Silicon Shadows
While the great network of networks that exists across the Earth, and even beyond, is collectively called the datasphere the fact is there are hundreds if not millions of often incompatible systems being bridged by various layers of accreted technology. The result, however, is that most places in the universe have one or more reflections in the datasphere. Theoretically, this means that at any location, given the right equipment, one can access one network and from there work their way out to any part of the 'Sphere through these ancient cobwebs.
The problem, as with every technological marvel in the Ninth World, is age and disconnection. Entire networks have collapsed and those that remain are not whole. The most complete are self-repairing and have often repaired themselves by merging with other, normally incompatible, networks. The result is that some places it is easier to access a reflection from a remote system which is more compatible with one's own biology and Numenera, reaching back across several such bridges, than to gain access from a given physical location.
Entering the Datasphere
Hotwiring
While it is possible to find open, waiting terminals to access the datasphere directly, the basic method of gaining access is to hijack some of the ubiquitous signals of which it is composed. A character wishing to enter the datasphere, or provide access for another to the datasphere, must be successful on an Intellect based task with a base difficulty 10 to find and provide access to an appropriate access point. Skills and assets related to datasphere Navigation should benefit this roll.
If this attempt is successful, the subject's consciousness can be translated into the datasphere, leaving their body. Any change in components used between different attempts at hotwiring can produce vast changes in the arrival location in the datasphere. For this reason artifacts or discoveries that help anchor arrival points are highly valued.
Discoveries
While obviously hard to find and difficult if not impossible to transport, one of the benefits of such stationary points of entry is that their "other side" is similarly stable and can thus become familiar. Moreover, the digital landscape they access is almost certain to be substantial, if not interesting, in its own right. Such locations generally come in one of two forms; access pods and junction points.
Access Pods are locations that have all the equipment necessary to provide translation into the datasphere. The form of the pod determines how many users can enter, and how they make that transition. Pods come in a variety of forms, from small cubicles with holographic walls or a small telepathic halo, to rigs with haptic suits and masks or immersion/stasis tanks, to even more bizarre and outlandish means of access.
Junction Points are generally places that either once had access pods which are now gone or were built for societies in which proper equipment to make use of their connections was ubiquitous. Some places may still be able to serve their original creators as access pods, but those now missing beings are too physiologically different from the modern residents of the Ninth World to do so without modification. Regardless, some work and probably equipment is necessary to make use of a junction point. Sometimes the critical components can be found to convert a junction point back into a set of access pods. More often, junction points still need to be hotwired. Hotwiring a junction point, rather than some otherwise random location, lowers the difficulty to 7.
Special Equipment
The vast majority of datasphere related devices are cyphers and artifacts; equipment designed or repurposed to produce a single integrated function automatically, relying on the datasphere only to provide information or transport. However, some devices have been crafted or found that are more stable.
Datasphere Tether; Use of a datasphere tether offloads much of the difficulty of translating a character's mind into the datasphere. This device provides an asset on hotwiring a translation into the datasphere.
Numenera
Most Numenera have some level of interaction with the datasphere, whether its for telemetry or some other form of data exchange. As a result any cypher or artifact can be used as a tools to reduce the difficulty to hotwire a connection to break into the waiting digital world. Any cypher or artifact can be used to reduce the target number by one third the object's level. A cypher or artifact which explicitly works through the datasphere, such as a datasphere syphon, reduces the target number by half its level. Only one such device can be used in this manner and, regardless of the success of the attempt, such use expends a cypher or risks depleting an artifact.
There are a few cyphers and artifacts which are designed explicitly to grant direct access to the datasphere.
This is part two of my Silicon Shadows series, which started with a purely background setup for part one. It seemed obvious to me that, having set the stage for the discussion, the first rules that were important was how to get there from here. Of course, that makes part 3 what "there" is. So, I'd been working up a fairly involved "there," when a few things collided to give mean interesting realization; there looks an awful lot like "the Strange." Pocket worlds tied to physical locations in the real, that grow and develop with age, and have a limited number of fully realized entities while most are simply shadows. Using special places to shift between worlds that act on different types of physics, and creating a different avatar in each sounds a lot like a Strange game limited to Gates rather than the ability to translate inherent in the player classes. Even the creation of new parts of the datasphere in the hyper-post-technological world of Numenera would likely look more like the the rules for creation of a new Recursion in the "unformatted" space of the Strange than the building and programming of servers and routing equipment we use to carve out new reaches of cyberspace today. There would obviously be some differences. I've already mentioned that translations would be purely location based rather than an innate ability, though some Tricks of the Trade and Esoteries should bridge that. Also, unlike the Strange, characters adventuring in the Datasphere will generally leave behind bodies. Generally, because matter-energy conversions and the ability to host entire minds make inapposite gates entirely reasonable.
So, I was presented with a choice. I'd already gone a ways down this road, but using the Strange rules would allow me to offload a lot of ruleset design to an existing, and elegant, setup- which is nice for saving work. However, there are some potential copyright issues with me copying too much from that set and posting it here. So, if I do that, I have to limit myself to fair use, which is its own type of added work.
