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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Mike Elkins <MikeE@*********.COM>
Subject: Decker Adventure Idea
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 16:28:15 -0500
I was talking to a friend a month or two ago and
he mentioned a supercomputer trade show he
went to a while back. There was an awesome
amount of CPU power, just sitting around idle
most of the time, running an occasional demo.
This inspired the following adventure idea:

A Decker (PC or NPC) comes up with a way to
break a particular SCRAMBLE-12 or something.
Drawback? It will take 32 years running on his
deck. Just so happens, there is going to be a
supercomputer convention in a few weeks. All
these empty hosts will be networked together but
NOT linked to the net, and there is no way to
move them without setting off security (let the
players realize that for themselves), but if you
could get in and put your program on them, and
have it run in the background (especially
off-hours), it could solve the problem during the
3 days of the trade show. The decker would
have to break into EACH of the computers, but if
you have physical access after hours, the
security probably wouldn't be very high, after all,
there isn't any data on these computers! Make
sure the players remember that they need to get
the data OUT at the end too.

Even more twisted EGM twist: Each machine is
working on the problem in parallel, so the more
machines the faster it goes. One company
leaves a day early. Thats ok, the remaining
machines can still solve the problem. End of
week, problem solved, PCs remove their
"footprints" from the systems and leave.
Examing the secret data, PCs realize they are in
bigger trouble than they thought! It is suddenly
in PCs interest to delete ALL copies of secret
data OR ELSE. No problem, they have their
chip, and the deckers offline storage, and...
oops, the machine that went "home" early has
been dutifly working on cracking the code on its
own for the last few days, and has all the data
needed to come up with a solution eventually.
PCs need to track down the machine, get
access to it, and wipe their program. That
machine could be ANYWHERE the GM wants...

Double-Domed Mike
Message no. 2
From: Mike Loseke <mike@******.VERINET.COM>
Subject: Re: Decker Adventure Idea
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 15:09:25 -0600
Quoth Mike Elkins:
>
> I was talking to a friend a month or two ago and
> he mentioned a supercomputer trade show he
> went to a while back. There was an awesome
> amount of CPU power, just sitting around idle
> most of the time, running an occasional demo.
> This inspired the following adventure idea:

...

I am liking this. This would be worth doing to the characters just to
see the looks on their faces when they realize that they have to break
into all of these computers again, probably at the console, to make sure
that their arses are *really* covered. Could take awhile, too...

You are an evil man. ;) Good luck!

--
|
Mike Loseke | You never know how fluffy poodles are,
mike@*******.com | until you step in one.
|
Message no. 3
From: "Arno R. Lehmann" <arlehma@***.NET>
Subject: Re: Decker Adventure Idea
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 23:12:53 +0200
<snip great idea>

That one is really good!

It seems that you are very creative when not using that dictation
system you helped create ... or did yo leave the .sig because of the
$1000 charge that was promised to you?

;)

--
Arno
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Message no. 4
From: "Steven A. Tinner" <bluewizard@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Decker Adventure Idea
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 01:08:54 -0400
> I was talking to a friend a month or two ago and
> he mentioned a supercomputer trade show he
> went to a while back. There was an awesome
> amount of CPU power, just sitting around idle
> most of the time, running an occasional demo.
> This inspired the following adventure idea:

Very nice concept!
I like it a lot. Lots of game potential, with a dangerous, unexpected twist
for the players.
Now if I just didn't hate decking so much ... ;-)

Steven A. Tinner
bluewizard@*****.com
http://www.ncweb.com/users/bluewizard
"Frodo Lives!"
"Fro is dead."
Message no. 5
From: Tim Cooper <z-i-m@****.COM>
Subject: Re: Decker Adventure Idea
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 03:12:52 EDT
On Thu, 26 Jun 1997 16:28:15 -0500 Mike Elkins <MikeE@*********.COM>
writes:

[snip computer convention, code-cracking, and 'find that computer!']

>Double-Domed Mike

<nods in approval>

Nice! I like it!

</nods in approval>

~Tim

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