Teralogos News 2101 Third Quarter

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
TM
2101, T
HIRD
Q
UARTER
TM
Written by PHIL MASTERS and JON F. ZEIGLER
Edited by PHIL MASTERS
Illustrated by MARCIO FIORITO
An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS
®
STEVE JACKSON GAMES
Stock #37-6710
®
Version 1.0 – March 2010
C
ONTENTS
Teralogos has obtained copies of
some of the documentation . . .
About
GURPS
Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of
GURPS
players. Our address is SJ Games, P.O. Box 18957,
Austin, TX 78760. Please include a self-addressed, stamped
envelope (SASE) any time you write us! We can also be
reached by e-mail:
info@sjgames.com
. Resources include:
New supplements and adventures.
GURPS
continues to
grow – see what’s new at
www.sjgames.com/gurps
.
e23.
Our e-publishing division offers
GURPS
adven-
tures, play aids, and support in PDF form . . . digital copies
of our books, plus exclusive material available only on e23!
Just head over to
e23.sjgames.com
.
Pyramid
(
www.sjgames.com/pyramid
). Our monthly
PDF magazine includes new rules and articles for
GURPS
,
systemless locations, adventures, and much more. Look for
each themed issue from e23!
Internet.
Visit us on the World Wide Web at
www.sjgames.com
for errata, updates, Q&A, and much
more. To discuss
GURPS
with our staff and your
fellow gamers, visit our forums at
forums.sjgames.com
.
The web page for
Transhuman Space: Teralogos News
is
at
www.sjgames.com/transhuman/teralogos
.
Bibliographies.
Many of our books have extensive bibli-
ographies, and we’re putting them online – with links to let
you buy the resources that interest you! Go to each book’s
web page and look for the “Bibliography” link.
Errata.
Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we
do our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata pages for all
GURPS
releases, including this book, are available on our
website – see above.
Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the
GURPS Basic Set,
Fourth Edition.
Page references that
begin with B refer to that book, not this one.
I
NTRODUCTION
Back in 2002-2003, the background for Steve Jackson
Games’
Transhuman Space
hard SF setting was expanded by
a series of reports from that solar system’s leading news source,
Teralogos News (
Fifth Wave,
p. 64), distributed through an
e-mail mailing list. Since then, this rich collection of setting
details, local color, and potential scenario seeds has only been
available in the form of a little-known raw text file.
So we’ve decided to do something about that. This is one of
four free PDF files that collect those reports.
The dates on each report are a bit of stylistic detail, related to
the real-world dates on which the posts were originally distrib-
uted. Don’t take them too seriously as setting canon; after all,
Transhuman Space
doesn’t have a fixed future or “metaplot.”
The incidents described in these reports can occur whenever
suits your own campaign.
– Phil Masters
A
BOUT THE
E
DITOR
Phil Masters is the author of
Transhuman Space:
Changing Times, Transhuman Space: Shell-Tech,
Transhuman Space: Personnel Files 1-5,
and a chapter in
Transhuman Space: High Frontier.
He has also worked on
countless other
GURPS
products, including
GURPS Castle
Falkenstein, The Discworld Roleplaying Game,
and
GURPS
Y2K,
and on products for other companies.
GURPS
System Design
STEVE JACKSON
GURPS
Line Editor
SEAN PUNCH
Transhuman Space
Line Editor
PHIL MASTERS
e23 Manager
STEVEN MARSH
Page Design
PHIL REED and JUSTIN DE WITT
Managing Editor
PHILIP REED
Assistant Managing Editor
MONICA STEPHENS
Art Director
WILL SCHOONOVER
Production Artist
NIKOLA VRTIS
Editorial Assistance
JASON LEVINE
Prepress Checker
WILL SCHOONOVER
Marketing Director
PAUL CHAPMAN
Director of Sales
ROSS JEPSON
GURPS
FAQ Maintainer
–––––––
VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO
I
NTRODUCTION
2
2101, T
HIRD
P
ARAHUMAN
G
ENETIC
T
EMPLATE
P
UBLISHED
SINGAPORE/Teralogos: July 1, 2101
PT Nusantara Biotek, a prominent Indonesian gengineer-
ing firm, has angered E.U. biotech corporations by publish-
ing the complete specification for its “Rama” parahuman
template. The document was quickly suppressed on the main
Web, but the specifications are apparently being widely dis-
tributed on TSA sites.
