nearly) to tamper with in such a way as the tampering won't be noticed.

It's hard to tamper with them, and do so untraceably, except that both can be done in the context of the game.

Considering that the transponder system has been around for many centuries, there are probably written playbooks available on how to defeat them.

Originally posted by kaladorn:
I would *assume* that the maritime legislation

Which maritime legislation?

Are you mentioning the Imperial Law which applies to starship transponders?

Originally posted by kaladorn:
that is enforced also implies similar technology for log recorders. This would include things like the Captain's logs, the Doctor's Logs, the Chief Engineers Logs, the blackbox recorders for telemetry and navigational data.

Well, that is an assumption.

Black boxes today aren't built to be tamper proof, just crash-resistant. They're another system aboard to aid investigators after a crash.

Personally, I don't remember any canon reference to black boxes aboard starships. Given that US major airlines only put them in their aircraft after being dragged, kicking and screaming, into it, I wonder if the Imperium ever started.

Nothing about modern logs is tamper proof.

A starship's transponder isn't something under the control of the bridge, and isn't something accessible to the crew (IMTU, it's buried behind an exterior hull plate, and certainly can't be accessed during jump without being subject to jumpspace effects).

You can extend this, almost, to black boxes, excep they are connected to the main computer via cabling, so they could be hacked, or have their input hacked and simulated.

But the crew's modern electronic personal logs? These are files right there in the main computer. If they were "highly secure" like the transponder, it would imply they were some "part" of the ship's computer that the ship's owner didn't have sysadmin control over (thus granting unlimited tampering potential). I rather doubt that such a system would be used. The other choice is that there is yet another recording system installed somewhere in the ship, networked to the correct compartments.

That's three systems, two of them new, to take into account with all starships:
</font>

• Transponder (canon, tamper-resistant).</font>
• Black Boxes (not-canon, tamper-resistant?--maybe).</font>
• Crew's Logs (not-canon, tamper-resistant?--seems unlikely to me).</font>

Originally posted by kaladorn:
This would include things like 'who is on the ship', 'where is the ship going, where has it been', and 'what were the official papers/clearances, etc'. of the ship. The implication in the adventure is that the players have to go jumping around the universe to find their paperwork/clearances and even to figure out where they went requires massive poking about in their own computers or odd corners of the ship to find the itinerary info.

These two things don't jibe.

That's because you've made assumptions "about how things work" that the author of the adventure didn't.

Originally posted by kaladorn:
This is what I consider a serious problem as the engineering team that the patron has access to probably *isn't* up to cracking the high-tech transponders the Imperium requires ships to have. And that means the players should have easy access to their itinerary, their ship's logs, their clearance papers, etc.

After thinking about this for a while, I think you mean:

If the patron's engineer's can't hack the transponder, then they shouldn't be able to hack the logs or black boxes, either.

Well, this assumes that either of those systems are even remotely tamper-resistant.

I'd think it would be a major task to rip out the black boxes and alter them, tamper-resistant or not. The trouble is, how long is a black box going to record for? We have incredible and durable recording technology available today, and black boxes record about thirty minutes, and that's all. If the black boxes only record for one day, then even if the players can get at them, by the time they decide to do so, it probably won't do them any good. And if they decide in time, it may take too long to get rip them out to examine. Needless to say, we need some kind of reference on whether or not starships have black boxes, and how long they record data for.

As for the logs, that, to me, is simply a matter of hacking the ship's computer. If root level access can be attained, the logs can be hacked. We can assume, for the puposes of the adventure, that this part, at least, was done.

Originally posted by kaladorn:
Yet the party lacks this data (to make the adventure interesting) and they must hunt it down, while the patron wishes them to have a 'nothing is wrong' sense and just take the money and keep going. There is a problem here.

