What IF...the Virus was something different?

[Bygoneyrs]

Hello everyone,

Ok so what if the Computer/AI Virus was something different, like maybe a Bio-hazzard plague instead. maybe something like the "Rage" from 28 Days or 28 Weeks Latter, or maybe the plague from Resident Evil? I could imagine that kinda Bio Weapon getting used and getting out of control for those that used it and it spreading throughout space. It would make for some awesome adventures and issues to deal with in any agme and a constant threat as well too.

What do you guys think?

Penn

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The new movie "I am Legend" that comes out this summer is a vampire movie (although they don't tell you that in the previews, if you have read the book by Matheson, you know what is going to happen).

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Personally, I don't have a problem with Virus. I think some people took it a bit too far though.

If I was running a 1201 or 1248 Era Campaign, I would allow AI intelligences, but the Viral Plague would have been toned down quite a bit.

Virus was a way for Traveller to be able to address AI and other things that were not really around in the mid-70s when the game was first designed. It will be interesting to see how/if Mongoose chooses to deal with this particular issue.

 

[Bygoneyrs]

I have the new 1248 era from ComStar games and like it very much!

Yes I would like to see how Mongoose deals with the Virus AI plague as well but if I could I would love to see it alterred to a Bio Plague myself!

Penn

 

[Tathlum]

I love Virus as is.
TNEs Reformation Coalition was by far my favourite Traveller campaign.
Shodan, HAL and the computer from Portal all rock, and are perfect Virus.

 

[Bygoneyrs]

I salute you 'Tathlum' for your traditionalist views but still "What If"...?

I am currently redesign my own campaign again, and yes it will be set in the Verge subsector as my campaigns have over the past 30+ years. Now I will be using Traveller Hero system for game mechanics this time around instead of standard Traveller mechanics I do believe. I also will set in using the new era 1248 too, but will change at least in my section of the Traveller universe the Virus that swept through space was like the Resident Evil plague, a Bio-Hazzard weapon that got out control and wiped out many systems. Now the one thing I will say, is if these "Zombies" do not "feed on fresh flesh and blood" they will eventually slow down and fall apart(thus truely finally die)! Thus many of these Zombies are long since fallen to dust, and are piles of bones and etc. Still the threat is out their awaiting!!! It would add I believe a real nasty horror element to Traveller.

Penn

I love Virus as is.
TNEs Reformation Coalition was by far my favourite Traveller campaign.
Shodan, HAL and the computer from Portal all rock, and are perfect Virus.

 

[Tathlum]

Not really a traditionalist. I use Starship Troopers as a base for example.
I just genuinely like Virus.
Also I have a problem visualising how a resident evil type zombie plague could spread throughout the whole Empire. Virus managed it because there was a little cybeline chip in every transponder inside and outside the Empire. With all the hostile borders in the rebelion, I don't see how a zombie plague could spread.

However, RPG's are for fun, horror in space works great (Alien movies, especialy Aliens are awesome), and you asked for a what if. So my suggestion as an alternitive would be to use something like the Harvesters from Master of Orion 3. They are a parasitic Alien developed as a weapon, but the dead hosts retain Inteligence (or are operated by the Harvesters inteligence). This way you still have the dead rising horror of zombies, but with enough inteligence to defeat Imperial attempts to stop their spread. You can still have most of them die off. Maybe the research hadn't reached the stage where they are fully compatible with Humaniti and most of them died off. Or perhaps they caught a disease from trying to take Aslan or Droyne hosts.
So Vampire fleets are now desparate Harvesters looking for compatible, non lethal hosts, driven mad by paranoia about being infected by their prey. Mad, dangerous, feeding on mankind, but inteligent enough to still be a threat in Travellers high tech environment.

By the same token you could use resident evil type zombies. After all, laser rifles, psionics and jump drives are not real either.

 

[Silvereye]

Sounds like Firefly's Reavers as well.

 

[Bygoneyrs]

Well with the Resident Evil plague, once a victum is infected they will turn Undead Plague Zombie and infect others. So someone gets infected and is a member of a crew, and that ship goes into Jump and while in jump they turn and kill/infect the rest of the crew. The ship reaches it's destination, and comes out of Jump into another system. It just floats their or tumbles along in normal space. A System Defense Boat is dispatched to see what is wrong and hails the ship, and gets No response. They then dock with it and board her, and a firefight happens as they shot up the Flesh eating Zombies. Some of the boarding marines get botten and are taken back to a space port and they die and transform into Zombies and start to spread the plague. Before long the Zombie plague has spread everywhere, and some crew manages to escape the space port with a injured/infected crewmen and enters Jump.<VBG>!!! The whole thing could spread faster than communications could warn of it or to late to stop it. I could also see that spread like a wildfires across space real fast!

Penn

 

[AKAramis]

I love Virus as is.
TNEs Reformation Coalition was by far my favourite Traveller campaign.
Shodan, HAL and the computer from Portal all rock, and are perfect Virus.

And I hate it for requiring psionic computers to work as described.

It's a hard pill to swallow.

And further, it destroyed my favorite setting: the late 3I. I didn't mind the rebellion, and TNE ruined the entire setting, including the so-called preserve...

It was a ham-fisted plot device ripped straight out of the Fantasy genre.

MJD has, apparently, done a good job on 1248, but my basic inability to buy into virus means I'll never bother with that work. And Martin usually does great work.

Also, there was no indication prior to Survival Margin's release of said chips being used in transponders. In 1105, the chips were unknown... (Signal GK.)

 

[Sigtrygg]

I used to have problems with the "psionic" computer virus, but I have long since developed a pseudo-scientific explanation which fills in the gaps nicely.

