GURPSnet-Digest Tuesday, January 28 2003 Volume 04 : Number 3770 In this issue: Brain Lice and Plot Block RE: Brain Lice and Plot Block Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Re: Resisted Spells Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Re: Resisted Spells Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Stealth paint??? Lice Attack [VEHICLE] of the week 431 - a TL4 Pirate Ship [ADMIN] Goodbye, Registry... See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the GURPSnet-L or GURPSnet-Digest mailing lists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 11:17:18 -0500 From: Emily Smirle Subject: Brain Lice and Plot Block The Scene: This Year, in the city of New Gothamopolis (a large port city in an unnamed state). Campeign style: cinematic, campeign tone: grim conspiracy blended with frantic action and paranoid investigation. Premise: a secret world of creatures unknown outside the tabloids exists within and under modern society. There are "CHUD's" in the sewers and goblin creatures in the alleys. Psionics are real, as the PCs found out last session to their horror. Elements of the unnatural are hard to spot by the unknowing populace however; the unwashed masses are covered by a protective blanket of ignorance from the true situation. When a normal person sees one of these elements of the abnormal they tend to rationalize it away or out-right halucinate a more plausible situation. Small or reasonably normal looking creatures are seen as an element of the mundane world (instead of seeing a sewer-dwelling aligator man they see a wrinkled and deranged wino. instead of seeing a slavering six legged mini-devourer, they see one of the notorious New Gothamopolis sewer rats). No large or completely monstrous creatures have so far surfaced. The Cast: 1 former canadian TV personality (political commentary moderator), moved to the US for a brief career on CNN before backsliding into obscurity. Heavy on social skills and charisma and trained as lawyer, light on organizational ability. 1 knowledge/science specialist, heavy on scientific skills and hacking/computer use. Character is lacking personality development at this juncture (player is mostly attending to be with boyfriend). 1 kenjutsuka, sevearly in debt to the mob after borrowing a lot of money for a new Dukati racing bike. Currently subletting from squatters. Melee combat oriented, more or less disfunctional in society proper. Cautious. 1 former getaway driver, low level thug, and general criminal. Strongarm, generalist. Specializes in HT, Very Fit, Toughness, and High Pain Threshold. Not so much a combat character as an intimidating meat shield. Comfortable in the underworld; prone to hysteria. 1 survivalist/part-time hitman, currently semi-retired and keeping a low profile. The Link: All five characters are member of an organization known as Department 13, a shadowy organization that's essentially a *very* toned down version of the Shop from Black Ops. The three criminal characters are being sheltered by Department 13 in exchange for the use of their specific skills. Haven't established yet why the lawyer and scientist are working with Dep 13 (players are still thinking). Department 13 has been operating for only the past five years; it is a quiet organization, officially extragovernmental. Department operatives recieve their pay checks from private corporations for consulting work appropraite to their job skills (mostly in the field of "security"). Dep 13's mandate is to protect America (and ultimately humanity) from the hidden threats it cannot percieve. It takes the stance of negotiation or containment where possible as actual combat is a bit high profile. The Situation: Last Session Dep 13 began action on an emerging pattern of strange behavior in the DA's office and possibly in certain corporate organizations. The big issue is that the DA's office has been lax in pressing procecution on cases ranging from minor crimes like tresspassing through white collar embezzelment to issues like theft and breakins, even when evendence was good. The wierd thing is the erraticness of this "softness". The party was assigned the responsibility of investigating and reporting back on the cause; current working theory was that a new species of critter had somehow worked its way into society. The party investigated those who'd been let off, and the lawyer character approached one accused and offered to represent him in a wrongful-arrest suit. The long and the short of it was that two out of five party members ended up infected with a parasitic organism affectionately dubbed "Brain Lice" by the group. The Lice are telepathic but nonsentient; Lice are capable of using their hosts brains to think. An infested host is essentially the same person, except with the added disadvantage