However, there has been previous discussion in various places that recoreds of starship arrivals and departures at each SPA starport do make the rounds of SPA databases. If the players are smart, they'd simply request access to the latest version of their updated intinerary. As long as their in a J-3 or slower vessel, they'll likely be overtaken by the updates (carried around by the X-Boat Network). How quick is a big question, and will depend on where they are in relation to the X-Boat Routes.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by kaladorn:
There has to be the technology in the Imperium to make untamperable money.

Why? There isn't any such thing today.

I think a better way to phrase that would be, "There needs to be a method available to make counterfeiting difficult for those without extensive skills." Once that is achieved, you cut the vast majority out of the loop. Actual counterfeiting by the skilled and motivated probably can't be stopped, although the quality of what they produce will vary wildly. Especially by a good hacker who can break into a datastore in a bank and create currency by simply adding in numbers (and then withdrawing it before the bank can reconcile the numbers).

Paper counterfeiting of Imperial credits probably isn't widespread . . . at least, not as a percentage of total monetary crime.

I'd imagine far more time is spent by criminals using TL-15 equipment and techniques to counterfeit lower tech world's currencies. They would then take these, launder them to acquire legitimate local currency, buy Imperial Credits with the legitimate local currency, and then be gone.

Originally posted by kaladorn:
It has to be verifiable as an Imperial Credit. Similarly, transponders and IFF units on ships have to be pretty hard to tamper with and impossible (nearly) to tamper with in such a way as the tampering won't be noticed.

It's hard to tamper with them, and do so untraceably, except that both can be done in the context of the game.

Considering that the transponder system has been around for many centuries, there are probably written playbooks available on how to defeat them.

Originally posted by kaladorn:
I would *assume* that the maritime legislation

Which maritime legislation?

Are you mentioning the Imperial Law which applies to starship transponders?

Originally posted by kaladorn:
that is enforced also implies similar technology for log recorders. This would include things like the Captain's logs, the Doctor's Logs, the Chief Engineers Logs, the blackbox recorders for telemetry and navigational data.

Well, that is an assumption.

Black boxes today aren't built to be tamper proof, just crash-resistant. They're another system aboard to aid investigators after a crash.

Personally, I don't remember any canon reference to black boxes aboard starships. Given that US major airlines only put them in their aircraft after being dragged, kicking and screaming, into it, I wonder if the Imperium ever started.

Nothing about modern logs is tamper proof.

A starship's transponder isn't something under the control of the bridge, and isn't something accessible to the crew (IMTU, it's buried behind an exterior hull plate, and certainly can't be accessed during jump without being subject to jumpspace effects).

You can extend this, almost, to black boxes, excep they are connected to the main computer via cabling, so they could be hacked, or have their input hacked and simulated.

But the crew's modern electronic personal logs? These are files right there in the main computer. If they were "highly secure" like the transponder, it would imply they were some "part" of the ship's computer that the ship's owner didn't have sysadmin control over (thus granting unlimited tampering potential). I rather doubt that such a system would be used. The other choice is that there is yet another recording system installed somewhere in the ship, networked to the correct compartments.

That's three systems, two of them new, to take into account with all starships:
</font>

• Transponder (canon, tamper-resistant).</font>
• Black Boxes (not-canon, tamper-resistant?--maybe).</font>
• Crew's Logs (not-canon, tamper-resistant?--seems unlikely to me).</font>

Originally posted by kaladorn:
This would include things like 'who is on the ship', 'where is the ship going, where has it been', and 'what were the official papers/clearances, etc'. of the ship. The implication in the adventure is that the players have to go jumping around the universe to find their paperwork/clearances and even to figure out where they went requires massive poking about in their own computers or odd corners of the ship to find the itinerary info.

These two things don't jibe.

That's because you've made assumptions "about how things work" that the author of the adventure didn't.

Originally posted by kaladorn:
This is what I consider a serious problem as the engineering team that the patron has access to probably *isn't* up to cracking the high-tech transponders the Imperium requires ships to have. And that means the players should have easy access to their itinerary, their ship's logs, their clearance papers, etc.

