Forum (IB)

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 always has to be added to your playbook, you cannot simply pick up a License if it is not on your playbook. You may need special connections or to show ability to get a License.

A permit to own or carry items tagged Regulated or Military. Physically it may be a signed document or sigil-stamped token, but what actually matters is the correct authorization code recorded in your Neme.

A license applies to all items of its type, either all Regulated or all Military. You can have separate licenses for both.

There are two permissions for each category:

Carry — allows you to carry and use the item in public spaces within local legal limits.

Possession — allows you to store and transport a disassembled item for use on ranges, private property, or beyond local jurisdictions such as 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). You can suffer worse consequences if you continue to violate the rules.

Unreliable. Local recognition depends on Quality of the license and the Tier of the place of use. Make a Quality roll when you present the license in a jurisdiction: if any die equals the local Tier the license is accepted immediately. If any die is 4 or higher but no die matches Tier, expect delay — the license will clear in days but you may face temporary ban or confiscation. If the roll shows no dice ≥4, the license is invalid here.

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, and a person without a Neme is considered unreachable, untrustworthy, or primitive. Models vary widely in discretion, processing power, and social personality, but all share the same fundamental 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) of Greek mythology, but common usage dropped the initial “M.” Pronounced NEE-mee.

A standard Neme consists of 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 contains the personality and memory in order to keep it private from the net. Users describe their Neme as an extension of thought rather than a tool.

Beyond its conversational and administrative roles, every Neme carries a full suite of personal-scale sensors, effectively replacing most handheld instruments of earlier centuries. These include passive monitoring of radio, optical, thermal, magnetic, radiation, and chemical environments within a few meters of the user, together with biometric and positional tracking. The Neme cross-references these inputs against personal health, atmospheric safety, and local navigation data, providing constant but unobtrusive situational awareness. The Neme also monitors the net, watching for certain news and accessible public sensors and cameras. These reports can be customized by a skilled user to a set of alerts perfectly adjusted to personal needs.

Neme sensors are passive and low-power, intended for proximity alerts, translation of environmental cues, and personal safety. They lack the range, resolution, and active scanning capability of specialized Belt and Pack sensors, but they ensure that every individual moves through the world surrounded by a bubble of awareness.

Advanced models can form ad-hoc networks, pooling data to map shared spaces or coordinate group activity, though doing so requires consent and carries the same privacy implications as any other datanet sharing. In many habitats, Nemes also serve as civic monitors, maintaining environmental records and validating public 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 allows you to appear several Tiers above your own. Generally requires a light Load, but circumstances may allow more as long as what you carry is appropriate to the situation; for example you can bring a gun and an environmental suit on a hunt. If you carry an outfit to change into, Load ☐. Conspicuous. Make a Quality roll if dressing 2 Tiers or more above your own: 1-3 Immediate attention and Heat. 4-5 Heat.

Colors

1 ■ Colors

Melts into in a subculture alien to you. You don't need this with familiar people. Conspicuous. When you draw attention, make a Quality roll: 1-3 Immediate attention and Heat. 4-5 Heat.

Stress Analyzer

3 ☐ Stress Analyzer

Helps you sense stress in others. Points out biological sings such as pupil dilation and facial blood flows. Helps detect lies and hostile intent, potential false positives from other emotions. Speeds up the process against untalented liars, not much use against professionals. Concealed as an accessory. Unreliable.: Pass a quality test to reveal lies and stress in untrained operatives and to speed up detection if you would otherwise sense deception after some time.