Fanatisim: Brain Lice. The party ended up split up into two groups of uninfected pcs, and the group of infected PCs, with the uninfected groups interacting with the infected and independantly realizing that the other PCs were under the influence of Something. A frantic chase sequence and bit of dedicated roleplaying later, the entire party ended up quarentined in Department 13 until they could be decontaminated. An infected person can be sedated, and the seditives transfer to the parasite, also knocking it out. They are working on a pesticide that affects the parasite directly as well. The parasites can communicate with each other with simple emotional messages at a range of about 3 yards. At the same range a parasite can attempt to paralize an individual, an action which if successful is followed up by transferring to the new host and attempting to control its mind. The situation as it stands is that Dep 13 is now aware of this new problem, and no-one else is. Unbeknownst to both Dep 13 and the public, an investigation into the irregularities in the DA's office has begun, but unless someone on the investigating team can actually spot the "lice" (which are actually 4 inch long translucent tick-like critters, but most mundanes don't see anything) they're most likely to just spread the infestation. A host can support more than one parasite at a time, but multiple parasites strain the hosts system. Beyond about four organisms a human-sized host starts getting sick. The bugs reproduce slowly, but there's a good colony amongst the clerks in the DAs office; they're using their position to keep infected people out in society, and to infect inteligent people who pass through the court system. The colony is now aware that an outside agency has discovered it, but it so far believes that Dep 13 is just the 5 PCs and it doesn't know their identities. where on earth can I take this? I've realized with the size of the infestation I've created a recurring enemy for my campeign, which is cool. However, I'm not sure how to *contain* the infestation. I can definitely accept a certain ammount of handwavium (the lice need some mineral only readily available in the New Gothamopolis water supply to maintain their psionic abilities, or some such thing) but I'm having trouble seeing what's going to prevent the lice from totally controling New Gothamopolis after a few months. Also, I need to do something with the PCs this sunday, and I'm suffering GMs block. :( Any ideas? - -- Let the sun never blind your eyes Let me sleep so my teeth won't grind -- "Grind", Hear a sound from a voice inside Alice in Chains ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 09:53:27 -0700 From: "Samir" Subject: RE: Brain Lice and Plot Block Dept 13 can come up with a limited supply 'bug bomb' grenade which can fill a room rapidly (maybe up to 60 sq feet at a time, but has an incredibly short potentency life span), arm the PC's and let them run rampant through the DA's office (avoiding the police, if they can). They would have to time their attack to try for as many as possible at one time, then later they would have to hunt down the cells of infestations in the city, maybe they can develop contacts among the freed hosts who can provide them with the names of the other infested criminal elements, who maybe aware that the PC's have a useful weapon against them. So in this manner the PC's have helped clear part of the city, but not the reoccurring enemies. Maybe the PC's can score huge successes against the lice. Reducing the number of infestations to less then critical, maybe the bug bomb causes serious illness/injury, so its use is limited. where on earth can I take this? I've realized with the size of the infestation I've created a recurring enemy for my campeign, which is cool. However, I'm not sure how to *contain* the infestation. I can definitely accept a certain ammount of handwavium (the lice need some mineral only readily available in the New Gothamopolis water supply to maintain their psionic abilities, or some such thing) but I'm having trouble seeing what's going to prevent the lice from totally controling New Gothamopolis after a few months. Also, I need to do something with the PCs this sunday, and I'm suffering GMs block. :( Any ideas? - -- Let the sun never blind your eyes Let me sleep so my teeth won't grind -- "Grind", Hear a sound from a voice inside Alice in Chains ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 11:04:02 -0600 (CST) From: Bret Indrelee Subject: Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block On Fri, 24 Jan 2003, Emily Smirle wrote: [ snip ] > The situation as it stands is that Dep 13 is now aware of this new > problem, and no-one else is. Unbeknownst to both Dep 13 and the public, > an investigation into the irregularities