After thinking about this for a while, I think you mean:

If the patron's engineer's can't hack the transponder, then they shouldn't be able to hack the logs or black boxes, either.

Well, this assumes that either of those systems are even remotely tamper-resistant.

I'd think it would be a major task to rip out the black boxes and alter them, tamper-resistant or not. The trouble is, how long is a black box going to record for? We have incredible and durable recording technology available today, and black boxes record about thirty minutes, and that's all. If the black boxes only record for one day, then even if the players can get at them, by the time they decide to do so, it probably won't do them any good. And if they decide in time, it may take too long to get rip them out to examine. Needless to say, we need some kind of reference on whether or not starships have black boxes, and how long they record data for.

As for the logs, that, to me, is simply a matter of hacking the ship's computer. If root level access can be attained, the logs can be hacked. We can assume, for the puposes of the adventure, that this part, at least, was done.

Originally posted by kaladorn:
Yet the party lacks this data (to make the adventure interesting) and they must hunt it down, while the patron wishes them to have a 'nothing is wrong' sense and just take the money and keep going. There is a problem here.

However, there has been previous discussion in various places that recoreds of starship arrivals and departures at each SPA starport do make the rounds of SPA databases. If the players are smart, they'd simply request access to the latest version of their updated intinerary. As long as their in a J-3 or slower vessel, they'll likely be overtaken by the updates (carried around by the X-Boat Network). How quick is a big question, and will depend on where they are in relation to the X-Boat Routes.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by kaladorn:
Anyone have any idea how else you might address this situation?

Like most canned adventures, it will require, at the least, some tweaking.

Simply alter some of the basic premises to make it work out.

<he goes off to see if he has Memory Alpha . . . as he needs more specific info to help out on the above question />

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by kaladorn:
Anyone have any idea how else you might address this situation?

Like most canned adventures, it will require, at the least, some tweaking.

Simply alter some of the basic premises to make it work out.

<he goes off to see if he has Memory Alpha . . . as he needs more specific info to help out on the above question />

 

[Whipsnade]

Mr. Barclay,

I owe you that file, don't I? Let me dig through my hard drive again...

Back to Memory Alpha:

- The MA version published in the Reprints is a barely useful reconstruction that was cobbled together from player memories (appropriate, no?) and old Con handouts. We don't know if the problems you're raised were addressed in the real version. However, seeing as the ur-version is lost to the ages, the solutions it may have contained are moot.

- MA reminds me of the Really Old(tm) Traveller adventures. They are very different from what we're used to because role-playing back them was very different from what we're used to. MA is incomplete and the Reprint notes with it state that repeatedly. However, I believe even if we had a complete copy of MA we'd still be disappointed. Look at another adventure of the same vintage; The Imperial Fringe. In it, PCs save an IISS bigwig from a beating and are given a survey job - the entire Spinward Marches! The entire adventure is laid out in less than 10 paragraphs. Pretty skimpy, yes?


Possible fixes:

- My fix for the transponder problem was to have the players 'awake' just after their vessel's annual maintenance cycle. During that period, the patron paid for the old transponder to be replaced so there is no transponder history stored aboard the vessel.

- My fix for the various logs is just as simple. Those records, either paper or electronic, are blank because the various record mechanisms aboard ship have been replaced.

- Take it from an engineer, equipment operation logs; i.e. #1A feed booster pump has X number of running hours on it, are essentially useless. Logs on the jump drive and m-drives will record the total number of hours they've been operated and, in the case of the m-drive, the levels thye've been operated at, but that information is useless without a context. Even if you assume more detailed logs; i.e. jump drive in use between 0100 hours 123-1107 and 0735 hours 130-1107, you still don't know enough to place the jump in context; i.e. jump length.

