Baen Free Radio Hour Podcast
- Thread starter AlanMN
- Start date
Thanks for posting the link!
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
My bad in the reply -- there wasn't a link, I simply googled it and forgot there wasn't a link. (Wait, spellcheck can conjugate the verb "google" now?)
Thank you for posting an actual link!
Its a good interview. Im just listening at the moment.
-Something I don't remember being explicit in the book: Personality wafers are limited by sex: male Personality to male hosts, female Personality to female hosts. Purely to make it easier for the author to write, but interesting all the same.
-Best is the enemy of good enough. That relates to the agents decision making process but it works for rpg World building too.
-Something I don't remember being explicit in the book: Personality wafers are limited by sex: male Personality to male hosts, female Personality to female hosts. Purely to make it easier for the author to write, but interesting all the same.
-Best is the enemy of good enough. That relates to the agents decision making process but it works for rpg World building too.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
The lifetime of a wafer personality in a host is limited due to genetic differences etc.
One of the most major differences between men and women is the XX, XY chromosome difference so there is a justification of sorts.
Personally I go all Altered Carbon - male personalities can download onto opposite sex hosts and vise versa. The downloading into an alien race or animal host hasn't come up yet
One thing though, Marc in his book and in the interviews states that the personality lasts a month.
This is not the rules as written in the T5 books, where degradation happens after every sleep period and the personality is gone in a week.
One of the most major differences between men and women is the XX, XY chromosome difference so there is a justification of sorts.
Personally I go all Altered Carbon - male personalities can download onto opposite sex hosts and vise versa. The downloading into an alien race or animal host hasn't come up yet
One thing though, Marc in his book and in the interviews states that the personality lasts a month.
This is not the rules as written in the T5 books, where degradation happens after every sleep period and the personality is gone in a week.
The lifetime of a wafer personality in a host is limited due to genetic differences etc.
One of the most major differences between men and women is the XX, XY chromosome difference so there is a justification of sorts.
Personally I go all Altered Carbon - male personalities can download onto opposite sex hosts and vise versa. The downloading into an alien race or animal host hasn't come up yet
One thing though, Marc in his book and in the interviews states that the personality lasts a month.
This is not the rules as written in the T5 books, where degradation happens after every sleep period and the personality is gone in a week.
I recall that, in Agent after one attempt to use a wafer fails, the host is revealed as genetic XX while apparently male. (on p. 120 of 336.)
Last edited:
The lifetime of a wafer personality in a host is limited due to genetic differences etc.
One of the most major differences between men and women is the XX, XY chromosome difference so there is a justification of sorts.
Personally I go all Altered Carbon - male personalities can download onto opposite sex hosts and vise versa. The downloading into an alien race or animal host hasn't come up yet
One thing though, Marc in his book and in the interviews states that the personality lasts a month.
This is not the rules as written in the T5 books, where degradation happens after every sleep period and the personality is gone in a week.
The differences are probably due to narrative necessity versus RPG playability.
One week is a bit short for narrative continuity. In the novel, the one-month time limit was a significant constraint; one week wouldn't have sufficed.
A month would be awkward for an RPG. If the PC is the wafer identity, it'll last through multiple RPG sessions, which sort of defeats the point of having an expiration date. If the wafer personality is overlaid onto a PC, that turns the PC into an NPC and sidelines that player for multiple sessions.
Last edited:
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
So if you are running a game in the OTU do you go with the setting as described by the book or the setting constrained by the rules as written in T5?
That depends on whether you can make the "as per the novel" constraints work within your specific campaign and with your specific set of players. Likewise with the "as per T5" constraints.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
The OTU is best described by the novel.
The T5 rules do not match the novel.
So if you want to run the OTU as MWM envisions it you go with the novel.
The T5 rules do not match the novel.
So if you want to run the OTU as MWM envisions it you go with the novel.
Setting doesn't match the rules--this is nothing new.
Easy enough to handwave by saying the book's version is restricted cutting-edge Imperial technology, while the rules' version is what can be obtained without being part of a project that directly exercises the Emperor's authority.
Easy enough to handwave by saying the book's version is restricted cutting-edge Imperial technology, while the rules' version is what can be obtained without being part of a project that directly exercises the Emperor's authority.
