[Verge] Reward System -- Dignities

[adamdray]

The biggest problem Verge has is that it's a collection of tools for play without a reward system that drives its Creative Agenda. It's sorta treading water where it ought to be swimming powerfully up waterfalls to spawn. I first identified this during a discussion that I talked about hereTo get to the point where I could have a Creative Agenda, I

Comments

"What does it mean to be human?"

[amberley]

Verge is about all the technological advances and philosophical webs we create and how they affect people. Can humanity face technology and ideology and not be changed into some unrecognizeable a thing? Is it a bad thing if it does change?

That's a cool question and it'll be interesting to see Verge's take on it, contrasting with Shock's.

Bruce Sterling (among others) writes a lot about that kind of thing. Have you read his Schismatrix stories or "Maneki Neko" from a Good Old-Fashioned Future or his more recent nonfiction writings

Re: "What does it mean to be human?"

[adamdray]

Yeah, exactly. All those quotes? Perfect. I haven't read a lot of Sterling. Some, but not much. Stuff to add to my evergrowing pile of books to read.

[semioticity]

Adam, this gets at what was bothering me a few weeks/months ago when I was pushing you on the Three Questions. I apologize for not getting back around to responding; life has been rather demaning, and I didn't want to half-ass a reply

[adamdray]

No, I won't ignore. It's all very helpful. I need this riffing to get my own ideas out.

The non-traditional rights that I listed, I just didn't have real names for.

• cybernetic or genetic alteration -- Right to Alter Oneself?
• drug enhancement -- As above, or maybe Right to Harm Oneself?
• life after death -- What right is this?

I do think that Rights would be more easily grasped by players than Dignities but I fear that people won't have names for problems we haven't faced yet and then the game loses something. I might be able to reframe it as What [human thing] Is Threatened? If the threat comes to be, Am I Still Human?

I do like that formulation (Am I Still Human?) and plan to steal it outright, - with proper credit, or course.

I want the game to be about more than just change to oneself. I want it to include changes to society. Futureshock stuff. If I happen to step into the territory occupied by Shock:, oh well. What makes Verge different? I don't know because I haven't really played more than a demo of Shock:. Verge's network is

[semioticity]

Shotgun

[adamdray]

In scattershot order:

I've seen Ghost in the Shell and I remember some of the music being quite haunting. I love those lyrics and would like to crib a line or two for chapters. I wonder what Fair Use law says about that. (People: Please don't give me legal advice or opinions unless you're a copyright lawyer.)

Regarding what cyberpunk is or isn't, who knows. Bethke would tell you it's about punk kids on computers and how the world will look when the punk youth of today grow up a bit. I think there's plenty of "sticking it to The Man" in that. There are lots of definitions of cyberpunk on the net and they vary widely. I think the punk aspect and the violence that we see in cyberpunk gaming is prevalent in a lot of cyberpunk literature, too. The literature is about more than that though.

I've never heard "humanshock" or "existential SF" as literary terms. I assume you just made them up? I consider what I'm doing to be, technically, postcyberpunk stuff. I should start saying that when I talk about Verge. I'm just afraid that too few

Reward Systems

[fang_langford]

You might consider working with a kind of Fruitful Void. I find that they really get under the players psyche and learn 'em a thing or three.

Thank you Lumpley!

Fang Langford