- As you correctly point out, there will be records off the ship that the players can theorectically access to reconstruct their travels during the lost period. Ports will have transponder records, but can players look at those records? The players may not be able to blithely access transponder records at Port A for the period in question. They may have to pay a substantial fee for access and they may have to convince the responsible offical(s) that they have a need for access. Due to fees and/or legal constraints, accessing each port's records would then become an adventure in itself. The PCs would not be able to buzz around Corridor, accessing each port's transponder files via maser, and jumping off to their next destination.

- If, a BIG IF, the PCs are able to determine their vessel was in System X between dates Y and Z, what then? Big deal, their ship was in port. What happened while they were there? Just as with accessing the transponder records, ferreting out just what they did, where they went, and who they met with during their time in-system will be another adventure in itself.

Yes, the players can put this puzzle together. It will take them quite some time however and they may never get the whole picture. Used in this manner, Memory Alpha makes for a constant plot device running 'under' a layer of more 'normal' campaigns and adventures. The need to learn the secret could be the reason that keeps the players togeher thus giving the GM a ready made 'Why Are We Here?" explanation.

Next, what will learning the story get the PCs? The patron's secret may be time sensitive, it won't matter if the truth comes out after a certain period. The PCs may never learn enough of the details to put the puzzle together. The patron may even take measure to bury the secret further. He's hired the PCs, wiped their memories, and scrubbed their ship clean. Why should he stop there? Transponder records may be corrupted, people with parts of the puzzle may disappear, and the PCs' inquiries obstructed in many other ways.

Fianlly, I never liked the memory wiping premise of MA. It is just too powerful a mcguffin not to be used more often in the OTU, much like the personality overlay machine in Expedition to Zhodane. The only way to make the PCs' memory wipe anywhere near plausible IMTU is to make the Imperium the patron. The PCs and their vessel were used in some shadowy operation by some shadowy Imperial official or agency, the mind wipe was performed by Imperial psions, and - with the Imperium wanting to keep things mum - the PCs will never ferret out the entire story of their lost time. Indeed, the Imperium may have a series of carefully crafted and totally bogus cover stories in place for the PCs to learn.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[Whipsnade]

Mr. Barclay,

I owe you that file, don't I? Let me dig through my hard drive again...

Back to Memory Alpha:

- The MA version published in the Reprints is a barely useful reconstruction that was cobbled together from player memories (appropriate, no?) and old Con handouts. We don't know if the problems you're raised were addressed in the real version. However, seeing as the ur-version is lost to the ages, the solutions it may have contained are moot.

- MA reminds me of the Really Old(tm) Traveller adventures. They are very different from what we're used to because role-playing back them was very different from what we're used to. MA is incomplete and the Reprint notes with it state that repeatedly. However, I believe even if we had a complete copy of MA we'd still be disappointed. Look at another adventure of the same vintage; The Imperial Fringe. In it, PCs save an IISS bigwig from a beating and are given a survey job - the entire Spinward Marches! The entire adventure is laid out in less than 10 paragraphs. Pretty skimpy, yes?


Possible fixes:

- My fix for the transponder problem was to have the players 'awake' just after their vessel's annual maintenance cycle. During that period, the patron paid for the old transponder to be replaced so there is no transponder history stored aboard the vessel.

- My fix for the various logs is just as simple. Those records, either paper or electronic, are blank because the various record mechanisms aboard ship have been replaced.

- Take it from an engineer, equipment operation logs; i.e. #1A feed booster pump has X number of running hours on it, are essentially useless. Logs on the jump drive and m-drives will record the total number of hours they've been operated and, in the case of the m-drive, the levels thye've been operated at, but that information is useless without a context. Even if you assume more detailed logs; i.e. jump drive in use between 0100 hours 123-1107 and 0735 hours 130-1107, you still don't know enough to place the jump in context; i.e. jump length.

- As you correctly point out, there will be records off the ship that the players can theorectically access to reconstruct their travels during the lost period. Ports will have transponder records, but can players look at those records? The players may not be able to blithely access transponder records at Port A for the period in question. They may have to pay a substantial fee for access and they may have to convince the responsible offical(s) that they have a need for access. Due to fees and/or legal constraints, accessing each port's records would then become an adventure in itself. The PCs would not be able to buzz around Corridor, accessing each port's transponder files via maser, and jumping off to their next destination.

