MetaCyber

Technology
The Net	History	Game Mechanics	GM Notes

Game Mechanics of the NET

TERMINAL

A Terminal has a trusted connection to the NET enabling it to nearly instantly communicate to any other Terminal or any Computer connected to a Terminal worldwide. This is defined as a Mind Link. In this case the NET is considered to be a single entity. Additionally, the Mind Link is defined as being able to affect both Machine and Human Minds, representing the ability of the NET to communicate neurally-parseable data to human users connected to a Terminal.

Trusted NET Connection: Mind Link, Machine and Human Minds, Any Terminal On The NET, Global (40 Active Points); OIF Immobile (Terminal, -1 1/2); Real Cost: 16 Points

COMPUTER LINK TO MIND LINK

To connect to a Terminal requires the Computer being connected, or in the case of a person using a Brainjack or VR Goggles to connect directly to the Terminal the user themselves, to have a Computer Link at the 10 point level.

Once connected to the Terminal via the Computer Link a person can then benefit from the Terminals trusted connection with the NET.

MINDSCAPE

The ability of the NET to provide content that is tangible to any or all Human senses is referred to collectively as "Mindscaping", and discrete content is called a "Mindscape".

Mechanically Mindscape effects are modeled via a special use of the Mental Illusion Power. To provide a Mindscape to a user both the content source and the Terminal the user is connected to must have a Power Construct built with the Mental Illusions Power.

The content provider, usually a NetNode but sometimes a standalone piece of software, has a Mental Illusions Power Construct that defines what it is capable of projecting, and the Terminal has a Mental Illusions Power Construct (called a Neural Mindscape Simulator, or NMS) that defines what it is capable of displaying to the user.

The effect level attainable by these constructs determines the quality of the Mindscape, and the quality cannot exceed the poorest resolution of the two Mental Illusions. Thus if a content provider offers a richly detailed and fully immersive Mindscape (i.e. a Mental Illusion with high dice of effect), a user connected via a Terminal with a poor quality NMS (i.e. a Mental Illusion with low dice of effect) can only enjoy as much of it as the Terminal supports.

Conversely a user connected to the best Terminal in the world accessing a content provider with a poor quality Mindscape (i.e. a Mental Illusion with low dice of effect) would not have a better experience than a user on a mediocre Terminal because the Mindscape itself is lo quality.

NOTE: This is similar to playing a CD. If you put a clean highly mastered digital CD into the best sound system in the world you'll get a great sound. If you put the same CD in a crappy boom box you get poor sound. Conversely if you put a lo-fi analog to digital remastered CD with poor mixing into the best sound system in the world, it doesn't sound any better than if you put the CD into the crappy boom box. When considering content and media you always get the lower quality of the two, whether that be the content itself or the system playing it.

NEURALLY ENABLED CONTENT (NEC)

Neurally Enabled Content is any content made available via the NET that is capable of transmitting data that is parseable in such a way that it stimulates the Human brain with false sensory stimuli. In other words, data that allows a user to participate in a virtual reality.

Conceptually NEC is programmed content, but mechanically it is represented with the Mental Illusion Power. A Mindscape is designed to impart a specific sort of experience to a user, ranging from interactive games to virtual locales, and other more esoteric uses. However, once a person is participating with a Mindscape technically speaking the nature of the content could be changed on the fly by a moderator or by design of the providing software. Thus the following constructs don't take a "Only for X Content" Limitation; this also allows the build to be used interchangeably which is convenient.

The following examples represent typical levels of Mindscape quality, but as this technology is over four decades old and produced world wide, there is a lot of room for variation.

Basic Mindscape: Mental Illusions 6d6 (standard effect: 18 points) (Human class of minds), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Continuous (Breakout Roll Does Not Degrade) (+1) (75 Active Points); Brainjack or VR Goggles Contact Required (Constant Power requires contact throughout use; -1), Only Available Via The NET (-1), Stops Working If Provider Is Disrupted (-1/2); Real Cost: 21 Points

Improved Mindscape: Mental Illusions 10d6 (standard effect: 30 points) (Human class of minds), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Continuous (Breakout Roll Does Not Degrade) (+1) (125 Active Points); Brainjack or VR Goggles Contact Required (Constant Power requires contact throughout use; -1), Only Available Via The NET (-1), Stops Working If Provider Is Disrupted (-1/2); Real Cost: 36 Points

Immersive Mindscape: Mental Illusions 10d6 (standard effect: 30 points) (Human class of minds), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Cumulative (up to 60 effect, +1/2), Continuous (Breakout Roll Does Not Degrade) (+1) (150 Active Points); Brainjack or VR Goggles Contact Required (Constant Power requires contact throughout use; -1), Only Available Via The NET (-1), Stops Working If Provider Is Disrupted (-1/2); Real Cost: 43 Points

The above Power Constructs provide for an individual to experience a Mindscape, but most Mindscapes are multi-user, allowing multiple people to experience the same Mindscape and also to interact individually, cooperatively, and oppositionally within it.