in the DA's office has begun, > but unless someone on the investigating team can actually spot the > "lice" (which are actually 4 inch long translucent tick-like critters, > but most mundanes don't see anything) they're most likely to just spread > the infestation. > > A host can support more than one parasite at a time, but multiple > parasites strain the hosts system. Beyond about four organisms a > human-sized host starts getting sick. The bugs reproduce slowly, but > there's a good colony amongst the clerks in the DAs office; they're > using their position to keep infected people out in society, and to > infect inteligent people who pass through the court system. The colony > is now aware that an outside agency has discovered it, but it so far > believes that Dep 13 is just the 5 PCs and it doesn't know their identities. > > where on earth can I take this? First step: Make some people 'immune' to the lice. Maybe it is the brand of hair spray they use, maybe it is something they eat, right now leave it sligthly open. Have one of the immune people on the investigating committee, now the players have to find the person (who has probably gone slightly paranoid) and determine what it is about them that is unique. Steal liberally from China Syndrome and The Puppet Masters. Listen to the PC conversations, if they come up with a really cool idea of why the person is immune, steal it. > I've realized with the size of the infestation I've created a recurring > enemy for my campeign, which is cool. However, I'm not sure how to > *contain* the infestation. I can definitely accept a certain ammount of > handwavium (the lice need some mineral only readily available in the New > Gothamopolis water supply to maintain their psionic abilities, or some > such thing) but I'm having trouble seeing what's going to prevent the > lice from totally controling New Gothamopolis after a few months. Where did the lice come from? Do they feed on emotions or anything like that? How easy is it for them to infect a new host? If nothing else, some of the other nasty critters aren't going to like all the mundanes under the lice's control. It is possible to set it up so that the PCs are getting aid (although probably not quite in the way they would like) from other psionic creatures. It is possible that the creatures themselves are also going slow, so as to not overcrowd the city. Maybe the creatures don't really like being closely packed. > Also, I need to do something with the PCs this sunday, and I'm suffering > GMs block. :( > > Any ideas? I hope that Department 13 is doing a cleaning operation within their own ranks. It would be bad to have your boss under the control of the creatures you are supposed to fight. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bret Indrelee | "Unleash the baby ducks." bret@io.com | www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=020522 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 12:14:14 -0500 From: Emily Smirle Subject: Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Bret Indrelee wrote: > On Fri, 24 Jan 2003, Emily Smirle wrote: >>where on earth can I take this? > > First step: > > Make some people 'immune' to the lice. Maybe it is the brand of hair spray > they use, maybe it is something they eat, right now leave it sligthly > open. Have one of the immune people on the investigating committee, now > the players have to find the person (who has probably gone slightly > paranoid) and determine what it is about them that is unique. Ooooooooh. That's a nice point. *scribble scribble* > Steal liberally from China Syndrome and The Puppet Masters. Listen to the > PC conversations, if they come up with a really cool idea of why the > person is immune, steal it. I find this Rule One of GMing. Mine the players for ideas. Take notes when people say things, and work on their ideas at a later time. It gives players a nice feeling of being "in" on the "big plot" when two sessions down the road their initial suspicion seems confirmed... > Where did the lice come from? Do they feed on emotions or anything like > that? How easy is it for them to infect a new host? Haven't established the source of the lice, although I'm having fun with the idea of mixing in someone creating or having created the damn things. They feed on the hosts blood for the most part; the psionic link is a survival mechanism to prevent the host from attempting to groom the parasites off of itself. Infection requires the host to fail to resist the paralization attempt (resisted will vs parasite will of 12-14 depending on the age of the bug) and then fail the posession roll (same deal). So, hardly irresistable, but still quite possible. > If nothing else, some of the other nasty critters aren't going to like all > the mundanes under the lice's