- If, a BIG IF, the PCs are able to determine their vessel was in System X between dates Y and Z, what then? Big deal, their ship was in port. What happened while they were there? Just as with accessing the transponder records, ferreting out just what they did, where they went, and who they met with during their time in-system will be another adventure in itself.

Yes, the players can put this puzzle together. It will take them quite some time however and they may never get the whole picture. Used in this manner, Memory Alpha makes for a constant plot device running 'under' a layer of more 'normal' campaigns and adventures. The need to learn the secret could be the reason that keeps the players togeher thus giving the GM a ready made 'Why Are We Here?" explanation.

Next, what will learning the story get the PCs? The patron's secret may be time sensitive, it won't matter if the truth comes out after a certain period. The PCs may never learn enough of the details to put the puzzle together. The patron may even take measure to bury the secret further. He's hired the PCs, wiped their memories, and scrubbed their ship clean. Why should he stop there? Transponder records may be corrupted, people with parts of the puzzle may disappear, and the PCs' inquiries obstructed in many other ways.

Fianlly, I never liked the memory wiping premise of MA. It is just too powerful a mcguffin not to be used more often in the OTU, much like the personality overlay machine in Expedition to Zhodane. The only way to make the PCs' memory wipe anywhere near plausible IMTU is to make the Imperium the patron. The PCs and their vessel were used in some shadowy operation by some shadowy Imperial official or agency, the mind wipe was performed by Imperial psions, and - with the Imperium wanting to keep things mum - the PCs will never ferret out the entire story of their lost time. Indeed, the Imperium may have a series of carefully crafted and totally bogus cover stories in place for the PCs to learn.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[hcobb]

Originally posted by Larsen E. Whipsnade:
Fianlly, I never liked the memory wiping premise of MA. It is just too powerful a mcguffin not to be used more often in the OTU, much like the personality overlay machine in Expedition to Zhodane. The only way to make the PCs' memory wipe anywhere near plausible IMTU is to make the Imperium the patron. The PCs and their vessel were used in some shadowy operation by some shadowy Imperial official or agency, the mind wipe was performed by Imperial psions, and - with the Imperium wanting to keep things mum - the PCs will never ferret out the entire story of their lost time. Indeed, the Imperium may have a series of carefully crafted and totally bogus cover stories in place for the PCs to learn.

OK, let's crank this up a notch.

None of the PC's memories are real.

At some point somebody will point to one of the PCs and say, "That's him, he killed my daughter!"

The local law enforcement will do a lookup on the crime and find that the person who did it is an exact match for the PC, and they got a full Imperial pardon, and they died in Imperial service.

Then the fun starts.

-HJC

 

[hcobb]

Originally posted by Larsen E. Whipsnade:
Fianlly, I never liked the memory wiping premise of MA. It is just too powerful a mcguffin not to be used more often in the OTU, much like the personality overlay machine in Expedition to Zhodane. The only way to make the PCs' memory wipe anywhere near plausible IMTU is to make the Imperium the patron. The PCs and their vessel were used in some shadowy operation by some shadowy Imperial official or agency, the mind wipe was performed by Imperial psions, and - with the Imperium wanting to keep things mum - the PCs will never ferret out the entire story of their lost time. Indeed, the Imperium may have a series of carefully crafted and totally bogus cover stories in place for the PCs to learn.

OK, let's crank this up a notch.

None of the PC's memories are real.

At some point somebody will point to one of the PCs and say, "That's him, he killed my daughter!"

The local law enforcement will do a lookup on the crime and find that the person who did it is an exact match for the PC, and they got a full Imperial pardon, and they died in Imperial service.

Then the fun starts.