For this to be possible, the content provider must also include a Neural Relay Enabler (NRE), which is represented as a Naked Power Advantage applying Area of Effect (One Hex) to the Mental Illusion Power, as illustrated below.

AoE (One Hex) is used because AoE is needed to enable a shared Mental Illusion via the rules, but since space is irrelevant within the content of people connecting to a content provider via the NET, there is no reason to require AoE (Radius) or some other variety of AoE more expensive than AoE (One Hex).

NOTE: How many minds fit into a hex is kind of the HERO equivalent of angels and pin heads, so it is assumed an infinite number of minds can fit into that "hex" and benefit from the Mental Illusion.

Neural Relay Enabler (Basic): Area Of Effect (up to One Hex; +1/2) for up to 75 Active Points of Mental Illusions, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (112 Active Points); Only Available Via The NET (-1); Real Cost: 27 Points

Neural Relay Enabler (Improved): Area Of Effect (up to One Hex; +1/2) for up to 125 Active Points of Mental Illusions, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (112 Active Points); Only Available Via The NET (-1); Real Cost: 46 Points

Neural Relay Enabler (Immersive): Area Of Effect (up to One Hex; +1/2) for up to 150 Active Points of Mental Illusions, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (112 Active Points); Only Available Via The NET (-1); Real Cost: 56 Points

NEURAL MINDSCAPE SIMULATOR (NMS)

The Terminal a user is connected to accepts NEC feeds and attempts to render the Mindscape they represent, to the extend that the Neural Mindscape Simulator the Terminal is equipped with can handle. Older and budget models, including many Public Terminals, have a limited ability to do this, but more advanced / expensive models such as those found in respectable domiciles are much better and are able to achieve higher quality verisimilitude up to total immersion.

Mechanically, the NMS is also represented as a Mental Illusion Power Construct. The following examples represent typical levels of quality, but as this technology is over four decades old and produced world wide, there is a lot of room for variation.

Basic NMS: Mental Illusions 6d6 (standard effect: 18 points) (Human class of minds), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Continuous (Breakout Roll Does Not Degrade) (+1) (75 Active Points); OIF Immobile (Terminal, -1 1/2), Brainjack or VR Goggles Contact Required (Constant Power requires contact throughout use; -1), Stops Working If Terminal Disrupted (-1/2), Can Only Generate Mindscape Via NET Content (-1/4); Real Cost: 18 Points

Improved NMS: Mental Illusions 10d6 (standard effect: 30 points) (Human class of minds), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Continuous (Breakout Roll Does Not Degrade) (+1) (150 Active Points); OIF Immobile (Terminal, -1 1/2), Brainjack or VR Goggles Contact Required (Constant Power requires contact throughout use; -1), Stops Working If Terminal Disrupted (-1/2), Can Only Generate Mindscape Via NET Content (-1/4); Real Cost: 29 Points

Immersive NMS: Mental Illusions 10d6 (standard effect: 30 points) (Human class of minds), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Cumulative (up to 60 effect; +1/2), Continuous (Breakout Roll Does Not Degrade) (+1) (150 Active Points); OIF Immobile (Terminal, -1 1/2), Brainjack or VR Goggles Contact Required (Constant Power requires contact throughout use; -1), Stops Working If Terminal Disrupted (-1/2), Can Only Generate Mindscape Via NET Content (-1/4); Real Cost: 35 Points

AVATARS

In most interactive Mindscapes, users are represented to other users via a form of some sort, referred to as an Avatar. This is a concept that is easy to understand; anyone that has ever played an 3rd person video game has used an Avatar before -- whatever the game used to represent the player's character in the game was in effect their Avatar.

In theory a user's Avatar can be whatever they want it to be, but in practice many Mindscapes have their own rules regarding what constitutes acceptable avatars. This is used for a variety of purposes ranging from verisimilitude in immersive Mindscapes (i.e. in a Hyborean Age interactive game, allowing people to move around looking like futuristic space marines would disrupt the game for many) to the design aesthetics of a Mindscape's designers, and everything in between.