Emerging phenomena: stats, moves, mods and gear.

Basic Stats & Moves

+Hull

When you confront trauma, roll+hull.

On a 10+, you're all snakeskin and callous.
On a 7–9, you're bribing fate with blood: negotiate the outcome with the Field.

+Fray

When you commit to violence, roll+fray.

On a 10+, it's done.
On a 7–9, they can choose to:

• Evac from the wrath of terrible you.
• Make with the wealth and lips.
• Be at your feet, at your mercy, please.
• Catch you out, trading fire for fire.
• Have you cause collateral.

+Vamp

When you try to dissect someone, roll+vamp.

On 10+, they pick one and you answer for them.
On 7-9, you pick one and they answer for themselves.

• Who do you want all hot and heavy?
• What are you covetous of?
• When are you at your most vulnerable?
• Where are your secret pains?
• How could I break your commitments, your loyalty?

+Echo

Whenever you listen for echoes, name the node and roll+echo.

On a 10+, you're sync+1 with that node.
On a 7-9 sync+0 and the Field adds a tag you won't like.

When you need to glean some decent info, roll+sync.

On a 10+, if it knows, you know. Aces.
On a 7-9, knowing costs you. Take -1sync.

Get +1sync for:

• Upstreaming sterling info
• Being a faithful sleeve
• Worming yourself into its graces

Trauma and Violent Tools

Trauma meter like so:
[]Blooded 
[]Deathly
[]Buried

Weapon types: +mass +coil +styx ; armour types: +skin +suit +veil

+mass are your regular multipurpose kinetic kill implements: canister rifles, needlers, impluse mauls, &c.

+skin tagged armour lets unreasonable amounts of inertia slip off you.

+coil are your weaponized chromodynamics: plasma injectors, pulse pistols, arc-assault pods, &c.

+suit tagged armour soaks quantum flux like a hungery void.

+styx are your ashen and secret life-enders: razor winds, orbs, temporal weft, wraith beacons, &c.

+veil tagged armour is your very own my little guardian angel.

Most weapons do one point of trauma of the apropriate flavour, and most armour soaks one point of their flavour. Some weapons and armour have more than one flavour, rare though they may be. Weapons with the tag +heavy usually do two; ditto for armour. Some ordinance might do much more. Let's hope you don't encounter any.

MODS&GEAR

Oracular implants:
May always add +atemp to nodes and access not-yet data.

Violation glove:
Dissect with +echo.

Tyndaller squid:
With time and initmacy when you dissect you always pick.

Assault architecture:
You have an extra trauma box.
Your violence deals extra trauma.

Hunter-seeker:
They can never evac from your wrath.

Soulstone:
If you die, you're dreaming not dead.

Pet Spider:
Before you listen for echoes, you may ask the Field:
What node would know what I need to know?

Lazarus symbiont:
With time and safety, you can uncheck []Buried.

Interpersonal slyph:
When you dissect, add these questions:

• What are intentions?
• What do you wish me to do?
• What don't you want me to know?

Veritas shunt:
You always get to answer if someone dissects you.

Nymph:
Whenever you want, you can ask:
Who do you want all hot and heavy?
The answer is always gonna be you, vix.


Empathy worms:
You may dissect Wraiths.

Bulwark:
Dissecting you counts as confronting trauma.

Gateware:
You and whomever you wanna bring with you can cross over into the Field.

Ghostware:
When you need in or out of some place, roll+hull.
10+, you're there, no one knows.
7-9, you're either at the perimetre, holding back; or
   they're hip to your ins and outs.

Echocryption:
You're a null in the datastream.

Echomorph:
You can switch bodies with time and intimacy.
If it's an emergency, you can commit to violence to forgo them.
The Field gets to make a hard move, though.

Malleable Substrate:
Roll +hull, to change your identity.
On a 10+, you get to tell people what it is.
On a 7-9, they, at least, can't recognize you.

The way I see it work is that you pick from a list of names and looks, then six or so pieces of mods and gear.

Any of the existing moves for AW are included (when and if they make sense) as options, pending resleeving.

Any feedback or new ideas for mods and gear is welcome.

Setting info would be nice.

Oh sorry!

It's GHOST/ECHO-inspired. So the setting is mostly what you want it to be.

So: cyberpunk + spookiness. The setting is distinctly minimal but I'm thinking kinda slick futurepop plus wasting-away humanity.

Mostly, I see it like a mash up of Blade Runner, Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, Aeon Flux, and Ghost in the Shell, with the Alien and Unknowable turned up to eleven. Games like Cthulhupunk, Cthulhutech Eclipse Phase and Transhuman Space all have the right feel to them, if not the right mechanics.

I what more for the hack to be flexible, if anyone beyond my crew ends up running it.

I assume that mostly any existing move that you might want could be resleeved into G/E flavours fairly easily.

Sure, but GHOST/ECHO has one rule and I make up everything else.

