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Mr. Freeze

Is anyone else into Speculative Fiction? (setting help)

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I need help fleshing out a tabletop RPG setting. Specifically, a post-scarcity cyberspace, where any object can be made near-instantaneously via handheld "Coders".

The questions I'm struggling to answer are:

1. How do the Coders work? Do they pull random code out of thin air and transform it into an object? If so, is code the air itself? (Don't use these things indoors, kids!)

2. What is combat like? Could Coders just create a large object and drop it on someone? If so, why bother fighting with guns?

3. What are valuable resources in a post-scarcity world? (I'm leaning towards new blueprints for Coders, but that sounds a little stupid. "Kill these guys over here and I'll give you a new weapon blueprint!" sounds...dull)

I'm not asking for anyone to write the whole thing for me, but any help or recommended reading would benefit me a lot.

If it helps, feel free to ask questions.

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Mr. Freeze said:

2. What is combat like? Could Coders just create a and drop it on someone? If so, why bother fighting with guns?

a is pretty damn scary. You might want to cut back on their abilities.

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Well, you're still thinking pretty small.

1) Create impenetrable bubble around self.
2) Create world ending explosion.
3) Create new world in your image, filled with things you like, like sex if you're into that.

You know what, screw your friends. Play with us.

>be in gamestop mr freez's crazy world
>destroy own libido
>ready to break the ladies' hearts

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Go to /tg/ on 4chan and I bet you'll get a lot better feedback. Or a bunch of people trolling you if you word the post badly, but I doubt that's likely. Anyway I'll see what I can point out ...

First, the setting. You say a post-scarcity cyberspace, where the laws of physics could potentially change right? In that case:

1) You can have many different systems, but in the end they all cheat physics. The coders can spit out material to create the object, transform nearby objects into the object, or just solidify air into the appropriate element and suddenly you have a slight vacuum where the air was, making coding dangerous.

2) Combat depends greatly on how common these coders are - just because it's post-scarcity doesn't mean there won't be restrictions on who can use them. The cyber security will obviously be able to use them, although they might be locked in what they can produce (anvils the size of the empire state building anyone?). Black market connections can allow some of the more influential bad guys to have personal coders that aren't restricted, but they should be smart enough to realize brute force with one unlocked coder does not equal domination considering there could be hundreds of thousands of coders in a single city.

So on actual combat, anything you can imagine done that has a specific limit. Say locked coders can't make molecules-thin rope or edges, masses larger than 2 tons, or limit heat production application to second degree burns - that still leaves open creating fields of cacti as barriers, or super-massive magnetic marbles that can be shot with a railgun like a sniper rifle. This could promote out of the box thinking in how to deal with a situation, and could be rewarded with extra xp.

3) Computing power and information. Read accelarando by Charles Stross, it has a pretty interesting story about this. Glasshouse by the same author deals with using the ability to create anything creatively, although the tech is limited, taking like 20 hours to produce a human 'clone'. About specific limits to coders, it could be unlocking their coder - perhaps there are several security levels that can be unlocked, and how you unlock them can be more plot points - do you get a freelance hacker to bump your restriction up a level for you and have to be careful using it, or risk the security getting interested in you? or do you go through the ranks of security, eventually becoming the big bosses with completely unlocked coders?

Hope that was useful.

E: Just read this again and noticed you said 'tabletop'. That kinda thins out some of the motivations and/or organizations I mentioned, but maybe this gave you some ideas anyway.

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It's tricky trying to balance world-altering powers so that they can't be abused in gamebreaking ways. Just be sure to account for the scenario of being able to insta-kill people by spawning objects inside their brain. That one would suck if you don't get rid of it.

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Xaser said:

It's tricky trying to balance world-altering powers so that they can't be abused in gamebreaking ways. Just be sure to account for the scenario of being able to insta-kill people by spawning objects inside their brain. That one would suck if you don't get rid of it.


The idea I have now is that all objects spawn two feet away from where you stand, facing outwards. So while you couldn't teleport a brick into someone's head, you could create a twenty-foot block of ice and instantly trap them in it or something. And every object not only sucks the air out of the surrounding area a little (indoor use leads to oxygen deprivation), but creates a small temporary vacuum proportional to the object's size and density.

And then I realized I'd have to make rules for all this. Fuck.

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Rules depend on what type of tabletop game system you're basing this off of. Is it a miniatures system like warhammer, with small numbers and just d6s and low numbers? Is it a d20 system like dnd uses? There are even weirder systems out there, like the old star wars rpg one used multiple d6s per point of skill or something, and legend of the five rings uses d10s and a system of rolling many dice but keeping a few for the actual score, or the 3 warhammer 40k rpgs that use d100s.

It's possible you won't have to make up rules for most of this, just have a table of generic masses vs. explosive decompression, and just agree with the other players on general effects for more exotic item generation. Like I said, there could be restrictions placed on coders so that you won't have to worry about insane physics calculations.

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ArmouredBlood said:

Rules depend on what type of tabletop game system you're basing this off of. Is it a miniatures system like warhammer, with small numbers and just d6s and low numbers? Is it a d20 system like dnd uses? There are even weirder systems out there, like the old star wars rpg one used multiple d6s per point of skill or something, and legend of the five rings uses d10s and a system of rolling many dice but keeping a few for the actual score, or the 3 warhammer 40k rpgs that use d100s.

It's possible you won't have to make up rules for most of this, just have a table of generic masses vs. explosive decompression, and just agree with the other players on general effects for more exotic item generation. Like I said, there could be restrictions placed on coders so that you won't have to worry about insane physics calculations.


I'm trying to adapt this off of a modified SPECIAL (Fallout series) system, teneatively nicknamed the "Si6 System". I'm probably going to adapt it to D20, but we'll see.

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limiting what one can do sounds artificial, but you could sacrifice 'near-instantaneous' and add spellcasting time. spawning something large/complex/at a distance would require more time and focus, let's say the coders have to compute relative positions of stuff and how it affects environment around it, insert star trek lingo here. that way you could even assassinate someone by spawning a solid item into his brain... if he stands still long enough for you. also it'd be hard to drop a piano on someone's head if there's a protoss-like portal hanging in the air for 15 minutes. movement while 'casting' would prolong the time because of additional computations or whatever, leveling up would cut it down. getting more models (blueprints) for your coder could be worth it.

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Of course you have to limit abilities, or make usage cost you proportionally. The coders would need a depletable energy source, for example. Also, as said before, they could require time, or even wear with use. Maybe become superheated with overuse. Or become increasingly unreliable with use, producing even dangerous, unstable material.

Anyway, everyone having full power is like no one having any power, so these and other suggestions are what makes it interesting. Post about what you decide, if you would.

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I´m sorry if this is just too dumb an observation, but why would there be "air" in cyberspace? The base building-blocks is code, not atoms.

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DooMikE said:

I´m sorry if this is just too dumb an observation, but why would there be "air" in cyberspace? The base building-blocks is code, not atoms.


Certain code is programmed to simulate air. We gotta breathe, after all.

Or something. I'm not a programmer, and it probably shows.

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