Aristos Designs of Athens, Greece has denounced the PT
Nusantara Biotek release. “The Rama template is directly
reverse-engineered from a number of genetic sequences for
which Aristos Designs holds exclusive patents,” said company
spokesman Johann Cornet. “The open publication of this tem-
plate is a bare-faced invitation to genetic piracy. We want the
European Union to act decisively with the WTO to tighten
sanctions on Indonesia as a deterrent toward future scofflaw
behavior from the nanosocialist nations.”
Teralogos has obtained copies of some of the documenta-
tion accompanying the Rama code. It claims that the Rama
design is significantly stronger and more dexterous than the
human baseline, and includes genetic sequences for vastly
improved night vision and hearing. Standard traits for
longevity and disease resistance have also been spliced into
the template.
me that they were all by Auguste Rodin − the
Kiss
to my left,
the
Burghers of Calais
to my right. It was impressive, if you like
that sort of thing. Me, I’m more of a Neo-Abstractionist fan.
I entered the house, and found another statue in the middle
of the central hall. I didn’t need a database to label this seated
figure, chin on hand.
Then the
Thinker
looked up, and that verdigris-green
face smiled. “Mr. Velasquez,” he said, “what do you think of
my home?”
“Very handsome,” I answered, “but why Victorian sculpture?”
He shrugged and stood up. (The muscles moved smoothly
but naturally under his metal skin, without ever losing the
sculpted effect. Good programming.) “A matter of physiology
and psychology,” he said. “Rodin understood instinctively how
the elements of human anatomy express what’s going on in the
mind inside. I’ve learned a lot about humanity from him, and
this is my tribute. It’s a copy of his house, actually. Please,
though − come and sit down.”
It turned out that one of the side rooms was set up for visi-
tors, and Eilard sat with incongruous delicacy on one of the
slender wooden chairs, and let his face slip back to pensiveness
as I sipped virtual coffee (lethally strong and black). “So,” he
said after a moment, “why did you want to talk to me?”
“It struck me that you might have an interesting opinion on
a question I’m supposed to be answering,” I replied.
“Which is?”
“Do you salvage specialists have a distinct sub-culture. That
is, is there a Vacuum Cleaner meme?”
For a moment, that bronze face remained a mask. Then,
Eilard threw back his head and roared with laughter. Just as
quickly, he stopped. “Me?” he said, “Because I’m an AI, you
mean?”
“Partly” I said. “And you’re relatively new up here. You may
have more impartial insights.”
He smiled again. “You want to know why my fellow sal-
vagers and debris blasters are so evasive on this subject?” he
asked. I nodded. “It’s not that they’re worried about memetic
warfare, or because they are becoming estranged from other
subcultures, or because they have any sort of phobia. It’s
because it would
spoil the joke,
Mr. Velasquez.”
Before I could ask more, he suddenly looked past me, back
into the hall. “I’m afraid we’ll have to continue this conversa-
tion later,” he said. “My crewmates wish to talk about work.”
– filed by Jon F. Zeigler
I
NTERVIEW
W
ITH A
T
HINKER
LAMMERGEYER STATION, LEO/Teralogos: July 7, 2101
Shortly after I arrived on Lammergeyer Station in LEO, the
admin AI called with an invitation to visit Eilard Gamma at
home. This was good; Eilard seemed to be one of the more
interesting of the Vacuum Cleaners, and I wanted to talk to
him. I’d heard he could be rather difficult, but his orbital sal-
vage ship, the
Tangente,
was in dock for the next few days, and
evidently he was interested by the message I’d sent him.