control. It is possible to set it up so > that the PCs are getting aid (although probably not quite in the way they > would like) from other psionic creatures. Oooh. Now that's another good idea for upcoming sessions. > It is possible that the creatures themselves are also going slow, so as to > not overcrowd the city. Maybe the creatures don't really like being > closely packed. I'm keeping the breeding rate down, although they have a good option for mobbing someone if they really need to infect them: one or two hosts carrying a lot of parasites at once approach the victim, and let the excess bugs mass-attack. >>Also, I need to do something with the PCs this sunday, and I'm suffering >>GMs block. :( >> >>Any ideas? > > > I hope that Department 13 is doing a cleaning operation within their own > ranks. It would be bad to have your boss under the control of the > creatures you are supposed to fight. Officially anyone who's come in contact with the PCs or the DA's office is being decontaminated immediately, and an allert to symptoms of brain lice infestation has been posted internally. However, unless the PCs personally investigate every member of the organization to confirm, they'll never Be Sure... mwah. Mwhaha. Mwhahahahahah. - -- Let the sun never blind your eyes Let me sleep so my teeth won't grind -- "Grind", Hear a sound from a voice inside Alice in Chains ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 11:45:48 -0600 From: Jeff Wilson Subject: Re: Resisted Spells > From: Thomas Ackermann > The problem is, that i see GURPS Magic and Grimoire as *completely* > unbalanced at best! > That whole construction is such arbritrary, that i sometime cannot > believe that itīs from the same people who made GURPS core rules, that > sometimes even shine ... I will not argue the case on Grimoire, but Magic is not nearly as bad. > That whole construction is such arbritrary, that i sometime cannot > believe that itīs from the same people who made GURPS core rules, that > sometimes even shine ... It has to be somewhat arbitrary, as there were no actual spells available to be cast for research. However, most groups of similar spells are handled in a consistent fashion. > On one side, mages are under such strong control, that it is just to > fun to play one. Image all that Spell Throwing spells. > 3 turn to get damage that will be able to do damage to a armored knight > or a dragon or even only a door, then aiming. With a mage who has never > such a great DX, he need increadible much points to get some decent skill- > level. Even with that, he will be better to aim four full turn ... > That is already *seven* turn in a combat situation. Then the target can > block or dodge ... > My mage--player already gave up on that topic! Why should mages be able to compete with dragons and armored knights for damage dealing capacity and accuracy? If the mage can do it, what's the knight for? As it is, Magic has spells that completely step all over a thief/rogue's prerogatives. > With the *right* options, no 100, 150, 200 or 300 points mage should > be able to do "incredible" mighty things. But mages with 500, 1000 or > if your wish 10000 points should be able to protect or enclose a city > or even country with a forcefield! Of course, i would not realy > need all of that, but i would like to have *rules* for that! YOu say below you've looked at GURPS MYTH and GURPS MAGE THE ASCENSION; both books would let you do most of this. > I also have Magic Items 1 and 2. Instead of more rules to create things, > they give mostly interesting MI, that can never be reproduced, whoīs spells > are never given as explanation (that would realy add to GURPS Magic!) You apparently overlooked them in Grimoire. However, you should pick up MI3 next month, as it =does= have new, quicker enchantment rules. > Also, ever tried to make a cleric, a priest who can *revive* a dead > person? If i recall correctly, that needs 500 energy. Very High Mana > or Very High Sanctity is not what may be needed (when you need to do > it right now and in Normal Mana ...), but does not help anyway. No, a > mage would need 5 4 companions and 5 times 100-point powerstones to > do that. Great! Thatīs not my imagination ... > Or a way that a mage just getīs through opposition, instead of just > 46 percent with skill-15000 against resistance-16. Thatīs just nonsense > in my eyes. There is no need to allow that to ordinary mages, but there > should be a way to enabled that kind of games! > For example, the funny little spell Aportation. > Get a bit distance from mostly any character, try your roll, maybe > need to try a second time (but normaly not more), and you have him under > control for 60 seconds, that is 60 meters, that is 50d-50, that is 125 > points of damage - enough to automaticall kill a HT 20 