Forum (IB)
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| Starfox's Blades in the Dark hack |
Consensu humanum — the sphere of human accord.
Devices that mediate between minds: communication, identity, and persuasion. Com gear, Nemes, attire, symbols of authority, and instruments of leadership. Associated with: Resolve, presence, will, and the arts of cooperation and command.
Quality of Life
License
- 1 ■ License
A License must be on your playbook to acquire it in play; you cannot simply pick one up during an Operation. You may need connections or proof of competence to obtain one.
A permit to own or carry items tagged Regulated or Military. Physically it may be a signed document or sigil-stamped token, but what matters is the correct authorization code recorded in your Neme.
A license applies to all items of its type (all Regulated or all Military). You can hold separate licenses for each category.
Two permissions are available for each category:
- Carry — allows you to carry and use items in public spaces within local legal limits.
- Possession — allows you to store and transport disassembled items for use on ranges, private property, or beyond local jurisdictions (aboard your ship, base, or in the wild).
Common allocations:
- Bounty hunters, police, licensed bodyguards, and wilderness guides typically obtain a Carry authorization for Regulated items.
- Mercenaries and military commonly hold Possession authorization for Military items.
Consequences: lacking the proper license risks confiscation, arrest, or prosecution. These consequences can be Resisted by rolling your Tier (representing legal assistance). Continued violation may raise the penalty.
Unreliable. Local recognition depends on the Quality of the license and the Tier of the place of use. When presenting a license, roll Quality:
- if any die equals the local Tier — the license is accepted immediately.
- if any die ≥ 4 but none match Tier — expect delay; the license will usually clear in days but you may face temporary ban or confiscation.
- if no die ≥ 4 — the license is invalid here.
Neme
- 1 ■ Neme
Personal assistant systems — limited AI companions that manage communication, translation, scheduling, research, and routine administration. Every citizen in the System is expected to carry one; a person without a Neme is considered unreachable, untrustworthy, or primitive. Models vary in discretion, power, and personality, but all share the same basic architecture: a distributed mind embedded in personal hardware and mirrored across the network.
Originally NEME — Neural Executive & Memory Environment — the name comes from the Muse Mneme (Memory); common usage dropped the initial “M.” Pronounced NEE-mee.
A standard Neme contains a compact processor core, an audio interface or earpiece for conversation and real-time translation, and — for users who prefer visual augmentation — an optional visor or contact-lens display providing text, imagery, and situational overlays. The hardware holds the personality and memory to keep it private from the net; users describe their Neme as an extension of thought rather than a tool.
Every Neme includes a suite of personal-scale sensors: passive radio, optical, thermal, magnetic, radiation, and chemical monitoring within a few metres, plus biometric and positional tracking. The Neme cross-references these inputs against health, atmospheric safety, and local navigation data to provide unobtrusive situational awareness. It also monitors public nets and sensors for chosen alerts.
Neme sensors are passive and low-power — they lack the range and resolution of belt/pack sensors but give every person a local bubble of awareness. Advanced models can form ad-hoc networks to map shared space or coordinate group activity; this requires consent and carries the usual privacy implications. In many habitats Nemes also serve civic functions, maintaining environmental logs and validating transactions.
To live in the System is to live with your Neme — your memory, interpreter, and witness.
Fashion
- 1 ■ Fashion
A fashionable outfit and personal grooming that lets you appear several Tiers above your own. Generally requires a light Load; carrying a change of clothes counts as Load ☐. Conspicuous.
If you dress two or more Tiers above yourself, make a Quality roll when you appear:
- 1–3 — immediate attention and Heat (you are noticed and potentially stopped).
- 4–6 — attention (Heat) but no immediate enforcement.
Colors
- 1 ■ Colors
Belonging to a subculture or wearing overt identifiers that mark you as alien to a place. Conspicuous. When you draw attention, make a Quality roll:
- 1–3 — immediate attention and Heat.
- 4–6 — attention (Heat).
Stress Analyzer
- 3 ☐ Stress Analyzer
A concealed accessory that senses short-term physiological markers of stress: pupil dilation, facial blood flow, micro-tremor, and respiration changes. Helps detect lies, nervousness, or hostile intent; can produce false positives from non-deceptive emotions. Unreliable.
Use: When attempting to detect deception or intent, pass a Quality roll to gain an early read on an untrained subject and to speed detection against amateur liars. Professional deceivers and trained actors may defeat the device’s usefulness (GM discretion).
Media
Influencer Kit
- 3 ☐ Influencer Kit
A small recording drone, improved net communicator, mike, and other devices needed to create and broadcast as an influencer. Unreliable. Recording quality may not be top notch without an recording technician.
Spy Devices
Skinsuit Customizer
Use this to customize a skinsuit; it can change transparency, color, and luminosity, as well as pad itself where needed. It can even show animations or alter itself over time. Programs for fashionable patterns are hot commodities.
Automated Security Kit
An Expert System packaged with a compact Security Tool Kit. Place the unit against a lock, terminal, or alarm and it works autonomously to probe, bypass, or jam simple security. Unreliable.: When used roll Quality and step the result down once on the usual outcome ladder (Critical → Success → Opposed Success → Failure → Fumble). Typical consequence of failure is lost time and a possible alarm.
- Play note: Permits autonomous Security/Rig attempts where unassisted work would be impossible or absurd; it does not replace skill or eliminate opposition checks.
Disguise
- 1 ☐ Disguise
A disguise prepared in your base you don when needed; a minute does so securely, spending only a few seconds is possible but chancy.
Concealed Neme
- 1 ■ Concealed Neme
In certain circumstances you may be asked to leave your Neme behind; this allows you to appear to do so while still having access. Unreliable. Using your Neme to communicate risks being detected.
Disguise Kit Pack
- 1 ☐☐ Disguise Kit Pack
Allow on-site creation of a Disguise from records or direct observation. Matches the targets appearance when the data is collected, which gives an advantage to on-site observation.
Forgery Pen
- 1 ☐ Forgery Pen
Fakes your signature; you can write using another's handwriting. Many contracts and encoded documents are still hand-signed. Volatile. Its dangerous to get caught doing this.
Hand Forgery Kit
- 1 ☐ Hand Forgery Kit
A compact kit for producing convincing physical and electronic forgeries — seals, paper, glass IDs, and spoofed files. Unreliable.: Usually passes casual inspection automatically; cursory database or forensic checks frequently reveal defects, a forensic lab will automatically reveal the truth after some time Allows on-site forgeries, especially useful if you lacked information when preparing for an Operation.
Pack Forgery Kit
- 1 ☐☐ Pack Forgery Kit
An expanded version of the Hand Forgery Kit that can produce ■ items such as copies of small items that look like the original to casual observation, entire catalogues of data, and biometric identifiers such as faux retina, fingerprint, and blood samples.
Communication Spoof
A portable comms jammer/injector for listening to, rebroadcasting, or inserting short messages into unsecured civilian links and legacy networks. Includes a basic transmitter, protocol mimics, and a short-range directional antenna. Also provides you will quter-generated code protocols to secure your own communications. Active, Unreliable.: Effective against simple civilian and legacy channels; cannot break modern quter-level encryption without a separate quter or valid keys.
Use to intercept or inject brief transmissions in low-security channels. Active use has worse consequences and requires more rolls.