-HJC

 

[kaladorn]

Okay, follow my logic:

Yes, I made some assumptions. Not quite the ones you think, but they led to the ones you point out.

1. No point in having customs inspections, etc. unless you have some worthwhile idea where ships have come in from, what they are carrying, etc. This requires a legal and documentary framework however it exists.
2. The technology ought to be available *readily* at the TL of interstellar travel (TL12+ say) to store *staggering* amounts of data in write-once mode without any significant size or power being involved.
3. The Imperium or any visited polity will expect records of where the ship has been, what it is carrying, doctor's certificates for the crew and passengers, etc. It will only take one or two bad virological issues or legal ones to make that SOP. On Earth, major ships have logs, owners papers, and certifications and health certifications for crew, logs for Captain, Engineer, Doctor, etc. Sure, these are 'modifiable' but modifying them without anyone noticing after the fact isn't entirely trivial and showing up without them will get you some seriously hard questions.

So, taken together, it seems to me that:

1. Assuming black box technology isn't much of a leap. The ship surely knows where it is at any point, and with ubiquitous data storage, no issue to record that kind of thing (nav data, sensor feeds, etc). This is good protection for law abiding crews in case of accident or collision or mischance. Since data storage is cheap, storing identity data for the crew is a good idea too.

2. If you show up without data, incoming agencies are going to ask questions. If you find your log recorders have been blanked (*without* you having been provided a copy to present authorities of prior data), *you should be alarmed*! So this isn't going to be a situation normal feeling when you find out your on-ship data (logs, records, etc) are blanked, even if there was a maintenance cycle. Specifically, missing Nav Records will probably get the Nav O, the Captain, and the Owner of the vessel in hot water with authorities since the only reason to lose these is something unsanctioned/illicit.

3. I see all of this storage actually stored in the Transponder. Heck, if the Transponder unit can carry Viruses, etc, then it can store a few Gb of Nav data and logs (that's quite a bit of data!). Since it is shown in MT and subsequent to be able to interact with ships systems, I submit it is already tied into most ships systems. At the *very* least, even if it was dumb, it has to have a power feed that could be tampered with. So tampering with a transponder is probably a waaay big fine. You can probably shut one off from the bridge with a big red button, but the transponder better show a nasty looking unidentified ship nearby and you'd better not have it off for too long. The justification for having it deactivated would be self protection. But you'd be required to reactivate it expediently or you'd get *lots* of questions and maybe some charges.

So, we've got a reasonable suggestion that there is a legal framework in place for customs and interstellar law (or else we wouldn't have transponders). We've got transponders that are tied into ship systems (shown by what they do in the Virus era). We've got (at high TL) ready data storage, probably write once, that you may not be able to change without destroying (such things exist now). Add that all together and you've got a situation where you likely store lots of replicated data about crew, course, jumps, legal issues, etc. in with your transponder. And mucking with it is very tough. Destroying it isn't that tough perhaps, but definitely something that brings you to the attention of the authorities. Certainly *not* just business as usual.

So we're back to the situation I described:
The players are missing memories. Their ship is missing (since we assume they have to go hunting for their itinerary offship) data which is hard to destroy/remove and yet the players are not assumed to be immediately tipped off or alarmed by the missing data. That's where my problem lies with this adventure.

Larsen, yes, you owe me a file. Nor rush

Also, if you can buy into anti-grav, jumpspace, workable space combat lasers that work at 10K distances, ancients, psionics, etc... how can you blink at some simple personality overlays and memory manipulation, part of which we can do now?

Yes, the memory wipe in Alpha is potent. I'd make the wiper make some sort of opposed roll to get a clean wipe. Failing might (in varying degrees) allow partial or full recovery over time. Conditioning might make it hard to wipe someone. Psionics or drugs may play into the picture. So, given those limitations and some sort of uncertain opposed roll to make it stick, I don't think it is terribly overpowering. It does make for all sorts of interesting scenarios/RP hooks.