Like, I get Hull, Fray, and Vamp... but not Echo. Am I supposed to be inside the net during the game? All of the time? Part of the time?

You've written rules for it, and I can see how they determine you deal with information. But I have no way of knowing what kind of colour to make up that will match those rules. In G/E I can make up whatever I want because those rules will support it. Some of the names I get (I might be a bit iffy on what counts as "dissecting" maybe), but in this case defining "echoes," "nodes," "sync," and "field" so they work with the THREE different moves related to Echo is too much to ask (also: "sleeve," and what counts as "sterling" info).

I mean I like the flavour, it's got style, but I think it communicates more to you than it does to me. For example, I take it each armour type defends against one damage type? Like +veil defends against +styx? This is too many fancy words. It should read +vs styx.

Or, say, do I roll to confront trauma when I take a point of damage? If I roll 10+ do I get to not take that point of damage?

Thanks for the engagement and feedback, Johnstone.

All of your points are well taken and and highlight some issues.

The words are placeholders for fiction and colour I haven't really worked out and articulated just yet.

At the moment, I feel like the setting has a kind of threefold metaphysics: the 'real' world, the web/mesh/future-internet, and the ghost field. The field is all alien, other and 'things from beyond' and the mesh is all information all the time, where nodes are particular entities within that mesh that you have relationships with. Thus, sync is like Hx, or bonds, or some kind of reputation. However, I feel like a node could be anything that you might want to ask questions to and know about. But they'd be autonomous.

The damage type stuff is pretty weak. I'm not sold on it just yet. For the trauma move, sure, why not. You only have two boxes anyways.

And yeah, these are my notes for me - they're probably not ready for public discussion.

To define things a little more then:

Listen for echoes = connect and talk to someone or something via the ubiquitous quasi-mystical super-internet. I think it could include social networking and the like. Or talking to God. Or your mom. Or remembering something. I wanted to keep the feel that basically the only knowledge move is googling. What did I have for breakfast? Ask the internet.

Node = an entity on the super-internet that knows something, some kind of strong AI.

Field = horrible metaphysical badness = maybe the title for the MC. I'm not sure.

Dissect = I'm not sure. It was 'use' for a long time but that didn't really seem right. Exploit and/or manipulate for information / brainwashing / mind hacks?

Sterling = good, useful.

Sleeve = meat puppet for cyberspace AIs

The pictures you posted are partly responsible for my interest, even though I like the list of influences. In case you need, like, any encouragement to post more or anything. Hint hint.

At the moment, I feel like the setting has a kind of threefold metaphysics: the 'real' world, the web/mesh/future-internet, and the ghost field. /etc/

Even this little bit goes a long, long way. At this point I can now start to imagine the meat world; and then the web/net, which could be like cyberspace virtual world stuff or just digital information; and then the alien level could be psychic, or magic, or alien. It could be horror stuff, like in Event Horizon. But just knowing there are these three levels makes the moves that much clearer. And more of the tidbits you've posted start to make sense.

Now I'm thinking of the scene in Zardoz where the one guy refuses to mind-meld with the other utopian humans, and he's yelling "I won't join you on second level!" at them. Like the meat world is level 1, and the web/net is level 0 because it's not a "real" world or something, but then this new frontier of psychic and extra-real phenomena is level 2.

And yeah, these are my notes for me - there's probably not ready for public discussion.

Whoops, bit late now.

Listen for echoes = etc

Sounds like various ways of accessing the past to me. Echoes, facsimiles, residue.

Node = an entity on the super-internet that knows something, some kind of strong AI.

So probably you want to write up a little list of types, just like for threats in AW. For what it's worth, the sync moves feel like you could be using them in any social situation, not just to interact with AIs.

Field = maybe the title for the MC.

Yeah, it has the same vibe as Control in Lacuna.

Dissect = Exploit and/or manipulate for information / brainwashing / mind hacks?

That's about what I figured, plus testing somebody to see their reactions, maybe. Interrogate, debrief, interview, analyze, etc.

Sterling = good, useful.

What I meant there was: how do you decide if info is useful? On the spot? Based on prep? It just needs some criteria is all. Probably with a list of node types and their agendas written up like threats are, that wouldn't be an issue.

Sleeve = meat puppet for cyberspace AIs

We played a game of Remember Tomorrow that had day-trading in it, which was the term for literal day-trading. You could rent out your body to somebody else and you go unconscious while they run around as you. So you lose the day, because your not actually trading bodies. So if you have money, you put your body to sleep for a day hooked up to machines while your mind rides around in somebody else. If you have a body or life that is in-demand and you need money, you lose a day while somebody else gets to be you, and then you wake up a day later with a wad of cash. And some people would rent their bodies out and use the money to buy time in other bodies, spending very little time in their own.

I can see it being fun for the player to say "I need money, I trade a day," and the MC saying "you wake up covered in lipstick smudges and glitter. You're wearing somebody else's leather pants and underwear and the half-bottle of premium scotch whiskey and the mini-car in your bedroom aren't yours." Like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas except with technology instead of drugs and you don't get the benefit of being high first. Ha!