Well, as scientific as the rest of the Traveller magi-tech anyway

 

[Tathlum]

Well with teh Resident Evil plague, once a victum is infected they will turn Undead Plague Zombie and infect others. So someone gets infected and is a member of a crew, and that ship goes into Jump and while in jump they turn and kill/infect the rest of the crew. The ship reaches it's destination, and comes out of Jump into another system. It just floats their or tumbles along in normal space. A System Defense Boat is dispatched to see what is wrong and hails the ship, and gets No response. They then dock with it and board her, and a firefight happens as they shot up the Flesh eating Zombies. Some of the boarding marines get botten and are taken back to a space port and they die and transform into Zombies and start to spread the plague. Before long the Zombie plague has spread everywhere, and some crew manages to escape the space port with a injured/infected crewmen and enters Jump.<VBG>!!! The whole thing could spread faster than communications could warn of it or to late to stop it. I could also see that spread like a wildfires across space real fast!

Penn

But that would have to happen dozens of times across thousands of systems, during the civil war. If it was that easy them what stopped Lucans Marines from trying the same trick and just boarding ship after ship and ending the Rebelion in the first 2 years? For me thats a far bigger leap of faith than Virus.

However, I wasn't trying to get you to do things my way for the sake of it. Just provide and example a bit more believable to me. If you and your players are cool with resident evil type zombies, run with it and enjoy. But I thought you were asking for suggestions, hence my little change..

Most important thing is what you and your players enjoy and don't worry about anyone else. My groups games and AKAramis' groups games are very different, but both are fun and both are Traveller.

 

[Bygoneyrs]

Hi Tathlum,

I was NOT taking fault with anything you said, I just was trying to further explain how I would see it spreading. Actually I believe I will use the Resident Evil Plague Virus spreading accross the Verge subsector from other parts and being what brought down the ruin on the area.

Flesh eating Zombies are so cool...Hamaniti taste like Chicken..<crunch>!!

Penn

But that would have to happen dozens of times across thousands of systems, during the civil war. If it was that easy them what stopped Lucans Marines from trying the same trick and just boarding ship after ship and ending the Rebelion in the first 2 years? For me thats a far bigger leap of faith than Virus.

However, I wasn't trying to get you to do things my way for the sake of it. Just provide and example a bit more believable to me. If you and your players are cool with resident evil type zombies, run with it and enjoy. But I thought you were asking for suggestions, hence my little change..

Most important thing is what you and your players enjoy and don't worry about anyone else. My groups games and AKAramis' groups games are very different, but both are fun and both are Traveller.

 

[Tathlum]

Didn't think you were bud. Message boards suck for getting tone across.
Let us know how it goes....

 

[Bygoneyrs]

I will, and Humaniti does taste like Chicken...!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Penn

Didn't think you were bud. Message boards suck for getting tone across.
Let us know how it goes....

 

[JavaApp]

IIRC, Dave Nilsen (sic?) wrote that the transponders in the Imperium were based on Cymbeline chip life forms, but taken from the planet much earlier than 1105. Only these transponders, along with computers of sufficient processing power, could become Virus. Most 'Virus' attacks at the end of the Rebellion were carried out by non-AI machines hacked to 'suicide' or kill as many as possible.

That said, if you don't buy Virus, no amount of rationalization is going to convince you otherwise. When people look at the map of the Old Expanses or Diaspora and see all those starport code 'X's on the planets, I imagine that this can seem like a total trashing of the setting. When I looked at those same UWP codes, I still saw the unlimited adventure possibilities, just slightly different in tone and flavor.

In my mind, the thematic and story possibilities in TNE are simply more compelling. I can do stories about AI, military force serving political ends, individual and states rights vs. the good of the majority, as well as all the standard Traveller motifs like trading and mercenary troubleshooting. Could I do these in CT? Yes. But I like them better in TNE. Hell, there is even more justification in TNE for ship combat, where before your opponents were generally limited to other empires while serving on a naval vessel, or against pirates.

TNE was my first 'real' Traveller campaign, and the one I like the most, though the Golden Age SM runs a close second.

 

[Bygoneyrs]

Oh but flesh chomping Zombies, helps take a bit out of it all...LOL!!!

Puts a whole other meaning to "It's bite is a whole lot worse then it's bark"

Penn :lol:

 

[danbuter]

I like the Reavers idea from Firefly as well. The government tries some pacification drug in the atmosphere, and it all goes horribly wrong.

 

[wargamer66]

Read Vernor Vinge's book A Fire Upon the Deep for a new take on the virus. His big baddie is the Blight, which behaves quite like the virus and the vampire fleets, but is a "power" not individual strains of a virus. You could also shoehorn the idea of zombies into it, because the Blight was able to sort of take over people, and in one case, an entire race.

I too think that TNE was the best setting for Traveller, and might just run it again some day!

 

[AKAramis]

Read Vernor Vinge's book A Fire Upon the Deep for a new take on the virus. His big baddie is the Blight, which behaves quite like the virus and the vampire fleets, but is a "power" not individual strains of a virus. You could also shoehorn the idea of zombies into it, because the Blight was able to sort of take over people, and in one case, an entire race.

I too think that TNE was the best setting for Traveller, and might just run it again some day!

Personally, I find Virus as described requires either that SDG chips, aka "Deyo Chips" are psionic, or virus is a psionic artifact that localizes to computer hardware to interface with the material world.

In short, I find it very heavy on "plot hammer" and "Fiction" and very short on "science".

I'm not terribly fond of the TNE rules (they're passable), but I absolutely detest the Virus setting.