character. Apportation is a resisted spell also, so which is it? Too reliable a killer, or not reliable a killer? > Oh yes, of course the one or opther character could be design to > avoid that. But *my* two fighter-characters and a cleric are a bit > pissed off from such spells. Ahh, for example "Enlarge" again ... > Oh, my god! Given Fatigue - and to be able to do at least a bit things > at the lowpowered spells - then also enables you to be a god for a > short time and destroy complete cities ... I find it hard to believe you could destroy a city before someone managed to cripple a leg with fire or hitting it with a cart. And the bigger you are, the farther you fall, and Enlarge does not give you extra hit points; at more than a few multiples of size, you'd fall and kill yourself when you hit. > Or, Teleport Other, or Levitation, or, or, or I thought you said resisted spells were not reliable at only a 46% chance of success? > Things are just not *balanced* in GURPS magic! Some are incredible weak > and other are incredible stronh. I just donīt have time and energy > to sort the spells, discuss with my players, then discover the next problem > and so on. There are thousands of people who manage to have fun with them without spending copious amounts of time pouring over them; maybe you're going about it the wrong way. > I even tried that several times, combining ideas from GURPS Magic, > Improvised Magic, Rune Magic, Ritual/Spiritual Magic, Magic from > GURPS Myth and GURPS Celtic Myths(?), Mage the Ascension, SOSī Magic > System, FUDGE Magic incl. Magical Medley, D&D Magic and even The primal > Order. > I could add more ideas, examples and wishes, but that just needs to much > time and will finally not help. GURPS is already too good for me and i > will not change to another system, maybe that is what makes me so unhappy. Yes; trying the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different result will usually be very frustrating. - -- Jeff Wilson How Am I Posting? 1-800-555-6789 "If your SecOp can see you, so can the enemy." -Cpt Law ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 18:58:27 +0100 (MEZ) From: Johannes Trimmel Subject: Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block There could be a predator who feeds on brain lice. Maybee some sort of bat, many people frear that bats get entangled in ones hair though other then them hunting lice there is little reason why they should ever get there. This might be the source of that rumor. If this is some freak mutation (like albinism) for ordinary bats, brainlice start building a large population, and shortly afterwards there are freak bats who land on peoples hads for a short time. The pcs might witness how such a bat is killed by a louse host, can analyze what it does and search for more such bats to bring them here. Brain lice might be state building animals. They have some queen they need to feed, and care for the eggs and due to that save for sending out a few explorers to build new colonies they are mostly interested to stay close to their queen. The pcs trace down and kill the queen and then have to deal with whatever hosts of frightened and deeply disturbed queenless lice do. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Better a solution that makes the problem worse then no solution at all. Johannes Trimmel ++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 12:03:07 -0600 From: Jeff Wilson Subject: Re: Resisted Spells > From: Daniel Arbelo >> This is the official line for 3rd edition: the preparation done every >> morning by a spell caster is actually the majority of the spell casting >> effort. You then "hang" the spell untill you need it, and complete the >> incantation and rituals to seal the effect and activate the magic. You >> can hang only so many spells at once before loosing concentration, thus >> the "spell slots". > > > So, they are Logrus sorcerers :) Sort of, both traditions are 3rd generation versions of Jack Vance's original idea. - -- Jeff Wilson How Am I Posting? 1-800-555-6789 "If your SecOp can see you, so can the enemy." -Cpt Law ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 17:00:55 -0200 From: Bira Subject: Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block > where on earth can I take this? I found all of this very cool... As for where to go from your current position, you make the PCs find a way to infiltrate the office/colony without being infected, so that they can gather more information on the lice and create that pesticide. How advanced is the "tech" of Department 13? Do they use only modern TL7/8 equipment or do they have access to some magic or psionic techniques? If they do, perhaps "lice dummies" could be created that look exactly like Brain Lice and give off (mostly) the same psionic signals to