So I found myself in front of an elegant, slightly run-down
Parisian-style villa, standing in gardens full of dark evergreen
shrubs and bronze statues. My virtual interface’s database told
GURPS
, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.
Transhuman Space
,
Teralogos News, “2101, Third Quarter,”
Pyramid
, e23, and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated,
or used under license.
Transhuman Space: Teralogos News – 2101, Third Quarter
is copyright © 2010 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.
Some art © 2010 JupiterImages Corporation. All rights reserved.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this material via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal,
and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage
the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
T
ERALOGOS
N
EWS
: 2101, T
HIRD
Q
UARTER
3
Q
UARTER
 Following his gaze, I saw that there were now three other
people in the virtual house, their images flickering in that
annoying low-res way . . .
>>This is a free sample of one of our popular multi-modal
magazine items. For the rest of this story, including InVid and
Slinky uploads of interviews where available, please subscribe to
TNN-People.
For a full business/political analysis, subscribe to
TNN-MemeData.
<<
worse than slaves, for a slave has hope of liberation. We have
long since given up hope.”
Ismailov recited a litany of abuses attributed to the govern-
ment of Sergey Zarubayev, the dictator who has held power in
Kazakhstan since 2024, and been nicknamed
Stalinashka
by
his opponents. “Even among the regime’s Russian-descended
elite, there is no hope of privacy, one’s every word or action is
monitored,” said Ismailov. “Bioroid soldiers, ugly parodies of
human life grown in vats, patrol the streets night and day.
Death comes to any who speak out against the regime, or at
Stalinashka’s whim. Even in death there is no escape. Corpses
of the victims, robbed of their living brains and run by puppet
implants, return to us as Stalinashka’s hidden pawns.”
The European Parliament is scheduled to open debate
later this week on a resolution condemning “crimes against
humanity” in Kazakhstan, and to pass a new package of eco-
nomic sanctions against Zarubayev government. Ismailov
dismissed these moves, claiming that they have had little or
no effect on the regime, which continues to trade with neigh-
boring Russia. Instead, he called for military action to “liber-
ate” his home country.
– filed by Phil Masters
E
XILED
K
AZAKH
L
EADER
D
ENOUNCES
W
ORLD
C
OMMUNITY
STRASBOURG, France/Teralogos: July 14, 2101
Speaking before a rare plenary session of the European
Parliament, Kazakh resistance leader Olzhas Ismailov angrily
accused the world community of deliberate inaction in the face
of human-rights violations in his homeland.
“For decades, the Zarubayev regime has treated the Muslim
population of Kazakhstan as slaves,” said Ismailov. “Indeed, as
– filed by Jon F. Zeigler
STUCK FOR AN ADVENTURE? NO PROBLEM.
e23 sells high-quality game adventures
and supplements in PDF format.
Get complete sample adventures free for
GURPS
,
In Nomine
, and
Traveller
!
PDFs from the major players in online publishing: Ronin Arts, Ken Hite,
Atlas Games, and 01 Games.
New gems from up-and-coming publishers, like Atomic Sock Monkey Press
and Expeditious Retreat Press.
Digital editions of out-of-print classics, from
Orcslayer
and the complete
run of
ADQ
to
GURPS China
and
GURPS Ice Age
.
Fully searchable files of
GURPS
Fourth Edition
supplements.
Original material for
Transhuman Space
and
In Nomine
, with new
GURPS
supplements from Sean Punch, William Stoddard, David Pulver,
and Phil Masters!
STEVE JACKSON GAMES
Buy it once, have it always. Download your purchases again whenever you
need to.
e23.sjgames.com
Download Print Play
STEVE JACKSON GAMES
e23 is part of Warehouse 23, the online store at Steve Jackson Games. Warehouse 23 is also the official Internet retailer for Dork Storm Press,
Atlas Games, and many other publishers. Visit us today at
www.warehouse23.com
for all your game STUFF!
T
ERALOGOS
N
EWS
: 2101, T
HIRD
Q
UARTER
4
  [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]