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Message no. 1
From: Paul Gettle <RunnerPaul@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Encephalon & Reaction
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 22:57:51 -0400
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At 12:48 PM 9/10/98 -0400, Erik J. wrote:
>>Oh, but hell yeah. If someone with an Enecephalon isn't careful,
they
>>can come off as a downright creepy nerd. I think the Social Rolls
>>should be modified.
>
>I agree. I think that perhaps your conception of an Encephalon may
be too
>powerful,
<<Snip>>

My only defense for my view of how encephalons do what they do is that
what they do is rather powerful in and of itself. Intelligence in SR
is not only used as a measure of what you know, but also how well you
notice things. Knowing Stuff, and Noticing Things are two of the most
essential base skills to have for your average shadowrunner, and a
piece of ware that gives you one to two extra dice twoards that means
that piece of ware is rather handy for a wide variety of applications.

A side result of the Intelligence boost is that you'll be getting an
extra half d6 to a full d6 on Reaction. That might not seem like much,
but think of how many times in a typical Shadowrun the Reaction stat
comes into play. I interpert the bonus as the tons of little
"Augmented Reality" tricks the encephalon is constantly doing to make
your life a little easier. They don't really do too much for you, but
the encephalon is constantly doing them.

Then there's the Task Pool, what I consider to be the strongest piece
of evidence in making a case for "powerful" encephalons, especially
when weighed against the skill levels table from the BBB3. Having
extra dice to roll for Techincal, B/R, and Knowledge skills means
having a higher "effective" rating in a skill. Using the skill levels
table as a guide for roleplaying, having an effective level 3, 2, or
even 1 levels higher than normal can mean a _substantial_ difference.

>Perhaps the best way would be to use the rules in SR3 for social
>interactions with obvious cyberware.

I think that's what the person I replied to had suggested. I haven't
heard anyone voice a disagreement yet. :)

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--
-- Paul Gettle, #970 of 1000 (RunnerPaul@*****.com)
PGP Fingerprint, Key ID:0x48F3AACD (RSA 1024, created 98/06/26)
C260 94B3 6722 6A25 63F8 0690 9EA2 3344
Message no. 2
From: Erik Jameson <erikj@****.COM>
Subject: Re: Encephalon & Reaction
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 13:55:04 -0400
At 10:57 PM 9/10/98 -0400, you wrote:

>>I agree. I think that perhaps your conception of an Encephalon may
>be too
>>powerful,
><<Snip>>
>
>My only defense for my view of how encephalons do what they do is that
>what they do is rather powerful in and of itself.
<SNIPPED>

Argh...must...be...rude...must...have...attitude...

*gasp!*

Can't do it. Sorry. Anyway, your conception of what an Encephalon might
be does make a certain amount of sense. And I'd probably borrow certain
elements of it to explain what it is. But I don't know enough about either
the encephalon (FASA hasn't give us much to work with) or really about the
"wearable" computers concept. So I can't have any conviction, one way or
another, about how powerful encephalons are. They are obviously of some
significant power, just how significant, I don't know.

Erik J.


http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/dungeon/480/index.html
The Reality Check for a Fictional World
Message no. 3
From: Paul Gettle <RunnerPaul@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Encephalon & Reaction
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 23:58:57 -0400
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At 01:55 PM 9/11/98 -0400, Erik J. wrote:
>Argh...must...be...rude...must...have...attitude...
>*gasp!*
>Can't do it. Sorry.

I could misspell your name with a "c", would that help? :)

>But I don't know enough about either
>the encephalon (FASA hasn't give us much to work with)

Just the atribute bonuses(INT and Reaction), the Task Pool, that it
performs the same functions as the knowsoft link and the display link
(though, really, as a SR3 houserule, I'm giving it the functionality
of the image link, at least until Man & Machine comes out), and oh
yeah... it can function as an Input/Output controler for Datajacks.

The hard part is reverse engineering what the roleplaying effects
should be from what these stats and facts are telling us.

>or really about the "wearable" computers concept.

a good starting point is:
http://wearables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables/

Two links pages dedicated to the subject:
http://wearables.org
http://wearables.ml.org/links.html

And then there is an Episode of the show Scientific American Frontiers
that covers the topic, a transcript can be found at:

http://www.pbs.org/saf/8_resources/83_transcript_701b.html#private

One of the best descriptions that I've seen so far of wearable
computers is from Carnegie Mellon University's page on the subject:
"Wearable computers deal in information rather than programs, becoming
tools in the user's environment much like a pencil or a reference
book. The wearable computer provides automatic, portable access to
information. Furthermore, the information can be automatically
accumulated by the system as the user interacts with or modifies the
environment thereby eliminating the costly and error-prone process of
information acquisition."

A good, detailed explanation can be found at:
http://www.wearcomp.org/wearcompdef.html

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--
-- Paul Gettle, #970 of 1000 (RunnerPaul@*****.com)
PGP Fingerprint, Key ID:0x48F3AACD (RSA 1024, created 98/06/26)
C260 94B3 6722 6A25 63F8 0690 9EA2 3344

Further Reading

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