Cheers.

Yeah, the Echo move is also meant for social stuff too. And all info past (even if just a few nanoseconds). The way I see it is that the web takes over for basic human capacities like memory and social interaction. Sync could replace Hx easily for Hx related moves.

I wanted to make the move have it's own economy but instead it became a rating instead of a currency. It doesn't just mean renting out your body totally, but doing favours for a semi-anonymous something so that you rating goes up. Bruce Sterling has a great story titled Maneki Neko that details this kind of thing.

So, as a result, I didn't want player just uploading any old thing to mesh and getting sync for it. But I think the MC is gonna have to ask: what does the node want? I mean, sure, someone might find something you've recorded or said useful but no one cares about a video of you eating a sandwich and your have-baked musing on pet rocks. However, I think like the psychic maelstrom, sometimes the MC is gonna accept seemingly innocent information as valuable. Then the PCs get to puzzle out the valuable to whom and why.

So, information is a commodity, but unlike money, it's not a universal one.

Oh, and I'll do some more art and shit if you want. That just me killing time some nights.

So I'm reading this thread and on the one hand I'm a little confused because I don't know what everything means.  But on the other hand, I'm really intrigued because even though I have no idea what a Wraith Beacon [+styx +area +loud] is, it sounds frickin cool and I kind of want one.  The setting info you sketched out really helps and the art looks great.

So looking at the basic moves, I understand Hull, Fray, Vamp.  Are there going to be any other Basic moves?  Are you going to have an equivalent to Seize by Force or Read a Sitch?

And echoes, I have some questions about Echoes.

*Are nodes treated like NPCs?  Or are nodes more unknowable entities like the psychic maelstrom?  Can you give some examples of tags the Field would place on a node?  I'm picturing things like +inhuman, +greedy, +secretive.  Is that right?

*If you "listen for echoes" and name a node you already have +sync with and succeed, does that increase your sync with that node?  Or is "listen for echoes" only for finding new nodes?

*When "gleaning decent info" does the player name the node he asks?  Or does the Field?

*Not a question but it feels sort of arbitrary when you earn extra sync.

*What do you think about treating "sterling info" like Barter?  So instead of buying stuff with Barter like in AW, you buy stuff with Info?  Then you can have something like this.

When you need to glean some decent info, roll +sync
On a 10+, if it knows, you know.  Aces.
On a 7-9, knowing costs you.  Field chooses 1.
*The Node demands payment.  Subtract -1 Sterling Info.
*The Node demands a favor. 

Sometimes Nodes will be NPCs but sometimes they'll be things like your own memories or that piece of equipment or a place.

The "read" basic moves could be imported if somebody wanted them as gear/mods/ware. As such they'd no longer be basic.

Typically, though, when you're looking for he kind of info those moves might get you, you're listening for echoes.

So, say you're being chased through the sewer tunnels beneath some huge arcology and need a map or an escape route. You might name the Node: Polis Architectural Archives  or the Mole People or Maintenance Swarm - A014K87. Tags could be anything and mostly are fictional constrains: +bureaucratic, +hostile, +slow, +insecure, &c.

When computing is ubiquitous, you start cloud and crowd sourcing everything.

The reason it switched from a barter like set up to a Hx thing was because all information is not created equal but if more about your relationships with the things that provide it. So, the Maintenance Swarm is always going to want to know about maintenance things, lets say. But it probably doesn't care about sex-scandal or weapons specs or blow jobs. But someone else might.

It's late and I'm probably not making sense.

Cheers.

If a player succeeds in listening to echoes, does the node always know the answer?

Say the player wants to learn about the aforementioned sewers.  He doesn't know any appropriate nodes but he has a +3 Sync with an AI controlling an orbital laser platform circling Mars and which wouldn't know anything about underground sewers on Earth.  He gets a 10+ on his roll.  Does the GM just tweak the fiction so that the node know the answer?  Or can the GM say that the node doesn't know?  Or does the GM tell the player to pick a different node before rolling?

If that node doesn't know, it doesn't know.

Likewise, in AW if the maelstrom doesn't have anything interesting to say or doesn't know, then it lets you know that. Also, if there is no such node, the MC can just say so. It relies on the players being pretty reasonable with the fiction.

Before rolling, the player should think about what node to pick and why.

If they want to know before hand, you take the the move: Pet Spider.

Also, you could always ask for advice on who to talk to.

Wow, this really made me make a 180 as I read the initial post. I started out confused and kinda frustrated and ended psyched for this hack.  All your sources are clearly in my head space.  I dig brain hacking.

It made me think of taking the "playbooks are the only ones of their kind" to a new level as all NPCs are AI/supernaturals and they are always in the other two worlds.  Man being social creatures are forced into the other worlds for contact.  Add Heresy, the CCG, into the source mix.  Super Hot!

Question: is the goal to expand player authorship compared to AW?

Thanks,
-Don