 

[kaladorn]

Okay, follow my logic:

Yes, I made some assumptions. Not quite the ones you think, but they led to the ones you point out.

1. No point in having customs inspections, etc. unless you have some worthwhile idea where ships have come in from, what they are carrying, etc. This requires a legal and documentary framework however it exists.
2. The technology ought to be available *readily* at the TL of interstellar travel (TL12+ say) to store *staggering* amounts of data in write-once mode without any significant size or power being involved.
3. The Imperium or any visited polity will expect records of where the ship has been, what it is carrying, doctor's certificates for the crew and passengers, etc. It will only take one or two bad virological issues or legal ones to make that SOP. On Earth, major ships have logs, owners papers, and certifications and health certifications for crew, logs for Captain, Engineer, Doctor, etc. Sure, these are 'modifiable' but modifying them without anyone noticing after the fact isn't entirely trivial and showing up without them will get you some seriously hard questions.

So, taken together, it seems to me that:

1. Assuming black box technology isn't much of a leap. The ship surely knows where it is at any point, and with ubiquitous data storage, no issue to record that kind of thing (nav data, sensor feeds, etc). This is good protection for law abiding crews in case of accident or collision or mischance. Since data storage is cheap, storing identity data for the crew is a good idea too.

2. If you show up without data, incoming agencies are going to ask questions. If you find your log recorders have been blanked (*without* you having been provided a copy to present authorities of prior data), *you should be alarmed*! So this isn't going to be a situation normal feeling when you find out your on-ship data (logs, records, etc) are blanked, even if there was a maintenance cycle. Specifically, missing Nav Records will probably get the Nav O, the Captain, and the Owner of the vessel in hot water with authorities since the only reason to lose these is something unsanctioned/illicit.

3. I see all of this storage actually stored in the Transponder. Heck, if the Transponder unit can carry Viruses, etc, then it can store a few Gb of Nav data and logs (that's quite a bit of data!). Since it is shown in MT and subsequent to be able to interact with ships systems, I submit it is already tied into most ships systems. At the *very* least, even if it was dumb, it has to have a power feed that could be tampered with. So tampering with a transponder is probably a waaay big fine. You can probably shut one off from the bridge with a big red button, but the transponder better show a nasty looking unidentified ship nearby and you'd better not have it off for too long. The justification for having it deactivated would be self protection. But you'd be required to reactivate it expediently or you'd get *lots* of questions and maybe some charges.

So, we've got a reasonable suggestion that there is a legal framework in place for customs and interstellar law (or else we wouldn't have transponders). We've got transponders that are tied into ship systems (shown by what they do in the Virus era). We've got (at high TL) ready data storage, probably write once, that you may not be able to change without destroying (such things exist now). Add that all together and you've got a situation where you likely store lots of replicated data about crew, course, jumps, legal issues, etc. in with your transponder. And mucking with it is very tough. Destroying it isn't that tough perhaps, but definitely something that brings you to the attention of the authorities. Certainly *not* just business as usual.

So we're back to the situation I described:
The players are missing memories. Their ship is missing (since we assume they have to go hunting for their itinerary offship) data which is hard to destroy/remove and yet the players are not assumed to be immediately tipped off or alarmed by the missing data. That's where my problem lies with this adventure.

Larsen, yes, you owe me a file. Nor rush

Also, if you can buy into anti-grav, jumpspace, workable space combat lasers that work at 10K distances, ancients, psionics, etc... how can you blink at some simple personality overlays and memory manipulation, part of which we can do now?

Yes, the memory wipe in Alpha is potent. I'd make the wiper make some sort of opposed roll to get a clean wipe. Failing might (in varying degrees) allow partial or full recovery over time. Conditioning might make it hard to wipe someone. Psionics or drugs may play into the picture. So, given those limitations and some sort of uncertain opposed roll to make it stick, I don't think it is terribly overpowering. It does make for all sorts of interesting scenarios/RP hooks.