their "fellows", but don't affect the character's behaviour. This might let your players infiltrate the DA's office with the excuse that they've all been infected, and go trough some mighty tense moments as they try to keep their cover form being blown. If the Brain Lice aren't in contact with each other all the time, they can have more tense moments by attacking the hosts while they're isolated and removing the lice by hand until a better solotion is found... How fast to they reproduce? - -- Bira http://www.shadowlandbr.hpg.com.br ou http://www24.brinkster.com/shadowlandbr/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 14:06:33 EST From: SWLapinsky@aol.com Subject: Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Sounds like a really cool campaign... I've been trying to suggest a toned down Black Ops campaign to my players, but (as yet) they don't seem interested. Depending on the group, one option would be to have some sort of really nasty disease or nerve gas affect the bugs fatally... but it also has a 1-5% fatality in human populations. Moral dilemma time. Infecting/dusting the city will wipe out the infestation -- but also kill a number of innocents. OTOH, you could just "hit" those people whom you know are infected, suffer far fewer casualities, and not know for certain whether or not you succeeded in stopping the brain lice. - - Stephen Lapinsky "Freedom tempered by responsibility." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 16:42:28 -0600 From: "Geoffrey Fagan" Subject: Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block Mind Control parasites whose only instruction is Be Nice To Lice. Sounds like some mad scientist was trying to create a utopia - once everyone is infected, the Golden Rule will prevail. Sure, right now DA's are going easy on criminals, but soon the crooks will start going easy on their victims. Of course, it could be that Be Nice To Lice is just the default instruction, and the bugs are quietly waiting for instructions from the master control. So all the PCs would have to do is find the master and tell the bugs to bug off - 'til some Dept 13 bureaucrat with a supply of lice and the master control realizes how he can secure more funding for the good work y'all do. In nature, most populations are kept in check by a natural enemy. So, to get rid of Monster #1, just bring in Monster #2. That might pose a bit of a moral dilemma, though. The brain lice could be their own natural enemy. Once they reach a certain population, they break into tribes and start fighting each other. Last week, the DA went easy on the crook. These week, he shot the bastard at the courthouse right in front of the bailiff. Just to make it interesting, why not combine these ideas? Mad Scientist creates his utopian Brain Lice, not realizing they have a flaw: Once they reach a certain population, they turn on each other. Instead of Utopia, you get a very bloody anarchy. So he goes back to the drawing to find a way to control them, but a colleague stumbles across his notes and kills him, planning to finish his project to control the bugs and use it for nefarious purposes. (If worse comes to worse, the original stock of bugs does have a natural enemy that would feed on the brain lice, too.) In walks a clue: The PCs are approached by the grad student who worked with the mad scientist - a little chubby, a little scruffy, and a little short on cash. He's totally out of his depth with the villain chasing him, because he made off with the notes while the villain just got the mad scientist's grocery list by accident. In fact, the grad student killed his boss (and if the PCs find out he'll explain that he was under the control of brain lice). Once Dept 13 uses the scientist's notes to crack the secret of controlling them, the harmless-lookin grad student will take over the world. Mwahaha. GEF PS: The most obvious way to take out the parasites wwithout harming the hosts is with a telepathic shout or Anti-psi scream - if you can find a talented individual who can do that. It'll hurt the psionic lice but not their non-psionic hosts, except for a bit of bleed through. Dept 13 may be able to find other things that'll hurt the bugs. Dehydration might be a good way to go, and if the things are transparent, their outards don't protect their innards from radiation. Even UV might kill 'em (or cause 'em to mutate). _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 20:07:51 -0800 (PST) From: Cybrludite Subject: Re: Brain Lice and Plot Block - --- Emily Smirle wrote: >Also, I need to do something with the PCs this sunday, >and I'm suffering GMs block. :( > >Any ideas? Just go with "Chandler's Law": If the story drags, have two men with guns burst into the room. ===== Jon rm -rf /bin/laden __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 01:12:27 -0500 (EST) From: hal@buffnet.net Subject: Stealth paint??? http://www.strategypage.com/fyeo/howtomakewar/default.asp?target=HTCBTSP.HTM Take a look at the JAN 22nd entry on this web page... Interesting no? