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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Sandman <SANDSJO2@******.JUNIATA.EDU>
Subject: Eyes and Karma
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 01:33:27 -0500
Eyes:
It's easy to put in thermo without a cybereye. You stick a tiny light-
sensitive chip into the retina that picks up thermo (or IR or
whatever) wavelengths. The chip is tied into the optic nerve to
send its messages to the brain (or to the headware interface module
which then sends the message to the brain). The chip is put in most
likely with nanites, as work in the eye is extremely delicate, too
much so for the hands of a surgeon. In fact, much work in bodies,
especially that dealing with nerve fibers, is done with nanites.

Now for the bio lesson of the day: How the Eye Works
The part that focuses light is the Lens. The lens shape can be altered
by the muscles around it. This focuses the picture on the Retina, which
is the layer of light sensitive cells (rods and cones) at the back of
the eye. The amount of light which enters the eye is controlled by the
Iris, a circle of muscle that can contract to narrow (or expand to
widen) the Pupil, which is the hole in the eye where the light passes
through and where the lens is situated. Sorry, no ASCII pictures today;
my SO is the artist, not me. I just thought this might help to clear up
the misunderstandings around here... Nope, still just a bunch of mud
slogging up everything... ;) <- See, a smiley face!
I'm not being nasty to
anyone, okay? :) :) :) :)

Minotaur, I just have to say great drawing! Even if the catalyst for it
was less than desireable. I'm not going to get myself any deeper in this.

As to the Karma talks, there seem to be two different trains of thought:

1) You keep track of the _total_ amount of karma that your character
has earned throughout his lifetime. Each time he receives
enough karma to put the total over a multiple of ten, that tenth
karma point is placed in the Karma Pool instead of being delegated
to the Good Karma.

2) You look at the karma award the character has just received. One-
tenth of the karma awarded goes into the karma pool. Different
people have stated either a) rounding down or b) rounding up when
you have fractions. The total amount of karma a character has
gotten does not figure into this version.

Personally, I use the first system with my characters. I know at least
one person in my group who uses the second. (Yes, that's you, Tom. :) )
Neither is necessarily wrong; which you use depends on personal
preference (overridden by GM preference, of course :) ) and the style
of play your campaign is built on. Compared to the first system,
the second will cause characters to have different size Karma Pools.
(2a will tend to have lower Pools, 2b will tend to higher Pools.)

Well, that's about all I have for now... I like this digest! I just
read through all the messages at once, make notes as I go on things
that I want to reply to, and send one message with everything in it.
Better than an innumerable amount of tiny posts... :)

Till we speak again.... Sandman

: Jon Sands ^ "You disobeyed my direct order. :
: sandsjo2@******.juniata.edu ^ You placed yourself in grave danger. :
: Snail: 1168 Juniata College ^ I am _not_ happy." :
: Huntingdon, PA 16652 ^ -Capt. Picard, "Interface" :
: **** "He hits and... I think I'm going to need more dice..." **** :

Further Reading

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.