EPW and You
In my solo-play journal Down A Peg located in the Cleon Memorial Library sub-forum, I assumed no limit to gender. One of the main characters, a female Vargr slots a disguised male Emergency Personality Wafer containing a male Vargr personality, a Hijacker. He proceeds to use her body in commandeering the ship for as long as his duration lasts in hopes of handing over the ship to passenger accomplices.
But I can see the argument of chromosomal XX and XY incompatibility but for species that can switch from one to the other, Vargr not being one of those.
As to the duration of Emergency Personality Wafers, I detected some Skills degradation in the Decider Agent the longer his activation lasted before being handed off to another host. Let us remember that this is TL-13 Emergency Personality Wafers. What improvements will higher-TL EPWs have other than the Tech Staging rules in T5.10?
It may be that the author does not wish to opine the technical difficulties of differing genders using Emergency Personality Wafers. Most younger generation fans and players will not suffer this hang-up. For Down A Peg, I saw no reason why a female Vargr cannot slot and be overridden by a male EPW, (or vice versa), so long as their Genetic Profile of SDVIEC (Strength, Dexterity, Vigor, Intelligence, Education, Charisma) matched. In this, your mileage may vary. Rinse and repeat as often as the story is interesting to you and your players.
From Vargr Extents IT Department, this is the Pakkrat.
In my solo-play journal Down A Peg located in the Cleon Memorial Library sub-forum, I assumed no limit to gender. One of the main characters, a female Vargr slots a disguised male Emergency Personality Wafer containing a male Vargr personality, a Hijacker. He proceeds to use her body in commandeering the ship for as long as his duration lasts in hopes of handing over the ship to passenger accomplices.
But I can see the argument of chromosomal XX and XY incompatibility but for species that can switch from one to the other, Vargr not being one of those.
As to the duration of Emergency Personality Wafers, I detected some Skills degradation in the Decider Agent the longer his activation lasted before being handed off to another host. Let us remember that this is TL-13 Emergency Personality Wafers. What improvements will higher-TL EPWs have other than the Tech Staging rules in T5.10?
It may be that the author does not wish to opine the technical difficulties of differing genders using Emergency Personality Wafers. Most younger generation fans and players will not suffer this hang-up. For Down A Peg, I saw no reason why a female Vargr cannot slot and be overridden by a male EPW, (or vice versa), so long as their Genetic Profile of SDVIEC (Strength, Dexterity, Vigor, Intelligence, Education, Charisma) matched. In this, your mileage may vary. Rinse and repeat as often as the story is interesting to you and your players.
From Vargr Extents IT Department, this is the Pakkrat.
Both - assume that The Agent is an abnormally stable and dominant personality, and that he was in particularly stable crewmembers... making his duration x4 in those. Which would also make him more likely to be the one activated, as he's more likely to be able to actually solve things...
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
And the rules for this are where in T5? You see my point...
I am more than capable of explaining a reason, but considering the book has been out for enough time for the T5 three book set to have included these revisions then the option could have been included. I am very surprised that no one in the 'inner circle' mentioned this to Marc during the revision process and playtest.
Perhaps if the Galaxiad ever sees the light of day such new rule variants will make it into there.
Or better still a supplement or two for T5 please
I am more than capable of explaining a reason, but considering the book has been out for enough time for the T5 three book set to have included these revisions then the option could have been included. I am very surprised that no one in the 'inner circle' mentioned this to Marc during the revision process and playtest.
Perhaps if the Galaxiad ever sees the light of day such new rule variants will make it into there.
Or better still a supplement or two for T5 please
ShawnDriscoll
SOC-14 1K
Are you a system as setting person? You may have already figured out the problem.
What's the got to do with anything?
The point being that the SYSTEM does not support the SETTING portrayed.
The premise of the SYSTEM is as a large toolbox of, well, tools that may or may not be applied to a setting.
So, while T5 can be used for "science fiction roleplaying" it can not be used for "SFRP" in THIS setting with the system as is.
And it's a constant battle with authors stepping out of the system they ostensibly support with their fiction.
ShawnDriscoll
SOC-14 1K
You know what novelization means? Did you watch the interview? You do realize that you answered your problem you have with Agent already.