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 12:08:11 -0500 From: Emily Smirle Subject: Lice Attack So I have a group of four players coming over in two hours (the survivalist/assasin is working today) and I actually have the sketchy outlines of Plot! woot! Thanks to everyone who's written back, I'm mining you all for ideas. ;) Origins of the Brain Lice: Mad scientist attempts to create a mechanism to make everyone be good to each other. During his experiments he stumbles upon the "ignorance effect", though he chalks it up to psionic invisibility generated by the lice. Lice are a hive organism, with one moderatly inteligent member (the queen) and swarms of drones (regular lice). Default instinct is passive protection with the secondary impulse to spread the infestation. When the collony grows large enough, however, the queen will produce breeding individuals. Like ants, separate colonies of lice will end up in armed conflict. Like ants, it will take about a year of infestation to reach this "critical mass", and probably another month for the new colony to begin to interact with the old one. We are currently six months into the lifespan of the original colony, giving us seven months before the real wierdness breaks out. The original scientist never knew about the critical mass issue (being mad, he didn't think that far into the future). He will shortly be assasinated by a mysterious person or persons unknown. was it the lice defending themselves? was it an academic rival? was it an evil corporation planing the worlds greatest marketing scheme? was it another monster offended at all the psionic noise he'd unleashed? Who knows! A hive can be manipulated through the hive mother (a 20 pound critter the size and rough shape of a big lobster - this is bad for your red blood cell count people). So far no-one has discovered this fact, but perusal of the scientists soon-to-be-missing notes might uncover this detail. The lice were orriginally released through soup kitchens and mens shelters (in the scientists oppinion it was the "degenerate lower classes" that needed niceifying the most). Through the homeless they filtered their way into criminal segments as well as the working poor. From the street hoods they worked their way into the court system (~2 months ago) and have actually made moderate inroads into the police as well. Outside World Reacts: There has been an investigation into the increasingly frequent irregularities in the DA's office going on for the past three weeks. Media commentators have also been sniping merrily away at the office; the local politicians have noticed a decline in arrests. The mayor is using this to prove that crime rates are going down, the opposition is using this to prove that the police are getting sloppy under the current administration and is calling for reforms. So far there has been no internal investigation in the cops. The investigation team is now completely infected, with the exception of one individual who is confused and just about ready to spend the rest of his life hiding in his basement. He's getting ready to run screaming to the pressess about "conspiracy, bribery, brainwashing, and deeply rooted corruption", except that every time he sees one of his co-workers he gets this gawd awful headache and a nasty crawling sensation in his nervous system. Department 13 Dep 13 has a bug spray for the parasites, and sedating the host causes the bugs to drop off. Current plan is staging a fake terrorist attack to saturate the DA's office with the bug spray and then darting everyone who was missed (when they're at home) with a sedative and hand collecting the bugs. I'm going to encourage the mad scientist to try and work on something a little more subtle. I've decided that UV will stun the little monsters long enough for them to drop off and get "accidentally" stepped on if people time it right. Implementation ideas range from replacing all the lights in the DA's office with full spectrum tubes to making high-UV "flashbulbs" for cameras and having "paperazzi" attack them. Dep 13 has no idea how big the infestation is yet. I'm going for having the PCs discover that they only have the tip of the iceberg in a few weeks. Mweheheh. - -- Let the sun never blind your eyes Let me sleep so my teeth won't grind -- "Grind", Hear a sound from a voice inside Alice in Chains ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 08:10:40 +0100 (MET) From: "Onno Meyer" Subject: [VEHICLE] of the week 431 - a TL4 Pirate Ship This is a weekly posting with GURPS vehicles (and the like) to the GURPSnet mailing list. I grant the permission for all non-commercial redistribution of my work, but I would like to know if you put it on a website or the like. With a slight delay, old vehicles appear at http://gurpsnet.sjgames.com/Archive/Vehicles/Collections/ and http://www.geocities.com/copeab/VOTW.html Onno Meyer, 1/2003 Pirate Brig v1.0 (TL4) Copyright 2003 by Onno Meyer Many historical pirate ships were rather small, like this two-masted brig. It is a former merchantman, now carrying a large crew, more guns and extra provisions instead of cargo. 