Anyone familiar with the Strange can probably see that I decided to go with not re-inventing the wheel. Which is, eventually, what it came down to; I would be re-inventing a much less elegant version of the wheel.
While the great network of networks that exists across the Earth, and even beyond, is collectively called the datasphere the fact is there are hundreds if not millions of often incompatible systems being bridged by various layers of accreted technology. The result, however, is that most places in the universe have one or more reflections in the datasphere. Theoretically, this means that at any location, given the right equipment, one can access one network and from there work their way out to any part of the 'Sphere through these ancient cobwebs.
The problem, as with every technological marvel in the Ninth World, is age and disconnection. Entire networks have collapsed and those that remain are not whole. The most complete are self-repairing and have often repaired themselves by merging with other, normally incompatible, networks. The result is that some places it is easier to access a reflection from a remote system which is more compatible with one's own biology and Numenera, reaching back across several such bridges, than to gain access from a given physical location.
Entering the Datasphere
Hotwiring
While it is possible to find open, waiting terminals to access the datasphere directly, the basic method of gaining access is to hijack some of the ubiquitous signals of which it is composed. A character wishing to enter the datasphere, or provide access for another to the datasphere, must be successful on an Intellect based task with a base difficulty 10 to find and provide access to an appropriate access point. Skills and assets related to datasphere Navigation should benefit this roll.
If this attempt is successful, the subject's consciousness can be translated into the datasphere, leaving their body. Any change in components used between different attempts at hotwiring can produce vast changes in the arrival location in the datasphere. For this reason artifacts or discoveries that help anchor arrival points are highly valued.
Discoveries
While obviously hard to find and difficult if not impossible to transport, one of the benefits of such stationary points of entry is that their "other side" is similarly stable and can thus become familiar. Moreover, the digital landscape they access is almost certain to be substantial, if not interesting, in its own right. Such locations generally come in one of two forms; access pods and junction points.
Access Pods are locations that have all the equipment necessary to provide translation into the datasphere. The form of the pod determines how many users can enter, and how they make that transition. Pods come in a variety of forms, from small cubicles with holographic walls or a small telepathic halo, to rigs with haptic suits and masks or immersion/stasis tanks, to even more bizarre and outlandish means of access.
Junction Points are generally places that either once had access pods which are now gone or were built for societies in which proper equipment to make use of their connections was ubiquitous. Some places may still be able to serve their original creators as access pods, but those now missing beings are too physiologically different from the modern residents of the Ninth World to do so without modification. Regardless, some work and probably equipment is necessary to make use of a junction point. Sometimes the critical components can be found to convert a junction point back into a set of access pods. More often, junction points still need to be hotwired. Hotwiring a junction point, rather than some otherwise random location, lowers the difficulty to 7.
Special Equipment
The vast majority of datasphere related devices are cyphers and artifacts; equipment designed or repurposed to produce a single integrated function automatically, relying on the datasphere only to provide information or transport. However, some devices have been crafted or found that are more stable.
Numenera
Most Numenera have some level of interaction with the datasphere, whether its for telemetry or some other form of data exchange. As a result any cypher or artifact can be used as a tools to reduce the difficulty to hotwire a connection to break into the waiting digital world. Any cypher or artifact can be used to reduce the target number by one third the object's level. A cypher or artifact which explicitly works through the datasphere, such as a datasphere syphon, reduces the target number by half its level. Only one such device can be used in this manner and, regardless of the success of the attempt, such use expends a cypher or risks depleting an artifact.
There are a few cyphers and artifacts which are designed explicitly to grant direct access to the datasphere.
~~*~~
This is part two of my Silicon Shadows series, which started with a purely background setup for part one. It seemed obvious to me that, having set the stage for the discussion, the first rules that were important was how to get there from here. Of course, that makes part 3 what "there" is. So, I'd been working up a fairly involved "there," when a few things collided to give mean interesting realization; there looks an awful lot like "the Strange." Pocket worlds tied to physical locations in the real, that grow and develop with age, and have a limited number of fully realized entities while most are simply shadows. Using special places to shift between worlds that act on different types of physics, and creating a different avatar in each sounds a lot like a Strange game limited to Gates rather than the ability to translate inherent in the player classes. Even the creation of new parts of the datasphere in the hyper-post-technological world of Numenera would likely look more like the the rules for creation of a new Recursion in the "unformatted" space of the Strange than the building and programming of servers and routing equipment we use to carve out new reaches of cyberspace today. There would obviously be some differences. I've already mentioned that translations would be purely location based rather than an innate ability, though some Tricks of the Trade and Esoteries should bridge that. Also, unlike the Strange, characters adventuring in the Datasphere will generally leave behind bodies. Generally, because matter-energy conversions and the ability to host entire minds make inapposite gates entirely reasonable.
So, I was presented with a choice. I'd already gone a ways down this road, but using the Strange rules would allow me to offload a lot of ruleset design to an existing, and elegant, setup- which is nice for saving work. However, there are some potential copyright issues with me copying too much from that set and posting it here. So, if I do that, I have to limit myself to fair use, which is its own type of added work.
Anyone familiar with the Strange can probably see that I decided to go with not re-inventing the wheel. Which is, eventually, what it came down to; I would be re-inventing a much less elegant version of the wheel.
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