60 pirates are required to sail the brig and to fire both broadsides. Another 40 men are carried as boarding parties and prize crews, and it is always possible to sling a few more hammocks in the hold. The brig features a waterproof hull. Subassemblies: Body +8, two 80' masts [Bod:T] +2, two open mounts [Ma:T] +1. P&P: 6,400 sf cloth sails rigged as a brig. Occ: 15 RCS, 83 RSR, 96 hammocks, 3 cabins, 1 luxury cabin (all body), 2 XRSR (open mounts). Cargo: 4,500 cf. Armor F RL B T U Body: 3/12 W 3/12 W 3/12 W 3/12 W 3/12 W Masts: 3/12 W 3/12 W 3/12 W 3/12 W 3/12 W Weaponry: 4 * 4-lbr. Cannon [Bod:R] (100 shots each) 4 * 4-lbr. Cannon [Bod:L] (100 shots each) 2 * 8-lbr. Cannon [Bod:R] (50 shots each) 2 * 8-lbr. Cannon [Bod:L] (50 shots each) Equipment Body: Two sets of navigation instruments; three mini-workshops (carpentry, blacksmith, sewing), 10,000 man-days of provisions. Statistics Size: 100'x25'x95' Payload: 133 tons Lwt: 250 tons Volume: 33,142.4 cf Maint: 49 hours Price: $168,420 HT: 9 HP: 9,750 [Body] 200 [Masts] 100 [Open Mounts] wSpeed: 12 wAccel: 0.4 wDecel: 1 wMR: 0.05 wSR: 5 Flotation 1,811,000 lbs. Draft 5.8'. Design Notes The 33,000-cf body has a medium frame with a flotation hull, mediocre hydrodynamic lines and 5,185.8 cf of empty space. The masts have 51.2 cf each and the open mounts have 20 cf each. The surface area is 6,800 sf. All armor is standard wood. TL4 4-pounder Cannon (v1.0, OM 1/03) A small naval gun. Game mechanics: 79.5mm, conventional smoothbore, very-short-barreled muzzleloader on a carriage mount. 4-pounder Cannon 2,000 lbs. 100 cf $4,400 solid round 6 lbs. 0.04 cf $1.2 chainshot 6 lbs. 0.04 cf $1.2 canister 4 lbs. 0.04 cf $1.2 Round Malf Type Damage SS Acc 1/2D Max RoF Loaders solid 14 Cr. 6d*4 25 6 450 2,100 1/60 2 chainshot 14 Cr. 12d 8 230 1,100 canister 14 Cr. 1d 1 75 350 TL4 8-pounder Cannon (v1.0, OM 1/03) A slightly larger naval gun. Game mechanics: 100mm, conventional smoothbore, very-short-barreled muzzleloader on a carriage mount. 8-pounder Cannon 3,200 lbs. 160 cf $6,800 solid round 12 lbs. 0.08 cf $2.4 chainshot 12 lbs. 0.08 cf $2.4 canister 8 lbs. 0.08 cf $2.4 Round Malf Type Damage SS Acc 1/2D Max RoF Loaders solid 14 Cr. 6d*5 30 6 510 2,300 1/60 4 chainshot 14 Cr. 15d 8 260 1,200 canister 14 Cr. 1d 1 85 380 The TL8 vehicle uses Vehicles [2nd edition, 3rd printing, July '02 errata] and Vehicles Expansion 1, notably the TL rigging modifiers. Next Week: Probably a cinematic TL6 autogyro for Nigel and Thomas. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 06:58:58 GMT From: Jonathan Lang Subject: [ADMIN] Goodbye, Registry... For reasons which I will not go into, the GURPSnet Registry (a.k.a. gurpsworld-l@lists.io.com) no longer exists; for those of you who don't know, the Registry was a second mailing list maintained in parallel with gurpsnet-l for the express purpose of tracking addresses which would be permitted to post to gurpsnet-l but would not be receiving e-mail from the list. On the upside, this means that those annoying spams which everyone just got at their registered addresses will never happen that way again; on the downside, it means that no one is able to post to gurpsnet-l from any address that is not subscribed to either the list or the digest. Furthermore, the removal of gurpsworld-l was done without any forewarning, so I didn't get a chance to make a copy of the registered addresses before it was removed. A long-term solution to this is in the works; when it's implemented, I suspect that everyone is going to be _quite_ pleased with the results. However, there is no short-term solution that I can think of; if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Likewise, everyone who had addresses registered with the list please e-mail me (at dataweaver42@yahoo.com) with those addresses, so that when the permanent solution is implemented I can add them in with minimum fuss. Thank you in advance, Jonathan Lang, Thoroughly Annoyed Yet Still Benevolent Tyrant For Life ------------------------------ End of GURPSnet-Digest V4 #3770 ******************************* To subscribe to GURPSnet-Digest, send the command: subscribe GURPSnet-Digest in the body of a message to "Majordomo@io.com". 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